What does it mean consider god's handiwork who can straighten what he hath made crooked?

Answer 1

I read somewhere that Mark Twain said, "It's not the parts of The Bible I don't understand that scare me. It's the parts I do understand."

Now, the Bible is beautiful to me, and I believe it with all my heart, but I think I know what Mark Twain means. It's hard to go to my Bible looking for a nice little thought and find something like Luke 14:26, where Jesus says "If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison -- your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters..."

It's not that Luke 14:26 is such a complicated verse -- it's that it's so simple.

I think the temptation is for me to use the Bible to box up my life and make it easier. When I go to God, all I want is to come back with an answer. I ask God questions about money and relationships, and wait for a simple "yes" or "no".

I'm usually disappointed.

Seems like God makes my life bigger, not smaller. Things get messier instead of cleaner. Harder instead of softer. Then I hear the words of Jesus:

34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. NIV With thoughts like these, I turn to Ecclesiastes.

It's a confusing book, and it's hard to tell if the writer is serious or kidding sometimes. But it's so offbeat from the rest of the Bible that it's almost refreshing. Buried in the middle is some good advice that's very hard to take: Eccl 7:13 Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked? (Ecc. 7:13 NLT)"Accept the way God does things, for who can make straight what he has made crooked?".

The things which God has made crooked are the anomalies, those things which deviate from the normal or common order, form or rule. Sometimes it's a person(s) who are unusual, it's the crosses, the difficulties, which meet us in life.

We cannot arrange events according to our wishes or expectations; therefore not only is calm, passive acceptance, a necessary duty, but the wise man will endeavor to accommodate himself to existing circumstances. There are so many things in life that we have no control over. The only thing that we do have control over is our ability to choose our response. Happiness is not byproduct of conditions around us. Behavior is a product of your own decisions based on values. Not a product of your conditions based on feelings.

We want ALL the Crooked things to be straight in order to be happy. . . . .

But living the overcoming life involves learning how to Gain control over one's circumstances rather than being controlled by them.

Matt. 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. NIV

"Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what He has made crooked? When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future" (vss. 13--14).

Solomon asks us now to stop, and "consider what God has done." Solomon wants us to ponder what we have seen in life, ponder what he has told us about life, and realize that, by golly, we don't understand everything that's going on. Moreover, concerning the things that we see in life that don't make sense, we can't do anything about them: "Who can straighten what He has made crooked?"

From our point of view, there are many "crooked" things in life, things beyond our understanding. Most of the things we consider "crooked" have to do with adversity of some sort or another (we don't seem to complain much when good things happen to us that are beyond our understanding...). Who has not thought life "crooked" when "bad things happen to good people"? Who has not thought life "crooked" when "innocent" children suffer? We have all heard questions asked (even possibly asked by ourselves) of the form: How could a loving God let such and such happen? Yes, life, from our point of view, can be "crooked".

But does this mean that God is evil? Because we do not understand everything that happens in life, does this mean that God has failed? Of course not. I find it arrogant that some people think that it should be possible to know and understand everything that God does. How can we, mortal and sinful man, expect to understand everything that God does? Why should God be expected to give account to us for all that He does? Remember this: God is God, and man is man. As Paul said, "Who are you, O man, to talk back to God?" (Rom. 9:20). We will never, in our mortal bodies, understand all that God has done, much less "straighten" it.

Because of this uncertainty, because of our lack of understanding about life, "a man cannot discover anything about his future" (vs. 14). Be careful when you plan. Do not set everything in concrete, for "crooked" things happen that can destroy your plans. James warns us against being too presumptuous concerning the future: "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.' As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil" (James 4:13-16). Depend on the "Lord's will". Always search, minute by minute, for the "Lord's will".

I like life straight and tidy, but what am I to do with the crooked things of God?

When verses don't answer questions, but raise them? When I ask "What Would Jesus Do?" and Jesus responds, "What will you do?"

When I think that way, things get clearer.

Instead of the Bible being a how to make my life easier manual, it becomes about God and how HIS word can make me stronger.

Which is what it always has been anyway.

Answer 2

This phrase suggests a belief in the power of God's creation and design. It implies that whatever has been created by God cannot be altered or improved upon by human effort, as God's work is considered perfect and beyond human influence. It emphasizes the idea of accepting and respecting the natural order and design of the world as created by God.