God deals with people both collectively and individually in the Bible, but mostly with the latter, it seems to me. With both there is a generalization and specification, in administration. In the first, all are included, but in the second case, it is personal. In this article I’d like to hone in on the particular.
It will help us greatly to remember that in God’s will for our lives there may be a likeness with others, but there is also an distinctness. For example, Elijah and Elisha had the same spirit, but Elijah was caught up to heaven without dying and Elisha, his protege, died of a sickness; James was beheaded in prison, Peter, in the same situation, was delivered by an angel.
This is why attempting to emulate, in detail, every characteristic in the lives of saints of the past is dangerous, even those in the Bible. James and his brother John, following Elisha’s example, wanted to call fire down from heaven. This was refused by Jesus. We need to learn, “One size does not fit all.”
Hebrews chapter eleven tells us of how some experienced great deliverance through faith. But later on in the chapter we read how others, with the same faith, did not accept deliverance. It shows how some received promises while on the other hand, some received not the promises.
“ Never try to make your experience a principle for others, but allow God to be as creative and original with others as He is with you.”
(Oswald Chambers)
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