Where is God when it hurts?

Introduction

             I was at New Life Bible Church, in Macedon, NY (near where Joseph Smith found the golden tablets from which he translated the Book of Mormon)

             I was to preach.  Report just in was delivered to the congregation: two missionary wives killed in car wreck

             Everyone was stunned.

             I had two choices: go ahead with my planned sermon or preach like a Baptist (Brethren) spontaneously (by the seat of your pants)

             So I told them, “I’m an ordained Baptist and I’m an apologist. So, I’m laying aside my prepared text and here we go…”

             I spoke from Job broadly (as I shall now) and drew on at that point something like 15 years of studying apologetics and theodicy (the philosophical defense of the goodness of God in the face of evil)

             Making sense of suffering is a perennial problem.  It’s as old as humankind.

Book Ends 

             The Book of Job is a book which has if you will “Book Ends”: i.e. chapters which preface the book (1 & 2) and a chapter (42), which concludes the book.

             We are given information the main characters don’t have.

             Following the introductory chapters a cycle of speeches start which are delivered by Job’s “friends” and rebuttals from Job, with a final rebuttal from God himself!

             The concluding chapter “sets the record straight.”

Preface: 

             Job was “Blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil” - This phrase is a frame for the passsage.

            Greatest man in the East – wealthy in goods and family (7 seven sons & 3 daughters)

             Verse 1:5b Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom.

             So this is the scene on earth which is set for the entire story.

             But then the scene shifts to heaven to God’s eternal throne room.

Scene 1:  Celestial staff meeting 1:6 -12 

             The Angels are what are referred to as Sons of God… Satan is also a son of God, an angel, a messenger of God.

             Given that Job is likely the oldest book of the Bible this is the first mention of Satan, …

             and there is no explanation for his wickedness or where he came from or why God allows him access to his throne room or why he is “on God’s staff” so to speak…

I.           God initiates the inspection

A.God uses the phrase of Job “he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” 1:8

B. And he praises Job: there is no one on earth like him. – This is high praise indeed! 1:8

II.         Satan’s (the accuser, the adversary) response:  1:9 - 11

A.   Job loves you because you bless him; he loves you because he has stuff… cynical

B.  And you protect him… “Let me at him!  I’ll change his tune!”

III.        God’s response: “OK, test him” (in effect), but don’t touch his body 1:12

IV.       Satan goes to work. (He doesn’t waste any time.) 1:13 – 19

A.Your combines, seed drills and trucks have been stolen. (Plowing oxen and donkeys.) Also your workforce is gone. 1:15

The phrase “While he was still speaking…” is repeated to emphasize how Job is suddenly and repeatedly struck with sorrowful news. Wham! Wham! Wham!

B.Your livestock is gone. (No raising livestock anymore.) And your work force is gone. 1:16

C.  Your over the road trucking company has collapsed. (Camels – caravans of goods, trade.) Oh, and your work force is gone. 1:17

D.  Your children are dead. (Your Social Security and Old Age Pension are gone.) 1:18, 19

V.        Job’s response: 2:20-21 

A.  Mourning (Sitting “Shiva”)

          Tore his clothes, sits in the dirt, throws it on his head

          (Wealthy people wore beautiful, flowing robes

          with expensive dyed colors, silver or gold threads,

          encrusted with jewels,

-      they sat on chairs or stools made of the finest woods, imported from abroad or hand-woven luxuriant carpets

-      they dwelled in tents made of expensive and cool cloth,

-      they never sat in the sun in the heat of the day,

-      they bathed regularly and

-      put oil and palm aid in their hair,

-      they put on colognes and rich perfumes)

B.  Job praises God (Recognizes God’s sovereignty and right to do with him and his goods as He pleases – OT No secondary causes)

According to Lev Shestov, a Russian religious philosopher, “God is not rational.”  God is exalted and we can’t figure him out.  He is sovereign and omnipotent.

