Merritt Opening Song: #529 Under His Wings Title: Why, Lord?
Scripture: Job 5:6-11, For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground, for man is born for trouble, as sparks fly upward. God sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
It was Palm Sunday before Easter. Because of the flu, 5 year old Bobby stayed home with a sitter. When the family returned home, they were carrying palm branches. The boy asked what they were for. “People held them over Jesus’ head as He walked by.” Bobby sighed, “Aw, wouldn’t you know it. The one day I don’t go, He shows up!” Are we waiting for God to show up and give us some answers in life? A man’s father died too soon, while the son was a young student. That absence, that pain is still felt after forty years. If God is so good, why would He take his father away? His father was a good man. Why would God take him and not some drug pusher, rapist, or murderer? God is all-powerful; you would think God would intervene more often, keeping really bad things from happening to people who don’t deserve it.
Do young girls ever deserve to be assaulted? Did anyone ever deserve to be forced into slavery? Now what should God do? Intervene every time somebody does something bad to an undeserving person? If not every time, how often? Which conditions should be automatic interventions? God does intervene at times miraculously, though often it prompts resentment by those who wish the miracle for themselves in their own plight. So God can't win. If He lets people abide by the free will He gave us, then He gets blamed for not overriding free will when murderers make bad choices. If God didn’t grant us free will, then God would be making all our thoughts and actions. BUT He created us to be free.
This is a true story of court where a witness was testifying. Attorney: You said that you saw the defendant and plaintiff in a fight? You said you were concerned for your safety and you sought shelter elsewhere? During this time of seeking shelter, you turned your back to the fight at hand?
Witness: Yes.
Attorney: THEN you testified the defendant bit off the plaintiff's ear?!
Witness: Yes.
Attorney: If your back was turned to the fight then you obviously MUST have had the plaintiff and defendant out of your field of vision?
Witness: Yes, correct.
Attorney: Well then, did you SEE the defendant bite off the plaintiff's ear?
Witness: No.
Attorney: (Smugly) THEN HOW DO YOU KNOW THE DEFENDANT BIT OFF THE EAR OF THE PLAINTIFF IF YOU DID NOT SEE HIM DO IT?!
Witness: I saw him spit it out. Dead Silence. Attorney: No more questions.
God has to watch atrocities happen, when He could flick His finger, kill wicked and save victims. Is God able but not willing? Jesus is God in the flesh. Do we agree Jesus is the ideal good person? If anyone doesn’t deserve bad things, it’s Jesus. Did He shake His fist at Father God? He knows this world is bent, broken, corrupted, infected with sin. Jesus uses bad things that happen to Him to save the very ones who DO bad things to Him. What a God! We live in a fallen world where evil has reached such vastness that random bad things puzzle us. We blame God for result of our fallen condition. Bad people do bad things; good people do bad things; bad and good people do bad things by accident. You get 7 billion people doing bad things even just once and you have recipe for evil.
A young minister just out of seminary, in his first church was preaching his first sermon. He was taught if he forgot something, just back up and repeat; maybe it would come back to him. He started with a quote, "Behold, I cometh," but could not remember the rest. He backs up, starts again. "Behold I cometh," but he still couldn't remember. So he moves back and shouts, "Behold I cometh!" but this time he trips and falls right into the lap of a little old lady sitting in front row! He started apologizing, but before he could finish the woman muttered, "It’s not YOUR fault sonny - you told me you were coming three times. I should have moved!" Is any bad God’s fault?
Does God afflict people with disease and cancer randomly or out of His divine plan? Jesus says little about source of disease; He shows God’s focus is healing. God is good, all that He creates is very good, He only does good. He doesn't destroy, He comes to restore us. We are already afflicted, He comes to heal.
Bible promises nothing can touch our lives that has not first touched Jesus. Isaiah 63: 9, In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them: in His love and pity He redeemed them; and He bore them, and carried them all the days of old. Deuteronomy 1: 31, In the desert, there you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a Father carries His son, all the way you went until you reached this place. Deuteronomy 32: 10, He came to him in the waste land, in the unpeopled waste of sand: encircling His arms round him and caring for him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. Isaiah 46:3, Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all you who remain of the house of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth.
Disease, health problems are not doled out by Jesus; they are result of our world. Jesus grieves when people die horrible deaths; He knows what it is like. When people die all alone, abandoned, tortured, mocked, desecrated; He knows what it is like. Jesus wants us continuing His good news, forgiveness, restoration, and love. God is leaving room for people to act.
