I am sure we all know someone who has complained about God because of some tsouris (troubles) they have had in their life, saying that God didn’t do what he should have done, or why did he do what he did.
But is it God who failed to be the way he is supposed to be, or was it their expectation of who God is that was wrong?
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Christianity teaches that God is forgiving and holy and compassionate, and that is also how he is described in the Tanakh. And he really is like that.
But he is more than that- he is also the Holy One of Israel who is judge, jury, and executioner of those who disobey his rules. He is compassionate and understands our weaknesses, but unless we are humble, contrite, and accept Yeshua as our Messiah, faithfully believing that through his sacrifice we are able to receive forgiveness of sins, we are not going to see that side of God.
Humans are prideful, and as such, we don’t like the idea that God is all-powerful and the ultimate authority. We want to compartmentalize him into a God who forgives us, whose divine powers are there to help us, and who always loves us. As such, he will forgive us anything and we don’t really have to do much, other than love each other and say we believe Yeshua is the Messiah.
Judaism has learned it ain’t that easy- we know that the instructions God gave us in the Torah are not just for us, but for everyone, and we also know that as much as God loves us and really wants to forgive us (Ezekiel 18:23), he is too holy to ignore his own rules.
Deuteronomy 28 is at once the most wonderful and frightening chapter in the entire Bible. That is where God promises a plethora of wonderful blessings for those who obey his Torah, then he goes on to tell us all the terrible and horrible curses that will befall us if we refuse to obey his Torah. It is known as the “Blessings and Curses” chapter.
Christianity teaches the opposite, in that they say love each other and “believe in Jesus” (whatever the heck that is supposed to mean) and you will be saved. It rejects nearly every commandment, law, regulation, ordinance, Holy Day, and lifestyle that God says we should live.
Talk about unreasonable expectations, if you go by what most Christian religions teach, rejecting God, his commandments, and even replacing him with his son, they make salvation look like a “Come-As-You-Are” party!
In the Torah, God is pretty clear on what we can expect from him, and what he expects from us.
It seems to me that people reject God because they have lost a loved one, or because they prayed for something they didn’t get, or because they grew up forced to be in a religion that they didn’t like. They become angry, and because of the wrong expectations they were taught about what to expect from God, instead of realizing their expectations were wrong, they project that anger directly against God, blaming him for not being what they wanted him to be.
My experience with people who blame and/or reject God because they have suffered losses or had prayers go unanswered do so because they do not consider that what they expected from God was wrong, to begin with.
Our human pridefulness cannot accept the ultimate and unquestionable authority of God. It kills us that he can do whatever the heck he wants to, and that not only do we do not have the need to know, but he doesn’t have to explain anything to us!
And I believe that is why so many people reject God; they just can’t handle the fact that he doesn’t have to be the way they want him to be.
And that is a shame, because until someone has the emotional maturity to be humble before God (and yes- you need to be emotionally mature to be humble) and to read the Torah so they can know who he is and what he expects from them, they will never have the correct expectation of who and what God is.
And whether we are talking about God or just life in general, when your expectations are unreasonable you will never be satisfied.
Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.
That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem