The Glory Of God In Suffering Series

Glory of God Series

June 1st, 2008

Glory of God in Suffering

How are you doing? Bunch of liars. Now I am sure that for some of you that is true. Life is good and you are happy. By some of you are liars. When someone asks you at church: “How are you?” You know the proper Christian answer is: “I am doing fine.” But honestly, if you were asked that same question at a bar your answer would be different. We acknowledge that life is good and we are blessed to have the grace of God, but that doesn’t mean that at this present point of your life everything is good. Some of you are suffering right now. I know some you don’t really want to be here. There are things going on in your life that you need to deal with and you are just not really that comfortable being in church. Some of you are sitting next to someone because you are suppose to not because you want to. While you may smile and pretend that everything is ok, at home it isn’t. Your marriage is not fun right now. You are having problem with your children, at work, with a close friend or family member. Some of you have some serious health problems that you do not know how to get through. When people ask you say you are fine, you are doing great but that is not true. You are scared, afraid, alone, and you are wondering why. Why did this have to happen to you?

Sometimes when we suffer we cry out to God: Why? Job just happened to get caught on papyrus. Now I don’t care how you look at this story or what you take out of it. It is not fair. You may think that everything God does is right, but that doesn’t mean it is always fair. Satan and God get into an argument and Job is caught in the middle. How is that fair? Job has target put on his head because he is a righteous God fearing man. He is punished for fearing God. How is that fair? Just look at what happens to Job. Job had seven sons and three daughters. He was a wealthy man with many livestock and servants. Then when Satan and God start to argue Job gets stuck in between. Job’s oxen, donkeys, and camels were taken away by thieves and raiders. This is his livelihood. This would be like if someone hacked into you bank account and emptied all of your savings, your checking account, and any money that had been invested. Basically these raiders came through and liquidated all of Job’s assets and left him with nothing. In a moment everything Job had was taken from him. But that was only the beginning. His children were all together for a family meal when a sudden wind crashed into the house and caused it to collapse. All ten of them died. You know that Job was devastated. This was a time in which your children were your legacy. He had been blessed with seven sons. In a moment they were all gone. All of his money, his livelihood, and his family, everything Job had was lost in the blink of an eye. You know this guy is hurting. As Job gets all this bad news one piece after another you can imagine some part of him starts to ask why. Why is this happening to me? Job lived in a culture that viewed suffering and pain as punishment from God. So not only has Job just lost his children, his legacy, his source of income, and all his wealth Job also has to deal with the fact that everyone is going to think that he has done some terrible thing to deserve it. Maybe he was asking himself why during all of this, but Job praises God in his suffering. I just have to say, I love Job. He endured in a moment more than hopefully all of put together would deal with in a lifetime and Job praised God.

He was given one small curse in disguise. His wife was still alive. Now that sounds chauvinistic but just wait until you see what she does. Satan goes back and takes up the argument with God again. Job has another bad day. His body was stricken with painful sores from head to feet. This disease is so bad that his friends don’t even recognize him. The pain is so bad that Job used a broken pot to scrap at his flesh. Job has endured so much. The painful lose of a quality life, not to mention the devastation of having to bury all ten of your children. Yet Job did not curse God. Even when his body was struck with a painful disease that seemed to have no cure he did not curse God. Here is why I don’t like his wife. Job has suffered all these things. He is in physical and emotional pain, and rather than coming and comforting her husband. Rather than weeping together. His wife says: “Oh, just curse God and die already.”