Monthly Archives: August 2023

Life Lessons

Why do Bad things Happen to Good People? (Part Eight)

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                    Summing it all Up!

          Elihu , the fourth friend, had kept silent all this time as he was the youngest. But now he spoke up and gave his opinion of Job’s situation, and of what the others had said…     He was angry at all their speeches, even at Job for justifying himself rather than giving God the glory, and he was angry at the other three because they hadn’t been any help at all with their ideas. He said that he had waited in vain for them to say something constructive, and now that they had run out, he was going to give his opinion! “I’m nearly ready to bust”, he exclaimed, “so you all listen to me now! Job, you’ve been telling us  about all the good you’ve done in your life, and how you feel God has now deserted you! God deals with everyone differently, and He has the final say in men’s affairs. So take notice of this Job, and if you’ve got anything more to say, say it now!”

   Elihu then turned his attention to the others…”You guys think you’re the wise ones, now listen to me…Job thinks he has done nothing wrong. We know that God certainly does no wrong, and that He is over everything on earth…are you in God’s place to say these things against Job? Even if he has been talking rubbish, he is the one who is paying for it now! We’ve got to remember that God knows more than we do and that He knows what He is doing. Job’s words are just wasted in his situation!     “You all just listen to me! God is mighty in power, and what He does is right! He is great and we cannot know His wisdom, and how He orders the world, the rain, and the light that He gives! I tremble to speak on His behalf! Just take notice of the thunder, the whirlwinds that come, and the snow in its season. Just listen to me Job, there is no-one and nothing that can equal God’s might and majesty….this is why we are to fear Him!”

    Although he didn’t know it, Job’s trial was nearly at an end by this time. God then spoke directly to him and we will do well to listen to the things that He had to say to Job, and see what we can learn from them. Nothing that happens to us in this life is wasted if we take stock of the situation and learn from it.

Life Lessons

Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People? (Part 7)

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                                     Round Two with Job’s Friends.

     Eliphaz spoke up again  and once more said that Job must have acted dishonestly towards his brother or not helped others where he could have. His view of God was that He must have been punishing Job for something he had done wrong!     How often we bring God down to our level! Every time we say, “I can’t see how God can allow this or that…”  we are making Him like us. We have to remember that God is God, His ways are far above our ways  (Isaiah 55:8-9) and He can see the wider picture of all things, the end from the beginning. He is infinite, we are only finite and very limited at that.

   Job began his answer….  “Oh, if only I knew where to find Him! I would lay my case before Him! I cannot find Him to put my arguments forwards because He is everywhere, from the east to the west! But I know I’ve followed His ways closely, and treasured His words. Others have ignored Him and He has let them go their way. They may be exalted for a short time, but it all turns to nothing in the end!”

  Then  Bildad spoke up again, but didn’t have much to say this time. As he contemplated God’s existence, he was lost for words… “Dominion and awesome might belong to God, and we can’t fathom His greatness. What can we, who are no better than worms,  say in the face of this?”

    Job had an answer for all of this….  “What’s the point of you talking? We all know of God’s greatness over His creation, the heavens and skies, the moon and the stars, and these are just the tip of the iceberg!”      Job continued this speech by then telling what his life had been like before these tragedies had come upon him. God’s blessings had been upon him in every way, he said, and he had experienced God’s presence with him at all times. His children were around him, and everything he had was prospering ….  “Those I met in the street were polite and always ready to speak with me”, he went on, “I was always ready to help people, and they blessed me for it. I was always fair and honest with others and they would listen to my advice. Nobody argued with me or answered back, and I lived like a king! Now people mock me and those younger than me won’t even speak to me! People keep way from me. I’m in constant pain, and it feels as though God himself has deserted me! My skin is tortured and I feel no better than the jackals or ostriches!”

