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(Special guest post)
From the Book of Job
It is good that we have gathered here as brothers and sisters tonight. We share this space together on one of the darkest nights of the year. We share God’s spirit and experience his presence as we participate in this worship service. And, we share the light of hope we have in Christ Jesus even as we remember and celebrate his coming.
Have you noticed, there is a great deal of darkness not only on this night, but in the world? The world we inhabit is a troubled place.
In the English Standard Version John 16:33 says this,
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world.” (16:33b NIV)
Have you noticed, there is trouble in this world?
There are those who are troubled with loneliness. There are those who are troubled with emotional wounds or physical sickness. There are those who are troubled by loss and a grief that never seems to go away. There are those who are troubled that grief will resolve and life will feel somewhat normal again. There are those who are troubled with depression. There are those who are troubled with unfulfilled dreams. There are those who are troubled with an addiction that enslaved them. There are those who are troubled with the fear that their loved one’s addiction will never recovery from an addiction. There are those who are troubled with uncertainty. There are those who are troubled with insecurity that locks their potential away. There are those who are troubled with family conflict. There are those who are troubled with conflict among friends or co-workers.
Trouble.
Trouble is everywhere and it is not new. The Old Testament list of saints who faced trouble. That list includes a man named Job. There is an entire book named after him. Job suffered. He suffered from trouble that just kept coming.
His name is synonymous with suffering and Job, like many of you, wonders why. He asks, “Why?” He asks, “Why me?
Maybe you can relate to his question.
Why did I never married? Why did I experience divorce? Why am I sick? Why was my family so dysfunctional? Why have I never become pregnant? Why did I suffer injustice? Why did my loved one die? Why am I so blue? Why? Why? Why?
He puts his question directly to God. And, he is persistent in asking his question. He refuses to take silence for an answer. He refuses to take clichés for an answer. Job is in some ways a precedent for Jesus, who cried out his hard question from the cross:
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46 NIV)
What you need to know is that the story of Job is a story of a person who has lived a godly life. God states clearly about Job at the beginning of the story that,
“There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.” (1:8 RSV)
He did everything right and was blessed, and then, without warning, is plunged into a dark pit of loss. Disasters wipes out his livestock, his children are killed by a sudden wind storm, and to top it off, his health fails.
Pause here again. Notice that Job has done nothing wrong. He is living an exemplary life of faith in God. Still trouble finds him.
Job is innocent yet he suffers. He wonders “why”? He wonders where God is in his circumstance. Job struggles to make sense of the trouble he is experiencing.
Job is having a God crisis. Trouble is all around and he feels abandoned. Job has questions and he will settle for nothing less than an answer from God himself.
Friendly Advice
If you had a friend having a God crisis, what would you say? What do you say? What will you say to each other outside the doors of this chapel as you leave this service tonight?
Job’s friends tell us what not to say. Their “comfort” leaves a person struggling with more questions and feeling more alone than ever.
Eliphaz is the first friend. His reasoning goes like this: sin causes suffering, Job is suffering. Therefore Job is a sinner.
Eliphaz has a point of sorts. Sin does cause trouble. And concluding that Job has trouble because he has sinned isn’t necessarily a wrong conclusion. Except, that Eliphaz hasn’t listened to Job. Eliphaz doesn’t listen to Job’s protest that he is innocent, which, in fact, he is.
“Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.” (5:7 RSV), says Eliphaz.
Where there is smoke there must be fire.
Eliphaz is a fundamentalist who uses other people’s suffering to support his black and white view of God’s kingdom. Job’s loss and poor health is evidence of Job’s sin.
Have you ever had a friend say this to you? A friend who in the midst of your trouble tells you that the source of your trouble is mess in your own life. There is little comfort here.
The second friend is Bildad. Bildad’s argument goes something like this: the reason that we cannot understand many things is that God is so great and we are so insignificant. How can we hope to understand his purposes and intelligence?
“Even the moon is not bright and the stars are not clean in his sight: how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm.” (25:5-6 RSV)
Which is to say, God can’t be bothered with something as insignificant as your suffering. In magnifying God, Bildad minimizes his friend Job. God has bigger things to think about than a person in despair or pain.
Bildad is an intellectual who can’t empathize with a person’s pain and probably can’t remember his mother’s birthday either.
