God's Plan

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How should we react when we take a stand for God – and lose as a result?

Take for example, a friend of mine who was doing well in a job interview until he was asked, 'Would you be willing to lie for the company?' He said, 'As a Christian, no.' Which lost him the job. Or take a girl I know from a Muslim family. She came to faith in Jesus and her parents threatened to disown her. Or some of the missionaries we support had to escape from persecution last year and lost their home and possessions.

How should we react in situations like that? If you were here in the first week of this Hebrews 11 series, you'll know that's the issue which faced the Christians this letter was first written to. Just look back to chapter 10, verse 32:

Remember those earlier days, after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You sympathised with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you had better and lasting possessions. So, do not throw away your confidence… (Hebrews 10.32-35)

Which is a hint that they were now tempted to pack in being Christians. Partly because, like us, they wanted a quiet life. And partly, I guess, because they were disillusioned with God. After all, they'd taken a stand for him, but he didn't seem to have backed them up. Well, this week we come to vv30-40. Which say two things to help us react rightly when we stand for God and appear to lose:


First, IT'S BETTER TO SIDE WITH GOD -WHOEVER ELSE IS AGAINST YOU AS A RESULT (vv 30-31)

This is a reference to an OT incident where this woman Rahab sides with God over against all her fellow-countrymen. Verse 30:

By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days. By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

Now, where does that come in the Bible? Back in Genesis, God promised a man called Abraham that his descendents would become a nation and that they'd get a land of their own. And God kept those promises – he grew the family into a nation, rescued them from slavery in Egypt, and then led them through a military campaign to take over the land of Canaan – beginning with this city Jericho.

Now it's important in the current world situation to say something about these OT wars. Before the Israelites went in to take over Canaan, God said this through Moses:

After the Lord your God has driven them out before you do not say to yourselves, 'The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.' No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. (Deuteronomy 9.4)

Ie, the conquest of Canaan was not Israel dispossessing innocent people. But God judging the evil of the Canaanites, using his people Israel.

And as we heard in our reading from Joshua 2, this woman Rahab believed that. 'I know that the Lord has given this land to you,' she says to the Israelite spies, '… for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.' (Joshua 2.8, 11). Ie, she saw judgement coming for anyone who was living without reference to God. And so she separated herself from her fellow-countrymen. Hebrews 11.31 – she welcomed the spies and made a deal with them that when the city fell, they wouldn't harm her or her family. So if everything went well, she stood to lose her house, her city and her countrymen. If things went badly, she stood to be discovered and condemned as a traitor.

Ie, she was, as the Americans say, a gutsy lady. Because she had the clarity of mind to see that it's better to side with God – whoever else is against you as a result. It's better to be on the right side of God when judgement comes, even if in the present it puts you on the wrong side of others.

And judgements in time, like that one on Jericho, are meant as foretastes of the final judgement at the end of time. We who live 'A.D.' know that Jesus has come a first time, to make it possible for us to be forgiven back onto God's side through his death on the cross. And he will come again to divide everyone who's ever lived into those who've been willing to change sides, and those who to the bitter end have chosen to live without reference to God.

And the lesson of Rahab still stands. It's better to side with God – whoever else is against you as a result. Better to disagree with others now, to strain relationships now, to taste some rejection now - than at the end of the day of our lives, to be on the wrong side of God.

So it may be that someone here's holding back from committing themselves to Christ because of the fear of peoples' reactions – maybe one person's reaction in particular – a parent's, a husband's or wife's, a girlfriend's or boyfriend's. If that's you, can I urge you to believe that it's better to side with God – whoever else is against you as a result. Can I urge you to sort out that most important relationship – with God – and to trust him over the consequences in your other relationships?

Or it may be that as Christians, we're just feeling worn out by the pressure of isolation or of standing out like a sore thumb – at work, or in our social circles, or at school or college. Can I urge us to keep believing that it's better to side with God – whoever else is against us as a result?

That choice between the acceptance of other people now and the acceptance of Jesus when he comes to judge has to be made and re-made every day. And Rahab testifies that it's better to side with God – whoever else is against you as a result

That's the first thing. Then,


Secondly, IT'S VITAL TO KNOW WHAT GOD HAS, AND HAS NOT, PROMISED US (vv 32-40)

I guess that the people this letter was first written to were not only worn down by the pressure they were under for being Christian. I guess they were also disillusioned with God. After all, they'd taken a stand for him. And he, apparently, had not backed them up. I mean, instead of people becoming Christians through their witness, people had chucked them in prison for their witness. Hardly a great victory for the gospel, you'd have thought.

But the point is: God has not promised that he will always vindicate us here and now when we take a stand for him. There is a danger of reading things like v30 and thinking, 'Joshua took a stand for God and experienced a victory. Therefore, whenever any believer takes a stand for God, they'll experience some kind of victory.' But that simply isn't true.

