Job series #1

Following Jesus When You Suffer:

WHEN YOUR WORLD CAVES IN WHAT THEN?

Job 1

There comes a time in every life when their world caves in. Suddenly. Unexpectedly. Tragically. It all comes caving in. One day life is secure. The day is sunny. All is calm and clear. Your job is secure. Your children behave. Your health is good. Then out of the blue, like an earthquake, tragedy strikes. You’re hit hard and it all comes caving in.

And it is never pretty. A business goes sour. A marriage dissolves. A child rebels. A loved one is diagnosed with a fatal disease. Your daughter miscarries. Your world comes crashing down. Your soul is shaky. Your faith is tottering. Your heart aches. Permanent scars may form from the rubble that is left. When your world caves in, what then?

You are shaken to the very core. You can feel the gnawing fear in the pit of your stomach. You are in shock, too numb to respond. It all comes crashing down.

You want to wake up from this nightmare, but you can’t. You find that you have never been more awake. Your aching heart cries out for relief, but none is to be found. It is all crashing down.

Then just as suddenly, just as unexpectedly, the doubt begins to wash over you. The questions gush forth. Why is this happening to ME? What have I done to deserve this? Whether we are victims or culprits, innocent or guilty, we feel as if our suffering is unfair. When an innocent 2-year-old child is stricken with leukemia, we ask, “Why her?” But don’t forget that a 75-year-old man who is dying of lung cancer caused by smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day for more than 50 years will also ask the question, “Why me?” Whether the cause of our pain is unknown, self-imposed, accidental, or deliberate, we believe our suffering is unfair.

Then we ask, “WHY THIS?” No matter what we suffer. Even though millions of others may develop the same disease, face the same pain, or sense the same anguish, our suffering is unique. Our question may imply that God doesn’t know what He is doing. If God were wise as well as just, He would have chosen a more tolerable kind of suffering for us.

And no matter when we suffer, we ask, “WHY NOW?”  Suffering is always untimely. We have plans for the future. Whether young, middle-aged or old, when suffering comes, we ask, “Why now?”

To help us face our world when it caves in and when old man trouble comes knocking on our door, let’s turn to Job, a man who had it all and then lost it. No explanation from God is given. Not a clue! Job was a man who dared to ask a silent and hidden God, “Why me? Why this? Why now?”

Suffering is a test. It’s a test of our faith, our character, our values, and our love for God. It’s a test that can make us bitter or better. It can make us bitter if we jump to the wrong conclusions about why God has allowed our pain. It can make us better if our eyes are open to the wonder, power, wisdom, goodness and love of God.  Job was a man who eventually weakened, but who grew stronger and closer to God in the process.

I want to identify some principles from this passage that will help us when our world caves in.

Body

I.                   SUFFERING COMES TO ALL OF US, EVEN THE BEST OF US. (vs.1-5)

A guy walks into a shoe store and asks for a pair of shoes, size 8. The obviously well trained salesman says, “But sir, you take an 11 or 11 1/2.” “Just bring me a size 8.”

            The sales guy brings them and the man stuffs his feet into them and stands up in obvious pain. He turns to the salesman and says, “I’ve lost my house to the I.R.S. I live with my mother-in-law. My daughter ran off with my best friend. My business has filed Chapter 7 and my son just told me he was going to become an artist. The only pleasure I have left is to come home at night and take my shoes off.”

If there are no clouds on the horizon of your life, let me suggest that you fasten your seat belt because old man trouble is on the way to your house. You need to understand that he has an equal opportunity program and there are no exceptions. His program of trouble is very much like the supermarket. The trouble he dishes out comes in all sizes and all varieties. There are big troubles and little troubles. There are some troubles that seem as if they won’t quit. There are some middle-sized troubles and some teeny-tiny troubles. Everywhere you turn is trouble, trouble, trouble. It lets up for a little while, and the next thing you know, trouble rears its ugly head just when you think he is finished with you.

Sometimes it’s sudden and debilitating sickness. It can be minor, irritating and frustrating. Sometimes it’s disappointment with friends and circumstances. Trouble will come to you and mess with you on your job. He’ll meet you between your house and your work place and hitch a ride with you all the way to work before he shows his hand. He’ll come home with you right in your car, and when you put your key in the lock, he goes in the door with you.

