I would like to begin by offering you a piece of wisdom:
"A living dog is better than a dead lion."
Life is full of experiences. An experience is defined as:
"... an event or series of events participated in or lived through."
That is quite straightforward. I think we can all relate to that: an event or series of events that we have been involved in. I'm thinking here of specific experiences that, by their nature, have had an effect on us: maybe changing us in some particular way, perhaps changing our view of the world, a worldview, through some experience, or maybe changing the way we see ourselves. I am sure that we could all identify an experience that has had some impact upon who we are today.
In my family, World War Two had a profound influence upon how we functioned as a family unit, much of which I could only see as I became an adult and looked back and found out pieces of information that I had not been told as a child growing up.
My father was drafted into the Australian Air Force at the beginning of World War Two. He left my mother and my brother who was just a few months old. He spent five years overseas away from home. My brother didn't see my father until he was five years of age. Much of that time was spent dropping bombs on targets in Germany. According to my mother, my father came home a very different person, which had an effect on our family and the way we functioned as a family from that point in time forward.
Life's experiences can be minor or they can be major. They can be positive or they can be negative.
Ecclesiastes 9:1 For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.
The meaning is not entirely clear as it is presented to us in the English. The Commentary of the Old Testament looks at the Hebrew letters, words and their configurations. I will sum up what they say in my own words:
"The righteous and the wise are in God's hand and they will learn from their experiences."
If you check I think you will come to that understanding from this verse.
2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
This is talking about the experiences of life.
3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
4 For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
It was not an Australian proverb that I was giving you at the beginning, but wisdom from God's word!
For to him that is joined to all the living, there is hope. We ARE joined to the living - in more ways than one. We are alive, but we also having the living waters, the living bread. We are alive spiritually speaking as well.
To personally apply this to us, let us ask ourselves the obvious: since "all things come alike to all" (verse 2), what part does experience play in the development of godliness?
In this life, we will experience a range of events or a series of events. Let's read a familiar section of Ecclesiastes which parallels Ecclesiastes 1:9.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
As familiar as you are with these verses, I would like you to consider them from the point of view of your own life. I am reasonably certain that most of us could go down this section, verse by verse, and put some personal experience alongside the statement. I am not reading this just to generalise. I want us to stop and focus on our own lives. For example, it says:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die ...
We have all been born at some point, and we must all die at some point. But I don't think that that is what it means exactly. I think it means that in life you will experience birth. In other words, if you are married, you will experience birth. Even if you are not married, you will know somebody, a relative or a friend who gives birth. You will know the joy, the awe of a new life coming into the world.
I am sure that most of us have experienced the death of somebody close to us. In other words, these things become part of the experiences that we have in life.
2 ... a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
If you stop, I am sure you could think of various things in your life that would match these things.
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal ...
You might want to take a moment to wrap your brain around that one, but you can. It doesn't mean literally murder, but a time when something dies.
3 .... a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together ...
I wondered about that until I talked with somebody in the Tulsa congregation who said that as a little girl, she was required to go out with her father and walk through the field and pick up the stones in the field; then the father would cultivate the field. By cultivating the field, more stones were turned up, so the girls would go back out in the field and collect more stones! In that sense, it was a time to cast away stones.
Many of the fence posts on the property are made out of stones. So there's a time to cast away and a time to bring together. This is something we can apply to life.
5 ... a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
I am sure we can all identify personal experiences with all of these.
Let me insert another thought at this point. As God's people, shouldn't WE be protected from bad experiences?
Psalm 91 is a very powerful Psalm. Mr Bartholomew recently gave a Bible Study on this Psalm during a recent trip to Zimbabwe. When you read this Psalm, you will understand why, because it is incredibly encouraging to God's people in some of those areas of the world at this time. I will just read a couple of verses.
Psalm 91:9 Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
10 There shall no evil befall thee ...
Since you have embraced God and a relationship with God, nothing bad is going to happen.
10 ... neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
Does this mean that if we have a bad experience, that God is not pleased with us? Some have interpreted it, this way. "I'm having a bad, negative, hard and hurtful experience, therefore I must be out of sync with God. God is not pleased with me."
