In my blog, “The Carnal Christian”, one of the Scriptures I shared was 1 Corinthians 10:13. Before proceeding into the subject matter in “Heavy Burdens,” it is necessary for me to revisit that Bible verse, but for a different reason:
1 Corinthians 10:13: No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
Often over my years as a Christian I have heard my fellow believers say that God will not put more on you than you are able to bear, and a lot of times they point to 1 Corinthians 10:13. These folks are well-intentioned but wrong. The context and the very words of the verse itself both tell us that it is temptation, not burdens, being described here.
Furthermore, it is God who is not allowing us to be tempted beyond what we are able, not putting temptation on us. God does not tempt us to sin, nor can He be tempted by it (James 1:13). Does God allow heavy burdens to come into our lives, however? Yes, He does. Sometimes these burdens break us and make us better Christians, and sometimes these burdens we bring on ourselves. They can even be used as chastening by the Lord to discipline us when necessary.
The Bible details the lives of some Old Testament and New Testament saints more than it does others. There are those of whom we do not get enough of a picture to easily see what heavy burdens they dealt with, if we are able to see them at all. Others, however, we can see readily, even to the point of seeing burdens that they brought on themselves. For the sake of simplicity I will look at the lives of two men in the Word of God: David and Paul. We will see some of the heavy burdens God allowed them to carry in their lives.
1. David: King David was originally a shepherd, the youngest son of a man named Jesse. The old prophet and judge Samuel anointed him as the second king of Israel when he was still just a teenager. One of David’s first exploits, while Saul still served as Israel’s first king, was to kill the Philistine giant Goliath (1 Samuel 17:4-51).Quite naturally, this caught Saul’s attention, and he initially had a high degree of respect for David, not yet realizing that this valiant youth was to be his replacement on the throne one day. Meanwhile, because of his disobedience toward God, Saul had been rejected from being king by the Lord. Upon seeing David’s popularity with the people and what they were saying, realization dawned on Saul:
1 Samuel 18:5-9: So David went out wherever Saul sent him, and behaved wisely. And Saul set him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul’s servants. Now it happened as they were coming home, when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women had come out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. So the women sang as they danced, and said: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” Then Saul was very angry, and the saying displeased him; and he said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed only thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom?” So Saul eyed David from that day forward.
Saul had already become mentally unbalanced because, when the Spirit of the Lord departed from him, He allowed a distressing spirit to trouble him (1 Samuel 16:14-16). Ironically, in being soothed by music, Saul, in choosing someone who was a skilled player of musical instruments, ended up sending for David to be the one to play music for him (1 Samuel 16:17-23, 18:10). David’s relationship with Saul and his bravery in confronting Goliath won him the position that led to the praise which so alarmed the emotionally disturbed king. In his wrath, Saul tried to kill David several times, only to relent later. What ensued was a long pursuit by Saul of the young future king. David spent the last of his teen years and all of his twenties escaping the hand of Saul again and again. At one point he even served in the Philistines’ army, though he still fought clandestinely against them (1 Samuel 27:1-12). This was a heavy burden for him to bear, and not one of his own making. During his years on the run, David wrote many of his psalms. He sometimes must have wondered why God allowed people to go after him when he did not deserve it. God had a higher purpose, though. Over the course of time David became the leader of a band of several hundred men, and also obtained wives besides Michal, the daughter of Saul (1 Samual 22:1-2, 25:39-44). Through God allowing David to deal with these heavy burdens in his life, he began to make a family, and he further honed his skills as a leader. This, and David’s dependence on God, prepared him to be a great king.
Of course, David did sin a couple of times. The first time was when he had an affair with Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of his bravest and most loyal soldiers. When the king found out that Bathsheba was pregnant, he tried to arrange things so that it would seem like the child was Uriah’s, but when that failed, David had him killed in battle. The Lord was angry with him. When David humbled himself, God forgave him, but He did not take away the consequences of David’s sins (2 Samuel 12:1-14). In addition to losing the child he fathered in adultery, Amnon would rape his sister Tamar—these were two of David’s children. Absalom killed Amnon some time later in revenge, then tried to take David’s throne and almost succeeded. After this rebellion was put down there was another revolt led by a man named Sheba. Although it was also put down successfully, think of how much more peaceful David’s reign would have been had he not brought all this upon himself. When David was old and ready to die, one of his sons, Adonijah, tried to take the throne from Solomon, the son who was to succeed David as king, so he had to deal with that as well. Also when he was old, David took a census of Israel that God did not authorize. Apparently David was guilty of pride, relying more on the might of his army than the might of God to protect Israel, and as a result of the disciplining he chose from the Lord, seventy thousand people died before God stayed His hand. David built an altar upon the threshingfloor of Ornan (also called Araunah) the Jebusite and repented before God (2 Samuel 24:10-25; 1 Chronicles 21:13-28). If one good thing came out of this, it was that this site would become the place where Solomon built his great temple of the Lord (2 Chronicles 3:1). Even today, nearly 3000 years later, Mount Moriah is still called the Temple Mount.
2. Paul : Originally called Saul of Tarsus, Paul was an ultra-Orthodox Jew, a Pharisee trained by Gamaliel, one of the best teachers of the Law in Judea. Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin and was highly accomplished as a Jewish Hebrew man (Philippians 3:3-6). We are introduced to Paul (as Saul) at the end of the seventh chapter and the start of the eighth chapter of Acts, when Stephen was being martyred for Christ’s sake. Saul consented to Stephen’s death. Take note of this zealous Pharisee’s fury against The Way, the name of the new faith before it became known as Christianity:
Acts 8:3: As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.
Many years later, before King Agrippa, Paul would testify that as a Pharisee, as well as strictly living by the Law, he voted to have Christians put to death, compelled them to blaspheme, and persecuted them even to foreign cities (Acts 26:4-11). Meanwhile, as Saul, the young zealot would be broken by the Lord Himself:
Acts 9:1-9: Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one. Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Saul would meet a man named Ananias and would regain his eyesight. With God’s breaking of Saul, this former Pharisee became not only a Christian but also a mighty man of God. Over the course of time he was taught of the Lord and would go on to be a great apostle (Galatians 1:15-24; 2 Corinthians 11:5). Paul started many churches and wrote over half of the New Testament. The writings of Paul were so full of the Holy Spirit that even while he was still alive they were considered as being on a par with Scripture (2 Peter 3:14-16). To this day, nearly 2000 years later, Paul is still one of the greatest Christians who ever lived. All these achievements and being used of God came with a high price, though. If anyone ever carried their share of heavy burdens, it was Paul:
2 Corinthians 11:22-33: Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? Soam I. Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, inperils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation? If I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus the governor, under Aretas the king, was guarding the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desiring to arrest me; but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped from his hands.
People like David and Paul, like many others, surely went through a lot. They bore heavy burdens, and not always for the right reasons, but what would these men have become if they had not been broken? What would they have accomplished if they did not need to depend on God to help them with the burdens they bore? In the breaking and in the burdens there is always a higher purpose, a divine plan, that God is working out in our lives and for the fulfilling of His Word and His will. Are you one of those who has experienced brokenness and the weight of heavy loads to carry at the hands of God? I know I have. We all must remember, whatever the reason we have these things in our lives, that God works all things to the good of those who love Him, that God’s grace is sufficient for us to deal with any situation, and that in eternity we will see that it was all worthwhile (Romans 8:28; 2 Corinthians 12:8-10, 4:16-18).