            Trouble even comes to church. I don’t know where he’s sitting, but he’s watching and picking out someone to go home with.

Few people have ever suffered like Job. In a single day, Job had his family and wealth instantly taken from his life. Then, in a second wave of hellish attack, Job had his health removed as well. All that remained were his life and his wife. He was given no warning, no explanations and no options.

His world came crashing down and he was left to pick up the pieces of a shattered life and try to make sense of it.

In a strange, twisted sort of way, Job encourages us because it means that when all hell breaks loose, when our world comes crashing down, it may not mean there is anything wrong in your life. It may mean everything is right in your life.

There are many types of trouble.

1.      Some of the trouble that comes to us is of the “To Whom it may concern” variety. Some trouble is indiscriminate. It can come at any place, any time, to anyone at the most inconvenient season. Some trouble is because of physical or natural disasters that are unavoidable. Some trouble comes because we live in a fallen, sinful world.

2.      Then there’s some trouble we make for ourselves. I don’t know why but we haven’t learned that there’s enough trouble in the world. So every once in a while, we play

the fool and go out and make trouble that the world doesn’t need. Some trouble comes because of my sin.

3.      Some of the trouble comes not because of our sin but because of others’ sin.

However type of trouble it is, Job shows us that suffering comes to all, even the best of us. Job was a real man who lived over 4,000 years ago. He lived in a real place and was attacked by a real enemy. He confronted real problems. He experienced real pain. He had his act all together. There is not a one of us who would not like to trade sandals with Job, at least in these first verses. God’s estimate of him is in verse 8

HIS FAITH WAS STRONG AND ALIVE. 1:1 The most noteworthy thing about Job was his godliness. He had a deeply personal relationship with God. He walked closely with God.

He was blameless, not sinless. Sinless is vertical…between you and God. Blameless is horizontal…dealing with our relationship with others. Before the watchful eye of his peers, no one could justly charge Job with sin. He was not a hypocrite.

He was upright. He walked the straight and narrow. He stayed on track. He did not drift away into worldliness. His walk matched his talk. He kept the ball in the fairway so to speak.

He feared God. He took God very seriously. He honored who God is, obeyed what God said, and trembled at what He did. He did not take God lightly. He recognized he was living on GOD’S green earth, breathing GOD’S air, and always under GOD’S constant gaze.

He SHUNNED EVIL. Today we would say he knew how to “just say no.” He did not buckle under peer pressure and go with the flow. He resisted temptation and the enticing lure of the world.

Job was an extraordinary man, a sincere believer, a man fully committed to God. He was hardly a candidate for disaster and trouble in our book.

HIS FAMILY WAS FULL AND BLESSED. 1:2

            The numbers 7 and 3 signify completeness in Old Testament Hebrew. Job was the father of 10 children. His children loved each other and met regularly to enjoy each other’s company. This was no dysfunctional family. God’s smile shone brightly upon Job’s family.

HIS FORTUNE WAS VAST AND GREAT. 1:3

            Job was a successful businessman. In ancient days, wealth was measured by your property – land, animals, and servants. Job had all 3 in spades. He was the Bill Gates of his day. The Donald Trump of the ancient world. He was the Howard Hughes of the Middle East. He was living out most people’s dreams. Garage full of cars. Closet lined with good suits. His walk-in refrigerator was stocked with the finest steaks and other food. A hired crew always working at his house. Job was that rare combination of godly and wealthy. Hardly a candidate for disaster.

HIS FAME WAS FAR AND WIDE. 1:3b.

            Job was great in influence, respect and visibility. He was the most influential man in town. Job was held in high regard by both God and man. Hardly a candidate for disaster.

HIS FATHERING WAS SPIRITUAL AND SACRIFICIAL. 1:4-5

Many men are successful at work, but failures at home, sacrificing their children on the altar of their career. Not Job. He kept his priorities straight and balanced. His family loved one another. It must have looked like a cast reunion of the Cosby show! He was deeply concerned for the spiritual welfare of his children. I say again, hardly a candidate for disaster.

