Rabbi Schneider - What is God's Real Plan?

TOPICS: Hannah's Song Season 2, God's Plan, Trust

Shalom Uvrachah, beloved ones. Peace and blessings. We're continuing today in Season 2 of a series that I'm calling Hannah's Song or we say in Hebrew, Chana's Song. Now, the episode that we're studying in the book of 1 Samuel 2 takes place after the Lord had opened Hannah's womb. And as a result of the Lord opening her womb and her giving birth to the prophet Samuel, she brings Samuel to the house of the Lord, presents him to the priests there, Eli. And after dedicating him unto the Lord at the temple, she bursts forth into this prayer or this song. She said, "He raises the poor from the dust, He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with nobles, and inherit a seat of honor; for the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S, and he set the world on them".

Now, what we're actually seeing here is a window into understanding the dynamics of the sovereignty of God operating in the earth. I remember when I first became a believer, a Jewish boy, living in Cleveland, Ohio, I was living in Pepper Pike on Bremerton Road and I knew nothing about Jesus, beloved one. Jesus was as far away to me than the man on the moon. In fact, I heard about a man on the moon, that phrase, more than I heard about Jesus. He was just so foreign to me as a Jew. All my friends growing up were Jewish. I had one friend that wasn't Jewish, but he was far from being a Christian.

So I was totally unexposed to a Christian faith, Christian doctrine, to the person of Jesus. I never thought about Him; He never entered my mind. But as many of you know my story, in 1978, Jesus supernaturally appeared to me in my bedroom. I wasn't searching for Him, I wasn't seeking Him, I never read the New Testament. No one had ever witnessed to me. God chose me. And because of that, He came and appeared to me. And after He appeared to me, I was so excited because I was lost in life. I was 20 years old. I was seeking for meaning. I was seeking for purpose. I didn't know my way in life. And when Jesus appeared to me that night, somehow I knew that I had found the answer. I didn't know what the answer was fully, I just knew God was alive. And He showed me that somehow Jesus was the way. All the dots needed to be filled in, but I knew that this somehow was the way.

So I started telling everybody about it. And eventually, somebody said to me, "You need to go get a New Testament". So I went out, bought a new testament, started devouring the Word of God, started telling everybody about it, even though all my close friends were Jewish, but the one I mentioned that was this tough Italian guy, far from being a Christian. I knew a lot of people. So my close friends were all Jews and I was insulated in that world. But still, the school that I went to add many, many non-Jews as well. So when I started telling everybody about it, someone eventually said to me, "You need to go get a New Testament". So I went out and bought a New Testament. I started devouring it. I started talking about this Jesus more. Then eventually somebody said to me, "You need to go to church, let me take you to church".

So a Gentile person that I knew that I was not close friends with, but friendly with, they said... I mean, it was actually a friend of my brothers. And this, this woman said to me, "You know what, I'm going to take you to my church". She had just become a radical believer herself. So she came over my house one day, she picked me up, and she drove me to this place. I won't even say what the name of it is, because I don't want to cast any negative light. But it was this gathering, it was really powerful at the time. There was like a Jesus movement going on during the season. I mean, the Jesus movement lasted from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. But still, some of it was going on in the mid and late 1970s. Many Jewish people were coming to faith, I found out later during this time where the Lord was supernaturally appearing to them.

So she brings me to this gospel house and a lot of young people who were there, and the evangelist started preaching. But the way he was preaching, it didn't seem right to me, because it made it out like God was over here, He was one power, and the devil was over here. And it was almost like they were equal with each other. And we better choose God. And somehow we had this faint idea it seemed like that God was going to win in the end. But the way God was being portrayed was far from being a sovereign God. It was almost as if we lived in this dualistic universe with both powers-the powers of good and evil being equal to each other. And it just didn't seem right to me. I said, "That's not God". I said to myself, "I might not know a lot about God, but somehow, deep inside this is wrong". Because God is God. He's not fighting with anybody to maintain His power. He's God. He's the Lord. He's the Creator. He's the one and there is no other.

