It is Well

Elayna and I just got back from Colombia. Our ministry was towards the Embera people. Unreached indigenous tribes. Spiritual darkness which creates physical, emotional, psychological, trauma and suffering. They are a lost people and a homeless people (in a physical and spiritual sense). But the one of the hardest things in ministering to this people group is the language barrier. They don’t speak Spanish, but rather thier own untranslated languages, of which no one outside of their tribe knows (or the one or 2 missionaries trying to learn).

We had a translator, which would share bible stories or encouragement we would give. But, inspite of our language barrier, our moments of greatest connection and impact were not shared language, but shared experiences. Shared experieences as a Lumbee and an indigenous couple, but most importantly, and surprisingly shared suffering.

When we went to a part of the city known as “Crack Alley” to visit the indigenous in the areas they stayed..we realized that they would stay around and with the drug addicts because it was all they could afford. And we sung to them, shared storeis with them..but one story in particular resonated most. Elayna, when talking to the Embera women, shared here experience with suicidal thoughts in the past, and how there were moments she said she felt like dying. When she said this and it was translated one of the women immediately says, “Thats how I feel”. She spoke about the physical abuse she was suffering..and it was the first time I saw an Embera woman cry.

Two indigneous women, Elayna and this young woman with a baby in her hand…share about the same experiences, but both shaped by two different spiritual and internal beliefs. Elayna testifying to the faithfulness of God could say, “Thats where I was but God saved me.” This woman, had no basis, spritiual, physical, or otherwise..for hope.

God used our testimony and suffering to be the door through which this woman was able to see the condition of her soul.

We actually sung a hymn, “Bless the Lord oh my soul, 10,000 reasons” And we prayed for her, and them..that God would, as the hymn said, help them to see God and recognize the true God.

It is so appropriate then that on this Sunday back, we get to begin a new series entitled “Hymn’ed Up”. A reflection on the theological truths within some of our favorite hymns…and to give us an opportunity through worship to sing these rich songs together.

Today, we will look at the song “It is Well” . There is no other song which has been so widely sung at funerals and mourning..and it is an appropriate starting point for me, as I think back on my experience in Colombia…and this young woman not being able to say it is well with my soul!

This song was written by Horatio Spafford and was created out of intense suffering.

Spafford was a successful lawyer and investor in Chicago and along with his wife, had 5 children. Success was nothing new to the family, until tragedy struck. Around the time of the “Great Chicago Fire of 1871, Spafford and his wife lost their only son to a sickness. Not only that, but he lost all of his investments to the fire.

“Spafford, seeking to regroup, planned a trip for his family to Europe. At the last minute, he stayed behind to sell some property, but he sent his wife Anna and four daughters on the SS Ville du Havre ahead of him. While the ship crossed near Newfoundland in the dead of night, the Ville du Havre collided with the Loch Earn and rapidly sank in the North Atlantic. Spafford received a telegram from Anna that said “Saved alone…What shall I do?” from Wales, where another ship had taken survivors. All their daughters had perished in the freezing waters. Her children were literally ripped from her arms as the ocean sucked them down with the ship. Spafford quickly took a ship to meet his wife in Wales. As he passed over the spot where the Ville du Havre sank, the captain reportedly pointed out the significance of their location. Many sources relate that Spafford went to his cabin and immediately began to write this hymn of faith.” -Sue Schlesman

On his way to meet his broken-hearted wife, crossing over the same waters that claimed their remaining kids, Spafford decided to put pen to paper. Rather than cursing the One who created the water, he decided to praise Him. “When peace like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well, with my soul.”

What sorrows and suffering are you dealing with today? Can you say… “It is well?” Is your hope rooted in something deeper than the tossing of the waves..than the ups and downs of life.

Elayna showed what that looked like to a Embera Woman in spiritual darkness and hopelessness. Horatio Spafford shows what that has looked like to gnerations of people and countless men and women in suffering through arguable the most leaned on hymn in the midst of deep trials.

And today, as we study this famous hymn, there is no better place to look than one of the most leaned on bible books in regards to suffering, the book of Job.

