Title: Innocent Pain and Suffering
Text: Job 1 and 2
Thesis: Innocent people experience pain and suffering.
This is the third message in a Lenten Series: Knowing Christ through Pain and Suffering.
The Apostle Paul wrote, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering, becoming like him in his death and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection of the dead. Philippians 3:10-11
Introduction
Perhaps you remember William “the Refrigerator” Perry who was a defensive lineman for the Chicago Bears in 1985. He was an enormous and friendly man with a big grin. He played in the trenches of professional football against the largest and meanest of men. But he was afraid to go to the dentist. For twenty years he did not go to the dentist… his gums became infected and he lost half of his teeth… pulling many himself. He was experiencing pain and suffering. Finally when he could no longer stand the discomfort, he went to the dentist who then implanted $60,000 worth of new teeth into his jaw.
The Frig was not an innocent victim. He was in pain and suffering because he did not go to the dentist for twenty years.
It may be presumptuous to assume that Douglas Bruce feels a bit like the innocent victim after having been censured by the Colorado House of Representatives for kicking a photographer who took his picture in January. Adding insult to injury he was removed from the State Veterans and Military Affairs Committee after declining to sign a Military Appreciation Resolution because he thought the resolution was trivial. His colleagues and the chamber full of army, navy, and marine men and women in uniform were less than impressed.
Sometimes we deserve what comes to us in life… but sometimes we don’t.
This Thursday past, Stephen Kazmierczak stepped into a University of Northern Illinois lecture hall, killed six students and wounded sixteen others before taking his own life. In Islamabad, Pakistan a suicide bomber took the lives of twenty-seven victims and wounded ninety others.
Innocent people suffer. By innocent, I do not mean they are without sin. I mean they are essentially victims of circumstances seemingly beyond their control. They have done nothing to bring pain and suffering upon themselves.
Job was such a person. Christ suffered. We suffer. In pain and suffering there is solidarity… we understand the experience of Job, Jesus, and others when we are innocent victims of pain and suffering.
The story of Job’s suffering is a universally known story of unfair suffering.
I. No one, not even the undeserving, is immune from pain and suffering.
A. Good people experience pain and suffering.
• There was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless, a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. Job 1:1 (God corroborates the evidence of Job’s good character in 1:8.)
People with money and means suffer…
B. Affluent people experience pain and suffering.
• Job had seven sons and three daughters. He owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 teams of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and he employed many servants. He was in fact the richest person in the entire area. Job 1:2-3
Even godly people suffer…
C. Spiritual people experience pain and suffering.
• Job would purify his children. He would get up early in the morning and offer a burnt offering for each of them. For Job said to himself, “Perhaps my children have sinned and have cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice. Job 1:4-5
Job was good, he was rich, and he was godly… but none of those things insulated him from experiencing pain and suffering.
Pain and suffering is not the exclusive territory of the rich and powerful. The nine year old girl who get dropped off at her father’s house with a note from her mother telling her ex-husband that she doesn’t want to take care of the kid anymore is not rich and powerful. The grandmother who learns that her grandson has an inoperable mass in his stomach is not rich and powerful. The displaced family that cannot pay their rent is not rich and powerful. The child born with a birth defect is not rich and powerful. The soldier wounded in a roadside bombing is not rich and powerful. Just as a single drop of food coloring colors the whole glass of water… suffering colors the whole of society.
If the story of Job teaches us anything, we learn that anyone can be a target for pain and suffering.
II. Anyone can be a target of Satanic attack.
• One day the angels of the Lord came to present themselves to the Lord, and Satan the Accuser came with them. “Where have you come from?” the Lord asked Satan. And Satan answered, “I have been going back and forth across the earth watching everything that is going on.”
In I Peter, Satan is described as an attacker and enemy.
A. Satan is the culprit who causes the Job’s suffering.
• Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, you great enemy. He is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour. Take a firm stand against him; and be strong in your faith… I Peter 5:8-9
Colonel John Henry Patterson wrote in his book The Man-Eaters of Tsavo about two lions that terrorized the builders of the Uganda-Mombasa Railroad in 1898. The lions killed 135 men before they were finally destroyed. The Tsavo Man-Eaters are now on display at the Field Museum in Chicago. Perhaps you have seen the story as retold in The Ghost and the Darkness in 1996. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_and_the_Darkness)
The imagery evoked of Satan in the scripture is that of a man-eating lion stalking its prey… hiding in the tall grass, waiting until the opportune moment to spring upon an unsuspecting person.
