It is not good to be partial to the wicked or to deprive the innocent of justice. ~Proverbs 18:5
“Do not be afraid. These are the things you are to do: speak the truth to each other and render true and sound judgment in your courts. Do not plot evil against your neighbor, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,” declares the Lord. ~Zechariah 8:16-17
When Joni Ericson Tada began struggling theologically with why God would allow her to suffer such a difficult, life changing injury, quadriplegia, and why He seemed to be refusing to answer her pleas for God to heal her and restore her to health, she received a word from a spiritually mature friend that has given me a lot of thought. “Sometimes, God permits what he hates to accomplish that which He loves.”
That is a bitter pill for all of us to follow. Certainly, in Joni’s case, we can see, and she does now too, that if He had healed her, she would have remained unknown to us. God would have eventually raised someone up to be a voice for the disabled, but Joni might not have been interested. Who knows?
I’m thinking about so many things that God hates yet is allowing to continue here in the seen world. Why is abortion allowed to continue? Why do people get away with lying? Why does there seem to be so much miscarriage of justice in our court systems? In Proverbs 6, God outlined seven things that He hates: “Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness that pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.” (Proverbs 6:17-19)
However, this stuff is going on all the time! It’s happening all around us. If God Hates it, why doesn’t He stop it and make it all go away? Is that how you feel sometimes too? For now, God may be permitting what He hates, but we need to look beyond that to see what He is accomplishing that He loves.
True, it may seem that the evil is happening right in front of us, blocking our view, but when you look around the ugliness at your feet, you will see God, continuing to be at work, promoting what He loves in the lives of those He came to save. When you think about it, we are similar. How many of us have allowed our children to be immunized? Think about it, we’ve allowed full grown adults to stab our children with needles for goodness sake. We even knew they would probably cry out in fear and pain! But we let the Dr. do it anyway, because we knew what our child could not understand, that the needle held something that would help their bodies resist a worse illness.
We watched our children struggle with learning the times tables or endured their anger when they had to clean their room. We do what we hate to accomplish what we love, a mature, disciplined, healthy adult. Let me share a few more examples of God doing similar in the hope that you will be inspired to look further for yourself into how He is accomplishing what He loves, even in us.
Let me start with our Good Neighbor food pantry. When we first began, we knew that there was need, so we began learning and serving just in our own small way. We served around 40 families a month and loved doing it, but we knew that we were barely making a dent in the hunger needs of our county. Then, Covid hit and we were able to partner with other churches, share what we had learned and now, with three pantries going, we are serving, at times, over 500 people on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.
We have seen amazing generosity on the parts of those who can give and amazing acts of kindness from those who receive. Best of all, we have learned that our county is no longer a “red” county, meaning a seriously food impoverished county. Many people who had not been reached before are now being served with food.
I’m sure that God hates it that we can no longer come together as we were in the habit of doing. Yet, His message and Word is now going further and being noticed more than it has been for a long time. Just in our church alone, we have noticed that our services have been noticed by almost triple the amount from when it was contained in a brick and mortar facility alone. His Word is the thing. He loves connecting with those who need to hear it. He hates that we may not be able to assemble as easily as before, but He loves reaching more for His glory.
“It is not good to be partial to the wicked or to deprive the innocent of justice.” It is not good for these things to take place and it is true that God hates them. However, did you notice God’s first words to His own in the passage from Zachariah? “Do not be afraid.” Then He outlines how we need to continue to be while He continues to allow what He hates.
He loves seeing us do His good anyway. He loves watching us be strengthened as we hold our post amid the opposition that we are enduring. He loves watching us blossom and flourish anyway. He loves what we are becoming as we look past the evil in front of us and focus on His good. He loves watching us put our faith into action, believing Him when He says, “I’ve got this!” We believe that the victory is won so we press on anyway.
Before I close, just one more thought, that I find sobering, that I have been pondering a lot lately. I share it here for your consideration as well. What if God is allowing what He hates, in the hopes that the church will finally be the church and fulfill its purpose, which would be accomplishing something that He loves. Just a thought.
Prayer: OK Father. I praise you for making sure that all things work together for our good, even hard things that you really hate. I still look forward to the day when all will be redeemed, and every tear wiped away. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Song: Held
Grace, mercy and peace,
Greg & Kathy
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