A contradiction means...

the assertion of the opposite, the denial of a statement, even the contrary argument. Many skeptics of the Bible major on the contradictions and minor on the truth found in them. Acrobatic feats that make Cirque de Soleil look like playgroup at Kangaroo Bob's are done by readers and teachers of the Bible to make a scriptural statement prove an alliterated point.

As a Bible teacher, I literally become faint to think of treading those waters where the Bible becomes so much crumbly playdough instead of rock solid foundation. I've encountered the usual back against the wall, trying to pin the tail on my donkey questions of how can the Bible say this if it also says that?

The simple result has been my jumping full speed into the pool of alleged contradictions to know the refreshing truth that comes from such a plunge. God's truth has never been found in the wisdom of man that strains it into neat categories. God's truth is elemental, essential and electively given to those He enlivens. (1 Cor. 2:6-16)

I came across yet another of these glorious assertions of the opposite in Matthew 2:13-18. The first assertion is that God protects His people. Drawn from the story of an angelic warning being given to Joseph to take his family to Egypt, thereby escaping Herod's murderous wrath. The statement, "God protects His people" is Biblically true. All sorts of applications and church programs, hymns and Bible verses can be memorized and magnetized for your refrigerator that state God protects His people. Every book of the Bible demonstrates in some manner narratively, literally, prophetically, poetically that God protects His people.

Hallelujah! Let's all go home. Did Mom make roast beef today?

Aaah! But someone insists on continuing to read through to the next event and discovers that while Joseph and co. are safe in Egypt, God allows, knew it would happen, sovereignly ordains, doesn't prevent, the murderous rage of Herod meted out to the boys of Bethlehem, two years of age and younger. What? I thought we just covered the ground that God protects His people? And certainly the boys that were killed were of His people, because Herod was seeking to kill the king of the Jews, so he certainly wasn't targeting the Roman boys of Bethlehem? And aren't the Jews considered God's people?

Well, that's just a contradiction. Let's all go home. I'm ready for the roast beef.

Honey, you are at the table of roast beef. This is where you have to chew. This is where you have to pass on the milk, pick up a fork and knife and chew.

Let's do it again. Joseph, Mary and child Jesus are awakened by an angel to flee in the night to Egypt because killer King Herod is on his way to murder this child. Because God alerted Joseph to the danger and provided for the safety of His Son and His earthly parents, we conclude: God protects His people.

But in the second case, no other Bethlehem family is alerted to the danger and a number of sons are killed. Commentaries galore indicate that it was probably only a small number, 5-20. But if your son was ONE of that number, would the term "a small number" comfort you? I don't think so. Would you still conclude: God protects His people?

So how then can you and I understand the truth God protects His people in this case? Do we change the Biblical principle to one of, well, God allowed this bad thing to happen to some good people? Sure, if we want to write books and make money. But that only opens more questions: Why did He allow it? How did He choose which good person it happened to and which one it didn't? How can I know if He might allow something bad to happen to me? Am I good enough to receive the gold prevention card?

This tension is amazing! The resolution is not in a benign understanding of either case, a watered down defense of God's character, or a shrill statement that the Bible contradicts itself. The truth is in the whole counsel of God, the fullness of His character, the majesty of His eternal will, and the doctrines of His Word. Things that I can barely touch on in explanation, things that demonstrate the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom (2 Cor 1:25).

Humbly I offer this understanding:

The truth is God protects His people in the person of His Son, Jesus the Christ. God protects His people by sending His Son. God protects His people by providing His Son as the only sufficient and perfect substitution in atonement. God protects His people in His Son by reminding them through the wrath and horror of a murderer that unless cleaved to His Son, the Bethlehem result is a constant reality. God protects His people by granting them through His Son an eternal life that outweighs the suffering and pain of a temporal life. It's reductionist to think that those children died only so that the child Jesus could live. Rather, Jesus lived so that He could die so that all His children could live.

Truth is worth chewing on. Alleged contradictions are only so much gristle.