             We can’t understand him or “chain him” with our logic.

             But we can count on his covenantal goodness.

The well known writer CS Lewis in his children's series, The Chronicles of Narnia says of Aslan who is the figure of God: "Aslan is not a tame lion." What he means is that God doesn't fit our ideas of how things ought to go.

C.  “In all this Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.”
Job doesn’t fall to the temptation of blaming God… yet…

D.  Job wasn’t a “health and wealth” kinda guy!  He didn't believe we had to be blessed with health and prosperity to be loved by God.

a.   He didn’t believe because God gave him stuff.

Aside:  Danger of fideism and nominalism: 

1.   We don’t want to portray God as an irrational ogre.  The issue is not asking “Why, God?!”, but trusting that even in what seems irrational to us there is a divine purpose.  We may not, cannot see it, but it is there.  Ps 37 & 73

Ps 73 A psalm of Asaph

¹ Surely God is good to Israel,
    to those who are pure in heart.

² But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
    I had nearly lost my foothold.
³ For I envied the arrogant
    when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

He lists all their advantages…

Then he complains…

¹³ Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure
    and have washed my hands in innocence.
¹⁴ All day long I have been afflicted,
    and every morning brings new punishments.

But then he has a moment of self-awareness…

¹⁵ If I had spoken out like that,
    I would have betrayed your children.
¹⁶ When I tried to understand all this,
    it troubled me deeply
¹⁷ till I entered the sanctuary of God;
    then I understood their final destiny.

When he realized that they will go to hell fat and self-satisfied he remembered why he was striving to obey God!

2.   I don’t believe God ordered this evil upon Job.  The text is careful to say “Very well, then, everything he is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”

                                         i.    God points out Job to Satan, but it is Satan and not God who does the evil. Despite the Old Testament view that there are no secondary causes.

                                        ii.    The text makes it clear that God is ultimately in control.  Satan is a servant of God, a messenger, an angel.  He is limited in what he can do and what he is allowed to do.

Scene 2:  Celestial staff meeting No. 2 - 2:1ff    

             A similar scenario to the first Celestial staff meeting: “Another day...” we don’t know how long Job has gone on suffering… 2:1

God says: “Report! Where have you been?”… Satan replies: “Wandering around”… He was up to no good! 2:2

                   The Apostle Peter says of Satan that he is like a prowling lion “Looking for someone to devour”? 1 Peter 5:8

“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

I.             God initiates the inspection of Job:       2:3-

A.  God uses the same speech: “Have you considered my servant Job?”…

Surely Satan has… Likely he’s not too happy about what occurred.

Job’s still looking good.

B.  God gives Job the same praise…                               

“There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

C.  God gives Job additional praise:                

“And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”

II.           Satan’s response:  2:4, 5          

A.  “Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life. ⁵ But now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

B.  In effect, Satan says, “OK, he managed to get through losing his worldly goods and his children, but if he suffers physically in his own person, in his own body, he will blame you and curse you.”

III.          God’s response:  2:6

A.   “Very well, then, he is in your hands;”

Again God delivers Job over to Satan (Why? We don’t know. Test? Seems like it.  Divine boasting? All attempts to explain why seem lame.  We don’t know why, only that He did.)

B.   “but you must spare his life.” (Again Satan is limited, though he can cause real evil, real pain, real harm.)

IV.         Satan quickly goes to work               

A.  He “afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.” 2:7         

B.  Satan couldn’t have been more effective and devastating in carrying out his task: painful sores from head to toe!  Vicious!

C.  Job's illness was not just something like leprosy debilitating, but relatively painless…  It was painful!

V.          Job’s response:  2:8                  

A.  Job applied the latest medical treatment: gets a piece of broken crockery (sufficiently sharp) to scrape his wounds!  Yuch!

