Sermon Transcript — August 26, 2006
My family and I have just returned from a very long trip. In fact, it took us all the way around the world. I usually make a long trip in the summer to visit brethren in the French speaking parts of the world, and occasionally we're asked to add in another country or two as we are going in particular areas. Oftentimes, or about every four years, I should say—this has happened twice; four years ago we did the same thing—I save up my frequent flyer miles and we're able to bring our daughters along with us at no expense to the church; and, so, we took advantage of that this summer and visited about seven countries in Africa.
We visited some of our brethren on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. We do have a small group there. We flew through Hong Kong and the Philippines; and we were able to participate in some of the leadership training that went on there. Then we went down for a visit to the Melbourne, Australia, congregation; had a tour of the office around Brisbane and the Gold Coast; and then we went over and visited with Jeff and Lisa Caudle in New Zealand, had a Sabbath with them there.
Actually, Mr. Caudle had asked if we would make a side trip to Vanuatu, which is a former colony of France, I guess you could say. There are a lot of people there that speak French, and we do have a number of people on the GN mailing list and some both in French and English; and since Mr. Caudle doesn't speak French, he thought it would be a good opportunity to have a Frankophone go over and see if we could contact any of our subscribers over there. Unfortunately, we found out later on that the mail service is much slower to Vanuatu than it is to other islands where Mr. Caudle works, and many of the letters arrived late. So that didn't work out the way we thought it would, but it was a very interesting opportunity for us to get to know another French speaking part of the world.
I will put together some video at some point. In fact, I've started working on it now and, perhaps, at a Bible study here sometime I can give you an audiovisual tour of what this trip was like. It was very, very amazing and encouraging to see all of the various places in the world, the different cultures where our brethren live. They speak different languages; they have totally different backgrounds; and, yet, they have the same values and they are seeking the same things that we are seeking. They want to be a part of God's family, to enter His Kingdom; and they are seeking that in their daily lives just the same as you and I do.
Sometimes in my work, especially in Africa —because that's where the dichotomy is clear of how wealthy we are in the West, and the extreme poverty in which many people live, including many of our brethren. They routinely face things that are only distant memories for us in the West, or in the United States in particular. They have health problems regularly that we simply don't have to deal with or to worry about. There is a risk of yellow fever. There's a risk of cholera in many of those areas {and of} malaria, typhoid fever, dysentery, and some diseases you probably have never heard of. There's one in Mauritius going around right now that they're calling "chikungunya," and they also call it "break bone fever," because that's what it feels like when you get it. And there's no vaccine, there's nothing that can be done to avoid getting it, and there's not really any treatment once you get it. You just have to kind of tough it out. And a lot of our brethren face these things very routinel.
They also have to face abusive governments in many cases. We traveled through a number of countries in Africa that are under the heel of brutal dictatorships. We visited a couple of congregations in Togo, where the last elections were rigged and where people who complained about that were carted off, never to be seen again; where there were violent put-downs of any sort of protestation against the government.
The same is true in Cameroon. I have to be careful when I travel in these areas what I say in public—not that I'll get in trouble, but dictators tend to pay informants to let them know about who's saying what. I can recall the first time I learned that lesson was when I was sitting in the back of a taxi and I started asking a question, an ironic question about the president; and the local member who was sitting next to me said, "Shhh!" and looked and pointed to the taxi driver. He had to be careful. Now, they wouldn't have done anything to me as a foreigner, but he could have had all kinds of trouble simply for saying something like that. Those are things, of course, that we don't worry about at all.
We spent some time in Rwanda also, and Marjolaine and our daughters had the very sobering opportunity to walk through a couple of genocide memorial sites. These are churches, most of them. In past times when there would be tribal tension, people would flee into a church and would be granted some sort of sanctuary. They weren't attacked there. But twelve years ago in 1994, people were flooding into these churches; and the militia just went in and killed them all anyway in the churches, in the most brutal fashion, with machetes and clubs and bows and arrows. In many cases, the bodies were just left there to rot; and some of them have been preserved pretty much in that same condition as a testimony to what actually happened. When people came back from their flight into another country, when they arrived back, they found these churches full of bones. Some of them have been left that way; and as you walk...we walked through one church where they had very small benches that served as pews, and they're only about a foot off the ground and you had to sort of walk on those from the back of the church to the front to avoid stepping on the human bones that were scattered all over the church.
This is the kind of thing that you see all over the place in Rwanda. Some of our brethren there, long-time church members, had people dragged out of their houses, people that they were trying to protect, had them murdered virtually in their front yards. They had to flee the country on foot, taking with them only what they could carry, and not knowing if they would ever be able to come back. One family had a son who drowned along the way as they were fleeing into neighboring Congo.
