Why?
Notes
Transcript
Why?
Why?
Then on the seventh day it came to pass that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, “Indeed, while the child was alive, we spoke to him, and he would not heed our voice. How can we tell him that the child is dead? He may do some harm!”
When David saw that his servants were whispering, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” And they said, “He is dead.”
So David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house; and when he requested, they set food before him, and he ate.
Then his servants said to him, “What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food.”
And he said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’
But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”
When tragedy strikes, we often ask the question, “Why!?”
Life hurts. Death devastates. We cry out for answers: “God, WHY?”
There are no easy answers, but there ARE answers to the question, “Why?” contained within the pages of Scripture. (General and Specific)
The GENERAL answer is the law of sin and death.
God created everything good, but Adam and Eve disobeyed. The result? Deception, dysfunction, destruction, death, and the work of the devil.
We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)
The wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23)
Death is no respecter of persons, social class, position, popularity, good looks, gender, nationality, race, or age.
We often blame God with being unfair. Is He?
Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ O house of Israel, is it not My ways which are fair, and your ways which are not fair?
“Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways,” says the Lord God. “Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin.
Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel?
For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!”
What is the truth?
We deserve nothing good.
We are entitled to nothing good.
We have no right to make demands of God.
We deserve God’s wrath and eternal separation from all that is good.
Whatever good we experience is based upon God’s mercy and grace.
We may think life is not fair, but God is good.
The SPECIFIC answer to “Why?” rests with God.
We are not entitled to specific answers to the question, “Why?”
“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
We may never receive a specific answer to “Why?” this side of “eternity”.
Did I say, “Eternity?”
There are two realms of existence: Time and eternity.
God inhabits eternity. (Isaiah 57:15) He has no beginning or ending. He simply IS.
We live in the realm of time. There is a time to be born and a time to die.
“Time” is the realm of all that is temporal, material, and mortal.
We think in terms of time and the sequence of time.
God’s Purpose
God does not work according to time. He works all things according to His purpose.
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
God Anchors Us in His Hope
Hope sees present suffering through the lens of eternity
Hope is likened to an anchor for the soul. (Hebrews 6:19)
Hope is anchored deep in the unmovable rock of God’s promises.
Sorrow can crush us. Storms can sink us. Winds of adversity can drive us.
Sorrow will end. Storms will cease. Winds will calm. The anchor of hope will hold us steady through it all.
God Helps Us by His Spirit
God’s Spirit helps us when we are weak and when we groan in our suffering.
Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
God Strengthens Us with His Purpose
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
God Assures Us with His Love
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Power of Eternal Perspective
When his child died, David arose, washed, and went to the house of the LORD and worshiped.
David worshiped the LORD who would restore him with his child in eternity.
An eternal perspective enables us to face today with a hope for tomorrow.
Response to the Word
We must gain an eternal perspective.
We must look at current sufferings through the lens of eternity.
We must anchor our soul in the hope of God’s promises.
We must lean on the help of the Spirit in times of weakness and suffering.
We must trust in God’s eternal purpose.
We must find assurance in His love.
All these things are available through a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son. (John 3:16)