Tuesday: Malaise
The readers of Hebrews were successful in keeping their faith and commitment to Christ, despite rejection and persecution. The conflict, however, took a toll in the long run. They fought a good fight and came out victorious but also weary.
Read Hebrews 2:18; Hebrews 3:12-13; Hebrews 4:15; Hebrews 10:25; Hebrews 12:3, Hebrews 12:12-13; and Hebrews 13:1-9, Hebrews 13:13.
What were some of the challenges the believers were facing?
Image © Howard Roberts at Goodsalt.com
Hebrews tells us that the readers continued to experience difficulties. Verbal and probably other kinds of attacks against their honor continued (Hebrews 13:13). Some believers were still in prison (Hebrews 13:3) — something that may have drained the church financially and psychologically. They were tired (Hebrews 12:12-13) and could easily “lose heart” (Hebrews 12:3, NIV).
It is usual among persons and communities that after the thrill of victory passes, psychological and other kinds of defenses are relaxed, and they become more vulnerable to the counterattack of their enemies. The strength that a person or community mobilized to face an impending threat is more difficult to summon a second time.
Read 1 Kings 19:1-4. What happened to Elijah?
“But a reaction such as frequently follows high faith and glorious success was pressing upon Elijah. He feared that the reformation begun on Carmel might not be lasting; and depression seized him. He had been exalted to Pisgah’s top; now he was in the valley. While under the inspiration of the Almighty, he had stood the severest trial of faith; but in this time of discouragement, with Jezebel’s threat sounding in his ears, and Satan still apparently prevailing through the plotting of this wicked woman, he lost his hold on God. He had been exalted above measure, and the reaction was tremendous. Forgetting God, Elijah fled on and on, until he found himself in a dreary waste, alone.” — Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, pages 161, 162.
| Think about those times in which you failed in your Christian life and try to understand the circumstances and factors that contributed to the collapse. What could you have done differently? |
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Some years ago I noticed that I had little flashes of light in the vision of my left eye just as I was getting into bed at midnight. I dismissed it. I was tired and had been working late. The next morning when I awoke, the flashes were still happening and there was an ominous darkening of my vision on the lower left. My optometrist daughter was staying with us at the time. She quickly diagnosed the situation and wrote out a referral for me to see an ophthalmologist. I thanked her and told her I would make an appointment to see one the following day. She said that was not how it worked. She said, "Go now and sit on his doorstep until he opens. He will see you right away. It is serious. You have a retinal detachment and could lose your sight!"
Suddenly I realised that my situation was out of my control. My eye health had forced me to rely on others, my optometrist daughter, an ophthalmologist, a vitreoretinal surgeon, and the staff of the Sydney eye hospital. My work had to wait.
It is like that with sin. We get to the point where the battle overwhelms us and we realise that we are not going to make it. That is when we need to understand that it is not really our battle. Someone else is fighting the battle for us.
The author of Hebrews has this to say:
And while it is good that the battle has been won by Jesus, it is worth noting our role in "exhorting one another". My daughter could not fix my eye but she knew the urgency of the situation and who the right people were who could fix it. Our role in bearing one another's burdens and exhorting one another should not be dismissed.
PS for those who want to know the end of my eye story - my sight was saved but 3 months later I had a retinal tear in the same eye, and while most of my sight was saved I have blurred central vision in that eye. Fortunately my brain works out how to cover that so most of the time I do not notice it.
Thanks to Jesus for saving your eye.. what a good illustration and sweet end to the story. Thanks Sir Maurice
Doc Ashton,
Alleluia He saved your eye.
What a wonderful and marvelous Savior we have, indeed!
Glory to God for you need your eye to serve Him and your brothers.
Blessings
My nephew has just endured and survived being infected with the virus Omicron even though he had 4 doses of vaccine. What virus could infect the Hebrews even though they had received the Good News?
One of the problems that the Hebrews were experiencing was being vulnerable to new ideas, so Paul had to warn them - "Do not be carried away by various and strange teachings; Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Heb 13:8-9
Christianity is the fulfillment of the promises to Adam, Abraham and Moses, it is a renewed covenant with the same principles as the original, also engrained in our hearts.
Today we need to heed the same warning Jesus said - do not be deceived, and that Paul repeated over and over again - remember the truths that I taught you.
1Cor 15:1-4
1 Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, and in which you stand firm. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.
Eph 5:6; Eph 4:14; Rom 16:17-18; Acts 20:30
Acts 20:28-30
28“So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock—his church, purchased with His own blood — over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as leaders. 29 I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. 30 Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following. 31 Watch out!
For quite some time I tried to do everything I could to save a relationship. But when I decided I had no more strenght and that Jesus should really take over, things happened the way they probably should!
What could I have done differently? I should have trusted completely in the Lord since the begining... perhaps so much energy was wasted with no success! I learned that I have to trust not only my relationship but my entire life! Every little thing I seem to own, from my body, my talents to whatever material things have I right over, everything is the Lord's! I can only manage all the blessings He has given me! Looking for the will of God for my life every day is where I find true happiness!
The question at the end of today's lesson seems to imply that Elijah's experience in 1 Kings 19 was a "failure" that led to a "collapse". Is this really how God sees it? The more I am learning about God, the more I suspect that this is not how God views us when we struggle and even stumble when our heart is genuine (Isaiah 42:3; Matthew 11:28-29). God knows we are in a fallen world and therefore deeply impacted by things we were never created to experience. This is not making an excuse for things - there is a world of difference between making an excuse and acknowledging unfortunate reality.