Sometimes when we're confronted with the vast differences in the life circumstances of brethren in the church, we may be tempted to ask ourselves the question, "Why doesn't God do something about that?" Why does God allow that type of circumstance to exist? Why is it that even within the church of God, some of us have very comfortable lives, physically speaking, and don't have to face things like that, whereas, others of our brethren do on almost a daily basis? Sometimes we might be tempted to ask ourselves the question, "Is God fair?"
I remember having to perform the funeral in France one time of a woman from Martinique who died at age 40 after a life of health problems. She looked like she was 70 when she died, but she was 40. Was that fair? Shouldn't God have done something about that?
In the summer of 1993, I remember it. I was a very young pastor at the time. I had to perform the funeral of a 15 year old girl who had been run over by a drunk driver. It was a neighbor, actually, who just lived a few houses over from where she lived. Was that fair?
We can also just bring it back to the level of a congregation, a congregation like this one, here in Cincinnati. In this hall there will be widely different circumstances at our births. Some people are born into relatively wealthy situations, physical abundance; others, not. Some are born with a stronger physical constitution; some have health problems frequently in their lives. Some may have lost a parent or both parents early on; and others not. Some may suffer from unemployment or underemployment or health problems of various kinds; and for other people, it just seems like everything falls into place for them, just doesn't seem like there's a care in the world.
Of course, we understand that, to a large extent, that depends on one's point of view; and what may look great from across the aisle may not actually be that way. The reality sometimes is not like the perception. But we ask ourselves those questions sometimes.
What about trials and discouragement that we have to go through? It seems like some people have more of that than others. Sometimes, especially if you've been a church member for 15 years or so, you'll know that there have been times in our history when even coming to church was not as encouraging an experience as we would like it to have been. Do you remember those days? And we probably asked ourselves the question then, too, "Why doesn't God do something? This doesn't seem fair."
When we look at the world in which we all live, we realize that all people are not really created equal, are they? We have different circumstances. We're supposed to be equal before the law, but all are not really created equal. Is that fair? Shouldn't God do something about that?
Do you think God is fair? Have you ever asked yourself that question or had that debate within yourself? When we look at the world in which we live, we see it certainly isn't a very fair place. There isn't really liberty and justice for all in this world of the 21st century; and even in the church, sometimes it seems there are inequalities.
Well, let's ask ourselves that question today. Is God fair? Should He be doing things differently? And let's look at some scriptures and see if we can understand why God allows some of the circumstances and situations that we have just discussed.
Turn with me to start, if you would, to Matthew 20. Matthew 20, has a very interesting parable; and I believe this will help us on the road to understanding why God allows the world to be in the shape it is and why He allows situations, even among brethren, to be so different. Matthew 20:1
Matt. 20:1-5 For the kingdom of heaven... so this is a parable that is supposed to teach us something about the plan of God and the way He works with His children, those that He is preparing for the Kingdom of God... the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. And the work day then started around 6 a.m., at first light. Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. That was sort of a normal daily wage, a denarius. That was kind of the average wage for a day's work. And, so, he sends them out about 6 a.m. They start bright and early. And he went out about the third hour, so this is about 9 a.m. now, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said to them, "You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you." So they went. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, so he goes out at noon and he goes out at 3, and he finds other day laborers out waiting to be hired, and did likewise.
Verses 6-16 And about the eleventh hour, so it's 5 p.m. now, just an hour left in the work day, he found others standing idle, and said to them, "Why have you been standing here idle all day?" They said to him, "Because no one hired us." He said to them, "You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive." So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, "Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first." So the ones that only worked an hour, they were at the front of the line, and then it went back, you know, the last ones in line were the ones who had worked all day. Now, imagine you're one of the people standing in line here. We'll see what your reaction is when we read the rest of this parable. Those who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. Now, imagine you're a little bit further back in the line. What are you thinking? Well, if you're like me, you'd be rubbing your hands a little bit, "Boy, this is going to be a good day's wage. If they just worked an hour and they're getting a denarius, imagine what I'm going to get." Sounds fair. Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more... a logical assumption, isn't it? Seems fair to us, physically speaking... and they likewise received each a denarius. And when they had received it, they murmured against the landowner... perfectly understandable. If something like that happened today, the AFL-CIO would be out picketing in front of that employer. "Unfair labor practices," right? Doesn't that sort of bother your notion of fairness to read this? And they said , "These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day." But he answered one of them and said, "Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? That was the agreement. You agreed. You thought that was a fair wage when we made the agreement. Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?" So the last will be first and the first last, for many are called but few chosen.
How does this parable help us understand the way God works with His people? What are we supposed to learn from this? It does say in verse 1, "The Kingdom of heaven is like...," so we're supposed to glean from this parable an understanding about the way God works with His people and the way He is preparing for the Kingdom. Well, could it be the understanding...are we supposed to learn from this parable that God works with each of us individually; and He doesn't promise that our individual circumstances are going to be just the same as anybody else's or going to be just as comfortable as anybody else's? He deals with each Christian individually, in his own life, in his own circumstances. God does promise us salvation and a place in the Kingdom of God for all eternity, but He doesn't promise to bring us bodily out of our situations and our trials. He doesn't promise to take us out of our countries if there is an abusive government, or to take us out of our family problems. He does offer us help and wisdom through His Spirit, to make those situations better, to improve them as much as we're able; but He doesn't promise that our situation is going to be just as good as anybody else's situation. I believe that is one thing we're supposed to learn from this parable.
