Job
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day
Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day
(read the story with the kids, then dismiss for kids connection)
Today, we’re going to continue our series of sermons considering God’s Story in Scripture. With the book of Esther last week, we finished looking at the historical books of the Bible. Genesis through Esther communicated so much about what God was doing in and through the people of Israel.
Today, as we look at the book of Job, we are jumping into a new section of the Old Testament - the wisdom books. These five books - Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon - seem to help us understand God in some different ways.
Today, in the book of Job, we get to learn about God in the midst of suffering.
So, if you’d like to have your Bible’s open to the book of Job, we’re going to consider various sections of the book.
The book is essentially divided in this way:
Prologue (ch. 1-2)
Job’s response (ch. 3)
Cycles of Counsel with Job’s friends (ch. 4-31)
Elihu’s rebukes (ch. 32-37)
God’s Answer (ch. 38-41)
Job’s Restoration (ch. 42)
So as we look at the book of Job, we first get to see that...
Bad things happen...
Bad things happen...
This almost goes without saying. We don’t have to live long to recognize that bad things happen. We see this throughout the Bible. We have seen this throughout history. We may have even seen this throughout our lives.
Here in the book of Job, we get to see some extremely bad things happen to this man named Job.
One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting at the oldest brother’s house, a messenger arrived at Job’s home with this news: “Your oxen were plowing, with the donkeys feeding beside them, when the Sabeans raided us. They stole all the animals and killed all the farmhands. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”
While he was still speaking, another messenger arrived with this news: “The fire of God has fallen from heaven and burned up your sheep and all the shepherds. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”
While he was still speaking, a third messenger arrived with this news: “Three bands of Chaldean raiders have stolen your camels and killed your servants. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”
While he was still speaking, another messenger arrived with this news: “Your sons and daughters were feasting in their oldest brother’s home. Suddenly, a powerful wind swept in from the wilderness and hit the house on all sides. The house collapsed, and all your children are dead. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”
Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship. He said,
“I came naked from my mother’s womb,
and I will be naked when I leave.
The Lord gave me what I had,
and the Lord has taken it away.
Praise the name of the Lord!”
In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God.
As with Alexander - Job was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. And yet it didn’t end there.
So Satan left the Lord’s presence, and he struck Job with terrible boils from head to foot.
Job scraped his skin with a piece of broken pottery as he sat among the ashes. His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.”
But Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.
When three of Job’s friends heard of the tragedy he had suffered, they got together and traveled from their homes to comfort and console him. Their names were Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite.
That fact that bad things happen is not surprising. What often is surprising is the fact that suffering happens in varying degrees. Why did Job get it this bad? Why does one person get cancer at a young age and why do other seem to go through life with only a little discomfort?
Job’s suffering impacted his finances, his family, and his health.
So we understand that bad things happen.
On a side note, there is a lot that we can say about Job’s friends - and we will - but I think right here in the first days of Job’s sufferings, Job’s friends do something very wise and beautiful - they simply come and sit with Job in in suffering. Look in your Bible’s at what it says in...
And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.
There are times when our friends and family will be going through difficulties and challenges. If we move too quickly to the idea of healing and problem solving, then we may truly miss the real need. Even though Job is silent for these several days, his friends are simply with him.
We also get to learn in the book of Job that bad things happen...
…to good and bad people...
…to good and bad people...
Right from the outset of the book, we learn that Job is an upstanding man - we might even say that he was good. Sure, he is fallen and imperfect. I think Job would even admit to that. The suffering he encounters doesn’t seem to match the life that he lived.
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. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters.
We learn that Job was quite wealthy as well. But as a god-fearing man, Job had a great deal of concern for his family. He seemed to go above and beyond what some parents might do.
His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.
Job maintained a great deal of personal integrity and a great spiritual concern for his children.
Not only does the text tell us a bit about Job, but we get some insight into God’s opinion of Job - in a conversation that God is having with Satan or the adversary, God remarks about Job in this way:
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?”
God seems to think quite highly of Job and even communicates about it.
Job is not the only one who experiences this. We could look back in scripture at so many people who encounter suffering.
Out of jealousy for their father’s favor, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. He was later wrongfully accused and spend several years in prison. (Genesis 37 ff)
In 2 Kings 4, we learn about 2 women who encounter suffering. The first woman is widowed and deeply in debt. She is on the verge of needing to sell her children into slavery. Another woman is prosperous but barren. She finally gets pregnant only to experience the death of her son a few years later. Now, in both of these circumstances, God sent aid and relieved their suffering, but they suffered nonetheless.
