Job is one of the most unique stories you’ll hear – not just inside the Bible but anywhere. It’s the story of man named Job, a man whose character was tremendously strong but suffered exceedingly. But one day Satan says to God, “The reason Job follows you is because you’re so good to him. Stop blessing him and he’ll turn away from you in a heartbeat.”
Lots of people turn to this book in crisis. Just this weekend, Vanderbilt basketball coach, Scott Drew, was asked how he is weathering such a terrible season – his team is winless in league play. The coach said that his father, also a coach, had similar bad seasons early in his career. The father told his son to read the book of Job to endure the hard times.
But Job is helpful to people who go through much harder stuff than losing seasons. This week, I’ve heard from people who have lost children and suffered through terrible tragedies. We find Job’s life and his book endlessly interesting because he asks God the question we all want to ask – “Why?” But the “why” question is always closely related to another question for people who are hurting and that’s the “How” question.
How will get through this? Over the course of the next few minutes I want to speak to you about “Four Unexpected Truths to Understand Why God Allow Suffering.”
Truth #1: The Time to Understand “Why” is Now
People will turn to this book because they’ve heard it has the answers for why people suffer but then they quickly become disinterested when they arrive. For many, if we don’t get the answer in one second after we ask Google, we’re moving on. So I want to speak to those of you who need to be better equipped when hurting arrives. You see, the time to do this isn’t when suffering crashes down your door.
Years ago, Traci and I were serving a church some hours from here. We had just arrived at the church and everyone was new to us. Our children were small and they welcomed us with big, open arms – they showed us some tremendous hospitality. The church had a tradition of doing a “pounding,” which doesn’t mean they beat us up but they arrived at our door with a pound of something (coffee, flour, etc.). Now, they did this “pounding” on one Sunday evening and some big men of the church brought all the goods to our home. There was so much that it was multiple truck beds full of stuff and all this was brought when we had just moved into our home. So boxes are everywhere and our small kids are loving playing in empty boxes. Our house is disorganized that we simply have a trail from the bathroom to the kitchen to our beds. And then we have some wonderful people with about 500 pounds of food added to all of this. My wife was overwhelmed. Why? Because we didn’t have a organized framework to receive this tremendous amount of groceries. Had we been there a year or more, then the entire house would have been as well-running machine purring like the hub of a UPS terminal! But absent this organization, we had a mess. And this is how it is when suffering crashed in on you.
If you haven’t taken the time to carefully weigh through the Bible’s teaching on the character of God and His way, you’ll feel overwhelmed. And you’ll likely to quit on God. Or worse, you’ll fire God.
The time to understand why God permits you to experience great amounts of pain and hurt is before you experience great pain and hurt. Understand God’s ways and God’s character before the time when it seems God is hiding from you because you will lack the motivation to understand. You need the book of Job.
1.1 Major Characters
Every major character in Job is introduced in chapters one and two except one person (Can you name him?). Let’s look at the major characters briefly. Job is a man who is really wealthy and really godly. The whole story of this Old Testament book is built around his life. He has a happy family, he’s incredibly wealthy, and he’s the most godly man you’d know for miles around. Job’s wife has a minor part as does his children – seven sons and three daughters. Job’s wife quits on God. The children all die and Job has more children at the end of the book.
Much more central to the story is Job’s three friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. They appear in 29 of the 42 chapters of the book. Sometime later, a younger man named Elihu shows up and adds to the conversation. Elihu waits to speak because he respected his elders. We’ll focus on them next week in a message entitled, “With Friends Like These…”
God is questioned throughout but He only speaks in the beginning (to Satan) and the end of the book (to Job and his friends). Satan has only a minor part as he’s gone by the second chapter never to be seen from again. He inflicts his misery and pain and is never heard from again after the second chapter. Again, you need the book of Job to help you develop your emotional and mental framework when real pain arrives.
1.2 Reading Job
We really don’t know when Job was written but we can guess. It may have been written during the earliest parts of the Bible because Job acts as his own priest. He seems to know nothing about the organized religion of the Old Testament. We are told that Job was from Uz, which is likely to be modern Saudi Arabia. It’s likely Uz is the land the Bible calls Edom. And we don’t know who wrote the book either. None of Job’s characters show up again in the story of the Bible. Yes, the New Testament refers to Job, but we never see Job or his friends appear in any other book. So we’re left scratching our heads but we still greatly value this book.
Now, if this book is going to help you then you’re going to need a strategy to read it.
1.2.1 Job’s Genre
The first two chapters are a story and they set up the entire book. Part of the reason many Americans don’t appreciate this portion is that much of Job is poetry. Job is essentially poetry framed by a story. Many of us struggle with poetry - I know I do. “Violets are red, roses are blue,” no that isn’t right! When I tell my wife I love her, I don’t use poetry!
