| Our Redemptive God |
| by David A. DePra |
| Surely, the wrath of man shall praise thee. The |
| remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. Psalm 76:10 |
| This passage is proof positive that God allows nothing He |
| does not intend to use. If He doesn't intend to use it, He shall |
| restrain it. |
| This tells us a few things about the character of our God. |
| Primarily, it reveals God as eternally redemptive. In other words, |
| God doesn't waste a thing. God will use even the evil which |
| He allows in a redemptive way. |
| Of course, this is quite beyond our understanding. One |
| of the most common accusations people bring against God |
| has to do with why God allows evil in the world. They ask, |
| "If God is so good, then why does He allow evil?" Then they |
| add, "I can't believe in a God who would allow so much |
| suffering." |
| The Bible answers these questions for anyone with an open |
| heart. But if a person is living for this life alone, he will not |
| accept, let alone understand, the answer. He will interpret it |
| on purely temporal, self-centered lines. |
| God allows evil in this world for reasons which reach |
| beyond this age. He is proving something to all of us which |
| will resound through eternity: We cannot live without Him. All |
| we can produce is chaos and evil. The evil God allows now |
| is teaching all of us about our great need for Jesus Christ. |
| There are, of course, more specific reasons why God |
| allows evil to come upon people. But again, you must have a |
| vision which extends beyond the here and now to accept |
| this. If you are don't have that vision, you will never grasp |
| the Truth. |
| The death of a child, spouse, or other loved one, are good |
| examples. Who can explain why God would allow the child |
| of one of His people to be killed? What purpose could that |
| possibly serve? Not much of a purpose from our present |
| perspective. But we need to at least realize that there is |
| more to reality then our perspective. There is more to God |
| than my grasp of Him. And despite the fact that tragedy is |
| real, we will see it differently some day. For those who will |
| believe, there will come a day when we will fully agree that |
| God DID do all things well. We may not be able to see that |
| now or understand it. But we can believe and hold to it by faith. |
| God WILL have His way. He WILL make the wrath of |
| man to praise Him. He WILL take everything which man can |
| throw at Him and turn it into something redemptive which will |
| turn people and keep them in Christ. The remainder He will |
| not allow. |
| It is so easy to get mad at God for the evil He does allow. |
| But what about the evil He doesn't allow -- I mean the evil which |
| we never even knew could have happened? How many times |
| God may have prevented tragedy and we never knew |
| it! |
| God has not, in this age, worried about explaining Himself |
| to us about everything. Neither has He sought to vindicate |
| Himself. But when all is said and done everything will make |
| sense. And it will cause us to fall down and worship Him. |