When people go to prison because they’ve committed a crime, we think that’s just. When people go to prison for no fault of their own, their suffering seems unfair and unjust - but it happens.
Last fall, a 36 year-old murder case was re-opened. What they learned is that in 1984, three men had been wrongfully convicted of the murder of a 14 year old. When the state looked back over the newly uncovered evidence, it was determined that these three men had spent the last 36 years in prison for no reason. I don’t know all of the details of the crime or of their circumstances, but it seems like these men were in the wrong place at the wrong time and were forced to take the blame for someone else’s crime. Now they have been released and the state is trying to make it up to them financially - but there is no way these men and their families can re-gain that time lost.
Bad things happens to good and bad people - we might even say they happen to all people, - the challenge that Job and his friends uncover is that...
…we don’t always know why...
…we don’t always know why...
As you read through the book, you’ll find a variety of cycles of conversations. In fact after Job experiences these things, he expresses a great lament in chapter three. In chapter four, his friend Eliphaz responds, which marks the first of three cycles of discussions. Eliphaz speaks, Job responds, Bildad speaks, Job responds, Zophar speaks, Job responds. Generally this pattern makes up the central chapters of the book from ch. 4-31.
In the cycles of conversations that Job and his friends have, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar each seem to take up a lot of space to essentially say the same things...
“You get what you deserve”
Their repeated argument is that the innocent don’t suffer and that those who are evil and rebellious get what they deserve.
These friends are propagating what theologians call “retribution.” This is the idea that good things happen to good and obedient, God-fearing people, and bad things happen to evil, disobedient, rebellious people.
Here is one of Eliphaz’ comments:
“Stop and think! Do the innocent die?
When have the upright been destroyed?
My experience shows that those who plant trouble
and cultivate evil will harvest the same.
Bildad gets even a bit more specific:
“How long will you go on like this?
You sound like a blustering wind.
Does God twist justice?
Does the Almighty twist what is right?
Your children must have sinned against him,
so their punishment was well deserved.
But if you pray to God
and seek the favor of the Almighty,
and if you are pure and live with integrity,
he will surely rise up and restore your happy home.
And though you started with little,
you will end with much.
They essentially tell Job that he must have sinned greatly to have these wicked things happen to him.
Job’s continuous response is that what he is experiencing is not just retribution, but something else and he wants an audience with God to learn the reason why.
“Have I lied to anyone
or deceived anyone?
Let God weigh me on the scales of justice,
for he knows my integrity.
If I have strayed from his pathway,
or if my heart has lusted for what my eyes have seen,
or if I am guilty of any other sin,
then let someone else eat the crops I have planted.
Let all that I have planted be uprooted.
He wants to be tried and weighed, he wants to understand and be justified - because he knows he has acted rightly. He wants an audience with God:
“If only someone would listen to me!
Look, I will sign my name to my defense.
Let the Almighty answer me.
Let my accuser write out the charges against me.
I would face the accusation proudly.
I would wear it like a crown.
For I would tell him exactly what I have done.
I would come before him like a prince.
Beyond that - he even tells his friends:
“I have heard all this before.
What miserable comforters you are!
There are so many different ways that we can encounter suffering. I would venture to guess that all of us have experienced suffering to some degree or another. We may feel like we deserve it. There are other ways that we feel we don’t.
In our sorrow, we may turn to a book like Job in search of answers to the question of why.
Why did God allow Jaclynette, Bev, and Paul to leave this earth when they did and in the manner in which they did?
Why did divorce happen in this family?
Why did he lose a job just when the debt collectors were calling?
Why does she suffer with depression or he suffer with diabetes?
Why, why, why?
We could come up with some pat answers that talk about the fallen world, collateral damage from other people’s sins, or some other noble response that may or may not be true.
We don’t always get to know why.
Joseph - didn’t understand why he was in prison for so many years - until several years later when he was placed into a position of authority to make a difference in the region and in his family.
In Job’s case - we read looking for why - but there is no real resolution. Instead the answer that we get is… “who”.
You see, we don’t always know why...
…but God does.
…but God does.
