Helpless, Not Hopeless

First, Job placed his hope in God’s sovereignty. We read this in Job 7:17-19 and 42:2.

By God’s sovereignty, we are saying that God is control. He is in charge. This is not to say that we are like puppets on God’s string or like bricks in a wall, that we will stay put until God moves us. Instead, God’s sovereignty assures us that even when the earth quakes, even when the doctors can’t help, even when our life’s dream turns into a nightmare, even when we are out of control, God is still in control.

Susan and I have been doing childcare lately for the Mandarin Fellowship and for the Marin County Church’s One Voice gatherings. You need to know, I can handle middle school or high school boys any day. But put me in a room full of little girls and little boys, and I am as helpless as a dying duck in hailstorm.

But I’ve boldly done childcare knowing there would be little boys and girls in the group, because my wife was with me. Susan has the skills to keep the attention and the discipline of all the little kids in a room. All I do is what she tells me to do. And even when I fail to do what she tells me, I know she’s still has control of the kids. That’s sovereignty.

Someone wrote, "There is no attribute more comforting to [God’s] children than that of God’s sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, [we] believe that sovereignty has ordained [our] afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all."

Job was helpless, but he was not hopeless. Job didn’t know he was the subject of a test between God and Satan, but he knew God was in charge and that he belonged to God. And that was enough for Job. God’s sovereignty is enough for us.

Second, Job placed his hope in God’s righteousness. We read this in Job 4:17, 8:3 and 12:13.

When we speak of God’s righteousness, we are speaking about the fact that God will always do what is right. God has full understanding of the situation, and His motives are pure. His evaluation is accurate, and His knowledge is complete.

Let me share with you the story of the Woodcutter’s Wisdom (Excerpted and abridged from Max Lucado’s In the Eye of the Storm: A Day in the Life of Jesus.):

Once there was an old many who lived in a village. Although poor, he was envied by all, for he owned a beautiful white horse. Even the king coveted his treasure.

People offered fabulous prices for the horse, but the old man always refused. "This horse is not a horse to me," he would tell them. "He’s a friend, not a possession. How could you sell a friend?" The man was poor and the temptation was great. But he never sold the horse.

One morning, he found the horse missing from the stable. All the villagers came to see him. "You old food," they scoffed, " we told you that someone would steal your horse. How could you ever hope to protect such a valuable animal? It would have been better to have sold him. You could have gotten whatever price you wanted. Now the horse is gone and you’ve been curse with misfortune."