IV. ANSWERS FROM AN ASH HEAP
A. Suffering can be for
1. Participation -- Being Human -- Because we are a part of the human race, and the human race (thanks to Adam and Eve) is conceived and born in sin. Rom 5:12&19 Ps 51:5 Romans 8:22 "whole creation groaneth"
We are fallen people in a fallen world, and there are still possibilities for
tragedies and heartbreak.
2. Punishment-- Being Disobedient -- Israel suffered greatly, mainly because they disobeyed God's law and violated His covenant. Calamity is often the voice of God shouting to us to turn around and come back. We do look up when flat on our back.
3. Correction/Direction --Being Misguided
We may be chastened of the Lord Heb 12:5-9
4. Preparation -- Being Unprepared
a. Remember Joseph
b. Moses 40/40 plan -- 40 yrs in Egypt, 40 years in desert shepherding
c. Your Experience?
5. Perfect Purposes -- Being Imperfect There is often something bigger than ourselves involved in the trials that we are called to endure.
Robert Frost's Poem "A Masque of Reason"
But it was of the essence of trial
You shouldn't understand it at the time.
It had to seem unmeaning to have meaning.
Because where there is "unmeaning" there must be faith. If we trust God, it must
be because we know He is the kind of Person who can be trusted, even though we may not always understand what He is doing.
a. Christ Perfected Heb 2:10
b. Christians Perfected I Peter 5:10
6. Salvation -- Being Christian
a. I Thes 3:4 suffering tribulation
b. II Tim. 3:12 all godly
c. I Tim 4:10 because we trust in the living God
d. I Peter 4:16-19 suffer as a Christian
Rev. 2:10 fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer
B. For the Glory of God -- Job and others
Some suffering is simply for the glory of God, to refute Satan's charge that we obey God
only to escape trials and enjoy blessings.
1. Satan's Charge Job 1:9 Doth Job fear God for nought?
Job served God only because God served Job. Rice Christians;
Fish and bread Christians; Fair weather Christians; Commercial Faith
Satan's accusation cuts at the very heart of worship and virtue. Is God worthy to be loved and obeyed even if He does not bless us materially and protect us from pain? Can God win the heart of man totally apart from His gifts? In other words, the very character of God is at stake.
Is it possible for us to serve God and our fellow humans from a heart of love,
regardless of what we may "get out of it?". Satan would reply, "Absolutely not!
True virtue is not possible because God is not worthy and man is not able."
2. Job's Response to the Trial
a. He worshipped Job 1:20 (After wealth and children destroyed.)
b. He wished Job 3:1-5 that he had not be born (After body was destroyed.)
c. He wanted to be destroyed Job 6:8-9
d. He wished again Job 9:32-33
e. He is weary Job 10:1
f. He is not wicked Job 10:7
g. He wonders Where is God?
h. He waits Job 13:15
One of the most difficult things in life is to wait without a reason. The person who doesn't learn patience will have a difficult time learning anything else.
i. He withstood the TEST
3. God's Response
a. Job "helped God" to silence Satan and settle it once and for all that God is
worthy of our worship and service. Our faith and obedience must not be a "commercial" relationship between us and God. We must love the Giver and not just the gifts; for to love the gifts and not he Giver is the essence of idolatry. (pg 42)
b. "The Lord Blessed" Job 42:12
V. A DANGEROUS DOCTRINE -- Commercial Faith
If you obey God, He will bless you; if you disobey God, He will punish you.
A. The Philosophy of Hell
"Do what is right and escape pain and receive blessings."
"Job, get right with God!! Confess your sins and He will restore your prosperity!!"
B. Options When Life Tumble In
1. Bargain with God and get God to change the circumstances -- Job's friends took
this approach
2. Blame God for breaking the contract and thus refuse to have anything more to do with Him-- Job's wife took this approach
-- Maybe Charles Darwin did also -- daughter died at 10 yrs old
VI. PRACTICAL LESSONS FROM JOB
A. Far more important than reasons and explanations is our personal relationship with God.
B. God's purposes are often hidden to us.
C. We must be honest with ourselves and with God.
D. Beware of cut-and-dried- theologies.
E. Suffering is not always punishment for sin.
F. In all of their suffering, God's people have access to God.
VII. PICTURES OF PAIN
A. The Furnace Deut 4:20 iron furnace I Kings 8:51
Practical lessons: (pg 56)
1. There is always a purpose behind suffering. The smith puts ore into the furnace
in order to purify it. Furnace is for gold Prov. 17:3 and Silver Ps 66:10
We who suffer must be willing to cooperate with God. (Be reasonable Rom 12:1)
What life does to us depends a great deal on what life finds in us. Job was gold The furnace of suffering has a way of testing the genuineness of our relationship with God. (In the acid test, don't turn green.)
B. The Storm Longfellow: "Into each life some rain must fall."
The image of the storm and the floods has been used almost universally to describe
Sorrows and troubles. The image of the storm teaches us that:
1. God is ultimately in control of circumstances, Ps 107:29; Isa 25:4
Nahum 1:3 the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm
Mark 4:38 The storm arose; He arose.
2. God does not promise to keep us out of the storms and floods, but He does promise to sustain us in the storm, and to bring us out in due time for His glory when the storm has done its work.
3. God does speak to us out of the storms of life Job 38:1 & 40:6
C. God Permits Battles to Come Our Way
1. In order to discipline us and equip us for more effective service
-- teach them war Judges 3:1-2
2. Equipment supplied -- Eph 6:10-18
3. Phillips Brooks: "Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray
for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks."
D. The Harvest
1. Reaping and Sowing Job 4:8
2. It is the fruitful branches that He prunes. John 15:2
3. The image of the cup -- surrendering to the will of God
John 18:11 The sword or the cup; fighting the will of God or accepting it.
E. Travail and Birth
1. Travail is painful, but it is also purposeful; and it is the achieving of this happy purpose
that makes the travail meaningful and worthwhile. John 16:21-22 Gal 4:19
2. Fanny J. Crosby -- blinded at six weeks old. She wrote her first poem at the age of 8.
O what a happy soul am I!
Although I cannot see,
I am resolved that in this world
Contented I will be,
How many blessings I enjoy
That other people don't!
So weep and sigh because I'm blind,
I cannot, and I won't. (Her travail gave birth to a gift of song.)
F. Running The Race
If I am going to grow, I must be challenged.
G. The Trail -- when tragedy strikes, we immediately think of guilt and conviction.
Who hath sinned? John 9:2
