baldtheologian Nehemiah: When Fear collides with Faith

Fear-n-Faith

 

The Church – not a local expression of it but the universal one true Church – must lock arms and get to work together. We must move forward in both sharing our faith and expressing our faith in ever-increasingly hostile environments.

 

 

 

Fear

Have you ever been afraid? Have you ever feared doing something? I’m not talking abut a fear of heights or a fear of swimming with crocodiles. No, I’m talking abut a fear of answering a call God has on your life. Perhaps that call involves moving somewhere you’re not familiar with or taking a job that you feel you don’t fully understand. You know what I’m talking about: fear of the unknown.

 

Faith

But what about your faith? Shouldn’t that override your fear? Well, yes it should. But sometimes engaging our faith in a time of fear is difficult. We don’t know what that looks like so we often times just give in to fear and wait longer than we should. So what doe it look like when my fear of the unknown (whether it is a job, a call, or where I live or what I do) intersects with my faith in an all-knowing, all-good God? Hmmmm.

 

Fear and Faith

I’m beginning a series of devotionals from the book of Nehemiah. I’ve wanted to do this for some time but kept putting it off for some reason. I’ll blame it on the winter blues. With the first day of spring (in the Northern Hemisphere) fast approaching, I figured I’d better get off my you-know-what and get to writing this devotion. So beginning Monday March 23, 2015, I will begin publishing my devotions from Nehemiah. I hope you profit from my observations. This week I’m focusing on introducing you to the book of Nehemiah and the series of devotionals coming up in the next few weeks and months.

 

nehemiah wall_final

 

The book of Nehemiah is actually titled Ezra-Nehemiah in the Hebrew canon. This is because the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are seen as one in the Hebrew canon. They were first divided in 1448 when a Hebrew manuscript first divided them. Since then that division has been the norm.

 

Nehemiah means “YHWH comforts” and was authored by – you guessed it – Nehemiah! Now there is the possibility that another chronicler worked on this book as well but the majority of the writing belongs to Nehemiah since the vast majority of Nehemiah is in the first person. Ezra appears to have combined his work with Nehemiah’s. Another possibility is the chronicler may have combined Ezra and Nehemiah into one work at a later (but not much later) date. Speaking of dates, the date of writing for Nehemiah is sometime around 433 – 400 BC.

 

Purpose(s)

From reading the book of Nehemiah, one comes away with multiple purposes for the book. Among these purposes is the historical one of providing a record of the reconstruction of the destroyed city of Jerusalem to the spiritual one of emphasizing of covenant renewal in the restored community in Jerusalem. While there are more purposes we can find in the book of Nehemiah, I want to focus on these two for various reasons.

 

The first reason is to demonstrate God’s faithfulness to His word. We’ll see this early in Nehemiah when Nehemiah recalls the promise of God to restore His people to the Promised Land. The second reason is to demonstrate that even through severe trials God’s plan is always good regardless of the obstacles in the way. The third reason I want to focus on the above two purposes of Nehemiah is because of thir direct application to us today. We need to be reminded of God’s faithfulness in the past as we navigate the treacherous waters of the present and future.

 

Application

I think the title of this series gives away my application of this book: what happens when my fear collides with my faith. Throughout the individual devotions I hope to provide a practical application to what we have just learned. I hope those applications will provide you with encouragement to face the ever increasing difficulties of life in general.

As we stand on and for our faith, we must realize that opposition to us and our faith is mounting. We are facing difficulties now and will continue to face them in the future. The Church – not a local expression of it but the universal one true Church – must lock arms and get to work together. We must move forward in both sharing our faith and expressing our faith in ever-increasingly hostile environments.

I hope you enjoy this series. But more importantly I hope you both profit from and are encouraged by the observation I make. To God be all the glory!

baldtheologian Christian Living

Wet Feet, Deep Faith

While our life’s journeys take us to different places with varying degrees of difficulty, we need to always remember that God is always in control.

What is the fascination I have with water? I love listening to water running. I love to listen to water flow in a stream or river. I love waterfalls. I love the sound of water. I love the feel of water. I love being near water. And don’t get me started about the beach! The salt air, the waves beating against the beach, the salt air…ah, the beach! Flowing water has a calming effect on me.

But I’ve noticed something about water in all my time studying it. It can’t support my body. If I step into it, I sink. If I try to float on it, I sink. When I try to swim, you guessed it, I sink. I sink like a rock. I’m sure there is a mathematical equation that explains why I sink. I don’t really care about the scientific explanation; all I know is that I sink when I get in water. Oh, and by the way, I don’t have gills, I have lungs. I need gills to breathe under water…lungs don’t work well when filled with water. But I do like to get my feet wet. I do like to play in water. I just don’t like to sink.

Life can sometimes seem like the place we are and the place we need to be are separated by a wide gulf of deep water. Other times it seems like we are a little boat getting tossed around on an angry sea. Sometimes I wonder if I’m gonna sink…you see I can’t swim well and if I enter deep water, there is about a 100% chance I’ll sink. It seems though that God often calls me to get into water. Deep water. Have you ever felt this way?

How do we act when God calls us to believe Him to provide a way for us when there seems to be no way? Do we act on His call or look at our circumstances? Sometimes, I’m ashamed to say, I’ve focused on the raging waters around me instead of God’s voice calling me to the opposite shore. For all my bluster, I can be such a coward sometimes. But God works with this coward and glorifies Himself in and through my weakness.

