By design, the song you just heard exists to provide encouragement to the listener. It’s by Chris Rice, and entitled, “8th Grade.”
The Refrain is where the encouragement lies, where it reads...
Why does the past always seem safer?
Maybe because at least we know we made it
And why do we worry about the future?
When every day will come just the way the Lord ordained it...
Talk about the concept of reminiscing and potential pitfalls. School Days, the stresses then compared to the memory of it. The trials of today compared to then. Good ol’ days? Wishing today was like yesterday? At least, looking back, I know I made it, right?
The ancient nation of Israel might have benefited from the words of this song shared with you today. Let’s pick up their story in Exodus.
Exo 2:23 Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.
Exo 2:24 So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
Exo 2:25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.
Israel loathed the life they had. They desired deliverance. Numbers 20:16 shows us that they directed their cry to God, but by their example we can understand they did not know God or understand how to relate to God. They just knew they hated where they were and wanted to get away.
Promise of deliverance given, miracles, walking out of Egypt with a “high hand” (in boldness). Pharaoh’s heart hardened again and pursues.
Exo 14:10 And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.
Exo 14:11 Then they said to Moses, "Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt?
Exo 14:12 Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, 'Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness."
Nobody is going to willingly leave one place for another without having the belief that the other place will be better than where they are. Even if they believe, that belief must be strong enough to get through those times in life we can’t see past our noses, those times when we feel lost.
Again, we can find a similar response to perceived hardship when looking at Israel’s reaction to the report of the spies concerning the Promised Land.
Num 14:1 So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.
Num 14:2 And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!
Num 14:3 Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?"
Num 14:6 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes;
Num 14:7 and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: "The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.
Num 14:8 If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, 'a land which flows with milk and honey.'
Num 14:9 Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them."
Num 14:10 And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Now the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel.
So, Israel’s response to Joshua’s and Caleb’s encouragement was a determination to put them to death, but the LORD appears. Reading on...
Num 14:11 Then the LORD said to Moses: "How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them?
Again, we can recall the phrase from our refrain, “When every day will come just the way the Lord ordained it...”
God is not going to let anything get in the way of His promises.
Runners – believe outcome is better, they imagine how it’s better, and they improve (goals, equipment, running style).
To reach the destination the Kingdom of God, we must be committed as Christians to similar principles.
1. Believe the outcome or destination is better
A way to envision a destination we have never seen is to understand Who already lives there. God has revealed Himself to us through Jesus Christ. What is the Savior like? Perfection.
Eph 4:13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
So, we can look at the life of Christ as a series of lifestyle examples and source of wise instruction. Remember that in John 14:6,
Joh 14:5 Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?"
Joh 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Joh 14:7 "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him."
So Jesus clearly declares He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He’s our ultimate example when explaining the promise of salvation. But we don’t have only the Gospels to show us this, because Jesus was the LORD of the Old Testament...
1 Cor 10:1 Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea,
1 Cor 10:2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
1 Cor 10:3 all ate the same spiritual food,
1 Cor 10:4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
The destination can be further understood by realizing the LORD’s behavior and instruction also defined the desired qualities found in the promised destination.
Exo 34:6 And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,
Exo 34:7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation."
2. Develop a clear vision of the Destination
Any time we take steps toward freedom from slavery, we will be tested, and these tests will tempt us to look back and have a mind to give up. So, once we have been convinced the destination is better when we have a high hand, we must study to understand what that destination offers in full. We must develop a singular focus on the outcome that gives us endurance when we are tested. We must learn to see the destination as if we already possessed it.
Heb 11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
Heb 11:9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;
Heb 11:10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Heb 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
To people of faith, all that we could ever desire in this world, will never compare to the inheritance offered us by God.
3. Use God’s Gift to Change and Grow
Rom 8:12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
Rom 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
“but if by the Spirit”
Going further, not so much to make the same point but to tie it to the second point already made, adding clear vision to our destination.
Rom 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
Rom 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."
Rom 8:16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
Rom 8:17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
Continuing to the book of Philippians, we find another clear reference for using God’s gift to change and grow.
Php 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
Php 2:13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
“for it is God who works in you”
Again, we could stop hear but to finish the thought is to help us further understand point one, learning to believe the destination is better by understanding other godly behaviors.
Php 2:14 Do all things without complaining and disputing,
Php 2:15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
Php 2:16 holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.
Can this be included? Check the time.
If you don’t mind, because I believe it’s very important to remember this, I’m going to fire a warning shot over the port bow.
Num 14:20 Then the LORD said: "I have pardoned, according to your word;
Num 14:21 but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD—
Num 14:22 because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice,
Num 14:23 they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.
What can we learn from this?
If we review steps 1, 2, and 3, we find a process provided to us for coming out of sin, coming out of the ways of this world. God has to convince us that the offered destination is better than where we are, then we have to follow God no matter the apparent dangers that we face, learning to envision our destination so powerfully that tests and trials do not shake. We then rely on the power and nature of God to change and grow.
We don’t want to test our Father or disrespect the sacrifice of His Son by neglecting this Spirit in our lives, by neglecting to let God create in us a clean heart, because carried out to completion, we will lose the vision and eventually cease to believe destination to be better than where we were. If step three breaks down, so follows step two, then step one, eventually rejecting the Spirit of God never to receive it again.
So, why does the past always seem safer? We did make it through, after all. Israel, every time they met with hardship during those Exodus days, instead of believing, relying on, and obeying the LORD, they longed to return to slavery, which seemed better to them than their current circumstances appeared to offer. But, we as Christians should not fear the future. Fear leads us to shut down and do nothing, blame others for our troubles or long for days of old when things were not as hard, because at least we knew we made it. Instead, we can have boldness about the future when:
1. we are convinced that the destination is better than our current location,
2. we are able to envision that destination as worth the sacrifice that comes from leaving where we have been, and
3. we are determined to rely on God to change us, to be willing to experience that which is good for us by the direction of God’s Holy Spirit.
If we can understand that God is truly with us in Jesus Christ, we will learn more clearly that EVERYTHING will turn out just as the LORD ordained it, and we know, because we know enough about the destination, that God saves those who love His way. God can part any sea to deliver us, He can take on any giants. The most vast, inescapable void is death, but, by accepting the sacrifice of our LORD Jesus, and the promised salvation for following Him, we are put on the narrow way to eternal life, escaping eternal death by the power of God to save us.
1 Joh 4:13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
1 Joh 4:14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.
1 Joh 4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
1 Joh 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
1 Joh 4:17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
1 Joh 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
1 Joh 4:19 We love Him because He first loved us.
IF GOD IS LEADING YOU, THE PAST IS NEVER BETTER THAN RIGHT NOW, AND RIGHT NOW WILL NEVER BE BETTER THAN THE FULFILLMENT OF GOD’S PROMISES.
Refrain
Why does the past always seem safer?
Maybe because at least we know we made it
And why do we worry about the future?
When every day will come just the way the Lord ordained it...
