Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Want An Easy Life? | Torah | Deuteronomy 32:48-52

Episode Date: November 17, 2022

Do you expect your life to be easy? Spoiler alert: God never promises that. In today's episode, Patrick uses Deuteronomy 32:48-52 to discuss what you should expect in your life and why suffering can be good. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Deuteronomy 32:48-52 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. It's a little over a week since the last election, which reminds me of a conversation I once had. And honestly, this might sound extreme and bizarre, but I promise you, this is true. It was after the 2020 election. Someone reached out to me. And they were really deeply disturbed by the presidential results. He believed that the election had been stolen. And he believed that a great injustice was happening. But what? What he said next honestly forwarded me. He told me that he was losing his faith because he didn't understand how a good God could allow Donald Trump to lose the Oval Office. I kind of assumed he was exaggerating, but he wasn't really. He was struggling with disappointment.

And in his mind, at least the problem of evil. And the loss of his favored candidate was enough to shake his lifelong faith. Again, I know this is an extreme example, but I also know that he's probably not alone. and the reality is that lots of people, even if they don't take it that hard, might think and feel similar things. In that conversation, it forced me to reflect, how have we got into a place in American Christianity where many Christians have come to expect comfortable lives, where we're rarely disappointed, where we're generally avoiding suffering, and where we get most of what we want? I ask that because as a pastor, the thing I see luring people out of their journey with Jesus is often

small or large hardship in their lives. And I don't mean to be insensitive, but I do find this confusing for one reason. The New Testament is chalk full of passages telling us to expect suffering. John 1633, in the world you will have tribulation. Matthew 1624, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Luke 2112, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you. John 1520, if they persecute me, this is Jesus speaking, they will also persecute you. After the disciples were beaten for preaching the gospel, we read that they were, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus. Acts 1422, through many tribulations, through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. Romans 5.3,

we rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering produced, is endurance. Romans 8, 17 to 18, we are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. Now, catches provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. I can literally spend 20 minutes reading passages from the New Testament saying the exact same thing. First, if you're a Christian, expect suffering. It's part of the package. Second, rejoice in your suffering.

Third, rejoice because your suffering draws you closer to Christ and makes you more like him. Fourth, suffering is not forever. I share this because somehow we got the idea that suffering was abnormal in the Christian life, so much so that losing an election can shake our faith. We can't even handle that level of suffering. But Jesus doesn't call us to win elections. He doesn't call us to expect power. He doesn't call us to collect comfort or to grow wealthy.

He simply calls us to trust him, to trust his plan, and to expect suffering in the midst of it. Moses understood that. When he led the exodus out of Egypt, he thought that he was leading the Israelites to the promised land. But because of their sin, they wandered in the desert for 40 years instead. And because of Moses' sin, he himself would never enter the promised land. In Deuteronomy 32, Yahweh tells Moses how to do that. he will die. And to be honest, this scene is kind of painful. It almost feels like Yahweh is teasing Moses. It's not just that it foretells the way that Moses is going to die. I mean, that's one

form of suffering, but it also speaks to Moses's disappointment that he would never enter the promised land. Diderotomy 32 versus 48 to 52. That very day, Yahweh spoke to Moses. Go up on this mountain of the Abiram, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab opposite Jericho, and view the land of Canaan. That's the promised land Moses always wanted to go into, which I am giving to the people of Israel for a possession, and die on the mountain, which you go up and be gathered to your people. As Aaron, your brother died in Mount Hore and was gathered to his people. Because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Maribah Gadesh in the wilderness of Zen, and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel, for you shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there.

into the land that I'm giving the people of Israel. Moses only gets a tantalizing glimpse of what's to come, but he never receives it. Can you imagine what he felt? Not just knowing that he was going to die, but that he would never get the thing that he had always wanted? Do you know that this is the story of your life? That you will come to your deathbed with threads of stories left untied.

You'll come to your deathbed with disappointments and things he wish you could have done or seen. do you know that well before your deathbed, you will suffer. You will suffer tribulation and persecution. That's exactly what Moses experienced. But through his suffering, God produced endurance, and through that endurance character, and through that character, hope, and that hope did not put Moses to shame. Yes, he would never enter the promised land, but he understood on top of that mountain that the next generation would, and that in death he would receive a far greater reward. when we suffer, it's often like we're sitting up in the thin air of a mountaintop.

We're struggling to breathe. We're tired from the climb. And out on the horizon, we see the promise of a renewed creation and resurrection with Jesus, but it's just beyond our grasp. But God says, I'm with you now. This mountain may be full of suffering and disappointment, but it is training you. It's getting you into shape for the world that's to come. So rejoice.

Jesus says, I suffered in life. And when you suffer, I suffer with you. Joyce, because I will turn this evil ultimately into good. In John 1633, Jesus put this all very succinctly. He said, in the world, you'll have tribulation. But take heart. I have overcome the world. Christians should be the last people to be shaken by tribulation.

We know what it is, training. We know how long it will last just for this life. We know where it takes us to glory, and we know who we suffer with. Jesus. So rejoice in your suffering. Take heart. Jesus has overcome. Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter.

Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday that's going to help you beat that midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.