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Shouting Praise to the Lord in the Midst of Tragedy

December 15, 2012 at 9:51 AM 2 comments

You know, it really doesn’t matter what happens in our life, does it?  We are commanded from many places in the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) as well as many places in the New Testament, to praise God in all things, regardless of how they appear to us, or how much sorrow they may cause.  This is a decidedly tricky doctrine because it means that when bad things happen, we are to turn to God in praise.  We really don’t want to do that though, do we?  We tend to believe that it is wrong to praise Him for terrible things that occur in life.  In fact, most of the time, we are repelled by the idea.

Isn’t this what Job did?  In fact, yes, he did.  He turned to God in praise when terrible events occurred in his life.

In the very first chapter of Job, we see that he was a man who was considered to be blameless in God’s eyes.  Being blameless does not mean being perfect.  It means being considered righteous in God’s sight.

Job didn’t get to that point by somehow earning it.  He got there because he had faith in God and his faith in God prompted him to do what was right before God.  He even sacrificed on behalf of his children thinking that it was possible they had committed some sin or even cursed God in their hearts.  Job wanted to offer sacrifice for the fact that they may have sinned.  He wanted them to be in a right relationship before God, so he looked out for them as their father.

But notice in the midst of this, Satan comes before God, reporting on what he had been doing.  I like the fact that God expects Satan to report to Him.  In essence, every time Satan comes before God’s throne, he is reminded who is God and it isn’t Satan, to his eternal chagrin.

During the conversation, God is the One who introduces Job into the conversation.  Satan takes the bait and accuses God of over protecting Job.  To this God says that Satan is welcome to attack Job, but he cannot touch a hair on his head.  Satan leaves with a plan and that plan quickly unfolds.  He takes away Job’s herds and his children; seven sons and three daughters all in one swell swoop.

It must have been agonizing for Job to have to experience this because it is very clear that he loved his children.  His herds can be replaced.  His home can be rebuilt.  His children?  Gone.

I noticed on a social network site that the atheists were coming out of the woodwork to condemn Christians and their fairy tale belief in some God who obviously – if He exists – delights in inflicting pain.  The normal questions surface, like how could our God allow this, referring to the recent gun-related tragedies that have taken too many lives?  Of course, the pat answer is that people make their own decisions and if God was going to stop these things, He would also stop people from being atheists as well.  The truth of the matter is that humanity welcomed sin into this world and because of it, we live by the demands of sin today.  If everyone’s heart was right before God, tragedies like the ones that played out recently in Oregon and Connecticut would not have occurred.  God is not to blame for these things, but it’s ironic how often atheists will lay the blame at His feet.

Job shows us the blame for these events needs to actually be placed at Satan’s feet.  He is the ultimate cause and chooses to work through people and the elements here on earth to push his goals and agendas.  He did this with Job and he continues to do this today.  Why aren’t atheists blaming him?  After all, Satan is as much as myth as is Jesus to the atheist, correct?

But getting back to Job, in spite of the tragedies that overtook him, his herds, and his family, it is clear that Job was considered blameless by God for a very good reason.  The reason is found in Job’s reaction to the tragic events that robbed him of his children.

Upon hearing of the deaths of his children, Job turned in prayer to the God he worshiped.  He did not remonstrate.  He did not complain.  He did not become angry with God.  He did not ask questions.  He prayed and he praised.

“Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped. ²¹ He said,’Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord‘.” (Job 1:20-21)

Why did Job respond like this?  Because it represented his character; a character that fully trusted God.  Job understood that God was the Author of the good things he had in this life.  Job also understood that God had the right to remove those things at any time.  Job understood.  His understanding led him to glorify God through praise and I’m sure it was very difficult.

This fact as evidenced by Job does not mean to imply that Job did not have feelings.  I’m sure it tore him up, yet he knew that ultimately, God was in charge of things.

Do we think for a moment that God would have turned Satan’s eye to Job and even encouraged Satan to go after Job had not God had a high purpose in the whole thing?  Obviously, God knew what Job was made of and He also knew that Job would not falter.  It also gave God the opportunity to strengthen Job and to actually bless him doubly when everything was over.

The Asian mindset is such that they understand that this life is so fleeting, so shallow in so many ways.  It is not this life that truly matters, but what comes after this life.  No matter how long we live here, it is as the Bible says, but a vapor compared to eternity (cf. James 4:14).

Paul tells his readers that “in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus,” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  I tend to think that when Paul wrote that, he had Job in mind.

We could easily go through the life of Joseph, step by step, seeing what happened in his life.  We learn that he was hated and fully despised by his older brothers to the point that they wanted to kill him.  Instead, they simply sold him for a few pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites traveling through on their way to Egypt.  There, Joseph was sold to Potiphar.  God showed kindness to Joseph while there, yet Potiphar’s wife eventually falsely accused Joseph of trying to rape her because he continued to rebuff her sexual advances.  This landed Joseph in jail where he remained for over two years.

I’m sure Joseph was tempted to wonder where God was and how God could allow him to be treated like that.  I’m certain Joseph got to a point of wondering why God had left him.  But over time, Joseph began to realize that God had a purpose and eventually, Joseph was made second in command with only Pharaoh above him.  Why did all of this happen to a young man who was roughly 17 when he was first sold by his brothers to become a man in his mid-to-late 30s who became second in command of all Egypt?  God had a plan.

What we finally learn is that God chose Joseph to go ahead of his brothers and his family in order to save them from the coming seven-year famine.  In fact, Joseph was one of the patriarchs of Israel and it was his sons and the sons of his brothers that ultimately formed the nation of Israel who left Egypt under Moses’ leadership to the Promised Land.

Who would have thought it?  Certainly, not Joseph.  Yet, he obviously came to a point where he recognized and understood that God had a far higher purpose.  He only realized it after he became second in command.  When he saw his brothers for the first time in nearly 20 years, he stated to them, “What you meant for evil, God meant for good,” (Genesis 5o:20).

Excuse me?  The pain that Joseph’s brothers had caused him and their father, Jacob, was absolutely evil.  Yet Joseph affirms that God meant the incidents that took place for good.  This is something that atheists will never be able to understand or appreciate and it is hard enough for authentic Christians to appreciate.

God has His own plans and purposes and His ways are not man’s.  Can God take something evil and make it good?  Absolutely and He does it every day.

Christians are supposed to praise God for everything that comes into our life, even those things that appear to be evil.  God has a plan.  Paul tells us that we are to offer praise to God for everything that comes our way.  Why?  It is because Paul is convinced that those things are under God’s direction.  Paul should know because of all the things he experienced in his own life that were painful; one after the other.  Paul spoke from experience, not from some namby-pamby philosophy that he had never truly tested.

There is absolutely evil in this world.  Jesus Himself said that we should not fear because He has overcome the world (cf. John 16:33).

If Job praised God for the loss of his children and if Paul learned to praise God in all circumstances, and if Joseph came to understand that though people often do what they do because of evil, yet God turns the evil to good, how much more should we be praising God for all things?

Psalm 100 is a psalm that offers praise to God.  It teaches us to turn to God in praise even when the world hands us something evil.  No atheist will ever understand that because they are only interested in serving themselves.  They cannot see beyond their pitiful little lives to understand that there is a much larger picture.  Here is Psalm 100.  Speak it out loud as a prayer to God.

Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.
² Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing.
³ Know that the Lord Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

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