Crucified & Exchanged

God is good, all the time. And all the time, God is good.

You have heard this a gazillion times. But do we really believe it? When we are tested with sickness, financial need, relationship problems, trouble at church, etc.  do we question what God is doing  and why? In our heart of hearts are we certain that God is good?

Job mocked by his wife: La Tour, Georges de

Of course God is good. But there some misunderstandings about the character of God fed by tradition, false teachings, and human experience which leave us double minded concerning this issue.

We say, “God is good….but.”  But God will strike us with a curse if we do this or fail to do that. Maybe like me you have heard religious leaders say that God  puts sickness or failure on someone to bring him closer to Him.

What is the truth? Let’s look at the premiere text on the question of human suffering and the culpability of God.

Here is the opening scene. Job is making a sacrifice, a preemptive move in case his children have done or are doing something sinful. At the same time, there there is an assembly in heaven with the sons of God and Satan presenting themselves before him. God knows that Satan has an agenda: he is all bothered by Job and his prosperity. God says to him:

The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.”

Satan –whose name in Hebrew means the Adversary — says in effect:

“Sure Job is blameless and upright. He has everything given him. You protect him from evil. He has never been tested. Let me at him: Give 5 minutes with him an I will have him cussin’ you to your face!”

So God tells him, “Ok do your thing, but don’t touch the man himself- hear me? Don’t touch a hair on his body!”

So the Adversary does his thing. And what is his thing? Not bursts of fire from his fingertips or serpents streaming out of the ground. Satan doesn’t do the kind of things we see in the movies. He instigates the kind of things that are unfortunately all to common in this world.

• First a band of murdering thieves (Sabeans)  steal his oxen and donkeys and kill his servants
• Next, fire rains down from heaven and kills his sheep and their attendants. This could have been a meteor, or debris from a volcanic eruption.
• Then, more murdering thieves ( Chaldeans this time) come and take his camels and kill the servants
• Finally, a great wind — a hurricane or tornado — strikes the home where his children are partying. The building collapses on them and kills them.

These tragic events can be explained as par for the course in this fallen wars. There are people suffering in this way all over the world. And we blame God. We call floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornados, and other natural disasters, “Acts of God.” When a child is senselessly killed by another human, we tell the grieving that “God Took Another Angel Home Today.”

We blame God for what the Adversary is doing.

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” (John 10:10-11)

In the next post: we will continue our look at the question, “Is God good all the time?” by looking again to the book of Job and particularly the words Job’s 3 friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.