The Day Between

A Luau Devotion or Purpose to Our Pits

In keeping with the theme of a Hawaiian Luau, I was asked to present a talk about pits to the lovely ladies at my church. Now they could have asked me to talk about surfing or leis or the hula or poi or volcanoes – but it was pits…I’m not sure if they are trying to tell me something…

Now there are all kinds of pits – the Hawaiian one for roasting pigs is called an imu, where the traditional Kalua pig is roasted, but the one we think about when we are talking about our personal pits is the one Webster defines as: Hell, or a place or situation of futility, misery, or degradation.

We don’t want to be there, we don’t choose to be there, and we can’t wait to get out of there.

My favorite depiction of a pit – is the ‘pit of despair’ from the movie Princess Bride.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBaDcOBoHFk

The albino enjoys telling Wesley that he is in the pit of despair and to not even think of trying to escape.

And that is how we feel when we are in a pit – whether it’s a minor blue feeling – like a Karen Carpenter song - or serious unpleasant circumstances. It feels like it’s never going to end, and we long for brighter days.

As Erma Bombeck, humorist and newspaper columnist, once said, If life is a bowl of cherries, what am I doing in the pits?

Have you ever been ‘down-in-the-dumps’, crestfallen, downhearted, ‘singin’ the blues’, or ‘in the pits’? It must be a pretty common phenomenon, or we wouldn’t have so many words to describe it. 

My number four child was an unusually happy, outgoing, gregarious kind of guy. I could always tell, however, when he was upset or sad - His whole body would turn upside down. His mouth would be an upside down ‘u’ and he would slump around the house acting despondent. It was not possible to miss his displeasure.

Likewise, our happiness in life can be fleeting. But we’re not alone in our misery…

In the news recently, we’ve heard about middle-aged, successful adults who committed suicide in the prime of life (ie: Kate Spade, Anthony Bourdain).

According to Emilie Kao, Director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Religion & Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation, Suicide is now the 10^th leading cause of death among American adults and the second leading cause among youth and adolescents.

https://www.heritage.org/religious-liberty/commentary/can-we-reduce-suicides-have-faith

There has also been various reports and studies saying that despite all the social media available and perhaps because of it, people are lonelier and more depressed now than ever before.

According to Psychology Today, …on the whole, use of social media tends to be associated with increased social isolation and not decreased social isolation.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201703/social-media-exacerbates-perceived-social-isolation

Being in a pit of despair seems to be a shared human experience. As I heard once, we are either going into a trial, in the midst of a trial, or coming out of a trial.

Being in a pit is most definitely a trial.

Jesus told us, In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world (John 16:33b).

In James we read, Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (James 1:2-4).

We are going to have problems and trouble in this life. We are going to experience highs and lows. Sometimes we will be in an uncomfortable pit.

How do we ‘take courage’, and how do we ‘count it all joy’?

A Pit in the Bible, according to Eastman’s Bible Dictionary, can be: a hole in the ground (Exodus 21:33,34), a cistern for water (Genesis 37:24, Jeremiah 14:3), a vault (Genesis 41:9), a grave (Psalm 30:3), it is used as a figure for mischief - self-made and destructive (Psalm 9:15), and is the name of the unseen place of woe (Revelation 20:13).

The first mention of pits is in Genesis 14, where we have five kings making war with four other kings. They decided to have their battle in the valley of Siddim, which was apparently littered with tar pits - another brilliant governmental decision on display. 

The group of five kings, which included the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, got beat. While they fled, they got stuck in the tar pits. This resulted in Abram’s nephew Lot, along with his family and everything he had, being captured as part of the plunder. Consequently, Abram and his band of merry men (318 in all, that were trained in his household) came to everyone’s rescue defeating the armies of four kings and returning the plundered goods.

In our first biblical glimpse of pits, we find out pits are dangerous and falling into them will have repercussions on others. The pit experience of others can cause us to suffer. If our country falls into a pit, it will affect us. When our family members or close associates fall into pits, it will affect us. We need to be diligent to pray for our loved ones and our country. God may call on us to deliver them someday.  We better be ready.

The next time we see a pit in the biblical narrative, we encounter the story of Joseph.  Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son.  Now Jacob already had ten sons and one daughter from three other wives, but Joseph was the first born of Rachel, whom Jacob loved. Joseph was treated differently. In those days, the firstborn would receive a double portion of his father’s inheritance, and be leader of his clan. This must have been the intent of Jacob. When Jacob gave Joseph a beautiful multi-colored coat, a garment intended for the family’s future leader, his brothers hated him.

His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers; and so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms (Genesis 37:4).

