The Finest Detail

"In God's point-of-view, what are last minute twists of fate, are certainties."

SOME QUESTIONS we ask don’t need an answer. Take Israel’s desire for a king, for instance. God did not want Israel to look like the surrounding nations, which all had a king. But Israel wanted a king so that they could look like the surrounding nations. And God gave them their wish, but He had the prophet Samuel tell them it wasn’t His will.

He chose King Saul and anointed him to be king. King Saul, in time, would sin and have that anointing removed. God then chose David, a man after His own heart.

Now, we can look ahead in time. David would be the ancestor of Jesus the Messiah, and Jesus would become genetic King of Israel through David's line. He is King of Kings because of His sacrifice and His inheritance from God the Father. Logically, then, without Saul becoming king, there wouldn't be any kings and thus no King David or, following this thought, Jesus as King of the Jews.

The question could be asked, What if God had said, “There will be no king,” and refused to give them a king?

There's no need to answer. There was no “if.” We like to speculate, as if there are other possibilities. I remember reading a book series that rewrote history. As entertaining as that thought is, with God, things are so specific that what looks like other possibilities really isn't. In God’s point-of-view, what are last minute twists of fate, are certainties. We lean this way and that to see what people will decide, when God already knows. I mean, what is the likelihood that He would choose Mary as the mother of His Son, and she wouldn’t find the angel’s words strange but would accept them? What was the possibility of Joseph her husband, trusting her, and him descending from David's line of kings?

We can ask similar questions from the stories in the Word. We can ask many things about Joseph being sold into Egypt. What if his brothers had believed him? What if he’d died in prison? What if there’d been no famine? There’s no need for an answer. Psalm 139 speaks to me on this wise. How specific God is, that He knows our every thought, every word before it is spoken. He knows our frame and saw us being formed in our mother's womb. We think this is poetic and, of these things which have happened in time that He has used for our good, that God is just good at coping. But no, He knows everything down to the nth detail. He is perfect at timing. What we can't see that WILL happen and who will try to goof it up, He already knows. And He has a plan, a specific one. He is not at the whim of anyone, ever.

And so we can also consider Moses’ pleading with God to forgive Israel. We focus on God's anger, but God was focused on Moses' anger. God forgave Israel when Moses pleaded for Him to be merciful. But why did He say what He said that Moses had to plead with Him in the first place? Was He serious about making a new nation from Moses’ lineage? The better question is, Who blew up at the sight of Israel worshipping, in disgustingness, the golden calf? Moses. He broke the tablets written with the finger of God then gathered the priests of the tribe of Levi and killed some 3,000 people. And looking ahead, what kept Moses out of the Promised Land? His anger. So we can ask why God said what He did, but there is only one point —that He wanted Moses to see Moses and then change his behavior.

“Why, God, why?” Is a legitimate question. But there is only a specific answer. And God is the only one who can give it, although most of the time, what He wants from us is maturity and our trust in His love for us. He wants us to know His character, how He reacts to our needs, and this is spelled out in the Word. To know God fully requires our time and dedication. We should be so in love with Him that any questions about His willingness and ability fall away, and we have no doubts. We should desire Him so much that we never lack confident belief in His goodness.

“Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes.” (Psalms 119:68)

What we desire, we will know for sure because we put all of our efforts into obtaining it. What we fear, we will push away from and hold off of. Fear always comes in ignorance of our safety. When we don't know the extent of God's love, truly know it for ourselves, we will not trust Him. And when we don't trust Him, we will ask unanswerable questions.

God is specific, and what He does is impossible without Him.

Jesus had to be born at that specific hour, so that Joseph and Mary would be in Bethlehem. He had to be crucified in that specific manner in order to fulfill the Old Covenant Law. The temple was razed by the Romans years after His death. His ministry couldn’t have happened then. Jesus had to be flogged in that manner to demonstrate God's commitment to our healing. The Father was specific. By Jesus' wounds we are made whole of any type of sickness, disease, injury, or mental malady (Isaiah 53:4-5; 1 Peter 2:24). Jesus healed every type of ailment from genetic problems to psychological troubles and supernatural ones. He did not pick 12 random people to follow Him but those chosen by His Father, and after His death, He specifically chose the apostle Paul, who was not a writer, to pen most of the New Testament.

Jesus had to be buried in Joseph of Arimathea's tomb, a rich man's grave, in a known location. No one could then question where He'd been laid. It had to be done the midnight before the Sabbath so there’d be no activity there. And Mary and the women had to be the ones to find the grave empty, not the disciples. There'd be no question if they rolled away the stone and stole the body. Although the Pharisees tried to make it sound that way to those outside of Jesus' inner circle, notice the payoff of the Roman guards is in the Bible.

“Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!)” (Ephesians 1:3-6 MSG)

We feel hidden and overlooked. We think no one sees us and understands. We suffer more through loneliness and our misunderstanding of God’s nature, sure that what we face is too hard and God is too far away to care. The truth is, that our big God, in His awesome power, sees each one of us individually. The Holy Spirit has heard every conversation ever spoken by humans and supernatural beings even before He created time. He knows you.

I asked Him once why He took six days to create the earth. After all, He could have done it in seconds. He said, "I created time to end time." See God’s nature in this. He made seeds to die and reproduce their like kind before there was any death. He gave Jesus a body before the earth was formed then, at the right time, made Adam in His image after His likeness. He knew Noah would be the last man to preach God's goodness and man's need for obedience. That the whole world would become violent, except for eight souls was not a surprise to Him. He knew, despite the flood, that plant life would rebound, and from one male elephant and one female elephant would come herds of elephants.

He knew all that led up to Jesus, and Jesus planned to not remember who He was for a time, so that sin could be defeated once and for all. He planned to suffer, and He planned to live, and there'd be each one of us, known to Him by name, standing alongside Him, alive with Him. To Him, seeing it all as God does, it was doable down to the finest detail. To Him, it was worth it.

“This is too glorious, too wonderful to believe! I can never be lost to your Spirit! I can never get away from my God!” (Psalm 139:6-7 TLB)

“For You formed my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.” (Psalms 139:13)

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com