Here is a similar kind of statement:
Proverbs 12:21 There shall no evil happen to the just ...
The New Revised Standard Version states:
21 No harm happens to the righteous ...
The human tendency is to think along the lines, "Therefore if something harmful happens to me, I am not righteous." None of us think of ourselves in perfect terms, so it is rather natural to think, "I'm having this bad, negative, unpleasant experience, therefore I must be unrighteous. I am not right with God. God is angry with me for some reason."
Ecclesiastes 9:11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise ...
These are all positive categories. We would all like to be swift, strong and wise!
11 ... nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
This verse seems to be saying there is nothing you can do to stop bad experiences from happening to you. At face value, we seem to have a little contradiction from Psalm 91 and Proverbs 12 through to here. There SEEMS to be a little contradiction, but of course there is not, because we know that God's word does not contradict itself.
So how are we going to process this information?
Ecclesiastes 9:11 is telling us that we are not masters of our own lives! I am not going to enter into any lengthy discussion about time and chance. We've all heard those discussions. I'm not sure we are all on the same page about that particular subject, but since I have already referenced this Scripture, let me say that I personally do not believe that time and chance is a factor for one of God's people. If something happens to us, it is by the will of God. That removes time and chance. God has the power to stop it. He has the power to allow it to go forward. That takes out what the world would see as time and chance. But I don't want to go down that road at this point.
Through Ecclesiastes, Solomon is making a very clear definition between being young and getting old. When we are young, we think we can conquer the world! We have that youthful vibrance, that youthful strength and self confidence - that tends to make us feel that we are in control of our lives; to think that we control our destiny, our decisions, what is ahead of us, the courses we are going to study, the career we are going to follow.
When you are young and those choices are laid out in front of you, you FEEL as if you are in control of your life. This seems to come through in:
7 Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.
There's a certain feeling of youthful joy, happiness and vigour through a marriage relationship.
8 Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.
9 Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.
10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might ...
When you are young, you can!
10 ... for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
This youthful exuberance comes through. But the next verse seems to offer a caution. We are often going to be disappointed with the experiences of life.
11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong ...
There are going to be disappointments in life. Events will not always match our expectations - even our reasonable expectations. We can all think of examples that would fit the fact that the race is not always to the swift. The fastest athlete in the pre-race trials is not necessarily the one that wins. He could pull a muscle, trip, or have a slow start.
In terms of the battles not to the strong, we could think of that in very clear terms about some of the biggest, most powerful armies on the face of the earth not winning in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. You can think of things to fit in there.
11 ... neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
All of these things are equalised, to some degree, by time and chance. If man places his trust and confidence in these things, in being swift, in being strong or wise, in having understanding or skill, then the next verse provides a warning.
12 For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.
God has given man great capacities. The spirit in man is given by God. It creates an INCREDIBLE capacity in man. Within these capacities that God has given man, there is great happiness, as we have just read:
7 Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy ...
Enjoy it - but never forget who gave you the capacity! That is what it is saying. Never trust and rely upon your OWN strength. Man needs to be reminded of his own mortality. To this end I think that time and chance is a counter to the pride of life.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul has been talking about God's relationship to Israel. He asks a question that is appropriate for what we are addressing today:
Romans 9:14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
If God allows the same thing to happen to the righteous as happens to the sinner, is there unrighteousness with God?
15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
It ties in with the swift and the strong that we have just been reading about. It is not of him that wills. It is not out of the strength of your mind. It is not out of your personal physical strength to run, but of God.
17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Think about all of the bad experiences that Israel went through. We don't need to focus on the slavery, but just the point where one day Pharaoh would say, "Yes, you can go," and the next day he would say, "No, you can't!" and make things worse for them. Who was behind that?
18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
19 Thou wilt say then unto me (this is man talking to God), Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
What is implied here is, "Why is this uncomfortable, negative experience happening to me?"
20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
In our career of being in the Church over many years, if we are honest, I think there have probably been times when we have this kind of an attitude. When the Church was going through its pre-break up mode, and we were praying our hearts out, we had every good reason to request Christ, as the Head of the Church, to stop the rot, to turn things around. It went on year after year after year. Some of these attitudes start to drift to the surface a little bit! "Why are You letting things be done this way?"
