Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Job 13 | Date: July 31, 2016 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Looking forward to our luncheon this afternoon. Let me add my encouragement for all of you who can to stay. Several of us always try to bring a little extra so that there is plenty. So if you didn’t bring, please feel welcome to stay just the same. I read something a couple of weeks ago, I think it was. In a school classroom, a teacher asked the students to bring in something representative of their religion. The Catholic student brought in a rosary. The Jewish student brought in a menorah. The Baptist student brought in a covered dish. I enjoy these times. It’s fun to get together. It’s a great fellowship. I encourage you to stay.

Today, we are looking back into the subject of suffering and from the book of Job. So if you would, take your Bibles, please, and turn to Job chapter 13. The title of the message this morning is “A Well-Informed Faith.” And we’ll focus finally, if we can get there today, on verse 15. But then next time we will finish this up, Lord willing. But let’s take the time to read through Job chapter 13. And then for the message today, I’m going to spend some time going back through the book of Job, laying it out, trying to track through. I’ve done this before with you, but not with as much fullness as I would like to have. And so now, our fifth study into it, we’re going to go back and do it again and try to track out the story of the book of Job and who says what, how the story progresses, and then, if we can get to it today and then next time for sure, lessons to learn from it in order to have a well-informed faith.

Well, that’s where we’re going. We’ll begin with chapter 13 here in verse 1. Here Job is speaking:

Behold, my eye has seen all of this. My ear has heard and understood it. What you know, I also know. I’m not inferior to you, but I would speak to the Almighty and I desire to argue my case with God. As for you, you whitewash with lies. Worthless physicians are you all. Oh, that you would keep silent and it would be your wisdom. Hear now my argument and listen to the pleadings of my lips. Will you speak falsely for God and speak deceitfully for him? Will you show partiality toward him? Will you plead the case for God? Will it be well with you when he searches you out? Or can you deceive him as one deceives a man? He will surely rebuke you if in secret you show partiality. Will not his majesty terrify you and the dread of him fall upon you? Your maxims are proverbs of ashes. Your defenses are defenses of clay.

Let me have silence and I will speak. Let come on me what may. Why should I take my flesh in my teeth and put my life in my hand? Though he slay me, I will hope in him. Yet I will argue my ways to his face. This will be my salvation, that the godless shall not come before him. Keep listening to my words and let my declaration be in your ears. Behold, I have prepared my case. I know that I shall be in the right. Who is there who will contend with me? For then I would be silent and die.

Only grant me two things. Then I will not hide myself from your face. Withdraw your hand far from me and let not dread of you terrify me. Then call, and I will answer, or let me speak, and you reply to me. How many are my iniquities and my sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin. Why do you hide your face and count me as your enemy? Will you frighten a driven leaf and pursue dry chaff? For you write bitter things against me and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth. You put my feet in the stocks and watch all my paths, and you set a limit for the soles of my feet. Man wastes away like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.

Let’s bow together for prayer. Father, these dreadful experiences of Job, we pray will be today instructive for us and may we learn through them how we may honor you in difficult times as well as good. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Story Of The Book Of Job

Well, it’s been several weeks, so just for a quick review of the big picture, and then we’ll survey the story. Job, as we’ve mentioned, is what’s called a theodicy. That is, it looks at the question of suffering in relation to the justice of God. The point of the book of Job is not, first of all, not immediately to minister comfort to those who are afflicted. It’s meant, first of all, to address the bigger question. And the bigger question is: What does suffering and evil in this world—particularly as it happens to the righteous—what does all of that have to say about God? Is God fair? Is he just? Is the world well-managed?

And so again, the point here is not, first of all, to minister comfort. We don’t find in the book of Job much at all of gospel comfort in terms of “God will minister to you a sense of his love and his presence in suffering.” He has promised not to give you more than you can take, but by his Spirit, he will minister to you a sense of the love of God in Christ. Those are massively important things, but that’s not what we find so much in the book of Job. The book of Job, although there are hints toward it that we will see, is directed more immediately to that larger question: What does the suffering say about God?

