Aweful perspective

 This week's verses are on Isaiah 45:9-13:

One who argues with his Creator is in grave danger,
one who is like a mere shard among the other shards on the ground!
The clay should not say to the potter,
“What in the world are you doing?
Your work lacks skill!”
Danger awaits one who says to his father,
“What in the world are you fathering?”
and to his mother,
“What in the world are you bringing forth?”
This is what the Lord says,
the Holy One of Israel, the one who formed him,
concerning things to come:
“How dare you question me about my children!
How dare you tell me what to do with the work of my own hands!
I made the earth;
I created the people who live on it.
It was me—my hands stretched out the sky.
I give orders to all the heavenly lights.
It is me—I stir him up and commission him;
I will make all his ways level.
He will rebuild my city;
he will send my exiled people home,
but not for a price or a bribe,”
says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

Sometimes God's plan for the world seems absurd to us. In the verses before these, God speaks through Isaiah to tell Israel that he would use a foreign king to do his will. That must have been shocking to them, like if someone told the American church that God would use the Chinese Communist Party to accomplish his plan for the world and that they would take a back seat.

You can almost hear their anguish. "But we're Israel! We're the protagonists of this story! We're the chosen ones!" The seasoned elders would have given quite a lecture if they heard Isaiah sharing that message. "That's ridiculous. Why would God use a dirty unsaved warlord to reestablish his holy city when there are thousands of good strong Jewish boys ready to be used like King David was? That can't be from God. Nowhere in scripture does something like that happen."

It was already humiliating enough for Israel to be in exile without having to also endure being sidelined in the race to restore what was theirs. Not only did they fail to defend their territory, but they even got passed over in the plan to take it back. They couldn't even have the satisfaction of bribing the guy, so they could at least feel like it was partly their doing. They were a charity case, rejected, pitied, and seemingly kept at arm's length like they were nothing. Imagine how frustrating that must have been!

And yet that was God's plan. He addresses their arguments in these verses. The gist of it is that God is God. He is the creator. We may consider ourselves to be the protagonists of our life's story, but he is both the author and arguably the real protagonist. He says "It was me," and "It is me." Our world is God's creation, shaped in the same way that a talented potter might make a cup, or an artist might lay out a painting.

A lot of life plays out on its own, but there are some things God shapes for a specific purpose, and sometimes we will disagree or doubt. But we can't argue with him as though we were peers. This is a really difficult word to swallow for those of us who live in modern egalitarian societies where we believe that all men are created equal and that democracy is how all things should be decided.

God says that it is dangerous for us to argue with our creator. Do we really believe that? When we are upset about evil that happens in the world, or suspect that we are cursed compared to our wealthy neighbors, or are suffering in a real sense over some loss, do we consider it dangerous to argue or do we lay into God as though he was some contractor who botched a plumbing job?

We want to correct God. We want to make him see our wisdom. The whole institution of representative democracy, in some sense, stems from our desire to create a god who comes to us for guidance and instruction. And yet what awful worlds we create when our gods are no greater than us! Do we want to live in a universe that is carried on the shoulders of a mob?

God is greater than us. That is part of what makes him so awesome. Who are we to tell him how things should be? Instead we should be thankful that he doesn't ask us for guidance! Some of the most beautiful things in life are things we couldn't have seen happening until they were complete. How great is it that these things are often choreographed for our benefit by such a perfect being?

So if you can't figure out why something isn't going the way you think it should be, and you've prayed your prayers and done what you can, don't turn on God and try to "correct" him. He knows better than you. He's already created everything we have enjoyed in life so far. Instead, be thankful that he is so great, and wait expectantly to see how his work turns out.