Nehemiah 9:22-25

Nehemiah 9:22-25
English Standard Version (ESV)

  The story of God and his people is a narrative.  It twists and turns, and sometimes it ends up in places we don't entirely understand.  It's hard to understand all the reasoning behind the story of the Israelites conquering the Promised Land, because there were a lot of people already living there, and in order for the Israelites to move in, they had to conquer these people.  For many years, tough questions have been asked about these conquests, and while credible scholars have given answers that I mentally grasp, I still wonder about why it had to happen this way.
  God does things I don't always understand.  I trust that God is always loving, gracious and kind, and that God reaches out to all people in the hopes that they will all come to know and love him, accepting his forgiveness and grace.  I believe this is all true about God.  I also believe that God cannot tolerate sin, and that sin must be destroyed in order for us to dwell with God forever.
  Despite all this, there are plenty of places and events in the Bible that I just don't understand.  I suppose I will some day, but until then I will trust that God is moving all of creation forward, and that our choice is to sit on the sidelines and question or to move forward with God, trusting him and yet still having the confidence to ask big questions, wondering why and yet still participating in what God is doing.  We don't have to know all the answers to take another step, we just have to trust that God is acting in perfect love and justice and will be faithful to his promises to love and forgive all who turn to him.