What If …?

by Chris Simmons

It’s been said that the biggest little word in the Bible is “if.” Man has the option to respond in faith to God’s will or to neglect, ignore, doubt, or defy His will. There are negative consequences to our wrong and sinful decisions just as there are blessings when we choose what is right. As we look at the lives in God’s word of those who chose to turn from God’s path and see the problems and condemnation that followed, we might find ourselves wondering, what might have been if they hadn’t so sinned? What if they hadn’t chosen to defy God? How might God have blessed them? How might they have been a channel of blessing to others?

For example, we might ask, what if Eve had responded to the serpent lie that “you surely will not die” (Genesis 3:4) by affirming her faith in what God told them to “not eat from it” (Genesis 3:3). What if Adam showed some spiritual leadership and led he and his wife to stand in the word of God and reject Satan’s lies?

What if the ten spies, while viewing the great blessings of the Promised Land and seeing the mighty, yet sinful inhabitants of the land, kept meditating on God’s faithful promises (Deuteronomy 7:9) and how God led them out of captivity with a “might hand” (Deuteronomy 7:8) and decided by faith to take the land as God had directed them? How many lives would have been saved and blessed to actually see all that God had intended to bless them with?

Regarding the Promised Land, what if Moses had maintained his reverence and fear of God rather than allow his emotions to rule when he struck the rock rather than speaking to it as God had said? Rather than just seeing the promised land, Moses would have been able to partake of it as well.

What if Nadab and Abihu had treated God as holy by not offering “strange fire before the Lord” (Leviticus 10:1-3) and losing their lives?

What if the “man of God” in 1 Kings 13 had fully believed and obeyed the word of God by not eating, drinking, or returning by the way which he had come (verse 9) instead of listening to the lie of the “old prophet” (verse 18)? How much good might he have done in serving God instead of losing his life?

What if King Saul had chosen to respect God’s authority and waited for Samuel to offer the sacrifices as God had prescribed (1 Samuel 13:8-14)? What if he later had fully obeyed the word of God to “utterly destroy” Amalek, the Amalekites, and all their possessions rather than succumbing to the desires of his people and sparing the “all that was good” in their eyes (1 Samuel 15:1-9)? God would have established Saul’s kingdom (1 Samuel 13:13).

What if King David hadn’t made provisions for the lusts of the flesh and what if he had chosen to “deny worldly lusts” (Titus 2:12) rather than committing the sin he did with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11)? Although David was forgiven for his humble and penitent heart, how much pain and anguish would he have avoided if had decided to overcome the temptation?

What if King Solomon had listened to God about not marrying the foreign wives who turned his heart away from God (1 Kings 11:1-6)?

The examples are far too many of the temporal and eternal consequences of failing to believe and obey the word of God. What kind of impact for good might all these been able to be?

Even in our own lives, perhaps we have wondered what if I hadn’t given way to temptation and walked by faith in what God’s word said. What kind of impact might I have been able to be? What good could I have done for the cause of Christ?

For we also read in the Bible of those, when presented when a choice, chose to walk by faith. It’s equally important to ask:

What if Noah hadn’t done “according to all that God had commanded him” (Genesis 6:22) in building the ark? But he did and saved his life and the lives of his family!

What if Abraham didn’t have the faith to leave his home and go to the land God would show him (Genesis 12:1-7)? But he did and became the father of all that walk by faith (Galatians 3:29).

What if Joseph didn’t maintain his faith in God when his brothers sold him into captivity (Genesis 37) and when he was falsely imprisoned in Egypt (Genesis 39)? But he did and preserved the lives of not only his family but all those affected by the famine (Genesis 45:5-7).

What if Moses chose “the passing pleasures of sin” over “the (eternal) reward” (Hebrews 11:25-26) and decided to stay in Pharoah’s household rather than leading God’s people to the promised land?

What if Joshua had his own ideas about how to conquer Jericho (Joshua 6)?

What if Esther didn’t have the courage to go before the king to plead for the welfare of the Jews (Esther 4:13-16)? Indeed Mordecai had faith that if she failed to speak up, that God would provide “relief and deliverance” another way but her and her father’s house would “perish.”

What if Peter had been so overcome with the guilt of his sin of denying the Lord that he didn’t feel he could have any positive effect on the Lord’s kingdom?

What if Saul of Tarsus reasoned that it would be too much to give up all his earthly accomplishments (Philippians 3:4-11) to serve the Lord?

Most importantly of all, what if Jesus the Son of God, chose not take the form of a servant and leave the right hand of God to come to this earth (Philippians 2:5-7)? And what if Jesus came and succumbed to the same trials and temptations that we face (Hebrews 2:14-18; 4:14-16)? What if Jesus wasn’t “obedient to the point of death even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8)? What if Jesus decided to assert His will over the will of the Father (Matthew 26:39)?

What if we don’t let our light shine (Matthew 5:14-16)? What if we allow the world to influence us but we don’t influence the world? What if we don’t take advantage of the small opportunities to do good? What if we continue to make excuses for failing to serve God as we ought? What if we fail to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? What if we fail to renew our hearts and minds day by day through the word of God?

What questions will be asked of our lives? What if we decide from this day forward to “live no longer for the lusts of men but for the will of God” (1 Peter 4:2)? What if we once and for all decide to “deny ourselves, and take up our cross, and follow Him” (Matthew 16:24)? What if we acknowledge our sin and truly repent of our unrighteous thoughts, words, and actions (and inactions) (1 John 1:7-9)? What if we decide that the consequence of people dying in their sins is too horrible and do everything we can share with them the hope of the gospel?

Brethren, what if we don’t?