ENGAGE
I can’t prove it absolutely, but my guess is that the most asked question throughout history, regardless of culture, has been this one:
Why do bad things happen to good people?
And that question is certainly at the heart of the life of the man that we’ll look at this morning – Job.
TENSION
When we go through difficult times in our lives, that is almost always the first question we ask, whether we do that out loud, or whether we just think it to ourselves. But as Job learned, and hopefully as we’ll learn this morning, the reason it’s so hard to find an answer to that question is because it’s not the right question to be asking in the first place.
TRUTH
You’re probably wondering why we’re even looking at the life of Job at this point in our journey through the Old Testament. After all, in our Bibles we find the book of Job right before the Psalms and there are 16 other books between Genesis, which we just finished last week, and Job.
Although we can’t even be sure of who authored the book of Job, the internal evidence in the text points to a setting during the time of the patriarchs and before Moses. The book pictures a family clan organization that would have been consistent with the time of Abraham and Job’s offering of a sacrifice for his family seems to reflect a time before the Exodus when God appoints priests to carry out that function. So it seems best to include our look at Job at this point in our study.
Obviously I have a daunting challenge ahead of me this morning as I try to share with you the essence of 42 chapters of Scripture in a little over 30 minutes. So let’s get right to it.
I’m going to ask you to follow along as I read from the beginning and the end of the book of Job and then we’ll use our remaining time to see if we can fill in the gaps and figure out what occurs in Job’s life between those two passages that completely changes his outlook on his suffering.
[Read Job 1:1-5]
The opening paragraph of the book of Job portrays Job as a very religious man. He is described as upright and blameless and he consistently goes through the religious ritual of making sacrifices for his children in case they have sinned. But there appears to be something that is missing in Job’s life – any kind of personal relationship with God. You’ll notice that in these first five verses, God is mentioned twice. And in both cases the underlying Hebrew word is Elohim, which is the generic name for God. It is the same word that is frequently translated “god” – with a little “g” throughout the Old Testament. So while Job is religious and has some concept of a deity, that is about as far as his relationship with God seems to go at that point in his life.
With that in mind, skip ahead with me all the way to the last chapter of Job – chapter 42 – and follow along as I read the first 6 verses.
[Read Job 42:1-6]
Something has obviously changed in Job’s life from when we first saw him back in chapter 1. First of all, He now refers to God as “the Lord”, which translates the Hebrew word “YHWH” – the covenant name of God. Job approaches the Lord here in complete humility. He acknowledges God’s sovereignty and he confesses his previous disrespect for God. And then in verse 5, he proclaims the message that we need to take away from the book of Job today that I would paraphrase like this.
When I go through trials, what matters is who I know
not what I know
In other words, trying to find the answer to why I’m suffering is really futile because the only lasting relief that I am going to find in the midst of my trials is to not just know about God, but to know Him personally.
That is actually very consistent with what we learned from Joseph last week isn’t it? Joseph was able to persevere through his trials not because of some principles he put into action, but rather because of what he knew about God:
1. God is 100% in control
2. God is 100% good
3. God never makes a mistake
So how did Job go from the religious man who knew about God in chapter 1, to the man who really knows God in chapter 42? Most of you are probably at least somewhat familiar with the story of Job’s journey, but let’s go ahead review it together and see what we can learn along the way.
Let’s begin with a brief overview of the book:
Prologue Chapters 1-2 Prose
Job’s dialogue with three friends Chapters 3-31 Poetry
Elihu’s monologue Chapters 32-37 Poetry
God speaks Chapters 38-41 Poetry
Job’s response 42:1-6 Poetry
Epilogue 42:7-17 Prose
Prologue
After the introduction in the first 5 verses of the book, we’re given a glimpse into the heavenly realms where God has a conversation with Satan. Satan, whose name appropriately means “the accuser”, claims that Job is only religious because God has blessed him. So God, knowing from the beginning that Job is going to pass the test, gives Satan permission to attack Job. But He puts clear limits on exactly what Satan is allowed to do. This reaffirms what we said last week about God being 100% in control. Satan can only do what God permits him to do and no more.
