R1-25: For A Person Under God’s Covenants There’s No Such Thing As ‘Luck’ Or ‘Coincidence’

Have you ever heard your Pastor, Preacher or Bible Teacher say…

“The Lord doesn’t punish those who are His“? 

Well, I’ll tell you right now, the theology of the entire Bible in BOTH the “Old” and New Testaments exposes that notion to be a boldfaced lie.

Let’s take a good look at Naomi’s words when she said…

“I went away full,
but the Lord has brought me back empty
Adonai has testified against me,
Shaddai has afflicted me.”
-Ruth 1:21

As I’ve already explained, SHADDAI literally meant “mountain”…

But since the chief deity always dwelled at the highest point on the highest mountain, what Naomi’s really saying is that “the most powerful God of them all” or the “God who controls everyone and everything”.

In other words, Naomi’s theology is very clear.

It is God Himself who has brought all this misfortune upon her and not some devil lurking around in the background somewhere.

Remember, even Satan himself had to get permission from the Lord before he could begin destroying Job’s life.

There’s also a poetic nuance embedded in the Hebrew text I want you to catch.

Notice how Naomi switches her terms back and forth when she refers to God.

First she uses the dramatic SHADDAI.

Then she says YHVH testified against her.

This is Naomi’s way of saying there was nothing she could do to stop the God of the Universe from preventing what happened to her from happening.

There was no Norman Vincent Peale self-help book she could’ve read that would have stopped the Almighty…

Or a bunch of New Agey positive affirmations she could’ve mindlessly uttered in the morning and evening to get the “universe” to alter the course of events…

Nor could she have hired some “goorooo” or life coach to help her “raise her vibrational frequencies” so she could “manifest” a new husband, wealth or whatever…

No, Naomi is making it clear that once the Lord’s curse of emptiness was placed upon her, that was it.

She was helpless to stop it.

And if I reflect back on my own life, I can kinda see the same phenomenon playing out…

In spite of my best efforts and diligently dotting all my “I’s” and crossing all my “T’s”, no matter what I did, a door I so desperately wanted to open just stayed shut…

Was there a correlation between what happened and some sin I committed in the past?

Possibly…

But maybe not…

Maybe the Lord had other plans…

My point is:

It’s God who CONTROLS every aspect of our existence and not some dude with horns and a pitchfork strutting around in the background with an evil grin on his face just waiting for an opportune moment to strike and bring chaos into our lives.

So yeah, I find the theology of a lot of folks in the Christian camp to be quite schizophrenic in this sense.

On one hand they’ll say “Yup, the Lord controls everything”.

But on the other hand, they’ll blame the devil whenever misfortune strikes.

Your pastor may say “the Lord giveth and He taketh away”.

But does he really believe it?

More often than not, the false idea that’s promoted is that believers should only expect to be blessed because we are now living in the “advent of Christ”. 

What a bunch of baloney!

That ain’t the theology of neither the “Old” or New testament.

It’s a doctrine of men who only want to experience the Lord’s positive attributes while conveniently ignoring the harsher aspects of His character.

Naomi and the people of the Bible weren’t under such dangerous delusions.

When Naomi says the Lord “sent her out full” but “brought her back empty”, there was zero sense of hypocrisy or sarcasm in what she was saying.

It’s a statement of a clear-headed women who had fully accepted the reality that what had happened to her was from the Lord’s hand.

So yeah, I think the Hebrew Bible puts to death the theology of always blaming the devil for the negative things that happen in our lives.

If you look closely at the interactions between the Biblical characters and God when tragedy struck, they complained directly to God about their situation.

But we don’t usually see the Lord telling them they’re wrong for complaining to Him.

It’s okay to come to the Lord and express remorse for the deep pain you’re in…

But it’s quite another thing to tell Him He’s in the wrong because He has placed you in your current situation.

Naomi did the former (accepting reality) without falling into the latter (questioning God’s authority).

She did nothing wrong nor was she being unfaithful when she expressed her MARA or “bitterness”…

She was properly acknowledging that the source of her troubles came from God…

She accepted His authority…

Even though she didn’t understand why…

There’s a HUGE lesson for us here folks!

So let me just close with this.

For the person who has entered into a covenant relationship with the Almighty, there isn’t such a thing as “coincidence” or “luck”.

That’s why you won’t even find a word for “coincidence” in the Hebrew Bible.

See you all next time.

CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT

“My Father, if it is possible,
may this cup be taken from me.
Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
-Matthew 26:39