THE PSYCHOLOGICAL NEED TO BE GRATEFUL: MY RESPONSE TO STOICS WHO BELIEVE THAT THERE IS A RATIONAL BASIS FOR GRATEFULNESS WITHOUT GOD

While most of us acknowledge the connection between gratefulness and psychological well-being, we differ about how to be grateful.

While it is natural and even rational to be grateful for the sun and the rain, if you are a farmer, it is equally natural and rational to be ungrateful for the tornado and the tsunami. This suggests that we are fated to be grateful when things go well and miserable when they go badly.

The same is true if we are grateful for the people in our lives. If they make us feel good and teach us valuable lessons, we are grateful. If they don’t, it is both natural and rational to not feel grateful. Therefore to practice gratefulness when there is nothing for which to be grateful is both irrational, unnatural, and not in accord with wisdom, even if it might momentarily make us feel better.

The Christian understanding is different. We have the resources to feel grateful in the worse of circumstances. Why? We are convinced that our Lord is working everything for our good. Besides, even if we experience the worst forms of victimization, we are convinced that the Lord has everything under His control, and that we will ultimately be with Him in paradise for all eternity.

CHRISTOPHANIES IN THE TORAH

There is a wealth of evidence for the appearances of a Messianic God-Person in the Five Books of Moses, the Torah. We call these “Theophanies” or “Christophanies.” We have good reason to identify a Christophany whenever the “The Angel of the Lord” (in the singular) is mentioned in the Torah. Interestingly, in each one of these appearances, there is direct evidence that He is God. Take His first appearance:

·       The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” The angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel of the LORD also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” And the angel of the LORD said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the LORD has listened to your affliction. He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.” So she called the name of the LORD [Yahweh] who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” (Genesis 16:7-13; ESV)

Here, the Angel is also identified by the narrative as the “LORD” (“Yahweh” in Hebrew, a term that is only used for God). Hagar then acknowledges that this Angel is “God.”

This presents us with a paradox. How can this Angel also be God? Aren’t there two people present – the Angel and Yahweh? The paradox is heightened by the fact that the Hebrew word “malach,” which is generally translated as “angel,” is also translated in other contexts as “messenger.” Whichever translation is chosen, “The Angel of God” or “messenger,” both terms indicate that this individual is a distinct person from the God whom sent him. And yet, he is also called “God” or “Yahweh.”

This, of course can be resolved from a Trinitarian perspective. The Son, Jesus, is both a distinct Person, the Angel, and yet God Himself.

 In the next appearance of The Angel of the Lord, Yahweh is merely identified as a man:

·       And the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth. (Genesis 18:1-2)

Although “The Angel of the Lord” is not mentioned in this account, we are again confronted with the same perplexity as before. Yahweh appears as a man along with two other “men,” who are actually “angels” (Genesis 19:1). While the two go to investigate Sodom after enjoying a meal with Abraham, “Yahweh” remains behind, while Abraham intercedes with Him on behalf of his nephew Lot and his family:

·       So the [two] men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the LORD [Yahweh]. (Genesis 18:22)

However, the rabbis claim that Yahweh cannot take on human form. Therefore, they claim that this “Yahweh” was only a messenger from Yahweh. However, the text will not allow such an interpretation. After Yahweh had assured Abraham that He would spare Sodom if ten righteous could be found within it, Scripture claims that Yahweh left Abraham:

·       And the LORD [not the “man”] went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place. (Genesis 18:33)

From all indications, the text leads us to believe that Yahweh was actually present. Nevertheless, rabbinic authorities argue that this person could not possibly be Yahweh because Yahweh cannot be seen (Exodus 33:20). However, this doesn’t discount the second Person of the Trinity, the Son. From an NT point of view, the impossibility of God being seen refers strictly to the Father (John 1:18; 1 Timothy 6:16).

Jacob later wrestled with a “man,” whom he later understood was God:

·       So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” (Genesis 32:30)

Later, Jacob identified God as the “Angel” with whom he had wrestled:

·       And he [Jacob] blessed Joseph and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.” (Genesis 48:15-16)

Notice how Jacob equated the Angel with God! Besides this, after Jacob invokes the name of God three times, he calls upon God to “bless the boys.” However, “bless” is in the singular, which reflects the fact that although he had invoked God three times, he also recognized that they are One!

(Why did Jacob refer to the Angel is the One who “has redeemed me from all evil?” He, God, had allowed Jacob to have his way with Him, even to humiliate and brutalize Him, as a foreshadowing of the Cross.)