So Satan kills Job’s children and destroys all his wealth. But Job refuses to charge God with wrong and he worships God.
So Satan returns to God again and this time gets permission to afflict Job with sores literally from head to foot. This time Mrs. Job challenges Job and encourages him to curse God and die. But again, Job refuses to charge God with wrong.
At that point, Job’s three friends hear of his predicament and they all came together to comfort Job. And for seven days they just sit with Job without uttering a word.
Job’s three “friends”
Then, at the beginning of chapter 3, Job opens his mouth and laments the day of his birth. And then for the next 28 chapters, we read the conversation that occurs between Job and his three friends. Since we obviously don’t have time to even read that section, alone look at it in detail, let me summarize for you the approach that each of his three friends takes here:
1. Eliphaz the Temanite – the gentle mystic. He claims to speak absolute truth and is a proponent of the traditional theory of retribution - God punishes the sinner and rewards the righteous. We see that most clearly in Job 4:7:
“Remember: who that was innocent ever perished?
Or where were the upright cut off?
(Job 4:7 ESV)
Although he lacks in compassion, he at least accepts Job as a pious man gone astray. His basic message to Job is this:
Job, if you repent, then this illness will go away and God’s blessing will return.
Even today, our world is filled with people like Eliphaz. They refuse to see the other person as a person and instead just spout spiritual truisms. They tell people if they will just clean up their life or if they just have enough faith, then surely God will take away their pain and restore His blessings. But just like that approach brought absolutely no comfort to Job, it will not bring comfort in our culture today either.
2. Bildad – the firm traditionalist. Like Eliphaz, Bildad has an unbending allegiance to the traditional idea that all suffering is a result of sin. But because he is also observant of Job’s situation, he takes things even further. He adds to Job’s suffering by proclaiming that Job’s children died because they, too, were guilty of sin and warns Job that unless he repents, he will suffer the same fate. For Bildad, even the fact that Job questions God’s actions is evidence of his wickedness. We see his viewpoint clearly in his opening words:
“How long will you say these things,
and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
Does God pervert justice?
Or does the Almighty pervert the right?
(Job 8:2-3 ESV)
Although Bildad’s approach is not all that different that Eliphaz’s, he is even less compassionate and views Job as inherently evil, rather than a pious man gone astray.
Unfortunately, there are still people like that in the church, who view every form of suffering as God’s retribution for sin. And they aren’t afraid to let people know what they think. But usually those same people fail to recognize the sin in their own life. And even if they do pause long enough to remove the log from their own eye, they immediately turn around and use it to beat someone else over the dead with it. Not surprisingly, they bring no comfort, either.
3. Zophar – the rash dogmatist. He was a straight talker who believed in speaking the truth, but he certainly didn’t do that in love. He presumes to speak for God, as we see in his opening words:
“Should a multitude of words go unanswered,
and a man full of talk be judged right?
Should your babble silence men,
and when you mock, shall no one shame you?
For you say, ‘My doctrine is pure,
and I am clean in God's eyes.’
But oh, that God would speak
and open his lips to you,
and that he would tell you the secrets of wisdom!
For he is manifold in understanding.
Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.
(Job 11:2-6 ESV)
For Zophar, there is no ambiguity or mystery in the nature of God. All things are black and white and he is about to tell Job how things really are, even to take him into the “secrets of wisdom”.
Again, we have a lot of Zophar’s in the world today. They claim to know the mind of God in every situation, so therefore they alone can present the correct solution to one’s suffering.
But Job is not comforted at all by his three friends, as he makes clear with his own words:
“I have heard many such things;
miserable comforters are you all.
