Sermon Brief
Date Written: January 9, 2010
Date Preached: January 10, 2010
Where Preached: Oak Park (AM)
Sermon Details:
Sermon Series: A Series on Job
Sermon Title: How To Question Suffering!
Sermon Text: Job 2:11-13 [HCSB]
11 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. 12 When they saw Job from a distance, they scarcely recognized him. Wailing loudly, they tore their robes and threw dust into the air over their heads to show their grief. 13 Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and nights. No one said a word to Job, for they saw that his suffering was too great for words.
Introduction:
In our passage of Scripture this morning we move forward a little in the saga of Job. Last week we dealt with Job’s wife criticizing his faith and trust in God and she ‘dared’ him to just curse God because of his situation and go ahead and die. Job remained faithful and did not sin!
Today we find Job’s friends coming to see him in his troubles. I can almost imagine that these friends, who lived in different areas got the message that Job was having a tough time and they immediately decided to go see Job and attempt to cheer him up and help him in his difficulty.
We pick up the story when these men reach Job’s house and see him for the first time during this very difficult time. They see Job and are horrified at what they see and Scripture tells us that they barely can recognize him. Job was covered with sores from head to toe, he had been grieving for days, and sitting on an ash heap… I can imagine he was dirty and swollen from his sores. He was a mess!
Now this particular part of the story makes reference to those of us who know someone who is going through a difficult time. We may be doing well, but our friend or family member or loved one is hurting and it seems as if life is being unfair to them… Many times when that happens we strike out at God… many times we question why this has to happen… we come to our friends or family members in pain and we try our best to help them with encouragement and love!
However, the friends of Job, although they were hurting for him, began a line of questioning that seems to go against what we may think it should have been. They begin to go on the offensive AGAINST Job because they are sure that Job has sinned in some way to bring God’s punishment against him.
Job is adamant that he is innocent, but the friends do not take no for an answer and begin to question Job on the veracity of his character. His ‘friends’ begin to give him some advice… and that is what I want to speak with you about this morning…6 questions we should ask to Job’s friends about their advice to him.
These are also 6 questions we should ask of ANYone who is giving advice, we need to ask:
1) Is it biblical?
2) is it factual?
3) is it necessary?
4) is it teachable?
5) does it recognize the fallibility of human counsel?
6) are you giving it IN LOVE?
I once heard a story about the dean of a Bible college who was in a board meeting and an angel visited the meeting. The angel told the dean of the college that he had been living right and serving God and that God was going to grant him one of 3 things: 1) Unsurpassed wisdom; 2) Infinite wealth or 3) limitless beauty.
The dean thought about it and said to the board members, I want to ask you for some advice… what should I choose he asked them! Thinking of Solomon, almost to a person they all said he should choose the unsurpassed wisdom! The dean agreed and told the angel that he would take the wisdom. BAM! The angel said… you are now the wisest man on the planet…
The board members looked at the dean and they were all waiting for him to ‘say’ something wise, but he just sat there with his head in his hands, shaking his head! One of the board members spoke up and said, ‘we are all waiting to hear some wisdom, share it with us!”
With all his new found wisdom, the dean raised up and looked at the board members and shaking his head he said, “I should have taken the money!” When evaluating human counsel or human advice to a friend or a loved one we need to ask first… Is this counsel or advice biblical? Does it reflect the core principles of Scripture as we know them?
I am sure that we all know someone who is suffering or experiencing the unfairness of life, and we also want to give them advice and counsel them to help them in their time of trouble… and there may be times when we are suffering and dealing with the unfairness of life and our friends may want to offer us some advice or counsel…
When we either GIVE advice or RECEIVE advice we need to know HOW to give it or receive it… and that is the 1st question we need to ask… Is it biblical? When giving OR receiving advice or counsel we need to know Scripture. I also know that before we can GIVE wise counsel to a friend or loved one, we must know that any counsel or advice we give MUST be based in Scripture!
In Job 5:27, Job’s friend Eliphaz tells Job, “…Behold, this we have searched out; it is true, hear, and know it for your good." But when we think about it, how much of what humanity can offer, can be considered to be TRUTH. Mostly it is personal opinion or conjecture. Personal preference and opinion do NOT equal fool proof counsel.
Only God’s word is trustworthy to give us perfect and true counsel. Is your advice to friends in pain, based in Scripture? Are those counseling you in your troubles basing their advice on God’s Word?
