Why does God care?
Meditation for the week of May 31, 2009
Hebrews 2:6-7
But one testified in a certain place, saying: "What is man that You are mindful of him, Or the son of man that You take care of him?
You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, And set him over the works of Your hands.
Why does God care about sinful rebellious man? Man was made innocent and placed in a privileged place in the Garden of Eden. He was given authority over all the works of God’s hands according to King David in Psalm 8. Apparently that authority has not been rescinded even though I personally do not want to meet lions or bears or cougars or other wild animals when I am alone and when they are on the war path. I think they might have authority over me.
Man was the crowning act of God’s creation. He made a creature that could represent Him as His image. He made a creature that could communicate with Him since He made man in his likeness. No other part of God’s creation could think and talk to God like man could. And in that original state, man and God had unhindered fellowship in the Garden.
Satan spoiled all of that. By convincing Eve that she was missing out because she could not eat from the fruit of one tree even everything else was available to her, she disobeyed and her husband disobeyed. Because of the change in man’s nature when sin entered the world, man who had been made for God, started remaking God into his own image. To this day, most people won’t worship God unless He makes sense to them and acts like they think He ought to act. Man in his pride has turned away from God and has spoiled the work of God’s hands.
Man has proven to be disobedient in every different governmental program that God has provided for him. Adam fell in the Garden of Eden. His descendents became so wicked that God destroyed the society of that day with a flood. Noah was spared from the destruction that came on a lawless world, but it wasn’t long before the Canaanites and others had turned to idolatry. After the world was destroyed by the flood, the society of that day wanted to approach God their own way at the Tower of Babel in Gen 11. This created confusion that is evidenced by the many languages spoken in the world to this day. God spared the Israelites in a miraculous way and brought them into the promised land so that He might have a people that would be faithful to Him and instead of that they turned to idolatry. Ultimately, man who was made for God, crucified the Lord even though He was the one who had created them (Colossians 1:16).
Why would God care about a rebellious people like this? Why not just destroy them all and start over? Why does he have patience with individuals who, like the prodigal son of Luke 15, want to go their own way and do not want God to restrict their lives in any way? Some people think that the unanswerable question is “Where did God come from?†I think it is “Why does God care?â€
But He does. He cares for the unsaved and the only reason He hasn’t returned is because He is not willing that any should perish. 2nd Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slack (slow) concerning His promise (to return), as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.†I like that little word ALL.
And after He has saved us He cares. 1st Peter 5:6-7 says, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
Why does He care? I don’t know. Does He care? YES!
Bruce Collins