Following Jesus When You Suffer7:
“BECAUSE I’M GOD, THAT’S WHY!”
Job 38-42
A mother is running errands during a busy day, accompanied by her 2 small children. All morning the children have been pestering her: “Can we go to the new toy store? Let’s get some ice cream. We want to go home now!” Pretty soon their pestering turns to complaining, and then to angry questions. “Why can’t we go where we want to go? Why do we have to go in that store? Why can’t we eat lunch now? Why do we always have to do what you want to do and never what we want to do?” Finally, the mother stops, stoops to face here unhappy children, chin-to-chin, and says, “Because I’m the Mommy, that’s why!”
That scenario reminds me of the way God responds to Job in this passage. Job has digressed from acceptance of his suffering to complaining to questioning to bitter accusations. Job demanded that God explain Himself. Why did God allow him to endure so much pain? He wasn’t perfect but he was more righteous than others whose wealth hadn’t been stripped, whose children hadn’t been killed and whose health hadn’t broken. Why was he the victim of so much suffering and injustice? Job didn’t deserve this so he specifically requested an audience with God, but there was no reply. “I cry out to you, O God, but You do not answer; I stand up, but You merely look at me.” (Job 30:20)
Most of us have felt that way at times. We’ve gotten angry with God for allowing us to hurt and we’ve demanded an explanation. Even though God has warned us that His ways are not our ways, we try to make sense of it all. We want an explanation for broken relationships, financial hardships, premature deaths, brutal wars and physical pain. Like Job, we cry out, “Why me? Why this? Why now?”
Now at the climax of the book, God appears and Job could let his questions fly and present his case before God. At long last, he could tell God how unfair things had been over the last several months or years or however long Job’s suffering lasted.
There’s just one little catch. Before God would answer Job’s questions, He had a few of His own. Essentially, God had one question. He asked it of Job and it still echoes down to us in the silence from heaven in our times of suffering: WHO ARE YOU, A MERE MORTAL, TO QUESTION THE ACTIONS OF GOD? In essence, God’s answer to Job is, “Because I’m God, that’s why.” That is harsh, to the point, and precisely what we need to hear.
But God’s questions to Job sound like what I DON’T need in my darkest hour. I want some tenderness. I want some mercy. I need some grace. Thankfully, the book of Job isn’t the only book in the Bible. Other passages overflow with God’s comfort to the hurting.
Psalm 34 tells us God is close to the brokenhearted. Psalm 103 says he is tender and compassionate. The book of Revelation shows God wiping every tear from the eyes of His children.
But we also need to hear this: GOD IS GOD AND I’M NOT. And neither are you. So trust Him!
Ted Turner had a 15-year-old sister who died of lupus. Their family was a God-fearing family when she became critically ill. They prayed but she got progressively worse and died. A Christian friend told Ted’s dad that God’s ways were mysterious, but it would make sense in the end. Ted Turner’s father’s response was to abandon his faith. He never set foot in church again. His son made the same decision. Would you?
This marvelous passage of Scripture shows us some practical principles that will help us remain faithful to God through difficult times.
Body
I. BECAUSE OF GOD’S MAJESTY, TRUST HIS TIMING.
Job still had to learn that he could not dictate the way or time in which God speaks. Job demanded a courtroom setting with a legal contest over his innocence. Instead, he got a whirlwind in the desert with God asking the questions – over 65 questions.
38:1 THEN, When? Whenever God was ready, whenever God knew Job was ready and not before. When the voices of all others were stilled. When Job had failed to receive any help from his friends and was still left with upsetting questions. When Elihu helped Job take his eyes off his problems and focus them on the character of God…it was then that God spoke and not before.
Why does God speak now when He has been silent so long?
· Not because Job talked God into it;
· Not because God decided He owed it to Job. God hasn’t placed Himself under obligation to Job at any point in the story.
· No, God speaks now, only because He chooses this moment to speak.
It is only by God’s choice that He chooses to reveal this to Job. Many times we will pray and plead and then wait endlessly for an answer from God. But God will not be coerced into acting before His time.
