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A Better Response Than Demanding to Know Why

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Our reflex, when things go hard, is to act as though we must know why God chose to let things happen the way that he did. Some folks will pretend that they know, assuming that they can figure out the ways and plans of the Lord. Others just howl in frustration as they demand answers from God that they do not receive. And, of course, if this all continues, some will walk away from their claimed faith because they are unsatisfied with how God does things and then refuses to explain himself.

Job experienced this, of course. He hurt, demanded answers, and had the Lord respond. But God’s response to Job did not ever answer his question. Instead, God showed Job that God is infinitely above him, and thus Job cannot rightly begin to question God.

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon questions and questions why the world works the way that it does. He gets to a place where he feels like life is meaningless. Bad people get good things. Bad things happen to good people. And it takes until chapter 12 for him to remember that fearing God is what makes life meaningful.

And in my read through the Bible, Jesus shows us that he is the same God who will not be forced to explain himself to people who cannot possibly understand his ways. Watch as a group asks Jesus about a tragedy, Jesus brings up another tragedy, and then we get what we are to learn.

Luke 13:1-5 – 1 There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Why did these bad things happen? All Jesus gives is that the people who suffered a great hardship did not suffer it because they were worse sinners than others. But then, in both cases that Jesus spoke of, the Savior told us one simple piece of advice. Instead of thinking we can figure out why God does the things he does, instead of thinking we can demand he answer us, we should repent. We are sinner. We deserve far worse judgment than any of us have ever received. We should rejoice in the mercy of God in the fact that we are still breathing, repent of sin, and find mercy and lasting grace in him.

How different would things be for us, Christians, if we stopped demanding answers and instead fell on grace? How different, how much more godly would we be, if we simply refused to think that we have the right to judge whether or not God’s actions are OK. The Lord always does rightly, whether we understand it or not. And the pains of this life are reminders that we need the mercy of God if we are to survive in the now and in eternity.

Blessed more than Mary

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When we think of people in the history of Christianity, there are some folks who stand out. Peter and Paul, Daniel and Isaiah, Abraham and Moses, Ruth and Esther. We know that these people experienced God in some great ways and served him well.

Of course, Mary, the mother of Jesus, has to be included in that list of significant Christian historical figures. She was humble. She willingly served the Lord when it cost her greatly. She was favored by God in a special way, an experience that no other person will ever receive. And we should honor her just as we honor any saints of the past who faithfully served the Lord.

But should we reverence Mary in a way that is above other human beings? Should we consider Mary something just this side of deity? Should we think of her more highly than any other character in Scripture who faithfully served the Lord? Should we treat her differently than we treat faithful saints of today?

What would you say if I told you that the Bible speaks of someone, not Jesus, who is more blessed than Mary? Who would you guess it would be? Would you think of Paul or Peter? Would it be a spiritual giant?

Look at this exchange between Jesus and a woman as he taught.

Luke 11:27-28 – 27 As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” 28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

As Jesus spoke with great wisdom and spiritual authority, a woman in the crowd clearly intended to declare his mother a blessed woman. one would think that, if Mary holds a special and sacred office, Jesus would say, “Yes, she surely is.” Had this woman said, Blessed be God,” I can only imagine that Jesus would have responded with, “Amen.”

But here, Jesus offered an alternative. If this lady in the crowd wants to declare somebody truly blessed of God, Jesus wants to give an alternative. There is another person who is blessed that Jesus feels is more important to mention. Who? Jesus said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

Who is more blessed than Mary? Jesus says that all who hear and obey the word of God, who hear and keep it, are blessed. Jesus is not putting Mary down in any way. But Jesus is saying that, if we want to think of the blessed, we should not single her out. Instead, we should understand that the one who is truly blessed of God is the one who hears and obeys Scripture.

That means, dear friends, that you and I can be the blessed people in this account. We have been given the word of God. We have the commands of God in clear and understandable language. For the most part, we know exactly what the Lord wants of us. He wants us to turn from sin and trust in Jesus. He wants us to live to the glory of God. He wants us to put away unrighteousness and shine like a city on a hill. He wants us to be about the task of making disciples. He wants us to love one another in the church. And he says that people who do things like that are blessed more than any individual who played any other role in Christian history.

A Great Logical Argument from Jesus

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Most Christians remember the story of the man whose friends carried him to Jesus. The Savior was teaching in a house, and these men actually removed some of the roof tiles over Jesus so as to be able to lower their friend down before him. They could not get through the crowd, but they found a way to help their buddy.

