All of us have asked God the loaded “Why?” question at one point in our journey. If there is ever a crossroads where people lose their way, it is here.
One of the devil’s oldest and most effective tactics is to bring into question God’s character and His love for us. He tried it first with great success on Eve in the Garden of Eden. Eve said, “…. God told us not to eat the fruit of the tree or even touch it, if we do, we will die. The snake replied, ‘That’s not true; you will not die. God said that because He knows that when you eat it you will be like God …” Gen 3:3-4
He cast doubt on God’s motives, and lead her to believe God had deceived her and lied.
John Bevere in his book The Bait of Satan states, “We judge ourselves by our motives and everyone else by their actions.”
This is a shaky foundation to stand on when the storms of life come your way.
Charles Inwood once said, “When God is going to do something wonderful, He begins with a difficulty. If He is going to do something very wonderful, He begins with an impossibility.”
Jesus allowed us a bird’s eye view into one such impossibility in the life of His friends Mary, Martha and Lazarus.
Miracle needed: Lazarus (Mary & Martha’s brother) was extremely sick. He needed healing or else death was imminent.
Reaction: ‘We have a close friend who performs miracles of healing all the time. We’ll get Him over here and Lazarus will be as good as new,’ thought the sisters.
Outcome: Jesus didn’t come when he was called. Lazarus dies.
Conclusion: He didn’t come/answer so He didn’t love us after all. The crowd says, “He gave sight to the blind man didn’t he? Could he not have kept Lazarus from dying?” John 11:37
They judge Jesus by his actions, not his motives and come up with the wrong answer 1+1=3.
But let’s look at the facts:
John 11:3,5 tells us that Jesus DID love this family and the sisters knew it. The message they sent said, “Your dear friend is ill.”
So the first conclusion is wrong. Jesus DID love that family and He loves you too (John 3:16)
We know if He does love and care for us, there must be another answer to the “Why?” question. We just don’t know what it is.
To discover it, we will have to retain our faith in His goodness, love and character. No jumping to conclusions.
Isn’t this what Jesus is looking for? For us to believe in Him and who He is, not only in positive situations? “… will the Son of Man find faith on earth when he comes?” Luke 18:8
God allows the enemy’s old “Why” question to be a test in order to see how we answer it. What assumptions do we make about God’s character and goodness? Do we jump to obvious conclusions or do we look to the Bible, the source of truth, and find the facts? The answer is to trust in the character of God. His character proves he won’t do anything to harm us. There is a reason for the situation and it will be revealed eventually. It’s how we respond in the meantime that that counts. Rick Warren says in his book God’s Purpose in Suffering, “God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.”
So you can ask “Why?” but to get the true answer you are looking for that is not the correct question to ask.
The correct question to ask is not “Why?” but “What?” What are you teaching me here? What response will show my trust in your character, love and ultimate goodness?”
Jesus had a plan in Lazarus’s sickness. The reader is told, “The final result of this illness will not be the death of Lazarus; this has happened in order to bring glory to God, and it will be the means by which the Son of God will receive glory” John 11:4. Mary, Martha and the crowd didn’t know this, he said that to his disciples.
He also has a purpose for every situation that arises in our lives. If you want find the correct answer though, make sure you ask the right question. – Colleen Biermann