   Job then went on to talk of his integrity before God….he had never entertained evil thoughts towards to the opposite sex, he had always been honest in his dealings, and helped those less fortunate. “I‘ve always trusted God for everything! I had an open home for anyone who needed a bed for the night, and I never did anything that needed to be covered up. Oh! If only there was someone who would stick up for me!”    Job truly felt forsaken and alone and although his friends were there with him, they were no comfort at all!  There may be times in our lives when we have felt like this, but we have the comfort of knowing that God never leaves His people. Paul could talk of all the bad things that had happened to him, but even though he suffered physically and begged the Lord to take his problem away, he had the comfort of knowing the Lord was saying to him, “My grace is sufficient for you!”  (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) So in our bad times, we too, can hang onto the fact that God sees and knows and will strengthen us to keep on going. Job chapters 22- 31

Life Lessons

Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People? (Part 6)

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                                     More Friendly Advice!

     Bildad spoke up again…. “Job! You aren’t listening to what we say! Don’t you think we know a thing or two? You’re just like someone who is caught in a trap by the heel, and calamity will overtake you….”

    Don’t we all feel other’s condemnation of us when things go wrong for us? On the other hand, we must remember to say things that build up, rather than that which will pull down when people suffer calamities! It’s not necessarily what we say to their face, but often words of condemnation that we say to others about them behind their back.

   Job didn’t hold back when he answered Bildad… “Why can’t you can’t say anything helpful to me? Ten times now you’ve been reproaching me! Even if what you are saying is true, I’m paying for my mistakes now! I feel as though God is tearing me down on every side, no-one is being helpful to me…my friends and relatives keep away from me, my servants keep out of my sight, even my wife can’t stand the sight of my sores! Oh, I wish my words were written down! ( little did he know they were!) I would write them with an iron pen on a scroll of rock!”    Job then uttered these wonderful words of testimony in the midst of his misery…. “I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand on the earth…even if I die, I will see Him for myself! It doesn’t matter what you all say after all!”

      Then Zophar could not keep silent any  longer… “Look here, Job, don’t you realise that those who are wicked aren’t joyful, that even if they are the most important people in the world they won’t last?” He carried on in the same vein, insinuating that Job must be one of them to be suffering like he was.     “Don’t you know that they won’t last and that he will end up nothing; his food will turn sour in his stomach? He won’t enjoy his wealth after all, especially that which he has gained from oppressing others! God will send His burning anger on him and it will be as though he has arrows piercing right through him. He will end up losing everything he has….this is what God does to those who don’t follow Him!”

    Job  wasn’t slow to reply… “You listen carefully to what I’m saying! You can laugh at me later, but listen now! I’m talking to God, not you…why do the wicked prosper like they do? Nothing ever seems to go wrong for them, even when they scoff at God! They say what’s the point in praying anyway?”

   Even while Job was talking, the answer came to him… “Their destruction will come upon them in the end, and God will bring them to nothing. They can’t teach Him anything anyway! Even if they have everything down here, they will still die, and die without God! They will have to face Him in the end, and they will have nothing to say. You guys haven’t comforted me at all with all your words!”

    We must always look for the wider picture when calamities come upon us. God, Who knows the end from the beginning, could see the whole thing as a panorama that would unfold before them all in the end. We all know people who have suffered dreadful calamities in their lives, and yet things worked out in the end for them. Let us always keep this in mind, and look past our immediate distresses…..King David could say, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning!”

(Psalm 30:5)                                                                           (Job, chapters 18-21)

Life Lessons

Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People? (Part Five)

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                            Zophar now spoke up….”You’re all talking too much and getting nowhere! Job, you think you know all the answers! If only we could hear what God has to say, He would tell us what this is all about……”     How often we feel like this!  In times of trouble, God seems to be far away. “You must have done something wrong, Job, for this to happen to you. If you put your sin away, then God will make things come right, there will be light at the end of the tunnel. That’s the way to be safe from further trouble”.

