The Root Cause

Someone recently told me everything was political. I disagreed because I took a walk that evening and saw the sunset over the hills and enjoyed a crisp September evening and there wasn't a thing political about it. Oh, but that's where I was wrong. Because, as I was informed, if we don't tackle climate change, then there won't be a sunset in the future and the fact that I couldn't see it was proof of my privilege. I was blind and need to be given eyes to see, apparently. Everything this fellow thought about was filtered through a political ideology. It's a sad way to live your life. Imagine ordering your life by a political ideology dreamed up by power hungry individuals. I made a trip once and used my GPS to guide me. When it said I arrived, I was in the middle of a Country Road, neither taking me home, nor to the place where I belonged. Either the GPS was busted or the address I was given was off, or maybe user error. But I trusted a lie and ended up in the middle of nowhere. What happens when we believe a lie about a diagnosis to a problem? I knew someone who had terrible wrist pain. They tried medicine, ointments, wrist braces, but nothing worked. Come to find out, the problem wasn't the wrist, but they had elbow tendonitis. The pain in the wrist started with a problem in the elbow. All the treatments to the wrist were never getting to the root cause and the more they tried the worse things got.

We live in a country where a good portion of children are raised by government schools and taught government morals. Parents are more concerned if their boy can shoot foul shots or field a grounder than their souls. Little girls are dressed up like harlots and told that's empowering. No amount of money or good teachers can counterbalance disregarding Exodus 20:12. Children are raised to be selfish and full of themselves. It's never little Johnny's fault. He got bad grades because his teacher didn't like him (Proverbs 23:9). He didn't make the team because the coach had a grudge against him (Proverbs 16:2). He can't get a job because the employers are against him (Proverbs 10:4). Why, the whole world is against him (Proverbs 12:15). What else can he do, but riot (Proverbs 17:19 ). It's the system – it's the nation that's at fault and rigged against him (Proverbs 14:34). It can't be Johnny's fault, he's not to blame (Proverbs 17:15).

We are applying the wrong medicine to the wrong problem and no presidential election will ever fix this. Parents raise their children in a lie, to believe a lie and then wonder why they end up adrift. Don't talk to me about politics and tell me your answers for the ills of this nation if you don't have your kids in church. You don't know enough about the problem to provide an answer. 

“When the youths of a nation grow up with the idea that it unmanly to honor their parents, or to venerate old age, or to respect authority, I say of this nation that, whatever be the richness of her natural products, or the spread of her commerce, or the wealth of her revenue, or the bravery of her citizens, or the learning of her scholars, or the genius of her statesmen, or the grandeur of her history, her foundation stones are already unsettled and heaving and that it only needs the slightest jar, and all that shall remain to tell of her prosperity and liberty and richness and glory will be the magnificent terribleness of her ruins. Believe me, the surest guarantee which the patriot has that the people of the next generation will be a prosperous, virtuous, law-abiding people, consist in the fidelity with which in this generation parents enforce and children obey the commandment “Honor thy father and thy mother." - GD Boardman

Or, if we were wise, we could look at the problem and work backwards. We have a nation of riotous, unfaithful, slothful, unthankful, and unholy citizens. How did we get here? If our society is rotten to the core, should parents work hard to make sure they fit in to and conform society? 

Maybe it's not just the 5th commandment. Maybe it's because Americans have spent the last 40 years of Sunday's glued to TV sets watching men play football instead of worshiping Christ. Maybe, its because we said church was important to our kids, but found every excuse not to go and then are shocked when they don't think it's important either. Maybe we condemned fornication at church and then laughed at it on television, or we condemn those "Hollywood elites" and all their filth and spend so much of our time and money consuming their goods and drinking their poison. 

2 Chronicles 7:14  If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.**

** I know it's popular to scoff at men who quote 2 Chronicles 7:14. Indeed, this was a promise to Israel and not America, but let me ask you this - what would the United States look like, if God's people humbled themselves, prayed, sought his face, and turned from their wicked ways? What would the consequences of such revival be? The evangelical elites would do well to keep their mouth shut when God's people call for self-examination and repentance. 

