Know Your Meme

As most of you know, a "meme" is a fairly recent term mostly for an Internet fad. They're popular sayings and trends that pop up and spread via the glorious Internet. When you hear, "That video went viral" you're hearing about a meme. Popular memes include cat and dog pictures, exaggerations about ninjas, and "gangnam style". (You'll have to look that one up yourself.) They're typically adolescent, intended as humorous or insulting, and they're everywhere.

One popular meme is "Where is Your God?" They'll often have some bizarre picture like a giant spider and then ask, "Where is your God now?" Or they'll have something very stupid presented as very insightful and ask, "Where is your God now?" (For those wondering, if a=b, then a-b=0. Solving that equation requires a divide by zero -- against the rules. Oh, and "divide by zero" is another very popular Internet meme.)

It isn't, however, the Internet that created this meme. It is found first in the heart of sinners and then it is documented in the pages of Scripture. It was surely on Satan's mind when he asked Eve in the garden, "Did God say ...?" It was clearly at hand when Moses claimed that Israel's God had ordered them to go to the desert to make sacrifices and, oh, by the way, here's a staff that changes to a serpent and back again as a show of power, and Pharaoh's magicians duplicated it. It was even in Joshua's mind when, after the amazing victory at Jericho, they lost the battle at Ai. I'm sure it was hovering in the background, so to speak, in many instances, but it is explicit some places. The psalmist wrote, "Why should the nations say, 'Where is their God?' Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases" (Psa 115:2-3). The Sons of Korah wrote, "My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, 'Where is your God?'" (Psa 42:3). Joel wrote of the prayer of the priests: "'Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, "Where is their God?"'" (Joel 2:17). It is the prime question, in fact, of all those hostile to God and even those who are suffering with doubts.

The Bible has this question (repeatedly), but it isn't rhetorical. When the memes and the skeptics ask, it is intended to be a question without an answer. "See?" they are saying, "Your God is powerless and absent." God's Word recognizes that the hostile will assault God this way ... and offers genuine answers to the question. We read, then, in Psalm 115, "Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases." We know where He is, we know what He's doing, and there is no possible outcome other than what He wants. We read in Psalm 42 in direct response to the challenge, "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God" (Psa 42:11). God is my hope and my salvation. I know where He is. I know what He's doing. And it's good. In Isaiah 46 God Himself says, "Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all My purpose'" (Isa 46:8-10).

Where is your God? He's present. And He's working. He's doing everything He pleases. He's saving and He's winning. He is accomplishing everything He intends. I can almost hear the skeptic now: "Where is your God now? Oh ... He's standing behind me, isn't He?" Well, I can't hear it now, but it will come. In the meantime, "Hope in God."