THE WEATHER OF LIFE

God “makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Jesus is speaking a subtle metaphor here: Sun and rain is what keeps the earth from being a barren uninhabitable wasteland, so sun and rain represent “good”... God’s blessings. God sends good things to the wicked and the virtuous, to the righteous and the unrighteous. Sinner and saint alike receive the blessings of God, who is not a respecter of persons in His predisposition to allocate blessings to mankind. But, what about bad... evil?  “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity.” This rhetorical question came from the lips of Job who was “blameless and upright ... one who feared God and shunned evil.” Adversity and evil in these passages are both translated from the Hebrew ra/raah, which covers the entire spectrum of evil... bad in all its forms. We all know the story, satan makes a deal with God to dump evil on Job’s doorstep. The intent of Job’s remark is crystal clear in the original Hebrew: “Shall we indeed accept only good from God, and shall we not accept also adversity.” “Of course not”! (implied)

God allows satan to perpetrate evil and sets the limits and boundaries of his attacks. Let’s be clear on one vital point: satan is evil, it is his nature to kill, steal, and destroy... he is the source of evil. God is sovereign, absolutely supreme in power, dominion and authority, and in His sovereignty He arbitrates the release of evil... He allows Bad, from the “cursings” of disobedient Israel to Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.” God allows evil... it doesn’t just happen, He created it for His divine purpose... evil is God’s instrument: “I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things.” Ra/raah is translated “calamity” here demonstrating evil at its worst.

Bad has a sifting effect on people, moving them either closer or further away from God, out of the deception of “lukewarmness.” And for the saints, this sifting is transformational: *Trials and tests prove our faith. *Chastening, rebukes and scourgings, metaphors for degrees of adversity, demonstrate the love of God while mortifying sin and nurturing faith. *Through reaping what we sow we learn dependence on God whose choices for us are always much better than our own. *We are “predestined to be conformed”, formed and molded by adversity, into Christlikeness... releasing His divine nature within. *Bad provides opportunities for God’s Kingdom to invade man’s circumstances with signs, wonders and miracles... manifesting the works of God, which declares His omnipotence... and brings glory to His name. *Satan’s attacks teach us to stand fast -- as Paul’s Spiritual Warfare Thesis admonishes four times -- for the battle is the Lord’s... teaching us sovereignty. God works bad into good... His good, invoking His will... creating good out of bad in accordance with His plans and purposes. So... we can and should “count it all joy” and “glory” when Bad visits, turning our heart and mind heavenward... which infuriates the enemy, knowing God is in control and transforming what the enemy meant for evil into His good.

God doesn’t deliver us out of our troubles; God delivers us in our troubles.  Our “Overcoming Testimony” is experience based. Our strength is in the strain!  Our “Light Afflictions” bring an eternal weight of glory. Life will leave proof-marks on God’s children: “For I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” Proof-marks may be physical or psychological... scars of life, testifying to the Lord’s ownership and our faithfulness... forming the backbone of our testimony. God sends the sun and rain, and allows the hailstorms, hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, and tsunamis of life to fall on the evil and on the good, the just and on the unjust alike. For when it comes to Good and Bad in the experiences of life, He is no respecter of persons.                                                                                                                            

THE LORD GIVES...  AND TAKES AWAY...

BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD

(Matt. 5:45; Job 2:10, 1:1, 1:12, 2:6; Jn. 10:10; 2 Cor.12:7-10, 11:23-27; Deut. 11:26-28;  Rev. 3:15-16; 1Peter 1:6-7, 4:12-13; Heb. 12:5-7; Gal. 6:7; Rom. 8:29; Jn. 9:3; Eph. 6:11,13,14; Rom. 8:28, 5:3-5; James 2:2-4; Job 1:21; Rev. 12:11; 2 Cor. 4:17; Gal. 6:17)