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Let's leave it there, because I think the point is made.
The natural mind desires to be its own master. Events often don't match expectations - so that WE will not become dependent upon our own abilities to order our lives.
God will see to it one way or another, that we don't learn to address life by trusting in OUR swiftness, our strength, our wisdom or our might.
Romans 10:1 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
You could look at many historical accounts where there has been some incredible zeal for God and religious persecutions. One example of this is the Jews during World War Two.
2 ... but not according to knowledge.
3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
This is addressed to Israel. But Israel is an example and we can put ourselves in here as individuals and we can put the Church as a unit in here. We are seeing some of this happening.
3 ... going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.
It seems that Israel always reinvented the wheel! If we go back through the Old Testament, in generation after generation, Israel went through the same series of experiences. It seemed as if each generation had to re-learn the lesson that the previous generation had learned!
Is this not true of the Church today? I'm not going off on that tangent, but I want you to think about that.
A man who recently died in El Paso had been baptised for 47 years. A lot of people in the Church have been around for a long time and have learned many lessons through the experiences that we have been through as a Church.
There were many lessons learned pre Mr Armstrong in the time of Andrew Dugger. If you read the history of the Church even before that, what we have been through, has only been a turning of the wheel. We should have learned the lessons of those who preceded us, who have gone through almost IDENTICAL circumstances!
Now we have another generation coming along that gives all the appearance of having to learn the lessons again! They have to go through a set of experiences again: going about to establish their own righteousness, instead of drawing from the lessons and the experiences of the people who have preceded them. I am saying this to try to make it quite personal to us.
Experiences allow us the opportunity to acknowledge the Potter working with the clay. The living dog is better than a dead lion - because it is joined to the living. It is alive and it has the opportunity to learn from life's experiences. As I said earlier, we are joined to the living in a very spiritual sense, so how much better are we able to learn lessons from life's experiences!
Ecclesiastes 8:14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth ...
It is talking about man and man's weaknesses.
14 ... that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked ...
That is a concept you have to wrap your brain around. The same thing happens to somebody who is absolutely righteous, who is doing the right thing, living God's way of life, as happens to someone who is evil or wicked.
14 ... again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous ...
Is this not a truism? I am sure we can all think of circumstances that would fit here. It is making a very clear point that man is not in charge of his own destiny. Yet it is on the principle of this very verse that many in the Church have stumbled in recent times.
It's quite a fact of life in the Church that over recent years we are seeing more people with serious illnesses. It is not uncommon for somebody who is diagnosed with a particular problem or who experiences serious illness, to become angry with God. In the back of the mind, there is a Psalm 91 mentality. "If I am obeying God, and I am godly, then no evil will befall me. Now I am told that I have cancer. God is unjust!" To get angry with God is a natural reaction.
"If I'm a member of God's Church living by His laws, why did He allow me to get sick?" or, "Why did He allow this thing ... or that thing ... to happen."
Many young people have turned away from God's Church because of bad experiences that they have either experienced themselves or that they have witnessed within the Church. Many have walked away from the Church because of their bad experiences, because of things that they have seen within the Church that were not good. They may have been badly treated one on one by someone or they may have seen the leadership of the Church do what it did.
Instead of anger and resentment against God for allowing a bad experience, what God wants is a CAREFUL EVALUATION of our relationship with Him.
Having made the statement about things happening to just men as they do to the wicked, Solomon continued:
16 When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:)
... in other words, just lying awake thinking, pondering and trying to figure it out:
17 Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.
The key word here is in verse 16; the word, "applied." It means:
"... to direct the mind, to give attention and effort toward something."
Here, it is the mind. "When I applied my heart ..." It is effort of mind and of thought to think about the experience that the person is going through.
If God did not allow experiences, how much attention and effort would WE put into our relationship with God? You know the answer because the Bible gives it! Every single time that things went well with God's people, they forgot God! That, by the way, leeches itself over into the New Testament with spiritual Israel. We have already referenced some of the modern history of the Church of God. Every time things went well, God was backed out of the picture and man began to rely upon himself, as though he had done all these good things and produced all these wonderful blessings.
