The Blame Game

Straits Times Illustration: Miel

'Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?' Job 2:10

Who takes responsibility for the Covid-19 pandemic? In the anniversary of the pandemic it has devastated public health, hospitals and economies around the world. By 14 Mar 2021 it has claimed 120,033,813 victims and 2,658,861 lives. There were plenty of blame -  countries blaming countries, people blaming governments, citizens blaming each other. Was it a failure of public health? We are all playing the blame game. 

The modern world seems unable to accept disasters. We see ourselves as being able to improve the world, able to control its destiny. We see God as being obligated to arrange things for the good of this world to everyone's benefit. Hence when things go wrong some blame God. Every new major tragedy evokes the same kind of public questions and challenges to faith; questioning God and even blaming Him in the face of the disaster. 

It may be easier for many of us who are bystanders to the Covid Pandemic to just become oblivious to it although we may realise that it has changed society and the way we live. But for those who were infected or who have lost loved ones, the suffering is real. 

Considering the experience of Job, Charles Swindoll (ref 1), wrote 

• There are days too dark for the sufferer to see light
• There are experiences too extreme for the hurting to have hope
• There are valleys too deep for the anguished to find relief. 

No wonder people lay blame for their difficulties and some blame God.  

The disastrous experience of Job and his family, evoked Job's wife to enter into the Blame Game. She said to Job, "Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!" Job 2:9

The self righteous friends of Job posited that Job's suffering was his fault, Job was not right with God.  

Job replied to these accusations with a profound question, "Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?" Job 2:10. The suffering was so hideous that Job came close to blaming God and he questioned His Maker but he eventually refused to lay any blame on anyone, least of all on God.

But the whole world will still ask questions of this plague and finding fault. 

In the book 'Walking with God through pain and suffering' (Ref 1) Timothy Keller introduced the position of Peter Berger that every society and culture must make sense of the suffering and disaster inflicted on them. 

Peter saw in the Bible two ways of resolving this inner and eternal struggle:

• The Suffering of Job. Here we have the most difficult and severe truth, that in the face of disasters and suffering in this world we cannot question God. When Job, attempting to find a reason for the calamity, asked God to explain the sorrows and griefs that had come upon him, God's response was Job had no right to pose the question in the first place.

• The Solution of Christ. Against the harsh reality of Job's experience which many would be unable to understand nor withstand, there is a second position, Jesus Christ who came to suffer for all. In this suffering, Christ provided empathy, sympathy and comfort for all subsequent sufferers so that we can withstand and understand the disasters that may befall us.

Timothy Keller wrote, 'The book of Job rightly points to human unworthiness and finitude and calls for complete surrender to the sovereignty of God. But taken by itself the call might seem more than a sufferer could bear. Then the New Testament comes filled with an unimaginable comfort for those who are trusting in God's sovereignty. The sovereign God Himself came down into this world and experienced its darkness. He personally drank the cup of suffering down to the dregs. And He did it not to justify himself but to justify us, that is to bear the suffering, death and curse for the sin that we have earned. He takes the punishment on Himself so that someday He can return and end all the evil (and plagues) without having to condemn and punish us. God voluntarily become weak and plunges Himself into vulnerability and darkness out of love for us.' 

God is with us in this pandemic.  How Great Thou Art! 

Lionel

Ref 1: Charles Swindoll. Job, A Man of Heroic Endurance. Thomas Nelson 2004

Ref 2: Timothy Keller. Walking with God through Pain and suffering. Hodder and Stoughton 2013

   

Value Of A Life

'For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.' Psalms 139:13-14

It was tragic and shameful, that a Singaporean woman would abuse her domestic helper to point of killing the poor young woman. The perpetrator admitted to repeated beatings, torturing and starving of the maid, eventually causing death. It was a national embarrassment that such cruelty could be inflicted by one human being upon another in a civic society of Singapore. The irate Minister of Manpower exclaimed, "Let me be absolutely clear. There is no place for abuse against foreign domestic workers in Singapore."

Singaporeans are enraged. How could such cruelty exist in our modern, successful and orderly community? We are angry not only at the particular household but also at ourselves for breeding such behaviour. 

Singaporeans are embarrassed. Where is the kindness towards another person? Did the poor girl not share in the very air that we breathe and the vibrancy of our community?

