GOD IS WITH US—EVEN WHEN WE SUFFER
Job 19:25-27
Series: “What Do I Need to Know for Life?”
Lesson Five (Job)
July 11, 2010
[Start with video of people getting hurt]
I guess it’s the sadistic side of me, but those are incredibly funny, aren’t they? My dad—who was a brutal football player in his high school days—can hardly stand watching America’s Funniest Home Videos because he feels bad for the people shown who got hurt!
But we understand, don’t we? Because even though we laugh at such videos, we know that pain and suffering is no laughing matter at all! I suppose sometimes we’d just assume laugh rather than cry! And sometimes when Christians go through periods of great physical or emotional pain, we muse that we’re starting to feel a little like Job. And Job’s story was anything but funny!
There’s a book in the Old Testament that bears his name and tells his story. For those unfamiliar with the Old Testament, I might explain that his name looks like it should be pronounced “job”—it’s just j-o-b, but it’s pronounced like it’s j-o-b-e. But with a name like “Pusey,” I don’t make fun of anybody’s name! And I’m guessing that Job’s name was the least of his worries.
Let me tell you about Job. Other than what we learn in the Old Testament book by his name, we don’t know anything more about him. It’s unclear when he lived or when his story was written down. And while he lived in the land of Uz, no one knows where Uz was. When he was first introduced, it’s made clear that he was a wealthy herder with thousands of sheep and thousands of camels plus hundreds of oxen and donkeys. Besides his livestock, Job had lots of servants. He was one of the richest and most influential men in his corner of the world.
According to the first chapter of Job, the Lord had a conversation with Satan one day, affirming Job’s virtues, calling him the finest person on earth. And Satan begs to differ with God, arguing that Job is a godly man only because God had blessed him so abundantly. Satan said to the Lord, “But stretch out your hand and strike everything Job has, and he will surely curse you to your face” (Job 1:11). So God allowed Satan put Job to the test.
And what a grueling test it was!—much of it happening in a single day! Foreign raiders stole his oxen and donkeys and killed the farmhands. Only one worker survived to deliver the news. While he was still talking, in comes another messenger—telling that fire from the sky, maybe started by lightning, had incinerated Job’s sheep and his shepherds. Only one worker survived to deliver the news, but while he’s still talking, in comes another. He announced that another group of foreign raiders had stolen Job’s camels and killed his herders. Only one worker survived to deliver the news, but while he’s still talking, in comes another. He announced that a windstorm had blown down the home of Job’s oldest son, where all of Job’s 10 children were enjoying a meal together. All of Job’s children had been killed, and only one servant survived to deliver the news. And all this happened in one day! And you think you’ve had a bad day!
But in his grief and despair, instead of cursing God, Job cried out,
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” (Job 1:21)
Unfortunately, Satan persisted in his attacks on Job. On another day, he afflicted Job with painful sores all over his body. We don’t know the exact nature of the sores, but there are those who suggest that it was shingles. And those of you who have suffered with shingles know how painful and miserable shingles can be! In Job’s physical pain, his dear wife comes alongside to encourage him, saying, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!” But still, Job did not sin against God.
Then Job’s friends came from far away to comfort and console him. And after some days of quiet comfort, they began to express their thoughts about what was happening. They’re convinced that God is punishing Job for sin in his life from which he needed to repent. Now Job’s suffering moves from the physical realm to the spiritual—as his friends impose upon him their warped theological understanding that whenever someone suffers it’s because God is punishing them. And the rest of the book of Job records dialogue between Job and his friends and then between Job and the Lord. And while Job complains to the Lord in brutally honest fashion, he does not turn his back on God, hanging onto a persistent thread of hope and faith that is best expressed in chapter 19.
Turn with me in your Bibles to that chapter, and let me read verses 25-27—
[Read Job 19:25-27, NIV]
In our series of sermons for these summer Sundays on lessons from the heroes of the Bible—“What Do I Need to Know for Life?”—we come to a great lesson through the life of the man named Job. Here’s the lesson: God Is With Us—Even When We Suffer.
Let’s talk about the realities of human suffering. Any way you come at it, you have to conclude that it is simply part of the human experience. The book of Job reveals the depth of human suffering—much of which is simply circumstantial to life with no responsibility on the part of the one hurting. As we learn from Job, human suffering includes physical pain, the emotional agony of grief and loss, and the devastating impact of spiritual isolation—feeling forgotten and abandoned by God and others.
