What Happened, Lord?
Knowing and Doing God’s Will
What Happened, Lord?
The Book of Job
 
"What Happened, Lord?”  Did you ever find yourself asking that question?  You were trying to do the right thing, make wise decisions and honor God, and suddenly the bottom fell out of your life.
 
As we continue our study of knowing and doing God’s will, we have to deal with the fact that sometimes things don’t work out like we thought they would.
 
Sometimes that happens because we are out of God’s will, and that’s the easy one to deal with.  We’ll look at that next week.
 
But sometimes it happens not because we are out of God’s will, but because we are IN God’s will.  And that one is a little more difficult in understand.  What’s going on in those times when you can honestly say,   “Lord, I thought I was doing Your will” and everything seems to go wrong?
 
Did you make a mistake?” Deep in our hearts we know God has a plan for us. We don’t debate that; it’s not a theological issue with us. We know that we weren’t put on the earth to grope blindly through the darkness. Nevertheless, that’s the way life feels sometimes.
 
I want to remind you of something this morning and it is a key thought.  If you don’t get anything else, you might want to write this one down:
Knowing God’s will is a journey, not a destination, and along the way we will sometimes be quite confused. And sometimes we will be flat wrong about what God really wants for us. Sometimes we will be right and it won’t feel right.  But the bottom line is not being “right” or “wrong” about God’s will, but truly seeking what God’s will is in the first place.
 
As we’ve already learned, if you will fill your life with the pursuit of the knowledge of His will and are willing to trust and obey Him, he will lead you exactly where he wants you to go.
 
Now, as I’ve said before, that’s good preaching and tough living.  The problem is not with the theology, but with the application.  We know God guides His children, but what about those times it doesn’t make any sense?
 
It is at this point we need to be very clear in our thinking. There is so much misinformation, so much bad teaching, so much faulty theology when we come to the “how-to” of God’s guidance. As a result many Christians continually make wrong turns, go down dead-end streets, and end up in spiritual cul-de-sacs because they don’t understand what God has said about the way he guides His children.
 
So what I want to do this morning is share some wrong ideas about God’s guidance and then give you an example from Scripture about what is going on when you are in God’s will and experiencing terrible consequences.
 
First of all,
 
 
1.  The Myths
 
Let me share with you two common myths about serving God:
 
Myth #1: God wants you to know the future
 
Perhaps the biggest mistake Christians make in knowing and doing God’s will is the mistake of believing we know what the of the journey looks like.   Remember what I said a moment ago, it’s not about the destination; its’ about the journey.
 
We start down a road under God’s direction, and  because we are going a certain direction we think the destination is certain. But let me just be very clear about something:  It is rarely God’s will for you to know your personal future.
 
Now obviously I’m not talking about things like serving God and staying married and things His word is very clear on.  I’m talking about the personal direction He gives to us.
 
Listen to Psalm 119:105
 
The picture is not of a blazing light that illuminates an entire room. It is a picture of a man in total darkness walking along a dangerous trail. There is no moon in the sky. There is nothing but darkness around him and his only light comes from the lantern in his hand. As he holds the lantern, it illuminates the step right in front of him. When he takes that step, what happens to the light? It goes forward one more step. The light is not bright enough to illuminate even ten yards ahead.
 
We want to know the future. At least we think we do. We want to know what is going to happen next year, so we can be ready in advance. But God won’t play that game with us.
 
The Bible says, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God” (Deuteronomy 29:29). Does he know what will happen tomorrow? Yes, he does; but he’s not telling anyone else about it. Or to put it in familiar terms, does God have a blueprint for your life? Yes, he does; but I don’t know any way you can get a copy.
 
Suppose God were to offer you a folder with the details of your life (and for your loved ones also) for the next 10 years. Would you take it? You first impulse might be to say yes.
 
But suppose I add this provision. You can’t change anything you find in that folder. Would you still take it? I can tell you that I would run the other way. Life is much better lived one day at a time. Is there a heavenly blueprint that shows what you are supposed to do on May 23, 2018?
 
