The God Who Knows Why

          As Christians, we have a Mighty God! During the Christmas season, we are reminded of Jesus being our Mighty God a lot. Our God is Mighty to save! He came to earth two thousand years ago, and He is coming again to make all things new. It’s easy to affirm this during the Christmas season. It’s more difficult to apply this as we move into a New Year, and as we look back on the old.

          The year ahead may seem daunting, our future uncertain, and, if we are honest, as we think about what might come in this year, we begin to feel queasy. Our God is Mighty from eternity past, from the manger to the cross, and He has told how everything will end – that He will win and bring His church to final victory.

          Yet, what about this year? What about all the pain and loss we’ve experienced this past year, and the pain and loss that threatens our minds when we think about the year stretched out before us?

          The “Why?” questions enter our minds: “Why did God allow that, and why are things the way they are? Yes, God is Mighty and in charge. Yes, He still saves. Yes, He controls the future. But why have all these things happened? How is God Mighty in all of life, even when it goes horribly wrong?

          In Isaiah 41, God confronts the idols of the people. The One True God puts them on trial: if they are gods, let them prove it! If they are Mighty, let them see with their eyes, hear with their ears, move with their feet, and save with an outstretched arm (Psalm 115:4-8 ESV, Psalm 135:15-18 ESV)! God challenges the idols that are sustained by human beings to do two things: First, tell the future. Second, tell us events that happened in the past and, more importantly, the purpose of what happened.[1]

          It’s as though He says “Tell us not only past and future events – that’s easy! Now tell us why those events happened and will happen.” To the eternal God over all time and reality, revealing events that will happen isn’t a big deal. He is more interested in why things happen. “It is one thing to recount past events as a historian, but to know why they happened – only the Sovereign Lord of eternity itself can do that.”[2]

²²Let them bring them, and tell us

what is to happen.

Tell us the former things, what they are,

that we may consider them,

that we may know their outcome;

or declare to us the things to come.

²³Tell us what is to come hereafter,

that we may know that you are gods;

do good, or do harm,

that we may be dismayed and terrified.

²⁴Behold, you are nothing,

and your work is less than nothing;

an abomination is he who chooses you (Isaiah 41:22-24, ESV).

Unlike the god’s of human creation and imagination, we have a God who knows why. A God who helps us begin to understand why things happen the way they do. And, more importantly, a God who provides Books like Isaiah to help us see that we can trust Him. In the Bible we can see that not only does He control everything in the past, present, and future; and not only does He know what has happened, is happening, and what will happen; but He also knows why it all happens.

          With this God, evil can truly be evil, and we can still truly have hope. With this God, even if everything does go horribly, horribly wrong this year, we can still be thankful because we have a Mighty God who we can turn to with our “Why?” questions. We can still say with Job, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; even so, blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21, KJV).

          More than this though – more than the fact that our God knows the why to all things, our God is intimately invested in the answers of the “Why?” questions of our lives. Preaching on Psalm 17:8 for the New Year, Peter Mead said this:

[Our English versions read “Keep me as the apple of your eye.” That’s an English phrase meant to communicate the sense of what the original intends to mean.] But actually what it says [more literally] is really cool. It says “Keep me as the little person of your eye.”

Imagine – this is pure imagination, you can’t actually do this for several reasons – but imagine if you could have access to God Himself with a camera. Imagine you could zoom in, on the throne of heaven and there’s God. You zoom in on His eye, you go closer with the camera – you go really close and you zoom right in so that you see the pupil, the black bit in the middle, the bit that reflects what you’re looking at. What do you see there? You see you.

You’re the little person of His eye. His eye is on you. He treasures you. He values you. He loves you.[3]

          We may not know the answers to the “Why?” questions we have in this life. But this we can know for sure – God not only knows why, but His answer is far better than we could ever imagine!

For I am the LORD your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

I give Egypt as your ransom,

Cush and Seba in exchange for you.

Because you are precious in my eyes,

and honored, and I love you,

I give men in return for you,

peoples in exchange for your life (Isaiah 43:3-4 ESV).

          One day Jesus will open the scroll of Revelation 5 – the scroll of history. He will roll up the universe like a scroll. He will write this history’s final chapter. All the evil things which were truly evil, and all the good things that were not ours to taste will be taken into account. All those scares and wounds will be bandaged and healed. Time’s misty gloom will be broken, and history’s dark veil will be drawn back. We will see Jesus, and by Him we will truly see everything else. Our Mighty God will Personally wipe away our tears. And then we will also know why.

          For now, this New Year, let us trust Him. Day by day, let us lean on Him. Day by day, let us in hope look to the God who knows why.

“Fear not, for I am with you;

…

bring my sons from afar

and my daughters from the end of the earth,

everyone who is called by my name,

whom I created for my glory,

whom I formed and made” (Isaiah 43:5-7).

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[1] James White. The Forgotten Trinity, p.42

[2] James White. The Forgotten Trinity, p.42

[3] Peter Mead, paraphrase. TC Sunday Service – 31/12/23, https://www.youtube.com/live/xSLEMSSTvM0?si=kiSixD_37P4Xpwjb