Have you ever read that verse in the Psalms that says, “My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning -- Yes, more than those who watch for the morning" (Psalm 130:5, 6)?
Two things about waiting for the morning:
1. You can’t hurry it up!
2. It will surely come!
God is never late, but He is also seldom early. Trust God’s timing. You cannot hurry God up. You cannot order God around. You must trust His timing when He seems to be deaf to our cries and doesn’t come to our rescue. Can you still believe He is in control? Can you still believe He is listening and has heard?
Notice God spoke to Job out of the storm. Drenched and clutching his dripping sackcloth, still shaking from the awesome crashes of thunder and the brilliant blazes of lightening, Job crouches on the ground and hears God’s voice.
We prefer that God speak to us in the sunshine, but sometimes He must speak out of the storm.
Not only does God not appear to Job on demand, but when He does speak, God doesn’t answer any of Job’s questions. Job wanted God to explain His actions and defend the justice of what He had allowed to happen to Job. Instead, God appears and begins to question Job. Job demanded an answer to the questions, “Why me? Why this? Why now?”
God knows that what Job really needs is a fresh vision of the majesty of God. Job was really asking 2 questions:
1. Does God really know what He is doing?
2. Does God really have control over all circumstances of life?
The first lesson to learn is that God is in charge of the universe, so trust His timing. Here’s a fact we often miss, but it is so important in coping with trouble: the universe doesn’t revolve around us. God is in charge! We are His creation and not vice versa. He is not our servant. We are His servants. Once you accept that God is in charge, your attitude about your problems change. When we understand this is God’s world and we exist to bring honor to Him; we quit complaining and we start making the most of our circumstances.
We might not always like it, but God is like the parent who says, “As long as I provide the roof over your head, the clothes on your back, and the food on your plate, I will also make the rules and decide what is fair.”
Because of His majesty, Trust His timing!
II. BECAUSE OF GOD’S MYSTERY, TRUST HIS WAYS.
38:2-3 God is not on the witness stand. Job was. God didn’t question Job’s integrity or his sincerity. He only questioned Job’s ability to explain the ways of God in the world. I love the way the Message paraphrases this, “Why do you talk without knowing what you’re talking about?”
God says, “Get your helmet and buckle up, little man, because you and I are getting ready to go one-on-one!”
God demands, “Who are you, to tell Me I don’t know how to run the world?” Then God gets sarcastic. “Let’s check out your qualifications to criticize Me. I assume, since you think you know better than I do how to create a universe, that you have some relevant experience. What was your role in creation? Do you recall the blueprints, the measurements? Refresh my memory, Job – were you the design engineer or the construction supervisor?”
A bunch of leading scientist came to God and challenged God to a “man-making contest”. God said, “What do you mean?” The scientist said, “Well, we have learned enough about the working of DNA and biochemistry and cell transfer and manipulation that we think we can do a better job than this out-dated version you made.” God said, “Okay” and picked up a handful of dirt. The leading scientist then picked up a handful of dirt and God said, “Hold on. What are you doing? You have to get your own raw materials!”
God asked Job questions about the physical world. He starts with creation. He moves to the seas and the sun. “Job, how many sunrises have you made?” The earth is orbiting around the sun at a speed of 66,000 mph while at the same time it is spinning around at about 1,000 mph so that one part of the globe is facing the sun and the other is in darkness. And every morning the sun rises again! Can you do that Job?
He moves to the dimensions of the earth. (38:16) “Job, have you ever taken a walk in the depths of the sea?” The greatest depth measured so far is in the Pacific Ocean – 35,810 feet or almost 7 miles!
He asks questions about the weather – snow, hail, wind, floods, thunder and lightening, rain, dew, ice and frost. So far Job hasn’t answered a single question because he can’t. Not even a bonus question would help at this point.
God’s point is that if Job can’t command the sun to rise each morning, why does he think he can command God or understand God’s ways? If Job cannot understand the underground springs in the earth, how could God possibly explain what He is doing in Job’s life?