Who would be less suspecting than a good and godly man with seven sons and three daughters and sufficient wealth to earn him the reputation for being the richest person in the area. We would hope that a person whose life is that good would be immune to the major misfortunes of life. But he was not…
The book of Job is an extended discussion of Job’s situation in which Job speaks and three of his friends respond. Job defends his innocence and his friends continue to suggest that he must have done something bad or he would not be suffering. His friends believed that good and godly people do not experience pain and suffering… to them, suffering is the just desserts of the guilty.
His friend Eliphaz argued, “Stop and think! Does the innocent person perish? Would the upright person be destroyed? My experience shows me that those who plant trouble and cultivate evil will harvest the same.” Job 4:7-12
Job’s friend Eliphaz had the mistaken idea that good people do not suffer because they are good. He had the mistaken idea that life is fair. Eliphaz believed that when people suffered it was a deserved consequence for sinful behavior.
If we believe that whatever happens in life is the result of God blessing us for being good and punishing us for being bad… we are mistaken. In fact, God seems to be irked by Eliphaz’s logic. God said, “I am angry with you and with your two friends, for you have not been right in what you said about me. Now go and take seven young bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer on your behalf. I will not treat you as you deserve, for you have not been right in what you said about me, as my servant Job was.” Job 42:7-8
God did not appreciate the way Eliphaz attributed Job’s suffering to the wrath of an angry God who punishes people who do wrong. It is interesting in that God demonstrated to Eliphaz that in fact, he does not treat us as we deserve to be treated. The Psalmist accurately described the compassionate nature of God when he said, “He has not punished us for all our sins, nor does he deal with us as we deserve.” Psalm 103:10
Job’s impeccable character, vast wealth, and religious practices did not shield him from pain and suffering. Life was not fair to Job, so to speak. He did not deserve what happened to him and those he loved.
Jesus also experienced “undeserved” pain and suffering.
The prophet Isaiah likened the suffering of Christ to that of an innocent lamb being led to slaughter: He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. As a sheep is silent before its shearers, he did not open his mouth. From prison and trial they led him away to his death. Who among the people realized that he was dying for their sins – that he was suffering for their punishment? He had done nothing wrong… Isaiah 53:7-9 (See Hebrews 4:14-16; 7:26-27)
The culprit in this story of the suffering is Satan.
Satan did not attempt to disguise his motive for bringing pain and suffering into Job’s life.
B. Satan’s ultimate goal is to orchestrate the collapse of our faith.
• Satan replied to the Lord, “Yes, Job fears God, but not without good reason! You have protected him, his home,and his property from harm. You have made him prosperous in everything and now he is rich. But take away everything, and he will surely curse you to your face!”
What followed was a test of the veracity of Job’s faith.
III. Pain and Suffering is a test of the veracity of a person’s faith.
• “All right, you may test him,” the Lord said to Satan. “Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically…” Job 1:12
In rapid fire succession Satan unleashed a flurry of evil intended to decimate faith:
• Sabeans stole his oxen and sheep and killed his farmhands. Job 1:15
• Lightning struck killing all his sheep and their shepherds. Job 1:16
• Three bands of Chaldean raiders stole all his camels and killed his servants. Job 1:17
• A wind swept in from the desert and collapsed the house killing all ten of his children. Job 1:19
The furry of this series of attacks reflects Satan’s desire to deliver a knockout punch in the first round. No one should be able to remain standing after such a barrage of punches. No one should able to remain standing after receiving that kind of beating. And yet, Job stays on his feet.
Though devastated by grief and loss Job said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and I will be stripped of everything when I die. The Lord gave me all 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. Job 1:21-22
But Satan was not easily dissuaded.
A. Satan is cynical about the veracity of Job’s faith. Satan’s objective in testing is the failure of a person.
When confronted with the seeming veracity of Job’s faith under fire, Satan ups the ante saying to God,
• “He blesses you only because you bless him. A man will give up everything he has to save his life. But take away his health, and he will surely curse you to your face!” Job 2:4-5
I don’t think Satan fully understands the heart of a parent. The March of the Penguins is the phenomenal story of the yearly journey of the emperor penguins of Antarctica. In the fall they leave the ocean and walk inland to their ancestral breeding grounds where they participate in a courtship that results in the hatching of a chick. For the chick to survive, both parents have to make multiple trips back and forth between the ocean and the breeding grounds until the chick is old enough to make the journey to the sea... imagine a one hundred and forty mile round trip, walking like a penguin.
