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Genesis 28:16

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”

            It’s time for a reality check.  Is what you see all you see?  Is what you know all there is?  When you see a sunrise, a thunder storm, a snow drift, or a quarter moon, what do you really see?  When you hear a beautiful voice, a piano concerto, a skillful guitarist, or a moving rhythm, what do you hear?

            I ask these questions, not with the intension of getting you to philosophically question whether or not the chair you are seated in is really there or some other such nonsense, but rather, because I want you to think about how you perceive reality.  We see far too little.  We hear far too little.  We remember far too little about the real world in which we live.

            This reality came to my attention recently as I read through an account of the life of Abraham’s grandson, Jacob.  Jacob, as you probably know, was a sneak, a lying cheater.  He swindled his hungry brother out of his birthright and then duped his poor, blind father out of a blessing that wasn’t intended for him.  When Jacob’s brother had reached the boiling point, Jacob, on the advice of his mommy who was a trickster in her own right, ran away from home to his uncle’s place for safety.

            It was while Jacob was traveling, when he had camped out one night, that he saw something amazing in a vision from God.  Jacob saw a staircase stretching from earth to heaven, and saw that the Lord was there at the top of it.  Angels from God were traveling from heaven to earth and back again, and God was there overseeing it all.  The Lord told Jacob that he indeed would carry the blessing of God that had been given to his grandfather Abraham and to his father Isaac.

            When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”  And here we return to my original questions.  Jacob was living his life as if God were not there.  He was not an atheist, for sure.  Jacob believed in the God of his fathers.  Jacob even schemed to receive the blessing.  But, Jacob was practically living as an atheist, acting as though the presence of God was a non-factor.  Jacob lied, stole, and ran away, all with the assumption that God would play no role in this drama.  Only now did Jacob begin to realize that he had not seen nearly enough.

            So, back to the original question.  What do you see?  When you look at your life, do you live as though God is not a part at all?  Do you assume that what you will accomplish is only that which you are supposedly able to accomplish?  Do you assume that the people around you will not be impacted by the presence and power of God?  Do you see the sun, moon, and stars and forget the voice of the God who looked into the blackness of the void and said, “Let there be…”?  Do you look at political and financial news and assume that the nation will have to pull herself up by her own bootstraps in order to stand?  Do you assume that political change is what will help the people of the land to actually do what is right?  Do you look at your breakfast, and foolishly think that the food came only from the grocery store and not look deeper to see the hand of the Creator?

            It’s so easy, isn’t it, to look at what is around you, be it weather, people, or technology, and assume that what you can see is all there is.  But Christians, we know better.  There is far more.  There is a God who made us.  There is a God who is working out his plan, his will, and no one will stop him.  There is a God who cares for us, who provides for us, and who fixes things we could never fix. 

            Christians, let’s not find ourselves saying, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”  The first half is fine, because God is surely in this place, whatever place you are in.  But the second half has to go.  Know that God is there.  Know that God is active.  Pray, and ask God to remind you that he is with you and in control.  Pray that God will help you to think as a person who is a creation of God, redeemed by God, kept by God, and destined for eternity with God.

Genesis 25:20-21, 24-26

20 and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife. 21 And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

24 When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb. 25 The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau. 26 Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau’s heel, so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

            One of the weaknesses that we have as we attempt to read through the Scripture is our lack of ability to imagine the passage of time.  As we watch the recorded events of the lives of men and women in the Bible, it can appear to us that they were always turning around and seeing God, hearing God’s voice, seeing miracles, or experiencing the supernatural.  This, of course, makes us wonder what is wrong with our world.  Has God stopped working?

            Take a look at the passages above.  Isaac had a problem.  Isaac’s wife was unable to have children.  This, as you undoubtedly know, was a terrible thing for the couple.  But, the Bible tells us, Isaac prayed to God, and God allowed Rebekah to conceive.  Well, that was easy, wasn’t’ it.

