Systematic Theology (part 48)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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A loving and gracious Father, we thank you for your providence. We thank you for revealing yourself to us as our

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Creator God, our God who sustains and our God who redeems us from sin and evil.

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In Christ's name we pray. Amen. All right. So God providentially extended this class for one more week.

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How do we know this is the secret will of God? It came to pass. I was not thinking

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I was going to do this class when I left last week, church last week. But I freely and willingly took up this class.

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I was not coerced to come into this class by the decree of God. So that's what we've been looking at so far.

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We've looked at two things. God creates substances with properties and then he maintains those properties so they can function the way they do.

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So we looked at it at inanimate creation. The sun rises in the morning and scientifically we understand what that means.

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You know, we have the universe. We have the earth going around the sun and God has set these things in motion.

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And the Bible also says God makes the sun rise. And so when we look at the doctrine of divine concurrence, it is 100 % executing the properties that is given to it and it is 100 % made to do so by God and they are never in conflict.

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We just don't know how they both interact. We just know that both of these are true.

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And last week in particular, we looked at the issue of personal agency where we make free choices, choices that we determine that we want to do.

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Nobody's making us come up with these choices. It's not a fatalistic universe where we just do whatever it is like a puppet.

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There is a dignity that humans have as made in God's image where we make those choices.

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And we also looked at the nature of those choices of being constrained by who we are and what we like.

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And we are not free in the sense of a libertarian freedom where we are outside of God's control, outside of God's providence.

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We are all underneath the umbrella of God's providence and we make those choices based on what we like and what we don't like.

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And yet we also saw that God decrees all things. He ordains all things that come to pass. And we looked at the example of the differential where you have power coming from the engine and then how it turns around before it gets to the wheels.

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And some of you know how it works. Most of us don't know. It's like, okay, we just know that power from the engine goes to the wheels.

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And when the wheels turn, one of them turns faster. I don't need to know how it works. I just know it works.

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And even in a mechanical world where there's a lot of things, we don't understand how things are connected. And here we as creatures with humility acknowledge that God ordains and makes all things come to pass exactly as he has decreed.

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And every free creature, every human being makes those choices that they do, whether for good or for evil, according to their volition, they are not coerced into making those choices.

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Like Judas was not coerced to betraying Jesus, and yet he was the son of perdition that was ordained.

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And when we look at these two things, we say, this is true, this is true. We just can't explain how they are both true at the same time, except we say they are true.

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They act in concurrence, and God ordains all these things to come to pass.

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Sometimes you can recognize some of the whys, W -H -Y, these things happen.

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As we look back at history, we look at the life of, I think last time we looked at Job. Why did these things happen in the life of Job?

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Job himself didn't get an answer. He didn't know Job 1 happened in the council of heaven, but he could see the hand of God and what had come for good in his life and the glory of God in his life through those trials, those evil that was ordained.

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And so some of those times we get that veil opened as we see the why, but our place is never to ask why.

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As believers, we come there because we say we trust the God who ordains all these things.

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We trust the goodness of God, even when bad things happen.

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So our confidence is not in just understanding why bad things happen or what is the purpose of God and all of these things or how

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God can ordain for such a wicked person to commit such a crime when they freely and willingly did it.

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We don't rest with a peaceful head on our pillows because we understand all these things.

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We rest in our confidence that God is in heaven. He is sovereign and ruling over all.

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He is good and everything that comes to pass, as we saw, there is not one rogue molecule in this universe.

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God brings everything for his glory and for the good Romans 828 of all his elect.

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So with that overarching theme, let's jump into today's material. Today we are going to be looking at in your handouts.

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It is under concurrence. It is points eight and nine. But before we look at those verses,

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I just want to give you a higher, here's what we're going to do. We're going to look at a perspective on the problem of evil or theodicy.

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And then once we do that, then we're going to look at a bunch of texts in the scripture so that we have a broad understanding of it.

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And through it, we're going to engage with the subject. And then hopefully we'll conclude with some broader questions.

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So with that, let me just jump right in. So problem of evil. Someone asked me this week, why do we call it a problem?

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Evil? Sure. Why is it a problem? Now the reason typically is called the problem of evil.