Well, isn’t this evidence of a Christophany? Not according to the rabbis. Gerald Sigal wrote:

·       The fact that Jacob sees “elohim face to face” only goes to prove that the divine being [a mere messenger from God] that Jacob wrestles with is not God. But, since the angel represents God, Jacob views the messenger as if it is God Himself. It is quite clear that this angel is not God manifested on earth as a human being. At no time does the Hebrew Bible teach this belief. (The Jew and the Christian Missionary, 143)

Sigal once again appeals to Exodus 33:20, which claims that God cannot be seen. However, this evidently only pertains to God, the Father. Instead, the Torah repeatedly demonstrates that God can be seen in His human appearances.

Then the Angel appeared to Moses in the midst of the burning bush in the middle of the desert:

·       And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” (Exodus 3:2-4)

First, it claims that the Angel of the Lord had been in the midst of the bush; then it claims that it is actually Yahweh who is in the midst of the bush. Notice that this Angel is also called “LORD” (Yahweh) and “God!” To reinforce the claim that Yahweh is actually present, the account reads:

·       …God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” …And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. (Exodus 3:4-6)

Moses understood that this was “holy ground,” because of Yahweh’s presence and not the presence of a mere messenger. Besides, the fact that he was “afraid to look at God” meant that he knew that God was present in the bush.

Nevertheless, Sigal seems to believe that both the Angel and God were “present” in some sense:

·       …the textual evidence leans in favor of the view that this angel of the Lord functions here solely as a fiery manifestation which attracts Moses’ attention, while it is the God of Israel who actually “appeared,” that is, made Himself known and spoke to Moses…”an angel of the Lord” can in no way be identified as part of the divine essence.” (134-35)

Once again, contrary to the text, Sigal will not acknowledge that God actually appeared in the bush. Consequently, Moses was afraid to look upon Him and had been instructed that this was holy ground. Instead, he has to awkwardly claim that both individuals were somehow present in the one bush. While Moses had been convinced that Yahweh was actually present, Sigal is convinced that he knows better.

Instead, all of these appearances provide us with evidence that God, Yahweh, is not as the present-day rabbi’s claim. Instead, these appearances of a Messianic figure provide us with evidence of the Trinity.

(Before the Battle of Jericho, the Angel, another Christophany, identifies Himself to Joshua as the “Commander of the Lord’s army.” Here too, we find out that this “Commander” is actually Yahweh:

·       And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” And the commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. (Joshua 5:14-15)

A mere angel or messenger would have ever received worship. Only the former archangel Satan demanded worship or would have allowed Joshua to worship Him. Consequently, this Commander would have been usurping God’s majesty to demand that Joshua take off his sandals. Instead, this command signified that God was present as He stood before Joshua. The narrative also identifies Him as Yahweh:

·       And the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor.” (Joshua 6:2)

The Angel had also manifested Himself to Samson’s parents, Manoah and his previously barren wife to promise them as son. However, Manoah was beginning to suspect that this He was more than just a mere messenger:

·       And Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “What is your name [essence of being], so that, when your words come true, we may honor you?” And the angel of the LORD said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?” (Judges 13:17-18)

The Angel responded that His name or essence was “wonderful,” (“pawlee;” a term used in reference to the Messiah, Isaiah 9:6, but never to a mere messenger). The narrative also identifies Him as Yahweh:

·       So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the LORD, to the one who works wonders, and Manoah and his wife were watching. And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the LORD went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground. The angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD. And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.” (Judges 13:19-22. We find the same phenomenon in the account of Gideon – Judges 6:22-23)

While Samson’s parents were convinced that they had “seen God,” Sigal is not. He correctly points out that God (Elohim in the Hebrew) is also used to refer to human judges (Exodus 22:8) (129). However, Sigal overlooks all of the other contextual evidence that this couple had actually seen “Yahweh” and had become convinced of this fact.

The Angel was also the One who brought Israel out of Egypt:

·       When we cried out to the Lord, He heard our voice and sent the Angel and brought us up out of Egypt. (Numbers 20:16)

However, other verses claim that it was God who brought Israel out of Egypt. Again, in order to make sense out of this recurring paradox, it is most easily resolved by concluding that the Angel Himself is God, but as another Person. We find many examples of distinction between the Angel and Yahweh and yet Oneness, exactly what the doctrine of the Trinity posits.

God is often identified as the “Redeemer of Israel.” However, at closer examination, it seems that the “Angel of His Presence” had “saved” and “redeemed” Israel:

·       In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them and carried them all the days of old. (Isaiah 63:9)

Is this a contradiction? Not unless this Angel is God Himself, the second Member of the Trinity! Here is further evidence. God the Father claimed that He could never be seen:  

·       But He said, "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” (Exodus 33:20; 1 Timothy 6:16)

Nevertheless, God was seen:

• So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle. (Exodus 33:11)

·       And he [God] said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you [Miriam and Aaron] not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” (Numbers 12:6-8)

This sounds like a contradiction, unless Moses had seen God the Angel, the second Person of the Trinity. Elsewhere, God says:

·       "Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him… For My Angel will go before you… and I will cut them off.” (Exodus 23:20-23)

If God’s “name” is in Him, this is the same as saying that “My essence or nature is in Him.” God the Father also makes a sharp distinction between Himself and His Angel:

·       “And I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people." (Exodus 33:2-3)

God, the Father, could not be in the presence of Israel. Therefore, He sent His Angel, the second Person of the Trinity to be with Israel.

