Comparing Ourselves and What God Really Desires

I am continuing my journey through Genesis with my Bible study group, and we just covered the massively broken family dysfunction that was Jacob, Leah, and Rachel.  There is so much that is not exemplary in Jacob!  And yet he is the holder of the covenant promise that God had made with his grandfather, Abraham.  He was also very wealthy and blessed by God for much of his life, to an almost unbelievable degree!  One dear sister finally had to say what we were all thinking: “Why would God even use Jacob? What is up with that?”  I answered her in the moment with an explanation that Jacob shows us the real beauty of God’s love, in how God cares for us and uses us, even though we are such broken sinners.  And that is true.  And it is beautiful.  But it is also incomplete.

I wasn’t okay with the sinner who seemed to be prospering. 

I had to step back and think about it for a while because I wasn’t sure I was really at peace in myself about what was up with Jacob.  After all, our human senses scream that it is unfair that someone who was so deceptive, so self-absorbed and opportunistic, should be favored by God with all the bounty and promise of the covenant.  As I thought, I remembered an incident earlier in the week where I was trying to give a message of hope to someone who felt like he had sinned so much that God had given up on him.  I wrote to the person, telling him, “God doesn’t want our perfection – God wants our hearts.  Give your heart to God.”  My heart ached for him in his sin and despair.  I wanted so much for him to turn to Jesus.  The irony of the two situations hit me hard.  I was okay with the repentant, broken sinner who was at his last straw.  I longed for him to have a walk with our Lord.  I wasn’t okay with the sinner who seemed to be prospering.    But at the end of the day both men are the same – broken, willful, lost people in need of a Savior.

God never promised that the good would prosper and the bad would fail.

You know those moments when God stops you out of nowhere and tells you there is something in your heart that is wrong?  Yes ma’am – it was one of those moments.  And trust me – those are not the moments we live for in our Christian walks!  I was convicted of the times when I resented people who seemed to prosper, even though they were behaving in a way I thought was wrong.  So then I had to turn the attention from what was up with Jacob, and ask instead what was up with me.  After all, God never promised that the good would prosper and the bad would fail.  In fact, that is a lot of what the book of Job talks about.  Job’s friends keep asking Job why did he have such bad luck fall upon him – why was God punishing him?  But God wasn’t punishing Job – God called him righteous!  The Bible says there is no direct connection between good and reward, or between bad and punishment in this life.  Jesus says, in Matthew 5:45 (b), “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”  The problem was not in how God was treating Jacob, or even the pain the broken man was feeling.  The problem is that we have a completely skewed and broken sense of good, bad, reward, and punishment.

We all have a problem with comparison. 

First of all, whether we want to admit it or not, we all have a problem with comparison.  We all have a problem with fearing not having enough, not being enough, and missing out on things we want.  Even those who seem too arrogant and self-assured are using that to mask a deep, deep insecurity within themselves.  We all default to a state of judgment.  We are hard-wired to compare things to each other, and we immediately start doing comparisons with whoever we meet.  We are hard-wired that way because we inherited a sin nature from the Fall.  That knowledge of good and evil that Eve acquired gave us just enough of a sense about it to start using it to make assumptions and judgments about everyone around us and their circumstances.  We became fallen, sinful, broken creatures, unable to see clearly or even to control our own sin.  We began fighting back against that by trying to become perfect on our own, or to at least become more perfect than the other guy.  And we started to become angry when we judged ourselves better than the other guy, and then saw him prosper at a time when we were suffering.

We hear stories like Jacob and our inner sin nature rebels.

Are you starting to see the pattern of words here?  “Judge”, “better”, “more”, “angry”.  Every one of these undesirable traits and attitudes are what Jesus discusses in Matthew 5-7, the same section as the verse on God spreading rain and sunshine equally.  All are part of the Sermon on the Mount.  All are Jesus pointing out the sin and hypocrisy that can so often define our way of existing in the world.  Time and again, Jesus tells us to judge not, or that the least shall be greatest, or to humble ourselves.  And those of us who sincerely accepted Jesus as our Savior, and are striving to walk with Him daily in faith, understand all of that.  We understand that we are to love our neighbors – all of them.  We understand we are to pray for our enemies.  And yet we hear stories like Jacob and our inner sin nature rebels.  We ask, “Why?”