Suffering is a unique experience…always. When we suffer, we may know that others have gone through something similar, but we feel as if we are the only ones. Job shows us that suffering is not an experience that is exclusive. Look at Jesus, the only perfect man who ever lived. Yet He was marked out for sorrow and tragedy.

That is important because you can’t always establish a direct cause and effect relationship between sin and suffering. Also, you are not the only one who has ever suffered like this. You have not been singled out by God to be the one individual to experience this. There were others before you and there will be others after you.

It is said that misery loves company. What is true is that misery NEEDS company.

Even though he was a good man who loved God and treated his neighbors fairly, Job was not exempt from suffering. Suffering comes to all of us, even the best of us. Suffering is part and parcel of the universal experience of life on this planet – life in a fallen environment lived by people with a fallen nature.

II.                 MOST OF THE TIME, YOU WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND WHY. (1:6-8)

 In the Garden of Gethsemane the anguish of the mind and conflict of the will so overwhelmed Jesus that He pleaded, “Father, if it be possible…” Within that prayer are the questions, “Why me? Why this? Why now?”

Later on the cross, as the suffering for the sins of the world was taking its toll, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” God doesn’t punish us when we ask, “Why?”

It happens to all of us. Our world crashes down and we ask why. Your teenage daughter is hit by a drunk driver and killed instantly. Or Friday comes and your pay envelope includes a pink slip. Your doctor sits down on the edge of the bed, clears his throat, and breaks the grim news, “The reports don’t look good. We’ll have to operate in the morning.” Your spouse is suddenly tired of being married and leaves you for another. Life is playing hardball and you don’t have a glove.

How do you explain when a man, who is hardworking, honest, and the only witness in the office is dismissed and loses his job? The good worker is fired, not someone whose productivity is below his.

            How do you explain when a 17-year-old young man, the leader of his small youth group and of his high school, is killed by a drunk driver along with his date? The pain and the questions are so great that his grandparents, once very active, never go to church again?

            How do you explain when a Christian couple, good loving parents, wait and long for a baby only to lose it to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome?

            How do you explain a loving wife and mother of a Christian college professor, expecting her first grandchild, getting cancer?

Those are all questions I have had to wrestle with as a pastor at some time in my ministry. I would wager that you have had to deal with some also.

Here the curtain is pulled aside and we are let in on the “other-worldly” reasons for the troubles that are about to descend on Job. Remember that Job and his friends are totally unaware of this.

God presides like a king in court sitting in counsel with the Holy Angels. Satan makes one of those mandatory appearances to give account before God. He is intent on discrediting the Lord and hindering God’s program to redeem mankind.

Some deny the existence of the devil. A young lady was discussing religion with her fiancée and discovered to her horror that they held very opposite views. She told her mother, “I can’t marry him! He doesn’t even believe in the devil!” Her mother said, “That’s all right. You marry him and you and I together will convince him there is a devil.”

Notice the casual, relaxed manner God speaks to Satan. God is not uneasy or alarmed at Satan’s presence. In God’s eyes, he is a defeated foe already! He is no threat to Almighty God!

Satan has to make a report. He is not in hell; he is roaming around the earth, restless. Notice the vague answer Satan gives to the Lord’s question. 1:7

At one time, bible teacher Manley Beasley had 7 terminal diseases. He said as he struggled with those diseases, it helped him when he realized God brought up Job, not Satan. If God really loved Job, why did He call attention to Job and even suggest that Satan might like to try to tempt him? Why didn’t God leave things as they were? To answer those questions is to presume to know the mind of God. Still from Scripture, we might venture a guess.

Why do we exist at all? To glorify God. Job had stood by others in their crises and assured them that God would see them through. But how would he stand up when death robbed him of his loved ones? Suffering would offer an opportunity to discover how authentic his faith was. We might be satisfied with the status quo, but God is not. His testings are for our benefit so we might understand just where we are and realize all over again how helpless we are and turn to Him. By this, God is glorified.

But remember Job knows nothing of this. Over and over, he asks why and he gets no answer.

