Unexpected

This is the season when we celebrate God's salvation and deliverance provided for all mankind! He sent His Son, Jesus, to come to us in the flesh, born as a baby, in order to save us, as He promised. Although it was prophesied in scripture, most people of that time missed the birth of Christ and His purpose as our salvation, because they expected God to deliver them in a different way. They expected a different kind of a Savior. They had read and studied scripture, interpreted it throughout many generations, and thought that they had an understanding of the way in which God worked. How sad it would be to miss Christ and His deliverance in our lives because we have certain expectations about why, how, when, and to whom His deliverance comes. This week's Sabbath readings bring up this same issue for me. What seems right to men concerning how God must work, does not always take into account the unexpected ways of the LORD. In previous weeks, we read that God instructed Jacob to take his whole household, and go dwell in Egypt. God assured Jacob that He would be with him: "I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up (ala - "come up, offer, ascend, light, raised, arose, exalted, to be taken up") again." (Gen. 46:2-4). This promise from God also confirmed the message that Joseph had sent to his father from Egypt. As a result, Jacob took his whole household into Egypt to dwell. Abraham had other descendants in the land of Canaan, the Promised Land. They might have looked upon Jacob's leaving to go to Egypt as a fatal mistake. God's promise to Abraham and his seed was the land of Canaan, not Egypt. How could Jacob make this terrible mistake? However, Jacob had been directed by God, not men. As this Sabbath's reading, which is titled Sh'mot, or "Names", begins, all of those who went down to Egypt with Jacob are named (Ex. 1:1-5). I wonder if Jacob's sons might have thought at the time, "Our father is getting it all wrong! He is moving us all to Egypt only because he loves Joseph, and wants to be with him." Jacob died in Egypt, and Joseph and his brothers also died in Egypt. The people back in the Promised Land might, when they had heard this, said, "I told you so!". However, we know that Jacob had been directed by God. Could men have anticipated what God had in mind concerning Jacob and his descendants? While Jacob and his sons had lived in Egypt, God kept His promise and multiplied them greatly: "But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them." (v. 7). Then a new king ruled in Egypt who had no knowledge of Joseph, and all that he had done for Egypt. This king looked upon all of the Israelites in his land, and he detested and feared them. Their numbers filled him with dread and he said: "...the children of Israel are more and mightier than we." (v. 9). The king put hard bondage upon the Hebrews, under strict taskmasters (mas - a burden as causing to faint, discomfited, melt away, discouraged"), making them build cities like Raamses, meaning "child of the sun", and Pithom, meaning "city of justice". Considering these terrible circumstances which developed, why would God have commanded Jacob in such a way? We find out that the Israelites were in Egypt for more than four hundred years (Ex. 12:40), as was prophesied to Abraham generations earlier (Gen. 15:13), and a good portion of those years were spent in slavery. Yet God directed Jacob to bring his whole household to a land that would eventually enslave the remnant, Jacob's precious descendants. When the Israelites grew even more in number, regardless of their terrible bondage, Pharaoh ordered the Hebrew midwives, Shiph'rah (meaning "fair, brightness, beautiful, glisten, pleasing") and Pu'ah (meaning "splendid, to glitter, brilliancy"), to kill the Hebrew boy babies as soon as they were born (v. 16). Those babies were not born in "the land of dire straits", Egypt, because they did something to deserve it, or because they made a wrong choice, but because God ordained their birth in that land. The midwives lied to Pharaoh, and saved the Hebrew male children because they feared God (v. 17-19). Because of this, God dealt with the Hebrew midwives and blessed them. One male baby who would be miraculously saved from death was Moses, who would become the deliverer of God's people. The heavier the burden placed on God's people in Egypt, the more fruitful they were. Ultimately the Israelites were delivered miraculously out of their bondage by God with great wonders and judgments so that Israel, Egypt and the nations would know and glorify Him (Ex. 14:18, Ex. 15). God used the cruel, and lengthy enslavement of His chosen remnant for His purpose: to multiply them exceedingly, to accomplish their miraculous deliverance by His hand, and to bring the knowledge of His glory to all people. Who would have expected this? If it happened today, people might be making all sorts of assumptions about why the remnant of God was going through this, but it was for the glory of God, and the acomplishing of His plan. These descendants of Jacob were not perfect, and they would try God's patience in the wilderness. They would also experience great losses as God dealt with their (mis)understandings and expectations regarding Him. However, I thank them for the difficult role they played enduring through pain and hardship, and recording for us their triumphs and mistakes with God. The LORD revealed, however, that their deliverance from Egypt would wait until He had allowed the Canaanites, who inhabited the Promised Land, to come to the fullness of their wickedness: "But in the fourth generation they shall return here (Canaan), for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." (Gen. 15:16). Do we allow for the sovereign and omniscient timing of the LORD in our expectations? Even the timing of the