Why You? (Job 4-31)

Brian Callan attends Cork Methodist Church.  I could say a lot about him.  He has a doctorate in chemistry.  He used to be a Jehovah’s Witness.  He is a local preacher and an accomplished poet.  However, if you were to meet him, I guess what would strike you is his warmth and friendliness.

Brian and his wonderful wife Jan have had much pain in life, including a number of miscarriages, the death of their son Robert, when he was just five days old, and their daughter Nicola, when she was only eight months.  In a poem entitled Miscarriage, which Brian dedicates to Jan, he writes of the pain:

“Was it wanted”

The epitaph of our age,

A nurse’s necessary suggestion

An automatic suggestion

A dream spilled down your cheek

At the knowledge of your loss

And the thought of all the love to give

To another child who will not live.

Questions floated between the fears and tears

Above the faintly fathomed pain,

“Why me Lord, what did I do?

Didn’t I trust you enough?”

Hard to hope, hard to cope,

Time to hold hands and cry,

Dividing platitudes and prayer,

Cherishing those who truly care.

In the midst of the pain one of the obvious questions is ‘why me Lord?’  Job’s friends think they know the answer to ‘why him?’  But are they right?  Job doesn’t think so!  In chapters 4-31 we have a long debate between people who think they know why some people suffer so much and someone who is living with that suffering.  We will answer two questions as we look at this passage: ‘Do bad things really happen to faithful people?’ and ‘Is there something more important than answers?’  

Do bad things really happen to faithful people?

After seven days and seven nights Job cried out in anguish.  He has lost his wealth and his children.  He is covered from head to toe is sores.  He says it as he feels it.  ‘Why could I not have died at birth?’  He despairs of life itself.  ‘I have no peace, I have no rest, but only turmoil’ (3:26).

His words prompt a reply from his three friends.  Words can bring comfort, but the words of Job’s friends are crushing.  They think that they know why he is suffering.  They believe that what they say is important and true.  Yet what they say suggests that they neither understand Job nor the ways of God!

‘Bad things don’t happen to faithful people!’  That’s essentially what they say!  ‘You must have done something awful to deserve this.  You had better confess your sin and turn back to God.’  

But we know that Job has done nothing to deserve this nightmare.  In the first chapter God declared to Satan that Job ‘is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil’ (1:8).  Now, in response to his friends’ accusations, Job defends himself.

It is worth noting what Job says about himself.  I would like to be able to say these things about myself! 

‘Though he [God] slay me, yet will I hope in him . . .’ (13:15a)

‘My feet have closely followed his steps;

I have kept his way without turning aside.

I have not departed from the commands of his lips;

I have treasured the words of his mouth more than daily bread’ (23:11-12)

‘Because I rescued the poor who cried for help’ (29:12)

‘I have made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl’ (31:1)

‘. . . my door was open to the traveller' (31:32)

What does it look like to follow God faithfully—to be a person who is blameless and upright, to fear God and shun evil?  These verses give us a glimpse.  Here is holiness that is not dry and legalistic, but holiness that seeks to hold on to God—even when life is tough; that looks to God’s word for direction; that is passionate about our heart—guarding what we look at and think; and that shows kindness to others—including those who are desperate and marginalised.  It is not that Job is perfect, but there is certainly much about him that we would do well to imitate!

Faithful believers really do suffer.  While at times the Bible does speak of God disciplining his people (see 1 Cor. 11:27-32; Heb. 12:1-13) it also speaks of suffering, like that of Job’s, that is not related to any act of immoral behaviour (see John 9:1-12; Luke 13:1-5).  Simplistic formulas, like those of Job’s ‘comforters’, simply won’t do.

A good number of years ago I read a book that influenced me more than almost any other.  It’s called ‘How long, O Lord?’ by Bible-scholar, Don Carson.  In it Carson warns, ‘Practically speaking ... it is almost always wrong, not to say pastorally insensitive and theologically stupid, to add to the distress of those who are suffering illness, impending death or bereavement, by charging them with ... some secret sin they have not confessed ... [this] charge wrongly assumes that there is always a link between a specific ailment and a specific sin.’  In sickness—as at all times—we should be examining our consciences but ‘we should not necessarily expect to find a specific sin that has caused this distress.’      

Is there something more important than answers?    