We must know that any advice and counsel that is NOT based in God’s word, is futile and we cannot trust it to be TRUTH! Job’s friends gave counsel, but their counsel was based more on human tradition and their own opinions than God’s Word.
But we also need to ask a 2nd question of any advice or counsel that we are giving OR that we are receiving when we are struggling and hurting. We need to ask the question: Is it factual… which is an extension of is it TRUE!
In Job 11:14 we find Job’s friend, Zophar urging Job to, “put away the sin” that was in his hand. Zophar goes onto to say, “allow NO evil to dwell” in Job’s tent. In this situation Zophar was leaning heavily on the common belief that if something was wrong in your life, then you obviously had sin in your life.
He was making the assumption that Job had sinned against God in a great manner. But Zophar was NOT the only one as Eliphaz said in Job 4:8, “…those who sow trouble reap it…”
These 2 friends were basing their observation on the false assumption that suffering people have sin in their lives and that prosperous people are living right with God.
You see we know what they did not know and that was God had basically bragged about Job in Job 1:8 when He said that Job was “blameless and upright” We know that the suffering and trouble that Job had to endure was NOT because of his sin, but it was a test of his faithfulness. These friends of Job simply MISSED the mark on this one! it was NOT a factual piece of advice!
When you offer advice to anyone who is suffering through trials and pain, make sure that your advice is 1st based in Scripture and when you do that, you can rest assured that it is reliable because the TRUTH rests in God’s word and we can know that your advice would be FACTUAL! If you are giving or receiving advice and counsel that is NOT based in fact, you will be deceived and mislead! We must be factual in our counsel of those we love!
But there is a 3rd question we need to ask of advice or counsel that is coming our way in our time of trouble OR that we are giving to help and counsel another in their time of difficulty and that is… IS IT NECESSARY?
When we look at Eliphaz, Zophar and Bildad’s trip to see Job, and all the counsel and advice they brought to him, we have to ask the question, was it really necessary for ALL of what they had to say…
Really in the big picture of things was it really necessary for Job’s wife and these 3 friends to unleash their own frustrations and subject him to such a long debate in this his greatest hour of need?
I have heard that the wisest counsel you can offer or receive is often the shortest counsel. Extended rants and debate does not comfort those who are in trouble or those who are suffering. So often we find ourselves trying to ‘explain’ something we cannot and it leads us down a path that is usually unnecessary!
When we are giving advice or counsel to those who are hurting and in need, we need to understand that biblical and factual counsel is short and to the point and does not rant or ramble. Is our counsel necessary? Pray that it is…
It is like the minister who tries to counsel the grieving parent who’s child had been killed in a senseless accident… the minister utters the words, “God won’t put any more on you than you can handle… have faith!” And the parent then looks at him and says, “so if I was just a weaker person… then my child would be alive?”
I have learned as a pastor that there are times when the best thing is just to sit beside them and cry with them because there are NO words, there is NO counsel in that time of grief and pain that will help or that is even necessary.
How wonderful would it have been if Job’s friends when they sat down with him would have just remained silent and mourned with their friend! Far too often we simply try to do TOO much and say TOO much… I believe so much of what Job’s wife and friends said to him was just UNNECESSARY!
Biblical, factual, and is it necessary are 3 questions to ask but the next question we need to put to Job’s friends and to US when we are giving counsel to those who are suffering or hurting is… IS IT TEACHABLE? Can those we counsel LEARN from what we are giving?
Eventually Job was able to pass on the lessons he learned to future generations but what his friends came and gave… was NOT something to learn from… their counsel was NOT teachable!
In Job 4:6 we find Eliphaz saying to Job, “should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways be your hope?” But we know that Job had been down that road. God had lifted Job up as blameless and righteous.
Job had followed the letter of the law and had even surpassed what the Law required, but all he had to show for it now was suffering and loss! A season of suffering that had destroyed all hope and confidence he had ever had in his own abilities…
Instead, Job would eventually pass on what he learned about God. His personal encounter with God proved to be the turning point in his life! We know that Job never fully understood or knew the ‘why’ behind his suffering or pain BUT he did get a new look into the character of God and gained a greater understanding about the nature of God!
That understanding that he gained was something teachable… something he could pass along to his children and to his friends. Job’s faith in God is what we see today… we don’t see the complaints of his friends or the rants of his wife as being the focal point of this story, but the faith of Job in God!