B.  He continued to mourn

C.  Apparently he continued either to be silent or to praise God

Aside: Satan’s human helpers

1.   Job's wife: “Curse God and die!”  2:9   

a.   “Are you still maintaining your integrity?” 2:9

b.   Her question is ironic, but for the author it is a statement of praise for Job; integrity is God’s word for Job

c.   If her statement weren’t a backhanded compliment, the text says that Job himself answered her “foolishness”

d.   Wisdom literature is all about the “foolish” (those who do not live according to God’s commands, who don’t walk in His ways) and the “wise” (who live according to His commandments and walk in His ways).

e.   “Better to live in the corner of a roof than with a contentious wife!”

Proverbs 21:19 KJV

It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman.

Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.

Proverbs 25:24 NIV

D.  Job put his wife is her place 2:10

E.  He spoke wisely: “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”  2:10

(“God giveth and He taketh, blessed be the name of the Lord” 1:21)

F.   Assessment of Job: “In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.” 2:10                                       

This verse parallels 1:22

Sin = charging God with wrong doing

Interlude: I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but I’d say this statement in 2:10 that Job “did not sin in what he said” covers Job’s statements up to this point.

After his three friends come it seems to me that he starts to lose his balance. 2:11-13                                                           

You know the best thing his three friends did?  Sit in silence!  “Sit Shiva”

As soon as they opened their mouths they stopped comforting him and began accusing him.

The Cycle of Speeches 3 – 38                       

Job vehemently protested his innocence in the face their accusations.  While he might be technically correct that their accusations are false, he does seem to blame God.

I will give only one example:

We are all familiar with Handel’s “Messiah” and the famous tenor aria about knowing that his redeemer lives and seeing God in this flesh from Job 19:25-26

²⁵ I know that my redeemer lives,
    and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
²⁶ And after my skin has been destroyed,
    yet in my flesh I will see God

However, Job seems to mean something very different than Handel meant.  Job means, “Even if God kills me, I will see him in Sheol? (in the resurrection? on the judgment day?) AND I will stand before him and demand to know WHY did you do this to me!?!?!”  I’m being a bit free in my interpretation, but it seems justified by the context.

Illustration:  “Hiding and Seeking” - Ex. Menahem Daum’s mother

I show a documentary film called “Hiding and Seeking” written by a Rabbi who takes his sons to Poland to meet the Roman Catholic Poles who saved their grandfather and uncle from the Nazis by hiding them.

Job’s attitude is similar to what Rabbi Menahem Daum said that his mother would say when she stood before God and he were to ask her why she should be allowed into heaven.

His mother was a Holocaust survivor.  Her baby boy was torn from her arms as she entered the death camp.  Although she survived most of her large, extended family was killed in the camps.

She felt that she had a right to question God as to WHY he allowed this killing and suffering.  Perhaps she did.

Her husband never answered her angry questions.  He continued to maintain his Jewish religious observances.

When he saw his friends rounded up to be hung as a warning to the Jews of their village in Poland he heard them extolling God’s greatness.  He expected a miracle, but none came.  Despite this when he was in the camp he continued to maintain his ritual observances.

When he would read the Passover Seder service and reach the passages which spoke of God’s deliverance of the Israelites from the Egyptians his wife would interrupt and ask, “Where was God when my family died?”  Daum’s father never answered. He would wait until his wife stopped questioning and then quietly continue.

Daum’s father understood that God was not required to answer him and that he could not fathom the WHY question.  He maintained his “integrity”, his devotion even in the sense of what to him and us seemed like senseless suffering and death.

Job had prefaced those beautiful verses Handel uses with these two verses:

19 ²¹ “Have pity on me, my friends, have pity,
    for the hand of God has struck me. (Who struck him?)
²² Why do you pursue me as God does?
    Will you never get enough of my flesh?

Job has apparently either “lost it” and did start to blame God, or at least he is emphasizing that he is hard pressed to explain God’s behavior, even though he continues to hang on to whatever shreds of belief in God’s goodness he has, despite the evidence to the contrary.

