Your Problems Are a Setup

Have you ever been set up? Maybe by your child, spouse, friend, boss, or employee? For instance, your wife says to you, “Honey, do you really love me?” That is a valid question, but you may sometimes sense she is setting you up for something else. Or maybe your child comes to you and asks, “Mom, do you have any money?” That is a setup. It is not a question on its own; there are questions to follow I can promise you. Maybe you are in some public place and an announcement over the intercom says, “Will the owner of the Ford outside please come to the desk.” That is something you never want to hear, because that is a setup.

Oftentimes people set us up for the other shoe to drop. There is a literary device called Chekov’s gun, which states something to the effect that if there is a rifle hanging over the mantel in Act I of a drama, it will need to be used by a later Act. Have you ever watched some film and wondered about the details in that film and thought that either the writers didn’t know what they were doing or it was a setup? Something will come into play later on.

Sometimes God sets people up. You often find that in the Bible. An example is the story of Isaac and his two sons, Jacob and Esau, where Jacob lies to his dad and tries to pass himself off as Esau. The first verse of that account basically says, “Isaac was old and could not see.” God is setting you up. He is setting the story by telling you that Isaac was old and could not see, therefore you can understand how he could be fooled.

In Genesis 11 we are introduced to Sarai, who later became Sarah. Genesis 11:30 says, “But Sarai was barren; she had no child.” That is your first introduction to Sarai. She is characterized as one who was barren as if that was the most important thing about her. It was. God had made a promise to Abram, later Abraham. Genesis 12:1 says, “The Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy fathers house, unto a land that I will shew thee.” Abraham was to take a step at a time and obey and trust God.

God said in verses 2-3, “I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; And thou shalt be a blessing…and in thee all families of the earth be blessed.” Abraham wasn’t even the father of a great family or even a child. So, God instantly sets us up for a problem with His promise. He would make a great nation, yet Sarah had no children and she could not have children.

Now, if you read this story in its continuance, you find that your problems are a setup for God’s working. Did you know that every story from here on is connected. In other words, the Bible is not some willy-nilly bag of stories that is good for Sunday School so we learn little lessons like not to lie and to be kind. That is all fine, but they are all part of a bigger story. There is a story that emerges from these many stories. It is the story of a promise and a man and his faith or his lack of it.

The very next story, chapter 12, is about Abraham being confronted by famine. He goes down to Egypt, and tells his wife, “Hey, tell everyone you are my sister and not my wife because if people know you are my wife, they will kill me to get you.” Something like that happened. Pharaoh was told of this beautiful woman and he took her into his harem. That was a threat to the promise God had made that God would make a great nation. If your wife is in the harem of Pharaoh, that is hard to do.

Later on, Abraham says, “Lord, I’m sure you are going to keep your promise, but it seems that timing is a problem here. So, since Sarah can’t bear, I’m going to take a second wife named Hagar and my heir will come through her.” That is a threat to God’s promise. God said Abraham’s child was to come from him and Sarah his wife.

Later, God gets in on this by telling Abraham, “Take your only son Isaac and sacrifice him.” Abraham obeyed, although he never had to sacrifice Isaac. God sacrificed His Son for Abraham and the sins of the whole world instead. All these stories contribute to the main story of God’s Messiah sent through Abraham’s family. Every story is a threat or challenge to Abraham’s faith and God’s very promise.

Let me encourage you today to choose faith. When I say faith, I don’t mean a feeling. I mean an action, obedience. Sometimes we say, “Faith not fear.” I understand that. However, have you ever done something you know to be right, you were trusting God, but you felt a little nervous about it? When the Bible says in Hebrews 11:8, “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed.” That is action. It continues, “He went out, not knowing whither he went.” He didn’t know; he obeyed. He knew just enough to do what God told him to do. How did Abraham feel? I don’t know. The Bible doesn’t tell us. We do know that at times he felt fear, thus his lie about Sarah before the Egyptians. That was a breach of faith.

Have you ever flown on a plane and heard someone say, “I don’t trust this plane.” You may not feel good about the plane, but faith is a decision you make when you set your pockets down in that airliner’s seat. It is not a feeling. Trusting the plane is somewhat separate from the fear you may feel. What we are talking about is faith over feeling. I don’t need to have a feeling in order to have faith. I need to have an action, obedience.

Maybe today you would say with the man in the New Testament, “Lord, I believe. Help mine unbelief.” Faith is a choice. I can’t always choose my feelings. Sometimes my feelings choose me, but I can choose what I think and do, and that can change my feelings. Your problems are a setup for God’s working. I don’t want problems. I don’t choose them or like them, but these problems are precisely because God made a promise. Today, whatever your problems and prospects, put your focus on God and what He has said, not on your feelings. What He has said is in His Word, the Bible. Choose faith and obedience over feelings. You have problems; God has answers. Your problems are a setup for God’s working.