We suffer and die on this sinful earth. But it doesn't have to be the only part of the story we fixate on. God is willing to bring good out of bad. You can't have a square triangle, you can't have 2 plus 2 equalling five. You can’t let people be free to choose yet force them to live in a perfect world. God allows laws of nature, human nature, human choice; that’s reality. God is Good no matter what happens in this world. Sometimes righteous suffer and wicked flourish. God does not cause misfortunes as punishment for sin; Satan causes misfortune. Job 2: 3, God says to Satan, “You urged Me to harm Job WITHOUT CAUSE.” God is as outraged by our misfortunes as we are, for God is indeed good, kind and just. What can we learn about our suffering to find meaning, to create good from the evil that we each endure?
SONG: THROUGH IT ALL
Bad stuff happens. However we decide how we react. Do we whine or complain? And I mean beyond the 15 minute pity party I feel we’re entitled. Do we do all we can from where we are with what we have? Some of the stuff will be labeled good and some will be labeled bad, but is it really? When the son broke his foot, they thought it was bad, but when military came to draft young men, they couldn’t take the son with the broken foot, so then it was good.
After shipwreck on an uninhabited island, a man prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. He built a little hut out of driftwood. One day after scavenging for food, he found his little hut in flames. Stung with grief, "God, how could you do this to me!" Then he heard a ship’s horn. "How did you know I was here?" asked the man. "We saw your smoke signal," said the rescuers. Isaiah 57:1, The righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. Good people may die before their time; God is protecting them from evil to come.
Suppose a kind, honorable person spends time fearing mistakes he may make, saying he’s not good enough, obsessing about society’s ills, worrying what could go wrong, working at a job he doesn’t like, trying to save everyone he sees as broken, tirelessly striving to live up to others’ expectations, bending under pressure. He is held in positive light, but his thoughts attract complete lack of well-being. Instead of focusing on good, he puts attention on what he does NOT want. What we see is someone compassionate, concerned. It’s always sad to see bad things happen to one with great intentions. But where are the person’s thoughts and beliefs? The easiest way to attract what we do not want is to give all our focus to it. The intentions may be good, but the result is not bargained for.
Deeply held, subconscious beliefs are usually: I’m vulnerable, I see helplessness all around, so many things are not right, life is overwhelming, things go wrong at any minute, life is only bad, I’m only imperfection, I’m afraid how IT might affect me, there is no order, I’m at risk. This sinful world is still full of beautiful things, yet these beliefs show only awareness of negatives. This brings lack of contentment, stress on health, lack of clarity, fear for safety and well-being. A good person, maybe so. A person with a faith attitude?
A burglar decided to rob the safe in a store. On the safe door he was very pleased to find a note reading: "Please don't use dynamite. The safe is not locked. Just turn the knob." He did so. Instantly a heavy sandbag fell on him, the entire store was floodlighted, and alarms started clanging. As police carried him out on a stretcher, he moaned, "My faith in human nature has been rudely shaken!”
More unfair than bad things happening to good people is good things happening to “bad people.” In many cases, “bad people” have just as many poor beliefs as “good people.” And they live lives that, even if it isn’t apparent to you or me, are every bit as difficult. We cringe when drug lords, mafia, con artists, dead-beat parents live a life filled with things others long for. They seem to elude traps to stop injustice. How can such a person seem to live their dreams while so many good people struggle? If a con artist who rips off elderly people is living his ideal life, you and I see him as trash. We want so badly to see good overcome evil, and righteousness lead to prosperity. It feels like worst injustice to see opposite.
Looking at life through victim mentality causes us mental suffering. If we could remove cause of suffering, human craving and sin, then we could end suffering. Simply reacting to life in knee jerk ways brings us pain. We do have a choice; we can act and react to reinforce our peace OR our suffering. Mum, yelled Johnny from the kitchen, you know that dish you were always worried I would break? Yes dear, what about it? Well, your worries are over!
SONG: FARTHER ALONG
Most Psalms were born in difficulty. Epistles were written in prisons. Paul had affliction. Florence Nightingale, too ill to move from her bed, re-organized the hospitals of England. Semi-paralyzed Pasteur was tireless in attack on disease. Historian Francis Parkman suffered so acutely he could not work more than five minutes at a time. His eyesight so bad he could scrawl only a few giant words on a manuscript, yet he wrote 20 volumes of history. A study of 413 "famous and exceptionally gifted people" took years finding what produced such greatness, what common thread ran through all these outstanding people's lives. 392 of the 413 had overcome very difficult obstacles in order to become who they were.
