Job is the perfect example in the Bible of suffering. God allowed him to lose his wealth, his family, and his health. This righteous man felt intense anger toward God. He even said, "God has turned me over to the ungodly and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked." He then lost his desire to live. "Only a few years will pass before I take the path of no return. My spirit is broken, my days are cut short, the grave awaits me . . . My days have passed, my plans are shattered." (Job 16:11, 22; 17:1, 11) Job did not understand any better than the rest of us why God would allow such tragedy into his life, and he was clearly angry with God.
When we look at Job and other biblical examples of people who were angry with God, it is clear that God did not condemn such anger. Rather, He entered into conversation with these people and helped them work through their anger. However, this does not mean that He always gave a full explanation of why bad things happen to good people. After listening sympathetically to Job's expressions of anger toward Him, God's response was not one of condemnation. He reminded Job that His ways were not always understandable to men. He reminded Job that He is the all-powerful Creator and Sustainer of all that is, and that in the final analysis, He is a God of Justice who can be trusted.
In the end, God expressed His own anger toward Job's friends for condemning him and urged them to repent of their wrongdoing and ask Job to pray for them. "My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer on your behalf. I will not treat you as you deserve." (Job 42:8)
Job's ultimate response was to trust God even though he did not understand. Through this experience, Job's relationship with God deepened. In his own words, "I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes." The Scriptures then record that "the Lord blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the beginning." (Job 42:5, 12)
God is fully willing to hear our expressions of anger and to listen as we pour out our pain. It is not sinful to feel angry toward God. It is human. He made us to have a concern for righteousness and whenever we encounter what we perceive to be unjust situations, we experience anger. That is how God designed us.
Knowing that God is all-powerful and could have averted these events, our anger is often toward God. "Why did God not do something?" is a question hurting Christians often ask. Theologically, we know that God does no wrong, but emotionally, we experience anger.
In the book I am reading for my new course (that starts tomorrow), Anger: Taming a Powerful Emotion, Gary Chapman, the author writes, "When I ponder this question, two alternatives come to mind, for clearly God can do something. (1) God could eliminate all sinful people and thus wipe out all the pain caused by their sinful acts. This, however, would eliminate the entire human race, because the Bible says, "Everyone has sinned" (Romans 3:23). (2) God could step in and miraculously avert the consequences of all evil. God could stop all bombs from exploding, stall all cars of drunken drivers, eliminate all germs and viruses, still all storms, exterminate all fires as soon as the spark ignites, evaporate all bullets, strike mute all who begin to speak a hurtful word, or bring temporary blindness upon all stalkers and all who look with lustful thoughts. While this may sound inviting, it removes human freedom and makes a person a robot that must do only good deeds. Apparently God values freedom, and freedom requires the option to disobey as well as to obey. There can be no freedom without the possibility of evil, and evil always has negative consequences.
In addition to the injustices caused by evil, Christians often struggle with the apparent personal inequities they endure. "Why did my sweet son die from cancer when so many bad people continue to live?" "Why does it seem like I have so many problems when my sister sails through life?" "Why isn't God taking better care of His children?"
The Bible tells us something of God's perspective but it does not reveal all of His plans. Peter tells us that the trials that bring us grief may be used to refine our faith. Paul says that God can bring good out of everything, and that through every experience He is seeking to make us more like Christ. James indicates that our difficulties lead to our maturity. Jesus says that sometimes our problems are designed so that people can see the work of God in our lives. (1 Peter 1:5-7; Romans 8:28-29; James 1:2-4; John 9:1-3.)
While all of these positive purposes are true, they still do not answer all the questions that race through our minds in the face of personal pain and loss. The call of God is that we will trust Him in the darkness as we trusted Him in the light. He has not changed, even though our circumstances have been painfully altered.
WOW! That really hit me! He's not a "good times God" where we are only required to trust Him when things are going our way and we are enjoying our life. He expects us to trust Him ALL THE TIME - even during our darkest hours.
Ephesians 4:26 says "When you are angry with God, do not sin." God has done you no wrong, but your feeling is still real anger. Anger is the normal human response when we encounter what we perceive to be injustice. God made us with this capacity for anger. HOWEVER, what we do with our anger is our responsibility. This is where we exercise the human freedom that God has given us.
The first step in handling our anger responsibly is to take the anger to God. We need not be ashamed of our anger, it is evidence of our concern for fairness. The beauty about our relationship with God is that we can freely express our perception of things to Him. We will not "hurt His feelings," nor will we stir up His anger. We are His children, and He wishes to share our lives with us. Our anger will not catch Him by surprise. He already knows what we are experiencing and wants us to share our thoughts and feelings with Him.
So . . . as I started this blog on this first day of 2017, I was asking myself the question "why NOT me?" I struggle with the pain and grief I feel when I see my brother so burdened by this awful disease of Alzheimer's. I watch what he is going through and my heart breaks for him. Then . . . I imagine that this could have happened to me also. After all . . . why not me? How very different my life would be if I had also contracted this disease. With our other siblings gone we don't know if it would have affected either of them. I know that God has plans for me (Jeremiah 29:11) and I am praying that He focuses me on them. I am lifting my anger towards Alzheimer's up to Him to deal with. But I still can't help but wonder . . . why not me?
"But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." (Isaiah 40:31)