Have you ever made a statement along those lines? “Well if I was in charge, I would….” I hear people say this quite often. I know I have. All you have to do is read the paper, and take note of the most recent plans by the provincial or federal government. For some it maybe a previous government. But the point is that we read the paper from time to time and shake our head, “why are they doing that? Why don’t they just…”
I have been in more than one counseling situation where I am trying to help someone who is struggling. Take a hypothetical situation like helping someone who was physically abused. They will tell me how hard it was. They will speak of how much pain their past has brought them. When they get to the root of it all, they will say something like “why did God do this to me?” or “why did God allow this to happen?”. The next part of the conversation is the suggestion of how God could have acted differently and in so doing prevented so much grief.
God often acts in ways that we don’t understand. In fact, if pushed, most if not all of us could come up with scenarios in our life that if we had the chance we would go back and ask God to do things differently. But how about this… what if God were to ask us our opinion before he makes his decision? what if God were to tell us His plans, and then ask us what we thought? There is a situation in the book of Genesis from the Bible where God actually does this. Not that he asks for permission, but in God’s gracious way, He informs Abraham of his plans to destroy the town of Sodom. Now if you were to visit Sodom, you would look back on it as a terrible episode in your life. It was a terrible place. But Abraham was a gracious man, and he knew that his nephew Lot lived in Sodom. But the way he responds speaks to his heart for people.
When Abraham learns that God is going to destroy Sodom he asks a basic question – “Would you really destroy the whole town? What if there were fifty ‘righteous’ people in that town; would you still destroy it?” God then responds that He wouldn’t do such a thing. So Abraham then doesn’t give up. If you won’t destroy the town if we find fifty righteous, what if we find forty? God responds again that he wouldn’t if he found forty. Then Abraham tries again, what if you find thirty? What about twenty? What about ten. Each time God acknowledges that he would not destroy the town if that many righteous people were found.
Many of us would seriously question the nature of a God who just goes and destroys an entire town. Most of us would think that surely there would be at least ten good people in a town. But here is the point: God would never destroy someone who is righteous. God is merciful. He also knows the hearts of men, and the heart of each one of us is deceitfully wicked. Look around. There is so much evil. If God were a vengeful God he should just destroy us all now. But he is not. He is merciful. The Bible tells us that He holds back from destroying us in hopes that we will turn to Him for forgiveness. I am not sure that we would share the same measure of grace.
So think about this… knowing God is waiting, that He is holding back on destroying you and I because he is hoping we will turn to Him – well, will you?
Another thing to think about… We serve a great God. He is merciful, patient and kind. He is also infinitely powerful and infinitely wise. What kind of a God would He be if He had infinite power but lacked infinite knowledge? In my mind, that would result in a terrible unleashing of terror on this world. Consider the flip side: what would it be like if God had infinite knowledge but lacked the power to do anything? That would be very frightening, and God would be seen as very pathetic. It is for these reasons we can be very thankful that we have a God who is both infinite in wisdom and infinite in power. When he acts, He acts knowing the hearts of those he is impacting, and also is fully aware of all the implications His decision will have. So it is probably a good thing that God is God and you and I are not.