9/21/2025 Why is God Unfair?

Why is God Unfair?

In ancient times, both in the East and the West, people executed criminals publicly. This included crucifixions and other forms of capital punishment, which were done openly for everyone to see.

This was a way for the ruler to use fear to control society. At the same time, it was also a great source of entertainment for the crowd.

The intense fear combined with a spectacular show helped the rulers gain public support and calm their people's complaints. The sight of a king deciding a person's fate showed that he was a powerful, almost god-like figure who held the destiny of his people in his hands.

For the crowd, who were not being executed, this experience brought a sense of relief for being on the king's side. This made them more loyal to the ruler.

Even a game played with strict rules and a single ball is exciting in a stadium. Imagine how wild and crazy the crowd would get when they saw real blood and people dying.

Herod’s Goal for Public Executions

The word amusement comes from a root word where 'a-' means 'without' and 'muse' means 'to think deeply.' The original purpose of amusement is to stop people from thinking seriously.

Both in the past and today, evil forces make important things in life seem annoying and worthless. They stop people from thinking and make them follow the crowd without question.

Religion can also do this, which is why so many young people stop thinking for themselves and just follow a cult leader.

True faith helps us to see the difference. People who have eternal truth think more deeply and live a different kind of life. They don't waste their lives chasing after things they can see, touch, or get caught up in the energy of the crowd.

Instead, they live like Jesus and His disciples, loving and caring for people. They think and pray about how to live as God's children every day. In this way, they become people who show Jesus to others in their daily lives, and they become the light and salt of the world.

Their lives don't swing between the thrill of the stage and a deep emptiness backstage. Instead, their normal, everyday lives become full of meaning. This is how they grow as children of God and become more like Jesus.

The setting for today's Bible passage is a time of severe famine in Judea. The church in Antioch, which had many non-Jewish believers, had to collect money to help the Christians in Judea.

Naturally, the hungry people were angry, and the ruler’s popularity was dropping.

To handle this crisis, King Herod Agrippa began publicly executing Christians. He was providing a spectacular "amusement" for the crowd.

One of the victims was James, the brother of the apostle John and one of the three disciples closest to Jesus, along with Peter and John.

Beheading was a cruel method of execution. After the beheading, the head was often displayed to increase the effect of the punishment.

Herod’s plan worked better than he thought. The Bible says that the Jews were pleased.

Feeling boosted by his newfound popularity, Herod quickly looked for his next victim. He arrested Peter, who had returned to Jerusalem for the Passover festival.

Peter was one of the most well-known of Jesus’s disciples, so Herod planned a large-scale public execution for him right after Passover, when Jerusalem was still crowded with pilgrims.

We can see how careful and excited Herod was about this. A total of 16 soldiers were assigned to guard Peter.

Later, when Peter disappeared, Herod was so angry that he had all the soldiers executed. This shows how important Peter’s public execution was to him.

In the end, Peter was released in a mysterious way with the help of an angel and returned to the church.

When Peter was in prison, the whole church prayed earnestly for him. God heard their prayers, and Peter was set free in a way he never could have imagined.

However, some people in the church could not simply rejoice. James’s brother, the apostle John, and James's mother, who were all praying together, were among them.

When James was arrested, the church must have prayed just as earnestly. How much more did his brother John and his mother pray for him to be released and for an angel to save him?

The entire church prayed just as hard, yet James was publicly beheaded, and his head was displayed in the town square while the Jews celebrated.

How painful and disappointing that must have been for the church! How could they understand why God didn’t protect James, one of the disciples closest to Jesus, especially after Jesus said that if they gathered and prayed in His name, He would listen?

They probably started to think, "God doesn't answer these kinds of prayers. We, too, must be ready to die as martyrs for Jesus."

So when Peter was arrested, the whole church prayed for him, but when he actually returned, they couldn't believe it, as if they had seen a ghost.

They prayed, but they couldn't bring themselves to truly expect a miracle.

When James's family, John and his mother, saw Peter rescued by an angel, they must have felt both joy and pain. "Why didn't you save my brother? Why didn't you save my son? Did we not pray enough? Did we do something wrong? This isn't fair!"

Even if the details of our prayers are different, haven't we all felt this way?

We feel like God is unfair. We feel hurt and upset with God.

The God of Job There is a unique book in the Bible that deals with this exact issue in great detail: the Book of Job in the Old Testament.

This book is strange in several ways. For one, it shows God, angels, and Satan having a conversation. It seems as if God and Satan are making a bet about how Job will react to suffering.

Another strange thing is that, unlike most ancient stories or even other parts of the Bible, it’s not a simple story where good people are rewarded and bad people are punished.

