Two Journeys

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a sermon on Job 4-5 and talks about the errors of Eliphaz in understanding who God is, who Job is, and the proper theology of suffering.

 So turn in your Bibles to Job. We're going to be looking today at chapters four and five, and it's marvelous how God has given us everything that we need for life and godliness. We know that, as we're going to talk about in Eliphaz’s statement: “surely man is born to trouble as sparks fly upward,” there is great grief and difficulty in this world. In this world, we will have trouble, but Jesus Christ has overcome the worlds. And through the Holy Spirit, God has given us everything we need for life and godliness. And the book of Job is a gift to us in the midst of our sorrow, in the midst of our suffering in trial, it's a gift to us. And also the community of faith, the church, is a gift as well. And we are given the opportunity to walk together in sorrow and sadness with one another. We are called on to rejoice with those who rejoice, but also to mourn with those who mourn. And as we begin looking at this long section Job four through 27, the longest section of the book, at a series of dialogues that Job has with his friends and his counselors: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, we're going to learn lessons on counseling of those that are going through grief. Hopefully, we're going to learn what to do and what not to do. We're going to see the wisdom of God and giving us the whole narrative and the dialogue of what his friends say to him and what he says in response. Job's friends really do desire to help him; I'm convinced of that. Much of what they say is doctrinally accurate, but at the end of the book we find out from God himself that what they said about him was wrong.

And so we have to sift through how do we then read it, something that God himself has said was wrong, how do we understand it? How do we sift through it? They speak wrongly about God. They also, I believe, speak wrongly about Job and about his true conditions, circumstances. And in the end, they really do fail miserably as counselors, as Job himself says in Job 16:2, “miserable counselors are you all.” We're going to see why and how we can do better, hopefully. It's very difficult. I acknowledge it's difficult to counsel a suffering person, somebody going through great grief, going through, perhaps, the worst trial of their lives and to be the friend that's called on the scene to stand there and bring the word of God to bring comfort and consolation. It's hard to do it. You feel like no matter what you say, you make it worse.

One woman was talking about what it was like for her to try to lift the spirits of another woman who was going through deep depression. And she said, “No matter what I said, it was wrong. No matter what I did, it was wrong.” It's what she writes, "You cook their favorite meal, you tidy their kitchen while they're out, you put fresh flowers in the hall, you suggest they buy a new coat, all are wrong. You were supposed to realize that their present loss of appetite means that the sight of their favorite meal would just reduce them to tears. Tidying the kitchen was actually a way of you saying to them that you disliked the way that they're leaving their kitchen in the chaos. Putting fresh flowers in the hall was wrong because they're soon going to die and they look so much better out in the garden anyway. And as we're suggesting a new coat, that was a threat because you're probably saying they should at least try to do something about their disheveled appearance, no matter how they feel."

So I can be sympathetic. I can say, look, I know it's a difficult ministry, but I think we are going to be called on as the church to stand alongside people that are grief stricken to be able to give counsel to them, how do we do it? And so we're going to walk through Job's friends and look at some of their counsel. We're going to see their mix of true doctrinal assertions, but I think faulty applications and try to understand how we can do better. Today I'm going to walk through Eliphaz’s first speech in Job four and five, try to understand what he said, and then evaluate it, try to see what he got right and what I think he got wrong and then apply it to us. So let's begin by understanding this friend: Eliphaz the Temanite.

