I think we all have also struggled with the questions of...
Why does God let this bad or hard thing happen to me?
Why doesn't God answer my prayer?
We blame God... looking for a place to land our aching hearts with the hard.
Let me ask another question, "What did God create in the beginning?"
He created all things GOOD.
He created beauty and life. He created no bad or evil.
Satan, many 'years' prior, wanted to be like God and created a rebellion; which God had to remove. So, God removed Satan from heaven. Satan is the beginning of all things ugly.
When God created the world and placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, He made all sorts of trees to grow - trees that were beautiful and produced delicious fruit. Genesis 2:9 He placed two trees in the middle of the Garden - the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
He told Man, "You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden, Except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit , you are sure to die." Genesis 2:16-17
We have GOOD and EVIL.
Two choices. Two consequences.
God, the author of good. Satan the beginning of evil.
A tree - the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
At this point Adam only knew good. He did not know evil.
At this point it seems that Adam is alone. The Bible isn't clear on the sequence.
In verses 21-22, God made woman, out of man.
If Adam was alone, then I have another set of questions, "Did Adam forget to tell Eve about the tree? Did he tell her and then not have the courage to take a stand against the deception of Satan?" The Bible doesn't give us those details.
We only know that one day, one moment, they were both presented with a choice...
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtle (shrewd) than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, had God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
vv. 4-5, And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die;
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
A choice.
GOD DID NOT CREATE EVIL. IT'S A RESULT OF A CHOICE.
With the choice of Adam and Eve, they now know GOOD and EVIL. They know good and bad. They know love and hate. They know freedom and shame.
God did not leave them in that state. God never leaves bad alone. He REDEEMS.
He set in motion a promise of a Redeemer and gave specific instructions that point to the Redeemer.
They took fig leaves to cover themselves. But God made clothing from animal skins. Fig leaves were not sufficient. Life was forever changed. Blood was shed for forgiveness and redemption.
Just like Adam and Eve experienced redemption in the midst of bad, so today God will always redeem the bad and painful experiences; if we seek Him.
I believe all bad falls through the hand of God and that can be hard to wrestle with. So, why doesn't God simply close His hand and not let it happen??
We blame God for allowing it to happen, when it's simply a part of the brokenness that happened as a result of taking from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We now know GOOD and EVIL.
I believe it's back to the choice and consequences that happened. Free will or choice comes with a price, a cost, a consequence of good or hard.
God cannot go back on His Word of saying that death will happen if the fruit was eaten, but He can redeem! And redeem He wants to do and will do if we turn our hearts toward Him in repentance.
Right from that first moment of a wrong choice, God spoke words of redeeming along with the consequences.
There is a mystery to the hard to those who love God. Romans 8:28 says, God uses all things for good. He doesn't say all things are good, but all of the happenings, God weaves it all in a tapestry that is good. And in the moments when we're drowning in the hard, we can simply choose to stay with God. Choosing to remember God. Choosing to trust His heart of redemption and walk with Him in the mystery of hard and its redemption.
Really, redemption is a very underserving gift. To think that God cares so much for who He created, to not let them sit in the results of their wrong choices and to offer redemption.
I pause and bow, struck by the awesome gravity of this.
Have you accepted and received God's redemption for you?
