Getting to Know One Who Knows
Jeremiah 29:11
We live life in a dark place, don’t we? I don’t mean dark in terms of evil, although the world is in many ways saturated with evil and that contributes to the darkness I am speaking about. Life is dark and evil contributes to that darkness. I am not speaking simply of the darkness of evil though. There is a tremendous darkness related to sadness. I am not talking about the darkness of sadness even though sadness often makes the darkness more stark. I am talking about the darkness of the unknown. Life is dark because we simply cannot see the end. We want to know the end. How will things turn out? Is there a purpose for the problems I am having? Those questions are seldom answered with the specificity. With the passing of years we will be able to look back on a circumstance of difficulty with satisfaction of knowing that something good came out of them. In the immediacy of the moment the difficulties of life usually serve to shroud life in darkness of confusion and doubt instead of enlightening us about God’s ways. Let’s think about that for a moment this morning.
Just how dark is the world we live in? Every year is marked by at least one tragic circumstance that has global affects.
• 2002 will be remembered as the year of the sniper.
• 2001 is the year of 9/11
If we think of personal & family situation the period that is defined by tragedy or hardship becomes much shorter. Have you ever had someone say, “Don’t you remember we talked about that last month?”
• “That is when I was deciding whether or not to put my mother in a nursing home. I don’t remember anything from then.”
• “That is when my son was caught with drugs at school everything else is a blur.”
• “That is the week I got into a car accident.”
• “That is the day I lost my job.”
• “That is the day my mom had a heart attack.”
Each one of these difficult circumstances shrouds us in darkness. They lead us to ask questions we cannot answer. We try to answer them. People will often try to give us answers that will lighten our darkness. Let’s think about a few of those answers we often hear.
A very common response to life’s difficulties is the idea that God will make everything right. God is a just God. He will always make everything right. Romans 8:28 is the benchmark verse for this answer. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Scripture is no less true today than it was the day Paul wrote that. I believe that God does work for the good of those who love him. There is no doubt in my mind that God’s promise is still true. My concern is for people to whom this verse is recited by someone who does not acknowledge life’s real difficulties. We throw this verse around as if it were a universal analgesic. It makes everything better. We behave as if they are magical words to soothe everyone’s pain. They aren’t.
• A couple holding their lifeless, newborn baby won’t be soothed by them.
• Neither will the woman who fell asleep at the wheel, veered into oncoming traffic and killed two people.
• The man who just lost his job will wonder about a God doing this to him in the guise of working for his good.
• So will the man who was loading packages into his car at a Home Depot when his wife was killed instantly by a sniper’s bullet.
God will make things right, simply does not cut the cake when we are in the midst of the darkest moments of life.
Another answer we might hear to life’s difficulties is God is trying to teach you a lesson. Or even put more boldly, you need to learn something from this. Job’s friends were good at this. You remember Job. He was stricken with almost every disaster a person could face – all in the matter of a few days. He lost all his possessions. His children were killed. He was covered with boils. His friends came to comfort him. Three of them. The first one to speak was Eliphaz. He said, “Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope?” (4:6) The implication is if he were good enough, this wouldn’t be happening to Job. Sometimes we think that the bad things in our life are a result of bad things in our heart. If we learn what bad thing caused this calamity, repent of it and change it, then the bad thing will go away. That simply is not true. If it were,
• then a Christian would never die from lung cancer if he repents of smoking and stops.
• then the people who said that the events of 9/11 were the results of homosexual lifestyles and militant feminism in NYC would have been right.
There is another aspect of learning a lesson that we have to deal with. We sometimes think that God is trying to help us to grow. We simply need to learn
• patience so God gives us obstacles that make us wait
• or trust so God takes away the things we trust here
• or love so God causes us to lose someone we love to remind us how deeply we feel love
• you might wonder if he is trying to teach us joy by kicking us over and over again until we learn to like it
True enough; we can suffering does help us grow. For my money though, I’d rather read a book.
God knows the plans. God knows the future. You never know what he is planning with this terrible adversity. That is what Jeremiah 29:11 says. “I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord. “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.” Sometimes I wish he would share his plans with me. This is kind of like a big kid throwing a little kid into a swimming pool. He tells him it is the deep end and the little kid is scared to death because he cannot swim. The youngster gets thrown in and flails around helplessly, sure he will die. Then he feels the bottom of the pool. He stands up and it is only to his chest. “I knew it all the time,” says the teacher. Is that older kid a good guy? Is he compassionate? Is there anything redeeming about him and his actions? I’ve often looked back on some of my stupid decisions or even innocent decisions that turned out bad, and thought, “I cannot believe God let me do that, knowing full well where it would land me now.” What about a god who will let us go through the fire to learn that it can burn?
Maybe there is a key to this Jeremiah 29:11 verse though. It is in the first two words. “I know.” God knows. That is the key. That tells me a couple of things. First God is speaking through Jeremiah about the good things He has in store for his people Israel after the captivity. I know things will get better. As a matter of fact, they will get real good. I know that they will. Notice this.
• God doesn’t preach to them.
• He doesn’t tell them they deserve what they are getting – They brought it on themselves.
• He doesn’t tell them they are going to learn a whole lot through this dark period of life.
What he says is “This will end! It is not forever. I guarantee it.” So far these words are not much better than the things we talked about already, except that God is saying them directly to Israel. God knows.
He still does. He know that he wants good for you. He knows a lot of other things as well.
• He knows the obstacles that will slow you from achieving the good He has in store for you.
• He knows the decisions of others that will cause you pain.
• He knows the decisions you will make that will lead you down the wrong path.
• He knows the peaks and valleys which lie in your path and that the ultimate destination he is guiding you to will be one of glory.
SINCE GOD KNOWS I DON’T HAVE TO KNOW!
• I don’t have to know the plan, when I know the planner.
• I don’t have to know the why, if I know the One.
• I don’t have to know the how because I know Him.
• I can endure the suffering since I know the savior.
• Though it is uncomfortable, I don’t have to escape the dark of not knowing because I know the light not ending.
We only go through life once. We never really master it. As such, I want to follow someone whose been here before and who knows the way out, don’t you? I were to trek though the jungle, I would want a guide. I would get to know that guide and stay as near that guide as possible. If my guide were to lead me down a hazardous path, I would question why. If I were to fall in a hole and get hurt while following my guide, I might even get mad at him. If my guide led me into a tiger’s lair, I might begin to doubt, but I would never leave my guide. Who else will lead me through the jungle? Who else knows the way out. As a matter of fact, the dangers of the jungle would draw me even closer to my guide. If our path were hazardous, I would listen to every word of instruction that came from my guide’s mouth. If I fell in that hole, I would be sure to step next time, like my guide. Fact is, if you are in the jungle, the safest place to be is with the guide. He is the one who knows the way out. It is stupid to leave the guide–especially if he is the only one who has ever been in a jungle.
A long time ago, Jesus was teaching his followers a lesson they did not want to learn. It was a hard lesson. Some of them even said so. “This is a hard teaching,” they said. “Who can accept it?” It was too hard for a lot of Jesus’ followers. They began leaving. Jesus asked his closest disciples, “You do not want to leave me too, do you?” Peter answered for all of them, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Jesus asks the same thing today. You can hear him in the darkness. You can hear him from the deepest depths of despair if that is where you are. You can always hear him. You can even hear him above the noise of friends who would want to console you. “You do not want to leave me too, do you?” Life is tough and it is getting tougher. Don’t get too far away from your guide. He is the only one who has the words of eternal life.