Zophar, the third friend, turns out to be a moralist. He advises Job,
“If you set your heart aright, … your life will brighten. (11:13, 17 RSV)
Zophar’s mission is to hustle people down the road of good works. Job must do more for God! If Job increases his good deeds, and then his problems will be solved.
Zophar doesn’t listen to Job or walk through his pain with him. His message is this: “Just keep the rules. Do more for God and things will get better. ‘It’s that simple.’ Earn our way into God’s favor and life will go better.
So much for friendly advice.
Eliphaz with his fundamentalist altar calls for repentance. Bildad, the intellectual offers his big ideas, and Zophar the moralist judges with his condescending self-righteousness. Little comfort for Job. Little comfort for us.
God – Out of the Whirlwind
Still Job persists. He will not deny God. No, he still believes in God. But, he wants answer from God. Why is this happening to me?
Finally God shows us and to be honest God is a little edgy and a bit harsh. This isn’t quite the God most of us are hoping for when we are in the middle of trouble.
Job has questions for God. He demands responsiveness from God. And God does respond, but not on Job’s terms. Instead of showing up like a comforting shepherd God comes storming into job’s presence!
“Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you and you shall declare to me.” (38:1-3 RSV)
“I will question you.”
Instead of answering Job’s questions, God challenges Job with questions of his own. God turns the tables not with answers but with questions:
He questions Job.
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?” (38:4 NIV)
Sixty one questions follow. Job is overwhelmed. Job retreats. Job relents.
Then he states,
“I am unworthy – how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer – twice, but I will say no more.” (40:4-5 NIV)
Again Job states,
“Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things to wonderful for me to know. My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.” (42:3, 5 NIV)
Then something unexpected happens.
Something shifts in Job. Something changes. Job is suddenly at peace.
His losses are still there. The pain has not gone away. Yet, Job is not demanding anything anymore. He is not shaking his fist at the heavens. He is no longer raging at the apparent injustice that he has suffered.
Something has shifted. Something has changed.
Job realizes something. He realizes the real question that he was asking. He was never really asking “Why”? He was asking “Who”!
Who will God be to me in my pain? Who will God be in my suffering?
Who did Job need God to be for him in his suffering? He need to be reassured that God saw him. He needed to be reassured that God cared. He needed to be reassured that God would show up.
At the end of it all, Job desperately needed to know that in all of his disappointments, God would not disappoint him. He needed to know that despite all of his losses in life, he wasn’t abandoned by God. He needed to know that he hadn’t lost God too.
The easy answers of Job’s friends are a cruel substitute for God himself. We live in an age abounding with such talk, such answers. Everyone has an opinion about our pain, our losses, and our disappointments. Everyone has a perspective. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone has an answer. Good Lord we talk a lot.
Just like Job’s friends we often think we have the solution. Sometimes we record them so that everyone can have the benefit of our perspective. Sometimes we become enamored with our resources putting faith in education, technology, counsel, moral programs, philosophies, and spiritual techniques.
When it is all said and done, Job declares that solution to our pain, disappointments, frustrations, and losses is not another answer, another book, another counselor, another sermon, another speech, another scientific breakthrough, but in a personal encounter with God himself.
Answers are good in their place, but when the chips are down, when trouble surfaces, when doubt gnaws in our innards, when anxiety threatens, then only the presence of God will do.
Immanuel
Long ago, out of the whirlwind of human brokenness and chaos God saw that his people were in trouble. He determined to save us. Isaiah foresaw this work of salvation and prophesized that God would begin his salvation plan with a sign.
“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” (7:14)
Immanuel. It means “God with us.”
In the end, this is what Job most desired. In the middle of cascading losses Job needed reassurance that he was not alone. He needed to know that he had not loss God as well.
Immanuel. “God with us.” God with you!
Whatever trouble you are experiencing, you are not alone. Immanuel. God is with you.
Wherever answers seem to be falling short of the question you are asking this one thing is certain. Immanuel. God with you. You are not alone.
Imagine
Close your eyes for a moment. Then breathe deeply. Be still. Know that God is near right now. He sees you. He stands with you. You are not alone.
This is what we most need. We need to know that we are not alone. God with us.
Think of one thing that troubles your soul tonight. There may be many, but choose one right now. Then turn your face and tell Jesus about it. He is right next to you. Tell him about your trouble. Experience his care for you. He stands with you in trouble. He understands. Feel his comfort.
Immanuel.