Sermonette: In Defense of God

#1576s
Levi W. Graham
Given 26-Dec-20; 14 minutes

description: Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 reviews the highs and lows of life, all of which God will eventually turn beautiful. Even understanding a measure of God's sovereignty, Job felt unfairly treated by God for afflicting him in his innocence. Elihu, using Job's own words, exhorts him not to judge God while justifying himself. Elihu, like John the Baptist, serves as a forerunner for God's counsel. That counsel appears at the end of the Book of Job, where God asks seventy questions, systematically causing Job to change his way of thinking about sore trials. God was not crushing Job under torture, but was perfecting him, changing his character from carnal to godly. We must realize that, though Satan is doing his level best to crush our belief, God will never abandon us. As Job reset his mindset from anxious to humble, so God's people must also re-evaluate their trials, appreciating the great lengths to which God goes to perfect them.

---