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August 17, By Judy Cole. Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy. Share this article Copy link Link copied. Next up Here are more stories that look at the news with empathy, insight, and hope. Invisible God By Kathleen Chicoine. Some of us are in the deep loss and pain, maybe it is just a nagging hurt.
Jesus promises us that we will experience them. This is about dealing the feeling. Dealing with the feeling of adversity in a Godly way, in a way that brings joy, peace, despite our circumstances. In a way that takes the experience of adversity and turns it into a growing experience. An experience that we look back on as a time of difficulty and blessing.
There was a time in my life where I went through enormous adversity and it was just an awful time. About ten years ago where everything in my life fell apart. I see where the brokenness and the hurt was.
Where is God When You Need Him?
And somewhere deep inside me there is a scar there, but the scar that has been healed and touched by the hand of the living God. And let me encourage you if you are traveling through adversity, or maybe one day when you do travel through adversity, I pray that the Holy Spirit would remind you of what we were talking about today. We can deal with it in a Godly way. And we can deal with it in a way so that one day it will become a blessing to us.
Lets have a look at that if you have a bible, I would ask you to open it at Isaiah chapter Isaiah chapter 40 is right in the middle of the book. It is one of my favorite chapters, maybe you have heard me speak of it many times before. Today we are going there in a bit of detail. Now let us quickly recap on the history of Israel that brings us to this chapter of Isaiah. God first spoke to Abraham and called him out of the land of Ur. And called him to this land, this land called Canaan. And Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness. And Abraham had a son called Isaac in his old age.
Isaac had a son called Jacob. And Jacob had 12 sons one of whom was Joseph who we talked about last week. And these 12 sons became the heads of the tribes of Israel. That found themselves in Egypt because of the famine. And Israel grew into a mighty nation of around 1 million plus people. And God brought them out of Egypt because the were in slavery. And he parted the Red Sea and they wandered in the desert for forty years. And then God brought them across the Jordan into the promised land.
And God made them a promise, it was called a covenant. A covenant is an unbreakable promise made by God. But if you disobey me, if you worship other Gods, I will curse you. Now the Israelites were just like you and me. They remembered the first part but they forgot the second part. They went off and worshipped other Gods. Do what you want. He spoke of unthinkable calamity. And we saw that calamity happen. If you go to the book of Jeremiah you see Babylon attacked Judah. Well who is Judah. There were 12 tribes of Israel 10 in the north and were actually called Israel, there were unfaithful and God virtually annihilated them.
Where is God When We Need Him Most?
There were 2 tribes left Judah and Benjamin. They lived around Jerusalem. And so that southern part of the Israelite nation was referred to as Judah. They had been more faithful than the northern 10 tribes. You have not worshiped me first, there has not been justice in the land, you have not looked after the poor. I am going to send judgment. So in bcwe see that the great and mighty Babylonian nation, the world power at the time, comes and destroys Jerusalem completely. It enslaves the remnant of Israel, Judah, into captivity in Babylon. It raises the temple to the ground, completely destroyed.
Now remember this is the land, the land that God brought the nation of Israel into. This is the land where battle after battle after battle, by the Israelite people when they arrived. Battle after battle after battle was one by King David. And so when the temple was destroyed the place where God lived after all.
And these people were enslaved and taken as captives back to Babylon, miles to the east for 70 years as slaves. To the land of the Chaldaeans to the land of Ur it used to be called, where Abraham the father of the nation of Israel first came out of, it was like they had been taken back, right back to square one. What did the people think? How did they feel when all of this happened? My hunch is they were probably wondering where is God? Has God lost his power?
Has God forsaken us? Has God given up on us? What is going on we are in slavery? This should not be happening to us. Weeks went by, months went by. And the people settled, and God encouraged them to. Go and sink the well for the city because we are going to be here for a while. And you are gong to be in slavery for 70 years. In this case Israel brought the calamity on itself. Now sometimes other people do it to us. And sometimes its just circumstances. Has he given up on me? The first half of the book of Isaiah are the statements of judgment against Israel, against Judah against a whole bunch of other nations, that Isaiah got up and prophesied.
