The dung beetle syndrome

The LORD, the holy God of Israel,
the one who shapes the future, says:
‘You have no right to question me about my children
or to tell me what I ought to do!
I am the one who made the earth
and created human beings to live there.
By my power I stretched out the heavens;
I control the sun, the moon, and the stars.’
(verses 11, 12)

Read Isaiah 45:5-17

For a human being to call God to account, someone once commented, is as stupid as a dung beetle questioning the intelligence of a human being.

Isaiah puts it in two other ways. When confronted by the people of his time who doubted God’s message for them, he used these images: it is as silly as a baby questioning its mother for giving birth to it; it is as crazy as a pot challenging the potter who made it. They do not have the understanding, the intelligence or the authority to do this.

Are you any better? When God allows an illness or bereavement you don’t understand, don’t you question his love? When God puts in place various laws and teachings you find hard to accept, don’t you query his right to do so?

We can thank God that he does not hold this arrogance against us, but in his love continues to work for our good anyway.

Lord, forgive my arrogance. Teach me the humility I need to accept your word. Amen.

by Richard Hauser, in ‘Assurance for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2004)

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