The literal meaning of preposterous we see plainly in the Bible’s description of God, His Kingdom and His ways. The old adage getting the cart before the horse can serve as an idiomatic definition of preposterous. Pre means before, and post means after; getting what should come first and what should come last out of place, each in the other’s position, is what it means for something, or someone, to be preposterous. As carts can’t pull horses, so nothing else preposterous can function. Or can it? When God does something, regardless of how it seems to us humans, it’s good and wise.
Yet there are some examples of what seem, by our limited understanding, to be preposterous.
The Sign Comes After the Journey. Moses asked for a sign from God; he wanted something to validate God’s outlandish instruction to lead the Israelites out of Pharoah-dominated Egyptian slavery.
The Lord accommodated. But the sign would come after Moses had obeyed, confronted Pharoah multiple times, pronounced ten miraculous plagues and convinced the Israelites to follow him into the wilderness through some impossible challenges and to the God-ordained destination. Moses would get his sign at the end of the endeavor, not the beginning.
That’s preposterous. But a wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign, God the Son would say 1,600 years later to the law enforcement officers (Pharisees) of the very Law God had given through Moses. And the sign He would give them would come three days after they crucified Him – His resurrection.
In God’s system, validation can come after our obedience, and we need to adapt to His way of thinking, rather than requiring Him to adapt to ours.
The First Shall Be Last and the Last shall Be First. This is pretty straightforward. If we want to achieve the highest position in God’s Kingdom, we should position others ahead of ourselves as much as possible. Servants are leaders, the humble are at the top and the least shall be the greatest. Those conventionally deemed worthless are the most valued and the most lost are worth leaving all others in order to save. It’s preposterous.
God Chooses the Foolish Things to Confuse the Wise. It seems we’re all lifelong sophomores. Sophomore means, literally, wise fool (sopho: wise; more: fool). A second year student has learned just enough to feel knowledgeable but still has more to learn than they realize. More study and maturity reveals more accurately where they stand in their knowledge.
Mark Twain said he returned home from college and couldn’t hardly believe how much his parents had learned. A cartoon I saw put it this way:
Grandpa: A smart man said he knew much because he knew nothing.
Grandson: How did he know he knew nothing?
Grandpa: His wife told him.
God instructs us to not think more highly of ourselves than we should, to think of others as higher than ourselves, and to recognize that what humans consider foolish God may count as wise, and vice versa. It may be preposterous to us, but in God’s economy, it’s reality.
God Trusts Humans. This is the most preposterous to me. God, who is completely trustworthy does not get my trust, yet, though I am utterly untrustworthy, God trusts me. This should absolutely be the other way around. I have trouble trusting the one perfect in all His ways because I lack certainty; God knows for sure that I’ll mismanage the resources but gives them to me anyway. If you wonder what in the world I’m talking about, I’m basing this on 1 Corinthians 13:7. God, in His perfect love toward us, always trusts. This is preposterous, but such are the love and blessings of God toward us.