When the mind is directed ...
16 When I applied mine heart to know wisdom ...
17 Then I beheld all the work of God ...
"Then I began to put the pieces together and to see God in a little different light."
Ecclesiastes 7:11 Wisdom is good ...
This is what we are seeking. It is what these verses are telling us. We need a great deal of wisdom.
11 Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun.
12 For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.
Wisdom makes wise decisions. Wisdom gives understanding, processing information, applying the heart.
13 Consider the work of God ...
That is an important aspect of our relationship with God. How much time do we devote to considering the work of God when everything is sailing along smoothly in our lives?
13 ... for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?
That is interesting! Consider the work of God. Let me go back to an analogy I have already used. From about 1986 onwards, things started to be made crooked in the Church. We weren't walking down the straight and narrow path any more. Wrong doctrines were beginning to be introduced into the Church. We couldn't do much about it, but we prayed out heart out for God to make it "straight."
Consider the work of God! He was ALLOWING a bad experience. With hindsight we can see that.
14 In the day of prosperity be joyful ...
When things are going great, when you have a good experience, be thankful to God. It's great! It's wonderful! It's a part of life.
14 ... but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.
Wisdom is good. We need wisdom. Wisdom is gained by considering. The word "consider" implies "advising self." In other words, considering means you are applying your mind to think through the circumstances that have engulfed you. It obviously implies using God's Holy Spirit. We need to think things through DEEPLY.
In the day of adversity, stop and think! Consider the work of God. What is going on in your life is crooked. You would like it to be straight, but God has allowed it. So consider: what is there that we can find in the situation that will be of benefit to the clay? The Potter is doing something! I, as the clay, feel uncomfortable. I don't want Him to do what He is doing.
Instead of getting angry, why don't we consider: "Why? What can I see in this? What can I learn from this experience?"
Through experiences we are forced to think about the bigger issues of life. Have you ever spent any time with somebody who has a life-threatening illness? You will know that they come to form and have a different view of life. Suddenly major issues such as, "Who is winning the football this week?" drop away to be insignificant! Some of the things that you have considered to be major, upsetting things in your life suddenly don't matter any more! What matters is your relationship with God! That is far more important than some of the other petty issues that had become "mountains" in our lives.
We put our lives in perspective with God's big picture. Are we using our experiences to grow in appreciation of the spiritual dimension? God allows, has allowed and will allow each one of us to go through many different experiences. They will be good ones, but that is not what I am emphasising today. You can be joyful when they come.
But when God allows adversity in our lives, it is not time and chance. God has allowed it. We need to take the time to think DEEPLY, to give attention and effort towards considering it.
In John 15 is a very clear, simple but powerful analogy. Whether we have grown a vine or not, we all clearly understand what one is. We need to think about some of the implications here. Jesus Christ said:
John 15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you ...
Here is the basis of a relationship. Jesus Christ is saying, "Abide in Me." We are physical human beings. We are the clay, but God wants a close RELATIONSHIP with us!
We can't bring into this relationship certain things: sin, for example. We can't bring the old, carnal man into this relationship. So we have to think about how we can discard some of those things.
4 ... As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
That has to be the nature of our relationship!
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned (useless).
7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
There are some things here that we might consider. Firstly, it is a spiritual analogy. We are connected to Christ. We are "joined to the living," as we read in Ecclesiastes. We are connected to Jesus Christ. We are not independent units!
When things go well, we tend to act as independent units. But we are NOT independent units. We are interconnected.
Secondly, we are to bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit listed in Galatians 5.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit ...
... this is good. This is what God wants. What is the result of bearing fruit?
2 ... he purgeth it (prunes it) ...
To my way of thinking, pruning is not necessarily a positive experience! Here is a unit that is bearing fruit, but God comes along and gives this unit experiences - so that MORE fruit can be produced! We have to leave certain things at the door as we come into this relationship with God. Part of that is our human nature.