And the point then is to rightly position us before God and to rightly orient our thinking about God and about ourselves when we suffer. This is part, after all, of the genre of the Old Testament called wisdom literature. And in wisdom literature, the point of it is to teach us how to live wisely, how to live rightly, with a right understanding before God. How can we live successfully before Him? Particularly here is: How can we live wisely before God in times of suffering? And this wisdom literature all, and Job in particular, is part of God’s restorative work to teach us and to bring us back into the conformity of his Son. And all of this now we learn through the experience of Job, the discussion he has with his friends, God’s response at the end, and then the epilogue after that.

Well, you remember the story. Chapters 1 and 2, we have Satan reporting in to God. “What have you been doing down there?” “I’m pretty much running things.” “Well, have you considered my servant Job?” And God brags on Job. God echoes what we find about Job, told us in the opening verses of the book, that Job is a righteous man, a man who carefully avoids evil, a man who’s careful about godliness. He’s careful about the godliness of his children. He’s careful in sacrifice. He serves God in every way, and he’s called for us a righteous man who avoids evil. And so God now brags about Job to Satan. “Have you considered my servant Job? You don’t have him, do you?”

And then Satan complains. “Yeah, well, you put a hedge around him. I can’t touch him. If I could only get to him, you’d find out different. Of course he serves you. Of course he’s righteous and avoids evil. Look what you’ve given him. You’ve been so good, kind to him and generous. You’ve made him the wealthiest. Take away all of that. He’ll curse you to your face.” God says, “Okay, we’ll see.” And so he gives Satan permission to go after Job, only with the restriction: “You don’t touch him.”

The story unfolds, you remember, and in rapid-paced succession, in one day, he loses all of his wealth, all of his belongings, and all of his family, except for his wife. And it seems that Satan has a purpose for that as well; he’s got an ace up his sleeve. Satan comes back to God. “What you been doing down there?” “I’m pretty much running things.” “Yeah, well, what about Job? You said you incited me against him and you said that if I did, he would curse me to my face. Job didn’t. Did you see his response? He worshiped. He said, ‘The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, the Lord has this right. Blessed be the name of the Lord.'”

“Yeah, well, you took away everything he had, but you didn’t touch him. Skin for skin. Let me at him, you’ll see, he’ll curse you to your face.” God says, “All right, go after him, only keep him alive.” So Satan again goes after Job, and he’s smitten with this awful disease, and you find him scraping his wounds, and he’s in painful sores from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. It’s just a horrible picture of a man who has gone from so much to so little, and now even his health is gone as well. And then his wife comes along and says, “Why don’t you just curse God and die?” And Job says, “What are you, crazy? The Lord has given. The Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” And Satan has lost. God is vindicated.

And we learn from all of that—and this is very important for the setup of the rest of the book—we learn from all of that that there is such a thing as innocent suffering. And that becomes the topic at issue throughout all the discussions throughout the book. There is such a thing as innocent suffering. Job was suffering not because he was sinful. He was suffering precisely because he was not sinful. Now that is not to be understood in absolute terms. Of course, Job knew he was a sinner. That’s why he offered sacrifices and so on. And he admits that in the passages like chapter 13 that we’ve read. But insofar as his suffering is concerned, it was not due to sin. It was not God punishing him for his sin, and Job knew it. Job is cleared of all of that by the author. Job is cleared of all that from God himself. And one of the big lessons from the book is that there is such a thing as innocent suffering. It just might be that a righteous man is suffering because he has drawn enemy fire. And that was Job’s experience. And again, that’s a key important factor to keep in mind throughout the story.

So Satan has lost. God has been vindicated. Job has been faithful. But the problem we’re left with at the end of chapter 2 is that Job’s suffering, for Job, has still not been explained. Now, we know the explanation. We’ve read chapters 1 and 2. Job has experienced chapters one and two, but he hasn’t been let in on all of that behind-the-curtain stuff with God and Satan. And so Job’s suffering, so far as Job and his friends and his wife are concerned, is left unexplained. There’s mystery. Why in the world would this happen?

