Hey everyone. I’m Josh, one of the leaders here, and it is great to have you with us today. Happy Father’s day to all the Dad’s. It is really cool for me this weekend to have my Dad in town, so that is always nice.
Let’s pray as we move on this morning.
If you have your bibles, you can open them to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 11. It is on p. 134 if you grabbed a bible in the lobby. Deuteronomy is 1 of the first 5 books of the Old Testament, those first 5 books are known as the Torah. These 5 books are believed to be written by Moses to pass on the history of the nation of Israel, but also the laws that were to guide them as a people. When Jewish children were growing up, these were the first books they learned. In fact, every Jewish person through the time of Jesus would have had these 5 books memorized.
This is what it says in chapter 11, verse 13: 13"And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. 15And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.
What Moses is trying to get across here is not only the reality of when rain comes, so that is when you are to plant your crops, but also the reminder of where that rain comes from. Who controls the weather.
Flip over to the book of Job. It is in page 360. We will start by looking at chapter 1. The book of Job was the first book written in the Bible, it is believed to be written by Moses. I think that is interesting that the first thing God would communicate to humans, the first thing he would want them to know is a story of pain and suffering. Instead of giving laws or rules, he gives them a story to show how to handle hard times. This is what it says in Job chapter 1, verse 1: 1There 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. 2There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 3He 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.
Obviously, Job is a wealthy guy. He has a lot, but he is also a guy who fears God. Someone who is blameless. It goes so far to say that he is the greatest man in the area he lives in.
Verse 6: 6Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. 7The 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." 8And 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?" 9Then Satan answered the LORD and said, "Does Job fear God for no reason? 10Have 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. 11But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face." 12And 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 comes to God in heaven and says, the only reason Job follows you is because you have blessed him. He would not follow you if you didn’t protect him and if he lost everything. So God gives Satan permission to do whatever he wants to Job, but he can’t stretch his hand out against him, which is another way of saying, you can’t kill him. What is also interesting is that Satan tells God to do it, but God says no. He says in verse 12 for Satan to do it, but that God knows it is going on. It is the same thing we talked about a few weeks ago when we said that everything doesn’t come from the hand of God, but everything passes through the hand of God.
What follows in the book of Job is everything Satan did. Satan has all of Job’s servants killed, a fire consumed all of his cattle and sheep, someone stole his camels, and all 10 of his children were killed. So Job lost everything. In one minute, he goes from a happy man, with everything, great family, lots of money and property, to nothing. After all of this, look at what it says in verse 20 of chapter 1: 20Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21And 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." 22In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
Even though Job was obviously not thrilled by what happened, and I am sure he asked a lot of questions of God. Like, why is this happening, why me? It says, he didn’t sin by doing that. It wasn’t wrong that he asked those things or thought those things.
In chapter 2 of Job, Satan starts working on Job’s health. It says Satan struck him with sores from his head to his toes. It was so bad that in verse 12 of chapter 2 it says his friends could not recognize him. In verse 9 Job’s wife comes on the scene to offer some encouragement in the midst of his trials: 9Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die." 10But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Flip over to the book of Matthew, chapter 5 verse 11. It is on p. 689 in our bibles. Jesus is preaching to a group of Jewish people and leaders. It is his longest and most famous message that is called the sermon on the mount. It goes from Matthew 5 to chapter 7. Everything that Jesus does for the rest of his life on earth, goes back to these 3 chapters. This is what verse 11 says in chapter 5: 11"Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
This seems backwards. We are supposed to rejoice and be glad when people say bad things to us and do bad things to us. What Jesus is getting at is that you can’t change what people to do your world, whether it is good or whether they wreck your world. But you can do something about how you react to it.
Flip over to James chapter 5, verse 7 which is on p. 871. These passages get at a fundamental question that has been on the minds of humanity for centuries. Why does God allow pain and suffering in our lives?
James talks about the same thing. Verse 7 of chapter 5: 7Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. 10As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
The important thing to keep in mind when we look at the book of James is that he wrote these things down with eternity in mind. When James says the coming of the Lord, he is referring to when God will come back to earth and set up his kingdom fully here on earth. What is interesting about this idea of God coming back, most Christians get so focused on when that will happen. Whole books are written on how to read the Bible and figure out when God is coming back. Scripture never promotes the question, when will Jesus return? It always promotes the question, will we be ready when Jesus returns?
When we think of Jesus coming back though and the judgment of God, often Christians think of people who aren’t Christians. One author (Peter Davids) said this, “The nearness of the return of Jesus is not just an impetus to look forward to the judgment of ‘sinners’…, it is also a warning to examine one’s own behavior so that when the one whose footsteps are nearing finally knocks on the door, one may be prepared to open, for open one must, either for blessing or for judgment.” This is a big deal in this passage because James mentions Jesus coming back in all 5 verses.