Can you see your human nature in total? No, we don't see ourselves. The human heart is deceitful above all things. We don't see ourselves. Sometimes God has to allow experiences in our lives (I am primarily emphasizing negative ones) that we may SEE something about ourselves that needs to be eliminated so that MORE fruit can be borne!
The words, "abide in Me and I in you," are not just cute little words. This is the reality of our lives as we attach to the Vine, Jesus Christ! There is stuff in us that has got to go! It's hard - and sometimes we don't even SEE it until we have gone through an experience, seen our reaction to that experience, looked back on it and said, "Oh! What a jerk I was!"
We didn't see it before, but by going through the experience and looking back, considering, we see there is something that has got to go. "That has got to be changed." Perhaps you would never have known that unless you went through that experience. The end result is that the Father is glorified!
John 15:2 suggests that we might consider the pruning unfair or unjust, since we are already bearing fruit - unless we consider what God is doing.
Paul introduces the Holy Spirit as a light shining out of darkness, then he says.
2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure (the treasure of God's Spirit) in earthen vessels (physical human bodies), that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
That is something you should underline in red! That is the bottom line of so many things that happen to us.
7 ...that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
This is a letter to the Church! This is not a letter to the sinners of the world. It's a letter to the people who are just, who are bearing fruit. It's a letter to the people of whom, if you only read Psalm 91, you would say, "No evil shall ever befall these people. This is God's Church He is talking to." But ...
8 We are troubled on every side ...
That is interesting if you put it in this context. These are God's people - and they are troubled on every side. But because they do consider God, they are not distressed. They are seeing God's hand in the experience!
8 ... yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
So if we read this correctly, there are going to be times when we (either collectively as a group or individually) will be troubled. There is going to be a time when we feel perplexed. But if our relationship with God is right, there will not be despair!
9 Persecuted ...
There is a bad experience! That is not pleasant. We haven't had much of it yet, but there have been one or two times when I have sensed that kind of an attitude. That's a bad experience.
9 ... but not forsaken ...
Somebody who has wisdom, who has applied their heart to know, will have this response, this reaction ...
9 ... cast down, but not destroyed;
10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
I come back to the premise again that if everything went well in your life, if everything you did was blessed, how much "dying" of the body (putting off the old man) would there be? Let's be absolutely honest. There would not be much. We would not change very much at all. We would move into a comfort zone and that is where we would stay. That is not growth! That is not the relationship we have just read about in John 15.
11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake ...
Spinning off from verses 8-9, this verse seems to imply that there will be some heavy experiences.
11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
14 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
As we go through the experiences of life, the outward man may perish. There are bad experiences. It might be health issues, financial issues or family issues. Yet the inward man is renewed day by day. That is what is important to God because His focus is on the Resurrection.
15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
17 For our light affliction ...
Paul has just been talking about "heavy duty" experiences! He has talked about being troubled, perplexed, persecuted, cast down; heavy-duty experiences. Then he uses the words, "our light affliction." They are light afflictions in the scheme of things, in the scheme of what God is offering us for eternity.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen ...
People sometimes get angry with God when something really bad happens. What are we looking at when we get angry? We are looking at the self. "It's the way I FEEL, my emotional well-being is at stake."
18 ... for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
God wants us to be looking at the things that are not seen, the faith, the confidence, and the hope that this experience is happening because the Potter has allowed it, as an act of working with the clay.
How many times have we been able to THANK God when we are in the midst of a bad experience because we have the presence of mind to understand that God is involved in this, and that this is for His glory and for the well-being of the Body of Christ as well as our personal lives.
If we won every battle, if we won every race, if we were the swiftest, if we had unlimited bread, riches and skills, you know what we would do. We would take the excellency of the power to be ourselves and not of God!
An excellent example of this is in 2nd Corinthians 12. The apostle Paul was truly a man of God, and doing a powerful work. As far as he is presented to us in the Bible, we can see no reason for him to have had this bad experience.
2 Corinthians 12:7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations ...
He is referring to a very personal experience when Christ revealed Himself to him. He was taught by Christ over a period of time, and received an incredible revelation. He said, "Lest I be exalted because of that ..."