What we sometimes miss is the logical claim that Jesus makes in this healing. When the man is lowered before him, Jesus first tells him, not that he is healed, but that his sins are forgiven. That, of course, sparks a response. That is what Jesus wanted to do.

Luke 5:21-25 – 21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 22 When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” 25 And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God.

The religious leaders, hearing Jesus’ words, accuse him of blasphemy. They see that Jesus has claimed to forgive sins. And they know that only God has the right to forgive a man his sins against God.

Jesus responds to the thoughts of these men with a simple, Hebrew-logical argument. Jesus asks which is more difficult to do. Is it more difficult to claim to forgive or to heal a man we know is really in need? The assumed answer is that it is more difficult to do the healing. Why? The claim to heal can be proved or disproved immediately. But a claim that a man’s sins are forgiven cannot be proved or disproved on earth.

Then Jesus heals the man. With a word, the Savior commands a man who had to be carried to him to get up and carry his own bed home. And the man does. The crowd sees that Jesus has supernatural power. Jesus has the ability to do what only God can do. And Jesus just did so in a verifiable way.

And the point that Jesus was making with his argument is significantly made. If Jesus has the power to do what only God can do with the healing, Jesus also has the power to do what only God can do by forgiving a man of his sins. Jesus did what the teachers would have seen as more difficult in order to prove that he has the ability to do what is eternally more significant. And in doing so, Jesus stakes one more clear claim to deity, because he claims and does what only God can do.

The Initial Response We Seem to Lack Today

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IN Luke 5, Jesus had used Simon Peter’s boat as a platform for teaching. Jesus then commanded Simon, after the teaching, to put out and cast the net for some fish. The obviously miraculous catch of fish that followed stirred something visceral in Simon.

Luke 5:8-10 – 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”

Simon was terrified. He was fall-on-your-knees shaken. He recognized something about Jesus and something about himself that, as the old writers may have put it, turned his bowels to water.

Simon saw that Jesus is holy and that he, Simon, was sinful. And when he realized that he, a sinful man, was in proximity to one who is truly holy, he was in great danger. Simon knew that Jesus would be well within his rights to utterly destroy him. Simon knew that he had nothing he could do to make himself good enough to impress Jesus. Simon knew he was helpless and guilty, and he had no reason why Jesus should show him kindness.

In verse 10, Jesus calms Simon’s fears and tells him that his life is about to change. Jesus extended gracious kindness to Simon, and that is how we see Simon following Jesus around for the rest of the book as a disciple.

What grabs my attention here is the difference in Simon’s response to Jesus and the typical modern response to God. Simon understood holiness. Simon was terrified by the concept of being touched by the holy, because Simon understood that such a touch is deadly to sinful men. But today, few people grasp that such an encounter is anything to tremble at or shrink from. Most people believe they have every right to make demands of God. Few people understand that, if God unveiled his holiness, they would be utterly consumed.

Sadly, this lack of understanding is not merely in the lost world. I think I see it in the church. I hear Christians ask questions about the ways of God, and there is no fear of God in their mouths. I hear people ask questions that, if they were honest, would come out something like, “How dare God do things this way?” But we must understand that God is holy and we are not. We must understand him to be the Creator while we are creation. We must understand that God is infinite in his wisdom while we understand so very little. And we must grasp that God is God and we are not. WE have no right to question him or demand from him explanation.

Simon got it right when he trembled before Jesus. Do we?

A Caution Against Clever Interpretation

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This will be short, but I think it is important. Watch out for teachers who attempt to show you they are clever in how they find meaning in things that the Bible does not declare. Watch out for your own temptation to find meaning in something that the Bible does not define.

Let me give an example. In a daily reading, I found myself in Luke 4, which begins with the temptation of Jesus immediately after his baptism. What caught my attention rather quickly was the fact that Luke and Matthew present the temptations in a different order. Matthew begins with the devil telling Jesus to turn stones to bread, continues with the devil calling Jesus to throw himself from the temple in front of people, and concludes with the devil calling for Jesus to worship him. Luke reverses the order of the latter two.

Natural human curiosity makes us wonder why. What was God up to there in his inspiration of the text? Is there a message there? And if you go read sermons or commentaries, you will surely find people who will give you an answer.

But here is my caution. God does not tell us why he inspired these authors in the way he did. There is no biblical context clue to tell us why Matthew and Luke have differing orders. There is no other biblical author that indicates to us what this might be about. And there is no guarantee that this is about anything at all. Thus, any answer any preacher or scholar gives is a guess. The guess may be accurate. The guess may be dead wrong. But it is a guess.

