I can remember back to a special birthday party with a cake that had candles which could not be blown out. What started out as a gag became an issue when the flames kept coming back to life! It was then that a young teen stepped towards the cake, and stated. “I can take care of this!” He proceeded to spit on the candles and the cake. Although he was successful at putting out the candles, a perfect question for this moment might have been, “What were you thinking?”
I have asked the same question of others in different situations. But my question above is not a question related to a poor choices, but when a loving, all powerful, all knowing, sovereign God does what He does. If you have entertained this question when pondering God’s grace, patience, or even his unconditional love, you are not alone. I find myself often meditating on: “Why does God do what He does?” It is a question worth asking. My most recent thoughts were stimulated by Paul’s insights, “God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,” (1 Corinthians 1:28). We are reminded that God’s uses, as a generalization, the common people of the world to carry out his purpose. Yes, there are those who know Christ and hold positions of status, prominence and wealth, but the main thrust of God’s working is from the lower social economic groups of culture. Those with the least influence and least wealth. Paul answers this question in the same passage. It is so God gets the credit, or more correctly the glory, for what is accomplished. Paul writes, “so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” and he states again, “so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”” (1 Corinthians 1:29-31).
This brings to mind two passages in the Bible, one in the Old Testament and the second in the New Testament. I have often wondered if the nation of Israel had asked this same question during the Exodus. What many of us overlook, is that there was the equivalent of a direct highway to the promised land. We may be able to grasp the need for the plagues and even the crossing of the Red Sea on dry land. But when it comes to taking the cross-country route often facing shortages of water and food that we begin to wander. The Bible provides the answer. “When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near.” For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” (Exodus 13:17). God was working to reveal His glory and grow their faith by intentionally taking the long way!
The second passage from the New Testament is a Gospel account of Jesus’ statement concerning why God allowed a man to be born blind. The disciple’s perspective what that it was the result of the sin of the man or his parents. But Jesus reveals why God allowed this, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (John 9:3). It was to reveal God’s glory! The restoration of sight to the blind was also one of the prophetic marks of the Messiah (John 9:32-33; cf. Isaiah 35:4-6).
It seems to me; the natural tendency is to assume sin is the cause of the difficult twists and turn in life. But could it just be God’s hand moving us into difficult spaces, drawing us to see more of His Glory and allowing His Glory to be seen through us?
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20–21).
-Pastor Joe Parkinson