LESSON 14

3/5/03

YOU’RE THOUGHTS: Why does God’s love always win at the end?

How do you handle hateful people?

Do you fight them or do you let God handle them?

MY THOUGHTS: Just the other day I was sitting in my living room flipping through the channels on my TV, when I came across an interview in progress between Dan Rather from CBS news and the leader from Iraq, Saddam Hussein. When I saw Saddam participate in this interview my mind started going through various, yet brief emotions. It started with anger. Why would such a man be so cold and heartless and not be concerned about human life? Then my thoughts were entertained with revenge. Why doesn’t somebody pull a gun out and shoot him? The emotion that seemed to dominate my mind the most was a perplexed emotion, how am I supposed to feel or, to put it in a better way what would God want me to think? Let us see what the Bible says about this subject.

After I left that interview and went about my daily routines my thoughts kept coming back to this man and all that he represents sitting on the other side of the table from Dan Rather. My mind came to a similar man in the Bible by the name of Pilate. I don’t know all about Pilate, but I do know that he represents evil, which is seen by his actions in leading our Lord to the cross. What impressed me the most was the way Jesus handled Pilate’s self-centered performance. He was basically quiet, although it was recorded in John that He responded four times to Pilate’s questions, but His answer to Pilate’s forth question, I found was very encouraging. This is when Pilate informed Jesus that he had the power to crucify Him or set Him free. Jesus’ answer was that Pilate would not have any power unless it was given to him from above (John. 19:10-11).

We can learn from this interrogation between Pilate and Jesus with one simple fact. No matter how evil or destructive a person can be, our Lord controls them. With this in mind we know that we will prevail because God is Love and Love does overcome evil. Jesus knew what had to happen to accomplish His purpose on earth, but He still had to resign to the fact that He had human emotions and yet He chose to allow the Father to be in control of His emotions. I don’t know what Jesus was thinking during this ordeal but I feel safe in saying that even though He was without sin, He needed strength from His Father. He needed to see things through His Fathers loving eyes like we need to see things through Jesus’ loving eyes. We don’t have the capacity to love a man like Pilate or Saddam but Jesus does. He saw depraved, lost men and women who’re in a desperate need of a Savior. He saw them when He looked over the city of Jerusalem and wept (Luke 19:41). He saw them when He hung on the cross in great agony and cried out “Father forgive them, they know not what they are doing” (Luke 23: 34) He saw it in Judas Iscariot, the one who was going to betray Him when He was washing His feet. (John 13: 10-11).

I mentioned at the beginning of this lesson that I needed to know how to handle my perplexed emotions when I see evil being promoted by men like Saddam. How I learned to handle this was to see this man as a depraved, lost soul that needs our Lord and Savior because I want to see him with those compassionate eyes of Jesus and for that to be possible I need to pray for him and men like him. When that is practiced, I believe that will help us handle the neighbor next door who keeps us up at night or the classmate who got you in trouble at school or the bullies that push you around and call you names.

In conclusion I like to encourage you to continue studying our directional manual, the Bible and join the President and many others including me in daily prayer for God to intervene in the affairs that are going on in Iraq and for our President to continue seeking God’s infinite wisdom to handle these affairs.

(More on Pilate’s encounter with Jesus) Matt.27:11-14, Mark. 15: 1-15, Luke.23:1-12, John. 18:33-38

(Other Scripture Ref) Ps.2:12, Ps.7:11, Eph.4:26-27, Deu.32:35, Rom.12:19

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