As readers from the outside, we get a glimpse into a broader scenario - we get to understand circumstances that are hidden from Job.
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 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?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
So Satan, or the accuser, takes God up on this challenge and strikes Job’s wealth and his family.
He then returns for more:
Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 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? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”
This is a strange scene. Why does God tolerate Satan in his presence? Why does He give Satan even the courtesy of this conversation? Why does it seem like Job is a pawn in a cosmic game of chess?
These opening chapters help us to see that there is something bigger, grandeur that is happening.
As far as we can see - Job never gets this glimpse - he only gets the suffering and the miserable comforters - that is, until the end of the book.
Job desperately wants to plead His case before God. In the end it seems like God gives him this opportunity - and yet in a sort of harsh way.
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
Dress for action like a man;
I will question you, and you make it known to me.
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
This is just the beginning of God’s conversation. Two chapters are dedicated to God’s defense - as if He really needed to defend himself. He talks about the great things of the universe, the precise movement of the planets, weather, stars, animals.
God finally concludes his opening argument with these words:
“Do you still want to argue with the Almighty?
You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?”
And so Job - set in his place replies:
“I know that you can do anything,
and no one can stop you.
You asked, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’
It is I—and I was talking about things I knew nothing about,
things far too wonderful for me.
You said, ‘Listen and I will speak!
I have some questions for you,
and you must answer them.’
I had only heard about you before,
but now I have seen you with my own eyes.
I take back everything I said,
and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.”
Now, we have to keep in mind that the book of Job is categorized as wisdom literature. God, Job, and Job’s friends likely did not speak in poetic language. Was Job a real man? Quite possibly. Did these bad things happen to Job? Quite possibly.
The lesson that God is teaching us through the book of Job seems to be that we may not get to know why - but because God does, we should turn to Him.
The book of James helps us with this a bit...
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
John Piper, a pastor in Minnesota who has dealt with his own share of physical sufferings has said:
I've never heard anyone say the really deep lessons of life have come in times of ease and comfort. But, I have heard many saints say every significant advance I've ever made in grasping in the depth of God's love and growing deep with Him, have come through suffering.
Suffering does something profound in us that we cannot learn without it.
So the book of Job seems to communicate to us that:
Bad things happen to good and bad people, we don’t always get to know why, but God does.
It then begs the question of us...
Will we trust Him?
Will we trust Him?
Will we trust God amidst the suffering? Will we trust that God knows what He is doing? Will be press in to understand Him as much as we are able?
Through out Job’s responses to his friends, he demonstrates glimmers of this trust and hope:
Though he slay me, I will hope in him;
yet I will argue my ways to his face.
and:
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!
Job demonstrates these glimpses of hope, these glimpses of faith, these glimpses of God’s sovereign goodness. He doesn’t like how it’s being worked out in his life and feels like he is been treated unjustly, but he still trusts God.
The Apostle Paul talks challenges us to have an eternal perspective in the midst of suffering:
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Beloved - I wish I had a way for us to understand why God allows us to encounter the things that He does. I wish the pain could be taken away. Even in the midst of that, I do believe God is good and knows what He is doing. My hope is that we will cry out to God, that we will let our laments be heard by Him. We’re going to see that a bit next week as we discuss the book of Psalms and the various ways that we can worship him - even in the midst of difficulties.
God is not unfamiliar with suffering. In love, God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to live a perfect life among us. I don’t think we fully grasp the profound impact of God condescending himself to be like us. I believe He suffered in coming - but also He suffered in his living and then ultimately suffered in His dying. As Jesus - the perfect, spotless lamb of God was hung on a cross for you and me - the separation from God would have been more painful that the nails in his hands and feet and the crown of thorns on his head.
For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
Friend - Jesus suffered and died for you. It didn’t make sense at the time to Peter and the other apostles, but after Jesus rose from the dead - they began to understand more. He had to do that in order for us to be a relationship with God. Will you trust him?
(consider an invitation to pray)
Let’s pray
Discussion Questions:
Discussion Questions:
Who caused Job to suffer? (the Sabeans, Chaldeans, wind; Satan, God, Job, all, none)
Does God ever tell Job why He suffered? Would you be content with God’s answer in the face of your suffering?
What suffering have you encountered? Do you feel that it was justified?
How did your relationship with God change in the midst of your suffering?
How have you responded to the suffering of Jesus on your behalf?