Another thing that this parable points out is that everything belongs to God. Remember what the master said here, "Is it not lawful for me to do what I want with what belongs to me? If I want to be generous to this person, can't I do that?" Everything belongs to God. He created us. He owns us, if you will. He created us for a special purpose, and He can take care of us as He sees fit. We committed ourselves to Him at baptism. We said there were no strings attached. We said that we no longer belong to ourselves, but we belong to Him and we would leave our lives in His hands.
I Corinthians 6:19-20, I'll just quote it to you. This is a passage you will know very well. It says, Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own. You were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
We now belong to Him. We have given our lives to God, and we promised that there wouldn't be any conditions attached to it, didn't we? No strings, no stipulations about our working conditions as Christians, or our "quality of life." He never promised that we would be equally or better treated physically than anyone else. But, humanly speaking, we sort of have this innate standard or understanding of what fairness should be; and sometimes that bothers us.
Of course, fundamentally, we must believe and trust that God will do what's best for us; and we would all agree with that, theoretically. If I asked you that, "Do you agree that God will take care of you and do what's best for you?" Yes! But when we have a difficult time or we're going through a trial or something doesn't seem quite fair, we may begin to sort of wonder if that's really the case.
Let's look at Hebrews 11:6. It says here, But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, that God exists; but you must believe more than that. You must also believe, we must believe that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
In other words, we must believe that God is doing what's best for us, that's He's looking out for our good, that He only wants what is best for us. That's a very fundamental part of a Christian life.
You know that in I John 4:8, it says that God is love. That means He wants good for the rest of His creation, for all of us. In fact, Luke 6:35 says that God is kind even to the unthankful and the evil. That's quite an interesting verse. You may want to have a look at that. That's Luke 6:35.
God works for the good of every part of His creation, and He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. We can put our lives in God's hands, knowing that He will work what is good, what is best for us. So we have to be careful about comparing ourselves with other people. In our rather superficial comparisons sometimes, we start wishing that our situation was like somebody else's; or, you know, "I have a harder lot than somebody else." God works with us individually, and He is doing what is best for us in the long run.
Let's look at another passage which I think sheds some light on the topic we're looking at today. Turn to II Corinthians 10. II Corinthians 10, this is a passage you'll probably remember also. It talks about avoiding the trap of making comparisons among ourselves because our superficial comparisons are often, in fact, probably always lacking in certainly elements of information and understanding, so we can't make accurate comparisons. In fact, I find this very, very striking because of some of the comparisons that people were making about the apostle Paul. If I were to tell you, you know, "If you come to the afternoon service today, by a special miracle God has brought the apostle Paul here for a sermon," we'd probably have a packed house. We would be thrilled at the thought of being able to hear Paul, right? Well, that's not the way it was in those days. People didn't find Paul's preaching, at least some people, didn't find his preaching that great; and they were kind of complaining about him. That's the context here in II Corinthians 10:7.
II Cor. 10:7-10 Do you look at things according to the outward appearance? And, really, it's very hard for us to do otherwise, isn't it? We can't see into the hearts of people the way God can. So if we're starting to make comparisons, they're going to be superficial. If anyone is convinced in himself that he is Christ's, let him again consider this in himself, that just as he is Christ's, even so we are Christ's. For even if I should boast somewhat more about our authority, which the Lord gave us for edification and not for your destruction, I shall not be ashamed—lest I seem to terrify you by letters. For, verse 10, look at this, "His letters," they say, "are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible."
Apparently that was a comment that some church members at the time were making—no doubt, not in the best attitude. Paul didn't seem to have a lot of charisma, physically. He wasn't a real presence on the stage, so to speak; and his speech was not just rousing and exciting, the way his letters are fascinating and deep; and some people were making comparisons about the apostle Paul. That's a very interesting lesson for us to dwell on also, I believe.
Verses 11-12 Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when we are absent, such we will also be in deed when we are present. For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.
It's not wise for human beings to get very caught up in making comparisons about, "Well, I'm this way and he's that way," or "She's this way and I'm this way." Either we end up discouraging ourselves if we don't feel we measure up to whatever the other person is like; or we can end up feeling rather superior because, "I'm up here and they're down there." Paul said that's not wise to do that. We need to keep our eyes more on God and in our personal relationship with Him and how He's working with us in our own individual circumstances and not worry so much about how He is working with other people. It is not for us to compare. God works with each and every one of us right where we are, in our individual circumstances; and He measures us against ourselves. He knows our potential. He knows what we are able to do. He knows what we can do, and that's how He measures us. Are we living up to our own potential with His help and His guidance, by submitting to Him? That's the kind of comparison that God makes.
