Most people think of this time on earth as our whole life. But God’s perspective is that this world is a blink-of-an-eye part of our full eternal life. If you have not read our word picture on a 6-year-old, now would be a good time because it shows how God built into our design why we should agree that sometimes allowing bad things to happen can be a good thing. It may be one of the useful word-pictures in helping you to understand what God is doing in this world and why we should agree it is a good thing.
https://whatsgoddoing.com/faqs/the-6-year-old-picture-story/
This time on this world accomplishes two things:
- Exposes those that will not accept God (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)
- Let’s us see what happens when we get to do things our own way instead of His (James 4:4, Romans 1:18-22, John 16:8-9)
An honest look around this world should show us that how we use our freewill causes much strife. Of course we think those problems would go away if those other 8 billion people would listen to our wisdom 🙂
Like a loving and wise parent, God is nurturing us towards maturity and protecting us from influences we are not ready to handle (Romans 1:18). We see throughout the Old Testament (Tanakh) where God disciplined His children when they established a pattern of rejecting Him. We also see there how God punished those that attacked His children.
On the page about God’s unconditional love, we see some things that a loving and wise parent does including:
- Love regardless of whether or not their child is acting wisely and caring.
- Have good intentions for the guidance, opportunities, rewards and consequences that they give.
- Provide helpful feedback on both good and bad behaviors and attitudes.
That last one is important. Nurturing a child requires both rewards and consequences. This page is focused on the consequences. But all must be done with loving intentions and tailored to the specific child’s attitudes and behaviors.
Two major buckets
- God’s discipline of His children when they continually rebel even after being warned (e.g. Israel)
- God’s wrath on those that reject Him (which includes rejecting His truths)
Those that do acknowledge that God is more wise and loving than them may experience love based discipline, but will spend eternity with others that have Him and will be in a beautiful place full of wholesome relationships for all of eternity.
God allows bad things to happen for good reasons. Two things happen when we are allowed to have freewill and we don’t trust Him. The two purposes of us getting freewill (2 Peter 1:5-7):
- We understand truth better when reject it and then experience the natural consequences of those actions.
- We understand love better when we mess up and see a hand reaching to lift us up and lovingly talk through what happened.
Some background info on the people that were occupying the Promised Land that God sent Israel into after leaving Egypt. The Canaanites that occupied the Promised Land had some really hideous practices such as child sacrifices (Deuteronomy 12:31, Leviticus 18:21). God knew this and did not want His children (Israel) doing the same. But, He knew that if they co-existed in the same land, that they would — and they did (Psalms 106:37-38, Ezekiel 23:39). That is why God gave the Canaanites 3 choices: flee, fully convert and integrate into Judaism, or death.
Another thing to realize is that God is not only looking at our actions, but is looking at our attitudes also. Attitudes matter because they show if we are really living loving lives. (Matthew 5:21-48)
Have you read the word-picture of the 6-year-old yet? God is letting use our free will to understand love and truth better. But we need to listen to, trust and follow His loving wisdom to really understand how He is much more loving and wise than us.
Bible verses:
- Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 This is the parable of wheat and tares/weeds. It says that we are given this time to expose that that reject God and His truths.
- Romans 1:18-22 This passage says that God has made His truths evident and those that reject them profess to be wise, but are actually fools.
- John 16:8-9 “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me.”
- Deuteronomy 12:31, Leviticus 18:21 Examples of things like child sacrifices by the people in the Promised Land
- Psalms 106:37-38, Ezekiel 23:39 Examples of Israel doing the child sacrifices they learned
- 2 Peter 1:5-7 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.
- Matthew 5:21-48 A summary of one thing we are supposed to learn on this earth – attitudes are as important as actions because they affect relationships. In this passage, we see statements by Jesus such as verbally condemning someone is equivalent to murder and that lust is the same as actual adultery. It also talks about not only loving your friends, but also your enemies.