DON'T BLAME GOD

(From a sermon of Bro. Julius Adewumi, Night Vigil 6/4/95)

(I received a vision about the problem of armed robbery in Nigeria two days ago. In the vision I saw a sister who had recently traveled to Nigeria, she returned and said she regreted going to Nigeria. We asked her why she returned so soon, she said all her money was stolen. I vizualized that she must have been followed from the airport. Let's pray concerning that, especially because one of our sisters will be travelling to the country in a few days. I believe the Lord gave the vision to make us pray and rebuke the devil concerning her trip.)

Let's pray: Our Father God I pray that you will help me to deliver this message and help us to get substance out of it so that the body of Christ can really become humble before the Lord; in the name of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

I was meditating on the word of God and the Lord led me to the book of Daniel. There is something we can always learn from Daniel. I have always prayed and asked the Lord to lead me to any thing I might have missed in the Bible. This is one answer to my prayer. I heard it from a minister on the gospel radio station when he mentioned that prophet Daniel was an eunuch. It never occurred to me that he was, until that day. Yes, Daniel was an eunuch! He was made an eunuch for men, just like the Lord Jesus said "some were made eunuchs by men, some were born eunuchs, others made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake."

Daniel was one of those who were made eunuchs by men, when they were taken as slaves and brought to the palace of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon. Since they were kept by the master of the eunuchs (Dan.1:3) then those hebrew children were made eunuchs.

But that is not the point I want to make. The point I really want to make is "don't blame God for any thing that happen to you in life". That is a good way to be humble before God. Let's not blame God for anything that ever happen to us. We should always look back at ourselves and say "maybe it was my mistake somewhere that caused this or that." Daniel gave us that example also when he was praying for his people (the Israelites) in chapter 9. People could blame God for any mischief. Remember when disasters happen in the nation, tornadoes or earth quakes, people can foolishly be blaming God that it is God's fault that such a thing happen to them.

Let's look at what happened to Daniel. Remember, to be made an eunuch is an evil thing, especially for those who do not volunteer for it. Because we know that some people can volunteer in those nations; to serve their king, they will submit to be made eunuchs. But what happened to Daniel was evil to be made an eunuch. It was because they were already slaves: they were captured by the Babylonians, after Jerusalem was conquered, and they were led away as slaves to Babylon. It was prophecy being fulfilled on them for forsaking their God. Prophecy was fulfilled and Daniel had to be one of the victims of the fulfilment of prophecy. Isaiah prophezied about what will happen to the seed of Hezekiah, king of Judah. In the book of second kings (2Kgs. 20:14-19), Hezekiah had been sick and was healed. The King of Babylon, Merodach Baladan, who was very friendly in those days, sent messengers to go and greeet Hezekiah for they heard he had been sick. While the messengers were visiting, Hezekiah gave them a tour of his treasury and all he had stored up.

"Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah and said unto him: What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee?"

And Hezekiah said, "They are come from a far country, even from Babylon."

He said, "What have they seen in thine house?"

And Hezekiah answered, "All the things that are in my house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them."

And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the Lord. Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord.

And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."

Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, "Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken." And he said, "Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my days?"

You see? Hezekiah did not care about it, as long as it did not occur in his days. Now this was the prophecy which was fulfilled upon Daniel and his colleagues as we read in Daniel 1:3: "And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the princes." They were made eunuchs.

That was what happened to Daniel. I usually try to picture the drama of the situation. I can feel the impact of it. Imagine, Daniel was either in his teenage years or in his twenties. They knew they were all slaves in Babylon anyway. The King suddenly said "gather some of these young hebrews who are related to the hebrew king and princes which had been killed and bring them to live and serve in the palace." "Made them eunuchs". What kind of panic and bitterness do you think would come over those young people? They might first be happy when they heard they would be living in the palace of the king of Babylon, but when they knew they were to be cut open and made eunuchs, what a resistance some of them would put up! Some of them would resist , violently! I can hear some screaming, "O God of Israel, don't let them do this to us!" Some would be blaming God and even cursing God, "Why will God allow this to happen to us?" Bad things had already happened: Jerusalem had been destroyed; these people had been led away captives, as slaves; Now the young princes were being rounded up to be made eunuchs, which is bodily harm! Some of them would like to run away if possible, if they knew what would be done to their testis.

