I Dared To Ask God An Honest Question And He Gave Me An Immediate Response -By Joe Dauda

One day, I decided to read through the synoptic gospels one more time. The synoptic gospels (according to my secondary school CRK teacher, Mrs Achebe) are the gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. So these four Books of the Bible are the synoptic gospels. They each contain the biography of Jesus Christ from the varying perspectives of the four writers.

Naturally, I began at Matthew. It was interesting to be reminded once again that, “all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.” Matthew 1:16.

But I began to feel uncomfortable when I got into Matthew Chapter 2. This is the chapter that records the visit of the wise men who came from the East. Don’t mind the Christmas story which claims that the wise men were three: the Bible did not say the wise men were three. They could have been 5 or 10 or 29. What the Bible says is that, when they eventually met Baby Jesus, they worshipped Him and then gave Him gold, and frankincense, and myrrh; verse 11. There is no room for conjecturing that there were three wise men, each of which gave a certain type of gift. Three types of gifts does not equate to three visitors and this is an example of how false doctrines are concocted from the Bible. The story of the wise men is in Matthew 2:1-11. But that wasn’t the part that bothered me.

My sadness was ignited when I read verse 16 of chapter 2. For non-Christian readers or those who may just not have read or heard about this story, what happened was that God gave a revelation to certain men from the East. The Bible refers to them as wise men. Since the fear of God (according to the Bible) is the beginning of wisdom, you can be sure that these wise men were God-fearing men. Through the mercy of God, these specially chosen men understood by divine revelation that the Messiah had been born and that He was born in the land of Israel. They were even enabled to understand a deep mystery written in an ancient prophecy stated in Numbers 24:17. So they knew that the star they had seen in the East was no ordinary star but that it pointed to the star that was prophesied to come out of Jacob, which we know is Jesus Christ.

For reasons best known to Him, God stopped short of making these wise men understand the particular town in Israel where Jesus Christ was born. And that was why they went to meet king Herod and asked him where the “king of the Jews” was to be born. Since he was not a student of the Bible, Herod called the Pharisees and the Pharisees nonchalantly said Christ would be born in Bethlehem. For their authority (these guys knew the Bible so well) they simply referred to Micah 5:2.

Micah 5:2

“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”

If the wise men were wise, they seemed also naive in asking an incumbent king reigning over the Jews where a new “king of the Jews” was to be born. 

Didn’t they estimate that Herod will be jealous?

But, as you would soon discover, the seeming naivety of these wise men was all part of a divine plan to fulfill another prophecy. This one was by Jeremiah the prophet. 

Jeremiah 31:15

“Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.”

If you read Matthew 2:1-12 and analyze the information, you will realize that the fact that the wise men came to Jerusalem to ask about the exact location of the birth of Jesus Christ was what set off a chain of events that culminated with the fulfillment of the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:15. Reading Matthew 2:1-12 will make it clear to you that, if God had only revealed the exact birth place of Jesus Christ to the wise men, they would not have come to Herod to ask him about the birthplace of the new king of the Jews. And Herod would not have devised a secret and diabolical plan to eliminate the new king, which was what led to the massacre in Mathew 2:16.

The million-dollar question is this: why did God not reveal the exact location of the birthplace of Jesus Christ to the wise men, even though He apparently revealed enough to lead them to the land of Israel in search of the Messiah? 

Note that this would have prevented Herod from even knowing about the birth of Jesus Christ because the wise men would just have gone straight to Bethlehem without passing through Jerusalem to agitate the king and galvanize his genocidal instincts.

After hearing that a new king had been born, Herod pretended to be happy about the breaking news. And he told the wise men to “diligently” search for the new child and let him know when they succeeded so he could come and worship the child himself; verse 8. But of course Herod wanted to kill Jesus Christ. And he didn’t want to miss the target. So he needed accurate information from the wise men.

When the wise men did not return to king Herod (because God had warned them in a dream not to) Herod got angry and, to be sure that he did not miss the new king, he ordered for the butchering of all babies in Bethlehem, from two years and below, calculating from the time the star had appeared in the East, based on the account given by the wise men. It was this cold-blooded brutality by Herod that was foretold by prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 31:15.

