Foolish people say Foolish things

I heard a man ask the teacher if it was right to be mad at God for the evil in the world?  That it seemed God was not doing anything about it.  God is real big and this person was not the first to say he was mad at God, but it made me wonder how a created person could be mad at their Creator?  The prophet Isaiah had this to say on the matter, “Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?”  (Isaiah 45:9)  One might look at what the apostle Paul had to say on the subject; “On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?”  (Romans 9:20-21)

I’ve often been angry and even mad, most of the time I was the object of my anger, but I can swear before heaven an earth that I’ve never been foolish and angry with God.  And it makes me wonder how a person could understand the grace, mercy, and love the Father has shown to them and make such a statement? 

If I sound offended, that is my Father and this I know about Him, He allowed my Redeemer, His only Son, to step out of being worshipped for sinners like me.  And 700 years before it happened, the Father allowed the prophet Isaiah to tell us about the price our Lord would pay to buy each of us out of sin.  “Surely he has borne our grief’s and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”  (Isaiah 53:4-6)  The old gospel hymn says it so clear; “I never shall forget what He's done for me.” 

Here is my dilemma, not knowing the heart of anyone and sometime not even myself, I cannot grasp how one who has been bought out of the slavery of sin by the grace of God, and the faith He has given us to believe, could make such a statement.  It makes me wonder if they believe God should listen to their council, as if He would.  Isaiah 55:6-9, is a clear message to mere men, “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

This I understand, God does not need me to defend Him, it is clear He does not defend Himself in Scripture.  But how will a lost world come to see Jesus if we who are followers of Christ do not understand that we time critters cannot put God into our time, but that the cross put us into Christ’s time line.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice