Behind Deceit

My Bible software is incredibly legalistic. I had no idea. I started using the software's "Read the Bible Through in a Year" function. I figured, new software, new year, I don't mind starting over, so sure, I'll give it a try. It sets out each day's reading next to a selection box. Below the day's reading are the next two days' readings, also with selection boxes. When you've read the listed passages you check the selection box and the next day's reading moves to the head of the list. It's all good.

Until you miss a day. Yes, sometimes I miss a day. Sometimes I have to read other things. Sometimes the telephone rings, like it did today and I had to get involved in someone else's life for a while. It happens. But not for my Bible software. If you miss a day, when next you open the software, there's a picture of the cover of your default Bible version with a big red banner across the front that reads, "BEHIND." I don't know whether it's a statement of condition or a personal accusation, but I can tell you, I don't like it, not one bit. Imagine getting bullied into reading your Bible regularly by a computer Bible software program. I think if it were so smart it would just read it for me. It's supposed to be helpful and save me time, right?

Well, of course, just to show them, I stopped getting "BEHIND." In fact, I read forward four days. So there! The reading is in Genesis. I've read it many, many times, but this time I'm using the Inductive Bible Study (www.precept.org) highlights that are included in the software. I'm reading slower, making observations along the way, and gleaning a great deal of really amazing truth. For instance, Abraham deceived both Pharaoh and Abimelech. Sarah deceived Hagar. Jacob deceived Isaac . . . and Esau . . . and Laban  (who deceived Jacob). . . and Laban again . . . and Esau again. Simeon and Levi deceived Shechem over Dinah. Joseph's brother's deceived Jacob. Potiphar's wife deceived her husband and her household over Joseph. Joseph temporarily deceives his brothers. And of course, the entire book starts with the Serpent deceiving Eve and Cain deceiving Abel. If you didn't know better you would think that every human being after Adam was a son of a deceiver.

But that's the point, isn't it? Generation after generation, situation after situation, circumstance upon circumstance, selfishness and deceit reign in the human heart. Even the most faithful have their moments of faithlessness when, rather than trusting God implicitly to keep His promise, they attempt to gain or protect God's blessing through their own efforts, which often amounts to deceit. I read the stories of the lives and I come away asking, "Is no one faithful?"

Throughout this entire first book of Moses, there is one who is always faithful, who makes a promise and keeps it, who never sacrifices his integrity for expediency: God (Elohim), the LORD (Yahweh), God Almighty (El-shaddai). "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring," He said. "He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heal," He said.

"I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing," He promised Abram. "I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Through every scene of deceit in the book of Genesis, God, though not always mentioned, consistently works in the lives of deceitful men to accomplish His promise. Not once is He stymied. Not once does His plan fail. Even though we are faithless, He remains faithful.

It doesn't take some legalistic, hard nosed Bible software to see what's happening here. God's plan for the world, God's plan for your country, God's plan for your church, God's plan for your family, God's plan for you moves forward without obstacle as He uses even the deceitful and faithless to accomplish His goals. So why rely on ourselves? Why trust in deceit when God will have His way? Wouldn't it simply be easier to trust God and wait for Him to keep His promise, since that's what He's going to do anyway?

By the way, I really love my Bible software. I've been using it since 1991. Check out the new version at www.logos.com.