birth of Christ was determined by God to occur "when the fullness of the time had come..." (Gal. 4:3-5). In another part of this Sabbath's reading from Isaiah, the LORD says, "...let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me...Those who come He shall cause to take root in Jacob; Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit." (Isa. 27:5-6). We take hold of the LORD's strength. In another Sabbath reading portion, God deals directly with Job, as Job's expectations regarding his deliverance by God have not been met. Because Job's expectations were dashed, his faith in deliverance crumbled, and he bitterly wished that he had never been born. In Chapter 39, God revealed His plan of salvation to Job, and the spiritual warfare that ensues. This 39th chapter describes animals in the English translation, but in Hebrew, each keyword joins together to reveal the Gospel. (If you are interested in reading more about this, you can read a previous blog post titled "Revealed". You can find it in the right hand column of this page under the heading "Blog Archive": click on "2017", then "April", and then "Revealed".) In the next chapter, Chapter 40, Job was left speechless, and ashamed before God by this revelation, and God could then begin Job's deliverance. First God dealt with Job's incorrect expectations: "Would you indeed annul (parar -"break (to bits), make void, defeat, frustrate, divide, make ineffectual, violate") My judgment? Would you condemn Me that you may be justified? Have you an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like His? Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor, and array yourself with glory and beauty...Then I will also confess to you that your own right hand can save you." (Job 40:8-14, excerpt). It seems that our expectations of "who, why, what, how, where, and when" can actually limit God, and work against His perfect plan for us. The unexpected also relates to the Christmas story, and the birth of our Savior and Deliverer, Jesus. Religious experts at the time, thinking that they had an understanding of how God operated, would have stoned Mary, or at the very least shamed her and cast her out of their midst, because of her unexpected pregnancy, if God hadn't intervened with Joseph, Mary's betrothed (Mt. 1:18-21). Later, when the child was born, only a few recognized the signs of the birth, and came to see and honor the newly born King. Our expectations might question why God would put His Son in a stable, and in a manger used for animals? (Though He created the world (John 1:1-5, 14), the world had no room for Him.) Yet this is indeed what God did, and we sing about it now. Joseph, Mary's husband, was also told in a dream to take the child and mother to Egypt until God brought him word (Mt. 2:13-15). Although prophesied (Hos. 11:1), people might have asked, "Why would the child, if He was the Savior, the Messiah of Israel, go down to Egypt? That couldn't be right!" In the meantime, under the order of King Herod, the streets of Bethlehem and the surrounding area ran with the blood of young male children, as the king tried to prevent the prophesied Christ from appearing (Mt. 2:16). Of course, God knew beforehand the evil intentions of the king. Later in the life of Jesus, although it had been prophesied (Isa. 52-53-54, Psalm 22), most religious experts of the time would never have expected the Messiah to sacrifice Himself on a cross to fulfill His heavenly Father's plan. They concluded that this Man must be an evil-doer, rather than the Son of God. They felt confident that they were correct when Jesus did not "deliver Himself" from the cross as they taunted Him to do (Mt. 27:39-44). This was less than a week after throngs had welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem waving palm branches and crying, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!" Who would have expected such a turn of events? Expectations can be tricky when it comes to God, and how we think He should work. Even His resurrection, though spoken of often by Jesus beforehand, was a shock to His disciples. They didn't expect to find an empty tomb. The miraculous Christmas birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ were full of the unexpected to man! Perhaps this Christmas, in the middle of these trying, but prophesied times (see Mt. 24, Luke 21) full of unexpected and shocking events daily, God is looking for our surrender to Him, and to His strength, in a way that surpasses our own understanding and expectations. God's Word says that the humbling and repentance of His people will bring healing (2 Chron. 7:13-14). Hebrews 7:25 says that Jesus is able to save to the uttermost (panteles - "completely, perfectly, utterly, full-ended"), which must certainly be beyond the limitations of our expectations. I am praying for an "uttermost" Christmas. If you would like to know more about the unexpected ways of God, you can join me in prayer: "Heavenly Father, You know everything concerning my life, and concerning all of creation. You call the stars out each night by name. You have called each one of us by name also. You sent Your Son, Jesus, to us in a remarkable and unexpected way, for our salvation from sin, and for our deliverance from death. I place my trust in Your miraculous knowledge of me, and Your plan for me. I trust You to lead and guide me by Your Holy Spirit in all things, because You know all things. I give everything having to do with me and my household into the strength of the One who saves me to the uttermost, Jesus. Forgive me, Lord, when my understanding has limited You, or Your sovereignty over my life. This Christmas and always, I want to remember that the King of Kings was miraculously born into the world in order to be born into my heart. I pray these things in Jesus' name. AMEN."