Whatever my lot, thou has taught me to say, it is well with my soul. This is what Job said himself in Job 2:10

Job 2:10 NIV

10 He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

Let us look at the life and suffering of Job as we pull out the theological truths Horattio articulates in this hymn.

Lets begin in Job 1:

Job 1:1-3, “In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. 2 He had seven sons and three daughters, 3 and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.”  

Reality #1: Suffering Is Not Partial

In other words: Suffering is unavoidable. It rains on the just and the unjust.

Note Jobs Character: He is blameless and upright. He was succesfull and blessed. He feared God and shunned evil.

Even God himself echos this in Job 1:8

Job 1:8 NIV

8 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

While Godly character may save you from the consequences of your own foolishness it can’t save you from the world’s brokenness.

There is an advantage to wisdom, the same way there is an advantage to wearing your seat belt and following the rules of the road. But even if you do all those things, you are not guaranteed that you will not wreck or get hurt. Why? Not everyone follows the rules of the road. On top of that, there are natural circumstances like storms and weather which we can’t control or predict.

Job’s Godly character had blessed him, but it did not mean He was free from all suffering.

There are three types of suffering:

Suffering for sin and foolishness

Suffering for rightousness and faithfulness

Suffering because of the brokenness of the world.

The point is that suffering is not avoidable. You will either suffer for doing right or doing wrong. And on top of that you will suffer from the brokenness of this life.

Job’s suffering is three things, thieves who steal his flock, wind that knocks down the building that his children are in and they die, fire that falls from heaven that burned the sheep and the servants, and then later..sickness.

Though God allowed this, it was not the result of sin. This was suffering allowed by God because of his righteousness and because of the brokenness of the world.

Points:

Sickness, death and tragedy are unavoidable.

The point of Job is not about avoiding suffering, but enduring suffering.

“It is Well” is not about the condition of your body, family, wealth, or reputation. It is about the condition of your heart and realtionship with God.

Some preachers may tell you that if you obey and do right, God will grant you health and wealth. He may, but that is not what it means to be blessed.

Job was recognized by God and Satan. He was known by God as righteous and Satan as shunning evil and blessed. Which are you?

Is your life such that satan recognizes you as a powerful agent for God’s kingdom? If your life such that Satan knows or is worried about you?

Acts 19:13–15 NIV

13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?”

You can not say “It is well” with my soul untill you are at war with satan and at peace with God.

You can not sing it is well with my soul and think it is well with your sin. (Job feared God and shunned evil)

Questions:

Are you suffering because of your foolishness and sin, or righteousness and wisdom?

The demon says, “Who are you?” Who are you? That is my question. I’ve heard preachers say it like this, “If you were arrested for following Jesus, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” If God said to satan, Have you considered “John, Ty, Tim” what would Satan say?

This is important because just as our contentment doesn’t come from outside comfort, it also doesn’t come from outside praise. Could God look and say, “Consider my servant?”

So, Suffering Isn’t Partial. It doesn’t matter who you are you will suffer, but who you are makes all the difference with how you suffer.

Reality #2: Suffering Refines and Reveals Faith

Job 1:20–21 NIV

20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”

Then in Chapter 2

Job 2:7–10 NIV

7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. 8 Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes. 9 His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!” 10 He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

Job suffered, God tested Him..and In His testing..the integrity of his faith was revealed.

He maintained his integrity. He did not curse God. He didn’t give up on God. He didn’t abandon God. He trusted God..in good and bad.

There is no greater revealer of the state of our soul than suffering! If you want to know how strong your faith is, wait untill God is all you got!

You can sing it is well, when things look good. But the truth is it doesn’t mean much. Faith that isn’t tested can’t be trusted.

Job could be trusted with suffering! God knew that if Job went through this, even if its painful…the devil would see that Job belongs to God’s.

Satan realizes when he takes everything away from Job..that Job didn’t need anything else but God. That even when all outward comfort from God is gone..Job still obeys!

The devil says…I can’t do anything with Him! You see satan wasn’t after Job’s life..he couldn’t take that. He was after Job’s witness. His integrity. Satan doesn’t just want to kill you. When faithful men die they are martyrs and God’s kingdom just grows.