He speaks first, probably therefore is the oldest and wisest of Job's friends. He seems to say the most profound things of the three and at least, at the start, is generally the kindest to Job. He has a deep faith in God, a transcendent holy God. He yearns to help his friend make it right with God and get back to the blessed life that he formally knew. Eliphaz, we’ll see, will assert that no human being is righteous before such a holy God, and that whenever there's trouble it's inevitably because individuals have sinned in some way, everybody is guilty of error. Fundamental to his approach is the law of retribution. The law of sowing and reaping, that is, “You reap what you sow.” So the best thing that Job can do is quickly repent, appeal to God's mercy, so that his prosperity can resume. Eliphaz appeals often to his experience, the things he's observed with his own eyes, what he's lived through. That may be some of his problems, we'll see. He's also very logical and he follows his logic, his doctrine, where it leads, however far it leads. We're going to see that's going to be part of his problem as well. He ends up placing his logic and rational side above faith in a living God. In the end, his views lead him to make a devastating evaluation of Job that is stunning in just how wrong it is. Not in today's section, but later in Job 22:5, he's actually going to say these words to Job, “Is not your wickedness great? Are not your sins endless?” And then he is going to elaborate in verses six to 11 of that same chapter, listen to this: “You,” Job, “demanded security from your brothers for no reason; you strip men of their clothing, leaving them naked. You gave no water to the weary; you withheld food from the hungry, though you were a powerful man owning land, an honored man, living on it. And you sent widows away empty handed and broke the strength of the fatherless. That is why snares are all around you. Why sudden peril terrifies you. Why it is so dark, you cannot see and why a flood of water covers you.” Oh my goodness. For this string of charges he has no proof; because it never happened, none of those things ever happened, but he's just logically following his theology to its terminal stop, to where it leads.

We also know that there's much that Eliphaz doesn't know. If he's just going by what he sees and experiences in this world, he doesn't know God's true evaluation of Job. He doesn't know of the conversation that God and Satan had concerning Job. He doesn't know of Satan's activities in bringing such misery into Job's life. He doesn't know any of these things. And he actually doesn't know Job's track record, his actual track record 24/7; just assuming that Job's awfully busy at nighttime doing all of these wicked things that no one ever sees him doing. So many times we human beings can jump to conclusions based on appearances and we can wrongly judge people through our lack of knowledge. So that's just an introduction to Eliphaz. Now, let's walk through these two chapters and see what he actually says.

Let's look at his first speech. Now in chapter four verses one through six, he's going to effectively say, “Job it's time for you to practice what you have preached.” It's time for you to practice what you have preached. Look at verse one through six of chapter four, “Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: ‘If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking? Think how you have instructed many; how you have strengthened feeble hands, your words have supported those who stumbled. You have strengthened faltering needs, but now trouble comes to you and you're discouraged. It strikes you and you're dismayed. Should not your piety be your confidence, and your blameless ways your hope?’” So Eliphaz recognizes Job's piety, his track record of previous godly counsel. The powerful, effective instruction that he's had in the lives of many others. Job has, he says, repeatedly instructed others and strengthened in their weak moments, but now it's happened to him and he's falling apart. Eliphaz, therefore, is mildly rebuking Job for not heeding his own advice and becoming so discouraged. “It's time to practice what you preach Job and live up to your counsel. You should realize that everything's going to be fine if you really are as blameless and pious as you say you are and if you're patient. You should simply trust in your piety and in your blameless ways,” that's verses one through six.

Now in the next section he gets to the core of his doctrinal approach. You reap what you sow. You reap what you sow, look at chapter 4:7-11, “Consider now: who being innocent has ever perished. Where were the upright ever destroyed?” verse eight, “As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it. At the breath of God, they're destroyed, at the blast of his anger they perish. The lions may roar and growl; yet the teeth of the great lions are broken. The lion perishes for lack of prey and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.” So this is Eliphaz’s fundamental doctrinal approach, his worldview: an unchanging pattern that he has observed by simple observation, by experience. “I have noticed, I've seen this pattern. It's never violated. The righteous never perish. Those who plow evil, reap a harvest of trouble. God sees to it. With the slightest blast of his nostrils God can topple the wicked. In a moment they perish, they die instantly under the wrath of God. That's how powerful God is in dealing with the wicked. “The lions and lioness's,” representing wicked oppressors, powerful people in this world, strong, dominant people, “they may roar and growl for a while, but in the end, their teeth will be broken and they will starve for lack of prey. That's how powerful God is in dealing with the wicked. Do you see the implication? You're one of those lions Job. You're one of the wicked oppressors and now God has come after you.” That's what he's saying. “Your only hope Job then is to repent of your closet wickedness, throw yourself on the mercy of God and start behaving righteously and God will reward you.”

Third section verses 12-17: “Are you more righteous than God?” Now this section begins with a bit of an eerie vision, a night vision. It's kind of creepy, but let's go ahead and follow what Eliphaz says, “A word was secretly brought to me. My ear has caught a whisper of it. Amid disquieting dreams in the night when deep sleep falls on men, fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake, a spirit glided past my face and the hair on my body stood on end. It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes and I heard a hushed voice. Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?” Well, that's kind of an eerie buildup, isn't it? He has some kind of a vision. God has, it seems, secretly revealed this to him, a timeless truth that's relevant here. It's like, “I have had a direct revelation from God himself so you better listen to me. Can a mortal be more righteous than God or more pure than his maker?” In other words, God doesn't make mistakes. “Fundamentally, you are suffering because of your unrighteousness and your impurity. You have to take responsibility for your sins Job. That's why you're suffering. Clearly by claiming that you're pure, by saying God has wronged me, he has made a terrible mistake, you are wrong. God never makes any mistakes, that cannot be.” Next section verses 18-21: “If angels are vulnerable, men are vastly more vulnerable.”  Chapter 4:18-21, “If God places no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error, then how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth! Between dawn and dusk they are broken in pieces; unnoticed they perish forever. Are not the cords of their tent pulled up so they die without wisdom?” in other words, “Human sinners are extremely fragile. They're vulnerable. If God can so easily deal with rebellious angels, like Satan and the demons, then how much more human rebels? We are weak, we perish easily. We're so fragile. We die like a moth being crushed. We ought not to challenge God by our sins because with the greatest of ease he can unleash his mighty arm and pull us down like a tent. So be warned, Job.” I think the attitude here is similar to one preacher a number of years ago that preached this fundamental principle: your arm is too short to box with God. Well, that's true. So don't take God on and don't fight him. The next section verses one through seven of chapter five: “Only God can rescue a sinner from God.”

Look at chapter 5:1-7, “Call, if you will, but who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn? Resentment kills a fool and envy slays the simple. I myself have seen a fool taking root, but suddenly his house was cursed. His children are far from safety, crushed in court without a defender. The hungry consume his harvest, taking it even from among thorns and the thirsty pant after his wealth. For hardship does not spring from the soil nor does trouble sprout from the ground. Yet, man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.” “So all of this terrible misery that's come upon you is a judgment from God and to whom can you turn to be delivered? No one is stronger than God, so who will you appeal to? I believe you're receiving a just punishment from God and God is the only one who can deliver you from God.”

So, sinners who are getting what they deserve from a holy God are filled with resentment and envy for those who are not. “I've seen,” he says; Eliphaz resorts again to his personal experience to what his life on earth has taught him. But I only say as an editorial comment right in the middle of this: appearances can be deceiving. Things aren't always what they appear to be; that's definitely the case when it comes to Job. So what had Eliphaz seen? Well, he had seen a fool taking root and beginning a harvest of success, but then God unleashes judgments on him and he's destroyed quickly. That's what he's seen. Hardship came on that wicked person quickly and not for no reason, you reap what you sow. And then as a result, the hungry and thirsty who are deprived from this rich oppressor's abundant harvest have come in and eaten and drunk from what he had wrongly stored up; that's what he's saying. And then he says, “Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.” All human beings suffer in this sin cursed world.

