When Life Isn’t Fair
Book of Job
As most of you are aware I attempt to have my sermons lined out months in advance. This morning I have something to say that has not been on the burner for that long. But I bring a message that I feel that someone here needs. I am not sure who that someone is and maybe you could share with me after the service this morning.
Someone once said:
I dreamed many dreams that never came true,
I have seen them vanish at dawn.
But I realized enough of my dreams, thank God,
To make me want to dream on.
I prayed many prayers when no answers came,
Though I waited patient and long.
But answers have come to enough of my prayers
To make me want to pray on.
I have trusted some friends who have let me fail
And left me to weep alone
But I found enough of my friends true blue
To make we want to trust on.
I’ve sown many seeds that fell by the way
The birds to feed upon.
But I have held enough golden sheaves in my hand
To make me want to sow on.
I have drained the cup of disappointment and pain
I have gone some days without a song.
But I have sipped enough nectar from the roses of life
To make me want to live on.
I bring you a message this morning that is entitled, "When Life Isn’t Fair". The truth of that statement is illustrated when we know of people who have really gotten shafted. People who didn’t deserve the kind of builder they got for their home, who took the money and went. People, who left without caring for their children, leaving them to cry and weep at night. And in this room this morning all kinds of heartaches are represented.
And most of us are good at facades. They look at us and say; "I know that is a happy family. I know they are doing great." But in every home there is a closet, maybe two. And we just simply say at times, "Life isn’t fair."
Certainly, in our lives we know of people who have been taken in the very prime of life. Late one night, the minister of the famous Bark Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts was in bed when he heard a knock at the door. He went to the door and saw a figure that was bent over seeming like it was in agony. He let him in and found the man in the dark was the President of the United States. And as Abraham Lincoln sat there in his chair weeping about the Civil War, about the apple of this eye, his only son had died. He made this statement to this preacher, "I think that I shall never be glad again."
I feel that there are some in this sanctuary this morning that have said that. "I don’t know if we can ever smile again." Some of us could cite examples from our lives; parental abuse somewhere along the line; circumstances that have left us physically or mentally impaired; unfaithfulness of a spouse; disappointment by our children; people who have had untrue accusations said about them. But nothing illustrates it better than children who receive the hard times in life or someone we really feel is innocent.
As a Christian how should I react? What should I say? What should I do when I am treated unfairly? The greatest test of the Christian life is ones attitude when LIFE DOESN’T MAKE SENSE.
For many of us life has been very smooth: health, prosperous, happy. How would you feel if the rug of security were jerked out from under you at this very moment?
Shakespeare said: "He jests at scars who have never felt a wound."
The classic example of life isn’t fair is the story of Job. The trouble is that we are so familiar with the surface of this story that we haven’t taken the time to know the depths of it. As you read the story of Job you have to be impressed by his character.
Initially, he was a very rich man. Someone once said that his livestock today would be worth $6,685,000.00, a very wealthy man. It says in Job 1:3, "he was the greatest man of all the people in the east." Some scholars speculate that Job designed and built the pyramids, one of the wonders of the ancient world.
He was not only materially wealthy. He was rich as a family man. He had seven sons and seven daughters.
But the greatest of all his riches was he was a righteous man because sometimes our riches make us arrogant and self-sufficient. Job was blameless, upright, shunned evil, and offered sacrifices. Here is a man who was respected by his peers. Here is a man who is the judge of the city.
Life was at its apex. But suddenly it fell apart. Satan was responsible for bringing a series of calamities in Job’s life. Satan said to God, "Job has been faithful because you have been good to him. The sun is to his back. The wind is to his back. But if you took all of these things away he wouldn’t love you."
It is easy to be good when things are going your way. How do you react when you are sick? Not only sick physically, but sick at heart. One of Satan’s favorite weapons is a sudden reversal - sudden rejection, sudden fame, sudden loss, and then sudden prosperity, and then it is gone away.
God mysteriously gave Satan the permission to test Job. The first thing that he heard was his oxen were stolen, and his servants were killed when lightening hit a barn, the shepherds were killed, the sheep were scattered, someone killed his camels and servants then he got the word all 14 children were gone. Job was devastated. He shaved his head. He tore his clothing. He wept. But Job refused to blame the Lord. And Job said, "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." Beautiful, beautiful statement. He didn’t curse God.
And then Satan said, "Job didn’t curse you because he still has his health and his body." So Job’s body was covered with sores from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet. I could describe those for you this morning, but it would take too long.
And on top of all of that his wife said, "Why don’t you curse God and die?" Her other car was a broom I believe. What a faithful wife. You know when others have let you down, you feel like your wife is going to say what you want to hear - to me that is a good wife. She’ll say what you want to hear whether it is true or not! She stands behind you. And someday I would like to have a wife like that. My wife is truthful. Who wants the truth when you are down? And can you believe this? This woman says, "Why don’t you curse God and die?"
She is only mentioned one other time in the Bible - Job 19:17. It comments that Job’s breath offended her. Can you imagine that? They have lost fourteen children, $6,685,000 worth of cattle, and the only thing that offends her is that Job has bad breath. I can’t believe that!
Then Job 3 closes when his friends come to comfort him. Now friends can be friends, and at other times they can be something else. They say, "Now Job fess up. Confess it. You are living in sin. You have done something wrong and that is why you are here in this trouble."
And I love Job’s reply; "You men are so brilliant that when you die all wisdom will die with you. I am not suffering because I am sinful. I don’t understand why I am suffering, why this is happening, but it is not do to sin. And though He slay me still will I trust Him."
There was out a song out a few years ago: The God of the valley. He is God of the mountain, but he is also God of the valley.
"He knows the way that I take. And when He has tested me I will come forth as gold" - Job 23:10
Life was not fair for Job. Permit me to make five observations of what you should do when life isn’t fair.
