Why, God?

Old Treasures on Tuesdays 👑

“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (Ps. 30:5, NKJV).

The other day, my son showed me a meme depicting the year 2020. It was a picture of a man holding out his hands expressively, exclaiming, “Wait… there’s more!”

Right? There seemed to be no end to the overwhelmingly bad news coming through our tv screens at that time. Why?

Why did God allow such horrible things to happen?

That is exactly the same question that oppressed the minds of Jesus’ disciples when He was crucified. It seemed unthinkable to them that God would let their Master be murdered. As they watched the agonizing horror unfold, a sword pierced their hearts. Why God? Why???

We all know the end of the story. The Father was orchestrating those events with an unspeakably wonderful plan. The cruelest, darkest death was the dawn of humanity’s redemption.

The same principle applies now too. No, God did not mandate the creation of COVID; nor the slaying of innocents; nor massive destruction, division, and rage… just like He did not move Judas to betray Jesus, nor the religious and political leaders to slay Him.

He did not mandate, initiate, or fuel those events. But He was completely in charge as they unfolded. Jesus knew this in the very depths of His heart when He said to Pilate, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11, NKJV). Just as then, the Father is completely sovereign over all that has been taking place. And just like then, He has something breathtaking planned.

To shed some light on this, I’d like to share this quote I ran across the other day. Eyewitnesses of the Welsh Revival wrote these words around the year 1904:

“It is ever the darkest hour before the dawn.
The nation always seems to be given over
to the Evil One before the
coming of the Son of Man.
The decay of religious faith,
the deadness of the churches,
the atheism of the well-to-do,
the brutality of the masses, all these,
when at their worst,
herald the approach of the revival.
Things seem to get too bad to last.
The reign of evil becomes intolerable.
Then the soul of the nation awakes.”

Let your heart be comforted today. Painful events are not a heavenly “oops!” The enemy has not gained any strength, nor come up with a better strategy, nor caught God taking a nap. He remains, as ever, our utterly defeated foe. On Heaven’s undefeatable chessboard, the devil’s every move plays right into the Father’s plans for history.

God knows the end of the story. It’s this: He always wins. The soul of the nation is about to awake. And it’s going to be amazing.

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Have you experienced a time in your life personally when it was darkest before the dawn?