The Power of a Father

Introduction

I love boating and have done a fair bit of canoeing and kayaking and would some day like to try sailing, but there is nothing like sitting in the driver’s seat of a power boat with an inboard motor and pushing the throttle and feeling the boat come quickly out of the water and begin planeing along the surface of the water at high speed. That’s power and you have control of it at your finger tips.

When our children were young, we drove to Arizona to visit my mom who lived there at the time. We drove there with our four cylinder Buick and when we drove through the mountains in Colorado, we had to slow down every time we went up a hill. The car was pretty loaded down and it just didn’t have the power to maintain speed when going up a hill. When we were visiting my mom, I drove her 1962 Buick Riviera. It had a 455 cubic inch V8 engine. What a difference! Now that is power, and I had control of that power. It was great.

As men, we like power and we like to use power. We also have great power available to us personally. But power is a two edged sword. It can be used to destroy or it can be used to build. We know that water has great power to destroy as we have just experienced in the flood. But the power of water can also be harnessed to cut steal or to produce electrical energy.

This morning I would like to invite you to think about the power of a man in fathering. We as fathers have great power at our disposal. How will we use that power?

The Power of a Father

Just as the power of water can destroy or build, so we can use our power as fathers to break or build our children.

Power to Break

The Bible gives us examples of fathering that destroyed.

Although a good man himself, Eli was not effective as a father. God says about him in I Samuel 3:13, "For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons made themselves contemptible, and he failed to restrain them." Eli did not use his power as a father wisely and as a result did not guide his sons towards obedience and the result was a negative impact for the nation.

Although David was a man after God’s own heart, there were times when he did not use his power as a father effectively. His son Amnon had raped his half sister, Tamar. Absalom was the full brother of Tamar and when he heard about what had happened he killed Amnon and fled. David did not deal with this conflict well and later we read in II Samuel 14:21, 24, "The king said to Joab, "Very well, I will do it. Go bring back the young man Absalom."..."But the king said, "He must go to his own house; he must not see my face." So Absalom went to his own house and did not see the face of the king." This failure to deal with these serious conflicts resulted in Absalom’s rebellion against his father.

Power used negatively is destructive of families. I have read that men are involved in 90 percent of child and spousal abuse cases.

One writer says, "A child’s heart is easily bruised. Easily torn. Easily broken. And once seriously damaged, no team of surgeons in God’s world can repair it. Only the Almighty Himself has the skill to restore its original balance, potential, and capacities."

One of the saddest stories I have read about a father using his power to destroy is the following.

"I was just 12 when my Boy Scout troop planned a father-son camp-out. I was thrilled and could hardly wait to rush home and give my father all the information. I wanted to show him all I’d learned in scouting, and I was so proud when he said he’d go with me."

"The Friday of the camp-out finally came, and I had all my gear out on the porch, ready to stuff in his car the moment he arrived. We were to meet at the local school at 5:00 pm. and car pool to the campground. But Dad didn’t get home until 7:00 pm.

"I was frantic, but he explained how things had gone wrong at work and told me not to worry. We could still get up first thing in the morning and join the others. After all, we had a map. I was disappointed, of course, but decided to just make the best of it.

"First thing in the morning, I was up and had everything in his car while it was still getting light, all ready for us to catch up with my friends and their fathers at the campground. He had said we’d leave around 7:00, and I was ready a half hour before that. But he never got up until 9:30.

"When he saw me standing out front with the camping gear, he finally explained that he had a bad back and couldn’t sleep on the ground. He hoped I’d understand and that I’d be a `big boy’ about it... but could I please get my stuff out of his car because he had several `commitments’ he had to keep.

"That’s when I realized that my dad never meant to go with me to the campout. He just didn’t have the guts to tell me."

"How do you restore the capacity to trust after trust has been shattered like that?"

Power to Build

Fortunately, fathers not only have the power to destroy, but also to build. We read in the Bible about Samuel’s parents. Most often we read about his mother, but his father was also instrumental in the good parenting that went on there. We read in I Samuel 1:3, "Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the LORD Almighty at Shiloh..." After Samuel was born, but not yet weaned, Elkanah said to his wife in I Samuel 1:23 “‘Do what seems best to you…Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the LORD make good his word.’ So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.” It was Samuel’s father who was faithful in worship attendance and led his family in worship. We also notice that he was supportive of his wife and helped her in discerning God’s will and in directing her to God’s way.

