FLAWED FAITH FIGURES

 

Ecclesiastes 7:29 NLT God created people to be virtuous, but they have each turned to follow their own downward path.

There, you have the history of mankind in a nutshell!  When God created man, He did not create him like a robot, but designed him into a creature of thinking, reasoning, remembering and planning, with a free will to make choices. He placed at the depth of man’s heart the knowledge of God (Romans 1:19), but man was expected to exercise his free will to love God. God never intervened in this. In the worst scene, even those who were called by God for a specific purpose rejected the path of righteousness and followed the dictates of their hearts. Let us examine a few examples from the Holy Bible:

Solomon: David was a faith mountain, God's chosen servant, called by God ‘’a man after my own heart’’. Out of his many sons, God had chosen Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom Israel. He also enabled Solomon to build a magnificent temple in Jerusalem for the living God. He promised Solomon he would establish his kingdom forever if he resolutely carried out God's commandments and ordinances. Under Solomon, Israel became a great world-power. He was known as the wisest king on earth. 

But once on the throne, he became a thoroughgoing despot. Israel was a wealthy nation, but the resources of the nation were diverted to his personal aggrandizement. The Hebrews were freedom-loving, military people, but In his attempts to gratify his passions he turned them into slave labourers. His whole idea was to secure himself in peace, to amass wealth and indulge his love of grandeur in the style of Oriental monarch.

Solomon's principal wife was the daughter of the Pharaoh of Egypt.  But in addition to her, he established marriage relations with the neighbouring nationals, primarily for political reasons. In blatant violation of the law, he married nationals Israelites were explicitly forbidden to marry. Under the influence of his foreign wives, he fell into idolatry and polytheism (1Kings 11:4) towards the end of his rule. The Bible declares (1Kings 11:6) Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD; unlike his father David, he did not follow the LORD completely. Solomon’s excesses resulted in the nation being split into two.

Jeroboam: When Solomon followed after other gods, turning his back against the Living God, the Lord raised up Jeroboam (a key official of Solomon) against him (1Kings 11). The Lord promised Jeroboam that he would tear apart the kingdom of Israel and gift him ten tribes, making him king over Israel. The Lord also cautioned him to be careful in following His commands so that his throne would remain secure forever (1Kings 11:31-39). But things didn’t work quite that way. Jeroboam did something detestable in the sight of God. He made two golden calves and enticed Israel to worship them. He also built shrines on high places and appointed priests out of the laity. 

After Israel revolted against the house of David and submitted itself to the leadership of Jeroboam, his citizens still had to go to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices and worship at the temple. Jeroboam was afraid and worried if his citizen continued to worship at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, they would again give their allegiance to Rehoboam king of Judah. So, in order to guard his life and his leadership, he schemed such evil things at the cost of going against the standards of God, eventually ruining his life and his kingdom. 

Samson: The woeful story of this colourful character is told in Judges 13-15. Samson had tremendous potential. Not many have started life with credentials like his. Among all the “judges” that ruled over Israel, he was the only one whose birth was foretold by God. Samson was to do great work for God—to rescue Israelites from the Philistines.  To help him accomplish God’s plan, he was blessed with extraordinary physical strength.

Samson wasted his gift and God-given opportunities. He could have strengthened his nation. He could have returned his people to worship the living God. He could have wiped out the Philistines. He did none of these things but misused his enormous strength to settle personal scores and eventually gave it up altogether to satisfy the woman he loved. In the end, Samson recognized his dependence on God. When he died, God turned hid failures and defeats into victory.

Saul: When the Israelites clamored for a king to rule over them, God relented and decided to give them Saul. A simple peasant, his only qualification for the monarchy was s striking appearance and personal courage. During his reign, Saul had his greatest successes when he obeyed God. He united the twelve disparate tribes of Israel into a nation, won every war against his neighbours, expanded the kingdom, and proved to be an able administrator. Even his weaknesses could have been used by God if he had recognized them and left them in God’s hands. But his own choice cut him off from God and eventually alienated him from his people.

Once entrenched in his position, he began to neglect consulting Samuel who was his mentor. He allowed his jealousy to overcome him and became obsessed with the idea of getting rid of David, his son-in-law. He specifically disobeyed God on several occasions and tried to be a king on his own. Eventually he was rejected by God, lost his kingdom to the enemy Philistines and met a tragic death at the battle field.

Judas Iscariot: Why did he betray his Master? The traditional belief is Judas was a traitor. It is simpler to believe that he did it for money -- sounds logical. One of Judas's main weaknesses seemed to be money. Historically, human feelings towards him have been mixed. Some hate him fervently; others pity him for not realizing what he was doing; there are even people who portray him as a hero for the part he played in God’s plan.

Whatever his motives for betraying Jesus, it cannot be denied that:

His greedy nature made him vulnerable to satanic attack. The Bible says Satan entered him. (Luke 22:3-6, John 13:27). A truly committed believer cannot be possessed by the devil. He accepted payment for arranging Jesus to be captured. He identified the Lord to the guards in the dimly lit garden of Gethsemane.  At some point during his career, he realized he didn’t like the way things were turning out. He was angry. He made the same mistake Jonah made. He thought he knew better. It is unfortunate he did not correct his course as Jonah did. Judas ended his life in despair without ever experiencing the gift of reconciliation God could have given him through Jesus Christ.

It is easy to be judgmental and condemn Judas Iscariot for his wickedness, but professing a commitment to Jesus and then denying Him by the way we live is also betraying Him. We must be sure about our commitment to God and the presence of God in our life. We have the freedom to make our choice. We can choose despair and death like the above-mentioned five men or choose repentance, forgiveness, hope and find eternal life.

The Apostle Paul, using his metaphor "flesh" for the sinful self, described the struggle every man faces this way: “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other” (Galatians 5:17). . There is a spiritual struggle going on within the soul of every Christian. It is the struggle between the sinful self and the Spirit of God. Faith is given to us by the grace of God. It is a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8). Although we have this faith from God, there is a human component as well. We must exercise the faith we have been given. We must put it into practice (Mark 11:22).

 

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