I read a story one time—and I'll tell you in advance this story probably isn't true—but it's a good story. Supposed to be a historical story; and if it's not true, it should be because there's truth in it anyway.
This is a story about a Germanic king named Henry III who supposedly lived in the eleventh century; and as the story goes, the king became tired of court life. There were all sorts of pressures, responsibilities, intrigues, factions, assassination attempts, plots; and he just got tired of it all. So he decided he would enter a monastery. Planning to abdicate the throne, he felt that in a monastery as a monk he would enjoy a life of reflection and contemplation and peace. So the religious superior of the monastery said to him when the king came to talk about that, he said, "Your Majesty, you understand that our first commitment in the monastery is of obedience to the order, and this will be very difficult for you because you've been the king. You've never had to obey orders before. You've only given orders. If you become a monk, you'll have to follow orders." And King Henry responded, "Yes, I understand. And I commit myself for the rest of my life to obeying you as I obey Christ who directs you." And, so, the prior told the king, "Very well, I will give you your first command. I want you to go back up on your throne and serve God there where He placed you." And he did.
It's probably a false story but it's a good one, isn't it? He went back up on the throne and he served there until he died. And when he died, it was supposedly written of him, "The King learned to rule by being obedient." The king learned to rule by being obedient. There is truth in that last phrase even if the rest of the story is not, because that's really what we're doing. We're preparing to rule and reign with Jesus Christ, and we are learning to do that by being obedient in our various circumstances and situations. We are learning to be rulers by being obedient; and when we sometimes become tired of our situations or our roles or our responsibilities—because I think that's part of human life, that we all like to look over where the grass is greener from time to time—we need to remind ourselves that God is allowing us to be where we are. He is allowing us to be in our families, in our jobs, or in the lack of a job for a while, in our bodies; and wherever we are, God expects us to be faithful.
Let's look at a couple of other scriptures. One is in I Corinthians 10. I like to put I Corinthians 10 together with a verse that was read in the sermonette, and we'll go there in just a moment as well. I Corinthians 10:13, tells us that God is involved in every circumstance, even the difficult ones, that occur in our lives.
I Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man... in other words, if you're going through a trial or if you've had a difficulty to overcome, others have had to face very similar things. We're all sort of learning the same lessons in slightly different ways as we go through life... but God is faithful, you can count on Him, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
So even in difficult times, even when our lives are not as easy as we would like them to be or, perhaps, think they should be, God says, "I'm not going to let it cross the line. If I have to, I'll intervene and change things so that you'll be strong enough to deal with it; and, ultimately, I'll make you a way of escape." We don't always find that way of escape as quickly as we would like. Sometimes we have to bear with it a while, or sometimes a long while, much longer than what we would like. But God is involved. He will not allow a situation to become too hard for us.
Now, I'd like to put this together with the scripture that we read in Romans in the sermonette a few minutes ago, Romans 8:28 . These are very deep scriptures. When we really think about the full implications of them and what they mean for our daily lives, it is very encouraging. I sometimes, facetiously, say that there are times when I really love to read Romans 8:28 and then there are other times I don't really like to read it; and my wife likes to remind me of it in the times when I don't want to hear about it. When I'm complaining about something, "Oh, woe is me!" she says, "Well, remember Romans 8:28." "No, no. I don't want to hear that one right now."
Rom. 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
That's a really brief sentence there, but it says so much. Think about the implications. ALL things work together for good. It doesn't say "most things." It says, "All things work together for good to those who love God." So if there was something that was going to happen in our life that wasn't going to be good for us or wasn't going to turn to our good, ultimately, God would prevent it from happening. He would intervene and change the circumstances. Right? That's what it says. "All things work together for good to those who love God." If there was something that was going to happen that wasn't going to work together for good, God wouldn't let it happen. Otherwise, He couldn't say "all things," right? So God's very intimately involved in the various circumstances of our lives.
Now, this verse doesn't say that everything that happens to us is the very best thing that could happen, because we make mistakes, don't we? We sin, and God allows that because, ultimately, we're going to learn a lesson that that's not the way we're supposed to live our lives. And that turns to our good. That's what this human life is all about. The best thing is when we obey God and we learn from the good things that happen that that's the best way of life. But we can learn that either way, can't we? We can sin, break the law, pay the penalty and say, "Ooh! That didn't work!" Or we can obey God's law, reap the rewards, and say, "Man! That worked!" Either way, we learn the same lesson. But when you put II Corinthians, sorry, I Corinthians 10 together with Romans 8, we understand how intimately God is involved in our lives. He's tweaking things and changing things, and intervening to make sure that we're never tested beyond what we can bear and to make sure that all things work together for our good, when we love God and are called according to His purpose. Kind of hard to believe sometimes. And, like I said, humanly speaking, there are times when I don't want to hear that. I don't want to hear that this painful situation is working together for my good. I want it to stop and stop hurting, right? "Let's get over this." That's why, when I see my wife coming with Romans 8:28, I put my hands up and say, "Not right now. I'll get back to that."
