That is the million dollar question. It’s a question we’ve all had, and one that is very difficult to answer. But today we will make an attempt to do just that. As we begin to look at this very common thought, I want you to evaluate “wh God loves you more than you can comprehend. ause your sense of justice is being offended...and someone must be held accountable. It normally starts like this: You find yourself involved in a situation that is very troubling and you just can’t understand why it is happehow can we judge whether the outcome will be good or bad? y not gonna be you, so you say...How could God allow this terrible situation? Or maybe it’s someone else you know. This person is so good and yet they are going through such a bad thing. What do you do when you see a situation like this, or encounteif you grew up in church. And if you didn’t grow up in church, he’s the guy that is the subject of the broadway musical “Joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat.” The bible tells us that his dad gave him a coat of many colors and it made his brothers jealous. th shut...So, you decide to take matters into your own hands...and fix it...or so you think. Does your desire for justice over ride your judgment or even worse does it over ride your knowledge of what the Bible tells us to do? Are you too quick to speak into a situation that you perceive as being bad? What normally ends up happening? Does it get worse? James 1:19-20 “19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” As a disciple of Jesus, can you be content to pray over a situation instead of trying to fix it yourself? If not, what does that say about your trust in God to provide an outcome that fulfills His will, versus an outcome
that fulfills yours? Did you asked God what He wants, or did you just assume that your will was His will? Today we will look at some seemingly good guys who had seemingly bad things happen to them. One who took matters into his own hands, and one who let God handle the situation...in His timing. Saul, is the first guy we will look at. He was the first king of Israel and he found himself in a very difficult situation. The philistines had gathered to fight against him because his son had killed some of them in a small battle. The situation escalated quickly and Saul panicked and did something that he thought would help. Spoiler alert...it didn’t. 1 Samuel 13:5 “5 And the Philistines mustered to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen and troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude.” Samuel the prophet was supposed to come and offer a sacrifice before Israel entered into battle, but he was late. Saul decided that something must be done...and he was just the man to do it. 1 Samuel 13:8-9 “8 He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. 9 So Saul said, “Bring the burnt offering here to me, and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering. Saul panicked when Samuel was late and decided to offer the sacrifices himself. The problem was that Saul was the king...not the priest or prophet. His job was to lead the army based on the word of the Lord through His priest, not to jump in and try to be the priest himself. He trusted more in the ritual of sacrificing than actually obeying the word of the Lord. Let’s see what happened because Saul tried to fix the problem himself.
1 Samuel 13:10-13 “10 As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him and greet him. 11 Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, 12 I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the Lord.’ So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering.” 13 And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. Saul had everything. His family could have ruled over Israel forever, but in his confusion over what was happening around him, he was willing to risk it all by taking matters into his own hands. Here is the judgment that Samuel renders to Saul because of his rash act and trusting the ritual over obedience. 1 Samuel 13:14 “14 But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.” Saul completely blew it, not only for himself, but for his entire family line that would now no longer inherit the kingship over Israel. The king that Samuel prophesies about is David, who goes on to become the greatest king to rule Israel. A man after God’s own heart. Who will rule according to the word of the Lord. We deal with this scenario many times in our life, and all too often we plow forward trying to create our version of what we believe is right...to disastrous results. We believe we understand all the issues surrounding the situation, so we jump in to rectify the
problem. Our arrogance in believing we know best is really the problem. We render a judgment based on our understanding, which is very limited. Do you really know all the facts. Or just what you were told? Do you really know what the outcome of the situation will be if you don’t intervene? How could you know what will happen? Do you know what will happen in the next ten minutes? How about tomorrow, or the next ten years? Obviously, you don’t, so if we don’t really know what will happen on the future, how can we judge wether the outcome will be good or bad? Is that our job or God’s job? At the heart of this dilemma is the age old question: “Why do bad things happen to good people?” We can’t comprehend why something is happening and so we categorize it as being a bad thing. We ask ourselves this question when we see one of those situations that look bad happening to someone we perceive to be good. But, right off the bat, there are a couple of problems with this question. When we ask, “why do bad things happen to good people?”, we have begun with a faulty premise. We have already made the mistake of making ourselves the judge of what is bad and who is good. Mark 10:17-18 “17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” This guy had judged Jesus to be good and Jesus immediately questioned him about that judgment. Now, on the surface this looks like Jesus is denying that he is good, and saying that He is
not God. But is that really what Jesus said or is it just the way we have been taught to read the verse? We always put the emphasis on the word “good.” But, there is another way to read it, that you may have never thought about. How about if we read it like this: “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” Jesus is asking if the man was calling Him God. Did the man know who he was talking to? No, because if he did, he would have certainly listened to Him. But isn’t that what we do? We know who Jesus is, but still don’t do what He says we should do. Let’s move on and look at a series of situations that illustrates the point of events that looked terrible from the outside for the guy involved, but turned out not to be so bad after all. Joseph is a guy we all learned about in Sunday school if you grew up in church. And if you didn’t grow up in church, he’s the guy that is the subject of the broadway musical “Joseph and the amazing technicolor dream coat.” The bible tells us that his dad gave him a coat of many colors and it made his brothers jealous. Genesis 37:3-5 “3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. 4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. 5 Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more.” Joseph’s trouble started because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut. He had a habit of telling on his brothers. In addition to being a tattletale and his coat, his brother’s jealousy was increased by his bragging about a dream that he would one day rule over them. As it happened, his father sent him to go check
on his brothers who were out in the field where they were tending sheep. As Joseph comes to them, here is what happened. Genesis 37:18-24 “18 They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him. 19 They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. 20 Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” 21 But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” 22 And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father. 23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. 24 And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it. Well, as far as we can tell, that certainly does seem like a bad situation that Joseph is in. Here he is just doing what his dad asked him to do and his brothers decided to kill him, but one of them talked the others into not going that far with the plan. So he survives the plan to murder him, but what happens next makes it even worse. Genesis 37:26-28 “26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. 28 Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.”
