Posted on 03/12/2021 10:35:02 PM PST by Pilgrim's Progress
“Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12 KJV).
One can only imagine what it must have been like for Jacob to wake up that morning after his marriage to Rachel only to find out that her cross-eyed sister was looking back at him across the pillow. Such a thing would be nightmarish in our western culture. I believe that we would be fit to be tied! After the shock wore off, though, Jacob had to abide by the custom of the land. One day, his agonizing wait was over and his truly beloved was by his side, his great desire had come.
We that are saved have a great desire and it is found in 1 John: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (I John 3:2-3 KJV).
We have a great desire for a coming day when we will be like our Saviour, to be as He is. Until then, our hearts are sick with not only the anticipation of waiting, but with the agony of not being like Him. How our heart melts as we consider that we are still so far from that likeness. Yet, because of our heartsickness, we strive to be pure as he is pure, and Jesus’ Blood is ever near to cleanse us and make us right. Still yet, the pain of our personal failures is heartbreaking.
We, as the church, are in possession of a quite blessed hope, as Paul reminds us: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:11-14 KJV). This holds for us both the glorious anticipation of our Lord’s return for us, His bride, at the rapture and the reminder that we will be purified and saved from the very presence of sin. Our heart is often heavy as we watch a loved one leave this world in death, and wish that the Lord had only come already, but we have a hope (assured knowledge) that we will see them again one day, because we “sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” But our hope will be deferred, just for a little while.
Our hope is a real hope! It is not like the hope I had in a birthday present that I yearned for weeks to possess only to shove it in a closet the day after because the joy was but fleeting. Our hope in heavenly things will far surpass the wonders of it all, when we see our loved ones, when we see our new home, and when we see Jesus! And when we are like Him at last.
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I have always had great sympathy for poor Leah.
Can you imagine being given in marriage, for life, to someone who doesn’t love you, and on the day after your wedding, flies into a rage to find out he got tricked into marrying you?
It must have torn her heart out. She was stuck in a marriage where she was neither loved nor wanted, and never had any hope of being inone where she was.
I know for sure that is how we would take such a thing in our western culture. I’m not sure how it played in the east though where women were considered bargaining chips and given away to men not based on love, but how it would benefit the family. We in America can’t even begin to imagine what it must have been like for women in both Jewish and Mohammedan culture . . . and yet the liberal women of our country are pretty much begging for Sharia laws to apply to them.
Remember how the Baptist church was always criticized (I’m thinking of the 70’s and 80’s) for their position on women and how vile it was to them that a woman should be subject to her husband? That pales in relation to Sharia where it is not even frowned upon for a man, whether the father or the husband, to beat his wife or even do a so-called “honor killing.”
Liberal women need to be careful of what they ask for, but they’ve already lost their minds anyway on other issues.
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