As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:9
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.
-Genesis 2:17 (NKJ)
Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.”
-Genesis 3:4 (NKJ)
She took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
-Genesis 3:6 (NIV)
God says, “Do this and die.” The serpent says, “No you wont.” And yet we choose death. I don’t get it! Why were we deceived? Why did God create the serpent? Why did God allow us to be susceptible to evil? Why did the story of man have to have a conflict? Couldn’t God have created us as holy and perfect beings to live with him forever from the beginning? I just don’t get it.
And so we were doomed to die, but God came as a man to remove the curse of death. Why wait until that moment to do it? Why have a curse at all if it was going to be removed? And now that the curse is removed we have a chance to enter into life, yet some still choose death. Even those who choose life still find themselves half dead sometimes. Why is that?
I don’t understand why everything happens the way it does. I don’t understand why the path of God has to be so narrow. I don’t understand why it’s so hard to follow such a great God. I don’t understand why I can have a thirst for God one week and in the next week push him to the side.
I’m afraid the wisdom of Solomon himself wouldn’t be enough to answer any of these questions. There’s so much I want to know. There’s so much I don’t understand. There are so many things about God that I just don’t get. I pray this phrase from Psalm 119…
“May my cry come before you, O LORD; give me understanding according to your word.”
I know nothing… but I’m ok with that. All I do know is this:
It is good to praise the LORD
and make music to your name, O Most High,
to proclaim your love in the morning
and your faithfulness at night,
to the music of the ten-stringed lyre
and the melody of the harp.
For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD;
I sing for joy at the works of your hands.
How great are your works, O LORD,
how profound your thoughts!
Psalm 92:1-5
And may you find hope and comfort in these words which were spoken to Daniel:
Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.
Daniel 10:12