It is great to read stories of faithful parenting. I am not sure where I found the following story, but it brought tears to my eyes when I read it.

"After her father’s death, Sara went through some of his personal things. Opening his Bible, she came across a pressed rosebud and two ticket stubs. Suddenly, the memories came flooding back. During her insecure, unsettling, and terribly important teenage years, her father had... used his power for good.

"I grew up in a poor family in the late 40’s. My father loved us very much and worked extremely hard to keep five kids in shoes and clothes, but still, most of our clothes were hand-me-downs from the missionary barrel at church.

"During high school, I struck gold with a wealthy family at church who needed a baby-sitter. I saved my money, and then one night, I wrote up a special invitation to my father, asking if he would go out with me on a special "date" the next evening.

"My father responded by picking up flowers on his way home from work, then brushing off and putting on his only nice suit--usually reserved for weddings or funerals. “After all,” he said, “it’s not often you get to go out with the `belle of the ball.’”

"We went to a local restaurant and had hamburgers and chocolate milkshakes. Then we went to see a show, and we walked home together, arm in arm.

"I’ll never forget how he hugged me when we got home, and how he told me he loved me, prayed for me and was proud of me."

"Looking at those ticket stubs and faded rose from a special night nearly half a century ago, Sara realized how the power of that memory had warmed her days and encouraged her heart through all the intervening years. No matter what others may have thought of her, her father thought she was the "belle of the ball." No matter what she accomplished or failed to accomplish, she could still close her eyes and see the pride glistening in her father’s eyes."

Using Our Power to Build

As fathers, we have great power with our wife and our children. How can we use our power to build relationships and to help them become the best people they can be?

We will not gain our children by using the power we have as men or by the power we have because we are the head of the home or the power we have because of our place in society. We will be most effective with the power of love.

Jesus was the Son of God. He had power over the wind and the waves; he had power over life and death. And yet in his relationship with the disciples and others around him, he set aside that power and used the power of love.

The Pharisees expected a power Messiah, Jesus had that kind of power, but he also had power to change lives through love and kindness. He used the personal power of love in order to always seek our best. How did Jesus do that? How can we as fathers do that? Although I am addressing fathers, these are great ways for us to build into other’s lives in any relationship.

Honor

We know that the Bible tells children to honor their parents. But have we ever realized that it also encourages us to honor our children?

Jesus is our example. How did Jesus treat others? When the society he lived in treated women as little more than property, Jesus honored women by giving them a place in his kingdom and discussing God’s truth with them. In John 4:9 Jesus had a theological discussion with the Samaritan woman. It began like this: “The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)’” Yet Jesus did talk to her – a Samaritan and a woman! He honored women in a society that did not.

But Jesus also honored children. When the people were bringing children to Jesus to have him bless them, the disciples tried to protect Jesus. But Jesus honored the children, not only by having them come, but also by inviting them to sit on his lap and blessing them. We read in Matthew 19:14, 15, “Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’ When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.”

How can we honor our children? The essence of honoring is to let them know that they count. How can we do that?

One way is to build security into their lives. One of the most destructive insecurities for many children today is that they are fearful that their parents won’t stay together. They have friends whose parents are separated or divorced and they wonder if it will happen to their own parents. That is why it is so important that as parents we let our children know that as their parents we love each other and that we are committed to each other for life. We have heard it before, but it bears repeating - the greatest gift you can give your children is to love your wife.

All children need regular affirmation. We have sometimes heard it said that if you praise a child too much he will become proud. I believe that often it works exactly the opposite. A child who lacks praise will try any way to get it. If no one speaks well of them, they will boast about themselves. A child, who is regularly affirmed, knows that she or he is worthy and so does not need to boast. Affirmation does not build self aggrandizement, it builds self esteem.

We as fathers have great power to build up our children and one of the best ways we can do that is to honor them.

Meaningful Communication

A further way of using our power to build is to engage in good communication.

Jesus was an expert communicator. He was not weak and could speak what needed to be said when it was necessary. But he was also compassionate and spoke words of love to those around him. We see the heart of Jesus in Matthew 9:36 where we read, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Good communication begins with a heart of compassion.