Singaporeans are ashamed. Did we not teach our children to value life? That every single life is sacrosanct and every single person, a child of God?

Now is the time for us to assess how much we value life. How much do we believe that every human being is created by God? 

If Christians believe in the dignity of life and the intrinsic value of every person, we should defend this position rigorously. We are stewards of the life God has given and we are to uphold its sanctity from conception to the grave.

God values Life. King David understood this, when wrote the Psalm 139.

• God made us. You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:13,14

• God knows us. You know me. You know when I sit down and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways. Psalm 139:1-3 

• God pursues us. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. Psalm 139:7-8

• God guides us. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your hand will hold me fast. Psalm 139: 9,10

• God sanctifies us. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23,24

David did not only write this about himself, he knew that this is God's design for every person.  A song by John W. Petersen, 'In the Image of God' can help us appreciate this. 

In the Image of God

We were made long ago

With a purpose divine

Here His glory to show

But we failed Him one day

And like sheep went astray

Thinking not of the cost

We His likeness had lost

But from eternity God had in mind,

The work of Calvary 

The lost to find

From His heaven so broad

Christ came down earth to trod

So that men might live again

In the image of God.

Now that I have believed

And the Saviour received

Now that I from the cry

Of my guilt am relieved

I will live for the Lord

Not for gain nor reward

But for love, thinking of

What His grace has restored!

I’ll never comprehend redemption’s plan

How Christ could condescend

To die for man

Such a Saviour I’ll praise

To the end of my days,

As I upward, onward trod,

In the image Of God

What is the value of Life? It is not to be measured in wealth, success, age even health. In a hedonistic society we only value ourselves. In a caring and kind society, the weakest among us will be respected. Addressing the recent concern and disgust felt by Singaporeans, years ago Joni Eareckson Tada advised 

'If you truly believe in the value of life, you care about all of the weakest and most vulnerable in society.'

Lionel

Carpe Diem, Seize the Day

 

Sunrise over Corfu

'Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. But exhort one another everyday, as long as it is called today. We have come to share in Christ ' Hebrews 3:7,13 and 14

In the 1960s, there is a song written by Randy Sparks and sung so meaningfully by John Denver entitled Today. It speaks of making the best use of the opportunities sent our way, not procrastinate and waste the chance. Those lovely blossoms on any spring day will not last forever and the song encourages us to seize the day.

Today, while the blossoms still cling to the vine

I'll taste your strawberries, I'll drink your sweet wine

A million tomorrows shall all pass away

'Ere I forget all the joy that is mine, today

I can't be contented with yesterday's glory
I can't live on promises winter to spring
Today is my moment, now is my story
I'll laugh and I'll cry and I'll sing

While in the desert of Sinai, the Israelites cowardly took a decision not to make use of an open door presented to them by God. After sending spies out across the Jordan river, the report that came back was the Canaanites were giants and impossible to overcome. The Israelites did not venture forward. The result of missing an opportunity was to backtrack into the wilderness and wander around for another forty years. They squandered their days in a morass of spiritual apathy; a loss of confidence until the next generation plucked up enough the courage to enter into God's promise. 

Both Isaiah and Peter in the the Old and New testament proclaimed that all of us are like grass. We are limp and fragile, easily influenced by temptations in an increasingly hedonistic world.  Like the Israelites, we turn our backs on God. That is why Paul warned in Ephesians 5:15-17, to make use of every  opportunity that presents itself to live according to God's will and not by the ways of the world.  

'Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.'

Putting across this opportunity comes, opportunity goes happenstance in life,  poet Robert Herrick (1591-1694), in 'To the Virgins, to make much of Time', introduced the familiar first verse:

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,

Old Time is still a-flying;

And this same flower that smiles today

Tomorrow will be dying. 

Watch Robin Williams teach the lesson in a most inimitable way in the film Dead Poets' Society,

 

Solomon the Wise (Ecclesiastes 12:1) reminded all young people growing up:

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, "I find no pleasure in them.

 

Jesus Christ calls us to seize the day. He gathers us to Him. When He calls do not resist but make the most of the opportunity. God tends 'His flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to his heart.' Isaiah 40:11.  

