We’re the Weird Ones

I just started reading 2 Kings a few days ago, and having just finished Chapter five, I am compelled to say that there are some very weird stories in there. In Chapter 1 we have Elijah calling fire down from heaven to burn up two groups of fifty soldiers with their captains (the third captain caught on and fell to his knees first!). In Chapter 2 we have chariots of fire appearing and Elijah being taken up into heaven in a whirlwind. This is closely followed by the newly appointed Elisha chucking a load of salt into a spring which ‘healed’ the water and stopped death and miscarriage. Oh, and Chapter two finishes with 42 boys being killed by bears because they insulted Elisha’s bald head! It goes on with a dry stream bed being filled with water, a widow’s single jar of oil being able to fill all the jars her sons could find, a barren woman having a child, a dead boy being raised to life, a deadly stew being made edible by throwing in some flour … and that just takes you to the end of Chapter 4.

It can’t just be me that thinks these stories are a bit odd. Amazing, but odd. But the truth is that none of these stories are odd or weird to God. They are normal. They are just God-incidences that use God-sense and God-power. And herein lies our problem. We look at things using our own common sense and limit things by what we understand to be possible within our own human restrictions. But as far as God is concerned, we are the ‘weird’ ones. We are the ones who have odd thinking and strange ways.

The Bible tells us that His ways are perfect (Psalm 18:30), and that we don’t get how He thinks (Isaiah 55:8-9). So, our challenge is to acknowledge this truth and to surrender to Him and His ways - even when we don’t understand them. It is a challenge for us all, but we are comforted by the amazing truth that everything He does is motivated by love and is always just.

So, maybe there are things going on in your life and you don’t understand what God is doing. Firstly, join the club! But secondly, let’s be honest with the Lord about how confused we are, while recognising that we simply don’t understand things the way He does.