And then I started going to some other churches, and it seemed like I was hearing a similar type of color coming through so many of the messages that I was hearing in many different places, in several different churches. And it was, again, the same concept that was kind of portraying God in the sky, and somehow he was up there fighting for His right, you know, to stay God. And we here on earth we got to pray. And if we pray hard enough, and if we worry enough that somehow God is going to break through and win. And I said to myself, "This is just ridiculous and it really repulsed my spirit". So I started really digging into the Word of God about this. And I came to see in the Word of God that this theology that was being communicated in so many subtle ways in New Testament churches was not biblical.

That when we understand the Hebraic foundation of our faith, we understand that God is the Lord of the world. And this is what Hannah is saying here. And so we come now to verse 8. "He raises the poor from the dust, He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with nobles, and inherit a seat of honor; for the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, He set the world on them". The New Testament tells us that the entire world right now, beloved ones, is being upheld by the Spirit of God. The Bible says in the book of Romans, "All things are from Him, through Him and to Him". Everything that is alive right now is existing only because the glory of God is allowing it to exist, and has willed it to continue to exist. And everything that is happening right now ultimately has a purpose.

I know that you and I, when we look around right now, it's hard for us to make sense of a lot that happens. And believe me, when I say this, I want to be sensitive in saying this because there's a lot that we don't understand. There's a lot of heartache and pain and suffering going on right now, and we wonder, we scratch our heads why? Why is the Lord allowing this to happen? If we're honest with ourselves, we're thinking, "God, why would you allow this to happen? This doesn't seem right. What's going on"? But the Hebrew Bible tells us that "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is God in heaven above," Deuteronomy 4:39, "and on the earth below". Jesus believe it, as I have mentioned in previous episodes. He said, "Not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from the Father".

When He stood before Pilate and Pilate said, "Don't you know I've got the power to crucify you," Yeshua's response, "You would have no power over Me," He said to Pilate, "you would have no power over me unless it had been given to you from above". Jesus understood that all what was going on was somehow rooted in the pillar, just like Hannah said here. "The pillars of the earth are the LORD's". Jesus understood everything was going on His life ultimately had a purpose. Even if it was evil, it still had a purpose. For example, what happened immediately after Yeshua came out of the Jordan River after being baptized by John the Immerser, John the Baptist, the Bible says, "The Spirit of God led Yeshua into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for 40 days".

Now, was it just the devil attacking Jesus as if there was no purpose in it? No. The Bible says the Spirit of the Lord led Yeshua into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for 40 days. So I've been drilling down here, beloved ones, that we need to come out of the shallow New Testament-only understanding of who God is to get a fuller understanding of who God is by seeing how the sovereignty of God is taught in the Hebrew Bible. You see, Jesus said in the book of Matthew 13, he said, "Every scribe". And a scribe was someone that made copies of the Torah. All they did was they made copies of the Tanakh and the Torah. They wrote out the letters of each book word for word. So they knew the Word of God and the Old Testament.

Yeshua said, "Every scribe that becomes a disciple of mine will be like the owner of a mansion, and is able to bring forth out of this huge mansion, this huge house," Jesus said, "treasures old and new". In other words, Yeshua was saying, "Someone that has been schooled in the Hebrew Scriptures, that becomes a follower of mine will be able to bring forth treasures old and new". And that's what we're doing now. We're mining out of the Hebrew Bible those treasures that Yeshua was speaking of that help you and I to get the mind of HaShem, the mind of God, particularly now in understanding His sovereignty on the earth. So we need, as I've been teaching, to ask the Lord in every situation that we're in:

Lord, how should I respond to this? What are You trying to teach me in this? Lord, you allow this to happen, I can't forsake faith in you. I can't say that this is just the devil because as it was in the life of Job it was the Lord that allowed the devil to attack. I have to ask you, God, what's your purpose in this. Help me to overcome this for Your glory. Help me to find significance in whatever I'm going through right now, knowing that you cause all things to work together for good. And help me to understand, Father, that You're sovereign, not only in heaven above, but on the earth below. And even when I don't understand Your ways, Father God, I'm going to trust Your heart.

