Detour From the Plan
Week 13 • Sept 28-Oct 4, 2024
FAMILY THEME
FAITHFUL ANYWAY
Everyone knows that hard times are a part of life, but simply knowing this truth is not enough to help us through our suffering. The real questions are: What should we do when life gets hard? How can we make sense of the very real emotions we are experiencing, and where does our faith fit in?
In this unit you will read stories of people who faced broken relationships, depression, anxiety, and other forms of suffering, and you’ll see how they were able to hold on to their faith amidst it all. Allow these stories and the other Scriptures you read to be sources of encouragement and guidance when life gets hard.
MATTHEW 3:1-17 14:1-10; 11:2-15
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea
2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’ ”
4 John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.
5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan.
6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.
9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.
10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
The Baptism of Jesus
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.
14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.
17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
John the Baptist Beheaded
1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the reports about Jesus,
2 and he said to his attendants, “This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”
3 Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife,
4 for John had been saying to him: “It is not lawful for you to have her.”
5 Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they considered John a prophet.
6 On Herod’s birthday the daughter of Herodias danced for the guests and pleased Herod so much
7 that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked.
8 Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”
9 The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted
10 and had John beheaded in the prison.
2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
3 He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?
4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.
5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent?
6 I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.
7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.
8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue,
10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?
12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other.
14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.
God’s Chosen Servant
15 Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill.
JOHN 16:33
33“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
ROMANS 8:28
28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
JOSHUA 1:9
9Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
JOHN 14:27
27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7
6Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
If you take the journey through this life with Jesus in the lead, it will be an adventure. You’ll experience sweeping hilltop experiences that are followed by breathless drops into the lowest valleys. Then there are the curves, the unexpected twists and turns, not knowing what lies around the bend. The landscape of a life in Christ is constantly in flux. He alters the people in it, the places it occurs, and the purpose it fulfills.
In today’s trio of readings we cornered the curves with John the Baptist and Jesus. In the beginning, John spread the news: the Messiah is coming. Then the Messiah came and changed everything. He commanded John, the simple preacher, to baptize Him. Rather than get a big ego, John remained humble. Though his life on this earth met a tragic end, we still talk about his greatness and the work he did for Christ. Following Jesus will always be quite a journey.
How does the change that comes with life-altering experiences affect my faith in Jesus?
John the Baptist’s conception was certainly life-altering for his parents. Check out the story in Luke 1:5-25.
19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ” 21Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?
One of my favorite bloggers gave birth to a sweet baby boy with Down Syndrome a few years ago. In her typical, transparent, and hopeful way she allowed her readers to experience the highs and lows of parenting a baby and then
a toddler with special needs. She is so in love with her baby boy. She posts selfies of the two of them on Instagram. They melt my heart. So does her hashtag: #NothingDownAboutIt.
Today’s verses remind us that God is in control, even when we face life-altering circumstances. Instead of looking at her situation and questioning why, my favorite blogger embraced the challenge and found herself uplifted by the special joy that only a child with a neurodivergency can bring. I’ve learned a lot from her example.
Who do I know that is neurodivergent? What are the ways that we experience God through either being neurodivergent, or through the neurodivergency of those in our lives?
Memorize Psalm 139:14 and remember that God designed us for a special purpose, and God does not make mistakes. Those who live differently abled navigate through a world that often chooses not to be accessible, but they aren’t mistakes.
Job’s Final Defense
1 Job continued his discourse:
2 “How I long for the months gone by,
for the days when God watched over me,
3 when his lamp shone on my head
and by his light I walked through darkness!
4 Oh, for the days when I was in my prime,
when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house,
5 when the Almighty was still with me
and my children were around me,
6 when my path was drenched with cream
and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil.
7 “When I went to the gate of the city
and took my seat in the public square,
8 the young men saw me and stepped aside
and the old men rose to their feet;
9 the chief men refrained from speaking
and covered their mouths with their hands;
10 the voices of the nobles were hushed,
and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.
11 Whoever heard me spoke well of me,
and those who saw me commended me,
12 because I rescued the poor who cried for help,
and the fatherless who had none to assist them.
