Job is the oldest book in the Bible and tells the story of a man whose entire world was shattered not because he’d done something wrong, but because he pleased the Lord more than anyone else on Earth. Satan essentially said to God, “Job only loves you because of the blessings you’ve given him. Take those away and we’ll see what he’s really made of.” And God, who knew Job better than Job knew himself, said, “Ok, I’ll show you what he’s really made of” and allowed Job to endure the most sad calamity most of us can imagine – the loss of his children, his fortune, and his health.
Job’s friends responded with the misbelief that if trouble comes your way, then God must not love you, you must have done something wrong, God must be punishing you. But our God is an earth mover, a kingdom shaker, a plan shatter-er.
Job is just one example. Noah became a shipwright. Joseph was sold into slavery. David went from shepherd to king. Peter, James and John became fishers of men. Paul went from respected Torah scholar to fugitive.
Sometimes we go through a season of upheaval, when what seemed predictable and secure is no longer so reliable and the ground beneath our feet seems to have fallen away. When trials come, we often wonder if God loves us. Our hearts echo the misbelief of Job’s friends. To this misbelief, the Bible answers:
Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?… No!
Romans 8:35, 37
How can we know this to be true? Because Christ followed God perfectly, and it still led Him to the Cross.
Even if we could live the best life possible, our good works aren’t enough to protect us from the hard circumstances of life. So why does God allow these fiery trials to come? Why does He shatter our plans, our dreams, our worlds?
Because it’s possible to put our faith in things that aren’t dependable. Satan suggests that there’s something we lack that we can somehow manufacture or supply on our own. And if we only had that one thing, or even that combination of things, then misfortune, trials, sorrow would never come our way. “If I were just ______ enough, bad things wouldn’t happen to me.”
Whatever you fill in the blank with WILL fail you. God allows hard times to come so that we will recognize our need for Him, the only One who will never fail us.
When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.” This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain.
Hebrews 12:26-27
Sometimes our pain is all we can hear. Pain’s message – that things will never be any different, never get better, that there is no hope – drowns out everything else. Then God speaks in an earth-shaking voice. Sometimes the only way for us to hear Him is for Him to be the loudest voice we hear.
Difficult circumstances have a way of shaking out the unimportant stuff in our lives and revealing what’s at the core of who we are. When disaster entered Job’s life, he ultimately said, “God might kill me, but I have no other hope” (Job 13:15). Joseph was able to say, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good” (Genesis 50:20).
Psalm 33:22 says “Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone.”
Let’s go back to old-school English class for a minute. “Is” is a linking verb. That means that you can switch the two parts of the sentence around and the statement is still true. For just a moment, turn that statement in Psalm 33 around – “In you alone is our hope.” The psalmist isn’t just saying “you’re the only one we put our hope in.” He’s saying that God is the only source, the only place to find hope.
If your hope is in your health, it won’t save you. If your hope is in a relationship, the other person will disappoint you. If your hope is in your job, it won’t last. If your hope is in your beauty, your charm, your intelligence, anything other than God, it will fail. It’s a waste of time to put your hope in something that can’t save you.
We can still have hope even if things don’t happen the way we wish because true hope is rooted in God, who is unshakable. True, we do not know what God will do in the future. But we do know who God will be in the future. He has made His character known to us. He is good. He is love. He is kindness. He is mercy. He cannot go against who He is, so we can trust that all His actions towards us, all His plans for us, flow out of His character. No matter what shakes our world, He will still be good. He will still be love. He will still be all that we need.