I just picture these things in my heart: suppose I was one of them? There would be a lot of physical resistance. They might have to tie some down to cut off their testis, while they were screaming and cursing. I have witnessed the process being performed upon he-goats when my mom was raising livestock. My parents had the idea that the he-goats would grow big and fat if their testis were cut out while young. To be precise, the he-goats were made eunuchs. But they would have to tie the goats down. It was never with pleasure.

Imagine men who were not little children and were compelled to go through such surgery, they would have to tie them down. What then do you think those hebrews would do? Some of them would scream and curse: "O God of Israel, why will you let this happen?" They might even be blaming God for the miseries that befell them. The others might be blaming God: he let their city be destroyed, he allowed them to be taken captives; now they were even making them eunuchs? They might be saying they would have nothing to do anymore with this God of their fathers. With the exception of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo, perhaps. These four young men accepted whatever happened to them as their fate and did not charge God foolishly.

Now, Go and compare that to the Jews of the same generation who fled to Egypt and Jeremiah the prophet followed them, Jeremiah continued to rebuke them for the evils they and their wives did in Jerusalem which brought God's wrath upon their land. Yet those men and women answered Jeremiah that they would continue to worship those idols, in flagrant rebellion. (Jer.44:14-19). "Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people (Jews) that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying, As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee.

But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil." Yea, sin is deceitful! They became hardened sinners.

We must learn to be humble before God; because it takes another type of humility to not blame God. That is what I'm pointing out here. It takes humility to not blame God for anything that happen to us which we know is not good. Someone may say "But God cause it to happen!"

Did God actually cause the Israelites to be taken away captives, or they caused it upon themselves? All the curses which Moses wrote against them if they ever turned away from the true God came upon them. (Deut.28:45). Then they brought it upon themselves! That is why I say don't blame God! Did God cause them to be taken captives, or did they cause it upon themselves? If they could look back at their life in Jerusalem: Daniel went and looked back and prayed and said "Lord, we have sinned!" (Dan.9:5). When he was praying the prayer which brought an Angel to him, because God loved that kind of heart. "A broken and a contrite heart, O God,thou wilt not despise." (Psa. 51:17). Daniel prayed and said in effect, "Lord I know you are just; we deserve more than this that happened to us. It was our own lukewarmness, our own forsaking of our God that brought this evil upon us." That makes a difference! That is what God wants us to gain from this sermon. Because it is very easy for someone to blame God when terrible things are happening to them. Whereas some of the other boys could have been cursing and saying "If God was the one who let those evils happen to them, they don't want to worship this type of God." And many people are saying similar things in this generation asking "where is God", when bad things happen. But don't blame God. If we look back, we might realize that we actually have ourselves to blame for most of those things.

It reminds me of the character in the movie, "A thief in the night", which was about a lady who was left behind in the rapture, when her husband and her grandma had been raptured. The lady was screaming "I curse you, I curse you!" She was cursing God. She was blaming God for all that happened to her. Whereas, when the preacher came to her house and spoke to them, she was justifying herself that she was as good as the next person, maybe even better. She refused to accept Jesus as her Lord and savior, saying these preachers were fanatics scaring people with the coming of the Lord, while her husband accepted Jesus. But when she was left behind she was cursing God.

Do you realize that if the rapture takes place now and some Christians are left behind, many who claim to be following Christ will fall back to that type of attitude; I mean, they will be angry

at God, saying: "How can you leave me behind, with all that I have done for you?" A lot of people will be so angry they will go and take the mark of the beast, saying it is God's fault, for leaving them behind. But don't blame God! Humility will make another person put the blame upon himself. Some folks will not remember all the words of exhortation, and reprove, and correction which they just cannot swallow: about their attitudes, women's makeup and dress codes, or men's temperament they couldn't put under: Some Christian ladies are on TV with make-believe eye-lashes, painted up like Jezebel, and no one can correct them anymore! Some saw Deut.22:6 point-blank in the Bible, (about women should not wear that which pertaineth unto a man), but they said God is civilized now! If they are left behind in the rapture, they ought to look back at those corrections they just couldn't take, from hard-preaching preachers they just didn't like, and say, "maybe that was what do them in", instead of blaming God!

No matter how we think we have tried our best, if something happens we should look back and say, "Lord, you are righteous; I must have made a mistake somewhere." This is the mindset the Lord is imparting into me and I am sharing this with you.

We should remember to always say peradventure there was something I have struggled with which was really the problem. In Hebrew chapter 3:13, the Bible said, "exhort one another daily, while it is called today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin."

