Why Do Bad Things Happen? Pt. 4 (The Silver Lining)

Ever wondered why a loving God allows suffering to continue? Our final episode in the "Why Bad Things Happen" series unveils the profound silver lining hidden within God's redemptive plan.

We journey through Isaiah 14 to understand Satan's fall from heaven and his ongoing influence in our world. The fascinating question emerges: why wasn't Satan immediately cast into the lake of fire? The answer reveals God's extraordinary grace toward humanity. By delaying final judgment, God creates space for our redemption—an opportunity Satan will never receive. When we sin, we experience fractured fellowship with God and damaged relationships, yet unlike our enemy, we've been offered a path to restoration through Christ.

The parallels between spiritual and physical realms illuminate God's wisdom. Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac established the pattern for God's ultimate sacrifice—His own Son. This divine exchange represents the greatest silver lining in human history: through one man sin entered the world, and through one Man salvation became available to all who believe. Even amid judgment pronouncements, God promises restoration for His people, a time when "the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow and fear." This prophetic assurance extends to all believers and even to creation itself, which awaits liberation from the curse of sin.

As we navigate challenging times, remember that God's redemptive plan surpasses anything the enemy can devise against us. Join us next Monday for our new series "Lady in Waiting," where we'll explore relationship readiness from a biblical perspective, helping both women and men understand God's design for healthy relationships.