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In fact, in your note, it is called the challenge of evil. The problem of evil is because typically when you talk to someone, someone talks to you as a

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Christian, they're not a Christian. Mostly Atheists would hold this view. They'd be like,

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I can reconcile the fact of evil in my life or in this world based on my worldview.

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But when I look at the Christian worldview, there is something that just doesn't make sense to me. And that's why we call it a problem of evil.

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There is some problem that I just can't understand. What is it that the Atheist struggles with or challenges the

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Christian to answer? In my, if I'm an Atheist, a naturalistic, philosophical naturalist, nature is all there is.

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There is nothing outside of this universe. There's no God that's governing this universe. If I subscribe to evolution and Big Bang and randomness in the universe, everything just happens.

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If you ask me why that is evil, I can probably use an evolutionary thing. Nature read in tooth and claw.

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This is what we see. Survival of the fittest. These are all just the ways things are. I observe it and therefore

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I'm fine with it. It's random. There is no re -rhyme or reason why these things happen. I'm content because I can't explain why this universe is there.

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I don't know who created it. It is here and it's my philosophical system. It's all random.

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I'm okay with this. I don't need to explain why evil is there. And the charge for the Christian normally is, well, you make a bigger claim.

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You say you know why this universe is here. And not just why this universe is here, but that there is a powerful

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God who is able to do whatever he wants and this God is omnibenevolent.

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He is all good. He's not just good to some degree or measure, but he is like supremely good. So the unbeliever looks at the

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Christian worldview and says, if your God is all powerful and all good, then it doesn't make sense to me why he would make a universe that has evil in it.

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And that's really what we call the problem of evil, because there is something that others see in the

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Christian worldview that just doesn't seem to make sense. And to be fair, some of us as Christians, as we come to know the

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God who saved us, some of these things we can't understand why. And that's what in the last two weeks we were trying to be very careful to distinguish what we observe and what the

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Bible reveals and noting that there are some things that we do not fully understand.

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Now there is a couple of ways in which to answer this. I'd like you to think about it this way.

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So in the Christian worldview, the challenge normally is for the cause and the presence of evil.

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Why would God allow evil to come into his world? Why does he permit evil still to continue?

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And what most people will not continue to carry this conversation forward is what is the result that God intends in his universe for the presence of evil?

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Is evil an ongoing presence in this God's universe as he rules over, or is evil something that is a temporary, is something that will not continue to exist after a certain point in time?

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And I think we as Christians need to be very careful to recognize that in Genesis 1, when everything begins, everything was very good.

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Genesis 2 and 3, as we start reading, we see that there is sin introduced there, whether with the fall of Satan or with the fall of man.

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And then we see the consequences of all of these things. And then we see in the end a new heaven and a new earth where there is no evil and there is no possibility for man, redeemed man, to actually sin anymore.

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So God has a glorious purpose. And one of the things that, and hopefully this evening in Genesis we'll touch upon this, what we look at is

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Adam had a wonderful and glorious estate in Genesis 1 before the fall, and yet the state of the believer at the very end is actually better than that of Adam.

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Let me just stop there for a moment. Why? Why do you think the believer's state at the end in heaven with God is better than the state in which

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Adam was created? Excellent. Actually, that's one of the key things that I want us to keep in mind.

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There's a few other things we could say, but let me just comment on that and we'll move on. In theologians, talk about these four states of humanity, as it were.

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Adam pre -fall, where he is, for the sake of our conversation,

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I'll just talk about what you said, where he is able to sin. And then after the fall, he is not able to not sin, because now you are a slave of sin and then you follow its dictates.

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And then the third state is the redeemed man, where you are able to say no to sin, but yet you are not free from the presence of sin.

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And then ultimately we are going to be in a place where we are glorified, where we will not be able to sin.

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So those are the four states in which humanity kind of passes through, and it is that glorious end that we as believers look forward to.

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And even in the previous state where we are today, we rejoice in the ability or the power of God in us that enables us to resist sin, to do good, to reflect the image of God, as it were, and the image of Christ, as it were, in a fallen world.

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And then we look forward to the glorious state. Now the unbeliever will ask, well, if your

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God is able to do that fourth state, which is not present now, which I don't believe in, why couldn't he have made you right off the bat in stage four?

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Why do we need these rocket boosters to get you up there? Did I see a hand? And I think that basically covers this crux of the answer that I think biblically we can respond to.

