n a little wider circle, Lazarus' death affected his sisters. Before the time of Lazarus' death Martha had been preoccupied with much serving. She only had, so it would seem, one extra guest, but she was petulant because Mary was sitting at the Lord's feet. Martha was disappointed and said, "Lord, rebuke Mary. She is sitting here at thy feet instead of helping to serve." (See Luke 10:38-42.) But, a little later, in John 12:2, you see Martha again, and this time, she has at least thirteen extra guests at a big dinner. But the verse simply says, "Martha served." There's no reference whatsoever to any petulance. The death and the resurrection of her brother had taken her eyes away from the tasks she was doing and had put them on the Lord for whom she was doing them. And that's the difference between drudgery and devotion.
One Sunday morning, one of the elders in our service prayed, "Lord, we thank Thee that Thou art the God of the storm." That very weekend, a great thunderstorm had hit Philadelphia, and it had been followed by one of the most beautiful sunsets we had ever seen, with the lovely calm weather that often comes after a storm. So we understood what that elder meant when he said, "Lord, we thank Thee that Thou art the God of the storm in our lives, for it turns our thought to Thee."
In his zeal without a corresponding knowledge, the poor man was at a loss to understand the tactics of the religionists. He knew Jesus had worked a miracle and he loved Him for it. And, while he had respect for his religious elders, their continued haggling over what seemed to him to be a minor point was becoming extremely annoying to him.
You can stir up more hatred by going against men's little ideas than by doing almost anything else. Once I prepared a series of broadcast lectures on the Christian and the Sabbath. They were part of a study on Romans, and were broadcast nationally over the network stations of the Columbia Broadcasting System. During that series, we had more struggle with radio stations throughout the country attempting to censor my broadcasts about the Sabbath than we had had over issues discussed in any of the previous one hundred broadcasts.
My oldest son Donald was born with crossed eyes, which later were corrected by an operation. And, after we had had a baby sitter from a Bible institute, we learned that there was a lot of discussion among the students at the Bible school as to what sin we had committed that caused God to have our baby born with crossed eyes.
