A dear friend’s wife had stopped on the interstate with all the other cars for a traffic accident. A large 18-wheeler slammed into her and her car burst into flames, and she died. She had so much life and was such a giver of life to others. He called me a few minutes later.

Life can be harsh.

The call transported my thoughts to the early morning call I received almost 15 years ago. My 93-year-old father’s home was struck by lightening and he died in the fire. I remember screaming out to God, “Why like this? Death is bad enough, but burned beyond recognition — why?”

Love can be harsh.

God’s Love: Beyond Our Understanding

When we hold a concept of love as a standard, and things happen we don’t think loving, we can accuse the one who could have altered the circumstances but didn’t of not being loving. Judged by our definition of love, God is condemned. Some have done that.

But real love, God’s love, is too large for the meager minds of men. Our concepts don’t cover it. In order to embrace it, we must trust. God is love, but our understanding of love does not define God. God defines love.

The God of the Bible is clearly revealed as both sovereign and loving. He makes it plain that He rules in the affairs of this world, weaving together the choices of his people and the events of history to accomplish his ultimate objective, which is to delight us in his love.

Real love is too large for the meager minds of men.

The grand narrative of the Bible shows that God’s love is larger than our concepts of love. With our sentimental concept of love we would view the expulsion Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden as unloving. What about the flood? Seems horrible, doesn’t it? The plagues on Egypt were severe. The conquests of the land of Canaan were brutal.

But more brutal than anything man has ever endured is that God himself through the Son became sin and absorbed the wrath that hung heavy over a rebellious creation. Love has never been harsher. It has never been more real than it was on the Cross.

He loves enough to correct, discipline, destroy evil and take the consequences of our choices upon himself. His ways are beyond finding out, but they are always expressions of love. Trust opens our hearts to find a comfort that our minds could never discover apart from his revelation.

Finding Joy in God’s Sovereignty

Look at Job. The book of Job confounds many people. They are so certain that Job’s troubles were the result of his sin that they find a way to justify God’s harsh treatment of him. Oh, I know it was Satan who did the dirty work, but he had to ask God. But Job would not be persuaded that God had turned on him, nor would he agree that it was his sin that brought on the trouble.

His confession revealed his trust in God’s love. “Though He slay me, still I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to His face.” (Job 13:15) Job didn’t impose his own understanding of love upon God, but trusted that God loved him and everything that happened to him somehow showed God’s love.

The greatest delight that mankind can experience is a living trust in the God who is eternally both good and sovereign.

The greatest delight that mankind can experience is a living trust in the God who is eternally both good and sovereign. He doesn’t mind our questions; He even entertains our arguments; but in the end we fall into loving arms of the Father who loves us so much that He gave His Son who gave His life that we might know the love of God.