1.2.2 Job’s Pattern
In chapter four, the three friends speak to Job after a week of silence and Job reacts to their words throughout the book. It’s in this part of the book that a lot of people become disinterested. You either skim through it or skip over it to end. The conversation is really helpful and it continues from chapter 4 through chapter 27 where there are three speeches from Eliphaz and Bildad but only two speeches from Zophar. Job responds throughout this section and you’ll read a total of nine speeches from him. These are really long cycles of speech and for many, they feel like they drone on and on. There’s whole lot of accusations, bitterness, and anger throughout this part of Job. This entire portion is chocked full of half-truths that confuse many of us today.
Job dominates the book in chapters 29-31 when a younger man named Elihu speaks out. Elihu speaks from Job 32:7 all the way to chapter 37. At this point, everyone mercifully shuts their collective mouths when God speaks.
The Lord speaks twice in chapters 38-41 in really memorable words. The end of the book doesn’t disappoint as we learn the fate of our friend, Job which we’ll get to in the weeks to come.
Truth #1: The Time to Understand “Why” is Now
Truth #2: God Cannot be Explained but He Can be Trusted
2.1 The Crux of the Story
In the beginning of the story, we hear a conversation between Satan and God. There were two conversations between God and Satan. The first one, Satan was only permitted to touch Job’s wealth and his children. And when this wasn’t successful for Satan’s purposes, Job was permitted to damage Job’s very health. Satan says, “The only reason Job is upright and pure is because you (God) reward him. Job is no dummy. He knows who takes care of him. Take away his wealth and his health and he’ll curse you to your face.” Satan says in effect, “If you remove the rewards, Job will curse you to your face.”
Don’t be surprised when God hides from you during times of great pain and disappointment. We will not really get to the end of Job until the end of our series, but we can say this: Job doesn’t truly come to a full understanding of why God works the way He does. God doesn’t feel the need to explain Himself. For even the best of believers, God’s mind is upstairs from us and is not accessible to us. Much of God’s operating manual is hidden to us and great saints down through the ages have written, “God is hidden from me.” Congress cannot demand an audit of God’s books and there’s no blackbox of God’s mind so we fully understand His thinking after an accident. God offers neither of these but He will allow us to understand His character and to fully appreciate His merciful and kind heart. At the end, God says in effect, “ The questions you are asking are above pay grade.” I’m the Potter and you’re the clay. I’m God and you’re not.
But Job does learn He can trust God’s character. He sees enough of God’s great character that he knows he can trust God. Even though, he doesn’t fully understand all of God’s ways, Job learns enough of God’s heart that he knows God can be trusted. And you can trust the Father’s great character as well.
2.2 Suffering for the Purpose of Testing
Job was a test case. There are still some parts of how God deals with people that I don’t get. Earlier this week I was speaking to an intelligent man in our church who is reading through the Bible for the first time in his life. And he asks, “Why would God permit this to happen to Job? God knows that Job will pass the test before anything occurs. Why would God permit this tragedy?” Job is a test case: Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason” (Job 1:9)?
Satan feels people are righteous because God rewards the righteous. But then conversely, Job feels wronged because he wonders why God is punishing the righteous. And here’s a great take away from this testing of Job: the only way to be sure you’re serving God for God alone, rather than for what you’re getting out of it, is when serve God and get nothing immediately in return. You learn a lot about your relationship with Christ, when you’re getting nothing out of serving God. The truth is, you often get the opposite. At times, you endure suffering and abuse because you’re serving God. Job realizes that despite the tremendous pain he’s experienced, He can trust God both with this life and the next life to come.
Truth #2: God Cannot be Explained but He Can be Trusted
Truth #3: Satan Needs God’s Permission to Make You Miserable
3.1 Satan Is On A Leash
God governs Satan’s every move. Let me say it another way: God holds Satan on a leash. Twice we read that Satan is dispatched from God’s presence: “And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand’” (Job 1:12). Satan cannot go to the bathroom unless God gives him permission. Is that remarkable? Look again at God’s words to Satan in chapter two: “And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life’” (Job 2:6). As much of a mystery as it is, everything Satan does is by the express permission by God Himself. Satan cannot move a foot unless God grants him authority. I offer proof of this in Jesus’ words to Peter: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31–32). You and I don’t need to be anxious because Satan was defeated on the cross: “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (Colossians 2:15). The cross accomplished its great purposes by defeating Satan and evil and by granting people access into Heaven.