I spent a few moments to think about the tragedy in Bethlehem. As a Christian, I had been told and I had read several prophecies in the Bible about Jesus Christ. These prophecies (like the one in Micah 5:2 that indicated Bethlehem as the birthplace of Christ) was to help in identifying and validating Jesus Christ as the Messiah and the Son of God. It meant that Bible students who understood Micah 5:2 would not (should not) accept as Messiah anyone who was not born In Bethlehem, no matter how Messianic they may seem in all other areas. 

What bothered me and what I began to ask God in my heart was this: why did many innocent little children have to die to validate the credentials of Jesus Christ as the true Messiah?

Couldn’t God have orchestrated other harmless events to validate the personality of Jesus Christ and to foretell His birth in Bethlehem?

Why should so many women be bereaved of their little children?

Why?

God why?

I was afraid to admit it to myself but I began to feel like God was a sadist for allowing the mindless butchering that took place in Bethlehem just so that the timing of the birth of Jesus Christ could be known and just to prove His foreknowledge of the tragedy.

I groaned for an explanation.

And then I was led of the Spirit to see something. 

The thing I saw did not explain why God permitted the massacre in Bethlehem, in which He only intervened to save Jesus Christ. Those who read Matthew chapter 2 already saw how God intervened to save Baby Jesus from being murdered.

Matthew 2:13-14 [13]And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. [14]When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt:

So God not only knew about this sad event and prophesied it by the mouth of Jeremiah, He actually acted in a deliberate manner to save Jesus Christ from the massacre. Only Jesus Christ.

Are you beginning to get the picture?

Are you seeing how my mortal mind with its limited knowledge began to see some sadism in the act of God?

How did God cure my mind of my deepest thoughts to reassure me of His eternal goodness and graciousness?

It was amazing.

God led me back to the prophecy of Jeremiah. I read Jeremiah 31:15 but there was no comfort or consolation over those butchered babies in that verse.

And then He bid me to read further down.

That was all it took. 

So I obeyed the voice of the Spirit and read beyond Jeremiah 31:15. 

The first thing that struck me and quickened my heartbeat in desperate hope was that God was addressing the grieving mothers of Bethlehem and basically telling them to stop crying.

Stop crying?

Let’s find out why.

Jeremiah 31:16

“Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears.”

Why should the mothers of Bethlehem stop weeping?

Would they, like Job, receive twice the number of children they used to have?

How could one console a mother weeping over her lost child?

The answer is in that same verse 16.

Jeremiah 31:16

“They shall come again from the land of the enemy.”

Who are they LORD, I asked in rising excitement.

Jeremiah 31:17

“Thy children shall come again to their own bother.”

Thy children?

Which children?

Of course the whole consolation was about the massacre of Herod so we can be 100% sure God was referring to the little children of Bethlehem.

Please read the whole of Jeremiah 31:15-17 (just 3 verses) to get the full picture of this seminal prophecy. 

What God was essentially saying was that these same children that king Herod had slain in his jealous rage will “come again from the land of the enemy” and “shall come again to their own border.”

This is deep but I will just summarize by stating that God was referring to the new Jerusalem — or the new earth — when He said “they shall come again to their own border.”

For how else could children who had died “come again to their own border” within the land of Israel? It had to be in the new earth, which will be created after the 1000-year reign of the saints in heaven.

Many people do not know that the final destination of the righteous will be this very earth. 

Jesus Christ Himself said:

“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5

If you just remember that there will be a new heaven and a new earth, it will be easy to understand Matthew 5:5 because you will figure out that the inhabitants of the new earth will be the redeemed children of God. But God will be the king of this new earth and there will be no sorrow and no tears and no sweat and no lack and no sin — and they will live for ever and ever.

Revelation 21:1,4

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

[4]And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

Like I said, I do not know why God permitted the slaughter of those innocent children in Bethlehem. But God was able to sufficiently dispel the notion that gripped me out of my ignorance — the notion that He had allowed such brutality due to sheer sadism, or that He was indifferent to it all. 

