What does God require of us?
Intro: If you are one of those people who feels tired of working
too much, it is good to remember the words of Bernard Shaw who wrote: "The year is made up of 365 days, each
having 24 hours,12 of which are night time hours, which add up to a total of 182
days. This leaves you with 183 days to
work minus 52 Sundays, which leaves you with 131 days to work minus 52
Saturdays, which leaves you with 79 days to work. But, there are 4 hours each day, set aside
for eating, which adds up to 60 days, which leaves you 19 days for working. But
you are entitled to 30 days of your vacation, which means you have 4 days left
for work minus 3 days, which you usually take off due to illness or other
emergencies, which leaves you 1 day to work, which happens to be Labor Day
which is a
Or like another puts
it: Want to work in a new place, around
different people, doing different things?
Just mess up one more time.
God has a job description for us. And we find it in the book of Job.
The date of the book leans toward a patriarchal age (lacking
references to historical events. Its an
old book, but as Solomon says, there is no new thing under the sun.
1. Be Perfect and
Upright
Not in
reference to sinlessness--1 Jn. 1:8; Rom. 3:23
Perfect: complete (using all the tools God gives
us-people, His Word, prayer, your pastor, your parents), sound, wholesome,
having integrity (2:3; Ill. 105), unimpaired, unlike the natural man, 1 Cor.
2:14; had man written the Bible, David would have been perfect (Ps. 32:5);
Jesus completes us
Edwin Bliss
once said, “The pursuit of excellence is gratifying and healthy. The pursuit of
perfection is frustrating, neurotic, and a terrible waste of time.”
Margine
places ad: Encyclopedia, no longer
needed, just got married, husband knows everything (you don't have to be
perfect for God to accept you--He will complete you)
Upright: manageable, pleasing, straight, level,
agreeable to God (Is. 40:3-4, make straight); Jn. 15 and pruning
2 Tim.
3:16-17
Ja. 1:2-4
2. Fear God
Fear: stand in awe of, honor, reverence
Not as in: One summer night during a severe thunderstorm
a mother was tucking her small son into bed. She was about to turn the light
off when he asked in a trembling voice, “Mommy, will you stay with me all
night?” Smiling, the mother gave him a warm, reassuring hug and said tenderly,
“I can’t dear. I have to sleep in Daddy’s room.” A long silence followed. At last it was
broken by a shaky voice saying, “The big sissy!”
Is there
one person you can think of that has really influenced your life? You hang on their every word. In fact, your self-worth is based on their
opinion of you (never believe what they write about you in your OER)
I like to
read the policy letters when I arrive at a new station. Understand that God’s policy letters mean
more than anything; Jn. 6:66-69; one XO told me the Boss’s priorities are my
priorities.
Prov 1:7;
Mt. 10:28
Ecc. 12:13;
MT 7:13, more people do not fear Him
3. Hate Evil
Hate: turn aside, depart, reject, abolish (Ex. 3:3,
turn aside)
Repentance: change of mind, turning away (
2 Chr. 7:14
Being for
something also implies being against something
“Our Values
are not for sale.”
Concl: Looking for
another job. What does God require of
us.
Job 2:1-10
Hold Fast Your Integrity
A glimpse of what goes on behind the curtain.
No priest, no temple, no law
Bildad the Shuhite (Shuah, youngest son of Abraham by his
second wife)
God is watching you, and your response.
What an honor for God to brag on you.
Doesn’t really answer the question: “Why do the righteous suffer?”
People always ask me "How can a good God allow
suffering?"
Rather it asks the question, “Why do people serve God?”