Don’t you hate it when you ask a question and the person answers it with a question? Have you ever had this type of conversation? “You give me one good reason why I shouldn’t be allowed out till 3 am?” The answer is the most frustrating response. “You tell me who is in charge here?”
That’s not an answer! Sure it is. You can rail on as much as you like about how valid your question is. You can rail at your parents. You can go to school and your friends agree you have a fair question, but the reality is you have to learn to live with an answer you don’t like! An answer that gets at the heart of the real issue. “I’m the parent. You’re not.”
“Why is there such injustice and unfair suffering?”
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” (38:4)
“Why is a good father killed at the hands of a drunken driver?” “Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?” (39:1)
“Why was I abused when I was so young and innocent?” “Have you given the horse strength? Have you clothed his neck with thunder?” (39:19)
“Why do I have a neuro-muscular disease?”
“Does the hawk fly by your wisdom…does the eagle mount up at your command, and make its nest on high?” (39:26,27)
It just doesn’t sound rational. We have legitimate questions and we deserve legitimate answers. We ask, “Why do the innocent suffer?” and God questions us about an ostrich! It’s like God says, “Don’t ask Me to explain suffering to someone who doesn’t even know how to make a sunrise, let alone how to build an ostrich!”
One of the wonders of our faith is that while God reveals Himself, God very rarely explains Himself. But that is what faith is all about. We may not know the “why” but we certainly know the “Who” of our faith.
Once Job sees who God is, he lays his questions down at the feet of the Lord and kneels there in worship. Ruth Bell Graham wrote this poem:
I lay my “whys”
Before Your cross
In worship kneeling,
My mind too numb
For thought,
My heart beyond all feeling.
And worshipping,
Realize that I,
In knowing You,
Don’t need a “why”.
God turns Job’s attention to another category of questions. “Job, do you know anything about how I care for My creation?” God parades animals before Job’s mind’s eye. He speaks about the lioness, goat, deer, wild donkey, wild ox and horse. He asks about the birds. The providence of God is remarkable. In His wisdom and power, God supervises the whole universe and makes sure His creation is cared for.
In effect, God asked Job how much he even understood of the animals. Could he control them? Did he design their life cycle? Did he make them what they are? We never hear Job’s answer, but we know what it is. No, no, and no. God is saying, “If you can’t understand why I made the animals the way I did, how can you even begin to understand why I do what I do in your life?”
God doesn’t have to come out and say it, but we can still hear Him. He tells us He knows what He is doing even if we don’t. About the time we think we have Him figured out, we need to step outside. We think we have life and the world figured out, but even with all the modern technology, we can’t even accurately predict the weather a few days in advance. Something as simple as the wind and the rain still go beyond our understanding. How much more so does God? And if we can’t understand the workings of the physical universe, why would we assume we could understand the workings of the spiritual universe?
40:1-2 Do you demand answers when things don’t go your way? When you lose a job, someone close to you is ill or dies, finances are tight, you fail or unexpected changes occur? Suffering hits and we want answers. God gives only one: I am God and I know what I’m doing.
“Job, if you have to trust Me for running the world, can’t you trust Me with the small details of your life?”
One of the notable things about the book of Job is the absence of explanations. God never answers why. He just says, “Look at My majesty. I am God, not you, so trust my timing. In my wisdom, there will always be some mystery to this thing we call life, so trust My ways.”
God says, “Trust Me and wait till eternity and I’ll explain it.” God provides answers in His time so be willing to wait till eternity if necessary.
A college student took a final exam at the end of the semester. When he got the test, he was stunned! He didn’t have a clue to the answers! Not a single one. Trying to win the professor’s favor with humor, he wrote on the top of the page, “Only God knows the answers to these questions. Merry Christmas!” Over the break, he received the exam in the mail, graded by the professor. At the top the professor wrote, “Then God gets 100, and you get a 0. Happy New Year!”
