Job

Presermon

Pray, say a long prayer.

Children’s Ministry starting up next week, great time to get back in the routine. This is happening at both campuses

Starting Point - If you are new, we want you to know you matter to us. We want to meet you and talk with you, please stop by at Starting Point, I will be back there, some of the other pastors and staff will be back there.

“Unsettled, Choosing Faith over Fear”

Hab 2:4 “The Righteous shall live by Faith”

This morning we are going to be looking at the life of Job and seeing how Job was a man who “chose faith through suffering”.

Setting the Scene

Job brings us to the most challenging parts of human existence.

This book draws out two questions,

One coming from us to God - “Why do the innocent suffer” (This question will never get fully answered)

The second (more important) coming from God to us - “Why do you follow God”

Who was Job? Job is what every person wants to be.

Job 1:1 ESV

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.

Job was considered innocent, blameless and upright. He was a good guy. He is setup as a guy who had it all together, he was a good father, he was a good believer in God. He turned away from evil, he was wise. He led his family well.

He was prosperous

Job 1:2–3 ESV

There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.

This is the tension, this is the heart of the book. If anyone deserved the good life, if anyone deserved the American dream, its Job.

Why would God allow Job to Suffer?

- Satan comes in before the throne of God and God asks Satan this question.

Job 1:8 ESV

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?”

Satans Response

Job 1:9–11 ESV

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.”

Satan basically says, “you have given him stuff! Of course he loves you! Take away the stuff and see what happens. Take away the blessing, take away the prosperity and then see what Job does. He wont follow you then.”

Job 1:13–19 ESV

Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

This is horrible, this is the worst news a person could ever receive!

Job withstands the first wave of attacks by Satan but Satan is not done.

He goes back before God and says, let me at his body and then he will curse you.

In other words, Ok so maybe its not the stuff, let me have his health. Then he will curse you and walk away.

He’s only following you because he gets good healthcare.

The heart of this book is not Job’s suffering, the heart of this book is “what will Job do?” Will he cave under the pressure or will he come out the other side.

Better yet, “what does it look like to come out the other side?”

What does it look like for Job to succeed in this divine competition?

Suffering shakes our paradigm of God’s Justice

The Worlds View of Justice

The majority of this book is a conversation between Job and three of his friends.

They represent the best of cultural wisdom. Yet it drastically falls short

They look at Job’s suffering and they assume the cultural wisdom of the day.

Job has sinned therefore he suffered.

They saw justice as this, Good people get good results; bad people get bad results.

This is how midwesterners tend to think about suffering.

There is some truth in this but this isn’t always the case.

Jobs Friends think suffering is punitive, corrective, and exemplary.

Job you have sinned —

Job God is trying to teach you some disciplines.

Job God is trying to make you an example.

Job doesn’t buy it.

Job knows the friends are off and that God must have another reason for this affliction, he clearly doesn’t understand it.

Job continues to believe he is innocent

Suffering should move us to Worship not to Waver

Do we turn toward rationality? Do we automatically ask the why questions and try to figure it out?

When we understand something, we can control it.

Here’s the problem, you can’t control God, thats not your role.

The Gift can distract us from the Giver.

If you try to simply deal with this question rationally, you will never get the answer you desire. You will never be satisfied, you will constantly be frustrated and angry with the world and God.

“Networking” (Tim Keller)

We would use God, Tim Keller says it like this, if we knew the results of our suffering then we would love God because of the results.

“If God could just show me what will come of this.” “If I could just see what is coming on the horizon, then I could understand and move forward better.”

If you are a small business man you know what this looks like, it’s called “networking”. You have a relationship with someone based on what they can provide for you. When they stop needing you, they are done with you.

He gives another example of woman, who start dating these guys but when they find out you wont have sex with them, they leave. Why, because they didn’t love you for you, they loved you because of what they were getting from you.

If we knew the “Why” then we would love God because of the benefits.

If your kids love you for what you give them, what happens if you stop giving to them? Or what happens if you continue to give,…you will have a superficial relationship. It’s a relationship thats based upon gifts, not who the person is.

This wisdom will make you waver.

OR do we turn to worship?

Job 1:20–21 ESV

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

God is Wise in the Midst of our Suffering

Job had tried the best wisdom the world had to offer yet it left him empty and frustrated.

He makes his appeal to God and God grants him that appeal.

It wasn’t until Job came face to face with God himself, that he was satisfied and understood.

Job 40:7–9 ESV

“Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?

Job 41:1 ESV

“Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord?

Job 41:10 ESV

No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me?

