Fast Track Chapter 5: The Doubts

Chapter 5

As we move into chapter five, let’s backtrack briefly. So far, we have examined the Bible in chronological order from Genesis to Malachi in the Old Testament (the part of the Bible before Jesus comes on the scene, covering the period from 4000 B.C. to 400 B.C.). Before we move into the New Testament and look at Jesus, the church, and the end of time, it would be helpful to look at several books that deal with doubt.

The Bible helps us vent our emotions in the face of evil. Books like Psalms, Habakkuk, Job, Ruth, and Lamentations offer us contemplative views of the soul and its yearnings. In them we see the broken heart free to mourn, doubt, cry, and even wail. The Bible says we are living in a battle zone of good and evil, justice and injustice, love and hate, truth and lies. Being in the battle can result in bad things happening to anyone, even those who love God. The Bible gives us freedom to wrestle with Him as we compare this broken world to the one for which we were created. God also offers us hope that He will one day return and permanently repair this broken world.

Job’s bad news headlines tested his faith

We begin in the book of Job (pronounced Jobe), depicting a series of events that occurred in the early days of Genesis. We meet a man who's in the local news as a leader, giver, philanthropist, family man, business owner, and man of faith. His front-page status even grabbed God's attention. God was so impressed that He bragged about Job in heaven. "Have you considered My servant Job?" He said during one of these bragging sessions. A debate ensued in Heaven between good and evil. God‟s Adversary doubted Job's devotion. Evil contended that no one helps others unless they "get something out of it." So a debate ensued between God, the loving generous One, and Evil, the selfish taker. What‟s at the center of the universe: selfishness or love? To test this question, good and evil staged an experiment on Job. God allowed Job to be tested, but not harmed physically.

In one day, Job received more bad news than any human could imagine. Like a newspaper delivered every hour, Job received a parade of shocking, horrific news. In page after page he learned that his cattle and farms had been taken. He found out that his family had been killed. Everything Job held dear fell apart in one dreadful day.

As this cosmic play built to a climax, the audience watched Job's reaction. Will he thank God for the time he had with his riches and children, or curse God for not giving him more time? Will he curse God, or cling to Him? Job refused to curse God. He fell to his knees in tears, trying to cope with the deep darkness that had come upon him. In the midst of the pain, he worshipped. He clung to God as his source of comfort. He realized that only God could help him make sense of this tragedy. He relied on God as the only one who could make good out of bad. As we listen in, we hear Job say, "Blessed be the name of the Lord. He gives and takes away." The Evil One was not impressed.

Evil restated his assertion that everyone is inherently selfish. Evil suggested that Job was clinging to God in the midst of tragedy because "at least he had his health." God allowed Evil to affect Job's health, but not to kill him. Job was again on the receiving end of pain and difficulty. How would he respond? Would he curse God? This time Job came close: he cursed the day he was born. The long-term health problems combined with the emotional distress of losing his family, business, and riches was too much to bear. Job's wife, who was also suffering great pain, finally cried out in exasperation, "Job, curse God and die." But Job refused, clinging tirelessly to his God instead.

Job’s friends put their faith in boomerangs

The next 30 chapters of Job play out as a conversation between Job and his "friends." These four friends came to comfort Job in his pain. They began by silently sitting with Job and mourning with him. For seven days they sat, listened, and entered into Job's pain. These "sitting sevens" became a pattern for comforting others for centuries to come. The problem occurred when the friends decided to open their mouths and explain the problem of evil to Job. Job's friends believed in the doctrine of “boomerang retribution,” otherwise known as karma. They believed that "bad things happen to bad people" and "good things happen to good people." Karma helped them rationalize the cause of these tragic events. They pointed their fingers at Job, saying God was angry at him. Surely Job‟s sins must have caused these tragedies. They even had the gall to tell Job that his children had died because they were bad. Layers of guilt were dumped on Job, who was not only in pain, but now trying to fight against the guilt of this notion of karma.

