Why?
Meditation for the week of May 15, 2011
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?"
Why did Eve eat the forbidden fruit and change the course of history? She had a husband who loved her and all the blessings of the Garden of Eden. Adam and presumably Eve actually talked with God so she knew who He was and she knew His commands. He said that she couldn’t eat of that one tree and Satan knew how to get her to do that. He simply questioned the command of God as well as the consequences of disobedience. Why when she had it so good did she make such a bad choice? Why?
Solomon was put on the throne by God Himself. He was to be the King of Peace that would build the temple of God (1 Chronicles 22:9-10). When Solomon was young and humble, God talked to Him and asked him what he wanted. He said that he wanted wisdom. God gave that to him as well as riches and honor (1 Kings 3:13). The Lord appeared unto Solomon a second time in 1 Kings 9 and warned him that faithfulness to the Lord would result in his family ruling forever, but unfaithfulness would result in Israel being cast out of the land that had been given to them. Why when Solomon had talked with God and had been given precious promises would he turn aside to the worship of idols and pagan gods late in life? Why would he trade blessing for a curse? Why was God real to him when he was young, but not so real to him when he was older? Why?
Jeroboam was made king over ten tribes of the Kingdom of Israel. He was given the tribes by the commandment of God and by the prophetic word the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite in 1 Kings 11:29-31. Why if God had given him the ten tribes didn’t he look to God to help him keep the ten tribes? Instead, he was worried that the Israelites would go to Jerusalem to worship and he would lose the loyalty of those who did that. Because he lacked confidence in God, he set up idols and a competing system of worship in Dan and Bethel. Why would a man who had been established by God, turn his back upon God? Why would he think that he needed to help God fulfill his promise to him? Why?
Then again, there is Belshazzar in Daniel 5. His grandfather Nebuchadnezzar had been humbled before God and had eaten grass like a big cow for seven years. The Lord had preserved his kingdom for him so that when he came back to his senses, he was able to rule again. Through this experience he became a convert to the worship of the Most High God, the King of Heaven. Belshazzar, his grandson knew this story and yet he rebelled against God. When his judgment came, he was told by Daniel in Daniel 5:22, "You are his (Nebuchadnezzar’s) successor, O Belshazzar, and you knew all this, yet you have not humbled yourself.” Why would Belshazzar be so foolish as to use the holy vessels from the temple in Jerusalem that Babylon had destroyed in his drunken orgy? Of course, he was defying God. Why would he do this? Why?
Mankind is prone to make foolish decisions. Many of them could be considered irrational. The prodigal son had to “come to himself” in order to realize that true blessing was back home in the Father’s house (Luke 15:17). I think that this passage implies that he was “out of his mind” until he “came to himself” and began thinking clearly. We often make irrational decisions because of sin and because of stubborn foolishness. The prodigal son repented. That is when he “came to himself.” That is when he entered into the blessings that his Father wanted for him. So the answer to the “why” is because by nature we are “out of our minds” or “beside ourselves” until we “come to ourselves” and believe in the Lord Jesus.
Why would the Lord Jesus leave the blessings and glory of heaven to come to this earth? Why would he humble himself and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8)? He did that so that those who are “out of their minds” can have their sins righteously forgiven. Why would anyone reject what Christ has done for them? Why?
Bruce Collins