The answer to that question is yes. But the only part of it you can see arrives each morning in the form of twenty-four brand-new hours, freshly delivered by the gracious hand of God.
 
Myth #2: God’s highest goal is my personal happiness
 
Millions of people buy into this false idea. They believe that their happiness is God’s supreme goal for them. That sounds good, doesn’t it?
“God wants me to be happy.” “God wants me to be fulfilled.” “God wants me to be successful.”
That thinking has been used to justify all kinds of bizarre and even evil behavior. Some Christian men have said, “It is God’s will that I should divorce my wife and marry another woman because we are in love, and God wants us to be happy.” The correct theological term for that is, “Baloney.”
 
If your personal happiness is not God’s highest goal for you, then what is God’s will for your life? It is God’s will for you to be holy. It is God’s will for you to be like Jesus Christ. It is God’s will for you to be in a place of maximum usefulness for the kingdom of God.
 
First Thessalonians 4:3
 
To be “sanctified” means to be made holy. It refers to the life-long process whereby God shapes you, through a myriad of experiences both positive and negative, into the image of Jesus Christ. Here’s the clincher: He uses the very worst things that happen to us in order to accomplish his divine purposes in us.
 
Romans 8:29 says, “Those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.”
 
That is the will of God for your life. He wants you to become like Jesus Christ. Whatever makes you like Jesus is good. Whatever doesn’t make you like Jesus is bad. And God is fully committed to shaping your life day by day into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
So rather than laying all the details out in advance and guaranteeing we are always happy, God wants to teach us to trust him step by step, day by day, no matter what happens. He reveals His will one step at a time, so we will trust him moment by moment with the ultimate goal of making us to be like Jesus.
 
2.  The Man
 
Let me show you an example from Scripture of a man who was doing God’s will, but experienced all kinds of problems.  In fact, I daresay, if God had told him in advance everything he was going to experience, he might have forsaken the Lord before it ever started, and not a one of us would have blamed him, because in the middle of what he experienced, he was anything but happy.
 
His name is Job, and the story of his life is recorded in the book in the Bible that bears his name.  It’s found immediately before the Psalms, and it’s a reminder that things can go wrong for seemingly no reason.  And it is especially confusing because, to use our vernacular, Job was doing God’s will.
 
In Chapter One we are introduced to Job who the Bible says is a good man who honors and fears the Lord.  He is a man of tremendous wealth and influence, as well as a life filled with children and loved ones.
 
In the Second chapter we see Satan coming before the Lord to discuss Job.  You know you’ve got a powerful testimony when you have the devils attention! Now don’t miss the point that God initiates the conversation.
 
Job 1:8
 
Satan begins to attack Job’s credibility saying that “Of course he’s good, but it’s only because you’ve blessed him so much.  He has nothing to fear with you blessing and protecting him all the time. But I’ll guarantee if You take all that away, He’ll curse You to Your face!  You let me have a little time with him, and you’ll see the real Job.”
 
God then gives him permission to attack Job with certain limitations.  In the next few verses we find that Job’s life turns upside down.  One after the other messengers begin to come to his door with bad news.
 
First he is told about an ambush by terrorists that steal his cattle and donkeys and kill those taking care of them. 
 
Then a lightning storm destroys all his sheep and shepherds.
 
Next nomads steal his camels and kill those servants.
 
Finally, a tornado hits the home of one of his son’s and kills all his sons and daughters.
 
But we discover in Job 1:22 that Job responded to all that in a way that honored God.
 
But the crisis isn’t over.  In chapter 2, God and Satan resume their discussion about Job, again initiated by God.
 
Chapter 2:3
This time Job says, “Just take his health away and see what happens!
 
By verse 7, he is covered in boils from head to toe, and they are so bad, he is sitting with the lepers, scraping his skin with a piece of broken pottery in an attempt to break open the sores and let them drain.
Things are so bad, his wife encourages him to curse God and die, but he maintains his integrity and doesn’t sin against God.
 
