I started reading the book of Exodus for my daily devotions last week. I love the stories of the Old Testament. They are real and authentic people going through real and authentic challenges, difficulties, and hurdles. Too often we relegate these Old Testament narratives to “flannel graph” stories. As kids we would go to Sunday school and sit in front of the flannel graph board and listen to the Sunday school teacher tell us the Bible story as we watched her/him put the flannel graph pieces on the board. I appreciate all the time and effort that every Sunday school teacher put into preparing their lessons. I learned so much from them.
However, has it ever seemed that the Bible characters weren’t real? It was just a nice story, but it’s not applicable to me.
Joseph is such a giant in the faith, he must have had something that I don’t have. There is no way that if I went through all that he went through that I would be able to say “you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” (Gen. 50:20). What about Daniel or Job? They endured so much, they most certainly must have had something that I don’t have.
Actually, we have so much that they don’t have. They didn’t have a copy of the Bible, yet we have it in its entirety. They couldn’t look back and see all that Christ did for them while He was on the earth culminating in His death and resurrection. So we actually have it better than they did.
Job went through horrendous suffering without having the written word of God and he was still able to say, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:20, 21).
So what can we learn from the Old Testament? First, we must appreciate that the Old Testament narratives are stories with real people going through real struggles, just like us. Their lives were filled with difficulties and daily challenges that resulted in daily hardship. Not only that, they didn’t have the modern conveniences that we have today. They didn’t have running water and grocery stores or cars and computers with internet. We have these things going for us.
We also have the inspired Word of God in our hands. Many of us have multiple copies of God’s Word. We have the words of God in a written form that we can read and memorize and meditate on. Do we see this as one of our most valuable treasures or do we take it for granted? The God of the universe wanted to make sure that we had His Words so we could read them and live by them. What a special treasure that is for us today.
In this magnificent Word of God we have multiple examples on how to live. We have encouragement from these saints. When you begin to talk to someone that has gone through a similar life struggle as you, doesn’t it provide encouragement to know that they have been through what you are going through and they have made it through to the other side? We have this same scenario in God’s Word.
So when you struggle, go to God’s Word. See how the narrative plays out and see what they chose to do in the midst of the trial. They didn’t have something you don’t have, you actually have something they don’t have.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1, 2)