Satan wants you to curse God…because if he can get you to give up on God in your suffering, he will use you to discouarge others. And in so doing try to prove to the world that God isn’t good.

But when we suffer..if we hold on to God, as He holds on to us..and keep obeying and keep being faithful we cripple the work of satan..and become more so who God has called us to be.

C.S. Lewis in screwtape letters…writes from the perspetive of a chief demon trying to teach a lesser demon how decieve manking..and he says this about suffering.

Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause (the devils) is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys. -Screwtape Letters

The demon says, when a person keeps obeying and following God even when it looks like God is completely gone, and even they don’t even feel like it..and they keep obeying..we can’t do anything with them. Why? Because thier heart is fixed in God.

If you can’t worship God with nothing else, then its not God your worshiping its something else.

Application:

If you’re more afraid to step into suffering than to take a step away from God, you have made comfort your master.

When we complain about the very limited suffering in our life compared to the suffering of Job and Christ, we paint a small picture of God.

“Whatever my lot, though has taught me to say”- The goodness of God is something taught through suffering. It isn’t something we are just told, its something we experience.

1 Peter 1:7 NIV

7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

You can’t pursue God and avoid suffering. (losing friends, discomfort, loss of money, loss of time, status)

Question:

What could be taken away that would cause you to lose trust in God?

Have you been afraid to follow God in a certain way because of what it will cost you?

Can you be trusted with suffering?

Job could:

Job 10:8–10 NIV

8 “Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? 9 Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? 10 Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese,

Job 13:15 NIV

15 Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face.

Job 19:25 NIV

25 I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.

Third

Reality #3: Suffering Requires Others

When suffering occurs, the last thing Satan wants is for you to suffer in community. He wants you isolated. He wants you in the corner, depressed, anxiety filled and hopeless. Fortunately, God provides community in many ways. One of those ways is through friendships.

Job 2:11 NIV

11 When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.

They did get something right here:

They went to minister to their friend:

They listened to their friend:

Job 2:12-13, “When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. 13 Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.” Over and over again, Job’s friends listened to Job as he poured out his heart. Even when they didn’t like what he said, they listened.

As we see with Job, when suffering comes knocking at the door, who's going to be in your corner? Will you let them speak into your heart if needed, will you let them be a shoulder to lean upon? God doesn’t want you to walk alone, so maybe you need to start praying now about who’s in your corner so when the day comes, you’ll be one step ahead!

Notice, they just sat with him. For a week they just joined him in his suffering and supported him.

The ministry of presence.

What a refreshing gift it is in suffering to have people to come sit with you.

But these friends messed up once they spoke.

1st  Mistake: They tried to give answers that God had not given!

Job 11:13-15, “Yet if you devote your heart to him  and stretch out your hands to him, 14 if you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent, 15 then, free of fault, you will lift up your face;  you will stand firm and without fear.”

They tried to explain to Job why he was suffering. They basically told Job that his suffering came because of sin in his life. Here’s the deal, Job didn’t need an explanation, he needed sympathy. He didn’t need a theological breakdown of his struggle, he needed compassion.

Job didn’t need a bible belt quote. He didn’t need them to solve it. The truth is, God hadn’t given answers. We have to be careful when we try to give people answers that God hasn’t given.

We don’t always know why people suffer! We don’t know what God is doing. Sometimes things just happen.

Listen, if you are going through something today..I don’t know why it happened. I don’t know all the details, I don’t have the solution to make it all go away..but I do know my God does..and I will sit with you in the presence of God while He speaks to your heart.

Why did Horatio lose his family? It would not have been time to tell him, yeah you need to stop sinning. Life is not that black and white.

2nd Mistake: They Discouraged Emotions!

Job 15:12-13, “Why has your heart carried you away, and why do your eyes flash, 13 so that you vent your rage against God and pour out such words from your mouth? Job’s friends said, in essence, Job, you shouldn’t feel that way. You shouldn’t get angry, especially at God. Job, be strong, don’t complain, don’t cry.

