Sometimes God & I Just Don't Agree!

by John Stallings


Please read this blog carefully, especially the latter part. After reading it you may never read anything else I write, but please hear me out to the end.

First I’ll start off with a parable that has always bothered me. In Matthew 20:1-6 there’s the story of a certain man who hired workers to work in a field. The Bible says he goes out early in the morning at six o’clock & hires workers to work in his field. Then he finds he needs more workers & goes out at nine o’clock, to hire more. He does the same thing at noon, three o’clock & five o’clock. All of the workers work until six o’clock at night.

That means that some worked twelve hours, & others worked nine hours, six hours, three hours & one hour. Now when pay time comes he gives all these workers the same amount of money. Those who went to work early in the morning complained about it. They said, “This isn’t fair because we worked twelve hours & those rascals over there who only worked an hour got the same amount we got.” Well of course they were upset, wouldn’t you be? They weren’t working by the hour but by the day.

So the fellow who worked twelve hours got the same as the fellow who worked one hour. What is God trying to teach us here? Obviously He’s trying to teach us that we (or maybe just me) don’t always agree with Him. I’m sorry but I flat don’t agree with God here. Do you think its fair—be honest. Fair? I don’t think so. Fair, for a man who works all day in the sweltering heat of the Sun to be paid the same as a man who only works from five to six in the evening? No way!! I don’t think its fair but God does, so I disagree with God on this parable. It doesn’t make sense to me. I can’t get my head around it & I can’t see that it’s right or fair in any way, so I disagree.

Now before you pull your lower lip over your head, isn’t that the definition of faith; believing God is right even when we disagree? Since I first got saved I’ve had a “BUT IF NOT” clause in my faith. That’s what the three Hebrew boys had when they told the king, “Our God can deliver us & our God will deliver us, BUT IF NOT, we’ll never bow down & worship you. I’d like to say I always completely agreed with everything God does but when I hit a patch that I can’t understand, I say, --“I wish I were better able to catalog all this in my mind, BUT IF NOT, I’m still going to trust God.”

Ladies & gentlemen I don’t think like God thinks.

It just so happens that I’m flesh & blood & God isn’t & He’s made it clear that His ways aren’t our ways & His thoughts aren’t our thoughts. I can’t see God’s logic but I have enough sense to know He’s right. Some things don’t make sense to me but then again things don’t have to make sense to me. The definition of faith is to have confidence to believe God will do it like it should be done whether I understand it or not. I trust God to someday explain things to me that I can’t see now.

I don’t agree with God that Achan & his family should have been killed because he took a wedge of gold & some silver, probably for his wife. That’s all he did. I think he should have gone to jail for a month, no more. But he & his wife were killed & she had nothing to do with it!

If I’ve ever learned anything it’s that there’s a God, it isn’t me & the true & living God doesn’t have to do it like I see it. If I were worshipping a God of my own mental creation He would always agree with me but that would also be idolatry.

I don’t agree that God should have killed Ananias & Sapphira because they didn’t give all the money they got for their house. That doesn’t make sense to me. I’m sorry. I’m sorry God; I love you, I trust you but I just can’t agree with you on this one. I just happen to think that you over-did it this time! Here’s a couple who sold a house, tithed but didn’t give all the profits & got killed for it right there in church. (Of course we all know it wasn’t about the money.)

I don’t agree with God for letting Peter preach on Pentecost. I think John should have preached on Pentecost. Peter- just fifty days before, had a cussing fit & denied three times that he ever knew Jesus. Fifty days ago he denied the faith. You mean that little cussing man who denied Jesus in His darkest hour is going to be put up in the pulpit to preach on that great & momentous day? I’m sorry but it makes sense to me for John the Beloved to have preached on Pentecost.

I don’t believe God should have put Rahab the harlot in Hebrews eleven. You mean a gal who is a former street walker who sold her body to the men on the streets of Jericho is going to enter the faith hall of fame of Hebrews eleven? I don’t agree with that & you don’t either. If she came to your church you wouldn’t want to sit within several rows of her.