The Speeches Of The Three Friends

Well, that’s the setup then. And the bulk of the book then is chapters 3 through 37, where we have these series of speeches, they’re called. That’s a little bit formal. “Debates” is a little bit better, but arguing back and forth. And it’s set in a dramatic form: the speech of Job’s three friends, and then Job answering back against them. We have Eliphaz, and Bildad, and Zophar. After Eliphaz, then Job; and after Bildad, then Job responds; and Zophar, and then Job responds. And then back again through it all, and then back partway through it again, and Job responding each time back and forth, until we get to the end in chapters 32 and following. We have Elihu coming on the scene and speaking as well.

In chapter 3, then, we start this series of discussions with Job lamenting his birth. And I think this is rightly called a lament. Job is here complaining. Why did this have to happen? As we’ve seen before, chapter 3 is just that. Why did this suffering have to happen? Why did I have to be born, for that matter? Why couldn’t I have been stillborn, for that matter? And why is it that God gives me life just to suffer like this? That’s verse 20 and verse 23 of chapter 3: “Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?” In fact, that’s interesting language there, isn’t it? Verse 23. Back in chapter 1, you remember Satan’s complaint? “Well, you hedge him in and I can’t get to him.” And now, Job complaining, “You hedge me in with suffering,” meant in a completely different way, of course, but this is Job’s complaint through chapter three. Why in the world does all of this have to happen? And if I’m going to suffer like this, why do I have to be born in the first place? And he laments the day of his birth.

Well, the protest is that he can’t figure it out. It’s innocent suffering. So Eliphaz then comes on the scene to speak. Now we do have Job speaking in chapter 3, verse 25, something very significant that we looked at before: “The thing that I fear comes upon me and what I dread has befallen me.” That is, Job had given thought to this before, before the suffering ever came. Job had thought through this matter of suffering and had concluded already that he could not consider himself exempt from suffering, that this could happen. And now he says, “What I have feared has come.”

And so now his friends begin to respond. First of all, Eliphaz, in chapter 4. Let’s take a sampling, verses 7 and following: “Remember who that was innocent ever perished?” You see where he’s going? “Who that was innocent ever perished?” You must be guilty. You must be sinful. “Where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. By the breath of God, they perish. By the blast of his anger, they are consumed.” Chapter 5, verse 8: “As for me, I would seek God. To God would I commit my cause.” And the hint there is: you ought to repent. So he’s got a nice, tight theology. If you serve God faithfully, you will not suffer. God will bless you. If you sin, God will punish you. Now then, if you are suffering, it therefore is an indication that God has punished you for sin. There you are, Job. How could you argue? And that’s Eliphaz’s counsel. Go to God, repent of your sin, and be restored.

Well, chapters 6 and 7, Job responds. Chapter 8, Bildad comes on the scene now, and he offers his counsel. And notice how Bildad takes it a step further. Then Bildad the Shuhite—I was always told when I was a kid that Bildad was the shortest man in the Bible—Bildad the Shuhite answered and said, “How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind? Does God pervert justice, or does the Almighty pervert the right? If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.” That is, not only have you sinned to merit all of this suffering, but your children too. Verse 6: “If you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation.” So the perfect remedy: repent of your sin, go back to God, and he’ll restore you.

Well, Job replies in chapter 9. We’ll see some of that in a moment. Chapter 10, he continues. And then chapter 11, Zophar speaks and offers his counsel. And this is really something here. Let’s start with verse 1. Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said, “Should a multitude of words go unanswered and a man full of talk be judged right? Should your babble silence men, and when you mock, shall no one shame you?” Oh, I’ll shame you. Here it comes: “Where you say, ‘my doctrine is pure, and I am clean in God’s eyes,’ but oh, that God would speak and open his lips to you, and that he would tell you the secrets of wisdom, for he is manifold in understanding. Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.” You actually deserve worse, Job. What are you complaining about? Oh, there’s comfort. No wonder Job later says, “Miserable comforters are you all.”