Teachable, necessary, factual and biblical… are all questions we must ask but here is one I believe to be very important as well… Is our advice or counsel… does it acknowledge the imperfect nature of humanity and human counsel?
When we look at the counsel that these friends gave to Job we can see that there was not ONE time that they leave the door open for them to be wrong. Eliphaz in 4:8 says, “I have observed it…” in 5:27 he also states, “We [meaning ALL 3 of the friends] have examined it and it is TRUE!”
And there was a 4th friend who shows up later in the book, Elihu, who is even more sure of himself than the 1st 3 friends we encounter here in chapter 2. But the fact of the matter is… that there are going to be times when we need to acknowledge that we simply do NOT have the answers for the questions are friends and loved ones are asking!
Our counsel at times like that takes into consideration the fallibility of humanity and we understand that we simply do not know everything and that we need to understand that and admit it! These friends of Job did not comprehend this concept of giving advice or counsel when they came to Job… their advice was RIGHT and they wanted Job to know it…
What we learn in this story is that all the human chatter and counsel that Job rec’d in the 1st 35 chapters of this book seem to wither away and die when God shows up! The ‘why’ question that Job had for all those chapters disappears quickly when God’s presence comforts Job.
I can remember a story about the disciples and Jesus. There was a blind man that Jesus healed and the disciples… I guess trying to sound theological and smart… started a discussion about the healing and about the man who had been healed.
They asked Jesus, “Jesus, who caused this man’s blindness, HIS sin or the sin of his parents?” Can you imagine this man sitting there waiting to get healed by Jesus and this was what he heard? Here he was being treated as if he wasn’t even in the room… and these strangers were talking about him as if he was some sort of statistic or something. Wasn’t life hard enough for him already?
Jesus changes the mood with His answer when He tells His disciples, “NO ONE sinned to cause his blindness… YOU MISS THE POINT OF ALL THIS!” You are debating something that is irrelevant and unnecessary! You see it was not sin that caused this blindness but this blindness was allowed by God so that He would rec’v the glory for this man receiving his sight!
How often do we rely on the rational and logical thought process of humanity when we give our counsel to those who are hurting or in need? We have to understand that we are frail and broken vessels and that the only true and good counsel that anyone can receive is that from God’s Word… is that which is based in Fact… is that which is teachable… is that which is necessary and that which recognizes the imperfect and fallen human condition.
But finally this morning I want us to examine the 6th question that we should ask of Job’s friends… and the 6th question we must ask ourselves when attempting to give counsel to a hurting soul! That is… IS THIS DONE IN LOVE?
The long, drawn out monologues and debates that these 3 friends bring to the table against Job are increasingly more and more hostile toward Job and his family. In Job 8… one of the friends accuses Job’s children of sinning against God and that their punishment was swift and harsh because of their sin!
Paul was very clear in his teaching about doing godly things and acting godly… he tells us in 1 Corinthians that if these things are done without love…then they are but a waste of time!
We can know all the facts, we can have all the statistics, we can believe we know the situation better than ANYONE else, but if we come into the conversation without love… we are nothing more than a waste of good breath!
When people are hurting and suffering because of this world and the Enemy who stalks us everyday… they are going to be looking for answers more than ever before! They are going to want to know the answer to the ‘why’ or the ‘why me’ questions! But the fact of the matter is that there are going to be times when that why or why me question cannot be answered… the answers NEVER come… and it is going to leave us frustrated unless we surrender to Him on a daily basis!
We have to give the sort of counsel that God desires us to give… counsel that will point those hurting and in pain… to the Savior! Jesus Christ! Our counsel must be biblical, it must be truthful and factual, it should be counsel that is necessary, and it should be teachable.
We also must come to the conclusion that human error and imperfections must be taken into consideration. Finally we must speak this counsel in the Christian love in which it was meant!
Today you have heard how to give good counsel… but I want to encourage you to surrender ALL of who you are to Him today! You will never be able to give good counsel unless you are willing to bring it from a biblical perspective, that your observations and counsel is driven by facts and truth… that it is teachable and knowledgeable of humanities frail and sinful nature… but more importantly is this advice or counsel given in love?
Today I call on ALL Oak Park members to step out and come to this altar and surrender to Him… surrender to the will and way of the Lord! As Steven comes to lead us, I urge and encourage you to allow the Holy Spirit to move in your hearts and come and give God the glory He deserves! Won’t you come…