We are unwise, friends, to make anything like a real doctrine or even a real sermon point out of a guess. It seems clever. It scratches an itch to have our curiosity satisfied. We love to have something to say that others have not said before. But there is no real reason to do this. If Scripture does not tell us why something happened, if there is nothing like a context clue here to define it, we are just talking to talk at that point.

Let me remind us that the Scripture has a clarity to it that God intends we not lose. We have enough work cut out for us in understanding and applying clear doctrines, things that are taught but not easily accepted or understood, that we do not do ourselves any favors by finding doctrines in passages that make no claims to teach us something. Let the Scripture speak for itself. Do not give into the very understandable desire to be clever by teaching the reason that the two authors changed the order of the events when nothing else in Scripture tells us why they did so.

We’re In Trouble Now

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When Josiah took over as king in Judah, it had to be like a breath of fresh air. Finally, on the throne of David, there was a king who, like David, desired to follow God with his whole heart.

During Josiah’s reign, he was presented with a book. It turns out that the book of the law of God, what we now think of as the first five books of the Bible, had been lost. The priests were doing their own thing in the temple, but the Bible that should have guided them was forgotten, misplaced, gone.

2 Kings 22:11-13 – 11 When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. 12 And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying, 13 “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”

When Josiah heard about what had happened, and when he finally understood what was in the book of the law, he was terrified. Josiah realized that, for years, decades, maybe longer, the people had been living according to their own standards and violating the covenant that Israel had agreed to with God at Mount Sinai. But that covenant, the covenant with national Israel, contained in itself judgments for the nation when she violated the terms of her agreement with God. So Josiah knew that the nation needed to repent right now.

Josiah, of course, makes great changes in the nation. But his changes come too late to stop the judgment that the nation had earned under leaders like King Manasseh. So, though much changed, at Josiah’s death, the nation would begin its fall toward captivity in Babylon.

What got my attention as I read through this account in my daily reading is this question: How many churches have lost the word of God just as Judah did before Josiah? I wish that was a ridiculous question, but it is not. The sad difference is, the priests of Israel actually physically lost the book. In our day, churches and supposed Christian groups are led by people with Bibles in their hands. But it appears that many groups have lost any concept of the meaning and authority of the Bible they hold and even quote from time to time.

If we are to be the people of God who please the Lord as his church, we must never lose his word. That means that the Bible has to be front and center in all we do. It means that we need to know the word, respect the authority of the word, and obey the word. Even when the world around us rejects the word, we need to unashamedly proclaim the word of god as truth and authoritative, even if our culture thinks it outdated or offensive.

Has your church lost the word? Think well. Are the messages you hear preached actually fully dependent on the word, or are they dependent on the preacher’s own cleverness and advice? Is your pastor preaching through books of the Bible, or are his sermons borrowed from books by human authors? Is the Bible your standard for all things, or does your church compromise her actions based on what will make the church look good to the culture around her? May we not be people who have lost the word.

The Lord is Your Home

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Psalm 90:1-2

1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place

in all generations.

2 Before the mountains were brought forth,

or ever you had formed the earth and the world,

from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

As this psalm opens, we are immediately struck with two verses that magnify for us the greatness, the eternality, and the glorious presence of God. The prayer/song opens with Moses declaring that God has been his people’s dwelling place in all generations. God is home for his people.

Remember that the people of God were very likely traveling through a wilderness, living in tents, and longing for a permanent home when this was sung. For forty years, the people of Israel wandered the desert. And it was in that time that God inspired their leader to say that God has been the dwelling place of his people.

This is true even now. Whether you have a large house or you sleep in your car, if you know God, the Lord is your home. This is true whether your life is easy or hard right now, God is your home. For the people of God alive right now and for those who have gone on before us, God is our home. When we die, heaven is home. But heaven is only our home because it is the place where God is. If God is not there, heaven is not heaven.

And this has been true of God for all generations. Though people have come and gone, though lives have begun and ended, the truth has always remained that God is home for his children. He does not move away. He does not leave us alone and exposed. He is our safety and shelter.

Then verse 2 takes an even bigger look at God. Before the mountains were born and before the earth came into being, God is God. Not only has he not changed over our lifetime, not only has he been the same through all generations, not only is God the same for more than the age of the mountains, even from before creation, God is God.

