It’s time once again to remind you all of the RC Sproul Jr. Principle of Hermeneutics. If you already know it, I mean, really really know it, like someone who really knows something, feel free to skip to the next paragraph. The principle says, “When you see people doing something really, really stupid in the Bible, do not say to yourself, ‘How can they be so stupid?’ Instead say to yourself, ‘How am I stupid just like them?’” God doesn’t show us the sins of His people to make us feel better about ourselves but to be better informed about ourselves. The Word is a mirror.
Can you imagine being a literal slave? Can you imagine also being the child of a slave? And a grandchild? All the way back for 400 years? Your whole family are slaves, and your neighbors are slaves. One day God hears your cries and brings the powerful nation the world had ever known to its knees, and you are free. This same God promises to take you to a land almost as wonderful as Eden and to give you the homes and vineyards of those currently living there. Would you be happy? Would you walk around all day every day with a big grin on your face? Would you be so cheerful that normal people crossed the street to avoid talking to you?
No, you’d be one of the normal people doing what normal people do, grumbling and complaining. How do I know? Two reasons. First, that’s what God’s people did during the Exodus. Second, it’s what God’s people do now, as He leads us out of slavery and to a place even more wonderful than Eden. My stars we are the worst.
Maybe this would help us. What if we tried, remembering that every good and perfect gift is form above (James 1: 17), to imagine our lives without some of the gifts we take for granted? What, for instance, would your life be like with no heating or air conditioning? What if all you had to eat was bread? Imagine no showers, no washer and dryer, no cars, busses or trains. Imagine you had no job and no income. What if there was no government at all? What if, most hideously at all, He left you to your own devices, if He removed His restraining hand from you?
Notice something about this list. These are all quite “ordinary” things. The very things we take for granted. You may have a restored British roadster that every time you look at it you smile and give thanks. You might have rose bushes that are your delight, or a diamond ring. You might have a title and a bank account that you thank God for. That’s good. You should. But without those special things we would still have all the special things that we no longer see as special. Giving thanks for your most exciting Christmas gift doesn’t cover a failure to give thanks for every Christmas gift.
This year this is what I’m asking for- that I would be given the gift of gratitude. That I would be restored to the joy of my hot shower, that I would praise Him for the grace of food on my table, that I would shout to the heavens in thankfulness for my beloved and extraordinary bride and the life we live together. And if He should so bless, I’d love to see me and the rest of God’s people better see ourselves in the folly of His people, and in the love He has for them.