Let's not only think of Paul, let's think of ourselves here. We have been given the abundance of revelations! God has revealed the mysteries of the Kingdom to us, to His Church. We know things that this world does not know! Are we going to get puffed up because of that? Are we going to think ourselves better people than those other people who don't know what we know?
7 ... there was given to me a thorn in the flesh ...
I like this wording because it makes us stop and think. Is this something that God Himself did? Did He reach down with His finger: zot, and give Paul this problem? I am not getting into what the problem was. I'm not sure that I know but it was a physical problem. He says, "There was GIVEN to me a thorn in the flesh."
I rather suspect that it was a physical problem that developed as they naturally do in life. I don't think that God necessarily determined to give Paul this specific problem. It happened. He asked God to remove it.
7 ... a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure (to keep him humble).
8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
Have you gone to God more than three times about a health issue or a problem you have? The chances are that you have. You start to get a little bit exasperated. "When is God going to do something?" or "God is not listening to me because I am not righteous enough!" - or some such thought. But the answer Paul got was:
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness ...
Bad experiences and situations outside our control certainly provoke our weakness.
9 ... Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake ...
Paul has had to apply his heart to know God to come up with that line of reasoning! "I take pleasure in these things," is not natural to a human mind!
10 ... for when I am weak, then am I strong.
... because that's when we don't trust in ourselves, but we do trust in the strength and the power of God.
We can't deal with this subject and not include Job. I feel that any reference to Job should always start at the beginning, so that we get the right perspective of what is going on in his life. As is confirmed later in the chapter, we see that Job 1:1 is God's point of view, not man's point of view:
Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed (hated) evil.
That is an INCREDIBLE evaluation of a human being, but it was God's evaluation of him! He was striving with all of his being to be godly, to live God's way of life and to do things right - to the point that he would even offer sacrifices if he THOUGHT one of his offspring might have done something wrong. It is incredible that a man would have that kind of a mind and relationship with God.
Put the following verses in light of what we have been talking about:
13 And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:
14 And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them:
15 And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
The oxen and the asses are part of Job's substance. They were a part of what made him great.
3 His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
Now we are dealing with this man's substance, his wealth and his position in society.
16 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep (as we saw, he had 7,000 sheep), and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
There's a bad experience right on top of another bad experience. These people are coming in one after the other. Job WAS a human being so imagine the impact!
17 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
18 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:
19 And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
From a human perspective, these are BAD experiences! He has lost all of his wealth, all of his prestige, position and ranking in society and now he has lost his family - one after the other.
This is not time and chance! God has allowed this to happen to Job. Put him in terms that we are using today. We know that Job had a zeal for God, but from the story we also know that it wasn't of God. There was a very important lesson that this man had to learn about his relationship with God.
As "the thing formed" (Romans (9:20), he was saying to the Potter, "Why have You made me thus?" If we read the dialogue, that is essentially what Job was saying. "I can't see any reason for all of these things happening to me! Why are You doing this?"
His attitude was similar to some of the attitudes that develop when bad things happen to us. We might get angry with God. If we become angry or resentful by our experiences we are no different to Job. We have got to dig deep. Job was made to dig deep. As we read this next Scripture, read about yourself. How many times have we come to this situation when something bad was happening in our lives:
Job 40:1 Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
3 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
5 Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
I am sure that we have said similar things, maybe not exactly those same words. "This is happening to me. I don't understand why, but I know that God has allowed it." That represents a shallow understanding. We have sort of "bought the argument," that God is in charge, and that God is allowing this, but we are not REALLY buying the whole package. We have probably said something similar to, "Okay, if I have to accept that God is in charge, and that this is happening in my life, I will. But I sure don't understand why it is happening."
But we know why it happened to Job - and this is where our experiences should take us. This is where God wants experiences to take us:
Job 42:1 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
2 I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.
3 Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge ...
"I am vile," was without knowledge. It was a "rote" saying, something that he felt he had to say under the circumstances.
3 Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
4 Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
"... now I have applied my heart to know wisdom." I am slipping in slightly different wording:
5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
"I have learned something from this experience!" Now we arrive to the "dying" of the body that Paul speaks of.
