We have just completed a nine-part
series on "Lessons of Faith" drawn from the men and women cited in
the "Hall of Fame of Faith" in Hebrews 11. When we study further
these men and women of faith, we find pockmarks of failure scattered about
their lives. In fact, their lives are not that much different from ours, except
that ours probably are more dominated by failure than by faith.
In this new series of articles, we
shall take examples from both Old and New Testament men and women of faith, and
explore the antecedents and causes of their failures. From these lessons of
failure, perhaps we can learn how to avoid some of the failures in our own
Christian lives. The series will conclude on a positive note by looking at
God’s restoration and blessing of those who failed.
Failure Resulting from Problems
and Difficulties of Life
1. Taking our eyes off the Lord
during problems. "Peter … said, Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come
unto Thee on the water. And He said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of
the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind
boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save
me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand and caught him, and said
unto him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" (Matt. 14:28-31).
It is surely thrilling to read of
the faith of dear Peter. One of the most widely-recognized marks of the Lord
Jesus being fully God along with being fully man was His ability to walk on
water. Yet, Peter, a mere human being, also enjoyed a brief stint of walking on
water. How did Peter do it? He simply obeyed the Lord! When he went out in the
boat he had not the slightest idea he would become "a walking
miracle." But the Lord Jesus said "Come," and Peter—totally
forgetful of self—came.
What caused Peter to begin to
sink? "He saw the wind." Because of the roughness of the sea,
he took his eyes off of Jesus and instead looked at the water. Peter started
out remarkably well with a level of faith and obedience that we should all
emulate. But he did not persist in that faith, and thus failed.
The lesson for us is clear and
straightforward. Let us find out through reading God’s Word and prayer what the
Lord Jesus wants us to do, then let us go and do it. All the while, we must
keep our eyes of faith focused on the Lord, depending on Him to give us all the
strength and ability to do what He has asked of us. The Lord may test our faith
by allowing some trials or problems to come into our lives while we are
carrying out His will. We must learn to recognized these situations and focus
our faith all the more on our Lord and Master.
2. Seeking the help of others
instead of the Lord to get through our problems. When the Ethiopian
army—one million strong!—came against the army of Judah led by King Asa,
"Asa cried unto the LORD his God, and said, LORD, it is nothing with Thee
to help, whether with many or with those who have no power:help us, O LORD our
God, for we rest on Thee…. So the LORD smote the Ethiopians … and the
Ethiopians fled" (2 Chron. 14:9-12). What excellent faith! and what a
wonderful response of God to that faith!
Let us now fast-forward about 30
years to another incident in the life of King Asa. "In the 36th year of
the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah…. Then Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of the
LORD and of the king’s house, and sent to Ben-hadad king of Syria" (2
Chron. 16:1,2). This time, instead of trusting in the LORD for help against the
enemy, Asa sought the help of the nation of Syria, a long-time antagonist of
the nation of Judah. What was the outcome? "Hanani the seer came to Asa
king of Judah and said unto him, Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the LORD your God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of your hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with
very many chariots and horsemen? yet, because you relied on the LORD, He
delivered them into your hand" (verses 7,8).
Three years later Asa became
"diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great:yet in his
disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians" (verse 12). Two
years later he died.
How like King Asa are we! When
confronted with a problem, an enemy, or an illness, don’t we often take matters
into our own hands and seek the help of others before—if ever—seeking the
Lord’s help?
3. Trying to escape from our
problems. "There was a famine in the land, and Abram went down into Egypt" (Gen. 12:10). Abram (also known as Abraham) is renowned for his great faith. In
faith and obedience to the LORD, he left his homeland and traveled a long
distance to the land of Canaan. But when a problem [famine] arose, Abram forgot
about the LORD and left the land into which the LORD had led him in order to
escape the problem. In so doing, Abram got into a peck of trouble and greatly
embarrassed himself in the presence of the Egyptian Pharaoh.
