When I was a child my mom had to promise me she would give me a prize if I was good in the grocery store. I didn’t get that many prizes. But the motivation for my goodness was a prize. As I matured my Mother would ask me to be good in the store out of respect for her and the other shoppers. Sometimes I lacked respect. As a child I loved and obeyed my mother because she provided for me. My goodness was only a candy wrapper deep. Everyone expects Children to develop out of this. I know I can never repay my mother for the pain of child bearing and all the times she has helped me, but I try to do nice things for her our of love and Loyalty to her. I do not think my mother is suppose to keep offering me candy to respect her as an adult. I would call this good social development, not everyone has it. What we are going to be looking at this morning is spiritual development.
Job Details. Job means “Where is my Father.” Job is one of the most unique books in the Bible, and therefore often misunderstood. We do not know who the author was. The time of the writing is before the Israel was taken into captivity in Babylon between 1000 and 600 BC. The literary construction is A-B-A Moving from Prose to poetry back to prose. It falls into many genres of literature a lament, a philosophical debate, a parable, and an epic Drama.
In verse 1-5 we hear a profile of Job who I would like to call the Righteous Bill Gates. I know Bill may not be the wealthiest man in the world but everyone in the western hemisphere gets measured against him. Job is called the greatest man in the east.
Our Scripture reading today begins with God bragging about Job. God list these attributes (blameless, upright, fears God, and shuns evil).
How would God brag about me, how would he brag about you?
Grandparents are the best braggers. My Grandparents think because when I come over to their house I mow the lawn that I was just the most self giving person they had ever know. My grandpa thought I went to get wood with him because I enjoyed it “I needed money.” To this day it is often embracing to be around them at social gathers. I am just not used to being bragged on.
Again I want to ask the question. If Satan strolled into the heavenly court and said I have been traveling in and out of Salem. What might God Say?
How would God brag on us?
Satan is like the envious cousin who thinks Job is just a spoiled brat. Sure if you keep a loly pop in his mouth he is really happy. Kids have you ever done anything wrong when you were eating candy. NO. Satan thinks Job is just good because God shoves him whatever he asks for.
It is at this point that Satan puts God in a cosmic pickle. There is a fundamental question in this first chapter that we need to come to grips with. Do human being serve God because of what they receive from God? Do we serve God because of what we get out of it? This to me is a question about the Integrity of our Faith can it develop beyond Childhood.
If God refuses Satan’s proposal it looks as though he fears there may be a basis to Satan’s Claim. Maybe Job is only faithful to God because God has given him so much.
If God accepts the challenge, he comes out looking heartless. The permission giver of destruction or pain.
God gives Satan the green light and Job looses everything but his clothes. Which he himself tears off to remind those around him of his complete pain and sorrow.
Job a righteous and faithful man (bragged on by God looses everything)
Job looses his donkey’s and oxen by way of an attack
He looses his sheep in a natural disaster
He looses his camels in another neighbors attack
And finally he looses his children in a windstorm.
In this story we have to wrestle with the fact that God allows bad things to happen to good people.
I doubt any of us believe all those people in New Orleans and along the coast of Mississippi were bad people. As I have been watching TV over and over again I see people with Job story. Losing everything, house career, and family. And I have to face this reality.
God allows bad things to happen to faithful people.
Can you identify? Some of us in this room have lost property and people our health in tragic and what seems like senseless ways.
A few months ago I got a 4 am phone call. My best friend from college was on the other end. He was having trouble relaying the message so I knew it was bad. Our friend had been riding his motor cycle when he was hit head on by an 80 year old man. My friend was a faithful young man.
Can we accept that Bad things: Storms, cancer, accidents do not have a cause and effect relationship with our individual goodness or badness?
We are going to be asking these tough questions for the next few weeks. We are going to go allot deeper into this debate.
What if our faith (blameless, upright, fears God, and shuns evil). Made us a target for greater suffering in this world? How do you feel about that? Someone in a Life Group asked the question “Why did God bring Job to Satan’s attention?”
Could it be that Godly people really are under attack? What if it is true that a battle is under way for the hearts and souls of men and women. I am not trying to act like I always live this way. I have read passages from the Bible Like Ephesians 6:12 “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.”
And I have not always gotten a hold of it. I believe we are under attack, but I need to throw a Stake in the ground that we will come back to. At the time Job was written Satan had a great deal of authority in the world. That has changed with the coming of Jesus, he is now the Lord of the earth, and evil is nothing but a rebellion against that Lordship.
Now I want to come to the plot line of this book of Job. The issue is greater than suffering. The question that is being posed in the heavenly courts is weather human being can have true integrity. Can they truly be faithful to God. Is a relationship with God of love and respect possible or will people only serve him if they are getting what they want.
This Banana is a part of God’s creation, and it has great integrity. You can tell by looking on the outside what you are going to get on the inside. When you go to the store you don’t need to peel open every banana to find a good one.
When Satan looks at Job he sees a Banana. On the outside it looks like it is ripe and good to eat. It looks like it has not been bruised. It looks flawless and good. But he cannot see inside of it. He believes Job has a great out side, but if the comfort of his wealth was removed and his Family taken from him, he would stop worshiping God and his faith would fall apart.
What would it look like if our peels where pulled back? Often we spend all of our energy on the outside. Making ourselves look beautiful, improving our jobs, creating a great persona, but what about the inside. Do we have integrity?
To tell you the truth I do not want all my blessings and securities to be ripped away from me. This chapter in Job asks me. When a hurricane hits my house, removes my career and kills my child, can I still worship a God that would allow that to happen? That is really hard.
The only way a person can stand under that kind of pressure and the pressure I know some of you in this room have faced is if our relationship with God is based on trust and loyalty. If it is based on him making us successful, happy, or well – we maybe happy today, but tomorrow we could be crushed. And our Faith lacks integrity.
When Satan attacked Job he did not tempt him to do something immoral, dishonest or violent. Instead his goal was to create disloyalty and to destroy trust. Sometimes Christianity can be all about what you do and don’t do. Job gives us a great reminder that the center of this battle is our relationship with God. Are we women and men of integrity, loyal and true to God in any circumstance?
And maybe a good question for us; if any of you are like me. Do we want to move from conditional Faith – to trust and loyalty.
If the answer is yes, please remember we are talking about a relational dynamic that takes time and work. You did not become a social adult overnight, and you will not become a spiritual adult over night.
I want to give some quick hints on how to apply and respond to challenge for more integrity in our faith.
1. Faith and trust is built on time with someone. If you don’t spend time with God you have no reason to trust him. Pray, read, meditate on who God is.
2. Make a list of the hardships and looses you have experienced. Take look at your attitudes and responses.
3. Share your struggle with someone else. Don’t let yourself feel alone or without help.