6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
This man was upright and perfect, but his heart, his inner being wasn't as attached to the Vine as it should have been! There needed to be a little pruning in order to bring his heart into a right relationship with God.
The same applies to us. Can anyone of us sit here today and honestly say, "I am ready for the Kingdom! If I die tonight, I know I will be in the first resurrection - and I am not going to be a doorkeeper: I'm going to be right up there at the top"?
I hope that none of us feels that way - because I am fairly certain, from God's point of view that there's probably more "stuff" that we carry that He wants left at the door. There's probably "stuff" that God doesn't want in us, that we don't even know we've got yet! He is going to have to open our eyes to it - as He had to open Job's eyes. That wasn't a pleasant experience, but look at the end result:
12 So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning ...
Now God had a piece of clay He could REALLY work with, clay that was malleable in His hands to produce something in His image!
Christ stated much the same thing as Job stated, but in a little different way. It's a very simple piece of understanding, a simple analogy:
Luke 11:33 No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light.
Remember that we have this wonderful excellent product "in earthen vessels."
34 The light of the body is the eye ...
We understand the spiritual significance of this.
34 ... therefore when thine eye is single (meaning good, whole, sound), thy whole body also is full of light ...
That is very much the condition that Job came to at the end of his experiences.
34 ... but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.
What does the Master Potter want of the clay? He wants light, not darkness!
35 Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.
If we trust in our own power, and we feel that we can be masters of our own destiny, it is darkness. It's not light! The light doesn't come out of the HUMAN mind. It comes out of the mind of God, the Spirit of God.
36 If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.
How does the eye get to be good, to be single? It is by using life's experiences, by APPLYING the heart to gain wisdom, by observing the fruit of our decisions. Many times some of our bad experiences are because of decisions that WE have made. God hasn't blessed that particular decision. It has gone bad on us. So we stop and we consider.
The eye becomes "good" by living through an event or a series of events which will require us to make decisions, and then analyse the results. Then we will realise, "I was a little bit selfish in that particular decision. I put a little bit more of myself in there than should have been there." Hindsight can reveal a LOT about our minds.
I think that it is MOSTLY with hindsight that experiences render us the positive value, rather than when you are going through it. When you are going through it, you need the mindset to understand that you may not be able to see all the reasons why. You have got to have the faith and the confidence that you will. Usually, when you get through it and you look back, that's the "Aha!" moment! You begin to realise why!
We can do that with the Church. Before the Church broke up, we prayed our heart out for ten years - but it remained crooked. Now I can look back and see WHY God had to allow the Church to go through that test and trial. I can see why it was necessary: to produce a bride clothed in white! We look back and we can understand more why it happened.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
God will use every experience we have to our benefit and profit, and to His glory, IF we will allow it, if we have the mindset to see it in this particular way.
17 I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked ...
One thing happens to the righteous. The same thing happens to the wicked. It doesn't seem right at the time, but in the end, God will judge.
17 ... for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.
We need to try harder to see God's hand in ALL of our experiences, good ones, bad ones, small ones and major ones - because God IS there! As we read in Romans, everything works together for good. That is implied here.
18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
The English Standard Version says:
18 I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them ...
Is that not what happened to Job?
18 ... God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts.
... relative to God. It doesn't take away the potential, but it makes us consider what we are. We are NOT masters of our own destiny! We don't have the strength to order our lives apart from God, and His strength, power and might.
God allows us to experience everything in its season, good and bad, because He has a purpose. A further definition of the word "experience" is:
"Participation in events leading to the accumulation of knowledge ..."
... learning, growing, developing.
"... or the knowledge or skill, so derived."
That's why a living dog is better than a dead lion! The dog is nothing, but the mighty lion is the king of the jungle. The lion, if it is dead, knows nothing. It has no chance to grow and to develop. The living dog still has some opportunity to be taught. That's why we are the "living dogs."
We have experiences in life so that we may depend less on self and more on God, and that we come to see ourselves as God sees us. So don't get angry; don't get resentful at life's experiences. Use them to forge a closer relationship with God!
... Brian Orchard
08 Sep 07