Job argued that suffering is real, not an illusion, as Buddhism teaches today. Job argued that suffering is wrong, not normal, as Naturalism teaches. Job argued that suffering is not karma, as Hinduism and his friends believed. Job couldn‟t explain why he was suffering, but he knew that it was not karma. The Bible teaches that suffering is caused by a broken creation. Our broken world is not in alignment with its Creator. The darkness released by Adam and Eve affected everything. There are dark forces in the spiritual realm that affect mankind. There is darkness in each of us that causes us to do what we don't want to do. There is darkness that fills the hearts of others' evil actions. There is darkness that causes the world to spit out Earthquakes, tsunamis, and suffering. Job realized that the problem of evil and suffering is not always as simple as "it's your fault."

God showed up in a whirlwind to meet with Job

The finger pointing at Job continued chapter after chapter. Finally, God showed up in a whirlwind. How did God explain Himself to Job? How did God solve the puzzle of pain? Would God pull back the curtain of eternity and let Job see into the wings? No. God came down to Job to give him what he asked for – an audience with his Creator. God began by not answering, but asking questions. For two chapters God asked Job questions about how the Earth was made, where light comes from, and how the animals got their instincts. God bombarded Job with questions designed to humble him and remind him that he didn‟t know as much as he thought. Job covered his mouth and fell to his feet. Job had seen God and realized that he had been presumptuous to think that he knew all the facts. He realized, “Who am I to correct God?” Job realized that God really is wise, powerful, and all-knowing. Job saw the extent of God‟s love for creation. God reminded Job that He sees the deer giving birth, the cloud that rains on unseen land, and the silly ostrich running across the plain. While God never answered Job's questions directly, God revealed that He can be trusted during tragedy. God confirmed that karma is wrong. God reminded Job that He was steadfast and loved him dearly.

Job's friends felt justified. They thought they were right: Job was arrogantly trying to boss God around. God rebuked them for their poor theology, which was inappropriately placed into Job's life. God confirmed that Job was right. In the mysteries of this broken world, sometimes bad things happen to “good” people. In this sliver of time we live in now, good things even happen to bad people occasionally. God reminded them that He will set all things right. He will judge the evil doer and He will reward the good. God was not happy with Job's friends. God humbled these "experts" by telling them they can only find forgiveness if Job, the righteous man, prayed for them. Job's humility and forgiving attitude was on display again as he forgave his friends, prayed for their forgiveness, and suggested they cling to God in adversity themselves. God honored Job's clinging by restoring his fortune and health, and blessed him with more children. Job showed us that evil and pain are complicated, but the only way to push through the pain is by clinging to the source of hope.

The message of the Bible offers the only satisfying answer to the problem of evil and suffering. All the other philosophies and religions of the world can be boiled down to four phrases: Not Really, Not Ever, Not Again, and Not Yet. When you ask the Buddha for a solution to suffering, he would tell you that suffering is “not really” happening. Buddha said that this world is a dream and an illusion. Atheism, which critiques the problem of pain as a reason to abandon the Bible‟s claims, offers a very unsatisfying answer to the problem of suffering. Atheism says that evil will “not ever” be fixed. According to this view, the world has always had suffering and will always have injustice. Hinduism has an answer to the problem of evil. It says suffering will be fixed through a reoccurring cycle of reincarnation whereby mankind is punished through karma over billions of years. The universe punishes evil with suffering through karma until evil is beat out of each individual. You might call this view, “Not again” because evil is slowly destroyed again and again through reincarnation.

Christianity offers a radically different view from these three. The Bible teaches that God will deal with evil, just “Not Yet.” God sees the pain in this world. He counts the tears. He promises that He will reset everything correctly. Just not yet. While it‟s frustrating to live in the “not yet,” there can be real hope that justice will prevail. There is real confidence that evil will not get away with it. There is great comfort in knowing God sees and rewards unnoticed acts of goodness.