Let people feel! They claimed to understand more than they did, and then told Job to stop feeling what He felt.

Job in Chapter 6 describes his friends like this.

Job 6:15–17 NIV

15 But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams, as the streams that overflow 16 when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow, 17 but that stop flowing in the dry season, and in the heat vanish from their channels.

He says this: You have been my friends, you have comforted me…but when I need you..and I need you now..you are of no help. Not even just no help, but worse, beat him up. At least when they were silent they didn’t critisize Him..but now, they are undepenable.

Suffering does require others…but the truth is you can’t suffer with everybody. Sometimes suffering will reveal to you who your friends are!

Also, as a believer, you need to make sure that you have people with the right biblical perspective speaking into your life. Job’s friends here had a limited view. They thought every suffering came from some sin..and this meant Job had sinned or messed up.

You need people in your life who can speak with the right biblical perspective!

Application

Maybe your problem isn’t a faith issue but a friends issue.

You need to analyze whether your friends are leading you to God and can comfort you in your suffering.

Be careful trying to offer people answers God hasn’t given! Wisom is not about having all the answers but being ok in the questions. Knowing that God has it in his hand.

Question:

Are your friends the type of friends that can help lead you to where God is leading you?

Do you have friends that are suffering for God? Do you have friends that you can look to in suffering because they have went through it and came to the other side?

Lastly: and most importantly

Reality #4: Suffering Has An Expiration Date

2 things happened for Job at the end of the book:

he questions God and God shows up and asks him questions:

Then when God shows up, Job says this:

Job 42:5–6 NIV

5 My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. 6 Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job had good questions, but God didn’t give him answers. He just ask Him..do you know who I am?

And so Job says, I repent. I don’t need answers.

He learns this…the way thorugh suffering isn’t in the answers but the prescense of God!

What we need to make it through is not more comfort. It is not answers. We don’t sing “It is well” because of all tother stuff God gives, its because of God himself.

When you read the end of Job you may think this was his greatest blessing:

Job 42:10–17 NIV

10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. 11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. 12 The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. 13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. 15 Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers. 16 After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so Job died, an old man and full of years.

His greatest blessing was not the stuff. That was good..but it was the presence of God that showed up in His suffering!

Suffering has an expiration date…but in a greater way than what we see for Job.

For Job, God came down to show him his presence. He healed him, gave him children..but you see the suffering we most need rescue from isn’t physical. Its spirtiual.

Job was healed but He’d die again. He had new children but they would die too.

So God does more than just come down and speak in wind and thunder like he did for Job. He does more than reveal His presence in a storm…He became a man, present with us.

He doesn’t just look at our suffering like with Job..he steps in it. And not just step in it..but takes our place!

You see, even if we escape the suffering of doing right, or doing wrong, or even the brokenness of this world..there is another suffering which is unavoidable.

The suffering of sin. All of us deserving of hell. Even Job, though he didn’t suffer because of His sin…sinned.

He needed a Savior.

Job knew this..its why he says in Job 9:33 when he suffers..and he makes his claim to God

Job 9:33–34 (NIV)

33 If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together, 34 someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more.

He says, even though I trust God..I am not Holy Like God! I can’t talk to Him! I am unworthy.

He says if only there was someone to stand between us, to remove God’s rod, to take the suffering, and mediate between us.

Thats what Christ has done! Even the most righteous men need a Savior! Christ took the rod of God’s punishment on fallen humanity..stand in the gap…takes the punishment..so that all who trust in Him don’t have to suffer eternally.

So even if we suffer in this life, we can say..It is well, with my soul! My flesh may fail, but it is well with my soul.

Job needed a savior and so do you!

You don’t sing “It is Well” By being free from worldy suffering. You sing “It is Well” by being free from Spiritual suffering.

By trusting in God, who takes our place..and beleving in Him!

So yes, Suffering has an expiration date, but that must be prefaced: For all those who trust in Jesus, suffering has an end.

For those who don’t, there is eternal suffering for our sin. Even your best isn’t good enough. If Job needed a savior a mediator..so do you!

My sin, not in part but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!