I found myself in a men's Bible study on Wednesday night. It was not my choice, my wife made me go. Okay, true confessions, or full disclosure, or whatever--it is the first time I have been in any church service for weeks.
Anyway, the pastor is introducing a new focus, a specific study that is supposed to last for 13 weeks, not counting the introduction. But his introduction is more of an admonition to faithfulness than an actual preview of our forthcoming study. And in his prepared remarks, he recited several verses from many different books of the Bible. Some were encouraging us to serve, others admonishing us to serve together, to lift one another up, yada, yada, yada. All stuff we have all heard before, especially if we have grown up in church.
But then something profound happened. God reaches down and grabs me by the scruff of the neck, and lifts me out of the room and into His presence. See, I'm bored with the lesson, but I'm trying to remain engaged. I am looking up all of the Bible references he is citing, even those he quotes in passing on his way to another reference. And when he stops and camps on one particular verse for more than 90 seconds, I start reading the verse before and the verse after. I look at the study helps at the bottom of the page. I am gleaning insights that my pastor never even thought about as he was preparing his lesson for that evening.
He cited Hebrews 10:25. I looked it up and followed as he read his notes. "Let us not give up meeting together, as some of us are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Nice verse. What do the study notes have to offer?
"The Greek word translated 'give up' speaks of desertion and abandonment (see Mt 27.46; 2Co 4.9; 2Ti 4:10, 16)." Cool--a word study. I looked up Matthew 27.46: "About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?'--which means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Okay, but the word study I was following was "abandon", not "forsaken." "Forsaken" is a good word, a biblical word, but not one we usually use in our daily living. "Honey, the car ran out of gas. I had to forsake it on the freeway." You never hear of people taking their unwanted pets out in the woods and forsaking them. Or of teenage mothers forsaking their children to a hospital or fire station. So I re-read the verse, using the words deserted and abandoned. "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"
Wait, wait, hold up. Weren't we talking about church attendance? Wasn't that what Hebrews 10:25 is usually understood to be talking about? So if I abandon the church by giving up meeting together with them, am I doing the same thing as God did when He allowed His Son to die? Well, not exactly, because God's purpose was pure--He had to sacrifice His son to save a dying world. My motivation for missing church is laziness, or being busy about other things, or having different priorities. But the outcome is the same. Without God, Jesus bore the full weight of humanity, and the result was His death. If we all abandon the church, which is the Body of Christ, will it not wither and die as well?
Let's move on. 2Corinthians 4:8-9 speaks of God's power made manifest in our weakness. "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." Major Truth No. 1: God never leaves us, never deserts us, never abandons us, even when we are going through really tough times. Whether those tough times are financial, medical, or really physical (persecution), God is there. He can help get us through. Major Truth No. 2: the Church, as the body of baptized believers that it is, will also go through some tough times; but God will not abandon her, and neither should we. We can complain that the pews are too hard, or the sermons are too long, or that they sing the same songs every Sunday. We can convince ourselves that the church has too much debt to handle, or that the deacons are too worldly, or that this or that is wrong, and we can talk ourselves out of going. But the Bible says God will never leave His Church, just like He will never leave us. So why are we always finding fault, as if we need an excuse not to go?
In 2Timothy 4:9-10, Paul talks about his fellow traveller Demas abandoning Paul in prison and going on to Thessalonica on his own, "because he loved this world." And verse 16 says "At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them." Is there some man or woman of God, a servant of Christ, who needed your help and did not get it? Abandoning the Body of Christ (the Church) is just like deserting Christ Himself. And He will not do that to us. Ever.
Hebrews 13:5 says "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake (abandon) you'." This is a direct quotation from Deuteronomy 31:6. "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake (abandon) you." Verse 8 says the same thing: "The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake (abandon) you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." And Joshua 1:5 says "No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave (desert) you nor forsake (abandon) you."
Those are comforting thoughts, because God never lies; He never goes back on His word. We may feel deserted, but God desires fellowship with us. We may have issues of abandonment, but God's love is abundant and free. Thank God He does not retaliate against us for the stupid stuff we do, like forgetting to go to church for a while. He is not like us, and sometimes I think we forget that.
The title of this posting is a reference to Genesis 32:22-30. Jacob wrestled with God, and would not let Him go until He blessed Jacob. May all of our encounters with God be that focused and determined; may we all be as tenacious as he was. But along with the blessing, God also gave him a disability. A little something to remember Him by. From that day forward, Jacob walked with a limp. And verse 31 says "Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon." So not only did Jacob remember his encounter with God, but all of his descendants did as well.
God probably did the same thing to Paul. On the road to Damascus, a great light blinded him, and God spoke to him out of the light. Paul was led to Damascus, and a man named Ananias touched his eyes, and allowed him to see again. But there is indication in some of Paul's letters that he had some persistent "thorn in the flesh" that God would not remove. This was to remind him of his face to face meeting with God. Other passages indicate that Paul may have had trouble seeing. So maybe he was healed of the full blindness, but God left a little astigmatism or near-sightedness as a reminder of His power.
But I digress. This is a whole different study that I wanted to share today. The point is that on Wednesday night, God confronted me in my weakness; He showed me evidence of His power; and He encouraged me to support my local church, even when I don't feel like it.
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