A good friend asked about my time in Denver last weekend and the funeral of our grandson.
It led to a conversation about suffering and how people can become angry with God.
My friend, who has suffered in many significant ways throughout his life, became self-reflective…I could see it in his face.
I asked, “what are you thinking?”
He asked me if I thought that something was “wrong” because he had never been angry towards God.
Particularly in the light of all the difficult things he had experienced.
Confusion…yes.
Wondering why…yes but not anger.
I assured him that though it is okay to feel anger, it is also okay to not feel anger.
In South Central Texas there are likely many different emotions and responses to God this morning…the governor of Texas made his own faith statements about trusting God.
I don’t like to suffer, who does…but when I think of how God is working out his purposes in all of human history and in the lives of 8 billion living humans…to be honest, it doesn’t make much sense to me personally to be angry about what he does or doesn’t do.
That doesn’t mean I like everything that happens…I don’t.
I am not saying I will never become angry with God…I’m just a man and I can’t predict how I will feel or think in the future.
But I told my friend that there is no moral, intellectual, or spiritual deficiency in him for his lack of anger and his childlike trust of God.
I say that because…it is often seen, these days at least, as a lack of intellectual or emotional “depth” or honesty to NOT be angry with God, or to NOT doubt him or his word.
So much so that my friend, a mature Christian, wondered if there is something wrong with him that he trusted God through all that had happened in his life.
Again, it’s okay to struggle to trust God…it’s also okay if you don’t.
It is strange to have to say this out loud…it really is OK to just trust God.
It’s okay to not be able to answer all the arguments against the reality of God and the reliability of his Word and to not understand all he does or doesn’t do…and yet, to believe anyway.
Trust is not naive, or the result of some intellectual deficiency, or a lack of emotional and moral depth in the face of all the suffering in the world.
To trust God is a rational act…even when we don’t fully understand him.
I asked my grandchildren a week ago Friday, at the graveside of their cousin Lev…if they had ever struggled to understand their parents, struggled with what their parents were doing and at the same time, they just wanted to give mom or dad a hug.
They all nodded, “yes.”
That’s trust.
Their parents had earned their trust…that trust carried the day when they were upset or confused or hurting.
Being confused, not understanding…and yet trusting…makes perfect sense to a child.
If you struggle to trust God…I am not making light of your struggle.
I am simple saying…that it’s okay to trust him and not fully understand him.
It is okay to believe his Word and yet find parts of it confusing.
There are so many books, and blogs, and videos of people filled with angst, shaking their fists at God, demanding answers…they become the heroes, the noble ones…the people to model.
So be it…but I’m giving you permission, if you want it, or need it…just to trust him.
To not fully understand, to not necessarily like what he does…but yet to just trust him.
The child knows, intuitively, how to keep the tension…the tension that adults can forget to keep.
What tension?
The tension of not fully understanding and still fully trusting.
We get older and come to believe that unless we can understand everything, we will remain skeptical, God will be trial, he cannot be trusted if he cannot or will not explain himself.
If he doesn’t do things to our liking…well, why fool with him at all…certainly, we should we trust him.
It is not naive to trust without full understanding.
It is naive, and in some cases arrogant…to think you can fully understand God.
AND
To demand full understanding before you will trust…well, you will never learn to trust.
And God will not suffer for it…but we will.
We were made by him and for him…we cannot live well, for long without him.
There is mystery in trust, but there is no contradiction in fully believing without fully understanding.
This week you will read the prophet Micah and some of the prophet Isaiah.
They were contemporaries who probably knew each other, certainly they knew of each other.
In fact Micah 4:1-3 is identical to Isaiah 2:1-4
God spoke to Isaiah in a vision; he later wrote down what he saw.
We can assume he or someone who heard Isaiah preach…told Micah who began to preach the content of that vision as well…it became part of his collected written work.
Micah didn’t plagiarize Isaiah…it was God’s word, confirmed by these two spokesmen of God.
I’m personally helped by continually remembering the bigger picture as I read the OT prophets…I also have trouble keeping things straight as I read.
Trace gave a quick overview last week…I’ll give one again this week.
Israel split into two weaker nations in 930 BC…North was called Israel; south was called Judah.
In about two hundred years (722 BC) the North, with really, no good kings in all of that time…fell to the Assyrians and was no more.
In about 150 years after that, the South with a few somewhat good kings would fall to Babylon.
That’s a long period of time and there were plenty of ups and downs along the way.
But God was at work in his people…bringing judgment, bringing mercy and hope…working out his larger purposes in space and time…for all the peoples of the earth.
Isaiah and Micah both lived to see the North fall to Assyria…and were given by God, a view of when the south in their then distant future would fall.
They were also, both given a view of the even more distant future when the Messiah would come and fulfill all the covenant promises.
I’m going to focus on two passages from Micah and then look at some implications for God’s word in our lives.
