God and My Stolen Computer

I am typing this on a borrowed computer. Why? Because I think my work computer just got stolen. I am still hoping this is just some bad trick or that I set it down in some place so random that I still haven’t found it. But with each passing minute and every memory of the morning, my hope is crashing like a virus-filled computer program. I really liked that computer. It was not just my work computer, it was my amazingly reliable, set-up-just-how-I-want-it, computer. And there is an irony in this event. This very morning, in the hours that would be my last hours of ownership of that wonderful computer, I was discussing the matter of God’s control over all evil. Who knew I would get a taste of it in my favorite tool for exalting God’s’ sovereignty. I figure I might as well use this event to exalt a truth that now has me typing on a smaller-than-I-would-like keyboard, compared to the just-right keyboard on my other computer. Man, I liked that computer.

So the most difficult thing to handle is the thing that none of us will ever be able to reconcile completely. How can God have any involvement in evil and still remain holy? We simply have no experience with this in our own lives. If I send someone to kill my neighbor, I will be complicit in the crime. I doesn’t matter how much I argue that I did not pull the trigger. The fact is I was a part of what took place even though I wasn’t there when it happened. If I allow lead-tainted water to continue to flow in pipes to surrounding homes, I doesn’t matter that I didn’t put the lead there, I continued to allow it to happen and therefore I am guilty of criminal negligence.

But God is in a different category. His experience is different than mine in ways I will never understand. The Scripture states explicitly in three separate accounts that He sends evil spirits to do evil (1 Sam. 16:14-23; Judges 9:23; 1 Kings 22:13-40), the Scripture states explicitly that God incites people to do evil (Is. 19:2, 14; 2 Sam 24:1), the Scripture states explicitly that God creates darkness and calamity (Is. 45:7; Amos 3:6) and that God makes the day of evil and the bad times (Prov. 16:4; Ecc. 7:14). On top of these explicit statements you have statements of God’s sovereign control over people and the evil decisions they make. God directs the hearts of kings (Prov. 21:1), allows or doesn’t allow evil to happen (Gen. 20:6; Job 1:12) and has declared all these things from the beginning (Is. 46:10)

These verses are just the tip of the iceberg, but I will mention one more. In Colossians chapter one we have one of the most exalted pictures of Christ. One of the ways his majesty is declared is in verse 16, “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.” Those thrones, dominions, rulers and authorities are not human political powers, they are demons as demonstrated in the terminology of 2:15. Understand what this is saying. The existence and actions of demons are due to Jesus’ determination in creation, and ultimately their existence and actions are happening FOR Jesus. This means the power and wisdom of Jesus is so great and sovereign that everything they are doing is only furthering the counsel of His righteous and holy will.

Through all of this, in every moment, in every thought, word, and deed, from the fall of Adam to the theft of my computer, God is holy. He does not have one trace of guilt. How it this possible? We can say that all of these things have a dual explanation. Many of the same passages cited above have a corresponding verse that shows the guilt rests upon the people. We can show that God holds responsible and punishes the very people He incited to do evil acts. We can give illustrative helps of what happens when the sun is removed and darkness necessarily comes in. God doesn’t cause evil any more than the sun causes darkness when it is removed. We can employ the analogy of an author and his characters. The author of a novel isn’t guilty of the deeds that his characters are doing even though he is the one creating the story.

All of these things are true and helpful. But the mystery is not fully resolved for us. God is simply in another category. He necessarily has to be. As the sustainer of every moment, every molecule, and every thought, he is involved in every facet of our existence in ways we simply cannot conceive. When that person was taking my computer out of my bag, God was keeping his atoms in tact, his cells reproducing, his heart pumping, his snatching fingers working, and his greedy mind functioning. While my computer thief was burglering, God was keeping all the laws of physics working, his get-away car operational, and the economics of our culture in place.
God could have suspended any one of those sustaining realities at any moment. Why didn’t He? At this point we have to bind ourselves to Scripture. If you don’t you may be tempted to think many wrong thoughts, especially when you have a greater loss and a greater pain then just a stolen computer.

People who have not held fast to the Scripture have thought God abandoned them, or that God was angry with them, or that God was punishing them, or that God was simply wrong or immoral in his dealings. But the Scripture has one overarching testimony. God has told us that in all His designs for evil He intends good (Gen. 50:20), that He is workings all things for good (Rom 8:28), that He is good and does good (Ps. 119:68), and that His goodness and love are everlasting (Ps 106:1). There may be a thousand other sub-goals, and most of those we will never know. But whatever they are, they also are all for the glory of God and the good of his people. As Moses said in Duet. 32:4, “The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He.

So I really hope I get my computer back, but my great hope and comfort is in a God who is “working all things after the counsel of his will.” (Eph. 1:11)Without this kind of great God, no one will ever have the truest and fullest comfort in all of our troubles.