Often though, we get so caught up in the here and now that we don’t think too much about eternity, heaven and hell or even the judgment of God. Yet, for James, who was the brother of Jesus, it is a big deal. Throughout this short book he brings up eternity, he does it here again. When he talks about suffering he says, be patient until God comes back. Reminding us, when in the midst of pain and suffering, there is an end in sight. We don’t know when it will be, how long it will take, but there is an end.
James is saying, even though you don’t know where it will end, when pain, suffering or hard times will end, be patient. But not only be patient, endure.
In verse 7 he uses the illustration of a farmer. In the 1st century, this is how most people made a living. He talks about the early and the late rains, because just like us in the desert, it doesn’t rain everyday. In the middle east, it rains only certain times of the year. One scholar (Douglas Moo) said, “Every passage in which the language of ‘early and late rains’ appears in the Old Testament affirms God’s faithfulness to his people.” James is going back to Deuteronomy showing that God allows good and bad times to come. God doesn’t create the bad, but allows them to happen, which is a big difference. James is saying, the rain and lack of rain are in the control of God.
I think the farmer analogy is interesting in that a farmer has little to do with whether or not it will rain. All he can do is wait and pray for the it to rain at the right time. He can’t make it rain. In the same way, we can’t stop or keep painful things from happening to us. We can’t control what others do, only what we do and how we respond.
But there is something else that happens here. The farmer isn’t sure when it will rain, but he knows it will rain. We don’t know when suffering will end, only that it will. And in the lens James is looking through, we don’t know when God will come back to bring about the end for his kingdom, we just know that he is coming back and we can look forward to that.
I think patience is an interesting idea that James is talking about. We all need patience, because we all deal with little petty irritations. Parents need to be patient with the crying and whining of their little children. They must endure the rebellion of teenagers. As much as godly parents try to tame boys, they forget their curfews, they play rough and can cause damage to the nicest house. As much as parents talk about the virtue of modesty and warn their daughters about the way guys think, they still go shopping and buy clothes that reflect the values of Hollywood as opposed to the values of God.
Wives have to be patient with their husbands who arrive home late from work. Husbands have to be patient with their wives when they are running late for a party or when their wife doesn’t want to leave the party.
Everybody forgets something. Sometimes it is dates, names, things to do. Secretaries forget to put together things for a meeting, the boss forgets the meeting altogether.
Everybody could use more patience in the little things, because our patience in the little things, resembles our patience in the big things and whether or not we can be patient on God to return or to take suffering away.
Just like the clip we saw, if God wants someone to have patience, does he give them patience or the opportunity to have patience? I would say it is the opportunity.
In verse 9, James starts talking about grumbling against other people. He is saying, in spite of the abuse you have experienced, not only be patient, but don’t grumble. I think it is because those who don’t have patience are the ones most likely to criticize and condemn others within the community. But not only are we not supposed to grumble about other people, we are also not supposed to judge those people, even if they are the cause of our difficulties and pain.
James then moves into verse 10 and talks about examples of patience in the midst of suffering. He talks first about the prophets in the Old Testament. One author (Daniel M. Doriani) said, “Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, and Amos (all OT prophets) saw people ignore their prophecies while Israel’s leaders were often hostile. Yet they bore that hostility with patience. More than that, they endured, that is, they continued to prophesy. They continued to denounce covenant infidelity and evil deeds, even if they never saw the judgment they predicted. Still we count them blessed because they heard and proclaimed God’s very words. They show us how to endure.”
James is trying to show us that by doing God’s will, it will often lead to suffering. Because we are followers of Jesus does not mean it will always be easy.
A few times I have mentioned the word blessed. A lot of times, we associate that word with happy, we rarely call someone blessed who is having a hard time. Yet, in the Bible, blessed and happy rarely equal each other. For God, blessed does not always mean our comfort, but means the blessings we have in him throughout eternity. It causes us to look through a lens of forever instead of just now. Are we tracking?
Often, at this point the question gets raised, if God is a loving father how can he allow suffering and pain among his children and his creation? Think about it this way, as a father should I always protect Ava from pain?
Yesterday, we drove up to Mt. Lemmon. We stopped a few times to take pictures and even walked out on some rocks. Adding to the nervousness of her mom and grandmother, I allowed her to climb up on the rocks. Now she isn’t even 2. She could fall and hurt herself. Right now, all the women are thinking, you are never watching my kid. I stood behind her. Am I a bad father, because I encouraged her to climb on the rocks? I don’t think so, because what would happen if I didn’t let her do that? She would have fear, which would lead her to stop taking risks, in essence, she would stop living a life of adventure. Which is what God calls Christians to lead. If we become paralyzed by fear, because God is always protecting us, we will stop stepping out on the ledge to take chances. If God would have done that throughout history, we would be missing half of the Bible.
Now Ava knows, if she falls or gets stuck, I will be there, she knows where I am. In the same way, story upon story in the Bible, they all knew God was there. As they made fun of Noah when he built the ark, he knew where God was. As the prophets and followers of Jesus in the early church were crucified, sawed in half, shipwrecked, beaten, and whipped for their faith, they knew where their father was. They knew that he could come through, but if he didn’t, it was okay, because they trusted their father in heaven.
