Page 30 - Sarah's Children

This young woman told how she moved out from her father’s house when she was
of age, and how in the intervening years she dealt with great anger, guilt, and many
other terrible emotions. She then spoke of how the Spirit led her to forgive her
father, and to even go back to him and tell him that she forgave him. I saw a grace
upon her that was uncommon, and it was evident that He who is Life was flowing
through her being and bringing transformation.

Yet as I listened to her I was angry. I didn’t want the story to go this way. I didn’t
want an innocent child to be abused and violated. It is one thing to hear about such
a thing second hand, but it is another matter to see the victim standing before you
telling you these things through tears and sobs. I left that meeting angry and
dissatisfied. This woman had come to a place of peace in her life, but I was full of
offense that these things should have happened to her. My offense was ultimately
against God that He should have allowed a teenage girl to be so violated by her daddy
that she adored.

There are no nice, pat, theological explanations that will bring us peace about such
matters. There is no argument or justification that will bring us to say, “Now I see
that it was really okay.” These things are not okay. They are tragic, they are unfair,
they are abominations, they should bring us to weep and cry when we hear about
them. But in all things Yahweh is just and without fault. His ways are higher than our
ways and we cannot impute wrongdoing to Him.

The scriptures say that Yahweh was pleased to crush His Son and to put Him to grief.
This young lady I have spoken of seemed to me to be an exceptionally fine person
whom any dad would be glad to claim as a daughter. Yet Yahweh had a Son who was
far more praiseworthy than anyone born of Adam. His Son was perfect in obedience
and love. This Son lived to do the will of His Father. This Son was the exact
representation of His Father’s nature. It was testified of Him that the Father was
“well pleased” with Him.

Yet the Father was also pleased to have Him suffer at the hands of evil men. The
Father was pleased to crush Him and to allow Him to undergo grief so great that He
sweat drops of blood in His agony, and in a final moment of perplexity He cried out,
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

There are no theological arguments that can bring me to declare that the experience
of Christ in following the path the Father had for Him was fair. It was horrendous.
This Son who was perfect in obedience was put through things that make me tremble
to think upon. He was abandoned by His closest friends. He was falsely accused by
the very nation of people He came to save. He was beaten, spat upon, insulted,
mocked, and ridiculed. He had His beard plucked out by the handfuls. He was
scourged until His flesh was left in ragged tatters and He was unrecognizable as a