Well, they’ve got a nice tight theology. It all works out very well. If you are faithful, God will bless. If you’re not faithful, God will punish. If then you are suffering, it’s because you have sinned and God is punishing you. There it is. And what they don’t admit, and what they will not admit anywhere in their theology, is any category for mystery. They’ve got the answer. They’ve got a nice tight category for it, theologically, but no room for mystery in suffering.

Well, this goes on through the book. Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, Job answering each, then again Eliphaz and then Bildad, Job answers, we don’t hear a third time from Zophar, and then finally Elihu. And we find Job’s responses scattered through all of this as well. It’s back and forth, this rhythm back and forth of his friends and then Job. And we find Job with a great struggle of faith. And we find Job commended at the end of the book. We find Job commended in the New Testament as well. James says you’ve heard of the patience or the endurance of Job. And he’s commended for that. But that’s the story in big picture.

Job’s Struggling Faith

For Job getting that, it was a struggle of faith on his part. His initial response was that of worship. He did remain faithful throughout, but it was a struggling faith throughout as well. And we’ll give some samples of that. Chapter 9, for example, look at verses 1 through 3. Job answered and said—here he’s answering Bildad—”Truly, I know that it is so.” That is, I understand all that. I understand what you’re saying. I understand that I’m sinful. I understand that God punishes sin. But I don’t believe that’s the point here. “Truly, I know that it is so, but how can a man be in the right before God? If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times.” That is, how in the world can I ever make my case against this God? He’s wise in heart. He’s powerful, verse 5. He shakes the earth. He does what he wants. How in the world could anyone make his case or contend with this God, given his greatness?

Verses 6 and following. He tends to say something like, “God is an unfeeling tyrant.” God seems to be against me. He stretches out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea. He made the galaxies and the stars. He does all of these things. Verse 11: “He passes by me and I see him not. He moves on, but I do not perceive him. Behold, he snatches away. Who can turn him back? Who will say to him, ‘what are you doing?’ God will not turn back his anger. Beneath him bow the helpers of Rahab. How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him? Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him. I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.”

So Job is frustrated. He’s insisting that his suffering did not come because of sin. He insists on that. He protests his innocence all throughout. He won’t give on that, and he’s right. But that leaves him frustrated to understand because it seems, seems that he has somewhat adopted the theology of his friends, but that’s what makes it so mysterious in his own case. So, well, verse 15, “I just can’t answer him. His greatness is such that it just…” In the following verses, the same: “If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that it was him listening to me. He crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause.” There’s just no contending with this God. Verse 19 as well. Verse 24: “The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He [God] covers the face of its judges. If it is not He, then who is it?”

You see, Job’s struggling with this. It seems that God is being unfair. And if it’s not God, well, then how can I explain this? Verse 33, frustrated with his inability to contend with this God, he says, “There’s no arbiter between us, no umpire, no mediator between us who might lay his hand on us both and bring us to agreement in this dispute.”

Another sample of Job’s struggling faith: chapter 16, verse 1. Job answered and said, “I have heard many such things. Miserable comforters are you all. Shall windy words have an end? You windbags, you have nothing to say to me. What provokes you that you answer?” And yet, so he says in these opening verses, “You guys just can’t speak to my situation. You have lofty theology, you’ve got great ideas, but it’s not speaking to my situation.” And so, verse 7: “Surely now God,” notice that, “God has worn me out. He has made desolate all my company.” It seems that God has been unfair and unfeeling.

Chapter 19, verse 6: “Know then that God has put me in the wrong,” or as some of the translations render it, and I think get to the point, “Know then that God has wronged me.” God has been unfair. “He’s closed his net about me.” And so he’s still struggling. Verse 7: “Behold, I cry out, ‘violence,’ but I am not answered. I call for help, but there is no justice.”