v. 1, heavenly beings
(sons of God) and Satan (the accuser or adversary) present themselves before
the LORD
1 K 22:19
(prophets could discern this, but Job wasn’t a prophet)
angels who serve God’s court in
heaven and act as His messengers
v. 2, Satan going to and fro on the earth; 1 Pet 5:8 (not
omnipotent)
v. 3, God on Job
my
servant—puts Job in a select company with Moses, Caleb, David, Isaiah,
Zerubbabel, the prophets, and the suffering servant (Is 53)
no one like
him living
blameless/perfect
not
sinless
complete,
well-rounded, wholesome, sound
lived up
to the light God gave him
upright
speaks of
his relationship to others
straight,
faithful, loyal
fears God
(Eccl. 12:13)—the beginning and end of wisdom
turns from
evil (Joseph)
avoided
evil
as a
deliberate act of will, turned aside from temptation and opportunities to do
wrong
his
outward walk conformed to his inner convictions
being FOR
something implies being AGAINST something (all truth is exclusive)
persists in
his integrity
under the
most adverse circumstances
without
cause
v. 4, Satan asked permission to touch his bone and flesh
(God’s two wills)
Satan does
not question his attributes, only his motives (1:9)
Satan
cannot touch those who serve God unless God allows it, and then only for a
purpose (suffering for a purpose)
Satan
implies that love and loyalty can be bought; that everyone and everything has a
price; Satan gets some of us pretty cheap
Satan
continues to accuse Job of serving for profit (all that a man has he will give
for his life)
Much
suffering in this world is a result of sin, but not all of it is
v. 9, Job’s wife said “curse God and die”
v. 10, Job answered, “we should take the bad with the good”
Some serve
God out of fear
Some serve
God to cash in here on earth
Some serve
to cash in later
Hard sermon to preach, because there are no answers or
humanly reasonable explanations for some problems. CGSC teaches me critical reasoning. But that is human reasoning, not divine (Is
55; cross is foolishness)
Is there any comfort when there are no answers? I would like
to argue that the deepest comforts you will ever receive come to you
from the hand of God and are not attached to answers. But how is there any
comfort when there are no answers? Having
answers is easy. Sometimes we have to
walk down that road with only God at our side.
I think each one of us has experienced personal tragedies.
If you have gone through tragedies for which you do not know the answers, you
may be aware that people come and provide an array of what appears to them
to be comfort (Mother whose daughter is sick—told she didn’t have enough faith). Bur oft-times what they say is really no
comfort at all. You listen to the comfort they provide, but you find out that
when you sit in your living room after the children have gone to bed, you will
still wonder if there's any comfort or anybody in the universe to provide it.
What people sometimes say at the moment of tragedy is more wish fulfillment
than reality.
Job had three uncomforting friends who came by to offer him
comfort. They basically said that the reason this tragedy had come
upon Job was that he had dishonored God and become the object of his wrath.
That's a lot of comfort! As he sits with sores all over his body and tears on
his face for lost sons and daughters and property, he has to listen to three
thoughtless, ignorant friends. That has been my experience also. People who
lack insight and perspective are always ready to offer what they perceive to be
infallible, impeccable revelations. Some
problems are easy to diagnose—it’s our sin causing them.
Satan said, "If Job is blessed by God, then he will be
faithful." Job's friends said,
"If Job is faithful, then he will be blessed by God."
Job answers his three friends. One of his answers is
correct, but two are wrong. It’s because of his wrong answers that God finally
speaks to him. But Job was right when he said to his friends that it
wasn't personal sin that caused his tragedy. Their basic opinion was that
tragedies come upon us as a retributive action of God, a punishment for
something that we have done. Job replies to his three friends correctly by
saying to them, "Look, I've done nothing. I'm innocent. I'm a righteous
man, but I have lost my sons, my daughters, and all my wealth."
They were wrong. Job was
a righteous man. However, in the midst of his suffering, which was
very real and poignant and terrifying, he did say two things that were wrong.
He said that God must be an uncaring God. He must not understand. He must not
really be kind or care for people, because he let things happen. Not only that,
Job also said what had happened to him was evidence that God was not in control
of his universe.
Job accuses God of two things. He says to him, "You
don't really care for me. And even if you do, you are not able to care for
me." Those are the two charges that I think every one of us, in
the midst of our suffering, raises against God.
What is found in Job 38-42 is the longest discourse in the
Bible in which God speaks. Finally God says he will offer some answers to
Job's questions. Job has said to God, "Because I sit here in these ashes,
because my children are only a fond memory, because I have lost everything I
possessed, you must not care for me. But if you do care for me you are
incompetent to provide for me."
