Sunday Message: The Long Way of Faith

A lot of scattered pieces have floated around in our mix since last I did a Sunday Message, and I hadn't shared it all since I had been lax in praying to put it together.  But when two consecutive lessons I listened to on Monday reminded me of all we learned about the Fear of the Lord in Proverbs, I knew I was being called to get at it.  And it sat heavy on my mind Friday night, as I prayed about what it was that God was waiting on me to get busy about.  The only thing I truly knew was that there were at least two factors working in. 

The first of those was the story of Caleb in Joshua 14.  Caleb, with Joshua, was the spy that pleaded with the people to obey the Lord and enter the Promised Land.  They were too scared, and thus Caleb was promised his potion, BUT not until ALL of the rebellious generation had died off.  That would take 40 years- and a LOT of death.  Can you even begin to imagine what it took from Caleb to wait, watch people he knew, maybe loved, pass on, keeping that one great goal of God's promise in mind?

The other part is the book of James, which I had another two sources recommend as daily reading.  So I have been reading chapter one every day this week.  And the verse I kept coming back to was vv 5-6:

Jas 1:5  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 
Jas 1:6  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 

And this morning as I tried to draw the weave tighter, I noticed this comment on those verses in John Gill's commentary:

 Not only in the faith of the divine Being that God is; but in the faith of the promises he has made; 

And this is DIRECTLY Caleb's faith, because listen:

Jos 14:6  Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, "You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me. 
Jos 14:7  I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. 
Jos 14:8  But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the LORD my God. 
Jos 14:9  And Moses swore on that day, saying, 'Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.' 
Jos 14:10  And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. 
Jos 14:11  I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. 
Jos 14:12  So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said." 
Jos 14:13  Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. 

He had faith in the promise God made through Moses, after 45 years of wandering through the desert, watching people die, waiting for the day it would be fulfilled.  Now, the story gets a new spin.

In the middle of the night I still struggled, but remembered a verse from Proverbs:

Pro 6:22  When you walk, they  (They being, 'your Father's commandments and your Mother's teachings) will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you. 

And needing that watching over and talking to, I prayed that, since I had the radio on as I usually do, that I would wake up to hear what God wanted me to hear.  What did I wake to hear?  Tony Evans telling me to apply the prayer of Jabez, to give it to God, and come back in a year and see what happened.

Many of you know the Prayer of Jabez; I went through it at length in the Wednesday study quite a while back.  To bring everyone to speed:  In the middle of a seemingly unrelated genealogy, this pops up:

1Ch 4:9  Jabez was more honorable than his brothers; and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, "Because I bore him in pain." 

1Ch 4:10  Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, "Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!" And God granted what he asked. 

So how does this connect in?  You'd be surprised.  I actually got insight for this along the way in Hebrews 11, the "Faith Hall Of Fame" chapter, but in the interest of not untying what I have so far tied, let me abridge it thusly:  Faith starts out requiring- you guessed it- Fear of the Lord and obedience.  When you combine the three, you gain certain qualities: Assurance, understanding, power; and as a result, you gain righteousness from Christ and go on to achieve the life promised.  With all this in mind, I compared Jabez's prayer to Caleb's results:

Bless me- and Caleb got his land

Enlarge my border- not only insofar as the land, but the lifespan- 45 years later, still the strength and vigor of a man of 40.

Your Hand with me- Not only getting Caleb this far, but success in driving out the pagans and overthrowing the fortified cities.

Keep me from harm- think about 40 years of wandering with NO ill effects, five years of hard fighting to help clear the lowlands for Israel, and however long it took him to take the hill country and Hebron

So that it might not bring me pain- pain translating to "worry, fear, or anger"; in other words, giving him that power to stay faithful for those 45 years.

In addition to this, several clues that I stumbled to along the way make it seem to me that Jabez MAY be a direct descendant of Caleb!  Funny how the loop closes.

So where does that bring us?

Well, we certainly have at least one undefeatable obstacle looming at us.  But Faith almost requires "a dragon for the knight to slay."  And Jesus said this about faith:

Mar 11:22  And Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God. 

Mar 11:23  Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 

Mar 11:24  Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 

Mar 11:25  And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses." 

Two takeaways there- "Believe that you have received it"- which means don't worry it, but give it to God.  Second, note how forgiving is tied in.  Sometimes, you have to FORGIVE the mountain. Is the obstacle a person, a group, a company, a political party, that is- or you feel is- wronging you?  Start with forgiving them.

It also takes us to the promises of God.  We have also had a couple great blessings- one of them a four-legged blessing- and to see how things fell together in God's time, in the best way for all concerned, once we (read I) were obedient, it all came together when our prayers recognized that God WOULD keep his promises.

I think Caleb knew the "prayer of Jabez" well.  I think Jabez knew the faith of Caleb well.  And if last year was our "40 years in the desert, watching people die", then maybe this year will be our "five years of hard fighting" with God's promises this close, and maybe the next will be when "God granted what he asked."  For you, too.