I'm reading through the Old Testament and am in the middle of Exodus. I've been utterly amazed at how awesome the OT is. If you haven't given it a shot you can do it in a year by reading 75 chapters a month, 25 days a month, reading 3 chapters a day is doable. Although, I say this having not gotten to Numbers and Leviticus yet. So we'll see.
I was listening to someone the other day answer a question about "Why would a loving God create people only to condemn them to Hell"? Seems like a fair question and probably one that many have wrestled with in varying degree over the course of our lives. However rather than giving a deeply scriptural and theological answer the man asked another question. A question that seemed even more compelling and has an even more important answer.
"Why would a perfect and Holy God make a way for sinners to be in right relationship with Him?" "Why would He choose sinful man as his agents of change in this world when in reality our sinfulness precludes us from ever being in His presence"?
How loving is our God that He would make it possible for sinful man to live with him in eternity, I believe, has a more interesting answer than "How could a loving God condemn men that he created." I am not going to answer this particular question in this post though, although, I will say that we are already condemned from the moment we are born. Condemnation came through Adam, not God. Moving on...
I want to share a story from Exodus that demonstrates a different response from an outsider to what God did during the Exodus. I share it because we as people typically respond to God in one of two ways when we critically analyze the situation in Exodus.
Chapter 18 in Exodus takes a diversion from the main story of the exodus from Egypt and the road to the promised land. In Chapter 18 Jethro, Moses' father-in-law brings Zipporah, Moses' wife, and their two sons out to meet Moses in the wilderness. Apparently his family did not accompany him to Egypt during the plagues and the exodus. He's been away from them for some time.
So they meet up and Moses tells Jethro all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardships that had befallen them and how the Lord had delivered them. Now I figure that when you hear a story like the one Moses tells for the first time you can respond in one of two ways: You can say I want no part of a God that kills people for his own fame and purposes, or I'm getting with that God because He is obviously the one God who is greater than all other gods and he is good to his chosen people. Lets look at Jethro's response in verses 9 - 12:
I was listening to someone the other day answer a question about "Why would a loving God create people only to condemn them to Hell"? Seems like a fair question and probably one that many have wrestled with in varying degree over the course of our lives. However rather than giving a deeply scriptural and theological answer the man asked another question. A question that seemed even more compelling and has an even more important answer.
"Why would a perfect and Holy God make a way for sinners to be in right relationship with Him?" "Why would He choose sinful man as his agents of change in this world when in reality our sinfulness precludes us from ever being in His presence"?
How loving is our God that He would make it possible for sinful man to live with him in eternity, I believe, has a more interesting answer than "How could a loving God condemn men that he created." I am not going to answer this particular question in this post though, although, I will say that we are already condemned from the moment we are born. Condemnation came through Adam, not God. Moving on...
I want to share a story from Exodus that demonstrates a different response from an outsider to what God did during the Exodus. I share it because we as people typically respond to God in one of two ways when we critically analyze the situation in Exodus.
Chapter 18 in Exodus takes a diversion from the main story of the exodus from Egypt and the road to the promised land. In Chapter 18 Jethro, Moses' father-in-law brings Zipporah, Moses' wife, and their two sons out to meet Moses in the wilderness. Apparently his family did not accompany him to Egypt during the plagues and the exodus. He's been away from them for some time.
So they meet up and Moses tells Jethro all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardships that had befallen them and how the Lord had delivered them. Now I figure that when you hear a story like the one Moses tells for the first time you can respond in one of two ways: You can say I want no part of a God that kills people for his own fame and purposes, or I'm getting with that God because He is obviously the one God who is greater than all other gods and he is good to his chosen people. Lets look at Jethro's response in verses 9 - 12:
"And Jethro rejoiced over all the kindness that the Lord had shown Israel when He delivered them from the Egyptians. 'Blessed be the Lord,' Jethro said, 'who delivered you from the Egyptians and from Pharaoh, and who delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, yes by the result of their very schemes against (the people).'" And Jethro, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices for God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to partake of the meal before God with Moses' father-in-law."
I find his response to be unique. Let me explain.
Jethro, not being an Israelite, might be the first "convert" in the OT. If you read back a few chapters you'll notice that God hardens Pharaoh's heart multiple times and he does this so that His fame will be declared throughout all the earth. It says this multiple times in Exodus 7: 5, 9: 16, 10: 2, 14: 4, 17. So Jethro's response is of awe and he says, "Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other Gods". Seems like God's plan worked perfectly. Imagine that? God wanted to make a name and make it famous and Jethro is the first to recognize this outside of the Egyptians and the Israelites.
Jethro is also the first person recorded in the Bible to hear of the accounts of what God did in Egypt second hand. He wasn't there, he didn't experience the exodus or the plagues. Yet upon hearing the news, he responds to God in a way that acknowledges how awesome He is and that he deserves to be worshiped and glorified. Jethro's response is completed when he brings God a burnt offering and a sacrifice. He's aligning himself with the Israelites and their God.
Jethro's response could have been like "He did what, your God scares me to death because He just killed a bunch of people because He's got some crazy need to be famous. Sounds likes a selfish guy, I'm outta here, I want no part of this God".
We're not too different from Jethro in that we never got to experience the plagues and the exodus first hand. So how do we respond to the same God of the universe that just wiped out the Egyptian army, but gave us his son Jesus as well? I understand the tendency in us to ask, "Why would a loving God do that to people he created and loves"? It's not wrong to ask that, but sometimes our questions to these things cause hang ups that we can't get over. This can become dangerous because some of us will form untrue beliefs about God because we don't want to deal with the reality that the same God who killed the Egyptians is the same God who gave us his son, Jesus, who taught us to turn the other cheek.
Do we ever read these passages and say "I want to get with that God"?
So in a twisted sort of way I appreciate the man above asking a question on the other side of the same coin that makes you think. While answering the question "Why would a loving God condemn people to Hell?" is useful and informative, a better question might be "Why would a Holy God create a way for sinful people to reign with Him in eternity?" The answers to this question will be like water to the parched tongue of your soul because you'll come to understand that we have and need a God who's first love values his name and fame above the sinful people He's chosen as his hands and feet. He is willing to do what is necessary to make and maintain his famous name in all the world via a rag tag bunch of people like us. This is good news for those who've put their faith in Him because of the promises that He's made to us.
There's a reason that we give glory to God when the miraculous and the little things happen in life that can't be explained except by the hand of God. Paul sums up the whole Christian life in Colossians 3: 17 "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus." Basically, in everything you do live in a way that you honor the name of Jesus. Living like this spreads his fame. He's working in every situation for your good and His glory, so that others will see it and want Him... just like Jethro.
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