CHAPTER 20
WHY BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE
Bad things happen to many people, not because they are necessarily more wicked than any other people, but because God’s hedge of protection has been lifted from around them. When you are under the law, God cannot protect you!
If you have some chronic problem in your life, whether it is a health problem, a financial problem, or a sin problem, you have not reached the Promised Land yet. God will only allow the devil to plague you if you are trusting in yourself and you are not trusting in God.
THERE WAS A MAN IN THE LAND OF UZ, WHOSE NAME WAS JOB; AND THAT MAN WAS PERFECT AND UPRIGHT, AND ONE THAT FEARED GOD, AND ESCHEWED EVIL.
JOB 1:1
Most people know the story of Job. According to the Bible, Job was perfect and upright. Why did God allow Satan to bring so much misery down upon Job? I think I know … Job was a legalist, he was one of those blessed people who had everything going for him, he was rich, he had good health, he had a loving family and good friends, but there was one thing he lacked. He did not completely trust God. He believed that God’s nature was mercurial.
Job believed that if he was good, God would bless him, but Job believed that if he was bad, God would bring down all kinds of trouble on him. That, by the way, was what Job’s three friends believed too. ob was never sure that his good relationship with God would last, he was afraid that someday, he would mess up and God would come down on him with both feet. Job was continually anxious, even in the midst of his prosperity and health, because he did not really trust God. Job was a legalist and he believed he was successful and prosperous because of his own good works, but he was never sure that he would not accidently offend God and be punished.
FOR THE THING WHICH I GREATLY FEARED IS COME UPON ME, AND THAT WHICH I WAS AFRAID OF IS COME UNTO ME.
I WAS NOT IN SAFETY, NEITHER HAD I REST, NEITHER WAS I QUIET; YET TROUBLE CAME.
JOB 3:25-26
Job had the same mistaken notion that all legalist have: If I scratch God’s back, God will scratch my back.
God gives His longest speech in the Bible to Job and his friends, basically God says: I do not need you, or anybody else, to scratch my back!
The only person God did not reprimand in the Book of Job was Job’s youngest friend Elihu. I believe God did not reprimand Elihu because he understood where God was coming from.
IF THOU SINNEST, WHAT DOEST THOU AGAINST HIM? OR IF THY TRANSGRESSIONS BE MULTIPLIED, WHAT DOEST THOU UNTO HIM?
IF THOU BE RIGHTEOUS, WHAT GIVEST THOU HIM? OR WHAT RECEIVETH HE OF THINE HAND?
JOB 35:6-7
If you can understand this simple truism, you are well on our way to receiving all that God has prepared for you. We cannot do anything for God, but He loves us anyway!
If a child does not listen to their mother’s warning and touches a hot stove, the child suffers the pain, the mother does not suffer pain, but she suffers distress. The same principal applies to sinful mankind. When we sin, we hurt ourselves and other people, we do not hurt God, but we do cause God distress because God loves everyone!
Why does a new born baby’s mother and father love their child? A new born child cannot do anything for his or her parents. Similarly, we cannot do anything for God. Job was receiving all his blessings from God, simply because God loved him. Unfortunately, Job had to go through a desperate wilderness experience before he realized that his good works did not impact God one way or another. Job had to learn that His good works were as filthy rags to God. How much more should Christian saints trust in the provision and blessing of God?
HE SHALL COVER THEE WITH HIS FEATHERS, AND UNDER HIS WINGS SHALT THOU TRUST: HIS “TRUTH” SHALL BE THY SHIELD AND BUCKLER.
THOU SHALT NOT BE AFRAID FOR THE TERROR BY NIGHT; NOR FOR THE ARROW THAT FLIETH BY DAY;
NOR FOR THE PESTILENCE THAT WALKETH IN DARKNESS; NOR FOR THE DESTRUCTION THAT WASTETH AT NOONDAY.
A THOUSAND SHALL FALL AT THY SIDE, AND TEN THOUSAND AT THY RIGHT HAND; BUT IT SHALL NOT COME NIGH THEE.
PSALM 91:4-7
God’s truth is our shield and buckler. God’s Word is the sword of the spirit. I am not saying that once you become mature spiritually, you will not have or encounter any problems ever again. As long as we are on this earth, in our mortal bodies, we will have problems. God will allow Satan to test us in order to reveal our legalism and our self-reliance. God only allows the curse of the law in order to turn us back to God and His Word for help.
When sickness comes, when financial setbacks come, when temptation comes, we have a sword and we have a shield. We do not have to remain sick, we do not have to remain poor, we do not have to remain sinners. We must stop relying on our own strength and wisdom and turn to God’s Word of Truth, the sword of the spirit, and then we must boldly go to war against all the giants in the land. We, who have the New Testament and knowledge of the perfect work of Jesus Christ, for and on our behalf, should have much more faith in God then the children of Israel. Our Wilderness journey does not have to last forty years. We can enter into the Promised Land right now!