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Failure Is Not An Option. It’s a Foregone Conclusion
Failure is a way of life. For some people the most difficult obstacle they face in becoming a faithful person is believing they can be forgiven by a just God (Elohim) who sent His perfect Son to die for our sins. Forgiveness for our sins despite our own wickedness was the whole purpose of the Father sending Yeshua. He came so that we might have life and have it more abundantly, and His desire is to condemn no one.
If you’ve managed to overcome the first obstacle and chosen to walk in faith, following Messiah Yeshua and learning the Way to live, then you’re bound to become acquainted with failure.
Some of us are so acquainted with failure that we know it by heart and expect it to show up for dinner nearly every night. Failure is like that unwelcome, self invited guest who talks too much and eats all the guacamole, then never really wants to leave. If I were to list the things which have been ever present and consistent in my life dismal failure would be at the top. Many of us have a comically unbalanced scale in which the weight of failures far exceeds the weight of victories.
Understanding Responses
In this sense the walk in faith is no different than in our old life. If you became a believer and expected for everything, including your behavior, to miraculously get better overnight then you may be disappointed to learn that for some it only gets harder.
Walking in righteousness is most likely going to be another long series of failures, but don’t fear that. Failure is a teacher. How we respond to the failure is what matters. Why we respond the way we do matters.
Most importantly of all it’s vital to understand how the Heavenly Father responds to failures. You need to know that He is perfect in love, merciful and longsuffering. He is patient, and even more than any decent human father He delights to see the wobbly, unsteady and persistent attempts of His children to please Him. Under no circumstances will He leave or forsake you. He is perfect in love, and He is also perfect in wisdom. He knows that we are made of dirt. He wants you to get back up when you fall, and He will help you.
The Scriptures are Full of Failures
As with our scale of failures versus victories, the list of perfect people in the Scriptures is highly unbalanced. It is so unbalanced, in fact, that every single character except one fits neatly on one side of the beam, while only one Man stands alone on the other.
This is an unusual scale, however. Normally the weight of every biblical character would make the single One who did not fail ride high and swing in the air.
Yeshua stands alone on the perfect, unfailing side of the balance and the weight of that perfection leaves every other faithful biblical character, and every other believer throughout all of time, high in the air. By His perfection He lifts us up all the way to the Father in Heaven.
The First Fail in a Long History of Fails
Aside from our King Yeshua all of the great biblical heroes and heroines were sinners and failures. If they were successful in life it usually followed on the heels of epic failure. Failure is not the end for a believer. Often it is the beginning.
We could start with the beginning and Adam and Eve. They both failed to follow simple, clear instructions and sinned against Yahweh. The very first man ever created was a failure before he was a success.
Noah was a spectacular success. He was faithful enough to build a gigantic boat in the face of an entirely unbelieving world. I have to think he received a lot of ridicule, but he was faithful and obeyed the Father and he and his family were the only ones left after the flood.
Afterward Noah planted a vineyard and promptly got so drunk he lost his clothes and cursed his grandson Canaan for what Ham did. Still, Yahweh saw what humans don’t. This is speculation, but Noah probably had enormous emotional problems stemming from being the only family of survivors over the whole earth. Yahweh may have seen his pain and been understanding of his drunkenness, even if He did not condone it.
Noah was probably repentant, although this isn’t recorded. Regardless, Noah sinned and failed immediately after watching the world be wiped clean for sin, and the Father still saw fit to allow him to repopulate the earth.
Moses was a murderer and stumbled numerous times. Yahweh, in the form of a burning bush which wasn’t consumed was talking to him and still Moses asked for someone else to be sent. He later became angry and fumbled Yahweh’s commands and was denied entry into the promised land. Yet we learn much later that Moses, despite his failures, was so highly regarded by the Father that he was present with Elijah in the transfiguration of Yeshua, and he spoke with the Messiah there.
More Fails
Samson was full of arrogance and disobedient to his parents. (Judges 13-16) He was a bit of a womanizer and revealed the secret of his strength to a woman who had repeatedly demonstrated that she would use it against him. Samson was shorn, imprisoned, blinded and mocked publicly. Samson was a complete failure, and yet the end of his life in his repentance was more powerful than all the rest combined.
King David was a murdering adulterer in the nearly all powerful role of a king. He abused that power. Solomon was the second wisest person who ever lived and yet he fell into idolatry. Elijah witnessed miracle after miracle and yet fell into a desperate depression while hiding in the wilderness.
John the Baptist was described by Yeshua as the greatest man born among women until that time. John obeyed Yahweh and baptized Yeshua. He witnessed the Spirit coming down on Him like a dove which confirmed what the Father had told him about who Yeshua was. He knew Yeshua was the Messiah, yet while he was in prison John fell into doubt and asked what sounds like a desperate question. “Are You the coming One, or should we look for another?”
Peter walked with Yeshua throughout his entire ministry and was in His inner circle of disciples. He witnessed amazing things and heard words that no other man had ever spoken before, and he knew without a doubt who Yeshua was and that He spoke the words of Life. Even the Rock, Peter, abandoned his Messiah at the moment of His greatest suffering. He denied Yeshua 3 times.
How Does Yahweh Deal With our Failures?
Yeshua told Peter that he would deny Him 3 times. When this actually happened Peter had denied knowing Yeshua a third time, the cock crowed and Yeshua looked straight at Peter. I can imagine Peter’s heart was instantly torn into pieces. The Scriptures tend to understate. Peter wept bitterly.
In my mind I expect Peter wept violently and made himself sick with regret, worry and bitterness at himself. He may have pulled his hair and rolled in the dirt in desperate agony. He was probably completely astonished by how perfectly things played out, exactly as Yeshua said they would.
The Word doesn’t elaborate, and is understated in that classic, Biblical way. The next three days were probably the very worst of Peter’s life, and likely much worse than Peter ever expected life could even be.
Yet Yeshua rose and conquered death, and at a later meeting with Peter three times Yeshua asked him if Peter loved Him. When Peter answered yes, rather than a condemnation and a question of why he would deny his Messiah, Yeshua instead gave him a command and a commission. Feed His sheep. Three times Peter denied Yeshua. Three times Yeshua asked if Peter loved Him. Three times Yeshua relied on the love He knew Peter had for Him and gave him a job to do.
Instead of berating Peter Yeshua entrusted a ministry to him. Peter was entirely forgiven, and the Scriptures never speak of it again. Peter’s sin was in effect blotted out. It was gone. The only discipline Peter needed came from the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Yeshua’s confidence in him and his undeserved, unlimited forgiveness caused Peter to change the course of history in service to his Master.
The Father in Heaven, perfect in love, mercy and longsuffering forgave the failure of all these men. He forgives failure, He doesn’t condemn it. He demands repentance from sin, but He forgives and because He is so much higher in thought and intention than we are He forgets it. Our sin is blotted out and gone.
Who is an Elohim like You, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance? You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. Micah 7:18-19
Grace
Yahweh deals with human failure with grace. Undeserved favor. He does not condemn His people. Stop condemning yourself.
Walk as Yeshua walked. Yeshua does not condemn you.
If Yahweh forgives us our trespasses and we walk like His Son then we must forgive others their trespasses against us.
Failure teaches us perseverance. A righteous man may fall 7 times, but he will rise again. Since failure against Yahweh usually involves sin or abusing something that isn’t normally considered sin we learn how valuable mercy is, and we learn humility.
It’s humility which makes us great. Yeshua said that the greatest among us would be a servant. He taught us by washing His disciples feet.
For those of us who aren’t naturally humble, failure can be the best of teachers.
