When the “What” Meets the “Why”

The reasons that are behind events are often complex, many times there is a whole back-story that leads up to one thing that happens. The back story can be called the “Why” aspect of “What” actually happened. Give you an example that I’m making up:

John went to bed with no supper. That would be the “What” part of it. Why did he have to go to bed without his supper? There may be a long story to that, how he drove his mother crazy all afternoon, how he sassed his dad when he got home from work, how he hurt the family dog. The “Why” may hold a whole lot more information than the “What”, and it causes you to understand the meaning, the reasoning for the events.

Okay, let’s turn Biblical with this. You may have figured out that I am fascinated with the “Why” part of events found in the Bible, both past and future. To me it is like a big puzzle where I can (try to) fit all these pieces together and understand the big picture. You may not find it so fascinating; you may not understand the pieces and how they fit together. That is okay if you can accept the “What” with only a small piece of the “Why”. The problem is that “What” often goes against what we want to believe, as in the case of Old Testament Israel.

How much do you know about the captivity in Babylon? How about Assyria? Growing up it was only briefly spoken about to me, and never did I really understand the “Why” until searching it out. The “What” is pretty simple when summed up in a single sentence:

“Israel was carried captive to Assyria and pretty much disappeared; and later Judah was carried to Babylon for a period of seventy years; and a relatively small number returned.”

If we leave it there, however, the significance of the captivity will be lost on all who hear about it. So Judah went to Babylon, big deal. You can get a pretty straightforward history without much of the “Why” as well; I found an interesting site with that. Check it out (Just as an aside, if you click the internal link they have on Jesus of Nazareth, it’s interesting how they explain Him away because He doesn’t fit their theology. Today’s teachers in the churches explain away lots of stuff too, but it doesn’t make them right.)

With just a little bit of digging in the Bible we can sum up the “Why” without using many words either:

“They went into captivity as punishment for their great sin, for they had rebelled against God and refused to do things His way. God gave them fair warning by sending the prophets, but they refused to listen.” (Read Second Kings 17, which is a good summation of the Assyrian captivity.)

With two more sentences your understanding has been greatly expanded. Israel and Judah sinned, did they? Then it must be that they got a fair punishment, for God is always perfectly just. This also gives you the understanding that God’s own people have the ability to rebel against Him, and He will eventually be driven to action to remedy the situation, catastrophic as it may be. It also reveals that God’s own people can hear a prophet and refuse to listen.

To really get the “Why”, however, requires reading pages and pages of the Bible, spending time comparing passages, finding the people’s responses, figuring out what the prophets were talking about, it can give you a nice headache! I wouldn’t blame you if you tried it and gave up, because it’s a lot of work. I still struggle along at times, although my understanding has greatly deepened over the past year and a half.

Now the goodness of God does show up in all this, for the “What” did not end with the captivity. He brought Judah back after the seventy years, Jerusalem was rebuilt, and ultimately He sent our wonderful Savior Jesus Christ to die for our sins. That is worth shouting over, because we have been offered salvation!

When we fast forward to the End Times picture not a whole lot has really changed. I firmly believe that understanding the “Why” of the Old Testament is the key to understanding the “Why” of the End Times. When we understand the concepts – that God’s people can rebel against Him, that all too often true prophets are ignored (and false ones listened to, you find that in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, I’m sure other places as well), and that God has no problem with judging and purifying His people – we would have a very different attitude.

Instead of blaming the sinners we would instead look at ourselves and accept responsibility for our own actions that are very, very similar to the ones done by Old Testament Israel. Let’s face it, sinners have always done wickedly. It never surprises me when they do horrible things; that they insist on being given more right to sin. It’s all they know how to do, there’s no point in getting all upset when they do exactly what they’re supposed to do. It’s a whole different ballgame when those who name Christ do the same things and the same sin creeps into the church; that is what we should be upset over and do something about.

The simple fact is that we desperately need purification, because sin has crept into the church and been tolerated. It has been getting worse and worse, and we are simply allowing it to happen because it is politically correct, because we are “tolerant”, because we don’t want to be “narrow minded”, because the sin feels good. Instead of telling ourselves that things are okay, we should be longing for the fire that purifies us, despite the fact that it hurts. And when it comes we should embrace it and cling to Jesus, knowing that it is for our own good.

Therefore a quick summation of the “What” for the End Times:

“Tribulation is coming upon the whole world, including the Christians who will not be raptured away first.”

Why?

“Because the church desperately needs purification before the final judgment of the world.”

I have spent a great amount of time on the bigger aspects of the “Why” for the End Times. If those two sentences can get into you I won’t mind if you don’t bother with the larger portion of the “Why” that I have written. If they get into you, you will cling to Jesus and count it a joy to suffer for Him.

The problem is that most people won’t accept it because it doesn’t agree with their theology. The captivities didn’t agree with what Israel wanted to believe. Jesus didn’t fit the theology of the Scribes and Pharisees. So why should the truth fit today’s easy-listening message of a rapture that keeps you from the Tribulation?