Another aspect of good communication is patience. One of the powers of men is the power to fix things. We don’t mind if people notice that we can fix anything. We are good at figuring things out and arriving quickly at a solution and fixing a problem. Relationships are not often as easily fixed. When I play Ping Pong, I have learned some pretty fancy shots and I try to use them to beat my opponent with a quick spike or a tricky spin. When I play with Carla, however, I can’t beat her with that method. The only way I have a chance with her is if I play a patient game. The quick fix doesn’t work. Often we want to fix problems in relationships the same way we fix our car or try to win a ping pong game, but it doesn’t work. Good communication means that we need to be patient and allow time for listening. James 1:19 reminds us, "My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,"

We have at our disposal the power of words. Will we use them to build?

Meaningful Touch

When the people brought the little children to Jesus we read in Mark 10:13, 16, “People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them and he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them."

Touch can be a very powerful way of encouraging others. Even simple things like a handshake or a hand on the shoulder can encourage someone. In the family, touch is healing and building and greatly needed today. A hug or even half a hug are wonderful ways of using the power of our hands to build our children. Words are not enough. We need to show our children in physical ways that we love them.

Of course touch needs to be appropriate. In our world today touch has been used to hurt too often and so we need to make sure that we use appropriate touch which can be so healing.

Some people have no problem giving a hug, but others find it uncomfortable. What may simply be expressed as “that is how I am” may be interpreted by children as “you don’t care.” Touch is powerful and can build powerfully and is a great blessing and so should not be ignored as a means of blessing our children.

Regular Emotional Bonding Experiences

Over the last ten years or so, my brother and I have met for lunch as often as it suits us. Two weeks ago, I called him and asked if he had time for lunch. We had not met for quite a while and although we have been together at family gatherings, it seems that we don’t really get to talk with each other much at those events. I felt as if we hadn’t had a good talk for a while and so we met for lunch. We always enjoy getting caught up and we have built a closer relationship by having lunch together. I read somewhere that "deep friendships come in the context of doing something else together."

Jesus engaged in this type of relationship building with his disciples. They went with him wherever he went and they got to know him and he taught them in the context of life. One story which illustrates this is the story of the storm at sea in Mark 4:35-41, "That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along in the boat. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?" He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!" As they were together in the boat, they got to know Jesus in a whole new way.

In order to use our power as fathers to build, let us take the time for emotional bonding experiences-working together, eating together, playing together and so on. These are all ways we can use to express the power of love.

Evident Consistent Love for God

One of the most impressive things about Jesus is the relationship he had with his Father. It was clearly evident that he loved the Father and that the Father loved him. In Matthew 11:27, Jesus said, “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." In that passage, we realize that Jesus had a very close relationship with His Father. Where did that relationship come from? In Matthew 14:23 we read that “After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.” Jesus had a very close relationship with God because he spent time with God. This relationship was seen by the disciples and had a powerful influence on them.

Jesus developed his relationship with God and demonstrated to the disciples what such a relationship looked like. We can use our power as fathers, indeed as parents to show our children the right way to have a relationship with God. If our relationship with God is close and evident, we will show our children how to have such a relationship.

Conclusion

Jesus had great power, but he was among us as a servant. As men, we have great power, but on this Father’s Day, I would like to invite you as fathers to use your power as a servant in your family.

In the book, “What Kids Need Most in a Dad,” Tim Hansel says, “Home – Where servant leadership is needed most.” – like Jesus. Then in responding to the question, “What is servant leadership?” he answers, “a servant father is more concerned with how he sees than with how he looks.” “A servant father does not say, ‘Get going,’ but instead he says, ‘let’s go.” “A servant father listens as much as he speaks.”

As Fathers, may we imitate Jesus so that as our children imitate us, they will also learn to imitate Jesus.

Be Subject To One Another

Ephesians 5:21

Introduction

The cover page of The Messenger had these words, “One Christian is no Christian.” That is a very direct statement and difficult to accept for some people. It declares that as Christians we need to be in relationship to other Christians. It means that we need to surrender ourselves to the church and to one another. This is difficult for some because as David Wiebe says in an article in the MB Herald, “The idea of surrender seems foreign in our age of individualism, entitlement, and dysfunctional relationships. Yet surrender is a critical element of Christian discipleship and vitality.” It is also a difficult statement when we realize that no church is perfect. How do you enter into a covenant relationship with something that you know may fail at times? Yet today we have two young people who are prepared to say, “I belong to Jesus and I want to be part of His church.” We have four adults who look at this church and say, “I want to be part of this body of believers and make a commitment to it.”