Number one: Human suffering is not easily explained, so sometimes just accept it and don’t try to explain it.
I love that statement about when we have died and gone to glory that "then shall I know even as I am also known." I love that. You know every once in a while I come across something that I say, "When I get up to heaven, I’m gonna ask Peter about that." I won’t have to ask Peter. I won’t have to ask him about anything. I’ll know just as much as he does. "Then shall I know even as I am also known."
Be careful of ministers and teachers that explain everything. There are something’s that we just don’t know. We get ourselves in trouble when we try to interpret every circumstance immediately, whether it be good or bad. The New Testament tells us that God allows us to suffer and we will mature by doing it, but that doesn’t explain all of it.
Why does it seem that very mature Christians have a whole series of things happen to them, while those who are very shallow seem to get by with things going great? Why aren’t the problems of life more equally distributed? I don’t know. But I do know this, "As high as the heavens are above the earth, so are his thoughts higher than my thoughts."
When I was 8 years old, was I suppose to understand my stepfather, who was 35-36 years old? I couldn’t understand his mind.
As someone once said, "I cannot trace God, but I can trust God."
My favorite example was an entire community just a few miles south of Interstate 70 in Illinois that was destroyed by a tornado in 1989. But there was no destruction in either direction. Explain that to me. I can’t explain it. You can’t explain it. "So are his thoughts higher than my thoughts."
Psalm 119:71 - "It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes."
You don’t learn the real lessons of life on the beach. You learn them in the funeral home. You learn them in the sick bed. You learn them in the midst of crisis. You learn them in the hospital room. You learn them in the emergency ward.
Number two: Being good does not exempt us from heartaches, so don’t expect it.
Jesus told his followers in Matthew 5 that the rain falls on the just and the unjust. I want you to follow me here because this is really a good thought. It rains on the just and the unjust. And can you imagine what it would be like if it rained just on the just? Can you imagine what it would be like when you became a Christian, and God sent just the right amount of rain on you and nothing on the non-Christian? Your checkbook always balanced. Your team always won. You never got any diseases. Your car never broke down. Your marriage was always perfect. And if this were the case, people would become Christian for a selfish reason.
Jesus said that is not the way it is going to be. He said, "In the world, you will have tribulation." You don’t want it, but can look for it and expect it. Why? Because we are in the flesh. We are imperfect.
Number three: God is not the author of most suffering, so don’t blame Him for everything.
I said some suffering because God is responsible for some. Hebrews says the ones the Lord loves he disciplines. And if you are a child of God, God loves you too much to not do something about it to try and bring you back. Paul referred to his thorn in the flesh as a messenger of God. Did you hear that? I think that the best explanation I have ever heard, and I am not sure of it, of "What is the thorn in the flesh?" To write most of the New Testament in a cell without a light with poor eye sight. Now I personally think that was his thorn in the flesh. Paul referred to his thorn in the flesh as a messenger of God.
And I like what C. S. Lewis said in his writing on the Problem of Pain, "God whispers to us in our pleasures. He shouts to us in our pain."
Sometimes we don’t listen when the stock market is going great. But when its not, it gets our attention, and we say, "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Man I have been hit with a truck. Man a bulldozer has just run over me. I have got to think this thing through."
When things seem unfair it is always wrong to say, "Why is God doing this to me?" because suffering comes from many other sources. Satan was responsible for the affliction of Job. We may suffer simply because of disobedience.
A man lay in the hospital with cerosis of the liver. He knows how he got it. And he is in agony and pain. And he says, "Why did God do this to me?" God didn’t do it.
Number four: Genuine faith does not require immediate answers, but does anticipate ultimate justice.
Genuine faith does not require "Lord, I understand this. But I know there is a heaven, and there is a hell.
My fathers way may twist and turn,
My heart my throb and ache,
But this I know,
He maketh no mistake.
Job said that even if God slays me, I’ll still love Him. I believe in His goodness. The ultimate message of Job is that God is good, and He will ultimately make things right in the end."
That is the power of Romans 8:28 - "All things work together for the good of them that love the Lord." Bad things. Hearthache.
You say preacher explain that to me. I can’t explain that to you. That is God. If it isn’t true that all things work together for good than we might as well line up at the bridge and jump because this world, as it is, doesn’t make sense.
My last point is God’s blessings are promised to those who persevere, do don’t quit.
Isaiah 40:30 - Those that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They will mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not grow weary. They shall walk and not faint.
Let me give you two illustrations and I close:
1) Lewis Braille was blind from the age of three. He went to a school for the blind in Paris, Prance. And at 19 became instructor. And then invented the Braille system. Would people, who are blind today, be able to read, today, if a man had not grown blind?
2) C.F. Wiggle comes home one night, where his wife says, "I’m tired of being a preacher’s wife. I want a divorce." In his devastation and in his heartache, he sat down at the piano and wrote the words to that great hymn - "No one ever cared for me like Jesus." If it hadn’t been for divorce, would that hymn ever have been written? I doubt that it would.
Knute Rockne has to hold the greatest record in football. Thirteen years at Notre Dame, he won 105, lost 12, and tied 5. Never had a secret practice. And when a scout missed a train one time to come and spy on them, he sent him the plays. You know what Rockne said; "It isn’t the play that wins the game. It’s the execution of it."
You can know the Bible, and that’s good. But you have got to execute it. I know this is what is says. I know what I ought to do, but am I willing, in faith, to say, "though he slay me, I am going to execute it. I am going to love Him."
The saddest words in tongue of pen are those four words, "It might have been."
And my last point was "Don’t give up." But people who have been knocked down, knocked cold, have said, "We will never survive this", have gotten up and God has the most beautiful days of their lives yet to come.
Are you willing to execute it?