Job has been waiting to hear what God has to say, he has been waiting for his day in court, where he can plead his case. He has been waiting for his justice, and when it comes time for him to open his mouth God, doesn’t give the answer, he simply tells Job to Trust him.

Job do you want to do my job for a day? Job humbly declines.

God basically says, the universe I created is so big and so complex, you can never fully understand how everything comes together, Job I need you to trust me.

Our Afflictions lead us to the foot of Jesus

Job didn’t get the answers he wanted.He got the answer he needed and it brought him into close relationship with God.

The Peanuts Movie.

The Peanuts Movie there are two themes that dominate the movie.

Charlie Brown is a comic relief or those who just have a tough time in life. In the latest Peanuts movie Charlie Brown is at it again and it Chronicles his struggles with “the little redheaded girl” and his quest to finally figure out how to fly a kite. He battles with this kite the entire movie, trying and failing, and finally succeeding only to destroy his friends game of hockey and land the disaster of an experience in the “Kite killing tree” a tree that in home to many Charlie Brown Kites.

Charlie Brown has a major crush on “the little redheaded girl” and throughout the whole movie you see this girl but you never get to truly see the face of the girl Charlie Brown is head over hills in love with and he finally gets his dream when she picks him to be her partner on a school project, but as he works up enough courage to go and talk with her, he finds out she has to leave for a couple weeks.

He is desperate to talk with her and ask her why she picked him.

He finds out she is leaving for summer camp

“I’m just asking for a little help for once in my life.”

He bangs his head against the tree in frustration and then a kite falls from the tree. If you know Charlie Browns Story you know that the kite is CB nemesis. At the beginning of the movie he flies a kite but it ends up destroying his friends hockey game and bring him great pain and agony and It lands in “the kite killer tree”, the tree that holds his many failed attempts to fly a kite. THE KITE BRINGS CB, the mind of the child, MUCH PAIN AND SUFFERING.

The kite wraps around CB’s legs and begins to drag him along, towards the one he loves. He freaks out and desperately tries to untangle his feet but to no avail. This kite pulls him along until he realizes it is taking him to the LRG. He embraces the kite, holds on and eventually lands hard on the pavement right next to the LRG and as she is about to pull her foot from the pavement to the bus the kite floats in and gently touches her foot.

The Kite, the source of agony and pain in Charlie Browns Life, brings him literally to the foot of “the little redheaded girl”. And for the first time, we get to see her face.

Their conversation went like this

LRG: “Oh, high Charlie Brown”

Charlie Brown: “You remembered my name?”

LRG: “Of course I did”

CB: “Before you leave there is something I need to know, why out of all the kids in our class, why did you want to be partners with me?”

LRG“That’s easy, because I’ve seen the type of person you are”

“An insecure, wishy washy failure?”

LRG: “Thats not who you are at all.”

Check this out, Charlie Brown never had the answers to why he couldn’t figure out that kite, but that kite led him to the object of his affections.

His pain brought him to the foot of the one person who saw him for what he really was.

God does not give us the answer to why the innocent suffer, but what is clear from Job is that when we grab hold of God and hold on tight, we get to experience and know a God deeper than before.

Job 42:5–6 ESV

I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job didn’t need the answers to his questions when he came face to face with God.

Jobs response was repentance and trust, Jobs response was faith through suffering.

HAB 2:4 - “The Righteous shall live by faith”

Job understood that he could never understand everything and learned to live in the mystery because his pain, his affliction, his kite, led him to the foot of the one who had the control, it led him to the object of his affection.

Jesus is the Better Job

There is one who came that is better than Job. Jesus was what you and I were not.

Jesus came and die naked and ashamed on as an innocent man.

Jesus lost everything, and at the point of his death he cries out and asks God a question.

“Why have you forsaken me”

Job asks why and gets a response from God, Jesus asks why and God is silent.

Job was restored, Job was given back two fold everything he had lost,

Jesus was forsaken. Jesus was rejected. Why?

So he could deal with the problem of sin in your life and mine. So he could make a way for man to have relationship with God.

(Tim Keller) Satan goes to God challenging him about us. God believes in Job, he believes in us.

Satan goes to man about God and we don’t believe God. We are deceived, we rebel, we go our own way.

So we might repent and believe in the good news of Jesus Christ.

Check this out, Jesus’ pain, his agony, his frustration, his kite, led him, to bring glory to the Father, but also to the object of his affection....you.

God is calling us to love him for him, not for what he gives us but for who he is. Jesus is waiting for the day when you will see him face to face.

Your pain, your affliction can lead you to great agony and despair, or they can lead to to the object your soul craves more than anything else.