Job 1:1(Read)
1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job, and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning away from evil.
(NAS)
There is not a soul here today who has not at some point asked, Why? Why, Lord? Why me, Lord? Why did I lose my job? Why did I lose my loved one? Why did I get cancer? Why are my children the way they are? Why can’t I have all the things I need? Why am I so lonely?
The most famous "Why me, Lord?" probably came from the Old Testament character Job. In the Bible story he was like a child who asks, Why? God was like the typical parent who answers, "Because, I said so"!
That may sound typical of many parents, but it doesn’t sound like the Father we worship, does it? That doesn’t sound like the God who suffers with us, who loves us, forgives us.
No wonder Marcion, in the 2nd century, thought there must be two gods described in the Bible. One of the Old Testament and one proclaimed through Christ’s coming in the New Testament.
So what’s the point? Is it wrong to ask questions?
Six-year-old Johnny asked, "Daddy, why is the sky blue?"
"I don’t know, son."
"Daddy, why is the world round?"
"I don’t know, son."
"Daddy, where did God come from?"
"I don’t know, son."
"Daddy, do you mind my asking you so many questions?"
"No, of course not, son. How else are you going to learn?"
Did you ever ask, Why me, Lord? Of course you have. I have. We all have.
Where are you, Lord? Why can’t I find you when I need you? I’ve looked for you in my past, in my future, in my present; I’ve looked into the sky, in the bright lights, in the darkness; I can’t find you anywhere, God.
Would you like me to give you the answer? To tell you why you have trials and tribulations? Well, just think how we ask God why. Let me ask you a why. Why don’t we just let God have control of our lives, and have the hope that he does know best. Nothing can happen to us unless God allows it. If he allows it, it must be what’s best.
In July 2005, two military soldiers, 1st Sgt Thomas Jones and SSG Greg Thompson, wearing their dress blues, paid a visit to a home in White Cloud, Michigan. Their hats tucked under their arms, they knocked on the door. A woman in her mid forties answered the door, and without a word, dropped to her knees and screamed. Her husband came to the door asking what they wanted. 1st Sgt Jones responded, “We are sorry to inform you that your son Michael was killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb. The parents asked them in and proceeded with so many questions. The number one question was, WHY? After a few minutes, they left, but before they did so, the parents were handed an envelope with a check for $100,000.00, their son’s insurance policy. Michael died on his twenty-first birthday.
How do we deal with the radical felt absence of God? What should we say to this family who has been asking God, “WHY did he have to die?”
A Concorde jet roared down a Paris runway carrying 113 passengers and crew. The passengers were German vacationers who had chartered the flight for a rendezvous at New York and an eventual cruise to the Caribbean for the trip of a lifetime. Many had saved for years for this vacation. As it came down the runway a piece of metal no more than a yard long which had fallen off a previous plane and had not been picked up lay in the jet’s path. Apparently, as the Concorde passed over it, the metal was flipped into the air and caught one of the jet’s engines. Immediately the jet was spewing fire. Within ninety seconds all on board were killed in a fiery crash.
Many ask, how could God let a terrible thing like that happen? Why does God allow evil and suffering? If God is just and loving how could God permit his people to be afflicted with needless pain and hardship? And if suffering is simply pointless, what does that say about God? Why bother? This is the most difficult question in Christian theology.
Any time a person attempts to speak about God and human suffering, there is always the risk of irrelevant chatter and platitudes. "It’s God’s will; you must accept it. God never puts more on us than we can bear. God will decide when you shall die." Is this what they want to hear? Is this what Michaels parents wanted to hear? Does this settle their grief? What about all the families affected by that plane crash? How do we answer WHY?
Often we become guilty of meaningless nonsense. Trying to explain
God. Many of us respond to the hurts of others with just mere babble. We mean well, but often spoken without thinking.
We would do well to pause and listen to our answers, our pitiful Tinkertoy bridges over this immeasurable loss of a loved one.
That’s not to say we should not respond to questions, but we should beware of simplistic answers.
Is it any wonder that the mother whose son that just died, when she was fed some of this silly mumblings, would cry out, "If this is what God is all about, then I want no more of this God"?
How do you think Job must have felt when God answered his "Why me, Lord?" with "Because I said so".
Job asks "Why me, Lord? Why mine?" He does this, believing always in God and in God’s power, and that is exactly why he asks the questions so strongly. If this book has no other value, it is surely that such questions are not off-limits to people of faith. Even if the answer is, “Because”.
In Robert Coles’ book, “The Spiritual Life of Children”, he interviews a woman named Margarita. Her quality of life is limited by the brutal hillside of Favela, a community of shacks on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. As she remembers looking at the giant statue of Jesus with his outstretched arms, along the waters edge, she recalls, "When I look up at Jesus, I wonder what he’s thinking. Can He see us, He must have an opinion. As a girl I tried to talk to him, but Mama would tell us not to worry, we’ll go to heaven, because we’re poor. She said it to shut us up when we were hungry. I used to believe her. Now when I look up at him on that cross, I say, ’What do you say, Jesus?’"
Margarita goes on, "My little sister is always crying because she doesn’t get enough food! I still have hope that Jesus sees everything that goes on here and that he doesn’t just stare into the ocean like that statue."
Well, for all of the Margarita’s of the world I say, YES, he does see, and he cries along with you.
When I ask Why me, Lord?, my Jesus puts his loving arms around me, and instead of answering "Just because," he says, "I’m here with you. I love you." He sees the inequities and injustices of the world, he sees my troubles and feels my pain, and I know he understands why, we ask Why? I am also thankful that He also understands my impatience when I don’t get the answers I want!
I guess I’ll have to wait for all the answers, along with Mother Teresa, who once said, "When I get to heaven, He has a lot of explaining to do!"
