SHAKING A FIST AT GOD

TODAY'S READING: Job 31, 32; Galations 5, 6

SCRIPTURE: Job 31:35-37; Gal. 6: 7-9

³⁵ (“Oh, that I had someone to hear me!
I sign now my defense—let the Almighty answer me;
let my accuser put his indictment in writing.
³⁶ Surely I would wear it on my shoulder,
I would put it on like a crown.
³⁷ I would give him an account of my every step;
like a prince I would approach him.)—

⁷ Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. ⁸ The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. ⁹ Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

OBSERVATION: Job is a righteous man who is committed to social justice. He recounts how he does not worship his money but uses it to help those who are less fortunate. He has humility born out of his understanding that the same God who made him made the poor people and that it is really just an accident of birth that he has been fortunate enough to have wealth. There- fore he uses it to help others. He is counting on the fact that because he has lived a righteous life, God will protect him and keep him from harm. He "shakes his fist at God" when he demands to be able to state his case before him and get an answer as to why he is having to endure such miserable suffering. Based on what I read today in Gal. 6, Job has a reason to feel this way, for that scripture says that if we do right and don't give up, we shall reap a good harvest. Conversely, that same scripture also says that if we purposely sow to our sinful nature, we shall reap destruction. I have seen many people over the years shake a fist at God and declare him to be unrighteous because they reaped heartache, pain, or some other form of destruction as a result of their own actions of sowing to their sinful natures. They felt that simply believing in God and even going to church to worship him entitled them to skip the consequences of their behavior because, after all, God is a God of grace that forgives sin. Why should they receive the consequences of their own actions when they worship a God of love? I can understand why Job shook a fist at God. He was living righteously. But I think the reason why so many get mad at God when they reap the consequences of their disobedience is because the Church has focused on the grace and forgiveness of God and has not taught the balancing truth that God also judges sin and that his grace is given to us so that we can overcome and be victorious over sin and have the power to live righteously.

APPLICATION: There are a couple of things we can learn from these scriptures. First, shaking a fist at God for any reason doesn't really do any good. We don't get answers to the "why?" questions often. If we are suffering when we have been living righteously, like Job, we have to learn to trust that God is working something in us that will benefit us down the road, even if we do not understand it now. Trust is the key. Second, we need to examine our own hearts, with help from the Holy Spirit, to see if we are reaping consequences of our own actions because we have not submitted to God in some area of our life. Third, we should not judge why someone else is going through trouble. Job's friends told him he had to have sinned pretty grossly if this trouble was happening to him. They were wrong. Suffering does not always come because someone "earned" it.

PRAYER: Father, help me to live righteously and to lead others to do so. It is not at all comfortable to confront another person and warn them that their behavior is going to cause some sort of destruction to be unleashed in their lives. But you tell us that doing so is part of loving our brothers and sisters. It is part of our responsibility to one another. Help me do it with love, gentleness and humility, understanding that I am subject to the same temptations as anyone else is. And also, help me to trust you when I suffer for righteousness' sake. I know I am not above my Master, who did the same. You have told us that we will suffer persecution simply for being followers of Jesus. Let me handle that with grace and trust. May your Bride, the Church, be cleansed from all unrighteousness and may we abstain from injuring one another with our actions or words. Make us all clean, without spot or wrinkle, ready for your return. In Jesus' Name, Amen.