January 19
Job 1:1-4:21
When I ask people about their faith, common responses that I get are, "I don't believe in God because when I experienced my mother dying of cancer, I lost all of my faith", "Where was God when I couldn't have children?", "If God is a loving God, why did He allow my husband to leave me?" The truth is there is no shortage of heartache in this world. So many justify their lack of faith based on these difficult experiences. Truth be told, in recent years under the pandemic of coronavirus and the response to it there had been no shortage of illness and death, isolation and depression, loss of jobs and personal belongings, distancing from loved ones, separation with friends and families, etc. I can point to the godless times that we are living in, but that doesn't help the individual who is personally experiencing loss. This is when we must all step back and ask ourselves what our faith is based on. We read the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1, "Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see." We must also come to grips with the truth that though God knows us completely, we can't fully understand the mind of God, as we read in Romans 11:33-34, "Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways! For who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give him advice?" It is a strange, but typical human reaction, that we take personal credit and tend to ignore God when things are going well, but we tend to blame God and deflect from ourselves when things are going poorly.
In one of the most revealing portions of God's throne room in Scripture, God allows the author a glimpse into the interaction of God and Satan. For those who assume Satan has more power than he does, notice that he is only allowed to do that which God allows. If any were honest, few lost as much in life as Job did in this very brief period of time. As we go through his losses in Job 1-2, he lost all of his belongings, all of his children, and his health. Though we know why this is happening, Job has no such understanding. In fact, though at the end of the book, Job is restored to his previous life of blessing, and more than he had previously, there is no indication that he was offered the truth to his predicament this side of eternity. Job's faith in God was not based on his circumstances, but on who God is. Notice his first response to his losses in Job 1:20-21, "Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship. 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 did not blame or curse God, but decided to worship God in the midst of his trial. After Job is on the city's ash heap in physical agony, his wife recommends that he curse God, to which we see his response in Job 2:10, "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."
Pastor Chuck Smith said, "When we suffer through the circumstances of our life, it's so important to have faith and confidence that God loves us and is at work. Pain, suffering, and grief are often the chisels God uses to carve the image that He desires. They are tools by which our character is developed, as God brings us to the end of ourselves so that we completely rely on Him." Why does God allow certain trials in my life? I don't know. Why do certain people seem to have it harder than others? I don't know. Better than the "why God" questions which we will not have answers to, is the "Who is God" reality. He is all loving, all good, all capable, always watching, etc. We don't have to understand why God allows certain things other than to know the perfect character of God. Just as our hope in salvation is not based on our actions but on what Jesus did, our faith in God is not based on our comprehension but on who God is.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: