Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Job 3 | Date: July 3, 2016 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Open your Bibles, please, to Job. In the book of Job, we continue our studies on the sufferings of Job and what we can learn from them. Let’s begin with Job chapter 3, verse 25. Here, after this long lament through chapter 3 that we saw before—where Job is asking, “Why does this happen? Why did I have to be born?” He curses the day of his conception, the day of his birth, and asks why do these things have to happen—verse 25 says, “For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.” We will get back to that.

Then turn to Job chapter 40, beginning with verse 1. Here finally, after Job’s long lament and complaint, and even bordering on charging God with wrong, God finally speaks to Job:

The Lord said, “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” Then Job answered the Lord and said, “Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once and I will not answer, twice, but I will proceed no further.” Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, “Dress for action like a man. I will 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?”

Let’s look to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, as we look this morning into this question of divine justice and human suffering, we pray that you would open our minds and our hearts to see and to receive your word. We pray that you’ll shape our minds and hearts by it. Fix in us a right and an exalted view of our God and a right perception of ourselves. Help us through that to be faithful. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

What we have seen now for a number of weeks is Job’s suffering. Job was a man who was faithful to God in every way. He is introduced to us as a man of righteousness and uprightness who served God faithfully and conscientiously. And then we saw in chapters 1 and 2, Satan comes before God in a scene that looks like he’s reporting in about what he’s doing on earth, and he more or less boasts to God of what he is doing. God asks, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He’s faithful and he serves me.” Satan responds by saying that Job does it for what he can get out of it. “Well, you’ve blessed him, you’ve made him prosperous and wealthy, all of these temporal pleasures; of course he serves you. Take that away, he’ll curse you to your face.”

So God gives Satan permission within certain bounds, and Satan goes after Job. In a day, all of his wealth and belongings and all of his children are taken away from him. Satan then reports back to God again. God boasts again about Job and his faithfulness. Satan complains again that God has put a hedge around him that he can’t get to him. “You let me touch him and he’ll curse you to your face.” And so God again now gives permission to Satan to go after Job, only he must spare his life.

Satan comes after Job and he’s smitten with a horrible disease on his skin, boils from head to toe, and he’s suffering. We find him on an ash heap using a piece of pottery to scrape his wounds, suffering terribly. Still, Job maintains his integrity and he bows before the Lord and worships and says, “The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Then Job’s friends come to give comfort, but as they analyze the situation, they can only decide that much suffering has come because of much sin. “And so, Job, you must repent of your sin so that you may be restored to the wealth and prosperity that you had before.” Job, of course, argues with all of that through the book. He maintains his integrity, but that is their counsel.

One of the distinguishing features of the book, perhaps the most obvious, is that we know something about Job’s suffering that he himself does not know, and in fact, he’s never let in on. We are told all of this up front: what I just mentioned about Satan reporting in before God, complaining that he can’t get to Job because God has made a hedge around him, God giving permission, and Satan coming after Job within carefully prescribed limits. Satan has come after Job not because Job has sinned, but precisely because Job has not sinned. It was not his faithlessness or his unfaithfulness; it was precisely his faithfulness that brought all this on him. All of this we are introduced to up front, and Job is completely unaware of it.

Yet it’s within that context that we are brought to understand some very important lessons about suffering from the sufferings of Job. As I’ve mentioned before, there are more answers to the question of suffering that we need to know. There are gospel comforts, there are assurances of God’s presence, and so on, but that is not the answer we find in the book of Job. In the book of Job, what we find is broader answers—more of a great grand context in our understanding of who God is and who we are before him. It’s within the context of those questions and answers that we can then move on at another point in the Scriptures to the other comforts of the gospel that we have in suffering.

We’ve been asking, then, what is the point of all of this, and what are the lessons we can gain from the sufferings of Job? We’ve been taking an overview approach to it.

1. Suffering Often Comes As A Result Of An Unseen Conflict In The Spirit World

We said that number one, suffering often comes as a result of an unseen conflict in the spirit world. Again, this lies just on the surface of Job chapters 1 and 2. It’s the background to all the rest of the book: that suffering comes and can come because of an unseen conflict in the spirit world. It is very important that we know that lesson because we can think in our suffering that, like Job’s friends had charged, “God is after me. I’ve sinned. God must be punishing me.” It’s important for us to know that the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel may be entirely wrong at this point, and even cruel, because it just may be that in our suffering, God has again taken up one of Satan’s challenges. Our suffering might be for the purpose of honoring God by means of a worshiping sufferer.

We are accustomed to hearing about persecution. We understand it. If someone would come up to us and hate us because of our faith in Christ, that is more obvious. But it just might be that our suffering in a more generic kind of way may itself be because of our faithfulness; we have drawn enemy fire in the unseen world. That’s the first lesson.

2. Human Reason Is Not Sufficient To Account For Tragedy And Suffering

A corollary to that then was our second lesson: human reason is not sufficient to account for tragedy and suffering. The flip side of that is: God calls us to trust him. Again, the struggle that Job had was that it might seem that God was after him. It might seem that because of his sin, God was punishing him. But what troubled Job is that that didn’t add up. He had been faithful to God. Again, one of the great points of the book is that there is such a thing as innocent suffering. Yet Job was suffering, and he didn’t know the explanation. He’s reeling from it all throughout the book, trying to find an explanation, until finally God comes on the scene in chapters 38 to 40.

God finally speaks to Job, and he gives him this long speech. “Where were you when I created the world? How did I come up with all of these weather systems and feeding the animals and the food chain and all that goes into running this world? How did I do that without you?” Of course, the point of it all is: “Job, don’t you think you can trust me in what I do?” That’s the bottom line of the book of Job. We are not called to understand all that goes into it. We are not called to say, “Okay, now I know what God is up to, I can trust him.” We are called simply to say, “I trust him,” and whether I understand his specific purposes in my suffering or not is irrelevant. It’s so important that we remember that. Whether I understand what God is up to specifically in this particular suffering is irrelevant.

3. God Is Sovereign Over Satan And Suffering

Well, then that brought us to our third lesson: God is sovereign over Satan and suffering. We began last time with that, backing up and seeing the larger picture of God’s sovereignty. What that means very simply is that all things are under God’s sovereign direction—all things, all-inclusively. God is free to do as he wills; his purpose is his purpose, and he is unobliged and unaccountable to us. God is free to do with us and with our belongings and with our health and with our family as he pleases.

Most fundamentally, God is not here for us. Most fundamentally, we are here for God. He created us for his purpose, and he will carry out his purpose. Again, this is the whole supposition in Job chapters 38 to 40; underlying it all is that God has a right to do with what is his. Again, we are called to trust him in it. The big point stemming from that was that Job bowed before God in it and worshiped. We are obligated to God in his sovereign direction of our lives, whether in the enjoyment of his favors or in suffering. We are obliged to bow before God in worship, trusting him and acknowledging his right to do with us as he sees fit.

God’s sovereignty, of course, cuts another direction that we mentioned: God limits our suffering and directs it according to his will. We can be sure that no suffering has gone one inch beyond his purpose. God is sovereign in controlling it all, directing it all to his purpose, and limiting it all according to his will as well.

4. In All Of Our Suffering, Even In Our Innocent Suffering, God Always Remains Just

Now that brings us to our fourth point today: in all of our suffering, even in our innocent suffering, God always remains just. I’m going to expand on that this morning. If you fall asleep and get nothing else, there you have the point. In all of our suffering, we must know—and if you want to make the point more personal, we must acknowledge—that God remains just at all times. It is one thing to say that God is sovereign over our suffering and to say that God dispenses favors according to his own will, but here we take another step and we say that God is just in his sovereign distribution of our lives.

Now again, we have to belabor this point to keep it in our minds that Job’s suffering was not due to some sin on his part. There is such a thing as innocent suffering, and Job here is suffering innocently. God himself affirms that in chapters 1 and 2. Job maintains that throughout. In fact, let’s take a quick look at chapters 29 to 31, and we’ll see how Job can speak of his own integrity.

In Job chapter 29, verse 12, Job says: “I delivered the poor who cried for help.” That is, he was generous to those who were needy. “I delivered the poor who cried for help and the fatherless who had none to help him. The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.” Here is what Job was before his suffering began. He was a man of mercy and compassion, and those who were hurting and were not as favored as he, he saw to it to help them.

Verse 14: “I put on righteousness and it clothed me. My justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy. I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know. I broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made him drop his prey from his teeth.” This is poetic imagery, but Job is saying, “I was generous. I was helpful to those in need. I was not blind to their need, but was compassionate toward them and helped them in it.” The disabled and the handicapped, the needy—he helped them. In verse 17, those who were suffering an injustice, he used whatever advantage or leverage he had to rectify that injustice and to stand up for those who were in need.

