Inscrutable
In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. Psalm 120:1 ESV
Answered – Tell me about the last time that God answered your distress call. Did you hear His voice? Did you see His mighty arm defeating your enemy? Did you smell the aroma of His presence? What was it that convinced you that He answered? Most of us were taught that God answers prayer in three ways: yes, no and wait. But is that an answer? Suppose you directed your distress call to a friend. How would you expect him to answer? Would you be sure of his friendship if he responded to you in the same way that you experience God’s response? When we put the question like this, I’m guessing that most of us would have to say, “No. If my friend responded in the way I experience the answer of God, I wouldn’t be sure he was a friend at all.” Far too often it seems that God’s answer is little more than our interpretation of the ensuing events in God’s favor. We give God the benefit of the doubt because we actually don’t see or hear or feel any incontrovertible evidence that He really did anything at all. And if we are really honest about it, that kind of reinterpretation raises all kinds of questions about God and our relationship with Him that we would just as soon ignore. But we can’t.
The larger issue of this investigation almost overwhelms our commitment to God’s involvement. What I mean is that certainly millions of people, righteous people, innocent people, have cried out to God in horribly distressing circumstances and apparently received no answer. They died in the gas chambers, in the mass graves, at the hands of brutal torturers. Millions of children, infants who certainly did not deserve any of this, have been injured, abused and killed without a whisper from God. The Church actually perpetrated some of this hideous, non-human behavior is His name. How is that for an answer! When is the silence of God unconscionable?
You and I probably haven’t experienced this magnitude of horror, but every one of us has his own personal Auschwitz. We have all come to the place where we desperately needed God to rescue us, and I do not mean provide us with some spiritual retirement home in heaven. I mean we have needed Him to save our crops, protect a child, repair a marriage, give us hope for work or rescue us from an accident. We all have moments when only God can keep us going. Did He answer?
Don’t be thoroughly discouraged. Who knows, maybe you have heard Him and this isn’t personally discouraging at all. But even if you have, how is it that God answered you and ignored the millions who needed His protection? What made you so special? This reminds me of the man who said, “How can anyone believe in a God who would answer the prayer for a parking place at the mall and not answer the prayers of those who were going into the ovens?”
I think there is resolution. It’s not very comfortable to the Western mind because the Western mind presupposes that explanations required cause and effect links. It doesn’t seem to me that questions about answered prayer can ever provide cause and effect links. There are simply too many exceptions to the rule to make the rule valid at all. But there is another answer. That answer has to do with the paradigm of the biblical world. The Bible assumes, without causal evidence, that God does answer prayer. It assumes that whatever happens next is the will of God, either active or passive. It assumes that God is somehow in charge even if neither you nor I nor anyone on the planet can explain how this makes sense. In other words, the answer is not in the ensuing evidence. It is in the presupposition that God is sovereign and good, and no amount of disconfirming evidence can dislodge that claim. From the biblical point-of-view, God answers, period! It doesn’t matter if we can’t figure out what the answer is or even if we think it is no answer at all. The only thing that matters is the faith-claim that He does answer.
In the Bible, this is called ‘emunah. Trust. Faithfulness in the face of paradox and perplexity. Going forward when there is no forward path. Not giving up. Persistence. Tenacity. ‘emunah is not accountable to reason. It is beyond reason. That doesn’t mean it is irrational. It just means that it speaks to us from a place where reason has no answer. It is paradigmatic to biblical thought. “Yet the greatest vitamin you can provide emunah is plain exercise. In fact, an artisan is called in Hebrew an ‘uman’—because he has practiced his craft repeatedly until it becomes natural for him. So too, emunah grows taller and deeper as you accustom yourself to see all the phenomena of life as manifestations of the Creator’s presence and glory. All the more so is emunah enriched by being tested and withstanding those tests; and by making sacrifices in life for the sake of your emunah.”[1]
Does God answer prayer? Of course He does! How could I live in a world where He doesn’t? It is not a matter of explaining. It is a matter of perceiving that all the world is His no matter what.
Inscrutable does not mean impossible.
Topical Index: prayer, answer, ‘emunah, Psalm 120:1
[1] http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1398519/jewish/Emunah.htm
When I am understanding that my life, my faith, my acceptance of the free gift of God’s grace is a daily process rather than an event, I am beginning to understand that God is answering my prayers the same way. Then I start to push aside my Greek logical mind and absorb my evolving Hebrew mind and ultimately it begins to make more sense to me each day. It converts me from the verb “to live” into the participle of “living” my faith. Aha! Inscrutable in deed.