Sin is very deceitful. If one welcomes one particular offence, and has been justifying oneself in the habit, no more exhortation will help the fellow. It reminds me of a brother whom I confronted many years ago concerning pornographic books I found in his room, while I was a visitor: we were both singles then. I'm pointing out this brother's error to confirm what I said that sin is very deceitful. Someone will be excusing oneself and justifying oneself in sin. I came to town and put up with the brother for some days. He was then a student at the college. While he was out, I chanced to open one textbook on his desk, and found the book was easily classifiable as "pornograpic material". It was a textbook on a subject he was taking at the University (called Human sexuality). It had colored pictures of male and female organs in action. I put the books away hoping to talk to him about it when he returned. In the resulting confrontation the brother used "bold-face" to tell me to get lost. He kicked me out of his apartment the same day. That was over fourteen years ago. But the result of meddling with such materials has already occurred to this brother: He had been in fornication, he had been in polygamy, fathering illegitimate children. Nobody could exhort him anymore. I sensed it in those days, that it is a danger when anyone exposes oneself to those evil spirits of ponography, how much more when one sits through a class where one is filled with a semester of sexual talks, yet claiming to be a Christian. It is dangerous to expose oneself to those devils of pornogrphy. Because they will do more damage than just leading men into fornication or adultery. The man will begin to justify himself, and justify himself, until no one can correct him any longer. I knew then that the brother's offences will be centered aroung "sexual immorality", because those demons don't leave once you welcome them, unless you repent and reject what you first welcome.

The same goes for correcting ladies about their dress code or any other habit. If they keep on giving excuses and will not change, soon, no exhortation can reach them anymore. It takes humility to accept exhortation and correction. If somebody points out an error in your way, it takes humility to say "Lord, help my heart!" Instead of justifying oneself, that the Bible didn't say this and that, in self-defense, let's say "Lord, help my heart to be able to recognize the error , if any, that has been pointed out to me". It is that kind of humility which will not blame God because you can look back and say "Lord, maybe that thing, that offence, which I constantly wrestle with, maybe it was what finally do me in? Lord, you are righteous." That is the humble and contrite spirit which the Lord loves.

If the rapture takes place, and someone is left behind, don't blame God. Let's look at ourselves and search and see where we may not be doing something right and let's repent and ask the Lord to help us to take correction. Someone that is proud will be the one to say "I know I'm doing it right already!" Then when something is pointed out to him as his offence, he will say "No, you are mis-interpreting that statement", to justify himself. Let's be humble before God. "Humble thyself therefore under the mighty hands of God and he shall lift you up." "God resists the proud, but give grace to the lowly."

Some folks will argue the point when their offences are pointed out, out of pride. Even when they are convicted, they have gone too far; they will find it hard to turn around. They are too proud to turn back. Arguing the point will not do it because we are dealing with the Almighty God.

If negative things happen in our path, we should not blame God, but look at ourselves and say "perhaps our prayerlessness caused it", "perhaps when the Lord sent cautions to us we used gain-saying and argued our point." For example, often the Lord will wake me up suddenly at 2.00 AM to pray if some devils are about to attack or if something is about to happen . No matter when I went to bed that night, if few hours later I was awakened from sleep by the Lord like that, I know there is urgent need for prayer; otherwise I most likely will be allowed to sleep for about four hours before I am awakened to pray and worship the Lord. At such a time that my sleep is interrupted, if for some reason I could not pray through or I was drowsy and couldn't concentrate, I usually will blame myself if later I found out I should have prayed through and would have stopped an enemy attack.

That is what I am saying when I said 'Don't blame God' for whatever happened in your way on this journey. If you consider it carefully, you may realize that God has sent to you cautions upon cautions which you failed to see. Think about it!

Let this type of attitude be part of our lifestyle, so that we can please the Lord. Like Daniel, he was made eunuch in Babylon, yet instead of blaming the God of Israel for their miseries, Daniel prayed and confessed to God that "we have sinned for not hearkening to the voice of God's prophets when they warned our fathers to turn away from idolatry in Israel". We likewise better check our lifestyle now before the rapture takes place and make necessary correction.

Let's pray that the Lord will shine his search light into our hearts and for the whole body of Christ, so that we can search our hearts and be humble before him. It is better to take corrective measures now for any offences we may have, than to be left behind in the rapture.

God bless you.

Gospel Distribution Ministry, USA.