While I’m at it I don’t think God should have chosen Saul to be the king. I also don’t think God should have taken a man like Jacob who was basically not much more than a Las Vegas card shark & make a prince of him & name the nation of Israel after him. He’s so sorry that he’s home making chili while his brother is out hunting. He deceived his brother & got his birthright & was given priestly rights within his family. Then when his father was old & sick he tricked him & got the blessing Esau should have gotten. Then God turned around & named His nation after him. I think they ought to be called the “Abrahamites” instead of the Israelites. Like I say, I don’t always agree with God.

I don’t agree that God should have chosen three murderers to write over a third of the Bible. Over a third of the chapters of the Bible were written by murderers; Moses, Paul & David. You wouldn’t have done that, nor would I have done it. While I’m ranting, there’s something else I need to ventilate; why would God call the wisest man in the Bible a guy with seven hundred wives & three hundred substitutes? I’ve got some real disagreements here. I’ve also got a question about God sending the flood. I’ve got another problem with God calling a man like David a man after His own heart. Oh, & I also have a problem with God not allowing Moses to go into the Promised Land. All Moses did was lose his temper. By the way, obviously God can be though on people who mistreat southerners. Moses’ exact quote was—“Oh, ye rebels!” You better watch out, God has a hedge around southern people.

I don’t think God should have let Satan do what he did to Job. I don’t agree that God should turn Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt. We’re not told she did anything else, she just looked back. I don’t think Matthew should have been chosen to write the first book of the New Testament because of his dishonest background. I disagree that God should have made Isaac marry a women- sight-unseen. She could have weighed five-hundred pounds. She may have had only two teeth. I just don’t believe any man should have to marry a woman he’s never seen.

Moving right along, I don’t agree in blessing Old Testament men that had several wives. I don’t agree with that. I don’t like the idea of the prodigal son getting more mention than the son who stayed home & worked. I don’t agree with God for making my mother fight the battles she had to fight in her life & spend her last ten years embroiled in such hurtful things. I don’t agree with the battles that have come my way through the years. You’d be shocked to know the things that have happened to me in my life that I don’t agree should have happened. Though I’ve preached the plan of salvation for decades it looks like a man who lives a good life should go to heaven.

But I believe God is right.

I’d have done it differently but in every area I believe God was & is totally & absolutely right & I am wrong. He may choose to someday explain to me why He did things as He did but He doesn’t have to explain to me.

Though I can’t rationalize it in my thinking, I believe God was right when He put Rahab in Hebrews eleven. I believe He was right when He chose Peter to preach on the day of Pentecost. I believe He was right when He sent the flood. I believe He was right to kill Ananias & Sapphira.

I don’t agree with Him but I’m only flesh & He’s God. I’m weak & He is strong. I’m sinful & He’s perfect.

 I may understand it better by & by but I don’t have to. If God never explains Himself to me He’s still my God & I trust Him for He is God, He is good & He is right.

Though I’ve never pretended to understand Him, I’ve always trusted him & the greatest joy of my life has been to serve Him & trust Him when I couldn't track Him.

My mind can’t grasp it but I know in my heart God was right to make Jacob a prince. He was right to choose Saul to be king. He was right to allow three ex-murderers to write a third of the Bible. He was right when He called Solomon the wisest man in the world. He was right not letting Moses walk into the Promised Land & He was right in letting Satan test Job. He was right in turning Lot’s wife to a pillar of salt. He was right to give Isaac a wife he’d never seen. He was right when He didn’t expunge David’s Psalms from the Bible after he sinned & right in not letting Paul tell us what he saw in the third heaven.

God was right when He gave the prodigal son more attention than the faithful son that stayed home. God was right. God is always right, He is God. It pleases God for us to look to Him & say, “I don’t understand everything, I may not agree with everything, But I’m wrong & you’re right & all my trust is in you.”God makes no mistakes. He’s God-- He’s good--- & He’s omniscient.

It's interesting to note in the parable we started off with that these words are used to explain the business mans actions in paying everyone the same;

“Whatsoever is right, that ye shall receive."

Blessings,

John