Have you ever asked God, “WHY is this happening?”
I have. I think we all have. It’s human nature to look at disappointing situations and wonder why the God who loves us and can change anything and everything he wishes, would allow these things to happen in our lives. God, why haven’t you changed this? In all this time, in all your ways, why has this suck continued to just suck?
Well here’s what I’m learning about God: When you ask God WHY something is happening, be prepared to be appointed to get involved.
Then, when God tells YOU to get involved, you’re going to have another question. Your next question is, “But God, why ME?” Did you ever stop to think maybe God chooses the ones to represent him in action because they’re the ones who cared enough to ask him why it’s happening?
Now, let’s see the questions play out in scripture. Judges chapter 6. Remember last week in episode #1912, “Season of Suck” we read of God’s people, the Israelites, who were under the oppression of their enemies the Midianites. Remember the Midianites were ruthless, stealing their crops and reducing God’s people to starvation. The Israelites are no longer living in their bountiful, overflowing Promised Land, they are hiding in on mountains in dark caves and in strongholds.
There, in their hiding, a young Israelite man is deep in a winepress threshing wheat. Let’s be clear, you don’t thresh wheat in a winepress. This young man was down in a hole, hiding his harvest so it too wouldn’t be taken by the enemy. He was likely desperate, hungry and fearful. He was doing what he could to survive. And there, in this place of hardship, he is called. Let’s read the story.
Judges 6: 11-16:
Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”
“Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, WHY has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”
There’s the WHY. Why is this happening? Gideon has grown up hearing the great stories of God’s miraculous works for his people, but he hasn’t seen them. He’s been hiding in caves, starving for 7 years now. God hasn’t shown up and rescued them the way he expected.
And maybe that’s the way you feel right now. God hasn’t show up and done what you expected him to do. He didn’t stop this. He hasn’t changed this. You’ve heard stories of how he’s done it before, so why isn’t he doing it now? Why would a good God allow this hardship to continue?
That’s a fair question. But just know, asking God ‘why’ may involve your participation in his plan of changing it. Perhaps the one bold enough to ask why is also the one God can trust to be bold enough to do something.
Verse 14, “Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”
This is a real ‘oh crap’ moment. Oh wait, I wasn’t complaining about this because I wanted to be the one to do something about it. God, I just wanted you to fix it. I wanted to get you involved. And God says, “Yes, I am involved, now I’m involving YOU.”
Have you ever complained to God about a situation and God made you go first. You didn’t want to go first. You wanted God to bring a holy conviction on the OTHER person, change THEIR heart and make THEM go first, but instead he told you to go first. He involved you. He sent you?!!!!!