Doubt
We spoke in the past two weeks about God’s work in the human being, and His promise to him saying, “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go.” And we explained how God is the One who begins the work for the salvation of the human being.
However, despite God’s work and His promises, there is something that fights the human being, and that is doubt.
Doubt
A person doubts God’s help in His protection, and in His promises…
He may even sometimes doubt God’s ability to save him…!
This doubt has its roots from the beginning of humanity, from the story of the first human being, when the devil planted this doubt in the heart of the human being: How can the tree be the tree of knowledge, and the Lord forbids you from this knowledge?! Is this love from God for you? Or does He not want you to be like Him…?!
In the story of Gideon, we see doubt in God’s help and protection:
The Angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor.” But Gideon replied: “Please, my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this (affliction) happened to us? And where are all His wonders which our fathers told us about?” (Judg. 6:12–13)…
He doubted the existence of God in the life of the human being, doubted His care and attention. Its cause was troubles, faint-heartedness, and the pressure of enemies…
Many doubted God’s work with them, and doubt led them into many sins: An example is Rebekah, the mother of Jacob. God promised her while she was pregnant that her older son (Esau) would serve the younger (Jacob) (Gen. 25:23). But time passed long, and Jacob did not receive the blessing, and Isaac was about to grant the blessing to Esau… Here doubt in God’s promise began to fight Rebekah, so she proceeded to act by herself with an action to rescue the situation!
Rebekah’s doubt in God’s promises was caused by the long wait without the promises being fulfilled, and doubt led her to lying, deception, and human schemes.
The long duration brought doubt: It appears that God has forgotten me, or forgotten His promises?! It seems He will not act…!
The long duration also caused doubt even for Abraham, the father of the fathers:
God promised him descendants like the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea, and many long years passed, and Sarah did not give birth, so doubt began to enter the heart of Abraham. He resorted to human methods, took Hagar who bore him Ishmael. And when the duration became longer still and Sarah did not give birth, Abraham said to the Lord, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!” (Gen. 17:18). But God insisted on His promise and answered Abraham: “But Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. And I will establish My covenant with him, an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.”
“O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” No matter how long the duration, wait for the Lord. See what the Psalm says? It says: “Wait for the Lord; be strong, let your heart be strengthened, and wait for the Lord.” And until when shall we wait? “Wait for the Lord from the morning watch until night” meaning the whole time, even when it reaches darkness, to night—do not doubt.
Many people had problems that lasted for many years, then the Lord finally solved them.
Your faith in God should not depend on the senses or on external circumstances, but on your inner trust in the Lord.
Your trust in God, His love, His care, your trust in His promises and His truth, and your trust in His power even in the work of salvation—this trust is what makes you not doubt, no matter the circumstances, no matter how the thoughts fight you.
As Abraham doubted because of the long duration, so did Sarah. Even when God announced to her that His promise would be fulfilled the next year, she laughed within herself and said, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” (Gen. 18:12).
Sarah doubted because the surrounding circumstances (age, health, strength) convinced her of the impossibility of fulfilling God’s promise: “My decay, and my lord has grown old.”
Thus God rebuked her saying, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying: Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old? Is anything impossible for the Lord?!”
God is able to give even after decay. He is ready to come even in the fourth watch of the night.
In His work, God is not hindered by human circumstances. Rather, on the contrary, we see that His power appears in weakness.
After Isaac was born to Abraham, many long years passed, and he found that the phrase “stars of heaven and sand of the sea” had not been fulfilled, so he left God’s promises and resorted to his human methods, and again took Keturah, who bore him many sons (Gen. 25).
Doubt in the fulfillment of God’s promises leads the human being to human tricks. He relies on his intelligence more than on God.
He may rely on others, as Joseph the Righteous did…
The duration became long for him while he was oppressed—his brothers wronged him, threw him into a pit, and sold him as a slave. Potiphar’s wife wronged him, he was cast into prison, the duration grew long, and God did not intervene or rescue him… Finally Joseph said to the chief butler: “Remember me when it is well with you, and show kindness to me, and mention me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house” (Gen. 40:14).