We forget none of it was about Jacob.

Jacob was blessed.  He got the inheritance.  He got the birthright.  He got the covenant promise.  God prospered him in his time with Laban in Haran.  He had flocks, and children, and would have his time living in the promised land.  We envy all that God gave him and wish for whatever it is in our lives that we think is missing.  But we forget none of it was about Jacob.  Let me remind myself of that again – none of it was about Jacob.  All of it – the land, the children, the prosperity – was about bringing forth God’s eternal promise.  It was about the line of people from whom our only hope and promise would be born – Jesus.  God gave what He gave to Jacob not because of anything Jacob earned, but because of God’s own plan and love for ALL humanity.  And, in the end, He took it away.  Remember that Jacob and his offspring end up having to move to Egypt in exile from the promised land in order to survive a famine that God planned for far in advance.  Jacob lost his wealth and his land in his lifetime.  All earthly prosperity is temporary, even when it comes from God.

Who is really more blessed?

Maybe we need to adjust how we see others in their circumstances.  Who is really more blessed?  The man who has earthly goods and prosperity, but who continues on in his own will and self-assurance, missing what God really wants – an eternal relationship with him?  Or the man who is at such a low place that the only thing he has left to do is give God what He always wanted in the first place – a broken, contrite heart?  After all, Psalm 51:17 tells us that the best sacrifice to God is our broken heart: “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” 

Maybe we should be glad when see our own suffering and hardship.

Now, I am not saying that Jacob didn’t go to heaven – Hebrews 11:21 says he did, because he had faith at the end of his life as he blessed his sons.  I am just using him as an example of people in our day who value wealth, position, and other earthly success more than God.  Many of them are not in relationship with God, and, unlike Jacob, may never come to that faith before they die.  Maybe the man who is at the end of his rope is more blessed in the spiritual realm because he is one second away from offering himself to God and gaining eternal life.  Maybe the one who we should have the broken heart for is the one whose life is full and content, but his soul is far away from God because he feels like he has no need for Him.  And even more difficult for us is that maybe we should be glad when we see our own suffering and hardship because we know that those experiences are what developed the broken heart that we could offer to God.  And that makes me think of that verse that we all secretly cringe at: James 1:2: “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.”  I wonder how our lives and attitudes would change if we looked at all we saw through the filter of how close it brought us to God.  All of a sudden, all of the wealth, success, popularity, and comparison would lose their meaning.  All of a sudden, the least really would be the greatest.

Jesus is the definition and source of good.

So what did I get from my time with the hard-to-love Jacob?  I got reminded of God’s definition of “good” and “bad”.  God is so much more holy and “more” than us, that from His perspective, we are all equally “bad”, no matter how much we have worked to be good and perfect in our lifetime.  That is why our attempts at perfection are as dung to Him, in the words of Paul (Philippians 3:8).  Jesus is the definition and source of good.  He is the only human that ever was because He is the only human who was also the holy God. 

God can change our circumstances in an instant.

I have also been reminded that blessing and punishment only have lasting meaning when we leave this earth and enter into eternity.  If we are justified because we have given our hearts to Jesus, we will be blessed for all eternity.  If not, we will be punished for eternity.  All “blessing” and “punishment” on this earth are fleeting – God can change our circumstances in an instant, just like He did with Job. 

I will remember to praise God.

And finally, any work I do is a gift from God for my own benefit, because God doesn’t need my help – He allows me to help because of what it does to help me get closer to Him.  God desires nothing from me but my heart and that is the greatest sacrifice of all.  So from now on, I will still try to give hope to the hurting, but will do it with rejoicing, knowing that they are at the desperate moment when they could secure their eternity with God.  And I will try to quit judging and resenting the prosperous but sinful people, because whatever they have on earth will not make it into eternity, no matter how hard they grasp at it.  And instead of defaulting to judgment or envy, I will remember to praise God on the days when I am at the end of my rope, because I know that is when I am closest to Him.

I hope today’s message touched your heart, increased your understanding, and encouraged you.  Praying the peace and comfort of Christ Jesus on your life.