Almighty God created the angelic host (Genesis 2:1; Isaiah 45:12; Nehemiah 9:6; Colossians 1:16), and many of them rebelled against their Creator (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6; Matthew 25:41; Revelation 12:9). Consequently, it might seem that creating angels was a miserable experiment.
The Godhead created mankind (Genesis 1:26-27), and the first couple (Genesis 3:6), as well as the balance of humankind after them (Romans 3:10, 23), transgressed divine instructions provided to them. In such a condition, mortals were not suitable to be in the presence of a Holy God (Genesis 3:23-24; Isaiah 59:1-3; 2 Thessalonians 1:9). Creating mankind, then, also appears to have been a miserable experiment.
Subsequently in the course of punishing wayward humanity, God on more than one occasion modified the created universe into which He had placed mankind (Genesis 3:15-19; 7:11-12, 20-23; 11:1-9). All that God had created, which He had styled as “good” (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25) and “very good” (Genesis 1:31), became less than what it had been. The universe and every component part within it is winding down and slowly deteriorating. Even the created world and everything else that God made from nothing (Hebrews 11:3) appear to be specimens of a miserable experiment.
When God endowed angels and mankind with freewill, He gave to them the capacity to make choices for themselves (Joshua 24:15; 1 Kings 18:21). Unfortunately, some of the angels chose to defy God. Regrettably, every human who has attained the ability to discern between right and wrong, likewise, has chosen at one time or another in his or her life to disobey God. Not only is the universe wearing out, often humans expedite its demise through the harvesting of the globe’s resources without land reclamation, as well as generally through pollution of land, air and water. What a colossal miserable experiment it must be concerning the failures of angels and people, plus the ruination of our planet home.
The first definition of “miserable” is, “being in a pitiable state of distress or unhappiness” (Merriam-Webster). The word “experiment” means, “test, trial… a tentative procedure… an operation or procedure carried out under controlled conditions in order to discover an unknown effect or law, to test or establish a hypothesis…” (Merriam-Webster). The plight of the fallen angels, fallen mankind and the falling apart universe may seem from mankind’s perspective to be a pitiable state of distress and unhappiness resulting from a test in order to discover an unknown effect. However, from the divine perspective, such is not the case at all.
God was not experimenting when He created the angels, humans and the entire universe. Further, Deity was not attempting through creation to discover anything unknown to establish a hypothesis. Through divine foreknowledge rather (Isaiah 42:9; 46:10), God knew exactly what to expect from His creation, and yet, the Godhead chose to go through with creation anyway. In addition, God devised a plan of redemption whereby mankind could once more come into the presence of a Holy God (Titus 1:2-3; 1 Peter 1:18-20).
Perhaps the pinnacle of what might seem to have been a miserable experiment was when God Incarnate was murdered by the very human creation that God sent His Son to rescue. What restraint in the face of such ungratefulness our Lord Jesus Christ showed while being crucified on Calvary’s cross. He did not call down more than twelve legions of angels to destroy this world and mankind – this miserable experiment – and set Himself free (Matthew 26:53). The love of God and Jesus Christ exceeded wretched and sinful humanity all so that we would have the opportunity to be saved (Romans 5:8-10).
Dear Reader, resolve not to be a failed part of a miserable experiment. Human redemption is anything but a miserable experiment, but to carelessly disregard the efforts of God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on our behalf makes it all for us personally merely a miserable experiment. “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him” (Hebrews 2:3 NKJV).
