In which God sometimes doesn’t tell the truth

Would God Ever Mislead Us?

There was a time in my life when I was sliding headlong down the wrong course to a destruction almost beyond repair. For those of you who read the fly and the rock posts – that was just about this time.

I had a plan. It was the wrong plan. But I meticulously thought it out and didn’t leave God out of the planning. It took me to an area I had to question. There are those places where you don’t even have to ask God if it’s ok. There are others where it’s clearly not. But this one – this one – was in the middle. It was the lower side of the middle, but still middle.

There wasn’t anything in the Bible to prohibit my moves. Some limited opposition from Christian friends was too easy to dismiss as legalistic and stodgy. I prayed and prayed for God to say yes or no. There wasn’t any no. If anything I felt a gentle “go ahead”.

I was convinced I had God’s approval – or at least didn’t have his prohibition. I moved ahead and had my life obliterated – and didn’t understanding how God could have allowed it.

I knew that God could have stopped it, could have stopped me. I wondered, sometimes out loud to him, why didn’t he protect me, or at least warn me. I knew I was to blame, but overwhelmingly felt that God shared that blame.

At one of my lowest points, in the middle of a hike through the Nevada desert (yes I like hiking in pretty places and chatting with God there) – in a fit of frustration, I yelled at God. Yup – I yelled at God. I cried to him, “How could you have allowed me to be so misled!?”

I didn’t really expect an answer.

But I got one

not so much a voice,

but the words in my head,

loud and clear,

“I didn’t allow you to be misled…

I misled you.”

It was so not what I expected when the question popped out of my mouth. I was taken aback enough to stop the hike and sit for a minute to mull it over. I knew I had to have the message wrong – if it was a message at all.

There was no way I could have heard what I thought I did. Spinning a little, I pulled my Bible out of my backpack. I opened it up to the place I just happened to be in my daily Bible reading.

I go on these trips – me – God – the Bible. Sometimes I study a particular topic like knowing God’s Will. But this time I decided to just bring the Bible along and pick up reading right where I was at home.

I remember thinking, “Ugh. 1 Kings – how non-inspiring. Why couldn’t I have been in the Gospel of John, or Philippians – the good stuff – the cheery stuff. But nope. I”m in 1 Kings. This guy was king, he did some things, he was good or bad (mostly bad) – he died, buried with his ancestors, then the next guy, he did some things, he was good or bad (mostly bad) – he died, buried with his ancestors, then the next guy…” I figured it’d be all pretty boring – but I stuck with the plan.

What was already strange – getting what I thought was a direct answer to a question – from God – got stranger as I read the most surprising passage in 1 Kings 22…

Please come back tomorrow for more spooky Bible study

God Bless