Tag: Travis Peterson

Habakkuk 1:5-6

 

5 “Look among the nations, and see;

wonder and be astounded.

For I am doing a work in your days

that you would not believe if told.

6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,

that bitter and hasty nation,

who march through the breadth of the earth,

to seize dwellings not their own.

 

Habakkuk 1:12-13

 

12 Are you not from everlasting,

O Lord my God, my Holy One?

We shall not die.

O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment,

and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.

13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil

and cannot look at wrong,

why do you idly look at traitors

and remain silent when the wicked swallows up

the man more righteous than he?

 

            Sometimes we let familiar, biblical phrases become part of our doctrine only to find out that the application of such phrases are hermeneutically unsound. So, for a few paragraphs, I intend to show how a failure to use proper context leads to confusing interpretation of the Bible and inconsistent doctrinal stances.

 

            Let me set the stage before working to make a hermeneutical point about the passage above. Habakkuk is a prophet of God who is amazed and even frustrated that God would allow the people of Judah to dishonor God so much. He wonders where the justice of God is. He wonders why God is not, as the law has promised, judging the rebellious nation for their sin. This is found in the first 4 verses of chapter 1.

 

            When God responds, he tells Habakkuk to be ready to be shocked. Habakkuk has no idea what is coming. God is about to do something amazing, something unheard of. God is going to use the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, to come in and judge the nation for sinning against God. That is verses 5-6 above.

 

            Then Habakkuk is shocked and even more dismayed. Of all the nations that God might choose, Habakkuk cannot stomach the concept of God using Babylon to punish Israel. In verses 12-13, the argument Habakkuk is basically making is, “No way; they’re worse than us!” Later in the book, God will show that he is both planning to use the Babylonians and to judge them for their wickedness.

 

            Now, let me make the hermeneutical point that has my attention. Have you ever heard someone talk about and even express wonder at the fact that God cannot look upon evil, his eyes are too pure? That concept comes from Habakkuk 1:13 which asks, “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?” Time and time again, I get questions like, “If God is too pure to look on evil, how could Satan have been in his presence in Job 1?” Sadly, those questions come from an over-application of Habakkuk 1:13 that goes well beyond the author’s intent.

 

            Look at the verse in its context. Habakkuk is expressing his utter chagrin that God might use the Babylonians of all people to judge Israel. So, speaking poetically, Habakkuk is trying to say, “Hey God, you are better than that. You can’t use those awful people to judge us. You can’t dirty your hands by using them as tools.” Habakkuk is not trying to make some sort of theological point about God not somehow being able to look at evil. The point he is trying to make is that, to Habakkuk’s mind, using the Babylonians as a tool for God’s will seems to be unthinkable.

 

            Think hermeneutically. What is the author intending to communicate to his readers with that sentence? He wants his readers to grasp that Habakkuk, like many people, struggles with the fact that God uses what appears to be dark and evil to accomplish his plan without himself being tainted with darkness or evil. God uses the evil actions of evil nations to swirl together to somehow accomplish perfectly righteous ends. God does not do evil. God does not author evil. God is not corrupted by evil. God is holy. And this concept of God working his will in this way is just beyond what human minds can fathom. God is god and we are not. God is totally good, even when we cannot understand how that can be.

 

            The hermeneutical point that I want to make ,then, is to show how a single verse like the one above is very often taken to mean far more than the author intends to communicate. To pretend that God somehow cannot see evil is inconsistent with the fact that God is omniscient. He knows us. He knows our thoughts. He never fails to see us, even when we are evil.

 

            Now, don’t get me wrong, God is pure. His purity cannot b compromised by the evil that you and I do. In fact, were you and I to be thrust into the unveiled presence of God without a covering for our sin, we would be destroyed by his holiness. God told Moses that we cannot look on him and live. God will never be corrupted by us, but he will eventually destroy all sinful corruption from the world.

 

            So, my caution here is to be careful as you read and apply passages. Whenever you come across a verse like Habakkuk 1:13, don’t take it out of the flow of the author’s discussion. Yes, I know that many phrases like “you who are of purer eyes than to see evil” are really catchy and will preach well. But please, let context and author’s intent drive the way that you handle the passage. Don’t rip phrases out of their context and make your theology from them. While the one I’m using as an example is not greatly harmful, it is confusing and inconsistent when taken out of the prophet’s poetic meaning. And the truth is, God’s word is far better, far stronger, far more powerful than our pithy little quips. God’s word does not need for you and me to find meaning beyond its clear meaning in its true context.