There are many things that we don't understand. We don't know why this happened, and why that happened, and why the Lord allowed this to happen. But when we don't understand His ways, let us, beloved, trust His faithfulness, let's stay committed to trusting His heart. God is good. His ways are above our ways. His thoughts are above our thoughts. He's sovereign in heaven above and on the earth beneath. Let's continue to trust Him even though we don't understand what is going on in the temporal. You see the problem with us... hear what I'm saying, Church. The problem with us, the problem with us is that we understand everything from the temporal realm. We're so rooted to the earth. Our minds are so programmed to the now that we don't have a mindset of the eternal.

So we can only interpret things by what's going on in this very moment. And we're making decisions about what's going on just based upon what's going on in the present moment. But there's much more that's going on than what's going on in the present moment because God has an eternal plan. This is why the Apostle Paul said, the temporary trials that you and I are going through right now are not worthy to be compared with the eternal glory that these trials are rodding in our soul, that are forming in our soul. That as we go through these temporal trials, Paul said, and hang on to the Lord and love Him, and are faithful to Him, and are obedient to Him, through these temporary, temporary earthly trials, the outcome of these trials is going to be that our soul is going to be expanded and enriched and filled with the eternal weight of God's glory.

I said, beloved ones, the problem with us is that we're so earthly, we're so temporal minded, and we're so proud to think we can make judgments about what's going on, that we evaluate everything only in virtue or in view of what's going on right now rather than understanding His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. For even as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways, and His thoughts higher than our thoughts. So let's trust Him and stop having pride and thinking that we know best and that we can make judgments. God has an eternal purpose in mind and He's using everything for His glory.

And so Hannah is praising Him. "He's the one. The Lord is holy, and there's no one like the Lord. Boasts no more so very proudly, do not let arrogance come out of your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and with Him actions are weighed". Verse 4, "The bows of the mighty are shattered, the feeble gird on strength". And then she goes on to say in verse 6, "The LORD kills and makes alive; He brings down to Sheol and raises up. The LORD makes poor and rich; He bows low, He exalts". She's talking about His sovereignty. And she's saying, stop boasting. You don't know what's going on. Let's trust God, He alone is God. And we just got done reading in verse 8, "the pillars of the earth are the LORD's and He set the world on them".

Father God, we are asking today that you'll forgive us for our arrogance. We think about Adam and Eve when they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and how the devil said to them when they ate from the tree, that they would have the knowledge of good and evil, that they'd be able to judge what's good and what's bad, that they'd be able to see what's really happening rather than depending on You. And Father, truly, the fruit of that sin in the garden all those years ago is still in our lives today that we are the ones that think we can decide what's good and what's bad, and even judge you, God, when we're so boastful and vain for thinking, Lord, that we have the right to do such a thing.

And so we think about Hannah's words there when she said, "Boasts no more so very proudly, do not let arrogance come out of your mouth; for the Lord is the God of knowledge..". So, Father, we want to say that we repent before you right now, we bow our knee before you now, Father God. Forgive us, Lord, for having a temporal view of life, for thinking that we have the right and the judgment to be able to discern good from evil. So, Father, we ask You today to forgive us and to recognize You high and lifted up, to recognize who You are in Your sovereignty. We ask you to give us a worldview, Father, that's consistent with Your worldview and to understand, Lord, that you're working all things after the counsel of Your own will.

And I pray, Father, the fruit of today's message would be that we would be lifted up to see You in Your glory, to see You in Your loftiness, to understand that there is one God and there is no other. That you reign, Father, in the heaven above and the earth below. And that, Father God, in your loving kindness as we give ourselves to You, You are faithful to reign in and over our lives. Father Daddy, thank you that You love us. Thank you, that as we give our lives to You, even as Hannah dedicated her child's life to You in the temple, that as we dedicate our lives to you, Father God, that you are faithful to us, to lift us up, Father God, even as Hannah said, to exalt the needy and to put them in the place of nobles. Father, we want to thank you for the good purposes you have in our life.

Beloved, when I speak courage over you today, courage that comes from knowing that God is sovereign, that He loves you, and He's reigning over your life.