"it's Not Fair!" (Part Two) Series

"IT'S NOT FAIR!" (part two)

Last week I stated the series on the places in the bible where it seems as if God wasn't being fair. We see it started right from the beginning with Adam and Eve getting kicked out of the garden for one act of disobedience. On the surface that seems extreme and unfair but once we looked into it we saw how it wasn't about the specific sin as much as it was about sin itself.

If God was going to act in accordance with his holy nature he had to banish Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden because sin cannot coexist with purity. What about us? When we sin we can easily minimize it. So, when God gives us consequences we can think they're too harsh. What we need to do is pray to see our sin through the eyes of God. Then we will understand the seriousness of it and understand why God disciplines us the way he does.

Then we looked at the story of Job. We saw that Job was upright and blameless. God himself said there was no one like him. Yet, God allowed unspeakable calamity to invade his life. He lost everything; even all his children. Then, as if that weren't enough, he become plastered with painful boils all over his body.

That definitely seems unfair. You serve God faithfully and this is what you get in return? What's up with that? But Job did not call God unfair or unjust. Job did not charge God with wrongdoing. What about us? When hardships come we will be tempted to get angry with God and accuse him of being unfair with us. Will we be like Job and not allow our attitude toward God to change? Will we say that God is good?

1) "No fair, I was tricked!"

In 1st Kings 12, Jeroboam, king of Israel, was concerned that the people were going to favor Rehoboam, king of Judah and go to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to the Lord there. And if they gave their allegiance to king Rehoboam then he would be killed. So, in fear, and after seeking some bad advice, he made two golden calves and told the people they didn't need to go to Jerusalem, they could make their sacrifices on the alter he built.

Then, God sent a prophet to prophecy against what Jeroboam had done. Jeroboam didn't like that so he stretched out his hand and told his soldiers to seize the prophet. Then suddenly his hand shriveled up and he couldn't pull it back. He freaked out and asked the prophet to pray for him. He did and God his restored hand. Jeroboam wanted to reward the prophet.

1st Kings 13:7-24, "The king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and have something to eat, and I will give you a gift.” But the man of God answered the king, “Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here. For I was commanded by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.’ ” So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.

Now there was a certain old prophet living in Bethel, whose sons came and told him all that the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what he had said to the king. Their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him which road the man of God from Judah had taken. So he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And when they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it and rode after the man of God.

He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” “I am,” he replied. So the prophet said to him, “Come home with me and eat.” The man of God said, “I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. I have been told by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.’ ”

The old prophet answered, “I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the LORD: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” (But he was lying to him.) So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house.