My take on Bin Laden

Twitter and Facebook have been electric with the news that Bin Laden is dead.  There is wide range of opinions.  I have read comments that range from praise for our military and thankfulness that this mad man has been silenced, to others who condemn any taking of a life.  Some have used scripture to back up opinions while others have posted crude and even offensive reponses.

Here's my take on Bin Laden-

I did not personally lose a friend or family member in 9/11, but I watched  a widow that is probably about my age this morning on the Today show.  She held a photo of her husband while tears streamed down her face.  For anyone who has been a victim of terror, there is comfort in knowing that God, while full of love and slow to wrath, is also full of justice.  He is longsuffering and calls all men to repentance, but he also defends the widows and orphans.  He makes all things right.

I just finished reading through Deuteronomy and Joshua.  Astounding to me how God repeatedly instructed the children of Israel to obliterate, completely destroy the inhabitants of Canaan. Over and over He told Joshua to destroy every man, woman and child.  Where is love in that?  Is it a contradiction in His character to value life, yet demolish an entire people group?

The soverignty of God is a concept that I am just now beginning to study. It has opened my spiritual eyes to a side of His character that I previously never appreciated.  Funny how opinionated humans try to understand and explain the mind of God. He is God, we are dust. His thoughts are not our thoughts, His ways not our ways.

He is altogether just when he commands an entire nation be destroyed, yes even the children.  He retains his holiness when an island nation is drowned in a tsunami and  people are washed out to sea.  He is God when cancer kills, when spouses walk out, when babies are aborted.

Will Osama's death cause terrorism to cease?  No. Will it increase terroristic activity against Americans? Maybe.  Will it bring back the dead who were lost on 9/11? We know it won't.

But this we do know, God will not be mocked or ignored.  He is patient not wanting anyone to perish. He gives new mercies every morning, but He is soverign in every thing He does and everything He allows.  He uses simple people like you and me.  He uses earthquakes and tsunami's.  He uses kings and orphans.  He can even use Navy Seals.