Today's Scripture Reading (May 29, 2024): Philippians 4
It is the complaint of our times. How can God allow
this bad thing to happen if God is good? Why did I lose my job? Or get cancer?
Why did my marriage fall apart? Why would God allow me to suffer through this
event? And sometimes, it just feels like God has left us or is so far away that
he can't hear our cries.
The truth is that God has never left us. He hasn't
left us alone to handle our messy and painful situations. Maybe we don't get
it, but we trust that God has a reason for what is happening. There is a
tradition among the advisors of political people in the West that they serve at
the pleasure of their leader. They get it; they are there because the President,
the Prime Minister, or the head of the Department wants them there. But when
that is no longer true, they will be gone. So, when the leader makes a decision
that they might not agree with, the appropriate response is to either leave
their employment or to respond with the words "I serve at the pleasure of
the [fill in the blank with the appropriate position of leadership]."
And that is the relationship
that we have with our God. Our honest prayer might be, "God, I disagree
with you. I'm afraid I have to disagree with what you are doing." And God's
response to us is, "I get that, and yet, this is what is happening." At
that moment, we have a choice. Our response is to either walk away, jump from
the frying pan into the fire, or admit that we are not the final judge of what
is good but that we trust God and serve at his privilege.
In the days
before Israel had a King, the nation was ruled by Judges. These men and women
were raised in days of severe testing and ruled over Israel for short periods
by the power of the Holy Spirit.
That's the
way it was in the days when the Midianites took advantage of their Israelite
neighbors. They would come like locusts and camp on the fields soon after the
Israelites had planted. But they would also come at harvest time and leave
nothing, no grain that had been planted, no animals that had been raised. And
Israel cried out to God, and God heard their cries and sent an angel to an oak tree
that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. And there, the angel found the Son of
Joash, a man named Gideon. And Gideon is threshing wheat in a wine press. The
idea of threshing wheat is that you throw the wheat up in the air, and the
theory is that the heavy grain or seed falls to the ground while the husk and
the imperfections, which are lighter, are carried away by the breeze. But
threshing wheat in a winepress is almost a waste of time because the wine press
protects the area from the breeze. Threshing wheat in a wine press is a good
recipe for getting dirty and nothing else. But Gideon fears that the Midianites
will see him and steal his grain if he threshes wheat in the open.
At this
moment, an angel of the Lord shows up and says to Gideon, "Mighty Warrior,
God is with You." I can almost hear the sarcasm dripping from the angel's voice.
The last thing Gideon feels like is a Mighty Warrior as he hides in the winepress.
Listen to
Gideon's reply. "Pardon me, my lord," Gideon
replied, "but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to
us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when
they said, 'Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?' But now
the Lord has
abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian" (Judges 6:13). Does
it sound familiar? I get it, Gideon; it doesn't feel like God is with you. But
he is. And not only that, but he has chosen to change Israel's situation
through you.
Sometimes, it
doesn't feel like God is with us. But he is. Not only that, but he is calling
us to be change agents in the world in which we live.
Paul is in prison. And yet he tells the Philippians to do several things. And among them is a command to rejoice. It doesn't matter what your outer situation might be; rejoice that God is with you, even if you are in prison or threshing wheat in winepress. Know that God is with you; therefore, it is appropriate to rejoice.
Tomorrow's
Scripture Reading: Colossians 1
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