Chaos and evil are just part of this evil world. God created it perfect, Satan made it his playground.
The problem of evil is by far the most difficult of all theological challenges. It simply is; it exists. Some want to blame Adam and Eve for sin, but that is a rather simplistic explanation. They may have fallen to it, but they did not author it. Satan did.
Marathon runners speak of "hitting the wall." They get to the place where they simply can’t go on . . . but they do! They run on, and on, and on, until they miraculously finish the race. Once they get on a roll, often times they cannot stop and literally must run into the wall to stop.
Our quest for answers demands that we continue seeking, even when we can’t find answers. Probably the most profound description of spiritual maturity is the ability to keep asking questions. NOT just giving answers.
If I understand the teachings of Jesus, there is much more to life than to have everything, even answers!
The bottom line is that, I have no bottom line. I have no pat answers for you. I don’t know why you? why me? why us? I do know that Jesus did not invite us to come out of our troubles, and out of our struggles, and to bear them alone, but rather he came in to join us, to be with us in our troubles and our struggles.
Perhaps you heard about the woman, from the Dominican Republic, who escaped the World Trade Center disaster, then decided to go home to the Dominican Republic; she was killed in the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in Queens. As she realized they were going down, she must have asked, "Why me, Lord?" Or the sailor who just back from serving on an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf who also was killed in that same crash. There were many others with similar stories, whose families I am sure were asking, why?
Why, Lord? Where were you, when the Trade Center was destroyed?
I heard it said that angels were holding up the buildings of the World Trade Center until two-thirds of the people could get out. Don Schneider, president of the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists, wrote in a special issue of SIGNS, "There’s a lot of pain in heaven today. I can imagine God saying, ’I’m sorry about the way My kids have behaved.’"
I saw a roadside billboard one time along I-75 in Michigan that read, ”Dear God, where were you when Calibine High School was under attack? Signed, broken hearted parent.” Under that it read, “Dear Parent, I am NOT allowed in public schools any more. Love, God.”
I would say here is a good answer to the question, WHY?
Is this what we get for taking God out of our children’s everyday lives? Is the teaching they receive at home enough. If you think it is, then don’t ask God why your children are the way they are. Our children should be surrounded in their daily lives with the things of God.
In the movie “The Man Who Played God”, the main character, in real life was a wealthy and famous musician. At the height of his career he began to lose his hearing. (Believe me, that can be depressing!) Bitter and angry, he withdrew from society, turned away from God, became a virtual hermit in his penthouse apartment.
From his window overlooking a park, with the help of high-powered binoculars, he began to amuse himself by reading people’s lips. One afternoon he focused on a young man who was praying. When he determined what the young man was praying for, he sent a servant to fulfill the request.
Another time he saw a lady telling someone of a desperate need. Again he sent help. Gradually, he became quite skillful at determining needs. Each time he fulfilled a need, he looked heavenward and laughed scornfully. He was playing God! A god in whom he could believe! And he was enjoying it. He got a real joy in meeting the needs of people.
Then a strange thing began to happen. As he performed the deeds of kindness, he began to know God, the God who gives, and gives and gives. He was converted, to believe in Jesus, the same Jesus who came not to be served, but to serve.
We need to turn the "Why me Lord?" to a "What can I do, Lord?"
We’re here to serve, not to be served. That is precisely what Jesus taught.
God finally answered Job as he swatted away all Job’s questions with a booming, passionate show of divine majesty. His answer was, in truth, no answer at all. In effect, he said, "Who are you to question me, to question life?" As we read Job Chapter 38 beginning at verse 1
1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:
2 "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3 Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.
4 "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone,
7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 "Or who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth and issued from the womb;
9 When I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band;
10 When I fixed My limit for it, and set bars and doors;
11 When I said, ’This far you may come, but no farther, and here your proud waves must stop!’
12 "Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place,
13 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it?
Scripture continues. . . . . .
I suspect Job ended up feeling pretty humble. Did God answer Job’s question, WHY?. I am sure Job felt he did.
All of us are subject to pains and problems. I am sure God expects a question of why. Just be ready for the answer. As I mentioned earlier, instead of WHY, perhaps we should rather ask What would you have of me Lord?
1Tm 1:17 Paul writes, “To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” Hear those first three words again, “To the King.” God was Paul’s King. God reigned fully in Paul because Paul was overjoyed with what God had done for him. His sense of gratitude transformed his life and caused him to be as pliable as soft clay in the hands of The Potter, in the hands of holy God. As King of the ages, we can rest assured that God IS in control.
In the song my wife and I are about to sing, the song writer asks “Why me Lord?” Why is life so grand for me? What ever did I do to deserve such love?
SONG. . . . .
"Why me, Lord, what have I ever done to deserve even one of the pleasures I’ve known? Tell me, Lord, what did I ever do that was worth loving you for the kindness you’ve shown?
"Lord, help me, Jesus, I’ve wasted it, so help me, Jesus, I know what I am. And now that I know that I needed you, so help me Jesus, my soul’s in your hand.
"Try me, Lord, if you think there’s a way I can stand to repay all I’ve taken from you. "Maybe, Lord, I can show someone else what I’ve been thru myself on my way back to you.
"Lord, help me, Jesus, I’ve wasted it, so help me, Jesus, I know what I am. And now that I know that I needed you, so help me Jesus, my soul’s in your hand.
"Lord, help me, Jesus, I’ve wasted it, so help me, Jesus, I know what I am. And now that I know that I needed you, so help me Jesus, my soul’s in your hand.
Jesus, my soul’s in your hand.
Let us pray. . . . .
"Thank you, sweet Jesus, for all that you’ve given us, so many blessings we have. And now that we know how you’ve blessed us so much, thank you, Jesus, for all that we have. Jesus, our soul IS in Your hand." Amen
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