Isaiah 57:1 "The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come."
There are many things in life that are hard to understand. I often heard older
people say that you should never ask, "Why?" Of course my
thought in reply to that was, "Why?" Why would I not ask about
something that I did not understand? Maybe it was because those people did not
understand it either. I'm not sure. We often hear it said, "The good
die young." I guess I'm presenting more thoughts and questions than
I am giving answers this morning. Through the years of my ministry, I
have had to stand at the graveside of an infant, or a teenager, or a young
person who was thought to be a "good person." The same thoughts
have been presented in the form of something like this, "I just don't
understand why this happens." A minister wants to think we have the
answers, but quite often, I have had to admit that I did not have that answer.
I know I'm wandering with my thoughts, but what I want to say is that today's
verse has been my "go-to" verse to give as honest an answer as I
possibly could give: "That child, that young person was maybe ... taken
away from the evil to come." God has a purpose for all things and
even in my lack of knowledge, He is still worthy of our praise. I think
those older people had in mind that we should never allow our questions to
crowd out our understanding of God's righteousness. I will conclude my thoughts
today with this precious truth: even though I do not understand all things, one
thing I know - God does not make mistakes.