Dear Daughters,
I used to be embarrassed by the Old Testament. With all the traumatic events mentioned during those thousands of years – murder, sexual exploitation, military invasions, natural disasters, political scandals, family dysfunction – I used to think it was all a bit too racy to be included in a holy book. I remember pondering,
If I were God and wanted people to love and believe in me, I would have sanitized those stories, made them a bit more neat and tidy, kept out the ugliest sections…
Good thing I’m not God…
The older I get and the more time I spend reading the Old Testament, the more I’m amazed at how comforting it is to read about people who have lived through dreadful life stories and have come through with even greater trust in their Creator.
Take Abraham and the promise God gave him when he was 75 years old – that he would become the father of many nations. It finally happened when he was 100 – impatiently waiting for a promise that took 25 years to fulfill. In the meantime, there was strife in the household as Abraham and his barren wife Sarah tried to help God out by having Abraham sleep with her maidservant and birth a child using their own wisdom. Which, by the way, made a big mess out of the original plan. Yet, as God always does, he brings good out of evil and his promises do come to pass – not a moment too soon or too late.
And then there’s Moses. When God chose him to deliver His people from slavery in Egypt, he gave God every possible reason why he shouldn’t be the one. He was not an orator, he was scared, nervous and tried to convince God to choose someone else. Moses had murdered an Egyptian 40 years earlier and had extreme fear and trembling, unconvinced he was the one to lead a million people cross-country through the desert. Yet, he reluctantly agreed. God showed up when He said he would, working through Moses with his brother Aaron as his mouthpiece, and the rest is 40 years of desert history.
Remember Naomi, the widow who lost not only her husband but both sons to death within about ten years? She asked others to call her Mara, meaning bitter, instead of Naomi, which means pleasant:
The Strong one has dealt me a bitter blow. I left here [Bethlehem] full of life and God has brought me back with nothing but the clothes on my back. Why would you call me Naomi? God certainly doesn’t. The Strong One ruined me. Ruth 1:20
She was acrimonious toward God, resentful, and near hopeless. Amazing to me, God allowed those words of hers to be recorded for millions of others to read. Even though she had given up on God, He had not given up on her and had planned a good ending for the tragic story she was living. When she returned to her home in Bethlehem along with her daughter-in-law Ruth, God provided a husband for Ruth, who in turn gave birth to a son – Naomi’s grandson – who ended up becoming an ancestor of King David and was named in the genealogy of Jesus Christ.
God loved Naomi back to life again. She was no longer bitter and empty, but became full and satisfied. It took years of heartache, honesty, pain and a long obedience in the same direction, but she was healed of her grief.
God isn’t afraid of letting it be known publicly that his people sometimes don’t trust him. He’s not ashamed that he is perceived as harsh, unfair and demanding. He lets us speak our emotions, even though they may not be the truth about who he is. Yet he humbly conceals Himself as he works all things together for good – to those who love him. As CS Lewis writes:
We may ignore but we can in no way evade the presence of God.
The world is crowded with him.
He walks everywhere incognito.
My friend Kara’s favorite story in the OT is about Samson. Samson the womanizer, the royal screw-up, the proud and arrogant man who disobeyed God and lived a haughty and egotistical life. Yet in the end he was humbled and God was able to do mighty things through him.
Samson is the last Biblical person I would admire, yet that story gave my friend great hope that even with all her failures and sin, God has and is still redeeming her life in amazing ways. His mercies never fail, He never gives up on us.
Whenever we read Facebook or Instagram posts of seemingly perfect people and families, taken at a moment of peace and success, we seem to assume this is everyday normal for them. The Old Testament, however, shows characters as real people – their struggles, weaknesses, failures and joys – and how God works through all of them to bring about good to those who will receive it. For me, the stories remove anxiety because it’s not the people themselves who pose as heroes but are shown for who they are, as fallen humans in the hands of a merciful God.
Do not fear for I am with you;
Do not be dismayed for I am your God;
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10
These stories give me great confidence. When I see how God has worked through all those people of old, how He was never in a hurry, how He continued to forgive, how His love was and is so long-suffering and patient – it gives me hope. It helps me to trust and believe that God is who he says he is, He keeps his promises. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
When I look at all the uncertainty of our age, the virus, the anger and divisions between people groups, the pandemic of fear and anxiety trying to infect us all – I stop and read these stories. I read and re-read them, and it brings me peace. This is not the first time the world has been a tough place to live and it won’t be the last – there is indeed nothing new under the sun.
Take heart and know God cares about you, just like he has cared about all those people living thousands of years ago. He has not forgotten you, he has not forgotten about us as His people. He’s working through all of us – together.
Give all your worries and cares to God,
for he cares about you.
1 Peter 5:7
Love, Mom
Recent Comments