But you, O Bethlehem, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore, he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace.
Micah 5:2-5
Micah goes from talking about the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem, up north, in his time, to the future coming of the Messiah.
The proud kings of mighty Jerusalem will have all failed.
The Messiah who will be born in lowly Bethlehem will triumph in ultimate victory.
*It would be like us looking for the King to come from NY or DC and hear that he has been born in Hutch.
God chose nowhere Bethlehem not mighty Jerusalem for Christ’s hometown.
God chose a stable not a castle for his birth.
He chose a cross not a sword to defeat his enemies.
This has all been a great surprise to humanity…though it was all foretold, humans could not really get their minds around this.
Isaiah often speaks of the surprising nature of the future Messiah.
He says the “Virgin will be with child.”
Remarkable, but it happened just like that.
He says that “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse (David’s line), and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.” Isaiah 11:1
When all signs of the Davidic kingdom have disappeared…and all that remains is a seemingly dead stump…a shoot will come from that stump.
The shoot is the Messiah.
Just as everyone was surprised when God anointed little nobody David as King and used him to rescue the people after Saul’s failure.
So too will God anoint David’s true successor after all of his failed descendants.
From this insignificant town will come the King of Kings…in the line of David.
All this was foolishness to the worldly wise then, and it remains so today.
Not that some really smart people don’t believe…they do.
There are many brilliant Christians alive today…and there have been through the centuries.
It is just that the worldly wise…the ones who must understand everything…or they will believe nothing…will in fact, understand nothing of ultimate importance.
Paul wrote…
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:(and then quotes Isaiah, Micah’s buddy)
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
He then proceeds with rhetorical questions and a conclusive response to those questions…
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
It is remarkable that a guy living in the 8th century BC would know exactly what town the Messiah would come from.
This was no lucky guess…no one would have guessed Bethlehem.
And no one could write with such amazing precision all the details of Jesus, born almost 800 years in the future, that Micah and Isaiah gave us unless God had revealed it to them.
So, we have in Micah the epic plan of the ages revealed by God, unfolding over centuries, and continents, using large nations as his tools…all coming to a point of convergence in Jesus, born in Bethlehem.
Micah says that his coming forth in time and space…is from old, from ancient days.
This is God’s plan from eternity past…that is certainly mind-boggling.
Now, look at the next passage from Micah, it is the most well-known passage from this book.
My Old Testament professor in Seminary required us to memorize one passage from each of the Prophets…this is the one he chose for Micah.
With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:6-8
In the first five verses of chapter six God makes his case against his people.
Then these three verses are the imagined response of someone to God’s accusation against them.
“Okay, God…let’s make a deal here…what’s it going to take to make you happy?”
“Burnt offerings, yearling calves, thousands of Rams, ten thousand rivers of oil, my firstborn child?
The escalating offers to appease God are supposed to look ridiculous and offensive.
But it mirrors the hearts of the people…they have lived trying to toy with God, to make deals, appease him…while disobeying him.
This is all show, it is a silly game.
God is a being of great joy…but he doesn’t play these kinds of silly games with lives and eternity.
The imaginary bargainer is looking super-spiritual as he bows before God…making outrageous offers to appease him.
He is in effect, trying to buy God off…like someone bidding low, then going higher.
All the way to the detested practice of child sacrifice
A practice that God, of course, hated and forbid…a practice that Israel, and its Kings came to engage in.
Micah jumps in here…he answers this imagined bargainer.
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
There is no secret…quit guessing, quit bargaining…he has told you over and over and over.
“What is good?”
This is prophetic shorthand for all the covenant’s moral requirements.
It’s not merely how to be a good person.
It is, God has shown you all that need to know to live in line with his will for you…he has shown you how to thrive in relationship with him and others.
He has shown, what is the good to do and become.
Here is what it means using three words that form the larger life principles…of the good life.
- Do justice: do what is right to do by one another as God has defined it in his word.
*I will not wrong anyone, and I will seek to protect others from wrongs done against them.
- Love Kindness: love one another as God loves you, treat others as you want to be treated.
*I will actively seek the good of others.
- Walk humbly with God.
*I will live my life in dependence on God, not self.
Love God heart and soul, love others…do justice, love kindness walk in humility with God.
God opposes the proud, gives grace to the humble.
You cannot be humble before God and misuse people, hold grudges, or fail to seek to put their interests ahead of your own.
You cannot be humble before God and demand from him and attempt to bargain with him.
Humility before God recognizes his greatness, his place…high, high above us.
In Micah we have God’s plan from eternity past, revealed.
We see the fall of the North, the future fall of the South, and nations used as God’s tools.
We see very specific details of the Messiah who will come in line with God’s covenant promises.
We also see how God wants us to live before him and with one another.
The epic and eternal and the small, right here, right now…daily faithful choice.