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There are things in the secret counsels of God that we can't answer, but this we certainly can.

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When you look at Moses talking to God, you know, show me your glory.

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I want to see your face. And what is it that God says? Does anybody remember what

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God says? Sure. There is a sense in which you can't come face to face with me, especially as stage two and stage three people, you know, we get incinerated.

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Isaiah six, you fall down and you're, but in, there will be a time when we will get to see him face to face.

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And that's when sin is no longer in our presence. But he talks about him being a compassionate, merciful

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God. And these are concepts that Adam has no capacity to actually comprehend.

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But what is more glorious in all of this is because this unbeliever doesn't know the

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God that you know here. You and I have gotten to see the mercy and the compassion of God in the person of Jesus Christ.

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And I think that's one of those mind blowing experiences here.

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You have Adam as a creature made by God relating to his creator, God, as you know, the source of his life and the source of all the goodness that he gets to enjoy.

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And you and I as believers today, we get to see

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God, not just as our creator God, we get to see him as our father adopted into his family, co -heirs with Jesus Christ, the second person of the

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Trinity who would condescend to take on humanity, die, take on the sin upon himself and demonstrate that very compassion and mercy that he will show to us without any cost to justice, that he will pay for all the sin.

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And then you get now a standing in the presence of God that is immeasurably more than what you can just think of as a creation of God's being, because now you are actually adopted into his kingdom as a brother of Jesus Christ.

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And now looking back at the grand scheme of the narrative of scriptures, you get to see the character of God, you get to see the purposes of God, you get to see, you know, yes, evil is a horrible thing.

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Sin is an ugly thing. And yet in God's ordained purposes to bring forth his glory, to redeem his people through these ravages of sin, he has a grand purpose that he accomplishes.

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Now for the unbeliever who does not know who God is, may not make a lot of sense.

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We can just present the proposition, present the narrative of what Jesus Christ has done and let it rest.

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Because until God regenerates, the heart opens his eyes to see the glories of the God who has rescued us.

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All of this will not compute. And even for us, we can't equate, we are going to look at some of the texts now on evil specifically, and then we have to still hold that tension in the sense of, you know, here are the things that we see that are contingent evil that is created by free rational beings or natural evil.

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So those are the two types of evil we call moral evil. Those are choices that we make, sin that we commit, sins that people commit against us.

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And then you have catastrophes like natural sin with natural evil, which is earthquakes and things like that.

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And those are also consequences of the fall. And all of these things

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God ordains in order to bring about his good purposes.

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It is not because God is bad that he allows this. It is not because he is powerless or weak in some areas that he allows this.

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He ordains these things in order to bring about his good purposes. We do not know how they connect.

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And in many cases, we don't know why. We just looked at one why, which gives us much joy in the love and mercy and compassion of our creator

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God. But we are content with knowing the God who ordains all this, even if he can unravel all those.

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We'll pick up more of this in a bit. But before we move further, there is two sides to the problem of evil.

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The side that we are talking about is what we would call the intellectual side. So we're just trying to say from the scriptures, how can we best understand this?

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And that's a good thing to do. You study a word to understand the character of God, to understand who we are and how we must respond to God being in Christ.

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And then there is another side of the problem of evil, which is generally called the emotional side.

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And we need to be very careful when you're talking to someone about the problem of evil, what it is that you're answering. If someone is actually going through a grieving process because a massive evil event has come upon in their lives, the time, the response there is to give them a warm hug, stay with them, cry with them, pray with them.

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It is not, you know, here is my five steps for you to kind of unravel all this. And then, you know, you'll stop crying.

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Jesus wept. And so we need to be very careful in terms of how, what it is that we are trying to answer when we look at the problem of evil.

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Now, with that, let me give you a couple of things and then we'll look at these texts here.

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Now, when we talk generally about theodicy, the term is used, it's used variously, but the way in which it's generally used is the unbeliever asks the question, why does

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God ordain evil? And the Christian takes upon himself the burden of proof to say, okay, it's my responsibility now to answer to you, give you a reason why there is evil in this world.

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And I think there are some good ways in which you can say that and some bad ways. The good ways is like how we just talked about, you know, there is a

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God creates everything. Everything is good. Give them the narrative of scripture. There is a fall that he ordains that I don't fully understand.

