Fall Fail Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtgM-Rof2rI
Trust falls don’t always work, but it’s this idea of trust that brings us back to our summer Judges’ series, where are doing an epilogue to the book, because it ends on such a low note. So today we’ll be looking at the first of three areas that stem from the ending of Judges, which is found all the way towards the back of the Bible in the book of Hebrews chapter 11. And as we open up to Hebrews 11:1, lets take a brief inventory of the whole book of Judges.
Judges is a book that let’s us look through a snippet of time that deals with three themes of Scripture: God’s faithfulness despite unfaithfulness, his call on his people to obedient lives, and that when we disobey, our sin affects not only us but the world around us. The entire Bible deals with these three themes, but in Judges, we see how they play out through a handful of situations in the life of Israel as a nation. These situations show us a cycle of sin, judgment, repentance, restoration. This plays out again and again through the book, but instead of thinking this cycle is circular in the sense that Israel returns to the exact same spot they started, we’ve talked about how it is more like a whirlpool, as Israel is sinking deeper and deeper into flagrant sin and moving further and further away from God.
So through the this whirlpool of moving further from God and deeper into sin, we see those people God raises up to bring about restoration, get worse and worse as well. The judges’ downward slide in morality mirrors the whole of the nation. And when we get to the worse of the judges, Samson, we finish off the book with two stories about men who are suppose to be the holiest of all from the priestly tribe of Levite, falling into wicked behavior. The book then ends on the haunting phrase, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes (v.25).”
This lets us know that Israel was far from God, steeped in sin, and seemingly without hope.
But there is hope even with sin is walling us in on all sides, and so we turn our eyes to the New Testament and the book of Hebrews 11:1. Let’s read the opening verses together.
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
The 11th chapter of Hebrews is structured in a way that builds up to the conclusion that starts in verse 39 and carries over through chapter 12 to verse 2. That build up starts with the words we just read.
What is faith? The writer of Hebrews tells us that it is an assurance of what is hoped for, and it is a conviction of what we cannot see. When the writer gives us this definition, they then turn to give us examples of what this means. Our attention is turned to the people of old. To the people we read about in the Old Testament. The writer starts us with creation and how we have a conviction that God created all there is; not from what already existed like in other creation stories, but out of nothing and by his spoke word.
It’s here that we begin to move through Old Testament figures. First comes Abel and Enoch who we learn were counted righteous because of their faith. If we were to read their stories, there’s not much there. Just that Abel presented an offering that God accepted, and that he was killed by his brother. For Enoch, we just simply know that he walked with God and was taken up to heaven, not tasting death. This culminates in verse 6 where the writer states, “6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
So faith now is coupled with pleasure. By us trusting in what God has said he has done, and trusting in what he says he will do, we please God. Think about the implication of that. God’s pleasure with us, begins when we simply trust what he says. There are two moments in the Disney animated film Aladdin, where Aladdin is standing with his hand outstretched to the princess and he tells her, “Do you trust me?” The first time he says it to her, it is stern and she has to make a quick decision if she trusts this man who she just met, to save her from the palace guards that she believes are after her. They then proceed to jump off the roof of a two story building. The second time Aladdin says the same statement, it’s in a playful way, which leads to a world wide experience flying on a magic carpet. Both call the princess to trust, both are for her benefit and both lead into greater trust.
God’s metaphorical hand reaches out to us and asks, “Do you trust me?” And when we take it, it brings pleasure to him, and a whole new world to us.
This then leads into an escalation of Old Testament people. From two, Abel and Enoch, to three, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah. These are strange. True Noah built the ark and he did so without grumbling. But Abraham and Sarah both have episodes where is doesn’t seem they are very faithful in there stories. Abraham denied that he was married to Sarah twice, whereas Sarah herself laughed at the very idea that in her old age she could have a son, and so she tried to make it happen through her servant Hagar. Yet, here the Scriptures commend all three on the same level of faith.
This culminates in verse 13 where we read, “13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.”
There words, “Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God..” are highly important, because it bridges these people who, though, were not perfect, were accepted by God through faith. Faith that wasn’t always perfect, but faith that trusted beyond their own failures.
