Job is one of the most unique stories you’ll hear – not just inside the Bible but anywhere. Today is third installment in our series and we arrive at highpoint of the story – the place where God breaks His silence and speaks from Heaven. Job is the story of man named Job, a man whose character was tremendously strong but he suffered greatly. Job is a book about the pain we experience in life. It’s a book about the loss of people closest to us, the family with autistic children, and the wife and mother who is diagnosed with a terminal disease. The book of Job causes us to reflect on the unjust suffering in our lives and it’s frustrating pointlessness of it all. We find Job’s life 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?
Again, at the center of our story is a man named Job – a very good man. He was as pure as the driven snow. There were no skeletons in his closet. The IRS could not find one thing wrong with his tax returns. They asked Job’s pastor and his high school teacher and everyone agreed Job was an exceedingly good man. The story goes like this: one day Satan says to God, “The reason Job follows you is you’re so good to him. Stop blessing him and he’ll turn away from you in a heartbeat.” Soon, this very good man experiences tremendous suffering in his life – his children die, he loses his wealth, and he’s near the point of death. Again, Job is here to help us understand that human suffering is not neat and tidy. Suffering isn’t doled out in perfect proportion to someone goodness or another person’s evil character. Every year, 1 billion children between the ages of 2-17 experience physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. One fourth of all adults report some form of abuse as children.
This morning, I want to speak to you about “Trusting God Even When We Don’t Understand Him.”
Satan
Satan loses his challenge for Job doesn’t curse God but instead he continues to worship God despite the waves of pain and anguish that wash over him: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21b).
You’ll notice that Satan exits at the end of chapter two, but he hasn’t disappeared. Instead, he shows up through these three men, constantly accusing Job. So he changes his tactics and works these three men who act like a gathering of vultures. Satan no sooner left God’s presence where he received permission to hurt Job than he now shows up in Job’s ear. Satan’s words are often spoken in secret; he needs the cover of darkness. Job’s good life changed in one day. He hears the news about four disasters in a matter of minutes. Again, Satan is behind all of this for think of the accuser’s strategy. The four disasters would have happened weeks or days before Job heard about the news. The four plagues made Job think all the forces of heaven and earth had turned against him. The causes of destruction alternate between earthly and heavenly forces coming from all four points of the compass: the Sabeans from the south, lightning from a storm out of the west, the Chaldeans from the north and the treacherous sirocco blowing off the desert to the east. So the strategy of Satan was to bring the cumulative impact of all four disasters down on Job in a matter of minutes. Like a boxer, Job would have not recovered from the news of one tragedy before the next one and the next one and then the next one washed over him. He’s had no opportunity to gather his wits about him.
One November 1, 1755 at around 9:30 in the morning, Lisbon suffered a great earthquake, nearly destroying Portugal’s largest city. The massive disaster killed tens of thousands of people. Many feel the famous philosopher, Voltaire, saw this earthquake as evidence the loving God of the Bible did not exist.
Job
Now, Job is really low; he is severely depressed. Way back in chapter three, we read something of a personal diary of Job. He’s so low that he wishes he wasn’t born (Job 3:1-2). Job asks, “Why didn’t I die at birth?” What happens next is surprising to American readers. Job doesn’t ask for his wealth to be restored or even that his health would be restored. Instead, he constantly and consistently asked to deal with the Lord Himself: “But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God” (Job 13:3). I’m just picking the high points of Job’s argument: “Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face” (Job 13:15). And again: “Behold, I have prepared my case; I know that I shall be in the right. Who is there who will contend with me? For then I would be silent and die. Only grant me two things, then I will not hide myself from your face: withdraw your hand far from me, and let not dread of you terrify me. Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and you reply to me” (Job 13:18–22). Though Job wants to speak directly to the face of God, he’s confident that when the moment comes, he will be “tongue-tied” – “Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God? If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times” (Job 9:2–3). A little further reflection helps us understand Job’s frame of mind: “How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him? Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser. If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice” (Job 9:14–16). And one more helps “get” Job here: “But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him back? What he desires, that he does. For he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind. Therefore I am terrified at his presence; when I consider, I am in dread of him. God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me; yet I am not silenced because of the darkness, nor because thick darkness covers my face” (Job 23:13–17). Lastly, Job says God and me need a mediator: “For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both. Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me. Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself” (Job 9:32–35).
A most surprising part to the Newton, CT shooting back on December 14, 2012 where 28 people died as result of an active shooter, was how the families choose to mourn their loses. In an area where some twenty percent of population consider themselves “no religious preference,” every family choose to hold a religious service for their child. Catholic, Mormon, Methodist, Jewish or Congregational – there was some kind of religious service for every family. President Obama delivered a eulogy that was essentially a sermon where he spoke of God “calling the children home” and quoted extensively from 2 Corinthians 4 and 5. How did this happen in Connecticut that really wants little to do with organized religion?
