What To Do When Things Go Wrong, Even After You Have Done Right. Learning From The Patriarch Job

The fallout from the global pandemic has made the story of Job more relevant to us than ever, even more than the days of the ancient prophets of Israel. No one can doubt the untold hardship and suffering brought about by the pandemic and experienced by people worldwide. Just as it was to the people of the days gone by so it is today. Just as we have heard similar stories from our fathers and fore-fathers of how they had weathered the storms of adverse situations comparatively.

But how do we deal with a crisis situation coming upon us through the coronavirus pandemic? Because so many people have lost the means of livelihood. So many have passed on to the rest of the great beyond with the Lord. But how do we react when faced with so many difficulties in life or how do we deal with it?

We can either act or react with or without knowing all the facts connected with the given situation. Sometimes it is easy to react unfavorably while blaming everyone including the weather for our circumstances. Or we can act without understanding the causes of the unfolding situation. However, the truth is that both courses of action show us that one must not jump to a conclusion when something happens and appears to be going wrong in our life.

Sometimes certain events happen in our life without our knowledge of what is behind. Moreover, we might not know, nor be aware of the unseen forces at work behind the scene. The Bible says we wrestle or fight not against flesh and blood, but against the invisible power of darkness. Hence, something can happen in one's life that is not in response to a person or people doing something wrong in their life.

And the current crisis falls in that category. Because so many people have come up with the idea of subjecting the present pandemic to all kinds of conjectures. The blame game is on. Some have shifted the blame to the unknown, to the food habits of the Chinese, the Greenhouse effect, to Bill Gates foundation, China, and to George Soros, and to the plan against the re-election of the President of America.

Today people still believe that without doing wrong nothing evil can come to a person. Or people are immune to evil if they have done no wrong. But is that true in real life? Or is it a figment of our imagination and our poor judgment without knowing all the facts.

This is equivalent to saying that something cannot go wrong without our fault. And without our indulgence, or doing something wrong we are shielded from evil. Many individuals still hold to these views because we are trained early to believe that evil will always follow after any wrongdoing. Hence, our mind-set is fixed on the idea that when evil happens it is because of something we have done in the past.

Though the Bible says that evil will always pursue the sinner, and our sin shall surely find us. Yet, it is not the purpose of God to destroy the sinner but to save his life. That is the truth without error. God is still in the business of saving the soul of the lost. And God cannot do evil that good may result. The Apostle Paul clearly defined the limits of evil in the Epistle to the Romans.

At the same time it is not the elevation of Murphy's Law that states, “If something can go wrong, it will, and usually at the worst time.” The coronavirus outbreak does not fall within this law. The crisis falls to a different realm that no one can say exactly what had happened.

Nevertheless, the historical account of the Patriarch Job is a classic example that disproves this human hypothesis of something happening that must be tied to one's action. The truth is that Job suffered much-untold hardship in his life, including the loss of his health and his immediate family without his fault. He was accused by his close friends of wrongdoing and of hiding his crimes.

Even his accuser had used many of the same tactics backing them with supporting scriptures. They stood their ground and backed up their assertion claiming Job had sinned as they tried to find reasons for the justification of Job's sufferings. His wife encouraged him to curse God in the midst of his suffering.

Until God spoke and showed why He had allowed the things that happened to Job. Also, God went on to disprove and warn the friends of Job who had accused him of wrongdoing. God always has a way of setting the record straight. He knows what, when, and how. Nothing escapes his omniscient knowledge.

That is why care must be taken when we try to link the sin of the world with the disaster of the plagues. But often something different may be going on that we have no knowledge about but God knows. Because believers sometimes think of God as a judge who brings in judgment to show His majesty and power.