God Helps Those Who Help Themselves
July 30, 2023Pastor Patrick presented this morning's message in the series "Misquoted." His topic was "God Helps Those Who Help Themselves." 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 quote we're dealing with can additionally be ambiguous. "Help themselves" can be good or bad. Bad in the sense of helping oneself to things that do not belong to them. Think of all the things one can steal or help themselves to: a life (murder), a reputation (defame), another's wife (adultery), kidnapping, reputation, intellectual property, dignity, and on and on. It's clear to any reasonable person that the verse implies helping oneself in a good or acceptable way, but it doesn't exactly say that, and there are plenty of unreasonable people.
The phrase could also lead one to believe that an easier life is ahead with God. But God promises no such thing (even in the New Testament: John 16:33, Acts 14:22).
I ran into interesting corollaries... "It's easier to steer a moving car." In other words, it's easier for God to guide you if you at least get things moving. "Stop talking about it and get to doing something." "Join in where God is already at work." These are all interesting, but not gospel, so go easy with their application.
God clearly helped the Israelites get out of Egypt, something they could definitely not do themselves.
"You shall not see the donkey of your brother or his ox falling on the road and hide yourself from them; you shall surely stand them up with him" (Deuteronomy 22:4). The phrase "with him" makes it clear the owner can't just stand by while you save the donkey. It's a team effort, the owner must be involved as well.
Another way to look at this is to recognize that God does play a part in anything we accomplish. Be grateful for the gifts God gives you to be successful and give Him the glory when you use them. I've probably mentioned before that J.S. Bach wrote on all his manuscripts, "To the Glory of God." In a way, God has helped you even before you get started on anything by giving you talents to apply to situations.
Even in the Old Testament, Zechariah (9:1-8, 9:9-10, and 9:11-17) recognizes that God helps the helpless. This is a story of God spotting the helpless (in a war situation).
When Jacob feared that his brother Esau would come to kill him after their father died, Jacob takes three actions. 1. He sends gifts to Esau by messenger. 2. He splits his family into camps to ensure some will escape. 3. He prays. One of the messages is that we are not to wait for or depend on miracles. We have to act as well.
But how do we know God is helping? Or broader, how do we know any time that God is acting in our life? Dennis Prager offers seven possibilities on page 332 of his Rational Bible: Genesis. All, he states, are theologically consistent with the Torah.
- God directly and unmistakably makes Himself known to an individual.
- We call out to God and then clearly perceive His presence.
- At some point, we decide to recognize God has acted in our life.
- We believe, but are not certain, God has acted in our life.
- God has acted in our life, but we are unaware of it.
- We believe God acts in some peoples' - or even nations' - lives, but simply do not know if He has done so in our own.
- We believe God knows us but does not necessarily intervene in our life.
Bonus
Are People Basically Good?
Last week, I referenced Genesis 8:21b: "every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood" and promised to deal further with the topic later. Well, it's later...
Try this for a while... Ask friends and family casually whether they think people are basically good or bad. I bet you'll mostly get "good." And they'd be wrong. Unfortunately, it's not an insignificant issue. Whether you believe people are basically good, basically bad, or neither will greatly affect how you look at lots of issues. For instance, if you think people are basically good, you tend to think it must be external forces that make a "basically good" person do something bad. If you think people are born basically good, you don't feel a sense of urgency to "fix it." On the other hand, if you feel people are not basically good, you recognize that you have to work on that for yourself and help others as well.
You don't have to study history very long to realize how ugly human history has been. Wars, tyranny, and the like have bathed our timeline in blood. You'd think we'd be getting better as a species, but the last century, the 1900s, was the bloodiest century on record. About 100 million non-combatants died that century in genocides or at the hands of oppressors. Doesn't seem likely that this would come from basically good people.
Babies are born innocent, not good. And they are totally selfish. They will let you know when they want anything and everything and make your life miserable till the situation is fixed to their liking. And it takes years to grow out of that, and it also requires parental intervention. How many times do you think a parent has to say "say thank you" before the youngster actually starts doing it?!
If people are basically good, why did nearly every civilization in history have slavery? For a 5-minute review of the history of slavery on this planet, click here. If you're not very familiar with this info, it'll probably be enlightening.
Lest you don't believe any of these types of arguments, how about "God said so" in the Torah. Here's the full verse following the Flood: "And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more everything living, as I have done." Genesis 8:21, King James Version. This happens after the flood which is the second time God tried to make Man behave. The first was giving him a conscience at Creation. That didn't work. After the flood, God tried giving universal laws, the seven Noahide laws, that all mankind was to obey. And thirdly, He revealed Himself and His instructions to the Israelites specifically at Mount Sinai. Christians would add that Jesus is the 4th attempt, Mohammad a 5th to Muslims, and Joseph Smith a 6th attempt for Mormons.
As Dennis Prager puts it, "To believe people are basically good after all the horrors committed by human beings throughout history is to engage in a level of irrational thinking that has few parallels."
The truth is that each and every one of us has to fight our urges in order to be good and do good for others. The problems for most people, especially in America, aren't coming from some societal ills but rather come from an internal problem: laziness, poor attitude, no commitment, lying to yourself, lack of discipline, lack of hard work, blaming others, etc.