Godly Love

What is God's love? Well, God is love. It is the most powerful aspect of God. Everything He does is because of love. In fact, the Bible and the Torah are God's love in action. He wants us to know, He loves us and will do anything to take care of us.

I once saw a program from Showtime that featured Penn and Teller (magicians/comedians/entertainers) and the name of the program was "Bulls***!" This episode was focused on the Bible. I had a hard time watching it because of their attitudes (mocking/scoffing/cynical), but it did get me to think. One point they mentioned was this: If God was a loving and compassionate God, why did He kill the first born in Egypt?

So I prayed about this and the answer came. Pharaoh was given many chances, to let the Israelites go. He was asked repeatedly by Moses to free them, and he refused. Each time, he was warned that the calamities would get worse and that he, and the people of Egypt, would pay a horrible price for his arrogant willful hardened heart (Exodus 12:29-32). Read the book of Exodus, Message //Remix or New Living Translation editions. They are very easy to read and will allow you to understand them better.

Now, to many, that would not seem like a God of love, but if we read Genesis chapter 17, we read of God's promise and covenant with Abraham. He promised Abraham that he would be a father of many nations and that Canaan would belong to his children. Now, if anyone knows anything about God, He keeps His promises. So, looking back to Exodus 12:29-32, I can see someone taking it completely out of context, but if you read all of Exodus, then you would see how the Israelites had suffered and God heard their cries. Do you see what I am trying to point out? God's love and His complete trustworthiness to keep His promises.

God made a promise to the father of the Israelites, Abraham, and He was keeping that promise. And the Lord will do what it takes to keep that covenant and He continues to keep it today. I know some will say, "Why did He allow it?"

The Lord gave us a gift called Free Will. This gift can seem like a curse to some and a blessing to others. Free Will allowed sin into our lives, through Adam, but Free Will allowed us to be redeemed, through Jesus. God gave Pharaoh the choice to "Let My people go!" and was warned of the consequences many times if he didn't comply. So you see, Free Will can get us in trouble with the Lord if we outright refuse to obey Him. Read the book of Jonah to understand what obeying God means.

Jonah flat out didn't want to do what the Lord asked of him. God chased him and told him to "...[Go] to Nineveh! Preach to them. They're in a bad way and I can't ignore it any longer." Jon 1:1-2 MSG

It isn't until the end of the book that we see what the Lord wants to show us. If we don't do what He wants us to do, when He wants us to do it, the consequences of our choices will be evident. In Jonah's case (Jon 4:5-11), the Lord used a tree to represent Nineveh and the worm was the destruction He promised would happen if this great city didn't repent. Now, the people of this city wouldn't have known they were in danger if Jonah didn't obey and they would have been destroyed. So, Jonah saw the worm moving towards the tree and could have stopped it, but didn't and the tree died because of his willful inaction.

Finally, what is my point? Pharaoh could have saved his son, and all of those first born in Egypt, if he would have let the Israelites go. The blame isn't on God, but on Pharaoh.