God Will Be No Man’s Debtor…

We hear all the time the lament of the unbeliever who says, “why does God cause good people to suffer”? While continuing with this statement, the unbeliever blames God for everything from destructive tornadoes to people dying in automobile accidents. They blame Him for wars, for gang killing, for poverty, for disease. They always end with, “how can a good God allow these bad things to happen?”

I don’t even attempt to answer these kind of questions, for it is usually futile- the person asking them has already made up their mind about God. What they don’t know is God has already made up His mind about them. He wants them to set free from this kind of thinking, and brought into the Kingdom of God, where they will have understanding about good and evil. It is my job to pray for them, to intercede that like me, who once was in their place, can come into the light of God’s Word and the joy of His salvation.

I reflected on the goodness of God this morning as I read the familiar story of Elisha and the Shumanite woman. In her deepest distress, she went to the man of God who had come repeatedly to her house for bed and breakfast:

⁵ As she approached the man of God at Mount Carmel, Elisha saw her in the distance. He said to Gehazi, “Look, the woman from Shunem is coming. ²⁶ Run out to meet her and ask her, ‘Is everything all right with you, your husband, and your child?’”

“Yes,” the woman told Gehazi, “everything is fine.”

²⁷ But when she came to the man of God at the mountain, she fell to the ground before him and caught hold of his feet. Gehazi began to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone. She is deeply troubled, but the Lord has not told me what it is.”

²⁸ Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? And didn’t I say, ‘Don’t deceive me and get my hopes up’?”

The Shumanite woman had her confidence in the one who gave her the promise that she would have a son, so she could say to her husband, ‘it is well“, and she could say to Gehazi, “it is well”. The sound of her broken heart was only for the One who gave her the promise – so she beseeched Elisha as to why her son lay dead.

it is no different for us today. We have more enlightenment than the Shumanite woman had. The veil to the temple is broken and we have access to the holy of holies for ourselves. When we feel as if God has failed us, we don’t have to question others – to them we can say, “it is well”. We go to the One who made the promise. I assure you, He won’t be in your debt.

Maria