Next section, verses 8-16: “God opposes the wicked but gives grace to the humble.” Look at verse eight of chapter five, “But if it were I, I would appeal to God. I would lay my cause before him.” Why should you do that? Well, because God is amazing. He does amazing things. Look at verse nine through 16, “He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. He bestows rain on the earth. He sends water upon the countryside. The lowly he sets on high and those who mourn are lifted to safety. He thwarts the plans of the crafty so that their hands achieve no success. He catches the wise in their craftiness and the schemes of the wily are swept away. Darkness comes upon them in the daytime; at noon they grope as in the night. He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth. He saves them from the clutches of the powerful. So the poor have hope and injustice shuts its mouth.” So the God who performs such amazing natural wonders as giving rain to the earth, he can forgive you, heal you and restore you. He's got that kind of power. Now, Eliphaz makes two statements that are true, we'll circle back to them later: Rain is amazing and God catches the wise in their craftiness, more on both of those in a moment, but he makes a faulty application to Job: “Be honest about your sins Job, don't continue in your wicked crafty ways because God fights wicked oppressors. And he elevates humble people to great heights of safety above the reach of their wicked crafty oppressors.” that's what he's saying.

Now, this section we looked at last week: “God wounds and God heals.” Look at chapter 5:17-27, “Blessed it is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal. From six calamities he will rescue you; in seven no harm will befall you. In famine he will ransom you from death, and in battle from the stroke of the sword. You'll be protected from the lash of the tongue and need not fear when destruction comes. You will laugh at destruction and famine and need not fear the beast of the earth, for you'll have a covenant with the stones of the field and the wild animals will be at peace with you. You will know that your tent is secure. You'll take stock of your property and find nothing missing. You will know that your children will be many and your descendants like the grass of the earth. You will come to the grave in full vigor like sheaves gathered in season. We have examined this and it is true so hear it and apply it to yourself.” so this is Eliphaz’s final pitch: “Our best hope for you is that this staggering level of suffering, which has undoubtedly come from a staggering level of sin,” we'll get to that later, “But this staggering level of sin, of suffering can be healed and restored. God will forgive you. He'll restore you. If you will just accept your correction. If you just humble yourself under God's mighty hand, you'll find a level of new prosperity and security far better than the old situation that you had before, which was obviously now it's become apparent, built on wickedness. But you'll have an even greater prosperity built on righteousness.” Amazingly, this is exactly what does happen to Job at the end of the book. All you have to do is read this section of Eliphaz and then compare it to what happened at the very end of the book and you'll find out all of those things did in fact happen. So Eliphaz, he says, has researched this whole thing thoroughly. It's true. So hear it Job and apply it to yourself.

All right, so that's Eliphaz's two-chapter presentation to Job. Isn't it amazing that the Holy Spirit wanted us to walk through that? Wanted us to hear it and read it, he gave it to us in inspired scripture, and then later tells us that a lot of it's wrong. So it's just a marvelous thing as we read that, let's first see what he got right. What did Eliphaz get right? Well, first just the ministry of silence and the ministry of presence, just along with the other two friends coming to Job in his sorrow and sadness and sitting with him, it's called the ministry of presence. We have a tendency to run away from grief and sorrow and sadness. We don't want to be near it. It's hard to look at it, but he didn't do that, neither did the other two friends. They came and sat with him. And then for seven days they didn't say a word and that was very comforting and it was humble. So that's what they got right. So for me, I just want to take that as application, when I hear that someone is going through a great sorrow, to go toward that person to reach out, to be with them, to sit with them.