If I am correct here Job is not trusting God blindly. This is not fideism in the face of evidence of God’s evil intent or even in the absence of any rational explanation, which theodicy can produce. 

This is Job, as before, emphasizing that God had blessed him in the past.  He knew God, in that famous biblical way.  God wasn’t a theological abstraction; he was a person whom Job expected to see. 

Job might even be angry at God here, but he seems to remain in the posture of a subordinate, though maybe an “insubordinate subordinate” at this point, but he knows his place: he is a creature before his Creator.

Job has sinned!                                      

Job’s friends it seems were obsessed with one idea: Job has sinned.

The only explanation that they can give for suffering is that Job did something wrong and he is being punished.  They feel that if he confessed whatever specific sin he committed that he would be forgiven.  However, as I said, up to the point that Job maintains his integrity, i.e. he has not sinned, he has been correct.

As far as we can tell this book never accuses Job of any other sin, other than questioning God’s goodness or right to cause his suffering.  The “Book End” at the beginning actually and forcefully says 1:22 “In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.”

It is natural to think that suffering has something to do with committing sin.  It may be a correct assumption. If someone smokes cigarettes for 40 years and then gets emphysema, that makes sense.

Illustration: Jesus and the man born blind John 9

However, people often suffer and they do not seem to be responsible at all.  In Jesus’ day there was a man born blind that he healed.

When Jesus’ disciples saw the man along the way, they asked Jesus the natural question which the theology of their day advanced: “His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

They thought that for someone to suffer such a debility there must have been some sin.

Jesus, however, says that no one has sinned, not this man (How could an unborn person sin?) or his parents (They could have sinned, but why would their child suffer for their sin? “Generational” sin? “I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the the 3^rd & 4^th generations of them that hate me” Exodus 20:5?).

In this case Jesus says this man’s condition was an occasion for God to show his mercy and glory through his son, the Messiah.  Jesus healed the man and the result was a witness to the public in general, his parents and the Pharisees in particular.

The Pharisees do not have categories to process this healing.  The man must have been born in sin.  Their theology said so.  Jesus healed him on the Sabbath, which was a sin.  So, despite the miracle Jesus must be a sinner.  The man himself maintained that Jesus was at least a prophet. The Pharisees further felt that Jesus had to be a sinner since the way he healed the man involved unlawful actions beside the healing on the Sabbath (according to their interpretation of the Mosaic Law): he spit (not clean) into the mud (not clean) and put it on the man’s eyes (unlawful, contaminated him) and asked him to wash in the pool (forbidden on Sabbath).

Jesus “stuck his thumb in their eyes”, so to speak.  Everything he did provoked them.  He did a miracle, an unheard of miracle, but they only saw it as a provocation and a sin.

I have two points here:

Such suffering may not be the result of sin (birth defects)

and

Our theology of suffering must not attribute blame where blame is not due.

Next we come to

Scene 3: God speaks                                               

The useless friends either finish their tirades or God just finally has had enough of their poor theology and he breaks in.

What God says to Job, I think, confirms my idea that Job had gone too far.

I.             God’s first question: 38:1-3        

² “Who is this that obscures my plans
    with words without knowledge?
³ Brace yourself like a man;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.”

                             God’s obvious point is that Job is a man.

                             God is in control of all of the universe. He has a plan.

                             He created it all, including man, particularly Job.

                             Man as a creature has some amazing abilities,

                             but he should be careful:

                                      he doesn’t and can’t know it all

II.           God’s second question:   40:1,2   

40 The Lord said to Job:

 ² “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?
    Let him who accuses God answer him!”

                   Again it seems clear here that Job has in fact gone too far

                             and accused God.

                   God doesn’t ever explain to Job WHY these things have happened.

                     At least I can’t find it.