And regarding Joseph’s reliance on a human arm, Scripture’s response was: “But the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him” (Gen. 40:22).
No matter how long the duration, we should not doubt God’s intervention and His help. He must come, no matter how delayed, or how delayed He appears.
And the cause of doubt may be fear, or surrounding danger:
Peter walked with Christ on the water, and Christ was holding his hand, then he became afraid and began to doubt, so he fell into the water… and he deserved the Lord’s rebuke: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?!”
The incident of Peter shows us that it is possible for a person to doubt while the Lord is holding his hand!
The strong person does not base his faith on external means, but on the trust of his heart in God, His protection, and His promises. Even if he does not see God’s help, he still trusts in its existence. God works even if we do not feel it.
Paul said about faith that it is “the assurance of things not seen.”
Let us therefore keep away from doubt, for it begets many sins.
When doubts stormed the people in the wilderness, they fell into many complaints and said to Moses, “Did you bring us out of the land of Egypt to kill us in the wilderness?!” And they thought of removing Moses and appointing another.
Thus doubt led them to complaining, and to rebellion against God and His prophet, and doubt even led them to idol worship… just as it led Abraham to human methods, and led Rebekah to lying and deceit, and led Eve to disobedience.
Doubt turns inside the human being into a hell… Peter, though condemned to death, slept in prison a deep sleep so that the angel had to strike him to wake him, but a person attacked by doubt cannot sleep. Thoughts press on him until they crush him…
Doubt bequeaths anxiety and disturbance, and bequeaths fatigue and sleeplessness, and makes the human being lose his inner peace, and his peace with people, and with God.
But faith gives rest to the soul, joy, and inner calmness. “Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war rise against me, in this I am confident.” “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.”
Doubt may have its cause in fear, and its result also fear.
When the disciples were afraid, they doubted and denied Christ. And when they doubted, they feared and hid in the upper room… Doubts bring fears, and through them a person expects dangers and faults that do not exist. Doubt is torment. And as some have said, “Doubt enters the heart of the human being easily, but leaves it with great difficulty.”
And the cause of doubt may be the surrounding environment, as happened with the Magdalene. For doubt may be transmitted by contagion from one person to another.
If you associate with those fought by doubt, they may transmit their doubts to you.
Mary Magdalene saw Christ after the resurrection, worshipped Him, held His feet, and heard Him say to her: “Go tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me” (Matt. 28). But when she told the disciples about the resurrection, they did not believe her, just as they did not believe the disciples of Emmaus (Mark 16). And when she went with the women and they told the disciples about the resurrection, “their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them” (Luke 24:11). Then thoughts of doubt entered the heart of the Magdalene. The contagion of doubt spread to her, and the thoughts of doubt which the priests had spread reached her, and the poor woman’s faith was lost, and she said, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him” (John 20:2, 13, 15).
Doubt blinds the human being, makes him forget the truths, forgets him God’s promises, and even closes his mind to sound logic.
For the Magdalene, doubt made her forget the empty tomb, the angels’ announcement, her seeing Christ, His words to her, and His former words about His resurrection. Doubt made her forget everything.
But as the Holy Scripture gave us examples of people who fell into doubts, it gave us examples of others who were steadfast in faith:
Like Moses the prophet, who struck the sea with his rod and walked through it without doubt. And like David the prophet, who confronted Goliath the giant and did not doubt that God would deliver him into his hand…
What helped these to avoid doubt were their previous faith experiences.
We also notice that the person who doubts God’s love and help easily doubts people as well… We also notice that there are people with a doubting nature, who bring doubt into every matter.
If good does not come to them, they doubt the mercies of God. And if the Lord satisfies them with good things, they doubt their continuity and stability…
It is astonishing that there are people for whom God has long done mercies, and yet they still doubt. They forget God’s past works, and feelings of doubt overcome them, leaving them in anxiety and fear.
Doubt is a deficiency in faith, a deficiency in love, a weakness in human nature, and forgetfulness of the past with its love and blessing.
May God who granted us His help also grant us steadfastness and the absence of doubt.
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Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Year Eight – Issue 25 (24-6-1977)
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