Happy We Hurt?!

Thirty-eight years ago I heard black evangelist G. P. Holt say words about the origin of the Bible that remain lodged in my brain until this day. Brother Holt said, "The devil wouldn’t write the Bible if he could, man couldn’t write the Bible if he would, and so God wrote it." I love it! Profoundly simple but simply profound! I’ve thought about those words many, many times over the years. The Bible is unlike any other book or compilation of wisdom and teaching mankind has ever seen, bar none. It’s wisdom is "other worldly." To borrow words from the apostle Paul, "the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God" (1 Corinthians 3:19a). God just doesn’t think about and see things the same way humans often do. The Lord made that truth crystal clear in Isaiah 55:8-9 where the Bible declares: " ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.’ " One particularly striking example of how God’s thinking is different from ours is in the way He thinks and speaks about hurt and pain. The human perspective is narrow and negative. Almost all of us almost always see any pain as altogether bad. We don’t like to hurt. We don’t like headaches or "heartaches" or backaches or earaches or "tummy-aches" or any other kinds of aches! If you’ve ever had any of these you know why! Pain is . . . well, painful! It hurts. We don’t feel good when we hurt, and it’s difficult to ever see any good in it. We are trained to avoid pain. And if not avoid it, relieve it. And if not relieve it, manage it. Take a pill, see a doctor, undergo a procedure, take a medication. But get rid of the pain!

How different, then, to read from the Bible in Romans 5:3-4: "And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope." This passage does what other New Testament passages do – it strings together and places in close proximity words our human brains don’t normally think of as belonging in the same sentence. Really now, who in their right mind "glories" or boasts about "tribulations" (pressures, pain, problems, etc.)?! I didn’t say who doesn’t talk about them. Ask some people, "How are you?" and they will tell you, and tell you, and tell you! As Franklin P. Jones said, "Untold suffering seldom is." But most people don’t boast about burdens and they aren’t happy because they hurt. How diffferent, then, to hear Paul’s words. Verse 3 in the Easy to Read Version is clear – "We are also happy with the troubles we have." Note carefully, not happy to be in pain. But happy, as the passage makes clear, because tribulation and trouble can be productive! They can produce things like perseverance, character, and hope. Now friends, I’m not a hypcohondriac, and I’m not asking anyone to act like some folks who don’t feel good unless they feel bad. I’m just reminding us that spiritual muscles are like physical ones – if there is no pain, it is almost certain there will be no gain. Peter wrote that Jesus "suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). The cross is God’s reminder that pain can be redemptive. Hurts help us if they cause us to come and stay closer to God. You can be happy about that.

Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

Paul was in an island called Melita

Act 28:6  Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god. 

Paul was in an island called Melita. A viper came and coiled up on his hands while he was gathering sticks for a fire. The local people saw the snake hanging from Paul's hand. They said to each other, "This man must be a murderer! Though he didn't get drown in the sea, but Justice will not let him live anyway." But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and wasn't harmed. The people watched and thought that Paul would either have a swollen hand or suddenly drop dead. They watched him for a long time, and when nothing happened to him, they changed their minds and said, "This man is a god."

The inhabitants of Melita were not alone in making judgment based on calamities or fortunes of a person. Job’s friends thought that Job’s sufferings must be due to some grievous sins he had committed. Most of the Jews had this same perception too (Luke 13:1-4). But they erred in imagining that calamities must always be interpreted as judgments. In the same way, rich men are blessed not because they are righteous. The rich man in one of the parables told by Jesus was in hell fire when he died while the poor man was in the paradise of God (Luke 16:19-31). We know that Job was righteous and yet he suffered. Paul was righteous but he suffered even as he was doing the work of God. Hence, let us guard against judging a person based on his fortunes or misfortunes.

Accidents are not punishments. A good man may meet an accident in the act of doing a good deed; that does not prove him to be a monster. Likewise, an evil man may be unhurt by what seems fatal; that does not prove him to be a saint. Yet, many make the mistake of equating accidents with punishments from God. When a man is struck dead by lightning on a clear sky, many will conclude it is God’s punishment. But if he survives, they will say God is on his side. The clinging of the viper to Paul’s hand was not an evidence of the anger of God. God was not angry with Paul. But through this incident, He was demonstrating His power to the simple-minded inhabitants of His existence.