How do you maintain trust in God during difficult days? Because of God’s majesty, trust His timing and because of God’s mystery, trust His ways. The fact is that we just don’t have the whole picture do we?
A father and his young daughter were riding in a crowded elevator. Suddenly, a woman in front of them turned and slapped the father’s face. The elevator stopped and the woman stormed off, looking back, shooting hated looks at the man.
The father was obviously shaken and confused. He looked down at his daughter and said, “I wonder what her problem was?” His daughter said, “Oh, she was just a mean lady who likes to hurt people, Daddy. I didn’t like her either. She kept stepping on my toes. So I pinched her bottom as hard as I could. That’s when she started picking on you!”
Sometimes it helps to wait till you know the whole story.
III. BECAUSE OF GOD’S MERCY, TRUST HIS LOVE.
Job is sitting there, stunned. He answers the Lord, 40:3-5. “I have no right to open my mouth, God! You’re in the Big Leagues and I’m just in T-ball. I’m not going to say another word.”
But it is not silence God wants. He wants trust. Job admits to God’s power and God’s wisdom, but not God’s justice. God doesn’t want Job’s silent rebellion. He wants Job! So God continues.
“Let’s imagine you are running the universe, Job. Would you crush the wicked if you were God?” Job is caught in the trap of logic. If he were to play God and bring immediate judgment to the wicked, how would he himself escape? Job had complained that God isn’t being fair, but if God were to dispense immediate justice, Job would suffer also because he shares the sin of humanity also.
If God were to wipe out evil from the earth, we would never understand the meaning of grace.
God closes out chapter 40 and uses chapter 41 to focus on 2 unusual creatures – the behemoth and leviathan. What are they? We don’t know. Some suggestions have been given that the behemoth is the elephant, a water buffalo, many think it was a hippopotamus and some say it was a dinosaur like a brontosaurus. It has been suggested that the leviathan has been suggested to be a whale, a crocodile or another dinosaur. God’s point is that you cannot control them and you cannot control God.
We think we can control God. From time to time, I’ll hear some evangelist on TV telling how God will bless me if I’ll just mail in a check. Most of us aren’t that crass, yet deep down we assume we can get God to bless us if we live the right kind of life. We just know He will smile on us and shower us with good things if we are sincere enough in our faith.
We want to force God to do our bidding. If we just pray enough or believe enough or live a good enough life, we think God must act in a certain way. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you can’t get your dog to stop barking, what makes you think your actions can in any way force the Sovereign Lord over all creation to do anything?
42:1-6 Job gets the point. He is humbled by God’s greatness, and he sees hope in God’s goodness. He does not get the answer he wants, but he gets the answer he needs.
In 1992, after Hurricane Andrew struck south Florida, a 7-year-old girl asked her father why God let it happen. Andrew’s 160-mph winds had ripped the roof from their house while they huddled in a stairwell. The girl’s father found himself wanting to defend God. He said that he didn’t want her to think badly of God, but he had no words. Finally, he said, “I don’t understand why this happened. But sometimes you have to lose the roof to see the sky.”
Job had become so familiar with God that he argued with Him. He scolded and accused God as you would a fellow man. Job needed to be reminded that He is God and Job was not.
As a child, our family was in a car accident. I was thrown from the car and I skidded on my face on that gravel road. I had a pretty good cut on my forehead that required stitches. They took me to the hospital emergency room in an ambulance. In that cubicle, strangers cut my clothes off. Strangers came in and went out in a rush, asking questions of me. I was in the 5th grade and scared. Doctors and nurses came and went. I was scared and struggled to get up. I was held down by nurses and told to lie still. I remember struggling to get up. Then another familiar voice came to my ears and hands rough from carpenter’s work held mine and I stopped struggling and I knew it would be all right. Why? My father had arrived.
Job is knocked down. He’s deeply hurt. He’s lying flat on his back and struggling. Then he hears this familiar voice and he ceases to struggle because in that moment, Job knew it was going to be okay.
