December
20
God’s
Ways and Thoughts
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are
your ways my ways, saith 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. (Isa. 55:8-9)
Quite often those who teach
that God is behind the evils, tragedies and miseries in this world refer to
this passage to justify their stance. When Christians who disagree with this
false idea protest against their teachings this passage is quoted in order to
silence them. After all, God can do these things because He does not think the
way we mere mortals think neither are His ways ours.
Actually, the passage is
being quoted out of context to
support erroneous ideas about God that contradict His character of
self-sacrificing love. When it is read in context it actually supports the
truth about God’s love:
Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon
him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man
his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy
upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith 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. (Isa.
55:6-9)
Far from teaching that God
is hiding behind some mysterious sovereignty that brings about destructive
events in the lives of people, this
passage proclaims a loving God who is calling His people back into relationship
with Him. His ways and thoughts are only higher than ours in that we are
selfish and sinful and He is not.
Unlike us, God is loving and
forgiving and gives us the opportunity to repent. However, He will not force us
but tells us to seek Him. If we do then He promises that we will find Him. It
is amazing that Satan has been able to twist this wonderful revelation of God’s
love and twist it it to make Him appear as an evil, all-controlling tyrant.
God’s thoughts and ways are only different from unredeemed man in that His is
pure love and man’s is not.
Troy, this is getting personal, but did something bad happen in your life that you have to prove wasn't done by God?
ReplyDeleteYes "God is loving and forgiving and gives us the opportunity to repent" but He is also our Father and as such disciplines us (which hurts) and protects us from our (and His) enemies which hurts them.
God only promised to work things together for good for those who love Him Troy, the rest .... well they're under His wrath which ultimately is hell, but is not necessarily so good down here either. If God wants to punish them for their evil why can't He?