Trying to Help God
She replied, “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.”
– Ruth 3:18, ESV
The instruction above was delivered to Ruth by Naomi with reference to Boaz, Ruth’s kinsman redeemer. Ruth’s husband had passed, and Boaz was looked to as one who could step in, marry Ruth, and care for her as her new husband. He was not obligated to do so, but there was a societal expectation that he would perform the duties of a “go’el” in order to protect the family’s land and lineage. Ruth made an honorable request of Boaz, and all Ruth could do at that point was be still and wait for his response.
Now we make an abrupt shift in direction.
Judas
Here is the controversial opening statement: I believe Judas has been misinterpreted and misunderstood for centuries. I’m not proposing that he was a great guy. Not at all. Just misdiagnosed.
Let’s get some context.
The Expectation
When we look at the history of the nation of Israel, we see an undeniable pattern. Read through the book of Judges and others close to it, and you will see the repeating pattern. It runs like this:
- The people are well-behaved and things are good.
- The people misbehave, chasing after idols and pagan lusts.
- God gives the people over to some conquering nation.
- The people cry out, “Oh, the pity!! Save us O God!”
- God raises up a leader and saves his people.
- [Return to step one.]
We see this over, and over, and over. Leader after leader, deliverer after deliverer …
But there is a specific leader the people are looking for. He is the Mahsheeach. We call him Messiah.
This is the deliverer who is going to come in with such force and such power that he obliterates all of Israel’s oppressors. He will drive Rome from the land with the swing of his sword. He will reinstate Israel, not just as a great nation, but THE greatest nation. A nation to rule all other nations.
Messiah would be King of Israel, and Israel would be King of all nations. That’s what they were expecting. That’s what JUDAS was expecting!
So, in Luke 22, when Judas arrives in the garden, leading the Chief Priests and the Temple Guard to take Jesus captive, this is what’s happening. This is where their heads are. They’re thinking Messiah. They’re thinking an army that cannot be defeated. They’re thinking “Israel is about rule the world, and I’ve got a front-row seat.”
That’s why, when the mob came, Peter drew his sword and went after Malchus’ head. That’s why Judas came, full of confidence that the kingdom was about to appear. That’s why he greeted Jesus with the kiss! The stage is set, Jesus. Let’s bring on the kingdom! Judas never expected this to play out the way it did. I am convinced that Judas did what he did to force Jesus’ hand … force Jesus to start the rebellion and establish the kingdom. It was taking too long.
If we go back to another scene, just slightly before the betrayal in the garden, we see this:
As [the crowd] heard these things, [Jesus] proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.
– Luke 19:11, ESV (bracketed inserts mine)
Don’t miss that expectation! And then just a few hours afterward, on the road to Emmaus:
But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
– Luke 24:21a, ESV
Judas thought he could nudge Jesus a bit, to get him to spring into action and establish the kingdom.
Abram and Sarai
In Genesis 12, God promised Abram, “You will be a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” And the years passed. And the years passed. And the years passed.
God later confirmed his promise to Abram. “From your own flesh, you will have an heir.” And it didn’t happen. And it didn’t happen. And the years passed.
So Sarai came to Abram and said, “Alright … this isn’t happening. We need to help God out. I’m not bearing children with you. So, go have a son with my maidservant, Hagar.”
Abram did, and Ishmael was born.
God re-confirmed his covenant with Abram, telling him, “No … Ishmael is not the son I promised you. You kinda messed up there Abram.” And the years passed. And the years passed. And it is not until we get all the way to Genesis Chapter 21 that we see Isaac born.
The child of promise was finally here. But back in Genesis 16, Abram, the man who had heard God … the man who followed God … the man of faith who obeyed God … the man who listened to God … in Genesis 16:2 we are told, “And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai,” and as a result we have both Isaac and Ishmael.
Not surprisingly, Hagar, Ishmael’s mother was despised and driven out, essentially to just go die. But just prior to Ishmael’s birth, the angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar with a message:
And the angel of the Lord said to her,
“Behold, you are pregnant
and shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael,
because the Lord has listened to your affliction.
He shall be a wild donkey of a man,
his hand against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”
– Luke 24:21a, ESV
Every word of that came true.
Ishmael had twelve sons. And just like Isaac, Ishmael became a great nation – too many to even count. And just like God promised, the descendants of Isaac and the descendants of Ishmael have been in a conflict that remains to this day. We see it play out on our nightly news. We can trace the conflict back thousands of years to Genesis 16 where Abram and Sarai decided to take matters into their own hands and help God out.
You and Me
Myriad examples like these exist. I chose these two because they are likely to be familiar to you and they are easy to relate to. It is a common error for us to grow impatient, to run ahead of God, to force some specific outcome. I am looking for work as I write this. Yes, I am being diligent in my search, but I refuse to force the issue. We need to let God be God, and we be satisfied being his people, his servants.
When the Assyrian armies were poised to invade, the people of God, rather than turn to and trust God, decided to make an alliance with Pharaoh, despite the fact that God said, “Don’t do that!”
“Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord,
“who carry out a plan, but not mine,
and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit,
that they may add sin to sin;
who set out to go down to Egypt,
without asking for my direction,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh
and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,
and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.”
– Isaiah 30:1-3, ESV
Are we any different? Would we have agreed, “Yes, let’s get help from Egypt!” or would we have objected? The psalmist says, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”1 God continued his rebuke of the people later in the same chapter.
This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.
You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’
Therefore you will flee!
You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’
Therefore your pursuers will be swift!
A thousand will flee
at the threat of one;
at the threat of five
you will all flee away,
till you are left
like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
like a banner on a hill.”
– Isaiah 30:15-17, NIV-1978
Repentance and rest is salvation. Quietness and trust is strength.
Yes, we work hard as unto the Lord,2 but there comes that point wherein we have done all we can do and all we are intended to do, and in that time, the answers are yet to come. It is then that we “Cease striving . . . cease striving and know that I am God;”3
She replied, “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.”
– Ruth 3:18, ESV
Sometimes we just need to sit still and watch it unfold. Leave it in God’s hands as the most capable hands available.
1. Psalm 20:7, ESV
2. Colossians 3:23
3. Psalm 46:10, adapted from NASB