The lesson also quoted part of a paragraph by Ellen White regarding her perspective on Elijahs' experience. In elaborating further on Elijah's experience and its relevance to more recent times, she also wrote the following:
This is who I find God to be - abundantly compassionate because He genuinely understands our experience, especially when we struggle and experience malaise or despondency. And in His compassion He seeks to encourage, restore and strengthen us that we may recover to continue on in His strength. Could you learn to trust a God like that?
Hi Phil - I read your comments after posting my thoughts on the topic. It is reassuring to find Ellen White, you and I to be in agreement about the loving compassion our heavenly Father has for His fallen creature - man. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you, so much, Phil.
What was the difference from Elijah's feeing from Jezebel after a great victory for God and wanting to die etc., and then God eventually translating him to Heaven in a Chariot of fire without dying and Moses striking the Rock twice and then having to die and then be resurrected from death before taking him to Heaven like Elijah (except that Elijah did not die like Moses did?)
Pete, to me the difference between the episodes in Moses and Elijah's lives is that the LORD still had a job for Elijah to do whereas Moses had finished his mission. Secondly I believe that the difference between Moses being laid to sleep and Elijah being taken up in a whirlwind was to teach those left behind a lesson not necessarily to benefit the one individual over the other.
What is your opinion?
Thanks, Shirley Debeer. But isn't it interesting as to how Moses mentions both events at the Rock where he struck it 40 years earlier and water came forth (when the 10 spies came back with a faithless report of the land) and then 40 years later when he struck it twice and water came forth again (after all the faithless people had died) and indicates God being angry with him for their sakes? Why does Moses lump these two events together as working against him by God and for the sake of the people God being angry with him? EGW says that if Moses had not struck the rock 40 years later that God would have translated him. But who then would have been with Jesus at the Mount of Transfiguration to represent those who will be raised from their graves for eternal life? I feel that if Moses had not struck the rock he probably would have been allowed to enter Canaan but he still would have died to be with Elijah and Jesus and the Mount of Transfiguration to represent those who will be raised from death for eternal life like he was too.
I have learned when studying Scriptures to always keep the bigger picture in mind. Studies are usually done on the books of the Old and New Testament or some topic contained in them, but ultimately, the studies are done to find God’s Truth and Light and learn to apply this to our life.
Because the Scriptures leave room for ‘interpretation’, it is important to remember that there is only one spiritual Truth and one Light to be guided by, revealed by the Holy Spirit.
Once this understanding comes about, the result of studying the Scriptures will always be for the edification of the believer, and in turn, for the lifting up of praises and thanksgiving to our heavenly Father and His Son, our Savior, Christ Jesus.
Heb.12:3NKJV - ”For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.” This is for me! The one who was blameless, the one who ‘could have set the record straight’, decided it to be right to stay calm and kind in response to the challenges He faced.
I will always know who I believe in, will always be sure that my faith is in God’s faithful and caring hands. It is my impatience with evil, its mocking insistence by showing me my weakness – spiritual weariness exposed by my wanting to see changes ‘now’! Love is not finish changing my heart, yet – thank you, Lord!
God is longsuffering, 'His Patience endures forever'! We, being in Christ, are called to be patient, to let His Truth and Light do its work in our life and in extention, the life of those we come in contact with.
Yes, it is my greatest challenge to remain patient - calm, kind, and caring - in the face of evil manifesting itself around me, the country I am a citizen of, the world, and in the diverse followships of believers.
The anger stirred up in me about evil’s vail cast to distort God’s Truth and Light, wrong accusations made against Christ's Gospel Faith based on this distorted Truth - this anger is my Achilleas heal. When interacting with spiritual darkness unsuccessfully, my cries of anguish to my heavenly Father come from deep within; is this not the Holy Spirit’s outcry in response to this spiritual darkness when heaven’s Light is so readily available? Remain firmly embedded in Christ's Faith!
Rom.8:26-27 Weymouth New Testament - ”In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness; for we do not know what prayers to offer nor in what way to offer them. But the Spirit Himself pleads for us in yearnings that can find no words.”
Yes, Elijah failed to hold on to his faith in God, and we know that whatever is not of faith is sin. (Rom. 14:23)
Modern psychology has done away with sin in order to get rid of guilt. But that is not how God does things. He has a better way of getting rid of guilt. He doesn't just "overlook" sin or pretend it didn't happen. He forgives it! The part that many dislike is that forgiveness presupposes a fault ...
I've always cherished this account of Elijah's depression as a sublime example of how Christ understands and cares for people who get depressed and lose faith. He sent His angel to comfort Elijah not just with words but with food - twice! And that was before His incarnation! How much more can He sympathize and understand after having experienced the same types of temptation we experience!
I may have mentioned before how God ministered to me when I was in a similar frame of mind. Everything looked dark, earthly friends seemed to have become enemies. I am certain it was God who moved a certain pastor from thousands of miles away to call, opening with the usual polite, "How are you?" I didn't reply in the expected way. I actually told him just how I felt.
He spent the next hour or so ministering to me, and to this day, I don't know what he thought his reason for calling was. He was the only person on this planet who could understand the situation in which I found myself, because he knew the people involved possibly better than I did.
What a marvelous, loving and caring God we have! Praise be to His Name!