But If Not . . .

This year, a new song was released by MercyMe titled “Even If.” If you haven’t heard it yet, I’d encourage you to look it up. Premised upon the truth that God is our only hope no matter whether or not He intervenes in our lives in the ways we would like Him to, the lyrics allude to Daniel 3, which tells of three Jewish exiles who stood (literally) firm in their faith in the face of tremendous pressure to bow down and worship something other than God.

When faced with being thrown in a burning furnace as punishment for their disobedience to the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego delivered a powerful response to Nebuchadnezzar’s question, “And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” (Daniel 3:15b, ESV).

They replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (Daniel 3:16b-18, ESV, emphasis added).

But if not

Those are three words heavy with meaning. At first, the phrase seems contradictory because it comes right after the three men state with conviction that God will deliver them. If they’re so sure God is coming to their rescue, then why even consider the possibility that He won’t?

I think the posture these men take shows us the complexity of faith. They are 100% convinced that God is able to save them from the fire. Yet they are also thoroughly aware of the fact that it is God’s prerogative to do so—or not to do so—and they believe that God is the only one worthy of worship whether He saves them or not.

At first glance, this posture seems like an easy one to hold. Sure, we can say we believe God is all-powerful. And sure, we can agree that God is the only One truly deserving of worship. We can even acknowledge that God in His sovereignty gets to call the shots.

But what happens when, in His wisdom, His sovereignty involves not saving us from danger or taking away our pain? Are we still able to maintain our belief that He is able? If God had not rescued the Jewish men from their fiery grave, would their fellow Jews still have been convinced that God could have saved them?

Let’s make this a little more personal. When we pray and pray for God to heal a loved one, bodily, on this earth, and they die instead, do we still trust that He could have? When our hearts are wounded or thoroughly broken, and the pain remains for years and years, do we still believe that God could have and still can heal our wounds? When we are afflicted with recurring temptation and God refrains from hindering the enemy that tempts us, are we still convinced that He is more powerful than they?

Here our faith is put to the test, because if we believe that He can heal any illness, bind up any wound, deliver from temptation, then the question becomes, “Why doesn’t He?” And that is one of the most difficult questions to live with, because no matter how hard we try, we will not be able to fathom the infinite depths of the wisdom of God—which means the answer is, “We just don’t know.”

Sometimes in His grace, He gives us a glimpse, a “perhaps” moment where we can hazard a guess at what a small part of His purposes might be. But we will never truly know the full counsel of God’s understanding. So we are left to trust that His revelations about Himself are true—that He is just; He is love; He is truth; He is compassionate; He is not altogether like us (i.e. He is in a class all His own); He is all-knowing; and He is all-wise.

And when we are confronted with the magnitude of His power and the unfathomableness of His wisdom, we can’t help but stand in humility and awe. When we reach that point, we are able to embody the complexity of a faith fully convinced that God is able, even when He doesn’t answer our prayers in the way we were hoping. We can be confident that just because He doesn’t, doesn’t mean He can’t, and we can trust that if and when He doesn’t, it’s for a good and perfect reason—one that might involve pain and suffering but one that fits perfectly into His sovereign will.

Living out this complex faith is not the easiest thing in the world. In fact, it’s incredibly difficult. But praise God that He is also able to grant us the faith we need. So with the man in Jesus’ day who cried, “I believe; help my unbelief!” we can be honest with God who already knows our heart and our weakness (Mark 9:24b, ESV). We can tell Him when we are struggling in our faith and beseech Him to give us more.

And in our moments of doubt, we can preach to ourselves the truth of God’s Word and declare with the apostle Paul in Romans 11:33-36 (ESV), “Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

For who has known the mind of the Lord,

                or who has been his counselor?

                Or who has given a gift to him

                                that he might be repaid?

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.”

Photo credit: Keri-Lynn Paulson. Used with permission.

Family History and Faith

There are certain portions of the Bible that have a reputation for being a drudgery to read. Perhaps most commonly referred to in these terms is Leviticus, but a close second, based on my experience, is the genealogies.

Having just returned from the four-day National Genealogical Society’s annual Family History Conference, I’ve had genealogy on the brain lately, so I thought now would be a good time to share why my love for genealogy in general and some of my favorite attributes of God find their intersection in the genealogies of Scripture.

