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ON DEALING WITH SUFFERING
Central United Church
Rev. Karl N. Burden
July 21, 2002
*Text: “In spite of everything that had happened, Job did not sin by blaming God.” Job 1:22*
* *
Do you remember the story of Job?
Job was a wealthy man who lived about 8 or 9 hundred years before Jesus.
He was a person who enjoyed a very good life, with most of the advantages which money can buy.
But then one day, Job’s fortunes took a turn for the worst, and he began to experience one tragedy after another.
The Bible tells us that:
Job was a man of great piety; "blameless and upright; one who feared God and shunned evil" (1:1).
He was also a man of great prosperity.
The Bible says his material holdings made him "the greatest man of all the people of the East" (1:2).
But one day that life of privilege came to an abrupt end, in a series of dreadful events, which came upon him in rapid succession.
Job first loses his wealth, then his children, then his health begins to deteriorate, and finally he loses even the support of his beloved wife.
Although this is a story from the distant past, there is much in it - with which we can identify today.
You see, basically its a story that describes the meaning of faith; faith in God.
As a general rule, most people don’t have any problem believing in God when things are going well.
They may not think about God very much in good times, but when pressed, most people admit to a fundamental belief in God.
But when their lives become difficult; when they experience a serious illness; or when a member of their family dies tragically:- that’s when faith becomes difficult.
“A loving God wouldn’t allow such suffering!”
we may hear people say.
Now, the thing that distinguished Job from the majority of people, is that in spite of the fact he loses everything he ever had through one mishap after another; he never once turns his back on God.
Throughout it all, he remains faithful.
This is an interesting, if not dramatic story about human suffering, and the response to suffering.
So let’s take a closer look at this story of Job and see what we can learn.
What we see first, is that when tragedy strikes Job’s life, his friends search for an answer.
That’s quite a normal response.
Most of us want to know ‘why’ when we experience hardships.
But the question which Job’s friends find difficult is:- ‘Why is this happening to such an upright and religious man?’
After wrestling with this question for awhile, the best answer they can come up with is:- Job must have done something terribly wrong.
It was obvious to them that he was being punished, why else would God allow such tragedies to occur?
Now, given the background and knowledge they had, that was a perfectly natural conclusion for them to reach.
They knew God was the ultimate controller of life, and they believed that God punished wrong doing.
But Job isn’t satisfied with this kind of logic because you see, [although he knows he’s not perfect], Job was convinced his faithfulness to God was beyond question.
So Job comes up with a different response.
He concludes that God must be unfair!
From Job’s point of view, there could be no other rational conclusion.
Now, if he believes God is unfair, what can he do about it?
Summoning all his wisdom, Job comes up with an idea.
He must find a way to plead his case before God, (to defend his innocence).
If he can just do this, he’s certain God will change His mind, and stop inflicting him with so many problems.
The problem with this strategy, of course, is that Job doesn’t have the authority to summon God to court.
So Job does the next best thing, he searches for a mediator; someone who can present his case to God. We’ll talk about this later, but for the moment, let’s try to picture Job’s plight.
Although we may sympathize with Job, it’s really very difficult for most of us to fully grasp the magnitude of the trauma he was experiencing, because few [if any] of us ever experience such total devastation in our lives.
Think about it:-
a) From a personal point of view, Job lost all his money, his possessions and his family, and this (so the story states) he lost in a single day!
Even is his health is affected.
The Bible tells us that an awful disease left him with terrible boils over all his body.
b) From a social point of view, this poor man had fallen from a position of prominence in his community, to one of total desperation.
There is a graphic picture of him in this story, sitting alone on the garbage dump of his city; while his former neighbours are taunting him with cruel words.
Even Job’s closest friends, have turned against him.
c) But as traumatic as all this may be, Job’s greatest loss (in his estimation) was his separation from God’s favour.
It was the realization that he’d fallen out of grace, this is what caused Job to slip into a deep depression.
So overwhelmed was he by his plight, he wanted to die.
I can think of only one more pathetic person in the whole Bible, and that of course, is Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus.
To help us get some understanding of the trauma Job experienced, we can look at what’s happened recently to some people in our 21st century world.
Think, for example, of a quiet residential enclave, tucked away in a back corner of old Jerusalem.
It’s the Sabbath and a group of ultra conservative Jewish families have just walked out onto the street at the close of their synagogue service.
There’s a bustle of happy voices as parents converse with one another and children chat with their friends.
On the fringe of the group, unseen by most, a figure approaches.
He’s dressed like any other Jew on the Sabbath, and so he attracts no special attention.
The young man moves closer to the group of families.
Suddenly, without warning, there’s an enormous explosion; and in an instant that tranquil scene is turned into one of utter chaos of death and destruction.
Another suicide bomber, out of desperation or madness, has just inflicted horrible destruction upon that group of young families.
Those who survive that tragedy, share something of Job’s horror.
Without attempting to pick sides in this Middle East conflict, the fact remains that once again individuals and families have [in an instant] lost everything that was important to them.
Or, changing location, picture a quiet rural scene in the province of Gujarat, in India.
A train is racing across the landscape.
On board are a group of Hindu families, returning from a pilgrimage to a holy site.
Many of them are singing nationalistic songs.
Also on the train are some passengers of another faith who are angered by this display of religious fervour.
In a rage, - someone sets fire to one of the railway coaches.
Unaware of what has happened, the engineer continues to drive on for several more miles.
The resulting wind fans the fire, and before the train is stopped, four coaches have been gutted; and 58 people, mostly women and children are burned alive.
Here once more, the fortunes of human beings have taken a sudden and dramatic turn.
In an instant, those who were experiencing joy and happiness, loose all that’s important to them.
Of course, [as we all know] that isn’t the end of this story.
For several days following that tragedy riots rage across the province, leaving hundreds of other families to experience loss of their homes, physical suffering and even death.
That both of these incidents happened in the same week, only serves to emphasize that fact that people of faith can still experience catastrophic disasters that may strip them of all that’s important in their lives.
So let’s return to Job and see what we can learn from his story.
*1.
**SUFFERING – THE RESULT OF UNSEEN CONFLICT*
There are at least three important lessons to be learned from Job’s story.
The first is: - that suffering is often caused by some unseen conflict.
In Job’s story, the unseen conflict is graphically described as a contest between God and Satan.
Satan tries to prove he has great power than God.
But God says, ‘you’re not as powerful as you think.
Take Job, for example, you can’t corrupt him!’
But Satan just laughs, saying: “why of course Job’s faithful, why shouldn’t he be?
After all, he’s been showered with every blessing:-money; family; friends; great influence in the community.
Why anyone would be faithful if he’d received such wealth.”
To prove Satan wrong, God permits him to inflict Job with one tragedy after another.
God is confident that no matter what suffering he experiences - Job will remain faith.
It’s a struggle between good and evil, waged in this case within Job’s life.
Job didn’t suffer because he’d sinned.
Just the opposite, he suffered because he hadn’t sinned!
Through history that same struggle between good and evil has been waged time and time again.
That surely is what’s happening in the Middle East, and in India.
Of course, it’s not just restricted to religious conflict.
Surely it’s also a factor in situations where there is political persecution; or war; or famine and poverty.
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