What about when God doesn't make sense?

For the last several nights I've been going back and reading some oldie but goodie Bible stories. A theme has started to emerge that I've never noticed before. It has to do with how people respond to God when He doesn't seem to be making sense. So far, what I'm getting is that you have two options: have a little faith and go with it, or decide you know better and make up your own way. My churchified friends would probably call this "leaning on your own understanding." So far here's how the scoreboard fills out for the Old Testament people.

• Abraham (T*)- goes to Egypt, gets paranoid that Pharoh will like his wife Sarah, so he tells her to lie and say they're brother and sister. He does this again to Abimilech, another king. Then his son Issac does it too! To the same king no less!
  
• Sampson (L) - stops being true to who God called him to be, decides to befriend the wrong people and loses track of who he is.


• Ruth (W) - Becomes a widow, leaves her country to stay with her mother-in-law, works hard, proposes marriage to her boss because her mother-in-law tells her to


• Isrealites (L) - Samuel's sons turn out to be duds when they take over for him, so the Isrealites tell Samuel that they want a king just like everybody else. Samuel gets mad because God is supposed to be their king.
  
• David (W) - Is told he'll be the next king which upsets Saul, the current king, so much that he starts a manhunt and tries to kill him. David refuses to kill Saul in his sleep when given the opportunity, saying that it isn't his place to kill God's annointed.
  

*a tie?

Abraham's story is a mystery to me because it doesn't say if he was right or wrong to lie about being married to Sarah. I've always assumed that it was a cowardly act that was due to a lack of trust that God would take care of him. Which is especially heinous because this comes RIGHT AFTER God promised to make his lineage into a great nation. On the other hand, since God doesn't condemn his actions outside of punishing Pharoh (who could almost be seen as a victim here) it kinda seems like He's OK with it. Perhaps it's a cultural issue that I can't understand when I'm looking at through the my 21st century lens; maybe that WAS God's way or preserving Abraham and it doesn't have to make sense to me.

Sampson's story is hard for me to swallow because it's just SO violent and uncivilized. Yet he was filled with the Spirit of the Lord. Meanwhile, it blows my mind that someone who was so devoted and Spirit filled could be led astray so easily. I also feel for Sampson. Sure he was strong, and sure God was with him; but he seemed to have a really big target on his back. Not to mention that he was betrayed by people he loved multiple times. In the story, it's pretty clear that he gave up his secret because he was being nagged to death by a woman he loved but didn't love him back. And I understand that God's spirit leaving him when he got his head shaved probably had more to do with his choices and priorities than his haircut. But it's such a rock bottom moment for Sampson that I can't help but feel sorry for him. The woman he loved has just betrayed him for money, his strength is gone which means he's powerless against an entire nation that hates him, and, to top it off, God is no where in sight. It's difficult to imagine something worse. I'd like to think that God uses the time he's in prison to do a work in his heart and rebuild what had been broken; that the growth of his hair mirrored the growth of his relationship with the Father.

I think I identify with the Isrealites the most though. They were faced with a problem and instead of trusting God to provide an unknown solution, they had their own solution - something that made sense to them. But God wanted more for them than they wanted for themselves. Unfortunately, they thought they knew better. I think one of the hardest things to trust God with is the unknown. I don't know how many times I've prayed, "God, I know you CAN take care of this, but HOW?" Because we don't know the HOW, we feel insecure. The thing is though, that if God did tell us the HOW, the first thing we would do would be to analyze it and decide for ourselves if it's a good idea. What an arrogant response, yet so much in character.

I beginning to think that the key to trusting God's plan, even if it doesn't make any sense or even when he hasn't let us in on it yet, to is remember his faithfulness. He is faithful to his own nature - to be good, loving, in control, strong. But also that his faithfulness in the past is an indication of his faithfulness for the future. Remembering that the God who was faithful to Abraham, Ruth, Sampson, David, and all the rest, is the same God I serve and he will be faithful again.

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;

There is no shadow of turning with Thee;

Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;

As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.

Great is Thy faithfulness!Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see.

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!