What Does God Have Against Me??

by Pastor Paul Naumann

Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?" "Give me your son," Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the Lord, "O Lord my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?" Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the Lord, "O Lord my God, let this boy's life return to him!" The Lord heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, "Look, your son is alive!" Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth." 

— I Kings 17:17-24

In the Name of Jesus Christ, Who has said, "My thoughts toward you are thoughts of peace, not of evil," Dear Fellow Redeemed,

"Why me, Lord?" -People often say that in a humorous way. Usually they say it on those bad days when Murphy's Law comes true: when everything that could possibly go wrong, does. Imagine a mother, for instance, who has spent all day managing her kids, wiping up spills, bandaging skinned knees and frantically trying to keep the house from turning into a shambles. To top it off, suppertime arrives and she discovers that the pot roast she thought was cooking at 450 all afternoon was actually cooking at 550, and has now become a blackened mess. It's easy to picture her rolling her eyes toward the heavens and saying with a sigh, "Why me, Lord?"

Well, she's not really blaming God for her problems, is she? Just giving vent to a little weariness and frustration. But there are much more serious situations that come up in life - times of real tragedy or severe problems. And when you've suddenly lost a loved one; when the doctor tells you your worst fears are true; when you're faced with impending bankruptcy...then that question isn't funny anymore. These are times when anybody - even the "best" Christian - could be tempted to seriously question God's wisdom and the way He governs our life. The Holy Ghost has given us a timeless example of this in our text for today. It's the account of the widow of Zeraphath, her son, and the prophet Elijah. Pay attention - there's a lesson here that, if you don't need now, you will definitely need some day! Our theme is a question that I hope you'll never ask: 

"WHAT DOES GOD HAVE AGAINST ME??" 

I. A question that makes too much of yourself! II. A question that makes too little of God!

Our text begins with the words: "Some time later...," and you may ask, "Some time later than what?" Our account for this morning follows an important miracle that the Lord performed through the prophet Elijah. God had sent Elijah to the home of the widow and her son during a period of famine, when they were down to their last bit of food. But, miraculously, the Lord caused the barrel of flour never to go empty, and the vessel of oil never to go dry. You might remember that it was our Old Testament lesson a few weeks back.

Well, just when the widow might have thought she was out of the woods...more trouble. "Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing." It was every mother's nightmare come true. You parents, especially, can imagine the growing fear and helplessness she must have felt as the child's condition got worse and worse. Finally, the boy died. She was wild, of course - beside herself with grief and pain. In her agony, she turned on Elijah: "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?"

Her question was spoken to God's prophet, but you don't have to read much between the lines to see that she was actually questioning God Himself. Faced with this horrible tragedy, she asked the question that all of us have been - or will one day be - tempted to ask ourselves: "What does God have against me??" And that's a question that a believer should never ask, for at least two important reasons. In the first place, it's a question that makes too much of yourself.

We human beings are creatures of reason. We don't like mysteries. We like to have explanations for the things that happen in our lives. That's why it's so hard for us to accept when something goes wrong and there doesn't seem to be any logical explanation. When the doctor tells you you've contracted a deadly disease, you want to know why. When you've been scrimping and saving to make your family finances work, and then the bottom suddenly falls out, you want an explanation. When a loved one dies, you want to search for a reason. And if you can't find one, it's very tempting to make one up.

That's what the widow did. She automatically jumped to the conclusion that God must be angry with her for her sin, and that's why He killed her son. In doing so, she was making way too much of herself. She was, in effect, saying, "I'm wise enough to know why this happened, and I'm wise enough to know that, in my case, God has made a mistake."

Think about that - what nerve it takes for a mere human being to place himself or herself above the almighty God! And yet that's what the widow of Zeraphath did. And it's not such an uncommon occurrence, either. You remember that the same thing happened to the patriarch Job; when he was struck with tragedy, he complained that God was punishing him unfairly for his sins. He said, "God is not listening to my voice. For He crushes me with a tempest, and multiplies my wounds without cause. He will not allow me to catch my breath, buy fills me with bitterness." — Jb 9:16-18. It was the same agonized cry - "What does God have against me?"