The mother penguin lays her egg and then transfers it onto the feet of the father who cradles the egg between his legs on his feet for two months while the mother, who has not eaten for two months, returns to the ocean to feed. The father incubates the egg for two months enduring temperatures of -62 degrees. When the chick hatches the regurgitates a small amount of food to feed to the chick. When the mother returns to care for the chick, the father, who has not eaten for four months returns to the ocean to feed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_of_the_Penguins
People parents as well as penguin parents will give their lives for their children. Satan had already taken from Job the people more precious to him than his own life.
However, Satan is not far off when it comes to what we will spend when ill-health threatens our lives. The costs of staying alive can eat away a substantial estate in rather quick order.
Job’s children were gone and his estate was gone… the only thing Job had left was his health. What happens to the faith of a person who looses his or her family, the entire estate, and his or her health?
Sometimes God has more confidence in us than we have in ourselves.
B. God is confident in the veracity of Job’s faith. God’s objective in testing is to affirm a person. God believed Job’s faith and character would remain intact, even to the edge of death.
• God said to Satan, “All right, do with him as you please, but spare his life.” Job 2:6
• These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold – and your faith is more precious to God than mere gold. So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor when Christ is revealed to the whole world. I Peter 1:7
God believed that Job’s faith would hold right down to his dying breath. God was confident that Job’s faith would stand the ultimate test.
As the story continues to unfold, the bible says that Satan “struck Job with a terrible case of boils from head to foot. It was so horrible that he sat among the ashes scraping the oozing puss from his skin with a piece of broken pottery. Keeping in mind that his wife had also lost her children and her secure future, his wife, in a moment of despair asks, ”Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.” Job 2:9
This week when I had my annual physical, my doctor told me that there is a new drug called Zostavax that when administered to patients over sixty, prevents the onset of shingles in aging. Anyone who has had a case of shingles would gladly have received a shot of Zostavax than get a painful case of shingles. Remind me to get my shot when I turn sixty in twenty years.
In one of the churches Bonnie and I served there was a man who had the worst case of shingles I have ever seen. He was covered with the rash. His body was racked with pain so severe that he wanted to die. If we live long enough we learn that there are things worse than death. Job’s wife, watched her husband suffer to the extent that death looked preferable to the pain and suffering he was enduring.
But Job’s faith held and in his reply to his wife he asked, “Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” We are told that in all this, Job said nothing wrong. Job 2:10
Satan’s objective in times of testing is the collapse of one’s faith. God’s objective in times of testing affirm and strengthen a person and his or her faith.
Job struggled, just as any of us struggles with the pain and suffering that blindsides us or sucker punches us. No one likes to feel like he is a pawn in some sort of cosmic board game between God and Satan. No one likes to have to defend his innocence to so-called friends or take issue and question God when God, in his providential will, allows pain and suffering to come into our lives. Though Job questioned the fairness of his circumstances, his trust in God never waivered.
Accepting God’s providential will is challenging to our faith at times, but the scripture teaches us that, even in the most trying circumstances, we can find the where-with-all to demonstrate our trust in God by expressing gratitude.
Paul encouraged suffering Christians when he wrote to the Christians living at Ephesus, “Always give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 5:20 To the Christians of Thessalonica he wrote, “Always be joyful. Keep on praying. No matter what happens, always be thankful to God, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ.” I Thessalonians 5:16-18 And in our story today, Job drew a line in the sand when he said, “Though God slays me, I will still trust him.” Job 13:15
Conclusion:
In the summer of 2007 a severe drought shrunk Lake Okeechobee, the second largest lake in the United States. Only Lake Michigan is larger. The waterline hit its lowest level in recorded history as the shoreline receded more than a mile in some places, historical artifacts were uncovered that dated back 500 years or more.
Some of those artifacts have rested on the lakebed for centuries and have only come to light as the extended drought uncovered what had previously been unapparent.
Pain and suffering are something like a drought that threatens to dry up the spirit and reveal what has been hidden during times of blessing and abundance. Pain and suffering uncover who and what we are… pain and suffering reveal the veracity of our character and our faith.
(“Beneath the Water: A Window to History,” Jeffrey Kofman, ABC News, 9/13/07 and http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19046682/)
Whenever we have occasion to experience the testing of pain and suffering, it is an opportunity to live out our faith and trusting God by:
1. Joining in solidarity with all others who suffer unfairly.
2. Appreciating more fully the suffering of Christ.
3. Welcoming suffering as a refiner of our faith.
4. Thanking God in and for all things.
