God is not primarily interested in your happiness. Nor is He primarily interested in protecting you. Or rescuing you. Or giving you what you want. Hmm? Well, what do you think? Completely false? Plausible? Or could it be true? We often think of God’s amazing unconditional love for us and interpret that into what it is that we deserve. Do we deserve protection and happiness?

This was the premise of a message I gave at the 605 this past weekend. Our focus on ourselves has resulted in a complete reversal of biblical truths. Instead of seeing ourselves as the sovereign God’s creation, we see ourselves as entitled princes and princesses. It does not take long when reading the Bible to realize that God is not most interested in our protection, rescue, happiness, or material contentment.

The story of Joseph as a whole provides us with a view of God as a sovereign protector who always comes through in the end (Genesis 37-50). Unfortunately, the end is not reality for you and me. We are immersed in the middle of life. We are walking through TODAY. What was Joseph thinking when he was alone in the pit? What was he thinking when he was tied to a camel and walking through the desert? What was he thinking when he was in prison? Maybe he was wondering about where his divine protection was. Do you deserve to be protected?

Maybe Abel, in his last moments of life, saw himself as worthy of rescue. Rescue did not come, though: Cain killed him (Genesis 4). The parallel to our life is striking. We will all die. God may rescue us occasionally and even routinely. But there will be a time when he does not. He may heal us from our ailments and sicknesses. He may even heal us from our disorders and handicaps. But one the healing will stop. And we will die. Do you deserve to be rescued?

Jacob wandered the desert after fleeing his older brother and father. He worked for seven years for an uncle who cheated him. Then he worked seven more years. All so that he could marry Rachel (Genesis 27-35). Do you think he ever stopped to think, “Where is the fun at?” We spend so much time worrying about happiness that we miss out on the joy. Do you deserve to be happy?

After leaving Egypt, the Israelites were complaining about their life in the desert. They were sick of eating manna and let Moses and God know how they wanted cucumbers, leeks, onions, garlic, fish, and melons. Instead God sent a plague that wiped the cravers out (Numbers 11). I wrote about this incident in a
Then it was back to manna for them. Do you deserve to have what you want?

God is not primarily interested in your happiness. Nor is He primarily interested in protecting you. Or rescuing you. Or giving you what you want. I believe God is most interested in building your character to be more like Him. In each of the stories above, and throughout the rest of the Bible, we see that God is interested in obedience, not entitlement.

When the Israelites reached the Promised Land, they had an opportunity to enter. But they were afraid and refused. They cried out to God that they would rather die in the desert. God banished them to wander the desert for 40 years because they gathered against Him (Numbers 14). And their wish would be fulfilled: they would all die in the desert. Clearly God was interested in their obedience over their happiness.

Not long after, Moses failed to obey God. The people were complaining again; this time for water. God told Moses to take his staff and speak to the rock. Moses instead spoke to the people and said, “Shall we bring water out of this rock?” Instead of speaking to the rock, he hit the rock with his staff. Water poured out of the rock and the people were satisfied. But God revealed to Moses that he would not enter the Promised Land either.

Numbers 20:12 – And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”

Because Moses did not uphold God as holy, he was punished. Moses gave his life to these people; to the task of leading them. He would bring them to the door of the Promised Land and then he would die. God was more interested in character than happiness or protection.

It is true that God does protect us; God does rescue us. God allows us to be happy and He often gives us what we want. But He is primarily interested in developing our character. It is time for us to stop focusing on God as the one who loves ME and start focusing on Him as the Holy God who demands holiness from us.

To start, read into these four areas: do you deserve protection/rescue/happiness/stuff? What in your character needs a holiness reassessment?

To listen to (stream) the entire message go here. Or you can download it.

-z

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This entry was posted by zac on Thursday, December 14th, 2006 at 8:38 am and is filed under Weekly Jib Jab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.