(Job 16:2 ESV)
As the conversation continues, Job continues to defend himself by pointing out the evidence from the world around him that the wicked often prosper and the righteous often suffer. And apparently his defense is pretty effective because as the conversation continues, the speeches of his three friends become more hostile and shorter. Finally, the conversation ends and in chapters 26-31, Job makes his final defense without a single interjection from any of his three friends. Job has won the argument, it seems, but he still has no answer to his questions about his suffering. So because he feels that he needs to answer the question about why bad things happen to good people, Job is left to conclude that God must be arbitrary and capricious.
Elihu
But in chapter 32, a young man named Elihu, whose name means “He is my God”, appears on the scene. Because he is younger than the others, he has been listening to this entire conversation, waiting to speak until the others are finished. His discourse continues all the way through the end of chapter 37 without even one interruption by Job.
Elihu does say some of the same things the three friends said and there are certainly some things in his speech that are hard to understand. And he is no doubt tough on Job, perhaps harder than he should have been, possibly because he was angry with Job and his three friends. But Elihu does definitely present something new in his discourse. He disputes both the argument of the three friends that Job’s trials were a result of his sin as well as Job’s assertion that God’s actions were merely arbitrary.
The essence of his discourse is summed up in the middle of chapter 13:
For God speaks in one way,
and in two, though man does not perceive it.
In a dream, in a vision of the night,
when deep sleep falls on men,
while they slumber on their beds,
then he opens the ears of men
and terrifies them with warnings,
that he may turn man aside from his deed
and conceal pride from a man;
he keeps back his soul from the pit,
his life from perishing by the sword.
(Job 33:14-18 ESV)
According to Elihu, God intervenes in the life of man in two ways – through dreams and visions, and through suffering. And in both, God’s purpose is to save, not to punish. Elihu does not picture God as an angry judge, but rather as a merciful Savior.
Elihu goes on to explain that sometimes God uses suffering to reveal and root out sin in a righteous person. So affliction should make even a righteous person sensitive to the sin in his life and lead him to hate that sin and repent.
But that still doesn’t provide Job with a satisfactory answer to his question, because, as Job is about to find out, that’s not even the right question to ask.
But the greatest contribution Elihu makes is that he prepares Job to listen to God in the last part of the book. Job has been wanting to talk to God directly ever since chapter 9 and Elihu encourages Job to listen to the voice of God that he is about to hear. So while he has his faults, it appears that Elihu generally has things right, which is why he is not condemned along with Job’s three friends at the end of the book.
God
So beginning in chapter 38, God speaks to Job, asking a series of questions that is intended to remind Job of the fact that God is infinitely powerful and that His ways and thoughts are higher than Job’s. Job is immediately humbled in the presence of God. So when God pauses for a moment at the beginning of chapter 40 and challenges Job to answer Him, Job basically says, “I’ll just shut up and listen.” So God continues to speak to Job all the way through the end of chapter 41.
Job’s response
It is only after hearing from God that Job realizes that he has been asking the wrong questions all along and that he finally came to the conclusion that we saw earlier:
When I go through trials, what matters is who I know
not what I know
Job no longer is focused on why he has suffered. After hearing from God, Job is satisfied with the fact that instead of just knowing about God, that as a result of what he had gone through, he now knew God in a much more intimate, personal way, and he would choose to just be content with that. He was no longer obsessed with having to know why as long as he knew God.
Epilogue
In the epilogue, God rebukes Job three friends because they have not spoken what is right He and instructs them to make an offering. And then Job prayed for his friends, asking that God not deal with them according to their folly. And God accepted Job’s prayer.
Job had passed the test, just as God knew he would when He gave Satan permission to torment Job. And once again, God demonstrated His grace and mercy by restoring Job. Although Mrs. Job is not mentioned, Job does have seven more sons and three more daughters, just as he had before. Interestingly, while none of the names of the seven sons are revealed, the author chooses to list the names of the three daughters. God not only restored all Job’s flocks, but he doubled the number that Job had possessed before. And Job lived another 140 years as a very blessed man.
We need to be very careful with how we use this epilogue. This is not in any way a promise by God that He is always going to bless us like that when we endure trials.