We see how changeable human opinion is. One moment the inhabitants concluded Paul was a murderer and the next moment he was a god; all basing on outward circumstances! It proves to show us this one lesson: Let us not judge by outward appearance, but make righteous judgment (John 7:24).

It goes to show how fickle and wrong our judgments can be and how we are ever prone to rush from one extreme to another. Don’t make a judgment based on everything we see. Oftentimes, things are not what it seems to be. Different kinds of character can interpret a same action differently. There was an occasion I was playfully patting my wife on the cheek. A sister saw it and asked me in a serious tone: “Did you just beat your wife?” I was stung by the question. One moment I was a loving husband and the next minute I became a wife-beater.

Paul was a murderer and then a god within a very short span of time. And, both conclusions were wrong; he was neither. Let us find out the truth before we judge a brother’s action. Things are not always what they seemed to be. We should always think the best in others: “Doing nothing through faction or through vainglory, but in lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself” (Philippians 2:3, ASV).

Let love reign in our hearts. Love thinks the best about others: “Love thinketh no evil” (1 Corinthians 13:5). If we harbour a bad attitude towards another brother, it is because we have no love in our hearts. Is he a brother or an enemy? Check our hearts: “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye” (Matthew 7:5).

Jimmy Lau

Psa 119:97  Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.

From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and

Num 1:3  From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies. 

                                                                 

We have here a commission issued out for the numbering of the people of Israel. This took place in the second year after they came out of Egypt and in the wilderness of Sinai. The women, children, the Levites, old men, weak ones, and those below twenty years old, were excluded in the census. Only those men who were twenty years old and above and who were able to go to war were numbered.

Why was it necessary to conduct the census? I think one reason is to prove the accomplishment of the promise made to Abraham that God would multiply his seed exceedingly (Genesis 15:5). The number of the men twenty and above and were able to go to war was 603, 550. When we add in the Levites, the women, children, old and weak men, the number would easily exceed 2 million. God is sending this message to the children of Israel: I have kept my promise to your father Abraham.

The age of service fixed at twenty for the men of the tribes is also a spiritual lesson for all of us. God expects all the able-bodied young men to serve Him. Who is going to fight the war for Israel? Are the young men to sit down and let the women and old folks do it? Obviously not! Likewise, God has entrusted the work of the church to the men (1 Corinthians 14:34; 1 Timothy 2:8; 3:1). The pillars of the early churches were men (Galatians 2:9). The apostles were men.

Paul exhorted the men of the church in Corinth to: “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13). The expression, “quit you like men” means “play the men”, meaning, “play your part as a man.” It is the will of God that the men are to lead in the work of the church (1 Timothy 4:12).

It does not mean that the Christian women have nothing to do. When men go out to war, the women stay at home and take care of the children and old folks. They prepare the meals and sew clothing for the men at the battlefront. Likewise, in the church, women are to teach the younger women, children, prepare the Lord’s Supper, wash the baptism clothing, prepare meals for the agape feasts, visit the sick brethren and prepare meals for the live alone widows and widowers during the day, keep the building clean, and encourage one another (2 Timothy 2:4-5; Acts 9:36-39).

The leadership of the work of the church belongs to the men. Young men, God has given you talents. Many of you are graduates and you excel in your fields; God will call you to account for the talents He has given you (Matthew 25:19). With more talents that you have, also come more responsibilities: "Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more," (Luke 12:48, ESV).

It is sad that members of the Church are strangely ignorant of their duty to return their talents to God. But, like the man with one talent, they come up with many excuses why they cannot be in God’s army. Many say they are too busy. Will God accept their excuse? (Matthew 25:30).

We also see that there was no time fixed for the end of the service to which the Israelites were summoned. As long as a man is fit, he is to remain in the army. In the New Testament, we do not read of any of the apostles retiring from the work of God. In fact, they fought to the end (2 Timothy 4:7).

Where are our men who are in their thirties and forties? Are they too busy with their careers and families as to neglect the work of God? How about our men in their fifties and sixties and who are still fit to serve? Have they retired? Should they?

God will hold another census. That day comes when the book of life is opened. Brethren, is your name written in the book of life? Do you know what is written beside your name in the book of life? It is a record of your works: “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works” (Revelations 20:12).

In the examination hall when the time is up, the invigilator says: “Pens down, hand in your work.” Likewise, when this life is over, God says: “Hand in your works.” Are you listening? 

Jimmy Lau

Psa 119:97  Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.