Before we get into this juicy topic I thought I would pause and rewind a little. Some of you asked me where I got the ideas expressed in the last Nugget. The simple answer is from my imagination. I just wondered what would happen if God responded the way we all would like Him to respond. What if we could have the god we want, the one made in our own image. I don’t think anyone after reading the last Nugget would want that scenario. It would be a disaster. Human kind would end up worse off than it is at the moment. But I also couldn’t get past the conclusion that in the end if we go with God’s plan we end up getting what we want, only on God’s terms. It seems to me that life on this earth is the training ground for getting us ready for the Life of the Age to Come. Mmm, suck on that one for a while.
Let’s focus our attention in this Nugget on the fact that all catastrophes, unfairness, tragedies, poverty, starvation, natural disasters are allowed to happen and that decidedly evil people get away with their crimes. The guilty go unpunished and the innocent suffer. Where is God in the midst of such human misery? Why does God let disasters happen:- wars, famine, earthquakes, disastrous climate change while the world is gradually heading for an apocalyptic end? Why doesn’t God do something to correct the unfairness of it? Why does He allow evil doers to get away with their deeds and hurt the innocent? Why don’t we see the reversal in fortune that we all long for? The evil doer to get their day of punishment and the good to be rewarded for the good they have done? After all, isn’t that what Jesus promised in the Bible in Luke 16 in the Lazarus and the rich man story? That would make us all think that God cared, that justice prevailed and yes, that God actually existed. Isn’t that what we all want? Jesus did say, “God will see they get quick justice.” (Luke 18:8). If that actually happened perhaps more people would conclude there is a God. The fact that God seems silent or inactive makes us think there is no God and we can do whatever we please and get away with it. Well let’s weigh up the facts with what the Bible says to help us come to the right conclusion.
If you really want to know why Jesus told the story of Lazarus and the Rich man, read the Gems I wrote on it. The Gem series Lazarus and the Rich Man. It has nothing to do with a reversal of life in the afterlife. Rather the message is that our state in the afterlife is determined by whether we decide to go with God’s plan during the course of this life on earth.
Each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment,
Heb 9:27
God put two sets of laws in place to govern the world He created. There are the physical laws and the moral laws. God set in place the laws of physics., e.g. the law of gravity and the second law of thermodynamics. No one can negate the law of gravity nor the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Everything left untended will decay and disintegrate. In one sense the second law of thermodynamics is both a physical law and a moral law. These two laws and laws like them are incontrovertible. There is no escaping them. The same is true of the other moral laws: the law of sowing and reaping, the law of harbouring unforgiveness etc.
Why doesn’t God intervene to set the record straight and show that He is in control? The world God created in the beginning was very good, indeed perfect. All we desire now was a part of the plan in the beginning. What went wrong? Is God to blame? The simple answer is, “No”. The evil, the inequality, the fall from perfection is all due to the fact that mankind wanted to know evil; the very thing God warned them against. We all know deep down inside where the world’s problems come from. Set a prohibition of any kind and all humans will want to test the boundary lines to one degree or another. It is not God’s fault that there are wars, famine, poverty, inequality and poor distribution of resources. All those things can be laid fairly and squarely on the shoulders of human kind, their greed and their exploitation of their fellow humans.
What about the natural phenomena we call “acts of God”? Where did this term “acts of God” come from? Insurance companies use the term to describe natural disasters, floods, fires, earthquakes, volcanoes, cyclones and the like. Seriously, do you really believe that God is responsible for each and every one of these events? Or even just one of them? Do you really mean to say that God is the one who calls up a hurricane on the “bad” people of the islands of the Pacific? A tornado for those “evil doers” living in Texas? That is not the God of the Bible and not the God I know. What about the increase in the intensity of weather events worldwide? Do you seriously think that God is ramping up the devastation on bad, bad Leroy Brown, the baddest man in the whole damned town, and all like him? That is not the God of the Bible. The truth is God made this planet to breathe with circulating wind patterns and ocean currents. In the beginning it was perfect. When perfection ended with the fall, the earth began to groan seeking its redemption. [Romans 8:20-22]. The fault for increasing intensity of weather events can be laid at the feet of human kind. God expected us to care for the perfect planet He created, the perfect place He made to enable an idyllic life on earth. Our drive to exploit the planet and our fellow earth dwellers has led to the problems we are experiencing at the moment. The blame for the intensity of winds and the fury of weather bombs can be laid at the feet of mankind.
