Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Kings 19-21.

I have always loved the account of King Sennacherib’s threat to Jerusalem and  what followed.  Sennacherib, like many conquerors before and after him, became convinced that not even God could stand against him.  He declared that since the gods of other nations had failed to rescue their people from the armies of his predecessors, God would be unable to deliver Judah from him.  Yet, shortly after making this declaration, Sennacherib was forced to turn aside against a powerful foe and then returned to his capital without even besieging Jerusalem.  I am quite confident that Sennacherib died without ever realizing that he had been proven wrong, that God had indeed rescued King Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from his hand.  Those who choose to reject God will never see His hand in action.  This reminds me of a story I hear from time to time that goes like this.

An atheist professor was in front of his classroom telling his students that there is no God and he would prove it to them. He stood up on his desk, looked up at the ceiling, and shouted, “God, if you exist, knock me off of this desk right now.” He then stood there for a few minutes then looked at the students and said, “See, there is no God, but maybe you think I did not give him long enough.” He looked back at the ceiling and shouted once more, “God, if you exist, knock me off of this desk. If you cannot knock me off of this desk, then you clearly do not exist.” The professor stood there a few more minutes looking at the ceiling. Then just as he looked down and opened his mouth to speak again, a student from the back of the classroom tackled him and knocked him off of the desk.

The story as I heard it contains a bit more, but that is all the further we need go to illustrate the point I want to make.  Many people would say that the professor’s point was made, but was it?  He said that if God existed He should knock him off the desk, and the professor was indeed knocked off of the desk.  Some might argue that the student knocked him off the desk, not God, but how do we know that God did not move the student to act?  No, this story, if it really happened, does not prove that God exists, but if you told me that you had been the professor, I would advise you to be careful about what challenges you lay before God in the future.  Actually, Even if you are not that professor, I will advise you to be careful about what challenges you lay before God.  If you are going to challenge God’s power and existence, please do so in a way where proof of his power and existence brings you benefit, not harm.

Once upon a time, I questioned God’s existence.  I doubted that He was real and sought proof of His existence.  I found arguments which suggested that He might exist, but nothing rose to the level of proof.  Finally, I challenged God, but not as Sennacherib did.  Instead, I told God, “I am going to live as if You are real.  Prove to me that I am correct to do so.”   Within weeks of doing so, I had the proof I had been seeking for so long.  I cannot prove to you that God exists, but if you ask Him, and are willing to accept the proof He offers, He can.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.