But he was faithful to God. But here in chapter 40 from that onwards, this is a prophecy written to the people that had already been put into exile in Babylon. This was prophecy of future, of hope, of love, of God being there. And if you look at the way, if you have abible, you will see the way that Isaiah chapter 40 is all wiggly and indented. Which means it was written in the form ofa poem with lilt and rhyme and rhythm and beauty and it begins….
It is artfully and beautifully written. And it is a picture of a triumphant God. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken. Surely the people are grass. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young. Isaiah is speaking to bunch of confused, depressed, exiled, salves.
Who feels like the promised land was robbed from them. A real sharp contrast, if you look verses it talks about the triumph and the glory of God. Then in verse 6 and 7 the whole thing of flower in the field and the grass withers and the flowers fade. It talks about temporal circumstances. When the whole world has turned to custard, we focus on our circumstances, we focus on the here and now. We focus on all this hard painful stuff that is going on. And Isaiah is saying something.
The God of power the God of might. The God of glory and the God of love. The God of tender beautiful love will gather his sheep together. Will lead the mother sheep gently. We want to focus on the pain and the circumstances. Look at me because I am in this place with you.
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding? He looks for a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple. Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. What a beautiful picture of a sovereign, powerful, mighty God. To these Israelites who were stuck in slavery and all they could see was how powerful Babylon was, the world power, THE world power.
They had no hope of escape. They had no hope of getting back to Jerusalem, of getting back to the promised land, the land that was promised to their father Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Look a the heavens I made this. Have you ever looked at the stars? You know when you go to somewhere where there is really clear skies. You can see billion stars with powerful telescopes.
But as far as we know there are 10 to the power of 21 stars. If you are not a mathematician that is a lot of stars! The largest star has the diameter of 3 billion kilometers. It would 70 years to fly that diameter of distance in a space craft. I put them there. Every night they march out, left, right, left, right and stop because I tell them to. And I hold them there and I know each of them by name.
That is how big I am. And you look at your circumstances and you look at Babylon, the guards and the people and you look at them and think they are big. I am much bigger, much more powerful, much more sovereign, much more able to be with you in your difficulties and your trials than anyone could ever can.
Lift up you eyes to the stars, God put them there. And that same God is the God that is with you and me. When we are in our Babylon. When we are going through our difficult situation. See what he says there in verse 27 of chapter 40 Isaiah …. He is sovereign, he transcends everyone, every person, every act. Every star the whole universe is under the sovereignty of God. Then he becomes all tender, he says he will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather his lambs in his arms and for you to wait on him.
Peace is trusting in the sovereignty of God. Bad things do happen to good people. Who God is lifts you and me up. But we just focus on our circumstances, the more we turn our focus on them, the more we pain and the difficulty, the risk and the fear, over and over in our minds… You know how we toss and turn in the night, and we just churn around. The more we do that the more our circumstances drag us down. Look up, look at me. Let me lift you up out of your circumstances. If we have a mindset that is downcast, if we have a mindset that just looks at our circumstances and not at God, that pattern in our mind is how we approach our circumstances.
We can either approach them as people of fear or people who believe in the sovereign God. Look at verse 9: See they thought he was lying dead somewhere in the rubble of their temple in Jerusalem. The world is your circumstances. They are just like dust. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand.
Who has marked of the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in the measure. Who has weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in the balance. The answer is only God. The Israelites when they fled from Egypt through the Red Sea and they spent 40 years in the desert, the presence of God went with them.
By day it was a huge cloud, by night a pillar of fire. God traveled on that journey with them for forty years. Then through the leader Joshua, he led them into the promise land and they fought battle after battle, after battle, and took the promised land. And then through kings like David he blessed them again. You know sometimes we forget the stories of what God has done in our lives. When you and I look back, if you are someone who has walked with Jesus for more than 5 minutes you will be able to look back on your life and see when God has come and rescued you out of the pit.