            Children never tire of asking “Why?” They wonder about everything; adults wonder about suffering. We notice that the world seems to be run by a system of cause and effect, yet there are some effects for which we can’t find a clear cause, and come causes that don’t lead to the expected effects.

In the end, what broke Job’s patience was not the suffering but not knowing why he suffered. God can take our questions, but is never obligated to give an answer. Seldom are we given an answer to why. Now, I have to ask the question again, why? Why aren’t we given the explanation sometimes?

III.              PEOPLE LIVE ON PROMISES, NOT EXPLANATIONS. 1:9-12

Sometimes we don’t receive an answer to why because of the way we ask it. At times we ask it in a way that puts God on the

defensive. It puts us in a superior position. We sometimes ask why with a clinched fist. God will not be put on the defensive.

Sometimes we don’t receive an answer to why because we couldn’t handle the answer.
At other times we don’t receive an answer it is because of God’s purpose. Job’s friends kept saying they knew why. Good things happened to good people. Bad things happened to bad people. Simple and easy. Job looked at life much the same way but he knew that he had done nothing that bad to deserve treatment like this!

When God finally spoke, He didn’t offer Job an answer. Instead He drove home the point that it is better to know God than to know the answers. Job kept asking, “Why?” God said, “The question is wrong, Job. It is not, ‘Why?’ but ‘Who?’”

Nobody can fully answer all the questions; but even if we could, the answers are not guaranteed to make life easier or suffering more bearable. Peace of mind is not found at the conclusion of an argument. In every area of life there must always be an element of faith – marriage, business, science and ordinary everyday decisions. What you believe determines how you behave, but you can’t always explain what you believe and why. There are times you simply have to trust.

Satan had asked God to put His hand against Job. God refused, but He granted Satan permission. All Job had left was his faith in God, and he was not sure where God was or what God was doing.

But today, we do know, thanks to Job. We can suffer by faith, and know God is working out His perfect purposes even in the

midst and even through our suffering. If we trust God, it must be because we know He is the kind of God who can be trusted even though we may not always understand what He is doing. God permitted Satan to take away every crutch Job leaned on until he had nothing left but God. Job discovered that was enough.

IV.              GOD IS WORTHY OF OUR TOTAL LOVE, ADORATION AND PRAISE, EVEN APART FROM ALL HIS BENEFITS TO US. (1:9-10)

Satan accused God and Job by saying that Job’s godliness was artificial. Sure Job served God! God had made it easy for Job to be good. Satan said that God had bought Job’s devotion by bribery.

This is the basic passage of the whole book. Satan believes nothing is genuinely good, not Job and not God. To Satan, devotion to God is part of a bargain – it pays to be religious. So the basic question of the book is this: IS GOD SO GOOD THAT HE CAN BE LOVED FOR HIMSELF, NOT JUST FOR HIS GIFTS? Or do we serve Him only for what we get out of it?

Does everyone have a price? If we suddenly saw that turning our backs on God’s commands would bring no penalty or that serving Him faithfully has nothing to do with blessings of various kinds, would we still serve Him?

In Through the Valley of the Kwai, Ernest Gordon tells of his 4 years as a prisoner of war under the Japanese. 40,000 prisoners lived in an area meant for 1,000. Disease ran through the camp. In their despair, many turned to religion. Why? For most it was an attempt to find a quick and easy answer, a release from their fears. They believed that if they flattered God enough, He could be persuaded to rescue them from the miseries of their existence. They prayed for food, for freedom or to be spared from death. When the war didn’t come to an end quickly, when men didn’t receive more food or were not spared from disease – when they couldn’t manipulate God through their prayers – almost all of them turned their backs on Him and began to decline until at last they were behaving in a way lower than the animals.

One theologian says, “True faith never makes God the servant.” Oswald Chambers said, “We have become so commercialized that we only go to God for something from Him and not for Himself.”

Can a man hold on to God when there are no benefits attached? Who wouldn’t serve the Lord if all the works of their hands were blessed? Many still believe you should be righteous so that God will bless you or because God will curse you if you don’t. Job teaches different. There are some things that are a by-product of the life of faith. God wants men to serve Him because they love Him and not the things He can give them. The conclusion of the book will show that God is infinite wisdom, perfection and power and deserves our admiration and worship.