God raises seventy questions. With
those seventy questions, he says to Job, "Job, how deep is your
understanding of things? How much do you really know?"
v. 2, Darkens counsel by words without knowledge
We
sometimes speak without proper authority
It is
important for us to know what we are talking about (Mt 16:5-12)
For now, we see through a glass darkly (
Romans 9:20—The creature is not competent to sit in
judgement of its creator; we sit in judgement of the Word of God; God is not
answerable to man for what He does, but He must act consistent with His
character; man who tempts God by demanding to be struck by lightening in five
minutes.
God does not give a detailed
explanation of the
mystery of suffering. Instead He ranges through the universe to give glimpses
of His majesty, glory, wisdom, and power. He is saying, in effect, “Before you
take it on yourself to criticize My ways, you should ask yourself if you could
manage the creation as well as I do.” This, of course, can only show Job how
powerless, ignorant, insignificant, inadequate, incompetent, and finite he is.
We are no
longer listening to the gropings of the natural mind, as in the discourses of
the friends; nor to the wild cries of a wounded faith, as in Job; nor even to
the clear, sober language of Elihu—we are in the presence of Jehovah Himself,
who speaks to us.
In poetic words of unsurpassed
beauty, the Lord mentions the creation of the world when He laid the
foundations of the earth, its measurements, its survey, its support (suspended
in space, of course), and the angelic celebration. Then He asks, “Where were
you when all this took place?”
38:8–11 Moving from cosmology to
geography and oceanography, He describes how He restricted the sea to its assigned shores, forbade
further intrusion, and clothed the waters, as if they were a baby, with clouds
and thick darkness.
38:12–18 Next He vividly pictures
His control of the morning—the light of dawn streaking across the heavens, illuminating everywhere
it goes; unmasking the wicked who operate in darkness, as if by shaking them
out; revealing the configuration of earth’s surface, as if it had been stamped
out like clay under a seal; and bringing out the colors of the landscape as if
it were a beautiful garment. Darkness, which is the preferred “light” of the
wicked, is withheld from them and their evil plots are frustrated. He challenges
Job to tell what he knows about the depths of the ocean, the realm of death,
and the breadth of the earth.
38:19–24 God now cross-examines Job
on the origin and nature of light. The sun is not a sufficient answer, because
there was light (Gen. 1:3) before the sun was put in place (Gen. 1:16). Was Job old enough to know the
answer? And what does he know about snow and hail, which God sometimes
harnesses in times of trouble and war? How do light and the east wind, which
seem to come from a point, spread over the surface of the earth?
38:25–30 Next, in a class on
weather, Job is quizzed on rainfall and thunder, on how water falls on a desert,
causing it to produce luxuriant growth, and on the source of rain, dew, ice,
and frost. How is it that water freezes hard as stone and solidifies the
surface of the deep?
38:31–33 No science is so calculated
to show man his insignificance as astronomy. So God questions Job on his ability to control the
stars and constellations, or keep them in their orbits, or determine their
influence over the earth. (oh yeah, he made the stars, also)
In light of modern man’s supposedly
great control over nature through science, Spurgeon’s words, based on the KJV
text of verse 31, are a healthful counterbalance:
“Canst
thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?”—Job
xxxviii. 31.
If
inclined to boast of our abilities, the grandeur of nature may soon show us how
puny we are. We cannot move the least of all the twinkling stars, or quench so
much as one of the beams of the morning. We speak of power, but the heavens
laugh us to scorn. When the Pleiades shine forth in spring with vernal joy we
cannot restrain their influences, and when Orion reigns aloft, and the year is
bound in winter’s fetters, we cannot relax the icy bands. The seasons revolve
according to the divine appointment, neither can the whole race of men effect a
change therein. Lord, what is man?
38:34–38 Obviously, anyone who can
question the wisdom and power of God should be able to bring down rain by
shouting to the clouds, and command lightning so that it obeys instantly! Can Job tell God how the mind
operates, how man gets wisdom and understanding in all these areas?
36 No man has the wisdom to number the clouds, to say nothing of the
particles of moisture by which they are formed. And no one can determine the
time when the rain falls on arid ground that has been hardened into clumps and
clods.
38:39–41 God now moves from the inanimate
creation to the animate. By continued questions, He reminds Job of His
providence—how He opens His hand and satisfies the appetite of every living
thing, from kingly lions in their dens and lairs to the unprepossessing raven
and its young ones.