Job worshipped God before his tragedy but over and over you hear Job saying, “God, come out wherever you are. Talk to me. I need to hear from you. Where are you, Lord? Why are you silent?”
God
God finally breaks His silence. More than anything Job wants the God’s silence to end: “Oh, that I had one to hear me! (Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!) Oh, that I had the indictment written by my adversary (Job 31:35)!” Job has felt cut off from God for a long time.
Finally, God speaks. We want to know, “Is God going to agree with Job’s friends that the reason he suffers is because he’s big sinner?” Now, this represents one of the most beautiful portions in all of Scripture, in my opinion. It is sheer stunning because God begins to ask questions. Up until now, Job has been asking and demanding answers from God; now the picture is reversed. God unleashes a barrage of questions: “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. ‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy’” (Job 38:1–7)? Skip ahead to verse 12: “Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it” (Job 38:12–13)? God overwhelms Job by showing him the obvious, by opening his eyes to what he already knows. He piles up question after question to stun Job just as he was stunned by the layers of suffering earlier. “Job, you can not hurry up spring and you cannot postpone winter. If you’re half the man, you think you are, let’s see how you do running the universe. Surely, you were there, Job. You’re so old and you’re so wise. Surely, the lightning bolts report to you and say, ‘Here we are!’” God catalogues the natural wonders of a sunrise and sunset, or lightening, constellations, and stars and asks Job, “Surely you know all about these, Job?” Look at how God challenges Job: “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it” (Job 40:1–2).
Then Job answered the Lord and said: ‘Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further’” (Job 40:3–5). At this point, you’d think God might relent, but God signals the second round for His questions: “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: ‘Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his? ‘Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor’” (Job 40:6–10).
God again shellshocks Job with mortar after mortar. As I read through this section of Scripture, I am reminded of the first Iraq battle under George H. W. Bush. I remember watching the first wave of battle on a small TV in my dorm-room as the words were repeated “shock and awe” where military forces besieged Iraqi forces for invading Kuwait. That relentless bombing air raid was meant to “shock and awe” Saddam Hussein into surrendering. That’s exactly how this portion of the Bible feels – I am ““shocked and awed” by transcendent power of God.
1. God Doesn’t Always Explain Himself
Now, people will read this portion of Job and think, “It seems like God comes and does but all the wrong things to Job.” Something inside of us wonders as we read God’s words, “How could God act like this?” God asks Job, “Were you there when I invented snow? Were you there when I laid the foundations of the earth? Were you there when I said to the morning, ‘It’s time for you get up now.’” But then as we read further, we see that God’s speech really helped Job. Then we wonder, “Well, how could God’s speech do that? Why isn’t Job as upset with God as I am?”
So what do we learn from this? God takes time to tell Job and his friends, you know an infinitesimally small amount about the globe and life, yet you are questioning me. “Job, you’re demanding answers way above your ‘pay grade’” is essentially God’s reply: “Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his? ‘Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor. Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud and abase him. Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand. Hide them all in the dust together; bind their faces in the world below. Then will I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you’” (Job 40:9–14). God says in effect, “You are struggling with freshman-level geometry in high school but you want to question Einstein on his theory of relativity.” God tells Job in effect, “You cannot run the universe better than me. Hand over your life to me and entrust you pain to me. I know what to do with it better than you.”
And here’s Job big lesson: he realized that despite the tremendous pain he’s experienced, He can trust God both with this life and the next life to come. 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. Job had to learn this question, “It’s not me who should be questioning you. You are my not servant. Instead, I am your servant. I cannot snap my fingers and demand you to come to me.”
Surprising to many Americans, Job is content with this: “Then Job answered the Lord and said: ‘I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes’” (Job 42:1–6) Job isn’t aware of the conversation between God and Satan and he isn’t aware that he will famously be the paradigm for holding up under tremendous sufferings for generations to come. God withholds the full story from Job, even after the test was over. And Job is content for he walks by faith, not by sight. Job does not say in the end, “Now, I see it all. Now, I have all my questions answered.” He never sees it all. He never has all his questions answered. Instead, he only sees the face God and that’s enough.
1. God Doesn’t Always Explain Himself
2. There Are Hidden Benefits of Suffering
Yes, Job was a really good man, but the Lord had new levels for him to climb. To get Job to the next level, God put him through the school of affliction: “so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7). Suffering deepens my desire for Christ like few other things can. You say, “How could this be? How could this be fair to Job (and me)?” Let’s remember Satan’s challenge back at the beginning of this story: “Then Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face’” (Job 1:9–11). 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. Sometimes it is not until God is all we have that we realize that God is all we need. Job realizes that despite the tremendous pain he’s experienced, He can trust God both with this life and the next life to come.
