Did you know that God Ioves to answer our questions? Don’t be shy to ask Him. However, don’t be surprised if He does not answer you in the way you think He will. He doesn’t always respond the way we anticipate.
Take Job, for example. Job’s many questions, after the catastrophic loss of everything except his life, centred on two dilemmas; “Where are you, God!” and “Why did you do this to me?”
His many arguments, protesting his innocence before men and God, got him nowhere. His friends insisted on his guilt and God said nothing until…finally…Job ran out of steam.
Job 31:35-40 NLT
[35] “If only someone would listen to me! Look, I will sign my name to my defense. Let the Almighty answer me. Let my accuser write out the charges against me. [36] I would face the accusation proudly. I would wear it like a crown. [37] For I would tell him exactly what I have done. I would come before him like a prince. [38] “If my land accuses me and all its furrows cry out together, [39] or if I have stolen its crops or murdered its owners, [40] then let thistles grow on that land instead of wheat, and weeds instead of barley.” Job’s words are ended.
Then God spoke, finally, when Job had nothing more to say, violently, from out of a whirlwind, but He did not answer Job’s questions. His response was, in a nutshell, …”I’m not obliged to answer your questions or explain my ways, but you are obliged to trust me!”
Why did God not respond to Job’s desperate need to know what God was doing? Job knew nothing of the wager between God and Satan. Had God told him what lay behind his terrible suffering, He would have ruined Job’s greatest lesson in life…faith in God, no matter what!
What do we learn from Job? We may never know why bad things happen to us. However, our trust in God is based securely on who He is, regardless of whether He answers our questions or not.
Let’s turn to another, “Where are you, God? What are you doing?” situation in the life of one of God’s great Old Covenant prophets, Elijah!
Elijah prophesied during the reign of Ahab, one of Israel’s many apostate kings. In response to Israel’s idolatry, a drought ravaged the country for more than three years. God hid Elijah from Ahab’s wrath until He finally sent him to confront the king with his sin. Ahab refused to listen… so, to demonstrate who is really God, Baal or the God of Israel…
Elijah called the prophets of Baal to an impossible challenge on Mount Cartmel, make a sacrifice without fire. Baal’s prophets could not induce their god to send fire on their sacrifice… but God did, in the most spectacular way…on Elijah’s bull, burning sacrifice and altar, and the ground around it, drenched with water, to ashes!
This victory gave Elijah the go-ahead to order the extirmination of all Baal’s prophets, enraging Queen Jezebel, the real power behind the throne. She vowed to kill Elijah, sending him on a frantic, forty-day journey all the way to Mount Sinai in Arabia to escape her murderous intention.
Elijah was devastated and disillusioned by the outcome. He fell into deep depression. Why had God not orchestrated a great revival in Israel? Had He not shown His great power to His people?
Instead, Elijah felt abandoned, alone, helpless, a single prophet against the tide of the unbelief and apostasy of his people. Better he die in the desert than face an angry queen.
Did God respond to Elijah’s unspoken question…”Why, God?” Yes, He did! How did He answer? Unlike His violent response to Job, God first demonstrated to Elijah that His real power did not lie in catastrophic natural phenomena like earthquake, wind, and fire. It was not the supernatural fire that fell on the altar that would change His people. Something else would need to effect the change He repeatedly promised through the centuries.
1 Kings 19:11-12 NLT
[11] “Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. [12] And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper.”
God spoke gently to His disillusioned prophet. He whispered comfort and reassurance. “You are not alone, Elijah…”
1 Kings 19:18 NLT
[18] “Yet I will preserve 7,000 others in Israel who have never bowed down to Baal or kissed him!”
Elijah had to learn that he was a player in God’s unfolding plan of redemption. For Elijah, he was part of the “not yet”, but he still had a task to do for the Lord in this plan.
So, God reassured him that His purpose was on track. Elijah’s role was to do what God told him to do in the confidence that all would be accomplished in God’s time and in God’s way. Elijah’s obedience reveals his eventual trust in God’s purposes although he would not live to see the end result.
What do we learn from Elijah’s dilemma?
Once again God doesn’t always give straightforward answers. He does not owe us explanations or reveal the future, although we often discover reasons and meaning long after the event. Whatever His answer, or lack of response, He is painting on a bigger canvas, writing a bigger story than we can ever imagine. Our task is to do our bit faithfully, to carry out our calling, however big or small it may seem, because it is a vital part of what God is doing.
Our question should not be “Why?” but “What?” What do you want me to do…to be, to fulfill my part in your big story?
