God's Ways Are Higher Than Ours - Get Used To It

In the account of the immediate judgment on Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter 5, our old nature human reactions can get a bit ruffled. God's action here can make us wonder if He isn't a little too severe and overbearing. In one of the Sunday School classes, a young girl asked a question about this very thing. This has prompted the following thoughts.

There are many accounts in scripture where such questions are or can be asked. Going back to very early Genesis with the fall of man over the "simple" act of eating some forbidden fruit. Others include a man being stoned to death for gathering sticks on the Sabbath, a man being struck dead when he tried to steady the ark of the covenant and touched it, many were swallowed by the earth after throwing an idolatrous party, etc.

It is good for us to remember that we, in our old nature sinful flesh, want to be god and act the part by judging God's actions and ways. However, we also remember that He is Almighty God, full of all goodness, righteousness, and truth. He is the Creator of all things and governs the world in goodness. We are mere sinful creatures, at enmity with Him in our sinful state and hoplessly lost without His power and goodness.

It is not our position to know goodness; on the contrary our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, at least until God saves, instructs, and conforms us to His Word, His Christ.

These tendencies of ours to judge Him and/or pursue ways contrary to His ways continue somewhat even though He has saved and instructed us. This we must be aware of and alert to as we undertake various endeavors. We must remain open to His Word and Holy Spirit. We must be ready to hear and see any wicked way in us. We must not be like the Sadducees, Pharisees, leaders of the temple, etc., whose example in the gospels and Acts of the Apostles show sinful pride, anger, violence, etc.; things we repudiate. We must get used to the Creator-creature distinction; He is the Almighty Creator and we are creatures; He is the Potter, we are the clay. His ways and thoughts are much higher than ours, and He commands us to trust Him and not lean on our own understanding.

DR