All we like sheep have gone astray

Each of us turning our own separate way

We have all sinned and fallen short of Your Glory

But Your glory is what we desire to see

And in Your presence is where we long to be

O Lord show us Your mercy and grace

Take us to Your Holy place

Forgive our sin and heal our land

We long to be in Your presence once again

Taking our sickness, taking our pain

Jesus the sacrifice Lamb has been slain

He was despised, rejected by men, He took our sins

Draw us near to you Father through Jesus Your Son

Let us worship before You cleansed by Your blood.  

TODAY, 'Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.' Isaiah 55:6

Lionel 

In The Belly Of A Whale

Whale (Pastel painting by Christine Lee, Feb 2021)

'Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn his fierce anger so that we will not perish.' Jonah 3:8-9

On the 27 Jan 2021, the Internal Security Department disclosed that a 16 year old Singaporean Protestant Christian was arrested for plotting to attack two mosques in Singapore. He was influenced by online antipathy towards Islam. The Singaporean protestant community was in for a rude shock, that in our midst there may be individuals who have such radical views as to plot harm against our fellow Muslim citizens

Timothy Keller in the book The Prodigal Prophet (Ref 1) on the book of Jonah explained that such Christians have shallow identities resulting in some being racists. These professing Christians have a self-righteous image, blinded to their flaws and sins; hostile to those who are different.

Jonah the prophet was like that, he was a nasty and self-righteous person. He could not believe that God would save those he considered to be irredeemable. He had bias and negative views of people who are racially and religiously different from him; a toxic disdain of people with different faiths. So when God ordered him to preach to the people of Nineveh in order that they could repent and turn to God, he was flabbergasted and defiant. He simply refused and sailed away in the opposite direction. 

God punished him. While at sea a raging storm broke. What followed was a seemingly implausible event. Jonah was thrown into the sea during that severe storm and was swallowed by a big fish. In the belly of the whale, Jonah prayed, "In my distress I called to the Lord and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help and you listen to my cry." Jonah 2:1-2. Three days later, that big fish vomited him onto a beach.  

Upclose Whale-Watching@Merimbula, NSW Australia-5 Sep 2008

People who debate whether this is a real story or a fairy tale will miss the real miracle behind the Jonah story, the wonderful grace of God. Despite the incorrigible nature of the Ninevites, Jonah was sent to these people to preach repentance and a return to God. Unexpectedly, they heeded Jonah's warnings, God showed them mercy and the city of Nineveh was saved. Thus, Jonah's shameful behaviour helped demonstrate God's grace for people beyond the Christian community. God saved the city just as He rescued Jonah. 

The Book of Jonah shows how much God desires us to be peacemakers, to build bridges across different communities and faiths. It was very heartening that the day after the troubling news broke, Muslim and Christian leaders met to singularly condemn this terror plot and to reaffirm mutual trust. Thereafter the newspapers carried articles of the necessity to maintain religious harmony and respect for different races and religions.

Are there bigoted people like Jonah around, imprisoned by the narrowness of their self-righteous prejudices? God's grace can turn them around. God's love can build bridges across many communities and help maintain the harmony between the various races.    

There is a old familiar song, Wonderful Grace of Jesus which clearly states what this Grace has done and will do for all of us.

Wonderful Grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin;
How shall my tongue describe it,
Where shall its praise begin?
Taking away my burden, setting my spirit free;
O the Wonderful Grace of Jesus reaches me!

Wonderful Grace of Jesus, reaching to all the lost;

By it I have been pardoned, saved to the uttermost.
Chains have been torn asunder, giving me liberty;
O the Wonderful Grace of Jesus, reaches me!

Wonderful Grace of Jesus, reaching the most defiled;
By its transforming power,
Making me God's dear child,
Purchasing peace and Heaven, for all eternity;
And the Wonderful Grace of Jesus, reaches me!

Refrain

Wonderful the matchless Grace of Jesus,
the matchless Grace of Jesus,
Deeper than the mighty rolling sea;
the rolling sea;
Wonderful Grace, all sufficient for me, for even me
Broader than the scope of my transgressions,
Greater far than all my sin and shame
my sin and shame,
O magnify the precious name of Jesus,
PRAISE HIS NAME!

Lionel

Ref 1: Timothy Keller, The Prodigal Prophet - Jonah and the Mystery of God's Mercy. Hodder and Stoughton, 2018.