Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.
~ Augustine of Hippo (354-430)
“Oh, that the words I now speak were written! Oh, that they were recorded in a scroll! That with an iron stylus and [molten] lead hey were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer and Vindicator lives, And at the last He will take His stand upon the earth. Even after my [mortal] skin is destroyed [by death], Yet from my [immortal] flesh I will see God, Whom I, even I, will see for myself, And my eyes will see Him and not another! My heart faints within me.
~ Job, a man who would not let go of his faith, in Ch. 19 of his epic poem
Oh beloved, it is true.
Each of us have been there. We felt like if we had to believe and wait for even one minute more, that we were going to be used up. We look at a faith journey as something that wears us down. We tire of not being able to see. We are exhausted by getting our hopes up, and finding out that the last bend in the road did not lead to a finish or home, but started another long leg of the epic we have been living.
Now, have no doubt reader, Faith is not an easy task. It is, as the late Eugene Peterson said, “[part] of a long obedience in the same direction.”
But…
What if what if it is all true? What if the Object of our deepest desires is with us, and is leading us to the place where there will be no need for faith, nor hope – and, all that will remain is Love?
What if faith were not exhausting? What if faith had the opposite effect? What if faith, like constant winds beating on trees, only leaves us stronger, more rooted, and able to bear more fruit?
What if we saw, like those believers of old (described in Hebrews 11), that faith conquers kingdoms, enforces justice, obtains promises, stops the mouths of lions, quenches the power of fire, escapes the edge of the sword, makes us strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight, receiving back our dead by resurrection?
And what it, even if we are tortured, refuse to accept release, suffer mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment, or are stoned, or sawn in two, or we are killed with the sword, or we have to go about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated – we know deeply and truly that all is well?
Can we see it?
Neither could Simeon. At least he could not see with his physical eyes. The story of the presentation of Jesus at the temple, is an astounding (and true) event in the history of salvation.
Church history tells us that the Simeon who greeted Jesus as the Messiah when Jesus was only 40 days old, was the same Simeon who helped 71 others to translate the Hebrew texts of the Old Testament into the Common Greek in the LXX (Septuagint). And this being true, he was a man aged at least 270 years old. His physical frame had started to wither, and he was blind.
But…
This same Simeon recognized a baby entering the temple courts in Jerusalem, and saw the very Object of his Great Desire fulfilled:
Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,
Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.
~from Luke 2
Oh beloved, go deeper here. What kept this man going for nearly 300 years? What gave him the strength to devote himself entirely to worship, ministry, and study for that long?
Faith.
Maybe what we can take away from this is profoundly simple. The thing that we call “faith,” in our lives; the thing that is wearing us out – is not faith.
Oh, it may be a sincere attempt at belief. But since it is us who try to muster this up (instead of The Author and Finisher of our Faith), we quickly tire of the who thing.
So, are you feeling tired of holding on to your belief in G_d? What if you (and this fool of a writer) quit just trying to believe? What if we, like Simeon, allow ourselves to be empowered by the vision of simply know that Jesus is coming again?
Tonight is your night. Time to quit trying to believe. Allow yourself to gain strength for the long obedience in the same direction, by seeing the reality of the eternal G_d and His Word.
For God to explain a trial would be to destroy its purpose… calling forth simple faith and implicit obedience.
~ Alfred Edersheim (1825-1889)