39:1–8 Job is reminded that no one
but God knows fully the gestation periods, the birth habits, and the instincts
of the wild mountain goats and the deer. The wild donkey (also called onager)
scorns restraint, city life, and harness, but roams at will over the desert and
mountain ranges searching for every green thing.
39:9–18 The wild ox also rejects a life of
service in plowing or transporting. And what about the ostrich with her unusual
wings? In some ways she acts foolishly, laying her eggs in places where they
are vulnerable, and treating her young harshly. Yet she can outrun the race
horse and its rider!
39:19–25 God next asks Job if he
gave strength to the war horse, or clothed his neck with thunder (or a mane, NKJV
marg.).
Majestic and unafraid, devouring distance with fierceness and rage, this proud
animal eagerly gallops into the battle in utter disregard of shouting, trumpet,
or glittering spears and javelin.
39:26–30 Did Job give wisdom to the
hawk to migrate south? And was he the one who taught the eagle to fly, to nest
on the high rocky crag, to spy out carrion from a great distance, and to train
its young ones to find their food?
40:1, 2 Again the Lord rebukes Job for his impertinence
in finding fault with the Almighty. If he is so wise and powerful, surely he
should be able to answer the catalog of questions that he has just heard
Conclusion
Human v. Divine Reasoning
Is there comfort?
1.
God DOES control all things
2.
God DOES care
In that moment, when you experience
the peace of God like never before, you will know.
Is There
Any Comfort?
by John Hannah
Text: Job 38-42
Topic: How God
comforts us even when there are no answers
Big Idea: When Job
questioned God, God responded not with answers, but with his character, which brought Job comfort.
Keywords: Comfort;
God, goodness of; God, sovereignty of; Peace; Suffering
Introduction:
God’s deepest comforts are not attached to answers.
1. Job shares some insights gained on the anvil
of experience.
Job lost everything – possessions,
family, health – and had 3 lousy friends to boot.
Job answers his friends with 3
answers: one correct answer, but 2 wrong ones:
He’s
correct to say it wasn’t his personal sin that caused his tragedy.
He’s
incorrect to say 1) God is uncaring, and 2) God is not in control.
We sometimes make the same
incorrect assumptions about God when in crisis.
In Job 31:35, Job asks the
universal question: “Why?”
2. God responds to Job’s questions.
Job 38-42 is the longest discourse
in the Bible in which God speaks.
God responds to Job’s questions by
raising seventy questions of his own.
In Job 38:4-39:30, God answers
Job’s charge that he is unkind.
In Job 40:6-41:34, God answers
Job’s charge that he is not in control.
3. Job responds to God’s replies.
In Job 40:3, Job essentially says
he has no right to accuse God of not caring.
In Job 42:6, Job repents for
saying God didn’t care.
The point: Job had a terrific
change of mind, even though God gave no answers.
Job found comfort not in answers,
but in God’s revealed character. We can too.
Illustration:
Hannah tells of the time his wife discovered a lump on her breast, and
he found comfort in God’s character.
Conclusion:
What is the source of your comfort? The answer is in God’s character.
Is There
Any Comfort?
by John Hannah
Is there any comfort when there are no answers? I would like
to argue that the deepest comforts you will ever receive come to you from the
hand of God and are not attached to answers. But how is there any comfort when
there are no answers?
I think each one of us has experienced personal tragedies. I
can remember going through a very deep tragedy in our family. If you have gone
through tragedies for which you do not know the answers, you may be aware that
people come and provide an array of what appears to them to be comfort. Bur
oft-times what they say is really no comfort at all. You listen to the comfort
they provide, but you find out that when you sit in your living room after the
children have gone to bed, you will still wonder if there's any comfort or
anybody in the universe to provide it. What people sometimes say at the moment
of tragedy is more wish fulfillment than reality.
That experience happened to me. I felt for a while that I
was overwhelmed by a sea of uncertainty and fear, and I wondered if there was
any comfort in this world or any strength to be had for my situation.
Job shares
some insights gained on the anvil of experience.
When there are no answers, is there any comfort? To help
answer that question, I would like to turn your attention to the book of Job.
Job shares with us some insights he gained on the anvil of experience.