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There is a purpose. There is a, there is a glorious end. Your responsibility is in that slice of life in the grand narrative.

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How are you going to respond to the evil that is there in your life? Because your atheistic worldview does not give you a solution to the evil that happens.

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Yes. Evil is random. It'll happen today. It'll happen tomorrow. There is really no purpose why it came and what is going to accomplish today.

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You live tomorrow, you die and you have no reason why. Whereas in the

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Christians worldview, there is a God who ordains all these things. I can look back at the evil.

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I can explain why they are there, but I have great confidence in the God who takes me through this trial and, and the end when evil will be no more because the

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God who governs this universe is not a capricious God. He's not just a God who allows things happen just because, you know, he's malicious, but rather he's a

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God who has a good end in mind. So this is one way in which you can respond to why.

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But the way you do not want to answer is to step into their assumptions and then try to explain down the

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God of the Bible in a way that fits their worldview. You know, I am the judge of your worldview or of your

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God and your God better act the way I like because implicitly the question that we started off with, which is if your

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God is all powerful and all good, then there must be no evil is I determined that this is the way things ought to be.

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And if you think about it a little bit more, maybe I'll ask you this question. Between the first premise that God is all powerful and all good and the, and, and actually the second premise is also valid that there is evil in this universe and that there is the, these are the two premises.

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And the conclusion is these both can't coexist. You can't have evil and you can't have a all powerful and omnibenevolent

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God. What do you think is unstated in order to come to the conclusion that you cannot have evil?

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Am I clear? Yes. Yeah. They, they get to decide this is, there is a certain way in which this must happen,

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Charlie. Yes. So the source of that evil must be God.

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Okay. That is one way to look at it. Or he is not in control that it got into his universe, even though he doesn't want it.

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And then God is not God because he's not in charge of the universe that he lives, that he providentially sustains.

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Excellent. And you know, here is again a response back to the, to a non -Christian worldview.

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If you really don't have God, you really have really no basis even for judging what is good and what is evil.

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You know, I may not like what is happening that is, you know, a catastrophe in my life, but there is no standard for me to even say, what is that goodness against which this looks bad?

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Right? So that's, that's an excellent point. So you can actually go back and ask them that question. But really what happens and I, and you, and this is just a more of an existential question you ask anyone else.

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It's like, yeah, what would I like as good? I'd like a pain free life. Thank you very much.

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You know, if I could order in the menu of God's universe, what life would I like? That's very good. I'd like a very pain free life and oh, you know, then you would be a good

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God and an all powerful God. But once the pain comes in, then the maximizing of my goodness suddenly seems to diminish drastically.

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Right? I mean, really that's what's unstated here. There is some implicit assumption that actually this morning I was grading a paper and, you know, it was like the, these were well intentioned

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Christian students, but they were saying, you know, this is the pursuit of happiness is what God really wants.

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I'm like, hmm, if you interpret happiness as joyfulness and blessedness or change it from the way the world talks about it, maybe there is an element of truth there.

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But really we live in a individualistic world where my pleasure, my happiness, my contentment and satisfaction seems to be the chief end of the universe.

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When God's definition of goodness is his glory, his name to be known.

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And going back to what Pastor Bob said, that we would get to understand that he is a merciful and a compassionate and a loving

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God, a God who loves us so much that he would send a son to die on the cross on our behalf. There is something more to goodness that the unbeliever has no conception of, and that's what's actually unstated and missing.

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And when we look at and pick that apart from a Christian perspective, you can say, oh, you know what?

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Here's why I don't see this as a problem of evil. It's a challenge of evil for sure.

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You know, there are things that we weep, we struggle. And actually, if you just think about this for a moment in this last week.

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How many times did each of us just sin?

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Sin, maybe voluntarily, not just involuntary, unconscious sins, things where we said, you know, as we just reflect now, it's like,

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I wish I hadn't done that. Think about those who sinned so grievously against you this week where you are like.

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Heartbroken and wishing it had not happened. Sin is horrible.

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God sees it as not good. And yet he ordains it that as we go through these times, like if you were like me, as I went through this times when

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I committed sin and the Lord was gracious by his spirit to quicken my spirit to my sinfulness.

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You look back at the person of Jesus Christ, you look at the one who loved you despite your wretchedness, that for nothing that you did, he would come and die on the cross, that he would freely give you that righteousness.