And so we get another block of people, Issac, Jacob, Jospeh, Moses, the whole op the people of Israel who crossed the Red Sea, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets. WAIT! Did you catch that? Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, those are judges, and not just any judges, those are the judges that weren’t the good ones. Barak is the one who heard God’s call, but ignored it until Deborah took him to task. Gideon was the one who was scared, who questioned God, who made a show of not accepting a monarchy, yet did everything to look like a king. Jephthah wasn’t even called by God to be a judge, yet God worked though him, even when he made a horrific sinful oath, that brought ruin to his family, and which was followed by a civil war. Samson, never had an eye for the things of God, but rather sough after his own desires. Until one day, when divine punishment met with the punishment of Samson enemies, and he had no where to turn except to God, God was still there.
The great judges, Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar, are not mentioned, though they were the best that God used. No the worst of the judges are mentioned. Why? Especially when we look at the others that are mentioned. Issac who was the son of the promise to Abraham and Sarah. Jacob who brought about the twelve tribes. Jospeh who God used to save Israel from a famine. Moses who led the people out of their captivity in Egypt. Rahab, who turn away from her own gods to the God of the Hebrews and who became a grandmother to the Messiah Jesus. Why would these horrific judges be placed alongside of these great people of faith?!
And then to top it off, we read in verse 39 this, “39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.”
These judges, who’s stories we read, are now commended for their faith? Did the writer of Hebrews even read the book of Judges? Yes, and their inclusion here, in the chapter that is called the Faith Hall of Fame, gives us an immense insight into who God is. He is the lover of humanity that treats even the smallest acts of faith with great weight. Even in their depravity, even at their worst, the smallest actions done in faith carry with them value to God.
The value of small faith is something Jesus touches on in Matthew 17:20, where we read, “20 He said to them, ‘Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.’”
We tend to view faith as needing to be large for God to approve of it. We think that we must have trust that gets everything right. That if we stumble in anyway, we are now on God’s naughty list, as if he were Santa Clause.
But this is a wrong view of faith. To God, the smallest amount of faith, the smallest amount of trust we put in him, is treated on a massive scale that puts us in God’s Faith Hall of Fame.
The inclusion of such horrible judges, lets us know, we could mess up in monumental ways, ways that could lead to the destruction of relationships a hundred times over. But even the smallest of faiths in the life of someone who does that can still receive the grace of God. Because grace is not based on how good we are for God, it’s solely and squarely based on the goodness of God.
When Paul writes in Romans 8:31-39, “31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’
“37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
If we have put our trust in God for our salvation through Jesus’ work on the cross, no falter in that faith is so large that God turns away from us. God takes the smallest of faith and turns it enormous. As Jesus stated about faith in Mark 4:20, when talking about what happens when trust in God takes root in our lives, he said this, “But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
So how does this section end? The thought concludes in chapter 12:1-2, “1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Brothers and sisters in the Lord, we are called to lay down sin, to lay down burdens because if God accepts the smallest of faith from people like Barak, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson, he’ll accept it from any who places their trust in him. No matter how deep their sorrow, how destructive their life, how impossible it seems in the deepest of depths, The great love of God reaches out to every person.
For us as individuals, that means when I falter God still accepts me, because of the work of Jesus. For those around us, it means that God can still reach that old curmudgeon, that person who thinks their good with their own goodness, that elderly person who was hurt by a church. God still loves them, he is still reaching out to them, and the smallest amount of faith turns the eternal tide of destiny.
My challenge then for us today is to not give up. In our own lives when the hardships of life seem overwhelming, when we falter and allow sin to gain a hold on us, when we seem far from God, God is not far from us. He can use a little trust, a little faith, to bring about monumental work. He didn’t call us to be perfect to gain his eternal life, he bought eternal life for us to make us perfect. So praise God that he did this for us.
But also, do not give up on that person who is denying Jesus. Do not stop praying for them, do not stop loving them and sharing with them the work of God in your life. If God can save a Barak, a Gideon, a Jephthah, a Samson, he can save them as well.
Let us be encouraged today, that God is working in the smallest of areas, to bring about his love in the lives of his people, and through them, the lives of this world. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment