God Doesn't Always Tell You...Why!!!
Job 1:20-22
It is human nature to wonder why something has happened. Even moreso when it relates to difficult events and/or circumstances that we (or those that we are close to) experience. We often try to seek meaning in those hard times, because we think that by placing meaning on them we are able to bear the weight and pain that those circumstances cause.
Both Christian and non-Christian alike often cry out to God to provide meaning for the struggles and turmoil we face during our lives.
And those of us who seem to regularly go through hard and difficult times often are left questioning if there is something we have done wrong that God doesn’t seem to answer our prayers asking “Why???”. Sometimes it feels as we (and perhaps our families) are cursed.
I think part of that is the modern Christianity that has developed over the past couple of decades where struggle and tough-times are something to be avoided at all costs, and something that isn’t necessarily shared or accepted in many congregations because members of those congregations only want surface relationships with others, and not meaningful, supportive ones. There is also the perception at times that if a person is undergoing regular periods of struggle and/or turmoil - there must be something wrong with them.These views lead to isolation within those who are sturggling or enduring long periods of difficult times. But that is a totally different discussion for another day.
However, the most ‘cursed’ indivual mentioned in the Bible was Job. In the book of Job we see a story play out where God allows Satan to afflict Job - not becuase God was vengeful, but because God knew Job’s heart and the depth of his Fiath in HIM. Job loses all his children, his herds and flocks of animals, his trade connections, his home, and even his wife seems to abandone him - then he is afflicted with physical sores like boils and puss filled infections.
In the end everything that Job loses God restores, and even adds to what he had initially. There is a reason why God restored HIS favour to Job…but there are also two great lessons in the story of Job for us:
One that is explicitely stated, and
One that is not explicitly stated.
It is to these that we now turn our attention to…
Thus the first lesson is this - “Even in the midst of all his suffering Job did not sin against God, nor did he say that God was wrong in letting all those horrific events happen to him and his family.”
We find this mentioned in Job 1:20-22, which says…
“Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.”
Within this first chapter of Job, we read of how Job lost everything - yet, in these final verses we see a man who is in deep mourning and pain reach a point of decision. The decision he had to make was either to worship and honour God, or to blame HIM for everything that went wrong.
Job chooses the first option - he worshipped God and made a profound set of statements.
The first was the truthful statement that we come into this life with nothing, and when we die we leave with nothing. Our world is so focussed on obtaining wealth and ‘things’ that people forget that when you die, you can’t take all the things you accumulate in life with you.
The sad part is that Christians have fallen into this pattern of thinking and struggle with their faith because the cost of standing up for their faith might impact on their lifestyle.
All that matters is our faith in God - whether we have much, or we have nothing. Nothing else matters…just our relationship with God. Which is why Job then proceeds to make the seconds of his impactful statements.
Job tells us that it is God who provides, and sometimes it is God who takes things away from us (and it must be noted that God does this in HIS perfect will and understanding). Here Job is really saying “Who are we to argue with God because it is HE who provides for us…not our own strengths and abilities”.
Job then proceeds to show his faith in God by worshiping HIM.
It is because of these truths and the worship - without blaming God or cursing God that Job is seen to not have sinned against God.
It is something to consider in our own lives… we may ask “Why me God?” and that is fair enough…to a point, but when we start to get angry and blame God for the pain, suffering and trauma we experience in life - then that…that is where we sin.
The second lesson is this - “God never reveals to Job why he had to endure all that tragedy and suffering. He just blesses Job and allows him to live out the rest of his days in that blessing.”
Whilst this lesson isn’t explicitely stated in the book of Job, it can be determined because of the lack of any sort of statement by God within the whole book explaining to Job the reason for his suffering.
And this is perhaps the greatest lesson we can get from reading the book of Job (which I would recomend for anyone who is really struggling at the moment) - we don’t know the reasons why God allows us to endure the struggles, pain and trauma that we do - only HE does.
Now we need to make it clear that God doesn’t cause us the things that we endure. God doesn’t cause the cancers that claim our family members, God doesn’t cause businesses to fail, God doesn’t cause the violence that destroys families and communities, and God doesn’t cause the addictions that destroy lives, families and communities alike.
However, God does give us the strength and faith to get us through the struggles and pain we experience (think of the promises that are found in Psalm 23).
The key to accepting ths understanding of Job’s situation lay in two other Old Testament scriptures. These being:
Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”
Isaiah 55:8-9: “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
In these verses we see that we - in our humanness - we cannot possibly understand the real reasons why we suffer and go through what we do in this life. There are so many things that influence what is going on around us, and within us that only God knows the full picture…and all we are seeing is a brief glimpse of but a fraction of a larger picture. This is why we need to put our faith in God, and not our own understanding.
If Job was around during Jesus’ ministry he would agree with the words that Jesus uttered in John 16:33 “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
In these dark and painful times we need to hold on to Jesus all the more tighter each and every day we wake. Our faith needs to be firm in the knowledge that God does indeed know best, and that HE, and HE alone knows why we go through the things that we do. I pray that no matter what you might be experiencing right now, that you copy what Job did - get on your knees even as your weep and grieve over your situation and praise HIM.