Job 22-28

Intro

Imagine with me for a moment: think about one of your friends with me. Imagine you got news that your friend, this past week, has experienced deep tragedy in their lives and they have lost everything. They’ve lost their home, every last penny, their family is all dead, and they themselves are experiencing an incredibly painful illness.

I imagine that you would desire to go and comfort your friend, and try to help in any way that you are able to.

But in your quest to comfort and help, I bet you can imagine that there won’t be anything “clean” about this conversation. You aren’t going to be entering a seminary classroom where everyone is talking in neat categories, philosophizing about theories and ideas, and using all the proper terminology. A seminary classroom is a good place for that, but the side of a suffering friend is not.

It should come as no surprise to us that as we continue to examine the conversation between Job and his comforters, things are far from clean. To be honest, as we read and study, we find that this is a mess — and of course it is!

Here we have Job, a righteous servant of God who is suffering deeply in every conceivable way at no fault of his own. Job is trying to reconcile his suffering with what he believes about God, and he is struggling.

And we have Job’s comforters, who are trying to impose their own theological and philosophical systems on Job’s present condition. Their theology is at times actually correct, but only halfway correct — and their application of it to the life of Job is a trainwreck more often than not.

And so we sit as flies on the wall, trying to glean wisdom from this interaction. Tonight, I want to glean three things from the text.

First, any theology of suffering not centered on the cross is useless.

Second, the cross of Christ gives unimpeachable integrity to the sufferer.

Third, humble reliance upon God is the best medicine for the sufferer.

Through these points, I’d like to drive home the idea that our suffering should lead us to the cross, where we find our integrity and our peace.

Theology Without the Cross is Useless To Sufferers

You are no gain to God, and you are a horrible sinner

Job 22:1–5 “Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: “Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless? Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you and enters into judgment with you? Is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities.”

The first point that the comforter Eliphaz makes in this speech is that man cannot do anything that could be considered profitable to God. There is no way to merit his favor, and no amount of righteousness can be considered to cause God to gain anything.

Beyond that, Eliphaz argues that the Almighty is not pleased with anyone being in the right. Essentially, the doctrine set forth is that it is impossible for man to please God with his righteousness.

Here Eliphaz is willing to, at least for a moment, assume that Job is righteous. He says that even if this is the case, Job cannot earn God’s favor.

And at least to some extent, the words of Eliphaz are at least partially true. Job has said as much himself at several points in his speeches up until this point. Job is conscious of the reality that God is transcendent, and that man has no hope of earning his favor.

But Eliphaz is misguided in his theology. He only seeks to heap more pain on Job as he says this, and then he says what is really on his heart here.

He stop assuming that Job is righteous, and he makes the moist blatant accusation that we have from any of the comforters in this book. He says “is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities.”

This is what he really wants to say: this is happening to you because you’re a terrible sinner.

He then continues with some more half-baked theology:

Repent and you will be restored

Job 22:21–23 ““Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you. Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty you will be built up; if you remove injustice far from your tents,”

Here Eliphaz seems to put forth the doctrine that if you repent, God will be merciful to you and will build you up. Once again, there is truth to his words. This is a generally true statement: if any sinner repents and turns to God in faith, then he will be saved and built up. If they turn from evil, then they will be restored.

But while what Eliphaz speaks is generally true, it is false in the specific case of Job.

It is false because Job already agrees with God. Job has already received his instruction, has laid up God’s words in his heart, has already removed injustice far from his tents.

Eliphaz is making an assumption here — an assumption that we know is false because of our privileged position as the reader. He assumes that Job is suffering because of sin that he has not repented of, but this is not true.

Job 1:1 “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.”

Job 1:8 “And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?””

And so Eliphaz once again misses the mark with half-baked theology. While he isn’t categorically wrong in what he says, he has made an absolute mess of his doctrine and has applied it in horribly wrong and painful ways to the life of Job.

Then comes Bildad in chapter 25

Man cannot be righteous before God

Job 25 “Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: “Dominion and fear are with God; he makes peace in his high heaven. Is there any number to his armies? Upon whom does his light not arise? How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure? Behold, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure in his eyes; how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!””

