The Breaking of Job
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Illustration:
Motivation:
Explanation
One day the sons of God came again to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them to present himself before the Lord. The Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?”
“From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered him, “and walking around on it.”
Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited me against him, to destroy him for no good reason.”
“Skin for skin!” Satan answered the Lord. “A man will give up everything he owns in exchange for his life. But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
“Very well,” the Lord told Satan, “he is in your power; only spare his life.” So Satan left the Lord’s presence and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself while he sat among the ashes.
His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!”
“You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” Throughout all this Job did not sin in what he said.
Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had happened to him, each of them came from his home. They met together to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they looked from a distance, they could barely recognize him. They wept aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust into the air and on his head. Then they sat on the ground with him seven days and nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw that his suffering was very intense.
Summary of 3 Points
God permits suffering
God permits suffering
Illustration: As a parent I must admit that my natural instinct is to protect my children from anything bad ever happening to them. But I know that’s not realistic. And worse, that it can lead to adults who are unprepared to handle the harsher realities of life. So as a parent there are times when I have to step back and let my kids have a little independance and take some risks.
I’ve realized more and more since I became a father just how profound the image of God as our Father truly is. Sometimes we lose sight of this fact. We treat Father like a proper name that doesn’t mean anything about His character or His relationship to us. So why don’t we stop for a moment and reflect on the fact that God wants us to think of Him as our Parent. A good and loving parent sometimes lets their children go through difficult times. That doesn’t mean you don’t support them, but it does mean that sometimes you let your child fall off their bike because that’s a part of learning.
I want to be careful here. Letting a child skin their knee is not the same thing as burying a spouse or living with unbearable pain. The analogy breaks down. But what carries over is not the size of the pain—it’s the posture of the parent.
Well what about the bigger things? What if we shift the conversation from scraped knees and small mistakes to huge life shattering loss and suffering? The moments we go through that make us question whether God is really good. Where is God in those moments? We believe as followers of Jesus that God is all powerful and all present and nothing happens apart from His will.
The Bible says in 1 Chronicles 29:11
Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty, for everything in the heavens and on earth belongs to you. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom, and you are exalted as head over all.
And in Psalm 22:28
for kingship belongs to the Lord;
he rules the nations.
God is the King of the Universe and He is in control. Scripture teaches that nothing escapes God’s rule—but that does not mean God delights in evil, authors sin, or looks at our pain with indifference. This is demonstrated in this verse by how Satan must request God’s permission to do harm to Job, and even when it is granted it comes with limits. Let’s take a look at verses 3 to 7.
Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited me against him, to destroy him for no good reason.”
“Skin for skin!” Satan answered the Lord. “A man will give up everything he owns in exchange for his life. But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
“Very well,” the Lord told Satan, “he is in your power; only spare his life.” So Satan left the Lord’s presence and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.
Here’s the hard truth in this: This means that when we go through the hard times and suffering in our lives we must acknowledge that God allowed those things to happen to us. Why? In the case of Job God had a bigger plan. He had a plan to demonstrate His own glory and to eventually bring Job to an even greater place of blessing. Job never gets told about the conversation in heaven. He suffers without explanation—and that matters, because most of us suffer the same way.
While this may seem like a difficult thing to accept, I think it is actually encouraging if we take the time to really think through what that means. That means that there isn’t a single moment of harm or trial that isn’t a part of God’s plan in your life. You see we are limited human beings with a small view of history and even of our own lives. Yet God sees the end from the beginning. That means that every evil and terrible thing can and will be used for God’s greater purpose. This is how Joseph was able to say to His brothers in Genesis 50:19-20
But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people.
Joseph’s brothers had a plan, but so did God. Does that mean God is the one who sent Joseph into Egypt as a slave? Yes and no. The mystery of Scripture is that it treats some things as at one time the evil will of man and the will of the Father for good. So those things in your life that seemed on the surface to be for no good purpose I believe God is using in some way for good, though we may never see it in this life.
Yet that doesn’t do much for us in the meantime does it? That is perhaps not very comforting in the moment when we are going through trial and suffering. So what does the Bible call us to do when we are facing adversity? Job demonstrates the right attitude in this chapter, and the Bible praises Him for it. Let’s take a look next at Job’s advice to Accept Adversity from God.
Accepting Adversity
Accepting Adversity
Illustration: Imagine with me that you were taking up a new sport. Maybe it’s running, football, maybe it’s cross country skiing. Why might you do something like that? Well you might do it in order to be more active and healthy, you might do it for the thrill of winning, you might do it for comraderie with your teammates. But imagine you started a new sport but you refused to accept all the challenges that came with it. You wanted the winning without losing any matches. You wanted the physical fitness without pushing yourself to exercise even when you didn’t want to.
We can all see that’s kind of silly, right? When you agree to be an athlete, you’re agreeing to accept adversity in order to gain the prize. I believe that following God and doing what’s right is very similar. We put our faith in Jesus because we want the good that comes with it. We want to live forever. We want to feel God’s presence in our lives. We want to have the Holy Spirit to guide us and comfort us. But what about the adversity that comes with it?
So Satan left the Lord’s presence and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself while he sat among the ashes.
His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!”
“You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” Throughout all this Job did not sin in what he said.
