“Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” John 11: 40
Abraham didn’t understand why God would tell him to sacrifice Isaac. “My son, Isaac, is the one whom you promised me, God! Sara and I have waited so long. Tell me again why you want me to sacrifice him to you?” I can also hear poor Joseph crying for help as he was being thrown into that deep pit by his brothers, and then later asking, “Why am I rotting away in this rat infested Egyptian prison? I’m innocent! Why all of this cruelty, God?
“God, I just don’t understand why my loved one died. I don’t understand why I lost my job. Why did she get promoted instead of me? I’m better qualified. Why is this sickness allowed to afflict me?” Why, why, why… there seems to be a zillion things we can’t wrap our heads around. God does give us a general answer (for My Glory) to the “why’s,” but the thing that bothers us about that answer is that we want specifics! Let’s look at the above scripture again…
“Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”
Jesus said this when Lazarus died. I think Mary and Martha were dumbfounded. “Jesus, we just don’t understand how you could allow the man you love so much to die. Why have you allowed such sorrow and suffering to devastate our lives? We just don’t get it. Our brother has been dead for four days.”
The only thing we can do when were plagued with the “whys” is go to the only source of truth we have. We have to trust God. We have to trust what He has promised us. We have to be women and men of the Word. It’s critical that we build our house on the Rock, where the wind and the waves can never take us completely out.
So getting back to Abraham… he believed God when He told him that He would make him the father of many nations, and that He would do this through Isaac. So how could that happen if Isaac was dead? Bottom line is that Abraham trusted God and believed that even if Isaac was sacrificed, God would raise him from the dead or something? He knew God wouldn’t lie, and would somehow come through on His promise. Abraham saw God’s glory when Isaac was restored to him. When we look at Joseph, the dreams God had given him before his adversity started, carried him through the hard times that were ahead of him. Joseph saw God’s glory when he became second in command of all of Egypt. The common denominators in both of these men are trust and confidence in that what God has promised will come to pass – one way or another.
And so it is with us… understanding isn’t required, but understanding that God understands is.