Today’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 32:17 through Ezekiel 33:20; Jeremiah 52:28-30, Psalm 137; 1 Chronicles 4:24 through 1 Chronicles 5:17
We’ve all heard it said, maybe we’ve said it ourselves; maybe we’ve read a book about it…
Sometimes, God doesn’t make sense.
Premature death, hunger, sickness, suffering, orphans; it breaks our heart and causes us to ask “why.”
I wonder if God ever says, “People just don’t make sense.”
Yes, He made us and gave us the ability to choose. And yes, He knows and understands our humanness, but He must get frustrated with us; frustrated with our choices.
In Ezekiel 33:11, we see one of those times when God must have said to Himself as he shook His head… people just don’t make sense:
As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live. Turn! Turn from your wickedness, O people of Israel! Why should you die?
This scripture verse reveals the heart of God…the heart of a father.
Can you hear the Lord’s sadness over the senseless death of the wicked?
He’s pleading with them through the prophet Ezekiel to turn from their wicked ways.
As a parent, it’s terribly frustrating to sit by and watch my children make a choice that I know will hurt them in the end. How much more frustrating must it be for God, after all He knows what the results of our decisions before we make them.
I’m sure people don’t make sense to God when…
- We choose death over eternal life
- When we choose to talk to everyone else but the God of the Universe
- When we choose to spend time staring into a T.V. or computer screen instead of reading His love letters to us
- We abuse the bodies He gave us
- We give more of ourselves to our jobs than the people we love
- We choose to keep our Savior a secret
- We choose to ignore His commandments
Friends, God has given us the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. God is watching anxiously to see which choice we make. Let’s choose life today so that we and our descendants might live (Deuteronomy 30:19).
Heavenly Father, we know we do many things that just don’t make sense. Please forgive us when we choose the world and its enticements instead of You and the things that hold eternal significance. Holy Spirit draw us to you. Jesus, make us more like you.
In Jesus’ Name. Amen and Amen!
© 2012 Dianne Guthmuller
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Chronicles 5:18-26, 1 Chronicles 6:3b, 1 Chronicles 6:4-15, Chronicles 7:1- 8:28