In an isolated part of Great Britain, a scientific team discovered the existence of some ancient artifacts. I think they found it through some research that they were doing. They located where these artifacts were supposed to be. They were supposedly situated in a cave in the middle of a very high cliff; and this being back in the last century, they didn't have all the technology that they needed to be able to reach this cave and get these artifacts out. So they asked the local boy—there was only one boy that lived in the neighborhood—they asked for his help. They wanted to tie a rope around his waist, lower him down the base of the cliff to the level of the cave, and then have the boy collect these artifacts and turn them over to the scientific team.
He was going to have to be lowered about a hundred feet down this cliff, and there was another hundred or more feet that were going to be down below him. Well, the boy knew this cliff. He looked at the cliff and he looked at the men, and he said, "No, I'm not doing that."
So they offered him money. No, he still wasn't going to do that. They offered him a lot of money. Finally, he thought about it a little bit and then he said, "OK, I will agree, but on one condition I'll do this. It has to be my father who's holding the rope." Smart kid! He didn't know these scientists from Adam, but he knew his dad and he knew he could trust his dad; so as long as his dad was holding the rope, that was good enough for him. He knew he could count on his father.
Well, you probably see a parallel there as well. Life can be a little scary sometimes. It can seem like we're going down a cliff. It can seem like we're dangling at times, and some of our brethren in other parts of the world have gone through absolutely terrifying times, where they thought they were going to die. I talked to our elder's wife in Rwanda who was beaten by thugs because she wouldn't divulge information on where some people were hiding that they wanted to kill. She, at the risk of her own life, saved the lives of some other people. Very heroic. But she thought...she told my wife who talked with her on this trip, "I thought I was going to die. I thought they were going to kill me," and they probably would have if God had not intervened.
Life can be pretty scary sometimes; but when we read the scriptures in God's word, we realize our Father is holding the rope; and He promises He'll never let go. There may be some jerks on the rope once in awhile, we may slip every once in awhile; but He promises He will not let us fall. Our Father is holding the rope.
When we talk about difficult circumstances or a lack of fairness or an apparent lack of fairness in life, in terms of the Bible, probably a story that we would come to very quickly would be the story of Job; because if you think about the life of Job, terrible things happened to him, just one right after the other, just, from Job's perspective, out of the blue. It didn't seem like he had done anything to deserve all of these things happening to him. Let's go back to Job and just hit some high points here. The book of Job and the story of Job's life could easily be a series of sermons, so we won't have time to go through all of it, but let's just look at a few points here.
Job 1:1. Let's start with how the Bible describes Job.
Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.
Wow! That's a pretty incredible description for a human being, isn't it? This is what God inspired by way of description of Job. He was blameless and upright, he feared God and he shunned evil. I think any one of us would be very thankful to have something like that written about us. I know I certainly would. So Job was quite a man. In fact, God even brought Job up as an example of what His servants were like when He had a discussion with Satan. It says in verse 6:
Job 1:6-8 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. There are lots of things I would like to know. We just get glimpses of things sometimes in the scriptures, and it really piques my curiosity. Did they talk often? What is this like? This is...but we just get a glimpse of it here. And the Lord said to Satan, "From where do you come?" So Satan answered the Lord and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it." Then the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?"
That's another "Wow!" God brings Job up to Satan and says, "Look at that. He's one of My best servants. There's nobody else like him in the world. He just really stands out." Then Satan revealed a little bit about his own psychology:
Verses 9-11 So Satan answered the Lord and said, "Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!"
You see, that's the way Satan operates. "What's in it for me? I want something right now. It'd better work to my advantage immediately or I'm not going to participate." And he imagined Job would do that. "If you take away all the good stuff you've given him, he'll curse you because you won't be useful to him anymore." Satan didn't realize the kind of character that God, through His Spirit, is developing in His children.
Verse 12 And the Lord said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person."
And you probably know some of the things that happened next.
Verses 14-22 ...and a messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, when the Sabeans raided them and took them away—indeed they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!" While he was still speaking... while he's just finishing his sentence, another messenger runs breathlessly into the room and says ,"The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you!" While he was still speaking... he hadn't even finished his sentence, and a third servant runs in breathlessly and says, "The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels and took them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!" While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you!" Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.
He was quite an incredible man. He really was. You see, Satan set this up to be as gruesomely painful as possible. Hammer blows, one right after the other, to make it as discouraging and as distressing as he possibly could. And Job was an upright man. Had Job done anything to deserve it? We don't find any trace of it there. God said...remember what He said? He was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.
