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Dedicated to the best husband God has hand picked for me in preparation for His Kingdom of God.
In Job 21:7-13 God's righteous servant asked the Eternal, our Creator, why do the wicked live in abundance and dwell in safety with their children and grandchildren into old age? Nothing seems to cause them harm yet they have rejected God. This question has also been asked by David about why do the wicked prosper? From Psalm 37:9-11 we can read "For evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; indeed, you will look carefully for his place, but it shall be no more. But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace". Have you ever wondered why these things take place during your lifetime too? Have you ever wondered about the worldly saying while growing up "only the good die young?" This was conveyed to me after the death of my mother fifty years ago. Seems that way but the positive from this is documented in Proverbs 14:32 "The wicked is banished in his wickedness, but the righteous has a refuge in his death". For even now biblical knowledge that the evil from Satan and the demonic realm will be once and for all terminated as the final outcome, is of great comfort to God's faithful as we move forward each day living according to God's way.
Furthermore, Psalm 73 below contains meditations from Asaph with conclusions reflecting God's bountiful mercy and goodness for blessings in Godly knowledge, wisdom, instruction, and understanding:
"Truly God is good to Israel,
To such as are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled;
My steps had nearly slipped.
For I was envious of the boastful,
When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For there are no pangs in their death,
But their strength is firm.
They are not in trouble as other men,
Nor are they plagued like other men.
Therefore pride serves as their necklace;
Violence covers them like a garment.
Their eyes bulge with abundance;
They have more than heart could wish.
They scoff and speak wickedly concerning oppression;
They speak loftily.
They set their mouth against the heavens,
And their tongue walks through the earth.
Therefore his people return here,
And waters of a full cup are drained by them.
And they say, “How does God know?
And is there knowledge in the Most High?”
Behold, these are the ungodly,
Who are always at ease;
They increase in riches.
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.
If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
Behold, I would have been untrue to the generation of Your children.
When I thought how to understand this,
It was too painful for me—
Until I went into the sanctuary of God;
Then I understood their end.
Surely You set them in slippery places;
You cast them down to destruction.
Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment!
They are utterly consumed with terrors.
As a dream when one awakes,
So, Lord, when You awake,
You shall despise their image.
Thus my heart was grieved,
And I was vexed in my mind.
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.
Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
My flesh and my heart fail;
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
For indeed, those who are far from You shall perish;
You have destroyed all those who desert You for harlotry.
But it is good for me to draw near to God;
I have put my trust in the Lord God,
That I may declare all Your works".
Humans love to know why this or that is so and we are hard wired to ask questions starting after one has begun talking and has a rudimentary grasp of language; sometime after learning the word "No" and its response. We try to understand the world around us and find this hard when things look or seem unfair, when things don't make sense, and when we get answers to our questions that are not what we anticipated or expected. We necessarily grow up wholly focussed on the physical world around us which provides huge learning curves in order to develop skill sets, be aware of basic dangers and safety, and to engage in activities that provide preparation for later on in life whether pleasurable or otherwise. That's just how it is. Yet it may take many years to understand that there is a spiritual world, if at all, which is largely unseen therefore not believed by many, or ignored and rejected by most.
We have the spiritual as well as the physical to contend with and for me this clear realisation came after almost 50 years. It was what I call a miraculous shock as my previous life had spiralled so badly there were things that should not be seen and things that should not be heard that ordinarily were kept from access by human beings. However if one invites them in willingly or unwittingly then there are hefty consequences. For the dark side my questions were never about why, but what. For God the Father it was always about why, who, how and when. These stark contrasts are so great and could not be any further apart than east is from west as referred to within Psalm 103:12. God explains thoroughly the why to everything in His perfect plan throughout the Holy Bible that we need to know presently for our preparation as firstfruits ready for His coming Kingdom of God. The rest will come later upon being born into the spiritual family of God when we will be supernaturally changed — for more information on this you can read the resurrection chapter which is 1 Corinthians 15.
