A common question for man is the question "why?". Why did you...? If we kept track of every time we ask "why", we'd probably be surprised at how often we, ourselves, ask it. It's our nature to question and I'm not saying questions are wrong, nor is the question "why" always wrong. But we must think through our own reasoning as to the why of the question "why"? And in regard to the root of that reason, if the underlying answer for our "why" is a lashing out at the Almighty God, then the ground we tread is treacherous.
If you have never read the passage of scripture in Jeremiah about the potter and the clay, I encourage you to do so. (Jeremiah 18: 1-12) However, the passage for my post today is Isaiah, and that passage begins with a "woe"! "Woe to him who strives with Him Who formed him." I would like to share a commentary quote from Matthew Poole, theologian and thinker of the seventeenth century, in regard to this passage. Isaiah is warning the people of Israel not to fight against Cyrus, whom God has place in his ruling position. Mr. Poole writes: "...so He pronounces a curse upon them who should endeavor to hinder it...that they did not only fight against Cyrus, a man like themselves, but against God, the Maker and Governor of the world." Poole goes on to write, "...contend, if you please, with your fellow creatures, but not with your Creator."
Poole further elaborates on this thought about contending with your Maker in verse ten. The verse reads: "Woe to him who says to a father, 'What are you begetting?' or to a woman, 'With what are you in labor?'" Poole writes, "As it were an absurd and impudent thing for a child to quarrel with his parents, either simply for begetting him, or for begetting him of this or that sex, contrary to his desire; no better is it for any persons to quarrel with God the Maker and Father of all things, as God is called, for disposing of them and their affairs by His providence as he sees fit, and otherwise than they desire or expect."
I praise God for His grace in salvation and the amazing transformation that takes place as a result. One of those elements of transformation is the ability to fight against our natural tendency to rebel. When God's word says, "Woe", I want to listen. He gives us every opportunity to repent of our rebellion, our "whys". We must heed the warnings. He has made Himself plain through His word.
"I'll trust in God's unchanging word till soul and body sever; the words of men will pass away; God's word abides forever." (last stanza of poem by Martin Luther)
