Does God Play Games with Us?

The Austrian Army officers clinked their glasses of beer as they drank to celebrate the execution of the Hungarian patriots who fought for freedom. It is no wonder that Hungarians do not clink their beer glasses when they toast each other’s health!

The Bible offers different perspectives on those who suffer disasters. Jesus answered concerning people who died tragic deaths. One perspective is regarding patriots who stood up to their oppressors and suffered brutal and humiliating executions.

Luke 13:1-3
“Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

What happened with these people was that some patriots who rebelled against Rome were unsuccessful. Pontius Pilate humiliated them for their rebellion and he used their blood, mixing it with the animal blood they sacrificed to God at the temple. Since they rebelled on behalf of Israel’s God, he cruelly had their blood spilled in the temple sacrificing them as well to God- humiliating not only them, but also their religion!

Jesus made it clear they did not die because they were punished in comparison to the others. In fact, as He said, the others perished also. In the not too distant future the Romans slaughtered and deported hundreds of thousands of Jews in a severe ethnic cleansing represented by the battle at Masada. Since that one ethnic cleansing, others have practiced ethnic cleansing against Jews in Europe throughout history. They were not able to return to their homeland as a nation for over one thousand eight hundred and eighty eight years after Masada!

Another perspective regards people who died in a tragic accident.

Luke 13:4-5
“Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them– do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

There is a saying, “Two things are certain, death and taxes.” Some may escape taxes for a while, (though few small business people in Budapest have escaped their taxes) but everyone must face either death or the end of the world. That is certain. The only uncertainty about death is when one must face this reality. The question that is more important than why should people die when they do, is, are they ready to face that day and to account for their lives no matter how long or how short they were?

Does God play games with us? Often, I have heard Hungarians ask, why does God play cruel jokes on me? From many interviews I have heard Hungarians say about God, “For sure He is punishing me.” “Why did I have to go through so many problems? I only wanted to live a decent life. I was doing my best. Why did he interrupt my life with so much tragedy?”

The Hungarian national hymn begs the same question. This question paraphrased would say, “Why does our nation have to suffer so much? Wasn’t humiliation under the invading Tartars, the Turks, and Austrians enough for our wrongdoings?”

If that was not enough, after the hymn was written, twice-forced Alliances with the Axis powers cost Hungary enormous amounts of territory. This cost forced millions of loyal Hungarians to live as minorities in lands who did not speak their tongue. Neither did these newly expanded countries always respect the hard work through the years that built the once Hungarian territories into the most developed parts of these countries’ new national boundaries.

Needless to say, in almost every case this development degenerated after these nations became sovereign over land that was once greater Hungary. The proverb appeared that many of the old ones still say, “Greater Hungary, heaven’s country; small Hungary, not even a country!” For the Hungarian, the question remains as my friend asked, “Where is God?” Further begging the questions, “Do we matter to Him?” “Why us?” I asked another friend of mine, a serious student named Ildikó, “Do you believe that God watches over Hungary?” Her answer was, “Yes. With one eye shut.” So many people believe the troubles of Hungary and Hungarians are because of God’s punishment, and compared to other nations, undeserved.

Did you know that a whole book in the Bible tells the story of a man who went through almost every tragedy imaginable and he asked God some of these very same questions and more? The name of the book is Job. I like to call it the book of Árpad’s descendents because he asks the questions of God that so many Hungarians I have talked to ask about Him.

This book is one of he deepest philosophical works ever written. It is very difficult reading and takes hard work and attention to understand much of its contents. After reading it, the honest reader should have more questions than answers. It addresses the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

I heard this book explained by Dr. Elmer Smick. Before his death, he was one of the foremost experts in ancient archeology, ancient Hebrew, and Middle Eastern languages. Because of his expertise he was chosen to translate Job into English for the New International Version, the highest selling English Bible in the last twenty years. He was also a respected Reformed theologian and no stranger to the discipline of philosophy. He suffered greatly from heart problems and I heard him teach on this book after recovering from several months in hospital from serious and painful heart surgery. He said that although he was considered one of the world’s experts on the book of Job, only after very painful suffering did he barely begin to understand some of what was in the book!

