“Consider what God has done. Who can straighten what He has bent?” (Ecclesiastes 7:13)
I was recently asked for my take on this cryptic verse. The person, a friend of mine, shared that she had often wondered about its meaning. Let me share a brief story…
A few years ago, while walking through the forest, I came upon this strange tree. I was surrounded by hundreds of beautiful evergreen conifer trees – fir trees I think. But this one tree was amazing. It was literally coming out of the ground sideways, then bending straight up towards the sky. It was as tall and massive and straight as any other tree in the forest, but its footing was totally cockeyed! As I stood there studying it, I noticed that the ground on one side gave way to a little depression about 5-feet deep – like a ravine or sinkhole had developed long ago when the tree was just a sapling. Apparently the young tree was able to endure the trauma and thrive in spite of it. I have seen trees growing crooked or bent before, but this was the first fully-matured tree I remember seeing that turned a full 90-degrees! I thought of how fitting this vision was of my life, and the lives of so many people I have known over the years. God’s Word promises us that He is able to bring good out of every circumstance. Even the most painful experiences we endure can be used by Him to produce good in the world and strength in us. This isn’t just a godless, gooey “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” message, but an affirmation of the scripture in Romans, “…We know that all things work together for good to those WHO LOVE GOD, to those who are CALLED according to His purpose.” When I was a kid, I believed that following Christ would mean He would take all my problems away and give me a carefree life. The older I get in Him, the more I realize that His power to transform me and bring meaning & hope to my life “is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). It is when we trust Him with our struggles, and go where He leads, that we can see Him most clearly and rise above this broken world.
Back to Ecclesiastes 7:13: “Consider what God has done. Who can straighten what He has bent?” This one verse is in the middle of a larger exposition of poetic musings regarding God’s view of wisdom and folly, and where they lead. In looking at the original Hebrew, here I’ve rewritten it with some clarifying meanings: To SEE or BEHOLD the CONSTRUCTS / ACCOMPLISHMENTS that God has BUILT (as opposed to the act of Him working). Who can STRAIGHTEN or ARRANGE what He has BENT / MADE CROOKED / PERVERTED. This last word “perverted” seems strange and blasphemous to me. When I think of this word, images of sexual predators and demonic evil come to mind….surely this isn’t true of our Heavenly Father, right?! The word means “deviating from what is considered right and correct.” Let’s learn from the scriptures…what do we know about our God, His purposes, and the strategies with which He has fashioned the world? I’ll share 4 passages, then a summary of my thoughts…
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. (James 1:13-15)
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:18-21)
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use? What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? (Romans 9:15-24)
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, whoi have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. (Romans 8:28-30)
Here’s a summary of my thoughts…
God is 100% Pure Good, and that’s how He made the world. Love and relationship are the primary expression of His character, and for that to remain true He had to create us with choice – aka “Free Will.” His ultimate creation, man & woman, fell to temptation from the enemy and were cast out of the perfect goodness & relationship that God had created. Their hearts became bent and perverted from that point on, though the glory of God’s created image in them remains as well. So from then on all of humanity, and the world around us, is living in an amalgamation of good & evil by God’s design, His presence and absence, blessing and curse….not because He’s mean-spirited and capricious, but because He is Good and Just! God beckons each one of us to return to relationship with Him in the midst of a broken world we cannot repair, while living with perverted desires that we cannot control without Him. He is intimately involved with each one of us, pursuing and wooing each of us through the circumstances of our lives; and because He exists outside of time (another of His constructs), He sees our beginning and end and everything between all at once. This vantage point unleashes His blessing and guiding on those who will choose Him and His values; and His thwarting and hardening on those who will forever refuse His opinions, methods, and salvation itself. Only He sees the outcome.
The challenge for us is to trust His vision and purposes, because we can’t see into the future, or into peoples’ souls as He can. So instead of getting caught-up in efforts to control outcomes and behaviors, we’re called as God’s children to follow Him, invest ourselves in people & activities that He is blessing, and trust Him with the results. Amen?
In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (2 Timothy 2:20-22)
2 replies on “Who Can Straighten What God Has Bent?”
Thank you. For not just speaking into it, but for stopping so quickly to address it. He gave you not just a giant heart, but a real head on those shoulders. You use it all so graciously. Thank you, really.
That's kind, Steff, thanks