More than Meets the Eye

Life is complex.

Navigating life is complex.

Raising children is complex.

Marriage is complex.

The more I speak with people about their troubles and victories in life, the more I realize there are no two situations that are exactly alike.

One of the amazing things about the way God created the world we know, is that He shrouded unimaginable complexity into relative simplicity and likeness.

In other words, in some ways, human beings, their relationships, and their struggles, are all compatible. We all struggle with similar things, especially those of us who live within a similar culture or context.

But on the other hand, there are so many variables in our lives that if we let ourselves think about it too much, we might think “there is nobody like me at all!”

Take a simple scenario:

Two men work the same job, the same hours, come home to a very similar situation - wife at home, several children.

There was a problem at work which caused them to have to work about an extra 1/2 hour.

In both cases, the wife says “why are you late?”

Now, on the surface, these situations are identical. But we know there are an unfathomable amount of differences that will influence the way this conversation goes, right?

Their temperament in general

Their upbringing

Their wife’s tone

The children’s behavior

Their financial situation

Their health

What they had for lunch

Yes, indeed, life is complex.

The book of Job is teaching us that, and Job’s friends are teaching us that by way of negation. By way of what not to do.

Eliphaz - Job, you deserve it.

Bildad - Job, you need to repent!

Zophar - God is going easy on you.

As of yet, Zophar’s speech is the shortest, most abrupt, and the coldest one yet. As if he hears the conversations up to this point, and just has to land this plane with a whallop of a blow.

“You are getting less than you deserve, Job!”

Zophar is an extreme case of what the other two friends also assumed - that there can be no trouble like this unless the troubled person sinned and is being punished by God.

But life is complex. If we go through life imagining that every trouble we face, or every trouble that someone else faces, is a direct of a specific sin, then especially as believers, we will be ascribing a characteristic to God that the scripture does not.

God is patient, longsuffering, slow to anger.

If you should mark iniquities, who would stand?

Isaiah 55:8–9 ESV

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

I want to approach this text today from the aspect of our attitudes toward others.

We cannot assume that our opinion of someone’s struggle is absolute. The reasons for God’s testing are manifold.

Zophar - God is going easy on you! - Ch. 11

Job, how can you assume you are innocent? - 11:1-6

Job, God can see through your self-righteousness! - 11:7-12

Job, your only hope is to stop running from God! - 11:13-20

Job - Do you think I’m foolish? - Ch. 12-14

John 9:1–2 ESV

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

John 9:3–4 ESV

Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.

My misfortune doesn’t mean I’m wicked - Ch. 12

Job’s gift of sarcasm - Vs. 2

“I’m not stupid. I know what you are saying is true, but that’s not the problem here.”

Job’s feeling of betrayal - Vs. 4

Job’s feeling of being misunderstood - vs. 5

When we are at ease, it is easy to say “that would never happen to me!”

God, I thank you that I am not like others!

Job’s appeal to basic theism - God is sovereign.

the beasts, birds, bushes, and fish all know that God is sovereign and in control.

God’s wisdom is final, and in an instant can confuse the wisest sage - 10-25

Your prescription is Malpractice! - 13:1-12

I know what you have said is true, but I want to know God’s opinion. I want to see His plans.

Harsh criticism - vs. 4

Oh, that silence would be your wisdom!

Verse 7 - a helpful question for all of us.

Verse 8 - tough to think about, but helpful.

when we make up the simple answer, we are arrogantly excusing God and limiting his wisdom.

back to John 9 - should Jesus have excused God from the blindness of the blind man?

Verse 9 - you might be able to gloss over people with your simple answer, but can you deceive God?

I’m asking God why, but I’m not running away - 13:13-Ch. 14

Verse 13 - I’m going to keep approaching God with this. I’m not turning away from Him.

Verse 14 - I’m not taking responsibility when I know He is sovereign.

Verse 15 - there is no hope beside Him, so I will go continually to Him.

Job’s friends knew his joyful existence before, and they assume that his relationship with God is over because of his misfortune.

They are calling him back to that joy on a path that he can’t take.

It is not theraputic but stinging.

They see the testing as a sign of departure, rather than seeing it as a sign of a deep relationship with the Lord.

How might we do this?

Someone with poor health

Someone with difficult finances

Someone with family trouble

Someone with “bad luck”

Philippians 2:3–4 ESV

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.