This is the kind of life moment where as believers we might be tempted, understandably so, to throw up our hands in frustration and cry out in frustration that God would allow this to happen to us. Remember, Job just lost everything. All of his riches are gone and more importantly all of his children have died. Now following all that he’s afflicted with terrible boils. I know I’ve in the past just sort of glazed over this verse thinking it was terrible sure, but it’s just boils, what’s the big deal? Well in my study of this passage I came across this description of Job’s disease in The Bible Knowledge Commentary:
Some scholars say the disease may have been smallpox; others say it was elephantiasis. It was apparently some skin condition with scabs or scales, such as pemphigus foliaceus (cf. Rupert Hallam, “Pemphigus Foliaceus,” in The British Encyclopaedia of Medical Practice. 2nd ed. 12 vols. London: Butterworth, 1950–52, 9:490–2).
This disease, as attested by physicians today, matches the symptoms of Job’s afflictions—inflamed, ulcerous sores (
This is no small thing, obviously. So we can understand why someone in this situation might be upset. I followed God. I did everything right. Why would He allow this kind of suffering in my life? This is pretty much the reaction at least on the surface from Job’s wife. Remember she suffered the same losses as Job. Now she faces the prospect of being a widow in the ancient world. So she has decided that Job’s integrity isn’t good for anything and he must discard it. What does Job say?
“You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” Throughout all this Job did not sin in what he said.
Should we accept only good from God and not adversity? Following God is not a guarantee of a painless and successful life. Sometimes we let the lie of the prosperity gospel infect us even in our non-prosperity gospel churches, the lie that God only wills good for those who follow Him right. Jesus promises that in this world we will have trouble. That was a promise to His most faithful followers.
Remember that Satan’s challenge was that Job was only following God because it gained Him wealth and protection. This is Job proving that He’s following God for the sake of God, not for the good it might bring Him. God is calling us to the same. We are to follow Him because we love Him, not because we think it’s the most successful life path. Not because it’s fire insurance.
This is the secret of contentment. Being able to accept the good and the bad. That’s where the famous “I can do all things through Christ” verse comes from. Philippians 4:12-13
I know how to make do with little, and I know how to make do with a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me.
And that’s the secret to accepting adversity from God. Knowing that He is there with us and giving us the strength. Because though God allows suffering, He doesn’t leave us alone in it. That’s the message of Jesus’ incarnation. He is God with us. He promised in Matthew 28:20b
… And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
This then means that if we want to imitate Christ, we need to just like Him be there for those who are going through hard times. Job’s friends at the end of this verse demonstrate this very well. Let’s take a look at what this chapter teaches us about being there for others in their suffering.
Being There
Being There
Illustration: When Owen was born we were in the middle of the pandemic, so the hospitals had their safety measures to try and reduce the spread. For that reason the Belleville hospital had a policy where if you were in labor your support person couldn’t enter the hospital until you had a private room. Well as many of you know, that doesn’t always happen very quickly. In fact I sat in the car in February for 6 hours while Katie sat in a hospital bed alone and in labor with Owen. Meanwhile the doctors are looking at Owen’s heartrate and getting concerned. They call for a c section and then decide to let me come in and see Katie just before the surgery, even though she still didn’t have a room of her own. You know what happened as soon as I got into that hospital beside Katie? Owen’s heart rate normalized. Of course by then it was too late to change course so we ended up in C section anyway.
The thing is when you’re pregnant and in distress your baby feels that, so likely Katie’s stress was causing Owen stress because I wasn’t there. When I arrived Katie’s stress level went down. Why? I’m not a doctor. There really wasn’t much I could do to help her in that moment. But she loves me, and I love her, and my presence means a lot to her.
You see when we’re going through difficult times what can often mean the most to us is just the people we love being there for us. Even if there’s nothing they can do to directly help with whatever’s going wrong, a friend who can be beside us can mean a world of difference. This has been true throughout history. This ancient book is a testament to the value of a friend sitting with you. Take a look at how Job’s three friends react to his suffering and trials.
Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had happened to him, each of them came from his home. They met together to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they looked from a distance, they could barely recognize him. They wept aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust into the air and on his head. Then they sat on the ground with him seven days and nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw that his suffering was very intense.
They hear about his adversity, they come to comfort him. When they see the state he’s in they grieve with him. Then they sit with him in silence for SEVEN DAYS AND NIGHTS. Doesn’t that sound like a good group of friends? Now granted those of you who’ve read ahead know that they will soon open their mouths and things will go downhill from there, but at the end of chapter 2 they are doing exactly the right thing here.
First, they are mourning with Job. This is exactly what the Bible calls us to do with those who are mourning. Romans 12:15
Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.
Jesus Himself practiced this art. When Lazarus died he wept along with Lazarus’ sisters, even though he knew that Lazarus would be resurrected. So even if we know that the sorrow will end, even if we know our friends will one day come through the other side, we still ought to weep with them.
The other thing that these friends did is stay with them. Isn’t this what God does for us when we suffer? Remember in the last point when I said that Jesus promised there would be trouble? Here’s why context matters, because that’s not where His statement begins or where it ends.
Indeed, an hour is coming, and has come, when each of you will be scattered to his own home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”
There are two huge ideas here for those who are suffering and feel alone. First, Jesus has been there. He went through horrible suffering and all His friends abandoned Him, but He knew that God was by His side through it all, just like He will be by our side through it all. So we can know that when we are going through hard times we can be assured that God knows what we’re going through and is standing right beside us when we go through it.
So then we ought to do the same for our brothers and sisters who are going through adversity. When we hear that our friends are in pain we should go to them, mourn with them, and be by their side. And maybe resist trying to give them easy answers to why they are suffering, but we’ll save the rest of that lesson for a later day when we look at the words of Job’s friends.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Recap
Application
Sending
