My Righteousness is the Issue

Introduction

Object Lesson

Motivation

Explanation

Summary of three points

Job’s Death Wish

Illustration: Have any of you ever been caving? Otherwise known as spelunking? There was a time I went caving with some friends from university. It was really fun, despite my mild claustrophobia. Now we were young and foolish and so we decided it would be fun or maybe funny to watch the James Cameron movie “Sanctum” before we went to explore the cave. If you haven’t seen it the movie is about a team of cave divers who are exploring this massive cave when a freak storm floods the entrance of the cave system. They are stuck in a situation where they have no choice but to wait until the water rises and drowns them, or attempt to make their way through uncharted passages underground in hopes that they can find their way back to the surface. It was kind of a terrifying movie to watch if I’m honest. It’s actually based on a true story of a time the writer of the film was trapped in a cave and had to find a new way out in order to survive.

Here’s a quote from him: “We were kind of in the middle section on a small ledge. We were trapped because there was no way down and no way out because of the water and the boulders were rolling around in the water. It was a question of do we stay on this little ledge and probably get sandwiched between the roof and the cave, which was collapsing? Or do we make a run for it and get killed that way?”

In other words they seemed doomed either way and their only choice was to stay still and probably die or to press forward and probably die. They pressed forward and found their way out and survived, obviously.

When life gets really hard sometimes we can throw our hands up in the air and wonder if there’s any point in pressing on. Most of the time most of us won’t feel like that. It’s a place of desperation and despair that I hope no one in this room has to feel, but that sometimes does come for some of us. A moment when you look down the tunnel and you just can’t see any light.

Job as we can see from our passage today has certainly reached such a point. He doesn’t see the hope anymore.

Job 6:8–13 CSB

If only my request would be granted and God would provide what I hope for: that he would decide to crush me, to unleash his power and cut me off! It would still bring me comfort, and I would leap for joy in unrelenting pain that I have not denied the words of the Holy One. What strength do I have, that I should continue to hope? What is my future, that I should be patient? Is my strength that of stone, or my flesh made of bronze? Since I cannot help myself, the hope for success has been banished from me.

He has lost all hope and now his only wish is that God would just finish him off so that he wouldn’t have to suffer anymore. That’s pretty bleak. It’s also not the first time we’ve seen this in Job of course, we’ve already talked about how Job was lamenting in an early chapter, and how it isn’t sinful to express our genuine grief and pain to God.

But the question is, what do we do with ourselves when we don’t have hope anymore? What is the right attitude and actions when we feel as if the only relief that we could have would be to die?

This is heavy stuff, and I don’t want for a minute to seem like I’m speaking dismissively or making little of that kind of depth of despair. This is an all too common question these days as our culture increasingly views death as a solution to despair and suffering. Is it right to seek death when we are at the end of our rope?

There’s two things that I want us to notice about Job’s story. The first is that while he asks God to bring him death, he doesn’t ever take that into his own hands. It’s not like people in the ancient world didn’t know how to end their own lives. Yet Job never once talks about ending his own life. Instead he rightly views God as the one who decides who lives and dies and leaves it in his hands.

This can be a tough pill to swallow. It’s easy to say that from my comfortable life, but a lot harder when you’re in the hospital in constant pain and the doctors are giving you little to no chance of survival. Yet to submit to God is to give Him total authority over our lives and our death.

Deuteronomy 32:39 CSB

See now that I alone am he; there is no God but me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal. No one can rescue anyone from my power.

Yet there is more than just bad news here. We also have hope even in this story that there is hope where we aren’t expecting and that God has a plan to bring about our ultimate good. Though Job says that he has no future and no hope, if you skip to the end of this book we find that he is wrong. God heals him and restores him and he goes on to be even more successful than before.

Sometimes even when we think there is no hope and no future God makes a way. That won’t always look like recovery and success on this side of the grave, but we serve a God who has power even beyond the grave. So that even when we are at our darkest and bleakest moments if we trust in Him than we can know we are safe in His hands.

So my friends let us remember in all seasons to respect the sovereign will of God and to leave our lives in His hands, trusting that He can deliver us. Because we are on the other side of the empty tomb, we can know what Job only saw in small part. There is hope beyond death.

Will the Dead Rise Again?

Illustration

Motivation

Explanation

Application

The Pain of Unreliable Friends

Illustratin

Motivation

Explanation

Application

Conclusion

Recap

Application

Sending