Hope deferred makes the heart sick

Proverbs 13:12-14 ESV

[12] Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

[13] Whoever despises the word brings destruction on himself, but he who reveres the commandment will be rewarded. [14] The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death.

The "tree of life" is mentioned in several verses but only three books - Genesis, Revelation and Proverbs. As we look closer at the above passage we see the connection between all three. 

12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a ¹tree of life.

How does obtaining what we desire bring us life? What constitutes life?

It is experiencing a sense of ²value, importance, significance etc.

When we obtain what we desire, it makes us feel valued and important. It gives us a sense of purpose, and meaning. When we don't, we feel rejected and worthless, cast aside, forgotten i.e. it makes the heart "sick..."

13 Whoever despises the word brings destruction on himself, but he who reveres the commandment will be rewarded.

What was the word Adam and Eve despised..."Do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or you will die."

What would have been the reward for Adam and Eve, if they had obeyed? Wisdom i.e., knowledge of good and evil. 

14 The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death. - Proverbs 13:12-14 ESV

Wisdom is knowing the difference between good and evil. To act wisely brings life and avoids harm, destruction and death.

Death and life are compared and contrasted in vs 14 just like the two trees in the center of the garden of Eden (Gen 2:9, 3:3).

Why does God say obtaining what we desire is like a tree! Trees bear fruit. The tree itself is not life but eating fruit from the tree brings us life i.e. a sense of value. 

And what does that eating consist of i.e. how do we eat its fruit?

Obedience. It is through our obedience to God we experience life. Obedience addresses what we must do to have life versus what we are not to do.

Obedience brings life. Rebellious disobedience brings death. Wisdom or the knowledge of good vs evil helps us see the difference.

Eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represented disobedience. It was evidence that we are not wise when we act on our own and attempt to be our own god.

For a further discussion on where desire comes from click here.

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¹What is the essence of life? To experience our significance, importance, value. How does our experiencing significance, importance and value give us life? Because God is significant, important, and valuable i.e. He is life and we experience our own value in enjoying his. In this way we are like Him. 

"And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God (i.e. true Source of life, love, and all things), and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." - Jn 17:3

²why do we need to experience a sense of value importance and significant? It is so we can appreciate and enjoy the value, importance, and significance of God.

In order for us to appreciate and enjoy Him, we must have corresponding qualities within us that match up or align with who God is in order to partake of and experience these qualities in Him. I.e. we must be like God - in His image - in this same way, so we might partake of His greatness - His significance, importance, and value.

Everything that is, exists because God created and sustains it. If God was not, nothing else would be. This makes Him the most significant, important, and valuable of all other beings or things. He alone is the Alpha and Omega -  the King of kings and the LORD of lords. All things are from, through, and to him. To Him be the glory (the recognition of His infinite worth/value), forever and ever. Amen!

whats wrong with the forbidden tree?

Was there something inherently wrong with the forbidden tree?

The main purpose of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil didn't lie within the tree itself. There was nothing inherently magical, different or evil about it. It probably was very similar to or the same kind as the tree of life near or next to it (Gen 2:9, 3:3) - Don't forget, God said all the trees were good for food (Gen 1:12; 2:9, 16-17).

The primary purpose of the forbidden tree was to see whether Adam and Eve (and now we) would follow God's direction as instructed  i.e. would they trust God and follow His directions or not.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom i.e. true understanding of right from wrong. If Adam and Eve had listened to God's direction - i.e. had proper regard for God and respected His direction to not eat - they would have taken the first step onto the road of true wisdom and understanding of right from wrong - good and evil - the right way i.e. by following God's direction or instructions and not try to gain this knowledge on their own i.e. by their independent (rebellious) efforts.

To gain the knowledge of good and evil the right way was by trusting what God said and acting accordingly. To believe that even if something looks wrong (the tree looked good for food, so what's the problem) regarding a given direction or circumstance, we still trust him. 

The purpose of the tree was to simply test whether they trusted God or not. It was a test of whether they recognized their total dependence on God for true life and wisdom or believed they could somehow find it on their own and make life work better without him.

