Bible
Study: Judges 13, 2 to 25. And Luke 1, 5 to 25.
In the
course of my four-year study of theology, one of the greatest lessons I learnt
is that God is beyond what we can fully understand, that is, we can never fully
predict God or put him in a straight-jacket, we can only tell what he has done,
we can never know what is capable of doing or what he cannot do. So when I thought
my study of theology will help me know God better, it only made me realise the
depth of my ignorance so what books or intellectual activity cannot fathom, I simply
look forward to the divine inspiration for answers.
Today’s
readings when approached from surface value, honestly raise a lot of questions:
“If God knew that he wanted to make a great man Samson, why did he first ensure
that his parents would remain childless for so many years? And in the case of
Zechariah and Elizabeth, why did God allow them to bear shame and ridicule by
being childless for so long before he decided to give them John the Baptist? Can
you imagine how Zachariah, being a priest must have prayed for many people
while his own prayer remained unanswered for so long? Couldn’t this be the
reason for his doubt in the power of God such that even when the angel visited
him in the temple, he still could afford to question God?
Dear
friends, the Gospel truth is that God is a merciful God. He does not allow his
children to suffer for nothing, he is not a sadist who takes pleasure in seeing
his children go through pain. God is merciful even when it seems as though he
is quiet and uninterested in us. God’s mercy remains with us even when our
prayers are not answered and it seems all we get are opposite results. God’s
mercy is there even when others now make us a laughing stock or begin to
describe us with our problem. Elizabeth’s nick name was “the barren woman.” Angel
Gabriel described her to Mary as “the one who people call barren.”
God is
still merciful even when it seems as if we are dying in silence, even when we
think God is merciless by allowing us suffer so much, his gentle gaze remains
ever upon us and when we are completely down to nothing, when we have nothing
else to look up to, when we have completely lost all hope in ourselves or in
our abilities, God comes in, God is a specialist in raising up greatness from
nothingness. Even the first man Adam was made from ordinary dust. God knows how
to turn ashes into gold, he knows how to raise up dry bones and put flesh in
them.
At times,
we could get provoked with God as to why he allows certain seemingly negative
things happen to us, at times, it seems as if it has become too much for us to
bear and we begin to seek for alternative solutions. We gradually give up in
prayer and even when we say we are praying, our minds are really not there anymore
and we are not expecting anything to happen as a result of our prayers. We may
even be inside the church but deep down within us, we are calculating what next
to do, who to meet and where we would go for quicker solutions. Dear friends,
we must remember that prayers are most powerful precisely when it seems as if
they have become useless. Just listen to the words of Angel Gabriel to
Zachariah: “Do not be afraid, Zachariah, for your prayer is heard, and your
wife Elizabeth will bear you a son…”
We need to
go beyond our present challenges and see the Gentle gaze of God just looking at
us from above with love and mercy like a father looking at his little baby as
he tries to arrange a puzzle game. Once we are assured of God’s mercy, the
question we should be asking is not “Why must we suffer at all if God really
loves us?” but “What is God in his love for us trying to teach us with this suffering?”
God allowed
the women in our readings today to suffer the ridicule of barrenness in other
to make them realise the extent of his greatness and power. God likes to act
with that which the world considers useless, the stone rejected by the builder,
that which the world considers impossible so that it can be clear to us that it
is not by our power or intelligence, it is not because of anything we possess
physically, and we dare not ascribe any glory to ourselves or our abilities. At
the end, the parents of Samson as well as the parents of John the Baptist could
see that it was not because of what they possessed physically that produced the
children they bore.
Let us
Pray:
Lord
Jesus, strengthen me when things are most difficult that I may never give up
trusting in your love and Mercy. Amen.
Good morning.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy weekend.
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