February 28, 2014
Understanding God
I have tried to better understand God for as long as I can remember. Even though His message of Salvation is crystal clear, I may never fully understand God. It is a tragedy to see folks in agony and pain, screaming at God for not doing what they think He should do. I have been right there myself, questioning my very belief in God because I thought God was not behaving as He should. But I will tell you that God does exist, and is a force to be reckoned with whether we believe in Him or not. Speaking for myself, I think the problem was that I always tried to put God in a nice box that I could understand. It is crushing for anyone to have their world crumbling around them only to discover God may not exactly be what they had in mind. So devastating that it could drive someone to do something extreme and destructive.
I have read about many different sides of God in the KJV Bible. Yes, some are the very ones taught in Sunday school. And some are a little more exotic, not talked about that much. All I know is that I am very thankful to God for the blessings that I do have. Do you know that God claims Israel as His firstborn son? Also, do you know that Jacob was later renamed Israel after cheating his older brother, Esau, out of his birthright? Some call this election or predestination because God foretold that Esau would lose his birthright. It's either that or God was simply foretelling the future. Here in the book of Genesis you have Esau being born covered with thick red hair. Then you have the scandal of his mother and younger brother, Jacob, using tricks and lies to cheat him out of his birthright. Then God's firstborn son, the people of Israel, were enslaved for a very long time in Egypt. Yes, the government of Egypt became increasingly paranoid and threatened by the vast numbers and prosperity of Israel. So Egypt started cracking down on Israel killing their male infants and assigning taskmasters to be their slave drivers. Israel cried out to God and He chose Moses to go set them free.
After a lengthy conversation with Moses which sort of enraged God, God finally convinced Moses he could free Israel from Egypt. During this conversation in Exodus 4:11 KJV, God said He makes the deaf, blind, and dumb. Yes, God said just as He creates man's mouth, He also creates, the blind, the seeing, the deaf, and the dumb. So anyway, they finally got it all settled and Moses was on his way to free Israel when all of a sudden God turns against Moses and decides to just go ahead and kill him. So, Moses was on his way to carry out God's plan to free Israel when God decided to go after him and kill him. At least that is my understanding when I read the story. There are many articles and speculation on who the "he" and the "him" is in some parts of the story found in Exodus 4:24-26 KJV. It is a bizarre story. It involves Moses' wife, Zipporah, intervening by circumcising her son with a sharp stone and throwing the skin at "his" feet. She then proclaims her bloody husband in a strange speech that I'm still trying to grasp. However strange it may seem, the woman knew exactly what she was doing because she put a stop to the attempted assassination so that Moses could continue on to Egypt.
Anyway, my point is that we can't put God in a box and have Him do what we think He should do. As I have said before, God is not just some jolly old bearded man sitting on a throne handing out candy to his favorites. And we can't lose our faith in God just because we don't get our candy when we think we should. God is so much more than that. God is so much more than we can wrap our minds around. Do you see what happened to God's firstborn son, Israel? If that can happen to them, then that or worse can happen to us. But there are all sorts of variables that we may not know about or comprehend. Did God's firstborn son, Israel, have it made on easy street? I don't think so. But God did keep His promise regarding Israel. God always keeps His promises.
Blessings to you,David