Transcript

Introduction to Four Walls Series

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Good morning and welcome back to the Four Walls Podcast, where we discuss what I believe to be the four foundational areas, aka the four walls of our lives that allow us to honor God and to live successful and fulfilling lives. And these are our spiritual foundation, our physical health and well-being, our finances, and our relationships. Now we've been working on a series entitled Why Bad Things Happen. And we are completing that series today. On our last episode, we discussed the wages of sin and why the recompense for the sin that is committed in the earth must be paid. This is our fourth and final episode, but if you missed the previous episodes, I would encourage you to go back and listen to them prior to this one so that you can get the context of the message. So in this episode, we will look beyond the things that look bad and see the silver lining and recognize God's compassion and grace for us in spite of our sin. So let's get started. So our conversation today will begin by discussing Babylon and Satan by looking in Isaiah chapter 14. And this will be a bit of a review of the past episodes just to tie in the entire picture so we can see all the parallels that exist between the spirit realm and the physical or the earthly realm. So who was truly behind the evil and calamity in the earth? In Isaiah 14, verse 12 through 14, we have read this again in previous episodes, but just for further clarification. Verse 12 through 14 says, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations? For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the most high. And as we discussed in previous episodes, this is the very sin committed against God that brought judgment upon Lucifer. And we can take a look at this same chapter in verse 15 through 17 to see how God responds to him. And God's response in verse 15 says, Yet though shalt thou be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms, that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the house of his prisoners? We clearly see here that God attributes Satan and his spirit moving through some of the kings that were operating at this time, with making the earth the place that it is, shaking kingdoms, causing chaos in the world, um, making the world a wilderness and destroying cities, holding people captive with no grace, essentially stealing, killing, and destroying. This is the true enemy that continues to do deeds that warrant the judgment that was pronounced over him. And in episode two, we talked about the wages of sin, and the Bible gives us a glimpse of how hell will receive the enemy and the evil kings that he influenced, namely the king of Babylon, the king of Tyre. In Isaiah 14, it tells us that hell is moved for our enemy to meet him in preparation for his arrival. Hell is excited about you coming. Now, the one who has tortured will be tortured. Where the enemy acted as if he were a god on earth, will he not be treated just as any other entity in hell? It's it really stirs up the dead who are already arrived there, the other kings that have gone before who have done wrong. Um, it says, your grandeur and pomp is brought down to the grave, and worms spread under you and cover you. All who are destined for hell and the lake of fire will be treated the same. So that there are no kings of the lake of fire. Even Satan will not go to hell as a ruler or a boss, he will be tortured just as everyone else. And this word tells us that hell is anticipating his arrival. And I can understand that. You know, the one who began, the one for whom hell was created, um, they are anticipating his arrival. And so, what is the silver lining that we have to look for in all of this? Well, I'm glad you asked. Because of God's love for us, he has afforded us abounding grace to give us every opportunity to be restored from the place of sin that we were born into. Even though the enemy is still working today to cause evil in the world, God gives us an escape plan to circumvent the final judgment that will come to Satan and the fallen angels. And our silver lining is the grace of God that we receive through Christ Jesus. There are several parallels between the spirit realm and the physical realm that we can highlight to see this silver lining. So, in previous episodes, we talked about the four levels of the fall of Satan. And I believe that was episode two that we discussed that in. So again, I encourage you to go back and listen to that episode if you have not listened to it already. This introduces the question as to why God didn't deal with Satan completely in the beginning. Why is he still around to disrupt the earth and to deceive people? Why didn't he just go straight to the lake of fire? Interestingly enough, God could have cast Satan immediately into the lake of fire. So why didn't he do that? Now I'm no Bible scholar here. Okay, I'm again I'm not a preacher, and so all of you theologians out there, you know, show me some grace here. But I believe that if God committed Satan immediately to the pit upon committing sin, then he would need to do the same thing for us because he is no respecter of persons, and he cannot go against his own words. So that means that once we made our first mistake, that we would be immediately under eternal judgment. In fact, the human race would have stopped with Adam and Eve in the garden if this were the case. This idea of immediate judgment leaves no place for repentance, and God wants to show us grace. And so Satan received a degree of his judgment. He was cast out of his place of proximity and fellowship with the Father. He was removed from his position of power and authority, he lost his favor and was stripped of his glory. When we sin, we receive a degree of judgment as well. As a Christian, sin causes you to lose your peace to some degree. It can allow guilt and condemnation to enter, which damages your communion and fellowship with God. It can cause us to lose our position, our power or authority. For instance, if you commit adultery, you may very well lose your spouse and your family. If you commit a crime like theft, you may lose your position or your freedom, you know, because you're locked up. Sin also causes us to lose our favor. For instance, if you're a pastor of a large congregation and you commit some sin on a repetitive basis that threatens to scatter the believers, you may lose your position as leader. You may lose your congregation, you know, because of those actions. And we have seen this many times in the past, and unfortunately, may see it in the future as well. But fortunately for us, we have time before our sin results in our eternal judgment. God, in his grace, gives us time to repent and turn away from those things that have pulled us away from him. Unfortunately for Satan, he will never have the right of redemption that we have because of the position that he held and the authority that he held when he sinned against God. Eventually, Satan will receive his full judgment, just as all of the angels that fell with him, and any man or woman that has not received Jesus as Lord and Savior, final judgment will come upon them all. So although allowing Satan access to wreak havoc in the earth is not ideal, it allows us the opportunity to get our relationship right with God so that we don't receive the same judgment that he receives. The second parallel is that we have a means of redemption where Satan does not. In order for us to be absolved of our sin, something had to atone for us. Our last episode, we talked about the wages of sin is death. So if sin brings death upon us, then death is the only thing that can atone for our sin. So something has to die in our place for the price to be paid. Jesus is the ransom that took our place, that died for our sins. But how was Jesus able to become the sacrifice for us? And how was his sacrifice able to atone for our sins? Well, here's where the parallel comes into place. When Adam sinned in the garden by disobeying the direct command of God, and sin entered the world through him, it therefore introduced sin unto all mankind after him. Jesus was sent from heaven, who was born of a woman and was fully man, but also fully God. He was without sin, but became sin, so that he could take on the punishment of all of mankind, and he would receive that the punishment that we deserved, he received unto himself and became the atonement for us. Okay, so some of you might be asking, how can one man atone for the sin of all mankind? Great question. Because sin entered the world through one man. Sin entered the world through one man, and