Cheering for God can be confusing

Published 10:01 am Friday, July 15, 2005

By Staff
Many times cheerleaders seem to be making a lot of noise on the sidelines without having a clue about what is going on in the game.
If we were God, which we are not, the devil would already be in hell, bad people (from our perspective) would be punished, and good people (from our perspective) would be rewarded. We would have neat, tidy packages; there would not be, from our perspective, so many loose ends.
God is God and we are not; and believe it or not, it is best that way. The average person thinks more like an average cheerleader than they do a perfect God.
The prophet Isaiah declared of God in Isaiah, chapter 55, verses 8-9, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."
Aren't you glad God is not as petty, vindictive, and fickle as we can be? We can have great confidence in the Living God of Heaven. He is the righteous judge, He is holy, and He is good, very good.
The biggest problem most of us have with God is that He does not move as fast as we would like. Have you ever thought, "Come on, God, what an opportunity for You!" For those who believe in and follow God, the end result, though not as we thought, is always best.
Two good illustrations of God moving in unexpected ways are shown in the life of King Ahab and with the city of Nineveh.
King Ahab was wicked. God said of him in 1 Kings, chapter 16, verse 33, "Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him." Ahab married the heathen princess, Jezebel, he worshipped idols, and he had Naboth killed and stole his vineyard.
God seemingly had enough of Ahab. He sent Elijah to Ahab to say, "Behold, I will bring calamity on you, I will take away your posterity, and will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, both bond and free" (1 Kings 21:21).
Elijah delivered the message, probably expecting the judgment of God against Ahab to be swift and harsh. Verse 27 of 1 Kings 21 tells us when Ahab heard the message, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and fasted and mourned.
We would have concluded that what Ahab did was too little, too late, but God said to Elijah in verse 29, "See how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity in his days." We groan from the sidelines, feeling cheated out of watching Ahab pay for his disobedience.
Nineveh was a wicked city. God sent the prophet Jonah to tell them they had 40 days before God would wipe them out (Jonah 3:4). Jonah had some problems with God, as he stated in Jonah, chapter 4, verse 2. Jonah said he ran away from God and the mission to Nineveh because he knew God was gracious, merciful, slow to anger, "abundant in loving kindness, one who relents from doing harm." Jonah was so upset at the repentance and the sparing of Nineveh that he asked God to just kill him (Jonah 4:3).
God seems to hang His prophets out to dry because He seemingly will turn on a dime if He sees brokenness in the hearts of those He is working with.
Cheering for God is just that - cheering for Him, not what He does. God is sovereign and does what He wants to do. He does not have to answer to us for His actions.
We should rejoice that God is so good, otherwise you and I would just be crispy critters. So how about three "Hallelujahs!" for God, just because He is!