Bildad puts forth the doctrine that God is transcendent and all-powerful. His holiness is so high that man cannot possibly be considered pure in his sight. And not only is man not pure, he is a maggot! Man is a worm, absolutely detestable in God’s sight.

Once again, a half-baked theology. It is true that man, by sin, has fallen into a condition of sin and misery and has justly brought upon himself God’s wrath and curse. This is the general case of mankind.

It is not the case for Job, who is walking in covenant with the Lord and is already righteous in God’s eyes. The Lord loves Job and considers that there is none like him on the face of the entire Earth.

And so this generalized theology, while not categorically or universally false, is being wielded as a weapon and is being totally misappropriated and misapplied.

Job finally replies to these comforters:

Uselessness of this theology

Job 26:1–4 “Then Job answered and said: “How you have helped him who has no power! How you have saved the arm that has no strength! How you have counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge! With whose help have you uttered words, and whose breath has come out from you?”

Job essentially responds and says to his comforters, “thanks a lot! You’ve been so incredibly helpful! This is really going to help turn everything around!”

There is sarcasm dripping from Job’s voice as he speaks from his suffering.

The truth is that for all the talk of theology, Job’s suffering is only worsening as a result. His friends, while they may be generally right at times about their view of God and sin, are wielding their theology with absolute carelessness.

They are far too ready to make assumptions about Job’s life in an attempt to confirm their own presuppositions. There isn’t an ounce of humility in any of their words as they speak. Their theology does not come from understanding, and it certainly doesn’t come from love.

They have become what the Apostle Paul will later call, “noisy gongs and clanging symbols.” No amount of study or eloquence is worth anything because their speech is void of love and humility.

The so called comforters of Job have only laid a heavier burden upon his back.

At the end of the day, their theology of suffering is a crossless theology. They continue to insist that Job is a filthy sinner, that God is angry with him, and Job must confess and repent if he wants things to get better. They focus the conversation completely on Job, make assumptions about him, and refuse to listen or display any level of humility

Apply:

To the sufferer: you will likely get a lot of words from a lot of different people. Some of it might be helpful, while much of it will likely only stoke your frustration. Perhaps you, like Job, are continuing to believe in God, but struggling badly to reconcile your understanding of God’s love with your experience of undeserved suffering.

It also pains me to say that there might even be some from the church who approach you with worthless theology in the midst of your suffering. While I hope this isn’t the case, if it is your experience, please do your best to forgive them. If there are people coming to you with mountains of theology and philosophy, but not with the cross of Christ, then you already know how empty their words are, and how useless they are to you while you sit in suffering.

To the comforter: Do not make assumptions about those who are suffering. Do not use this as an opportunity to dig into the finer points of theology. Don’t be the noisy gong or clanging symbol.

And let us consider an alternative to this noise.

Let us consider that the Cross of Christ gives sufferers an unimpeachable integrity.

The Cross of Christ gives sufferers assurance of integrity

Job 27:1–6 “And Job again took up his discourse, and said: “As God lives, who has taken away my right, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter, as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, my lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will not utter deceit. Far be it from me to say that you are right; till I die I will not put away my integrity from me. I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.”

As the conversation has focused on Job’s integrity, Job offers a defense of himself here. Because his friends have been determined to pin the cause of all this suffering on some great sinfulness of Job, Job is determined to stand his ground.

And this is maybe a strange thing for good evangelicals like ourselves to hear. These words from Job might sound to you as something like pride, but they aren’t pride.

Job is leaning on a cross-centered theology when he says this — and allow me to explain.

Job lives thousands of years before Christ ever goes to the cross, and so Job makes no explicit reference to the cross. But what is clear is that Job has rock-solid confidence in his righteousness in the presence of God, and Job has made it clear on many occasions that he knows God is the source of this integrity.

As God Lives

The Almighty

Spirit of God is in my nostrils

Chapter 19 - I know my redeemer lives

Job has an unwavering confidence in this integrity, even when it seems like that integrity is under siege.

Brothers and sisters, this is something you and I must learn from Job.

It is something we must learn, because we also have an accuser that will never stop questioning our integrity in the presence of God. We also have an accuser that will continue to insist that we are worms, that we are maggots, and that God cares nothing for us. We also have an accuser that continually fixates on our sin in the same model of half-truths that Job’s miserable comforters employ.

