Good God 1

When man sees something as horrific as the Haiti earthquake and its results he responds in many different ways. Some scream “WHY?! Why God, Why?” and answers don’t come, except from a handful of people who answer a trite, “It’s because of sin,” then leave you there to dangle in a hangman’s noose of doubt and anger. Others completely turn from God, telling us that a good God would never allow such a thing to happen, and others nod their heads in agreement. Some, while not completely leaving God, start to doubt and in their weakened condition begin stumbling ever more frequently, until they drop from the fatigue of constant falling and getting up. Still others tell us that God had nothing to do with it, but that it was just the natural result of a shifting earth that, when stressed too greatly, quickly snapped loose and moved with unstoppable force. These and dozens of other responses come to mind, but where is the truth? It seems that easy answers are just shadows that show something, but never really explain the real thing. So we wonder where God fits into this whole question.

Many of those of the Christian faith want to remove God from the situation because they want to protect God. “No. No. God could never have allowed that.” We mumble in His defense, while at the same time wondering why He did allow that. We want it both ways. God wouldn’t, when it’s something horrific, but surely God did, when it’s something wonderful.

Some might say, “I bought some stock the other day and it more than doubled – Wow! Isn’t God wonderful!?” Or some child is healed of cancer and we shout praises to God for His mercy and kindness. We quote, “Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights…” and then stand in His defense when the gift doesn’t seem perfect or in the least bit good. I’m amazed that we give God credit for all the good that happens and put the blame on Satan, chance, natural forces or a thousand other things when the outcome is tragic or seems bad to us. Not all, of course, have thought this way.

Job was a good man. He loved God and offered praises and sacrifices on a regular basis. He was deeply concerned about the sins of his children and offered sacrifices for them (1:4-5). He treated servants, both male and female, rightly and gave food and other gifts to the widows. He taught the ignorant and lifted the hands of the weak, yet in all of these things he never thought of himself as something superior. He was a man just as those he served or who served him were men and women. He knew he was a right living individual and knowing that believed only good would come his way. Yet a day came when everything Job thought he knew fell apart.

Plunderers came and destroyed, stole and killed. Weather crushed and collapsed. He lost his children, his homes, livestock and fortune. There would be just one left from each of the separate events who would come and tell him of his great loss. Heartbroken, he stripped his clothes from his body and put on sackcloth, sat on an ash heap and wondered what was going on. His faith in God, however, remained as strong as ever and he never failed to give Him the glory. Satan was stymied at this and asked to touch his body. God allowed, as He had allowed all the other terrible things to be placed against Job. Soon, as Job sat on the ashes, he took shards from pots and used them to scratch and scrape the open sores on his body. After some time Job’s wife came to him and scolded, saying, "Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!"

Yes! That would make sense. If God would be so unreasonable as to allow such awful things to happen to a good man like this then who was that kind of God that we should follow Him anyway? So Job’s wife gave the best advice she could come up with. “Curse God and die!”

How many of us have felt the same emotions? Pain, hurt, loss, death and all those awful things that happen to mankind have happened in our lives and haven’t we wanted to just curse God and die? When my best friend and his wife were killed in a terrible traffic accident, while taking their son to the airport so he could go on a mission trip to Germany, (what kind of sense did that make?) we all asked “why? They were trying to do good. How could you, a good God, allow something so awful to happen when someone was trying to do good?”

“Curse you, God.” Job might have said. “You aren’t a good God or, at the very least, you are not an all-powerful God.” And if Job had said such a thing we might have agreed and said, “That’s what God deserved.” Ah, but that’s not what Job did.

Job looked at his wife and, perhaps pointedly, but I think gently, for she also had lost all in this great drama, asked her, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?"

Job was not putting the blame for what was happening on Satan or even dumb luck. No. He was stating that he believed it was coming from God, and surely it was (Job 42:10-11). We can use terms like “allow” but whatever we use, at the end of the matter, when all’s said and done, it’s still God who made the final decision. We can say, Satan did it, but God made the decision. We can say, natural forces did it and it was no one’s fault, but God made the decision. We can say what we want, but if God is all powerful, and He surely is, then He has the power to stop all harmful things from happening and there are many, many times when He chooses not to. Haiti is one of those times. So we want to know why!