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TRUSTING GOD WHEN THINGS GO WRONG #5
LAUGHING AT GOD
Steve Winger from Lubbock, Texas, writes about his last college test he ever took. It was a final in logic class, a class known for its difficult exams. To help the students on their test, the professor made a deal with them. He said, "You can bring as much information to the exam as you want as long as you can fit it on a piece of notebook paper."
So how would you have prepared if you had been a student in that class? Most of them crammed as many facts as possible on their 8-1/2 x 11 inch sheet of paper and took the sheet to class. But one student walked into class on exam day, put a piece of notebook paper on the floor beside his desk, and then had an advanced logic student stand on the paper. As the exam progressed, the advanced logic student told him everything he needed to know. He was the only student to get an "A."
The rest of the students no doubt thought to themselves, "Now why didn't I think of that?" The reality is that it's too easy for most of us to resign ourselves to preconceived limitations. We don't allow ourselves to expand our boundaries beyond the average, the normal, the usual. Our expectations are limited to the status quo.
And unfortunately, this narrow thinking bleeds into our spiritual lives, as well. We confine God too easily. We compartmentalize Him. So as J.B. Philips says in his book, our God is too small. No wonder so many of us have such a hard time trusting God in our lives, especially when life is uncertain. Our picture of God radically determines our experience with God.
Abram has this tendency, too. As we’ve seen this week, though, in the midst of the uncertainty of Abram’s life, God comes to him again and again and shows Himself in a whole new way. Our final story is told in Genesis 17.
Abram's now 99 years old. The author of Hebrews says that his body is as good as dead, especially as far as having children is concerned. What does he do about God’s continual promise to him that his descendents will number as the stars? How can that happen without a son?
The chapter opens with God finally reappearing to Abram in the midst of his uncertainty. God introduces Himself with a new name that has never been given before. Verses 1-2:
"I am God Almighty, ('El Shaddai'). So walk before Me and be blameless. I will confirm My covenant between Me and you and I will make you the ancestor of many people." (New International Version)
This name "El Shaddai," God Almighty, is found only in the books of Genesis and Job. Why does God introduce Himself to Abram with it? You see, Abram has had difficulty believing in the mighty power of God to do what He's promised He'll do. His lack of trust in God has culminated thirteen years ago when he slept with his wife's servant Hagar to get what he hoped would be his promised son.
Abram thinks Ishmael is the promised son. He's given up on God's promise to him and his wife Sarai. He's resigned himself to second best, actually deluding himself into believing that second best is God's real plan anyway.
But God hasn't given up. He hasn't written off Abram because of his unfaithfulness. He hasn't forgotten His promises to this unbelieving man. God's faithfulness cannot be cancelled out by our unfaithfulness! So He comes to Abram once again, this time with the Name "El Shaddai", God Almighty - God who has the power to do what He promises He'll do.
But after all these reassurances from God, do you know what Abraham does? Verse 17. He falls on his face . . . and laughs at God. Can you believe it? The man laughs at God.
He says in ridicule and disbelief, "Can a man have a child when he's a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth to a child when she's ninety? Get real, God! Let's just make is easier on all of us and let Ishmael be the promised son!"
In chapter 18, when God appears again to Abraham, this time Sarah is eavesdropping on their conversation, hiding behind the entrance to the tent. She hears God tell Abraham, "This time next year I'm going to come back and Sarah will have a son."
Sarah looks at her aging, sagging body and starts laughing. "After I'm worn out and my husband is old, I'm now going to have this pleasure? Please!"
God hears her laugh. He says to Abraham, "Why is your wife laughing and saying, 'Will I really have a child now that I'm old?' Listen, Abraham, is anything too hard for the LORD?" (18:13-14) What God is reminding him is, "Look, buddy! I'm El Shaddai, God Almighty! Nothing's too hard for Me!"
So why in the world do Abraham and Sarah laugh at God? Have you ever laughed at God? “Oh, I would never do that! How disrespectful!” But maybe you have already.
I'm reminded of another scene. It starts out in the home of a very close-knit family: mom, dad, and daughter, the only child. She's twelve-years-old. She's dying. It's not fair! No justice in it at all!
We pick up the story in Luke 8:41. I'm reading from the Living Bible paraphrase: "And now a man named Jairus, a leader of a Jewish synagogue, came and fell down at Jesus' feet and begged Him to come home with him, for his only child was dying, a little girl twelve-years-old. So Jesus went with him, pushing through the crowds."
Verse 49: "A messenger arrived from Jairus' home with the news that the little girl was dead. 'She's gone,' he told her father. 'There's no use troubling the teacher now.'
"But when Jesus heard what had happened, He said to the father, 'Don't be afraid! Just trust Me, and she'll be all right.'" Doesn't this sound like what God says to Abraham? "Is anything too hard for the LORD? I am El Shaddai, God Almighty!"
(v. 51) "When they arrived at the house, Jesus wouldn't let anyone into the room except Peter, James and John and the little girl's father and mother. The home was filled with mourning people, but He said, 'Stop the weeping! She isn't dead; she is only asleep!' The people all laughed Him to scorn, for they all knew she was dead."
Can you imagine laughing at God, mocking Him, making fun of Him, ridiculing Him? Why do these professional mourners do this? They laugh because they can't believe His word that the little girl's just sleeping and that He can wake her up. It goes against common sense and reason. It's simply ridiculous! It just doesn't fit into their paradigm. They ought to know - they're professional mourners and they've seen lots of dead people!
But in spite of this faithlessness, this lack of vision, this inability to see beyond the status quo, this spiritual arrogance, notice what Jesus does (v. 54): "So Jesus took her by the hand and called to her, 'Get up, little girl!' And at that moment her life returned and she jumped up . . . Her parents were overcome with happiness."
Have you ever laughed at God? When I give up on God's promises, when I think something is too difficult or beyond hope even for God, when I resign myself to my own perceived limitations in spite of God's assurances to me, when, like Abraham and Sarah and the professional mourners, I see only the barren womb or the lifeless body, when I think that something's too old or too dead (as it were), when I insist on keeping God inside the safety and predictability of my little box, when I'm so arrogant I think I know what God can or can't do or should or shouldn't do, I am laughing at God.
That's why God tells Abraham to name the promised son Isaac, which means "he laughs." Every time Dad calls his son, he will remember that he laughed at God but that God blessed him anyway.
Some of you remember the infamous 1994 Super Bowl between the Dallas Cowboys and Buffalo Bills. It was the fourth straight humiliating loss for the Bills in the Super Bowl. Thurman Thomas, the Bills star running back, sat on the bench after the game, his head bowed with his hands covering his face. His three fumbles had helped seal the awful fate of his team. He felt like a failure!
Suddenly, standing in front of him was the Dallas Cowboy's star running back who had just been named the MVP for the Super Bowl, Emmett Smith. Smith was carrying his small goddaughter. Smith looked down at her and, to Thurman's amazement, said, "Honey, I want you to meet the greatest running back in the NFL, Mr. Thurman Thomas."
The good news, friends, is that God gives you and me His blessing even when we've failed! God gives even in spite of our faithlessness because He's always faithful! He comes to each of us today, like He did to Abraham, as El Shaddai, Almighty God, to remind us that nothing is too hard for Him! Nothing! He's the God who makes barren wombs fertile and lifeless bodies fruitful. El Shaddai, the One who blows apart our self-imposed limitations and preconceived boundaries. El Shaddai, the faithful Giver of Grace who quiets our disbelieving laughter with His love.
What are the areas in your life where you need to see God as El Shaddai? Are you willing to accept His promise of faithfulness to you today and let Him be El Shaddai, your Almighty God?
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