The noted actor and movie director Woody Allen once expressed his skepticism about God’s existence like this. “If God would only speak to me—just once. If he’d only cough. If I could just see a miracle. If I could see a burning bush, or the seas part. If only God would give me a clear sign, like making a large deposit in my name in a Swiss bank.” Isn’t there a part of you that agrees with Woody Allen? I mean really, if God exists, wouldn’t his presence be more obvious? The Bible says that God is present everywhere at once. How is it then that I’ve never seen him, and I’ve been a Christian my whole life? In this final sermon about the Old Testament believer Job, we’ll see how even that strong believer asked this question. We’ll also learn that the way to find peace in light of such doubts is to walk by faith, not by sight.
Job began our text with the lament: “Even today my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning” (Job 23:2). How long exactly did Job suffer? We can’t say for certain, but it must have been for several weeks at least. Even if Job suffered for a whole year, consider how his suffering was probably the exception in his life. A year of suffering in the approximately two hundred years that Job lived (we know he lived 140 years after his suffering ended but don’t know how old Job was when they started) comes out to 0.5% of his life that was utterly terrible. The rest of his life, 99.5% of it, may have been relatively carefree.
I’m not trying to minimize Job’s suffering. Instead, I want us to think of our own lives. We can be quick to complain about the challenges we face, but what about all the other times in life when God’s blessings and goodness are obvious? Are we as eager to thank him for these times? Failure to do so shows ungratefulness. It may also reveal an entitlement mentality that believes that God owes us. But all the blessings that God pours into our lives like water gushing from a broken water main should lead us to repentance. That’s what the Apostle Paul observed. He wrote: “…do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4)
It’s amazing that God should treat us well at all considering how we often abuse the gifts that he’s given us. We spend much of our God-given time pampering ourselves rather than serving others. We do the same with the incredible riches he has given to us North Americans. Yes, God does give us riches for our enjoyment, but he also gives it to us so that we might help others.
So, is that why God sent Job trials—because he hadn’t been a good steward of God’s gifts? Job’s friends charged him with that sin, but the charges were unfounded. So why did Job have to suffer? Why were these seemingly bad things happening to a seemingly good person? Job wondered the same thing, and he expressed his eagerness to find God and ask him! But Job complained: “If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! …8 But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. 9 When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him” (Job 23:3, 8-9).
Ever feel the way Job did? Sure. That’s what we talked about in the introduction to this sermon. But Job’s words are the antithesis of King David’s confidence. He wrote: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast” (Psalm 139:7-10). David was confident that not only was God everywhere. He was also sure that this God was interested in him as individual. David confessed that God held him by his “right hand,” his dominant hand—just as you would do when picking up Grandma’s antique sugar bowl when dusting underneath it.
Although Job complained that he couldn’t find God, he confessed that God knew all about him. Job remarked: “But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). This passage is a “fridge-worthy” Bible verse—a verse you copy onto an index card and stick on your refrigerator so that you are reminded of it often. To be sure, Job meant his words like this: “God knows me inside and out. He knows that I’m not deserving of these accusations from my friends. When he has finished testing me, the whole world will know that I am as good as gold.” Last week we heard how God put Job in his place for such hubris. While Job was not guilty of the sins his friends accused him of, he did fall into the sin of arrogance. Job too needed refining, and that’s one thing God was up to with his testing of Job.
The author, C.S. Lewis, made this interesting comment about such testing. He said: “You must understand the statement ‘God sends pain to test us,’ in the right sense. God has not been trying to experiment on our faith or love in order to find out their quality; he knew it already. It was I who didn’t. He always knew that the temple we build is a house of cards. His only way of making me realize the fact was to knock it down.”
