This post is from Answers to the Big Questions of Life from Genesis and Job, Part One
Key verse: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much.” Job 38:4, TLB
One of the worst things in life is being deceived about something important—if we think someone loves us and we find out they don’t; if we think a job we love isn’t what thought it would be; if we find out we aren’t the person we thought we were—believing something important and then finding out we were wrong can be devastating.
That reality is vitally true with our relationship to God. We must believe the correct things about Him for our walk with Him to make sense and for us to make the right decisions in how we follow Him. Sadly, many of the teachings today, even in the church, focus on simply what will make us feel good and if God doesn’t make us feel good or do what we want Him to do, many get mad and walk away.
Our lesson series on Genesis and Job was created to help you gain a clearer picture of what to expect in your relationship with Him. The three foundational truths I’m about to share, if looked at alone, can appear harsh and even cruel at times. But it is important to remember that wrapped up in every hard concept of God, everything that is difficult to understand, or a trial we are given to endure, comes from a God who is, above all things LOVE.
God is love. Love defines who He is and all He is in His relationship with you. A few verses follow that remind us of this—
I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love.
With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself. Jer. 31:3 NLTBut because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. Eph. 2:4-5, NIV
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39
To repeat what I said earlier, everything else in the Bible, every hard concept of God, everything that is difficult to understand, or a trial we are given to endure comes from a God who is, above all things LOVE.
What we must learn for our relationship with God to be all it can and should be is that God’s love may be expressed in ways that we many do not understand or even like, but they are truths we must be aware of. When we accept them, even if we don’t understand them fully, our walk with Him will be much more peaceful. With that introduction here are the three foundational truths, along with suggestions applications based on them–
Foundational Truth #ONE—God has an absolute right to do things, He has control over all things in heaven and earth, people, Satan and his demons. This right is also known as His Sovereignty. He is King.
Application thoughts: We know that is theologically, properly true. But though God as absolute ruler of all may seem indisputable in our minds, how does that belief express itself in our lives?
Do we truly live as if God were sovereign or do we tell God what we think is best, what we want to do, what we think is right or wrong, fair or not without pausing quietly to ask His opinion or to humbly submit to what He is doing in our lives? Do we get angry if He doesn’t do what we want when we want Him to do something?
Maybe we are afraid to admit we feel anger (though He already knows it) so we tell ourselves we are simply disappointed, which we may be. It is so hard to know the boundaries between honest sadness and rebellious thoughts, but I think we at least ought to struggle with figuring that out.
God may be gracious and give us answers when we ask “why?” but we must also be prepared for the response to this way of thinking, what was expressed in the verse I opened with, where in answer to Job’s questions, God says to him “Where were you when I created the world?” And the unspoken continuing thought is, if you can’t answer that, I, God do not need to answer you.
It might seem harsh—but that is reality. God does not owe us explanations—He doesn’t always give them. God never told Job why what happened to him happened, but he showed up for Job and He always shows up for us.
He’s with us in the fire; he promised never to leave us and he promised us His peace. His presence is enough and certain; His answers are not guaranteed.
Foundational Truth #TWO—Our relationship with God is NOT a transactional one, where we can put expectations and demands on God based on what we want or think we deserve.
Understanding this is incredibly important and it is the whole point of much of the dialog in the book of Job. In summary, what happens in the book of Job is that God has tested Job by taking away his wealth, children, and health. Three friends come to “comfort him” but as Job says they are miserable comforters and their messages (which go on and on and on) are all along the lines of “If you do good things, God will reward you. If you are bad, you will be punished—here and now.”
Though we may not put this belief in as eloquent of terms that Job’s friends do in some of the passages, this idea that people have a transactional relationship with God, where if they do good, God owes them blessings is the default belief many people (us, if we are honest) have today. It is a Christianized view of Karma, a holy version of “what goes around, comes around.”
But though this transaction view may be widespread and popular with people, it isn’t with God because it simply isn’t true. At the end of the book (and a reason why you should read the whole thing), here is God’s conclusion on Job’s friends’ way of transactional thinking…..
Job 42: 7 After the Lord had finished speaking with Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite:
“I am angry with you and with your two friends, for you have not been right in what you have said about me, as my servant Job was.”
In other words –your transactional way of thinking about me is wrong. Yes, people are supposed to live holy lives that please God, but just because they do does not mean God owes them blessings or goodies immediately and on their timetable.
If you struggle with this, see also foundational truth #1—that God is sovereign and we can’t force him to do anything by our actions or opinions.
There are so many reasons God may or may not act in a certain way—if we all got what we wanted immediately we would be dreadfully spoiled children; we do learn much when we are under pressure, delay is not denial and God’s timing is always perfect–we know all these truths from our experience, but in addition, there is the third foundational truth we must factor into the complexities of life that many forget and that is—
Foundational Truth #THREE—there is a lot more going on in the spiritual world than we are aware of in ways both terrifying and ultimately comforting.
The reason Job suffered as he did was that God was using Job as a witness to the hosts of heaven and to Satan himself that Job would trust and believe in God even when all was taken from him. Job NEVER knew in his earthly life what was going on in the halls of heaven, he never knew the incredible honor he had been given in his time on earth. God determined to allow things, to use things in Job’s life, to glorify God and defeat Satan that Job had no concept of. God used a human to teach the hosts of heaven a lesson.
We are not told that the way God used Job was a one-time situation.
We have no idea why what happens to us happens to us or how God will use what we go through. All we know for certain is that, like He was with Job, God will always be with us.
Knowing He is with us, even if He doesn’t do what we want, may be frustrating and heart-breaking at times—but it is part of a great adventure, where we wait expectantly to see what God will do and how He might surprise us.