So Joseph goes from being in a pit to being sold into slavery by his brothers. Is there anyone who can hurt you more than family? Genesis 39:1-2 “1 Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. 2 The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master.” So despite being sold into slavery, Joseph is doing ok in Egypt serving Potiphar. He was actually put in charge of Potiphar’s entire household, but that doesn’t last long. As it turns out Potiphar’s wife wanted to have an affair with Joseph, but he wouldn’t do it. And as the old saying goes, hell hath no fury as a woman scorned. Or so it would seem in this case. Genesis 39:11-15 “11 But one day, when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house, 12 she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house. 13 And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, 14 she called to the men of her household and said to them, “See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. 15 And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house.” Joseph is wrongly accused and is on the run. But Potiphar’s men catch him. Genesis 39:20-21 “20 And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison. 21 But the Lord was with
Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” So Joseph ends up in prison after he was thrown into a pit and then sold into slavery. But the one thing that we see over and over again in Joseph’s life is that he did the next right thing, no matter how bad his situation was...and God gave him favor. He had a choice every time something bad happened to him. He could let it make him bitter or he could let it drive him closer to God. That is the choice you have also. The enemy wants to bring about situations in your life that will drive a wedge between you and God. All he has to do is convince you that you area good person and that God has wronged you by allowing something bad to happen to you. We have to do what Joseph did, and allow these situations to draw us in closer to God, so His peace can rule in our heart’s. We have to understand that God is working in the big picture, not in the small snapshot that we can currently see. It’s best for us to just be quiet and allow God to do His work, not try to take things into our own hands. Psalm 46:10 “10 Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” 11 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” God is working it out for His glory, not our comfort. Joseph understood what God was doing once he was finally released from prison by the king in Egypt. He ended up in a powerful position in the Kings household, just like he did in Potiphar’s house before, but this time God was ready to reveal His plan for Joseph’s life, that He had been working all along.
His family back home was in trouble because of the famine that was in the land. His brothers were forced to come to Egypt and beg for food...from Joseph. Genesis 50:18-20 “18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” Joseph saw the hand of God in his life, even though his situation was very bad as far as he could see at the time. Are you constantly trying to make things right when you don’t think a situation looks good to you? Do you need to see justice done, no matter the cost? Do you love justice more than mercy? Can you submit to God’s plan for your life no matter how much you may not understand it at the time? Have you made yourself the judge of what is bad and who is good? Here’s one last thought. Let’s say hypothetically, there is a guy who is falsely accused of a crime he didn’t commit. After being placed under arrest he is beaten by the guards. And here’s the worst part...because of a corrupt government system, he is found guilty and sentenced to the death penalty. Now in that situation how easy would it be to believe that something very bad has happened to a good person? How could God just sit back and do nothing while this was happening? What If I told you this wasn’t hypothetical. The man’s name was Jesus and were it not for His death, you would have no hope for
salvation. It looked like a bad thing happened to a good person, but it was to fulfill God’s plan of redemption. What may have looked very bad to the disciples at the time, turned out to be the greatest give God has ever given mankind. God love’s you more than you can comprehend. He has your best interests in mind and He wants you to run to Him when things are not going the way you wanted or imagined for your life. We have to trust that God is working for our good in our life, regardless of how it looks or feels tab the moment. When we are completely surrendered to His will, it shows that we trust in God as the one who is good...and He doesn’t do bad things.
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