Our third question comes from the lips of another of God’s prophets. Habakkuk also questioned God, this time not “What are you doing?” but, “Why aren’t you doing anything?”
Habakkuk 1:2 NLT
[2] “How long, O Lord, must I call for help? But you do not listen! “Violence is everywhere!” I cry, but you do not come to save.”
To Habakkuk, it seemed that God was indifferent to the terrible things happening in his country.
Habakkuk 1:3-4 NLT
[3] “Must I forever see these evil deeds? Why must I watch all this misery? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight. [4] The law has become paralyzed, and there is no justice in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has become perverted.”
God appeared unfazed by the wickedness of His people, unmoved by the injustice and cruelty happening in His land. Why did He not intervene with some sort of action?
God responded to Habakkuk’s question with an answer so horrifying that it shocked him.
Habakkuk 1:6-7, 11 NLT
[6] “I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They will march across the world and conquer other lands. [7] They are notorious for their cruelty and do whatever they like… “
God takes responsibility for calling this wicked nation into being. He gives Habakkuk a detailed description of their power to harm and destroy but…
He also holds them accountable for what they do!
[11] “They sweep past like the wind are gone. But they are deeply guilty, for their own strength is their god.”
Habukkuk protests at God’s strategy. This is not what He expected from a holy God.
“But, why, God? How can you do this, using such a vicious people to punish your own nation? What kind of justice is that!”
Habakkuk 1:12-17 NLT
[12] “O Lord my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal— surely you do not plan to wipe us out? O Lord, our Rock, you have sent these Babylonians to correct us, to punish us for our many sins. [13] But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil. Will you wink at their treachery? Should you be silent while the wicked swallow up people more righteous than they? [14] Are we only fish to be caught and killed? Are we only sea creatures that have no leader? [15] Must we be strung up on their hooks and caught in their nets while they rejoice and celebrate? [16] Then they will worship their nets and burn incense in front of them. “These nets are the gods who have made us rich!” they will claim. [17] Will you let them get away with this forever? Will they succeed forever in their heartless conquests?”
This prophet had to learn an important lesson.
Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT
[8] “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. [9] For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
God is not interested in superficial solutions to deep-seated problems. He cannot impose on people right living when their hearts are rotten. He must do a thorough work on the inside to effect change in behaviour and attitude. He must change the way they think before He can work grace in their hearts and lives.
What better way to change hearts than to plunge them into the kind of suffering that would teach them to re-evaluate their allegiance to the demons they worshipped by their idolatry! Let them taste life in a nation given to idol worship. His people treated one another by the dictates of their man-made idols. They were cruel and unfeeling in their wickedness. Now let it be done to them, living in a land without God.
Habakkuk 2:4 NLT
[4] “Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.”
Can you see where God is going? “Habakkuk, you must realise that God is concerned with the individual.” Yes, the nation of Israel is guilty, yes, the Babylonians are guilty, but every righteous person lives by faith in God and confirms that righteousness by faithfulness to God.”
This principle reappears in the New Covenant as God’s only acceptable way to live in fellowship with Him.
Only when God’s people realise that they can never attain true rigteousness by self-effort will they learn to trust in God for His mercy. Hard experience was to only way to change their thinking.
How Habakkuk celebrated his new-found understanding of God’s ways! Tremble he would at the severity of God’s solution, but beyond the suffering lay the hope of a people changed, with new hearts and new ways, eventually.
After their captivity in Babylon, God promised…
Ezekiel 36:25-27 NLT
[25] “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. [26] And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. [27] And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.”
Habakkuk would wait in hope and faith for the fulfilment of God’s promise, even if he never saw it in his lifetime. He would be the one to trust in God regardless of his circumstances.
Habakkuk 3:16-19 NLT
[16] “I trembled inside when I heard this; my lips quivered with fear. My legs gave way beneath me, and I shook in terror. I will wait quietly for the coming day when disaster will strike the people who invade us. [17] Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, [18] yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! [19] The Sovereign Lord is my strength! He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights.”
What can we learn from God’s answer to Habakkuk’s question?
- God doesn’t answer the way we think. Although God’s answer shocked Habakkuk, He did answer the prophet with an extended explanation which clarified his understanding of God’s apparent inactivity.
- Once again, God is painting on a bigger canvas than we can see.
- God requires us to walk by faith in Him, even if bad stuff is happening. He knows what He is doing but we must trust Him without knowing.
- Despite our suffering, He provides grace to persevere because His outcome is good.
- No matter who is responsible for our suffering, God holds them accountable and He will judge them justly.
Got questions? Ask Him! He will answer you in His time, His way, exactly according to what you need.