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So this past week, after going through those sins that I committed, I look up to Christ and I say, thank you,

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Lord, I'm washed clean. I get to experience the character of God, the goodness of God in a way that I would not have otherwise.

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I look at these people who were, it was a very challenging week at work this weekend. I look up and I say, you know, my

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Lord endured affliction. When he was perfect and sinless, I make it a lot of mistakes.

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Some of the things that I went through were because I was just not very smart and and I get to see how my

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God is a patient God, long suffering. That's one of those traits that God reveals himself to Moses as.

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And so when we go through these things, you get to know God in a way that you otherwise couldn't have.

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You know, I can have a very pain free life this weekend. You know, it's almost like David, what does he say between poverty and wealth?

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If I am too wealthy, I would tend to forget my God. And that's the kind of people we are. We need to we are getting transformed into the image of Christ as we go through these trials and pains in the world that we are living in.

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So let me let me say that I have one more note and then I think we are done with with my rambling.

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All right, I think I'll stop there. So let's let's look at the text. So you have your handouts now. I need volunteers again.

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I want us to read all these verses so that we have these in our minds while we talk about the problem of evil. So if I can have a volunteer for the first verse, this is point number eight, challenge of evil.

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Genesis forty five five. Who would like to read that? Would you also read Genesis fifty twenty

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Larry? Thanks. The next one, if someone can read Exodus four twenty one. So, Corey, I'd like you to also read

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Exodus eight, a few verses that I'll tell you what the verses are. So that's Exodus. Four twenty one.

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Who'd like to read Romans nine? Oh, many hands. OK, I'll pick Charlie. So, Charlie, if you can read

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Exodus, Romans nine, seventeen to twenty five, not just eighteen, seventeen to twenty five.

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And then then I have Psalm one of five. Twenty five. Thank you. And then

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I have Joshua eleven twenty. Did I see another hand in the back? OK, Joshua eleven twenty and then

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Job one. Twenty one to twenty two. Thank you. And then Amos three six. Thanks, Scott.

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Isaiah forty five seven. Thank you. Lamentation three thirty seven and thirty eight.

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Thank you. And then second Thessalonians two. Who'd like to read that?

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Thank you. So second, if I'd like, if you can read second Thessalonians to nine to twelve and instead of eleven to twelve.

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And then the last one here is first Peter to. Thank you very much. So if you can read the first Peter to six to nine.

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All right. So let's begin with these verses. So first we have Genesis forty five and fifty. Thank you. If you notice those two sides of the equation there, who sold

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Joseph into slavery? He says, you, you sold me into slavery, except for one of the brothers.

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I think Reuben was missing, but everybody else were like, oh, yeah, let's get rid of this guy. So they intentionally, freely, volitionally out of the badness of their hearts, they did this.

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And then what is the second part of the verse? It said, who sent him to Egypt? God sent him.

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So again, we see this God ordaining and bringing Joseph according to the means that he had ordained and the brothers freely and willingly committing evil on their own.

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And the one thing that I want us to be very careful of, I hope to print the 1689 confession.

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They have like this succinct definition. Pastor Steve will go through this eventually of how this happens.

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It is just God never does evil. And yet he ordains all things to come to pass that his secondary agents here,

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Joseph's brothers, freely and willingly and uncoercedly do according to their ill intention.

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So and that's really what we see here in Genesis four, forty five, five. And if you can read

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Genesis 50 verse 20. Excellent. And then here is the purpose. There was there was no intention for glorifying

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Joseph through the slavery and the resulting whatever life that he would have.

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But God's purpose, even in bringing him through that point of slavery, slave hood was really to redeem, not just to exalt him as second in command in Egypt, but rather to be a source of blessing to others.

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And we go back to Genesis 12. That's really the thrust of why is it that God chose Abraham is that it would not just be him and his family and his nation, but that through him, through Jesus Christ, this would extend out to all of it to do to the whole world that is including us.

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But here we see that Joseph's trial, his affliction, the evil that came upon him was purposeful.

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For the goodness that God would bring about through him. All right. So the next section is

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Exodus. Who has Exodus? So Exodus four, twenty one. And I'll give you the other verses.

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I will harden his heart. And this is again we'll see in Romans as well.