We believe that the Bible teaches us to be in such a relationship with one another. In a little while we will be asking all 6 of these people, “Is it your desire to work together with us as God enables and be received into the fellowship of this church?” We will ask them for a commitment to us and we will make a commitment to them.

There are many places in the Bible where we can find such a relationship affirmed and described. This morning, I would like to look at one of those statements in order to help all of us think about the covenant we make to each other as members of the church.
Ephesians 5:21 says, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

Free and Voluntary

One of the first important things is to recognize that submission is not something which is forced upon people, but which is chosen. The verb tense in the word “submit” is passive, which means we choose it. Some of the other translations help us get that sense very well. The Good News Bible says, “Submit yourselves to one another…” and the King James Version says, “Submitting yourselves one to another…”

We need to understand that such submission is not a blind obedience. In a number of places in the Bible Paul taught the church not to submit to certain situations. In Galatians 2, Paul is telling the church that there were some “false brothers” who were trying to get them to obey the law rather than trust Christ for salvation. Paul says in 2:5, “we did not yield submission even for a moment.” He also expressed concern with the Corinthian Christians, in II Corinthians 11:4 that they were submitting to false teachers who were preaching a different gospel. So we see that blind obedience is not what is meant by submission. I watched the movie Antz the other day. It has a strong message of the danger when unthinking obedience is given to a leader. We are not to give unthinking obedience to one another or to the church.

We are also not to force obedience on one another. There have been times when the church has tried to use power to cause people to obey. This is not what is intended. Markus Barth, in his commentary says that this verse is, “an appeal to free and responsible agents that can only be heeded voluntarily, but never by the elimination or breaking of the human will, not to speak of servile submissiveness.”

So I think it is important to say at the beginning of this study on submission that ultimately it is each person’s choice to submit to the body of believers. However, submission is important in the church and so we are invited to make this choice.

In the Fear of Christ

The other part of the verse is critical in helping us understand why such a challenging call is reasonable. It is because we are called to submit “out of reverence for Christ.”

Because Christ Modeled Submission

When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, he agonized over the awful thing which was before Him. He knew that He was about to face suffering at the hands of wicked men even to the extent of his death. It seems that, although He came to earth to die and knew it all along, at this point He had a choice. It was the Father who had given Him the assignment and in the garden, in agony, He wrestled with the choice. We are amazed when in the end Jesus declared in Matthew 26:39, “not as I will, but as you will.” What a powerful example of submission.

In Philippians 2 we have another picture of the way in which Jesus carried out His ministry. There we read that He took “the nature of a servant” and “He became obedient to death, even death on a cross.” Jesus took the attitude of submission His whole life. In fact, one could say it was His modus operandi, His method of operation.

As we make the choice to be subject to one another, we follow the example of Jesus.

Because We First Submit to Him

But submission to one another “out of reverence for Christ” also means that we first submit to Him. David Wiebe says, “At a basic level, we surrender to Jesus when we say he alone can save us.”

When we receive a gift from someone, it involves an act of submission. If they give us something and we receive it, we are saying, “I have a need” and “you can fulfill my need.” In salvation, that is what we do. We submit to Jesus by accepting the gift He has prepared for us.

But we also recognize that receiving the gift of salvation is only part of what it means to be a Christian. Jesus is Lord and when we understand and accept that, we are also submitting to His Lordship in our lives. We are saying that it is our first commitment in life to obey the one who has created and redeemed us.

As we choose submission to one another in the fear of Christ, we are saying that our first submission is to Christ – to His gift and to His Lordship. In fact, it would be true to say that our submission to one another must arise out of our prior submission to Christ. Submission to one another does not make sense nor is it reasonable unless we have first submitted to Christ.

Humility

Those of you who are being baptized are telling us that you have submitted to Christ. All of you who are joining the church are saying that you are willing to join in a covenant by which we say to one another, “I am willing to submit to you.” What does it take to make such a statement? Surely one thing is an attitude of humility. A proud person will not be able to submit to others.

