“The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man the roles are reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock. He is quite a kindly judge: if God should have a reasonable defence for being the god who permits war, poverty and disease, he is ready to listen to it.”
— C.S. Lewis, “God in the Dock”
“I could not worship a God like that.”
It is one of God’s eternal blessings that he is a good God, a loving God, a merciful God, a beautiful God. And we ought to worship him for these attributes and more. But we also ought to worship him because he is God, and we are not.
This imperative is no time more crucial than when God reveals himself in ways inscrutable and uncomfortable, when God is being seeker-insensitive.
When God is like that, we are inclined to put him in the hot seat. To say things like “I couldn’t worship a God who allowed this” or “I couldn’t love a God who did that” is in essence to say, “I will worship the God that meets my demands.” But God doesn’t fill out job applications. You can try to, as C.S. Lewis says, put “God in the Dock,” but he neither belongs nor fits there. He does not have to justify himself to us. It is a boon that he reveals himself to us.
God will meet our needs, and while he may answer our cries, he will not answer our demands. Because he is God.
And the LORD said to Job: “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” — Job 40:1-2
