{"id":6992,"date":"2015-10-09T00:05:08","date_gmt":"2015-10-09T07:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=6992"},"modified":"2015-10-08T11:46:26","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T18:46:26","slug":"mad-at-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/10\/09\/mad-at-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Mad at God"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou heavens above, rain down righteousness;
\nlet the clouds shower it down.
\nLet the earth open wide,
\nlet salvation spring up,
\nlet righteousness grow with it;
\nI, the LORD, have created it.
\n\u201cWoe to him who quarrels with his Maker,
\nto him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground.
\nDoes the clay say to the potter,
\n\u2018What are you making?\u2019
\nDoes your work say,
\n\u2018He has no hands\u2019?
\nWoe to him who says to his father,
\n\u2018What have you begotten?\u2019
\nor to his mother,
\n\u2018What have you brought to birth?\u2019
\n\u201cThis is what the LORD says\u2014
\nthe Holy One of Israel, and its Maker:
\nConcerning things to come,
\ndo you question me about my children,
\nor give me orders about the work of my hands?
\nIt is I who made the earth
\nand created mankind upon it.
\nMy own hands stretched out the heavens;
\nI marshaled their starry hosts.
\nI will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness:
\nI will make all his ways straight.
\nHe will rebuild my city
\nand set my exiles free,
\nbut not for a price or reward,
\nsays the LORD Almighty.\u201d (Isaiah 45:8-13)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just because you got mad at God doesn\u2019t mean that you should have. God is God and we aren\u2019t. Israel suffered because it deserved to suffer. The nation had failed to worship God exclusively, chasing after meaningless idols instead. They had mistreated their neighbors and one another. But no one had a right to criticize God for how things turned out or for the pain and inconvenience they might experience, any more than a broken bit of pottery on the ground had any cause to be speaking ill of the artist who made pots.<\/p>\n

God made the universe and everything within it. And when he made it all, he announced that it was all very good, from beginning to end. How could it be otherwise with God as its maker? The heavens above declare the glory of God and the same from the earth below. Is there suffering, is there evil? God is still in control and still going about the business of building his universe. The unfinished pot has no cause for criticism or concern. In the end, it will look just fine. A half baked thing never looks so good. But wait until you taste the finished bread!<\/p>\n

Even Cyrus, a man who didn\u2019t even know God, would do just what God wanted and in a wonderful way. <\/p>\n

We can only see a tiny portion of eternity, the smallest fraction that exists during the course of our single lifespan. We don\u2019t see enough of the finished pot to legitimately criticize the artist putting it all together.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou heavens above, rain down righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness grow with it; I, the LORD, have created it. \u201cWoe to him who quarrels with his Maker, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6992"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6992"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6994,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6992\/revisions\/6994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}