Did you know that your life is like a can of shaving cream? A label on the side of such a can says: “Warning: contents under pressure; don’t throw into fire.” (Walther Prince) It doesn’t matter who you are—young, old, rich, poor, sick, healthy—each one of us is under pressure. We face peer pressure, parenting pressures, school pressure, work pressure, health pressure, the pressures of loneliness and grief. We’re often just surviving one day at a time and we don’t know what we’d do if things got worse. Since we live in an imperfect world, we can expect things in our lives to explode and force us off the path we have charted for ourselves. Today we’re starting a sermon series on the Old Testament book of Job to learn how to find peace on an unpredictable path. In this first sermon, we’re going to look at why bad things happen to good people. Listen to our text.
Our text introduces us to Job. We’re not really sure when Job lived though it may have been about the same time as Abraham, 4,000 years ago. Job seemed to make his home on the southeast border of what is today Israel. We do know that he was a believer in the one true God, for God himself said of Job: “…he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil” (Job 1:8). Now, when God said that Job was “blameless,” he did not mean “sinless.” That Hebrew word means “complete.” A table with a top and four legs is “complete” though it may have nicks and scratches. Likewise, Job was “complete” or “devout” in his faith. He didn’t just show up to church on Sundays, he lived his faith the rest of the week in his business dealings and in his interaction with his family. Job’s faith and works were of one piece. He showed his faith by what he did. In God’s own words, “there was no one on earth like [Job]” (Job 1:8). Job was obviously a “good” person.
So, the tragedy that fell on Job like a boulder crashing onto a car driving through Oak Creek Canyon is surprising. Shouldn’t good people be rewarded with comfortable lives? That was the prevailing belief in Job’s day and it still is today. Who was to blame for Job’s problems? Who caused the cascade of boulders to bury Job in grief?
It would be easy to blame Satan. When we meet Satan in our text, the demon had presented himself before God and God asked him, “Where have you come from?” To which Satan replies, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.” When parents ask their teenage daughter, “Where have you been?” after waiting up for her, and all she says is, “Out,” that’s not an answer that satisfies. Satan’s sass doesn’t satisfy either, but we know what he had been up to. (Pete Metzger) The Apostle Peter tells us: “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Satan had been going through the earth looking for his next target, and apparently he had found it in the person of Job.
But do you see the problem with that conclusion? Satan did not make Job’s life miserable until after God brought Job up in the conversation! When God said to Satan: “Have you considered my servant Job?” he sounded like a proud general taunting an opponent: “Have you seen the new fort we built on our border with you? Pretty impressive, eh? You’ll never overrun it. In fact, I’d like you to try.” Who was behind all of Job’s troubles? Satan pulled the trigger, yes, but God had put Job in Satan’s crosshairs.
“Are you saying, Pastor, that Job was a pawn in a shoving match between God and Satan? Bad things happen to good people so that God can win a bet with the Devil? (Pete Metzger) That must mean then that God does not care about our suffering, just as people who organize dog fights don’t really care about the pain the dogs endure!”
Look again at our text. God did care about Job. That’s why after Satan asked for permission to make Job’s life miserable, God said, “…on the man himself do not lay a finger” (Job 1:12). It’s like what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians: ““…God keeps his promise, and he will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out” (1 Corinthians 10:13 - GNT). God would put a limit on the trials Job would endure, and God would also sustain Job through those trials. Plus, these trials weren’t for sport—they were for Job’s own benefit and for God’s glory. The Apostle Peter teaches us: “[Trials] have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:7).
Trials refine faith. And faith in Jesus leads to glory for God. It’s like what happens when you crush a flower in your hand—you release a beautiful fragrance. But you don’t have to crush a flower to enjoy its perfumy scent! No. But those who crumble a flower in their hand will find that the fragrance lingers on their fingers. Is that not also one reason for trials? God wants the essence of his love as expressed by our faith to linger in the minds and hearts of others. That, in turn, brings glory to God! We’ll see this truth in action throughout our sermon series. For the more we study Job’s reaction to his sufferings, the more we will marvel at his faith, and in turn give thanks to God for that faith.
“But I don’t have a faith like Job, Pastor! I can’t handle trials the way he did—like how he said after all the tragedies, including the death of his children: ‘The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.’ (Job 1:21b) I wouldn’t praise God at a time like that, I’d be mad at him, or at least question him!”