If we have submitted to God first of all, humility becomes a possibility. Humility begins when we know who we are before God. He is Lord, we are servants. He is creator, and we are creatures. He is judge and we bow before Him. We will find it difficult to submit to one another and to God if we do not begin with recognizing who God is. Most translations have softened this phrase to “out of reverence for Christ” but the Greek actually says “out of the fear of Christ.” That means that Christ is all powerful and we fear His power and His judgments. So we are called to place ourselves under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

However, humility does not mean that we are nothing. Sometimes, when we know our sins and our weaknesses and the greatness of God, we think of ourselves as nothing, as a worm. But that is not what humility means. God has made us in His image, which means that we have infinite worth. Humility means that we understand that we are not God, but also that we are not nothing. C.S. Lewis puts it this way, “to humble oneself before God means becoming so aware of the greatness and reality of God that the self falls into its proper perspective, certainly not at the center, but infinitely worthy and precious because God is fully present and in control…”

When we have a proper view of God and ourselves, then we are also able to have a proper view of who we are in relationship to others. If we have too high a view of ourselves, we will have trouble submitting to others. As you become members, you will have opportunity to become involved in ministry. You will be asked to serve in programs and on committees. Humility means knowing that you can’t and shouldn’t do everything you are asked.

On the other hand, a proper view of humility means that we know who we are and what we have to contribute. In the life of the church, the Bible tells us that each person has a gift. That is a cause for great joy and a reason why, in humility, we can submit to one another. If each one has a gift, it means that no one person has all the gifts. Even the most gifted among us needs the others. On the other hand, it also means that each person is needed. Every person in this church has something to offer to the church.

As you become members today, may this be one of the ways in which you submit to one another. May you rejoice to receive the gifts that others have to give to you. May you also rejoice to offer what God has uniquely equipped you to give to the body.

Self Giving Co-operation

In choosing to submit, we also have the opportunity to choose self giving co-operation.

Self giving co-operation means that we put ourselves at the disposal of others in the church. We are not here to serve ourselves or to build a community in which we have a happy little family. We are here to build the kingdom of God and if we have first of all submitted ourselves to Him, then we are ready to do whatever it takes to be involved in that work.

Being involved in that work involves some pretty mundane tasks. It means that week after week, someone has to take posters off the bulletin boards and put new ones up. It means that week after week, someone has to make sure that all the light bulbs in the church are functioning. It means that every week someone needs to punch out the perforated figures in the Sunday School material in order to make the truth about God known to the 2 and 3 year olds. Are we willing to give ourselves to these mundane tasks as a part of building the kingdom of God?

Self giving co-operation means that we may have to be involved in some things that force us out of our comfort zone. Getting up in front of the church to share your testimony is not an easy thing for everyone and I appreciate that each of you are willing to do it. When you tell us your story of what God has done in your life, God is glorified and the kingdom of God is built. Self giving co-operation means that we may have to visit someone who is difficult to visit – someone who has had surgery and has tubes in their nose or someone who has Alzheimer’s disease and is no longer saying things that make sense. But as we show love to the least, to the hurting, we declare that God’s love is winning and we build the kingdom of God.

Self giving co-operation means that we cannot just coast into the heavenly kingdom sitting on a pew.

Conclusion

In I Peter 5:5, Peter calls the believers to, “clothe yourselves with humility.” It may be that the imagery in the background of the phrase “clothe yourselves” is the girding of oneself with the towel, much as Jesus did when he washed the disciple’s feet. This evening we will observe foot washing. This is a great symbol for us to express the Biblical truths which we are discussing. Such a physical symbol of servanthood forces us to think carefully about submission. When we wash each other’s feet it makes us think about our relationship with all the other people in the congregation. What if we end up washing the feet of someone with whom we have had a disagreement? How do we serve them with joy and love? How do we live our lives in the congregation in such a way as to be able to serve everyone? In the foot washing service, we have a great chance to declare by our actions that we value everyone, that we are humble, but that we also have something to offer to the whole body.

It is great to participate in foot washing and I certainly invite everyone to do so today. But the symbol is also a symbol of what it means to be subject to one another in all the different aspects of church life. May we be willing to live in such a way! As you are baptized, we will hear how you are declaring your submission to Christ and are accepting His salvation. As you become members and as those of you who are transferring become members, we understand that you are also declaring to the rest of this body, your intention to submit to one another. “At the same time, as we accept all these people as members, we are declaring that we are also willing to be subject to them in the fear of Christ. With such an attitude, the power of God can continue to grow this church and His kingdom through this church.

God Our Redeemer

Introduction

What comes out of the back end of a cow stinks. It is gross and we don’t want to step in it or get it on ourselves. If we do, everyone smells it and avoids us. Can anything good come out of that stinky mess?