Elsewhere, the Angel is mentioned interchangeably with God, suggesting that the Angel is also God, Yahweh:

·       And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them. (Exodus 14:19)

·       Now it came to pass, in the morning watch, that the Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and He troubled the army of the Egyptians. (Exodus 14:24)

·       And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. (Exodus 13:21)

Again, the Angel seems to be God Himself but as another distinct Person. The rabbis and the various cults do not seem to want to engage the extensive Biblical evidence. It simply does not accord with their worldview. However, these verses provide for us a compelling glimpse of the Trinity in the Torah and also the following books of the Tanach.

OUR PROBLEM WITH GOD

There is one challenge that I think that all true believers in Christ face. We become disappointed with God. How? The painful and discouraging realities of our lives seem to be miles away from His promises. For example, our Lord promises:

·       “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29)

However, rest seems to be almost unattainable. Therefore, we are tempted to conclude that His rest is a fiction and His promises are just wishful thinking, a vain human attempt to find peace in an un-peaceful world. Consequently, many abandon the Bible and its promises of greener pastures. They lament:

• I had prayed that my mother would be healed, but she died an excruciating death.
• I prayed that God would free me from same-sex attraction, but He didn't.
• I asked God to take away my loneliness and isolation, but nothing happened.

However, the Psalmists also had this problem. They saw the wicked prospering, while the righteous suffering, and this tormented them:

• “For I was envious of the boastful, When I saw the prosperity of the wicked...Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, And washed my hands in innocence. For all day long I have been plagued, And chastened every morning...When I thought how to understand this, It was too painful for me—” (Psalms 73:3, 13-14, 16)

This is also painful for us. We find that we are languishing instead of rejoicing. We try to understand this, but understanding eludes us, as it had the Psalmists.

However, I have found that my tears can bring the message of Scripture into greater clarity. It prepares us by teaching that suffering is inevitable:

• “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

If we want to be like Jesus, we also must be like Him in His suffering:

• Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. (II Corinthians 4:10-11)

To make his point about the need and inevitability of suffering, Paul used the word "always" twice. 

Even Jesus had to learn obedience through suffering:

• In the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. (Hebrews 5:7-8)

If Jesus had to learn through suffering, so must we!

But doesn't this contradict God's many promises that if we ask, we shall have?

• “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)

However, we often overlook three conditions. Our asking has to be according to God's will. Many verses attest to this fact:

• You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. (James 4:2-3)

Our motives must be God-centered:

• “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)

Receiving from God is a matter of putting Him before all else. 

Also, our un-confessed sins might be temporarily blocking us from receiving. Peter provides one example of this:

• Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.” (I Peter 3:7)

Whenever we refuse to confess our sins, we tell God, "I want to handle this matter on my own." This He allows. When we turn away from God, He turns away from us. Consequently, we must examine ourselves:

• For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. (I Corinthians 11:31)

Suffering is a great tool.  It forces us to dig into our filth.

Lastly, patience is necessary:

• And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. (Hebrews 6:11-12)

However, in the midst of my suffering, I was convinced that I had confessed my sins, asked according to His will, and had waited patiently. I, therefore concluded that God had failed me. However, we are called to endure:

• My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. (James 5:10-11)

We often protest: "How can such treatment be regarded as 'very compassionate and merciful'?" We need to see the big picture, the picture Jesus saw on the Cross, which enabled Him to endure the Cross.

• Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame...(Hebrews 12:1-2)

Job needed to look heavenward. However, his charges against God precluded this. It is hard to trust in God as we accuse Him of wrongdoing.

However, mercifully, God accused Job of ignorance. He asked Job a series of questions, none of which could Job answer. He got God's intended message. If he was so ignorant that he could not answer basic questions about creation, how could he presume to bring charges against the Creator! Job repented.

We too presume to know far more than we actually do. We suppose that God has not been faithful and that there couldn't possibly be a good reason for our disappointment.

The Psalmist couldn't find any good reason for the thriving of the wicked and the suffering of the righteous. However, his God gave him a revelation of the big picture, and this made the difference:

• I was so foolish and ignorant; I was like a beast before You. Nevertheless I am continually with You; You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with Your counsel, And afterward receive me to glory. (Psalms 73:22-24)

We too think too much of our own understanding. We need to be humbled. Paul also thought too much of himself. If he was to be of use to the Lord, he too would have to be humbled:

• For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. (II Corinthians 1:8-9)

May we too learn this necessary lesson.