I Oftentimes Disagree With God

Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

Isaiah 55:8-9, “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.”

I heard a tremendous life changing sermon today by my hero of the Christian faith, Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001). The sermon is titled: “You Can't Reason With God.” In the sermon Brother Hyles is pleasantly transparent, sharing the many places in the inspired Holy Bible where he disagrees with God. Pastor Hyles said he disagrees with God in the following Bible matters:

1. Lot's wife being turned into a pillar of salt for just looking back
2. Achan's entire family being killed for his sin
3. God killing Ananias and Sapphira for lying about a financial matter
4. God allowing Satan to afflict Job to ruin his life and kill their 10 children
5. Rahab (a dirty harlot) being mentioned in Hebrews 11
6. God calling David “a man after God's own heart” after what he did to destroy Uriah
7. God choosing to use 3 murderers (Moses, David & Paul) to write 4/11th's of the Bible
8. God using Peter to preach on Pentecost after denying Jesus and curing His name

I so often share Brother Hyles' frustration, feeling that our great God is sometimes unfair. Job said that if any man contend with God he won't win even one in a thousand debates. Job 9:3, “If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand.” Who can argue with omnipotence, omniscience, omnisapience and omnipotence? And yet our wonderful Creator lovingly invites every living human being in Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” What a terrific God!

I humbly don't think it was fair in the Bible that God allowed Jacob's beloved wife Rachel to die while giving birth to Benjamin.

I humbly don't think it was fair for God to kill Uzzah for just trying to steady the wobbling Ark of the Covenant. Uzzah had nothing but good and pure intentions.

I humbly don't think it was fair when God told the prophet Hosea to go marry a known harlot, Gomer, and then she abandoned him to run off in adultery with her many wicked lovers.

I humbly disagree with God for allowing David to live after ruthlessly murdering Uriah and stealing his beautiful wife Bathsheba, and then David got to keep and enjoy her for the rest of his life, while Uriah was dead. And yet God killed Uzzah for just touching the Ark. That seems so hypocritical, wrong and unfair to me, and I'm sure it does to you also. But like Brother Hyles wisely said, pointing to Isaiah 55:8-9, God's thoughts and ways are ABOVE ours. God sees things that we cannot see. God knows the full story!

The father of Tyler Simmons (a U.S. soldier killed in the Iran war) expressed deep sorrow and shared memories of his only son, describing him as someone who “had a magnetic personality” and could “illuminate” a room. Tyler's Dad last spoke to him just the day before his tragic death, which has left him with profound grief and questions about the war. When I saw Tyler's Dad break down in tears on NBC News, mentioning that he will now never be a grandfather, I wept with him with a broken heart. Life is a veil of tears!

Pastor Hyles made this encouraging statement...

“I accept the fact that I and God do not always agree. I accept it. I'm not going to stand here this morning and say I'm such a spiritual giant that I just immediately trust God. I do not immediately say to God, 'You know what you're doing.' Sometimes I say to God, 'I wonder if you do know what you're doing.' because [of a] little exercise that I go through. And by the way I go through this every week, and sometimes every day.” —Pastor Jack Hyles, “You Can't Reason With God”

Pastor Hyles said that whenever he doubts God, he goes through the following mental exercise regularly to help him:

1. I accept the fact that I and God don't always agree.
2. I flee to Isaiah 55:8-9 [God's thoughts and ways are above our thoughts and ways, “as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9)].
3. I conclude that God who knows all is right. Proverbs 16:20b, “... and whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is he.”

I decided decades ago that I refused to place God on trial every time something goes wrong in my life. The heathen world continually puts God on trial. No Sir, I wont do it! I echo with Job in Job 13:15, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.” Life often doesn't make any sense.

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” —Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

I humbly admit there are many things about God that I just cannot understand. For example: We know that all babies go to Heaven. God is a just God who would never allow the innocent to perish into Hell. Yet, the Bible also teaches in Luke 13:23-24 that only a “few” people will go to Heaven. So then, isn't abortion a wonderful blessing? All of those billions of aborted babies worldwide since the early 1970's are in Heaven! That truth will mess with your mind. We know that murder is a sin (Exodus 20:13). So, abortion should be made illegal.

We read in 1st Corinthians 2:16, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” Some things of God can be made known to His redeemed saints. We know because of Adam's sin that there is a curse upon the earth for man's sake. Hard work is a blessing from God which keeps a man out of trouble. Lamentations 3:27, “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.”

That's one of the major things wrong with our nation's youth today, they have too much time on their hands to get into much trouble. I remember there used to be the Washburn Trade School in Chicago for young men, which was a great thing, but due to all the greedy lawyers, politics and selfish adults the school closed their doors in the 1990's forever. Sadly, cities and towns across America today refuse to invest in our youth, who are tomorrow's leaders. NASA spends billions on space exploration. Americans spend trillions on entertainment, sports, pets and vacations; meanwhile our teenagers run the streets in gangs committing crimes, the homeless are ignored and society just becomes worse and worse. When U.S. President Donald Trump leaves office in 2028, the rich will be fattened but the poor will still be poor.

I don't blame God for the mess that this insane world is in today. Ecclesiastes 7:29, “Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” Man himself is to blame for the world's problems.

Ladies and gentlemen, we serve an awesome God! Micah 7:18, “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?  he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.” I THANK GOD for the gift of His dear only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who died in my place on Calvary's cross 2,000 years ago, so that by faith alone in Christ alone without works my sins could be washed away and I could be given eternal life for free. What a great Savior!!!

Ecclesiastes 12:10, “The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth.”