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If you can read Romans eight, fifteen, nineteen and twenty thirty two. Romans eight, fifteen, nineteen and thirty two.

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Exodus, sorry. And here you see a demonstration of God's power clearly evident to all the people and people outside of Pharaoh, the magicians can see this is not really some trick or something.

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This is really the hand of God. And when you come to the last of the plagues, the people are like, you know, they're terrified. They've seen the hand of God.

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They can see that this is not just something to be trifled with. You need to bow down to the hand of God. And yet you get to see on the human side,

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Pharaoh hardening his heart against all odds. You would you would think that he would come to his senses, but he doesn't.

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And and we saw in Exodus four that God ordained the hardening of Pharaoh's heart.

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But I'm going to talk about his purpose in a moment. Yes, Corey. And that's exactly right. And that's what concurrence is.

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This is happens. You Pharaoh can't say, oh, you know, I'm not guilty because God made me do it.

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Right. I mean, it's like he sees he chooses he he he sees his what is it his production factory, right?

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Like all these slaves who want to leave. I'm like, no, I want I want you to build cities for me for free.

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I don't want you to let you go. And and I'm counting the costs. I'm losing my cattle.

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I'm losing my comfort. But I still will not let you go because I I want to assert my power, my control, my dominion over my nation.

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And I will not acknowledge the God of heaven who has done these things. So that's completely his own.

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And yet we have the work of God in hardening Pharaoh's heart. And actually, let me have

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Romans and then we'll look at the purpose here. So who has Romans nine? Yeah. If you can read 17 to 25, can you just see that?

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You know, first when we look at the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, we're like, OK, is that a purpose to this?

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And then Romans nine explains not just the purpose of the glory of God, but the right attitude with which we need to be looking at God.

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And really, sometimes we as believers put ourselves in the shoes of the unbeliever when we

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Romans nine, how many of us can unravel all of those things out? I can.

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And we sometimes think just because I can't understand or unravel those connections, how these things work together,

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I. Tend unconsciously to make myself the judge of God, and that's really what

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Paul is answering. Who are you, old man, to ask these questions? And and for us as believers who've been redeemed by Christ, we need to remember

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God is infinitely. Superior to that differential that we talked about.

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75 percent of us don't know how that differential works. The other 25 who know good for you, but I'd like you to think of this differential.

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We change the engine into these two wheels, changing speeds, slip differential for water slippage and I slippage.

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Then maybe I need to take you to Ezekiel one. Think about a wheel inside a wheel. How do you translate that power into something else?

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You know, even in a mechanical world, at some point our brains will start to. Fizzle out and then we need to go to sci fi, you know,

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I create some device that I, you know, you don't need to know how it works because it doesn't work, I just make some animation for it. But but really, even in a mechanical world, that's all we can say.

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But think about it. When you look at your own heart and your motivation, who can understand the machine that works inside as you come up with your decisions?

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Your spouse, you love it a lot or love him a lot. How can you understand all the things that goes on in their mind and in their heart as they respond to circumstances?

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One person I can understand, not even myself. And yet here I want to be standing over the infinite

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God and say, oh, God, you are not a heart and Pharaoh's heart, because, you know, that doesn't just seem fair to me.

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It's like, you know, God is infinite. I am finite. Not I'm not just am

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I finite. I'm also sinful because my purposes are not the purposes of God. And I need to remember that as I walk through these events that God has ordained,

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I get to see the grandness of God. And that's really what Romans 9 is talking about. So you get to see the goodness of God to those who are his like.

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And so that is really all I would like us to walk away from here when we think of the Odyssey.

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God is God. We are not. And yet we get to see this goodness of this God as we see in the pages of scriptures and as he works in our lives.

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Let's go quickly through the rest of the verses. So who has Psalm 105? Can you go back one verse? I can't remember the context right now.

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Oh, this is Egypt. Just 24 and 25. And this is really and again, this is thinking of providence in the broader sense.

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You remember what happened between Israel and Egypt when Israel came to Egypt through the agency of Joseph?

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Remember, the Pharaoh was the one who elevated Joseph and made him, you know, second in command.

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He's the one who allowed the people of, you know, all of Abram's descendants to come. And then it was in this incubation chamber that Israel grew to be a nation.

