WHEN GOD’S GOODNESS IS CALLED EVIL

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” (Jer. 29:11).
To understand why God said this, it is important that we read the previous verse Verse 10, “For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.”
Looking at this verse 10 one may wonder how being in bondage in a foreign land for seventy years can be a thought of peace from God. Well, Isa 55:8 summarizes it this way: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.”
A good friend of mine wrote a book and tittled it “Dr. Strange love” and in fact God’s love is completely strange and opposite to what we call love. As for us, love is saving someone from pains, but for God, love could mean taking someone through pains to achieve a good purpose. Many like me has questioned why must it be through pains when He can choose a much more easier way to achieve the same goal as God who can do all things, well, I see the answer to that question from what Job said “He stands alone,…who can question Him?” (Job 23:13 NIV).
There are many things God does we may never know why He does such things until we meet Him, and we cannot question Him because He stands alone and owes no one any explanation, this is what makes Him God! We just have to embrace His “strange love and ways” and live with it. I have never seen anything as confusing to anybody as the pleasure of God’s will; where He chooses anything and ways He deems fit to achieve a thing without paying attention to our feelings. What matters to God most is achieving His purpose, and not what we have to suffer to make Him achieve His purpose. If only we could see and reason the way He sees and reason, then the process of achieving His purpose in our lives, which is not often
palatable to the flesh won’t appear to us as evil or wickedness. This is why Paul said in 2Cor 4:17 “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;”
How light is this “light affliction?” and how short is the elapsing time for this affliction that “is but for a moment”? The fact is, seeing it the way man sees, this affliction and the time frame for it is not in any way near “light affliction or ” but for a moment” as Paul said. How can someone describe slavery as “light affliction” and seventy years as “for a moment”? It appears like an everlasting wickedness! Just imagine a situation one could say like Job’s wife “curse God and die.” As wicked and evil as God’s ways may appear to us, if we can only see what is ahead that necessitates the unpalatable situation, then we will say exactly the same thing Apostle Paul said.
Now, let’s look at why Paul described all the afflictions that we will ever go through as God’s children “a light affliction which is but for a moment” no matter how big it is and long it lasts. What did Paul see before describing our afflictions the way he did? He saw “an eternal weight of glory’ which is the reason for the affliction or the end result of affliction. He saw something eternal, which is far bigger and lasts longer than any affliction we will ever go through.. When we see the end result of the afflictions God takes us through, the afflictions will appear to us the same way it appeared to Paul, no matter how big it is and long it takes. No matter the length of time of any affliction, it will appear as ” for a moment” when compared to eternity, and no matter how big it is, it will appear so light when compared with the “weight of glory” that awaits us at the end of the affliction. Until we see what God is upto when He begins to display His “strange love” in our lives, we will see Him as a wicked God.
The solution to this dilemma to every child of God is found in Eph. 1:18 that says, “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.” Looking at what God told the children of Israel through prophet Jeremiah, it will take someone whose eyes of his understanding had been enlightened to know and
understand that it is better to go into seventy years of captivity than to escape it and stay back. Although God tried to explain it to them by saying “don’t worry about the seventy years of captivity I am taking you into, I know the thought I have towards you, this is not for evil but for good” yet it will still be difficult to comprehend even to a contemporary Christian, unless his spiritual eyes are opened.
Whenever God takes us through tough times, more often than not, it is a call to a deeper and closer relationship with Him. Let’s take a look at the reason why God considered it very necessary that the children of Israel go into this captivity: “Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.” (Jer.29: 12). God was only yearning for a deeper relationship with His people, and going into this captivity is the only thing that will humble them and make them seek His face, and the consequences of avoiding it is, “….Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil. (Vs 16-17). As for God, avoiding the captivity means avoiding His call to a closer relationship, and He considers such very serious. If He can stop at nothing to achieve a closer relationship, then we must know that He can go to any length if we vehemently resist it.
This is the lesson here. Whatever the experiences we go through, as long as they are orchestrated by the Lord, we must know that as those called according to His purpose “… all things work together for good …..” (Romans 8:28). Let us therefore humble ourselves and submit totally to it.