     Job was getting fed up with all these accusations and assumptions that he was a secret sinner. “It’s alright for you to talk! But I’m just as good as you are! There’s no need for people to laugh at me….just ask the animals, they know that God exists! We all know that He is in control of everything on earth, and that He makes the nations great and then pulls them down. I just wish I could speak directly to God, I would present my case as if I were in a court of law! You are all no help at all to me, you just condemn me out of hand!”      Job now makes a great statement of his faith in God….”Even if He kills me, I will still hope that He will listen to my reasons. I just want two things from Him…relief from this pain and then Him calling to me so I can answer! I know that we only live a few days and are then gone like a flower that withers away. A tree has more hope than we do…if it gets cut down then it will sprout again from its roots! But when we die, is there any hope?” Job seems to have reached the pit of despair…..”All this pain is like the wearing away of a mountain face by the continual running of water….nothing else counts in the face of this affliction!” What a lesson to us! Let us never waiver in our faith in times of trouble!

Then Eliphaz tries again,  and is even more condemning this time than the first time… “The trouble with you Job, is that you talk as though you know everything! You say wrong things, and you condemn yourself while you talk!”     He carried on in his rhetoric… “Were you the first man to be born? Do you know more than we do? You just listen to me! Those who turn against God get nowhere, all that they do turns to dust! You can’t get anywhere fighting against God.”    Job was fast losing patience with his friends and replied to this by saying, “I’ve heard all this before…a miserable lot of comforters you all are! You don’t know what it feels like…I feel full of wrinkles, and it’s as though God has taken me and shaken me to bits. I’ve cried until I can cry no more, and my friends all scorn me. It won’t be long before I’m dead, and then I can be buried. I feel just like a shadow, and there’ll be nothing of me left by the time this is all over!

     Perhaps you have felt like this at times….but take heart, God never leaves His own. In the midst of all these trials, Job was learning things that he would never forget, and that he would be able to pass on to others in the future. . (Job, chapters 11-17)

                                                                               

Life Lessons

Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People? (Part Four)

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     Job began to speak, “I wish I’d never been born, to feel like this! It’s a pity my mother ever gave birth to me!” He was in such pain that he had no rest, and he was wondering why God had allowed this calamity to come upon him….      This is a very human thought, one which we probably have all had at times when things go wrong. But we need to remember there is a much wider picture than what we can see at the moment, and that God will work things out in the end.     Eliphaz spoke up and replied to this (chapters 3-4)… “Don’t you know that God looks after those who follow Him? You’ve helped others when they’ve been in trouble, and now trouble has come to you and you complain!”     He went on, “I’ve had frightening experiences before today and I know we can’t stand before God….this trouble must have come from God to correct you for something, Job;  but things will come right in the end. Listen to what I’m saying.”    Job  replied to this by saying, “Oh, if only God would listen to me and take me away! Then I might be comforted instead of going through this time of distress. I feel like someone travelling through a desert and not able to find any water…I’ve never done any wrong to anyone!

     Bildad, the next friend, now spoke up…”Your words are like the wind, Job! You are missing the point; you must be sinning secretly for God to treat you like this!”      Some of us have suffered comments like this over the years, and there is no comfort in being told where you’ve gone wrong!      Bildad continued….”There is always a reason for everything that happens…swamp weeds can’t grow where there is no water, and those who forget God will reap the consequences!  God doesn’t help those who forget Him, but cheer up, things will come right in the end!”     Job replied, “I know what you are saying is right, but how can a person stand against God? He is so great and mighty! He has made the stars in the sky, and does wonderful things we can’t understand. Even though I know I am innocent, I can’t answer Him. Things just continue to go wrong! God is not a human being like we are, that I can answer Him! He made me like I am, and it seems that He is destroying me now. I wish He would tell me where I’ve gone wrong! Oh, leave me alone, so I can find some comfort!”

     When our friends suffer from some disaster, we must make sure to not try to figure out where the blame lies….this is no comfort at all, and does nothing to help whatsoever! It is better just to sit there quietly, and get them the things they need for their comfort. If you can’t be there with them to help, then just a quiet phone call or text now and then to remind them that they are not forgotten.                                                                                                 (Job, chapters 3-10)