From an early age, my interest in genealogy has been strong. My mother has always told the story of my writing “Wow!” in Matthew 1, the chapter that contains a genealogy of Jesus. My memories of doing this are very faint, so I decided to dig my childhood Bible out of my closet. Sure enough, at the end of Matthew 1:17 (NIV), which reads, “Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah,” I had written with a green pen, “WOW!!”

Perhaps my enthrallment with tracing my own (and others’) family history can find its initial root in my fascination with this one chapter, which, in only sixteen verses, connects Jesus all the way back to Abraham (a span of around 2,000 years) using individual names. Whatever the case, I began researching my own family’s story sometime around 2003, and as discovery after discovery has been made, I’ve been amazed time and time again at the grace of God.

You see, the genealogies in the Bible might seem like dull lists of unpronounceable names, but in reality they contain so many clues to God’s character. So when I trace my family’s history or read the Bible’s genealogies, I am reminded of so many truths. Here are just a few:

1) God knows our names.

What we have in Matthew 1 is a microcosm of humanity. There are people named about whom we know a great deal (e.g. Isaac, Jacob, and Solomon), but there are also people who don’t show up anywhere else in Scripture, like Azor and his grandson Achim. There are those who were kings (e.g. David, Hezekiah), those who were nomads (e.g. Abraham), and those whose occupation is unknown (e.g. Matthan, Abiud). And each one of them is listed by name.

God could have had Matthew write only verse 17, summarizing the fact that there were fourteen generations each from Abraham to David, from David to the exile, and from the exile to Jesus, but instead He listed each individual by name. Of course, it would be presumptuous at best for me to say why God decided to include this information, but what I can say is that these verses remind me that no matter who we are, how well known we are during our lives, or how quickly we are forgotten after our deaths, God knows our names—and not just our names, but every detail about us, inside and out.

2) God is sovereign.

Have you ever thought about all the singular moments that had to line up just right for you even to exist? Take my 3x-great-grandfather Vasa B. Jones, for instance. A husband and father by the 1860s, he enlisted in the Union army during the Civil War, was soon-after captured by the Confederates, and spent the rest of the war being transported from one prison camp to another. But he survived and returned home to father another child--my 2x great-grandfather, Martin Luther Jones. If Vasa had perished, I wouldn’t be here.

Then there’s the fact that my great-grandfather, Bert Smith, almost moved his family to Australia for a job. Key word: almost. Instead, he moved them to Madison, West Virginia, where his daughter (my grandmother) would go on to meet her future husband (my grandfather and the grandson of the above-mentioned M. L. Jones). Again, if the Smiths had moved to Australia, I wouldn’t be here.

Stories like this remind me that God is completely in control. We exist when we exist where we exist because of Him. The biblical genealogies remind us of this as well. David could have been killed by Saul. Isaac could have been a lifelong bachelor. Zerubbabel could have perished in his return journey from exile. But instead, God preserved each of their lives long enough for a new generation to be brought forth, and through them He carried out His plan to send His Son into the world, which brings me to another point--

3) God is faithful.

Closely related to God’s sovereignty is His faithfulness. He is a God of His word. The names of Abraham and David by themselves don’t tell us much, but when we learn the life stories of each of these men, we see how God made promises to each of them having to do with their descendants (and one Descendant in particular). The genealogy of Jesus shows us God’s faithfulness in keeping His promises.

4) God is gracious.

Many people embark upon genealogical endeavors in the hopes of finding some illustrious or royal ancestry, but, more often than not, unearthed instead are individuals of a more scandalous nature--not that royalty are immune from scandal by any means. In my case, the scandal comes into play again during the Civil War with my cousin’s discovery that one of our civilian, Confederate-sympathizing, West Virginia ancestors, Henry Kuhl, was made an example of by the Union military court and hanged for murdering a lad who was supposedly a Union soldier.

Judged an accomplice in the act was Henry’s son Conrad, but since witnesses testified that Conrad played a part in the crime only because he was afraid of his father, he was given a lighter sentence--hard labor for the duration of the war instead of hanging. Like Vasa, Conrad survived. But unlike Vasa, he was not yet married at the time of his imprisonment. The fact that he wasn’t hanged along with his father but rather lived to marry and have my great-great-grandmother is another reminder of God’s sovereignty, but the stain of murder in my line is also a reminder of God’s grace.

