Rumors of God

Have you ever had someone in your life that you first heard about through friends?  They would tell you all about this person and you would feel like you already knew them based on what you had heard.  You make assumptions, even judgments based on the stories recounted to you. You may decide this person is a hero or that they’re someone to avoid at all costs.  You might even warn other people away from this person.   And you’ve heard it all through “reliable” sources; rumors, really.  But you assume what you’ve heard must be the truth.  Later on, however, you have some real life interaction with this person and discover he or she is not at all what you expected.    You may leave pleasantly surprised or deeply disturbed.

Job worshiped and revered God all of his life.  He lived a good life and followed all the teachings about God, honoring God, and serving him.  But a long  season of challenge, affliction and hardship changed him.  Job is spent.  He has argued, wrestled, defended himself, and reconsidered all he knows about God.  Once God reveals himself to Job, however, Job realizes he has just known God by rumor.   Job is both relieved and disturbed by God’s self-revelation.  He is relieved because the long silence of the One he loves is over.  He is disturbed because he learns that he didn’t really know God at all.

The primary rumor by which Job has known God is perpetuated by his three friends.  That rumor is: If you are blameless and without sin, trouble won’t touch you.  Your behavior directly impacts the way your life goes.  If things are going wrong for you, it’s because you’ve done something wrong.  The prescription for this is: Fix it and everything will turn around.  Many of us know intellectually that this isn’t true, yet our hearts insist otherwise.  When bad thing happen, we immediately do an inventory and wonder if certain actions or sins have caused our trouble.  While poor choices do have their consequences, there is no hard and fast rule that says, “If you’re good, nothing will go wrong for you.”  You can change your behavior and the challenge you’re facing may continue anyway. That’s what Job discovered.

But this changed when God revealed himself to Job.  Job dropped his false understanding of God and admitted, “I babbled about things far beyond me, made small talk about wonders way over my head,” (Job 42:3 Msg). Ultimately, God’s self-revelation not only righted Job’s misunderstandings, but also led Job to a place of humility and acceptance. “I admit I once lived by rumors of you; now I have it all firsthand – from my own eyes and ears! I’m sorry – forgive me. I’ll never do that again, I promise! I’ll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor,” (Job 42: 4-6 Msg).

Do you really know God or do you rely on “hearsay” and “crumbs of rumor” about him?  The good news is that you can know him intimately and personally.  God has revealed himself in a myriad of ways to us.  We can know him as the Holy Spirit reveals God to us in Scripture, through other believers, through creation, through the events of our lives.  We can know him most clearly through his Son Jesus Christ, who is the very image of the invisible God. It’s important when we face trials like those Job faced that we not rely on misinformation or rumors of God. Like Job, we need to sit with God in the pain and questioning until God clearly reveals himself to us.

Rumor Has It

A rumor is started.  What happens when we hear rumors? Immediately my mind races to possible outcomes of the rumor.  Worse, I may even judge someone based on the rumor I’ve heard.  I have to stop myself and either recall the facts I already know or find the facts I need to know.  Once I sort that out, I have to offer my thoughts and considerations to the Holy Spirit to discern his truth about any situation.  It keeps my thoughts clear to focus on God’s ways instead of mine.  Over time this has become almost instinct. In today’s reading in 2 Thessalonians 2, rumor has it that Christ has already returned.  The Thessalonians have been left behind.  Paul is challenging the Thessalonians to remember the facts he has already told them amidst this unsettling rumor. He is encouraging them to remember what they’ve already been taught.

I can only imagine what they are thinking if they’ve begun to believe they missed the second coming of Christ.  It would really rock my boat.  I would be confused and anxious.  While there is a lot that could be inferred from this passage about the return of Christ,  it is clear that things will get worse before they get better.  This is God’s perspective.  Yet, some people believe the world is getting better.  We have improved medical science to save lives, improved technology to make life easier, we have greater access to education than ever before.  Yet, Paul teaches that the world will get worse spiritually and morally.  Many people see this beginning to happen.  Despite improved technology and education, violence is growing around the world.  Despite excessive amounts of wealth in our nation, people are starving both here and abroad every day.  Despite astounding health care improvements, millions die annually in 3rd world nations from easily treatable illnesses. Despite the prolific media outlets for communication; millions of people still have not heard the gospel in their own language.

Paul teaches that there is a subversive spirit of lawlessness already at work.  It undermines the good news of Christ.  We encounter this in our lives every day.  Who isn’t challenged to set their sights above all the negative thoughts around us?  In fact, this spirit of lawlessness will one day manifest in the “man of lawlessness” who will establish and proclaim he is God.  But we who have believed the message of Christ and walk in a living relationship with Jesus do not have worry about this.   Christ will come for us.  And he will destroy the man of lawlessness with “the breath of his mouth….by the splendor of his coming.”  What a relief!  This is great news.  God wins.  Things may get worse but God isn’t surprised.  He already knows this.  He already has a plan.  He is fully aware.  He asks us to trust Him and believe what he has promised.  He’s promised us a life in eternity with him.  He’s promised to bring to Himself and make all things new.  He has promised to restore our hearts and minds to the way He intended them to be before sin entered the world.  We’ll have a life enjoying Him forever.

“So friends, take a firm stand, feet on the ground and head high.  Keep a tight grip on what you were taught…May Jesus himself and God our Father, who reached out in love and surprised you with gifts of unending help and confidence, put a fresh heart in you, invigorate your work, enliven your speech.”