                   God gives Job a long litany of arguments that are basically

                             teleological arguments, i.e. arguments from design in creation that 

God exists and he is all-knowing & all-powerful

                   God is telling Job: I am the Supreme Designer. 

                             I know what I’m doing; even if you don’t

                   God never directly answers “Why?”

III.          Job’s response: 40:3-5                          

A.  ""I put my hand on my mouth."

I stop my mouth!

B.  “I spoke once, but I have no answer—
    twice, but I will say no more.”

I think I’ve got the interpretation right: Job accused God.

Job says “I have no answer”

   which might be to God’s question, likely;

        but could also be to “Why?”

IV.         Again God asks: 40:6, 7                              

⁶ Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm:

⁷ “Brace yourself like a man;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.

There is a framing inclusio (a phrase used to give a formal frame to the passage)… (38:3 & 40:7)

God goes off again giving Job proof of his power as Creator and Sustainer of the Universe…

V.          Job’s response: Job 42:2-6 

“I know that you can do all things;
    no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
³ You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
    Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
    things too wonderful for me to know.

⁴ “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.’
⁵ My ears had heard of you
    but now my eyes have seen you.
⁶ Therefore I despise myself
    and repent in dust and ashes.”

A.  Job finally got the point! "You are God and I am a creature. You are all powerful and all wise. I can’t begin to understand."

B.  He repeats God’s questions:

                                     i.    ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ 42:2

Uh, that would be me!

                                    ii.    ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.’ 42:4 (38:3 & 40:7)

He remembers this stinging question, but…

He had wanted to see God and he did (God spoke from the storm…)

C.  His confession: (He realizes he has done something wrong…)

He questioned God’s goodness and God’s right to form him

                             Therefore I despise myself

                             and repent in dust and ashes. 42:6

Last scene: Epilogue                                                

I.           God rebukes the three friends            

“I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” 4:7,8                                            

How did Job speak truth about God in a way that the others didn’t?

1.   Job hadn’t done anything to bring on the calamities, as they thought

2.   Finally, he confesses God is great and good, even if he doesn’t understand what’s happening to him (the three friends think they have God figured out; “not a tame Lion”)

II.         God gives back to Job his role of intercessor 

     (for his friends)

1.   Job prayed for them (Would you have prayed for them if you were in his shoes?!) 42:10

2.    According to God Job is wise, but his friends were foolish… 42:8 (parallel to his wife)

III.        God restores Job’s fortunes  42:10bff                   

1.   Those who had shunned Job returned to him and brought gifts! v10

2.   Job's things “restored” (“gave him twice as much as he had before”)

God restored his fortunes/ "returned his captives" (according to Lev Shestov and the Russian Bible)

a.   Sheep – 14,000 now; 7000 then

b.   Camels – 6,000 now; 3000 then

c.   Oxen – 1000 yoke (2000) now; 500 yoke then

d.   Donkeys- 1000 (pack animals) now; 500 then

e.   Daughters – three as before– ravishingly beautiful AND they got an inheritance equal to their brothers! (Take that macho cultures!) in the oldest book of the Bible no less!

f.     Sons – seven as before (not much said)

3.   God gives Job his health back – Old age “to 4^th generation”; 140 years

IV.       And so Job died

Conclusion                                                                 

What can we learn from this book?                         

1.   God is great, God is good…

a.   God is not irrational, but always his knowledge surpasses ours

b.   Whatever he does is good; we must seek how it is good

2.   We are creatures                                               

a.   We are limited in power and knowledge

b.   We don’t have all the pieces… (Philosophy = mental chess; theodicy = a sort of philosophical justification of God’s goodness in the face of evil)

Pascal’s view of man and sin

Man is only a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed. There is no need for the whole universe to take up arms to crush him: a vapour, a drop of water is enough to kill him. But even if the universe were to crush him, man would still be nobler than his slayer, because he knows that he is dying and the advantage the universe has over him. The universe knows none of this. Thus all our dignity consists in thought. (200) Pascal, Pensees