Chapter 29 that we saw one time, I think quickly, chapters 29 through 31, Job gives a strong protest of his righteousness. And he gives a pretty impressive resume of what he has done. Chapter 29, for example, verse 12: “I helped the poor. I helped the fatherless, the orphans.” Verse 13, those who were hurting, I helped. Widows, I helped. Verse 14: “I took up the cause of justice for those who were less advantaged.” Verse 15: “I helped the blind, the lame.” Verse 16: “I was a father to the needy.” Verse 17, again, I helped the oppressed. I took up their cause. We find it through chapter 30 as well. Verse 25: “I wept for those whose day was hard. I had true compassion.” Chapter 31, verse 1: “I made a covenant with my eyes. How then would I gaze at a virgin?” That is, he had moral purity and he was determined to remain pure in a moral sense. Verse 19 of chapter 31: “No one perished that I knew of. I gave them clothing. I was generous. I helped the needy.” Verse 21, again the same with the fatherless. Verse 24: “I wasn’t trusting in my riches. I feared God.”

Verse 23… so here we have this long resume that Job gives and it’s really pretty impressive. He really was a practically righteous man. And the point of it all is: How can you then say that my suffering is due to my sin that God is punishing me? And Job’s point here in chapters 29 to 31 is not to say that in an absolute sense, no one deserves suffering, that I’ve been absolutely sinless. That’s not his point. But his point is to say he has been faithful and to say that God is after him because of his unfaithfulness. Compared with the way things are with less faithful men, it just doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t add up.

Now in all of this, and some of these statements can seem, and they are, very difficult. “God has wronged me. God has not been fair. God has been unfeeling.” It is important to notice at the same time throughout all of these speeches of Job’s that it is not the expression of a man with a contemptuous unbelief. Nor is it just a bald self-righteousness. It’s much less that. But we do have a man of struggling faith, and we know that because interspersed throughout all of this, we also have bursts of faith on Job’s part.

Let’s sample a few of those again, backing up to chapter 13, where we began this morning. Verse 15: “Though he slay me, I will hope in him. Yet I will argue my way to his face.” And you see this frustration here. Both sides of it are emphasized. “Though he slay me,” it seems that God is after me. He’s the one doing this. He knew nothing of Satan and Satan’s attack, Job’s role in vindicating God. “Though he slay me, wrong as it seems, I will hope in him.” Marvelous burst of faith.

Chapter 16 and verse 19. Marvelous statement of faith here: “Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high.” Now, if you’ve read your New Testament, you’re itching already to run to the gospel with that. And of course we should. But in Job’s own thinking, this is a marvelous burst of faith. God himself will be my vindicator. And you’ll see it. I’m protesting my innocence. I maintain it’s true. And God himself will tell you the same. Just give it time. A burst of faith.

Chapter 19. Verses 25 and following, even a hint at resurrection: “I know that my Redeemer lives.” And there’s the term—it is the kinsman Redeemer. “I know that my Redeemer lives, the one who takes up the cause of the next of kin. My Redeemer lives, and on the last day he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.” God himself will be my vindicator.

Chapter 23, verse 10, I think needs to be understood in the same context: “He knows the way that I take; that when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.” Now, most of the time, most always, this verse is taken in terms of God’s purifying processes in our lives, God sending suffering to sanctify us, and at the end, I’ll come out better. I don’t think that’s the idea here. That’s a biblical notion. We find it elsewhere. The idea here is that when he’s tried me, I’ll come forth as gold. The idea is not that of sanctification, but of vindication. God will show you at the end of all of this that I am righteous and I’m not suffering because of my sin. God himself will be my vindicator.

Even as far back as chapter 6, we have Job in chapter 6, verses 8 through 10, where Job is expressing wishes again that he could die. It seems that his wish is he could die so that he would not deny the Holy One, which of course is exactly the point at issue.

So that, in a sense, in a very brief review, is chapters 3 through 31. Job has protested his innocence. He’s crying out, “Why does this happen?” His friends give their counsel, and each time Job answers, protesting his innocence, but struggling in his faith. How do we find an answer to this?

Elihu Speaks

And then with chapter 32, someone new enters the scene. He’s evidently been there all along listening. But we finally meet him here, and he speaks. And this is a younger man by the name of Elihu. Chapter 32, verse 1:

So these three men ceased to answer Job because he was righteous in his own eyes. Then Elihu, the son of Barakel the Buzite of the family of Ram, burned with anger. And he burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God. He burned with anger also against Job’s three friends because they had found no answer, although they had declared Job to be in the wrong. Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were older than he.