George seems to grasp this in a way I don’t. It seems to me what is being said is that God does what He wants inspite of what I want or think I need. So then why pray? I can understand obedience, worship and praise but pray for needs why? I am at the mercy of God to make my life safe and provide for my needs but there is no guarentee. His choosen, as you pointed out, were not given those basic needs so why would I believe I would warrant any more than they? It does make one want to not have the face of God turn towards you in fear that He take notice of you and what might His gaze bring to your life?
Just a quick question. Do you pray in order to get things changed according to your understanding, or do you pray because you want to know what it is that God is doing?
Honostly, I pray out fear, fear of what could happen to me or my loved ones. I pray out of desperation and only because I am desperate. Since leaving the church my prayers have been limited because I fear I not praying correctly. I learned to “take authority” to demand results and to appoach God with boldness. Now I fear that is incorrect and mostly pray out of great need and the morning Amidah as I feel that is acceptable. This is a place of disconnect for me now that I am no longer in the church.
Remember the prayers of David. All emotions are acceptable. Just let them push you toward the Father. Try praying the Psalms, really letting the words wash over you and feel what the Psalmist felt.
Thank you
Cheryl
What do I need most? If I were to line up all my needs on a sliding scale and am told that they will be provided in the order that I have determined, what would I list first, second and third? What would be far down? If I were to trade in a lesser need, on this basis, to get a greater one dealt with, would I hesitate, or would I think that was a good deal?
This issue has struck home with me in my prayers for my children. I pray for them every day. What do I want most for them? To be saved. Would I choose to pray that they be saved even if that meant that they had to go through disaster to get them to the point that they even want to be? I steel my heart. Yes. And then I pray that He keep them alive until they are. Does that mean even if they are suffering? I steel my heart again. Yes. And then I thank Him every day that they are being provided for and that there is mercy in that salvation. Just for today, I can see that He is providing lessons for them that DON’T involve major disaster. Amazing.
It is just easier to see for someone else than for myself.
I think prayers get answered when they consist of us honestly and humbly lining up our will with His. He already knows what is best for me. I still have to guess.
….. one day at a time. Give us this day….. “and Abraham died … full of years.” Not emptied of them but filled by them.
This morning’s post was punctual. Thank you!
When I was a little girl, I was sexually abused. I remembered the events only when I was in my late teens while being treated for multiple suicide attempts. After sharing with my family what had taken place years ago concerning the abuse I received no genuine support except from one sister. It took years of struggling with Scripture, myself, and with God to finally forgive my abuser, for what they had done. And now, over 40 years after the incident, I’ve found that it’s a lot easier to forgive a human abuser than it is to forgive God. I know that by writing these words down, I’m not shocking God whatsoever. He already knows that I struggle with how He answers prayers. Not just mine, but also the prayers of millions of people that are currently being oppressed throughout the world. Lately, however, I’ve come to understand that God is sovereign regardless of the evidence or the lack thereof throughout the world. I still have a lot to understand, but your lack of Christian cliches and your honest evaluations are very helpful Skip. Yes, God does answer prayers even if we don’t know how to interpret them. He still cares.
Dearest Claudia,
How brave of you to share this. Yes, God still answers. I just think that most of us are on a different wave length. How He answers is often never seen until we are finished with the race. Even then it might be inscrutable. But not forever. Some time we will see, and that hope keeps us going in spite of what happened to us, to others and to a very broken world. I too often wonder where God was when I was a child, learning messages that have altered my behavior for decades. But He was there, nevertheless, and once in awhile I caught a glimpse of Him. Now I am learning all over again, to be very real with Him and tell Him just how I feel. The theology of emotions is one of the missing books in my library. I think I will have to write it myself.
Start writing, please!
Sure, in between 140,000 miles in the air. 🙂 No, really, this is something that has been on my mind for a long time. My book Crossing is a start. Have you read it?
Why does God answer some people’s prayers even my own, and yet ignore others? How could anyone believe in a God who would answer a prayer for a parking spot at the mall but not answer millions of Jews awaiting the ovens?
When I was a child I was abused by a babysitter. I would pray that this would stop. Over a prolonged time it eventually stopped.
I found myself asking God why he wasn’t stopping it and then I started saying thinking there must be a reason.
Years later I started attending a church where I was asked to share my testimony which is a little more detailed than what I have shared here. I have also shared my testimony with many people one on one on planes, in airports, coffee shops, movie theaters, etc.
