Thank God for Women, But… (Part 3)

Click on following links for earlier articles: Part 1 and Part 2.

Sometimes, I focus so much on where I’m heading that I overlook the importance of the present. This happened in the comment section of Part 2.

Grace, of Serious Whimsey, commented:

…But I wonder if, rather than the Lord pushing it into the Honda, the enemy was allowed to do it, via the opening through your flawed reasoning/attitude?

Sadly, I penned one of my quickie, soft-shoe, glib replies and headed on down the road, not looking back. For this, I’m sorry, because Grace’s comment was a valid point of discussion.

Now again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, “Go number Israel and Judah.” (2 Samuel 24:1)

Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel. (1 Chronicles 21:1)

The above two scriptures are the opening verses by two different authors giving their accounts of David’s sin of taking a census of Israel. Both accounts agree with each other, almost verbatim, but their opening verses reveal two different viewpoints.

The 2 Samuel 24 version shows the Lord and His anger stirring up David to sin, and 1 Chronicles 21 states that it was Satan who was the inciter.  How can both be correct?

Graham Cooke, states in the book, Permission Granted:

God allows in His wisdom what He could easily prevent by His power.

Like most of us, King David had sin issues; and also like us, most of David’s issues were covered by the grace of God so that He dealt with David’s problems with the king alone on a God to person basis.

But God also had a plan for Israel and He wanted to make some adjustments in the nation. So, God allowed one of David’s sins to come into full bloom.

Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, so a curse without cause does not alight. (Proverbs 26:2)

David had sin; and the curse from the sin allowed Satan to attack Israel. So, was it God or Satan who incited David to sin?

It really depends on where in the process you are viewing the answer. Sadly, I have a habit of jumping to the ultimate conclusion where believers are bought with a price, which means God owns us and He causes all things to work for good in us.

But, by doing this, I skip over some important steps of biblical logic.

So in Part 2, soon after my truck accident, I should have mentioned that I sought the Lord on whether or not I had sin. He then showed me my improper thinking on the weakness of women which I described this way in Part 2:

Now, as I contemplated the accident and how it happened, this thought kept coming into my mind:  The Lord pushed the rear-end of my truck into the Honda Pilot.

Why would He do that? To reveal my judgmental, hypocritical heart and wrong thinking to myself.

Now, the Holy Spirit speaks to me and you in ways that we each understand, but this does not mean that others will have the same understanding.

You see, I understood what the Holy Spirit meant by showing me the Lord pushed the rear-end of my truck into the Honda Pilot. But I skipped too many steps in explaining it for all to understand in a like manner.

So, was Grace correct with her comments? Yes, of course she was.

My error was skipping over that particular step and then jumping to my ultimate conclusion. Hopefully, I will do better in the future.

(Continued in Part 4)