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WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE?
+ From the Series: Job: Learning How to Ride Out the Storm +
Pastor Jeremy Mattek – August 12, 2012 (Week 1 of 6)
Take a day off? I don’t even take a morning off. I haven’t ordered dessert in two
years. You know that bestselling book everyone loves? I haven’t read it. I haven’t
watched TV since last summer.
You may recognize those lines from a commercial that’s been running during the
Olympics these past few weeks. The commercial highlights how focused Olympic
athletes need to be and the sacrifices they need to be willing to make in order to become
an athlete at an elite, Olympic level. I think that commercial highlighted it very well, and
I think it made a lot of people a lot less motivated to ever be in the Olympics. Most
people don’t want to be that focused or make that many sacrifices if it means losing their
dessert and their down time in front of the TV. Olympic athletes, though, make so many
sacrifices that they aren’t even always aware of them all.
Wu Minxia is from China. She is 26 years old and won a gold medal in diving.
Eight years ago, her mom was diagnosed with cancer and has been fighting it ever since.
Last year, Wu’s grandmother died. But, until recently, she didn’t know anything about
those things. Her family kept her in the dark. They didn’t tell her. Wu is a good athlete,
and they didn’t want anything bad to get in the way of the good things that could be
waiting for her if she’s able to stay focused. When mom got cancer and grandma died,
her family had a choice to make. And they chose to keep the bad news away from her so
it wouldn’t effect her.
Unfortunately, that’s not something you always have the ability to do. In starting
the book of Job this week, we are beginning a journey through the life of one man for
whom that was especially true. Job didn’t have a choice when he lost his property, his
animals, his means of income, his health, his home, or even his children. One messenger
after another, one right after the next, came and told him that the worst kinds of things
were all happening to someone Scripture identifies as the best kind of man. And that
doesn’t seem right to us. Good guys are supposed to win. They aren’t supposed to lose
everything.
And so, when someone we consider “good” has to go through something painful
they didn’t bring on themselves and they never saw coming, the question is almost
inevitably asked, “Why?” And when that person is a Christian, that “Why?” is often
directed at one person: “Why does God let bad things happen to good people?” That
question, in fact, is a reason many people are not Christians. “If your God is such a good
God,” some ask, “then why would he allow such horrible things to happen to good
people, innocent victims, and even little children?” The fact that he does surprises a lot
of people. But it shouldn’t.
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The book of Job is proof that our God has a very long history of letting the worst
possible pain hit the best possible men. But better than any other book in the bible, the
book of Job tells us why, and helps us understand what’s going on in our own lives when
the bad news you can’t avoid, when your own challenges with your bills, your job, your
health, your home, your parents, your marriage, and your children don’t just take your
focus off your good plans, but totally knock you out of medal contention.
We’ll start our series by looking at Job the person to see what it was about him that
made him such a good man and the type of man God considered worthy of all these bad
things.
(1) In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was
blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. (2) He had seven sons and
three daughters, (3) and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels,
five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of
servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East … (6) One day
the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with
them. (7) the LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered
the LORD, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.” (8)
Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no
one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns
evil.”
There are only a few people in the bible that are described like Job is here. Moses
was called “the most humble man on the face of the earth.” David was called “a man
after God’s own heart.” Jesus called Nathanael “a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing
false.” And here, Job is described as “blameless and upright.”
The word blameless doesn’t mean that Job was perfect or that he never sinned. A
better word than “blameless” would be “complete.” Job was like the Olympic decathlete.
He was an all-around child of God. His faith and his life were exactly the same thing.
Christians often get criticized by non-Christians for being phony’s – devout in church,
but dishonest in business, and very devilish or selfish in his personal relationships. But
that was not Job. Job lived his faith in everything he did. And he showed that by doing
two specific things. Twice in the first ten verses it says that he was a man “who fears
God” and “shuns evil.” He was actively taking steps closer and closer to God, while at
the same time running away from anything God doesn’t like or want. That’s the best
kind of life in God’s book. A “good” life is a life of faith. And that’s all it is.
In other words, God does not consider a good life one that has a lot of possessions,
or money, or land, or property, or good health, or strong muscles, or healthy skin, or even
healthy children. And the proof that God doesn’t consider any of those things necessary
for a good life is that he gave Satan permission to take it all away.
(9) Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. (10) “Have you not put a
hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the
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work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread through the land. (11)
But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you
to your face.” (12) The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is
in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out
from the presence of the LORD. And then it happened. Job lost everything.
(13) One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine
at the oldest brother’s house, (14) a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen
were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, (15) and the Sabeans attacked
and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one
who has escaped to tell you!” (16) While he was still speaking, another messenger
came and said, “The fire of God fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the
servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!” (17) While he was still
speaking, another messenger came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three raiding
parties and swept down on your camels and carried them off. They put the servants
to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!” (18) While he was
still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were
feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, (19) when suddenly a
mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It
collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell
you!”
