“Consider what God has done. Who can straighten what He has
bent?” (Ecclesiastes 7:13)
I was recently asked for my take on this cryptic verse. The person, a friend of mine, shared that she
had often wondered about its meaning. Let
me share a brief story…
A few years ago, while walking through the forest, I came
upon this strange tree. I was surrounded
by hundreds of beautiful evergreen conifer trees – fir trees I think. But this one tree was amazing. It was literally coming out of the ground
sideways, then bending straight up towards the sky. It was as tall and massive and straight as
any other tree in the forest, but its footing was totally cockeyed! As I stood there studying it, I noticed that
the ground on one side gave way to a little depression about 5-feet deep – like
a ravine or sinkhole had developed long ago when the tree was just a sapling. Apparently the young tree was able to endure
the trauma and thrive in spite of it. I
have seen trees growing crooked or bent before, but this was the first
fully-matured tree I remember seeing that turned a full 90-degrees! I thought of how fitting this vision was of
my life, and the lives of so many people I have known over the years. God’s Word promises us that He is able to
bring good out of every circumstance.
Even the most painful experiences we endure can be used by Him to
produce good in the world and strength in us.
This isn’t just a godless, gooey “what doesn’t kill you makes you
stronger” message, but an affirmation of the scripture in Romans, “…We know
that all things work together for good to those WHO LOVE GOD, to those who are
CALLED according to His purpose.”
When I was a kid, I believed that following Christ would mean He would
take all my problems away and give me a carefree life. The older I get in Him, the more I realize
that His power to transform me and bring meaning & hope to my life “is made
perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
It is when we trust Him with our struggles, and go where He leads, that
we can see Him most clearly and rise above this broken world.
Back to Ecclesiastes 7:13: “Consider what God has done. Who
can straighten what He has bent?” This
one verse is in the middle of a larger exposition of poetic musings regarding
God’s view of wisdom and folly, and where they lead. In looking at the original Hebrew, here I’ve
rewritten it with some clarifying meanings: To SEE or BEHOLD the CONSTRUCTS /
ACCOMPLISHMENTS that God has BUILT (as opposed to the act of Him working). Who can STRAIGHTEN or ARRANGE what He has BENT
/ MADE CROOKED / PERVERTED. This last
word “perverted” seems strange and blasphemous to me. When I think of this word, images of sexual
predators and demonic evil come to mind….surely this isn’t true of our Heavenly
Father, right?! The word means “deviating from what is considered right and correct.”
Let’s learn from the scriptures…what do
we know about our God, His purposes, and the strategies with which He has
fashioned the world? I’ll share 4
passages, then a summary of my thoughts…
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For
God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person
is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then,
after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is
full-grown, gives birth to death. (James 1:13-15)
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth
comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation
waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the
creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will
of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be
liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of
the children of God. (Romans 8:18-21)
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have
compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on human
desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I
raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and
that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore
God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to
harden. One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who
is able to resist his will?” But who are you, a human being, to talk back
to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make
me like this?’ ” Does not the potter have the right to
make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some
for common use? What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his
power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for
destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to
the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— even us,
whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
(Romans 9:15-24)
And we know that in all things God works for the good of
those who love him, whoi have
been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also
predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the
firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he
also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also
glorified. (Romans 8:28-30)
Here’s a summary of my thoughts…
God is 100% Pure Good, and that’s how He made the
world. Love and relationship are the
primary expression of His character, and for that to remain true He had to
create us with choice – aka “Free Will.”
His ultimate creation, man & woman, fell to temptation from the
enemy and were cast out of the perfect goodness & relationship that God had
created. Their hearts became bent and
perverted from that point on, though the glory of God’s created image in them
remains as well. So from then on all of humanity,
and the world around us, is living in an amalgamation of good & evil by God’s
design, His presence and absence, blessing and curse….not because He’s
mean-spirited and capricious, but because He is Good and Just! God beckons each one of us to return to
relationship with Him in the midst of a broken world we cannot repair, while
living with perverted desires that we cannot control without Him. He is intimately involved with each one of
us, pursuing and wooing each of us through the circumstances of our lives; and
because He exists outside of time (another of His constructs), He sees our
beginning and end and everything between all at once. This vantage point unleashes His blessing and
guiding on those who will choose Him and His values; and His thwarting and
hardening on those who will forever refuse His opinions, methods, and salvation
itself. Only He sees the outcome.
The challenge for us is to trust His vision and purposes, because we can't see into the future, or into peoples' souls as He can. So instead of getting caught-up in efforts to control outcomes and behaviors, we're called as God's children to follow Him, invest ourselves in people & activities that He is blessing, and trust Him with the results. Amen?
In a large house there are articles not only of gold and
silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for
common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be
instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared
to do any good work. Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness,
faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure
heart. (2 Timothy 2:20-22)