Do you remember when God called Israel out of Egypt? He led them through the desert. He fed them, He protected them, He went before them and was an ever present God.As they were fleeing, the Red Sea was between them and their destination. God said you belong “over there”. Behind Israel was Pharaoh with his army of chariots pursuing them. In front of them, blocking their path forward was the Red Sea. Oh boy! There’s nowhere to go, nothing to do but die.

God decided that He would call Moses to do something that seemed odd.

“Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land.” Exodus 14:15-16 NASB

So God says to Moses, stretch out your staff over the deep water of the Red Sea and I’ll take of the rest. All of Israel will pass through on dry land. Now the text isn’t clear where Moses is standing but I think Moses was in the water a little bit because he needed to stretch out his staff “over the sea” not toward the sea. So, if I’m right, Moses got his feet wet while God parted the water.

Pharaoh was pursuing Israel and was pretty close to overtaking them. But God took care of that too.

“The angel of God, who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them. So it came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel; and there was the cloud along with the darkness, yet it gave light at night. Thus the one did not come near the other all night.” Exodus 14:19-20

Right after this, Moses did as he was commanded, the waters parted, Israel passed through and Pharaoh pursued. But the waters didn’t stay open for the Egyptians. God closed them, drowned them and blessed Israel. God continued to lead Israel to the Promised Land. He continued to lead them where He had called them.

This journey, as you know, took a lot longer than previously expected. But after 40 years wandering in the desert, Israel came back to the Promised Land. Moses has died, Israel sent spies into the land to take a look, found Jericho, met Rahab and returned. The nation was at the Jordan River. At this time the Jordan was overflowing its banks. So here we go again. A deep, wide body of water separated Israel from the place where God called them. If I had been there the coward in me would be looking at the water, not my destination. I would hope that my faith would defeat the coward in me.

So what happened?

“Now the LORD said to Joshua, ‘This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you. You shall, moreover, command the priests who are carrying the Ark of the Covenant, saying, ‘When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.’” Joshua 3:7-8 NASB

So God tells Joshua He will demonstrate He is with Joshua the same as He was with Moses. He tells the priests to get their feet wet while carrying the Ark of the Covenant. Do you notice something? God said “get in the stinkin’ water!” Well, maybe I’m paraphrasing and interpreting things a bit. But I imagine God was pretty emphatic with His command to proceed, placing their faith in Him and Him alone.

“So when the people set out from their tents to cross the Jordan with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant before the people, and when those who carried the ark came into the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark were dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the days of harvest), the waters which were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those which were flowing down toward the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. So the people crossed opposite Jericho. And the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan.” Joshua 3:14-17 NASB

So the priests dip their feet into the water. They begin to walk in, believing God would take care of things. God parted the waters, just like He did at the Red Sea. Israel went through on dry land. The overflowing river dried up. God did it. But the Priests and Israel placed their faith—and exercised their faith—in God. They got their feet wet.

But what about us? We can see how God acted towards Israel, but what about us? We are not Israel, we are the church. What about us?

“Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowds away. After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone. But the boat was already a long distance from the land, battered by the waves; for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.’ Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.’ And He said, ‘Come!’ And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’ When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, ‘You are certainly God’s Son!’” Matthew 14:22-32 NASB

Do you see what happened here? The disciples are in the boat, a sea is buffeting them, and they see a ghost on the water. Jesus tells them not to worry it is He that they see. Peter calls out. He says “If you’re really Jesus, tell me to come to you.” Jesus says “Come on out, Peter.” So what does Peter do? He got out of the boat, and walked toward Jesus.

Don’t miss this: the wind is “contrary” and the boat is being “battered” by the sea. It wasn’t a glassy smooth surface. It wasn’t a nice, calm boat trip. Imagine a stormy sea. And yet Peter got out of the boat. He walked toward Jesus. When Peter began to focus on the effects of the storm, he began to sink. Immediately Peter called out to the only One who could save him. Jesus saved him and asked Peter what he doubted. They got into the boat, the wind and sea calmed down.

Peter got his feet wet. He acted on Jesus words, just as Israel acted on God’s words at the Red Sea and the Jordan River. In these three incidents both Israel and Peter were faced with some difficult if not impossible circumstances. God had called them to these circumstances. God had called them to these places. And God determined to glorify Himself through His people Israel and through Peter. You know what? God wants to glorify Himself through you.

We can have seemingly impossible circumstances confront us. Sometimes when God calls us to a new place of ministry, there is a wide gulf of water between us and our destination. When we stand on the shore facing our “promised land”, what are we to do? When we are in our boat getting blown about by the vicissitudes of life, and our boat is getting swamped by the waves of difficulty and the unknown, we must act on our belief in God. We see our Savior and He calls us to get out of our boat—our security “blanket”. What will we do?

Faith isn’t some theoretical thing. It isn’t something that is impractical. Faith is the verb of our belief. What we believe will show itself in the action of our faith. We must act on our beliefs or those beliefs really are not our beliefs.

Do we believe that God calls us to a destination to serve Him? Do we believe God will provide for us when circumstances oppose us? Are we pursued by the enemy of faith while facing deep waters ahead? Do we sometimes get afraid when we are faced with stormy seas?

While our life’s journeys take us to different places with varying degrees of difficulty, we need to always remember that God is always in control. When God calls us to a new place, we need to go without worrying about the circumstances. Yes the circumstances might cause fear to creep in. And that is OK. What we need to do when that happens is to have our faith defeat our fears, not the other way around. He has called us to this place for a reason. He will glorify Himself in our lives. We must be willing to act on our beliefs—to willingly choose to follow His call into the water no matter how scared of water we may be.

After all, waters never part until our feet get wet.