And that wasn’t even the end of it. Later on in chapter 2, Satan took away Job’s
health by afflicting his body with painful sores. Job was more comfortable taking broken
pottery and scraping it against his skin then he was sitting still doing nothing. Satan
struck mightily and quickly in his life. But Satan’s main goal was not to have Job lose
his home, his health, his wealth, and his children, but, as Satan himself said, so that he
would curse God to his face. Satan’s only goal was to get rid of the one thing God calls
“good” in our lives - his faith. And that’s Satan’s only goal with you too.
If you want Satan to leave you alone in your life, then you only have to do just one
simple thing: stop being good. Stop living your faith. Care more about your possessions,
your money, your property, your health, and your children than you care about your
relationship with your Father in heaven. Get more upset when your car breaks down than
you do when you miss church on Sunday morning. Care more about what your friends
think of your habits and language than God does. Seek first to pay all your bills and fill
your house with sufficient possessions before you “seek first his kingdom.” Then Satan
will look at your life and say, “I don’t need to take anything away. They already don’t
care about their faith.” Honestly, to a lot of people, that sounds tempting.
If Satan was able to take away all Job had when Job was working so hard to follow
God, then what do you imagine Satan will be allowed to take away from you when you
do the same thing? Satan’s work against Job isn’t the exception. Jesus called Satan “the
prince of this world” for a reason. It’s because, just like he did with Job, when it comes
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to our lives, Satan has some measure of control. He has access to our souls. He can
influence our thoughts and emotions and decisions. And the only reason Satan is able to
do these bad things to good people like Job is because your God lets him.
Who is the one who suggested that Job go through all this? Who is the one who
brought Job into the conversation? Who is the one who said, “Have you considered …
Job?” It was God. Two times. God was responsible for bringing all this bad pain into
good Job’s life. Do you blame people for wondering what God is doing?
Of all the races in the Olympics, there is one that I simply would never want to
enter. I would never want to enter the 400m hurdles. And the reason I wouldn’t want to
enter is because once in high school, I tried the 300m hurdles. And it was awful. It was
the only time in my life that I wished my legs would fall off – because then nobody
would expect me to try and jump over another hurdle. Even on the Olympic level, when
you watch the athletes who run the 400m hurdles, they are in agony at the end. You can
see it in their faces. You can see them forcing their bodies to take another step, just
before they collapse on the track when it’s done. Now, if you were the coach of this
year’s Olympic track team, who would you rather have run the 400m hurdles – Michael
Tinsley, the guy from the USA who won the silver medal this year, or … me? If your
goal is to win, then you would choose Michael Tinsley to go through that 400m of
hurdling agony. By choosing him, you’re sending a message that you want to win. And
if you are Michael Tinsley, do you consider that choice an honor or a punishment?
Then how should we look at the agony God chose for Job? The same way we
should look at the pain he allows for you. The same way you should look at the pain of
losing your health, your job, your money, your control, your loved ones, your children,
the same way you should look at the challenges we go through as a congregation. That
pain in your life is God honoring you by choosing you to help him win. He is using you
to send Satan a message. And we even know what that message is.
It is the same message he sent to Satan with an empty grave on Easter morning,
after our best possible man had gone through the worst possible pain - that no matter how
much you take from him, no matter how much of his blood you shed or how many nails
you pound in, you can’t take the one thing he wants in his life more than anything, the
one and only thing he needed to consider his life good even while he hanging on a cross
and dying. And that one thing is you – forgiven of all the times you’ve used your pain as
an excuse to walk away from him. And when you are, even if you have been the worst
kind of person, not even Satan himself can keep your life from the best possible ending.
“For I am convinced,” Paul writes in Romans 8, “that neither death nor life, neither
angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor
depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
And one of the reasons you can be convinced of the same thing is because the
same restrictions he put on Satan as he worked against Job God places on Satan as he
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works against you. “God is faithful;” it says in 1 Corinthians; “he will not let [Satan
tempt you] beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a
way out so that you can stand up under it.”
And that’s what the book of Job is about – standing up through the pain. On this
side of heaven, with the prince of this world prowling around like a roaring lion, we will
never eliminate it. In fact, next week we’ll talk about how to answer Satan when he
sends more pain through our closest relationships. There are multiple ways Satan inflicts
pain when we faithfully follow our Father in heaven, which means there are multiple
ways we are chosen to overcome Satan. And we overcome him by being exactly what
Job was.
“Have you considered my servant Job?” God asked Satan. Picture God sitting in
heaven saying the same thing about you. If your life has pain you didn’t bring on
yourself, then that’s what your God is saying to Satan. “Have you considered my servant
[your name here]?” What greater title could God give us as he looks down on us from
heaven? At the end of chapter one, after Job had lost everything, Job responded to it by
saying, “May the name of the Lord be praised.” As you read through the chapters in the
book of Job this week, as you see that you are not alone in your pain, see yourself as God
does, as his humble servant, and praise the name of the Lord for choosing you to send
Satan a message.
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