Finally, at the end of this long story, when Job finally meets God, God doesn't answer the questions Job was so curious about. Instead, God talks about other things, which seems like a non-answer, and then the conversation ends.

It's a truly unique book.

However, if you read this book carefully from beginning to end, you will have a wonderful experience. If you put yourself in Job's shoes and face the God of Job, something amazing happens. Even though the problem isn't solved, the bitter questions and feelings of hurt that tormented you completely disappear like snow.

The book begins by introducing a man named Job who is a great and honorable person. It shows how he lived so righteously that it almost seemed too much.

Because of this, God praises Job in a meeting with the angels. Satan, the father of envy and jealousy, then argues that Job is only good because of the many blessings God has given him. He provokes God by saying that if the blessings were taken away, Job would quickly curse Him.

Job 1:11 (NIV) "But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face."

In this story, God believes that Job's love is sincere and gives Job a chance to prove it. So, God first allows Satan to completely destroy everything Job has, except his life.

Satan ruins all of Job's possessions, and eventually, he even kills all of his children. Still, in his grief, Job says, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away..." (Job 1:21) and does not curse God.

Satan then gets permission to strike Job's body, saying that if he does, Job will curse God. So, Job gets terrible sores all over his body, and as he scratches himself with a piece of broken pottery, his wife mocks him and tells him to die.

Job 2:9-10 (NIV)9 His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!” 10 He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

Not complaining to God in this situation shows that Job was a truly amazing person.

However, Job breaks down when three of his friends come to visit him. They are so shocked by his appearance that they put ashes on their heads and sit with him, weeping without saying a word.

Job 3:1 (NIV) After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

When Job saw his friends looking at him so miserably, he didn't directly blame God, but he did indirectly by cursing the day he was born.

After this, a long argument starts between Job and his friends. In short, the friends' argument is, "You must have done something wrong to be punished by God."

Job's angry response can be summarized as, "What makes me any worse than you? If this is punishment for my sin, it is absolutely not fair!"

Job didn’t complain to God when he lost all his wealth, his children, and even when he was horribly sick and his wife mocked and left him. He felt he had no right to question God and endured the pain.

But he couldn't stand being pitied by his friends, people he considered beneath him.

That was more painful than losing everything.

"Why me? What did I do wrong? Why are they doing so well?"

How could James’s family not feel this way? They were already accepting that martyrdom was something the disciples would have to endure, but when they heard that Peter was rescued by an angel while James had died… How could they just be happy?

It could have easily turned their anger from Herod to God.

“Why didn’t you send an angel for my son?”

Job 31:33-35 (NIV)33 if I have concealed my sin as people do, by hiding my guilt in my heart,34 because I so feared the crowd and the contempt of the clans that I kept silent and would not go outside— 35 Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my defense—let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser put his indictment in writing.

Job is saying, "I haven't hidden my sins or been a coward like others. I'm more righteous than you, so if this trouble has come to me, it's not you who should answer, but the Almighty—God!"

At this point, a new person named Elihu shows up. He scolds Job for claiming to be more righteous than God, and he scolds the three friends for judging Job, pretending to know God's reasons when they didn't.

Elihu makes two points. First, it’s impossible for us to fully understand God’s will. Second, God can allow times of suffering to train His children, not just as punishment for sin.

Job doesn’t argue with Elihu, and as soon as Elihu finishes speaking, God Himself appears. Later, when God tells Job's three friends that they need to make a sacrifice for their sins, Elihu is not mentioned.

This shows that God began to reveal His will through Elihu.

Now it's God's turn to answer all the questions.

But God doesn't explain why Job had to suffer so much.

Instead, God asks Job if he understood the mysteries of creation: how He created the world and how the animals received their special abilities.

Could Job answer? Suddenly, he fell to his knees.

Job 42:5-6 (NIV)5 My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.6 Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.

Throughout his long argument with his friends, Job's tone toward God was one of anger and sarcasm, even if he didn't directly blame Him. He felt God was wrong.

But after hearing God speak directly, he was completely humbled and repented.

Job had believed in God's existence and thought that if he lived righteously, God would bless him.

In general, that's true. But Job now understood that God is not a machine that gives a result based on what you put in. God is a living being with feelings, who knows even the thoughts of his heart.

He was so ashamed that he fell to the ground.

Even though God didn't answer any of his questions, Job was moved that the Lord of all creation came to meet him, and that was enough.

God restored all of Job's wealth, giving him twice as much as he had before, and also gave him new children. His later life was even more abundant than his former one.

The Book of Job ends there.

God didn't tell Job why all his suffering began, but we know, right? It was because of the bet with Satan.

Satan wanted to test if Job truly loved God or if he was only loyal because of the blessings. To find out, Job went through every kind of suffering: his business was ruined, his children died, he got sick, and his wife abandoned him.

