Security with God: When we fail or sin God does not reject us - there may be correction but not rejection!

In this pper I want to consider events in the lives of King David, Elijah the prophet and Moses. I want to look at specific events where each one failed God intensely or sinned greviously but God did not reject them. There was correction or discipline but not rejection. I think the same will be true with us.

The first person I want to look at is King David. I want to start with a little more obscure passage than his failure and sin regarding the murder of Uriah the Hittite and sexual sin with Bathsheba. I want to look at David as a young man. He has developed a relationship with God in his youth while tending the sheep. He has experienced the power of God come upon him as he slayed the Lion or the Bear with his own hands (I Samuel 17:34). He has killed Goliath the giant during face to face combat by trusting God. David grows in the grace of God and becomes a might warrior in Israel. Here Saul's envy begins to develop and skyrocket to the point that he begins trying to murder David. After some time David flees from Saul.

At this point something seemingly strange, yet very common to all of us, happens. David completely looses trust in God! He looses his confidence that God will protect him from Saul and provide for him. David has seen God provide tremendous protection in the past from wild animals and people determined to kill him. Yet, at this point in David's life he is overcome by fear and flees to live in Gath, the home of the Philistines, the sworn enemies of Israel! Before he meets Achish the King he overhears some of the servants remembering who he is.... 'Isn't this David, the king of the land... [who has slain] tens of thousands.' David is overwhelmed in fear and actually caves in and pretends to be an insane man! He starts making random marks on the door frames and starts drooling letting saliva run down his beard!

"That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. But the servants of Achish said to him, "Isn't this David, the king of the land? Isn't he the one they singing about in their dances: 'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands'? David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acts like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard. Achish said to his servants, 'Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?' " 1 Samuel 21:10-15

This passage is so intense. However, once you experience enough of life and have seen some wonderful 'successes' in God and some terribly painful 'failures' in God, this passage becomes very comforting! Here is one of the top examples of a man of God.... and he is failing to trust God! He is out of his mind with fear and doesn't know what to do. He is weak just like we are. And the wonderful thing is that God picks him back up and gets David back to a healthy place in his faith again. In just a couple of chapters David runs back to Israel, hides in a cave, is joined by his family and begins to seek God again. In the same way God will pick us up when we fail! Often people are so afraid that when they fail God that he will reject them. This is a blatant lie of Satan. God is faithful and He will work with us to help us.

And just to complete the picture lets be clear that God will help us with moral failure also. David had sex with Bathsheba knowing that she was married and then had her husband killed because he was overcome by lust! This happens much later when David has been crowned King of Israel ( 2 Samuel 11). There was terrible discipline and correction because of this heinous crime ( 2 Samuel 12:7-12). Since David had killed Uriah, the sword would be released in David's own family for the rest of his life. Since David had sex with someone else's wife, someone else would have sex with his wives. The baby that Bathsheba conceived would also die. The discipline and punishment would extend for many many years for David's horrible sin. However, ... and hear this clearly .... GOD DID NOT REJECT DAVID! And that is wonderful news because each of us will sin and do evil things even thought we are trying with all our strength NOT to sin. Some people don't even care if they sin. Other people are trying intensely to love rather than sin. I am talking to the second group - God will not reject us as we are trying to follow Him! Just like David there will be correction and discipline but God will not reject us. He will work in us to repent and develop our honesty, compassion and integrity! (This is the fundamental difference between Saul and David. Saul didn't have any desire to repent for his failures and sins. Saul didn't have a desire to follow God. David repented for failure and sin even though he was King of the land and NO ONE could have resisted him. David also had a desire to follow God. Therefore God rejected Saul's leadership as King but established David's.)

Secondly lets consider Elijah the Prophet. (I Kings 17 - 2 Kings 2) Elijah the prophet has an incredible ministry. Elijah merely prays and the heavens are shut and no rain falls. During this severe drought Elijah experiences God feeding him supernaturally by a bird (Raven) who brought both bread and meat. He drinks water from a brook. One day the brook dries up. God then tells him to go to the widow of Zarephath. God then supernaturally provides a jar of flour and a jug of oil that never run out so that they can make bread during the resulting famine. Sometime later the woman's boy dies. Elijah, by God's help, raises him from the dead! (I Kings 17). To say the least Elijah has a pretty powerful ministry. Elijah has confronted the King of Israel, Ahab, because he fails to follow the Lord and is bent on evil (I Kings 18:18). This was the reason the rains stopped falling. Then, as the single prophet of the Lord in the land, he confronts Ahab and 450 of the evil prophets of Baal. In the presence of the people and the King Elijah prays for fire to fall from Heaven to consume the sacrifice he has prepared for the Lord ... AND FIRE FALLS! He then slays the 450 demonic prophets of Baal. He then prays for the rains to return to the land. After seven prayers (persistence) a small cloud forms and it begins to rain. The power of God comes upon Elijah and he tucks his cloak in his belt and RUNS ahead of Ahab's chariot all the way back to Jezreel (I Kings 18:45-46). The chariot was one of the fastest forms of travel in that day. Elijah has an incredible ministry! He trusts God so completely that he can confront nature, wicked Kings and evil prophets inspired by Satan! By praying to God he has raised the dead to live again and run faster than a horse can pull a chariot!

