Have you ever read something about God in the Bible and
thought, “wow, that can’t mean what
it sounds like it means – God’s not like that”? There was one verse that we read in our passage on Sunday
that made a somewhat startling statement about the sovereign control that
Yahweh exerts over His creation. Some
of us may have had a strong impulse to rescue God from that verse…but does He really
need our rescue?
You’ll remember that one of the objections Moses raised to
the Lord’s call was that he was not an eloquent speaker, to which Yahweh
responded, "Who has made man's
mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the
LORD?” (Exo 4:11).
Who makes the mute man mute? Yahweh. Who
makes the deaf woman deaf?
Yahweh. Who determines if a
particular person is seeing or blind?
Yahweh. We could extend
that to other things as well. Who
makes the cancerous child cancerous?
Yahweh. Who makes the
stillborn baby stillborn?
Yahweh.
In much of modern Christianity, people struggle with how to
explain what some have called natural
evil, which would include natural disasters and disease. How do we explain tsunamis and
earthquakes? How do we explain
that some people are born with extreme birth defects? Some Christians would immediately begin to describe man’s
fall into sin and the effects that sin has had on this world. Those effects include natural evil and
so when we see these kinds of things – hurricanes that kill and children born
blind – we should be reminded of Adam’s fall into sin and how horrible sin
is. God doesn’t want these things
to happen; man chose them when he chose sin. In other words, some explanation is found that lays the
genesis for these disasters somewhere other than at the feet of Almighty
God. “Man chose to sin. Sin caused these things. So in a sense man caused them and sin
caused them, but God did not. God
is as bothered by them as you are.”
Others in the church, recognizing that the Bible claims more
sovereignty for God, seek to accommodate that teaching while still absolving
God of responsibility for natural disasters and sicknesses. They explain that God selectively
“allows” certain disasters to happen.
He “allows” particular illnesses to take shape in the womb; He prevents others. So God is like a gatekeeper, not
causing these things to take place, but allowing certain ones to pass. I find this option attractive although
the text of Scripture, including Exodus 4:11, the more I read it, persuades me
that this is an inappropriate explanation. Who makes him mute, or deaf, or
seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?
We have an impulse to rescue God from responsibility for
birth defects and illnesses and earthquakes where He seems to feel no such
compulsion. Being recognized as
the creator of mute mouths, deaf ears, and blind eyes does not appear to be
problematic to Him. He claims responsibility with absolutely no
apologetic explanation.
In Exodus 4:11-12, Yahweh says, “I make mouths. All of
them. I make them work well. I make them work poorly. I make eyes, too. I make them see and not see. I make ears, too. I make them hear and not hear.” And He offers no explanation to get
Himself off the hook, even though we are so eager for Him to do so. He appears to want us to understand
that He is in control even of these kinds of things.
But there is a “therefore.” Yahweh wanted Moses to trust Him with his mouth and speech because He created it and was Lord over
it. Why was Moses not “a man of
words” as the original more literally reads? It’s not that God allowed
this to happen to Moses. God made him that way. Why? So that Moses would trust in Him and not himself.
Paul finds the same thing at work in his own trials in 2 Cor
1. The apostle describes his and
his companions being burdened beyond their own strength, so burdened that they
despaired of life itself. They
felt that they had received the death sentence. But this burden came with a purpose. “That
was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (2 Cor 1:8-11). The trial, horrific and terrifying, was from the
hand of God for the purpose of God.
I’m challenged more and more by passages like Exodus 4:11-12
to let the Bible teach me about God, to accept and embrace what it teaches, and
to resist the impulse to rescue Him from what the Bible says. Where He shows no desire to rescue
Himself, He must want to be there, and I have no business removing Him.
We’ll have more opportunities to consider these things as we
continue in Exodus and as we continue our Wednesday night series, Walking in the Excellencies of God. If you have questions, join us for
both!
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