Why is this happening? Now, keep in mind, we have the privilege of reading the story from start to finish and having all the commentary and history and the thoughts of great preachers to help us learn the lessons that come from Job, and still we struggle with some of the things we find in this book.
 
Imagine how difficult it was to understand if you were Job, or a friend of Job.  Think about how you get bent out of shape when you have a flat tire or some other minor inconvenience. “Where was God?”
 
So, like we do today, those around Job all have an opinion about Job and what he’s going through!  Can you imagine the posts about Job if Face Book had been around then? 
 
Over the course of the next chapters, Job gets all kinds of false reasoning.  And if you are serving God and you circumstances are not like you expected they would be, then listen up.  The same lies Job heard, Satan will try to tell you.
 
The first false reason is
 
 
  • Personal Sin
 
When things go horribly wrong in our lives the first thing we do is look for meaning.  We ask why and in doing so, many of us come to the conclusion that we are suffering because we deserve it.  We reap what we sow; you made your bed so lie in it.  We think we deserve it, we’re being punished.  “Well my husband wouldn’t have had an affair on me if I wasn’t such a bad wife.”  “Perhaps my child wouldn’t have been hit by a drunk driver if I hadn’t driven while I was drunk in high school.” If you embrace this type of answer then hope is choked off within you and it will lead you to despair.
 
And this is the type of explanation for Job’s situation that his friends come with when they come to visit him. No one has suffered like Job except perhaps the Lord Himself.  Job lost everything.  He loses his business and all his wealth, he loses the respect of those around him and is taunted by old and young alike; He loses his health to the point where he’s in constant agony; and here his friends come with the very helpful accusation of “you have sinned”
 
Job 22:5-11
 
There’s nothing more comforting to a person that is suffering for someone to come along and suggest that it is their own fault.  The problems with these accusations are that they are completely false!  Job was a good man, a compassionate man.  We learn this in the opening verse of Job.
 
Job 1:1, 8
 
The story of Job is a rebuttal to those that think bad things always happen as a result of a person doing bad things.  Sometimes bad things happen because we do bad thing, no doubt about it.  But the reasoning that says bad things only happen to bad people would mean the person who is doing well and succeeding must be a good person.
 
Life, both historically and modern, gives us so many exceptions to the idea that the wicked never prosper and the righteous never suffer.
 
Well, if it it’s not personal sin, then maybe Job is experiencing this things because 
 
  • God Isn’t Good
 
After all, why would God allow this tragedy to befall Job?  Why would God give permission for this kind of thing to happen?  Have you ever had something happen that so shook you to the core of your being that it messed with your theology?  Something that made you look upward and shout “How could You have let this happen?!”  “What ‘good’ is there in this?!...I trusted You!”
 
Job deals with thoughts like that.  Look in
 
Job 9:21-23
 
The facts of things are that we live in a world that is broken and does not work right, and bad things DO happen to good people.  The difference is the end of the story.  We can peek ahead and see the end of Job’s story and we can also peek ahead and look at the end of our story in Revelation.
There is justice in the universe.  There will be punishment for the wicked.  God will wipe the tears from eyes of the righteous.  But there is not only the promise of heaven, but God’s promises and blessings for us in this life are still true!
 
Romans 8:28 is still in effect!  “And we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.”
 
The answer to this question lies in Jesus Christ.  We have only to look at the ultimate suffering of our savior who left heaven and put on flesh and blood so He could walk in our shoes, experience what we experience, suffer like no one else, and ultimately pay our penalty so that we could be with Him forever.
 
So obviously then answer is no that God is not good.
 
Well maybe
 
  • God Doesn’t Exist
 
That’s the fool’s explanation.  Psalm 14:1 (NIV) The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”  The person who says there is no God is not some clear-eyed rational thinker who pushes past theories and grasps the truth according to the Bible.  The person who says there is no God is suffering from a condition known as repression.
 
