6/29/2014 Haven’t we all failed “to get it”
a time or two along life’s wandering way? It may have been when we were grappling with one of those pesky word problems in a math class. Or we might
have heard our mom or dad screaming, “I don’t get it” while they tried to
understand why we made one of those typical bonehead decisions teenagers are
famous for. The daily news supplies us with an endless variety of reports about
the choices people make which can cause us to scratch our head in amazement and
incredulity. I wonder if God felt like shouting, “I don’t get it” when Adam and Eve ignored Him and believed Satan’s lie instead of Him? This was just the beginning of an endless record of incredulous choices that defy logic. It is almost unbelievable to think that those who had seen God’s power at work in parting the Red Sea, would, just 3 days later, question His ability to provide water for them (Exodus 15:22-24). They obviously didn’t “get it”. About a month later Israel complained again about a lack of food, so God gave them manna (Exodus 16). God wanted them to learn a crucial lesson. Forty years later Moses told the next generation of Israelites that the lesson from the manna was “that man does not live by bread alone, ...but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”. (Deut. 8:2-3). Given the history of the nation for the next 1,500 years, it does not look like very many “got it”. Was the lesson just too complicated to comprehend? No. The problem was pride. Moses told them that if they didn’t get it that when they became prosperous and “...your heart becomes proud” that they would forget God (Deut. 8:14) ─ tragically, they didn’t “get it”. They, like Adam and Eve, chose their way instead of God’s. Not much has changed. People still don’t “get it”. Math teachers are still trying to open the eyes of their students. Parents of teenagers are still pulling their hair out. But the most puzzling phenomenon of the modern age is really not new. It’s man’s willingness to “exchange the truth of God for a lie” (Romans 1:25). Why would anyone prefer a lie to truth? Here is God’s answer: People perished “because they did not receive the love of the truth...but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thes. 2:10-12) Those refusing to have God in their knowledge (Romans 1:28) are choosing wrath, tribulation, and anguish over eternal life; hell over heaven (Romans 2:5-8). I don’t get it, do you? Unlike life’s obscure conundrums, there is no excuse for not knowing God (Romans 1:20). We can know Him and His plan for us IF we want to. Doesn’t it make a lot more sense to submit to the one who loves you (God) than to a murderer (Satan) set on your destruction? Get it? Ken Dart |
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