(Audio Version)
Introduction
I’ve heard it said
that trust takes years to earn, seconds to break, and forever to repair. It
takes countless acts of faithfulness and honest dealings to earn someone's
trust; that trust is earned over a long period of time; trust is not owed it is
earned. However, that hard-earned trust can be lost in an instant of one single
indiscretion or dishonest act. Thereafter, restoring trust can prove to be more
difficult than earning the trust in the first place. In fact, if an act of
broken trust is egregious enough (although such an act is quite subjective)
trust may never again be restored. In such a case, true and intimate
relationship is not possible. Trust is a precarious matter. In our culture in
particular, trust seems to be easily expendable for the sake of expedience.
Husbands are dishonest with their wives, wives are dishonest with their
husbands, children are dishonest with their parents, neighbors are dishonest
with each other, and politicians...don't even get me started on that! Trust,
however, is far more than a matter of being honest or dishonest. Trust is the
fundamental element and basis for all healthy relationships and even for the
health of any society. Without trust, relationships die; without trust, a
society will die. It encompasses our speech, our actions and our attitudes toward
one another. If you're not quite sure that you agree or understand my point,
consider for a moment if it would be possible for the world to exist if you could
not trust anyone. Before you dismiss my point, consider the many times you
blindly trust everyday: For those of you who wear contact lenses, you trust
that someone hasn't replaced your contact solution with acid. For those of you
who have bank accounts, you trust that those at the bank won't steal your
hard-earned money. For those of you who are students, you trust that your
teachers won't arbitrarily give you an "F" on all of your work. I can
give you countless other examples but I'm hoping you get my point that we must
trust in order to function in our society. Most important of all is the roll
trust plays in our relationships. We can, of course, be in relationship with
people without trusting them entirely. However, such relationships are really
only functionary. In other words, these are relationships where people just use
each other for what they need and/or want. These are not relationships rooted
in love for one another—love requires trust. Now think about that in the
context of our relationship with God. Love and trust go hand-in-hand; we can’t
have one without the other and that’s Why
Trust Matters.
Trust is a very
important theological concept forged in the fire of the Old Testament first and
thereafter passing through the refiner's fire in the New Testament. However, as
is often the case, the English translation of the Old Testament Hebrew and New
Testament Greek fails to fully convey the relational depth of biblical trust.
Therefore, the purpose of this lesson is to take a close look at the biblical
meaning of "trust" with particular attention to its use and
development in the Old Testament with added elaboration from the New Testament.
Meaning
The Hebrew root for “trust” is bth—pronounced batah. The word occurs 120 times in the Old Testament with 44
occurrences alone in the Psalms and a significant number in the book of Isaiah
as well.[1]
“Trust is a concept of central importance in the OT. It expresses that which
is, or at least should be, central in people’s relationship with God.”[2]
Brennan Manning writes,
“Trust is the rare and priceless treasure
that wins us the affection of our heavenly Father. For him it has both charm
and fascination. Among his countless children, whom he so greatly loves and
whom he heaps with tenderness and favors, there are few indeed, who truly
entrusting themselves to him, live as veritable children of God. There are as
few who respond to his goodness by a trust at once filial and unshaken. And so
it is that he welcomes with a love of predilection those souls, all too few in
number, who in adversity as in joy, in tribulation and consolation,
unfalteringly trust in his paternal love. Such souls truly delight and give
immense pleasure to the heart of their heavenly Father. There is nothing he is
not prepared to give them. ‘Ask of me half of my Kingdom’ he cries to the
trusting soul, and ‘I will give it to you.”[3]
The primary meaning of bth is “to trust” or “to feel secure” while in other less frequent
cases it can mean “to be confident,” “carefree” or “unsuspecting.” In the
causative Hebrew stem of the word, its usage means “to cause to rely on someone
or something” or “to inspire confidence.”[4]
Historical Development
Historically, it is difficult to
determine the specific development of the word. In part that’s because its
primary use in many of the passages of the Psalms is difficult to date because
those particular Psalms are difficult to date. Adding to the difficulty of
determining the word’s development is its use to describe man often in a
negative sense while at the same time describing God in a positive sense. It
is, however, believed that Isaiah was influential in the usage of the word.
“Isaiah played an important role in the
history of the word, but it is doubtful whether he really gave so much impetus
to its development. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to emphasize that the
root bth is intimately connected with
Wisdom Literature…Isaiah, whose language is strongly influenced by Wisdom
terminology, could have used the form bitchah
in order to express the peculiar idea of ‘trust’ in God. Afterward there arose
a greater and greater distinction between the two usages of bth depending on whether a particular
passage was speaking of man or of God.”[5]
This finding certainly bears out when
considering the varied uses of bth throughout
the Old Testament. Trust is rarely if ever a quality that is associated positively
with man but always a quality associated positively with God.