God didn’t answer one of Job’s questions, but Job still came away from his encounter with God more than satisfied. He didn’t need to present his case before God. God didn’t have to explain Himself. Even though God never said one thing Job longed to hear, simply coming face to face with the majesty and sovereignty of God was enough because he knew God cared.
I know Your POWER can do anything for me.
I know your PURPOSE will be fulfilled in me.
I know your WAYS are too wonderful for me.
I know your WILL is good for me.
I know your LOVE is hope for me.
So Job could get up from his pile of ashes, put his regular clothes back on and go forward with his life. He still hurt. His children were still dead. All his wealth still lay in ruins, but his life could now go on. God spoke. Job found himself in dead silence before God’s power and might…and it was enough.
God could explain everything to you of His workings behind the scenes of our trials, but chances are we wouldn’t be able to understand it. How could His infinite wisdom possibly fit into our finite brains? What we do need to know is of His majesty so we can trust His timing, of His mystery so we can trust His ways and of His mercy so we can trust His love.
The book of Job ends with the Lord turning Job’s circumstances around by giving him twice as much as he had before. And 10 more children were born and their happy squeals filled the rooms of his house. What a great ending to 41 chapters filled with pain! Does that mean I can promise you a happy ending? No. There is a mystery in suffering and a mystery in restoration.
Even though Job and his wife enjoyed 10 new children and later a house full of grandchildren, 10 graves still lay behind the main house. The joy of his family would always be tempered by those who died and the thoughts of what might have been. Job didn’t go back. He went forward.
That’s really what you have to do. Suffering leaves a huge void in our lives. The pain intensifies and all we want is to go back to the way life used to be. But we can’t. Life never goes in reverse. Either we can sit and wish for days gone by or we can go forward.
The only way we can go forward is to come face to face with the Sovereign Lord and discover like Job that just knowing He is God is enough. There are no assurances that tomorrow will be better than today. Jesus said in the world we would have trouble. He didn’t say how much and He never explained why.
But there is one assurance we have: God is God. Because of His majesty you can trust His timing, because of His mystery, you can trust His ways, and because of His mercy, you can trust His love.
The book of Job offers a choice. Will you respond to life’s trials and pains as Job’s wife recommended: “Curse God and die?” Or will you follow Job’s example and proclaim, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”
The story is told of a young husband who lost his wife to cancer. He was left all alone in the world to raise their young daughter. The first night alone in the big house was not an easy night for father or daughter. The dinner table was desperately lonely. As bedtime came, an electrical storm broke out. The power went out and it was dark, still, and empty. When daddy tucked the little girl into bed, the room was pitch dark.
“Daddy, are you there?” “Yes, Sweetheart, I’m right here.” “Daddy, I can’t see you.” “Sweetheart, even though you can’t see me, I’m here. I’m talking to you, aren’t I?”
“Daddy, I’ve never been this scared before.” “Honey, I’m here. Trust me. Everything’s going to be okay.” With that word of assurance, holding to her father’s hand, the little girl put her head on her pillow and fell asleep.
The dad made that long, lonely walk down the hall to his own bedroom. The storm blew and howled against the house. It was so dark. Lightening would flash across the sky, lighting up the whole room, and then plunging it into darkness again. Getting into bed, that dear man stared up at the ceiling. His heart felt like that room – dark, empty and stormy. He turned his broken heart toward Heaven.
“Father, are you there?” He felt the assurance of God, “Yes, Son, I’m here.” “Father, I can’t see you.” “My son, I’m here even though you can’t see Me.”
“Father, I’ve never been this scared before.” “Son, trust Me. Everything’s going to be okay.” With that assurance, the dad put his head on the pillow and fell asleep.
Will you trust Him even if the night is dark? Will you trust Him even if you don’t know why? Because when you don’t know, you can rest in the assurance that you know that God knows.
Mark Tabb, Out of the Whirlwind
Jerry Bridges, Trusting God
Philip Yancy, Disappointment with God.
David McKenna, The Whisper of His Grace
Stephen Lawson, When All Hell Breaks Loose
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