In the beginning of the Bible God allowed the serpent to
accuse Him of being a jerk. In Genesis 3
we read that he told Eve that her friend God was keeping her ignorant on purpose,
for no good reason. The rest of Genesis
explores this charge against God. Our
own lives, though, also make us wonder about this.
People hurt and die, we get big bills we can’t pay, parents leave,
spouses divorce, disease spreads. We can
understand our world better if we read Genesis carefully. In it we find that God often looked like a
jerk!
And there are more that we won’t take time for here! When we wrestle with this question in our lives, then, it will help a lot if we read Genesis, for in it God allows us to see the generations before and after each unfriendly-looking action of His. When we see the entire picture, none of these actions by God were mean-spirited!
When you and I back off, then, and see difficult events from a different perspective, it changes everything. The Bible never says that life will be easy, but God does promise that everything will make sense. Here are some principles taken from the Bible that will help your life make sense if you apply them.
- God rejected Cain’s worship. Isn’t worship good no matter how we do it?
- God killed the world with a Flood. Was this
necessary?
- God called Abraham out of his home, and then
made him wait 60 years for a child. 60
years?
- God asked Abraham to sacrifice the son who
finally was born, after he got to know him and love him! When we imagine Abraham’s agony for the three
days of travel to the specified site we have to ask how cruel can a god
be?
- God let Jacob have all sorts of problems with
his uncle.
- God let Jacob’s sons sell their brother into
slavery, and never lifted a hand to stop it.
And there are more that we won’t take time for here! When we wrestle with this question in our lives, then, it will help a lot if we read Genesis, for in it God allows us to see the generations before and after each unfriendly-looking action of His. When we see the entire picture, none of these actions by God were mean-spirited!
- God asked that Man’s worship be a picture of His
own ultimate act of friendship that He had promised in Genesis 3:15; dying on the cross. Cain offered carrots. There is no sacrifice,
and hence no act of friendship, when a carrot dies. God was preserving His
promise of salvation to the world by rejecting Cain’s wrong offering.
- Genesis 6:5 paints a terrible picture of earth
at that time. It was a place of murder,
rape, and child abuse. “Every thought of their hearts was only evil continually.” It was an act
of friendship to us that we were not
born to them!
- Genesis 18:19 explains why Abraham and Sarah had
to wait. God was waiting until they grew
spiritually ready to raise a child in a godly way. The Abram who left Ur 60 years before would
have raised a godless twit. Mature Abraham
raised a wonderful boy.
- In Genesis 22:11-13 we read that at the last
moment God saved Isaac from death, and substituted a ram. But the mental agony Abraham suffered during
this trip is meant to show us the Father’s
mental agony as He waited 2,000 years until His Son did die on a cross on the same mountain! This is the only time in the Bible when we
are clearly shown what torture the Father went through as the Son died on the
cross. (The ultimate act of friendship!)
- When Joseph was sold into slavery he was a
spoiled brat jerk. His new coat said he didn’t
have to work; he gloated over his dreams
that showed him ascendant over his family;
he tattled on them whenever he could to get them in trouble with Dad.
After his captivity he was mature, wise, compassionate, and prone to weeping
for his brothers. He himself finishes
Genesis with the statement that summarizes the answer to the serpent’s
question; “But as for you, you
meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it
about as it is this day, to save many people alive.” Genesis 50:20
(NKJV) Whatever God
does, He does it for the best interests of everyone involved. Yes, Joseph went through pain in Egypt, but
God had to undo his father’s terrible upbringing if Joseph was ever going to be
healthy and happy.
When you and I back off, then, and see difficult events from a different perspective, it changes everything. The Bible never says that life will be easy, but God does promise that everything will make sense. Here are some principles taken from the Bible that will help your life make sense if you apply them.
- If God is your friend, every trial must have a benefit that is greater than the trial’s cost.
Romans 8:18
- God gave us the rite of baptism so we could know that once we become His children He is
never angry with us over sin. John 13:10, Isaiah 54:9-10
- God gave us the rite of Communion so we could remember His amazing love at the cross. (see
above.)
- He also
said, “This is the new covenant in
my blood.” He reminded us that all the
facets of the Old Covenant (testament) that are in the New Covenant (testament)
that we accepted at the moment of new
birth. At every communion we remember
that His death on the cross was the fulfillment
of all of His Old Testament promises, and the foundation of all His New Testament promises. What are
they?