Romans 1:18 (NIV) The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness”
Repression is a psychological defense mechanism where someone ignores and pushes down truth because it is too terrible to deal with.  The atheist who ignores all the evidence of the existence of God is terrified of the thought that you can’t live life any way that you want to; that you can’t live without someone holding you to account for your actions.  So they suppress the truth in their hearts and pretend the evidence points in a different direction.
 
So if there is a God, and that God is good, and Job didn’t sin to deserve what happened, then what is going on? If those are all lies, then what’s the truth?  Why is it that doing the will of God doesn’t guarantee I won’t suffer?  That’s what Job wanted to know.  What is
 
3. The Meaning
 
Job 23:1-5
 
Job wanted to put God on trial.  “God explain this!”  “Tell me why you won’t heal me!  Why you won’t answer me!”  Have you ever been so desperate for the voice of God to bring answers to you, and it seems like all you have is silence?
 
Job didn’t have the benefit of reading chapters 1 & 2.  He didn’t have the benefit of seeing God bragging about him saying how proud he was.  He didn’t see that the enemy who despised him was betting on his failure and God being wrong.  Wouldn’t it be nice to see behind the scenes sometimes?!?... just to get a glimpse of our own chapters 1 & 2!
 
 
But we don’t get to know everything that’s going on and how God is using it or plans to use it.  But He has given us His Word and even this story as a backstage pass.   In looking at the story of Job, Joseph, David, Abraham and others we get to see behind the scenes in Job’s life as well as get an idea of our own chapters 1 & 2; and we discover that it isn’t God on trial but it’s Job…it’s you it’s me.  As Christians, we WILL be tested.
 
In fact, God flips it around in Chapter 38.
 
Verses 1-3
 
God is the examiner.  We are the ones being examined.  We are always the ones tested, and God is always the test giver.
 
Suffering and crisis and difficulties and unexplained and unexpected circumstances are a crossroads for us; it’s a choice:  The path of pride or humility.  Child sick, marriage failing, life isn’t working out according to my script.  Will we rip the reins of our lives out of the hands of God and say “I gave you a chance, but you’re screwing it up!” and begin to march down the path of self-determination, or will you humble yourself before God?
 
When your job is at stake, which course will you choose…obedience or what you think is best…after all this is the real world, and God will understand I am just trying to provide for my family?  When your marriage is breaking, will you choose the path of humility?  Suffering is a test…a test of which path you will walk.
 
 
Listen, it’s one thing to put on a show on Sunday and pray “Your will be done” and all that,, but it is quite another to trust God when you are in the fire and all hope seems to be gone and it makes no sense and God’s not doing anything!
 
Listen to how God helps Job get some perspective on life:
 
Job 38:4, 12, 16-18, 31
 
God is saying, “Job you are limited in your knowledge, You are limited in your years, You are limited in power. You cannot possibly fathom my ways.”
 
Listen:  you cannot possibly imagine what God is up to when you are in pain!  It is not possible to comprehend the purposes of God and how God is going to bring good from your circumstance.  It falls to us to kneel before God and confess “I am not your judge, you are my judge.  God you are infinite, and I am small, You are omnipotent, and I am weak…You are God.”
 
So what is being tested here?  The charge by Satan in chapter 1 “does Job fear God for nothing?”  “He loves you and serves you because of all the good things you give him.  He has health, wealth, a beautiful family, men’s respect.  Take all that away and Job will curse your Name!”
 
That’s what Job is about!  The testing of motives, when you are suffering what do you really want in life?  Nothing clarifies things like pain.  What MUST you have to have a full and satisfying life?
You say you are a follower of Christ…What are you aiming your life towards?  What are you placing value upon in your life?  And if it is all taken away, who are you then?  Will you do God’s will regardless?
 
In chapter 42 Job finally answers God:  Job 42:1-5
 
Job has found maturity as a believer; in v5 listen to the change in Job’s life:  “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.”  This is the place where God wants us to get to.  The place of refinement to where God Himself is all we want.
 