The best way it could be said is how Moses says it in the end of verse 2: From everlasting to everlasting, you are God. When God revealed himself to Moses by name, God called himself “I Am.” God is. He always is. He has always been and will always be. God is the one absolute constant beyond time and beyond creation. God is God. If you could draw a line back into the past, beyond where time began, God is. If you could draw a line into the future, beyond where time ceases to exist, God is. From everlasting, to everlasting, God is the I Am.

What should we do at this point? Christians, we should marvel. God is our God. God is our home. He is older than time itself. HE will be present forever. We are like wandering vagabonds, just passing through this world which is not our home. But God is our home, and he is eternal. Let this draw you to worship.

When a person first sees the ocean, he is amazed. When a person first sees the Grand Canyon she is in awe. Magnify that wonder by a million billion times, and you will start responding to the vastness of God in the right way. Wonder at God. Praise him for his glorious being.

Just Because You Say You Heard from god Does not Mean I have to Believe You

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How do you know if something is the command or desire of God? This is a big question, a significant question. Many people refuse to ask it, but the failure to have a standard here is utterly destructive.

If a person tells you that God wants them to do something, what do you do? Do you immediately assume they must have heard from God? Why? What would make you take their word for it?

If someone tells you that something is truth, do you automatically believe them? Why? Do a person’s feelings form in your mind an unquestionable argument? Why?

To live and survive in the world we are in, you and I need to be a thinking people. We need to actually be willing to at least ask a couple of questions about the knowledge claims that others make. WE need to be wise enough to question even the passionate beliefs of others. Doing so is not mean. Instead, doing so is required for us to lovingly point people to the Lord.

If a person tells you that they believe God is pleased with what they are doing, you have to ask why. What makes them think that the Lord has approved their choices? If they tell you that they know God has approved their choices simply because they feel approved of, that is not a satisfactory answer. After all, people of other religions may say the same thing.

Let’s make this simple. Imagine that I say to you that I feel, deep down in my heart, that the sky is yellow. Does that make my claim so? It depends, of course, on whether or not color is a real thing. If color is a real thing, then my claim about the color of the sky can be either correct or incorrect. But how strongly I feel about the color makes no difference. The actual color, the measurable color, that is the thing that matters.

Let’s see an example from Scripture. During the days of Hezekiah, the king of Assyria send an army to Judea. And he claimed that he was doing so based on the command of the Lord. Notice the two claims in these verses.

2 Kings 18:22, 25 — 22 But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem”? … 25 Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.’ ”

The Assyrians claimed first that Hezekiah had displeased the Lord by tearing down the high places in Judea. That is a truth claim. We must ask, “Is it true?” It depends. Is there any source of truth to which we can appeal to find out? Yes. The Bible has been clear all through 2 Kings that the high places dishonored the Lord. God did not command the people to build them. Instead, the high places were a mimicry of pagan religions. The high places were often places for evil, pagan, religious rituals to take place. No, God was not mad at Hezekiah for taking down the high places. God’s word tells us that the high places were sin. Thus, the claim of the Assyrian leader goes against objective truth as established by Scripture.

In verse 25, the Assyrian king says that God sent his army. “God told me to come and do this.” Is that true? First, we do not know for sure, as there might be more than one reason God would send in this army. God could well have told the king to go to Judea, but God’s purpose may be to gain glory by the overthrow of that Assyrian army, which will happen as we read further. But it is a certainty that God did not command the
Assyrian king to come and conquer Israel, promising him victory. That was not what God did. And we can know this from a look at truth that is outside of the man’s internal claim.

What we must see is that, when a person claims to know what God is saying or what God wants, we must hold that subjective claim up against the light of objective truth. The Bible is the word of God. The Bible is where we turn to see what God has commanded. Anytime someone tells us that God wants them to do what his word clearly commands that people not do, we know that person is mistaken at best, lying at worst.

What about when someone claims a “leading” from God that is not related to a Scriptural command, when what they are saying God wants them to do is in line with his word? That does not mean we have to assume they have a message from God. But, if their desire is in line with the objective revelation of God, we also do not have to battle them. If a person wants a thing that God has said is OK in his word, we do not need to oppose them, unless there is something else in their plan that is clearly unwise.

We could talk about this forever, but we need to gain a truth from what we see in the word in 2 Kings 18. Just because a person claims they are doing something for God or in God’s name or even according to a personal call from
God does not mean they really are. A person’s subjective experience does not equal the weight of objective revelation from God in his word. We are first and foremost submitted to the word of God as his infallible, inspired revelation.