Every believer, no matter how strong his or her faith, has impurities that the Lord wants to remove. And he may choose to use the fires of affliction in his refining process. Our self-trust, our indifference to the will of God, our fascination with our own ability, our preoccupation with things material or with other trivia that don’t really amount to much in the light of eternity—this is all slag that the heavenly Refiner may seek to remove in the fire. Life, as God has planned it, is not a nursery school for coddling perpetual infants; it’s a university to develop mature men and women of faith. (John Jeske - adapted)
This is not to say that we can always match our trials to the specific “flaw” in us that God is trying to correct. And don’t forget, our trials may be more for the benefit of others. Wasn’t that the case with Job? Are we not benefitting from his trials and marvelling at how he persevered with God’s help, and learning how we can do the same? Because God’s exact purposes often remain mysterious, Job said about him: “…he stands alone, and who can oppose him? He does whatever he pleases. 14 He carries out his decree against me, and many such plans he still has in store. 15 That is why I am terrified before him; when I think of all this, I fear him. 16 God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me” (Job 23:13-16).
It made Job uneasy when he realized that God was God and that he was going to do what he wanted. We learned last week how God illustrated that he has a wisdom and a power that we can’t even begin to understand. We often can only scratch our head in wonder at what God does—like when Jesus healed people, why didn’t he heal everyone? There was a time in Jerusalem where he healed one crippled man at the Pool of Siloam and then slipped away into the crowd without healing the other cripples who were there (John 5). Why? We don’t know.
This “hiddenness” of God is often a problem for us. Like Woody Allen, we want to see God and fully understand what he is up to. If he has a wonderful plan for our lives, why doesn’t he tell us what is happening? Or does God just enjoy watching us fall on our face as we attempt to follow his path like someone trying to walk in the woods in the dead of night without a flashlight? But for us to demand that God give us a sign that he loves us is a piece of unbelief. (John Jeske) This is why the Apostle Paul writes that Christians walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Job seemed to describe what it means to walk by faith and not by sight when he said in the last verse of our text: “Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face” (Job 23:17). Job was clueless about what God was up to in his life, but in spite of being in the dark, he was going to keep forging ahead. What truth in Psalm 23 do Job’s words remind you of? King David stated that with God as his shepherd, he would not fear even when walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
Jesus’ disciples would have fared better if they would have remembered those words during the gloom of Good Friday. Their faces were shrouded in darkness, quite literally when the sun stopped shining as Jesus hung on the cross. The disciples were also scared and bewildered. They thought God’s plan had floundered, like one of their fishing boats hitting a reef and sinking fast. Their master, who they thought was the Son of God and the king of Israel, was hanging on the cross. It wasn’t supposed to end this way! And of course, it didn’t end that way. Three days later, Jesus came back to life defeating death and sin for us all…just as God had planned and announced!
But because the disciples didn’t live by faith but by sight, because they had overlooked the prophecies about the Messiah’s death and resurrection, because they had not believed Jesus when he spoke about the same, they suffered when they focused on the darkness. Friends, might it be helpful to look at the darkness that you are enduring right now in the same way? Might you be in the midst of your personal Good Friday? You don’t see much light or happiness about you. You don’t see much of a future. But God has a plan. Your Good Friday—and this darkness is “good” because it is achieving some divine purpose—your Good Friday will give way to the light glory even as it did for Jesus and his disciples on Easter Sunday.
How can you be certain of this? Only by remaining in God’s Word so that you can walk by faith and not sight. Job said: “…I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread” (Job 23:12b). Do we do the same? Do we crave and honor the Word of God more than lunch? That Word is more valuable than the food we put into our mouths. The Word of God helps us see things as they really are—that our troubles are somehow beneficial, and thankfully only momentary when compared to the eternal glories that await. The Apostle Paul offers this encouragement in 1 Corinthians 15, as paraphrased in The Message translation: “This image of planting a dead seed and raising a live plant is a mere sketch at best, but perhaps it will help in approaching the mystery of the resurrection body… The corpse that’s planted is no beauty, but when it’s raised, it’s glorious” (1 Corinthians 15:42, 43a).
I want to take the resurrection truth and the simile Paul shared in those verses and suggest a technique for handling the challenges you face right now. Think of all your suffering, all pain, all emptiness, all disappointment as seed. Seeds don’t look very beautiful. They are small, dull, and seemingly lifeless. But look at what happens when you plant a seed. A beautiful rose bush grows. An apple tree appears, its blossoms cheerfully announcing the arrival of each spring, and its fruit making delicious pies!
