More On Knowing God

I blogged a few days ago about the notion of believing in God versus knowing God.  I'd been impressed with how purposeful God has been through the Bible to show us that knowing Him relationally is really the end game.  Recently, I've been overwhelmed with another Biblical truth.  It's found in a pattern of speech.  The best example of it is found in the book of Ezekiel.

You may remember that Ezekiel was a prophet, called by God to call the Israelites to repentance.  He spoke for God (which is what prophets do even today), and carried very dire warnings to the Israelites.  (And they of course did not want to hear whatever Ezekiel had to say.)  Anyway, if we examine the things that God told Ezekiel to say to the Israelites, there is a peculiar pattern that is demonstrated over and over again.  Let's take a look.

"Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: In my wrath I will unleash a violent wind, and in my anger hailstones and torrents of rain will fall with destructive fury.  I will tear down the wall you have covered with whitewash and will level it to the ground so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you will be destroyed in it; and you will know that I am the LORD."  (Ezekiel 13:13-14) (NIV)

Did you catch that?  God was speaking (through Ezekiel) to the false prophets.  He basically explained how they would experience His wrath in response to their sin and rebellion, neither of which had been confessed or repented of, or even admitted to.  But God said the result of Him pouring out His anger on them would be that they would know that He is the Lord.  And there is the pattern that I see.

The pattern is evident in many other places in the Bible too.  Just in the book of Ezekiel, we see it in Ezekiel 12:15-16 & 18-10.  We see it in Ezekiel 13:8-9, 13-14 (above), & 20-21.  First we have the sin and rebellion which the Israelites refused to admit, confess, or repent of and turn from.  Second we have the pouring out of God's wrath - typically in the form of weather disasters or acts of war.  And these Scripture references always conclude with the phrase, "... then they (or you) will know that I am the Lord."

So it seems to me that God is showing us that unconfessed and unrepented-of sin is a result of people not really knowing God.  His remedy seems to be expressing His wrath in the form of discipline or punishment that comes from natural disasters (which we call, in modern times, "acts of God").  Or God's wrath and discipline or punishment can come from acts of war - where God uses evil people to implement His discipline of those He's called to be His own.

Maybe I'm a little nutty, but I have to tell you that I can't read such passages without thinking of the natural disasters and acts of war that we have today.  The Islamic attack on the U.S. that we refer to as "9/11."  The Asian tsunami.  The earthquake in Japan.  The tornadoes in the south (of the U.S.)  The flooding of the Midwest (U.S.)  The disaster in New Orleans.  Is it possible that these things were allowed to happen - or even caused to happen - by God?  And if God did purposefully allow or cause these things, was their purpose to help us get a clue (i.e., know that He is the Lord)?

I'm not a radical, Bible-thumping, holy-roller here.  I'll be that last one to point the finger at someone else and say that their suffering is a result of sin that they haven't dealt with.  But I have to say, knowing that God never changes and His character never wavers affects how I read the Bible.  I cannot read these passages of Scripture and see these patterns of how God deals with His chosen people - and not think of what's going on in the world today.

And maybe that's the point.  Maybe, just maybe, God wants us to take a spiritual inventory when we are faced with perplexing natural disasters and acts of war.  And maybe, just maybe, He wants us to admit, confess, and repent of whatever sin we might have in our lives.  Do you suppose then, for example, that if Americans made it a habit to be diligent about repenting of our sin --- that America might experience fewer natural disasters and have less wars to fight?

Slow Down World

Did it ever occur to you that the world moves too fast? I mean too fast for human comprehension. Think about all of the things going on in this world. Most of them, if we're honest, look like problems. Starvation, poverty, pollution, wars, natural disasters, disease, economic problems. The list just goes on and on.

I'd really like to think about all of it. My honest desire is to fully process my thinking in all of these areas. You know --- give each situation and dilemma its "day in court" in my mind, so to speak. Perhaps if each thing could individually be thought out, we would have more brilliant solutions to these situations and circumstances that look so much like problems. But I find there are too many of them, and they come way to fast for me to handle them. My brain just doesn't have the compute capacity to process all these inputs in such short periods of time.

I sense that most people have this same problem. Maybe they wish for more time to think about things. But I suspect that many of us just choose not to think about them. Perhaps we figure ignorance is bliss. Or maybe we conclude that there's nothing we can do, so why waste time thinking about it. (Would that really be a waste of time?)

To be sure, there are situations and dilemmas and circumstances in the world today which man can do little about. Tsunami's and earthquakes might come to mind. Drought is a good one. It seems to be totally in the hands of God - leaving mankind with no responsibility whatsoever. Is that really accurate? Are we truly helpless when it comes to tsunami's and earthquakes and droughts? Or is it possible that we've been given the intelligence to do something --- and we just choose not to do it?

Let's look at tsunami disasters. They've been going on since the recording of time. Yet millions upon millions of people live in low-lying coastal areas that are sure to be wiped out by them. I know, we built cities near water because of transportation. But do we not have the wherewithal to withdraw those cities now --- and just don't think it's worth it? Do we not have the capacity to build tsunami-proof buildings now --- and just don't think it would be too expensive?

Earthquakes are another. I was in northern California a few years ago, in a business meeting on a high floor in a skyscraper. An earthquake hit. The building swayed and we could hear the elevators banging against the shafts. It was unnerving. But the building was undamaged. Life resumed within minutes. Couldn't we build all buildings that way? Are we not smart enough to build infrastructure to withstand earthquakes --- or do we just not think it's cost-justified?

It seems to me that mankind takes risks, based on the calculation of cost and probability. Sometimes those risks don't pay off. But I suspect that sometimes our ignorance overwhelms the situation. I'd like to see more thought given to the cost of drought --- and the cost of addressing it with technology and strategy. I'd like to see more consideration given to earthquakes and hurricanes and other natural disasters.

Perhaps I have more faith in mankind than I should. But I believe we probably have the collective intelligence to solve way more of the worlds problems than we do. I'm just not smart enough to do it by myself!