When God takes His hands off.

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.