This is the kind of testimony Job can give about himself. We have more of it throughout. Chapter 30, verse 25: “Did not I weep for him whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?” Again, pressing it, he was a compassionate man. Chapter 31, verse 1, he speaks of his moral integrity: “I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze at a virgin?” That is, “I guard what I look at and what I think, and I refuse lustful thoughts.” Verse 19: “If I saw anybody perish for lack of clothing,” he was helping them with it. Verse 21: “I never raised my hand against the fatherless,” but he helped them. Verse 23: “Because I feared God.” He didn’t dare go against his claims of justice. Verse 24: “I didn’t trust in my riches.” Verse 29: “I never rejoiced at the ruin of him who hated me.” That is, “I saw people who hated me enduring some suffering. I didn’t rejoice over that.” Verse 30: “I’ve not let my mouth sin by asking for his life with a curse.” Verse 33: “I didn’t cover up my sins as others do by hiding my iniquity in my bosom.” That is, “I was frank to confess my sins.”

Well, that’s quite a testimony. I wonder how most of us would measure up on many of these scores that he’s giving. Job was able to say, “I was a righteous man and served God out of integrity, and I was good to others in doing it.” In fact, we get to chapter 42 and verse 7, and God affirms the same about Job: he has spoken what is right.

And yet, Job suffered greatly. If a man like this is brought to suffer greatly, we have to ask the question: Is God just? Is that fair? This is something like what we see in the Lament Psalms, where the cry is, “Why do the wicked prosper?” They seem to have it better than I do. Here I serve God, and I’m the one sick, and it’s my kids that are going to the hospital, and I’m scraping it just to make it through the week, and they’re prospering. Is God fair? Is God just?

In a sense, this gets us to the very heart of the book of Job. Is God just? Remember, this book is rightly referred to as a theodicy—that is, a justification of God in the affairs of men, particularly with reference to the problem of evil. Why do bad things happen? How does that reflect on God? Is the world well managed? Is God just and fair in his distribution of our lives?

God’s justice was the whole presupposition of Job’s friends. “God is just.” Now, it was wrongly applied and misunderstood, but their presupposition was right. And in fact, it’s Job’s assumption also through this that God is just. It was also part of Job’s frustration, but in chapter 9 and verse 2, Job begins his response to Bildad and says, “I know that it is so. God is just. I know that it’s so.” But he wishes he could argue how he can be just before God. “How can a man be just with God?” But the assumption is that God is just, even if for Job that was a point of frustration.

In fact, God’s justice is God’s own argument in chapters 38 and following when God finally speaks to Job. “Where were you when I created the world? Have you ever made the weather systems? Have you ever kept the food chain going? Have you ever fed the animals?” Through all of that, the underlying assumption is that God is doing what is right. Or to put it as we said last time: you will never explain your suffering by finding fault with God.

This is why I began earlier reading from chapter 40. This is what God is pushing exactly. Verse 2 of chapter 40: “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” Verse 7: “Dress for action like a man. I’ll question you. You make it known to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be right?” The point that God is pushing, after all is said and done, is don’t ever fault him for your suffering, as though he has done something wrong. Whatever else the explanation, the explanation is not that God has done what is wrong. God is just, and he is always just, and you will never explain your suffering by finding fault with God. That is why Job’s very appropriate response was, “I repent. I should never have let those kinds of thoughts enter my head. I put my hand over my mouth. I’ll not say anymore. God has been just.” Whether or not you see his purposes and how they are understood to be right is irrelevant. God has been just.

The point that God pushes when he comes to speak on the scene is that he has never and he will never act unjustly. In other words, that God will never do us wrong must be an anchor point in our minds. We cannot respond to suffering by saying, “Why did you do this to me?” with an accusing tone. You will never explain your suffering by finding fault with God. Prayers of lament can be entirely appropriate; we see them in the Psalms. The inspired writer gives them to us. But it will never be right to speak accusingly of God as though he has done us wrong.

Now then, back to chapter 3 and verse 25. We have here in this verse some fascinating detail with regard to Job’s own thinking before the suffering came. Job chapter 3, verse 25: “For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.” I was afraid this could happen. Now this is interesting. What are we to make of that? Clearly, this is not an admission on Job’s part that his suffering really is due to sin. That wouldn’t make sense in the whole book of Job, and it wouldn’t make sense even in chapter 3. So when Job says, “I was afraid this could happen,” what does it tell us? What’s going on in Job’s mind?

Well, I think it simply reflects that Job had thought about these things; Job had run this over in his head before. He lived under God and he knew it. He was richly blessed by God and he recognized that too. But he had already concluded, before suffering ever came, that however faithful he was, it was not such that it would exempt him from suffering. Job was already able to see that before the suffering even began. However faithful I’ve been, it doesn’t necessarily exempt me from suffering. Job had already settled this in his thinking, and it would seem that this is part, at least, of what prepared Job’s mind for suffering, so that when the suffering came, his reflex response was to worship. Remember that? Chapters 1 and 2. He struggles with this at certain points through the book, even challenges God, but at least up front, before the suffering began, Job was able to see that his faithfulness was not such that it would necessarily exempt him from suffering.