I suppose one of the challenges for any pastor is what I consider both the privilege and the burden of seeing human suffering close up and personal. I got such an indoctrination to human suffering in my first senior pastor role in Galion, Ohio. I had nine funerals in my first year as pastor there—one of which was for the beautiful 18-year-old daughter of one of our key families—and, in that case, I had to identify her body and be the one who told the parents that she died in a tragic accident. It was to the same parents that I later had to deliver the heartbreaking news that their adult son was arrested by the FBI on attempted murder charges. My heart broke for them—and I watched them suffer in their agony.
I’ve stood by bedsides as people endured terrible physical pain. I’ve watched as people worked incredibly hard for every breath in the final hours of their lives—and tried to offer love and support for family members whose hearts were breaking in those moments. And I’ve fought unsuccessfully to hold back tears as I somehow shared in their suffering and, as a pastor or maybe just as a fellow Christian, willingly took on a bit of their suffering. And while I can’t explain suffering to you, I can tell you that human suffering is part of life—that it’s out there and it’s real—and I suppose we can all find some consolation in the knowledge that even Jesus experienced real suffering in his human experience.
And part of the great challenge in the midst of human suffering is dealing with the lie of Satan that suggests that God has deserted us when we are suffering—that we’re in this all alone. And while our emotions suggest in those dark hours that we’re all alone—we aren’t! And even in those times when we may not be able to voice to anyone else the depth of hurt we’re experiencing, the truth is that God hears our heart cries and cares deeply about us!
Job felt so all alone in his devastating circumstances. He had lost almost everything, and in his darkest hour his wife had no clue how to encourage him and only added to his pain! For her to say, “Curse God and die!” was as if she was saying, “You may as well shoot yourself in the head and get this over with!” What a sweetheart! Actually, we can only imagine the pain she was going through too! And though his friends came from far away to be with him in his sorrow, their unfair and unfounded accusations left him feeling so all alone! And while Job felt so all alone, even feeling as if God had deserted him—he discovered that it was not true at all! God had not deserted him!
Are we to think that Job’s feeling that he could not find God nor make sense of God in this time of personal crisis was unique to Job’s experience? Oh, no! Besides other biblical examples of people who went through similar experiences, it’s safe to say that most Christians at some time in life find themselves going through such a season of inner turmoil. And certainly such times do test our faith! No doubt about it!
But as gold is refined in the crucible of fire, so most believers are permitted to go through emotional and spiritual valleys that are designed to test our faith. Why? Because faith ranks high on God’s priorities. Scripture tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). And what is faith?
Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1)
This determination to believe even when proof is not provided and when God doesn’t answer all of our questions is central to our relationship with God. It’s the acceptance of His Lordship over our lives—the acknowledgement of the truth of the Word of God to us through the prophet Isaiah—
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)
And yet, a theological answer doesn’t take away the pain and frustration we experience when we walk through the barren, lonely land of suffering. Some really fine Christians have found themselves doubting the very presence of God—and certainly wondered where the grace and mercy of the Lord were in such times! We ask questions like, “Where is God when I need Him most? Doesn’t He know what’s happening to me?” And “Lord, is this the way You treat Your own? I thought you loved me!”
We know that He could rescue, that He could make it all go away in a moment—but He does not always choose to do so. And, as Job experienced, Satan will use our pain to make us feel victimized by God Himself—and it’s such a deadly trap! Satan is such a liar! And when we start to believe Satan’s lies, we distance ourselves from the One who loves us and promises to see us through the suffering and instead turn to the one who only desires our demise. But these are times to depend upon the promises of God—that He will never leave us nor forsake us, that He is the faithful God, that He is the Mighty God and Everlasting Father!
And in Job’s cries to God, he was incredibly blunt with God, charging God with cruelty and demanding that God explain Himself—which is pretty audacious of Job, when you think of it! But I’ve often said that “God is a Big Boy—He can handle our questions!” And I believe that, but I don’t believe that God always chooses to give us answers—certainly not always the answers we’re seeking and certainly not always on our time-table!
Like Job, we get focused on the “why” questions. And in Job’s case, God answered the “why” questions with “who” questions. God was essentially saying to Job, “Who do you think you are?” And God makes His point with some pretty curt questions, like—
- “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much” (Job 38:4)
- “Can you direct the movement of the stars? (Job 38:31)
- “Is it your wisdom that makes the hawk soar and spread its wings toward the south?” (Job 39:26)
And, by the end of God’s questioning, Job humbly got the point, and determined to listen. Job came to see that his deep-sounding philosophical questions about suffering were foolish, acknowledging that he could not begin to understand the ways of God Almighty. And, most significantly, Job accepted the truth that God was with him—even when he suffered. God’s presence isn’t measured by the blessings in life and the tough times don’t mean that God has deserted us! Through good times and bad times, God is with us.
