Job: The problem of Suffering
We have been going through the OT together, and we have been in the time frame of the kingdom. We have looked at King David and his son, King Solomon, and have learned from their wisdom and their foolishness. They wrote books of scripture, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon - that are part of what we call the Wisdom Literature of the Bible. But there is one other book in that section we want to look at today - the book of Job.
Job is one of the greatest philosophy books ever written, for it teaches us so much about life and what is really important. We don’t know when Job was written, but it was likely written back in the patriarchal period, the time of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. But Job helps us wrestle with the question of suffering, and we want to think about that together this morning.
Most of us already know the story of Job - the setting is found in Job 1:1-3 - In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. He had 7 sons and 3 daughters, and he owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen and 500 donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.
And chapter 1 continues to tell the story of Satan coming to God, and wanting to afflict Job - so God allows Satan to take away his children, his wealth, his earthly possessions. In chapter 2, Satan attacks Job’s health, and he is left sitting in a pile of ashes, covered from head to toe in painful sores, being left only with a contentious wife who wants him to die. Later we see some of Job’s friends come and simply tell Job he just needs to get his life right, that God only judges people who are sinful.
Now, think about this book in a modern context. Did you ever feel like God was unfair? Why do the evil prosper and the good suffer? Why, if God is good, does he allow evil in the world? Why do bad things happen to good people? There is a famous book written by Rabbi Kushner that answers that question - WRONGLY - by stating that God IS good, so therefore, God must NOT be all-powerful. But that is not the answer of Job.
Job starts out in the beginning of the book with good responses to his suffering: He begins with worship: Look at Job 1:20 - At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
He also begins with faith: Job 2:9-10 - His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!” He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
Job models right responses, but he struggles as over time things do not get better.
He wrestles with the problem of evil - why do bad things happen to good people.
He struggles with the problem of experience - he knows by faith God rewards the righteous, but his
experience shows him he is righteous but he is not rewarded.
He struggles with the problem of meaning - where can he find an answer to what life means?
CS Lewis, in the Chronicles of Narnia, uses allegory to describe God, using the lion figure Aslan. As one of the children asks about Aslan he asks, “Is he a safe lion?” To which he receives the answer, “No, he is not safe, but he is good.”
In our experience of pain and suffering, sometimes we look to God to be safe, to give us lives free from all pain and suffering, to lead happy little lives where nothing much ever happens. But the reality is God is not safe, but He is good. And we know that when suffering and tragedy happen, it is good. Even when we do not understand
I want us to watch a video clip - it will be about 7 minutes - of the story of Job in the 21st century. Doug Herman married his sweetheart, went to Bible college, had two kids, but found out his wife and daughter developed AIDS as a result of a blood transfusion. Here is Doug’s story:
***Show video clip here - end with fade to black scene (7:30) after he says “but He is good.”
This is the experience of Job. So what are the answers Job gives us to the problem of pain and suffering?
1. God is Good - As we look at the book of Job, we are reminded that no matter what experience may try to convince us of, no matter what circumstances may declare to us, we know that God is good. And because God is good, he can be trusted.
Throughout the book of Job, we see Job calling out wanting a chance to make God answer. He longs for confrontation, he wants to take God to court.
Job 9:32-35 - He is not a man like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court. If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon us both, someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more. Then I would speak up without fear of him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot.
Job 13:3 - But I desire to speak to the Almighty and to argue my case with God.
Job 13:21-22 - Withdraw your hand far from me, and stop frightening me with your terrors. Then summon me and I will answer, or let me speak, and you reply.
But Job finally gets his wish - to confront God - and when he does, he realizes how foolish a thing it is. In Job 38 God shows up:
Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said: “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.
And God starts questioning Job, and very quickly Job sees his own foolishness.
Job 40:3-5 - Then Job answered the LORD: “I am unworthy--how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer--twice, but I will say no more.”
Job 42:1-6 - Then Job replied to the LORD: “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”
Verse 5 is the key to the book of Job, and also the key to accepting our pain: Job knew of God, and knew truth about God, but in the end is taken to a whole new level when he intimately KNOWS God. What he ends up discovering is the first sentence of the Purpose Driven Life book: It’s not about you! It’s not about me! Life is about the purposes of God. It is only in knowing Him that we find we no longer need answers.
Whenever we come to look at life from our perspective, and God doesn’t measure up, we think God is not good. But one answer Job gives us is we need to come believing God is good, and to base our experience and our circumstances upon this truth. It will then cause us to look at things very differently.
The second answer Job gives us to pain and suffering is
2. God is Supreme
Job ends up with the answer in Job 28:28 that we saw in the book of Proverbs,
‘The fear of the Lord--that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.
One of the things Job learns in the end of the book of Job is that God is not the answer man. Job has all these questions stored up that he wants God to answer. But God often doesn’t take it upon himself to answer our questions. Instead, Job finds out that God is really the Questioner.
Job’s “friends” had been too busy talking to Job to listen to what he had to say. And in the same way, Job had been too busy talking to God to listen for God to speak. Often when things go bad for us, we want answers to the question “why”. Instead, we simply need to look for God.
Job knew that even though he didn’t understand why he suffered, he knew his God was supreme. In Job 19:25-29 we find this classic expression of Job’s faith:
I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes--I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! “If you say, ‘How we will hound him, since the root of the trouble lies in him,’ you should fear the sword yourselves; for wrath will bring punishment by the sword, and then you will know that there is judgment.”
Job knew in spite of his suffering that God was Supreme. And the third lesson Job teaches is
3. God is Active - We do not live in a world that supports a Deist view of things - that God is a wise clockmaker who got everything going but who is inactive today. Rather, Job shows us that God is very active in the daily affairs of our life. Job never doubted that all that was happening was done by the hand of God, he just didn’t understand WHY God was allowing everything to happen.
When we understand that God is Good, that causes us to Believe in Him.
When we understand that God is Supreme, that causes us to Worship Him.
**And these were the two initial responses of Job. He knew the right thing to do, he just lost his perspective over time.
When we understand that God is Active, that gives us Hope to Look for Him to work.
The ultimate problem of suffering if found in the Ultimate Need of Man - to intimately know God. CS Lewis said (something like) God is silent in our joys, speaks in our struggles, but screams in our pain. It is only in finding the presence of our God in our life that we find hope or answers or peace in times of pain and suffering. Job has all kinds of questions for God, but it is only as God speaks that Job is content. And Job is content without any answers - it is enough for him simply to know that God has heard, God has seen, and God has spoken. Going back to the key verse of Job - 42:5 - My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. It is as Job sees God he is content to face whatever may come.
I have a very dear friend in PA named Shirley Mixell. Shirley found out this winter that she has cancer. It was a very fast growing cancer, and Monday she came home to die. If she is not dead by now, she has only a few days to live. I talked with her this week. And in spite of the suffering and in spite of the cancer, her voice was triumphant. It was weak, and weary, but full of hope. Because Shirley knows her God.
One of the greatest tragedies I can imagine is for someone here to walk away hearing about God, but not knowing God. If you are here today, but are not sure that you know God personally as your savior and that He has taken away your sins, today you can know that for sure before you leave.
Let’s pray together.
*invitation to accept Christ - to have hope in spite of circumstances.
