Sunday 10 October
https://youtu.be/1t4njz7DaDs |
God and Suffering, an introduction
Job chapter 1 verses 1 - 12 A friend asked me a while ago to preach more on the book of Job after I spoke about it at my wife’s thanks-giving service almost a year and a half ago – so here we go for our 1st foray into it. Part 2 next year perhaps. Job is a mysterious literary masterpiece. It is a powerful and insightful study on life, suffering, God and the heavenly realms. For Christians though, sincere intents, positive desires, ought to produce good and practical actions. Job tackles THEODICY - the subject of God and justice in the light of human suffering. Christians and Jews believe God is almighty and just and that all people are in general terms NOT innocent. This logic underpins Job the man and the thinking of his 3 friends. By this logic, it emerges that Job’s friends and other people throughout history presume that people suffer as a measure of how guilty in God’s sight that they are. That however contravenes other scriptural teaching. e.g., In John 9 Jesus was asked who sinned “this man or his parents, that he was born blind. Neither said Jesus. Well, none of us are sinless, but some people clearly attempt to live genuinely godly and pious lives; aim to be upright in character, and do not carry-on sinning, but confess it and seek to refrain from it in future. What we all know is that even the godliest are not spared from suffering. This enigma lies at the heart of God’s Son Jesus’s journey in life on earth too though. So we have no right to expect exemption from pain and suffering, yet sadly sometimes it is exacerbated by friends as well as foes. So how do we cope with this? Job tells us that the best relationship between God and humans can be corrupted by a third party, our adversary and false accuser, who intrudes to spoil our peace, hell bent on frustrating the potential blessings of a relationship between God and person. Just as God delights in a “righteous” person like Job, they just like Job enjoy blessings and can delight in the security and assurance of their God as a foundation for living and eternal hope, firmly grounded on what God reveals in His holy word. Of course, ALL scripture is God breathed. So, this book contains details and answers that only God could know and reveal to us, to inform and to bless us and others whom we share it with. Today we look at the prelude to all that lies ahead in this book. Who is Job? What is he like? What is going on in the heavenly realms etc.? Indeed, Job is a pious, godly, good, and rich man; wise and successful and God rates him highly. (Questions arise: How does God rate us? Job intercedes for his family. Do we intercede for our family? Does God test us in a similar sort of challenge He has with Satan?) Later in chapter 2:1-3 we will see God accuse the Satan of afflicting Job for no good reason or for nothing. And another cruel test unfolds in chapter 2:7 – So do we undergo cruel tests as Satan seeks to damage our relationship with God, our faith or our hopefulness? Since suffering is part of life, permitted by a just and loving God, therefore logically it must have meaning and even value and knowing this truly ought to change our outlook when we are under trial or facing various kinds of suffering. As Paul writes in Romans 5:3-5 “Let us also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Are you ready and optimistic as you come along on this first journey into the book of Job? Part 1: Job 1:1-12 God introduces us to the main character Job. He lives in Ur, east of the Jordan and possibly Uz in southern Iraq verse 1. The same place Abraham was born. Four things are stated about him. He (a) is blameless (b) is upright (c) fears{respects} God and (d) is someone who Shuns evil. Job is a person of integrity, who seeks to honour and live under God’s standards and does not seek to gain from wrongdoing of any sort. In life he walks totally devoted to his God. Surely that is an enviable thing? Can any of us have this said about us? Do any of us want such a relationship with God? Now the world he inhabits is described to us. He has ten children, three daughters and seven sons’ verse 2. All these numbers are great bible numbers, some scholars would say ideal. 3, 7 and 10 and it is suggested to mean that Job lacks nothing. He has 7,000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 donkeys, and loads of serving workers. He is the greatest and wealthiest man in that entire area described as “in the east verse 3.” They are a wealthy family who hold regular feasts as get- togethers and they all take their turn and the entire family participates verse 4. There appears to be love and not jealousy or division in this family – a rare thing indeed. Before Moses introduced the Law, fathers would act as a priest to their family. Job verse 5 tells us would act as a priest after these celebrations and offer sacrifices to God just in case any of them had sinned or the great sin of this book, “cursed God.” Curse is the opposite of bless. God deserves our affection, adoration, respect etc. When we fail to do this, we fail to give Him what He is due – it is like making Him a curse and something we choose to live without. This is the sin the Satan predicts Job will succumb to later on. We are then beamed up into heaven verse 6. A council meeting is taking place. God, angels and the Satan are present verses 6 and 7. The Hebrew calls him the Satan to indicate his role – to accuse, relay doubt and to be an adversary. So God asks Satan what he’s been up to. His reply is that he has been roaming the earth – there is a play on the word to roam or rove here which means he does what his name suggests – accusation, doubt and to be adversarial. He’s been spying on people. Since God knows everything, He next asks the question for our benefit, “Have you considered my servant Job”. And God states how righteous and blameless Job is v8 and there is no one on the earth like him. Noah and others have also found favour in God’s sight – I wish more than most things that could be said about me. Could it be said about you? Satan is quick to undermine God’s delight in Job verse 9. No wonder Job serves you – it’s because you have blessed him so much. Satan casts doubt and effectively is accusing God of being proud of the man Job foolishly. However, this logic is flawed – righteousness is the result of divine blessing – not the other way round. You see God gifted Job in the first place, not blessed Job because he honoured God. verse 10 further states this – God has put a hedge of yew trees around him, and made everything he does turn to gold. So, Job’s true righteousness within himself has never been put to the test. Interestingly those who walk in God’s will have this hedge of blessing around them – it’s Holy Spirit protection and guidance. The Satan then has the audacity to attempt to put God to the test in verse 11. He then doubles the stakes and says, take the blessing away and Job will surely curse you – the accuser at his worst. It is like he is asking God to doubt both Job’s righteousness, and the praise he gives to God is founded simply on the special blessing God has given him rather than on something genuinely from within the man himself. IF Job came face to face with God, after having all God’s blessings taken away, will he curse God? – Later Job will indeed come face to face with God, and it is likely on the Day of Judgement that we all will too. Our test is to get ourselves right with God long before then. verse 12 closes with the Satan having permission to put Job to the test, but only under God’s sovereignty and rules. It’s not God’s hand that will do this, but the Satan’s hand. Meantime, the very blessed Job is about to have his world tilted on its axis. Suffering comes to us all. How are you dealing with yours? How will you cope when the going gets really tough? Can we help? IS this Christian fellowship a place where you can listen and pray for one another – and journey together? Does it help to realise that God only allows us to endure suffering for good reasons? Knowing God and what He is like makes all the difference in the world – Have you met God yet? The sooner the better my friends, the sooner the better. Remember there is a third party who wants to keep us from having the most beautiful and special relationship with our God – don’t let that loser beat you. amen |