But, like Job, all who trust in the cross of Christ have an integrity that we must never let go of.

Faith in Christ gives us eternal peace with God

Romans 4:24–5:2 “[righteousness] will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Here where we stand, on this side of the cross, we see that Job was even more right than he probably realized. Because here, on this side of the cross, we begin to realize just how rock-solid our integrity is through faith in Christ.

Because all those who look on him in faith are justified by that faith, and because Christ was delivered up for our trespasses, we now know that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the truth of the gospel, this is our blessed hope.

Through faith, we have been given an integrity that is as white as the snow.

Our enemy looks at the church and would call us maggots, worms, he would remind us of any and all transgression and would insist that our sinfulness is the basis on which God deals with us.

When we suffer, our enemy will twist the blade. He will insist that our suffering is a result of our sin. He will insist that God is dealing with us according to our iniquities. He will bring any and all accusation against us.

But church of God, you are no worm, you are no maggot. No, but as the Scriptures say,

Psalm 8:5 “Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.”

As we look to Christ, we must always remember that our accusers breath lies at their own peril. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, because Christ has given us an integrity that is unimpeachable.

Because of the Cross, our suffering breeds hope

Romans 5:3–5 “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Here we see that the cross transforms our own suffering. Because we are united to Christ in our suffering, we rejoice in our sufferings. This is because our suffering produces endurance — this is the intended effect of the suffering God allows us to experience.

This endurance produces character — as the gold remains in the furnace, it is more and more perfected by the heat.

This character produces hope, as we become more and more convinced that God is faithful to us even through the miseries of this life.

This is because, even in the midst of our sufferings, we can see that it is God’s love — and NOT his wrath — which is being poured into our hearts through his Holy Spirit.

So what then? How will we proceed from this point? What does the sufferer learn from Job here?

We learn that when we suffer, we are united to Christ in his suffering. We learn that from Christ’s sacrifice, we have been given an unimpeachable integrity.

And so, as we continue to experience suffering in this life, we come in humble reliance to our Lord who loved us and gave himself for us; for humble reliance upon the Lord is the best medicine for a sufferer.

This is what Job does as his tone shifts in chapter 28 to a more reflective place.

Humble reliance on God is the best medicine for a sufferer

Job 28:1–6 ““Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold that they refine. Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted from the ore. Man puts an end to darkness and searches out to the farthest limit the ore in gloom and deep darkness. He opens shafts in a valley away from where anyone lives; they are forgotten by travelers; they hang in the air, far away from mankind; they swing to and fro. As for the earth, out of it comes bread, but underneath it is turned up as by fire. Its stones are the place of sapphires, and it has dust of gold.”

man has mined everything that the Earth has to offer.

Job 28:12–22 ““But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its worth, and it is not found in the land of the living. The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’ and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’ It cannot be bought for gold, and silver cannot be weighed as its price. It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire. Gold and glass cannot equal it, nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal; the price of wisdom is above pearls. The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, nor can it be valued in pure gold. “From where, then, does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding? It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air. Abaddon and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’”

wisdom and understanding are as elusive as they are valuable.

Job admits he simply cannot understand his own situation. His wisdom is not sufficient.

But there are whispers of where to find wisdom

Job 28:23–28 ““God understands the way to it, and he knows its place. For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. When he gave to the wind its weight and apportioned the waters by measure, when he made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder, then he saw it and declared it; he established it, and searched it out. And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’ ””

At the end of the day, whatever else we might learn about God from his revelation to us in the Scriptures, the best medicine for the one who is suffering is a humble reliance upon the Lord. For while our wisdom may fail, and while our understanding is inadequate, the Lord knows and understands all things.

And so our call is to fear him — to come to him with magnificent awe and humility. We rely upon him when our own understanding falls short. We trust him when our wisdom begins to fail.

What is the best advice to the sufferer? Come to the Lord in humility, consider his ways, rest in his gospel. There you will find the only respite for your soul when your whole world is on fire.

FCF: All human wisdom on suffering is worthless without the cross of Christ

CFC: The Cross of Christ brings purpose and redemption to righteous suffering