Remember Satan’s end is coming as described in Revelation (Revelation 20:10). What a relief and day of celebration that will be for all of God’s people! Until then, we speak the gospel of God’s grace to everyone. Why? Because God told Paul as he commands every believer: “…I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me”(Acts 26:17–18). Satan is defeated in our personal lives through the gospel. Some of you today can defeat Satan by embracing the cross by faith.
3.2 The Lies of Satan
Satan lied to God and said Job doesn’t really love you. He’s only it for the perks. But then, no doubt, Satan lied to Job during his pain. It’s not recorded in Job, but there’s no doubt, Satan whispered in Job’s ear: “God doesn’t really love or He wouldn’t let you suffer like.” Always, always, always expose Satan’s lies when pain and tragedy come your way. He lied to our parents, Adam and Eve, when he got them to doubt God’s word and the Accuser will lie to you. Expose the lies of the Enemy.
Truth #1: The Time to Understand “Why” is Now
Truth #2: God Cannot be Explained but He Can be Trusted
Truth #3: Satan Needs God’s Permission to Make You Miserable
Truth #4: Seemingly Good People Experience Tremendous Pain
God, Satan, and Job all agree that Job is innocent. No one else thinks this in the story but these three agree that Job is a good man.
Job is hurting so much that he says in effect, “I wish I was never born” (Job 3:2f). In chapter three, you are allowed to read Job’s journal if you will, his personal reaction to the tragedy that engulfed him like a tsunami.
4.1 Chloe
A young, Christian lady from Delaware was sharing her life story. Chloe spoke of embracing Christ and the Bible at a young age when she was still in elementary school. She was holding her mother’s hand as she prayed to receive the Lord and her mother led her in prayer. And all of a sudden, when she was but fourteen years old, her mother was diagnosed with a terminal disease. Looking back to this moment, she writes, “When I was about fourteen… I distanced myself from God and really didn’t have a relationship with Him.”
There are a whole lot of Chloe’s in America today – Christians and non-Christians both. People hear some teaching about Christianity and the Bible and soon enough run into tremendous hardship. They quickly abandon their belief in God. When tremendous pain comes into our lives, we think, “If I had God’s power, I wouldn’t do this. If I possessed all the power in the world, I would not allow mother’s who led their children to Christ to die of terminal diseases when their children are at home. If I owned God’s power, I would make better use of it.” We question God’s use of power because we think God is either absent-minded (did He forget about me and my cancer?)… … or we conclude He doesn’t care.
Now this kind of things goes on all over. Simply listen to stories of people who have lost faith and you’ll hear over and over again. God has abused His use of power. If His power were in my hands, I would do much better.
Don’t be surprised when Christians want to quit following God or worse still, they want to fire God. You sinful nature questions God during times of pain. Our sinful ways makes God hidden from our eyes. For many, we waste many years away from God like we are sleeping on the couch in anger from our spouse. All the while, He wants us to see His heart and trust His character.
4.2 Have You Fired God?
Even the best people are tempted to fire God for seemingly bad performance. You’ll hear something to this effect a lot in our day: “I used to believe in God, or maybe I still believe in God, but I’ve done all these things, and this happened to me and that happened to me, so I have no use for a God who just won’t even listen to my prayers.” But the truth is: you had God on retainer; you weren’t seeking God. He didn’t come through for you because you hired God to accomplish your agenda rather than the other way around. And God never promised to perform your agenda.
4.3 Did Job Read His Book?
By the way, we know what Job may have NEVER known (this side of Heaven). You and I are privy to something that Job isn’t aware of. We know about the conversation between God and Satan. Think with me about this for a minute: what if Job didn’t write Job? We don’t know who wrote the book of Job. So what if someone else wrote Job and Job never knew why he went through the great suffering that he did. Now, what if God had approached Job and said something like this to him: “I need to you suffer for me. I need you to experience untold pain in your family, finances, and in your faith for me. And here’s why: I want to include your story in book I’m writing called the Bible. And when people read your story, they will marvel at the way you endure. Would it be ok if we do this? Would you be ok if we put the worst chapters of your life into the best chapters of literature?” A lot of us would tell God, “Yes. I don’t want to suffer but I’ll do it because we know your great purpose behind the suffering.” But what if Job knew none of this? We have no evidence that Job knew his tragedy was in the Bible. Would you trust God’s mercy and compassion even if you didn’t know the bigger reason “Why?” Do you trust the character of God to trust Him even if you don’t know the full picture and His rationale?
Conclusion
Centuries later, Satan came after another Man who suffered. Another Man cried out in deep anguish, “God!? Why God!? Why have your forsaken Me?” Jesus is the only person in history whom God said to, “If you obey me fully, I’ll crush you to powder and send you to hell. I’ll turn my back on you, and you will experience absolute separation from Me. If you obey me fully, I will send you to hell.”
