If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee

"If thou but suffer God to guide thee

And hope in Him through all thy ways,

He’ll give thee strength, whate’er betide thee,

And bear thee through the evil days.

Who trusts in God’s unchanging love

Builds on the Rock that naught can move."

~  Georg Neumark, translation by Catherine Winkworth

This is verse one of a seven-verse hymn John Piper describes in his discussion of his favorite hymn. 

As are dawn and sunrise...

“Unfulfilled and fulfilled promise are related to each other,

as are dawn and sunrise.

Both

are promise

and in fact

the same promise.

If anywhere at all, then it is precisely in the light of the coming of Christ

that faith has become

Advent faith,

the expectation of future revelation.

But faith knows for whom and for what

it is waiting.

It is fulfilled faith

because it lays hold on the fulfilled promise.”

~ Karl Barth

Why Should I Buy and Why Should I Build?

Lamentations is one of the fiercest books of the Bible.  The prophet dares to know that God is good when there is not a speck of hope, when people are suffering and dying and refusing to listen.  He declares God’s mercy, bowed for the sake of man’s sinfulness.  And God can take everything, but this worship will stay – not the tender worship, but the hoarse shout of desperate truth, aching but glad that God is right and mighty and still good. 

Judah thought they would escape Israel’s fate.  They had false prophets saying that things were well when things were terribly wrong.  Their king rallied morale and insisted that God’s faithfulness would preserve the country from destruction.  I don’t know why he thought the suffering already going on would have a limit.  In typical Jewish fashion, maybe they were all just unable to believe that God would let another, more wicked, nation have the victory. 

Nebuchadnezzar’s armies marched.  They besieged.  Our peaceful, “civilized” imaginations can barely accept the horrors Jerusalem endured before falling.  The noble and the rich – even the faith-full – were targeted and taken, relocated and enslaved.  Babylonians were triumphant and proud.  Jews were devastated and sad. 

Then God does something for them that shows He is a God of Hope and Love and Promises:  

            "Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon; Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace. …For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive." 

And a few chapters later, God told Jeremiah to buy land.  Buy land!  Land about to be taken away by foreign invaders.  The prophet is obedient, but he wants to know why.  He acknowledges the righteousness of God that has brought calamity on Judah.  And he says he knows nothing is too hard for God…

            “Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying, Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me? Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it: And the Chaldeans, that fight against this city, shall come and set fire on this city, and burn it with the houses, upon whose roofs they have offered incense unto Baal, and poured out drink offerings unto other gods, to provoke me to anger. …And now therefore thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city, whereof ye say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence; Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely: And they shall be my people, and I will be their God: And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul. For thus saith the LORD; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them. And fields shall be bought in this land, whereof ye say, It is desolate without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe evidences, and seal them, and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the valley, and in the cities of the south: for I will cause their captivity to return, saith the LORD."

Nothing is too difficult for God.  Even when things are darkest, there is nothing stopping Him from restoring what was lost.  The question is “What will God do?” 

And then the question, the glory of man to ask their God, is “Why?” 

(Scriptures from Jeremiah 29 and 32)

Only If We Endure

"Mostly we want to get away from suffering, and will often take the quickest path possible to escape it. And then we feel hopeless. Things will never change. I never noticed this connection that God makes though- suffering producing endurance producing character producing hope. Suffering leading to hope! But only if we choose to endure (and yes, I think that sometimes enduring is a choice if escaping is an option)." 

~ Alanna at Through Deserts and Rainstorms

Dare Not

"To hope, for thou dar'st not despair."

~ Francis Thompson

For A Name

"Instead of the thorn 

shall come up the fir tree,

and instead of the brier 

shall come up the myrtle tree:

and it shall be to YHWH for a name..."

- Isaiah 55:13

Not Blazing

I saw a piece of art once.  It reminded me of hope, whatever the artist’s intention was.  The setting was dim, almost dark, like when you forgot to turn on a light after the sun went down.  But in the middle were defiantly bright flowers and fruit.  I felt that the dreary world was trying to stifle the hope, but the little bits of color stood fast and determined against being conquered. 

Hope isn’t always a blazing beacon; sometimes it is the undying glimmer in the distant stars.  

Certainty

"That’s the danger 

of living according to the values of a culture where 

certainty 

is synonymous with wisdom. 

It leaves no room 

for God 

to do the unexpected, 

and prove He’s even greater 

than we thought He was." 

~ Jesse Carey

Through

"The ten spies looked at God

through the difficulties,

while Joshua and Caleb

looked at the difficulties through what they knew about God."

~ Warren Wiersbe

"Ever the Hope of Men"

“Aragorn looked at the pale stars, and at the moon, now sloping behind the western hills that enclosed the valley. 'This is a night as long as years,' he said. 'How long will the day tarry?'

'Dawn is not far off,' said Gamling, who had now climbed up beside him. 'But dawn will not help us, I fear.'

'Yet dawn is ever the hope of men,' said Aragorn.”

~ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

Like A Star

"Hope itself is like a star—

not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, 

and only to be discovered in the night of adversity." 

~ C.H. Spurgeon