God Knew
(By Angela Watson)
Have you ever thought to yourself, “I wish I had known”? I confess this thought rarely occurs when something I’ve engaged in turns out well; it’s usually when the outcome of my choices is quite different from my plans and expectations.
Perhaps you can resonate with the chorus from the song, “If It Was Up To Me”:
If it was up to me, there'd be no gravel roads
No wounds, no blisters on my soul
Pain might come, but it wouldn't come for me
If it was up to me, I'd take the easy ride.
The phrase “I wish I had known” is usually because, as humans, we prefer to move straight to the happy ending and skip the pain, the messiness, and the hard circumstances of life. This is one of the ways we can see just how different God’s ways are from ours. It’s what fills us with such awe when we see His mercy poured out on humanity.
I remember making caramel sticky buns while my son was having a play date with his friend. The friend’s mom decided to stay and we were having a lovely chat when I realized something had gone wrong with my dough. With my limited experience, I had no idea how to fix it; my solution was to throw it out and start again.
For me, starting again was the easy solution, but this other mom had far more knowledge: she added a little more of the ingredients, kneaded the dough in between, and suddenly, it looked like dough that would make yummy sticky buns. Not only were those sticky buns delicious, but that experience also taught me a lot about working with dough.
Reading the story of the flood recently (Genesis 6-8), I noticed that the story’s bookends are the same. God knew the condition of man’s heart, and it wasn’t going to change despite the flood.
Before the flood, we read that God was grieved when He saw that the wickedness of man was great, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was continually evil (Genesis 6:5).
After the flood, even as Noah left the ark and offered a burnt offering that brought a pleasing aroma to the Lord, God knew that man’s heart hadn’t changed: the intention of his heart was still evil from youth (Genesis 8:21).
So why didn’t God just flood the earth and start all over again? He could have gotten rid of everything and started from scratch. Why did he save Noah and his family?
God isn’t like us. He doesn’t say, “I wish I’d known.”
He’s omniscient — all-knowing, aware of the past, present, and future.
Before the foundation of the world, God had a plan to redeem his creation, a plan to make us holy and blameless before Him (Ephesians 1:4).
When man sinned and had to be put out of the garden of Eden and was prevented from eating the tree of life, it was an act of redemption. It was God’s mercy. God knew that if man ate from the tree in their sinful condition, they would forever be separated from Him.
Likewise, the flood wasn’t God throwing everything out and starting again. It was God showing us who He is. God was demonstrating His justified wrath against sin, His power over all creation. The future wasn’t dependent on Noah or his family to do better or to get it right, but on God’s mercy.
Paul writes in Romans 9:16, “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.” When the Bible talks about God’s mercy, it includes the forgiveness of sins and the withholding of His wrath.
God knew the condition of man’s heart wouldn’t change, but He chose to show His mercy by saving Noah, his family, and two of every living creature.
I love the last lines of the chorus mentioned above:
If it was up to me, there'd be no gravel roads
No wounds, no blisters on my soul
Pain might come, but it wouldn't come for me
If it was up to me, I'd take the easy ride
But I'd miss the grace that changed my life
Thank God I'm not the one in charge of things
I'd never know how good Your plans could be
If it was up to me.
I’m so thankful that God’s not like us, looking for the easy way. Quick to throw things out when they’re not perfect and don’t meet our expectations.
Instead, God’s plans are made up of gravel roads, wounds, and pain so we can see His grace, mercy, and love. Perhaps no other action demonstrates this more than His plan to redeem us. His plan was to send His Son, Jesus, to endure pain and suffering at the hands of His own creation.
Jesus, after being whipped and humiliated, with a crown of thorns beaten into His brow, carried His own cross on the gravel road to Golgotha to pay the penalty for our sins.
Jesus knew all things that would happen to Him as He went to the cross (John 18:4).
Jesus knew that only His death on that cross would be sufficient to save us from the wrath of God (1 Peter 2:24)
In mercy, Jesus went willingly because He didn’t want us to miss the grace that could change our lives.
Comments