Introduction
Job, part three. An
impossible task: trying to understand why someone like Job would experience so
much pain and trouble. An impossible task: trying to explain the presence of
evil and hurt in our world.
Two weeks ago, Lee
introduced Job as “a good man in a bad way”. Last week, Lee observed that Job’s
friends echo the kind of thoughts we torment ourselves with when we are in a
bad situation. He summarized their counsel with three basic thoughts,
especially the idea, “If I only try harder, pray harder, work harder, all of
the bad stuff will go away.”
The friends end up
saying essentially, “Job, it’s your fault. We thought you were a good man, but
no one would suffer this much if they didn’t deserve it. We don’t know what you
did, but clearly your problems are your fault.”
Part Three: I Want
God!
Now we come to part
three. Reading the speeches by Job and his friends is interesting. They keep
saying, “It’s your fault.” Job keeps saying, “I know I’m not perfect, but I
have kept faith with God. I want God to judge me. I want to appear before God.”
At the beginning of
chapter 13, he says, “‘My eyes have seen all this, my ears have heard and
understood it. What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you. But I
desire to speak to the Almighty and to argue my case with God.”
In 13: 20-24, Job
continues, “Only grant me these two things, God, and then I
will not hide from you: 21 withdraw your hand far from me, and
stop frightening me with your terrors. 22 Then summon me and I
will answer, or let me speak, and you reply to me. 23 How many
wrongs and sins have I committed? Show me my offence and my sin. 24 Why
do you hide your face and consider me your enemy?”
Then in chapter 19, Job uses
words that echo powerfully in Handel’s Messiah: “21 ‘Have pity
on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me. 22 Why
do you pursue me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh? 23 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 for ever! 25 I
know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. 26 And
after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; 27 I
myself will see him with my own eyes – I, and not another. How my heart
yearns within me!”
Throughout the book, Job
calls on God for a direct meeting. He wants to know what has happened to him,
and why. He wants relief. He claims in faith that he knows God will answer him,
but in his pain and distress, death seems closer than God does.
Chapters 27 to 37
This brings us to the
chapters we gave for our four-part outline. At the centre of these chapters,
another voice speaks up, the voice of Elihu. Job’s friends and Elihu see the
same thing – a good man in a bad way, a righteous man whose life has fallen
apart.
Job’s friends conclude
that it’s all Job’s fault. Elihu listens to them and to Job’s responses, and he
looks at the other side of the equation. He looks at God. Elihu hears the
question that Job keeps hinting at. What kind of a God would do this to me?
Stop and think about
it. Lee noted this question in the first part of this series. When we find
ourselves in trouble, it is natural to question God. I know someone who worked
with a Christian organization, going around the world to trouble spots where
people were in great distress. He reached the point that he could not believe
in God and left both the church and faith in God.
Elihu is concerned to
defend God. He sees where Job’s questions lead. Job’s friends accuse Job; Elihu
defends God. Given that Job represents all of us, consider for a moment what
these responses feel like when we are in distress.
The passages we read
earlier tell you how Job felt. In chapter 27, he makes it clear that he
believes God is in some way intimately connected to his distress, but he does
not allow that knowledge to change his commitment to live in covenant with God.
He holds on to life with God: “Until I die I
will not put away my integrity from me. I hold
fast my righteousness and will not let it go.”
We may quibble and say that Job has no
righteousness in himself; all that he has comes from God. Job agrees! Job knows
well that no human being stands “righteous” before God. His “righteousness” is
precisely his covenant with God. He has placed his trust in God and will not
place it anywhere else.
This covenant actually sharpens his
distress. It should be the guarantee of a good life, but it has become the
occasion of all his trouble. Still, he will not let it go. He holds on to God
no matter what happens.
In chapter 29, then, Job remembers with
longing the life he had before his troubles came crashing over his head. He
longs for God’s presence watching over him and caring for him. He longs for
God’s presence protecting him. He longs to know the truth of the Psalm we read earlier.
“Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and
earth.” He longs for God.
Je Suis Job
Six and half years ago, a radical attacker
killed 12 people in the offices of the French magazine, Charlie Hebdo.
In the aftermath of the shooting, millions of people around the world adopted
the French phrase, “Je suis Charlie.” I am “Charlie Hebdo”. A sign of
solidarity with those who were killed. Their action reflected the truth that the
attack was really an attack on everyone in France, not just on the people who
worked in a that magazine office. In the same way, we can say, “Je Suis Job.” I
am Job. You are Job. Job’s experience is everyone’s experience.
Our sermon series is not
really about a Middle Eastern man from 3,000 years ago. The series is about us,
about you and about me. When life becomes hard, what do we do? How do we
respond? Where do we turn?
I think of friends of
ours who walked through the near-death of the husband. He recovered from a
devastating heart attack, and now they are in distress again. The wife has been
diagnosed with cancer and the family again is wrestling with the real
possibility that one of the parents will die. I don’t know how they feel about
it, but I know how their distress affects me. I begin to wonder what God is
doing. I wonder why they face such difficult experiences. I know them. They are
a wonderful couple and a wonderful family, with a strong faith in God. They
don’t deserve this! The question “Why?” swirls around us in many different
variations.
