Whatever, life does often seem that way, and we become disenchanted and disappointed with God. We begin to question Him, to lose faith and doubt Him when "bad things happen to good people;" as the title of a book by Harold S. Kushner, reads.
"Where is God When it Hurts?"* to quote another book title! [emphasis mine]
I was cleaning my book shelves and came across such titles of "hurt" as: Silent Grief by Clara Hinton-those who have experienced miscarriages or child loss and no one knows or remembers, and so the parents grieve in silence; or how about The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse by David Johnson and Jeff VanVonderan-those who grew up and/or spent time, not necessarily in a cult, but in a very legalistic church setting, having to kowtow to even the "unwritten rules".
The book I'm currently reading, Disappointment With God by Philip Yancey, talks a lot about the man, Job, of the Bible. The absolute unfairness (from human perspective)...a kind of tug-of-war between God and Satan, using Job as "the rope". He lost his thousands upon thousands of livestock; his many servants, all of his children and then his health, all in one fell swoop! He had been a very good, philanthropic man who did not hoard for himself but indeed, helped the poor. This was all in aid of trying to break him beyond the breaking point and get Job to curse God. That was Satan's big plan. You can read the details in the book of Job in the Bible.
The poor man! It all seemed senseless!
These types of scenarios scream, "Why me!?" "Don't You care, God?" "Why are you so silent!?" "This is totally, UNFAIR!!!!"
In the New Testament of the Bible, in the book of Luke and chapter 13, we see some folks queried Jesus about the Galileans with whose blood Pilate desecrated the sacrifices and then the eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell (Luke 13:1-5). Were those killed worse sinners than others, they wanted to know.
"No." Jesus replied.
According to Old Testament promises in Deuteronomy 28, it's stated that those who followed God's commands and standards of living were to be blessed and those who disobeyed would be cursed. With that mindset it all seemed so unfair to the inquiring people.
Jesus told them, the victims weren't worse than others but all needed to repent because the alternative was to perish. That levels things out!
It still doesn't seem fair. Does it?
Is there an element missing here? Learn to trust God? Have faith? Wow! So easy to say! Don't reject that outright though. Listen to some good stuff Philip Yancey says in his Disappointment With God book.
From pages 221-222, Yancey postulated,
"...Not until history has run its course will we understand how "all things work together for good."
Not that that makes everything hunky-dory.
Yancey continues,
"Faith means believing in advance what will make sense in reverse."
He says we should trust in God's ultimate goodness all the way to eternity.
Satan challenged God, saying Job's faith wouldn't hold. God had great faith in Job though.
Although Job babbled and questioned at great length, he did hold on through the terrible "tug-of-war" days. He came out humbled and worshiping God.
Yancey notes,
"The kind of faith God values seems to develop best when everything fuzzes over. When God stays silent, when the fog rolls in." (pages 228)
Job was kind of in a fog during his trial, like what we also experience on days of tragedy and great sorrow or years of emotional and/or physical abuse, etc.
During those days when our,
"...tears have been our food day and night, while they say to me all day long, "Where is your God" (Psalm 42:3 ESV)?
...indeed we may even ask that ourselves, "Where is my God?"
Yet, as Yancey says,
"Saints become saints by somehow hanging on to the stubborn conviction that things are not as they appear, and that the unseen world is as solid and trustworthy as the visible world around them. God deserves trust even when it looks like the world is caving in" (Page 229).
This following quotation, again from Yancey's book, also helps my thinking,
"...Faith demands uncertainty, confusion. The Bible includes many proofs of God's concern-some quite spectacular-but no guarantees. A guarantee would, after all, preclude faith."
In the end, God did speak to Job, rather emphatically, reminding Job of who God is. So Much BIGGER! Job also got his health and wealth back, and another set of children. It looks like "happily ever after". In our own personal reality, that may never be until we get to Heaven.
Certainly that was the case of the many examples seen in Hebrews 11 in the various "saints" lives. You can "see" them peeking out from the altar in heaven still wondering "how long..." (Revelation 6:9)? How long before justice is served and the "unfairness" goes away? Since then there have been countless reams of lists of God's children who have endured horrendous persecution and death at the hands of jealous, hateful, fellow mankind; and other devastations known to human beings, some of which have been mentioned earlier. Surely they would have besought God to intervene for them.
Our prime and perfect example is Jesus Christ, Himself. He left His Father's throne in Heaven and came to earth and was "despised and rejected" (Isaiah 53:3). People did not esteem Him. He was arrested, falsely accused and put up on a trial that was a farce, and crucified.
Then He bore all our sins and sorrows upon Himself. That was the punishment meant for us for all our sins. He, the Perfect One. The Sinless One. He took the blame. He took the punishment. How completely, undeniably UNFAIR!
The worse part for Jesus was the separation from His Father, God, all that sin bearing caused. One of Jesus' cries from the cross was,
"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me" (Matthew 27:46)?
Can you hear the agonizing pathos in that question? Many of you likely can because you too may well have uttered similar from the inner depths of your souls and out of the intensity of your long drawn out trials or betrayals that life throws at us.
Is there comfort in that? Jesus knows and cares and has been through the ultimate "unfair". He too endured silence from His Father when "He needed to hear." But in the end, He said,
"Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit" (Luke 23:46 ESV).
Scenarios such as these lead to the crossroads of: declaring, "this is unfair", losing faith and then giving up God and everything God-related; or, saying, "this feels so unfair, yet I'll cling on to Him for dear life, come what may. The connection of dependence and trust upon His Father, God was evident in Jesus going through with the mission He was born to fulfill. May we too have that faith and trust in Him despite it all and go on our way in service and worship no matter how unfair our situation appears. Job never got a direct answer to all his questions but he did cling, praise and worship God when all was said and done.
While preparing for a Sunday School lesson about Jesus praying for His disciples (namely, Simon Peter), that their faith not fail due to the bombshell that was about to explode their routine lives, we found that Jesus also prays for us. If you can flip your Bibles open to Hebrews 7:24-25 (NIV) but focus on verse 25 which reads,
"...Jesus lives forever,...Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them."
Hone in on "He always lives to intercede for them." He intercedes for us! He prays for us. He's got our backs even when it may not feel like it.
As Yancey alludes, our lives may indeed have great confusion and perplexity and agony in it and we may never know the answers to our questions, but will we decide to brace ourselves, and not to say, to "go with the flow", but to let faith do its perfect work in us and come out, humble and worshiping like Job did?
Tough question!
I don't think that means we can't ask our Heavenly Father to have our circumstances improved or changed for greater "fairness". When Jesus was still praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, He too prayed and asked His Father if He really had to go through with what He knew was coming. However, until there is change, do hang steadfastly on to Jesus.
On Lord's Day, when you pass the bread and cup of wine of remembrance one to another, ponder on all the unfairness Jesus went through for us. If He'd given up His trust in God, His death and resurrection would never have given us eternal life and hope and faith. In fact, He never would have gone to the cross at all. Think of all Jesus has done for us in spite of the unfairnesses in life. Thank Him for enduring and not shirking His mission. Let us praise and adore Him and keep the faith through our pain.
He understands.
~ERC December 2019~
* The book Where Is God When It Hurts was also written by Philip Yancey.
A song, All the Way My Savior Leads Me sung by Melody St. Clair Randazzo; pianist Greg Howlett
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