For $39.95 you can get a cow pie clock. Is that making something beautiful out of a stinky mess? I am not sure I would want one of those hanging in my living room, but God does something even better. If you take that manure and mix it into the soil of your garden and plant flowers, the flowers will grow well and a beautiful thing will come out of that which stinks and is gross.

That is what God does and what God is like. We sometimes use a term for manure to express how we feel about a situation. God can take the crap of our life and redeem situations and make something beautiful out of them.

Stories of God’s Redemption

There are many stories in the Bible and in life which illustrate this point.

Joseph

One day Jacob gave his son Joseph a special coat. The importance of the coat was that it showed that he did not have to do hard work, but was a special person. His brothers noticed the favoritism, which existed because Joseph was the son of his favorite wife, Rachel. They began to hate Joseph because of that. Then one day Joseph had dreams in which he dreamt that the sun and moon and 11 stars all bowed down to him. When he told his family, that didn’t help matters at all and his brothers became even angrier with him.

One day when his brothers were looking after the sheep some distance away from home, Jacob sent Joseph to check up on them. When they saw him coming, they began to figure out a way in which they could get rid of him, that is how much they hated him. They decided that they would kill him and then dip his coat in animal blood and bring it to their father and show him that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. One of the brothers didn’t want to do that and so they put him in a pit and when some slave traders came by they sold him into slavery. Then they did take the bloody coat to their father and Jacob thought that his favorite son was dead.

That is how Joseph got to Egypt and began to serve Potiphar as a household slave. He did so well that soon he was in charge of all the other slaves. But Potiphar’s wife tried to entice Joseph into committing adultery with her and one day she caught him and tried to trap him, but he ran away leaving his coat with her. She was embarrassed and accused him of trying to rape her and Potiphar got mad and put him in prison. What a mess he got into! He went from being a favored son to a slave to a prisoner in a foreign land. Can anything good come out of this?

Well, as you may remember, while in prison, Joseph had interpreted some dreams for some of Pharaoh’s servants and asked them to remember him before Pharaoh. They forgot until another two years had passed by. Then Pharaoh had some dreams and suddenly his chief cup bearer remembered Joseph. He was called before Pharaoh and before he knew it Joseph had become second in command in the whole land in charge of food storage and distribution.

When the famine, which Pharaoh had dreamed about, struck, it also hit Jacob and his sons in their land. They went to Egypt to get food, and can you imagine the thoughts going through Joseph’s mind when he saw his brothers? Yet he did not seek revenge and he did not try to hurt them for the hurt they had caused him. He knew what God was like and that God is able to bring blessing out of what looks like an evil mess. Years later when their father died, the brothers were fearful that now Joseph would retaliate for his brother’s evil deeds. But Joseph said to them in Genesis 50:20, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

Because of the whole sequence of events including the evil done to Joseph by his brothers, the family was preserved through the years of famine. The effect of this evil could very likely also have caused an even more important blessing. It was in Egypt that this little family grew to a large nation, away from the evil influences in Canaan. Four hundred years later they had become a great nation and then they returned to the Promised Land. God truly was able to take something bad and make it into something good.

Wenham says, “…through sinful men God works out his saving purposes.”

Genealogy in Matthew

This is not by any means the only story like this.

There is a story in the Old Testament that involves a number of injustices and moral evils. It is the story of Tamar. Judah, another of the sons of Jacob, was married and had three sons. The oldest son was married to Tamar, but he died. As was custom, the second son was given to Tamar to raise offspring for his brother. That is how things were done on those days and this was an important obligation. The second son of Judah, however, refused to fulfill this obligation and God punished him and he died. The third son was younger and Judah told Tamar to live with her parents until that son was old enough to fulfill the obligation. However, Judah never carried through with this promise and Tamar realized what was happening. When Judah was in the area where her parents lived looking after his sheep, Tamar pretended she was a prostitute and slept with Judah. He did not recognize her because she had a veil on. Later, when Judah found out that his daughter-in-law was pregnant, he was very angry and demanded her death. When it was revealed that he was the one who had gotten her pregnant, he realized that she had been holding him accountable to his promise. Out of this pregnancy twins were born to her. What a mess! It is a story of evil men failing to fulfill promises. It is a story of adultery, prostitution and incest. Can anything good come out of such a mess?

