The Lord's Wisdom

01.21.10
J.A. Matteson

“…And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.” Luke 17:14

Two observations may be made with regard to this text; that the Lord tests the faith of His people, and that thankfulness for His grace revealed in response to obedience is pleasing to Him.

First, testing of the would-be follower of Jesus Christ unto obedience characterizes the Lord’s wisdom in strengthening their faith as well as ferreting out the sincere from the disingenuous, “Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?” (Lk. 6:46). On pilgrimage saints repeatedly encounter stretches of difficulty where the path ahead is ominous, uncertain, confusing by means of natural reason. Herein is the crux of faith; the Lord has spoken, will the pilgrim believe Him or not?

Faith is active with her fruit known by deeds. The activity of faith to the natural man is an enigma and he does not understand or accept it, “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). The Law of Moses required a man cleansed from leprosy to present himself to the priest so that his healing may be verified, thus enabling him to rejoin the community. The ten who called out to the Lord for mercy were instructed to commence their trek to visit the priest prior to being cleansed. By their departure they demonstrated that their faith in the word of the Lord, as spoken to them, was genuine. Their action demonstrated they were legitimate children of faith in the likeness of Abraham who, in the instance of having been instructed by the Lord to sacrifice Isaac, “reasoned that God could raise the dead” (Heb. 11:19). With certainty in their hearts they left the Lord’s presence as the perplexed crowd watched, and by their obedience received the promised blessing of healing.

To this supernatural infused faith the writer to the Hebrews by inspiration of the Holy Spirit states, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). Oh Beloved, consider how many blessings are forfeited by pilgrims due to a lack of faith in the word of the Lord? Moses was denied access the Promised Land due to unbelief; Joshua burdened Israel for generations with the presence of idolatrous pagans among God’s by failing to obey the Lord in not making a covenant of peace with them; David brought misery to his family and Israel by failing to obey the Lord in the area of sexual fidelity, heaping sin upon sin; Solomon experienced the bitter fruit of intermarrying with the native women of the land who drew his heart away into idolatry; king Uzziah finished his course a disgraced leper by usurping the office of the priesthood; Demas abandoned the apostle Paul and became unfruitful having cast his gaze and attention upon that which is temporal rather than that which is eternal. All these, along with many others, forfeited blessings because during their pilgrimage they, at some level and some point failed, to believe the word of the Lord.

Second, the encounter further instructs the pilgrim to express gratefulness to the Lord for His blessings and answers to prayers and petitions. Of the ten cleansed only one, a Samaritan, returned to express thanks. Beloved, let us never take for granted the mercies of God, but day by day present an offering of thanksgiving and praise to the Lord through whom we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). Cultivating an attitude of gratitude is pleasing to the Lord and the pilgrim owes Him nothing less. As the pilgrim sojourns, when the pathway becomes narrow and difficult, and his strength begins to wane, and the former times of ease seem as a distant memory, he need look no further than the present day, for in so doing, even in the midst of suffering, the goodness of the Lord will bring to mind His providential hand of grace in times past and present. And to this marvelous grace the pilgrim’s heart will sing with joy inexpressible.

Copyright (c) 2010 Immutable Word Ministries ("...the word of our God stands forever." Isa. 40:8).