Skip to main content

We Really Should Say "Wow"

             Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! (Romans 11:33)

As I look at what I consider the rough times of my life, first, while I think they seem rough, they don’t seem to compare with the rough times faced by people around the world or throughout history. I have it easy. But that doesn’t make the rough times I face seem any less rough. Sure, I’m not being drawn and quartered, or put in a prison camp, but does that mean my pain and struggles are any less real? No. Does it ease that pain even a tiny bit? No. So what possible good are we to get out of information about the rough times others face? Today’s verse is one of the answers.

We tend to like to have things kept very simple. God lets or causes people to suffer because… one reason stated in 25 words or less. That explains all suffering, through all time, everywhere! Except, of course, it doesn’t work like that. God had Noah spend a hundred years working on the ark before God destroyed the world, and we can’t imagine that God acted out of any motivation but pettiness. How could those poor, hunter-gatherer sorts who were just trying to live their lives have done things so bad that they had to be destroyed? First – because they may not have been simple hunter-gatherers. We don’t know how advanced or organized they were, and secondly because the world may have been so messed up by then that only mass extinction and the flood could make it fit to inhabit again. We don’t know, but God does.

God sent the Israelites into Egypt, where they became slaves. What sense can that make when He promised to make them a great nation? Perfect sense, because it protected them while they great large enough to be a nation, and it gave them a chance to learn from one of the superpowers of the world, both the good and the bad of governance.

God sent Jesus into Egypt as a toddler, to protect Him from people who might have heard the prophecies and sought Him out.

And, failure and disobedience don’t necessarily mark the end of our usefulness. Jonah ran away from God. Peter denied knowing Him three times. The nation of Israel disobeyed, committed adultery, rebelled, and misbehaved in every way they could think of, and God still kept His promise to save the world through that nation.

Given the day I’ve had since I started writing this, I need to read it about a thousand times. The point is simple. It may not make sense to us, but it does to God, and He’s greater, wiser, and better at working these things out than we’ll ever be. So we can and should rejoice in Him, and let Him work things out. And that involves a word I’m encountering a lot lately – p.a.t.i.e.n.c.e.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more