"We Can Endure What God Cannot"

Isaiah 1.13, 15 NKJV

“I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.”

“When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you;
Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear.”

I am embarrassed to admit I allowed myself to be drawn into a television reality show a few years ago in which the participants were required to eat live earthworms. One contestant gagged and just couldn’t do it. I was glad she couldn’t. She wasn’t supposed to. It’s against nature and all things sensible for humans to consume living worms. Earthworms and the human palate just don’t go together. No one should be expected to endure fare (or television) of this kind. 

At least two people were enduring something they should not have been. The young lady on the screen and... me! She was trying to swallow living worms and I was trying to watch her do it. Both were equally as just plain wrong!

The concept of endurance is fascinating to me. Humans endure all sorts of things they shouldn’t like, for example, poor marriages. I will never advocate divorce but often change must take place. Some marriages just shouldn’t be, at least not the way they are. The parties simply don’t go together well. The union needs change and the parties need help getting there. Instead, they endure the rituals of marital anti-bliss year after sad year.

Take the typical job, as another example. Unfulfilled employees perform boring, zombie-like routines while remaining fully disengaged from the reality of their sorry existence. They shouldn’t be there. Only vaguely do they recall the passionate optimism of their youth when the future stretched before them like a magical red carpet. Now they’ve learned to settle for BTN (better than nothing) careers and live only for weekends and annual vacations. These workers (and probably their employers) endure way more than they should.

How about church? Ever wonder why parishioners are there? Some people attend worship only because they’re supposed to. Their ancestors and friends attended this church. They made their kids warm the same pew each Sunday after excruciating Sunday. They paid their tithes and earned the right to be miserable. They’re not about to leave. You couldn’t force these folks out with a divine crowbar. They have learned the unhappy secret of faulty endurance. Here's the truth: 

Human beings can endure much more than they should.

Not so with God. He has limits. He cannot endure things that don’t go together. The prophet claimed God “cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.” God’s greatest desire is to have a “sacred meeting” with His people. He wants to deeply connect with you and me so He sent Jesus knocking on the door of our hearts...

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears

My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him”.

Revelation 3.20 NASU

The only real sin is unbelief. One cannot have a quality relationship with Jesus and refuse to believe in its possibility. Divine encounters and lack of faith simply don’t go together. Perhaps I can endure a religion that only looks good from the outside, but God cannot. The prayers of the unbeliever bounce off the ceiling as Isaiah warned... “Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear you.” If God cannot endure things that aren’t supposed to go together, like “iniquity and the sacred meeting,” then neither should I.