daily java

Daily Java:

Once I was young, and now I am old.
    Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned
    or their children begging for bread. (Psalm 37:25)

The problem is, I have. I have seen people who came to the end of a life of long and faithful service and have nothing, barely able to even get some place to live. I am one of them.

I do not understand why God has abandoned me, nor do I understand why he has left us in this situation. And I do not understand how it is that, when I have given my life to him in his service, he has put us in this financial situation. If it were not for government housing, I would be begging a place to live. We barely have enough. On top of it all, Ella is crippled and in constant pain, exacerbated by her falling at least once a month, and sometimes more, always hurting herself more in the process.

Now I will have to admit that we have plenty of food. The freezer is full of good things. And I know that is because we are hospitable. He told us that when we share, he will bless us.

But financially is where we have our problems. We have always been generous with our money, yet we are broke. I took early retirement, but the extra we will pay for our housing cuts into that, so we have not gained that much.

I also know that the people of the Bible were not always blessed financially. Hebrews 11 talks about that. But the problem is, why will God on the one hand talk about how the world will see the child of God as being so blessed and on the other hand leave that same child with nothing.

I recognize that God is not fair. He is loving and good, just and merciful. But he is not fair. He will allow one of his children to be homeless. He will not always give them even what they need. As the book of Job points out, he will allow them to be severely damaged without it even seeming to bother him.

“My faithful servant who has served me all my life?” God says of Job to the devil. “Sure. Kill him in all but actual body. Hurt him, maim him, kill his children, damage his health, impoverish him, let his friends turn on him, baffle his wife to the point of madness. Sure. Whatever you want.”

Is that really a God of love?

Now I recognize that probably Job is a epic poem, a parable, maybe based on a real life situation.  But it is in the Bible for us to look at and learn from. What do we learn from the book of Job. We learn three things, he wrote in his normal overly analytical way.

One is that sometimes there is no good reason for something happening. Job’s problems were nothing more than a bet between God and the devil.

Second is that we do not understand sometimes why things are happening and God doesn’t tell us.

Third is that God will not keep bad things from happening to his people, nor will he necessarily send good things, no matter what the rest of the Bible says.

If this book is meant to teach (Romans 15:4 – Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled.) then what it teaches has to be true. It doesn’t teach what we want, but what it teaches is true.

The only problem is that it teaches things I do not really want to know, aspects of God I would rather be without. It shows more of an uncaring God than anywhere else in the Bible, a God who will allow and even encourage the harming of his children for no good purpose. And one who will not tell his children why nor even really answer their questions. In fact, he is a God who will even tell his child to shut up crying out in pain.

Hard picture. But I have seen it too much and I am one of those to which it is happening.

However, that line from the movie Robin and Marian keeps coming to mind. The older Robin Hood (played by Sean Connery) is telling the old Maid Marian (played by Audrey Hepburn) about the horrible things he has seen under the leadership of King Richard the Lionhearted (played by Richard Harris). He has been on the Crusades and has seen and done some terrible things in the name of war.

Marian asks him, “Why did you stay? Why didn’t you leave?”

To which he replies, “He is my King. Where else would I go?”

That reminds me of the apostles in John 6 after Jesus talked about figurative cannibalism in service to him (John 6:53-56). Many disciples thought it repellent and left. He turns to the apostles and asks, “Are you also going to leave?” To which they answered, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.”

He is my God and I will ever serve him. But I do not have to like everything he does. I may be a sheep, but I am not a blind sheep.