God’s Question for today … “Is God good?”
And as our text for this message, we will use Job 1:13-21, on page 350 in the chair Bible, which I will read in a few minutes and put on the PowerPoint.
Now we all have questions about God. And we are tackling just a few of them in this series. But know this … your questions and doubts are always welcome here.
So today we will begin with this thought … “How do we define the term “good”?
In worldly terms, good may be that which is morally right or righteous, meaning virtuous, commendable, competent, or loyal.
If one is good, one would exhibit attributes like kindness, follow the rules, be decent to others, or simply act like an outstanding human being.
Now when we talk about God being good, we are talking about a holy kind of good, a perfect kind of good … God is all powerful, all knowing, present everywhere … we understand these characteristics of God because we LOOK IN His Word.
Ours is an earthly goodness … His is a holy, perfect, supernatural goodness.
With this background, we will consider the question … “Is God good?” I believe this is a real question for many people. For example…
In April 2019 – 44 tornadoes hit in Mississippi…the destruction and death that resulted made many ask, “Is God good?”
This year, Shootings in Christchurch, Sri Lanka, and Southern California involved shootings in all three major world religion’s places of worship. If God is good, why would God allow stuff like that?
Then, if God is so good, why does He take those we love from us.
One of key ways we deal with the question of God’s goodness is to better understand how to deal with the pain, the heartache, and the sadness of living in this world.
We often blame God for all the bad and evil in the world or wonder why He allows the bad and evil to continue. It is easy to blame others, especially God, with anything that we have difficulty explaining or dealing with.
That is bad enough, but we don’t help ourselves when we tend to take credit for any good that happens in our lives because of our pride and egos.
So, this question today, “Is God good?”, is a tough question. But we should all realize that it is also a very old question. In fact, in the Bible, it is perhaps the oldest question addressed.
Today, we are going to look at the story of Job to address this question “Is God good?” We will learn from his example of how to always have an answer to this question. But he is just one of many examples in the Bible.
For example, how about God’s goodness to Adam and Eve … because of their disobedience, they schmucked the whole thing up, and God could have destroyed them and started over.
Then, there is the record of God saving Noah and his family, how about taking the children of Israel out of Egypt and then feeding them for 40 years in the desert … along with many more examples.
And we know that Job is probably the oldest book in the Bible, according to Biblical scholars. So, this question, which is the subject of Job, is really timeless.
As we get started, let’s talk about some context … Job is a really good man who has terrible things happen to him.
It is all detailed in Job 1:13-21. If it is easier for you to see, please use the chair Bible starting on page 350, or you can follow along on the PowerPoint…
If this were a made for television reality series, it could be titled “Designated Survivor”. Let’s review our text and see if you do not agree…
“One day when Job’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to Job and reported: “While the oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing nearby, 15 the Sabeans swooped down and took them away. They struck down the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
He was still speaking when another messenger came and reported…
“The fire of God fell from the heavens 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 made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
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!”
After hearing about all of those tragedies in a matter of moments, one after another, this is Job’s response…
20 Then, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord be praised.”
You have to admit that what happens to Job in this lesson is horrible. But I want you to notice a few important things in these verses that I think we can learn from…
These events can’t be accidental. Now we all know that accidents are terrible, but accidents do happen. But the point is that what happens to Job is so outlandish that you have to wonder … is there some divine conspiracy at work?
Job’s loses are devastating. Job loses his sources of income (his animals), but then, he loses ALL his children and most of his servants. Losing money is bad enough, but losing nearly your family is devastating.
And the way Scripture says Job finds out about all these bad events would be absolutely crushing. One person escapes from every disaster so that Job knows everything quickly. The result is MAXIMUM pain!
He knows exactly what happened, and the consequences of each devastating incident, just as soon as the one surviving servant arrives to tell him what happened.
If any one of these things happened to us, we would be devastated … let alone all these things. We would most certainly question the goodness of a loving God.
Well, let’s talk about what Job does and learn from it. Let’s LOOK IN … and take a lesson from Job.
Verses 20-21 describe what Job did (on PPT)…
“Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped, saying: Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. The LORD gives, and the LORD takes away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.” Job 1:20-21
So Job does three things that I believe will help us answer the question, and teach us how to respond when our hearts are broken.
The first thing Job does is he…
acknowledges his pain.
Most of us in similar situations try to hide our pain.
Do you remember the movie “League of Their Own”, which was about starting up a women’s baseball league after the start of WW2?