- He will give us final victory over sin! By coming and joining us personally on this
earth in this tough life. By joining us
in all of the consequences of sin, and taking them on Himself. By facing all the temptation of Satan
(bitterness, rage, desire, despair, fear, and envy) without ever ceasing to
love the Father more than anything, and us His friends.
- He will always show us grace! He gained nothing on the cross but you, but it was
worth it to Him. He weighed the cross on
one hand, and you on the other, and chose you.
- He will always bless us, and help us be a blessing to others! Every act of His
toward us will always be ultimately blessing to us, and to everyone we know and
love. And, to people we love but don’t know!
Our great grandchildren, for one.
Genesis showed us that He sees generations, centuries, millennia, and
works it all out for blessing to everyone we care about.
- And, He will
help us become holy by teaching us how to love. Every commandment is about love. If we obey any of the commandments we become
more holy. Holiness and love are inextricably
linked. Even His judgment is linked to
His love! God judged Egypt so harshly
not only because Pharaoh exalted himself against God, but because he hurt God’s
“firstborn!” (Exodus 4:22) Every place
we find God’s anger in the Bible we will also find people hurting others, if we
look.
- Every action of God toward you and me is bounded
by these oaths that God set upon
Himself. Everything He does for us
has to do with giving us victory, showing us grace, blessing us, and teaching us
how to love. Indeed, He is the friendly God.
- Every incident that occurs in our lives is
allowed by God to help us with our
transformation into His image. Every day as we follow Him, and choose Him
over our desires, we become more and more like Him. More patient.
More generous. More kind. More stalwart.
- Becoming like Him, we become people whom He can partner with. He does not merely want us to be friends, He
wants us to be partners with Him in all that He is doing on earth! He told the Eleven, "Go into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Mark 16:15 (NKJV) He had already prepared the
world for them to do this: roads
everywhere, safe shipping, a common language, an empire that kept the peace,
etc. While they did their business of
preaching, then, He continued to partner with them: moving in hearts, inspiring the Bible, calling
men to office, sending out missionaries, and even planting the premier
theologian of the day in the heart of Rome!
God wants much more than to be your buddy that you talk to once in a
while. He wants to be your partner in
changing your part of the world.
12. What all this means is that nothing, and no one, can
hurt us. God our Partner will only allow
circumstances in our lives that help us.
(Though we can hurt ourselves at any time, and create our own bad
circumstances!) Consider;
-While Pharaoh enslaved Israel, God built them into a numerically mighty people.
-When Satan killed Jesus, Jesus endured every trial without sinning, and so broke Satan’s power over humanity.
-When the Jewish leaders taunted Jesus, they only proved the truth of Jesus’ message all along.
-When the Philippian elders had a wandering Christian whipped, God created a new permanent church in their town!
-When Rome refused to let Paul go free, God installed His best theologian in their capital next to the palace, who then won the real administrators of the Empire to Christ! (Philippians 1:13, 4:22)
All that is required to turn any attack by our enemies into a blessing is our continued faith in the friendship of our God to us. If we do this we will learn the things God wants us to, understand ourselves and God more clearly, and transform into His image. During this transformation He will be able to bless us more with greater ministries in new areas, giving us more fulfillment and greater self-worth. The only way someone (besides yourself) can stop this process is to kill you… and then you will be with your Friend.
-While Pharaoh enslaved Israel, God built them into a numerically mighty people.
-When Satan killed Jesus, Jesus endured every trial without sinning, and so broke Satan’s power over humanity.
-When the Jewish leaders taunted Jesus, they only proved the truth of Jesus’ message all along.
-When the Philippian elders had a wandering Christian whipped, God created a new permanent church in their town!
-When Rome refused to let Paul go free, God installed His best theologian in their capital next to the palace, who then won the real administrators of the Empire to Christ! (Philippians 1:13, 4:22)
All that is required to turn any attack by our enemies into a blessing is our continued faith in the friendship of our God to us. If we do this we will learn the things God wants us to, understand ourselves and God more clearly, and transform into His image. During this transformation He will be able to bless us more with greater ministries in new areas, giving us more fulfillment and greater self-worth. The only way someone (besides yourself) can stop this process is to kill you… and then you will be with your Friend.