Why?
Recently while listening to a Christian radio station I heard that it is illegal to go fishing on the back of a camel in Idaho. Strange, right? I did Google that, and did find some clarifying information, but not what prompted the law in the beginning. There is an article that appeared in the St. Petersburg Times in Florida on Wednesday, October 4, 1944. The very brief article states: “If you bring your camel to Idaho don’t expect to go trout fishing on it. It’s illegal. Attorney General Bert H. Miller said so in reaffirming a previous opinion for the benefit of Sgt. Gordon A Ray, Idahoan now in New Guinea, who said buddies ‘ribbed’ him on finding the state statute in a list of odd laws. The Idaho law makes it a misdemeanor ‘to fish for trout from the back of any animal.’” So, we now know that the powers that were in Idaho did not single out the camel for special non-fishing privileges, but it is still not clear why a law from fishing from back of animal was enacted. Perhaps it was for sanitary reasons? Hard to say why from our perspective today.
Why did Jesus come down from the glories of Heaven to walk among us in human flesh? God says it is because He loves the “world.” Even though, God tells us His why, it is still hard to understand from our human perspective today. A man in Oklahoma is questioning tonight why his only daughter was shot and killed by a man. He talked about how he had heard many times how these things had happened to other families, but this time it has happened to his family.
Why, we ask? In the Bible, we read of Job a very righteous man whose entire family, except for his wife, was wiped out by a natural disaster. Job’s seven sons and three daughters were all killed by what sounds like a tornado. King David, a man after God’s own heart, had a son become sick and die when he was only seven days old. Why? Countless people over the ages have asked that question of God, why?
God had some questions for Job and for us:
Who set the wild donkey free? – Job 39:5.
Have you given the horse strength? Have you clothed his neck with thunder? Can you frighten him like a locust? – Job 39:19-20.
Does the hawk fly by your wisdom, and spread its wings toward the south? – Job 39:26.
Does the eagle mount up at your command, and make its nest on high? – Job 39:29.
Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it. – Job 40:2.
Are you able to contend with God, to rebuke God, to correct God? God says in Isaiah 55:8-9, “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’”
We ask why about so many things, but from our perspective as created beings it is difficult for us to understand. Because God is not like us, His thoughts are not like our thoughts, and His ways are not like our ways. We only have to look at the heavens, the infinite numbers of stars above our heads every night to know we can never really understand the whys while clothed in human flesh. Someday God promises that all will be made understandable for us. God tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” Meanwhile, here on earth where the whys are not always answered God through the apostle Paul says to us, “Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work (2 Corinthians 2:15-17).”