When was the last time you felt alone because nothing seemed to be going your way? Maybe it was when your playing time on the team was cut and the coach never really gave a good explanation of why. Or perhaps it was the time you were stuck in a job that was neither fulfilling nor particularly well paying. Or it was when you had a bad stomach ache and you spent the whole night curled up in the fetal position watching the minute hand crawl ever so slowly around the face of the clock as if it had a stomach ache of its own. It’s a lonely feeling isn’t it?
Well I’m here to remind you that you are never alone. I know this because it’s a truth God went to great lengths to teach me. I am Job, a believer who lived over four thousand years ago. What do you remember about me from your Bible reading? Yes, I was a rich man. I had a large farm with seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and a large number of servants (Job 1:2). I also had seven children who had grown up to love and care for each other. I was well respected in my community because I was in the habit of helping others.
But that suddenly all changed. I lost my animals, my crops, and my children - all in one day. And then not long after that I myself became very sick. My skin festered and oozed with puss. I had feverish hallucinations. I was so sick and so miserable that when three of my friends came to see me they were shocked. For seven days they just sat with me, unsure of what to say. As it turns out, I wish they would have remained silent! But more on that later.
Perhaps you remember what the cause of my calamity was. Unbeknownst to me, God had pointed me out to Satan and said that there was no believer like me. Not surprisingly Satan just scoffed. He claimed that the only reason I worshipped God faithfully was because God had blessed me with riches. So God invited Satan to do whatever he wanted to with my possessions and to my family. Satan is the reason I lost everything including my children. But God is the reason I didn’t lose my faith! Do you remember what I said upon receiving all the horrible news that day? I said, “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised” (Job 1:21).
I survived that first round of testing without cursing or complaining to God, but then Satan received permission to attack me personally. But there was a line God would not allow Satan to cross. Satan was not allowed to kill me. Oh but as the miserable days wore on I wish he would have! My skin festered with open wounds and there was nothing I could do to get comfortable. My greatest relief was to scratch those sores with a broken piece of pottery! And this went on for months (Job 7:3). Things got so bad that I would have preferred being strangled to death than continuing to put up with the pain (Job 7:15, 16).
But it wasn’t just the physical pain that was so unbearable, there was emotional torture as well. Remember I said how three of my friends came to “comfort” me? Well at first they said nothing, but then one after another they began to claim that I must have done something evil to have attracted God’s anger and his punishment. Oh, I admitted to them that I wasn’t perfect, but I couldn’t think of any specific thing I had done to deserve such treatment. And so I pleaded with God: “If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O watcher of men? Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you? 21 Why do you not pardon my offenses and forgive my sins?” (Job 7:20, 21a)
Satan must have thought that he was getting close to making me crack. It is he, and not God, who wants us to think that when we suffer it means that either God is punishing us for some sin, or that he doesn’t care about us. But God allows suffering to bring us closer to him, for suffering makes clear just how helpless we are. It’s like I said to God: “Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath” (Job 7:7). You might be able to blow out a candle with a puff of air, but you can’t put out a house fire like that. And at that moment my whole life was on fire. I was helpless to do anything about it, but I was not hopeless. My God was still with me. Later I came to realize that he was like a father who won’t give his five-year old the heaviest saddlebag to carry out to the camel. Likewise God won’t let anything into your life that you can’t handle with his help and by his grace. But that’s the key isn’t it? You can handle anything and do all things, but only through him who gives us strength (Philippians 4:13).
So are you feeling helpless right now? Great! Let God work in and through you - like the child who doesn’t attempt to drag a heavy saddlebag himself but waits for Dad’s help, believers who entrust themselves to the Lord will see God do great things for them. On the other hand children who insist they can carry the heavy saddlebag themselves will only become frustrated and may even hurt themselves.
I did get frustrated with my friends and even said things I should not have about God, like “Does it please you to oppress me…while you smile on the schemes of the wicked?” (Job 10:3). In his grace God did not strike me down for my insolence. In fact he must have smiled when I said about him: “He is not a man like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court. 33 If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon us both, 34 someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more” (Job 9:32–34).
God himself has, of course, provided a mediator. That’s what Jesus is. He speaks for us to God the Father. And he also removed God’s rod of punishment from us by taking those blows upon himself at the cross. Are you surprised to hear me speak about Jesus? Sure, I lived 2,500 years before he was born but I knew about him from the word of promise God had given to Adam and Eve about someone who would crush the head of the serpent Satan. I even spoke about Jesus when I confessed, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. 26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; 27 I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25, 26)
Does your heart yearn to see your Redeemer? If not, it could be that things are too easy for you. It could be that you’re too attached to the things of this world. But that’s foolish because everything here is going to be destroyed some day. And so in his love God may allow you to suffer now, so that you don’t end up suffering eternally. It’s like my shepherds. They would make the new shepherds walk without sandals for a time. It seemed mean of course but they were just trying to toughen up the new recruits’ feet so that they would be able to more easily handle the long days of chasing sheep over rocky, hard terrain.
It’s the same way God treats us. He may take your health and your wealth away so that you’re left with nothing except him and his Word. But that’s more than enough to sustain you. In fact that’s why God allowed me to suffer, so that you would have my example and could see how God continued to care for me even in the darkest hours. My suffering did come to an end. When it did, God gave me more children and more possessions than I had before. He also gave me another 140 years to live. That was great, but still nothing compared to the glories of heaven which I now enjoy and which awaits all believers. So hang in there no matter what you are suffering and be assured that you are never alone. Your God and your Savior is always with you. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
Today’s sermon is about Job. Describe three things you learned about Job.
What reason did Job’s friends give for his suffering? Why were they wrong?
Explain: Job may have felt helpless, but he wasn’t hopeless.
Job had faith in Jesus. What did he confess about his Savior?
So why does God let us suffer?