Do you recall how God answered Job? The Lord appeared to Him out of a whirlwind and said, "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?"— Jb 38:2-3. In other words - don't talk about things you don't understand, and don't tell God how to run the world He created!

And don't think that you are never guilty of doing it. If God hasn't revealed to you the reason for what happens in your life, don't make one up. I once knew a man who was absolutely convinced that his sinfulness was the reason his daughter had contracted cancer. Such explanations are not only wrong, they're presumptuous. Can you claim to know what God has in mind for your life - or anyone else's, for that matter? Don't make too much of yourself! One day a building in Jerusalem collapsed and killed a number of people. Jesus asked his followers, "Those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish." — Lk 13:4-5.

Face it - if the Lord really punished us for our sins, we'd all of us have constant agony here on earth, and an eternity of pain to follow in the next life! The wages of sin is not occasional trouble or hardship. The Bible says that "the wages of sin is death." You might well ask, "Then why aren't we all dead? We're certainly all sinners!" And that brings us to the next point. The question, "What does God have against me?" not only makes too much of yourself - it also makes too little of God!

You know, I'm constantly amazed at the number of Christians who can overlook a thousand yesterdays in their worrying and fretting over a single tomorrow. I see the faces of some older Christians among us this morning - ask them, sometime, whether the Lord has ever failed them in time of need. I've only been your pastor for seven years, and even I know many of your stories of God's healing, of His goodness and blessing in your lives. Can you really think that the Lord won't continue to stand by you in the troubles that lie ahead? If the widow of Zeraphath needed reassurance about God's goodness, all she had to do was go look at that bottomless flour barrel...and yet she questioned God. In the case of her son, she doubted God's wisdom. She belittled His grace.

It's true that we are sometimes faithless. But God remains faithful. He has His plan for your life, even if you can't see what it is. Elijah himself didn't understand why the boy had died, but that didn't make him fold up in a heap of anger and self-pity, like the widow. Rather, he took his doubts and confusion to the Lord, and placed the whole situation into His hands. "Then Elijah stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the Lord, 'O Lord my God, let this boy's life return to him!' The Lord heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, 'Look, your son is alive!'" God has never failed His people. He didn't fail that poor widow woman...and He will not fail you!

Do you want to see the indisputable proof of God's love for you? Then you need look no farther than this cross on our altar. It's a symbol of the blood sacrifice that our Savior made for us. John says, "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us." — I Jn 3:16. For your sake, Jesus Christ, the King of all creation, bowed His head and accepted a crown...not of jewels, but of thorns. For your sake, His hands and feet were pierced by nails. His wounded shoulders felt the rough, wooden surface of the cross for your sake, and for your sake His blood flowed. All this, so that you and I can claim complete innocence in God's eyes. We are forgiven! We are free from the curse of sin, as Paul says, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree'." — Gal 3:13.

You see that now the question "What does God have against me?" becomes meaningless. He can't be punishing me for my sin - Jesus bore the punishment for my sin! For His' sake, God has only love for us, not anger. Does that mean that we won't continue to run into trouble in life? Does it mean that the Lord will never allow hurt to come, or tragedy to strike? No. But don't make too little of God! He is more than powerful enough to bring triumph even out of tragedy. Look at your bulletin cover for this morning. "Weeping may endure for a night," says the Psalmist, "but joy will come in the morning." And don't forget the promise God makes to us in Romans 8:28, a promise that afflicted Christians of all ages have relied upon with confidence: "We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." That means you, dear Christians, so rejoice! Like all the other promises our Lord makes, this is a promise He will never break!

I heard the song on the radio. The singer asked, "Why me, Lord? What have I ever done to deserve...?" -and up to that point I thought he was going to complain about his hard lot in life. But I got a surprise. He went on, "What have I ever done to deserve even one of the blessings I've known?" I hope you'll join me today in thanking the Lord for the manifold blessings that He's showered on us, for Jesus' sake. I pray that, when the hard times come, we'll remember with confidence our Lord's great love for us. And I know that we'll never need to ask that after all meaningless question, "What does God have against me?" AMEN.