Well, you know what happens then. Satan says, "Well, that didn't work; but let me touch his flesh," and, of course, he comes down with this loathsome illness where he's scraping himself with potsherds. Just about as miserable as life could get, from someone who had sort of everything, to be reduced to that. And, finally, I think, predictably—I'm sure we would all feel like that—in Job 3:1:
Job 3:1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
He said, "You know, I wish I had never been born." That would have been an understandable feeling, wouldn't it? "It's just not worth it." It just seemed too hard. And if you've read the book of Job, you know that the next thing that happens is that his friends come to comfort him. But his friends didn't really understand the situation properly either. They imagined, as human beings often do—and we sometimes do even in the church—if we see something bad happening to someone, "Ah, he must have sinned. He had to have done something wrong. It's his fault that this thing happened to him." And many times we're wrong if we think that.
Bad things happen to good people sometimes as part of this human existence that we have. And God doesn't protect us from all of those things. He does promise help in trials and that it will all turn to our good eventually, but He doesn't say He'll shield us from every difficulty or painful thing that comes along.
So you can read about that in Job 8. His friends say, "You know, if you would just repent of whatever it is that you are hiding, then God would bless you like He did before," and Job said, "I don't know. I don't see anything. There is no secret thing that I'm hiding, that I know of." What could he do? And, so, they go back and forth for a number of chapters; and finally in chapter 31, Job finally gets around to saying what he'd been thinking, no doubt, for some time. He said to God, "You know, you're not being fair here. This isn't fair." Job 31:35:
Job 31:35 Oh, that I had one to hear me! Here is my mark. Oh, that the Almighty would answer me, that my Prosecutor had written a book! I'd like to know what I supposedly did to deserve this because I don't see it."
Essentially, Job is saying, "God, this isn't fair. You owe me an explanation. I want to understand. You're not being fair." And how did God respond to that? Job 38. I find it very interesting the way God responded to Job. Let's be reminded of it. I imagine you have read this passage. Job 38:1:
Job 38:1-12 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. How did I create the universe, Job? You tell me that. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth and issued from the womb; when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band; when I fixed My limit for it, and set bars and doors; when I said, "This far you may come, but no farther, and here your proud waves must stop!" Have you commanded the morning since your days began... can you make the sun rise, Job? Can you handle the heavenly bodies and make them go in order the way that they're supposed to?"
And you can continue reading. That's pretty much the tenor of what God said. He didn't say—and this is interesting—He didn't say, "Well, sit down, Job. Let me explain a few things to you. See, you've got a little self-righteousness we need to work on, and this is a lesson for future generations and that's why this is happening..." No, that's not what God did. You know what He did? He just reminded Job of how much more He knew than Job did. In effect, God didn't justify Himself, and He didn't really even answer Job's complaints. What He did was remind Job that He was so far above him and that there were things that Job didn't see and could not yet understand. "There are things that I see that you can't see, Job. There are things I understand that you can't fathom yet; and, so, you're just going to have to trust Me." That's kind of...I mean, that's my paraphrase. There are other ways, I suppose, we could look at it; but, basically, He said, "Job, look at all I can do. You're just going to have to trust Me."
We come back to the element of faith, once again. And, you know what? When Job really got it, that was sufficient. He didn't say, "No, you're going around the question here. I want a straight answer." No, Job said, "Oh! Wow! I get it!" Job 42:1.
Job 42:1-6 Then Job answered the Lord and said: "I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand..." When we start complaining about the way God does things, we're getting into an area we simply don't understand. "Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me. ' I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Now I really get how different You are from me and how far above me You are. Therefore, I abhor myself and I repent in dust and ashes."
He's probably already sitting in dust and ashes, based on where he had been previously, with the sores that he was scraping. And Job said, "You know, I was wrong to even question You. Now I understand. I get it. I'll stop complaining and trust You to do Your will and what is best for Your creation." That's another way of summing up Job's response. "I'll stop complaining and trust You and just rely on You for help to get through whatever I have to face in this life." And, you know, brethren, I believe that's an important key for all of us as well when we're facing difficult circumstances.
When we really have our eyes fixed on how great God is, how far above us, how amazing and marvelous His plan, how multifaceted it all is, how incredibly complex and how incredibly simple at the same time, then we'll trust Him to work things out. If He could set this incredible universe in motion and do all of the things that we see all around us, then He can take care of us. He can take care of you and me, and we just need to concentrate on playing our small part in His great plan, and we can be very thankful and honored that He allows that to be our lot. He gives us the privilege of participating in what He's doing. And even in cases where God allows the final extremity to arrive in someone's life, even in the case where someone dies prematurely...of course, we'll all die one day anyway, but sometimes there are premature, accidental deaths. Those can be particularly grievous for people, for survivors to bear. But even then, there are scriptures that say that God is there and watching over what happens and that our lives are in His hands up until the point where He allows this physical existence to end.
Psalm 116:15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.