2 Kings 23:31-32 (ESV)

31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 32 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.

 

            Political change does not and cannot change the heart of a nation. While I would certainly agree that we want to be involved in the political process, voting for men and women of character and promoting laws that promote righteousness, no amount of political reform will ever make the people of a nation have different hearts toward God and the things of God.

 

            One example of this truth is found near the end of the narrative of 2 Kings. In chapters 22-23, we find the record of the reign of King Josiah. King Josiah is described in the Bible in a very unique way. No king before him or after ever turned to God with all his heart as did Josiah. Josiah was also incredibly zealous for the name of God. He enacted political and religious reform in Judah and even over the land of Israel in ways that nobody had seen in history. He tore down altars to pagan gods and did away with practices which God declared to be evil. It was one of the greatest house-cleanings that ever happened.

 

            But, when Josiah died and his son Jehoahaz took over, things went right back to the way that they were. The verses above tell us that Jehoahaz, unlike his father before him, did evil in the sight of the Lord. Just one generation after the greatest outer reform Israel had ever seen, the people and the leaders again dishonored God with their hearts and actions.

 

            All this reminds us of a simple truth. We cannot reform the nation or even our town with outward changes. We reform only when God changes hearts. Only the Lord can see into the hearts of men. Only the Lord can change the hearts of men. And without that kind of God-sized heart-change, true national reform does not take place.

 

            So, let us pray that God change the heart of our nation. Let us join God on mission to make disciples. These acts are the only things that will change our world.

2 Kings 19:34

 

“For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

 

        Have you ever looked at our society and thought that it was hopeless? Have you ever looked at a lost friend with whom you have tried and tried to share the gospel and thought the task impossible? Have you ever looked at battles in the culture war of today and thought that there was no way they would turn out right? Have you ever looked at the progress of the church and thought that she has lost?

 

        Ponder the situation of 2 Kings 19. The enemy was all around. There was no hope. No way was the outcome of this battle going to be positive. The people of God were outnumbered. The warriors of the Assyrians were too skilled. Jerusalem was going to fall. That is, unless God showed up.

 

        But God did show up. He sent an angel to get rid of an army of 185,000 men. God won a mighty victory. And in that act, God did 3 things. God defended his name. God defended his plan. And God did the impossible.

 

        In the verse above. We see that God promised that, what he was about to do, he was going to do for the sake of his own name. That may sound strange to the person who has never studied that topic through Scripture. However, if you have been exposed to it, you know that God does what he does for the sake of his own glory. God will be honored. He will not give his glory to another. He will always do what brings glory and honor to his name. This is right, as God is the most glorious by far, and for God to seek another’s glory above his own would be completely improper. And it is good for us, as God’s magnifying of his own glory is the way that we receive the greatest joy as we see the glory of the One who made us for his glory.

 

        God also says that he was going to do what he was going to do for the sake of his servant, David. Language like that in the Old Testament is a reference back to the covenant that God made with David in 2 Samuel 7. There God promised that a descendant of David’s, part of David’s kingly line, would reign on the throne forever. With New Testament eyes we can see that this was a promise of the coming of Jesus, God’s Son, the King of all kings and Lord of all lords. Simply put, God would not let Jerusalem fall because God was actively preserving his people, at least a remnant of them. So that he could bring his promised King into the world through the lineage that he had promised for all of the Old Testament. God had promised and promised a rescuing King to come through a specific people and specific family, and God would not fail to bring that promise to pass.

 

        So, because of God’s passion for his own glory and his preservation of his promise, God did the impossible. God simply took out the undefeatable army. God did something only God could do. God showed his glory. God kept his promise alive. God was not defeated, no matter how strong the worldly opposition appeared to be.