The rest of the book of Job is perhaps the most well known part of Job. It’s the happy ending.  In fact it’s almost too good to be true.  It’s a little too Hollywood.  If Job had ended at 42:5 it would be good for me.  So why this ending?  Why the friends repenting to Job, the restoration of relationships, wealth and possessions, the restoration of family so that he had double what he had had before, and Job lived happily ever after. The main message and moral of the story had been accomplished, God is enough!…why this cherry on top?
 
I think it’s because nany people who have suffered through things wind up giving up on God being a meaningful part of their lives.  They still believe in God, still want to follow Him, but as for enjoying Him this side of heaven, it ceases to be a hope of theirs. Following Christ becomes about grinning and bearing life to escape Hell and make it to heaven.  God becomes this disappointing person in their life.  “I’m just going to lower my expectations” and any hope of God breaking through into their life is gone.  And that’s just the way it works.  No.
 
God’s love extends into our everyday lives and He enjoys blessing us.  We are the apple of His eye, the treasure of His heart.  We know that even as earthly parents we will subject our children to things that will bring some amount of suffering to them on their level, and we do it for their benefit…so they will grow into responsible adults able to sustain healthy relationships.  But we also love to give them gifts; love to create warm memories that they will carry with them; love to provide a loving supportive home for them to have a strong foundation.
 
God is the same way.  He will test our motives and obedience.  But He will fill our lives with goodness and blessing, and not just in the bye and bye, but right now!  That is what the end of the book of Job is about.
 
During World War II, Corrie ten Boom and her sister, Betsie, were taken from her home in Holland to a prison camp and later to the Ravensbruck Concentration Camp in Germany. It was there that Betsie died.  Corrie Ten Boom was released—by a Nazi clerical mistake—just before the end of the war. In her book Tramp for the Lord—written near the end of her life—she reflects on God’s leading:
 
Looking back across the years of my life, I can see the working of a divine pattern which is the way of God with His children. When I was in a prison camp in Holland during the war, I often prayed, “Lord, never let the enemy put me in a German concentration camp.” God answered no to that prayer. Yet in the German camp, with all its horror, I found many prisoners who had never heard of Jesus Christ.
If God had not used my sister Betsie and me to bring them to Him, they would never have heard of Him. Many died, or were killed, but many died with the name of Jesus on their lips. They were well worth all our suffering. Faith is like the radar which sees through the fog—the reality of things at a distance that the human eye cannot see.”
 
How can going to a prison camp be the will of a good God? It can’t be if God’s will is that you should always be happy and comfortable. Yet going to a prison camp can be the will of God for you if it makes you more like Jesus Christ and gives you opportunities to share the love of Christ to people that would never hear it otherwise. That’s the biblical perspective.
 
Will God’s plan for you and me always bring immediate worldly wealth and success? No, but God’s plan will always bring peace and joy and fulfillment. Our duty is to follow the Lord wherever he leads us. And when we do that, we find a deep joy in him. The path of duty leads to a joy the world cannot match.
 
Get to know the Lord. That’s what the book of Job teaches us.  Doing God’s will is not just following a set of instruction that come from a distant dictator.  Doing God’s will is simply traveling life’s journey in the company of God so we can get to know Him.
 
There are a lot of things that happen for which I do not have an answer, but I want to leave you with some verses from Job that I pray will bring peace to your heart.
 
Job 23:8-10
He knows the way that I take even when I don’t.
 
He knows the way that I take even when I can’t see clearly.
 
He knows the way that I take even when I get lost.
 
Listen:  you don’t have to see the way, just keep your eyes on Him.
 
Let me offer you a simple prayer that can use to learn what God is like:
 
 “Heavenly Father, you are in charge of everything that will happen to me today–whether it be good or bad, positive or negative. Please make me thankful for everything that happens to me today. Amen.”
 
This prayer is powerful because it doesn’t change anything outside of me, but it does change everything inside of me. My circumstances don’t change, but my attitude does.
 
Take that simple prayer and pray it first thing in the morning everyday this month and see what happens in your heart.
 
Let’s pray.