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And if you remember the beginning of Exodus, there is a new Pharaoh that comes. There is another king, a dynasty. And this man looks at things differently.

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And Psalm 105 gives you why that particular second Pharaoh decided to do this thing against the people of Israel.

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And you're like, you know, if I was a political analyst in Egypt at that point in time,

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I'd be like, OK, I'm going to vote for this particular Pharaoh. This guy will probably keep things well for me. But I would have voted completely wrong because God would override my vote because the

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Pharaoh that needed to come, the Pharaoh that needed to make those choices ordained by the hand of God was to handle deceitfully the people of Israel so that these people, 400 years later, under the hand of Moses, will get to see the power and the glory of God, that their hearts would be turned back to him.

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So God has a purpose both in Egypt as well as in this people of Israel while he does this. I'm sorry for that long winded explanation.

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Let's go to Joshua 11 20. Amen. So here, you know, this is Israel now coming into the promised land, into Canaan and the way

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God directs the people of the land to attack the Israelites. And if you think about it, you know, the first city that they meet is

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Jericho. What was the people where the people of Jericho doing when they heard about the Israelites? They were quaking because they had heard about the parting of the

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Red Sea and everything else, and yet they intended to come and attack them. And then there was a purpose because God wanted to let the people come and settle in the land.

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So that was his intention there. So the next one, Job 1 21 and 22, and I think maybe we'll stop with this verse for the sake of time.

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The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Once again, if you just remember who took away the things that Job had, his family, his possessions.

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His health, Satan, that's if you think about God asking, we talked about this last week,

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God asking Satan, have you considered my servant Job? And that's really all it took for that chain of events to happen.

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But God did not do any evil. Satan was the one who planned these. And then when you look at the events that happened, you have the

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Chaldeans who came and Job could have said, you know, the Chaldeans came and took my, the

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Chaldeans have taken away. It's like, no, Job rightly sees and we know it is rightly see, he rightly saw it because in the end of Job 1, in all of these things,

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Job did not sin. He said what was right. He blessed the name of God for giving and for taking away, even though God was not the person who came and literally dragged his children or killed his children.

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And you have all these secondary or tertiary agents who are committing these events.

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But Job has a right view of God's sovereignty, where he says God has ordained this taking away of my things.

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And I'm not going to be judging God on the basis of my pleasure that has gone away, but rather I will trust in the character of God.

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He's the one who gave me all that I got to enjoy in the first place. And that's really the problem. Today, we seem to think my life, my purpose, my possessions are all mine.

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And when we have that attitude that Job had, where all this is God's, God chose to give,

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God chose to give, take away. He is the blessed one because he always does what is good.

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And so in closing, here's what I would close with. But I'll ask you, you can have a few questions if there are.

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We try to answer the problem of theodicy through the kind of logical propositions.

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Here is how it makes sense to me. I need these, like we saw the unpacking of theodicy.

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If I have these premises and I have this conclusion, I need to have them all tied up. And we need to go to Romans nine to say, you know what?

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If God were to come here and add to the scripture by just opening his mouth and speaking, we wouldn't get it.

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First of all, we'd be face to face with him and you're not yet glorified. So that'll be a different problem altogether.

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But we just don't have the capacity to understand it. But God wants us to know who he is.

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And that's why through the pages of scripture, you get both propositional truth about the character of God.

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And I think this is the key. You get the narratives in which God acts in the lives of people who are in the midst of evil and pain and suffering.

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And chiefly exhibited in the person of Jesus Christ. So when we get to see the work of God, the narrative of scripture, and it's we call it the scarlet thread of redemption.

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And you get to see how God works, how God glorifies himself, how God operates in the midst of evil in order that evil will one day be eradicated.

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And we will have sons and daughters of our king who get to revel in the goodness of God forever.

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I think that ought to be the attitude. As we look at the issue of the odyssey. So let me stop there. Any questions or comments before we close?

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All right, let's pray. Lord, you are good. You saved us.

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You saved us from wrath. You saved us from the wretchedness of our sin.

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And you did this at great cost to yourself. We thank you.

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Our hearts bless your holy name. Lord, this morning, as we worship together with the saints,

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I pray that you would exalt yourself, that you would show yourself to us as almighty.

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And may our hearts, minds and souls be unstopped in lifting up your praise. In Christ's name we pray.