This posting will take you on a journey
following my train of thought. Prepare
yourself—it may be a wild ride!
NOTES
This year, we are studying Genesis in
Community Bible Study. A recent lesson
was on Noah, the flood, and an incident that happened after the flood. We find in Genesis 9:20-25 that Noah planted
a vineyard but then drank a little too much of the “fruit of the vine”, got
drunk, and fell asleep in his tent with no clothes on. One of his sons, Ham, went into his dad’s
tent and saw him in his altogether.
Instead of covering him and keeping his mouth shut, Ham left Noah as he
found him and went blabbing to his brothers about it. Now, I’m not saying that Noah was right; but
he was still the father and the head of the family—the God-fearing but imperfect
man God chose to carry the human race forward.
As such, he deserved to be treated with respect. Shem and Japheth (Noah’s other sons) did
that, but Ham seemed to go out of his way to disrespect his dad. When Noah found out about it, he cursed
Canaan (Ham’s son).
As I thought about this story, I thought
about someone I care about who, like many other people, would really question
the fairness of this whole incident. As
I thought about how I could answer those questions when my loved one asked
them, I realized that all of us were making a critical error in even asking the
questions. They were based on the wrong
standard! The questions assume that WE
know what is right and what is fair. We
are judging God by our standards when we should be judging ourselves
by God’s standards!
From there, my thoughts took another
detour (I warned you!). Last night, I
was home by myself—a very unusual event—so I decided to watch a movie that I
knew my husband wouldn’t be interested in seeing: Les
Miserables (Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway). Unfortunately, I can’t really recommend this
film because parts of it are downright indecent. If you decide to watch it, please fast
forward through a couple of the scenes (especially the “Master of the House”
sequence). It’s a shame they didn’t get
the message of those scenes across with a more G-rated approach. In case you’re not familiar with the film,
let me give you an overview. SPOILER ALERT: I’ll be telling you some of the ending so
don’t read this if you don’t want to know it!
Obviously, this will be
oversimplified! The story occurs during
the time of the French Revolution and centers around a man who is a thief. His life is dramatically changed through the
kindness and forgiveness of a priest who leads him to God. He, then, changes the lives of several others
with whom he comes into contact. This
all happens over a period of almost 20 years.
At the beginning of that 20-year period, he had broken parole; and his
former jailer had made it his life’s work to find the former thief and punish
him. This is a beautiful story of
redemption and forgiveness and how God can change a life that is given totally
to Him. (Although, like most Hollywood
films, they leave Jesus out of it—the critical element of forgiveness!) The sad thing, though, is that the jailer is
completely unable to respond to this kind of love. When he is faced with the forgiveness of the
former thief, who holds nothing against the jailer for chasing him for so many
years, it throws him into a desperate dilemma.
He thinks that accepting such forgiveness invalidates his life and his
entire being. Unable to live with that,
he kills himself.
What does that have to do with the
earlier statement about standards? The
thief was able to judge himself by God’s standard—repenting of wrong, choosing
to do right, and accepting the forgiveness God offered. (The flaw in the movie is that they didn’t
recognize the fact that someone had to pay the penalty for the crime in order
for it to be forgiven. We know that was
Jesus, whom the filmmakers conveniently left out.)
The jailer, when faced with the same
scenario, judged God by his standard. He
didn’t believe in forgiveness so he thought God’s forgiveness was unfair and
unjust. In his mind, the only option was
that the thief must pay the penalty for the crime himself. If the thief could be forgiven, the jailer
had been wrong. Since he couldn’t admit
that he had been wrong, he couldn’t accept the forgiveness offered (through
Jesus, who wasn’t in the movie). Left in
a no-win situation, he ended his life.
As humans, we don’t now and never will
have all the answers. There are
things—in the Bible and in life—that we think are unfair or wrong because we
think we know what’s right. We must
remember that HE is God, the
Creator, the Ultimate Authority, the One who set the laws of the universe in
place. All that is required of us right
now is to trust Him—we can ask Him those questions when we get to Heaven!