Naomi’s emotional tank was empty

The book of Ruth could have been called the book of Naomi. It begins with Naomi as a woman with deep faith in God. Quickly the book revealed the reasons for the pain in her life. Naomi was living in Bethlehem with her husband. A famine struck that hurt their business and forced them to move to Moab. During the next few years, her two sons married Moabite women: Orpah and Ruth. Then tragedy struck again: Naomi lost her husband. Just as she was coming to grips with her husband's death, she lost both of her sons. Naomi's heart was shredded by the dreadful pain. She decided to return to Bethlehem to be with her old friends and family. She turned to her daughters-in-law and told them to return to their land and their gods. Orpah had lost her husband and father-in-law. She responded to the tragedy by cursing Naomi's God and returned to the gods of Moab. But Ruth chose to cling. She refused to turn from her God and decided not to leave Naomi alone, so they returned to Bethlehem together. The years of pain had so changed Naomi that her friends barely recognized her. Naomi, whose name means “pleasant”, asked them to call her Mara, meaning bitter. She told everyone that she used to be "full," but God had brought her back empty. The Lord had dealt treacherously with her. Her faith tank was empty, her emotions exhausted, and Naomi was bitter at God. Naomi had given up on God; however, God had not given up on Naomi.

The next few chapters in Ruth tell how God worked through a successful and generous business owner named Boaz to provide opportunities for Ruth and Naomi to get food. Boaz asked his men to protect Ruth as she gleaned in the field, and told them to "drop" extra grain so Ruth could have more than she needed. Naomi began to see God's provision and love for her through this business man's generosity. Naomi's faith was sparked. Naomi also saw a potential love story in the making. Naomi instructed Ruth (the Moabite) on the courting rituals in Bethlehem. Ruth was told to visit Boaz at the barn and make her intentions known. Boaz was humbled that a beautiful, kind, younger woman would want to court him. In order for Boaz to marry Ruth, he needed to redeem (meaning buy back from debt) her father-in-law's land. Ruth couldn‟t afford to redeem herself, she needed a redeemer. Boaz became her redeemer. He struck a deal on the land with the village elders, married Ruth, and they had children. Naomi was so affected by God's graciousness and redemption that her faith was restored. She saw her grandchildren as a gift from God to her family. She was grateful that Ruth hung onto God during difficulty and gave her an example to follow during the dark season. God had a deeper plan in store for those grandchildren. The Messiah would come through Ruth's lineage. King David would come through Boaz and Ruth's children. God was weaving His plan for final forgiveness through this powerful story of Ruth. The tipping point was Ruth's decision to cling rather than curse when faced with adversity.

Habakkuk argued at God in the watchtower

We turn now to the book of Habakkuk. This book deals with trouble and evil in a shocking way. The prophet Habakkuk finds himself in a watchtower, a tall tower, arguing with God. Habakkuk was crying out to God for an answer to the question, "Why are Your people suffering in captivity?" God told the prophet, “You wouldn‟t believe it if I told you." Habakkuk acknowledged that God knew more than he did, but wanted to try to understand. God's answer was shocking: He was about to allow the kingdom of Babylon to conquer His people, and would then allow a far worse nation, the Persians, to conquer Babylon. God would then allow the Greeks to conquer the Persians, and then the Romans to conquer the Greeks. These barbaric future battles would bring about God's ultimate plan. Habakkuk was stunned. He must have thought, "I'm struggling with suffering, and You're telling me it's gonna get worse?!" When asked "Why do you allow evil people to take us into captivity?" God answered, "Don't worry, far worse nations will conquer them." Habakkuk was confused and frustrated at God. The prophet couldn't understand or believe it. He had a choice: he could cling to God, trusting Him to know best, or curse God for allowing this pain to continue. Habakkuk was given freedom to struggle, doubt, and cry in the struggle. God acknowledged that it's hard to always see the bigger picture.

History records the brilliance of God's ability to weave good out of this "evil time" in history. The evil nations that He allowed to spring up would set the stage for his coming Messiah. The Greeks would expand the known world and established a common language, making the message of the God's forgiveness easy to communicate. The Romans would establish the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace. Their roads, security, and "peace" for travel would make the communication of God's message easy to spread quickly throughout the world. Bottom line: God allowed the Greeks to do the communication plan, the Romans to set up the infrastructure, and the early church to spread the message. God was planning centuries in advance for our Forgiver‟s arrival. We learn from Habakkuk that it's okay to struggle and doubt with God. We can share our honest questions with God. We also learn that God has plans that are too big for our little brains to understand. We must choose to cling rather than curse, knowing His wisdom is greater than ours.