Known Knowns

Romans 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

In 2002, Donald Rumsfeld, speaking about weapons of mass destruction and Iraq said, “…there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know.” This of course, sounds funny (especially the way he said it) but it is true. I know I don’t know astrophysics (I’m sure you are shocked) — but there are things in the vastness of the universe no one knows are there, so we don’t know exactly what it is we don’t know. There are also things we think we know, but don’t. I read a book published in 17th century on Romans 8. He was illustrating how bad things can work for good and said even the leeches work for our good, by sucking out only the bad blood. He knew his theology, but not medicine. He knew the “settled science” of the day, but didn’t know the consensus was wrong.

There is a lot we don’t know. The Bible says we don’t know what we should pray for as we ought (Romans 8:26). We don’t know all the blessed details of the future glory (1 John 3:2). We don’t even know what is going to happen tomorrow (James 4:14). We don’t know the hearts of other people, though God knows the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). 

But we do know this —  “All things work together for good, to them that love called, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” We don’t “feel this”. We don’t “assume” this. We know this truth. We know from God’s Word.  The Word of God doesn’t go through revisions to change doctrine with the times. Truth is eternal and unchanging, so when we know God’s promises, we really and truly know, and can know we know (1 John 2:3). We know from God’s character all things work together for good. We know that our holy, wise, sovereign, loving, merciful Father has called His people, according to His purpose, that “none should be lost” and be presented before Him holy and without blame in love, so that in the ages to come, he would demonstrate his kindness through eternity toward us, in Christ (Ephesians 1:4; 2:7).  And I know that if my Father, who has adopted me, and made me, not only a child, but an heir and if an heir,  joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, has promised me eternal life and a glorified body in the resurrection, and has so perfectly ordained eternal redemption for me, I can trust him and know that all things that are happening now for good to them that love God.  

Everything's Against Me?

Jacob lived a hard life and most of his difficulties were the consequences of his own bad decisions. He cheated his brother out of his inheritance, twice, and then ran from home to avoid getting murdered. His father-in-law took advantage of him for over two decades. He had 13 kids by four women and married two of them at the same time. If he wasn’t gray-headed by that point, the way his boys turned out likely finished the job. When Joseph, Jacob’s favorite boy, told the family about his dream, how one day they’d all bow down to him, the brothers made an odd choice — murder? Reuben, the voice of moral reason, made the case against murder. Judah also came down against fratricide, they’d just sell him into slavery. After turning  a quick profit, they made up a story about how wild beasts slaughtered Joseph. It broke Jacob’s heart. Joseph was gone.

Joseph lived a hard life and most of his difficulties were because of persecution. He was sold twice. Became the head servant of a powerful man in Egypt, then falsely accused of an impropriety by his wife. Because they believed all women in Egypt, Joseph went to prison for a crime he didn’t commit. In jail, he met up with a couple of other men who fell on hard times. Joseph interpreted their dreams  and in return, he asked the incarcerated butler for help getting out jail when he was released. But he forgot, until Pharaoh had a dream and needed interpretation. Pharaoh like Joseph’s skills and became Pharaoh’s right hand man and shepherded Egypt through 7 years of feast, to prepare them for 7 years of famine, predicted in Pharaoh’s dream.

In the famine, Jacob and the boys got hungry and they heard there was corn in Egypt, so he sent the boys to get some groceries. Little did they know it was Joseph they had to buy from. Joseph, orchestrated a few scenarios in which he sent the brothers back home, first without Simeon and then wanted to keep Benjamin. When the brothers told Jacob what happened, he said in Genesis 42:36, “Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me.” It only seemed that way.  Because he was loved of God, all things were not against him, but all things were for him (Romans 8:28). All these troubles worked together for his good, though he couldn’t see and didn’t see it for a long time. But Joseph saw it. When the brothers feared retribution, Joseph said “Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” There is no pointless suffering for the people of God.  Look at life, through eyes of faith, like Joseph. If you are in Christ, nothing is ever really “against you” but all things are for you.