Now that raises another question. How did Job conclude that? Job was looking at his life and he says, “Boy, I’m blessed. I have a charmed life. God has been good. He has been extraordinarily good to me.” And Job worships God because of it. But he also concludes, “Suffering can come to me as much as it comes to anybody. Hope it doesn’t. I fear that it could, but it could.” How did he conclude that? What considerations made him realize that even though he was serving God and was blessed in it, he was not necessarily exempt from suffering?

Did Job know about Adam? Did Job know about Adam’s headship over humanity? Did Job know that Adam had rebelled against God and that Adam and all of humanity had fallen under judgment and a curse because of it? That really is the answer, isn’t it? We find it in Genesis chapter 2. God commands Adam, makes one prohibition. Chapter 3, Adam rebels, falls under judgment and a curse. And then we begin reading: “And he died. And his son, he died. And his son, and he died. And his son, and he died. And his son, and he died. And he had a son, and he died. And he had a son, and he died.”

Paul picks up on that in Romans chapter 5 and says all of humanity was bound up with Adam and his sin and in the consequent judgment. By one man’s sin, sin entered into the world, and death because of sin. And death passed upon all men because all sinned in Adam. Our union with Adam and his sin has brought devastation and suffering on the whole earth. All of the created order has been reeling from a divine judgment and curse ever since Adam’s sin. Paul talks about it in Romans chapter 8: God has subjected the world to vanity and emptiness. That’s a reference back to Genesis chapter 3. We have a whole book of the Bible devoted to it, the book of Ecclesiastes: that all that we have under the sun doesn’t bring full satisfaction and joy. It’s vanity and emptiness. This is what God has subjected us to. And that is why we suffer. We’re caught up in a curse and a divine judgment because of human sin. That’s why we suffer, and it really shouldn’t surprise us when suffering comes. We know that that’s the kind of world we live in. God has judged the world.

In a sense, then, it’s not a “problem of pain” or a “problem of evil.” The real problem is the problem of pleasure. God has pronounced judgment, so we understand why suffering comes. The real question is: why do we have so many good times? The problem is we are so accustomed to mercy that we are surprised by anything else. We are surprised at our suffering because we are so accustomed to mercy. When suffering comes, our reflex—because we are so accustomed to mercy—is “That’s not fair.”

Well, there’s the big answer to the question. How much of that did Job know? How much of that did Job understand? I guess I really don’t know. But at the very least, he recognized that his faithfulness, as earnest as it was, was not such that it granted him an exception from suffering. I suspect that’s part of his frustration in chapter 9, verse 2, when he asks, “How shall a man be just with God?” “I know that my suffering cannot be God’s dealings of justice with me because of a particular sin that I’ve committed—it’s not that. But then again, I’m not entirely innocent. So how can a man be just before God?”

On one level, Job is an innocent sufferer, and we’re told that; it’s one of the great themes of the book. But we cannot understand innocence in absolute terms, can we? Except for Jesus, there was never an innocent man born. I heard one answer last year: “Why do bad things happen to good people?” The answer was, “That only happened once, and he volunteered.”

Job recognized that even he, faithful as he was, could not consider himself above suffering. God does not owe me health or wealth. This concept of justice is a tricky thing. When it comes time for us to suffer, we think it’s unfair. Justice: we all want it, but none of us could ever live with it. “We want justice. It’s not fair that I suffer.” When suffering comes, my reflex is—because I’m so accustomed to mercy—”That’s not fair. I want justice.” Now, yesterday we didn’t want justice. We were entertaining that lustful thought, or being greedy and ignoring God, or being mean to a husband or wife. We don’t want justice then. We want mercy. But today at least, right now, in this suffering, it’s not fair. I want justice, and justice means that God should remove this problem and fix it, and he should do it now. That’s our concept of justice.

It’s especially the case when we have been really good. We’ve been saying our prayers every day. We’ve been having our devotions. We’ve been faithful. We’ve been kind to our spouse. We’ve been doing all of that. And then suffering comes, and we think, “Why me?” After all, that guy down the road, or the other fellow even at church—well, he’s not as good a Christian as I am. In our minds, we have it all figured out for God. We watch the newscast, we see the headlines, and we deal with it. It’s okay. Seventy-five people killed in a car bombing. Flood sweeps the area, twenty-three people killed. Tsunami wipes out an entire town. Terrorist shoots forty-eight people dead. We see the headlines, we read about it, and even if we may struggle a little emotionally, it’s okay: God is sovereign. We’ve got a nice, tight theological category for it.