13 The one who was dying blessed me;
I made the widow’s heart sing.
14 I put on righteousness as my clothing;
justice was my robe and my turban.
15 I was eyes to the blind
and feet to the lame.
16 I was a father to the needy;
I took up the case of the stranger.
17 I broke the fangs of the wicked
and snatched the victims from their teeth.
18 “I thought, ‘I will die in my own house,
my days as numerous as the grains of sand.
19 My roots will reach to the water,
and the dew will lie all night on my branches.
20 My glory will not fade;
the bow will be ever new in my hand.’
21 “People listened to me expectantly,
waiting in silence for my counsel.
22 After I had spoken, they spoke no more;
my words fell gently on their ears.
23 They waited for me as for showers
and drank in my words as the spring rain.
24 When I smiled at them, they scarcely believed it;
the light of my face was precious to them.
25 I chose the way for them and sat as their chief;
I dwelt as a king among his troops;
I was like one who comforts mourners.
I watched in utter heartbreak as the precious teenager who lives with me stood singing in last year’s Christmas program with tears streaming down her face. The song reflected on the bittersweet memories of happy holidays long past. At the time,
Shana loved that song. Just before Thanksgiving her dad altered her life when he committed a crime, landed in jail, and lost his job and his family. She told me after the concert how hard that particular song was to sing because Christmas used to be the most magical time of the year in her family. How quickly and tragically things can change.
As evidenced by today’s verses, Job also knew the joys of the mountaintop view. At one time in his life he was a wealthy, successful, trusted, community man. Then he lost everything and had no idea why it was taken from him. Remembering his former glory must’ve hurt. It always does.
What happy memories in my life are sometimes bittersweet to reflect upon? Is it ever comforting or inspiring to look back on better days?
Job misinterpreted God’s silence and equated it with abandonment. But God never left Job, as evidenced in Deuteronomy 31:6. Remember this verse and believe it, even when things get tough.
1 “But now they mock me,
men younger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
to put with my sheep dogs.
2 Of what use was the strength of their hands to me,
since their vigor had gone from them?
3 Haggard from want and hunger,
they roamed the parched land
in desolate wastelands at night.
4 In the brush they gathered salt herbs,
and their food was the root of the broom bush.
5 They were banished from human society,
shouted at as if they were thieves.
6 They were forced to live in the dry stream beds,
among the rocks and in holes in the ground.
7 They brayed among the bushes
and huddled in the undergrowth.
8 A base and nameless brood,
they were driven out of the land.
9 “And now those young men mock me in song;
I have become a byword among them.
10 They detest me and keep their distance;
they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
11 Now that God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me,
they throw off restraint in my presence.
12 On my right the tribe attacks;
they lay snares for my feet,
they build their siege ramps against me.
13 They break up my road;
they succeed in destroying me.
‘No one can help him,’ they say.
14 They advance as through a gaping breach;
amid the ruins they come rolling in.
15 Terrors overwhelm me;
my dignity is driven away as by the wind,
my safety vanishes like a cloud.
16 “And now my life ebbs away;
days of suffering grip me.
17 Night pierces my bones;
my gnawing pains never rest.
18 In his great power God becomes like clothing to me;
he binds me like the neck of my garment.
19 He throws me into the mud,
and I am reduced to dust and ashes.
20 “I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer;
I stand up, but you merely look at me.
21 You turn on me ruthlessly;
with the might of your hand you attack me.
22 You snatch me up and drive me before the wind;
you toss me about in the storm.
23 I know you will bring me down to death,
to the place appointed for all the living.
24 “Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man
when he cries for help in his distress.
25 Have I not wept for those in trouble?
Has not my soul grieved for the poor?
26 Yet when I hoped for good, evil came;
when I looked for light, then came darkness.
27 The churning inside me never stops;
days of suffering confront me.
28 I go about blackened, but not by the sun;
I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
29 I have become a brother of jackals,
a companion of owls.
30 My skin grows black and peels;
my body burns with fever.
31 My lyre is tuned to mourning,
and my pipe to the sound of wailing.