The major key for me was the sudden knowledge of the Sabbath, tithing, and the seven annual Holy Day Festivals. This revelation by God opened my eyes to the profound deception I had been under my whole life. Having God's truth revealed in such a brief moment of time was earth shattering and something so "out-of-this-world" it must always be treasured as a great gift and never treated casually or forgotten. My life had gone from black to white as it were on a certain day at a certain time when the scales were lifted off my eyes. Even so, thoughts began of why does God want us to tithe, why did man change the Sabbath, why seven annual holy days, why, why, why? Why did the devil exist? Indeed after sending away for this booklet God showed me what I needed to know about the devil and that is the medium through which my calling came. It only took half a page at the beginning to lift the deception. How powerful is God?! Enlightened minds want to know all about their Creator, everything they can soak up in this life. This was more than just curiosity. It was the most important thing on my mind and absolutely mandatory in order to understand God and His Way. On that day back in 2006 God revealed that He is real, always there, and His Holy Word can be trusted. These now were the very things God gave me full faith in and to build upon. Thankfully God loves for us to come to Him with a right attitude in prayer asking why. I have lost count of all the times when God then reveals in His Word the answers to these prayers, and a few times when the answers came while still on my knees. This just brings with it even more awe of God for His timely blessings.
After seventeen years the question of why this or that has changed to God knows best, better get out of the way as God's Way is perfect and mine is faulty. God builds faith building moments with us for learning, encouragement, edification, and ultimately for growth and maturity as we go through tests and trials. Our part is to respond to how God is working with us by filling up on Christ and being led by His Spirit. Often for me it is to do the very thing I do not want to do but know it is the right thing, the best choice, Christ's choice and exemplified in the Bible. It is quite a process especially living almost 50 years without knowing God. Lots to unpack and redo for right outcomes. Not impossible, for nothing is impossible for God (Matthew 19:26) and He will ensure the work is finished in us (Philippians 1:6) so that God will say "Now I know" this one will faithfully and humbly serve Me all the days of their life like it is written about Abraham, the father of the faithful as recorded in Genesis 22:12.
Nevertheless, some days and some trials are extremely difficult and seem to go on forever and ever, full of pain and suffering. Instead of asking God "Why this trial, why now?" We should be asking "What do you need me to learn from this trial?" The sooner the better we do this in order to learn the lessons for spiritual growth rather than becoming absorbed in our suffering trying to make sense of things. Easy to say, harder to do. Who hasn't had a trial or two or three or many in their Christian walk? We are told in various places throughout the Bible that those whom God loves God chastens; places such as Proverbs 13:24 and 19:18, much like a physical father chastens his children, while Hebrews 12:3-11 reinforces the benefits of being chastened to God's elect. Job 5:17 also provides wisdom on this subject for us to reflect and meditate upon. Do we really appreciate all that Job went through in order to learn from his massive trial?
Nowadays for me it is the question of "Why does man treat his fellow man with so much cruelty and evil, abysmally, wickedly, hatefully, hurtfully?" Ironically this was the question burning in my heart just prior to God calling me out of this spiritually poisoned world. Through God we have the answer to this why. Because the world is under the sway and control of the evil, wicked one, sight unseen for now but nonetheless actively working up all manner of chaos, murder, and confusion as it is written in 1 John 5:19. The devil does not have much time left in order to destroy in his maniacal and devious work, yet we know we must be fully alert and vigilant at all times. God gives us inspired scripture through the Apostle Peter from 1 Peter 5:8 as an important warning. One of the first booklets I read about was why is there so much pain and suffering in this world. This publication, fully based on the Bible, with specific scriptures opened my sad eyes and gave me peace and comfort, when for months there was so much anguish and torment in my life that did not make any sense. Finally peace was given and incredible joy not previously known.
My homework in preparation for the Feast of Tabernacles is to study in depth what has become known affectionately to us as the Love Chapter — 1 Corinthians 13. We need to study it well for there is so much packed into one relatively small chapter. There are sixteen points made altogether; eight informing what love is, and another eight showing what love is not. The striking contrast of how God first loved us while we were still sinners to give us forgiveness through the blood of Christ is life changing (Romans 5:8). We are to be developing this Godly love between those we have relationships with and everyone else we come into contact with. Not worldly love which is tied up in lust and is nothing like Godly love which focusses on others, not self. Some are easier to love, while others test us to our limits and even beyond. We are to resist and overcome sin therefore this is extremely important to our growth and development. Only by God's Holy Spirit can we possibly do this successfully by engaging in our part through listening very carefully and then putting into practice what we are directed to follow through with based accordingly on God's Word. This is mentioned in the book of James where we are rightfully told to be doers of the Word. Christ's brother James expands on this well in order to teach us for practical application.
