God Will Never Give You More Than You Can Handle
July 23, 2023Geof Morin presented this morning's message in the series "Misquoted." His topic was "God will never give you more than you can handle." A video of the message is here.
Remember, the current sermon series is debunking commonly held understandings that just aren't true and certainly aren't Biblical, like "God will never give you more than you can handle."
The first thought that came to me is that God isn't the only entity that "gives you things." Nature gives you things, some beautiful, some horrific. People give you things, some beautiful, some horrific. This is part and parcel of free will. God lets nature and man take their courses. How you react to either kind depends a great deal on whether you have faith in God and his teachings, or not.
As Geof pointed out, there are too many impediments to what a man can handle even with the best of intentions. He listed pride as the first road block which can also lead to internal versions of Geof's second impediment, prisons. The prisons he mentioned were external (jails, pits, etc.), but there are also internal prisons, like pride. Strong's Concordance lists at least a dozen Greek words (including tuphoo (τυφόω) and another dozen Hebrew words that have been translated as pride. Some have a positive conotation (e.g. majesty, dignity, respect for, etc.) and some negative (e.g. arrogance, insolence, presumptuousness, etc.).
The one Hebrew word close to tuphoo in the Torah, I thought, was ga'on (גָּאוֹן). In Leviticus 26, God is listing rewards for obedience and punishments for disobedience. In Leviticus 26:19, on the punishment side, God says "I will break down your stubborn pride (ga'on) and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze." The word for "break down" could be translated as "crush!" Clearly, the negative version of pride is a problem.
The metaphor of smoke can be used in different ways as well. In Geof's usage, smoke puts up a screen (he mentioned that the Greek root meaning of pride comes from "putting up a smoke screen), blinds the observer, and the like. But smoke can also be a pleasant thing. The smoke of a campfire comes to mind (at reasonable levels, of course). A positive smoke reference in the Torah is associated with burnt offerings. For example, Noah built an altar and offered a burnt sacrifice. God "smelled the pleasing odor" and said never again a flood. Genesis 8:20-21.
Of course, God doesn't smell in the sense that we do. And God doesn't need our offerings, either. It's all for our benefit. To worship, to atone, etc.
If you're interested in more detail about burnt offerings, Leviticus has much of that: 1:1-17 (to come closer to God), 2:1-16 (for poorer folks), 3:1-17 (the peace offering), 4:1-35 thru 5:1-13 (for unintentional sin), and 5:14-26 (reparation or guilt, using a ram).
Bonus
Altar Construction
As long as we're talking about burnt offerings, let's talk about the altar on which the burnt offerings are done. Exodus 20, the chapter of the Ten Commandments, ends with God telling Moses how to construct an altar. Genesis 20:25: "If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it. And do not go up to my altar on steps, or your private parts may be exposed."
Two aspects are noted: 1. purely natural stones, unworked in any way, and 2. don't go up the steps.
Unworked stones means free of man's technology, purely natural, clean. Sadly, man has an inclination to "mess things up." See Genesis 8:21b: "every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood." (I'll deal with that in a future Bonus.)
Don't go up any stairs is, essentially, don't elevate yourself above the ground including above others, as all that will do is reveal your sins. And, in a more direct way exactly as written, it may reveal uncovered parts of one's anatomy, especially given the clothing of the day.
The trick to understanding the Bible is often to see both the raw/literal meaning and the bigger picture, deeper meaning, or life lesson.