They choose to believe the lie that they could gain wisdom - and thereby life - without God. And we continue to wrestle with and operate this way to this present day. They rebelled and rejected His direction and instructions. They did not trust God but turned away from Him. We do as well today.

death and hell defeated

When Scripture says Satan is defeated and Christ now holds the keys to death and hell, what does this mean? 

This is simply saying that death no longer holds the same meaning and effect it once did. Satan and death no longer have the final word regarding our eternal destination i.e. our eternal separation from God and loss of all the gifts of life we now enjoy. When we are in Christ, death now means we are ushered into his presence when we die and exit this veil of tears. This is why Paul said,

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:“Death is swallowed up in victory.”  “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1Co 15:54-57

This does not mean pain and suffering (or Satan) are eliminated in this life, or that death no longer exists (people die every day). It simply means if we are in Christ, death no longer signifies judgment and our ultimate separation from our Creator, nor do the accusations of Satan that we are worthless, guilty, and justly condemned. Why? Because our acceptance by God is based solely on Christ's efforts, not ours. 

Pain, suffering, and death have been conquered, neutered, defused, altered, and are even redeemed and used to bring life in this present world (i.e. to draw us closer to God, who is life). Ultimately, they will no longer be useful or necessary and will eventually be done away with altogether. 

If we are in Christ, they are no longer tools or instruments of destruction and eternal separation from God but are now used as a means of deliverance from our focus and preoccupation with self.

Death no longer means final and eternal death because the sting of death has been removed. Before Christ, the sting was that it ultimately led to condemnation and eternal separation from the Source of life, love, and all the blessings of creation. It no longer does for those who are in Christ. Now death is used as a means to life and ushers us into His presence in this life, with fullness of life awaiting us. 

" 'O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?' " The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."  1Co 15:55-57

Christ fulfilled the demands of the law and our just condemnation for all the harm we caused others by ignoring it!

2Co 12:7  So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited (who do you think gave the thorn...it wasn't Satan himself. And note it is described as a gift, not a curse or punishment).

When the Bible says that Christ now holds the keys to death and hell, it does not mean he's eliminated these, but by his resurrection, he overcame them, and now he's redeeming and using the challenges for our ultimate good and his glory. All this is offered to us if we receive His gift of eternal life in, by, and through Christ! Only through Christ is this true. 

Words of life or death?

All God's commandments are given so we might find, expand, and preserve life. God calling us to obey Him is an invitation to advance, grow, and multiply life i.e. God - through His commandments - is calling us to flourish, not: 

Decline — gradually becoming weaker or less successful 

Wither — shriveling, fading, or losing vitality (often used for plants, success, or energy) 

Fail — not succeeding or collapsing 

¹Struggle  — having great difficulty or barely managing 

Languish — losing strength, growing weak, or remaining neglected 

Deteriorate — becoming progressively worse 

Stagnate — showing no growth or development; staying stuck 

Wane — decreasing in strength, power, or prosperity 

Flounder — struggling clumsily or failing to make progress 

Perish — dying, decaying, or coming to an end 

But when we trust and obey God, it often looks and feels like death (i.e. the above list) when in reality it is the path to life. 

"For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." - 2 Cor 12:10 

When I am weak in my natural strength, I am strong in the strength God gives me.

Christ told us that if we wish to find our life, we must lose it. If we are to live as He designed us to, we must die...i.e. die to seeking life on our own terms; outside of or apart from God. 

The fact that we bristle so much at God's commandments reveals and exposes how much we distrust him and are in rebellion against Him. When we trust and love God, we gladly embrace His direction (commandments), not avoid them. 

"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome." - 1 John 5:3

It is our rebellion that Christ came and bore the consequences of, with all its harm and destruction we see all around us. When we trust the work that Christ did on our behalf, we are no longer in Adam, who rebelled, but in Christ, who obeyed. 

In Christ His obedience is assigned to us as if we were perfectly obedient to God as Christ was. We are now the righteousness of Christ i.e. we are in Christ and no longer in Adam.

For a further discussion on going from Adam to Christ, click here.

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Footnotes:

¹Struggle is the natural consequence of our rebellion and disconnection from God, the source of life, love, and all things.

