Have you ever found yourself angry and upset with God? Do you ever wonder if God will hear you? If God does hear you, can you even speak to him without being judged?
We all have been in that place. I’ve been in that place multiple times over the past 45+ years of my life. I’ve been there too often it seems. You are not alone, and I’m not alone in our feelings of frustration with how God is acting (or not acting).
Job: Hard Questions for God
Job is a book of the Bible dedicated to this very situation – bad things happening to a good person who is left to wonder why and where? Why did this happen to me? Where are you God?
Not only is Job over 40 chapters of questions about the nature of God, his goodness versus human depravity, and God’s justice, but it is one of the oldest books in the Bible. From the beginning, people have been asking difficult questions about God. You are not alone in asking pointed questions of God – today or throughout history.
Yet, here’s one way we have an upper hand on Job. Jesus. Job was written early in human history, and Jesus doesn’t show up on the scene until thousands of years later. So, Job writes lines like these:
“God is not a mortal like me, so I cannot argue with him or take him to trial. If only there were a mediator between us, someone who could bring us together. The mediator could make God stop beating me, and I would no longer live in terror of his punishment. Then I could speak to him without fear, but I cannot do that in my own strength.” -Job 9:32-35 NLT
In some ways, Job is a difficult book to decipher. It’s chapters of dialogue (really back and forth monologues) between Job and his friends. These monologues share their individual wisdom and thoughts on who God is and why he acts as he does. The difficulty comes in that some of it sounds exactly right, but at the end of the book, God shows up telling all of them they are all wrong! How can I read this book looking for truth?
This short passage is a perfect example. Job believes God is punishing him (non-stop beating), and Job is afraid to speak to God for fear of reprisal. Those things aren’t true. However, we do need a mediator. We are imperfect, and God is perfection. There is a separation between us. The mediator isn’t to stop the beatings, but to bring reconciliation and relationship.
Jesus is our Mediator!
Like I said, this was written pre-Jesus. We do have a mediator!
Jesus is our mediator. He has been human. He understands how I feel and think. Jesus is able to bring my imperfection together with God’s holiness. Jesus brings me to a place of relationship with God.
I can’t fully understand God. He is beyond me.
I can be in relationship with God. I can know him as well as God can be known by a human. We can bring my questions to God. We can be angry with God – and tell him! Jesus paved the way for me to be in this place with God.
You can too. With Jesus as your mediator, go to God with your anger, frustration and fear.
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