            But take just a second to look at the numbers.  Isaac and Rebekah were married when Isaac was 40 years old.  The twins were born when Isaac was 60.  It took a full 20 years of prayer before God answered Isaac’s cries.  That’s 20 years of watching everyone they knew have kids.  That’s 20 years of watching their neighbors go to kindergarten plays, softball games, high school graduations, and even weddings.  That’s 20 years of crying out to God and asking why and wondering what’s wrong with them that they could not have children.  That’s 20 years of not understanding how it is that God would keep his promises to Abraham and Isaac when Rebekah was unable to conceive.

            It’s too bad, in some ways, that we see a verse like verse 21 above and  we fail to understand that 20 years passed from the wedding to the nursery.  It’s too bad, because we think that the people of God don’t go through hard times if they are really God’s people.  But, in this case at least, we now see that sometimes it takes a very long time before God answers our prayers.  Sometimes it takes so long that we want to give up, to quit, to turn and go do something else.  But God was there.  For all 20 of Isaac and Rebekah’s hard, childless years, God was there.  God was doing exactly what needed to be done at exactly the time it needed to be done.

            I don’t know what you are begging God to do.  I do know, however, that God wants us to continue to trust in him, to come to him, and to seek his blessing.  Maybe God will answer your prayer in the way that you want him to today.  Maybe it will take 20 years.  Maybe you will never get exactly what you want because God has something better in view.  At least learn this from Isaac:  God is always there, even when it looks and feels like he is not.

            And, the next time you find yourself discouraged that the people in the Bible had all the fun, seeing miracle after miracle after miracle, remember that all we are getting are the highlights of their lives.  We do not get pictures of the intervening decades of silence.  Thank God that you live when you do, in a time when Christians have the Spirit of God and the word of God to keep us in daily fellowship with God.

Acts 4:11-12

11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

            With the rise of the media brouhaha over Brit Hume’s comments calling Tiger Woods to turn to the Christian faith, many have again begun thinking about whether or not it is appropriate for Christians to  present Christianity as a superior alternative to other religions.  The common media position in this issue is that it is arrogant for any religious group to assume that their religion of choice is in any way superior to the religious choices of others.  (Do not confuse the discussion between denominations and religions here.  Baptist and Presbyterian are denominations of Christianity, not separate religions as long as they point to salvation by God’s grace through faith in Christ.)

            The fact is, however, that the idea of an exclusivistic view of religion is both logical and biblical.  On the logical front, simply think this through:  If I thought that another religion was superior to my own, ought I not convert to that religion instead of continuing to hold to a religion that I believe to be inferior?  (Trevin Wax also makes this argument in a nice post).  Christians, stop being embarrassed by a person who says something like, “You think your religion is better than theirs.”  Of course you think your religion is better.  Anyone who believes his position to be the weaker position, but who for some reason continues to hold that admittedly weaker position is a fool. 

            Besides, the claim that we should believe all religions to be equal is itself an exclusivistic claim.  The faulty logic goes like this: 

P:  All claims to religious superiority are evil.

P:  My religious choice is to believe all religions equal.

C:  My religious choice is superior to those that claim theirs to be superior.

Um, when we look at the argument from this point of view, we see that those who claim to be the most open-minded are really only open to those whose minds are open in the same way that theirs are open.  Everyone believes that their particular point of view is superior, even those who claim that there is no superiority, as they are claiming that the view that there is no religious superiority is superior.

            But the fact is, Christians, we do not take our view of our faith from philosophy anyway.  Regardless of how logical is the point that there is an exclusivity to what is right, the question for the Christian is:  Does the Bible make an exclusive case for Christianity as opposed to other faiths?  The answer is a resounding affirmative.  Look simply at Peter’s words to the people in Acts 4.  His words simply cannot be misconstrued, can they?  There is no other name than the name of Jesus in which people can find salvation.  There is no other belief system, no other philosophical structure, no other faith strategy that someone can use through which they can find genuine peace with God.  The claim is as black and white as it can possibly be.  There is only one path to forgiveness, and that path is faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

            Christians, let’s stop allowing the world to call us arrogant for believing that we have the only right way to God.  Our position is logical and biblical.  And just in case you are afraid that the supposedly open-minded news media are somehow more progressive and better thinkers than we are, let’s remember that they are claiming the same superiority that they condemn us for claiming.  We all think we’re right, even those who say that nobody knows who is right or that nobody is right.  So, let’s be honest and biblical, and let’s keep pointing people to Jesus, the only way that anyone will ever find salvation.