Another story which took place years later involves Naomi who in a time of poverty went with her husband and two sons into the land of Moab during a time of drought and famine. There her two sons were married to Moabite women. After a time, her husband and her two sons died and Naomi was left with her two daughter-in-laws. One returned to her parents, but Ruth remained with Naomi. What a tragedy this story represents. To be a widow, in poverty in those days was not only terrible because you were vulnerable, having no man to defend you. It was also difficult because you had no means of support. Naomi and Ruth returned to the land of Judah, but even there they continued in poverty. As well, we need to realize that Ruth would forever be an outcast. Deuteronomy 23:3 says that, “No Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord…” She and her descendants for ten generations could not go to worship God in the temple. What a mess! Can anything good come out of such a story?

A number of years later we have another story of trouble. David was king and one year when his army went to war, he stayed home. While looking out from the roof of his palace he noticed a very beautiful woman bathing. He desired her, called for her and had sex with her. When he found out that she was pregnant, he called for her husband, who was engaged in the battle, to come home, hoping that he would lie with his wife and the pregnancy could be attributed to him. Uriah didn’t do it, however, stating that he could not dishonor his vow as a soldier in order to enjoy his wife. In response, David sent a message with Uriah to the commander to put him in the most dangerous position so that he would die in battle. Now Bathsheba was a widow and David took her as his wife. The child born to them died because of the evil which David had done. Here was a man whom God called a “man after my heart” who did such a terrible thing. It is a story of adultery and murder and is a terrible mess and a very clear evil. Can anything good come out of such a mess?

In the gospel of Matthew, in the first chapter, we have a genealogy which describes the background of Jesus. In this genealogy there are only 4 women mentioned. Three of them are those we have mentioned in the stories above. One who acted as a prostitute, one who was a foreigner and one who was an adulteress. Jesus came from this background. It is another way in which we see that God takes mess and brings something good out of it.

Jesus

The greatest story of redemption and blessing which comes out of evil is the story of Jesus. What evil we see when Jesus was secretly arrested, falsely accused, mercilessly beaten and cruelly hung on a cross. What a mess! Can anything good come out of this mess? Satan was doing all he could to destroy the work of God and when Jesus was killed, it may have looked like he had won. Yet that was God’s plan. It is precisely out of that evil and because of the evil, that God has given us the beauty of the story of redemption which has brought forgiveness, blessing, hope and eternal life to anyone who receives it. After an incident of persecution in the early church the believers recognized in Acts 4:27, 28, “Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.” What was it that “should happen?” Mark 10:45 says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Amber

Amber wrote the following on her blog recently:

“I took the above photo of Hailey last summer. At the time, I was kind of disappointed with the blurry shot, it wasn't what I was going for at all! I discarded it and for many months I forgot about it. Then one day I came across this quote: "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain."

“I immediately thought about that photo of Hailey holding the umbrella. I located it and put the two together. After all that time, the discarded 'blurry' shot finally had a purpose and I could use it to make something beautiful. Something that had meaning and gave me joy. Isn't that how God uses certain circumstances in life? At the time, things aren't what we had hoped for and aren't happening the way we imagined. But, days, weeks, months or even years later we can see that there was a purpose and there was beauty that came.”

What God Is Like

All of these stories point in the same direction. God is able to take that which is not good and redeem it for good. There is a verse in the Bible which speaks about this. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” But we need to be very careful about how we interpret this verse.

This Does Not Mean:

We need to understand what this verse does not mean.

It does not mean that bad is a blessing or that evil is good. What Joseph’s brothers did to him was evil and can never be anything but evil. What David did to Bathsheba and Uriah was wrong and it was punished as sin. We can never say that it was a good thing. What Pilate and the Jewish leaders, indeed what we did to Jesus on the cross was the greatest evil in the world and we can never see it as anything but evil.

I once heard someone facetiously rejoice that something bad had happened because of the hope that God would turn it into something good. That is not what is intended here. When people do wrong things to each other, they are still wrong. When storms bring devastation to lives, when planes fall out of the sky and disappear into the Atlantic Ocean, those are all terrible things. We cannot call them good. We cannot go glibly on. We live in a broken world and bad things happen in this broken world and we must give full weight to what happened and acknowledge the wrong of it.

However, we do not need to stop there. If we only acknowledge the evil and “cry over the spilt milk” we let evil win. The wrong and the evil must be fully acknowledged, but that is not the end of the story.