This is an interesting thing. He’s following the custom. You give deference to the older men. But then when he finally speaks, he gives no deference at all. And there might even be a little bit of youthful zeal, youthful arrogance here, I don’t know.

And when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, he burned with anger. And Elihu, the son of Barakel, the Buzite, answered and said, “I am young in years, and you are aged. Therefore, I was timid and afraid to declare my opinion to you. I said, ‘Let days speak and many years teach wisdom.’ But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, but it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty that makes him understand.”

In other words, well, verse 9, “It is not the old who are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right, so listen to me.” It’s not just years that give you wisdom; it’s God. And you obviously don’t have wisdom, so listen to me. So maybe a little bit of youthful arrogance here, but Elihu is never criticized in the book. He actually says nothing wrong. And he comes actually with more wisdom than any who had spoke so far.

Chapter 33, verses 8 and following:

Surely you have spoken in my ears and I have heard the sound of your words. You say, “I am pure without transgression. I am clean and there is no iniquity in me.” Behold, he finds occasions against me. He counts me as his enemy. He puts my feet in the stocks and watches all my paths. Behold, in this you are not right. I will answer you, for God is greater than man.

Now, there’s the first part of his answer to Job. Very important. You’re not right, and here’s the answer: God is greater than man. You think you have it all figured out. You think that because God hasn’t explained it all to you, and because you don’t understand, it must be that God is unfair, and God has been wrong. What a horrible thing to say. You might be innocent, and you might be suffering innocently, but that gives you no right whatever to charge God with injustice.

And so verse 12 is tantamount to saying, “Your mistake, Job, your fault. It’s not that you’re claiming to be righteous. Your fault is an arrogant presumption that you know better than God. God is greater.” Or as we’ve been saying it: you think that you have to be able to understand it, or better, you think that you do understand it well enough to judge God. What presumption?

Chapter 34. We have more of the same, verses 35 and following:

Job speaks without knowledge. His words are without insight. Would that Job were tried to the end, because he answers like wicked men. For he adds rebellion to his sin. He claps his hand among us and multiplies his words against God.

That is to say, not only are you wrong, you’re rebellious too. You’ve revolted against God in your little fits. Elihu does not quite side with Job’s friends, but he does rebuke Job for his presumption and for accusing God. His concern, and very rightly, is to defend God’s justice. Job has accused God and he shouldn’t have done it.

God Answers Job

Well, all of that continues through chapters 36 and 37. Job has protested his innocence. Job has struggled with his faith, even accusing God at times. Elihu comes on the scene, rebukes Job’s friends for getting it all wrong, but also rebukes Job for falsely accusing God.

Finally, chapters 38 and following, God speaks. And it’s not the answer that Job was intending to get. Chapters 38 through 40. Well, let’s start out with 38. God answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? [A nice way to say it: darkens counsel by speaking about things he knows nothing of.] Dress for action, like a man. And now I will question you, and you make it known to me.

Verse 4, and here begins a series of questions: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” And God speaks of the created order, that he laid the foundations of the earth. He speaks of the seas. He speaks of the galaxies and the stars, all that he has made. “Were you the one that figured all of this out, Job?” And he speaks of the animals, the land animals, the great sea creatures. “Who is it that feeds them?” He speaks of the food chain. “Are you the one that put all of this in order? Are you the one that keeps it running? Job, how did I do all of this without your counsel before? You presume to tell me.”

It’s very interesting here. When God comes to speak, he does not answer Job’s quest. Not immediately. Not directly. He does not explain why the suffering. That mystery remains. And it’s allowed to stand.

God gets through speaking, we get to chapter 40, and the Lord said to Job, “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? That is, will you correct me? He who argues with God, let him answer.” Okay, Job, you wanted your day in court, here it is. And Job said, “Oh, I’m so small.” Verse 4: “How in the world could I answer? I put my hand over my mouth. I’ve talked too much already. I will not speak further.”

