Children ask ‘why’ so much, it leaves parents exasperated! I was one of those kids. In my dim memory, I recall a nice yellow school bus toy, with blinking lights, that was a gift from my Grandmother. I’m talking 1960 when lights and sounds on toys was much more novel than today! I wanted to know why the lights blinked so I took the toy apart, much to Grandma’s dismay – since I couldn’t put it back together again. Later explorations of other devices were more successful. My treadmill recently stopped working. Since I had nothing to lose, I started to disassemble it to see if I could determine the malfunction. A couple of hours later I found the problem, ordered a $26 part on the Internet, and today I have a working machine again. Why is a valuable question! However, sometimes rushing to answer that question can lead us into silly, even dangerous, territory.
A couple of weeks ago a terrible storm blew into the Gulf Coast of these United States. People naturally asked, “why?” Four years ago, terrorists flew airplanes into buildings killing 3000 in a moment’s time and we all asked, ‘why?’ Is it wrong to wonder why these kinds of things happen? Of course not. But, we need to know our limitations in discerning the purposes of the God who rules the affairs of this world, who allows winds to blow, and terrorists to wreak their havoc. In the last few days, I’ve heard Hurricane Katrina explained as the wrath of God on New Orleans because it was a ‘sinful city;’ one that encouraged drunkenness, that celebrated homosexuality, or that had a segment of population that practiced voodoo. Another colleague suggested that it was God’s judgment on America for ‘forcing the Israeli nation to return occupied Gaza territory to the Palestinians.’ I don’t agree, but that doesn’t make me right!
I do insist that it is much too soon to be making conclusions about why this storm was allowed to happen. When we rush to offer an explanation to satisfy our need to know, ‘why,’ we risk looking very silly or worse, to miss the real message of God! Storms, wars, attacks, and other catastrophes should provoke us to deep thought, to extended reflection and to a humility that silences our chatter until the Spirit makes His purposes so clear that they are unmistakable! God is not pleased when we guess at His purposes and go out to declare what we have concluded, invoking His authority for our musings!
Israel was full of men who said, “God did that because He wants us to do this.” They went about preaching out of their own conclusions, and earned this powerful rebuke: “Son of man, speak against the false prophets of Israel who are inventing their own prophecies. Tell them to listen to the word of the Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Destruction is certain for the false prophets who are following their own imaginations and have seen nothing at all!" (Ezekiel 13:2-3, NLT) When we presume to speak on God’s behalf to explain ‘why’ He is allowing such great suffering and we have not actually heard from Him on the matter, we are breaking one of the Ten Commandments - “Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name." (Exodus 20:7, NLT)
Please understand me! I am not calling those who have proclaimed the conclusions outlined above ‘false prophets.’ Perhaps they have heard from the Spirit of God, but I am encouraging all of us to be very cautious about jumping to conclusions about matter so serious. It would be tragic to mislead others away from the true message of God based on our own conclusions.
What if the tragedy of the hurricane had nothing at all to do with the overt sins of that city or the foreign policy of these United States? What if God wants us to reflect on our treatment of the poor, or on our materialism that causes us to want more to such an extent that we neglect the needs of the poorest among us? What if He wants us to see the plight of those who lack the resources to live in safety or to move out of the way of the disaster? Again, let me emphasize, I claim no revelation on this matter, I am simply suggesting that we great humility to close our mouth long enough to let God speak His message.
Even in our individual lives, we want to know, ‘why,’ and often, no immediate answer is forthcoming. That is why we need great faith to trust the living God when His ways are inscrutable. He says, “My thoughts are completely different from yours,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9, NLT) That passage is a comfort and a caution! The comfort is that He is at work. Even terrible storms are allowed under the rule of the Almighty God. He is able to use all things for His purposes. The caution is that we may have difficulty understanding why: in this moment, this day, even in this lifetime!
Here’s a word from the Word to keep in your mind today. May it speak deeply to you. Proverbs 3:5-8 (The Message)
Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God’s voice in everything you do,
everywhere you go;
he’s the one who will keep you on track.
Don’t assume that you know it all.
Run to God! Run from evil!
Your body will glow with health,
your very bones will vibrate with life!
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