God
Never Gives Up
(Exhortation - May 2004)
For more than two thousand years, believers in Jesus Christ have been meeting on the first day of the week to remember him in the way he appointed. Sadly only a small minority has retained the essential meaning of his teaching and understands the vital symbology of the emblems set on the table before us. The perfect sacrifice they represent speaks of the compassion of the Father: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Extremes
of wickedness
Mankind has consistently rejected God.
Even His chosen people indulged in self-worship and gods of their own
choosing; yet, amazingly, the Lord did not give up on them. The
scriptures provide many examples of those who were so entrenched in willfulness
and wickedness they, from a purely human standpoint, thoroughly deserved
God’s wrath and punitive destruction.
Manasseh king of Judah exhibited behavior so vile and extreme, it surpassed the wickedness of most of the kings of Israel. Not content with his own degradation, he incited his subjects to sin: “So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen, whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel” (II Chron. 33:9).
Despite this extreme disregard of the law, God did not give up on this wicked reprobate but saw in him the potential of repentance. Hence, divinely guided enemies dethroned Manasseh, put a hook through his nose and led him into Babylon, where a remarkable change came about: “And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto Him: and He was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom” (II Chron. 33:12-13).
Mercy
seen in punishment
Evidence of God’s persistent regard is seen in His dealings with Israel.
Throughout their history they were wayward; apostasy and idolatry swiftly
replaced the occasional reformation. At last the situation was so
dire, Israel was compared to an unfaithful wife.
Allegorically, God was the husband whose spouse constantly sought others: “The Lord said…Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? She is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot” (Jer. 3:6). Nevertheless, in the extremity of her sin God was willing to forgive: “Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger forever…for I am married unto you” (Jer. 3:12,14).
The gracious pleading fell on deaf ears with the resultant expulsion and transportation of the people into the very seat of idolatry itself, Babylon. This was the end of an era; but even under continual provocation, God did not surrender his love and care for Israel; on the contrary, the captivity was part of his purging plan. When the seventy years of captivity were completed and they returned to the land of their fathers, idolatry was no longer practiced among them.
An
enemy brought to repentance
Saul of Tarsus was a man of great promise
and accomplishment. Tutored by the revered Gamaliel, his knowledge
and zeal for all things Jewish was unsurpassed, to the extent that when
the new Christian sect was perceived to be a threat to the status quo,
he saw it as his duty to persecute to the death both men and women: “And
Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples
of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to
Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of the way, whether they
were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem” (Acts
9:1-2). Such was the terror of this man and his reputation among
the Christians that the faithful Ananias balked at the instruction to
visit Saul in response to his prayers. But Jesus knew the caliber
of this ‘Hebrew of the Hebrews’ and insisted, with the explanation that
must have astounded Ananias: “He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear
my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel”(Acts
9:15). One wonders whether the statement of Jesus when he appeared
to Saul on the road to Damascus, “It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks” (v. 5) is a hint of earlier attempts by our Lord to bring
Saul to repentance.
These examples serve to reinforce the merciful longsuffering of God who is constantly working to redeem sinners and is tireless in His efforts to bring them back to Him. With this reassurance, what should be our response, first in relationship to the Lord and secondly towards each other?
Correction
not abandonment
We understand that God reproves and disciplines
his people: “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth” (Heb. 12:6). When, however, circumstances
in our lives are problematic and difficult, it is hard to accept that
the Lord may be redirecting us in love. Rather we are in danger
of mistaking the Father’s correction for abandonment. God is patient
and we must learn to pray and wait patiently for endurance and strength
in the time of trials.
Many times during periods of suffering and distress Israel challenged God, thinking that He did not see her need or care for her. She failed to appreciate that there was purpose and direction in the trials that befell her: “And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna…that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live “ (Deut. 8:2-3). We can only wish they had recognized that, irrespective of their misdemeanors, the Lord is always working and longing for sinners to repent.
Jesus reinforced this fact by his statement that no one who humbly sought him would be turned away: “And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). The thief on the cross was a graphic example. Here was a self-confessed criminal, rightly condemned, who justified the Lord and not himself. His cry for mercy was graciously accepted and he died with the assurance of life eternal.
Never
give up on one another
Secure in the same hope, it behoves us to act accordingly toward our brethren
and sisters. If it is our hope that we are all granted eternal life
in the presence of God, then we must learn to work together and accept
each other now. I recommend a little prayer: “May God so bless
me that I may spend eternity with this person.” This is a sincere
and heartfelt prayer if the person in question is one we love and admire,
but it requires a definite change of attitude to direct it toward someone
whom we find irritating or tiresome.
It is all too easy to think, “He’ll never change, we’re wasting our time,” or “These people are hypocrites, what is the use of trying,” thereby we judge and condemn those for whom Christ died. The command: “Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matt. 7:1), has the connotation of judging with the finality of permanent rejection, thus considering the person to be forever an outcast. It does not mean that we have to accept everyone irrespective of how badly they behave, rather it is to recognize that all have the potential to manifest God.
The day of judgment will surely come for us all, and it is a salutary thought to remember the words of Jesus in this respect: “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matt. 25: 40).
Mercy
personified
When revealing His glory to Moses God declared: “The LORD, The LORD
God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and
truth. Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin” (Ex. 34:6-7). The outworking of this merciful character
is seen in the forgiveness of wicked Manasseh and the tolerance and understanding
of the misguided Saul of Tarsus. He did not give up on them and
He will not give up on us.
The emblems on the table before us provide the foundation for this mercy and grace embodied in the words of the converted Paul: “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).
Jim Seagoe