45:23 I have sworn by Myself;
The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness,
And shall not return,
That to Me every knee shall bow,
Every tongue shall take an oath.
24 He shall say,
‘Surely in the Lord I have righteousness and strength.
To Him men shall come,
And all shall be ashamed
Who are incensed against Him.
25 In the Lord all the descendants of Israel
Shall be justified, and shall glory.’”
It requires wisdom and restraint
to rule with justice and navigate seemingly impossible situations; a wisdom far
beyond my own.
As a human on this planet limited
by space and time I have questions, lots of them. Questions which neither my
wisdom nor knowledge are adequate to answer. As a result I am forced by
circumstance to live by faith. Were I to decide from my limited vantage point
that there is no God (a conclusion which for me is now impossible) I would
still have to live by faith because that view point is not provable either.
I have read the life story of
Madalyn Murray O'Hair. I "stood with her" as she screamed at the
night sky, defying God to make Himself known if He was really out there. For
those of you who aren't familiar she was a very active, vocal, atheist who lead
the charge to get prayer and Bible reading removed from the public school
system in America.
Why didn't God reveal Himself to
her? It would have been so easy...
Before Satan rebelled heaven was
nothing but love and perfect trust. There was no need for laws. Perfect love
always does right. When Satan began his campaign to usurp God's throne a shadow
of doubt was cast over the universe. What if he was right? What if God wasn't
truly loving? What if behind the scenes something dark and sinister was afoot?
Notice that Satan's rebellion
which wiped out one third of the angels thrived while every one of them knew
God was real. That was never in doubt for them. They all saw Him. They lived
with Him. Atheism wasn't possible and yet they turned from Him. They turned, not
because they were unsure if He existed, but were unsure what kind of King He
was.
God could have squashed the
rebellion by killing every rebel. From our limited vantage point many of us
think He should have. The problem is that killing a rebel doesn't kill a
rebellion. Silencing a voice does not kill the ideas that voice put forth. The
only way to truly end the controversy is to lay everything on the table. Put
all the facts out for all to see. Let every rabbit trail be explored. Let every
theory be tried. Let every idea have it's day in the sun.
It's painful. It's messy. It's
awful. Let the prodigal son go live as he pleases. Let Satan have an entire
planet to rule. Let murderers murder and rapists rape. Let children be
exploited and the rich dominate the poor. Let sin show itself in all its
gruesomeness. Let the rebellion expose itself for what it is. Let the
experiment fail so badly and so completely that when it is over and every being
has lived as they chose in complete freedom and without God's coercion, even
Satan himself will bow and confess on his knees that God is indeed love.
It takes Divine wisdom and
Infinite restraint to hold to such a plan. Madalyn Murray O'Hair may have
claimed defiantly that there was no God and that He never revealed Himself to
her, but it is not true and on that final day of reckoning she will bend her
knee and admit it.
God is not working to squash
rebels. He is working toward a day when there will be no doubts left to fuel a
revolt. Sin will be exposed. Love will triumph. Every knee will bow, and the
tyranny of sin will be over. The kingdom will be restored as it was because
every heart that chose to put their faith in Him while the doubts raged will
beat in harmony with His.
I have questions, but I trust
Him.
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