Truth and Confusion

Truth and Confusion
John 14:28

28 Ye have heard [akouo] how [hoti] I [ego] said [epo] unto you [humin] , I go away [hupago] , and [kai] come [erchomai] again unto [pros] you [humas] . If [ei] ye loved [agapao] me [me] , [an] ye would rejoice [chairo] , because [hoti] I said [epo] , I go [poreuomai] unto [pros] the Father [pater] : for [hoti] my [mou] Father [pater] is [esti] greater than [meizon] I [mou] . KJV-Interlinear

28 'You heard that I said to you, 'I go away, and I will come to you.' If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. NASB

Here we have a rather odd set of circumstances. First we might be angered that Jesus was so treated that He was executed by man, but on the other hand, we are to rejoice that He indeed went to the Cross and accomplished the work necessary for our salvation.

Were it not accomplished, then Satan would have had his way, God would have been proven incapable of being God, and our future would have been non-existent. Anyone who would have stepped forward and tried to prevent the work of Christ, would have set themselves up against God Himself. Recall that Jesus rebuked Peter for his ignorant comments when Peter protested the persecution which Jesus Himself said He must undergo.

Because of the Cross, we now have a life to look forward to, and a happiness beyond our imagination which can be ours to possess. So we will go to the story in Genesis 29 to borrow a little lesson on happiness.

Jacob has been working for Laban for seven years and is supposed to get his chosen bride, Rachel. Laban was a devious scoundrel and substituted his older daughter Leah on the wedding night. He had made a bargain with Jacob and then used the convenience of tradition in making the switch, 'And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.' Gen. 29:26 .

So we learn a lesson from this, and it is not what you think.

Rachel is the happiness we desire. She is the beautiful, the fair, the tantalizing desire of our hearts. That is the happiness goals we all desire for our lives.

Leah is the plain, the everyday stability which we must transit before we can come to our ultimate goal. She is the older, the wiser, the domestic. She represents the solid two feet on the ground which represents a foundation of doctrine in our soul accomplished by a daily habit of study leading to wisdom and a proper orientation to life. With this orientation and capacity, then the ultimate love and happiness we acquire will have meaning and purpose and a lasting spontaneity, rather than selfish and shallow emotion, good only for the moment and then allowing boredom to set in to destroy happiness due to a lack of capacity and maturity.

Jacob labored and suffered many years for his love. Then he had a set back due to the deception of Laban which is the deceptions of this world. But did Jacob quit and run home? No. He persisted in his quest for the ultimate happiness which he saw in Rachel.

Our happiness is in Bible doctrine. Our task is to be persistent in our daily study. The world will send various barriers and temptations our way, but if we persevere, then we will accomplish our goal, which is the ultimate relationship and the ultimate happiness available in this life and the next.

The apostles were geared to their happiness of being in the right place at the right time, or so they thought. They expected the Kingdom to be coming in at any moment, and they were going to be top dogs in it. But now Jesus dashes their visions of power, of prestige, or status in the publics eye. He was going to leave them and He was going to be executed. They not only did not understand, but their attitudes were in opposition to the will of Christ, and the will of the Fathers plan.

We cannot superimpose our will onto Gods plan and then redefine how we want our life to be. Most people look to the short sighted desires of their life, wanting certain things to be here and now, and in a fashion in which they have imagined them in their minds. They would sacrifice or put into jeopardy everything else in order to have things their way. This is where compromises, shortcuts, stubborn attitudes come from in life, and that is a sure way of losing the things you really want in life.

We first have to look to Leah and settle down with wisdom and stability in our soul, which we accomplish only through a long term daily Bible study. You should be dedicated to your Bible study for all of your life. Then at some point in your life, you will wake up and find your dream love, as represented by Rachel, the dreams of your life lying there beside you. And God will have, through doctrine in your soul, redefined your dreams and desires into realities which will be phenomenally better than anything you could have ever imagined.

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