The fallacy of being in partnership with God

Exodus 13:17  "When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter.  For God said, 'If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.' "

God has a plan and has reasons for everything He does.  His ways are higher and better than our ways.  God doesn't make mistakes. 

Those three statements I just made are what a friend of mine would call "Sunday School answers".  They are the right answers to certain questions we might raise with God or about God's plan.  But are they really, honestly what we believe?  Or are they simply what we know we should believe and even want very badly to believe? 

Having faith in God and His plans and methods is difficult.  The most comfortable thing we have to lean on is our own understanding and reasoning.  It's difficult for us to defer to God's judgment and the path He seems to be leading us down when it just doesn't make any sense to us.  When we can see a much shorter, clearer path that seems to accomplish the goal, we want to seize control of the situation.  What we are saying at those times is that God just doesn't understand or doesn't see all of the options available to us the way that we do.  "It's OK, God.  I'm not saying your stupid.  You're just having trouble seeing the clear answer in this situation.  I'll help you out this time, because there will come a day when I won't see something clearly and You will help me out." 

Ever have an exchange with God along these lines?  What are we really saying here?  We're saying that we are God's equal.  We view Him as our partner in life.  It is as if we are saying that we each have strengths and weaknesses, and in combination we make a great team.  Sometimes we do the heavy lifting, sometimes He does.  But together we make up for each other's deficiencies and are complete.

That view is the height of arrogance and idolatry at its finest.  God is our LORD, not our partner.  He is our absolute, unquestioned, unmatched authority.  What He says goes- period.  He allows us by His grace and mercy to petition Him for the things we want and the ideas we have, but He is the ultimate decision-maker.  He isn't learning as He goes along.  He has never looked back on a decision He made and wished He could go back and do it differently.  It is laughable to think that He would ever need us to help Him see something clearly or make up for His deficiencies (as if He had any).

God is perfect.  His plans, His timing, His judgment are all perfect.  It may not seem perfect to us based on our own plans and preferences.  But if we know that what comes from God is perfect, we can know with absolute certainty that when our ways differ from His, it is us who is in the wrong and is in need of adjustment. 

The Israelites would have most likely preferred to take the shortest route out of Egypt.  God, however, led them on a path that made no sense to them.  God had a very good reason for doing this, and that is what we always have to keep in mind when God's path is different than the one we would have chosen.  We must trust Him, knowing that He and His ways are perfect.