Questions
How is your Bible reading going? I
don’t know about you, but for me, every time I read the Bible, it makes me
think of a lot of questions. The other day I was reading Genesis 5. It was
about the family tree of the human race – from Adam to Noah. Genesis 5:32 says,
“After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.”
For some reason, I always thought Shem is the oldest because he comes first. But
this time I learned that Japheth is actually the oldest, then Shem, and Ham the
youngest (Gen 9:24, 10:21). Then, I thought, “Why did the Messiah come from
Shem’s line, instead of Japheth the oldest?” Then more questions began to run
through my mind on a continual loop. “Why did God favor Jacob over Esau even
before they were born or had done anything good or bad?” (Romans 9:10-13) “Why
did God choose Judah, who did terrible things, over Joseph, the favorite to be
Jesus ancestor?”
All these questions are about God’s sovereignty. When we say God is sovereign, we mean He rules the universe. He is in control. But, hard and practical questions still remain. For instance, “If God is sovereign, why did he allow 22 people in northern Pakistan to die as they were stuck in heavy snow?” “If God is sovereign, why are so many people (more than 800,000) in the US die of Covid-19, and why are not the circumstances getting better?” “If God is sovereign, why did not my loved ones come to the faith although I had prayed for them for so long?” All these questions are about God’s sovereignty. God is all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present. God is full of grace and truth. Then why all this suffering and pain in this world? If you had questions similar to this, today’s scripture is for you.
Abraham’s Faith
God so loved Abraham. Abraham loved
God back. Abraham didn’t have a child for a long time, but God promised Abraham
that his descendants would be as the sand of the sea, and as the stars of
heaven. Abraham believed in God, and God counted him as righteous because of his
faith. At the very time God had promised, God gave Abraham a son in his old age.
Everything seemed to be going well so far. But then, some time later God tested Abraham (22:1). Abraham was about to face the biggest storm of his life. God wanted Abraham to give him his son, his only son – Isaac. Surely God promised that through Isaac he will make him a great nation. After all, Isaac was a child of promise. But now God wanted Isaac back? Abraham didn’t understand. Furthermore, the sacrifice of children was always an abomination to the Lord. Then, why did God want him to put his boy on the altar and kill him as the sacrifice? How could God want him to do such a terrible thing? It didn’t make any sense. From this story, now we know that God wanted to know Abraham’s heart. God wanted to establish Abraham’s priorities. But how could possibly Abraham understand all this at that time?
When God didn’t make sense, Abraham chose to trust him, because he knew that God was his father who loved him. Abraham believed that if God wanted to, he could raise the dead (cf. Heb 11:19). Early the next morning, Abraham and Isaac set off. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. Then, he said to his servants by faith, “We [Isaac and I] will worship and then we will come back to you” (v. 5). On the way to the mountain Isaac asked, “Father, we have everything except we forgot the lamb for the sacrifice.” Abraham answered by faith, “Son, God himself will provide the lamb” (v. 8). Finally, they arrived the place. They built an altar and laid out the wood. Abraham tied his son to the wood. Isaac didn’t understand, but he knew his father loved him. And so he trusted him. He didn’t struggle or try to run away. Then, Abraham took his knife to kill his son. He lifted the knife high into the air, then he heard the voice say, “Abraham, Abraham. Don’t hurt the boy. Now I know that you love me because you have not spared your only son.” Suddenly, Abraham saw a ram caught in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. Abraham named that place “Jehovah Jireh” – The Lord Will Provide.
Ebenezer and Jehovah-Jireh
God is sovereign. Our God is able.
God has power to do what he has promised. God still provides for those who
trust him. Hudson Taylor, missionary to China, had a plaque in every home he
ever lived, reading Ebenezer Jehovah-Jireh.
The name Ebenezer is found in 1
Samuel 7:12; when God saved Israel from the Philistines. Samuel set up a stone
"and named it Ebenezer, meaning 'thus
far the Lord has helped us.' We find the name Jehovah-Jireh in today’s scripture, Genesis 22:14. This is when God
provided a ram for Abraham to sacrifice instead of his son Isaac. Abraham
declared "Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord
will provide". Hudson Taylor always remembered these two names of God:
Ebenezer and Jehovah-Jireh. He trusted in God who had helped him thus far would
see to it.
Hudson Taylor went through a lot of trials and tribulations in China. At that time all the mission works were done along the coast. No one dared to go inland. But he founded the China Inland Mission (CIM), and by faith he preached the good news to those who lived inland. Travel was dangerous, and foreigners and missioners were forbidden, feared, and hated. His wife Maria died when she was 33. Four of their eight children died before reaching age 10. He was often suffering from illness or injury. As an elderly man, he had to go through the Boxer Rebellion in his area. 58 of his missionaries had been killed, along with 30,000 Chinese Christians.
Not only external challenges, but also internal conflicts were even greater. In one of the letters to his mother Hudson Taylor shares his constant pain this way: “I need your prayers more than ever… I cannot tell you how I am buffeted sometimes by temptation. I never knew how bad a heart I have... Often I am tempted to think that one so full of sin cannot be a child of God at all; but I try to throw it back, and rejoice all the more in the preciousness of Jesus, and in the riches of that grace that has made us “accepted in the beloved.”[1] At the lowest point of his life a few years before his death, he heard another sad news that some of the missionaries and converts were martyred. His response was this: “I cannot read, I cannot think; I cannot even pray; but I can trust.” Hudson Taylor trusted God, trusted who he is – Ebenezer and Jehovah-Jireh. Thus far the Lord has helped us, and he will provide.
The Finished Work of Christ
God sometimes allows us to be
tested. God tested Abraham. But I don’t think God ever intended for a moment
that Abraham should actually sacrifice his son Isaac. He wanted to know that
Abraham really loved him more than anything or anyone else. God wanted to
establish Abraham’s priorities.
Many years later, another Son would climb another hill, carrying wood on his back. Like Isaac, he would trust his Father and do what his Father asked. He would not struggle or run away. He was silent and didn’t open his mouth like a lamb. Who was he? The Lamb of God, God’s one and only Son, Christ Jesus our Lord. On the cross he said, “It is finished.” So what is finished? Finished is redemption for the world and for you and me. God showed his great love for us on the cross.
God is love. And God is sovereign. He knows what he is doing. God holds all things together. God holds the future. Because God is sovereign and he loves us, nothing will ever come into our life that he does not allow. We may be going through trials we never thought we’d go through. We may not understand what God is doing and why God is doing this to me today. But, no matter what we face in life, we can take comfort in the fact that God is sovereign. We can walk in peace because we know that God loves us and that God is sovereign.
The verse of the day for yesterday was from John 6, feeding the five thousand. Jesus asks Philip, “Where can we buy bread to feed these people?” He does this to stretch Philip’s faith. He already has a plan. He knows what he is going to do. My question for the verse of the day members was this: “In what areas of your life do you need to grow your faith in Christ?” One of the members answered, “I need to grow my faith in whatever God has planned for the rest of my life.” The time might come when we cannot read the Bible, we cannot think, we cannot even pray, but still we can trust God. Sisters and brothers in Christ, let us trust, trust, trust. The plans of the Lord will stand forever (Psalm 33:11). Amen.
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