That's something that God takes very seriously. He doesn't let things like that happen at a time that will frustrate any part of His plan for us individually, that would be bad for us in the long run. "All things work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose."
Isaiah 57:1 is a verse that we sometimes read around funerals because it indicates that sometimes God allows a death to intervene to save someone from something worse happening later on.
Isa. 57:1 The righteous perishes, and no man takes it to heart; merciful men are taken away, while no one considers that the righteous is taken away from evil.
So even in the case, even in the ultimate extremity, which happens for some people who lose loved ones because of accidents or illness, that doesn't mean God has turned away. He was still intimately involved in every second of that Christian's life.
God knows things that we do not and cannot now understand or know. That's the lesson, or one of the lessons, certainly, of the book of Job. Now, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to improve our lot as we are able to. We should. Turn to Philippians 4, if you would. Paul dealt with that idea there. We should do what we can to make our situations better, help ourselves as we are able; but we shouldn't, if we're not able to improve the situation as much as we want or escape from a difficulty, we shouldn't allow it to make us bitter or angry.
Phil. 4:10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. The Philippian church often sent financial support for Paul in his ministry, so he thanked them for that. And then in verses 11-13, he said, Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. He knew how to live with plenty or with little or nothing. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry...that happened to him sometimes in the course of his work... both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Yes, we can and we should try to improve our situations as we are able to, but we must always be willing to accept them without bitterness or anger or recrimination. If the situation would harm us in the long run, God would stop it. He would change it. He would intervene immediately; and just like Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," he learned that lesson more deeply by going through being abased and abounding, having difficulties, good times and bad times. And we learn the same thing when we face difficult moments, when we face physical challenges and trials in this life.
Wherever we are, in whatever circumstances we are, our Father expects us to be about the business of being Christians, growing in grace and knowledge, serving, helping in the church as we are able, being a light. We have to do that in whatever circumstances we find ourselves, whether it's in a third world dictatorship or whether it's in Cincinnati, Ohio. We can't be Christians the way an old college friend of mine used to talk about dieting.
He was always on the verge of starting a diet, but it took the ideal circumstances. Circumstances had to be just right, and it kind of became a joke between us. I'd say, "So, have you started your diet yet?" "No," he'd say. "It's Friday. Tomorrow's the Sabbath; it's a feast day. I can't start on Friday." Then I'd ask him on Sunday, "So, have you started your diet yet?" "No, no. The weekend, too many activities. I can't bother about it now. It's a very active day on Sunday." And then in the week he had a date with a beautiful college girl, you know, and you can't diet when you're going on a date with a beautiful college girl. And he had an invitation to a friend's house, and testing periods were too stressful. There was always something.
The ideal circumstances never came for him to start his diet, and sometimes some Christians can be a little bit like that. They're waiting to do something, for the circumstances to be just so. "Well, when I get this taken care of, then I'll attack this spiritual thing that I need to do. I'll help out and serve at church as soon as I get my house redecorated or as soon as this happens," or, "I'll pray more as soon as I can reduce my work hours."
We can't feel like our involvement or our service to God depends on exterior circumstances. It shouldn't, because the ideal circumstances will never come. God expects us to be about the business of being Christians wherever we are.
I Corinthians 12, says that God has placed us exactly where He wants us. He knows where we are. I Corinthians 12:18. Actually, I Corinthians is an interesting chapter to consider in the light of the question we're talking about, too, because we're all a part of a body...you remember that analogy? And some parts of the body wish they were other parts of the body, apparently.
I Cor. 12:15-16 The foot says, "Well, I am not a hand, I am not of the body,"...and if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body... I wish I could do something else." But God places us, it says in verse 18, God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.
He knows where we are, He knows what our circumstances are. He called us, and He knows what our life circumstances are like. He knows what our marriages are like, He knows what our jobs are like, He knows what our families are like, He knows what our health situations are like, He knows all of that. And He could change things if any one of those was going to be to our detriment. In fact, He promised to do that. "All things work together for good..."
God is preparing a place for us, it says in John 14. Let's turn over there. John 14. He's preparing a place for us, a home for His children. I read an interesting definition of a home recently. Robert Frost defined a home as "a place where when you go there, they have to let you in." Well, God's preparing a special home for His children. John 14:2, Jesus said:
John 14:2 "In My Father's house are many mansions..." Now, that doesn't mean, you know, twelve-bedroom estate homes. It means dwellings, abodes, places, offices, if you will, positions. "In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. "
So God is preparing different places, different positions, different responsibilities, different opportunities for service for each of us. There will be individual dwelling places, posts, offices for each of us; and, so, each one of us needs slightly different training because the positions are likely to be different, also. So we're not really competing against each other. God has a special place that He's preparing us for.
