Conflict With God Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. What do you do when God does something that really makes you mad? Do you complain? Do you run away?

Does it work? In his race of life, King David learned a powerful lesson about God when the Lord killed a man trying to help the ark get to Jerusalem. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. We're in 2 Samuel chapter 6 in a message on conflict with God. Pastor Lutzer, you'll be telling us about a time when the punishment does not seem to fit the crime. Yeah Dave, when you stop to think of a man being killed because he touches the ark, you also look at the life of David. I know that he committed adultery and murder and his family is totally destroyed.

It's a terrible story. And sometimes we think indeed that God is harsh, that he is overdoing it. But we have to commit these matters into God's hands and realize that sin always has unpredictable consequences. I've written a book entitled Growing Through Conflict, Learning Lessons from the Life of David, and I believe that this resource will be of great benefit to you. For a gift of any amount, it can be yours. Here's what you do.

Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. By the way, we make these resources available to you to help you in your walk with God. Let us now think about God's relationship to David and what he learned from God's discipline. What's going on here in the text, actually, it was not an act of heroism.

It was an act of arrogance. Uzzah thought that his hand was less polluted than the earth. It would have been better for the ark of God to fall onto the rock, smashed, than for a human hand to touch it because a human hand is sinful. It is polluted. And God said, don't touch it, lest you die.

And he touched it and he died. You know, we can struggle with the text. We can say, well, wow, what kind of a God is this? That's one approach. But I don't have a great problem with the text in terms of Uzzah being struck down.

I have a bigger problem than that with the text. The question is, why am I still living? And the question is, how come you're still living?

That's the question. You know that God is sovereign. God said to Job one time, or rather, he said to Satan, let's try Job. And Job was tried.

And there are 10 fresh graves along the side of a hill because Job's 10 children are smitten down in a windstorm brought by the devil under God's strict supervision and guidance. And Job's wife comes and says, shall we not curse God and die? And Job said, shall we not receive good at the hand of the Lord?

And shall we not also receive adversity? If God is God, can't he make up the rules and can't he expect us to obey those rules? And cannot God do in our lives that which he wills with those who are his own? Can't God do that? David had to relearn who God is. He really did.

He really did. Now let me ask you a personal question. You know, sometimes when we're talking, we say to one another, no, I want to ask you a question, but don't take this personally. Well, I'm going to ask you a question that I want you to take personally today.

Take it personally. Have you touched the ark of God recently? We can touch the ark of God when we trivialize sin, when we think to ourselves, well, you know, that's not too big an infraction. And in our day, when the grace of God eclipses the judgment and the righteousness of God, it is very easy for us to take God for granted and to take forgiveness for granted. And to use forgiveness as a rubber band that encompasses all that we want to do because actually God is so merciful and so kind.

And he is, but he's also just and he's also holy. I think we can touch the ark of God when we trivialize sin, yes. We can also do it when we, catch this, when we accept credit for something that God does through us and where our sense of self-worth is so closely wrapped to our achievements and we think it is the strength of our own right hand that has begotten us our success. I think God agreed with that statement. Maybe there ought to be a sign in church that says beware of God, beware of God. And I want to warn all of us and I warn myself because we're living in a day of the trivialization of God. We are living in a dangerous illusion with a manageable deity, a very manageable deity. And as a result of that, we want to take charge of God. We want to say that God fits what I think God really is. I frankly do not know how God in his grace and mercy puts up with some of the talk shows that we have today where everybody is creating God in his own image. How does God stay his hand that he does not do with many people what he did with Uzzah?

Smite them dead, smite them dead. Oh my God would never allow people to go to hell. Well isn't that wonderful? Where did you get your God from? Do you carry him around?

Do you bring him to school with you? I believe that Calvin was right when he said the human mind is an idol factory. We just keep spinning out a God all the time that we want to have and we do not look in the word and see the living and the true God who is holy and said, Uzzah, you are gone. You touched the ark. So David had to relearn who God is. He also had to relearn who he was and is. After all, God is the potter.

We are the clay. You'll notice that it says in verse 8, David became angry because of the Lord's outburst against Uzzah. Verse 9, David was afraid of the Lord and three months later David decided to finally bring the ark of God to Jerusalem because there in the home I should say of Obed-Edom, God was blessing the home because the ark was resting there and so it was in verse 13 when the bearers of the ark of the Lord had gone six paces he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. Notice very carefully that David's doing it right this time.

There's no ox cart. Priests are carrying the ark of God back to the city of Jerusalem and the ark finally makes it where it should be. What I'd like us to do is to look at some lessons that this text teaches us about anger and listen very carefully because it might apply to you and it might apply to me. You men particularly, we as men, you know, we have a problem with anger.

Women do too but they handle it differently. Number one, when we're angry with God, when we're angry with God and if we back away from God because of that anger, we cut ourselves off from the very source of help we need. You need God when you're angry. Do not keep him at arm's length. You come to God when you're angry.

Do not walk away from him. As long as David was angry with God during that three month period before he read the manual on how to bring the ark of God to Jerusalem and before his heart was calmed and he began to understand that God is not out of control. He does not act irrationally. During that period of time, David had a change of heart.

He came back to God and a psalm was written as they began to rejoice about the bringing of the ark back to the city of Jerusalem. Listen to me very carefully because I speak today to some of you who have been wounded by God. Will you remember that God wounds in order that he might heal?

He cuts us in order that he might be able to sew us back together? Don't keep yourself from God just because you're angry. And some of you may have deep wells of anger. You see, anger is like a well because when you're walking on the surface you don't even know that the well is there even though the well may be deep and the water may have many different tributaries. Some of you it may be because of a father who neglected you, rejected you, abused you. Others because of unresolved guilt in your life because of some experiences. Some of you have been abused. You have anger because of circumstances.

Things have not worked out. And down deep inside there is this well of anger and your family knows about it. It is a well-kept secret because it does not go beyond your home. And so in church we sing songs together. We listen to the word together. We listen to a message together and we go home and we can be very, very, very angry.

Watch it. When angry, do not sin. Do not give the devil a foothold, the text says, because it is through that means that the devil wants to destroy. He wants to disrupt.

He wants to demean. All of those things happen when anger is out of control. That's the first lesson. Come to God. In fact, that's the second lesson. Come to God and express your anger to him.

Now, do so carefully. Don't have an outburst of anger, but it's perfectly fine, you know, to tell God what you are angry about. God is able to handle it. Somebody who was angry, I said, why don't you tell God? And I said, well, I wouldn't want him to know how angry I am.

Well, think that one through. Listen to David. How long, O Lord, will thou forget me forever? How long will thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart all the day long?

How long will my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God. Enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. But the Psalm ends by saying, but I have trusted in thy loving kindness. My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me.

Let it all hang out. God can take it. David was not struck down.

Uzzah was. You see, because God is Lord, he understands that we struggle with these matters. He knows and he is a therapist who can listen to the deepest, deepest hurts of the soul. And many of you who are listening have never taken out the time that is needed, maybe over a period of several days, to spend time in God's presence to finally get to the root of your anger and your hostility and the awful way in which it manifests itself under certain conditions and how well you keep it under control under the right circumstances. When we cut ourselves off from God when we're angry, we actually are hurting ourselves because God is there to help us. Secondly, we must express our anger to God.

And when we do, and when we do, God restores us. In chapter 6 of 2 Samuel, we continue the story that David brings the ark of the Lord to Jerusalem and it says in verse 14, and David was dancing before the Lord with all of his might and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of a trumpet. And as he was entering the city of Jerusalem, one of his wives and David had many of them and Michael, Saul's daughter, I should say, Michael, she was a piece of work. And what happened is she was married to David and then she married somebody else and David took her back and the relationship was not good. And you'll notice it says in the last part of verse 16, and she despised him in her heart.

And later on after the ark was brought there and all of the celebration was over, she had what could be considered a family quarrel. It says in verse 20, but when David returned to bless his household, Michael the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, how the king of Israel distinguished himself today. He uncovered himself today in the eyes of his servants and maids as one of the foolish ones, shamelessly uncovered himself. David had taken off his outer garment.

It was not an immodest dance, I'm sure. And David said, well, lady, if that's the way you feel about it, goodbye. And the text says in verse 23, Michael the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death. Things were not always pretty in those days.

It wasn't all wrapped up in a nice little box. And what she was saying was, I don't feel like dancing and you had better not dance either, David. And so she was upset and David handled it perhaps insensitively.

He didn't take sensitivity training and could have handled this better, but that's the way that relationship ended. Now the point is this, in this chapter you have death, but you also have dancing. There is a side to God that is just, that is exact, that is holy, that is demanding, and God has not changed. He has not changed. People think to themselves, well, you know, we're dealing with a different God or God has evolved.

He has mellowed over the centuries. This was Old Testament. No, yes, of course it was Old Testament, but I am the Lord and I change not. God today is merciful and it says in the book of Ecclesiastes that people today think that because God does not execute his justice swiftly, they think it is okay to do wrong. But God is still God.

He has not changed. In grace when we come to him through Jesus Christ, he grants us mercy, he grants us strength, I understand that, and forgiveness and cleansing and we are restored to him. But that's only because Jesus Christ absorbed the penalty for us. Had not Christ done that, there would be no way that we could be reconciled to a holy God. And when we come to him, he responds and he restores us and gives us hope. It is we, it is we, said Nietzsche in a sane moment, we have gelded God, we have taken the raging bull and turned him into a listless ox. God is God and God is holy.

David had to remember who God was and who he was. Are you angry at God as a believer? Tell God in detail and over a great period of time about your anger and why. He has wounded you, let him heal you. As an unbeliever, you're angry because of the atrocities that have been committed on God's watch.

I urge you to come to him with all of your questions, but come as you are through the name of Christ and you will also be healed. There is a story of a woman who gave this testimony on television. I don't know her, but this is her story. She said she was brought up as an atheist and she lived her life without God, without reference to God, hated those who belong to God. And then her daughter was in a car accident and severely injured, expected possibly not to live at best to be in a coma for a long time. And she handled this grief, this woman did, by going into a bar, by drinking heavily and getting in her car and driving home. And she said it was raining and the windshield wipers could scarcely keep up with the rain. So she pulled off on the side of the road and there in anger she pounded the steering wheel and began to curse God. And she said in those days I was really, really able to curse. She estimates that she cursed God for about a half an hour and she just let all the venom and all the anger of the years spill out.

And when she was finished the car was silent and she said she heard a voice that said, this is the first time you've talked to me and I love you. And through that she became acquainted with the scriptures and saving faith in Christ. When we are angry with God we switch places with him. We forget who he is, we forget who we are. Resolve that, resolve that at the foot of the cross. Let's pray. Our Father today we ask that in mercy you might take these few words and use them, use them Father to help your people, help us all to understand that you are the Lord. In humility we pray that you might enable us to come to you in faith, granting oh Lord our petitions and the desires of our heart. Father hear the prayer of all those who are bowed in your presence we ask in Jesus' name.

Amen. This is Pastor Lutzer, perhaps you are in a car. Maybe you are at work, in a business, maybe you are at home, I don't know where you are, but God does.

Would you honestly and truly tell God how you feel about him, spill out your anger, your frustration, your disappointment and be honest? And what you'll discover is if you come with a sense of willingness to hear from him that at the end grace will be poured into your soul. Are you blessed as a result of this ministry? I trust you are. But it's because of people like you that we can continue to minister around the world.

Would you help us? Would you consider becoming an endurance partner? Endurance partners are those who stand with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts. Here's what you do, go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com. When you're there click on the endurance partner button or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337.

That's 1-888-218-9337. Thanks in advance for helping us. I want to share with you that our vision here at Running to Win is to help people in their Christian life, to deal with the kind of emotions that we sometimes have, the kind of situations trying to interpret life from God's standpoint. And people like you help us. We so deeply appreciate your prayers for us.

Thank you for remembering us and thank you for holding our hands as we walk toward the finish line. It's time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. If God knows everything, why does the Bible say He regretted a decision?

This has Robert perplexed. Robert listens to Running to Win in Florida and writes, You mentioned in a sermon about the omniscience of God. You also stated that theologians are divided on that subject. I have a question about Genesis chapter 6 verses 6 and 7, which says that God regretted or was sorry for having created man on the earth. Now, when I regret something that I've done, it's because I realize I've made a mistake. Are these verses indicating that God could make a mistake?

I'm confused. Did God know what decision man was going to make? If so, did He know that He was going to regret it?

Robert, thank you so much for your question, and you know that you are perfectly correct. The theologians are divided on this topic. In the past few years, several theologians have suggested that God does not know the future exhaustively, and He doesn't know what decisions we're going to make until we make them. And so God regretted certain things and the reason is because He didn't know how they were going to turn out.

Robert, I don't believe that for a moment. I believe that God knows the future exhaustively. Of course He knew that man would sin.

Of course there are no surprises. He knows what we are going to choose. The Bible is filled with examples about that. Now, when you get to a phrase like this that the Lord repented, sometimes the Bible uses what is known as anthropomorphisms. That's a big word, but what it means is God is represented as a man, as a human being. We even see it in phrases like the hands of the Lord. So the bottom line is if God regretted that He made man, it really means that God chose to have those emotions. God chose to regret that He made man upon the earth. We always have to realize that the preponderance of evidence in the Bible is that God knows everything.

And because He knows everything, by the way, that's why we can trust Him with such clarity and simplicity. Thank you, Robert, for posing a very interesting question. And thank you, Pastor Lutzer, for your answer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, you can go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer. Or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Erwin Lutzer concluding Conflict with God, the sixth message in his series Growing Through Conflict, a study in the life of King David. Next time, David encounters another conflict we've all felt, the conflict with unanswered prayer. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.