 

        You know, we live in a world that tries to make our faith look small and ridiculous. Sometimes, when we are not careful, we can begin to fear that somehow God’s church and God’s plan will not be victorious. But let us be careful. Let us remember how God, in one moment in Old Testament history, took out a nation’s army for the sake of his name and his plan. If God could do that, he can certainly do mighty things through us for the sake of his name and his plan. Let us have hope and courage in the face of opposition. Let us not stop sharing our faith or championing the cause of justice and morality. Let us be sure that the things we would wrestle for are God’s glory and God’s plan. Then, let us work and watch and know that God will not ultimately be defeated. He will be victorious. He will do the impossible. He will see his plan completed and his name glorified.

Micah 3:5, 8 (ESV)

5 Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets

who lead my people astray,

who cry “Peace”

when they have something to eat,

but declare war against him

who puts nothing into their mouths.

 

8 But as for me, I am filled with power,

with the Spirit of the Lord,

and with justice and might,

to declare to Jacob his transgression

and to Israel his sin.

 

     The minor prophets are often difficult for us to read today. We just don’t live in their world. Thus, sometimes, we fail to see the significance of the things being said. When we read words like those above, we know that something important must be happening, but how are we to deal with that for today?

 

     Here is an illustration that might help you understand the situation of Micah’s day. Think for a moment about a gangster movie, any mob flick from years gone by. In all of those movies, there were dirty cops who took bribes from the mob in exchange for ignoring the lawless behavior of these powerful men. But, for the movie to have a hero, there would be a few good cops who stood for justice no matter what.

 

     One way to think of the prophets is as the law enforcement officers of God’s holy covenant. Israel made some very clear agreements with God at mount Sinai. In those agreements, God spelled out how he would rule Israel as their God and how he would protect Israel as his people. The protection was contingent on Israel’s following the commands of God as spelled out in the covenant law. At the same time, the covenant contained clear stipulations for what God would do to the nation should they decide not to follow him and turn to false gods.

 

     During Micah’s day, the people of God who had agreed to the covenant provisions were refusing to follow God. They and their leaders were doing evil in God’s sight. Thus it was the duty of the prophets of God to remind the people of the law. The prophets were to tell the people that God was going to do what God had promised to do if they failed to turn from their sin and return to the Lordship of their God.

 

     What was happening, however, was something entirely inappropriate. The people who were claiming the office of prophet or teacher in Israel were actually refusing to declare the clear word of God to the people. These charlatans would speak well to any person who paid them, fed, them, or otherwise treated them like royalty. They would speak harshly to anyone who dared oppose them or who refused to give them whatever they wanted. So, like dirty cops in a gangster flick, most of the supposed prophets were using their position for personal gain and were ignoring the clear word of God.

 

     Micah, however, was not like the other prophets. He spoke God’s word to God’s people, Micah would clearly declare to Israel that they were living outside the bounds of the contract that the nation had made with God. He clearly warned them of the consequences of their behavior, including the coming judgment of God as promised in the law. Micah was not mean, just honest. And because of Micah’s devotion to the clear word of God, he was the true prophet of God.

 

     With this picture in mind, we can see at least two ways to handle a passage like Micah 3. First, we can see that the word of God is true and priceless. Like Micah, we dare not compromise the clear teaching of Scripture, regardless of the supposed rewards offered us by our society. While some of the things that God’s word declares will not be in favor in society, we must not compromise the Scripture. Attempts to make the teachings of God more palatable to a people who are already rejecting God only lead to the kinds of compromises, heresies, and flat-out sin that we see in the false prophets of that day. Honor God by clearly, ,lovingly, and powerfully upholding his word.

 

     Another take on this passage has to do with its gospel implications. Every minor prophet passage, including this one, shows us that there is a standard and that people never fully meet it. Thus these passages point us to the coming Son of God who will fully satisfy the law of God on our behalf and who will fully and perfectly take upon himself the penalty that we should have had to pay for breaking that law. What a joy it is to have a Savior who keeps us from living in a world of dos and don’ts. Now, because of the Savior, if we are in Christ, we live in a state of grace, the requirements of the law fully done, the wrath of God fully satisfied. There is no longer a fear that we can do the wrong thing and be outside of the covenant that God has made with us. The New Covenant makes all who are in Christ part of God’s forever family.

1 Corinthians 15:47-49

 

47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

 

            I find that the passage above, along with the similar use of this language in Romans 5, is something we do not often think about in our context. Are you in Adam? Are you in Christ? How are the two different? We just don’t often think in these terms.

