Sermon Tone Analysis

Why is the journey so hard?

Think back to that truly hard task that you encountered.

Perhaps it was a physical struggle like lifting something heavy or moving a lot of things, perhaps it was a mental struggle of figuring out taxes or writing a paper, or was it an emotional struggle like some encounter or addressing a problem that was just messy and left you feeling like a wash cloth that was squeezed dry.

Sometimes these events are even unnecessarily hard.

I know I personally have reached the completion of something and looked back and thought to myself it did not need to be this hard.

At times like this we often even think to ourselves what made it this difficult?

What could have been done differently to make it easier?

Sometimes we even prepare for the next time the task comes up to make it easier.

As I prepared for this teaching I was experiencing this very struggle of seemingly unnecessarily difficulty in preparing this lesson.

I started to do all of my usual preparation of first praying then reading and studying then I usually move on to the writing and reviewing, but this time I could not get past praying.

I was just not receiving inspiration for a teaching not even a word.

Since we a\had a bit of time this went on the entire 3 weeks.

Thankfully the heavenly father answered me and gave me this very message.

So for me the very encounter of something being harder than it should be gave me the teaching I am delivering today.

We are going to look at 3 places in the scriptures that are of times when things where harder than they should have been.

I want us to think about what is happening, what is extra difficult about, who is experiencing the difficulty and why it is so difficult.

So for me the very encounter of something being harder than it should be gave me the teaching I am delivering today.

First let us read

We are all very familiar with this part of our history.

The fall of man.

A lot is packed in to these verses.

Volumes have been written about these passages.

Let us look at this and see if we can answer our questions from above.

Adonai is wanting to spend time with his creation and they are hiding and cannot draw near.

Adonai is in the garden so he could draw near.

He showed up as he frequently did, yet Adam and Hawwah could not draw near to him because they are aware of their sin and are ashamed of themselves.

How many times in life is this us?

How many times do we encounter difficulties in life and if we are honest it is our own fault they are so difficult.

If we had just been obedient to Adonai we would have had half the difficulty we have, but because we had to have it our way do what we want or we had to be right and get ours we just end up ruining things.

So gracious is our Heavenly Father that he forgives us and corrects us and brings back in to a right standing.

In this case the difficulty is increased due to sin.

The serpent is spurned and hated forever.

Hawwah must endure pain in her child birth and she will desire her husband but will be ruled by him.

Since Adam listened to his wife instead Adonai the ground of the Earth is cursed and Adam will have to work hard to survive.

It is all their own fault this is not an injustice or unfair their difficulty multiplied due to their own choices.

Let us look at an example where things where extra difficult and we only sort of know why.

Why does Moshe have to hold out his hands?

Why was this extra requirement put in place?

Why could the Israelites not just battle and win?

There are actually a lot of good lessons that com out of this.

Some commentaries posit that Moshe was praying during this time.

When he put his hands down he was not praying.

Some commentaries mention that he hands positioned in the manner similar to the priestly blessing.

Others teach that it is a reminder to the people fighting that Adonai is with them.

It is mentioned in many that Moshe had the rod of Adonai in his hand and this he was holding up.

Some think it was done to increase the remembrance of the miracle that day, to mark it differently than the other battles they fought.

What I notice as I researched and read about this is a reason that becomes more clear the more commentaries that I read about this event.

It inspired study.

People want to know why this was done.

It stood out and was different.

Sometimes things are extra hard because it benefits those who are watching to see us succeed even in extra adversity.

Lastly let us look a very difficult time that happens.

When things are extra difficult and it is not our fault and we still must struggle extra hard.

Let us talk about when our difficulty is unfair.

Who knows better than having to carry a burden that is extra heavy than our master Yeshua?

He is the rightful heir and King of Zion.

Yet he died for the very ones that would try to take it from him.

He was lied about, abused, humiliated, and murdered.

So that the very people doing the things to him could be saved from their own sin.

He knew no sin yet bore the punishment for all sin.

Even those that would reject him he has paid the price.

I men it is one thing to pay the price for some one what if they refused to even participate after you paid their way?

We have difficult times in our life.

They may even be harder than is necessary.

We may be the cause of difficult times for ourselves.

Our extra difficulties maybe a blessing to others and they maybe unfair to us.

What ever form they take if we are obedient to Adonai and hold fast to Yeshua then we will be victorious even over death.