Why Trusting God is Messy

“Why Trusting God is Messy”
 Message @ Jericho Ridge Community Church – Sunday, April 10, 2016
Text: Isaiah 45 // Series: Isaiah: New Day Dawning

We are enamoured in our culture with the court room.  The scales of justice hanging in the balance.  The courtroom is the place of answers for us   We use phrases like “Having our day in court” which set the courtroom up as the place where we can face those who have wronged us and seek justice.   Many of us have also seen too many movies so we see the courtroom as a place of theatre and drama: Think of  “The people vs. OJ Simpson or Judge Judy or Atticus Finch.  Or the 1992 classic  A Few Good Men (“You want answers? I think I'm entitled to. *You want answers?* *I want the truth!* *You can't handle the truth!)   

So it was intriguing to me that reading through this section of the Old Testament book of Isaiah that we’ve been exploring together, I come across not one, not two but upwards of 6 courtroom scenes that read like cross examinations. 

People of Isaiah’s day are downtrodden, weary, oppressed and exiled to a land far from home.  They begin to wonder “perhaps God’ doesn’t care for us”  Maybe He is distant or maybe He is isn’t powerful enough to stop bad things from happening.  Similar to you and I, the people of Isaiah’s day want answers.  They want the truth.  So Isaiah imagines a courtroom sequence where the people call God to the witness stand to ask him a series of questions.  Isaiah recounts this in Isaiah 41:1 where it says “Brings your strongest arguments. Come now and speak. The court is ready for your case.” Or in 45:21 where it says “Consult together, argue your case. Get together and decide what to say”.  CS Lewis used the same format in his book “God in the Dock”: We love to place God on trial.  

It’s a bit funny to imagine, I know, but go there with me for a moment….  Picture the poor bailiff: “Place your right hand on the Bible.  Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you, God?”  Ah never mind

The people of Judah begin to present their opening argument:  “Your honour, we the exiled people of Judah feel there has been a grievous contractual breach and so we call God to the witness stand.  We need to have our day in court.  We want answers!” The first charge: Bad things have happened to us therefore God is guilty of contractual negligence

The people of Judah start in with their questions from lived experience:  Let the record show that we trusted you, God!  You let the city of Jerusalem be burned to the ground.  You let our children; our families suffer at the hands of not one, but two invading armies.   Now here we are sitting in Babylon who knows when or if we will return.  What do you have to say about that, God?  Answer the question! 

Silence descends on the courtroom.  The witness rises from the bench… 

Isaiah pictures all the way from chapter 40 to 66 and the end of the book God as giving a giving a series of answers to these questions that vex both them & us.     

But God doesn’t begin His defense with a direct answer to the question WHY. 

The rebuttal is a kind of relational history lesson.  Lays some groundwork that helps both them and us place the questions and the trial into a right context. 

It’s as if God says “Before I give an answer let me remind you of a few things…”

1. God’s power & purposes are not negated by evil

Isaiah 44:6-8 - This is what the Lord says—Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies: “I am the First & the Last; there is no other God. Who is like me? Let him step forward and prove to you his power. Let him do as I have done since ancient times when I established a people and explained its future. Do not tremble; do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim my purposes for you long ago? You are my witnesses—is there any other God? No! There is no other Rock—not one!”.” (44:6-8)

God reminds the people “I created the earth and sustain it by my mighty power. So this is not a question of weakness or inability, let’s get that straight.  Furthermore, I called you and I set you apart for my purposes.  I formed you.  I named you.  I care so deeply for you.  Yet let the record show that I rescued you from slavery in Egypt.  That I gave you a land in which to live.  Let the record show that my love and care for you has been constant and unrelenting.   

But let the record also show that it is not Me who has grown tired and weary.  It’s you!  So it is almost as if God flips the case on its head and not puts the People in the dock! God says “it’s not Me who has been unfaithful to the covenant.  It is you.  So here we see a dynamic difficult truth: that our

Relationship with God is impacted by our choices

In chapter 44:6-8, God is calling out to the people and saying

• “I have made Israel for myself, and they will someday honor me before the whole world. 22 “But, dear family of Jacob, you refuse to ask for my help. You have grown tired of me, O Israel! … you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your faults.” (44:6-8)

God says “my desire was that the nations of the earth would see my goodness, my love, a way of living together that was peaceful and BUT you have utterly failed at this task.  You have heaped up sin upon sin upon sin… You have sacrificed your children to worthless idols, you have pursued military alliances with nations that I specifically told you not to, you have dishonoured my messengers the prophets, you have treated people who are poor with contempt and focused on your own accumulation of wealth.  To name just a few breaches!

