Sermon Tone Analysis

Lamentations.

Introduction:

Today’s message is a hard one to preach.

It is a message that many preachers would rather not preach.

Why?

Because it is a very dark passage of scripture.

Filled with despair, grief and sorrow.

One that would maybe cause someone to think that because of its darkness, it should not be part of the bible.

As we talked last week, it was very evident that Job was utterly crushed under the weight of losing everything including his health.

Satan had afflicted Job with a ferocious blow of evil.

But Satan was not nearly done with him.

He is unrelenting in how happily he loves to try and destroy the soul of a man.

Martin Luther gave a parable in which the devil was listening to his demons report their progress in destroying the souls of men.

One evil spirit said “there was a company of Christians crossing the desert and I loosed the lions upon them.

Soon the sands of the Desert were strewn with their mangled corpses.

“But what good is that?” barked Satan “the lions destroyed their bodies but their souls were saved.

It is their souls I am after.”

Then another unclean spirit gave his evil report “There was a great company of Christian pilgrims sailing through the Sea on a vessel.

I sent a great wind which drove the ship on the rocks and every Christian aboard was drowned.”

But Satan retorted “what good is that?

Their bodies were drowned in a sea but their souls are saved.

It is their souls I am after.”

Then a third fallen angel stepped forward to give his fiendish report “For 10 years I have been trying to cast one particular Christian into a deep despair and depression.

At last I have succeeded.”

And with that report the corridors of hell rang with shouts of triumph.

The sinister mission had been accomplished.

The soul of a believer had been defeated.

Even though this is fiction, this is our enemy’s goal.

In varying degrees, this is the reality of every saint born of God.

Some will fight despair and depression for much of their lives.

For others it may only be for a season.

But all of us at some point of our walk with Christ have to deal with lament.

What is lament?

To lament is to express deep regret, grief or sorrow.

It can be perceived as just complaining to those who hear the one in pain.

That would be in error as it is the weary storm tossed soul trying to wrestle with their great sorrow and tribulation.

We can lament through words or actions.

This is such a part of our lives since the fall in the garden of Eden that major portions of Scripture deal with this reality.

Over a third of the psalms are laments.

We have a whole book of the bible called Lamentations.

Jeremiah is known well for his laments over Israel’s sin.

God laments over the evil in this world.

Jesus laments over Jerusalem and their rebellious hearts.

Paul laments over his suffering in persecution.

This is where I think western culture has done a great damage in the church.

Positive thinking, “suck it up buttercup”, men don’t cry and many other teachings have caused many people to either hide their feelings or find a way to be distracted by work or entertainment or to just pretend that our feelings of sorrow just don’t exist.

But this would be to distort the great reality of suffering well.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.

(2016).

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Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

I think you get the point.

This is where I think western culture has done a great damage to the church.

Positive thinking, “suck it up buttercup”, men don’t cry and many other teachings have caused many people to either hide their feelings or find a way to be distracted by work or entertainment or to just pretend that our feelings of sorrow just don’t exist.

But this would be to distort the great reality of suffering well.

As we will see in this message, Job didn’t suffer well.

Time had elapsed, he was cracking under the sheer weightiness of sorrow and grief.

Yet, as we will see through this book, God never disciplines Job for making the statements he made.

I think God’s silence on this shows his mercy, compassion and love for us in our sorrow.

For today, I simply want to guide us through Job’s pain and anguish.

Then I want to share how Jesus has also entered into our pain and sorrow and show how this is helpful in our times of suffering.

Point #1 - Lament of three friends.

In the last three verses of chapter 2, Job’s three friends had heard of how greatly their friend had suffered.

Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar made an appointment to travel some good distance to show sympathy and give comfort.

When they saw him from a distance, they did not even recognize him.

He was so disfigured from the sores, probably cringing in pain plus he was probably covered in soot and ash from being in the city dump.

Seeing him in that pitiful state they raise their voices and wept, tearing their clothes and sprinkling dust upon themselves.

This was the way their culture showed sympathy and compassion for the grief of one they loved.

They then sat with Job in the ashes and didn’t say a word, for they saw the suffering of Job was very great.

They lamented along with Job for 7 days and 7 nights.

They indeed grieved with those who grieve.

They had come to comfort Job.

They lamented along with Job for 7 days and 7 nights.

They indeed grieved with those who grieve.

Point #2 - Lament of Job.

Job breaks his silence by opening his mouth and cursing the day of his birth.

Where most of us like to have a festive day on our birthday, celebrating it with family and friends, Job had a desire to have this day completely removed from the calendar.

(3) He states that even the day that it was announced “we are going to have a baby” would perish.

Anything to do with how he came about in this world, he wanted God not to seek it or shine light upon it (4).

Job then adds descriptive language of cursing the day of his birth with clouds of gloom and deep darkness.

May it be black as coal, let no one rejoice in it, let it not be remembered by anyone.

Rather let it be a barren day, where no life takes its first breath in it.

Then (8), he says to let those who curse, curse this day.

Much like Balaam who was a professional prophet who was paid to curse Israel ().

Job goes on to wish that the stars would remain black on that day, nor the sun rise in the morning of it because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes (10).

Next, Job starts to ask questions of “Why”.

He wonders why he did not die at birth, why did the knees receive me and the breasts nurse him.

If he had died at birth, he would have slept and been quiet.

He would have laid with the kings and counsellors of the earth.

He would have laid with those who had built vast amount of treasures.

He would have been comfortable and away from all this evil that has come upon him.

Why (16) was I not stillborn as infants that never see the light?

There in the grave, even the wicked cease from troubling others.

The weary souls find rest from their long days.

Prisoners find their escape as they no longer hear their taskmaster.

In the grave, both the small and great dwell there and the slave is free from his master.

Why did the light of day ever shine on the soul that is in misery (20), or who is bitter in soul?

When death is searched for earnestly like hidden treasure but it evades him.

What joy it would be to those who find the grave and put this miserable life behind them.

Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in (23)?

Job is here feeling as though God himself who protected him with the hedge against evil has now kept him from escaping the evil that is tormenting him.

Job’s weeping and wailing come to him instead of food, there is no hunger but sorrow.