I think sometimes as Christians we suffer from the "Olympic syndrome." You know, at the Olympics you get...there's the gold medal, the silver medal, and the bronze medal; and only one person gets the gold—that's the best one. Then, the second best gets silver, and the third best gets bronze; and sometimes we carry that over into our Christian lives, imagining sort of that we are competing with each other to see who gets the top spots. The disciples did that. Remember, they kept going to Jesus and saying, "We want to be number two and three in the Kingdom." They had this pecking order kind of idea in mind. And that's really not the way we should look at it.
Do you remember the story about the little boy and the little girl who were offered two pieces of cake? The Mom asked the little boy which piece of cake he wanted, and he looked at them to see if he could tell which one was bigger, because that's what kids do, right? Look for the biggest piece. And he couldn't find, couldn't determine that one was larger than the other. So he told his Mom, "Well, ask my sister which one she wants because that's the one I want." That's part of human nature. Sometimes we feel competitive amongst ourselves.
We had...I know of a situation that happened in the church some time ago where a deacon had served very, very faithfully for many years and had done, really, a lot of good for the church. It became clear in that area that another man, a younger man, was being called to the ministry. The deacon was doing excellent work as a deacon. We still wanted him to continue serving as a deacon. He did a fine job, but he wasn't being called to the ministry; and this other young fellow was. And when the young man was ordained, the deacon couldn't handle that; and he left the church and kind of slammed the door on his way, complaining bitterly about how unfairly he had been treated. Apparently, in his mind, there was this pecking order; and he was up here and someone else was down there, and that's the way it had to stay, instead of, we have different jobs to do for the greater glory of God.
If I offered you the blue ribbon, the red ribbon, or the green ribbon, you'd probably say, "I want the blue ribbon," because we know that's the best one; but if I offered you the orange ribbon, the violet ribbon, the brown ribbon, or the fuchsia ribbon, which one would you pick? "Well, which one's best?" "No, it's not best. They're just different. What color do you like? What suits you?" Oh, well, that takes a lot of the stress out of the situation. "Oh, I'll take the orange ribbon. I like that." I believe it's going to be much more like that in our service in the Kingdom of God. God is preparing us for positions to which we will be ideally suited; and it's not going to be competition amongst us. It's going to be wonderful, loving cooperation.
You know how in the Bible one of the analogies for the church is a temple, in, I think, it's I Peter 2. Peter calls us living stones. That's around verse 5 or 6. I don't have that in my notes. We're living stones that make up that temple, and there's an interesting parallel with the temple that God is creating and something that happened when Solomon's temple was being constructed. Turn back to I Kings 6:7.
I Kings 6:7 And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built, out of respect for that holy site.
So, all the materials were prepared elsewhere, all of the stone was hewn to the proper measurements; whatever timbers needed to be cut, all of that was cut elsewhere, and then—maybe they numbered it all, but there was a master plan—all of this material arrived at the construction site and it all just fit perfectly, and up went the temple. We're living stones. God is chipping away...{sounds on tape} it's hard to compete with a child {chuckles}...God is molding us and fashioning us and getting us to the proper measurements so that we'll be ready to take our place in the Kingdom of God; and there are different situations required, different training required for different kinds of circumstances later on. So God is working with each of us individually, and we're all going to participate together in harmony and in cooperation in the family and in the Kingdom of God.
One last verse, if you would, in Hebrews 6, or passage, I should say. We may read a couple of verses here. Hebrews 6, starting in verse 9. This is a very encouraging verse, one that we should, I hope, keep in our memories.
Heb. 6:9-10 But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
God is not unjust to forget your work and your labor. That's a very encouraging thing. God doesn't forget anything that we do in our service to Him. He said that would be unjust of Him, and our Great God in heaven is not unjust. He doesn't forget our efforts. I am convinced that God remembers good things that you did in His service that you have forgotten. You don't even remember all the things that you've done if you've been in the church a while. But God does. He hasn't forgotten any of that. And there will be a special reward, as the Bible says in a number of places. Each is rewarded according to his works. Salvation is a free gift of God, but the positions of service that we will have in His Kingdom will be determined, in part, by our labor, which God does not forget. He doesn't forget the trials we go through. He doesn't forget how hard we worked in our service to Him, how we struggled to submit our will to His will. He doesn't forget any of that. None of it escapes His attention. He knows what we go through. And we can and should have confidence that He is doing and will do the best thing for each of us, whether we live in Africa or Europe or South America or North America or anywhere else, islands in the oceans.
Let's come back to our question at the beginning. Is God fair? Well, I hope that we can see now that there's actually a problem with that question. That's not the way we should be dealing with this issue because God is not just fair. Actually, it's a good thing for us that God's not fair, right? Because if He really were fair, what would we all be expecting? He goes way beyond fair, because along with fairness comes mercy and love and forgiveness. God has done and is doing and has promised to do far more for all of us than what would just be fair. We deserve nothing. He's promised to see to it that we will have everything, so we can be very, very, very thankful that our wonderful Father in heaven is so, so far beyond fair.