This author comes nowhere near the expertise of Dr. Smick so please consider the attempt to use this writing to compare the Hungarian situation to that of Job as an elementary exercise. I neither have his credentials nor did I suffer as he did. But truth is truth. What is true in this book is for all to profit from, even if one does not know everything there is to know. Please allow me the liberty to make comparisons to the Hungarian situation from this literary classic of ancient literature.

The book of Job begins with God boasting about His servant Job in front of all the angels. Satan contradicts God and says that Job is only good because God blesses him with such a happy family, health, and so much wealth. God lets Satan attack Job and all of his seven children die in a tragic accident when they are all together at a birthday party. Invaders from two different nations took all of his wealth and he was left poor, alone with only his nagging wife, and sick. He had no money for health care and he was left in a pile of ashes scraping his sores with a piece of broken pottery.

During this whole time, Job was never being punished, God was showing him off! He was proving that Job did not believe in God because everything went well for him, but because Job was a man of integrity and truth. God was showing off that Job’s faith was not based on Job himself, but in One who is greater than Job and his circumstances.

Other people in Job’s life didn’t see it that way at all. Job’s wife tells him to get it over with, curse God, and die! His friends come to visit him and tell him he surely committed a horrible sin- and he is obviously not willing to admit what he did. Their advice is to admit his sin, and maybe, just maybe, God will have mercy on him. They even invent elaborate scenarios of how he must have sinned and are sure he is getting a just punishment.

Job, tells his wife to shut up and says that God is still God, regardless of what He is doing to Job. Job makes it clear to his wife that he will not give up his faith. He tells his friends that they don’t know what they are talking about and defends himself as a righteous man. He the lectures them, saying that when someone is suffering, regardless of why, they don’t need a judge. A friend should give words of comfort, not harsh criticism.

But he also talks to God. He knows that God has and still can bless him but for some reason is withholding his blessing. He complains bitterly about his suffering and asks, “Why?” “Why?” “Why?” It sounds a little like the Hungarian national hymn, doesn’t it?

Job had no answers but He finally met with God and had a day of reckoning. God talked to Job, and gave him no answers to his problems, no reasons why, no explanations. Instead, God gave him a tour of the universe and showed him some of the great mysteries of nature, from the hippo to the ostrich. He asked him, “Do you understand how this all happened, how it works in such perfect balance? Tell me, can you teach me? Are you God? Come on Job!”

Job was left without words,

Then Job answered the LORD, and said,

1. “I know that Thou canst do all things, and that no purpose of Thine can be thwarted.
2. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’” Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.”
3. ‘Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask Thee, and do Thou instruct me.’
4. “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees Thee;
5. Therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes.” (Job Chapter 42)(NAS)

After Job met with God, God rebuked his friends for judging him and he restored twice as much of everything that Job had before. He gave him seven more children, three of them who were daughters and more beautiful than any women on earth! If God restored him double, why only seven more children, and not fourteen? Simply because his first seven children didn’t cease to exist, they were with God in the afterlife! And Job, after he died, “…an old man, full of days,” as the Bible says he was able to join his children in the afterlife!

So what does this have to do with Hungary? Could it be that God, instead of punishing Hungary, is showing off this interesting and fascinating people? With every attempt to wipe out this tiny nation with such a difficult language they remain in the Pannonian plain. And even with a smaller piece of the earth than they had before, a great amount of those outside today’s borders remain Hungarian to the bone! But more important, though this nation has worshiped God in its good times and complains to Him in its struggles- they still identify God with their nation! They still cry out for His blessing every time they sing the national hymn!

Could it be that the time has come for Hungary, like Job to recognize that God is working out His purpose with them and they will truly turn to Him, not for blessing, but because He is God? We can only wait and see. What about you, my Hungarian reader?

beliefs, God, Hungarian soul, suffering, theology, mentality, values, Christian perspective