The story line in the book of Job is simple. You all know, I
trust, that Job was a very prosperous fellow. He had enormous wealth. But
through a series of tragedies over which he had no control, he lost not only
his wealth and property, but also all of his sons and daughters and all of his
livestock. In the midst of all that tragedy he was stuck by a gruesome,
terrible illness that left him sitting in a heap of ashes, wondering why all of
it happened.
To make matters worse, Job had three uncomforting friends
who came by to offer him comfort. They basically said that the reason this
tragedy had come upon Job was that he had dishonored God and become the object
of his wrath. That's a lot of comfort! As he sits with sores all over his body
and tears on his face for lost sons and daughters and property, he has to
listen to three thoughtless, ignorant friends. That has been my experience
also. People who lack insight and perspective are always ready to offer what
they perceive to be infallible, impeccable revelations.
Job answers his three friends. One of his answers is
correct, but two are wrong. It’s because of his wrong answers that God finally
speaks to him. But Job was right when he said to his friends that it wasn't
personal sin that caused his tragedy. Their basic opinion was that tragedies
come upon us as a retributive action of God, a punishment for something that we
have done. Job replies to his three friends correctly by saying to them,
"Look, I've done nothing. I'm innocent. I'm a righteous man, but I have
lost my sons, my daughters, and all my wealth."
They were wrong. Job was
a righteous man. However, in the midst of his suffering, which was very real
and poignant and terrifying, he did say two things that were wrong. He said
that God must be an uncaring God. He must not understand. He must not really be
kind or care for people, because he let things happen. Not only that, Job also
said what had happened to him was evidence that God was not in control of his
universe.
Job accuses God of two things. He says to him, "You
don't really care for me. And even if you do, you are not able to care for
me." Those are the two charges that I think every one of us, in the midst
of our suffering, raises against God.
We may not do it loudly, but we whisper it in our
subconscious in order to find comfort. "God, do you really understand my
sorrow? Do you really know? Do you really care?" Then, as the temperature
gets hotter, we often say to God, "Are you really in control at all?"
Job goes on to say that he wishes he had never been
conceived. Furthermore, he wishes, since he had been conceived, that he had
died in childbirth. But God has granted neither wish, so he wishes that God
would at least take his life in his present circumstance.
In Job 31:35 he says this: "Oh, that I had one to hear
me…let the Almighty answer me!" In the midst of his suffering he cries out
to God. He raises the question that you and I have raised repeatedly in the
tragedies of our experience. It is the question that makes us shudder when our
children ask it: the question, "Why?" Three times in this book Job
says to God, "Answer me! Tell me! I want to know why."
Job shares
some insights gained on the anvil of experience.
Beginning in chapter 38 God does answer him. What is found
in Job 38-42 is the longest discourse in the Bible in which God speaks. Finally
God says he will offer some answers to Job's questions. Job has said to God,
"Because I sit here in these ashes, because my children are only a fond
memory, because I have lost everything I possessed, you must not care for me.
But if you do care for me you are incompetent to provide for me."
So, in chapters 38-42, God speaks to Job. What is amazing
about this is that God speaks to Job out of a whirlwind. In the Bible a storm
is often the occasion in which God reveals himself. It's like the storm that
brought ruin to Job, and destroyed his family. This time through a similar
whirlwind, God brings not ruin but revelation, not tragedy but disclosure. The
amazing thing about what God says is how he says it.
God raises seventy questions. With those seventy questions,
he says to Job, "Job, how deep is your understanding of things? How much
do you really know?"
There are two discourses here. One begins at chapter 38,
verse 4, and continues through chapter 39. In this discourse God is answering
Job's charge that God is unkind. Job has said, "Because God has treated me
this way he is basically uncaring. What’s worse, he is essentially unfair. He
is unsympathetic. He lacks a real understanding of me." Haven't you ever
said that in the quietness of your heart, when the whirlwind of tragedy has
blown through your life and through your family? "God, I know you're
there, but I don't think you’re listening. I don't think you care. I don't
think you understand." And then out of the whirlwind God speaks.
Notice what he says. Beginning in verse 4, he raises a
multitude of questions. With them he says to Job, "Job, how much do you
know about how much I care? How much do you know about my wisdom? How much do
you know about the way I order the universe?" Notice that there are no
answers. There are only questions.
