Week 5: Trusting That Our Advocate And Redeemer Lives Series

The human body is amazing. Take your bones for example. Did you know that ounce for ounce human bone is stronger than steel? Apparently, one cubic inch of bone can withstand the weight of five standard pickup trucks! But if that’s the case, why can a simple fall from a bike or a stomp from a horse splinter our bones? Whether or not a bone will break depends on what kind of bone it is, where it is located, how healthy the bone is and finally, how the pressure is applied (discovery.com). As strong as bones are, they will break if enough force is applied at the correct angle.

What is true for our bones would seem to be true for our minds. Given enough force, or should we say, given enough stress and trauma, the mind will crack. In our text this morning, Job seemed to be on the verge of cracking. He had lost his wealth. He had lost his children. He had lost his health and his dignity. His friends blamed Job himself for the trials he was enduring. Job had cried out to God for help, but it seemed as if God had regulated Job’s prayers to his spam folder because he wasn’t answering. Can you relate?

But Job did not crack. He still found peace on that unpredictable path of his. He found it in his God who remained his advocate and redeemer. Let’s see how we can apply Job’s experience to our own. (Read text.)

One Bible student (John Jeske) remarked that from chapters 3-37, Job can be compared to a swimmer in high seas. At times you can’t see him because he’s submerged, but then he reappears to fight the waves before going under again. Job vacillated between despair and faith. Take this section for example. Job claimed: “Though I cry, ‘Violence!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice…” (Job 19:7). Words of despair. But earlier, when he was “swimming above the waves,” Job had boldly stated: “Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. 20 My intercessor is my friend… 21 on behalf of a man he pleads with God as one pleads for a friend…” (Job 16:19-21). Words of confidence.

Have you ever, like Job, flipped between the belief that God was listening to your cries for mercy, and at other times you were sure he was ignoring you like the headphone-wearing airline seatmate who obviously does not want to be disturbed? Let me assure you, this flip flopping is not unusual. If even Job whom the Lord himself described as “blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil” (Job 1:8)—if even he flip flopped, so might we.

The weakness is normal, but it is not excusable. Think of Jesus’ and Peter’s stroll on the Sea of Galilee. When Peter focused on his Savior, he strode confidently across that water. But when he took his eyes off Jesus to calculate the wind speed, then judged how unstable the waves were under his feet, and suddenly realized about how deep the Sea of Galilee was at that spot, he started to sink. Peter had the sense to call to Jesus for help and he received it. But Jesus also rebuked his disciple: “You of little faith. Why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31)

No, God does not delight in faith’s weaknesses, just as you wouldn’t be happy if after speaking your wedding vow, your beloved said: “Hmm. Say that again, but on your knees this time and like you mean it! And oh, if you really love me so much, why didn’t you give me a bigger ring?”

While God does not delight in weakness of faith, he does delight in sustaining those whose faith is weak. That explains why Job had any faith left at all. Listen again to another of Job’s flip flops. He said about God: “He tears me down on every side till I am gone; he uproots my hope like a tree. 11 His anger burns against me; he counts me among his enemies…” (Job 19:10, 11). Then just a few verses later Job continued after perhaps pausing and taking a deep breath to shout: “Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, 24 that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever…” (Job 19:23, 24) Let me hit the pause button here and ask, what would you expect Job to say next in view of all he had been through? What words would he want recorded for posterity? Something like these perhaps? “I want everyone who will ever live to know this: God lied to me! God led me on! He treated me like a favored son, but he was just toying with me. God’s no better than a kid who builds a home for ants just so that he can destroy it and them and laugh as he does!!”