I had an opportunity to go four-wheeling with my friend Richard a week ago yesterday up in the mountains beyond Idaho City. It was a blast! We were in a side-by-side called a Razor—which at first reminded me of a dune buggy—but it sure could go! We rode up to Wilson’s Peak and then on to Pilot’s Peak at an elevation of 8200 feet. We rode about 45 miles altogether! We were up and down some pretty significant trails—some pretty rough trails! It was a great Idaho adventure!
We experienced the exhilaration of the view from the mountaintops and also the rutty terrain of deep valleys and even the creeks and streams of the valley. Now, did the heights of the mountains or the depths of the valleys impact my relationship with the friend I was with? No—we were side by side the whole time. He may have had a bit of white knuckles going when I drove, but he was my friend when we started and when we ended and all the way along!
And so it is in our relationship with our Heavenly Father—whether we’re in the highs or the lows of life. God wants us to have faith to be assured that, despite our feelings and despite the circumstances of life through which we may be going, He is the One who holds us steady. He’s right beside us!
By the way, the end of the Book of Job tells us that God blessed the second half of Job’s life, as he had blessed the first half. Job raised 10 more children, and he had herds and flocks double what he had owned before. And he lived long enough to see four generations of children, including his great-great-grandchildren. But what he had learned in the deepest valley of life was that God was with him—through it all. God’s love and grace and care for Job had never wavered, despite Job’s despair in the darkest season of his life. And it’s a lesson we all need to learn. And the words recorded in Job 19 became a lifelong declaration of truth for Job—“I know that my redeemer lives!”
You see, what Job discovered was that God is the defender of the oppressed, the champion of suffering people. He is the Redeemer God—and the use of the word “redeemer” here is so revealing. The word had great meaning in the Old Testament world, with both judicial and civil dimensions to its usage. On one hand, a “redeemer” had a responsibility to seek justice for a slain family member. And in the civil realm, a redeemer was a vindicator, “buying back” and so redeeming the lost inheritance of a family member who was deceased. It was the redeemer who defended the defenseless. It was the redeemer who championed the cause of the one who could not champion their own cause. Job was in a situation where he could not defend himself—he needed someone who could do that for him…and the only one who could was God. God defended Job’s cause!
Sometimes we want to defend ourselves or bring rationale and reasoning to explain to others why things are going on in our lives as they are. But we can’t always do that effectively. The arguments only exist on the human plain—and, remember the words of the Lord?
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)
God will ultimately get the last word in—and that’s His job, not ours. God ultimately gave to Job a hope that in many ways was ahead of his time—a hope in the resurrection.
I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my hearts yearns within me! (Job 19:25-27)
Job had come to believe in God’s power to raise the dead and had a desire and hope that God would, in His time, raise Job up. Job came to realize that even though he suffered in this life, that there would come a time when the suffering of this life would no longer matter. Job came to see that though he suffered, God was not against him.
And God is not against you, either, friend. And despite what you may be going through, He asks you to trust Him—to lean on Him and not on your own understandings. In his book, When God Doesn’t Make Sense, James Dobson shares four insights regarding Who he has come to believe that God is and how God interacts with us. Let me share those with you—
- God is present and involved in our lives even when He seems deaf or on an extended leave of absence.
- God’s timing is perfect, even when He appears catastrophically late.
- For reasons that are impossible to explain, we human beings are incredibly precious to God.
- Your arms are too short to box with God. Don’t try it! (James Dobson)
Let me explain the last one. Our finite human minds are pitifully ill-equipped to argue with the Creator. There are some things we couldn’t understand even if God tried to explain it to us. We can ask God our questions, but it’s dangerous to arrogantly demand explanations from God. It’s also just as futile to lean on our own understanding. We need to humbly acknowledge Who He is and who we are—and let that understanding lead us once again to trust. We can choose to trust Him, regardless of what goes on in our lives—and there are times when our only other alternative is despair.
Let me close with the heart cry found in one of the Psalms—Psalm 42—
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while men say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go with the multitude,
leading the procession to the house of God,
with shouts of joy and thanksgiving
among the festive throng.
Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God…
Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.
By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me–
a prayer to the God of my life.
I say to God my Rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?”
My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God. (Psalm 42)
[Prayer]
Benediction: 1PE 5:10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