I found out that when you share your testimony people in a matter of minutes, people that I didn’t even know we’re sharing stories of their abuse of all kinds with me. It opened the door to share the Gospel. There have even been Muslims that I have also shared my testimony with.
I say all that because I really think God did whisper to people what was happening to me. Maybe my teacher, a neighbor or a friend had a feeling. But they questioned if they were hearing from God or not so they did nothing.
But even though they made mistakes and didn’t answer his call to help me, God used my situation in my testimony and it has ended up helping others. Instead of me associating my past with pain or sadness I associate my past with people’s deliverance from shame of their own abuse.
I don’t believe God allowed the Jews to be placed in the ovens. I think we allowed it. I think God was speaking to many people at that time and for fear of Hitler and social stigma we in the US ignored his whispers to us.
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein talked about this on his website 2/11/16. It is called Deicide, the killing of God. It is a concept that a Gentile church started by saying that Jews killed Jesus and are therefore to suffer eternally for that. Many Jews are aware of this and keep it in their memories. Although, many Christians have never even heard of this.
It is for this reason that organizations such as IFCJ (International Fellowship of Christians and Jews) and CUFI are important. We can give to these organizations and they give money and resources to holocaust survivors so that the Jews know that Christians have them in their prayers and are giving them food, shelter, and love.
The Holocaust was a season. The season we are in now is to help the Jews. We are God’s hands, feet, and his ears and eyes. He gave us free will to hear him and to act.
All great points. Thanks. Yes, I think god whispers all the time, and we listen to our cell phones.
If you haven’t read Crossing yet, I think you would find it useful.
Skip, please write that book on theology of emotions. That would truly be wonderful for you to share your thoughts. We seem to be warped in our expression of emotions. Luke either no talk about our sexuality or pornography. And of course men can’t be vulnerable? Women say they want that! But really?
What amazing questions. They smack one right in the ‘kisser’. Those questions scream, ‘answer that one, will you’, and ‘how about that one’, and, oh yea, ‘what about this one!’ If I am asked, ‘Why do you believe?’, my answer is often be, ‘answered prayer.’ But, when I think about it, how could I defend or explain God’s existence with that answer? “Where’s the beef” in that reply? I pray a lot for those suffering major health issues. Sometimes they make it and improve, but there is a hefty percent that don’t. God is not my servant; I am His. I need to keep reminding myself of that. When I think back over events of my past, I become ‘aware’ that something, some event, some result, some change was most likely God moving in my life. I was oblivious to that happening at the time, but now it has gained clarity. And so I am driven back to a key word that God tries to drill into our brains. ‘Remember’! It is easy to forget what God has done in the ‘noise’ of day-to-day living. That’s why God keeps bringing it up so much. ‘Remember what I have done for you.’ And so I continue to pray in spite of the fact that my prayers, at least on the surface, don’t seem to be answered, if I am honest with myself, maybe most of the time, at least to my satisfaction and in ways I can see and understand. But then, maybe the key word is ‘seem’ in that last sentence. They may not ‘seem’ to be answered, yet maybe they were in some different way that I don’t quite notice or appreciate. And so I embrace without hesitation, answers like ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I’m not sure’ or ‘I could be wrong.’ It may not be the best answer, but it’s the best I can offer today. Check back with me tomorrow!
Harvard faculty member and cardiologist Dr. Herbert Benson, after studying patients who underwent “near-death” experiences found that patients who prayed (or were prayed for), practised a relaxation, meditation, or contemplation technique of their choice recovered better than those who didn’t.
Similarly in studies of the general population blood pressure was lowered and drug consumption (legal and illegal) was reduced, sometimes dramatically such as with LSD consumers (97% of 433 quit in 22 months). Good results for smokers and hard liquor consumers were also obtained.
I know prayer works. I have seen it time without end in my own life. I also accept, that if one has stage 4 cancer or has dementia and can’t speak or move, end of life is near. My prayesr for those people is most always for healing. I recognize that most likely will not happen, yet I still pray for that healing. I am, in some sense, praying for a miracle, though I understand miracles are quite infrequent. That’s why they are called miracles. Scripture instructs us to pray and pray without ceasing. God blesses us abundantly and really ask little of us, but to walk humbly and follow His commandments. And so I remain conversant with God every day in prayer. I don’t expect a miracle. I am quite content to trust that He hears and considers. What more could I pray for.
Janel offered something very important. God whispers, asking us to intervene. Do we hear Him or are we so distracted by our own agendas? What will we offer as an excuse when He says, “I asked you to do something but you were too busy”?
