Serving A Pointless God
Humans need a God. That’s why gods have been a prominent part of all civilizations from the beginning of time. You and I need a God because we are, well, human.
We are mortal. We are frail. And word on the street is that we need help.
We are faced with many challenges in this life that are not easy to resolve effectively on our own.
And I believe in our highly technically advanced cultures, we need a Helpful God more than ever. We might not be struggling just to survive in a biologic sense.
But we’ve certainly created environments for ourselves that are hostile to a peaceful, productive existence.
Serving God by Design
I believe the fact that life is so hard to navigate independently is by design. The One True God wants us to look to and lean on and trust Him for HELP in our bewilderment and struggle.
Science even acknowledges that we are hardwired to need something bigger than ourselves. And it’s clear we need help getting out of the messes we create because of our humanness.
And we just need guidance to navigate all the difficult things we are tasked with in this life.
But I’ve discovered lately that we’ve created a Pointless God to match our lived experience rather than the truth of God’s word.
This new impotent god:
Doesn’t answer prayer
Doesn’t protect His people
Doesn’t reward the righteous on this earth
Essentially, if you’ve lost your faith because of these “false” notions, it’s because this God, who actually helps and blesses you, doesn’t exist.
But there’s only one small problem with this line of thinking: It’s not biblical. And thank God for that! You won’t find me serving this useless god. And it surprises me that anyone would.
Serving God and Good Days
“Whoever would love life
and see good days
must keep their tongue from evil
and their lips from deceitful speech.
They must turn from evil and do good;
they must seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
and his ears are attentive to their prayer,
but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil”1 Peter 3: 10-12.
“‘Because he loves me,’ says the Lord, ‘I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation’”Psalm 91: 14-16.
“For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
the Lord bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold
from those whose walk is blameless” Psalm 84:11.
“Fear the Lord, you his holy people,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
The lions may grow weak and hungry,
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing” Psalm 34:9, 10.
If God isn’t answering our prayers, could it be because we’re not fulfilling the requirements? And there are a few, like:
Faith
Righteousness
Perseverence
Serving A Pointless God
As humans, we need a God who can do what we cannot. In this scary, ever-changing, uncertain, world controlled by the evil one (1 John 5:19), we need a God that:
Helps us
Protects us
Rewards good behavior
What’s the point of a God that doesn’t do you any good? This is not a relationship of equals. We are in the position of needing something from our God.
And, according to the Bible, He is happy to oblige, so long as we fulfill the requirements.
What’s even more disturbing is not only does this god not help you, but he actively hurts you for no good reason.
He inflicts the same calamities and devastation on the wicked and righteous alike. Both groups suffer equally. This is NOT biblical.
A Clear Distinction
The Bible makes a clear distinction between the righteous and the wicked, ON THIS EARTH!
In this passage we have Abraham pleading with God to spare his nephew Lot who lived in Sodom when God was about to destroy it.
“Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right”Genesis 18:26?
“The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them” Psalm 34:7.
“A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked” Psalm 91: 7, 8.
“The foolishness of a person ruins his life, And his heart rages against the Lord” Proverbs 19:3.
“What the wicked dread will overtake them; what the righteous desire will be granted” Proverbs 10:24.
But we stumbled when we encountered good Christians who seemed to be serving God, experience some calamity. So, we’ve thrown out the truth in favor of personal experience.
But things are not always as they seem. And our tolerance and acceptance of sin has exponentially increased over the past few generations.
The Boiling Frog
We’ve become inured and numb and blind to sin because we’ve been steeped in it for so long, as a culture. Kind of like the proverbial frog who doesn’t jump out of the boiling pot of water because it was heated up gradually.
But God’s view of it hasn’t changed at all.
So, when we suffer the consequences, we can’t believe it could possibly be the result of our little sin that we’ve minimized, excused and rationalized away.
I’m not saying sin is always the cause of suffering. But we’ve gotten way out of balance.
We NEVER acknowledge that sin could possibly ever have anything to do with our suffering.
That idea is just so backward and judgmental and hateful and (gasp) insensitive. Especially in America, we seem to have a need to make people feel good at any cost. Even when the price is truth.
Destructive Power of Sin
Christians of earlier eras understood the destructive power of sin. They knew that sin and suffering cannot be divorced. They are intimately connected. One follows predictably upon the other.
And I’m tired of hearing about Job’s unempathetic, uncaring friends. I don’t know about today, but at least in ancient times, the Jews knew that sin causes suffering.
Job’s three uncompassionate friends were not unique.
This is far and away the most prevalent line of thinking on the topic in the Old Testament. The book of Job is an anomaly. I can’t help but think they were a lot closer to the truth than we are today.
This was the prevailing view in Jewish culture as a whole. And it wasn’t wrong. Because they understood the implications. To believe a holy God just arbitrarily brings calamity on people would be to accuse Him of injustice.
Their understanding of who God is was more accurate than ours is today.
In our culture today, we have no problem accusing Him of injustice. Better that than accusing a sinful human of wrongdoing.
The Ultimate Blasphemy
His three friends have been vilified in western cultures for decades. To even hint at the idea that someone’s suffering might have an antecedent is the ultimate blasphemy in our day and age.
Still, this wasn’t true in Job’s case. They should not have accused him of wickedness. But I don’t believe Job was innocent either. I believe he was full of himself.