it was absolved of one man. Now, some of you might be asking, well, how could God justify Jesus being sacrificed for the world? This introduces another parallel. Abraham had a son whose name was Isaac, but Isaac was not just a regular child. He was a promised child of a covenant that Abraham had with God. He was the heir to the entire estate that Abraham had amassed, and he was the only son of the covenant. Abraham waited 25 years for his arrival, and he didn't come until Abraham's old age. After all of this, God asked Abraham to sacrifice this son of the promise. This was a heartbreaking request, but Abraham did not falter at all on his promise, which is something that probably none of us would have probably been able to do today. But he was not only willing, but was in the process of executing judgment on his own son when he was stopped by the angel of the Lord interrupting him and offering him the ram in the bush that was the alternative to him sacrificing his son. Abraham's faith in God and willingness to not withhold his only son of the promise to sacrifice unto God gave God the authority to sacrifice his only son, his only promised son for us, for our benefit. So because of the sacrifice of Jesus, we have the legal right to be redeemed from our sin and reconciled back to right relationship with God the Father. Satan does not have this right. But there is one final silver lining that God points out. In Isaiah chapter 14, verse 1 through 8. Here's what the word says: For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and yet will choose Israel and set him in their own land, and the stranger shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob, and the people shall take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord of servants, for servants and handmaids, and they shall take them captive, whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors. And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord, in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve. That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon and say, How hath the oppressor ceased? The golden city ceased. The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked and the scepter of the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger is persecuted and none hindereth. The whole earth is at rest and is quiet. They break forth into singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us. Here we see the Lord is speaking judgment upon Babylon. But in the midst of this judgment, he speaks of the restoration of Israel, that he will have mercy on them in spite of their past mistakes. So even though Israel is in the midst of the place of judgment, that God will still cover them. He will still choose them because of his love for them in spite of their shortfalls. He will restore them and bring them into their own land. And the other thing that he brings to mention here is that he's shifting the balance. So those who used to rule over them and oppress them, they shall now come to them and join them in their own land and cleave to them, for they see the hand of God moving in their midst. And those that once oppressed Israel shall now be their servants and handmaids and the captive of Israel. Israel shall now rule over those who once oppressed them. And so this takes on the connotation not necessarily to rule over, but to accept and live among those who are once at odds with you. And the same concept here that the Babylonians now have are the ones who used to oppress Israel are now in their homes as servants or handmaids. It really just gives the connotation that those who used to oppress us will now be working with us, will now be living among us, and not no longer are they our oppressors. And clearly we see here that the Lord has ceased the hand of the oppressor. And I believe that we're going to see that in this time, that the Lord is giving his people rest from the oppressor, from sorrows, from fear, from hard bondage, from things that have made us and forced us into servitude. This is the promise of believers that labor and are heavy laden, that they shall come unto him and he will give them rest. And that's in Matthew 11, 28. And we shall say of our former oppressors, How have the oppressors ceased? The golden city ceased. And this is back in the 14th chapter of Isaiah. God tells us in advance of the direction of Israel so that in spite of what we see, we can rejoice, for the end of our suffering is coming. The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked and the scepter of the ruler. So their control over people is being broken. The thing that they have used to keep us in bondage is being broken. This is not just a reflection of our current day oppressors, but also the ultimate oppressor, and that the day is coming when the staff will be broken once and for all, and he will no longer have any power and authority over us. Speaking of the devil, which we have authority over him now, but he's exerting himself and doing wicked things in the earth that still affect us negatively. He that rules us in wrath and anger is persecuted. The whole world is at rest and is quiet and break forth in singing. The fir trees rejoice, the cedars of Lebanon. Now no woodsman is coming against us. Even the creation has been under bondage of the enemy and will be delivered from this oppression. Um, into the same liberty that the children of God received. If we think about the garden, in the garden there was no death. So trees didn't die, grass didn't wither and die, flowers bloomed, it was a place of life. There was no death. When sin entered, creation was affected by this too. Animals were affected, everything was affected, not just humans, but everything. And so creation is still seeking for the glory of God to be upon us. So that glorified place that they had once, where they weren't, you know, hewed down by the enemy, um, and nature's been mistreated, you know, by the enemy. This is the plight of creation as well. And so this is the result of an everlasting blood covenant that God has with those who receive his son as Lord and Savior, which he will always honor, even when we have wronged him. We may be chastised, but the sacrifice of Jesus will bring us back into right relationship with him as we honor him and receive his son as our Lord and Savior. So this is the promise of Jesus and the best silver lining that we could ever, ever ask for. And so in the coming days and weeks and months, as we see untoward events coming upon the earth, remember that the silver lining that God has provided to us via salvation through Jesus surpasses anything that the enemy could conjure and bring against us. And just as punishment came upon those in the Bible when they submitted to the influence of the enemy and did evil things, that this does not have to be our final outcome. As long as we are still breathing, then we have an opportunity to repent and spend eternity with Him so that we do not share in the eternal judgment that Satan and the fallen angels will receive. Amen. So I hope that this series has helped you see things in this world from a different perspective, you know, so that the heart of God will be seen, even in the midst of things that we are encountering, oh God, that we may not understand, that we may not fully have answers for, but we need to be able to see the hand of God and the heart of God moving on our behalf, even in spite of things that seem like God may have abandoned us, or that God is doing evil things. Recognize and know the heart of God, that he is advocating for his people, he's advocating for all of us. He loves us all, and he does not want any one of us to fall, but he is seeking for us to find him, to repent and to receive his son so he can save us all. And so this concludes our series on why bad things happen. On our next episode, I'll begin discussing some of the topics from our four walls to make sure that we build ourselves up and equip ourselves for successful and fulfilling lives that God desires for us to have. So I'll be posting podcasts weekly on Mondays, and our first series will be entitled Lady in Waiting. And this will be discussing what relationship readiness looks like and how God has desired for us to prepare and present ourselves to enter into relationships. Now, this is relevant for ladies, looking for a relationship as well as men, so you kind of know what to look for. And I'm so excited about beginning this journey, and I look forward to getting to know all of you and interacting with you via comments and feedback so we can all grow together in this area as I'm now getting this journey with you. God bless you all of it.