The first study in the Christianity Explored course begins with the following question: ‘If you could ask God one question, and you knew it would be answered, what would it be?’  As you can imagine, that leads to some interesting discussions!  I suppose one obvious question would be ‘why does God allow suffering?’  To which we might answer, ‘suffering is a part of living in a fallen world.  Because humankind has turned its back on God we live in a world that is subject to his curse, a world where all people are subject to sickness and death.’ 

However, what if the person who asked the question is not really thinking about suffering in general but of a particular instance of suffering?  The question they are really grappling with is ‘why does my aunt have to have Alzheimer’s?’, ‘why did my brother die so young?’, ‘why did it have to be them and not someone else?’, or ‘why do I have to go through this pain?’

At this stage it might be worth holding up our hands and simply saying, ‘I don’t know.’  There is a mystery with suffering!  There aren’t easy answers that explain each person’s pain.  We don’t know why some people suffer so much.  Job’s suffering remained a mystery to him.  He did not get to look behind the curtains at the conversation between God and Satan.  While he was certain it was undeserved suffering he had no idea why it was him who had to go through that nightmare.

While Job may not know all things, he does speak of the importance of wisdom.  That’s the theme of chapter 28, which comes in the middle of his final response to his friends.  This theme of wisdom is one of the keys to understanding the book of Job.

In the Bible wisdom is not about knowing all things but knowing the best way to live.  At the end of chapter 28, having asked where wisdom might be found, Job declares, ‘The fear of the LORD—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.’  As one study book explains, ‘true wisdom is not a matter of knowing why suffering happens; rather, true wisdom is a matter of knowing the God who knows why suffering happens ... The wise person cannot necessarily explain why everything in life happens, but the wise person is in a right relationship with God.’  When we go through times of pain and anxiety we might cry out for answers, and there may be none.  However, there is something more important that having answers—that is trusting God in the midst of all we go through in life.   That is wisdom!

The theme of wisdom points us forward to Jesus.  In Jesus, and his especially his crucifixion, ‘we also see the supreme example of God’s wisdom, for in defiance of all worldly wisdom, God chose to save people and bring them to know himself through the suffering and death of his Son on the cross (1 Cor. 1:8-2:10).  When we know Jesus, we are at the heart of God’s plan and goal for his creation.  This is why Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God.’

Other themes in Job point us forward to Jesus. 

Jesus is the perfect example of undeserved suffering—he knows what it is like to feel anguish and pain.  

A couple of verses that jumped out at me as I read through this section were the following: ‘He [God] is not a man like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court.  If only there was someone to arbitrate between us.  To lay his hands upon us both’ (9:32-33).  Jesus is that arbitrator between us and God, who intercedes on our behalf (see 1 John 2:1 and Hebrews 7:25).

And in the face of the fickleness and faithlessness of his friends Job declares that a despairing man should have the devotion of his friends (6:14).  That ought to challenge us.  What sort of friends will we be to people we know who are going through hardships—will we helpful, caring and wise with our words and our presence?  As for Job’s desire for a faithful friend, we have the greatest of all friends, Jesus Christ.  In the midst of our pain we do have the sort of friend that Job longed for.    

Conclusions

The book of Job is more concerned with the ‘how?’ of suffering than the ‘why?’ of suffering.  Job’s suffering remains a mystery to him.  We couldn’t the family whom I mentioned at the start of the last sermon why they lost two sons—we don’t know!  We couldn’t tell Joan Wilson (who I also mentioned in the last sermon) why she lost her daughter Marie, and later her son Peter and husband Gordon—we don’t know!  We couldn’t tell Brian and Jan Callan why they lost two children and suffered miscarriages—we don’t know!  Neither did Job’s three friends know why he was suffering—even though they thought that they did!  Despite what they thought bad things do happen to faithful people.  Even a man who is described as upright and blameless, who fears God and shuns evil, can suffer like Job.

So how can we keep going when our world is falling apart?  How can we suffer in a way that honours God?   
By knowing God!  We may not know why we are suffering but we can know the one who does know why we are suffering—that is wisdom!
We can go through suffering with the help of the person that Job longed for.  Jesus has promised to be with his people.
Finally, we ought to trust God.  What amazing words: ‘Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him ...’ (13:15a).  How difficult, yet important, this is!  Let’s pray for the strength to do just that!