Hosea 11:9 declares I am the Holy One living among you, and I did not come to destroy.
God is good but we don’t always think so. We like the freedom to make our own decisions, to do what we want but we don’t always like the consequences of those decisions or the choices others make which impact our lives.
We blame God for the bad things that happen without considering that most of those bad things are the result of our own or other human choices. We want a god who will intervene in our lives to keep us from injury but not to command us to do good.
When bad things happen not as a result of human choice we still blame God for it feeling that He is disinterested in our affairs. This is not the picture the Bible paints of Who the One True God Who is love in character, nature and ways.
The God in the Bible is the God Who is full of compassion, abounding in mercy and unlimited in love. His explanation for our calamities is that all people and all of nature is broken as a result of the first human’s choice to disobey God’s one solemn command. Since that rebellion He has sought to comfort, console and manage our evil doings while remaining holy, righteous and true.
Only the God of the Bible promises an eternity without pain or suffering, where men and women from every tribe, tongue and time dwell together in perfect unity with God Himself Who dwells eternally with all of those who chose to love Him during their earthly lifetime. His promise of raising His people from the dead was made sure when He Himself rose from the dead as Jesus.
Everyone will rise from the dead and face God giving an account for the lives they lived on the earth but only a few will live forever with God in peace. The others will receive the wish they expressed while living on earth: to be left alone by God to do as they please. These will be left by God but their eternal suffering will be horrific.
God waits patiently, longingly for all people everywhere to cry out for Him so that He might comfort, heal and restore them to Himself then clothe them with His righteousness so that they can live eternally with Him. In this life we will have trouble because we and our ancestors forsook God but He has overcome the world; promising help for today and hope for tomorrow.
