Questions in front of two coffins – by Ovidiu Radulescu
Two brothers, teenagers, killed in an accident...
Standing in front of this two coffins, we cannot ask ourselves questions. Questions, with loud voice, whispering or in silence. And the shortest the question, the harder the answer.
1 - The first question: WHY?
Why such tragedies? We use to say that the Bible is a sacred bookthat does’nt contain human wisdom only, but God’s wisdom. It answers to a lot of questions and challanges.But it seems to have no answer to this question. It hesitates to give us a direct and clear answer.
If God knew that it would have been to our best, he would have given to us an answer.
Let us think to Job, the perfect suffering example of the Old Testament. In a single day only he looses everything. He looses possession, health, family (ten children), his wife rejected him, his righteous name is debated and even his best friends accuse him.
The whole book of Job is full of questions. And Job repeatedly asks:
Why?
Why?
Why?
Finally, everybody shots downs. They finished all their words and they reach the “end of wisdom” or the end of human foolishness. 37 chapters of words and human questions.
Finally, at the very end God speaks. He answers to the challenge. The last four chapters are God’s words. We anxiously expect to see the solution, to hear the answer. Because he is the one who knows everything.
But God doesn’t give any expected answer. Instead, he comes up with another set of questions. It seems to be no more questions but now they are some other ones. Job is questioned like a first grade student. He is asked about the basic laws of nature, physics, astronomy, mathematics, ecology, zoology, and then:
-Do you understand all of these?
And Job shuts down his mouth.
What does he say right after this? Job says: “Yes, now I know!”
What he did he understand?
-Job, do you understand how this Univers is ruled, how does it function like a huge clock machine with bilions of wheels and parts?
-No Lord, I don’t.
-But Job, do they work perfectly?
-Yes Lord, they do.
-Job, is it possible everything to work perfectly without your understanding?
-Yes Lord.
-Who does rule them?
-O Lord, everything is in your hand.
-Job, if take care of this whole Univers, from the basic cell upt to the megagalaxies without your understanding, could you trust me? Don’t you believe that your life which is like a drop in this ocean, can be ruled by my power even if you don’t understand it?
And now Job is satisfied. Now he is confident, having a new perspective of life. So do we.
*****
2- The second big question: What does God do? Why is God silent when we expect him to act?
See Revelation 12 - the chapter that contains a compressed history of our world.
The women, the dragon and the Child : three major figures. If the dragon is the symbol of Satan, then the child is the symbol of Jesus and his followers, including Lucian and Andrei Bencea.
The dragon stood before the woman as she was about to give birth to her child, ready to devour him… Revelation 12: 4
Then the dragon became angry at the woman, and he declared WAR AGAINST the rest of her CHILDREN. Revelation 12: 17 (New Living Translation)
The dragon become angry and he declared war against who? Against the children!... If he is so strong and ambitious, why does he not fight with God? No, because he knows he cannot touch God. And then he has chosen a diabolic strategy as his character is.
Satan is fighting against children. From the beginning, he has fought against children. He started with Adam and Eve, the children of God. And after that, their children were attacked too: in a single day Cain become murderer and Abel an innocent victim. An empty home: two children taken away in a day. It was the same with Nelly’s home…
And so on: Satan pushed Ishmael against Isaac, Esau against Jacob, Saul against young David, corupted priests and politiciens against Jeremiah...
In Bethlehem, two thousands years ago, a king thirsty after power, put to death hundreds of innocent kids: Herod as a human symbol of Satan struggle to kill God and take his place…
Every time when something bad happens (war, accident, revolution, divorce…) who are the first one who suffers? The children, always the children…
Satan fights especially against them. He specialized: diseases and accidents, their minds are corrupted, their fillings are destroyed, the faith abandoned, the moral character destroyed.
Is there something more terrible, more awful, than fighting against children? Up to the end he will continue to fight against children.
-Yesterday, my boy, Rudy.
-Today, Nelly’s boys, Lucian and Andrei.
-Tomorrow is looking for others. How could they be protected?
Satan trotted us into this terrorist war, this war without any law.
So what does God do? How does he answer. He answers by sending his own Child. Trough this strategic plan, God won. A perfect life and an atoning death.
(Develop this idea…). The dragon vs. the Child. And the Child won!
And our beloved Lucian and Andrei, won, in the name of this Child, Jesus. They will be resurrected, when Jesus will come, soon. Very soon…
Hot Springs
Saturday, February 28, 2004
Ovidiu Radulescu ovirad@yahoo.com
