Questioning God's goodness

 

(Thank you to everyone who prayed for me and for my hubby as we rested and recuperated. It's a slow process! Still working our way back to 100%, and we are so grateful for all of the prayers!)

It's a very old question . . . "Is life fair?" 

"Is God really looking out for me?"

Satan attacked God's goodness when he suggested to Eve that God must have an ulterior motive for saying, "Don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." He wanted Eve to think that God was withholding something good from her.  

He's used that same ploy down through the centuries. The "life isn't fair" complaint is one of his most effective tools, as we have studied before. 

But when we allow that "life isn't fair" complaint to nest in our brain and stay for a while . . . . when we give it time to settle and for us to turn back to it again and again . . . . and think about it more . . . what we are actually doing is beginning to doubt God's goodness. 

Or, if we are not doubting the goodness of God, we are beginning to doubt the sovereignty of God - whether or not we accept the fact that He is truly in control. 

In Psalm 73, Asaph allowed himself to envy the wicked. And that meant that he was questioning whether God is good, and whether He is in control. You see, the logical train of thought is this: if God is both good and powerful, then why do good people suffer and wicked people prosper?

That, dear readers, is the slick spot at the top of the slippery slope toward doubt and sin. Because when we think that God is not being fair, it leads us to question the benefits of following Him.

Let's think about that. If we allow ourselves to entertain the thought that God is not "fair" as we humans view fairness, then isn't the next step, "why on earth am I following Him?" 

Asaph fell into just that same trap. He lamented in the psalm that he had followed the Lord in vain. Why? Because, as he said, in spite of all his efforts to keep his heart (inner life) and hands (outer life) pure, all Asaph experienced was trouble! 

 Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure

and have washed my hands in innocence.

14 All day long I have been afflicted,

and every morning brings new punishments. (Psalm 73:13-14)

I think he needed to clean his "spectacles." He was not looking at his life by faith, but by human perception. Of course, II Corinthians 5:7 had not been written yet, nor had Hebrews 12:

And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,
“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
    and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”
 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? (Hebrews 12:5-7)

. . . .  but the basis for the writer of Hebrews' words HAD been written:

My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline,
    and do not resent his rebuke,
12 because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
    as a father the son he delights in. (Proverbs 3:11-12)

We must follow the example of Joseph in the Old Testament, and Paul in the New . . . In Genesis, Joseph viewed all of the difficult things that came upon him as actually good things - from the hand of God, and for His purpose. In Romans, Paul told us that we must keep believing that God works all things together for our good.

When we come right down "to it" in these situations, self-focus and self-pity are at the root of questioning God's fairness. Asaph saw this. He finally saw that his problem was not that God is unfair. The real problem was not even that the wicked were prospering. 
The problem was he had allowed his focus to be totally self-ward. And then, he began to wallow in self-pity. In verse 22, he tells us that he had become "senseless and ignorant." It was as if he sat down in a huff and told himself, "What did I get out of being pure? Nothing but trouble! Oh, woe is poor little old me!" 

He needed to come back to some core truths:

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. (Proverbs 19:21)

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)

Stick with us as we continue our study next time . . . .