God picks things out of nature and asks Job what he knows
about them. He says, "You accuse me of not caring, but what do you know
about the animals? Do you care for them, Job, like I do?” Look at verse 4:
"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you
have understanding." Or read verse 8: "Who shut in the sea with
doors?" In the Bible the sea is always the symbol of chaos and
disorderliness. God has tamed the seas and he has made the earth.
In verse 12 God asks, "Have you ever in your life
commanded the morning?" I think one of the great gifts of God is the
rising of the sun. This morning I got up early and had the pleasure of sitting
on my patio watching the sun rise. When it broke over the trees a cool morning
became a warm morning. This is God's gift to us every day. "Have you ever
in your life commanded the morning? Job, just how intelligent are you?
Job also accuses God of a lack of kindness. In verse 16 God asks, "Have you entered
into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the
gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep
darkness? How much do you know, Job?" Later he asks, "Has the rain a
father, or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb did the ice come
forth, and who has given birth to the hoarfrost of heaven?"
God is saying, "Think, Job. You are accusing me of
being uncaring. You are accusing me of
not understanding, of being unsympathetic. But I have made a world the depth of
which you will never understand. It's running in perfect order and symmetry.
That's how much I love it."
Then God turns to animals. This is one of the most beautiful
passages in all the Bible. If you ever doubt the care of God, if you ever doubt
his sympathy, read these verses. In chapter 39, beginning at verse 1, he says,
"Do you know the time the mountain goats give birth? Are you a lover of
nature? Do you observe the calving of the deer? Can you count the months they
fulfill, or do you know the time they give birth? Will the wild ox consent to
serve you?" It will serve God. "Do you give the horse his might? Do
you clothe his neck with a mane? Is it by your understanding that the hawk
soars, stretching his wings toward the south? Is it at your command that the
eagle mounts up, and makes his nest on high?"
I can feel for Job when he makes this first accusation. I've
been in pain. I've had physical pain, but the greatest pain in all of my life
has been the suffering of emotional pain. I have been there. I have been there
when the darkness was darkest. And unfortunately I have said to God in my smaller
thoughts, "God, you must not care, because if you really loved me like the
Bible says you do, you would never have allowed this to happen." That's
Job's first accusation. But what God is saying to Job by raising all of these
questions is this: "I am a God of infinite care and love and concern for
my creation. If I am concerned when the goats give birth, if I am concerned
that the sun rise every morning, isn't it reasonable, Job, that what you are
accusing me of is a lie?
The second discourse begins in chapter 40 at verse 6. God
again speaks out of a storm, a symbol of God's awesome presence. Here from
chapter 40, verse 6 through chapter 41, God is answering the second accusation
brought by Job against him. It is that God is unable to control the universe
that he made, that it is of out of his hands, that God is weak. At best he is
inept and at worst he is incompetent and has no power to rule.
To answer this charge, God speaks about two animals. Both of
these animals are associated with life in the waters. The sea is a symbol of
chaos and also a symbol of evil, and these big animals are symbols of the chaos
of life. God is saying, "If I can control those animals, then this world
is not chaotic."
When the Pharaohs of Egypt were crowned, they symbolically
slew two animals: a hippopotamus and a crocodile. The behemoth in chapter 40 is
a hippopotamus. The leviathan in chapter 41 is a crocodile. Those Egyptian
Pharaohs were showing in symbolic form that when they came to rule in Egypt
they would dominate over chaos. God is saying that he is in control.
These are large animals. The behemoth weights eight thousand
pounds. He lives in the water. He is an uncontrollable beast. Man cannot tame
him. Notice verse 15: "Behold now, Behemoth (the hippopotamus), which I
made as well as you…If a river rages, he is not alarmed; he is confident,
though the Jordan rushes to his mouth. Can anyone capture him when he is on
watch, with barbs can anyone pierce his nose?" God is saying, "I
control the hippopotamus. He is within my clutches. Evil is not random. Things
do not happen by mistake."
To make the metaphor even stronger, in chapter 41 he takes
up the leviathan. Leviathan, most commentators are willing to say, is the great
Egyptian crocodile. God says, "Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish
hook? No one is so fierce that he dares to arouse him. Who then is he that can
stand before Me? Who has given to me that I should repay him? Whatever is under
the whole heaven is mine."
