Afflictions to Counsel and Comfort

The Word comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.

This is how Pastor W began his sermon on a recent Sunday morning. Naturally, I felt a little squirmy in my seat. The cynic inside me was ready to search out a zillion reasons why this was erroneous.

It's not what we suffer, but how we suffer.
Yes, I know. But this doesn't tell me how or make that hard fact any easier.

He continued.
How can we persevere and not lose sight of Jesus when suffering hits?

Ah. He'd hit home with this one, acknowledging both the presence of suffering and the problem of what to do with it. In this case, the heart of the matter is entirely centralized around our hearts. How will we respond?

We are working through the book of Hebrews, and each week we hear the Word read aloud. In addition to the weekly New Testament passage, we have a habit of reading a related Old Testament passage, too. This past Sunday, we read part of Numbers 11 and all of Hebrews 3.

In Numbers 11, the Israelites complain to Moses about their circumstances (which, albeit, were not wonderful). Their cravings for fresh meats and vegetables and spices are so intense that they actually wish themselves back into slavery. Anything but the same old manna. Their ungratefulness for God's daily provision hardens their hearts and they transfix their eyes on beguiled memories of bondage.

Hebrews Chapter 3 answers our initial question: How can we persevere and not lose sight of Jesus when suffering hits?

First, we must look to Jesus as the only one worthy of our devotion. The writer of Hebrews is appealing to his Jewish audience when he compares Jesus to Moses. In Pastor W's words, "They aren't even in the same league!" While Moses may have led God's people out of physical bondage, Jesus has freed His own from their spiritual slavery to sin and death.

Who or what competes for our loyalty? There is nothing that can hold the candle to the One who is greater than Moses. Just like the Israelites, we are prone to fancy enslavement and all its empty promises. We must keep looking at Jesus. He alone can rescue.

Second, we, too, must heed the stinging correction given to the Hebrews.
It is this: listen to Him, and do not harden your hearts.
The author quotes Psalm 95, which references the Exodus generation. This would not have been lost on the Jewish readers. By focusing on their circumstances, the Exodus generation had fallen into a pitfall of poor logic.

We hate the desert. We hate the manna. Therefore, we do not like God.

They believed lies, and so they lived to please false gods. It should not be lost on us, either, for our hearts have the same wandering tendencies. Our ideas have significant consequences. They are never neutral in the war for our hearts.

The author of Hebrews is like a good doctor. He does not fail to make an accurate diagnosis, however unsettling or blunt it may be. Thankfully, he does not leave the patients hopeless. He also provides a prognosis and a prescription

The prognosis: unbelief always starts with an ungrateful heart.

Three-fold prescription: listen to Scripture, enter into community with the people of God, and be vigilant in discovering what captures the heart

"He is your friend who pushes you nearer to Christ." - Abraham Kuyper

The desert is part of life. The Israelites experienced generations of life in the forsaken wilderness. The author of Hebrews is no stranger to suffering and knows that the Jewish church will face hardship and myriad opportunities to disregard the Grace of God and declaim ungratefulness.

We need God's Word when the desert sands blind our eyes to Truth. We need God's people to walk alongside and redirect us when we are disoriented and weak. These things will help us in uncovering the patterns of our hearts. Whatever it is we value, to that we will give our allegiance.

For the Israelites, that was comfort. For each one of us, it could be a number of things.

May that be Christ. The One who is greater than Moses, greater than our failures, the one who went to the most extreme lengths to rescue us from slavery and give us hearts of flesh. In our failures, may we remember that we are recipients of Mercy and continue in humility and confidence. May we keep looking at Him, for He is alone is worthy.

"Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today,' that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end." -Hebrews 3:12-14