The Long Way

Like most people, I've sometimes wondered why God does things that way He does. I'm not necessarily upset by His ways or disagreeing with His plan, but I'm just curios as to why He chose to do things in a certain way.

A passage in Exodus 13 shed some light on this for me:

"When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, "If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt." - Exodus 13:17

There have been things happen in my life where I've wondered "wasn't there an easier way to get the same result?" Sometimes I wish I could go back in time a little bit and save myself a lot of trouble by doing things differently. But as this passage points out, God knows our hearts and our fears and He sees the obstacles that we would run into if we take short cuts. Something might seem easier at first, but there could be a piece of the picture that we're missing, and when we run into it, it would be more than we could bear. Like Israel being led out of slavery, we could run into a trial that we can't overcome and decide to turn back, giving up on God's plan for us. Instead, if we follow God, we'll find a path that isn't "beyond what we can bear" (1 Corinthians 10:13).

So in His mercy, God leads us around by taking the long route. He isn't disappointed or forceful with us by saying "suck it up and just plow through the short cut". He's gentle, leading us around the long path, saying "I know your fears and your struggles, and it's okay. We'll take the long way."

King Over our Defeated Foes

In our messed up world, we sometimes forget that God is sovereignly in control of all things. Satan, though ruler of this world, is still ultimately limited by God's will. This awesome quote from a book I'm reading gave me great hope in the power of our God over the darkness:
 

When God gave Satan permission to test His servant Job, He set the limit beyond which Satan could not go. At Calvary, he became a defeated foe, for when Jesus cries, "It is finished," He implied a complete victory over the unseen rulers of the darkness of this world.
              - Herbert Lockyer

Bad News

My last post dealt with healing. And while I mostly intended to address spiritual healing, physical healing does take place. But not all the time. That's what I'm writing about today—the times when God doesn't answer in the ways we would like or provide the outcome we hoped for. Times when your career falls apart and there's no way to fix it. Or when a relationship ends and all chances of reconciliation goes out the window. Or when a prognosis isn't what you hoped for.

God is sovereign. He can do whatever He wants, to whomever He wants, whenever He wants. His plan is always perfect, even if we don't understand it. Sometimes He will crush all hope in one area of our lives in order to divert our attention to His plan.

In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”  - 2 Kings: 20:1

God didn't sugar coat His news for King Hezekiah. He told him flat-out "you will not recover". Sometimes we work towards a lost cause, pouring so much effort into something that just isn't meant to be. It can be heartbreaking, but God has a purpose.

Personally, I've suffered through trials like that. I've never experienced impending death as Hezekiah did, but dreams of mine have died. I was involved in a long-term relationship. Despite years of effort trying to save things, it continued to crumble. I thought the relationship could be salvaged, but eventually came to realize that it "will not recover". I could continue to agonize over it, torture myself by clinging to a false hope that somehow it will work out. But that doesn't always happen. Sometimes it's best to move on and trust that God's plan, although unseen, is better than our own.

The modern cliche "you can do anything if you put your mind to it" attitude can cause us to force our lives in a direction contrary to God's plan for us. We might be trying to become something He never created us to be. Imagine if King Hezekiah thought there was a chance he could recover. He may have spent all of the kingdom's money on searching for doctors from all over Israel and the surrounding territories. He could have exhausted all their resources on a lost cause. But God, in His mercy, gave insight into the future.

"You will not recover".

God sees beyond what we can see. He knows that death is not the end.

Hezekiah was a good guy. If you read through the two books of Kings, there were a lot of terrible rulers in Israel and Judah. A lot. But Hezekiah wasn't one of them. He sought God and served Him faithfully during His life. Yet still, he would not recover. Being a disciple of Christ doesn't give you a free pass on pain. It doesn't grant all your wishes or put you in the express lane to success. What it does give you, though, is the assurance that there is hope for peace and joy in the midst of all that. Because of Christ's resurrection, we know that nothing, not even death, can conquer God or stop Him from doing His will. And His will is to do good to those who love Him (Romans 8:28). In His time, in His way, He will do good.