Now here comes another struggle. After Ahab tells his incredibly wicked wife that Elijah has slain the 450 prophets of Baal she sends a message to Elijah threatening to kill him! Elijah is overcome with fear and flees to the desert and then to mount Horeb. Elijah's faith is God is shaken. Just like David (and us) he looses his trust in God. Elijah asks God that he might die: "I have had enough, Lord - take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." (I Kings 19:4) This is amazing but again - after you have followed God and had some successes and some failures this becomes a very encouraging passage. God then picks up Elijah and he goes on to do some other exploits with God. Elijah goes on to anoint and set up Hazel King over Aram and Jehu as King over Israel. There is also discipline in this because God also directs him to anoint Elisha to succeed him as prophet. His public ministry will become less. However God has not personally rejected Elijah. And there are still public events that Elijah is involved in. Elijah again confronts Ahab because he has killed Naboth and taken his vineyard. Elijah pronounces judgment on Ahab, Jezebel and his entire house. Elijah confronts Ahaziah the next king of Israel because he has followed Baal and not the Lord. He then goes on to split the Jordan supernaturally so that he and Elisha can walk across it on dry land. Lastly he is taken up to heaven supernaturally in a whirlwind as the chariots and horsemen of heaven appear!

I am encouraged by this passage because of God's ability to restore Elijah after he has been completely overwhelmed with fear and given up; ""I have had enough, Lord - take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." I have one more very encouraging example of where God allows Elijah to be a part of another epic event. However it doesn't happen for more than 1,000 years. But before we look at that, I want to quickly bring Moses into the picture.

Thirdly, lets consider the life and ministry of Moses. He outshines even David and Elijah. The events of Moses' life are too many to even cover. Moses interacts with God and angels in such a way that he leads a slave nation (Israelites) out of Egypt, confronts Pharaoh, executes the 12 plagues on Egypt (Nile water to blood, plague of frogs, hail mixed with fire, angel of death ... etc ), he parts the red sea, provides water from a rock twice and on it goes! Moses' ministry was nothing short of spectacular and transcends every other prophet's work's. However, Moses had struggles too. The worst of which seems to be his failure to trust God while procuring water from a rock the second time. (Numbers 20. The first time he asked God to bring water from a rock was Exodus 17). The first time God tells Moses to take his staff and strike the rock. Water then comes out for the Israelites to drink. The second time God tells Moses to take his staff, but to only speak to the rock and water will come out. However when Moses arrived before the grumbling and angry Israelites perhaps his anger or frustration gets the best of him? Moses addresses the whole community as rebels and then hits the rock with his staff twice! I don't understand everything that is occurring here. However, Moses and Aaron have rebelled against the Lord. Somehow they have failed to trust God and 'honor [Him] as holy':

"Listen you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?" Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in Me enough to honor Me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them." (Num 20:10-12)

"... because both of you rebelled against My command at the waters of Meribah." Numbers 20:24b

"This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold My holiness among the Israelites. Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel." Deuteronomy 32:51

The upshot of this is that Moses does not get to lead the Israelites into the long awaited promised land. Some how he has radically failed to honor God or trust God in front of the watching eyes of the Israelite community. The discipline for this is intense. However, let's quickly realize that Moses was not rejected personally by God. He lost his public ministry but His relationship with God was still intact. When we fail or sin we may be disqualified from particular arenas of public ministry and prominence but we still have our greatest treasure ... we are still sons and daughters of God! We still have relationship with Him!

Now let's conclude with something very intriguing. Consider Jesus' earthly ministry. At one point Jesus climbs a mountain with Peter, James and John. All of Jewish history is culminating at the arrival of God Himself in human form. The Messiah has finally come. 2,000 years of prophesy are being fulfilled. While the 3 disciples are with Jesus He is transformed into His true appearance. His face shines like the sun! His clothes become dazzling white! The radiance, glory and power are truly eternal and overwhelming! Right in the middle of this Moses and Elijah appear and talk with Jesus! Wow, what is happening here? I am not sure that I know, but isn't it absolutely wonderful that Moses and Elijah who have had such intense and disappointing failures and sin are the ones chosen to appear and talk with Jesus? How God has honored them, not only in their own time, but more than 1,000 years later!

Conclusion

Isn't it incredibly wonderful to know that you can fail in tremendous ways and that God still wants us to partner with Him and work with Him? Isn't is great to know that we don't loose relationship with Him? There may be correction but not rejection!