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“So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Then Martha said to Jesus, 'Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” (John 11.17-22; emphasis mine, jb). This series of 4x4's will include: 1) Lord If You..., 2) Where Have You Laid Him, 3) You Always Hear Me, and 4) Loose Him and Let Him Go.

Lord If...

When things happen over which we have no control, we humans frequently blame God. After Jesus failed to respond immediately to a call for help, the first words out of Martha's mouth when she saw Jesus were, “Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died.” When her sister, Mary, came out to meet Jesus, the first words out of her mouth were, “Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died.” We don't know if they rehearsed their speeches to Him or not, but we do know that they both thought and said the exact same thing; the result was to place the blame on Jesus for the death of their brother.

Neither Martha nor Mary was the first person to place the blame on God for a downturn of fortunes. Nor do either of them get credit for being the first to think that they knew better how to handle things than God did. In fact, for us to find the first occasion of such finger pointing, we have to go all the way back to the original pair, Adam and Eve. Eve evidently thought that she knew what was good for her, even to the point of discrediting God and His motives in restricting her from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Only after swallowing the lie of the serpent concerning God's motives (see Genesis 3.1-6) did she swallow the forbidden fruit. Furthermore, when God confronted this original pair after they had eaten, Adam was heard to say, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” (Genesis 3.12). The woman questioned God's purposes and the man blamed God for giving him the woman who led him to sin. The blame-game and second-guessing God are as old as humanity itself.

One of the writers of the Proverbs put it this way: “The foolishness of a man twists his way, And his heart frets against the LORD.” (Proverbs 19.3). The idea of the fretting heart against God is no small matter. In fact, this same word is translated being furious and angry in 2 Chronicles 26.19. The idea the Proverbs writer was putting across is the same as we discussed about Adam and Eve as well as Martha and Mary. When God is questioned the heart is set for a fall. As long as man thinks himself capable of deciding what is best for himself (and that apart from God's will or even contrary to His expressed will), just that long man will fall prey to the snare of the devil and fall into sin. Only when God's wisdom and sovereignty are trusted implicitly is man able to rise to the spiritual heights to which God has appointed him. Indeed wise is the counsel to, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3.5-6).

Again God's plea with man is to trust Him! Conversely, man ought “...not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” (Romans 12.3). Any one can second guess God; the wise know it never pays!

Questions:

1. How did Martha and Mary think that Jesus could have prevented Lazarus' death? Do you think Jesus could have healed Lazarus from afar? Did Martha and Mary think that? Why or why not?

2. How commonplace is it for man to blame God? How far back in history does this practice go?

3. What would implicit trust in God do for man and the blame-game against God?

4. What does it mean to think soberly as commanded in Romans 12.3?

"God's Words For US" from Cecelia Lester

Wisdom