And we know that Satan didn't do this on his own; he did it with God's permission.

Knowing this can make us feel that God is scary and distant.

But let's go back to James’s family.

When Peter was freed by the angel and stood before them, they couldn't just be happy.

However, they must have quickly found their joy again. When they honestly cried out to God, the Lord would have met them personally.

Jesus said, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father," and "I and the Father are one" (John 14:9, John 10:30). Jesus was so gentle and loving, even to the disciple who would betray him.

So if God feels distant and scary, then something is wrong with us. We might be going down the wrong path or believing a lie. When we meet God, He doesn't feel that way anymore.

When we meet God, like Job, our problems don't get solved, and we don't understand everything. Instead, we learn about God's heart, which is love.

When we know that God knows us and loves us, our life's questions and pains, and even life and death, all become very small compared to knowing Him.

James's family had surely seen Jesus, who was crucified, rise from the dead. They touched him and ate with him.

They experienced that Jesus is a being who has overcome life and death.

When we don't just watch God from a distance but truly meet the Lord who lives in us, we realize that nothing is too big a problem.

It’s like if a king who owns an entire country is your family. Would you worry about failing in your business in that country? When you know that God, the creator and owner of the whole world, knows and loves you, what can you be afraid of?

When Job said, "Now my eyes have seen you," he saw God’s eternal love. He understood that this life is only a temporary journey. He saw that for the eternal God, there is no boundary between life and death.

After this, the scene of Peter being dramatically rescued the night before his public execution makes sense.

In such a situation, wouldn't you shout for joy and praise God?

And how could Peter sleep so soundly the night before his execution that an angel had to slap him to wake him up? This shows that Peter did not see death in the same way we do.

The only difference between Peter and James was that Peter had a bit more to do on earth and more to learn and change until the day the Lord called him.

Eventually, Peter would see James again. Although there was a time difference of several decades between their deaths, when they arrived in the Lord's kingdom, James would not be ahead of him. They would all enter the Lord's kingdom at the same time.

For Job, it would have been best to be immediately taken to God’s kingdom after meeting Him. However, God wanted Job to stay on earth to continue sharing His love.

Now, Job would live as a more compassionate and loving person. What would he have to fear now?

Instead of being discouraged by Satan’s attacks, Job would be able to see God’s heart beyond them and have an even greater faith. He knew that difficult times could also be a preview of blessings in God. He believed that death was not the end. Through Job, God's kingdom would continue to spread powerfully.

Interestingly, the names of Job's three daughters are recorded at the end of the book. This means that they were not imaginary people but had names known to the people of that time. They were probably well-respected people.

Job lived longer on this earth to bear these kinds of fruits.

So, what did Job really lose?

If you asked Job before his suffering if he would go back to living an easy life, what would he choose?

The Book of Job is one of the oldest books in the Bible. Job lived thousands of years before Jesus. Yet even then, God knew each person and wanted to meet them as a friend. However, few people were able to do that.

But now, Jesus Christ has opened a new way for sinners to be restored to God through Him. Through the Holy Spirit, all Christians can now meet God.

The question is, do you really want to meet God?

I once had a small group discussion with American college students in seminary. A first-year female student said she was afraid to meet God because she thought He might ask her to go to a foreign country as a missionary.

But if God were to ask this student, who doesn't want to be a missionary, to go, wouldn't that be the best thing for her? Wouldn't that be the safest place for her to be, where she would have the most fruit and blessings?

If she continues to avoid meeting the Lord because she is afraid of such a calling, who is losing out? Who is stopping her from meeting the Lord now?

When you read the book of Job, does it make you think, "It's safer to keep God at a distance so I don't get too much praise and become more like Job?"

Who or what is giving you these feelings of hesitation and holding you back?

It's trying to stop you from meeting the Lord!

Who and why is giving you this uncomfortable and fearful feeling about meeting the God of love who loved you so much that He gave His only Son for you?

Through Job, God clearly shows us through one person who experienced all kinds of suffering that if you can meet God, nothing can be a loss.

Knowing God closely is the greatest blessing.

Through Job’s three friends, Satan succeeded in making Job blame God. When we see people less righteous than us living better lives, or people who aren't as good as us being more respected or having things go smoothly, we feel a deep anger.

That anger is what caused Job to fall. It made him curse his life and blame God.

And isn't that same feeling still causing us to curse our lives and blame God?

So, stop just blaming from a distance and cry out to the Lord! Ask the Lord directly! Don't be fooled by the one who is trying to create conflict between you and God. Like Job, demand an answer from the Lord!

When you meet Him, all those overwhelming problems suddenly become so small. You realize they are nothing compared to the God who knows and loves you.