In the revelation of His love and care for us and in the supreme gift of His only begotten Son to be our Savior, eternal companion and friend, and Lord, God has bestowed the ultimate blessing. If you have the Lord, you have all you need and more than you deserve.

V.                GENUINE FAITH WILL SUSTAIN YOU THROUGH TROUBLE. 1:13-22

4 messengers of woe come with terrible news for Job.

The first comes to tell him the Sabeans (a tribe from southwest Arabia) came and took away all his cattle, oxen and donkeys. Verse 13 makes the point it was probably a day Job offered sacrifices for his children. It should have been a day of joy. Job gets off his knees, brushes himself off, leaves church and tragedy strikes. Nothing stuns more than the fact that he had just made fresh peace with the Lord.

The second messenger comes to tell him his entire flock of sheep has been wiped out by lightening.

The third messenger comes and tells him all his camels have been taken by the Chaldeans who were Aramean nomads to the north of the Persian gulf.

The fourth messenger brings the cruelest blow of all. His sons and daughters were killed in a tornado. In a short period of time, all his livestock has been stolen, all his servants murdered (except for the 4 messengers), and all his children killed. In a few minutes of time, Job has fallen from wealth and prosperity to grief and a pauper. The question is would he fall from love for God to cursing and being bitter toward God?

1:20-22 The Bible says when you go through trials and tribulations, it is a testing of your faith. God doesn’t test your faith so He can know what type it is. He knows. He tests your faith to show YOU what kind of faith you have.

Some people have FAIR WEATHER FAITH. This is faith that operates when the sun is shining. “As long as things are going well, I’ll praise the Lord!” That is what Satan accused Job of having. “Sure Job is being blessed, but if you take away his blessings, he’ll curse you.” Satan was wrong about Job, but he was right about many people – that’s the kind of faith they have.

Other people have FOUL WEATHER FAITH. These people say, “When my life is in a mess, I’ll call upon the Lord!” That is a great thing to do. The Bible says, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in You.” (Ps. 56:3) But these people only call upon the Lord when they’re afraid, and once things settle down they forget about Him. They think the Lord is for emergency use only. They’re like a soldier going into combat. That’s why we have the saying, “There’s no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole.”

This kind of faith bargains with God. “God, if You will only help me through this mess, then I’ll serve you faithfully.” Then they survive the crisis and before long they have forgotten their promise to God – until the next crisis arises.

Warren Wiersbe calls this a “commercial faith”. We try to bargain with God. “Lord, I’ll play fair with you if you’ll play fair with me.” When life tumbles in, you have only 2 options if you have a commercial faith: You can bargain with God and get God to change the circumstances or you can blame God for breaking the contract and refuse to have anything more to do with Him.

What God wants us to have to ALL-WEATHER FAITH. “Whatever happens, I will trust the Lord.” “The Lord gave the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”

What kind of faith do you have? Is it a fair-weather faith? As long as things are good, you’re okay with God. Or do you have a foul weather faith – when a crisis comes you go running to the Lord? I pray we will all develop an all-weather faith so that whatever happens, we will trust the Lord.

CONCLUSION – When old man troubles comes calling, when your world comes crashing down and you ask, “Why me? Why this? Why now?” Remember that suffering comes to all of us, even the best of us and most of the time you will never understand why. But we don’t live on explanations. We live on promises, and God is worthy of our devotion and praise even apart from His benefits to us. So see that genuine faith that will sustain you through troubles.

It is often the tallest tree that attracts the lightening. When tragedy strikes, it doesn’t necessarily mean God is punishing you. It may mean God is pleased with you and considers you worthy to suffer for His sake.

An all wise God who knows that is best for you loves you very much. He remains completely in control. He is the Lord of the storms. He is able to calm the angry waves and hush the fierce winds. Just when you think you can’t take any more, keep holding to Him.

Gary Harner, sermon, “When Your World Caves In, What then?”

David Dykes, sermon, “The Peril of Fair Weather Faith”

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