Why did God Make Things that I Hate?

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This is a question from one of our youth. It is a great Bible question. Undoubtedly, there are some things in this world that we do not like. Mosquitos and fire ants are in the top of my list. Some things that we find unpleasant are by God’s design, and some of them are the consequence of living in a fallen world. Let’s consider those two things for a moment.

First, let’s think about things that we don’t like that are by God’s design. Sometimes, God makes things odious to us so that we will avoid them. Waste products, decaying things, and vegetation not made for human consumption sometimes have an odor to them that tell us to stay away. If God had not made these things with such a smell, we would not know to avoid them. It is normal, acceptable, and beneficial not to like these things, and in the Law of Moses, God told the Israelites to avoid many of them. So, God made some things so that you would hate them because he wants us to avoid them.

Second, some things that we hate are that way, not because God made them that way, but because of the fallen world in which we live. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, that brought a curse upon the earth. God said to Adam, “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field” (Genesis 3:17-18). All of the thorns, weeds, and bugs that make farming difficult were part of God’s curse for man’s sin. We also know that death entered into the world because of sin. Paul wrote in Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” I don’t know that people hate anything more than death, yet, God has ordained it as part of man’s punishment for letting sin into the world.

Finally, there may be some things that we hate that we should not hate. God made our brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, friends, and family for us to enjoy. However, sometimes people don’t get along with each other and they end up hating something that God doesn’t want us to hate. In these situations, we need to learn how to appreciate what God has given us instead of hating it. In this way, we can even appreciate the bad things that happen in life because they may have a good purpose. And even the bad things that happen as a result of man’s sin, though we don’t like it, can be used by God to accomplish something good in the long run. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

It can be hard to try to like things that we don’t like, or even hate, but when we look at it from God’s perspective, and not from our own limited point of view, we can learn to appreciate everything that happens in this world. That is the kind of attitude that God wants us to have. He wants us to be thankful for everything that He has made for the purpose that He has made it. First Timothy 4:4 says, “For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”