part 1 of "Good God" series
As we are all white knuckling life at this time with outbreak of COVID-19, I wanted to change the direction I was planning on going with upcoming blog posts and podcast episodes, to something that I believe will be more helpful during this time.
Over the last several days and weeks, I have seen many different people on my Facebook asks the question “if God is good why is all of this bad stuff happening?” I also know that the people on my Facebook are not the only ones across the nation and the world right now asking that question. So as I started to ponder what my thoughts were on all of this. I came across a video from the author of the book - that this series is based on - promoting the book. So after watching his short one minute video, I felt a little nudge telling me that I should look into getting that book. So I began searching around and seeing if could get my hands on it anytime soon. After searching, I found out that was not going to be the case, so I ordered the e-book from the Apple Books app. So I wanted to start with the phrase below:
GOD ISN’T RESPONSIBLE.
Now, I know some of you reading this might say “well, how can you say that?” I can see why you would be thinking that and the beginning of the story we are going to be looking at on and off through this series probably won’t help the claim that God isn’t responsible. But I assure you - He is not - and here are a couple of verses to show you and I believe they show who God really is:
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” - 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NIV
I believe that about God. I believe that He is a God of comfort. So I ask then - how can a God of comfort cause chaos in our lives. I mean that is what it is isn’t it - CHAOS - when we face unexpected problems and troubles? So to help explain this I want to look at the story of Job. As I said, looking at this story is going to make my claim seem disproved because of the content of it. But let’s look at it together.
In Job 1, we see who Job was and a conversation that started a lot.
“There once was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless—a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil.” - Job 1:1 NLT
Job was a good man and he was also a very rich man. He had animals, land, and servants. He was the richest man in the land! [1] But - if you know the story of Job - that was about to change.
Job’s life begins to unravel before his very eyes. Within what appears to be minutes, at least you can get that feeling by reading the story in the Bible, Job lost everything. A servant comes to him and says he has been robbed of his oxen and donkeys and his farmhands were killed. Then another servant comes shortly after that and says that his sheep and shepherds have been burned up in a freak fire. Another servants comes running up and says that he has been robbed of his camels and that those servants have been killed. One final servant came running up, his news would be the worst of all, and said that house of his oldest son had collapsed from a powerful wind and killed all of his children. [1]
Wow! What a few minutes, right?
But let’s look to see who was behind this all and we are going to get some good answers here. We see, in Job 1, before all of that happened to Job a conversation. The conversation was between God and Satan. Satan was begging God to allow him to try and get Job to “curse God to His face.” By the way, that is always Satan’s goal. Then we see God say this:
“‘All right, you may test him,’ the Lord said to Satan. ‘Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically.’ So Satan left the Lord’s presence.” - Job 1:12 NLT
So God allowed all of this to happen to Job? So God allows all stuff to happen to me? The verse about is very clear why God allowed those things to happen to Job. But this isn’t a change in God’s character or goodness. God doesn’t change. [2] God allowed those things to happen to Job to test his faith and to see what Job would do with the pain and heartache. But God did not cause the evil – that is Satan’s department.
Would Satan be right? [3] Would Job turn on God? Here is the response from Job:
“He said, ‘I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The Lord gave me what I had, and the Lord has taken it away. Praise the name of the Lord!’”- Job 1:21 NLT
Job chose to praise God in middle of his mess. In the middle of all of that heartache and grief and sadness - Job chose to praise God. The Bible also tells us that “Job did not sin by blaming God.” [4]
This would not be the only thing that Job would face either. Satan was working very hard and wanted to be right about Job. Satan wanted so desperately for Job to curse God. Satan then asked God for permission to take Job’s health. God allows Satan to take Job’s health. The Bible tells us that Job “scraped his skin... as he sat among ashes.” This made even Job’s wife question everything. She even said to Job “curse God and die.” But Job says to his wife:
“But Job replied, ‘You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?’ So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.” - Job 2:10 NLT
Job understood that God was growing his faith and was still a good God. Job knew that God was working in his life and that sometimes he need to walk through some bad stuff too. Job was being stretched.
God does the same for us. He allows things into our lives - not to be mean and watch us squirm - but to grow our faith and to stretch us. God wants to see if we are going to remain strong in faith and trust that He is working everything out and is in control. Or if we are going to turn our back on Him and blame Him for what we are facing.
I encourage you to read Job 1 and 2 when you get a second and you will see even more how Job handled his circumstances and how they are really no different than the ones we face sometimes.
God has always allowed evil to be present in the world. This is why I said that God has not changed. He allowed it from the very beginning - and we will look more into that next time.
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[1] reference Job 1
[2] Hebrews 13:8 + James 1:17
[3] “‘But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!’” - Job 1:11 NLT
[4] Job 1:22 NLT
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