Fickle God

One of the accusations about the God of the Bible is that He is a capricious and temperamental God.  At times He seems overly severe, very unfair, and that He randomly takes life.  Some people have said that the God of the Bible is volatile and they have pointed out how He has destroyed civilizations—women, children, and animals included.  These accusations can be disturbing.   However, if we were to take our eyes off of the Bible for a moment, and consider life, we can observe a couple of things.

First, life is random and unfair.  Sometimes we see good people penalized, but evil people get away with murder.  Young, innocent lives can be difficult and cut short, while wicked people live long and comfortable lives.  Good planning doesn’t always pay off, yet careless and carefree lives sometimes reap great rewards.

Secondly, life is fragile because we are mortal; it has been proven that we will all die.  Some of us will die young, while others will live a ripe, old age.  Some of us will die of natural causes, but others will die because of natural disasters, accidents, or by the hand of an evil perpetrator.  We are terminal and our days are numbered.  It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Bible believer or not; this is a sobering thought.  This makes everyone “equal” in the context of eternity.  It should also cause us to wonder whether life is an accident or if there is some purpose to life.

It is in this context we are introduced to the God of the Bible.  We are told, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…” (Genesis 1:1).  None of us, no, I take that back; nothing would exist if God did not create the universe.

In Genesis 2:7, the writer goes on to say, “ the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).  This tells me that if God did not breathe life into us, we’d be like play dough, a stuffed toy, or anything that is manufactured.  My conclusion is that life is a gift and it comes from the hand of God.

Abraham came to this same conclusion.  In a nutshell, God promised to give Abraham a son.  After many years of waiting, God delivered on His promise.  Then God did the unthinkable.  He told Abraham to sacrifice son (Genesis 12-22).  Faced with this dilemma, the Bible tells us, “Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from the dead” (Hebrews 11:19).

The Bible claims that God is loving, faithful, and just.  Yet sometimes His actions seem to contradict this claim.  Can we reconcile this difference?  Can we truly know the mind of God?  Perhaps the answer is in the One who said, “I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.”  I imagine that after a brief pause, Jesus asks a question that echoes throughout the ages, “Do you believe this?” (John 11: 25).