You can listen to the full message here:-
http://www.nec.org.au/listen-to-a-sermon-series/faith-when-i-suffer/
Message
Job 4:1-25:6
Eliphaz’s Answer:- You Have Done Evil
Our world is very much a place which believes in the truth of cause and effect.
If I work hard I should get good money. If I am lazy or cheat I shouldn’t get as much.
If I am kind I should be respected. If I am mean I deserve to be ignored.
If I have integrity I should be trusted. If I lack integrity I deserve to be questioned.
If I study hard I should pass. If I don’t pass then it is my own fault.
Cause and effect. You see what I am saying?
As we go through life we feel that there needs to be a reasonable explanation for my situation. A plus B should equal C.
And when I can’t see the connection, or the situation does not seem to be reasonable, then some injustice must have taken place.
It is not fair that hard-working people are poor.
It is not fair that bad things happen to good people.
It is not fair when people with integrity are questioned.
Cause and effect. That is very much the world we live in isn’t it?
And that is the world that Job lives in as well.
Put yourself in his shoes.
• Your self-employed, all your tools have been stolen, and they were uninsured.
• Your car has been stolen and torched.
• Your three children were returning from school on the bus … and they were all killed when it overturned.
• You have contracted such a bad disease the doctor has told you to stay away from him because you look so gross.
• And to top it off your wife is abusing your religion, telling you it was just all a sham.
That’s a job like situation.
Job is a man of influence and he has some friends who have come to give him support in his time of need.
Job 2:11-13
These are great friends. They are there for Job in his time of need. They identify with his loss and put themselves in the same humbling position – ripped robes and dust. They don’t even really know what to say so for seven days they are silent, just comforting Job with their presence. Which is probably the smartest thing they could have done – because as soon as they open their mouths they put their foot into it.
This is where the cause-and-effect issue comes in.
Eliphaz is the first of the friends to speak ... we hear from him for the first time in Job 4:1. By the time he gets to verse 7 this is what he is saying:-
7 “Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed? 8 As I have observed, those who plough evil and those who sow trouble reap it.
Job 4:7-8
I don’t know if you have people in your life like this. The people who want you to do something or act in a certain way, but they don’t want to directly ask you.
“Honey are you hot?” “Sort of.” “Well maybe we should turn on the fan.”
Or you’re in bed. “It’s a little bit cold isn’t it.” “Yes.” “I think the blanket is on the floor.”
You know ... people like that.
Eliphaz is one of those people. He says it all, without actually saying it.
Have the innocent ever perished ... hint – Job you are perishing.
Were the upright destroyed ... hint – Job you have nothing.
People reap what they sow... hint – Job you obviously have a hidden dark side.
In the seven days that Eliphaz has been sitting there he has been doing the maths in his mind. What did Job do to make this happen?
What sort of evil does a man do that would cause God to send fire on 7000 sheep?
How bad do you need to be to have 3000 camels taken in an instant?
How offended is God that 10 children die in a house collapse.
Job, you are covered in sores. Scabs with worms infest your body. You’re nothing but skin and bone. What have you done?
What have you done to make God do this to you?
That is the cause-and-effect syndrome isn’t it?
You must have done something wrong to be in the situation you find yourself.
I should have behaved more faithfully because now I have a difficult life.
I’m going through these events because earlier in my life I was a rebel.
They’re in that situation because they didn’t listen to God.
Cause-effect.
Cause-effect.
Cause-effect.
Eliphaz uses it as a thought process. There are times when we do the same.
Life has to make sense. A plus B must equal C.
Otherwise it just isn’t fair.
Job is in distress. Eliphaz is accusing Job of hiding a very dark secret. What has made Eliphaz do that? The answer may surprise you.
Eliphaz is relying on his view of God.
Let’s read a few passages.
Job 5:8-16 (read)
Eliphaz sees that God is a consistent God.
If you are humble you are lifted up.
If you mourn you will be given safety.
If you are crafty and sneaky you will be caught out.
Good things come to those who deserve it.
Job 15:20-30 (read)
Eliphaz sees that God is a consistent God.
The wicked get what they deserve.
When you shake your fist at God He responds by shaking your life.
God will bring retribution.
God is a Holy God that demands holiness from us.
That is the God of Eliphaz. And in one sense he is right.
God is a holy God.
God does place demands in our lives.
God does respond to sin.
God will seek justice.
But God is much more than just a Holy God. This is where Eliphaz goes so wrong because he has only focussed on one aspect of God’s character.
Example of business man I knew.
Depending on what contact you had with him you would have a different perspective about him.
God has many characteristics. If you just focus on just one or two of those characteristics then you end up making God into something that He is not.
It isn’t that you are lying.
But it isn’t the whole truth.
When you narrow the character of God just down to God is Holy – the God you end up with is God-who-is-directed-by-cause-and-effect.
I’ll be honest – I would hate to be under the rule of a God like that.
Talk freely here relate to our local situation and backgrounds of people.
Sexual exploits.
Children out of wedlock.
Substance abuse.
Jail time.
Would we want God to be a God-who-is-directed-by-cause-and-effect in those situations? Would we really want God to treat us as we deserve?
I wouldn’t. I’ll show you why. Because we have one story in the Bible where God, just for a moment, acted in a cause and effect manner.
5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favour in the eyes of the LORD.
Genesis 6:5-8
Expand and focus specifically on the flood story and the fact that everything is wiped away.
Yet – God did still relent fully by saving Noah, his family and animals.
After it was all over we read these words.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
Genesis 8:20-21
Every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. God still has the cause, the reason to act in a fashion that would see us treated in a way far worse than Job experienced. Yet He does not put that cause into effect.
God is holy. But He is not a God who is directed by cause-and-effect. What does all this mean for us?
1) The next time you are going through difficulties don’t allow yourself to think, “What have I done to deserve this?”
My own story about carpentry and it goes wrong ...
Reality is that I am not as good as I think I am.
Example of young couple who conceived a child before they were married.
This child is going to have a disability.
God doesn’t work like that ... on two fronts as disability is not a punishment.
It might be that your actions have produced certain consequences.
But God does not keep a tally and then get you back.
2) The next time you see others going through difficulties don’t think, “What have they don’t to deserve that?”
Situation in Kenya at the moment.
Situation in Libya
Those people there are no worse than us, nor are they less deserving of grace than us.
3) When we go through difficulties how can we act in a way that makes us holy?
Last week I said:-
Difficulties in life do not cause suffering.
It is our response to these difficulties that causes suffering.
You see people look at this word holy ... or holiness ... and think it means we need to get everything right all the time.
But in the Bible the main definition of holiness ... and being holy ... is that we are set apart and that we stand out.
That is what Job was doing wasn’t in. Through all the events Job did not speak against God. He had questions, and was angry, and confused. But he held on to God – while everyone else was trying to blame Job, or find a secret sin, Job knew who God was. And trusted in God – the full character of God.
All of us go through difficulties. All of us have challenges and situations which might at times make us think – what have I done to deserve this. Or we might find others saying, “What have they done to deserve that?”
When you go through those times do you trust God?
The full character of God.
Talk freely here about the full character of God shown through Jesus.
God is not a cause-and-effect God.
He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
He is not out to get us.
He is walking with us on a journey and protect us in a situation where the forces of evil are trying to get us.
Do you trust this God?
Do you trust Him enough not to find a cause and effect.
Do you trust Him enough to know that despite all you don’t deserve that you are, and always will be, His child.
Do you trust Him enough that even as you go through your difficulties that you are, and always will be, His child.
No matter what anyone else thinks or says ... no matter what you even think or say.
Prayer
