Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!
For who has known the mind of the Lord
or who has been his counselor?
Or who has given him anything
that he may be repaid?
Want to give God a chuckle? Rustle up your courage, look Him in the eye and tell him, Lord, this is what I plan to do tomorrow!
Why would our creator chuckle?
Because only God knows what tomorrow will bring. And it’s kind of cute when we humans try to predict things like the weather, the stock market, the movement of nations and ideas.
Try as we might, we’re not like God in that way. We really don’t know what the future holds, nor do we know why “stuff” happens.
We don’t know why God directs the skies to open and flood the streets of one city, while another stays dry. We don’t know why a man like Hitler was able to rise to power while a good man or woman meets an early death. We don’t even understand why the light just turned red and we had to slam on our brakes!
God’s ways are mysterious and that is the main message Paul gives in his teaching to the Romans today. The topic here is the salvation of both the Gentiles and the Jews. Paul sheds a ray of light that God has chosen the Jews as His people and would never let them down. When they failed to remain faithful and drifted away from Him (as many of us have done), that failure is put to good use for the mercy and salvation of others – both within and on the outside, Paul says.
We are not exactly sure how this works. And Paul would say it’s a waste of time to try and figure it out.
Suffice it to say that God works in mysterious ways and it’s impossible for us to know the when, where, what and why of history that is yet to be written.
Although this might drive some of us crazy, it really shouldn’t. We should rest in the comfort of knowing that God is in control. He is love, He has mercy and He is in control.
We are not.
But does that mean we have no say in how we live our lives? Absolutely not. We have free will to choose our own path. Paul’s teaching of an all-knowing God simply means God knows what our choices will be.
The way the Church sees it: God has at any time, in one single vision, the entirety of history, from the time of Adam to the days of Abraham and Isaac; from Jesus and Paul to our global struggles today.
So, what do we do with this? This knowledge of knowing that God knows all (and we don’t)?
Well, I’m not sure what we should do, but I have a few ideas about what we should NOT do.
We shouldn’t be trying to be like God.
We shouldn’t waste our time trying to predict tomorrow or the next day.
We shouldn’t judge others.
We shouldn’t condemn an entire religion or culture simply because it’s different than ours.
We shouldn’t ever forget that beyond the labels and the titles, we are all created by one God – even those who don’t believe in God.
And we should never deny that all people are loved by Him and given the opportunity to obtain salvation.
Our job is to help them along the way by our words and our actions.
“See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.”
For God will save Zion
and rebuild the cities of Judah.
They shall dwell in the land and own it,
and the descendants of his servants shall inherit it,
and those who love his name shall inhabit it.”
