It's all God's will- Truth or Fiction?

1 Kings 17:1-24 and "Half Truths" by Adam Hamilton

 How many of you have ever heard, or said, the phrase, “Everything Happens for a Reason” or it’s close kin; It was all part of God’s plan, it was just meant to be or It is God’s will? 

I am sure I have said it.  Most of the time we hear it said in very serious and tragic situations like the death of a child, when a person is diagnosed with a dreaded illness or when natural disasters occur.  I have also heard it in more lighthearted circumstances when someone gets a great parking spot at Wal-Mart or their team wins the national title.  But is this saying entirely true? 

Most people during the time of Elijah in our story today would say that this is 100% true.  There was a belief that every act of nature, battle, illness, birth and death were credited or blamed on a god.  In Elijah’s time that didn’t necessarily mean our big “G” God.  Each nation had their own god to credit or blame. 

Drought, famine, flood and earthquake alike were all blamed on whatever god being angry because their people were not doing what they are supposed to do.  They aren’t worshiping correctly or not following that god’s laws.  We see this in our scripture from 1^st kings.  Ahab, the king of the Northern Territory of Israel has married Jezebel and begun to worship her god, Baal.  Ahab has turned his back on his faith, the faith of his ancestors, and the one true God for the false god Baal, and deserves to be punished.  Elijah tells him that his punishment will be a severe drought throughout the nation of Israel.

Even at this early point in the story, we have a problem.  The punishment of Ahab, affects not just Ahab, but the rest of the nation, everyone who lives within the territory will suffer the consequences of Ahab’s rejection of YHWH. 

God provides for God’s servant Elijah with water from the brook and food from the birds, which is great, but it isn’t long before we see that other people are suffering too.  The widow sent to feed Elijah is down to her last biscuit.  She and her son are starving to death and we presume they aren’t the only ones.  No rain, means no harvest and means people were starving.

Believing that “Everything is part of God’s plan” would then mean that God intended for people to starve to death just so Ahab could be punished and God could show God’s power through drought and miracles.    

This question arises again in modern times.  Was Auschwitz and the Nazi regime part of God’s plan? A punishment for some evil with only a few being saved?  Is cancer part of God’s plan- just so some can receive successful treatment while others don’t?  And if it is God’s plan should we fight back or seek treatment if the fate of the nation or person is already decided?

These are not easy questions to answer.  Let’s look at the perception of God from the exact opposite side.  While some think that God is manipulating daily events others think that God has taken a hands off approach.  They believe, God created the world, placed humanity in charge and walked away.  This means that everything that happens on earth, good or bad is due to the decisions of humanity. 

Everything is cause and effect and natural consequences. The presence of evil and our response to it.  This point of view also states that natural disasters are not an act of God but how God put our planet together- weather patterns are weather patterns; earthquakes happen and volcanos erupt.  It is not planned or timed, nor is it aimed at one group or another as some have claimed.  This point of view would deny any unexplainable miracles, or divine intervention. 

So, which is it?  Is God manipulating each and every detail of our life, or is God entirely hands off after creation?

The real truth probably lies somewhere in between.  Things like weather and natural disasters are a part of the world we live in.  Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes it rains too much. 

Somethings that happen to us and our loved ones are the result of natural consequences of our God given gift of Free Will.  A drunk driver wrecks his car.  It is the result of a poor decision made by the drunk driver to get behind the wheel.  Someone loses their job because the CEO embezzled money and had to file bankruptcy.  Bad things happen to good people, innocent people, people who don’t deserve it.  But God isn’t causing these bad things to happen. 

But at the same time, there do seem to be moments of divine intervention that cannot be explained.  Going back to our scripture in 1^st Kings.  The woman and her son have taken Elijah in, given him all they had when they themselves had nothing.  They opened their home to a stranger, a scary proposition for any person.  She didn’t deserve to have her son die.  He was her lifeline, the only reason she had a place to live; or any way to have an income and he was the only person to take care of her in old age.  At first, she accuses Elijah of bringing this on, blamed it on YHWH as punishment for some unnamed sin.  And while God didn’t cause the boy to die; God did hear Elijah’s prayer, God did intervene in the life of this boy and his mother.  God did miraculously provide food for them while Elijah was there and God did save her son’s life.

This continues into our gospel stories about Jesus.  Jesus didn’t heal everyone who was sick or demon possessed but he did heal many.  God does meet us at our lowest, most desperate times in our life and use these difficulties, these tragedies to show us the power of God and bring us closer to God if we let it. 

It happens in subtler ways too.  One of the retired pastors I know tells of a story when he was a young pastor.  He was driving from the church into town.  About ½ way down the road he gets this gut feeling that he needed to visit a parishioner who lived 20 minutes in the opposite direction.  When he arrived, the person expressed how they had been praying for someone to visit and pray with them.  This pastor didn’t have to turn around and drive 30 minutes out of his way but he did and they were both blessed by it.  Would this person have been ok if he hadn’t visited her that day, probably, but because he listened to that nudge from God, God’s peace and presence was shared with that person in her struggles.

The other night, while watching a re-run of the TV show “The Office”, Pam and Jim are in marriage counseling.  The counselor suggests they use each problem and moment of conflict as an opportunity to speak the truth, show gratitude, and appreciation for the efforts of the other. 

God often uses difficult situations as an opportunity to make the word and works of God known.  Let’s take the family in our neighborhood who lost their home in a house fire as an example.  We got a thank you note from them last week thanking the church for everything you all had done for them.  She expressed in her note that they were doing well and that her husband is now cancer free.  God didn’t cause the house fire but instead used it as an opportunity for positive things to happen.  The man, found out he had lung cancer because of the treatment he received after being in the fire.  He may have never known he was sick or may not have found out early enough to receive treatment if it had not been for the fire. 

The fire provided an opportunity for God to show up and be seen through your generosity and love as well as the doctors.   

The gospel of John supports this understanding.  In Chapter 9 the disciples ask Jesus if God caused a man to be blind as punishment for sin.  Jesus replies no, but that God uses these as an opportunity show the power and presence of God. 

Then again, in Romans 8, Paul tells us that all things will come to good for those who serve the Lord.  Not that bad things won’t happen but that God can use all the circumstances of life to help those who love and serve the Lord to see God at work. 

We still have free will.  We don’t have to respond when God nudges us.  We don’t have to accept the modern day miracles around us but God is still there working through tragedy and turning negatives into positives.    

Understanding this about God, helps us to offer real love and support to people who are facing difficult situations.  Instead of discarding their emotions, encouraging them to blame God and potentially driving them away from God, we can offer the never ending love of Jesus who promised to be with us always, who knows what it means to suffer at the hands of injustice and offer Jesus as an example of how God turns tragedy into an opportunity for good. 

Even though evil forces put Jesus on the cross.  Even though Jesus died a horrific and unjust death, God prevailed.  God turned this problem into an opportunity to show that God has power over life and death.  And that nothing, not even death itself will separate us from the love of God.  God will prevail, God has and will overcome the forces of evil and death and God will turn your sorrow into joy if we allow God to enter our lives and work in and through us.