This grace is all the more evident in the genealogy of Jesus where we see people with all sorts of baggage--Jacob, Rahab, Solomon, just to name a few. Even the conceptions resulting from sinful acts of Tamar and David were redeemed by God’s grace not only in producing life but in including that life in the lineage of the God-man. In actuality, there is not one blameless person in Jesus’s line except for him. And yet God gave each of them the blessing of being part of the means by which God would save the world.

Our genealogical heritage might not involve something as significant as God becoming flesh, but nonetheless there are evidences of God’s grace in our lives every day. Our sin does not have to define us, and while it can and often does affect our descendants, it does not have to define them either. God’s mercies are new every morning, for every individual, through every generation. He is greater than we and greater than our sin. And thank God, He is gracious.

So the next time you come upon the genealogies while you’re reading through the Bible, take a moment to ponder what they reveal about God. And as you learn more and more about your own family’s story, look for the glimpses of God’s omniscience, sovereignty, faithfulness, and grace. You just might fall in love with family history, or even better, with God Himself.

 

                  Vasa B. Jones                             Bert Smith                                   Henry Kuhl*

*Henry Kuhl Photo Credit: Lila Powers, "To Make an Example of Them," Orlando, West Virginia, June 18, 2011 (http://orlandostonesoup.blogspot.com/2011/06/to-make-example-of-them.html : accessed March 3, 2021).

The Revealer

Two weeks ago, we looked at an all-important question, introducing the topic with a glimpse at how driven we humans are by questions. Of the the six well-known questions of “who, what, when, where, why, and how,” I’d venture a guess that the most frequently asked question—by children and adults alike—is “Why?” and more specifically, “Why did this happen?”

It’s a question that, again, I’d venture to guess almost every person has asked at one time or another. And most of the time, it’s in the context of wanting to know why something that we perceive as bad has transpired.

For Christians and non-Christians alike, this “why” is often directed at God. After all, who better to ask why something occurred than the One who is omniscient? But usually, we are not granted an answer in the way we would like.

I don’t know about you, but God generally doesn’t spell out to me His reasons for planning or allowing things to happen in my life. Sometimes, I can look back and surmise that a certain outcome or effect I have observed might have been part of God’s reasoning, but even then it is always cushioned with the word “perhaps.”

Is it wrong of us to ask why things happen? I don’t think so. But I do think that we can get ourselves into trouble when we think we deserve an answer.

News Flash: God does not owe us explanations for anything. We are not entitled to have our questions answered by the Creator of the universe.

That might rub us the wrong way, because we tend to think pretty highly of ourselves, but recognizing that truth makes the next news flash all the more amazing:

News Flash #2: God has already revealed answers to many of our questions, asked and unasked.

Have you ever noticed how many times in Scripture the words “so that” show up? It’s a lot. And every time you see those two little words, you’ll find an explanation of the reason something happened, the purpose for it, the “why.”

There are other instances in the Bible, too, where God does spell out to people what He’s doing. For instance, in 2 Samuel 7, God reveals to David through Nathan the prophet that his descendants would reign forever (i.e. that the Promised One would come through David’s line). And David, upon learning this, praises the Lord, saying, “For the sake of your word and according to your will, you have done this great thing and made it known to your servant” (2 Samuel 7:21, NIV).

Did you catch that? Not only was God doing something, but He was making it known.

This verse got me thinking—look at what else God has made known to us! A year ago this week, I wrote a post exploring some of the biggest things He has revealed (His standards, our need for a Savior, and how we can be saved). These are all articulated in His Word, which as a whole is a marvelous communication of who God is, what He’s like, and what He desires, but He has filled His Word with countless other revelations, too!

And as if that weren’t enough, the Bible (a.k.a “special revelation”) is not the only thing God has revealed to us. He has also given us the ability to discover truths about the way His creation operates. He has designed us to be able to solve problems and has made many answers available for us to seek out. Just think of all the scientific laws of nature He has allowed us to uncover. Think of the inquiries into the past in the fields of archaeology and history He has permitted to be successful. Think of the discoveries in anatomy and medicine He has enabled.

And we were not owed any of it. What a gracious God He is!

So the next time we start to get a chip on our shoulder from feeling as if God isn’t giving us the answers we think we deserve, let’s stop a moment and remember who we really are and who He really is. Let’s decide to praise Him for being infinitely more wise than we will ever be. And instead of complaining about what He hasn’t revealed to us, why don’t we choose to marvel at what He has?