I think of another
friend who died recently of ALS. He was in his mid-50s. He faced death with a
real faith and without complaining. I never heard him ask why, but I know that
I do.
I think of situations I
know around the world. You have heard of the 17 missionaries in Haiti who have
been kidnapped by the 400 Mawozo Gang. A Globe and Mail news story tells us
this: “Weston Showalter, spokesman for the religious
group, said that the families of those who’d been kidnapped are from Amish,
Mennonite and other conservative Anabaptist communities in Ohio, Michigan,
Wisconsin, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Ontario, Canada.” These are our
brothers and sisters, threatened with death because of the violence and
inequity that is endemic to Haiti.
They were in Haiti to demonstrate God’s
love, and now they face death. We find ourselves asking why they are rewarded
for their compassion and love with the possibility of execution. We ask
questions about the situation: Why does such a tragedy come to such good people?
Why does God allow the 400 Mawozo Gang to continue to operate?
Job and Elihu: The Point
Elihu defends God’s
honour in the questions that we raise about God’s goodness. God is good. God is
just. God is gracious. God is loving. Job agrees with this truth: God is good
and just. But Job is still in distress and pain, and he wants something more
than reassurances that God is good. Job wants to see God.
This is the point.
Some people try to find answers for all the questions we ask about the pain and
suffering of our world. Job knows those questions, and his friends make sure
that he hears the kind of answers that people give. But Job wants something
else. Job wants to see God.
Je suis Job. When I am
in distress, I also want to see God. That is not as simple as it sounds. C.S.
Lewis expresses it eloquently in his book on the death of his wife, A Grief
Observed.
When you are
happy, so happy you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted
to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and
turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be — or so it feels— welcomed
with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help
is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of
bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence.
Have you ever experienced that dreadful
silence? No wonder Job appealed to the supreme court of God. No wonder Job
wanted to state his case. No wonder Job sounds like he is trying to place God
in the dock. Job wants to see God!
Lewis also describes the desperate thoughts
that go through our minds at such times. He writes: “Not that I am (I think) in much danger of ceasing to believe in God.
The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about Him. The
conclusion I dread is not ‘So there's no God after all,’ but ‘So this is what
God’s really like. Deceive yourself no longer.’” Or again: “Talk to me about
the truth of religion and I'll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion
and I’ll listen submissively. But don't come talking to me about the
consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don’t understand.”
Note: Lewis is simply recording
what he felt in his experience of grief and distress. What he says here is
actually quite profound. In our grief, we sing and pray and worship. This is “truth
and duty”. We feel relief in that exercise of duty, but it doesn’t heal us.
Rather it is the soil in which God’s salvation grows. Only God can heal us.
Does this sound like Job? His friends tried
to console him, but they were (as he says) miserable comforters. They tried to
justify God to him, but they could not bring a real sense of God’s love into
his life. No wonder Job wanted to see God.
Conclusion
That’s where we must leave Job today. He has
had enough of explanations and accusations. He wants one thing and one thing
only. Job wants to see God.
Remember that you and I are Job. At some
point in our lives, we will come to the end of our ability to understand what
is happening. Like Job, we appeal to the highest court, the court of God in
Heaven. Our appeal may sound like an accusation of God’s character. But in
truth we really want one thing more than anything else. We want to see God.
When we appeal to the Supreme Court of
Canada, we are looking for a verdict. We don’t care if we meet the Right
Honourable Richard Wagner (the chief justice of Canada), or if we get to share
a meal with the Honourable Malcolm Rowe or the Honourable Sheilah Martin. We
care about the verdict that they render.
When we appeal to the highest court in the
universe, the court of God, we may still care about the verdict, but even more
we echo Job’s words, desiring that situation in which we are again in close
communion with God. More than anything else, we want to see God.
Focus Statement: When we reach the end of our rope, we turn to
God. In the end, we want to see God more than anything else in the world.
Thinking Ahead
Questions: When we call on
God, what do we really want to happen? Why do we turn to God when all else
fails?
Scriptures:
1) Psalms 121. 2) Job 27: 1 to 6; 29:
1 to 6
27 Job again took up
his discourse and said: 2 “As God lives, who has taken away my
right, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter, 3 as
long as my breath is in me and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, 4 my
lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will not utter deceit. 5 Far
be it from me to say that you are right; until I die, I will not put away my
integrity from me. 6 I hold fast my righteousness and will not
let it go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.
29 Job again took up
his discourse and said: 2 “O that I were as in the months of
old, as in the days when God watched over me; 3 when his lamp
shone over my head, and by his light I walked through darkness; 4 when
I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent; 5 when
the Almighty was still with me, when my children were around me; 6 when
my steps were washed with milk, and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
