Nothing is "new"

Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NIV)
9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. 

 And there it is. Does it get any simpler than that? I have heard that verse so many times in my life. I guess I always just took it in but never really gave it much thought. But tonight as I was studying about the book of Malachi (I know! Not even Ecclesiastes!), I read some things that jumped off of the page and brought this verse to mind.

Basically, the author is explaining that, as we read Malachi, we see the people of Israel and they could only see the current conditions and were unable to see what they had been brought out of. Although their current situation wasn't what they wanted or thought it would be, they were far better off than they were in captivity!

The text says, "Although they had worked hard with good motivation, they had encountered opposition and great difficulty in rebuilding the temple and the walls of Jerusalem. To them, this meant that they had somehow displeased the Lord and were reaping the consequences. As a result, the people had grown cynical: If this was the way God was going to treat them, why should they bother giving their best to God?"

It was right there that I had a Gru moment...you know Gru...the villain we all love from Despicable Me? "Lightbulb"...No? Oh...

Anyway, I had an "Ah ha" moment. Just in the past week I talked with several people who had a really bad life experience slightly as a result of their own choices but mostly as a result of others. Their response is just what this text is referring to. Immediately it was all God's fault and if that's all God is going to do, then what's the point?

Someone explain to me why, at the slightest hardship, moment of reality, or even correction, do we want to play the blame game and in this game, God gets the blame?

The argument I get is, "Well, if God really is who He says He is then He saw this all coming and it's His fault because He allowed me to ____________ and I got hurt."

The reality is that, God created us. He created in His image, meaning that we have the ability to think, reason, be emotional, and be in relationship with others. In His amazingly divine wisdom, He also created us with something called, FREE WILL. That's right! We have the ability to choose for ourselves.

I love my husband and I love my kids. I love my family and I have some awesome friends. But I would never want them to do something for me or spend time with me or even say they love me because I make them. I want them to want to do/be those things. It's the same with God. Yes, He created us, but He still wants us to want to choose Him. So when bad things happen in this life, it's not His fault. It's the fault of the boneheads making poor choices without any thought of God's plan or how it will effect others around them. Do we get hurt in the process? Unfortunately, the answer to that is a resounding "YES!" And it's okay to ask God why the situation went down as it did and listen for His response.

Had the Israelites done that, if we would do that, then instead of being angry and hurt and shoving our boney pointy fingers in God's face, we would find that it is possible that others made a bad choice OR, what we thought was a part of the plan, was not really part of God's plan and we tried to do things on our own.

Nothing has changed! From thousands and thousands and thousands of years ago, to this very day, this is still a huge issue in our world.

Why did 3 women get abducted and remain captive for almost 10 years? Because the man that committed the crimes is a sick individual. Where was God? In the rooms with the women, crying as they wept, loving them as they were broken, giving them the will and strength to hold on one more day!

Why did the bombings in Boston happen? Because 2 men harbored an enormous amount of hatred and an enormous lack of value for human life. Where was God? In the hearts of those who ran TOWARDS the smoke and victims and hospitals to offer their assistance and blood.

Look, this life doesn't make sense. It's messy. It's hard. It's scary at times! And God still responds today as He did back then. "God responded to His people's questions by assuring them of His love and compassion for them."

Sometimes these terrible things happen, and sometimes people crush us simply as a result of living in a fallen world.


Quotes are taken from Old Testament Survey, developed by Global University Faculty and staff, Second Edition. Page 215, Chapter 14.3)