This verse also does not mean that there is a natural law in the world that inevitably moves towards good. Murphy’s law says that “if anything can go wrong, it will.” Many people have noted, from their experience a long list of related laws, like, “No matter how long or how hard you shop for an item, after you've bought it, it will be on sale somewhere cheaper.” “The other line always moves faster.” “When a broken appliance is demonstrated for the repairman, it will work perfectly.” “The clothes washer/dryer will only eat one of each pair of socks.” Or from Erma Bombeck "Anything dropped in the bathroom will fall in the toilet.” This verse does not challenge Murphy’s Law and declare another law that somehow things will always get better. This is not simply an optimistic statement, a glass half full statement. The end of the story is that there is someone in the universe who makes good happen!

This Does Mean:

So what does it mean?

It means that God is sovereign. The evil in the world and the wrong done in the world is not ultimately going to win. Murphy’s Law has a shelf life and eventually, because God is the Lord of this entire world, He will bring the world to the conclusion which He has determined. God has a plan, a plan which He revealed in the Garden of Eden and which He has been working on since ever since. It is a plan which will destroy evil and which will bring good.

It means that God is good. The evil which we see in the world and which we all experience is not what God intends to happen in the world. All evil and all wrong is not only a violation of God’s intentions, it is a polar opposite to His intentions. When God created the world He declared it good and that good is what is within the nature of God.

It means that God is powerful. Evil is not strong enough to overcome God. God is going to win in the end. God has the power to overcome.

It means that God is wise. He knows how to bring together pieces of a puzzle that seems like it can never be solved and He can bring it together in such a way that it is a blessing. Romans 11:33 declares, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!”

It means that God is love and that nothing can separate us from the love of God. If we read further on in Romans 8 we discover that God’s love will always be there for those who are His. Romans 8:38, 39 says, For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ^39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

It means, when it says, “all things” that this is always true of the way God works. John Piper says, “Paul is not saying all things work for good for Christians some of the time (when their love for God is strong), and all things don’t work for good for Christians some of the time (when their love for God is weak). He is saying that for Christians – the called, those whose hearts have been brought from enmity to love for God – all things work for good all the time.”

Therefore, God is able to make something good come out of any wrong or evil that occurs. As John Toews says, “God in Christ replaces fear, creation in travail, decay, frustration, groaning, and suffering with the revelation of the children of God, liberation from bondage and decay, glorification.”

Therefore, as John Toews further says, “God is on our side.”

Psalm 103:4 encourages us when we read, “Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies…”

For Those Who Love Him

We must however recognize that this promise is conditional. It is not a blanket statement that God will work everything out for everyone. The promise of God’s blessing and bringing good out of any situation is conditional and extended to those, as the verse says, “who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Everyone who is a follower of Jesus is a called person. Everyone who is a Christian is a person who has grasped that he or she is loved by God and loves God in return. This promise is for those who belong to God. They are the ones who can live with the confidence that God redeems suffering, difficulty and even evil and brings about His good purposes.

Conclusion

Sabrina wrote the following in her blog: “Do I seem to be doing too well? Because I have not been angry at God am I not really feeling? Is there an underlying assumption that being okay with the fact that our baby is with the Lord means I do not find this loss to be profound? Because I do not feel the need to ask God why in this process in no way minimizes the fact that it simply just sucks. The circumstance is terrible. Yet it is simply part of reality that in our world things go wrong in pregnancy, as well as in countless other circumstances, and so the why is not as significant for me. Because I have a clear understanding of how I believe God is (or is not) involved in this event, I do not feel the need to go there. Let me assure you, however, that although that question may not be on my lips that my heart still aches for this baby.”

I thought this was profound. It doesn’t gloss over the pain, but underneath there is a profound hope in a God who is trustworthy.

In the Life Principles Study Bible, in a piece written by Charles Stanley we read, “Sometimes God allows us to go through difficult times, even as a result of the wicked actions of others. Yet whatever we have to endure, no matter how unfair or unjust, we can be sure that God will use it for good.”

So if that is how God is, if that is what God does, how can we respond?

We can trust in the Lord. Psalm 3:5-10 says, "Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He's the one who will keep you on track. Don't assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil! Your body will glow with health; your very bones will vibrate with life! Honor God with everything you own; give Him the first and the best."

We can live with hope. Paul saw how his imprisonment resulted in the spread of the gospel. He wrote in Philippians 1:12, “Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.”

We can patiently wait upon the Lord. James 5:10, 11 encourages us, “Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. ^11 As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.”