FAILURE’S REWARD
Genesis 13:10,11 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan…
II Samuel 10:2,4 And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. …And David sent messengers, and took her…
Acts 5:1-3 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
Can God use both our successes in obedience and our failures in disobedience? Here is an example of three well known failures from saints of God. From these failures we are warned against doing the same, yet there is more to be gleaned. Does God simply name these individuals to bring them shame and to admonish us from repeating their sins? God can make a point without pointing a finger. So, why point?
How many times do we find ourselves suffering and cry out for time’s reversal after succumbing to sin’s temptation? “If only I could go back”, is every person’s cry of pain in an ever progressing tick-tock world. It is a pain both profound and real. Our heart beats to a crashing, poignant rhythm, breathing comes labored and strained, the clammy sheen of perspiration covers our skin, and the body’s adrenalin pump goes into a state of saturating overtime. People have been known to pass out or die when the reality of the completeness and finality of their sin slams home in their minds. All this comes about when only we are aware of the sin in our life. How do we cope when sin becomes known to everyone?
That, of course, must never happen. This may be the only reason we survive the assailing onslaught of our conscience. In the midst of the throes of our body’s reaction to the screams of our conscience we find ourselves swimming vigorously toward the small island of serenity in the vast sea of possible concealment. “If only no one finds out”, surfaces in our mind, runs a new course, and stakes a claim on our conscience. Through deceitfulness we succeed in mining out some of the vein of conscience and leave less conscience for future indiscretions. At the same time we feel in control and this feeling helps to ground us again in some semblance of normalcy. Before long we find ourselves free of sin’s guilt. We have survived. Have we, really? Is God unaware?
Is the Bible full of confessions, or has God revealed absolute knowledge of the thoughts and deeds of man? Ananias and Sapphira had no opportunity to speak, yet Peter revealed their motive and deed. Peter revealed that which the Holy Ghost revealed to him. Why shouldn’t the Holy Ghost know and reveal? Wasn’t it a crime against the Holy Ghost these two committed? The Holy Ghost had led them to sell the land, and Satan influenced them. They lied to the Holy Ghost by giving less than they had gained, contrary to the leading of the Spirit of God within them. When God commands us to do so and so and we do less, then we lie by saying God did not mean so and so but so or so. We are childish in thinking we can conceal a lie from God. God knows the truth and the lie.
It is clear God rewards for success and failure. Some may think otherwise. Some say God rewards success to promote success in a Christian, but could not reward failure without also promoting failure in our lives. This is simply erroneous. God is not man. God is holy and just. God does not promote either success of failure, God demands and commands obedience. Success and failure are subject to our obedience. The Bible speaks abundantly of the fruit of a thing. Fruit comes naturally from a plant. A tree or plant is not coaxed, cajoled, or coached into bearing fruit. It either bears fruit or doesn’t. Reward for success and failure is not incentive to succeed or fail, but is the direct consequence of each. God will judge us for our obedience and disobedience. He will reward whom He will. A reward is not anything we earn, but something given and must be separated from the cause of obedience. Men can fail at obedience, set a bad example, yet influence others to obey. It is the person which becomes the example for others not the sin the person committed. When others obey because of another’s failure is there any reward? How many in the early church learned to listen to the Holy Ghost by the example of Ananias and Sapphira? How many today learn contrite repentance through Psalm 53 because of David’s sin. How many learn to lead separated lives because of Lot’s worldliness? Who would deny the reward these deserve in being pointed out and named?
First, they have been rewarded by our obedience. And, I believe they are rewarded in so many other ways by God. We do not seek failure to gain reward, nor do we seek success to gain reward. That is not God’s message. We are to obey. God’s mercy in these examples was to name them. Any of us who learn from their error can point to each of them and say, “because it is written of these, I avoided the same.”
We can learn from each other, as well. God grants mercy in sharing the consequence of our sin with others. God does not grant everyone the opportunity to gain from their sin nor does everyone take advantage of the proffered opportunity. Yet, there remains for some a way for God to gain glory. Family members have gone down the wrong path and returned to tell others of the pitfalls which befell them. Friends have taken a wrong turn and found their way back to warn others. There is no reward in sin, but God does grant reward when we make ourselves an example without vain intent. Seeking reward and accolade from others is a reward unto itself. Seeking only to help others to avoid the consequence of sin by being an example opens us up to God’s reward.
Certainly Lot paid for sin. Evidently David paid for sin. Immediately Ananias and Sapphira paid for sin. Yet, for each of us that learn to avoid their sin is the reward of avoiding the consequences they suffered. There is also God’s reward to them for being an example for us. Immediately after the death of Ananias and Sapphira a revival erupted in the church. Why would the early church need revival? They needed a revival of great fear. People were suddenly obedient to the Holy Ghost. Had they become complacent and apathetic? Everyone began to heed God as never before. “And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things. …And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women…”, Acts 5:11,14. There is no greater reward. After all, God is just and merciful. God knows the best use of success and of failure. And, only God knows the intent of the heart.
Perhaps, we too, can learn to salvage failure in truth.