 

            As Paul responded to the questions that the Corinthians had about how human bodies would be resurrected to live eternally, he drew to mind a massive comparison and contrast. Paul basically told the people that there are two kinds of people in the world: those in Adam and those in Christ.

 

            The people who are in Adam are represented by the first man. Adam sinned against God. Adam fell. Adam died because of his own sin. In all this, Adam is not a picture of rescued and redeemed humanity. Adam is, instead, a picture of fallen, rebellious, and lost humanity that is headed for judgment. [I’m not, by the way, arguing that Adam did not personally receive grace, but simply that he is the representative of lostness in Scripture.]

 

            Christ, the second man, is the alternative to Adam. Christ lived perfectly. Christ died, but only to rescue others, not for his own sin because he had no sin. Christ rose from the grave to live again. When Christ rose, his body was changed, glorified, and made able to live in the presence of God eternally. Jesus is God who became man to do what man on his own could never do.

 

            If you are in Adam, you will not live in God’s presence eternally. If you are in Adam, you will die and then suffer the full wrath of God for your sin against him. If you are in Adam, you will face infinite punishment for offending an infinitely holy God by your own imperfection. If you are in Adam, when you die you die.

 

            If you are in Christ ,represented by Jesus, you are covered by Jesus’ sacrifice and Jesus’ righteousness. If you are in Christ, you will, after you die, be allowed into the presence of God. If you are in Christ, you will be raised from the dead, given a glorified body, and be allowed to live forever in God’s presence with perfect joy and perfect peace for a perfect eternity. If you are in Christ your sin, which would have condemned you, is totally covered by grace. If you are in Christ, you need not fear death, because death for the one represented by Jesus is a step toward perfection, not an end at all.

 

            The amazing thing about the gospel is that we cannot do anything to earn the representation of Christ. To be in Christ, we simply believe in him, place our trust in him, and then begin to live for him. To be in Christ, we stop thinking that we are the center of the universe and realize that Jesus is. Of course, all this faith and turning on our part is preceded by the sovereign grace of God who is the Author of salvation and the one who receives all glory for every part of our salvation.

 

            Today, perhaps it would be worthwhile to think in the strange contrast that Paul paints. Are you in Adam? Are you in Christ? If you are in Adam, what do you think about that? If you are in Christ, how does that give you joy and change your life?

1 Corinthians15:17b-19

 

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

 

            What would make our faith worthless? Today, Hollywood tells us that the important thing is to have faith, regardless of the object of such belief. Many Christians reject that empty kind of thinking out-of-hand, but, do we really distance ourselves far enough from it?

 

            In the passage above, Paul makes a very clear statement that is worth our attention. If Christ is not alive, not raised from the dead, our faith is totally useless. That’s it. There are no ifs, ands, or buts. If Jesus is not alive, the game is over. We should, in fact, be pitied more than anyone else, if we are foolish enough to believe in a God-man who has been raised from the dead if indeed this is not true.

 

            Now, here is the question: Christians, would you consider your faith to be totally worthless if Jesus is not alive? This actually gets to the heart of your faith. Would your faith fall apart were the whole Jesus thing not true?

 

            Think about what we do with our faith. We sing praises. We feel good about doing so. We gather together in familial groups. We support each other. We socialize. We do good things in the world. Yet, if Jesus is not alive, these things are all worthless—all of them.

 

            This tells us something important about our faith. The only way that our faith matters is if Jesus, the real man who lived on this earth 2,000 years ago, is physically alive right now. The only way that our faith has any value is if Jesus lived a perfect life, died as a sacrificial substitute who paid the penalty for the sins of God’s children, and then physically came back to life. Everything in Christianity, absolutely everything, hinges on the question of whether or not Jesus paid for our sins and then got up out of the grave to live forever.

 

            So is your faith worthwhile or worthless? Let me take the question deeper. Assuming Jesus is alive, does this change your answer? Would your faith, the faith you live out, be worthless if Jesus were dead? If your faith would not be worthless to you were Jesus dead, your faith is not biblical Christianity, or at least not consistent, biblical Christianity.