Charles Spurgeon taught Isaiah 48:10, "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. It is no mean thing to be chosen of God," he wrote. "God's choice makes us choice men. We are chosen, not in the palace, but fire. In the furnace, beauty is marred, our fashion is destroyed, strength is melted, glory consumed; yet here eternal love is revealed."
Even a bad person may have a lesson to teach us, how NOT to act. Chicago Tribune: William P. Holcomb, whose job is to supervise tracking down parking ticket violators. It was revealed he had 375 unpaid tickets of his own! From a good person who is dying young, I learn to live in the moment and stop worrying about the future. From a bad person living in joy, I learn more joy is possible. By putting lessons together, we can be happy. Hosea 11:3-4, I myself taught Israel how to walk, leading him along by the hand. But he does not know or even care that it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of kindness, bonds of love, removed yokes from their necks, bent down and fed them. Jesus is steering us through storms of life toward home.
Either all things work together for our good, or nothing makes sense! Let’s either be transformed Christians or bitter sceptics, because we cannot just sort of believe. We know, not by what is happening, but by knowing our God. We don't know why babies die, why cars wreck, why nieces get lupus, why husbands die on Christmas day, why possessions go up in smoke. But this we do know, God is love; He never forgets us.
If all things work together for good, then God must be over all things; all-wise, all-loving, just and fair God IS in control! Over present trouble, our aching head, sweet and bitter, even our heavy heart. A teacher with six-year old students saying pledge to the flag. “O.K. children, put your hand over your little heart. Repeat with me, I pledge allegiance to the HOLD IT! Hold it! Ronny, why is your hand over your butt instead of your heart?” Ronny replied, “When my aunt comes over, she pats my bottom saying, “Bless your little heart!”
Our lives are not controlled by chance or luck, but by our personal Savior who is too loving to be cruel and too wise to fail. Nowhere in Scripture do we read that God causes sin. He permits. The causes of tragedy are Satan, choices of people, and consequence of living in a sinful world. Sometimes God saves us from tragedies; sometimes He walks with us through tragedy. Some experiences take our affections from this world, teach us about our frail humanity, lead us to look to God for support, seek heaven as a final home, and produce a more tender heart of flesh.
Apostle Paul does not say "all things are good" but "all things work together for good." Job shows bad things happen to good people. I walked a mile with Miss Pleasure, she chattered all the way. But I was none the wiser for all she had to say. Then I walked a mile with Sorrow, and never a word said she. But, oh, the lessons I did learn when Sorrow walked with me.
SONG: FOR MY GOOD AND FOR HIS GLORY
The “good” that God has in mind may involve the next life entirely. He may take us out of a secure, well-paying job in order to shake us out of a lifestyle that does not honor Him. He may set us free from an engagement because he will use us in a ministry that would be difficult or impossible if we marry that person. We may see nothing good in heartache or disaster, but this world is not all of reality.
There’s a place beyond the horizon, more real than earth. A man in business recession lost his job, his fortune, and beautiful home. His dear wife died, yet he held to his faith, the only thing left. One day walking in search of a job, he saw men doing stonework on a large church. One was chiseling a triangle out of rock. 'Where are you going to put that?' he asked. The workman said, “Do you see that little opening up there near the church steeple? I'm shaping this stone down here so that it will fit in up there.” God revealed to him a bigger picture.
I was angry at God 2 years when grieving abuse in my childhood. God let me be angry and didn't leave me. Finally when I hurt so long I just wanted an end to my suffering, I was still and listened. He gave me Joel 2:25, And I will restore to you years that the locust has eaten. God said, "I did not cause choices of people who abused you. I gave them free will, freedom to choose, and I am not guilty of their choices." A guy was deeply in love with a beautiful girl. When she told him next day was her birthday, he said he’d send her roses, one for each year of her life. He called local florist, ordered 21 roses to be delivered. As florist made the order, he decided since the young man was such a good customer, he’d put in an extra dozen roses. Young man couldn’t understand what made the girl so angry.
Ezekiel 33:11, As surely as I live, says the LORD, I take no pleasure in death of wicked. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live. Turn! Turn, O people of Israel! Why should you die? Hosea 11:8, "Oh, how can I give you up, Israel? How can I let you go? How can I destroy you like Admah or demolish you like Zeboiim? My heart is torn within Me, and My compassion overflows." God allows some things He doesn't want to. God can work in darkest days of our life. Jesus is in the boat when we face life’s storm. When things look bad, God is still good. Our circumstances do not change how much God loves us, and that’s a GOOD thing.
SONG: THROUGH THE FIRE