Abraham’s son Isaac failed in the
same way in time of famine (Gen. 26). Likewise, David, so brave and dependent
upon the LORD when he went against the giant Goliath, seemed totally forgetful
of the LORD when trying to escape from King Saul. He did many foolish and
sinful things and was the cause of the death of many innocent persons while
trying to escape his problems (1 Sam. 21,22,27).
Contrast the early Christians in Jerusalem when faced with persecution by the Jews:"They lifted up their voice to God
with one accord, and said,… Lord, behold their threatenings and grant unto
Thy servants that with all boldness they may speak Thy Word" (Acts
4:23-29). And what was the outcome of such faithful dependence upon the Lord?
"When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled
together; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spake the
Word of God with boldness" (verse 31). The very thing they prayed
for—boldness—is what they received through the power of the Holy Spirit. May we
remember at all times to call upon the Lord with such faith!
4. Trying to forget our
problems. While King Saul doesn’t fall into the category of a man of faith,
we shall consider him as a powerful example of what happens when we try to
forget our problems rather than righteously dealing with them.
King Saul jealously gave David a
lot of problems, and even tried to destroy David’s life. At the same time Saul
had many problems of his own. The prophet Samuel sharply rebuked him twice for
acts of disobedience to the LORD, telling him, "The LORD has rejected you
from being king over Israel" (1 Sam. 13:13,14; 15:23,26). Between those
two events, he was shouted down by the people for wanting to put his son
Jonathan to death (14:43-45).
With all these negative things—all
of his own doing—putting a great strain on his ego, he became brooding and
depressed, helped along by "an evil spirit from the LORD [that] troubled
him" (16:14). Instead of responding to his failures and God’s judgment
upon him with humble repentance (particularly difficult for one in a position
of authority), Saul brought in a skillful harpist (who happened to be young
David) to help him, through music therapy, to forget his problems.
Saul’s ego problems expanded into
intense hatred and jealousy toward David when he heard the women singing,
"Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands" (18:7).
The music therapy no longer worked because Saul now regarded the musician as
his worst enemy:"It came to pass … that the evil spirit from God came
upon Saul … and David played with his hand, as at other times…. And Saul
cast the javelin … and David avoided out of his presence twice"
(18:10,11). Failing properly to deal with his initial failures, Saul’s sin and
failures continued to escalate.
We must honestly face our
problems, our fears, our being abused or put down by others, our failures, our
humiliating experiences; we must confess and repent of our failures; we must
commit our problems, our negative experiences, and particularly our ego to the
Lord; and then we must get on with our lives through the power of the Holy
Spirit:"This one thing I do, forgetting those things that are behind, and
reaching forth unto those things that are before, I press toward the mark for
the prize of the [calling on high] of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil.
3:13,14).
5. Trying to lie our way out of
our problems. Abram did it (Gen. 12:11-20; 20:2-18); Isaac did it (Gen.
26:7-11); Rahab did it (Josh. 2:1-7); David did it (1 Sam. 21:1-9; 27:10);
Peter did it (Matt. 26:69-75). Sometimes the lying resulted in dire
consequences to the liar or to others (Gen. 20:18; 1 Sam. 22:18-22). All times
it brought grief and dishonor to the Lord (Luke 22:61).
An inmate once told me of standing
trial for a minor offense that carried with it a six-month sentence. He lied to
the judge; the judge believed him and set him free. Six months later he landed
in jail again, this time for a more serious crime for which he faced a 20-year
sentence.
When we have problems, whether
from circumstances, from other people, or of our own doing, may we learn from
the Lord to deal with these problems by:
1. Keeping our eyes on the Lord at
all times.
2. Seeking the Lord’s help first
of all, and only seeking the help of others if led by the Lord to do so.
3. Facing the problem squarely and
dealing with it in the presence of the Lord and with His help, rather than (a)
trying to escape from it, (b) trying to drown it out and forget it, and (c)
trying to lie our way out of it.
"He who has an ear, let him
hear" and learn from these examples.
We shall continue in the next
issue, Lord willing, with a study of man’s failure stemming from other causes.