In one of C.S. Lewis' essays, he spoke of the challenges he faced when he communicated the gospel of Jesus to his colleagues at Cambridge and Oxford. In a section of the essay, written in the 1950s, his words seem to speak prophetically to us in the 21st century. Lewis became convinced that people would not acknowledge their own complicity in the problems of the world. To the contrary, if his colleagues thought of God at all, they thought of the deity only as one to be accused of allowing so much suffering in the world. This is what he wrote
The greatest barrier I have met (in my witness to Christ) is the almost total absence from the minds of my audience of any sense of sin.... The early Christian preachers could assume in their hearers a sense of guilt. (That this was common among Pagans is shown by the fact that both Epicureanism and the mystery religions both claimed, though in different ways, to assuage it.) Thus[,] the Christian message was in those days unmistakably the Evangelium, the Good News. It promised healing to those who knew they were sick. We now have to convince our hearers of the unwelcome diagnosis before we can expect them to welcome the news of the remedy...
The ancient person approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man, the roles are quite reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock. He is quite a kindly judge; if God should have a reasonable defense for being the god who permits war, poverty, and disease, he is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God's acquittal. But the important thing is that man is on the bench and God is in the dock.
- C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics
We will see that this inclination to accuse God of being unjust in the face of personal suffering in this world is not a new thing. This is exactly what the Israelites did in Exodus 17:1–7. The entire passage is a courtroom setting with God as the accused and the grumbling Israelites as the accusers. I believe that we will see that this ancient text has a lot to say to our world. And, I pray that we will learn something more about our God: the one who is perfectly just, perfectly loving, and mercifully patient.
To His Glory,
Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor