“The Hand of the Lord Has Gone Out Against Me”

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Naomi had a rough go of things. She and her husband had picked up and moved from Israel to Moab because of the drought and famine, leaving their family, their inheritance, and their way of life to cross the Jordan into a foreign land with a strange people and pagan gods. Then they got there and settled down and attempted to make a life for themselves. Their sons even married Moabite women. But then first Naomi's husband died, and then both her sons died, without leaving any children.

Naomi was stuck. Without a husband or sons to provide for her, she was bankrupt. Without a people or inheritance, she had no place and no living. And besides that, she had her daughters-in-law also to provide for. The pleasant things in her life had become bitter – hence her name change. She had lost the things she held most dear, and so she cried out, “The hand of the Lord has gone out against me!”

Likewise, the ten lepers were also in a bad way. They had the misfortune of contracting a deadly illness, one which was almost certainly terminal in their day and age, but which would cause a great deal of pain and suffering as it ravaged their bodies. Furthermore, because it was highly contagious, they were ostracized – thrown out of their homes, driven from their communities, deprived of their inheritance, their living, and their way of life. Everything they knew and loved was gone from them. They were forced to live out in the countryside in caves.

And, like Naomi, the condition of the lepers caused them to be cut off from the Temple and the worship of the Lord God. Nothing unclean could enter the Holy City, let alone come anywhere near the Temple of the Lord. Therefore, they could not offer sacrifices or pray in the courts of the Lord's house.

They were forsaken by society, cut off from God, and betrayed by their own bodies. One can just imagine them crying out, as Naomi had done, “The hand of the Lord has gone out against me!”

So it goes in life. Sometimes, the hand of the Lord goes out against His people. And it is terrible. The same power that created the universe by His all-availing Word stretches out and smites His people in various places and stations. And it looks to the human eye like some people have all the luck, while others never get a break.

Illness knows no boundaries. There is no social class or poverty line or holiness exemption for who will get cancer or Parkinson's or Alzheimer's or arthritis. Terminal illness is a difficult thing to deal with – facing your own mortality, fixing an end to your earthly life. But perhaps even more difficult is chronic illness. The pain and suffering that can be debilitating but not deadly is enough to cause depression and drive a person nearly, if not all the way, to despair. Where is the love and grace and mercy of God in the midst of such suffering? Why has the Lord stretched out His hand against His people?

Disaster and calamity know no bounds either. Whether it is Haiti or India or Iowa or Japan, natural disasters and man-made calamities happen all over the world, and there is nothing that you or I or anyone can do about them. Tornadoes and hurricanes, earthquakes and fires, floods and blizzards – they devastate the young and old, the rich and poor, the healthy and sick, the righteous and the wicked. The disorder of the universe is equally upon all.

In the same way, we all experience the loss of loved ones and friends. Death comes upon us all sooner or later – unless Jesus comes first. Sometimes you may get time to prepare, to face death with hope and peace in the knowledge and confession of the forgiveness of sins and the resurrection to eternal life. Other times death comes in an instant – heart attack, stroke, farm accident, car crash. Then there are no peaceful goodbyes, no commending the dying into the hands of a loving God. There is simply loss and bereavement. And then the emptiness. The empty chair at the supper table. The empty space in the bed. The empty clothes in the closet. The empty bank account. The empty seat in the pew.

In the very midst of life we are in death, just as the medieval hymn says. And why? Why is life so cruel, so short, so miserable? Why do bad things happen to people?

Is it because of your sin that the hand of the Lord is stretched out against you? Surely you must have done something to deserve this suffering, this mistreatment, this abuse from the master of the universe. There must be some sin, some failing, or at least some failure to name and claim the good that could be in your life. It is your fault that you suffer. If only you were a better person. If only you had not done that thing, that awful deed so long ago.

Or not. It is because of sin that evil befalls you, but it is not necessarily because of your sin specifically. Sin has caused the fundamental disordering of the universe, and so everything around you is trending toward chaos. Things and people decay and degrade. The world is literally falling apart under your feet. Things will not get better, because sin will not go away until our Lord returns in glory to call us home.

We believe, teach, and confess “that, although God does create and preserve nature, yet the cause of sin is the will of the wicked, that is, of the devil and ungodly men; which will, unaided of God, turns itself from God” (AC XIX).

Moreover, the question “Why do bad things happen to good people?” is a false question, because there are no good people. You have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. You all have deserved nothing but wrath and punishment for your sins. The best you can say in the face of someone else's misfortune is, as John Bradford once said, “There but for the grace of God go I.”

Sometimes the hand of the Lord does indeed go out against His people. The Psalmist writes:

O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger,

nor discipline me in your wrath!

For your arrows have sunk into me,

and your hand has come down on me.

There is no soundness in my flesh

because of your indignation;

there is no health in my bones

because of my sin.

For my iniquities have gone over my head;

like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. (38:1-4)




Though you may beg and plead, sometimes the Lord does indeed rebuke and discipline His people on account of your sins. Sometimes He does allow calamity to befall you, so that He might teach you that He alone is God and Lord, so that He might reach into you, break your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh.

You may wish that your troubles would go away. You may doubt the love and grace of God. You may question why such evil has to happen. Repent.

That is the goal of the discipline of God – repentance. He desires to draw you to Himself. He desires that you be broken in spirit, that you be contrite in heart. He desires that you despair of yourself and your goodness. He desires that you look upon the loss of your earthly life as a light thing, your temporal suffering as a momentary affliction so that you might be saved.

Thanks be to God that your end is not destruction! Thanks be to God that He has not left you alone in your sins, alone to die in your wickedness! Just as the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel!” (Ruth 4:14) Indeed, blessed be the Lord who has sent His only Son to bear your sin and be your Savior and Redeemer!

Your end is not destruction, and your story does not finish in pain and misery. Your story finishes with redemption and rescue. Your story finishes in peaceful sleep, and finally in heaven. All because your story is caught up in the story of Jesus and His love. Your story is one of sins erased, of debts forgiven, of iniquities passed over. Your story is one drenched in the blood of the Great Redeemer – the Lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified, died, and was buried so that you might be redeemed from sin, death, and the devil. Your story is one whose ending is finished, because the death of sin is finished.

Your story ends in life, just like that of Naomi and Ruth, and just like that of the ten lepers, even the ungrateful ones. Your story ends in life, because your life is secure in the Lord of Life, the Prince who died but now is raised. Death is dead, sickness is defeated, suffering has its end, sorrow is but a shadow. The Prince of Life who died reigns immortal.

Therefore, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who has visited and redeemed His people! O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endureth forever! Give thanks to the Lord of Lords, for He has not remembered His anger over former sins, but delights to give you grace, mercy, and peace. Go in peace; your faith has saved you. Go in peace; Jesus Christ has saved you. Go in peace; rejoice, give thanks, and sing to the Lord God of Israel, who has healed you of all your disease and cleansed you of all iniquities.



In the Name of Jesus. Amen.