Tag: unless the Lord has done it

4.m. I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things.

Job 1:13-22   Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

Genesis 3:19    By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Psalms 49:17     For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him.

Ecclesiastes 5:15     As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand.

Ecclesiastes 12:7    and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

1 Timothy 6:7    for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.

Lamentations 3:38    Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?

Isaiah 45:7    I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things.

Amos 3:6    Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD has done it?

Psalms 39:9    I am mute; I do not open my mouth, for it is you who have done it.

When we limit God’s omnipotence we can only end up, as Kushner did when he wrote: “When bad things happen to good people”. Kushner addresses the conundrum of why, if the universe was created and is governed by a God who is of good and loving nature, there is nonetheless so much suffering and pain in it – essentially, the evidential problem of evil. Kushner seeks to offer comfort to grieving people. His answer to the philosophical problem is that God does his best and is with people in their suffering, but is not fully able to prevent it.

This book was on the Best Seller list for many months.  Why was it on the best sellers list?  Because when we limit God’s omnipotence, “He could not prevent it”, somehow we can accept what has happened.  God loves me and wanted to prevent this tragedy but was unable to stop it from happening.  Think about this for a second.  God the creator of everything out of nothing(Omnipotent) and who is every present everywhere (Omnipresent) is somehow not omnipotent in what transpires within His creation.

Who can say what is right or wrong, or good or bad with what God purposes and plans?  Who can adequately explain the workings of God?  God’s word says He loves me unconditionally and that he can do more than I ask and much more than I can imagine.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son”  “He will never leave you or forsake you” “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways”

Belief in God and salvation through Jesus Christ His Son is clinging to, relying on, and trusting in Him alone no matter what happens.  His ways and will are perfect and even if I do not understand them I can trust Him.

Everything in this world is in the hands of the eternal creator.  We do have temporary care of what God gives us and at the same time, we must be willing to give it up for His plans and purposes of which will may not fully understand but can fully trust.  Job said it well “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

2.r. I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things.

2 Chronicles 21:16  And the Lord stirred up against Jehoram the anger of the Philistines and of the Arabians who are near the Ethiopians. And they came up against Judah and invaded it and carried away all the possessions they found that belonged to the king’s house, and also his sons and his wives, so that no son was left to him except Jehoahaz, his youngest son.

And after all this the Lord struck him in his bowels with an incurable disease. In the course of time, at the end of two years, his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great agony. His people made no fire in his honor, like the fires made for his fathers. He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he departed with no one’s regret. They buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

1 Kings 11:11    Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant.

1 Kings 11:14    And the LORD raised up an adversary against Solomon,

1 Kings 11:23     God also raised up as an adversary to him,

Ezra 1:5    Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem.

Isaiah 10:5-6     Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury!  Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the street

Amos 3:6     Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD has done it?

Isaiah 45:5-7     I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me,  that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other.  I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things.

Do you ever wonder what God is not in control of?  Is He in control of everything?  We see “the Lord stirred up against Jehoram,”  “I will tear the kingdom from you”, “the Lord raised up an adversary”, “everyone whose spirit God had stirred”, “the staff in their hands is My fury”, “Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?”, and “I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord who does all these things.”

God uses both the godly and ungodly too manifest is plans and purposes.  He is the creator of all there is so it is well understood that He can control it.  Do we live our lives like God is in control?  Do we pray like God is in Control?  Do we trust God like He is in control?  People reject God’s calling in their life.  They choose to ignore Him.  However, even in their rejection and the problems and troubles, they cause on others God can and does use it for good.  We may not see it but we can trust it is true.  One example is with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  Evil and lost people did this but it was ordained by God for the salvation of all who believe.

We know how David cried out to God and stating what appeared to be an oversight by God, in that, there were evil people who seemed to prosper, denounce God, treat others with harm, and God was seemingly blind to it.  He wasn’t and isn’t blind to actions, but more than that, He knows the thoughts and intents of each person’s actions.

The problem we have is that we don’t have the wisdom, understanding, and knowledge of God.  We chase after answers with our limited understanding and knowledge.  We convince ourselves that we no best and if we were God we would do it differently.  He is God, not us.  His ways are not our ways.

So why is it that we say God is in control and then do not believe or trust Him when seemingly bad things happen?  He does not change.  He has been the same forever and there is no changing in Him.

I think the closer we are to Him the more we learn and grow in our trusting of Him.  The closer we are we have fewer questions and we have more praise.  The closer we are doesn’t mean we have fewer questions but it does mean we have one answer “God is in control” and in this, we can find a peace that passes all understanding.

You have to imagine the Israelites were full of questions and afraid when they were at the banks of the Red Sea with the Pharaoh and his warriors approaching. When we face the impossible, tragic, and terrible, trials in our life, know that there is a God who is in control and will work out all things for the good of them who are called by His name.