MESSAGE - God’s Answer For Troubled Times
There are times that test the soul. This is one of those times. It is at times like this that we wonder if anyone has ever experienced pain and loneliness so intently. This is the moment that that one pivotal question swirls unanswered and unrelenting, “Why?”
Geoff and Lois, I can’t imagine the pain and sorrow that you have experienced over the last few days. Our children, whether by birth or by choice, are meant to live beyond us as parents. The most common statement that we as your friends and family have uttered is that we don’t know what to say. We feel for you and join you in asking, “Why?”
Why should a little girl with so much energy and vitality have her life cut short? What is the purpose of a child with such a gifted potential being taken before those gifts are fully unwrapped? Why would God let this happen?
Not only are those our questions. Those are the kinds of questions that swirled in the pages of the book of Job in Scripture. Much of the book is Job’s painful investigation on the why of troubled times … why tragedy had befallen him. As we lament the lost of Gwen from our everyday, a reflection on Job provides God’s answer for troubled times.
As the book begins, Job is sitting on top of the world. Satan begs that the only reason that Job is faithful is that God has blessed him with abundance.
But one day Job’s world came crashing in. All of the things that Satan said propped up Job’s faith were taken from him. Servant followed by servant followed by servant reported the devastation to crops and property until finally the last servant reports the death of all ten of his children, seven sons and three daughters.
Upon hearing the news that his children have died, the book of Job reads:
20 Job stood up and tore his robe in grief, then he shaved his head and fell to the ground before God. 21 He said,… “The Lord gave me everything I had, and the Lord has taken it away. Praise the name of the Lord!” (Job 1)
I have to admit … when I have heard vs. 21 referenced in the past, it has always been in isolation to its context, and it seemed to be used rather cavalierly. God “gives and takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Buck up, get over it and go on. It’s this ‘move on’ mindset that leads some people to say that the book of Job paints an unrealistic picture of dealing with tragedy.
But Job isn’t teaching us to just move on. Vs. 20 is pivotal in Job’s response. The tearing of his clothes and the shaving of his head were both signs of a man desperately broken by his loss. In chapter 2, Job puts on sackcloth, and goes out in sits in a pile of ashes, and he continues to linger there for much of the remainder of the book.
Here is the first lesson we learn from God about dealing with troubled times. Take time to grieve. Don’t rush past your loss, or try to bury it in busyness.
That is something that all of us as friends and family need to hear. You see, it is so easy for us to move on after the funeral, to put the pieces back together and reengage with life. And as we continue on with life, and as days become weeks, and weeks become months, we sometimes become impatient with those who have experienced loss wondering why can’t they just move on.
Geoff and Lois need us today to celebrate Gwen’s life … and to share their grief. But through the coming weeks and months, when we as friends and neighbors become busy once again with our own lives, when coworkers get back to work, and family return home, Geoff and Lois will still need us to meet them occasionally in that place where laughter meets loneliness, And as we make those visits with them in that place of sorrow and celebration, the frequency and intensity of those ventures will soften over time.
The second lesson that we learn from Job about dealing with troubled times is that it is important to ask the right question. You see, our question is usually “Why?” Isn’t it? It’s a question seeking justice, looking for answers.
That was essentially Job’s question as well – He wanted to know “Why would God let this happen to him?” His ‘friends’ wondered why Job was denying the sin that obviously caused God to punish him this way.
The struggle to find the answer to ‘Why’ has shipwrecked the faith of many. The objection that many have to belief in God is simply stated, “If God is good, why … why does he allow bad things to happen to good people?”
But as the book of Job draws to a close, God directs Job to another line of questions … not ‘why’, but ‘who’.
I never heard Gwen sing this song, but Krista told me this week that it was one of Gwen’s favorites. She even sang it to them at the zoo …
I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
Only a hippopotamus will do
Don't want a doll, no dinky Tinker Toy
I want a hippopotamus to play with and enjoy
With that in mind, I think Gwen would appreciate one section of God’s response to Job’s questions. As Job keeps hammering away at ‘why’, God responds by saying;
“Take a look at the mighty hippopotamus. I made it, just as I made you. It eats grass like an ox. It is a prime example of God’s amazing handiwork. Only its Creator can threaten it.” (Job 40:15, 19)
Here quite simply is what God is getting at. There is no good answer to our question ‘why’, no answer will provide cover for the pain and grief of loss. Nothing that God could say in answer to that question would help us make sense of the swirling confusion and emotional turbulence. The answers aren’t that easy.
But asking ‘who’ will resurrect the prospects of hope because in spite of whatever trouble befalls you, no matter how great your loss, or how deep your grief … God is still God. Sadness, grief, loss, tragedy, calamity, nothing has knocked him from his place. God is still God, and there is no other.
There come those difficult moments that cause us to question our faith or affirm our trust that God is still God. Suffering causes us to trust God for who he is, not just for what he does.
Some of you may need me to confront you with this question: Are you using what you can’t understand as an excuse for your lack of trust? Will you trust God with your unanswered questions?
In chapter 19, Job, right in the midst of his pain, made a profound statement of faith and hope.
25 “For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; 26 And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God, 27 Whom I shall see for myself, And my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”
For I know that my Redeemer lives … I know the one who made payment on my behalf … I know the one who holds eternity in his hands … I know the one whom my eyes yearn to see … I know the one who will heal all my heart wounds.
It’s the question of ‘who’ that springs from what might have been Gwen’s favorite worship song … “Who is like the Lord? – Nobody”.
Yet, it is in that verse that we also get a glimpse of our final lesson from God on dealing with troubled times. The Resurrection is real.
Gwen is now in the presence of God, singing his praise, expressing her thanksgiving for the things he gave her, not having anyone tell her to quiet down, she is being too loud.
But a time is coming when God will take her frail body, a body undoubtedly cheated of some of its time here on earth, and restore it to wholeness, complete, healthy, vibrant, full of life once again. Do you see that in vs. 26? “And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God.”
And in cryptic typology of Resurrection to come, Job draws to a close:
“He [God] also gave Job seven more sons and three more daughters.” (42:13)
In a sense for Job, resurrection is realized. The curtain of eternity has been parted, and Job anticipates Paul’s statement in 1 Thessalonians 4:
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the call of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, all the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with him forever. (4:16-17)
On November 2nd 1873, the 'Ville de Havre' had collided with 'The Lochearn', an English vessel. It sank in only 12 minutes, claiming the lives of 226 people. Anna Spafford had stood bravely on the deck, with her daughters Annie, Maggie, Bessie and Tanetta clinging desperately to her. Her last memory had been of her baby being torn violently from her arms by the force of the waters. Anna was only saved from the fate of her daughters by a plank which floated beneath her unconscious body and propped her up. When the survivors of the wreck had been rescued, Mrs. Spafford's first reaction was one of complete despair. Then she heard a voice speak to her, "You were spared for a purpose." And she immediately recalled the words of a friend, "It's easy to be grateful and good when you have so much, but take care that you are not a fair-weather friend to God."
Upon hearing the terrible news, Horatio Spafford boarded the next ship out of New York to join his bereaved wife. Bertha Spafford (the fifth daughter of Horatio and Anna born later) explained that during her father's voyage, the captain of the ship had called him to the bridge. "A careful reckoning has been made", he said, "and I believe we are now passing the place where the de Havre was wrecked. The water is three miles deep." Horatio then returned to his cabin and penned the lyrics of his great hymn.
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