Well, there’s a good answer. And so God picks it up again. Verse 6, the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, “Dress for action like a man, and I’ll question you, and you make it known to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?”

And there’s the crux. You think that because your suffering is innocent that I have somehow wronged you, and to vindicate yourself you would condemn me? Job, Job, think. And so in verses 7 and following, God speaks further along the lines that he has already. And it is important to note here again that God never charges Job with sin in the sense that that is what gave rise to the suffering. God allows that the suffering has come innocently. Job is criticized for faulting God in his struggling faith, but Job’s innocent suffering is allowed to stand, but so does the mystery of it all stand, and it is not explained.

The fault that God finds with Job at this point is very simply what we find in verse 8: that in order to vindicate himself, Job was willing to condemn God. God never says, “Job, let me explain to you what’s happened. You’re a righteous man. And I bragged on you. Satan falsely accused you. And I knew that you would maintain your integrity. And so I gave Satan permission to come after you. And in fact, you did maintain your integrity. That’s why it happened.” He never gives him any of that. But what he does make very clear is that you will never explain your suffering by finding fault with God.

Brothers and sisters, this is enormously practical because the temptation is so strong. When suffering is severe, I’ve heard it. I’ve heard it in pastoral situations with people who know better. But in suffering, the emotion is so strong: “Why is God doing this to me?” as though he has wronged me. And God’s answer to Job, he is stressing: “Job, I have not been cruel, I have not made mistakes, but I am God. And I have my reasons, and whether you understand those reasons is entirely irrelevant. You owe it to me to trust me.”

And that, as I’ve said, I think is the bottom line of the whole book: that God is God, he has his reasons, and whether we understand those reasons or not is irrelevant. We owe it to him to trust. Or as Elihu said, the answer is found simply in the mystery of God himself. God is beyond you.

Pastor Greg mentioned it in Sunday School hour this morning: the doctrine of the incomprehensibility of God. That is a doctrine that every Christian of every stripe, every professing Christian of every stripe, will want to affirm. Even if you’ve never heard the word and the doctrine as such, the concept is immediately evident. You want to affirm that God is incomprehensible. We can know him. We can know him truly insofar as he’s revealed himself, but we can never comprehend him. We can never know him fully. He’s God. He’s beyond us. We all want to acknowledge that, but then when it comes to suffering, if we don’t understand what he’s doing, somehow he might be wrong.

The bottom line, the fundamental lesson, is we are called to trust God. God does not owe it to you to explain why the suffering. We owe it to God to trust him in it. It is not important that we understand the reasons. It is important only that we know God knows those reasons and we trust him in it. There will always be things about God that we do not understand. We are not God. And we must allow the mystery even in suffering.

Remember—and this is the thrust of chapters 38 to 40—remember that God is God, you are the creature, and you must respond accordingly. “God, I don’t understand why the suffering, but I acknowledge that you do, and I trust you in it.” Or in the words of Job, “The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

And so in a sense, nothing has changed. When even great suffering comes, nothing has changed. You may not have your wealth, you may not have your health, you may not have your family, you may not have life expectancy. And so you’ve suffered. But in a sense, nothing has changed at all. God is still God. We are still his creature and we still owe it to him to trust him.

Now the question that arises then at that point—and this is where we should go back through the book of Job again; we’ll pick this up next time—the question that comes at this point is: How then can I have that kind of faith that the book of Job calls me to? To have a robust faith that trusts God even when we don’t know why or what he is doing. We’ll go back through Job again and find the lessons that we can learn in order to have a well-informed faith.

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, what an awful story this is, but at the same time, how instructive it is for us. Forgive us, Lord, for seeing ourselves at the center of the universe and forgetting that you are God. We pray that you would put it in our hearts to position ourselves rightly before you to trust you with the trust that you deserve. We love you. We love you for all that you have done for us in Christ. We gladly give you our lives and our trust. We rest in your care. In Christ’s name, amen.