What We Cannot See

What We Cannot See

by David Brenneman 

Began reading in Deuteronomy in the last few days with the Bible reading plan that I am using.  Saw something that I believe that I have missed before in my reading. 

Moses spoke to the children of Israel in what they must do to the inhabitants of the lands that the Lord Jesus Christ was giving them.  No human beings of any age were to survive.  To make no pacts with any of those people because they would become a snare to them.  On the surface this seems rather extreme, but it's but not even a pin dot on the surface of history. 

We cannot know what only God knows about every single ramification of choice. 

Something that we actually read within the very long, very extensive, list that Moses read to them...the ramifications of choice.

Now turn that around.  I really just now see what would have happened had Moses been allowed to cross over with the children of Israel into the Promised Land.  Things we read in history today wouldn't have happened in the same way.  

We read in the Gospels of how at the right time, Jesus Christ was born.  The right time in that moment was a culmination of every single life that made decisions, made choices that lead up to that moment.   

There's no shortage of fiction writers in regards to alternative universes.  People writing on what would the world be like today had a single event been different. 

For one, in this particular book of Deuteronomy...large portions wouldn't have been written.  Moses would not have written them as we see them at a minimum.  The people wouldn't have felt anything to their hearts because of the Lord’s reaction to the sin of Moses.  

We always want something better, want this vs that.  We either learn from mistakes or we don't.  We turn left vs right.  Choice is ever before us.

We choose to sin or choose to repent of sin.  

Moses, as we do see even into Jesus's days...had impacted the Jewish people deeply, either in a right way or a wrong way...but the influence was still there.  

Jesus knows every single outcome of every single decision that every single person has ever had thought to make...for all of human history.   Think about it!  He knew exactly what would have been different had he relented and permitted Moses to go with them.  Even without going, the predicted falling away of the people from the words he spoke came to fruition.  Had he gone, would it have been different?  Possibly.  But consider this passage that the Spirit had Paul write. 

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28.

And add in this from King Solomon. 

"I, the Preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under heaven. It is a grievous task which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with. I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind." Ecclesiastes 1:12-14.

Had even a single person not been in the place in history where they needed to be...history wouldn't unfold as it needed to.  Why the part from King Solomon?  We keep on thinking we know how to create a better way of life.  We must realize and understand that it is God who causes all things to work towards a single endgame.  The final judgment.

We who are in Christ have a responsibility to learn from the Spirit what the will of God is for us and to live it out.  

In my worldly pursuits, I am an amateur inventor.   Seeing various things in my world and I try to create things to improve my life and maybe by extension others lives.   On various occasions, I know that I have been stopped from pursuing some because of single reason.  God told me not to...because it would alter the world in ways He doesn't want to have happen.  In His divine reasons some things should not be permitted to happen in history because there IS a day, fixed by the Father’s own choice, regarding the Day of the Lord.  History is unfolding every day.  It may look like chaos to an outside observer.  But to the Creator of the Universe...it's going to unfold as it must.  

We aren't here to be creators.   We are here to be obeyer's of the Word of God.  Time and again, the children of Israel didn't.  The consequences followed.  For those of us in Christ, we will be forgiven, but we might still face consequences. 

You, my Dear Reader, may feel insignificant in the scheme of things. 

But realize you have an important part in God's scheme of things.  We will not know how we impacted the lives of others until we are with Jesus.  Only He will be able to shed light on why your place in His history of mankind was where it was.   Just as it was exactly the right time for Jesus to be born of a virgin, in a stable of all places,  you were born at the right time.   Your life has meaning in His wonderful plan.   You have the ability to participate through your obedience or your disobedience. 

The choice is certainly yours.  Choice came from the cross of Jesus Christ.  Jesus chose to obey His Father rather than His own desires.   

What will you do?

All NASB 1995 and NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission. Lockman Foundation.