pleasure

He was the King.  Nations revered him.  Mighty men bowed before him.  Yet, as he fled from his throne, his home, from the danger to his life and the lives of his family that his own son, Absolom, presented, a kinsman of the previous king stood on a ridge above them raining down curses upon King David.  One of his mighty men offered to go and stop the flood of curses with one strike of his sword.  The king's answer to this proposal was a foreshadowing of the attitude the very Son of God would take when His circumstances became extremely unfavorable.

There is always something much larger than ourselves when circumstances are unfavorable.  That something can be factored down to the pleasure of the Almighty.  It is easy to look at all that is happenning and lose ourselves in fear and worry.  The "what ifs" of life constantly try to pull us away from right living, from pleasing God with our thoughts, words, and deeds.  Our human instinct is to strike back, to strive to undo the immediate effects of terrible circumstances.  But in that moment we show the real stuff we are made of.  We reveal whether our hearts are submitted and trusting God, or whether we are merely concerned for our present situation.  We do not have to look hard for reasons to be worried, even living in the freeest society the world has ever known.  Once we start down that road, trying to right all the wrongs against us, worrying about the future, despair is eminent.  Crossing the chasm we want to look down, to define the danger, to try and take it all in and make sense of it with our finite, human understanding.  But we are ill-suited to handle the overwhelming onslaught of trouble we see, and despair is waiting to finish us off.  We speed up our own demise by giving in to that attitude.

King David's response to his mighty man's proposal denied the violent despair the place it sought to overtake.  He spoke of God's will for him to be right where he was, in that tough spot, bearing up under the storm of hateful arrows.  He remembered his own hateful actions, and the words of the prophet Nathan that reminded him that he was already forgiven, even though his sin had set in motion the chain of events that made him the target of angry men.  Giving in to the proposal to stop the foolish curses of a man embittered by his own circumstances would be giving in to despair.  And King David knew that is never God's will.

"Eloi!  Eloi!  Lama sabachtani!"  Christ Jesus cried out from his terrible circumstances.  Submitting to God's will does not mean the absence of pain and suffering.  The Father planned this from the founding of the earth upon the waters.  God knew the day would come when His Son would fulfill the Plan, taking the sin of the world upon His sinless shoulders.  The Father knew He would have to turn His face away.  It was His will.  It had to be if ever there would be right relationship between Himself and the crown of His creation, humanity.  Jesus could have called ten thousand angels to come to His rescue.  But it was God's will that He did not.  It was the God's will that He bear the horror of this incredible agony that ended His human life and freed millions of people from the bondage of sin, and from sin's result, death.

As we go through the circumstances of life, we have to raise our eyes away from despair and onto our Hope, our Way, our Life, Jesus Christ.  We have to praise Him in favorable and unfavorable circumstances.  We have to forgive as we have already been forgiven, and apply His mercy and grace to others who mean us harm, even in our suffering.  God is not pleased that we suffer because of our sin.  He is pleased when do not allow anything to come between us and Him.  He knew every day we live before we were even born.  This is our purpose, to please God in this way.  And when we do that, we may not be happy.  But He promised we will be full of joy.

Hebrews 12.1-4