Time and time again, I have more stories in my short ten years as a Christian, than I could spend telling the next 4 hours. We need to believe God is in this place. We need to look back on what God has done in our past. And just like Israel who had looked back on all that God has done in their past. Because Gods promise is this, he is bigger, more powerful, more able than anyone, or anything, or any circumstance that confronts you or me. He is gentle, he is loving, he is here and he has poured his spirit out on you and me.
If we are people who believe in Jesus we have the presence of God dwelling in us. That is his promise, he never leaves us, he never forsakes us, he never flees from us, he is always in this place with us. And his heart is to bless us. His heart is to take us forward, his heart is to give us a future and a hope. That you seem powerless to deal with.
Right in the middle of that thing God is in that place with you. You may not know the name Mary Stevenson, Mary was born in a poor family. She was only She was 14 when she wrote this. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky. In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there were one set of footprints.
This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there have only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, you have not been there for me? During those most difficult times in life, during those times when you no one else can do or say anything that makes a difference, during those times when it feels like God has deserted us, especially at those times God is in that place with us.
And what do we do? Well too often, we panic. What happened to peace? What happened to joy? The only difference between courage and cowardice is often about 20 sec. So a few weeks ago we looked at the story of Joseph in the last half of the book of Genesis. And Joseph was a man that had a lot of bad things happen in his life but somehow when they happened he just kept living his life, doing what he does and doing as well as he could and God just kept blessing him. One of the things I think we need to learn is that when things are going badlyaround us, we just have to keep on being us.
We just have to be us, we just have to keep on, keeping on. And ultimately God blesses that. And last week we looked at the whole question of Where is God when you really need him. And we saw in the story of the nation of Israel from Isaiah chapter 40, again in the Old Testament, we saw that despite the fact that God let bad things happen to them which were consequences to the things they did wrong,he was a powerful, loving transcendent God.
A God that put all the stars in the heaven, and yet was there to shepherd them and to love them. I am here to love you. One of the things I see a lot in my travels is Christians who panic. Have you ever seen the show Mr. Bean is played by Rowan Atkinson. Bean panics he runs around in little circles with his hands sticking out. We can be like a rudderless ship in a stormy ocean. Today I would like to put the rudder back on. Because the rudder for our lives is the word of God. The rudder is what God says about our circumstances.
And we are going to have a look at a beautiful story, a story about a man called Moses and another man called Joshua. Except in this case it is not just something made up, but something that actually happened. This book which begins at the end of Deuteronomy and rolls onto the beginning of the book of Joshua. So these are early books in the old testament. And if you have a Bible, go and grab it, because you will need it at Deuteronomy chapter This story really tells us something. Not so much about the men,not so much about Moses or Joshua, what it shows us is how God operates.
Because you and I are not like Moses, we are not like Joshua. So this is a story as we go through this story about God working in peoples lives. Not so much about the men involved in the story. Moses was probably one of the greatest leaders the nation of Israel ever had. But then he murdered an Egyptian and he was so afraid that he ran into the desert and there he was until his 80 th year.
A burnt old man in the back of the desert, living out his life in fear.
And ultimately that convinced pharaoh to let the people go. And then for forty years he led his people around in the wilderness. They were on a trip to the promise land and the promise land was only 11 or 12 days walk from Egypt actually. And yet because they grumbled and grumbled and complained and were ungrateful lot, God just kept them in the desert for forty years until they were ready to go into the promise land.
Which is the nation of Israel as we know it today. And when God got angry with his people and he wanted to destroy them because they were grumbling against him so much, Moses fell on his face and pleaded with God. And yet even though he was such a wonderful leader, he was so faithful, he was so good, he led them through the desert right towards the end of this forty years, he lost his temper just once.
And we pick it up here in the book of Deuteronomy, now the book of Deuteronomy is an interesting one because the law the Hebrew law, was given in the books that proceed Deuteronomy. In the book of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, that sort of contains the law that was handed down through Moses. And Deuteronomy literally means the second giving of the law.
The book of Deuteronomy by and large is Moses last speech to the nation of Israel before he dies. It is the second giving of the laws, a summary of the law, Moses goes through and summarises things that God has said. Here is Moses, done a fantastic job, remember he took up the job when he was 80 years old, he was an old man. Crying out for them on their behalf. He does some wonderful things. He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone.
