GOD’S LOVE OF SPIRITUAL FAILURES

 

 

Abraham, the patriarch and father of the Israelite faith, had been a spiritual failure. He had seriously faltered in his faith. On one occasion, he stopped believing that God would provide the son whom He had promised. Therefore, he impregnated his servant, Hagar, to raise up her son as his own heir.

 

Even worse, he would habitually pass off his beautiful wife Sarah as his sister, rather than as his wife, so that he would be financially rewarded for her. He continued to do this very thing even after Yahweh visited to promise Abraham that Sarah would deliver the promised child, Isaac, in the next year.

 

They then traveled to the land of Gerar, and Abraham again allowed Sarah to be taken by the king, who had been told that the beautiful Sarah was Abraham’s sister. However, the Lord struck down the entire nation with such a horrible and life-threatening disease that the king was unable to consummate with Sarah. He then appeared in a dream to the king directing him to return Sarah to her husband lest he die:

 

·       Now then, return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours." (Genesis 20:7)

 

Despite his failure to trust God, God stood by His prophet Abraham and required the king to solicit his prayers. Of course, the king complied but challenged Abraham to explain why a prophet and prayer-warrior would lie and bring this calamity upon his nation. Abraham confessed:

 

·       "I did it because I thought, 'There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.'...And when God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her, 'This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, "He is my brother.”’”(Genesis 20:11, 13)

 

Abraham had not only betrayed Sarah’s trust but had also been unfaithful to his God. Nevertheless, God remained faithful and even remembered him as His man of faith:

 

·       He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. (Romans 4:19-21)

 

Despite Abraham’s many sins, He is remembered by God as a man with exemplary faith:

 

·       By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. (Hebrews 11:8–10)

 

After following the Lord for more than forty years, God had asked Abraham to offer up Isaac as a burnt offering. Incredibly, He now obeyed:

 

·       By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. (Hebrews 11:17–19)

 

God is able to turn cowards into children of great faith and courage. We find many such examples throughout Scripture. While suffering, the righteous Job had indicted God for being “unjust.” However, Job repented after God had showed him how foolish he had been. He then commended Job for speaking correctly about Him.

 

After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” (Job 42:7–8)

 

However, God had severely reprimanded Job for speaking wrongly about God:

·       “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2)

 

·       And the LORD said to Job: “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” (Job 40:1–2)

 

Do these rebukes represent a contradiction or a reflection of the Love of God, who not only forgives but cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:9)? The latter!

 

Manasseh was perhaps Judah’s worst king. He reigned for 53 years and for the majority of his reign he washed the streets of Jerusalem with the blood of the righteous. However, after Manasseh had been imprisoned by the Assyrians and had humbled himself before God that God had mercy upon him and restored him (2 Chronicles 33:13):

 

·       The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. Therefore the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon. And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God. (2 Chronicles 33:10–13)

 

If our God was moved by the plea of Manasseh, He can be trusted to also be moved by our sincere confession of sins. The Apostle Paul wrote that he was the worst sinner. He not only killed Christians but also caused them to renounce their faith:

·       The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. (1 Timothy 1:15–16)

 

Paul is a prime example of God’s undeserved forgiveness. Our God delights in elevating those who realize that they don’t deserve anything good from God:

·       For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1 Corinthians 1:26–29)

 

King David came to realize this truth after his adulterous affair with Bathsheba and his murdering her husband, Uriah, a righteous man. Consequently, his first child by Bathsheba died and his second newborn by her was in question. Would God bring anything good out of such a sin-stained relationship? David named this child Solomon (meaning “peace”) perhaps in hope that there might now be peace between he and his God. However, God’s ways are not our ways:

·       Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her, and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. And the LORD loved him and sent a message by Nathan the prophet. So he called his name Jedidiah [meaning “Beloved of God”], because of the LORD. (2 Samuel 12:24–25)

 

If the Lord can bring forth blessing from a family so soiled by sin, there is no mercy that is beyond Him. Amazingly, David is remembered as “a man after God’s own heart” Acts 13:22)

 

However, we ask ourselves, “Why hasn’t God been more merciful to me? Why must I suffer so especially since he promises us the world?”

 

·       For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O LORD of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you! (Psalm 84:11–12)

 

We often forget the hidden ingredient—waiting:

but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)