Usually in our minds, if we experience suffering or pain, we think something is wrong. Yet throughout Christian history, difficult circumstances were considered a normal part of following God.
Listen to what a few authors have said.
Theophan the Recluse, who lived during the 1800’s and is a saint in the Russian Orthodox Church said, “It must be realized that the true sign of spiritual endeavor and the price of success in it is suffering. One who proceeds without suffering will bear no fruit…Every struggle in the soul’s training, whether physical or mental, that is not accompanied by suffering, that does not require the utmost effort, will bear no fruit…Many people have worked and continue to work without pain, but because of its absence they are strangers to purity.”
Thomas a Kempis, who lived in the late 1300’s, had this to say on what patience can bring, “And yet, temptations can be useful to us even though they seem to cause us nothing but pain. They are useful because they can make us humble, they can cleanse us, and they can teach us. All of the saints passed through times of temptation and tribulation, and they used them to make progress in the spiritual life…No one is completely free of temptations because the source of temptation is in ourselves…We cannot win this battle by running away alone; the key to victory is true humility and patience; in them we overcome the enemy.”
St. Benedict, who lived in the late 5th century said, “The 4th step of humility is accepting the hardships of the commandments and enduring with patience the injuries and afflictions we face. We are called to endure and not grow weary or give up, but to hold fast. The Scriptures teach us, ‘They that persevere unto the end shall be saved.’”
I share those to show that those who have gone before as followers of Jesus, pain and hardship was nothing new, it was expected as followers of Jesus. Yet, with many people emphasizing that Christianity and following God, that it should “feel good,” we think there is something wrong when it hurts. Yet, Jesus started a revolution when he came to earth, and every revolution comes with hardship and pain. When Katie and I went through some hard experiences at a church we worked at, most people thought I should stop being a pastor. That something was wrong, yet I don’t think that is the case.
John Piper said, “Suffering is a threat to the degree that it frustrates your main goals. Suffering is fearful to the degree that it threatens to rob you of what you treasure most.”
James closes out in verse 11 by reminding us: 11Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
James is reminding of us who God is and that he is all powerful and in control of every situation. Just like, I can stop Ava from climbing rocks. I could hold her and not let her down as we hike on a trail, but I let her go. I let her experience all that is coming. James reminds not only that God is in control, but that he is compassionate and merciful.
Flip back to the book of Job, chapter 42 which is on p. 383. We don’t know how long the story of Job lasted. Many historians believe it could have been several years, maybe a decade.
This is what it says in Job 42, verse 10: 10And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
James uses the example of the prophets and Job, people whose lives were marked by difficult circumstances that they often did not understand, but through which God forged their spiritual character. I think James wants us to shift our attention from what is happening to use to what God is forming and doing in us. He uses Job to show us what patience and following God in the midst of that pain can do.
When we think about suffering, or anything for that matter, it always comes back to the purposes of God. In light of Job, Job’s suffering was to show God’s power and goodness, despite his adversity.
So what is the point of suffering? One author (John Piper) said, “No one ever said that they learned their deepest lessons of life, or had their sweetest encounters with God, on the sunny days. People go deep with God when the drought comes. That is the way God designed it. Christ aims to be magnified in life most clearly by the way we experience him in our losses.”
Look at that last line, “Christ aims to be magnified in life most clearly by the way we experience him in our losses.” Now that goes against the grain of everything within our culture. Yet, I believe that is the point of suffering, for God to show his power, for God to change things within us and make us into what he wants. Does it often hurt? Yes. Will it last longer than we would like? Probably. Will God still be God during and after it? Absolutely.
Let me close with this. One author (Daniel M. Doriani) said, “This passage offers us many reasons to persevere in the faith. It comforts us in several ways. First, it shows us the Lord. He is near. He is the judge and comes to set all things right. Second, he reminds us of Job and the prophets, who persevered to the end in great adversity. Yet above all, James takes us to the fatherly heart of God. He abounds in love and he is still in control over all things. Knowing this, whatever our troubles, we can endure, we must endure. We can persevere to the end and know the full blessing of God.”
Let’s pray.
God, pain and suffering are things that we would not choose. Yet, your son, Jesus said that we would experience all that he experienced, and he died for us. So we should expect it since you said it was coming. In the midst of pain and suffering, help us to find and follow you. Give us the strength to face adversity with you at our side and to not quit, to keep going, to keep following you through the deserts and the valleys. Amen.
Ryan is going to play a song for us that really hits on this. The song says that when the storms come, God can take them away, but even if he doesn’t, I will still follow him. That is the question. When the storms come, will we still follow God?
Use this time as you need to. You can come and take communion whenever you are ready. You can sit and listen to the music or you can sing along, whatever you need to do over these next few moments.
