The Third Way

When reading in Genesis 24 this morning I was struck by the words of a relative of Abraham.

Abraham had sent his servant from Canaan back to Mesopotamia to find a wife for his (A.'s) son, Isaac. The servant asked God to show him the right woman through specific signs. When a young woman he encountered at the village well, Rebekah, fulfilled those signs, and was a relative of Abraham to boot, he concluded she must be the one for Isaac. When the servant then met Rebekah's family and recounted his mission and the fulfillment of the signs, Rebekah's brother and father agreed that the whole thing was from the Lord. It was their words of response, which amounted to an agreement, that struck me:

"The thing has come from the Lord; we cannot speak to you bad or good. Behold, Rebekah is before you; take her and go, and let her be the wife of your master's son, as the Lord has spoken" (verses 50-51; ESV, italics added).

The new English Standard Version is a very literal translation ("bad or good"). The New Living Translation (second ed.) renders it this way:

"The Lord has obviously brought you here, so there is nothing we can say."

Both translations are helpful. "Bad or good" reflects how quick we are as humans to lump life into two categories when considering the acts of God: they are either bad or good. But Rebekah's father and brother resisted that temptation by saying, "We cannot speak . . ." about the morality of the event. Indeed, "There is nothing we can say." They recused themselves, disqualified themselves, from forming, or at least uttering, an opinion on God's ways.

That seems wise to me. Rather than being a cop-out, it's reflective of what God said through the prophet Isaiah:

"My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the Lord.

"And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.

For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so my ways are higher than your ways

and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."

(55:8, NLT)

It also calls to mind the apostle Paul's response to those who questioned God's will and ways:

Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, "Why have you made me like this?" (Romans 9:20b, NLT)

There are so many "acts of God" on which we make quick judgments—God's command to kill certain people in the Old Testament or natural disasters in our day; we are quick to label His acts "bad or good." In truth, those are our ways (bad and good), not God's. He apparently has a "third way" that is different from ours; higher than ours (transrational?). Perhaps the better part of wisdom is to withhold applying any of our categories to Him as long as we are looking through a glass darkly from our vantage point on earth.