Why doesn’t God step in and change our world? Why doesn’t God put an end to Man’s inhumanity to their fellows? Or every woman’s inhumanity to her fellow women? Why doesn’t God pour down punishment on the heads of those who perpetrate the evil? That is what we want isn’t it? For the bad people to be punished and for the good to experience trouble-free lives.
- The catch cry is “why do bad things happen to good people?”
- “Why do evil people get away with their evil doing?”
I will tell you why, using the wisdom of the Bible.
God’s revelation of himself to Moses was:
Yahweh! The LORD! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected— even children in the third and fourth generations.
Exodus 34:6-7
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.
Psalm 145:8-9
God is “a good, good Father” always wanting the best for His children. We need to accept the Bible description of what God is like. But many of us see God as an angry Grump sitting up there in heaven judging the world and all He sees below. Ever-ready to hurl lightening bolts, hurricanes, earthquakes or plagues, sickness and death down on the misdemeanours of mankind.
Jesus himself tells us what God is like:
For he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil doers.
Luke 6:35-36
We all want the bad, evil doers punished.
- Do you really want justice and want it now?
- Do you really want God’s quick justice to fall?
- “Yes I do, I want those evil drug dealers at the end of the street to experience justice.”
- “I want the man who gets drunk and beats his wife next door to be taken out.”
- “And my hypocritical Christian neighbour in the house on the left, I am better than her.”
So who is going to decide who will be taken out and who will remain? You? Are you the one, dear friend, to make the judgment?
- “Yes and while we are at it, I would remove the guy who lives across the road from me and looks at me with lust each time he sees me.”
Let’s remind ourselves of some other Bible Truth.
Think not that I came to undo the law or the prophets; I am not come to undo, but to fulfil.
Matt 5:17
but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother out of control shall be in danger of the judgment, and whosoever shall insult his brother shall be in danger of the judgment
Matt 5:22
You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery; but I say to you, That whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Matt 5:27-28
We are not judged on the basis of our self-righteous viewpoint. Jesus came to fulfil God’s law, to set the bar to God’s standard. The point of all this is that we can’t make ourselves right with God. We need His help to even be worthy. That is why He gives to us His righteousness. We can’t stand in our own righteousness. We are all guilty and should be judged when measured by God’s standard. None of us deserve healing, saving, protecting or sparing. We all deserve the same judgment. That’s why God is slow to anger, and shows grace and mercy to ALL. We need to come to realise that we need God as much as we need His air to breathe to keep us alive.
Unfortunately we humans don’t like to be told it is our fault but rather like to put the blame back on God. Does that sound familiar? As it was in the beginning . . . and ever more shall be.
And the man said, The woman You gave me, she gave me from the tree [of good and evil], and I ate. Then the LORD God said to the woman, What is this that you have done? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me and I ate.
Gen 3:12-13
We just can’t get past our arrogance and like to blame someone else and if the one we blame won’t own it, let’s blame God Himself.
Most of us are blind to the fact that we only have ourselves to blame; each and everyone of us. When we realise that and are genuinely sorry, God steps in. At that point why doesn’t God turn it around so that the righteous ones, the good people whose wrong has been covered by God, then live charmed lives without sickness, harm or death? That would be amazing if that were how God planned it. Then it would become clear to everyone, sinner and saint alike. It would all be so simple. That was the point I was making in the last Nugget when I wrote: “Everyone would see clearly there is a god and fall on their knees and accept the god we all made in our own image and after our own desires. When that moment came and we knew that our god was true, we would fall on our knees and give thanks to the god we know to be true. The moment we accepted our own personal god we would disappear, having been taken to heaven to be with our god forever. It would soon become clear to everyone that there is a god who is worth believing in and everyone would want to be in on it.”
It would be clear and definitive and everyone would see and understand that God’s laws are true. That those who have given their lives to become God-followers don’t get sick anymore and are blessed in all they do. It would be hard to miss the point and everyone would become a Christ-follower.
I will explore the implications of my suggestion to God to help clear up any confusion in the next Nugget.
Why indeed is God silent on many things.
The God who hides Himself and works in mysterious ways”.
Isa 45:15