Let’s go briefly to 1 Peter chapter 1…I want to focus, as we read, on how we do not have to fully understand in order to fully trust…and faithfully obey.
1 Peter 1
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
Our inheritance is sure, but where is it?
It is hidden from our sight for now.
We trust in God’s power…put our faith in him, for what is going to be revealed in the end.
We trust him in spite of not seeing what he has promised.
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
We rejoice in what we do not yet see, even while we suffer from many different trials…trials we do see, clearly and painfully.
Trials bring us grief…and yet we greatly rejoice in what is promised…but not fully yet experienced.
We know God works all things for the good of those who love him…but that good is a refined faith that is to be revealed…
When?…in the end…in the future.
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
How do you love him when you haven’t even seen him?
How do you believe in him when you haven’t even seen him.
Well, we do…and we are…at least some of the time, often at unexpected times…filled with his joy.
This means we are already experiencing our salvation…but we are not yet…fully experiencing it.
Now, what about Micah and the other prophets, how did they live with trust even though they didn’t fully understand…and didn’t see much of what they spoke about?
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.
They believed and spoke and suffered abuse, they lived faithfully in the face of hostility…though they didn’t fully understand.
Micah worked for nearly 50 years…though he was working for generations to come.
His life would largely be difficult, and he would not see the promised Messiah in his lifetime.
So what are we to do now?
13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Prepare your minds for action…lace up your shoes, get ready to run.
Control (lead yourself) …feel what you feel, believe what is real.
Set your hope fully on the future.
We are to live faithfully in today, and we hope fully in the future promise of God.
We can trust in spite of not understanding all that God is up to.
This is not naive…this is not irrational…this is trust.
Let’s finish with a simple (not simplistic) plan for training to trust:
How to live in the left column with active faith and live in the right column with faithful action.
Let’s revisit the right column/left column model: EXPLAIN
Simple and helpful…and accurate.
I was working with some of the Youth Horizons staff this past week on this model.
We were training on the mental pillar of resilience.
I talked about the importance of, the necessity of, having a vision for agency in order to have hope.
And hope is necessary in order to act, dsand action is required in order to grow.
Here’s a slide I used.
One of the leaders in the organization said, “I don’t disagree but what about the diagnoses that virtually all of our kids have, how does that impact agency and hope and action?”
Unless they are in condition where they have no cognitive ability…they have a right column.
If they have no right column…then what is the point?…why say or do anything other than just live with whatever is.
But not one of the kids in YH are in that category.
They have a right column…they just need help having hope and taking consistent action.
Everyone navigates life balancing the things they cannot control and things that they can.
The past is all left column (but it can trouble us, and make us feel guilty)
The future is left column…we can plan for it, but we cannot control it…so it worries us.
The choice of others (unless they are small children) are left column.
But the choices of others greatly impact our lives.
Physical fitness, has right column factors…but ultimately, it is left column…we will die…death is certainly a lack of physical fitness.
What God does, is left column.
We can ask him for what we want, we must trust him for what he gives.
Faithfulness is always right column.
This again, is not irrational.
Living with faith in the left column, living with faithfulness in the right.
For instance…the fact that we will not understand everything…is no excuse for not working hard to grow in our understanding.
-We read, we study, we think, we train, we work…we want to know God better.
-The more we know him, his will and ways…the better positioned we are to honor and love and enjoy him.
The more we understand him…the more we can trust him when we don’t understand him.
My goal today is to convince you that it is okay if you decide to fully and finally just trust God.
To declare that the jury is in…no more time, evidence, arguments…I have decided I will trust.
It is not irrational, or intellectually dishonest, or naive, or shallow.
Again…this not to throw away reason…everyone lives this way, some just have decided to trust self, or something other than God, without full understanding of why.
Even the cynic, the perpetual sceptic who has decided to trust no one…is trusting self in coming to this conclusion.
If you believe you cannot trust him, because of things he has or hasn’t done or allowed.
I understand…he is no bully, he isn’t going kick down the door of your heart.
But I want to you know…that if you decide to just trust him…without full understanding.
Trust him without looking back…he will, over time, show himself to be faithful.
In this decision to live decided, we are throwing ourselves on the mercy of God, not on our ability to stay faithful.
I take great comfort and put my hope in the truth that Paul wrote about in Philippians 1.
I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. Phil. 1:20
My hope in being able to trust God in whatever comes my way, is a hope in God, not myself.
I am, however, responsible to train to trust him today…not merely hope I will in the future.
Once…there is a tension.
Rich Mullins song: My Deliver
My deliverer is coming’, my deliverer is standing by,
I will never doubt His promise
Though I doubt my heart, I doubt my eyes.
He will never break his promise
Though the stars should break faith with the sky.
This is a reasonable position to hold.
I will not doubt him…I will doubt my doubt.