 

            So, Christians, for us, this passage calls us to remember the centrality of the resurrection. Our faith is an objective faith—a faith with an object. Our faith is that we have hope for eternity because, and only because, Jesus was sacrificed in our place for our sin and then rose from the dead. Without that object, nothing in our faith matters, not singing, not praying, not adopting, not giving, not caring, not fellowship, not discipleship, not anything. If Jesus is dead, nothing matters.

 

            But, because Jesus is alive, we have hope. Because Jesus lives, we have meaning. Because Jesus is alive we worship, we praise, we give, we love, we adopt, we study, we evangelize, we go on mission, we love our neighbors. Because Jesus lives we have a reason to live. May we remember that our faith has life only because of the fact that Jesus lives.

Jonah 2:8-9

 

8 Those who pay regard to vain idols

forsake their hope of steadfast love.

9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving

will sacrifice to you;

what I have vowed I will pay.

Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

 

     The prayer above is from Jonah. This is no major surprise. Jonah ran from God and was caught by God. Jonah was brought to a place where he realized that God was in control and that no idols have any power at all.

 

     What is surprising, however, is the state of Jonah when he prayed the wonderful words recorded above. Jonah was in the belly of a fish in the sea. Jonah should have been dead. He had forsaken God. He had refused the command of the Lord. He had run, hoping to avoid any responsibility to obey God. He had run, hoping that God would judge the Assyrians.

 

     Jonah, in the heart of the sea, in the stomach of a fish, realized that any attempt to pay homage to anything that is not God is futile. Jonah understood that trying to do things his way did not work. Jonah understood that nothing and no one could stand in God’s place.

 

     Then Jonah prayed something odder still. He declared his expectation to keep his vows. He expected to offer to God things that he had promised God. He expected to worship God with a heart of thanksgiving. How? How could a man in the tummy of a sea creature think that he was going to get the chance to honor God through obedience?

 

     The last line tells us. Jonah knew that salvation is from God. Jonah could have simply drown. God did not choose to let that happen. God was not going to let Jonah escape his duty simply by dying in the sea. No, God had a plan for Jonah. God was not going to lose—he never does. God chose to save Jonah by having a fish swallow him.

 

     And once Jonah understood that idols are worthless, that God is worthy, and that the Lord is the source of all salvation, the fish swam to shore, vomited Jonah out, and swam away. The prophet, for his part, had a job to do. He was going to obey God and offer right praise to the Lord over all the earth.

 

     Of course Jonah misses much in the remainder of the book. But his prayer in chapter 2 is right on. If we pay heed, if we give homage, if we serve anything other than God, we act as fools. We must not treasure that which is not God—at least not in the same way or to the same degree that we treasure God. Anything that is not God must be infinitely lower in our estimation than our Creator. He is worthy of our worship. He is worthy of our obedience. And one reason why God is so worthy is that he is the sovereign source of our salvation just as he was the sovereign source of Jonah’s salvation at sea.

 

2 Kings 5:20 (ESV)

Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, “See, my master has spared this Naaman the Syrian, in not accepting from his hand what he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him.”

 

            Don’t we wrestle with grace? Don’t we especially wrestle with God’s grace on others? Don’t we especially, strongly struggle with God’s grace shown to others when they do not end up doing what we do or thinking what we think?

 

            Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, could not stomach what God did for Naaman the Syrian. To Gehazi, Syrians were bad guys. Naaman was a high-ranking bad guy. And when Naaman came to Elisha to seek help from God, Elisha just healed him. Yes, there was a bit about Naaman humbling himself and receiving the gracious gift of God by allowing himself to be bathed in the Jordan river, but to Gehazi, this simply did not cost Naaman enough.

 

            Look at what Gehazi said above. Gehazi determined that Naaman did not pay enough for the grace he received. To Gehazi, the right thing to do was to run after Naaman and “get something from him.” Gehazi just could not let grace be grace.

 

            Do we do what Gehazi did? When we see someone converted to faith, can we let them grow in Christ? Is it enough for us that they receive mercy, that they begin to love Christ, and that they begin to obey his commands? Do we feel that we need to get something from others, perhaps even things God did not require?

 

            What is your pet project as a believer? What area are you strongly convicted toward? Is it a particular doctrine that every believer needs to come to or else—Calvinism, anything but Calvinism, continuationism, cessationism, complimentarianism, plurality of elders, congregationalism? Is it a particular ministry—orphan care, urban care, international disaster relief, stopping trafficking? Is it a particular ministry practice—church planting, church revitalization, contemporary music, classic hymns, home-schooling, public-schooling for the sake of evangelism, moms staying home with the kids, moms working outside the home?