I hear you. And that perhaps emphasizes the other reason for trials: to refine faith. One of Job’s friends, whom we’ll meet in the coming weeks, got it right when he explained, “God opens the ear by adversity” (Job 36:15). Like a fire alarm piercing the midnight silence, adversity will grab our attention. Trials often makes us realize just how weak we are. We started out by asking, “Why do bad things happen to good people,” but we should first ask ourselves: “Are we good people?” Would the words “blameless, upright, someone who fears God and shuns evil” describe us as they did Job?
Focus on that last phrase for a minute: “one who shuns evil.” To shun evil means that when temptation comes, we immediately turn our back on it. Is that what we do? Instead, we often pick it up and play with it don’t we? And then when it bites us, like it always does, we throw it down in disgust and then blame someone else for our foolishness. What are the temptations you have been playing with lately? Temptation to sexual sins? Temptation to run from your calling as a gentle, loving spouse, or from your calling to be a faithful and honest student, or to run from your calling to be a good Samaritan—even to your enemies?
No, the truth is we are not “good” people, or at least we are not as good as God wants us to be. A former member of mine understood this truth so that when she underwent trials, she would say, “Why shouldn’t I suffer? I should expect even worse treatment from God!” She wasn’t being dramatic, just honest. Nor was she denying the beneficial purpose of her trials. She understood this truth: bad things don’t happen to good people, no, seemingly bad things happen to seemingly good people! In other words, God uses trials to help us see clearly our own weaknesses and the need for a stronger connection with him, our loving God.
And our God is loving! We’ll see it in his dealing with Job. While Job made a strong start in his trials, he did falter in his trust of God. But God did not abandon him. In the end he restored Job and blessed him more than he did at first. That’s a miracle of grace that awaits us too—maybe not in the sense that after you’ve suffered for a while, God is going to fill your bank account and take away all your aches and pains while on this earth. But when God brings us to heaven, as he promises to do for all those who have faith in Jesus, we will enjoy his blessings without the distraction of our own sins or the sins of others.
And herein is the miracle of grace. Even though we all too often give in to Satan’s temptations so that God should say to us: “To hell with you!” he instead directed those words at his Son on the cross. By the way, do you see the similarities and difference between Job and Jesus? Like Job, Jesus was God’s servant. Like Job, Jesus was upright, blameless, and shunned evil—only he did those things perfectly unlike Job who had to make sacrifices to purify himself and his family for their failures. While Job lost all his wealth, he had no control over that. Jesus, on the other, willingly gave up his glorious place in heaven for us. One benefit of Job’s suffering was so that his faith might be further refined. Jesus suffered so that he would refine and purify us with his blood. (Pete Metzger) When God looks at you now, he sees people who are upright and blameless. When he speaks about you to Satan, he does so with pride!
Although your life on this earth will never be free of sorrow and trials, it will be perfect in heaven. How can you be sure of this? Because God has his eye on you, just as he had his eye on Job. God is like the trainer who doesn’t just push his client to become stronger by putting additional weights on the bench press bar, he also hovers above his client to ensure that the weight won’t crush him as he’s trying to push it back up. That’s how we find peace on life’s unpredictable path. We find in it in our God and in his promises. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
In what ways is your life like a can of shaving cream?
List three things about Job that are worth knowing.
Tragedy fell on Job like boulders crashing onto a car driving through Oak Creek Canyon. Who (surprisingly) was to blame for Job’s “problems”?
What are at least two purposes of the trials that come into our lives? (Hint: how does the crushed-flower illustration help you explain one of the purposes?)
“God opens the ear by adversity,” stated one of Job’s friends. What did he mean?
We started out by asking, “Why do bad things happen to good people,” but we should first ask ourselves: “Are we good people?” How did God define “goodness” when describing Job to Satan?
One Christian said: “Why shouldn’t I suffer? I should expect even worse treatment from God!” How was she correct?
Through our text, we learned today that bad things don’t happen to good people. Rather, seemingly bad things happen to seemingly good people! Explain.
What similarities and differences do you see between Job and Jesus? Describe at least three.
God’s gracious love for sinners assures us that he is like a gym trainer working with his client, not a dog fight organizer. Explain.
