The Lawyer for the Accused

One thing that almost everyone agrees on about President Trump is his mindless tweeting. His advocates have suggested taking away his phone, terminating his Twitter account, or doing something to just get him to stop making all these largely offensive and inappropriate tweets in the night. Someone needs to get him to just shut up at times.

In a similar vein, perhaps God needs a better lawyer. You know, the kind that sits next to Him and urges Him, "Don't answer that." The kind that tells Him to rest on His right not to speak. Certainly not about that subject and absolutely not in that way. But God doesn't have that lawyer and we're stuck with the things He says about Himself. Try some examples.

Thus says the LORD of hosts, "I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey." (1 Sam 15:2-3)

Well, now, that seems pretty harsh. So we apply our 21st century morality and our carefully thought out moral relativism and our certainty that this cannot be a good thing and try, as hard as we can, to get God off the hook. Maybe it never happened and the Israelites of the day made it up or maybe it was a reference to a small group of Amalekites and not an actual genocide. (Note: Saul did not kill all the Amalekites and relatives of Agag, the king of the Amalekites, came up in later events (Est 9:24) to harass Israel. It was not a genocide.) Maybe Samuel misunderstood or maybe it's just a lie. Surely God would never say something like this. And God's lawyer shakes his head in frustration. "Don't answer that. You just need to keep quiet."

In Isaiah we read, "But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are our potter; we are all the work of Your hand" (Isa 64:8). So it gets a little sticky when Paul tells us, "Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?" (Rom 9:21). Now, hang on a minute. God makes some of us for honorable use and others for dishonorable use? Solomon pipes in with, "The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble" (Pro 16:4). "Hey, hey!" God's lawyer would protest. "Strike that from the record. You can't say that."

There is no doubt that the worst sin ever perpetrated in the history of the world was the unjust murder of the Son of God. On this we read that Jesus was "delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23), that "there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your plan had predestined to take place" (Acts 4:27-28). Wait ... hold it. Are you saying that God planned the worst sin in history and God predestined that it happen? "I'm sorry, folks," the lawyer is surely saying, "we have no comment. My client is clearly disturbed by events and we'll have to wait until He feels better to continue this."

So God lays out claims about His character and those claims sometimes don't line up with our popular ideas or our moral judgments and we have a problem. Some decide to pass judgment on Him. (Note: I put links in there to let you know that some are doing it and not to endorse their arguments. Some Christians don't know that this is going on.) Some explain that you can't trust the Bible to tell you what God is like. Some decide to try to get Him off the hook. "Oh, no He didn't mean that. Let me tell you how He actually aligns with our popular ideas and our moral values." (I read one debate between a believer and an unbeliever about the morality of God where the believer argued, "The Bible cannot be taken literally." Not helping.)

The simple fact is we don't get to do this. We don't get to judge God. We don't get to evaluate His choices and determine whether or not He was right or moral in them. We don't get to argue with Him about what He does or if it's okay. I once heard a Christian say after a difficult event in life, "If God was behind what happened to me, I'm going to have a problem with God." We don't get to do that. God is God. He is the Creator. He is the Master. He is the Lord. It all belongs to Him and what He does isn't only good; it defines good.

The problem is called "theodicy" and we do need to keep answering the questions, but in the final analysis we don't get to pass judgment on God. It is not rational to say, "If God is like the Bible says He is, I want nothing to do with Him." We don't get to evaluate whether or not He is good or just or true. He defines these things. So what we need to do is think His thoughts after Him, correct our views when we fail to do so. Sometimes we misunderstand what He said and we need to fix that. Sometimes we thoroughly understand what He said and we need to realign our thinking to His revealed character. We do need to "contend for the faith" (Jude 1:3) and be "prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3:15), but not for God's well-being. He's got this. The confusion is on our end. We don't need to defend Him, just agree with Him.