 

            I personally believe that there is a right and perhaps even a wrong in each category that I listed above. However, not everything listed above is a doctrinal certainty. Some of the things above are things about which well-meaning, solid-thinking, Bible-believing Christians will disagree. And, when we disagree, it is possible that somebody is wrong. But, and this is the important question, what do we need to do with them? Do we need to run after them to get proper thinking out of them? Do we need to chase them down to force them to not only obey Jesus’ commands, but to also obey those commands in exactly the same way that we obey them ourselves?

 

            Don’t get me wrong; I’m not going all post-modern and anti-theological. I have opinions about what is right, and they are strong ones. But I am also learning at this point in my life as a believer that not everybody is going to be passionate about the same things I am passionate about. It is actually OK for me to love someone while disagreeing with them about certain doctrines. It is even OK for me to learn from somebody with whom I disagree. And I believe that this all has something to do with allowing others to have on their lives the same grace of God that I have on mine.

 

            So, think well before you decide to chase down another believer. Think well about whether or not you are trying, like Gehazi, to “get something from them,” because, perhaps, you have not seen them do enough to join the club. Oh yes, work to make disciples. Yes, help younger believers to embrace right doctrine. Yes, help people to take part in right spiritual practices. But, be careful that you are not, in the process, calling them to do more than obey Jesus, but instead to obey Jesus in your way that matches your particular personality and shape.

            In 2 Kings 4, we find an interesting story of Elisha and a Shunammite woman. This woman, who had been a faithful helper to the prophet of God, was without a son—a major problem in those days. Elisha wanted to bless her for her kindness to him. So, as Elisha went to the Lord on her behalf, he was able to tell the Shunammite that she would have a son, and so she did.

 

            The story gets weird when, later in the same chapter and a few years later in life, the son dies. It’s weird. This little blessing from God just gets a pain in his head and dies. The Shunammite goes to Elisha and tells him that she did not ask for a son. She did not want him to get her hopes up. Then she received a blessing only to lose it.

 

            The story ends with Elisha going to the dead boy, seeking God, and raising the child from the dead. In the end the story is sweet and everyone lives happily ever after.

 

            Here is the question that hit me this morning as I read through the story: Why? Why did we get this story in the text? What in the world are we supposed to think?

 

            Let’s cover some simple ground first The crazy story sets up the magnificent miracle of resurrection. This is in a section of 2 Kings in which we are seeing that Elisha has the power of God on him just as Elijah before him. So, the event happened to show that the power of God was still in his chosen prophet.

 

            We can also see a picture of Christ in this story in two ways. First, anytime we see someone coming back from the dead, we had better think of Jesus. Jesus died and then came back to life. The fact that Jesus came back to life after death is our only hope that we will live after our death. So the story certainly gives us hope that God is more powerful than death.

 

            The story also reminds us of Jesus in the rescuing role that Elisha played. Jesus rescues us from being dead in our sin and transgressions. Jesus is the one who brings us to life, even though we have nothing that we could do to earn it or to make it happen.

 

            But what else might we take from this passage for daily living? What hits me today is the truth that our lives, even the lives of the faithful, will have pain. The Shunammite suffered the sorrow of childlessness and then the horror of the loss of her only son. She received a blessing that she did not ask for only to lose it and then have it returned.

 

            For me, I look at this story and am reminded that God works in our lives, even in our pain, to show us his power, his comfort, and his gospel. Like the Shunammite, any of us may suffer loss. When we do, we need to recall the fact that God is the God who raises the dead. He is the God who comforts the hurting. He is the God who has power beyond our imagining. But, we do not have to experience that power through the return of whatever we feel we have lost. God shows us these miracles to remind us that, in eternity, we get to be in the presence of the One who empowers the miracles. We get to be in the presence of the One who raises the dead. We get to have our souls satisfied by the One who is the source of joy and the Giver of all good things. This strange passage reminds us that God is better than the gifts that he gives us and that our hope is in the God who gives, who takes, but who is ultimately our only great treasure.