If you read through the discourse, you will see there’s a lot of evidence of self-righteousness. Here are a few examples:
“For He bruises me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause. . . Though I am guiltless, He will declare me guilty. . . I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. . . To me they listened and waited and kept silent for my counsel. After my words they did not speak again, and my speech dropped on them. They waited for me as for the rain and opened their mouth as for the spring rain”. . .There is no umpire between us [he and God] Job 9:33, 29: 14, 21-23.
This last statement is particularly shocking when you think about it.
Job is saying he wishes there was someone to judge between him and God to determine who is righteous because in his view it was him and not God!
Similarities to Self-Righteous Pharisee
Job’s attitude doesn’t seem much different from the self-righteous pharisee Jesus condemned.
“The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get’”Luke 18: 11,12.
And I think the three friends were trying to knock him off his high horse.
The truth is, the only one in the story of Job who wasn’t soundly rebuked by God wasn’t Job.
It was Elihu, the fourth of Job’s visitors.
It’s true Job’s friends were rebuked, but so was Job. Only Elihu came away from the encouter with God unscathed.
Below is some of what he had to say to and about Job.
The Fourth Friend
“So these three men stopped answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. But Elihu. . . became very angry with Job for justifying himself rather than God. He was also angry with the three friends, because they had found no way to refute Job, and yet had condemned him” Job 32: 1-3.
“Job says, ‘I am innocent,
but God denies me justice.
Although I am right,
I am considered a liar;
although I am guiltless,
his arrow inflicts an incurable wound.’
Is there anyone like Job,
who drinks scorn like water?
He keeps company with evildoers;
he associates with the wicked.
For he says, ‘There is no profit
in trying to please God.’
Far be it from God to do evil,
from the Almighty to do wrong.
He repays everyone for what they have done;
he brings on them what their conduct deserves.
It is unthinkable that God would do wrong,
that the Almighty would pervert justice” Job 34: 5-12.
Was Job Self-Righteous?
Job was blameless according to the law. Similar to the Apostle Paul before his conversion. But that doesn’t make him right with God.
Trials don’t make you something unsavory you never were. Trials merely bring to the surface what was always there.
So, if Job was self-righteous during his trial (see Job 32:1 and many other passages), it’s because that’s how he always was.
If Job is taken out of the way, as I believe he should be (self-righteousness is not true righteousness), we have NO significant biblical precedent for people suffering without cause.
Admittedly, this makes people look bad. I’m not sorry. I’d rather people look bad than my God.
And these notions make God look awful instead of awesome.
This doesn’t make me think any less of humans. We’re all sinners. Big deal. I’m not impressed.
I don’t want to be found serving a God who brings sudden and undeserved calamities and devastation on His own people.
Serving the Bully God
This god is a capricious and mean-spirited ogre.
He can’t be trusted. You never know when he might randomly and arbitrarily devastate you.
Better not let you guard down. Better watch you back, because this Bully God is coming for you!
And I won’t even say he has a score to settle. Because that’s the point. There is no score to settle. If there was, there might be a hint of justice or equity to it.
But there isn’t. It’s just indiscriminate. And pointless.
We are so solicitous of the feelings of people. But what about God’s reputation? What about His glory?
I’m getting a little weary of bending over backwards to protect the fragile ego of people at the expense of God’s glory.
Now, I’m not saying that Christians don’t go through trials, sometimes very difficult trials. But the bible tells us He delivers us out of them. It doesn’t make an end of us.
Also, I don’t use the terms calamity or devastation loosely. I wouldn’t consider losing a job or even getting cancer a calamity. To my mind, it’s really the outcome that defines the terms.
The Difference Is in the Outcome
“The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all” Psalm 34:19.
“But if people are bound in chains,
held fast by cords of affliction,
he tells them what they have done—
that they have sinned arrogantly.
He makes them listen to correction
and commands them to repent of their evil.
If they obey and serve him,
they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity
and their years in contentment.
But if they do not listen,
they will perish by the sword
and die without knowledge” Job 36: 8-12.
Serving A God Who Disciplines
“. . . the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son” Hebrews 12:6. But I rarely hear about discipline. It’s always some variation of bad things happening to good people. . .
But I do know that God is just. He is righteous. He doesn’t bring this sort of thing upon anyone without a reason. Because that would be unjust.
This is the point Abraham was making when he said:
“Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right”Genesis 18:26?
Further, I don’t think these Christians are always hiding some gross sin. More often we are not even aware of its magnitude.
This is how sin is. The longer you do it, the more blind you become. You excuse and minimize and rationalize it to the point that you are deceived:
It’s not really that bad.
I’m not the only one. . .
God understands.
I can’t help it.
This was true for me. And that’s why I know it’s true.
Hitler Thought He was Doing the Right Thing
Hitler believed he was doing the right thing. Not seeing our sin according to the truth means nothing.
Last, I’m not saying Christians aren’t persecuted. But that’s very different from calamity and devastation.
These are not my own ideas. This is what the Bible teaches. So, if you can’t believe them, you are not serving in the God of the Bible.
But instead, a fictitious god who has been made in the image of our experiences.
To read another recent post similar to Serving a Pointless God, see How Suffering Produces Character.
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