If we think of the hardships of this life as seeds, we have three options for what we do with them. We can refuse to plant. We can cling to our hardships and hold them close to ourselves. But then we’ll turn bitter and fall into despair. Job had moments where he was in danger of doing that. Or we can plant them in the shallow soil of distractions and self-defeating behaviors in hopes they will produce a crop of quick reliefs. We shop ‘til we drop, drink ‘til we can’t think, work ‘til we can’t stop. Or we can plant them in God. We can, in faith, hand over our hardships to God trusting that he will produce a crop of joy and new life from those disappointments, even as he will produce a glorious body from our corpse after it’s been planted in the dust of this earth. (adapted from Max Lucado who adapted it from Eugene Peterson)
Is this not what Job discovered? Job wanted to find God so that he could get answers about what was going on. He didn’t get those answers, but in seeking God he was planting his disappointments in God’s garden, and a good crop came of it. Job didn’t get the explanation he wanted—he got something much better. Job got a reminder of his sinfulness and of his littleness. He learned that humility is the only attitude that pleases God. And then most importantly, Job heard his Savior-God reaffirm his status as God’s dear child when God spoke in Job’s defense before his friends. God didn’t just reaffirm that status with words, he did so with his actions by blessing Job with more wealth than he had before and by giving him more children. And of course, most importantly, God took Job home to heaven where we will one day get to meet him.
This then is the purpose of the book of Job. It shows how a child of God ought to regard all the sufferings inflicted upon him—that they are not punishment but are meant to train and bless both us and others. No, we won’t always be able to make sense of what we are enduring, but Job’s experience urges us to keep planting our seed of disappointment in God, and to persevere in living by faith and not by sight. This is how we find peace on the unpredictable path of life. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
The noted actor and movie director Woody Allen expressed his skepticism about God’s existence. Under what circumstances have you doubted that God is real?
Although Job suffered immensely, his troubles seemed to be the exception rather than the norm. What interesting insight does the Apostle Paul provide regarding one of the purposes of the blessings God gives to us?
Job’s view of God’s presence in today’s text is the opposite of what King David expressed in Psalm 139. How so? (After you’ve answered the question, circle your favorite phrases from the passages below.)
“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast” (Psalm 139:7-10).
Job said of his trials: “But God knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” How does the passage expose Job’s arrogance? How can we adopt the passage to express a God-pleasing confidence?
The author, C.S. Lewis, articulated well the purpose of God’s testing of us—not to find out whether or not we have faith, but to refine our faith. What aspect of your life might God be working to refine right now?
God also sends trials our way that it may benefit others. How was that true for Job’s life? How might that be true for your life right now?
We don’t always know what God is up to when he sends trials. Therefore, the Apostle Paul urges us to walk by ____________ and not by _____________ (2 Corinthians 5:7). Job seemed to be attempting to do that when he said: “Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face” (Job 23:17). What Psalm do those words remind you of? How could Jesus’ disciples have made good use of that Psalm? How can you?
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul speaks about the resurrection of the body. He compares it to planting a dull seed which nevertheless grows into a vibrant plant. We could compare all our disappointments and challenges to seeds. What three options do we have in regard to such “seeds”? Which option do you most often choose?
Job never did get the explanation he wanted for whey he was suffering, instead he got something much better. Job got a reminder of his ______________ and of his _________________. He learned that _______________ is the only attitude that pleases God. And then most importantly, Job heard his Savior-God reaffirm his status as _____________________ when God spoke in Job’s defense before his friends. God didn’t just reaffirm that status with words, he did so with his __________ by blessing Job with ___________________________________________. And of course most importantly, God took Job home to heaven where we will one day get to meet him.
This then is the purpose of the book of Job. It shows how a child of God ought to regard all the sufferings inflicted upon him—that they are not _____________________ but are meant to ____________ and ____________ both us and ____________.
