When God takes His hands off you, or a people, or a situation, what happens next?
This is a really sobering thought for me today. I’m not a theologian nor the son of a theologian, but I’m trying to work intuitively here.
Here’s my little thesis: God allows things to happen He doesn’t like.
When God takes His hands off, it simply means that He allows things to reach their natural conclusions without Him intervening. He, in effect, says, “Fine. Have it your way.”
Understand this: God is all-powerful. He can control everything that happens in this world. As in:
- The spread of disease.
- Natural disasters.
- The election or appointment of kings, rulers, government officials, and others in authority.
- The time of your birth and the time of your death.
It’s for these reasons and more that some people reject Christianity outright. How can a good, loving God allow COVID-19, hurricanes, the election of people who have no faith or morals, or the untimely death of someone young and innocent?
Beats me. These are topics that are seen through a glass, and darkly.
Here’s the ancient script that got me thinking about all this. It’s Isaiah 54:14-15:
In righteousness you will be established:
Tyranny will be far from you;
you will have nothing to fear.
Terror will be far removed;
it will not come near you.
If anyone does attack you, it will not be my doing;
whoever attacks you will surrender to you.
I’m not going to get into the background and context of these verses – if you’re of a mind, help yourself and do some independent study, which I’d always encourage.
Rather, I’d like to focus on when God takes His hands off.
It’s actually pretty basic, but worth noting nonetheless.
I’m convinced God gives humans freedom to decide some things for themselves, and then figuratively takes His hands off. That doesn’t mean that He isn’t monitoring the situation. It just means that He allows the consequences of our actions, and He is in no fashion obligated to rush in and fix things. He can, He could, but will He?
I guess it depends.
So when God takes His hands off, we own our choices.
Stated differently, when we sin, we have only ourselves to blame for our consequences. Most often, when we sin, we are very aware of what we’re doing.
Of course God can prevent evil. He’s God. It’s not a ying and yang thing – there’s no equality or balance between righteousness and wickedness. He allows it to continue, though.
In the Isaiah verses, know that God could prevent the attacks mentioned.
If anyone does attack you, it will not be my doing.
There are a lot more questions I have than I have answers for. Still. God is good and what He does is always right. When God takes His hands off, He knows what He’s doing.
Having given you and me certain authority, he allows us to play out our own drama.
Ponder that.
Be well.
This is a good verse to ponder and a good thought. I teach my kids that God set laws in to motion that govern the world. This is why the rain falls on the just and unjust. But it is also why you reap what you sow. They seem contradictory in nature. But the person who can accept both at the same time can move forward, even in the toughest of times. At least I pray this for myself and my kids. During this pandemic, I have allowed people to do for their families what they thought was best. I don’t always agree with what everyone does but it’s their choice. But I had to recently let go of a friendship bc that friend could not respect my decision to do what I felt was best for my family. I was called self-centered and attacked bc, to her, my concerns about my own health was not as important as me being there for her, even though she refused to distance or wear a mask. That’s her decision but it doesn’t mean I have to be around her. There’s more to the story, but she is very outspoken about being anti-mask, therefore people do not want to be around her. She took it out on me. But with all the stress I’m dealing with right now, I could not give in to her drama. After her sending me very long texts, with lots of all caps, I did not retaliate but simply Said, “please do not contact me again.” After which I was called cold-hearted and the verses and hymns I posted on my FB page were thrown up in my face and being hypocritical. I have boiled it down to the season of that friendship being over. The drama played out but I refused to play into it. I simply had to let it go and move on to keep my nerves from becoming more frazzled than they had already been. I saw a part of my old self in her craziness. Ways I had treated people before and realized why they walked out during those times. It wasn’t healthy. I have to stay healthy, mentally and physically right now. I won’t apologize for that.
When I sin against God, God removes His hand of protection off my life and things go horribly wrong for me.
I just experienced God’s hand being removed ifrom my grandson. He was on 2-year probation, and knew he had to follow the rules laid out to him., which included letting go of old friends. He did good for 2 months; then he said he was helping a friend build a tree stand. He was fine for 2 weeks. At first he called and texted me saying how much fun he was having; then the calls stopped, he wouldn’t answer my texts. He promised he would be here for Christmas dinner, but never showed. One day later I walked out of my bedroom and he was standing in the kitchen. He looked at me, and said, “you are mad with me aren’’t you?” I raised my voice (which I should not have), but told him I had had enough, and he was to go into his bedroom and get his clothes together, He didn’t’t live here anymore! The following day a cop came to our home, and asked my husband if Jeremy was home? He said he was in his bedroom. He had to answer a call and said he would be back. I left to take my little chihuahua to the vet. I called my husband from the vet and asked if the cop ever came back. He said 2 cops showed up; asked if Jeremy was here, and one of the deputy’s knocked on his door, he opened his door and she placed him in handcuffs. He is now sitting in jail, several charges against him. There is no bond because he violated his probation. God showed him favor on the other charge. He could have gotten 10-20 years, but they discharged the heaviest charge The Judge gave him probation. When he decided to “make his own decisions, knowing the costs, God had to take his hands off of him. Now instead of 2 years probation, he could be facing 10-20 years in prison. To me, this is a prime example of our disobedience when we are clearly aware of the costs. He has said it was his fault, and he broke his commitment to God, And he is where he should be. I am almost 87. I just pray to still be here when he is released.