Job 19:5-6 “If indeed you exalt yourselves against me, and plead my disgrace against me, know then that God has wronged me, and has surrounded me with His net.”
I was once spending time with some guys in a discipleship group and there were a few men visiting from Arizona on a short term basis. I was conversing with a man I had just met and he told me he had been in a Phoenix program for a year, which meant his graduation from the program was coming up soon. As we spoke he told me he hadn’t accepted Jesus as Lord of his life and didn’t even believe what they taught, when I asked him why all he could say was that he had many unresolved questions in his mind.
The issues were ones I had heard from many others before, those who had rejected Christ and the Bible had many similar concerns. Questions such as “why does God let bad things happen to good people?”, or “How do you explain the evolutionary processes we see around us?”, or “Why doesn’t God just show Himself to people?” were just a few of the concerns he expressed.
The man felt that God was unjust in how He dealt with mankind and was concerned about how God expressed Himself throughout history. The way God reveals Truth were issues that had escaped his grasp.
There was a man in the Bible by the name of Job, he too wrestled with the same issues as the man I talked with, and I wouldn’t be surprised that most people have asked the same questions. Whenever someone goes through difficulty or trials, the questions of why God allows what He does is at the forefront of their minds.
King David also had issues, particularly with how God moved among his people.
Psalm 44:9-14 “But You have cast us off and put us to shame,
And You do not go out with our armies.
You make us turn back from the enemy,
And those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves.
You have given us up like sheep intended for food,
And have scattered us among the nations.
You sell Your people for next to nothing,
And are not enriched by selling them.
You make us a reproach to our neighbors,
A scorn and a derision to those all around us.
You make us a byword among the nations,
A shaking of the head among the peoples.
My dishonor is continually before me,
And the shame of my face has covered me,
Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles,
Because of the enemy and the avenger.
Does God act unjustly?
In other words, are there times when He is not fair in His actions or does God do things that He is not justified in doing?
These are questions that many have asked and have searched for conclusions with only the ability to see in part.
If we look a little closer into Job 19, we gain insight into what he was implying.
To be ‘wronged‘ is from the Hebrew word ‘avath‘ which can mean several things if you consider the context. In some cases it implies to wrest or bow oneself, at other times it means to (make) crooked, to falsify, overthrow, deal perversely, pervert, subvert, or turn upside down. If we look at the ways this word was used elsewhere, it gives some explanation into its usage.
Ecclesiastes 7:13 “Consider the work of God; For who can make straight what He has made crooked (avath)?”
As Solomon speculated on the subject of God falsifying mankind, he recognized that mankind was trying to set as straight what God had made crooked. Why would God make something crooked?
Psalm 146:9 “The Lord watches over the strangers;
He relieves the fatherless and widow;
But the way of the wicked He turns upside down(avath).”
When the wicked attempt to establish their own form of righteousness they are attempting to subvert God’s righteousness by mankind’s wisdom. People are so apt to make generalizations about God’s character from a limited understanding and myopic ability to spiritually see. If someone makes a declaration about God’s intent from a limited standpoint, they essentially place themselves into a position as judge; can we fault God for His response?
The wicked Overthrown
The Lord will not stand aside and let people represent His Kingdom without recourse. The ways God warps false examples of truth, the way He overthrows peoples positions of judgement, or when He perverts their systems of bad justice, He defends all that is Holy.
The path of falsity always ends in death. Corrupt paths lead to corrupt endings and it is only God’s love that corrects those who walk in error.
The undeviating lines of God’s righteousness have been made very clear, with His Word as a guide and His goodness as a strength, we have everything we need to find life and peace.
In Job’s case as well as others in God’s Word, difficulty isn’t always a result of chastisement, there are many times when a refining of character comes through trials. Sin on the other hand corrupts and so we can assume that if God is correcting it’s because there is something crooked in our thinking.
When God upends a person’s idea of reality, He is doing them a favor. God isn’t in the business of mischief, everything He does is in love.
Set Straight
Psalm 116:7-9 “Return to your rest, O my soul,
For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For You have delivered my soul from death,
My eyes from tears,
And my feet from falling.
I will walk before the Lord
In the land of the living.”
If we look back on our lives and God shows us the knowledge He has revealed, we will see that in each and every occurrence His loving correction and gentle touch were acts of mercy and grace. If we can only learn to trust God’s leading we will find our faith growing beyond our ability to fully understand.
Faith is strengthened when it keeps a right perspective…
Isaiah 46:9 “Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.”
Keeping a right perspective is to remember our position before God. We don’t even come close to comparing with His understanding, His power, or ways in which He moves. If the Lord is turning your thinking upside down…be thankful…His loving correction is setting you on a right path.
U.T. 