The coach of a woman’s team, played by Tom Hanks, has a line in a scene where one of the players starts crying … and he shouts at her…
“There’s no crying in baseball”.
We often try to be stoic! Suck it up! Tough it out! No pain, no gain! But that is NOT what Job does.
Let’s look closely at what Job does…
“Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head.” Job 1:20
This was an ancient sign of mourning and anguish in this culture, and the tradition was practiced among God’s people … Israel.
It was an outward demonstration of an inward devastation. It was extreme grief demonstrated by the men. We are not told how women expressed their grief.
I think the bottom line is this … “You cannot outrun grief.” Mourning, and being sad, is an important part of our response to the difficult parts of life.
When things hurt, it’s okay to say they hurt. Even Jesus does this in the Garden of Gethsemane …
“My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me.” Matthew 26:39
If Jesus acknowledged His pain, we should, too. The first lesson we learn is to acknowledge our pain. Then, the second lesson is to put our pain…
in perspective.
Job keeps his terrible pain in perspective. Let’s look again at verse 21…
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life.” Job 1:21
Job, amazingly, is able to take a step back and look at the big picture. He’s just lost everything, but he also fully realizes that he came into the world with nothing, and he will leave this world with nothing. He recognized that everything he had lost was a gift from God in the first place.
There is a University of Michigan study that says the more time a person spends on Facebook, the more their feelings of well-being decrease and feelings of discouragement increase.
The study says the reason why is the result of comparison and envy … or perspective. We usually see only the best parts of other people’s lives, and we feel like we are missing out. This is why perspective is so important.
And perspective isn’t meant to minimize pain, it’s meant to contextualize pain. It’s meant to put our pain into a proper context. Your pain and grief may be big, your pain and grief may be great, but your God is greater.
Here is the ultimate verse to put pain into a proper perspective …
“Weeping may stay overnight, but there is joy in the morning.” Psalm 30:5
Our pain tends to exaggerate. It comes in seasons. In order to maintain our faith in the midst of pain, we MUST remember that the pain will end … you didn’t get the job wanted, you lost your mortgage, the pay raise you were counting on did not come through, you lose a family member, your house burns down … the supernatural goodness of God is still present in all those things.
God is there with you, beside you. He hurts with you. He never leaves you alone, and He is there waiting on the other side when you are at the end of your ropes.
These are the lessons from Job to help us deal with the question “Is God good?” … we need to acknowledge our pain and put our pain in proper perspective.
Now lesson three … we see the final thing Job does in his suffering, he…
worships in his pain.
Listen again to verses 20-21…
“He fell to the ground and worshiped, saying … The LORD gives, and the LORD takes away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.” Job 1:20-21
Job refused to give up on the goodness of God! In this powerful confession, notice that Job believes in two things.
First, Job believes in …
God’s sovereignty.
After all this, Job breaks out in sores. His wife, after losing all her kids and afraid that she will lose her husband, says to him…
“Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!” “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” Job 2:9-10
His wife is saying using today’s vernacular … “OMG! … do you still believe in a God who has taken everything from you? How can you do this?
In seems inevitable that during great pain, people go in one of two directions… toward God or away from God … meaning we either cling to God or reject God.
Job trusts that God’s power controls his suffering and that’s good. And here is why…
How about Chemotherapy treatment … that is a situation where too little suffering and you die, too much suffering and you die
As it turns out, we put our lives in the hands of doctors to give us just enough bad to make it turn out good for us … but only in the short term.
So, Job believes in God’s sovereignty. But Job also believes in…
God’s plan.
Job believes that God knows better than he does.
As you know, Job does argue his case, but at the end of the day, Job knows that even evil can be used by God for good. Let’s look at verses 25-27…
“But I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the end He will stand on the dust. Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet I will see God in my flesh. I will see Him myself; my eyes will look at Him, and not as a stranger. My heart longs within me.” Job 19:25-27
Job knows that even evil can be used by God for good. That reminds me of a verse that we speak about often…
“We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28
This is amazing … Job suffers great evil, but God turns it around for good. And by the end of the book, Job is restored. We are told that …
“…the LORD blessed the last part of Job’s life more than the first.” Job 42:12
What God did for Job, He does for you and me.
When God brings you to it, He will see you through it! It is the goodness of His omni-presence that carries you.
His goodness is demonstrated when … when we acknowledge our pain and suffering, when we put it into a proper perspective, and when we praise God through it all?
WHY? Because…God is good! All the time! AMEN