God, Why? Job 34:10-12 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

When men get into a situation from which they believe God should have spared them or that God should have made turn out differently than it did, they ask God Why?  When they ask that question there are several things going on in their hearts.  Asking God why he did or didn’t do something about the problem implies:

That God owes you an explanation – Job 33:13.  God doesn’t give account of his actions.  We give account of our actions to him but he is not accountable to us [Rom 9:20].  God does what he pleases and when time ceases and all accounts are settled, there will be no man who will have a legitimate complaint against God [Rom 3:4].

That you are worthy of better treatment than you received – Job 2:9-10.  Job settled this thought for us by telling his wife that we are as worthy to receive evil at the hand of the Lord as we are to receive good.  He sends the rain on the just and the unjust alike.  There are wicked men who seem to have it better than God’s children.  Don’t forget the life of Christ and the life of Paul.  Both of these men were “all in” for God and both of them suffered continuously.  Yet they both lived in an awareness of the supernatural presence and provisions of God that were superlative to their earthly suffering.  If you are worthy of anything it is to suffer as Jesus did [1 Pet 4:12-16].

That God did something wrong – Job 34:10-12.  Not only does God always do right; he can do no wrong.  It is absolutely impossible for him to do anything wrong.  You may disagree with him, but he is still right.

That it’s all God’s fault and that you and others are totally innocent – Job 33:8-9.  When I have heard men complain that God should have or should not have done something they always blame him as if they had no part in the problem.  Rather than profess your own innocence, you ought to take a long, hard look in the Bible and see what God has to say about you.  If you are totally honest with yourself you will find that you are not innocent, after all.  And continuing to read and believe the Bible will convince you that God was not at fault [like Jn 19:4].

That you could actually understand God well enough to know why – Job 38-41.  God asked Job a series of questions that he could not answer.  Most of the questions cannot be answered knowledgeably today even with all of the “scientific discoveries”.  The point is that if you cannot understand the answers to those questions how are you going to understand “why” God allowed something in your life that hurt you?

That if God could explain the matter to your satisfaction you would accept it – as if understanding it would make it better.  It wouldn’t because it wouldn’t make it go away.  So even if God could explain it you would still be in the same fix.

That God’s explanation is open for argument – Job 23:3-7.  I am convinced that the root reason for asking God, Why, is so that you can disagree with his answer.  You want to argue about why you are in the fix you are in because you don’t agree with it in spite of Rom 8:28.

That your side of the argument would make God admit he was wrong and you were right – Job 35:2.  Ultimately, this is the problem.  You believe that what has happened to you or what is happening to you is unfair.  And you want your day before God to speak your complaint in the bitterness of your soul.  You want to pound on God’s chest and hear him pity you and apologize to you for what “he” has done.  You can surely cry out to God but be sure that you are not right and that God is not wrong.

That you don’t believe God is trustworthy – Job 13:15.  Job continued to trust God [compare Prov 3:5-6].  But here is the danger zone.  This is where the devil would like you to go.  If he can get you to break your trust in God he can  destroy you in time and control you in the meantime.

Conclusion: God isn’t going to tell you why he does what he does or whether he was even involved in the incident.  He expects you to trust him and to give yourself time to see the outcome from the perspective of distanced hind-sight.  Much further down the road it in easier to see the benefits and blessings of tragic and traumatic events.  When you are in the middle of a valley, the emotions and the stress just make it impossible to appreciate what the Lord is doing.  So, don’t frustrate his grace in a trial.  Trust him and he will lead you to higher ground where the view will be totally different than what you are seeing now.