After we turned away from the Creator (Source) in rebellion, nothing worked properly as designed and intended. 

Can there be peace on earth?

Due to humanity's spiritual bankruptcy (i.e., brokenness) and the resulting inclination to first take care of "number one" (self), there will never be a complete utopia in this life - the goal of ¹all economic or political systems.

To have a true utopia, the individual parts must be sound. A system, no matter how perfect, cannot work properly if the individual parts are not whole and working properly. If you build a wooden structure with boards eaten out by termites, the overall structure is unsound and must be reinforced or artificially propped up, or it will collapse under any sustained weight or pressure.

This does not mean we should abandon living a ²productive life and seek to love God and our neighbor as He has called and designed us to. However, the only way we can is when we are fully plugged in and engaged with the Source of life, love, and all things. If we are not in union with the Source of life, we are empty vessels at best, trying to fill the void. This results in us being takers - in need of being made whole - not givers. The emptiness must be filled in the way it was designed to be if we are to be givers. 

The solution isn't implementing (or imposing on us or others) a particular economic or political system ¹externally but being fully connected and plugged into God himself, which is an internal solution that restores wholeness, resulting in things working outwardly as designed. 

If all the individual parts of a system - i.e., you and I - are not sound, the system will not work, no matter how perfect the outward design of that system may be. Any system composed of flawed individuals (parts) can only be flawed and result in flawed outcomes. 

For this reason, a perfect system will never work; only perfect values and people willing and able to pursue them. Ultimately, this can only occur through people who recognize the greatness, worth, beauty, and glory of the Creator, and their dependence on Him and accountability to Him.

The solution ultimately is spiritual, not political or economic. It is in first knowing God and then making him known (the first and second greatest commandments), not just in word but in deed. To make Him known, we must first know Him in all His infinite love to and for us.

The real question isn't if there can be peace on earth, but when will it occur. For more on this, click here.  

For a discussion on giving as you have received, click here.  

For a discussion on obedience as the fruit of abiding, click here.

For a discussion on being fruitful, i.e., sewing and reaping, click here.

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Footnotes:

¹I am referring to economic systems - such as socialism or communism - externally imposed on us by the state and not internally and organically developed. We are social-relational creatures, and as God's image-bearers, we are designed to receive and give love, not forced to.  

However, we are also bankrupt and broken - i.e., unplugged bearers of God's image made to be in union with their Creator.

For more on our brokenness, click here.  

²We are clearly instructed in many places within the bible to be "fruitful." Most of these verses address spiritual fruit. However, spiritual fruit is usually manifested by actions that often produce material fruit. In fact, any action that produces material fruit should be driven spiritually i.e. by the Spirit. If it is, it is valid. It is spiritual in motivation (i.e. for God's glory) with a material outcome.  

For several posts addressing operating in the Spirit, click here. 

³There is something wrong with personal consumption. Not in itself. If we do not consume vital resources -- water, food, shelter etc. -- we die. Consumption is not just necessary but vital. 

A pursuit that is solely driven by personal and excessive consumption as a substitute for God (i.e. an idol) is our challenge, not consumption itself. 

*Private ownership of property and the opportunity to acquire property through diligence is assumed throughout the bible. The founding fathers who penned America's Constitution and the Declaration of Independence acknowledged this when they declared we had a "right" to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. What most don't know is that the pursuit of happiness is the right to the fruits of our labor, i.e., property.  

Christ instructs us to pray for his rule and reign to come on earth as it is in heaven. 

"Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven..." - Matt 6:10 

Is this a prayer to usher in the Kingdom now or in the future? Both. 

For a discussion on what the kingdom of God is, click here. 

Disconnected from the Source of all things

We suffer because we, along with all of humanity, are ¹disconnected from our Creator; the Source of life, love, and all things. As a result we don't function as we were designed to. In a word we are ¹broken.

We also suffer because the rest of the created order is in bondage as a result of our choosing to turn away from God.

Our rebellious distrust of God is the core reason for ²pain, suffering, corruption, and death.

