THE
BIBLE JESUS READ
Job: Finding God In The Darkness
Job 13:20-28
The book of Job, contrary to popular
opinion, is not primarily about human suffering. Job is a book about human
faith in the midst of the most trying of life’s circumstances. The book offers
no easy answers because there are no such answers in the depths of human
despair. Life has difficulties that are not easily put to rest. God, however,
gives us the avenue of faith to keep us with Him even when all we see looks to
be against us (I Jn. 5:4-5; II Cor. 5:7). Job allows us to find the answers we
need when simplistic platitudes only complicate and dismay. God will and does
provide!
WHEN GOOD PEOPLE
SUFFER (Job 1:1).
1. It
is not at all so that only the wicked suffer.
2. How
can a good God let godly people suffer?
3. In
the Arabian Peninsula, a place that has little interest in Jesus, there is
wealth; in Africa and India, places with much interest in Jesus, there is
poverty—why?
4. Job’s
friends offer him no comfort, they just blame him for surely being at fault.
5. Job
cries out in deepest despair, “Why me?”
6. Over
the years God’s enemies have looked at Job as a proof that God is not good.
7. The
difficult question that confronts us is, “Can we have faith in God for no other
reason than that He is God?” When there are no visible blessings, no pleasant
surroundings, and no earthly evidence that God cares, can we still have faith?
BEHIND THE SCENES
(Job 1-2).
1. God
and Satan see the man Job quite differently—God understands that Job is
faithful to Him because He alone is God; Satan believes that Job serves God
because of God’s rewards.
2. That
being the case, God will ask Job to prove the true basis of his faith without
any earthly reward to sustain or encourage him.
3. And
Job will have no idea what is going on!
4. The
antagonistic skeptic, Bertrand Russell, said of such, “We cry into the night
and there is no reply.”
5. Elie
Wiesel goes so far as to rebuke Job for eventually “giving in” to God.
6. Can
we accept that God is worthy of trusting love, no matter what?
JOB’S FRIENDS (Job
3-37).
1. “A
just God will see to it that people get only what they deserve” (i.e. 4:7-11).
2. Modern
TV evangelists make a living out of this theology of guaranteed prosperity for
the faithful.
3. What
about, “If you feel far from God, guess who moved?”
4. Job
had not moved!
5. Job
is given an impossible dilemma by his “friends”: admit his sin, or reject God.
6. Job
struggles under the onslaught (7:19; 9:22; 10:20-21; 14:18-19; 16:9; 19:7;
30:20-21, 26-27).
JOB EMERGES
VICTORIOUS THROUGH GREAT STRUGGLE (Job 42:7).
1. Job,
however, would not curse God and die
(2:9; 13:15).
2. He
could not be shaken from believing that he was better off with God than without
Him (cf. Mk. 7:24-30).
3. He
even sought death to avoid the possibility of denying God (6:10; 9:33;
16:19-21).
4. He
wanted to hear from God (13:3; 31:35).
5. The
book of Job establishes forever that God prefers an irate believer who keeps
faith over a smug believer who is resigned to an inadequate, uncaring,
condescending theology (42:7).
THE APPERANCE OF GOD
(Job 38-42).
1. God
never mentions Job’s suffering.
2. Why
does God not deal with this question once so important to Job?
3. Trust
was the real issue, is God worthy of trust no matter what?
4. Job
is rebuked for forming conclusions about God with incomplete evidence, which He
admits (38:1-2; 42:3).
5. God
can cure disease, and give us blessings beyond our imagination, but He will not
impose saving faith on us.
6. It
is saving faith that Job needed—he could win without anything else, but with
everything except that he could only lose!
7. Circumstances,
such as suffering, are not primary, though we are prone to focus on them; it is
trust that we must seek no matter what (cf. Matt. 27:46; Lk. 23:46)!
8. There
is no problem with God’s power to save us from distress, or from His lack of
concern for us—God’s solution is powerful and loving when the big picture is
considered (II Cor. 4:16-18).
9. And
we must remember, it was God’s presence, not His answers, that brought peace to
Job—His presence transcends any worries or concerns we might have.
10. We
must, therefore, remember that He is there (II Cor. 5:7; Heb. 13:5b; cf. Deut.
31:6).
The simple answers we think we want will
not satisfy when deep sorrow and pain assail. Simplistic counseling based on
such will only compound our hurts. It is a faith that we will not release, even
in doubt, hurt, fear or trial, that assures us of victory. Our salvation is not
based on the emotions of the moment, but on the convictions we treasure too
greatly to abandon. In this there is true hope no matter what (Rom. 8:31-39).
God is very good to have made it so!
Edwin
8/20/00
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