My sweet girl witnessed the crime her dad committed. In its aftermath she wondered where God was when it all went down. As her life began to fall apart piece by piece her wondering turned to anger. She stopped blaming the dad who committed the crime and started blaming the God who could have prevented it all.
In today’s continuation of yesterday’s unburdening, Job made a similar transition. His tone shifted from inquisitive longing to righteous accusation. Neither helped, other than to let off a little steam. Here’s
the cold, hard truth about life-altering circumstances: some of them defy explanation. The question in the midst of such experiences is whether or not our faith in God’s basic goodness and love is strong enough to withstand the pressure.
Why do we find it so important to understand the why of lifealtering circumstances? In times when I thought I knew the answer, did it help? Did it change the circumstance?
Read and remember the truth about the way God thinks in Isaiah 55:8-9.
The Shunammite’s Son Restored to Life
8 One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat.
9 She said to her husband, “I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God.
10 Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.”
11 One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there.
12 He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call the Shunammite.” So he called her, and she stood before him.
13 Elisha said to him, “Tell her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’ ”
She replied, “I have a home among my own people.”
14 “What can be done for her?” Elisha asked.
Gehazi said, “She has no son, and her husband is old.”
15 Then Elisha said, “Call her.” So he called her, and she stood in the doorway.
16 “About this time next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.”
“No, my lord!” she objected. “Please, man of God, don’t mislead your servant!”
17 But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.
18 The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers.
19 He said to his father, “My head! My head!”
His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.”
20 After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.
21 She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out.
22 She called her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and a donkey so I can go to the man of God quickly and return.”
23 “Why go to him today?” he asked. “It’s not the New Moon or the Sabbath.”
“That’s all right,” she said.
24 She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Lead on; don’t slow down for me unless I tell you.”
25 So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.
When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, “Look! There’s the Shunammite!
26 Run to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’ ”
“Everything is all right,” she said.
27 When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me why.”
28 “Did I ask you for a son, my lord?” she said. “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?”
29 Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run. Don’t greet anyone you meet, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy’s face.”
30 But the child’s mother said, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her.
31 Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not awakened.”
32 When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch.
33 He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the Lord.
34 Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out on him, the boy’s body grew warm.
35 Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out on him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
36 Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.” And he did. When she came, he said, “Take your son.”
37 She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out.
Today’s passage can be a tough read. The Shunammite woman experienced several life-altering events through Elisha the Prophet. He rewarded her faithful hospitality with a pregnancy late in life, and as any older mother will tell you that is seriously life-altering. Then her son died. Again, life-altering. Then Elisha brought him back to life. More life-altering.
So, why do I see these miraculous events as a tough read? Because life-altering events rarely turn out in such a fashion. Just ask my husband. His life was altered at the tender age of six, when his mom was first diagnosed with breast cancer. It was altered again at sixteen when she died. Neither prophets nor prayers rescued her or the children she left behind. He and his brothers had to learn to live in their new, altered life and find faith there.
Why do I think some people are healed and others are not?
We don’t always understand why bad things happen when such a good God exists. When life doesn’t make sense, let God know. God wants to hear your cries, and God promises to be with you through the pain.
Ruth and Boaz at the Threshing Floor
1 One day Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, I must find a home for you, where you will be well provided for.
2 Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor.
3 Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking.
4 When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.”
5 “I will do whatever you say,” Ruth answered.
Several years ago my friend lost her husband to a heart attack. He left her with two young children and a mortgage payment to handle on a single income. She did whatever she had to do to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. Finally, she had to sell her late husband’s truck, a beloved possession she had hoped to pass on to their son, who loved riding in it with his dad. And just like in the story of Ruth, she committed to a new husband to share both the burdens and blessings of life.
As her son prepared to turn sixteen, she launched a covert investigation and found her late husband’s truck. She was able to
buy it back, have it restored, and give it to her son for his birthday. It was a magical moment, demonstrating that altered lives can also be blessed lives.
What blessings have I enjoyed in the midst of life-altering circumstances? How has God provided for me?
If God has taken a bad situation and turned it into something good, be sure to share that with others. A message of hope is one of the greatest things you can give another person.