Jeremiah felt like God’s target for pain

The prophet Jeremiah picked up a similar chorus in the book of Lamentations. He got to see the aftermath of the evil Babylonian‟s rampage on God's people. Though Jeremiah had predicted the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians, he never imagined the carnage in 586 B.C. Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet, and led a life and ministry characterized by loneliness and rejection. He knew God would remove His hand of protection from Judah, who continued to trust other gods to protect them, but his heart broke for his people too. The book of Lamentations is a personal journal of poems, reflections, and doubts. The author asks, why does God allow pain into His children's lives?

Jeremiah lamented that he felt like he had been shot by God. He felt like God had a quiver and had "targeted his people" with pain and devastation. He felt like God had become his enemy. He felt like he had no hope, no comfort, no future, and no God on his side. Jeremiah launched into an explosion of pain and doubt paragraph after paragraph. The surprising reality of the book of Lamentations is this: Jeremiah was clinging to God through his crying. His honest reflection and weeping were holy acts. His words became a book of the Bible to remind us to cling while we cry. In the middle of the book, Jeremiah shared with us the secret to his tension. He "recalls this to mind and therefore has hope. God's mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness." Jeremiah remembered that God is faithful – even when His people are faithless. Jeremiah remembers that God is a master of turning pain into joy, mourning into dancing. Jeremiah reminded the people that their season of bondage would only last seventy years and then God would restore His promises. God promised to finish the good work He began in them, and again called His people to return for forgiveness and leadership. God wanted them to cling in their cries. He wanted them to give Him their tears in the coming years. God keeps His promise to His people: the Babylonian exile ended after seventy years – exactly as He said it would.

The book of Psalms is a real toe-tapper

The book of Psalms is a music book. It‟s a book of songs, hymns and poems sung by God's people over the years. Many of them are celebratory songs of God's strength, comfort, power, might, and wisdom. The book is also filled with lament Psalms of pain and anguish recording the painful cries of God's people under duress. The book of Psalms reminds us to cry out to God in times of need. One writer, Asaph, in Psalm 73, wrote about how he almost slipped in his faith when he saw evil prospering. He struggled intellectually with the problem of evil. He imagined that evil people had "no pains in their death." He saw good poured out onto the evil people while good people suffered. Asaph had to remind himself that God will be the final judge. He will reward those who trust in Him. God will bring final consequences onto evil doers. The hope and promise of a just, righteous God allowed Asaph to cling to God during his confusion.

God is the Good Shepherd

One of the most famous psalms is Psalm 23. It is a reminder that God is with when we are down. We can cling to Him during a crisis because He will never leave us or forsake us. We serve a God who walks with us during the dark times, like a good shepherd who leads us to greener pastures. This Psalm was written by David during his difficult times:

Psalm 23 1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.

A checklist of prophecies point to the Messiah

The last type of Psalm is the Messianic Psalm. These Psalms help us answer the problem of evil by looking to the Messiah, God‟s final forgiver and rescuer. The God of the Bible doesn't stay up in heaven looking down on mankind from a distance. The Psalms tell us that God will come close. He will enter into our pain. The Messiah will be the God who can sympathize, a man acquainted with grief and sorrow. The Messiah will cry out the words, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" The Messiah will enter the crisis of an evil world through pain and suffering and experience grief, betrayal, pain, and crucifixion. This coming Messiah will show us how to cling to our Father during crisis. He will be abandoned by God and killed for our rebellion. Everyone will think God has left Him. Everyone will think God's plan is wrecked ... but God will remain faithful. God will not "let His Holy One see decay." He will raise the Forgiver from the Dead. God will bring salvation from destruction and hope from despair. The faithfulness of the One who clings to God when the whole world is falling apart will make a way for the faithless to be made whole again. The Messiah will experience the pain of a “red cross,” healing us through his suffering.

This section of the Bible is about tears, fears and doubts. These books – Ruth, Job, Lamentations, Psalms, and Habakkuk – are great places to pour out your heart to God. They remind us of a constant theme from the Scriptures: we can cling or curse God when we enter a crisis. We can cling to God who knows more than we do, who enters into our pain, and who promises never to leave us alone.

Watch "The Doubts"

Watch Pastor Doug (Chad's co-pastor) present the fifth part of the Fast Track series, "The Doubts."

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