Who was the worst enemy of Christ and yet was unilaterally saved by Him? What sense did that make? And then, who was the greatest of the apostles and yet suffered the rest of his life only to end in his humiliating beheading? Who prayed three times for relief, and was most worthy of a positive answer, but was denied each time? I’m sure we are all aware of Paul’s troubles but it bears repeating.
2Co 11:23 – 27 I have been in labors more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in prisons more, in deaths many times. Five times from the Jews I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. I have spent a night and a day in the deep. I have been in travels often; in dangers from waters; in dangers from robbers; in dangers from my race; in dangers from the heathen; in dangers in the city; in dangers in the wilderness; in dangers on the sea; in dangers among false brothers. I have been in hardship and toil; often in watchings; in hunger and thirst; often in fastings; in cold and nakedness;
How much more should we expect?
Dan, You may be familiar with this quote from Joseph Caryl: “God takes the most eminent and choicest of His servants for the choicest and most eminent afflictions. They who have received most grace from God are able to bear most afflictions from God. Affliction does not hit the saint by chance, but by direction. God does not draw His bow at a venture. Every one of His arrows goes upon a special errand and touches no breast but his against whom it is sent. It is not only the grace, but the glory of a believer when we can stand and take affliction quietly.”
As for your question “how much more’, the prophets say much more; the coming tribulation and the Day of The Lord will be so hard that “men’s hearts will fail them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken” and “that unless those days be shortened, no flesh should be saved”. No offense to Shaul and his tribulations, but I think what is coming will make his many trials, as he stated: a “light, momentary affliction”.
How about recovery from stage 4 cancer by my son and your nephew more than 10 years ago, appropriately in Mount Sinai Hospital, and described by David above; ” I also accept, that if one has stage 4 cancer or has dementia and can’t speak or move, end of life is near.”
When Bad Things Happen To Good People
It’s going to happen. It happens to everyone. Tragedy, trials, temptations and tears are universal. Common to man. All men everywhere. These are no “respecter” of race or religion. We have been promised: “in this world you will have tribulation.” Storms happen. And so does sunshine.
Remember those covenant vows? “In sickness and in health?” “In sorrow and in wealth?” Both “ups and downs..” Life happens. But. (selah, pause for effect). Again, “but.” (I love Bible “buts!” -they are huge!) In His words, the words of One who is incapable of anything but the truth, “but be of good cheer!” (?) Oh? How can this be?
How can anyone (after this just “happened”) still be joyful? “Rejoice in the LORD,” – (when?) – Always.
How is this even possible during this “crisis?” It is because of what He, the One who is “Truth Incarnate” has said. “I have already overcome the world.” Are you now ready to listen? When the student is ready, the Teacher will show up. The wild stallion needs to be “meeked.” Broken and beautiful. “Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (?) What meaneth this? What is the meaning of this (seeming) madness?
What does “trouble” teach us? Friend, welcome to Life 101. We learn by “doing.” Doing Life. Together.
C.S. Lewis writes: “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Oy. May I have your attention, please? Are we chastened randomly? – or purposefully? Helpful household hint! – God (Hallelujah!) never “wastes” anything!!
Again, are we [now] ready to listen? What do the Scriptures say? (that’s how we roll..) ~ There is no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is Faithful, [amen!] who will not allow you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation [the test, the trial] also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it ~ (1 Corinthians 10,13) Sometimes smashed, other times stretched.. but at all times (both “good and bad”) – “looking unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith!” And by the way, ~ although He was a son, He [also] learned obedience through the things He suffered! ~ (Hebrews 5.8) Friends, ~ the servant is not above His Master ~ The crucible is for refining silver and the furnace is for gold, likewise the LORD will test our hearts!
~ Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.~
James records it a little different…
1: 1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad,
greeting.
2My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3Knowing this, that the
trying of your faith worketh patience. 4But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be
perfect and entire, wanting nothing. 5If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to
all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 6But let him ask in faith, nothing
wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7For let
not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 8A double minded man is unstable
in all his ways.
5: 13Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. 14Is any sick among
you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil
in the name of the Lord: 15And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him
up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 16Confess your faults one to another,
and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much. 17Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that
it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 18And
he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. 19Brethren, if any
of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; 20Let him know, that he which converteth the
sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
Now this reflection says Asking God and Praying have two different meanings in the original text. Can anyone help me understand the difference as it is clear that God answers prays but only answers questions when they will lead to gaining wisdom…