3.   Blame the one who is responsible                     

a.   Satan in this text, but may be a factor or the factor in “your case”

b.   Adam – our sinful condition, fallenness  

                                         i.    Pascal’s view of man and sin

There are in faith two equally constant truths. One is that man in the state of his creation, or in the state of grace, is exalted above the whole of nature, made like unto God and sharing in His divinity. The other is that in the state of corruption and sin he has fallen from that first state and has become like the beasts… (131)

                                                              ^ii.      Romans 8:20-23

²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ thatthe creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.

c.   Men responsible – the ones who pulled the trigger or wielded the machete

d.   Yourself – If you do not keep God’s commands, you will suffer

e.   If you can’t figure out who is responsible, stay quiet; don’t blame God or others (Sometimes we just don’t know… Eventually we may in heaven, if we care then…)

4.   Stuff is not worth blaspheming over                

We love our stuff, our possessions… Hold them loosely…

5.   Sooner or later, everyone dies                         

   We are mortal. We will die, if the Lord doesn’t return

b.   Worse things can happen to you than to die – cursing God, damnation

Illustration – Dave Hrach

When I was a teenager I had a Sunday School teacher and Youth Group leader named Dave Hrach.  Dave is my mother’s age about 75.  From birth Dave’s legs have not grown.  He suffered from spina bifida, which is a condition in which the baby’s spine is exposed.  Though surgeons closed the opening, the harm was done to his nerves and his legs never grew as a result. 

Dave was in a wheel chair from childhood.  He was always an intelligent person.  When he was our youth group leader he had managed to finish high school and later finished college.  Eventually he was a manager for an apartment complex for handicapped people.

He was a very personable guy.  He had a beautiful voice.  He sang in a variety of ensembles, including a Gospel quartet.  He gave a vibrant testimony of his faith in Jesus.  He was also a very sensitive leader who spent time listening to us and encouraging us.  He also sang in a group that we youth had organized.

I don’t know what you think of the Charismatic Movement, but when the Charismatic Movement was big in Pittsburgh, our home town, friends wheeled Dave forward in various healing services.  He would have been very glad to have been healed.

After about a half a dozen such occasions he finally said, “No, I don’t want to be wheeled up there again.  God has answered us.  His answer is ‘No!’.”

Dave had a vital ministry all over the city through his singing, but also to handicapped people, both people who were handicapped from birth and those injured in war or accident.  Dave used to go to the Veteran’s Hospital and witness to war veterans who were handicapped or paralyzed.  They would say to him, “Dave, you understand me, because you are handicapped.”  He would say, “No, I really don’t. I still have use of my arms and I can’t imagine being a quadriplegic, but I have sympathy with you.”

Dave was never sorry for himself, to my knowledge.  He found a way to make lemonade out of lemons, as we say.  He took a bad situation, but found a plan in it.  He found his commission IN his handicap, not a limitation.

Dave listened to me one day spin out my doubts about God’s existence and my conclusions: either God exists and life makes some sense OR God didn’t exist and it would be better to die sooner rather than later.  He didn’t try to answer me, other than he said, “I hope you decide God exists.”  He was wise.  He had learned that wisdom the hard way. He led me to Christ!

Our condition

I’m an apologist.  I think I have some answers to the questions of theodicy, the questions related to the goodness of God in the face of evil, but in the end there is one basic strategy for remaining sane in the face of evil when you just can’t make it add up:  

Remember God has been good in the past and he promises to be good in the future!

Remember the blessings he’s given you.  Trust that he is good and will be good towards you in the future.

The future holds several things we know of for sure: 1. death and resurrection, 2. judgment, and 3. eternal bliss or eternal damnation.

Stuff is nice, family is a great joy and long life is a blessing, but eternity is more important than stuff, family or even long life.

“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” Heb 6:19

A proper dose of humility is good for the soul.