Job makes two accusations of God in the midst of his
suffering. He says, "God, you do not care for me. For if you did care for
me, the tragedy that has overtaken me would never had occurred. Disappointment,
pain, and mental infirmity are alien from the loving care of God." Then
Job says, "If you do care for me, you cannot control the universe that you
have made. You are incompetent and inept."
Job
responds to God’s replies.
Then after each of God's answering discourses, Job makes a
reply. For his first one, look at chapter 40 verse 3. "Then Job answered
the Lord and said, ‘Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to Thee? I lay
my hand on my mouth.’" Job is saying, "I have no right to accuse you
of not caring, because you have made nature. You control nature and provide for
all the animals of nature. If you provide for them, simply finite creatures,
how much more must you care for and love me."
The second discourse brings a second response, found in
chapter 42 at verse 6. After the first discourse Job was humiliated. After the
second discourse, Job repents. "Therefore I retract," says Job.
"I repent in dust and ashes." Job is saying, "I am sorry for
saying that you don't care, because I know you care. I am sorry for saying that
things are out of control, because you are in control."
But the point to be made is this: Job had a terrific change
of mind, but did God give him any answers? No. God gave no answers, but he
overwhelmed Job with the knowledge of his presence.
Is there any comfort when there are no answers? Most of life
is spent in that sphere. My reply is this: There is comfort, and that comfort
comes from a reliance on the revealed character of God. God has revealed
himself truly to us, but he has not revealed himself completely. God has called
us to a confident faith that is real faith.
We're living in the twentieth century, which has elevated
and perhaps perverted the parental character of God. We have forgotten his
awesome transcendence. Not only does he love us, but he is also above us and
controls all of life's circumstances. No wonder worship is sometimes sterile
and dry when we think that God is the sum of our arguments and the sum of our
finite knowledge.
There are no explanations here. There is no justification
here. All that we have is an overwhelming of Job by the revelation of God's
ways.
The tragedy that most shook me, I believe, was when my wife
returned from a gynecologist's appointment some years ago to say what to me are
the most horrifying words I think a lady can say when she returns from such an
appointment. She said, "In my routine checkup today the doctors discovered
a lump."
I am not very fast in my mental apparatus, but I learned
what that can mean. For six months we struggled with that. At that time we had
a four-year-old and a two-year-old. I struggled at night, after I put her to
bed, saying to myself, "How will I ever raise my daughters if I have to
raise them alone?" For six months I thought that. I would try to be brave,
because that's the male image.
I would put my wife to bed and then go out in the living
room and turn off the lights. In the darkness of those moments with my Bible in
my hand, I discovered the greatest comfort that can ever be given to a human
being. That comfort is not a knowledge that everything will be all right, but a
knowledge that everything is under control. It is a knowledge that we have a
God who is infinite in his mercies and in his kindness.
What comforted me in the tragedy was not the
answers--because there were none--but the character of God. I realized that God
cared for me. He cares for the goats, he cares for the deer on the mountains,
and he cares for me. I found out that this world is not chaotic. He controls
the behemoth. He controls the leviathan. He controls all chaos. He is infinite
God and I am finite man.
So I could turn out the lights and go to bed and rest, not
in my knowledge, but in confidence in the very character of God.
And I say to you, my friends, that you may go through awful
tragedies. When your friends go home, their wish fulfillments stated, and you
are left alone, what is the source of your comfort? My answer is that the
source is not knowledge, but in the character of God. He is good. He is
infinite. He is full of mercy.
As I was writing the end of my sermon yesterday, the
telephone rang and a student said, "Last night my child died." What
could I say to him? I will say to him what I would say to anyone. It's captured
in this gospel song: "When the darkness veils his lovely face, / I rest on
his unchanging grace; / when all around my souls gives way, / he then is all my
hope and stay."
Is there any comfort when there are no answers? The deepest
comforts do not come from answers. They come from knowing God.
(c) John Hannah
www.PreachingTodaySermons.com
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Today International
35 (38:31–33) Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, Devotion for March 21, Evening.
36 (38:34–38) Because verse 36 seems to interrupt the discussion of weather phenomena in verses 34–38, many other translations have been suggested. The Hebrew is admittedly difficult.