Genesis 19:9

But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down.

            Anyone watching the news over the past few days is probably aware of the venom being spewed in the news media against former Fox News anchorman Brit Hume.  Hume, as you may recall, dared to suggest that Tiger Woods, a man whose family life and public persona is crumbling around him, could find forgiveness and restoration in the Christian faith.  Hume’s comments have been met with all sorts of nasty rebuttals, many of which accuse the former news man of idiocy, ignorance, cruelty, or—the worst sin of all in America—judgmentalism.

            Undoubtedly, Hume knew that his remarks were likely to earn him the harsh criticism of those who are now dragging his name through the mud.  Any faithful believer knows that Jesus has promised his followers that they too will be hated by the world that hated the Savior (cf. John 15:20-ff).  I, personally, applaud Hume for being honest enough to share his faith in a public forum all the while knowing that he would receive a verbal beating from the anti-Christian, politically correct media.

            You know, it ought not surprise any Christian that any remark that we make suggesting that someone do what is right is met with an accusation of us being judgmental.  As one of my former seminary professors was fond of saying, “Years ago, the most popular Bible verse in America was John 3:16.  Today, the most popular Bible verse is Matthew 7:1 ‘Judge not. . .‘”  Strange, isn’t it, that the world can call Christians all sorts of derisive names and falsely represent believers in all sorts of unfair ways while still calling Christians judgmental any time one of us dares to suggest that abortion is wrong, that marriage ought be between 1 man and 1 woman for life, or that those who do not know Jesus need his grace.

            Well, before you find this all sad and start feeling sorry for yourself as a persecuted believer in a dark generation, let me remind you that the cry, “Don’t judge me,” is older than you might think.  Scholars date the time of the patriarchs (Abraham and his family) to sometime around 2200 BC.  Thus, the events that the Bible records for us in Genesis 19 occur somewhere around four millennia ago. 

            Sometime around four thousand years ago, Abraham’s nephew, Lot, went to live in the city of Sodom.  When God sent angels in human appearance to Sodom, Lot offered them a place to stay for the night.  Then things get ugly, really ugly.  The evil men of that town surround Lot’s home and demand that he bring the newcomers out to them so that they can sexually violate them.  These men intended to commit homosexual rape.

            When Lot told them that such a deed ought not be done to men who have come to his home and placed themselves under his care, the men of Sodom reply by saying to one another, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge!  Now we will deal worse with you than with them.”  Don’t miss that reaction from the men of Sodom.  They say that Lot is judging them, and this makes them angry enough to want to mistreat Lot even more than what they had planned for the strangers that Lot had taken in.  And let’s not forget, these men knew very well what they were planning to do with those men in the house.  They simply believed that Lot had no right to say that their plans to brutalize and violate those men was wrong.

            All over the world, there is an outcry against any perceived judgmentalism.  To be thought of as judgmental is one of the most inexcusable sins of American culture.  But do not let this discourage you.  The outcry against judgmentalism is as old as the story of Sodom (or one might even argue as old as the story of Cane and Able).  For thousands of years, those who have sinned against God have also attacked anyone who would dare tell them that their sin is wrong, even if in the telling, the evangelists offered grace, mercy, and hope.

            So, Christians, here is the deal:  We can try to be thought of by the world as always nice and never judging, and in doing so, we will relinquish any claim to the word of God.  Or we can tell the truth, even though it sometimes earns us the kind of scorn that followers of God have felt for thousands of years.  While the temptation might be to be silent in this life and to choose comfort, Jesus would remind us that the blessing of God is there for his faithful and persecuted followers.

Matthew 5:10-12

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Of course I’m not calling anyone to go out there and be a jerk to people.  If you are persecuted for just plain being mean to people, you will have no reward from God for your persecution.  But, if you can carry yourself with love, class, kindness, and dignity while being honest, you will still be looked down upon and ridiculed for your faith; but in that case, there will be a great reward for you that is worth far more than the discomfort of the world’s disapproval.