Thought for Today
Daniel 2:19 Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night, and Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
Daniel 2:28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has disclosed to King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen at the end of days.
1 Corinthians 2:1 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom.
Ephesians 1:8 With all wisdom and insight 9 he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ,
Every minister I have known has said some version of, “I went to seminary to get all the answers; I left seminary with more questions.” There is a basic misunderstanding of what seminaries are and what they do. They do not give you all the answers to the mysteries of life! My own seminary education did expose me to the wisdom of Thomas Aquinas. “The quote ‘Whatever you think is God is not God, because God is more than you can imagine’ is attributed to Thomas Aquinas.” (Bing Search). “Aquinas suggests that humanity's understanding of God is bounded by our inability to comprehend the true nature of the divine. Instead, we are left with a more limited understanding based on what God is not rather than what He is.” (www.socratic-method.com)
Life is full of mysteries. Why is 2+2 always equal to 4? Why is the avocado pit so big? Why is everything which tastes so good bad for me? Of more concern to these Thoughts and for everyone reading them, why does evil exist? Why? Why? Why? We are left in a quandary. To know the answers to life’s questions, we would have to be able to understand the mind of God.
There are mysteries. There are mysteries we have unraveled over time through mathematics and science. There are mysteries we are still working on and will ultimately solve. However, there will always be mysteries unresolved. Why?
The Bible doesn’t say too much about mysteries, about the ‘whys’ of life. The word mystery only appears in one book of the Old Testament, Daniel. It is not much more frequently used in the New Testament. One of the more glaring examples concerns that question about evil. Why does evil exist? Where did evil come from? The writers of our scriptures just assumed the existence of evil, the ubiquitousness of evil.
The psalmist struggled with the whole question of trying to understand God, asking, “8:3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? 5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.”
I thought about all of this yesterday as I watched the television meteorologists report on the current hurricane, Melissa, and all the devastation it is causing. Why are there hurricanes? I did learn some things about pressure gradients, water saturation of the atmosphere and other related issues when I studied thermodynamics. I found it interesting then; although, long years later it seems much less so. All of that knowledge does not answer the question of why God created Creation the way God created Creation. Why are there hurricanes, tornadoes, hailstorms, nor’easters, blue northers, etc.?
Is it important that I understand the mind of God? That I can comprehend the ‘why’ of God’s Creation? There certainly would be some advantage to better understanding all the factors which govern the development and movement of devastating weather phenomena. If you have watched the tracking of Melissa, you have seen the various predictions from all the mathematical models. We learned living along the Texas Gulf Coast that no model is correct until the storm is 2 blocks from your home.
What is it that we do need to understand about the mind of God? “Psalm 8:5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.” Surely, "John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17 Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” I didn’t need seminary to teach me that; I learned that in Vacation Bible School, more than 10 years ago!
Stay safe, know that it is okay to ask questions, trust God,
Pastor Ray