God I would not do it that way

Summary: God, I would not do it that wayBy the time I was a senior in high school, I had been wearing a necktie on Sundays since I was fourteen. That means I learned to tie a necktie when I was fourteen. One day I was sitting in the classroom that Edna Elmore used for her English classes. It was free time. There were four of us in the room talking. Three were trying to tie a suitable knot for the neckwear of a dress uniform in the Navy. They were not succeeding. Each time they tried to tie that tie, it was a mess. Each time I would say, “Use a Full Windsor knot.” Over and over the same thing happened. They would try. The tie would be a mess. I would say, “Use a Full Windsor knot.” Of course, the whole time I was trying to sound like I really knew what I was talking about. And, of course, I did not. Finally, they handed me the tie. I tried to tie what I had been told was a Full Windsor knot. The tie was much too thick for the knot, and all I produced was another big mess. How often have we said, “I would not do it that way”? The translation of that statement: “That is the wrong way to do it. If I did it, I would do it the right way.” Quite often, we, in so many words, say, “God, I do not understand the way You do things. More often than not, You simply confuse me with the way You do things. It is very evident to me that Your way will not work. I cannot understand why You do not understand that.” * There is an old saying that declares, “Hindsight has 20/20 vision.” * When you look from the present back into the past, you can see everything clearly with perfect vision. * You can look back and see so clearly what other people should have done to avoid problems or to make mistakes impossible. * If you are honest with yourself, you can always look back and see what you should have done or could have done. * Very few of us would refuse to change the past if we could. * Why? It is simple. When we look back, we always see with 20/20 vision. * While we can look into the past and see so clearly, we cannot see into the present as clearly. * We rarely see the present as clearly as we see the past. * We never see the future as clearly as we see the past. * When we look at God’s actions in the past, we can see so clearly what God was doing and marvel at God’s wisdom. * But those people [for whom our past was their present] really struggled to understand what God was doing. * Abraham and Sarah struggled to understand why God waited so long to keep His promise and give them a son. * Isaac, Rebekah, Esau, and Jacob never understood why God decided to work through Jacob instead of Esau. * It certainly was not because Jacob was such a godly man! * It certainly was not because that was the way things were done! * Surely there were times when Jacob’s family wondered why God brought them to a home in Egypt through ten brothers selling Joseph into slavery. * Surely there were times when the nation of Israel wondered why God led them to the promised land through the desert when there was a perfectly good highway that went along the Mediterranean Sea. * Looking back, we see clearly what God was doing. * God wanted Abraham and Sarah and, later, Israel to understand that God, and nothing else, made it possible for Abraham and Sarah to have Isaac. * God used Jacob and not Esau because God wanted them to clearly understand that the living God does things His way by His choices–He is sovereign. * God rescued Jacob’s family from a famine through the work of Joseph because God wanted Israel to understand that God, alone, took care of them, and nothing else.

God I would not do it that way

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