God did not (and does not) cause evil or suffering. It is the organic result of our choosing to reject and walk away from Him; to live independent of Him and attempt to make life work without Him who is the Source of life, love, and all things. If you turn off the light switch (or unscrew the lightbulb), the light goes out. The one who made the device - e.g. light switch - isn't the problem; the one who doesn't use the device as designed is.  

However, God uses the resulting pain of our disconnection to reveal to us that He is the ultimate Source of love, life, and all things. Pain itself is not good. But God uses it for good by showing us our need for Him who is not only good but best. He is best because He is the Source life. We were created to experience our highest good in and through a relationship with him.

Pain does not have the last word regarding evil; God does.

How does God use evil for good?

 

Suffering can reveal to us how life does not work (as intended) without Him, so we might be drawn back into a loving relationship with him i.e. learn how to flip the light switch on or screw in the light bulb.

He does not (and did not) cause evil itself but he does use it. It becomes a tool to turn us back to Himself and shape us, making us a more perfect bearer (reflector) of His image i.e. He uses it to make us more like His Son who is the perfect reflector of God.

God is greater than evil. Evil doesn't win, God does even in and through evil. 

¹For a further discussion on being broken click here.

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Footnotes:

¹We are not completely disconnected objectively. In Him we live, move, and have our being. Without Him we or anything else would not be.

But we are disconnected subjectively, consciously, willfully, and personally.

²Pain is the ³loss (or absence) of the good things God has created that we use to ease or mask our pain. Pain is a reminder to turn back to God, our ultimate good, and no longer to the good things we use to self comfort. 

Nothing is wrong with creation in itself. It is the misuse of it that is our problem. Creation is not the Source, but only the means by which God seeks to convey his love and goodness.  

The reason created things don't work long term - meet our deepest need - is our need is permanent not temporary - we are designed for infinite love (God's love) not temporary comfort. Created things are temporary. They do not have life in themselves but are sustained by Christ. "... And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together"

³For an extended discussion of this last point, click here. 

Which comes 1st, grace or humility?

Which occurs first? Our seeing God as the Source of life, love, and all created things more clearly or our being weaned from an ¹inordinate delight in created things? 

Several places in scripture teach that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. This indicates humility comes ²before grace (i.e., the gift of ³God revealing Himself more fully to us) or at least humility is the means of experiencing ongoing and increasing grace. 

We must recognize attempts at being our own God - our arrogant independence - do not work long-term, i.e., we must humble ourselves. We must die to live. Death to our attempts to save ourself comes before life. 

God is our greatest happiness. Anything that increases our union with Him is good, even (and maybe especially) pain.

For a discussion on the necessity of humility click here

 

How do we discover God's love in our pain? click here

For a further discussion on the primary role of pain click here

For a further discussion of how God uses evil for our good click here...and here.

The greater the evil the greater the opportunity for healing/

grace click here.

For a discussion on the key lesson from the book of Job, click here.

For a discussion on the value of paradox, click here.

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Footnotes:

¹Why do we hold on to and pursue created things so tenaciously? It allows us to temporarily cling to our independence from God. We want the delights of creation without the humility of admitting they are all gifts from our Creator or the necessity of our submission to and dependence on Him. 

²The old saying is you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. 

However, you can also salt its oats. 

The choice to not drink is up to the horse. Salting its oats is up to someone else. 

While the choice to humble ourselves precedes our experience of grace, pain is often a means by which we are humbled. We often have no control over painful circumstances, even though we have control over how we respond to them i.e. we can either humble ourselves in response to pain or become defient and rage at God for it.

³it is not because God is hiding that we can't see Him, but because our pride - our tenacious clinging to our independence - blinds us to seeing Him clearly. It takes humility to see and appreciate humility i.e. to see Christ as the humble servant He is. We can't see or grasp what Christ is truly like without humility because He is humble. 

Without humility we project on to God arrogance when He says we should honor and praise Him i.e. we don't see Him correctly. We suppress the truth in our unrighteousness i.e. our unbelief and valuing (worshiping) created things over our Creator (Rom 1:18-23).

Yes Christ is the Lion of Judah but he is also the Lamb of God who willingly humbled and submitted himself to the Father to be slain... and that for our sake and the Father's glory i.e. he did this for the sake of others.