According to Genesis 37, one fateful day while Joseph was looking for his brothers, they decide to kill him. The oldest, Reuben, convinced his brothers not to kill Joseph, but to throw him in a pit. Reuben intended to rescue him later. From that pit, Joseph was sold into slavery. As a slave, he was falsely accused and sent to prison. He was forgotten, until a need arose to interpret a dream for Pharoah. Because God gave Joseph the interpretation of Pharoah’s dream and a plan to avert catastrophe, Joseph became a ruler in Egypt and countless lives were saved.

Later, Joseph told his brothers, As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good… (Genesis 50:20).

We may find ourselves in a pit because of the sin and wickedness of others. Even though we haven’t done anything to deserve being in a pit, God may want to use our pit experience to accomplish His plan. We may have to wait a long time for our rescue, but He will be with us through it all.

Joseph was no doubt unhappy as a slave, as a prisoner, and even later as a leader, but he walked worthy. He had learned to be content in whatever circumstance he found himself. (Ephesians 4:1, Philippians 4:11)

The prophet Jeremiah spent about fifty years ministering to a people that would not listen, would not repent, and would not be saved. He was known as the weeping prophet, and spent some time in pits – dungeons and a cistern, where he would have died if he had not been rescued. He was in that pit, because He was doing the right thing and obeying the Lord. 

He says in Lamentations:

I called on Your name, O Lord, out of the lowest pit. You have heard my voice, “Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief, from my cry for help.” You drew near when I called on You; You said, “Do not fear!” (Lamentation 3:55-57)

Jeremiah was rescued from the pit by a man who saw his plight and interceded for him. But Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, a eunuch, while he was in the king’s palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern…he spoke to the king saying, “My Lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet whom they have cast into the cistern; and he will die right where he is because of the famine, for there is no bread in the city” (Jeremiah 38:7-13).

Because of Ebedmelech’s intercession, the king gave the order for Jeremiah to be rescued.

We need to be vigilant for our brothers and sisters – be aware and intercede – As Paul says in Galatians, Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:20).

Speaking of Facebook, it is a weird thing that on social media we learn the minutia of someone’s day, including what they had for dinner, but we may not know what our ‘friends’ are truly going through or how we can help.

We may be so caught up in our own lives that we don’t see the needs right around us. This should not be, especially in the church. We need to get out of our comfort zones and be the body of Christ.

The prophet Jonah was also in a pit of sorts –in the belly of a great fish in the depths of the sea. Jonah’s pit experience was a direct result of his own sin and disobedience. God told him to preach to the people of Ninevah, but he refused and tried to run from God. Not until he repented was he delivered from his pit.

I called out of my distress to the Lord, and He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice…that which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the Lord (Jonah 2:2, 9b).

There are many reasons we may find ourselves in a pit – Someone else’s struggle, the sin, jealousy, or malevolence of an enemy, doing the right thing and obeying the Lord, or our own sin and disobedience.

Part of the misery of being in a pit, or a prolong period of suffering is we keep wondering what we did to get there and when we will get out.

I would suggest that getting out of the pit should not be our focus. 

Maybe we’re in that pit, because God wants us there. Maybe we need to be receptive to what he wants to accomplish in us while we wait for His deliverance.

In Psalm 40, David tells us how to handle the pit.

I waited patiently for the Lord;

I waited patiently for the Lord;

I waited patiently for the Lord;

I repeat that first part of the verse, because that is the last thing we want or feel able to do when in a pit. It is truly easier said than done. 

and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord.

Our pit is not about us – God’s plan is bigger than our inconvenience or our suffering.

How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust, and has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood. Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done, and Your thoughts toward us; there is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of them, they would be too numerous to count (Psalm 40:1-5).

The danger of the pit is the foolish things we may think, say, and do to get out of it. We don’t want to acknowledge our helplessness , nor that we truly can’t fix anything or anybody. We think the Lord doesn’t know what we’re going through or where we are, but that just isn’t true.

 Instead we need to ask the Lord, what He wants us to learn in whatever circumstance we find ourselves – wait and trust Him - walk worthy where we are. He will deliver us in His time and for His glory – be a vessel He can use in the meantime. (2 Timothy 2:21)

As Corrie ten Boom, survivor of a Nazi prison camp, famously said, There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.

Likewise, in 2 Corinthians, Paul begins his letter with this: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

There is purpose in our pit.

Just as we are given gifts to build up and edify the church and glorify God (1 Peter 4:10-11), and we receive teaching so we can be equipped to serve (Ephesians 4:12). We may suffer so that through our experience in the pit and our eventual deliverance from it, we can comfort the oppressed and testify that the Lord is worthy of our trust.

Be encouraged – God means our pits for good.