The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over. You know Israel has been wandering through the desert for forty years. Getting ready to cross into the promised land, to cross over the Jordan, and they all knew that there were battles ahead. There were people living in the promise land, there were wars to fight and things to win. He dies and they bury him in an unmarked grave. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. Everything is going fine. Moses slips up just once and God pulls the plug on this great leader.
And only, only God, takes us into the promise land. Not Moses, not a man, not wealth, not circumstances, not other gods but the God of the promise the God of the covenant.
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The God who made the oath with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. And unless Israel should ever say that Moses did this thing, Moses brought us into the promise land, lest they should ever revere Moses before God, because of his might deeds and terrifying displays of power. God acts sovereign and graciously and takes him at that point.
In fact if you just flick over the page the thing continue on, straight on in the first chapter of Joshua. Well he were are on the threshold of the promise land, all these battle lie ahead of us, we need our leader, we trust him, we know him, he knows us. This is a scary time. They have to prepare for invasion, they send spies.
They take Jericho, battle after battle after battle. And God right before that all begins takes away the leader that they all knew and trusted. Just when they needed their captain most, the coach takes him off the field. Have you ever had that happen in life?
It feels like the rug is pulled out from underneath us. We know something good is happening. We see something good ahead and in the middle of all that… something bad happens. Something that makes us afraid. And then we run around panicking like Mr. Do you see how stupid that is, do you see how short sighted we are.
God has been leading these people through the desert all this time and when Moses died when they lost their leader, there would have been a sense of panic and fear. Because what they saw was Moses. Put your trust in me not in a man. Not in money, not in career, not in human relationships. Because everything else will come and go, everything else is fickle. The relationship that I have with my wife is very important.
But she can wake up tomorrow and discover that like Moses I am dead. I could wake up tomorrow and discover exactly the same. And so here is a discontinuity. I think to show his Glory. To show his sovereign,to make sure Israel understands that this gift comes from the heart of God and not from the hand of Moses. And to do that in your life and my life. God will sovereignty create or use whatever circumstances he chooses, why? Because he is God, because he can.
It is his right. He will, he loves us, he wants us to learn to trust him and not in our physical things that your or I can see.
As scary as sometimes…. I was talking to a man just the other week. He is a leader in ministry. He leads a very large and well know ministry. And that ministry is having some real struggles at the moment. It continues to beautiful things in the lives of many people. But there are just a couple of issues that are causing enormous struggles. Yet we are having these struggles. And having to get to get to grips with the 2IC Joshua.
Would he have what Moses had? Would he have the same anointing? Would he still be able to do all the things that Moses did? Let me say that again. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Great Sea on the west. No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Go and take the promise land. Take the promise land. I know there are people there, I know the Hittites are there, I know their armies are there, I know that Jericho has to be taken. But I promise this land to Abraham. I promised it to Isaac and Jacob. And now I am promising that I will be with you as you cross over into this land. Let me ask you a question. What is your promise land look like? My promise land is Jesus. My promise land is the wonderful life that I have through the forgiveness that I have in Jesus Christ.
My promise land is the eternal life that I have, through what Jesus did for me on the cross. If you believe in Jesus you have that promise land too. I turn away from everything, I put you first in my life and forgive me for all that I have done wrong. From today forward I want to be one of you people. I want to be a Christian. I would encourage you because Jesus is our promised land. The son of God is peace and His joy and His love and His grace. The riches of life in him is just awesome.
So in one sense we have the same promised land yet in another sense it is entirely different. What do you delight in?
Ephesians 2:10
How do you prosper? What are you good at? What are you called to do? The answer to those questions will be entirely different in your life than in my life. My lot in life is written down before the foundations of the earth were laid. Is that awesome or what! A plan that was birth deep, deep in his heart before the world began. And things come against us. Jesus promises tribulation and joy. He promise rejection and peace beyond all understanding.