All of this while pretending to worship me (coming to temple and singing songs and lifting hands offering sacrifices). The challenge is that our relationship with God is impacted by our choices.   You can’t sin in one area of your life and wall that off and say “well that doesn’t’ affect my relationship with God!” 

I can remember when I was in high school and I was in an unhealthy relationship.  We were off-side in terms of physical intimacy and yet there I was – up at the front leading worship each week and being on mission teams and playing the part of the good Christian.  I was living in a place of such deception that I thought it’s just a little sin…. What’s the big deal?  It’s not going to hurt my relationship with God.  Friend, make no mistake… Just like in any relationship, your choices on the horizontal realm have an impact on your vertical relationship with God. 

Isaiah 59: 1-4 – “Listen! The Lord’s arm is not too weak to save you, nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call. 2 It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore. 3 Your hands are the hands of murderers, and your fingers are filthy with sin. Your lips are full of lies, and your mouth spews corruption. 4 No one cares about being fair and honest. The people’s lawsuits are based on lies. They conceive evil deeds and then give birth to sin. 

God says to the people: “If we are taking about searching for the truth, let’s be clear: It’s not ME who has been unfaithful to the covenant.  It’s you!  I have loved you with an everlasting love.  My arm is not too weak to save you BUT eventually, you wandered so far and with such purpose in your heart, I said “FINE.  If you want to live a life of disobedience, I will leave you to that. 

So here we come to our first of four sidebars in the legal case – a point where we step outside of the bound of the argument and make an observation.  Sidebar #1 – on suffering. 

We love to make things very simple.  Good people are rewarded and bar people are punished.  Therefore, if you are experiencing something negative in your life, like suffering, it must be that God is punishing you.  You must have done something wrong that God is paying you back for.  And while this can be true, we must also recognize from the book of Job and the life & death of Jesus himself  

Suffering can be both JUST and UNJUST

Meaning that

We would want to make a distinction about types of suffering…  Some suffering is simply the result of evil being present in our world.  It is calloused, unthinking and arrogant to make blanket statements that because something bad happens that it is God’s judgement on x or y for their sinful behaviour.  Politicians and pastors do it all the time – its plain wrong. 

Be very careful not to confuse the two and make sweeping statements about the cause of suffering. 

Part of this is in the outcome of those words.  Think of what this says to a person who is suffering!  Job, for example.  I Peter says suffer for doing good.  Does not mean that all people who are suffering are suffering because they have been disobedient to God.  That is cruel to make that assumption… also arrogant (to think you have the capacity to asses someone’s moral fortitude or spiritual obedience is a bit crazy!)

I like the way Timothy Keller puts this in his excellent, excellent book “Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering” says this “it is both futile and inappropriate to assume that any human mind could comprehend all the reasons God might have for any instance of pain and sorrow, let alone for all evil” (95)

We can’t’ get into a full theodicy today, a reasoned argument for the existence of God in the face of systemic evil and personal evil and personal suffering but for now, we simply can say that the presence of suffering in our world and the existence of God are not mutually exclusive or contradictory statements. 

That’s the first charge… that God has unjustly allowed His people into captivity.  Now the second charge is not about what happened.  But HOW it happened and by whose hand it happened.  The People go back to putting God in the Dock and say “God, when invading armies came against us and overthrew the city of Jerusalem, it was horrible!”  How could you use such secular, godless nations and people who are heathens to do your work?! 

They charge” God, you are guilty by association…. Using unholy instruments to do your work!”

This is not a new accusation.  Some people have a hard time believing that anyone other than someone who loves God could be used by God.  The language used all through this section is confusing to people: These are your instruments?  Your chosen vessels?  You are strengthing their hands for their work?  You are anointing them for the tasks to which you have called them?  Isn’t that only support to be for religious people?  (Same language as we’ll see next week for suffering servant!”    But there’s something intriguing to note: That God did give Babylon the task of meting out judgement on the people of Judah but there was a problem in HOW they chose to do it.  So now the court room drama switches and God puts Babylon in the dock!

God’s accusation: “I gave you a disciplinary task, but your application of the task was punitive!”

• “For I was angry with my chosen people and punished them by letting them fall into your hands. But you, Babylon, showed them no mercy. You oppressed even the elderly.” (Isaiah 47:6)

So yes, I did allow and permit first Assyria and then Babylon to come against you because of your violation of the known terms of the covenant. BUT the way that they acted was not of my doing.  They took it way too far.  They were offside. 