Usage
The uses of bth can be more specifically categorized as 1) Trust that is taken
for granted; 2) False security (trusting in the wrong things); and 3) Trust in
God. An example of trust taken for granted can be found in Proverbs 3:29; “Do not plot harm against your neighbor, who lives
trustfully near you.” This usage makes clear that there is an unspoken trust
that is taken for granted between neighbors that must be honored. Likewise,
there are numerous examples of admonitions against false securities throughout
the Old Testament. Particularly prominent is the false security in riches as
expressed in Proverbs 11:28; “Whoever trusts in his riches will fall…” Although
there are countless examples of this throughout the Old Testament, it is
particularly useful to recall Jesus’ parable of the rich farmer who, when he
prospered, simply built bigger barns for his crops. He trusted his future to
his agricultural wealth and neglected the fact that God is the author of life
and death—an extremely good example of false security. Another example of false
security in the Old Testament is the false security found in fortified cites,
weapons, horses, chariots and warriors. For example, Isaiah 31:1 records an
admonition; “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who
trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their
horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the
LORD.” Ultimately, there are no longer any kingdoms or empires in existence
today that existed during the Old Testament age—yet God is the same today as he
was then. Finally, the positive usage of the word is particularly prominent in
reference to true security that can be found in God alone. This is the clearest
usage yet of the word. We can read one of the many examples of this in Jeremiah
17:7; “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in
him.” This stands in sharp contrast to Jeremiah’s admonition a few verses
earlier in verse five where he writes, “This is what the LORD says: "Cursed
is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose
heart turns away from the LORD.” When considering the use of bth in its entirety, an unmistakable
principle begins to emerge—trust in anything other than God alone is fleeting
at best and destructive at worst. Primarily because trust in anything other
than God involves being in “relationship” with something or someone (including
ourselves) that has been distorted by the ravages of sin. This point cannot be
over-emphasized. “Thus the feeling of being secure in God is the only certain
support for human life.”[6]
Theological
Significance
The concept of trust is crucial within
the understanding of our theological construct. As stated previously, “It
expresses that which is, or at least should be, central in people’s
relationship with God.”[7] It
is important to note that there are significant sections of the Old Testament
that do not include the word bth.
This is particularly important when we consider that those sections are the
books of Genesis, Exodus, Numbers and Samuel which include the narratives of
such biblical greats as Abraham, Moses and David! “This instantly shows that it
would be foolish solely to focus attention of the specific occurrences of a
certain Heb. root…and that one must consider the concept of a certain type of
relationship with God that is represented by the specific word.”[8]
Nowhere is this relational concept more evident than in the words of Christ
recorded in John 14:1; “Do not let your hearts
be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me.” Although “trust” is derived not
from the Hebrew in this case but from the Greek verb pisteuo, which is also translated as “believe,” and the Greek noun pistis which is translated “faith,” the
principle of relationship is the same. Christ is building a foundation upon
which a relationship with Him can be erected and that foundation is firmly
planted on the bedrock of “trust” in a God whom they already knew to be good,
holy and faithful. Therefore, when considering both the negative and the
positive usage of the word bth, a
clear relational theme begins to emerge. Yet a simple word study falls
hopelessly short of painting a clear picture of the theological and relational
significance that is intended to be conveyed.
“The story line of faith and its relational dynamics are
the reasons that word studies will fail theology as a method for discussing
faith in the Pentateuch. The hazards of word studies are well illustrated by
the virtual absence of ‘trust’ in the Pentateuch. ‘Trusting in the Lord’ is
clearly related to ‘faith’ and is well represented in Psalms and Proverbs (batah, ‘to trust’). The idea of trusting
or not trusting God is reflected in many of the pentateuchal stories and
exhortations, but it is not reflected in the characteristic vocabulary of the
Pentateuch.”[9]
Particularly in those pentateuchal narratives, God is
depicted consistently trying to realign the relationships of his people away
from trusting in governments, people, self, riches, strength, influence or
appearances, all of which have been distorted by sin and are destined to
perish, and move them back into relationship with Himself—the God who is
perfect, holy, unchanging and eternal. Ultimately, the theological concept
conveyed by the word bth is perhaps
the most important of all biblical concepts. as “The stakes here are enormous,
for I have not said in my heart, ‘God exists,’ until I have said, ‘I trust
you.’ The first assertion is rational, abstract, a matter perhaps of natural
theology, the mind laboring at its logic.
