Anyway, this is just food for thought. Many of us here have different opinions. But I like your spirit--you're probably more generous with me than I deserve!
I'm not sure about that! I know that you see things that others are not. You have clearly spent a lot of time with your Holy face in the Word of God! I say that, because if we do not understand, even at the most basic of levels, the system of "Laws" that God has implemented, we'll never understand the Plan of God, nor the Purpose of Christ. (I'll be reverting to you in the future as I ask questions of what you think . . . and what you think is absolutely important to me. You are a great counter-balance to what I believe, because as you say, we all see things differently, but you also see many "things" as do I. And that, my friend, means that you can be more objective, which is extremely important (to have an open mind that can also lead me out of being incorrect).
As I have catalogued and classified much of the Word of God, I've collected just under 240 examples of how God takes responsibility for, essentially, all things. How else could He fulfill exactly what is written upon His Heavenly Scrolls, prewritten before Creation?
Isaiah 30:28 NIV - "His breath is like a rushing torrent, rising up to the neck. He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction;
he places in the jaws of the peoples a bit that leads them astray."
Isaiah 37:25-27 NLT - "I have dug wells in many foreign lands and refreshed myself with their water. With the sole of my foot, I stopped up all the rivers of Egypt!' 26 "But have you not heard?
I decided this long ago. Long ago I planned it, and now I am making it happen. I planned for you to crush fortified cities into heaps of rubble. 27
That is why their people have so little power and are so frightened and confused. They are as weak as grass, as easily trampled as tender green shoots. They are like grass sprouting on a housetop, scorched before it can grow lush and tall."
[Job 12:23-25 NLT] "
He builds up nations, and he destroys them. He expands nations, and he abandons them. 24 He strips kings of understanding and leaves them wandering in a pathless wasteland. 25 They grope in the darkness without a light. He makes them stagger like drunkards."
[Job 42:2 CSB] "I know that you can do anything and
no plan of yours can be thwarted."
Psalm 139:16 NIV - "Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."
Proverbs 21:30 NIV - "There is no wisdom, no insight,
no plan that can succeed against the LORD."
Ecclesiastes 6:10-12 NET - "
Whatever has happened was foreordained, and what happens to a person was also foreknown.
It is useless for him to argue with God about his fate
because God is more powerful than he is. 11 The more one argues with words,
the less he accomplishes. How does that benefit him? 12 For no one knows what is best for a person during his life - during the few days of his fleeting life - for they pass away like a shadow. Nor can anyone tell him what the future will hold for him on earth."
I could go on and on and on and on . . . but here is one last verse . . .
Jeremiah 32:42 NLT - "This is what the LORD says: Just as I have brought all these calamities on them, so I will do all the good I have promised them."
And the final pasted verse above is what I am seeing in His Word . . . which is that God has planned all that has taken place, just so that when He Truly turns all things around, all people will astonished and shocked to see that He was always in total control. Nothing convinces a person MORE of His Power, that to be Truly Indwelt, proven by effective and conclusive change in a persons life. What I mean by that is this . . . when a person is Truly Transformed by Christ, it is a Transformation that cannot come by personal power. For example, many people say, "God transformed me when he had me quit drinking and drugging!" Plenty of pagans stop their drinking and drugging . . . this isn't the kind of Transformation that Paul was referring to from Romans 12. True Transformation is when God places a New Heart and a New Spirit within us.
Ezekiel 11:19 NLT - "And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them. I will take away their stony, stubborn heart and give them a tender, responsive heart . . ."
THAT is a True Transformation . . . and the reason for why 99% of all people cannot ascend to this fact, is the very reason for why we have things group called the "Remnant." For few will ever find the gates of Heaven.
Matthew 7:14 NLT - "But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it."
The thing is this . . . we cannot look upon ourselves so as to define the Word of God. Meaning, if we look at our behavior as it is, but believe that we are Truly Saved, we will then conclude that it is true, that True Christians can live in strip clubs, be drunk wasted, feast on the flesh of many women in one night, and still go to heaven. Yes, I actually saw my life in this exact way . . . which is that it didn't matter what I did in this world, I would be safe and secure because of Christ. It is extremely dangerous to be teachers of God's Word, particularly when we look upon ourselves so as to interpret. We can't say, "But look at me! I'm Truly Saved, and look at how I act!" Yikes, for . . . what if we are wrong in our understandings? We can actually lead many astray, just as I have done by such foolishness.
As I have submitted, Truly Submitted to God, I have found that He has completely taken over my life and it is utterly out of my ability to control. I meant it. If you knew what was happening to me, you would be shocked and astonished at the level of insane persecution against me . . . right now. I am suffering far more than I ever have in my life, but I can see that God is in full-total control, just as He expresses Himself to be towards those that Truly belong to Him.
As I consider my 53 years of life, I can honestly say that I have fully Submitted to God, and in by doing so, my life Truly does not belong to me. God is using me in ways that are very, very painful . . . it isn't fun. But, the Joy that I have in my heart in knowing that I am being used in ways that is for His Kingdom, and not mine, is incredible! I suffer, and that is precisely because there is nothing I can do about it. I have been doing all that I can to avoid pain and conflict, but has been bestowed upon me for His greater Glory . . . this is a life that I do not own, control, nor direct. It is impossible for me to do so, for He has conclusively shown that this is the case.
Psalm 71:20 NLT - "You have allowed me to suffer much hardship, but you will restore me to life again and lift me up from the depths of the earth."
1 Peter 1:6 NIV - "In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials."
1 Peter 5:10 NIV - "And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast."
Peter is clear, which is that all things are under the Power and Control of God, for it is He that causes and directs sufferings to come our way. While pagans live their evil lives with impunity, the True Children of the Lord [will not].
Daniel 2:21 NIV - "He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning."
Yes, God hides His Mysterious Plan behind ideas such as His being sad when His creations turn away from Him. But His saddness doesn't mean that all things are not in His control; rather, it simply means that while He conducts all things, it still hurts Him to see us suffer, though in the end He knows that He will restore us . . . Eternally. God knows what He will do within the lives of each of us . . . it isn't the other way around, where He is merely a reporter of what He sees. Nope . . . God is the Master Orchestrator of all things. All things.
Ephesians 3:10 NLT - "God's purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places."
Colossians 2:15 NLT - "In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross."
From start to finish, there is a storyline throughout the whole Bible. And it is this precise Mystery that we are to discover and uncover. We must abandon Generational Theology and realize that we know nothing, that we must start over from the very beginning, and read the Bible as the proper story that it is, and this means that we've got to re-read the entire Work in a timeline, chronological order. How can we understand the Holy Word of God if we read it in a jumbled up fashion?
No doubt, Paul describes the Mysterious Plan in Ephesians 3:1-10. We have to know this Plan, for if we do not, we will never grasp the reality of Circumcision of the Heart . . . the utter "Heart" of the Bible.
Isaiah 34:15-17 NIV - "The owl will nest there and lay eggs, she will hatch them, and care for her young under the shadow of her wings; there also the falcons will gather, each with its mate. 16 Look in the scroll of the LORD and read: None of these will be missing, not one will lack her mate. For it is his mouth that has given the order, and his Spirit will gather them together. 17 He allots their portions; his hand distributes them by measure. They will possess it forever and dwell there from generation to generation."