Be not offended in Him

This has been a week of unexplainable tragedies coming into the lives of friends and acquaintances. A young 2 year old child drowns. A friend of my son, helping with his church's mission trip before heading off to his freshman year of college, hits his head while swimming and now battles pneumonia and possible paralysis. A friend of the family is hit by a drunk driver while riding his bike and is now hospitalized with multiple broken bones. A friend's mother is driving home from out of town and is hit and killed instantly by an RV that has blown a tire. A young mother renews her battle with cancer and faces more pain and uncertainty.

My heart weeps and my soul cries out, "What on earth, Lord? You possess all power, all wisdom, all sovereignity. You could have prevented all of these tragedies. You can heal with a mere word. You can stop the lion's mouth or the cars' direction. You can part the seas and give air to the drowning one. You can restore, revive and raise from the dead. Do it again, Lord! Do it again! I cannot begin to fathom why You have allowed these tragedies, but our hope and our trust is in You."

With all that has happened recently, Jesus' rather strange response to John the Baptist's question came immediately to mind. You remember the story: John the Baptist, the man of whom Jesus said none born of a woman was greater, the one who lived in the desert and ate locusts, has been arrested by the wicked Herod. He sits in a dark dungeon, awaiting his fate, and doubt assails him. What if he was wrong? Perhaps all his sacrificial life's work has been for nought if Jesus is not the long-awaited Messiah. Why else would he sit rotting in jail? Surely the Messiah would not allow such a thing. So John sends his disciples to Jesus with the question: "Are the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?" Luke 7:19

Listen to the words which follow: "In that hour He [Jesus] healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind He bestowed sight. And He answered them, 'Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight , the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed in he who is not offended in me."

Did you notice the word "many?" "Many" but not "all" of the the people were healed. "Many" but not "all" of the blind had their sight restored. Why? We will not know this side of heaven, but God knows. He could have healed every last one of them, but He did not. He healed most, but not all, and while I rejoice in the power and grace and mercy of the Almighty who could and did choose to heal, I wonder at the mystery of a God whose ways I cannot understand. But I know that His ways are so far above and beyond my ways and my understanding, and in that I find consolation. If I could understand Him, how big could He be? As Job declared in the midst of his terrible ordeal, "But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find Him. when He is at work in the north, I do not see Him; when He turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of Him. But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold." Job 23:8-10 Or Job's assurance, even though he has lost his family, his wealth, his health, and his friends: "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my flesh has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God." Job 19:25-26

Wow, that is faith even in the midst of terrible suffering and complete bewilderment with what God was doing. Warren Wiersbe once described faith as "simply obeying God in spite of how we feel, what we see, or what we think might happen." Faith is trusting that God can heal, God does heal, but when, in His mysterious purposes, He chooses not to heal, we trust Him anyway.

I don't have time right now to really ponder all that Jesus said to John the Baptist, but His last statement has really struck me: "Blessed is the one who is not offended by me." What a powerful statement--will we refuse to be offended by the mysterious and sometimes down right upsetting ways of our Lord? When we cannot understand, when we doubt and cry and grieve, will we still at the same time stubbornly cling to our faith that He is our almighty Redeemer who is good and merciful and in absolute control? I have no question that God can handle our doubts, our questions, our tears, our anger, our confusion--just read the Psalms and see the raw emotions directed at God. But He still delights in our stubborn faith that refuses, ultimately, to be offended in Him. Offended and broken hearted sometimes in His ways, perhaps, but not in Him. I do not understand why God allows these tragedies, but I trust Him and know that ultimately, somehow, someway, all things will work together for our greater good and His greater glory.

These words of Gene Edwards in the powerful little book, The Prisoner in the Third Cell, express it so well: "A day like that which awaited John [when he awaited his execution] awaits us all. It is unavoidable because every believer imagines his God to be a certain way, and is quite sure his Lord will do certain things under certain conditions. But your Lord is never quite what you imagined Him to be. You have now come face to face with a God whom you do not fully understand. You have met a God who has not lived up to your expectations. Every believer must come to grips with a God who did not do things quite the way it was expected. You are going to get to know your Lord by faith or you will not know Him at all. Faith in Him, trust that is in Him...not in His ways....The question is not, 'Why is God doing this? Why is He like this?' The question is not, 'Why does He not answer me?' The question is not, 'I need Him desperately, why does He not come rescue me?' The question is not, 'Why did God allow this tragedy to happen to me, to my children, to my wife, to my husband, to my family?' Nor is it, 'Why does God allow injustices?' The question before the house is this: 'Will you follow a God you do not understand? Will you follow a God who does not live up to your expectations?' Your Lord has put something in your life which you cannot bear. The burden is simply too great. He was never supposed to do this! But the question remains, 'Will you continue to follow this God who did not live up to your expectations?' 'And blessed are you if you are not offended in me.' He goes on to conclude "Dear reader, no one can fully understand the pain you feel as you suffer your present situation. Whether it came upon you because of circumstances or by the deeds of men, one thing is certain. Before this present tragedy entered into your life, it first passed through the sovereign hand of God. 'And blessed are you...'"

I do not presume to even begin to understand the ways of God. But here's what I do know: I know, like Job, "that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth." I know that He loves you and me so much that He sent His only beloved Son to die in my and in your place so we could have abundant, eternal life, both now and forever more. I know what I have seen in His Word that He is Creator, Sustainer, Revealer. I know that He has all power, all glory, all peace, all love, all majesty, all hope, all wisdom, all grace.

And so I choose to rest in the knowledge that while I will never know or understand, He does. I choose to place my faith and trust in the One who gave all for sinners like me. Lord, I am not offended, and I praise You that because of the Lord Jesus, You are not offended in me. To You be all the glory.