The Blame Game
Numbers 14:19, “Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.20 So the LORD said, “I have pardoned them according to your word ;”
Ever since getting brought out of Egypt the Israelites had been bickering against God. It began because they were hungry which seems like a fairly logical complaint, so God gave them food to satisfy their stomachs; and they were o.k for a while. Then they started complaing because they were eating the same thing day after day, and this made God kind of mad. A lot of people think that you cannot make God mad, but the Israelites proved otherwise; however, even in His anger God provided meat for the Israelites. The Israelites were now at the threshold of the land that God had promised them, and they were back to there ways of blaming God for bringing them to a hopeless situation,again. It seems like the Israelites never learn!
In many ways we are a lot like the Israelites. We blame God when things go wrong instead of looking at the real reason for the problem. The problems that we face can all be traced back to one point-the sinfullness of man. God is NEVER the cause of the problems we face! Jeremiah 29:11, “‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” God never wants harm to fall on His people, yet sometimes it does; and to say that the sinfulness of man is to blame for all the world’s problems may sound simplistic, but there is no one that we can blame in the end but ourselves.
I know that answer does not help parents find comfort when they stand over a child dying of leukemia; I know I’ve been in similar situations. There have been times in my life when I felt like there was absolutely no way that a loving God could stand by while terrible events happened. Then I remember something that I read, I don’t remember who wrote this, but it was very profound. I once read the comment,”If God were to stop terrible events in one place and not another then we would consider Him unfair; the only way that God could be called fair by all people would be to totally eradicate evil(which He could do), however, if God took evil out of the world then their would be no choices(between good and evil) for people to make and He would still be considered unfair.”
Becauseof the fairness and righteousness of God He has allowed evil to stay in this world which can wreak havoc on the lives of people, but He has also given us His Son who has taken away our transgressions from God and will take us into the Promised Land. Because of what Jesus did for us we have been pardoned by God!
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Father, I thank You for not holding me guilty, but pardoning me because of the grace given by Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen
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Yes, You Can Ministry 