So we need to be patient in perseverance giving love and mercy to others even when we least feel like it. Years ago somebody dear came to me about their troubled marriage. In retrospect I was young in the faith, unmarried at the time, and not wise enough to give good counsel. The best I could come up with was for the wife to lead by example as the husband was a weak leader thereby hoping he would notice her Proverbs 31 wife model in action and be the impetus for change. It made me very uncomfortable and I felt like a failure. Now my thoughts go to several scriptures about what God says. For example, and in the above case, if one in a marriage is in the position of leading and has been baptised for many years, think on how hard it must be for the other who is still "wet behind the ears" by comparison. Leading needs to be done diligently taking great care in love for the wife as Christ loves His Church. The leader needs to develop patience and perseverance and avoid at all costs worldly ways of yelling, swearing, threats, emotionally abusive hurtful language, name calling, slamming doors in their face, pushing the weaker vessel out of the way, and throwing objects in frustrated anger. Why get angry over nothing? Anger is never the answer and shows weak character. This is playing straight into the devil's hands. Being like this at home and then to enter the Sabbath hall each week eager to love brethren as if all is well, is hypocrisy of the highest order. Pride has to go.
Understanding why humans are at war with one another is one thing but between those with God's Holy Spirit? This is tragic and must be very painful for our Creator. Remember to put into practice Psalm 103:11-14 and to forgive as per God's instructions in Matthew 18:21-35. Also, we must not let the sun set or go down on our anger which is sage advice despite what we may think is not important enough, or even erroneously optional. If we do not pay attention to this and ignore wisdom we do so to our own peril bearing in mind the words from Ephesians 4:26-27. When God puts this in His Word it is there for a very good reason. As Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong was known to say "THINK" (I am more than half way through his last book "Mystery of The Ages"). Do we think to connect the dots as it were and realise that God is giving us a template or blueprint for success in forgiving one another with these scriptures based on a daily cycle within a weekly cycle? We can only join the dots so far in our limited human capacity for 24 hours as to be concerned with the here and now living each day with meaningful purpose. Done effectively according to God's Word we have the best template for our human potential. Do we really want our own will thereby rejecting God's advice as we once did? Surely not! We have been warned about rebellion as stated in 1 Samuel 15:23 "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry…". We must be truly humble and ditch the stubborn pride which comes automatically to man. We are therefore urged to take Colossians 3:1-25 to heart.
Once again, the example of God's prophet Nathan going to David about his sin in 2 Samuel 12 is a sobering wake up call for us to recognise and accept our own sin, sincerely repent, get on with life, and sin no more. Those with God's Spirit get up each day intending to do well and actively try hard to resist and overcome their weaknesses as part of our daily development. No wife wants to feel like a filthy dirty rag flung into the back of a dark cupboard after being accused of guile or deceit. Thank God for knowing the true intentions of our heart and where to obtain comfort from! Where do paranoid thoughts and wrongful accusations come from? Satan is the accuser of the brethren day and night (Revelation 12:10), he is our enemy, we are not one another's enemies. Any one of us can be deceived by the sight unseen monster lurking in the shadows just waiting to pounce each time we open our mouth. Lastly, King David's choice from the three God gave to him now makes even more sense when initially my question was why? (2 Samuel 24:14). There is no more why but understanding that David indeed made the right choice and hopefully we will too during each horrible trial we go through in order to please our Father. How we yearn to hear these words sourced from the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:21, 23 "...well done good and faithful servant…enter into the joy of your Lord".
This is the sermon link I would have liked to provide to both the younger man and his wife all those years ago entitled "Issues and Wives" by Jerald Kliewer, given on August 3, 2024.
https://www.ucg.org/sermons/issues-and-wives-0.