This brings us to our sidebar #2 … On Causality

Looking at God’s judgement of Babylon, we can say this: “The presence of something in our lives doesn’t mean that God put it there” 

Here we would want to make a distinction between what God directly causes versus what is allowed in our lives.  The other example here is the Book of Job – Sometimes God allows things into our lives by the isn’t actively causing those things.

Satan approaches God and asks for permission or an allowance to test Job. God permits it but puts limits on it. 

Look at the language of Isaiah 42:24 – Who allowed Israel to be robbed and hurt?   BUT not all that happened to you was what I desired.  

God sends a new ancient world power, Persia, against the Babylonians (as punishment for their over-punishment of Judah). But also because God has promised that His people would not be in captivity forever.  That because of His love and tender care, He would send them a deliverer.  A rescuer.  Cyrus the Persia.  Turn with me in your Bibles to Isaiah 45:1-7 [two slides]

Cyrus is God’s instrument!  God is using a pagan king to accomplish His purposes in the world.  Some people find this a challenge to accept – that God could use any government left of centre on the spectrum to accomplish aspects of His will.  That God may be able to redeem aspects of the horrific the crisis in Syria that people could seek and find him.  God can use bad stuff that happens in your life but it doesn’t’ mean that He caused it or put it there.  Again, some of that hurt or pain is there due to our bad choices or rebellion, some of it is just the stuff of life happening and so we need to be careful about what we blame God for or attempt to hold Him to account for all the bad things in the world.   

Sometimes when we get this askew, we then fall into the third charge that people make against God in the dock.  That He has abandoned & forsaken them.

If Cyrus hasn’t shown up yet to rescue us, God is slow!  He’s absent. 

God has a rebuttal to this charge:  Look with me at Isaiah 49:14-16

“Yet Jerusalem says, “The Lord has deserted us; the Lord has forgotten us.” 15 “Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you! 16 See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands. Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins.”

The tenderness and compassion is the largest thrust of these 26 chapters and indeed the book of Isaiah as a whole.  The picture of parent – those who can’t give up looking, waiting no matter how far their child wanders from home.  Same image is used in the parable of Jesus: Two Lost sons… really about the Father:

It’s here and other places in the Bible we learn that

God’s HIDDENESS does not imply His ABSENCE

Think of Joseph – sold into slavery, horrible events of his life.  Ruth – facing famine, death of her husband…  Esther.  The entire book doesn’t mention the name of God.  But written large over all of these stories and yours and mine is the truth that just because we can’t see God’s presence does NOT mean he isn’t there.   

• “For God has said, ‘I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.’ So we can say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear.’” (Hebrews 13:5-6)

Look with me at the critique that comes in Isaiah 45:9

Photo: Pot (put up 45:9)

Photo: Child yelling at parent (put up at 45:10)

Isaiah 45:11- 13

Its here we find our final Sidebar #4– On Approaching God. 

Important for us to remember…  there is a difference between honest inquiry and arrogance interrogation

Questioning God as in “God, why is this happening?  This is all through Scripture and God never once rebukes those who come to Him with their authentic search for answers.    This is honest inquiry – faith seeking understanding. Doubters coming with open their questions.  This is a place that welcomes that.  You do not have to have it all together or figured out to hang out with Jericho! 

But there’s a difference between that posture and arrogant interrogation!

Again, Tim Keller in his book puts this well “We do not know the reason God allows evil and suffering to continue, or why it is so random, but now at least we know what the reason is not. It cannot be that He does not love us.  It cannot be that God does not care.” – Timothy Keller

This is where the text concludes: Isaiah 45:15-24 [two slides]

45:15 – “Truly, O God of Israel our saviour, you work in mysterious ways”

This is why trust God is hard.  It’s hard because we don’t have all the answers.  We don’t see all the pieces to the puzzle.  We live in a messy, sin-stained world.

Think of people trusting God that wayward kids will come home.  Get into college or program you applied for.  Trusting God in business situations that are going sideways… God does not promise that things will be rosy.     

He does promise us His presence. And He promises that as we walk with Him by faith and not by sight that we will have companions along the way. 

Where do you struggle to trust God?  Name that – surrender it to Him.  The band is coming – Oceans.  The great unknown Feet will fail.  I find you in the mystery…   Surrendering again to the God who knows you, who loves you.  Who is WITH YOU.