Israel was promised a land flowing with milk and honey. Jesus promised a life with super abundance and yet Israel had to fight battle to take what God had promised for them. Adversity is a part of that plan. You are going to be in charge of the whole shooting match. But I want you to be strong and courageous, be strong and very courageous. Do you think that Joshua might just have been having a few misgivings. Look at all those armies and cities and things that we have to take.
God has used past tense. It is really easy for God to say, but poor old Josh is standing here on the other side of the Jordan looking at that and all that he can see is the battle that he will have to fight. All that he can see is the people that have spent the last forty years grumbling in the desert. This is my promise. I have already given you all this land. From here to the Euphrates , all over it is yours.
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Now be strong and courageous. If you go back and look at verse 4. God sets boundaries to the promise. God had given Israel this plot of dirt. A land flowing with milk and honey. And I believe God is saying exactly that thing to you and to me today. Just as God had a plan for Israel, God has a plan for me and God has a plan for you.
But there is a promised land, a life in Jesus Christ for you and for me, to live in an amazing abundance. And what God has ordained for your life no one else can take away. What God has ordained for my life no one else can take away. And all we can see is the battles that we have to fight, up over the top. On the other side of that hill is my plan. On the other side of that hill is my blessing. But you and I are on this side of the hill and we can only see the battles and the climb and all the tings that are around us.
Or maybe the promised land is a relationship, maybe it is a spiritual leap or insight that bring you closer to God,Maybe it is all of those things. Living an abundant life in Jesus. Invariably there will be battles. There will be set backs. There will be disappointments. There will be scary prospects along the way. So what do we do with those things? How do we handle them? Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.
Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. How do we handle this promise? When the promise has birth pains, like a child coming into the world. You know, that is a painful process for mum. It is a painful process for babes. But there is such blessing at the end of it. Get it into you, eat it, chew it, digest it. Let my word and will become a part of the very fabric of who you are.
Hang on to it. You are going to need courage. You are going to need My word. You are going to need My wisdom. The only difference between courage and cowardice is often about 20 seconds. Stick that on your fridge. As I was with Moses so I will be with you. Go stick this on your fridge. As I was with Moses so I will be with you, I will not fail you. I will never forsake you.
Therefore, in other words, because I am your God. When we are struggling and when we are going through hard times,it feels like God is not there. That is when our faith grows. That is when we hold onto the promise of God. We end up living out the consequences. And maybe that is you. Maybe you know that in your life right now. God is a God that forgives, that sees his plans come to fruition. Even when we fail as long as we turn back to him.
If we seek after him, and his righteousness, all the other stuff will follow. It may not happen overnight, but it will happen. And when it is…be very strong, be very courageous and because you know that you know that your God is with you and will never forsake you, you can have the peace and the joy to know that his promises will happen in your life. When people or circumstances turn against us, it can feel as though all happiness, all hope is lost.
And yet — hope, hope is something that Jesus was really big on. The amazing thing that happen in the lives of other people through me, its not me. This week we are going to go on with the last message in the series when bad things happen to good people. Why are these things happening to me? Just imagine the family, the curve ball straight to the solar plexus, out of the blue.
It just seems to be going so well some days and then something happens. I remember when my son was 2 years old, I had just boiled some water in the microwave. And I was just taking this boiling water out of the microwave and he reached up and in a split second he hit the microwave door and I had boiling water down my face and down his shoulder.
Series: When Bad Things Happen to Good People
I mean everything was fine, it was the normal morning, just getting up doing normal things. The very emotion of our live is towards happiness. I mean, what do you think? I remember a few years ago, my daughter given for her birthday by one of our sons, a sort of a flower with a happy smiling face. It was a cloth flower in a flower pot, and when you clapped your hands the thing started dancing.
I mean it was there today, gone tomorrow. It was kind of a symbol for me of happiness, because happiness is characterized by good luck and good fortune. That are all making us happy on the inside. So happiness to me is something that happens from the outside — in. Where is happiness when your brother ends up in court accused of pedophilia? I put my faith in him and even a Christian can be programmed by the worlds thinking. Because the pursuit of happiness is such a big deal on this earth today.
Everyone and everything seems to be geared towards what the Dalai Lama was talking about, the pursuit of happiness.