The second is ‘communion, bread on the tongue from an unseen hand.’
Against insurmountable obstacles and without a clue as to the outcome, the
trusting heart says, ‘Abba, I surrender my will and my life to you without any
reservation and with boundless confidence, for you are my loving Father.’”[10]
Application
The
Bible is replete with characters that model godly trust for us. Whether it’s
Abraham leaving his home at God’s command before even knowing where he was
going, or Daniel who trusted that God would protect him from Nebuchadnezzar’s
furnace, or Peter getting out of the boat to walk on water or Jesus allowing
himself to be crucified, we are quite familiar with the biblical examples of
trust. But what does this trust look like in our everyday lives? Is trust
emotional, psychological, physical or spiritual? The short answer is: It’s all
of those things at various times in our lives; We cry out in our sorrow and
pain for the God who comforts us, we confidently live our lives in the
knowledge that God is sovereign, our actions reflect the fact that God is in
control of what we say and do, and our spirit longs for the day when we can
spend eternity with God. Don’t get me wrong, trust is far from easy.
Nevertheless, “unwavering trust is a rare and precious thing because it often
demands a degree of courage that borders on the heroic…It requires heroic
courage to trust in the love of God no matter what happens to us.”[11]
Trust is a precious commodity in God’s economy and those who trust their
families, relationships, finances, careers, etc. to God’s care won’t be
disappointed (cf. Rom 10:11). Being in a love relationship with the Creator of
the universe requires, devotion, worship, discipline, and humility along with
countless other actions and attitudes. However, above all else, our love
relationship with God requires trust. Without trust, love cannot thrive and
will inevitably shrivel and die.
I’d
like to share an excerpt from William Young’s wonderful novel, The Shack, that illustrates my point
about the relational dynamic of trust. Without giving away the story, the main
character, Mack, has lost his little girl to a serial child molester/killer
while camping with his other two children. In his grief, he searches for her
and finds himself in “the shack” where, it turns out, his daughter was killed.
There, he has an encounter with all three persons of the Trinity. In the
particular scene I want to share, a grieving and angry Mack is having a meal
with Papa (the Father), Sarayu (the Spirit) and Jesus (the Son). Mack asks what
any reasonable person would ask in his position: Why? That’s where we’ll pick
up the conversation with Papa speaking.
“We created you, the human, to be in
face-to-face relationship with us, to join our circle of love. As difficult as
it will be for you to understand, everything that has taken place is occurring
exactly according to this purpose, without violating choice or will.
“How can you say that with all the
pain in this world, all the wars and disasters that destroy thousands?” Mack’s
voice quieted to a whisper. “And what is the value in a little girl being
murdered by some twisted deviant?” There it was again, the question that lay
burning a hole in his soul. “You may not cause those things, but you certainly
don’t stop them.”
“Mackenzie,” Papa answered tenderly,
seemingly not offended in the least by his accusation, “there are millions of
reasons to allow pain and hurt and suffering rather than to eradicate them, but
most of those reasons can only be understood within each person’s story. I am
not evil. You are the ones who embrace fear and pain and power and rights so
readily in your relationships. But your choices are also not stronger than my
purposes, and I will use every choice you make for the ultimate good and the
most loving outcome.”
“You see,” interjected Sarayu,
“broken humans center their lives around things that seem good to them, but
that will neither fill them nor free them. They are addicted to power, or the
illusion of security that power offers. When a disaster happens, those same
people will turn against the false power they trusted. In their disappointment,
they either become softened toward me or they become bolder in their
independence. If you could only see how all of this ends and what we will
achieve without the violation of one human will—then you would understand. One
day you will.”
“But the cost!” Mack was staggered.
“Look at the cost—all the pain, all the suffering, everything that is so
terrible and evil.” He paused and looked down at the table. “And look what it
has cost you. Is it worth it?”
“Yes!” came the unanimous, joyful
response of all three.
“But how can you say that?” Mack
blurted. “It all sounds like the end justifies the means, that to get what you
want you will go to any length, even if it costs the lives of billions of
people.”
“Mackenzie.” It was the voice of
Papa again, especially gentle and tender. “You really don’t understand yet. You
try to make sense of the world in which you live based on a very small and incomplete
picture of reality. It is like looking at a parade through the tiny knothole of
hurt, pain, self-centeredness, and power, and believing you are on your own and
insignificant. All of these contain powerful lies. You see pain and death as
ultimate evils and God as the ultimate betrayer, or perhaps, at best, as
fundamentally untrustworthy. You dictate the terms and judge my actions and
find me guilty. The real underlying flaw in your life, Mackenzie, is that you
don’t think that I am good. If you knew I was good and that everything—the
means, the ends, and all the processes of individual lives—is all covered by my
goodness, then while you might not always understand what I am doing, you would
trust me. But you don’t.”