When I go through trials, what matters is who I know
not what I know
APPLICATION
That truth obviously has some important implications for us when we face trials. But since we’ve been focusing a lot of attention on that the last few weeks, I want to approach this from a different angle and close by discussing:
How I should comfort others in their trials:
As we think about how Job’s friends tried to comfort him in his trials, we can see both some things we should do and some things we shouldn’t do as we try to comfort others in their trials. Let’s begin with a “don’t”:
DON’T:
• Preach
To at least some extent, all three of Job’s friends tried to preach to him. As we saw earlier, at least some of what they claimed to know about God wasn’t even true. But even what was true wasn’t helpful at all for Job. When others are going through trials, the last thing they need is for us to tell them what we think we know about God or to try and speak on God’s behalf.
That obviously doesn’t mean that if we’re aware of some sin in their life, that we don’t lovingly point that out to them. There are several places in the New Testament that clearly show that we are responsible to do that for those who are fellow disciples of Jesus.
DO:
• Be present
Here is where we have to give Job’s friends some credit. And from what we read here, it may very well be that Job got more comfort from them for the seven days that they just remained with him without saying a word, than he did in the entire time they opened their mouths.
When I first became a pastor, I often felt ill-equipped to minister to people who were going through difficulties because I felt like my role was to give them answers in the midst of their problems. But what I’ve come to realize is that most of the time, what people need is not answers, but merely someone to be there with them during those times. And what we’ve learned this morning, just confirms that.
• Point the other person to God
I think this is why Elihu was never rebuked by God. Although he did preach to some extent, what he primarily did was to point Job to God and to encourage him to listen when God spoke.
While others don’t need our preaching when they are suffering, what they might very well need is for us to come alongside them and say, “I sure don’t have all the answers, but let’s look at God’s Word together because He does have the answers”. And then we can take people to passages like Deuteronomy 31, or Isaiah 43 or Hebrews 13 where God promises never to leave us or forsake us and where He promises to go through trials with us. And we can also point the other person to God by praying with them, which leads us to the last thing we should do…
• Pray
What we’ve learned today ought to not only lead us to pray for others, but it should impact what we pray for them. If it is true that what people need most in their trials is to know God, then it seems to me that my prayers should reflect that. Far too often, it seems that our prayers revolve only around asking God to remove the other person from their trials – to heal their sickness, or to fix their finances, or to change their circumstances. And sometimes those kinds of prayers may very well be appropriate.
But what if we began praying that, in the midst of those trials, the other person would come to know God better? What if we prayed that they would spend more time in God’s Word and in prayer, that they would be sensitive to the Holy Spirit as He speaks into their lives? If it is true that what matters most in trials is who I know and not what I know shouldn’t that be reflected in how I pray?
INSPIRATION
When I go through trials, what matters is who I know
not what I know
We live in the midst of a culture where a lot of people are hurting. And what all of us need is not some program or even answers to our questions. What we need is a relationship with God through faith in Jesus. Ultimately that is the only thing that will sustain any of us in the midst of our trials.
ACTION
So as we close in prayer this morning, I’m going to encourage you to pray about two things:
1. If you’re going through your own personal trial of some kind right now, will you ask God to deepen your relationship with Him? Will you tell God that you no longer want to seek answers, but that you want to seek Him?
2. If you know of someone else going through a trial right now, will you pray for that person? Even if it’s appropriate to ask God to remove that trial, will you pray instead for God to deepen that person’s relationship with Him through this trial?
[Prayer time]
Discussion Questions for the Bible Roundtable
1. What does the book of Job teach us about how Satan operates in our lives and how we should respond?
2. When people we know go through trials, in what ways can we tend to be like Job’s three “friends”? Whys is that dangerous? How do we avoid acting like that?
3. What are some other areas in our lives, where we tend to be obsessed with knowing the “how” and the “why”, but where we just don’t have clear answers in the Bible? What should our approach be in those areas?
4. Read Job 19:25-27. What does this reveal about Jesus and about what Job understood about life after death?