Which is why it's vital to know what God has and has not promised us. And to get that clear, it's worth reviewing the big picture we've seen in Hebrews 11. Back in v3, we were reminded:

By faith we understand that the universe was made by God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what is visible.

So there in the picture is the visible universe with the invisible Creator God outside it. Next, we were reminded of the problem of sin and judgement. Eg, v7:

By faith, Noah, when warned about things not yet seen [ie, the judgement of the flood], in holy fear built an ark to save his family.

So, human sin - or rebellion against God - has now entered the world, and God stands against human beings in judgement. But then next, we were reminded of God's promise to Abraham in v8 – the promise that he would work out a plan to save people from sin and its consequences. And from our vantage point, we know that that promise to Abraham was looking way ahead - to the first coming of Jesus, which paid for the forgiveness of our sins; and onto the second coming of Jesus, where those who've been forgiven back onto God's side will enjoy the perfect world of heaven – where there's no sin and none of the consequences of sin.

Now, Hebrews 11 is full of examples of the specific promises made to specific people in the run-up to Jesus' coming – eg, the promise of Joshua's victory over Jericho. But those promises were not made to us. So we can't apply them to ourselves and say triumphalistic things like, 'God will always give Christian causes victory in the here and now.' That's not a promise we live under. The promise we live under is that over-arching, big promise of heaven.

So now let's pick up again at Hebrews 11.32:

32And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, 33who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35Women received back their dead, raised to life again.

Now that all sounds pretty triumphant for that first group of people, doesn't it? God giving victories and rescuing people left, right and centre; and, v33, people gaining what was promised. But then the tone changes. Verse 35:

Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37They were stoned; they were sawn in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and ill-treated - 38the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

And it all sounds much less triumphant for that second group of people. Defeat and death and God apparently failing to deliver on his promises.

So did the first group 'have more faith'? No – v39, 'These were all commended for their faith'. So did God keep his promises to the first group but not the second? No. God has been equally faithful to all of them. Some, like Joshua or Gideon or David, were around when God was delivering on some of those specific promises – eg, giving them possession of the promised land. So they did experience great victories and high-points for God's cause. Whereas 'Others' (v35a) were used by God at very different times. Eg, v37, one of the people 'put to death by the sword' in the OT was a prophet called Uriah (who appears in the book of Jeremiah). He was around later when God's people were being so disobedient, that he had to deliver promises of judgment. Which is why they put him to death – from their point of view, he was not 'on message'.

But God has been equally faithful to them all. Eg, faithful to David in handing battle after battle to him – as promised. And faithful to the prophet Uriah in vindicating his message when the exile finally came – as promised. God was equally faithful to those two men; it's just that their experience of the life of faith was very different here on earth. But their experience of heaven will be exactly the same, and that's the point of v39:

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

So David, in heaven will think back to times sitting in his palace and great victories and say, 'Compared to this, that wasn't such a big deal.' And Uriah, in heaven will be able to think back to those painful last days of his life and say exactly the same. 'Compared to this, that wasn't such a big deal, either.'

The promise of heaven is the big, over-arching promise that we live under if our faith is in Jesus. And if we really grasp that, really believe that, we won't value our gains in this life too highly, and we won't be disillusioned by our losses – especially those losses that come our way through taking a stand for God.

We may feel disillusioned right now. Friends we've shared the gospel with have all reacted negatively. Children have not grown up into faith. Moral stands or honesty at work have either come to nothing, or backfired on us. But we have to say: there is no God-given promise that my friends or my children will come to faith, or that my stands will soften people to the things of God, rather than harden them more. We need to be very careful that we're not measuring God against promises he's never made us. And we need to think about the big promise he has given us – the promise of heaven – much more than we do. Because Hebrews 11 says that compared to that, what we're going through is not that big a deal.

And it also says that, compared to what other believers have been through, what we're going through right now is not such a big deal. I'm sure these Hebrew Christians felt some self-pity. So it's striking to read over in chapter 12, verse 4:

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood…

Which seems to me quite a blunt thing to say to people who've paid a high price for their faith. You have to be a pretty bold pastor to say that to people who've lost their homes and been put in prison, don't you? But it's a healthy reminder to them and to us: we haven't gone through anything like the things in 11.36f. And we may need to nip self-pity in the bud and let these examples toughen us up to accept a greater degree of discomfort for being believers in an unbelieving world.

So: How should we react when we take a stand for God – and lose as a result? For one thing, we need to remind ourselves: it's better to side with God – whoever else is against us as a result. Harder to believe on Monday morning, I know, but there'll be no doubt in our minds about that on the day of judgement. And for another, it's vital to know what God has and hasn't promised us. He hasn't promised us victory in every stand of witness we take for him. He's promised us a struggle now and heaven to come. And our Christian experience will only make sense if we remember both those promises.

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