But then suffering comes to our house, and somehow it’s a problem of God’s justice. I’ve often thought—and I can’t say this when I hear it, of course; it’s not the time for the lesson—but I’ve often thought when people turn an accusing finger to God saying, “Why have you done this to me? It’s not fair,” that if that is going to throw you, and if suffering coming to your house is going to make you question God and this “religion thing,” you should have given up on God and religion long ago. You see it every night in the headlines. But now that it’s come to your house, somehow it’s unjust.

Did you know that God does not owe you health? Did you know that God does not owe you recovery? God does not owe you wealth. And if for whatever purpose that God has, he allows sickness to come to our house, or if he allows suffering, financial collapse, or death, we may always be sure that God has reasons that are just. And so I will trust him. That, in a sense, is the heart of the book of Job. Whether or not I understand what those purposes are is completely irrelevant. I know that he has purposes that are always right and just. And so, I will trust him.

God has never promised any of us exemption from suffering in this life. In fact, it’s the very opposite. He has pronounced judgment on this world. Again, our problem is simply that we are so accustomed to mercy that we feel that anything less than every favor from God is somehow unjust. But God is sovereign in his distribution of grace, and in all of it, he always remains just. That, I suppose, is the bottom line of the book of Job.

Is there such a thing as innocent suffering? Yes, definitely yes. We must see that. Job suffered innocently. But when we are sick, or when we are suffering, or when death comes to our house, can any of us say God has been unfair? Now, I’m not suggesting that this is the whole ground of comfort in suffering—”Cheer up, you deserve worse.” But I am saying that these are our anchor points, reference points that must be established in our minds before suffering comes, or it’ll throw us. We must have it established in our minds that God is always just.

When you are tempted to complain, “Why me?”—again, this is not the whole answer. There are other comforts of the gospel to come. God is faithful, God is kind, God is good. 1 Corinthians 10:13 is still there: he’ll never let a trial come but that he’ll sustain us in it and make a way of escape. All of those comforts of his love and his presence are still there. But when we are tempted to complain, “Why me?” we have to remember: “Why not me?” This is the world we live in. We live under a curse that God has pronounced justly because of human sin, and not one of us can ever, on our best day, point to God and say that he is unfair in allowing us to suffer. God is just, and he’s sovereign in the distribution of his favors, but he is just in it all along as well. We must know that ahead of time, or when suffering comes, we could be thrown by it all.

This is the cursed world we live in and none of us is given an exemption. For every moment of health and every moment of happiness and every degree of wealth that we have, we owe God praise and thanks for it. But in no suffering can we say that God has been unfair. Again, there’s a larger view and a larger perspective to take yet, and that is that this world is not what it was created to be. This world was not created for suffering and death. This world was created for fellowship with God. We read of it in Genesis chapter 2. In Genesis chapter 3, Adam was in fellowship with God. He walked with God. In the presence and the fellowship with God, he enjoyed that presence and fellowship.

But Adam rebelled. All of the created order has fallen under a curse. But in that judgment that God has pronounced, he also made a promise. He promised that a champion would come and he would restore this whole order and fix the whole thing. He would do it by sending this champion who would come in the place of sinners as their representative and as their substitute, bearing their sin and taking their curse to himself, absorbing the wrath of God against sin, and bearing our curse. He will exhaust the curse.

We are told in the book of Revelation that another day is coming when all of his saving purpose will be brought to fruition. There’s coming a day, John tells us, when there will be no more sadness, no more suffering, no more crying, no more death—and that because there is no more sin and no more curse that brought it all. We’ll have a new heaven and a new earth, a new creation. It will be both a better day and a longer day. All that lies between now and then is caught up in that decree of suffering and death on account of sin. When we suffer, we suffer in hope.

The lesson of Job, then, is that we are altogether dependent upon God for every favor that we enjoy. We must determine in our minds that whether we enjoy his favors or live in suffering, we will acknowledge God—that he does what is right, that he has not wronged me, and that I will trust him. Might our hearts break? Oh, you bet. But we will say from a broken heart: God is God. God is sovereign. God is always just. The Lord has given. The Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Amen.

Our Father, we need to know these big truths about you to stabilize our minds and our hearts so that we honor you every day of our lives. We acknowledge your rights over us, and we gladly confess your justice as well. You are right in all that you do, and so we trust you in it. Make us, Father, make us faithful, worshiping followers of our great God. In the happy days and in the days of suffering, help us to worship as you deserve. We ask in the name of Christ, amen.