God knows why He allowed king Herod to massacre those children. But, from His perspective, there was no loss and and there was no need to cry.

Why?

It is because all those children will be resurrected during the second coming of Jesus Christ to live in the new earth with Jesus Christ forever and ever. In other words, all the age mates of Jesus Christ from Bethlehem will be saved. Because they never lived long enough to know the difference between good and evil.

What divine wisdom!

That’s my closest guess to resolving this mystery, based on the fact that God comforted the grieving mothers of Bethlehem with a clear declaration that their lost children shall come again to their own border, which is a direct reference to the life hereafter.

The amazing thing is that it was immediately after one of the prophecies about the birth of Jesus Christ that the Bible mentioned this idea that children could be too young to sin because too young to know the difference between good and evil. 

In Isaiah 7:14, the Bible prophesied that the coming Messiah (Jesus Christ) will be born by a virgin. 

Isaiah 7:14

“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

But have you ever read Isaiah 7:16?

For now, forget about what the prophecy of Isaiah 7:16 actually means and focus on the condition. 

“For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good . . . “

This clearly means that, at some point in the development of a child, he or she is just too young to be in a position to refuse the evil and choose the good. And the Bible confirms this concept further in the Book of James by stating that: 

“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” James 4:17.

Knowledge is a precondition for sin. And it is easy to understand this by imagining a scenario where Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil without first being warned not to do so. In such a case, they would not have been ashamed or afraid of the presence of God. And because they had no prior instruction not to eat from the tree, sin could not have been imputed on them for eating from that tree. 

The butchered babies of Bethlehem were in a state of innocence. And that was partly what helped me to understand what God said in Jeremiah 31:17.

Suppose, for one moment, that I either did not pray or that God had still not answered my prayer for understanding of that passage?That’s where faith comes in and that’s the main purpose of this piece. 

When you have an experience that suggests that God is not in charge, move on by faith with the realization that you are not seeing the full picture; when you read a portion of scripture or face a situation that seems to portray God as indifferent to the grief or pain of people (as was the case when I read Matthew Chapter 2) don’t just go haywire and begin to doubt the goodness of God. 

Pray.

And until you understand better, exercise faith and continue to believe God. 

Faith is an evidence of things not seen. But God gives you enough to hold on to while the things hoped for are yet to materialize. 

So be patient with God. Especially when you do not understand.

However, as you are led by the Spirit, learn to exercise the courage to ask Him when you need answers. I did and I have now learned something no pastor ever taught me. This was the same way I dared to ask God about the doctrine of the Trinity. He revealed one passage after another and, at the end, convinced me of the fact that the number of the name of the beast (666) is an emblematic representation of the doctrine of the Trinity. At that time, I already knew what it meant to have the mark of the beast. And God gave me this knowledge I asked for based on divine revelation. Nobody taught me but even a child can understand it if I show him or her the verses God used to open my eyes. I published my understanding of what it really meant to have the number of the name of the beast in an article titled Blessed By A Critic. That was about two years ago but that article is available on request. 

May God take us to the end of this journey of faith. But note that we need faith and we also need patience because it is not a one-day journey. 

Hebrews 6:12

“That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

When Jesus Christ was bleeding on the cross, something very terrible at the emotional level (must have) happened. We do not know because the Bible does not say. But whatever it was, Jesus Christ did not understand it — even Jesus Christ!

And so He cried:

“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Mark 15:34.

Theologians believe this was the very moment when the sins of the world came upon Jesus Christ (the very moment He truly became the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world, according to John 1:29) and that God turned away from Jesus Christ at that material moment so He could fully bear the consequences of sin on behalf of the human family. 

Whatever it was that made Jesus Christ to feel that God had forsaken Him, the lesson is that you cannot hope to understand God all the time. Sometimes, His divine calculation is so advanced and so strategic there is no way for you to mentally accept that what is happening is for your own good or for His glory. 

May God make us wise enough to see that His deal for eternal life is absolutely gracious and at His own cost. It is a free gift and all we need do is accept it — by believing in His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. May we not lose this deal and face an angry God at the end of our lives. 

John 3:17

“He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

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