“I don’t?” asked Mack, but it was
not really a question. It was a statement of fact and he knew it. The others
seemed to know it too and the table remained silent.
Sarayu spoke. “Mackenzie, you cannot
produce trust just like you cannot ‘do’ humility. It either is or is not. Trust
is the fruit of a relationship in which you know you are loved. Because you do
not know that I love you, you cannot
trust me.”
Again there was silence, and finally
Mack looked up at Papa and spoke. “I don’t know how to change that.”
“You can’t, not alone. But together
we will watch that change take place. For now I just want you to be with me and
discover that our relationship is not about performance or you having to please
me. I’m not a bully, not some self-centered demanding little deity insisting on
my own way. I am good, and I desire only what is best for you. You cannot find
that through guilt or condemnation or coercion, only through a relationship of
love. And I do love you.”…
“One last comment,” he [Mack] added,
turning back. “I just can’t imagine any final outcome that would justify all
this.”
“Mackenzie.” Papa rose out of her
chair and walked around the table to give him a big squeeze. “We’re not
justifying it. We are redeeming it.”[12]
This
particular dialogue from The Shack
illustrates an important distinction between trusting people and trusting
God—people are broken and finite beings not knowing how their words and/or
actions might help or hurt others. God, on the other hand, is a perfect and
infinite being who knows precisely how to use the events of our lives for only
our benefit. Nevertheless, our experience of trust or broken trust with the
people in our lives can, and often does, have an impact on our trust
relationship with God positively or negatively even though God’s
trustworthiness should never be in doubt. That’s Why Trust Matters.
Let
me say something to parents generally and to fathers more specifically: You
have a monumental task in raising your children when it comes to not just
believing in God but trusting Him. If
your children can’t trust you because of your harsh words toward them or
because of your erratic behavior, your children will believe God to be harsh
and erratic when they are faced with the inevitable struggles of life. If your
children can’t trust you to love them through your words and deeds toward them,
they will struggle trusting that God loves them through His words and deeds
toward them. This is especially true in the case of fathers. Your children do
not have the spiritual maturity to be able to make the behavioral distinction
between their earthly father that they can see and touch and their heavenly
Father who they can’t see or touch until it’s too late. If your children can’t
trust you, their earthly father, because of your words and/or actions, I can
virtually guarantee that your children will struggle trusting their heavenly
Father. That’s Why Trust Matters.
For
those of you who are married, or considering marriage, or hoping to one day
marry, believe it or not, the level of trust you have in God can be
dramatically affected by the level of trust you share with your spouse. This is
especially true if you are convinced that you married the person God prepared
specifically for you. If you can’t trust your spouse to love, cherish, and
respect you, you may very well struggle trusting the God you were so convinced
brought your spouse to you in the first place. That’s Why Trust Matters.
As
you can see, our trustworthiness, regardless of our station in life, doesn’t
just affect our earthly relationships but reaches deep into the lives of those
God has providentially placed in our lives to either reinforce or tear down the
trust that is so critical to a vital love relationship with God. I want to
repeat something I said at the very beginning that I’d like you to remember: Trust
takes years to earn, seconds to break, and forever to repair. And that’s Why Trust Matters.
[1]Abraham
Evan-Shoshan, A New Concordance of the
Bible, (Jerusalem, Kiryat Sefer Publishing House, 1997) pp. 164-165.
[2] Willem
A. VanGemeren, ed., New International
Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis, Vol. 1, (Grand Rapids,
MI, Zondervan Publishing House, 1997) p. 644.
[3] Brenan
Manning, Ruthless Trust, (New York,
NY, HarperCollins Publishers, 2000) p. 3.
[4] David J.
A. Clines,ed., The Dictionary of
Classical Hebrew,(Sheffield, England, Sheffield Academic Press, 1995) p.
120.
[5] Ibid.,
p. 94.
[6] Ibid.,
p. 93.
[7] Willem
A. VanGemeren, ed., Dictionary of Old
Testment Theology & Exegesis, p. 644.
[8] Ibid.,
p. 648.
[9] T.
Desmond Alexander and David W. Baker, eds., Dictionary
of the Old Testament: Pentateuch, (Downers Grove, IL, InterVarsity Press,
2003), p. 281.
[10] Brennan
Manning, Ruthless Trust, pp. 6-7.
[11] Ibid.,
pp. 3-4.
[12] William
P. Young, The Shack, (Newbury Park,
CA: Windblown Media, 2007), pp. 124-127.
