When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and
behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And
the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. (Shemot / Exodus 14:10; ESV)
On New Year’s Eve, as is our custom, we had a bunch of people over -
some old friends, some new friends - to mark the beginning of another calendar
year. At one point I was sitting by a couple of people having a conversation.
One of them has known God through the Messiah for about three years; the other
for about a year. They were discussing whether or not they were finding life easier
or harder since first coming to believe. Each of them at the very beginning of
their new lives of faith experienced a great contrast with their life prior to
believing. Knowing Yeshua made life so wonderful. Yet for both of them the
exhilaration only lasted so long before life again became difficult. It was
around that point in their conversation that I asked about the nature of the
difficulties they were facing, for I too had a similar experience.
For me the transition from unbelief to faith was like night and day. I
had been absolutely miserable, struggling with depression and hopelessness and
suffering from panic attacks. But when I asked God to forgive me my sins and
asked Yeshua (I called him “Jesus” at the time) into my life, everything
changed. Not only did the panic attacks stop, I was on cloud nine for months!
But eventually just like my friends were saying the other night, life got
difficult again. And also like these friends, I didn’t see right away that the
difficulties I was facing were different from those I struggled with prior to
my knowing God. I had wondered if the re-occurrences of former struggles might
be an indication that I had lost touch with my new found faith or worse - that
my spiritual experience was not real after all. What took time for me to
discover, and what I was trying to communicate to my friends was that while
faith in the Messiah alleviates all sorts of difficulties and problems, it also
creates a whole new set.
This is exactly what the people of Israel had to learn when they left
Egypt. For hundreds of years they endured the oppression of forced servitude.
The sufferings of Israel typify the bondage all of us face under the control of
sin, evil, and death. The anguish experienced under slavery completely controls
our lives - the suffering of imposed victimization. How wonderful it is when
the bonds of control are broken and we are set free. God through signs and
wonders changed the people’s status from slaves to free people. They left
Egypt, no longer obliged to submit to Pharaoh’s oppressive rule.
But from the moment Israel was no longer Pharaoh’s slaves, they became
his enemies. Once he could no longer hold them captive, he pursued them. That
was a problem they never had before. Actually, that was a new problem that
didn’t last that long. But once they fully eluded Pharaoh and his army after
crossing the Red Sea, they had to face yet another new set of problems as God
began to lead them through the wilderness. Later in the story we read how they
perceived that their new problems were far worse than their old ones under
Pharaoh. How quickly they forgot how terrible it was; how quickly we forget how
terrible it was for us.
One of the reasons why we struggle with our new difficulties is that we
are often not adequately prepared for them. When I was first told about the
difference Yeshua would make in my life if I received him, I was given the
impression that I would be happy from that time on. No wonder the emergence of new
difficulties became a crisis for me. And it’s no wonder if you have a similar
expectation of what following Yeshua is all about that you will be offended by
the struggles you may be currently facing.
I am sorry if you for one reason or another have misinformed
expectations of what it means to know God. But let me give you a more accurate
picture; the one given to us by God himself in the story of Israel's release
from slavery. Faith in Yeshua is not about freedom from life’s difficulties. It
is about being freed from oppression in order that we might become his agents
of freedom to others. The things that troubled us when we were slaves to sin,
need no longer control us; while those things that trouble us now as believers
used to be of no concern to us. The hardships of the past were due to the
oppression of sin and evil under the rulership of the devil as we were on the
road to hell. The hardships of today (if you are a true believer) are because
of God’s work in and through your life, the fruit of which is life everlasting.
No comments:
Post a Comment