When a Tool Becomes an Idol

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When Moses and the Israelites were wandering the wilderness, they faced the judgment of God for grumbling. The Lord once sent fiery serpents into the camp to bite the rebels. But, the Lord also provided a solution to the problem. He commanded Moses to craft a bronze serpent, set it on a pole, and command the people to look at it to be healed. Jesus later used that imagery to help us understand the concept of salvation by grace through faith in him.

Once the serpent problem was over, however, the people of Israel did not get rid of the bronze serpent. Instead, they continued to keep it with them. Eventually, the people actually began to dishonor the Lord and use the snake to do so.

We find out about how messed up this all was when we read about the reign of Hezekiah, king of Judah in 2 Kings 18:3-4 – 3 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. 4 He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).

Hezekiah had to destroy the bronze serpent, because—get this—the people had begun to worship it as an idol. A simple thing that the Lord used to call the people to turn from their sin and trust in him became, in the hands of sinful men, a tool for disobeying the very first of God’s commandments.

We should remember that this is human nature. Sin is often the taking of a good thing that God has given us and then twisting or perverting it to make it into something that brings upon us the wrath of God. People do this in just about every area of life. It can be done with food or drink, marriage and sexuality, denominations and organizations.

So, as your day moves forward, ask yourself where you might be tempted to take a good thing that the Lord has allowed you and twist it into something that dishonors the Lord. Where are you holding onto a thing that was a tool and making it something it was never intended to be? Where are you bowing to a creation rather than the Creator?

I think I have to give some examples for this to work, though I am hesitant, because often we hear examples, do not hear our particular thing, and then excuse our sin because the preacher did not mention us specifically. Please do not do that.

How about family or children? Children are good, a gift from God. But what happens when a parent makes an idol of the little ones? Can you not see how a parent might take a good gift from God and then allow that gift from God to usurp the place of God in their life? This is dangerous.

How about an organization. There are some great ministries out there. Many of them have been useful to the church in years past as they have been solid voices for the word of God. Many have brought solid, biblical teaching to places that individual churches may never get to go. But, what happens when those ministries become enamored with their own success? What happens when they take on issues that are not gospel issues? What happens when they start doing things to make the organization look good more than to make Jesus be glorified?

Friends, may we be careful to keep the Lord and his word primary in all that we do. May we never take a good gift from him and elevate it to a place where we dishonor him with the gift he has given us. May we not make an idol out of a tool from the Lord.

We Fail When We Start from the Wrong Place

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I was recently listening to a podcast that discussed issues related to apologetics, and in an interesting combination, the issue of addiction and counseling. The speaker shared with us a reminder that is tremendously significant for Christians who want to help others either with the gospel or with counsel. If our conversation does not begin with a biblical understanding of humanity and the human condition, or if our conversation does not begin with a biblical understanding of the reality of the world we live in, our conversation will not lead where we want it to go. Or, if our conversation does get us where we want to go, it will be in spite of and not because of our strategy.

That thought came again to me as I was reading through Psalm 89. Verse 11 says, “The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it, you have founded them.” In the middle of the psalmist discussing what was going on with the world around Judea and the throne of King David, he lays down this glorious truth that has to be our starting point for genuinely helpful thinking. The world belongs to God. God made it. God owns it.

Consider how different your thinking is when you start from that point. God created the universe. The earth and all that is in it belong to him. Consider the moral issues that people want to debate. They ask why this is not OK or how we can dare say that another thing is the only way. While we can argue back and forth for a long time, the answer is bound up in two truths. First, God owns us all. WE are made by him and for him. We owe him our allegiance. And second, God has revealed his ways to us in his word.

So, why is Jesus the only way? God made us and that is what God chose to do. Why are certain actions sin, even if the world around us says differently? God made us, and his word tells us that he calls such things sin.

I’m not here suggesting that we be nasty to people as we have these conversations. Nor am I suggesting that we will do well to refuse to engage in discussions that go further than these points. But I am suggesting that, for you and me as believers, if we start from a different place, if we start from a worldview that is other than the claim that God is our Creator who has spoken to us in his word, we will have a hard time ending up in a place of truth.

And for you and me as Christians, even outside of evangelism, apologetics, and counseling, we need to remember that those starting points are big for us too. Why worship? Why sing if we do not enjoy singing? Why read the Bible if we do not enjoy reading? Why attend church if we are not feeling up for it? The answer begins with the fact that God created the universe, God is our Lord, God owns everything. The answer continues through the fact that God has revealed how he will be worshipped in his word. And we submit to our God who has spoken in his word. That is our source of joy and life.