All right, so that's what he did right in terms of his physical presence and then his seven days of silence. What did he get right in what he said, of the things that he said? Well, first of all, God is in fact, a moral king ruling actively on planet earth. That is true. We're not deists who believe that God created the world and set it up like a machine and then stays out of it and doesn't do anything. Still less are we atheists that think that this whole thing came about by time plus chance. We don't live in the law of the jungle where the mighty just rip and shred the weak and there's nothing that the weak can do. It's nature red and tooth and claw, and there's just no rhyme or reason to any of it. That's actually true. He got that right. Habakkuk felt that way in Habakkuk one, 13 and 14, when he found out that the wicked oppressors in Jerusalem were going to be crushed by the Babylonian army invading, a bunch of pagans. And it just didn't make any sense at all to Habakkuk. So he says in Habakkuk one, 13 and 14, “Why are you silent,” speaking to God, “while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? You have made men like fish in the sea like sea creatures that have no ruler.” and it really does seem that way sometimes, doesn't it? That it's just the law of the jungle and might makes right and all that. And that God has just recused himself and doesn't get involved. Eliphaz says, no, that's not true. God is actively ruling on planet earth. He got that right.

"God is in fact, a moral king ruling actively on planet earth. That is true. "

Secondly, the law of sowing and reaping actually is true. It's the centerpiece of his theology and it actually is biblical. There's lots of biblical evidence about this. Look again at Job 4:8, this is his basic assertion, “As I have observed those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.” Well there are many verses that corroborate this: Proverbs 22:8 says, “He who sows wickedness, reaps trouble.” Matthew 7:2, Jesus said, “the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Galatians 6:7 says it the clearest, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows,” very plain. And then Romans 2:6-7 unfolds it theologically; it says, “God ‘will give to each person according to what he has done.’ To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory honor and immorality, he will give eternal life. But those who are self seeking, who reject to the truth and follow evil, they'll be wrath and anger.” That's the law of retribution and it is true. So you got that right.

Thirdly: man's basic misery. Look at Job 5:7, “Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.” We need to have an expectation of sorrow in this world. Don't be surprised when pain and suffering comes to you. It's part of what Adam brought the human race into. As Jesus said plainly in John 16:33, “In this world, you will have trouble,” I love the rest, “take heart! I have overcome the world,” said Jesus. So we need to understand we're going to have sorrow and misery.

Fourthly, God does, in fact, catch the wise in their craftiness. Job 5:13, “He catches the wise in their craftiness and the schemes of the wily are swept away.” This statement, the apostle Paul chose out and used under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in I Corinthians 3:19, where there he's dealing with the wisdom of the world and of the wise and all that. And he says, God, in the end, doubles it back on the crafty: “For in the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: ‘He catches the wise in their craftiness,’” I Corinthians 3:19. This is especially true with devious wicked plots that then end up catching the one who hatched them. That happens a lot. It says in Proverbs 26:27, “If a man digs a pit, he will fall into it. If a man rolls a stone, it will roll back on him.” Think about the book of Esther. Remember that? And the wicked man, Haman, who hated Mordecai, remember? And then by extension hated the Jews and orchestrated a plot to kill Mordecai and all the Jews. And he erected a gallows in his yard; remember this, to hang Mordecai on it. And he was going to orchestrate the death of his enemy to hang him on the gallows. Who ends up hanging on those gallows? Haman does and his sons. And so that's “if you dig a pit, you fall into it.” This is, by the way, especially true when it comes to those who use their political power, their governmental positions around the world to oppose the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The very means that they used to shut down the kingdom actually expand it and purify it and establish it. And so Psalm 2, God laughs at the opposition of the wicked kings and princes around the world as they try to stop the building the kingdom of Christ. Clearest example of this, “the blood of martyrs is seed for the church,” and so the more that the Roman emperors made martyrs, the more Christians sprang up out of that blood. And so that's just God laughing and catching the wise in their craftiness. And we're going to get to enjoy the laughter for all eternity as we see all of the devious schemes and plots that powerful people have unleashed against the church of Jesus Christ and how God used them all to build and purify his church.

Fifthly, only God can rescue us from God. That actually is true. And it's important for us to understand this. Deuteronomy 32:39, “See, now that I, myself, am he, there is no God besides me, I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal,” listen to this, “and no one can deliver out of my hand.” Now the fuller statement in the Bible is: “no one can deliver out of my hand but me.” God can, in fact, deliver us sinners from his own righteous wrath and judgment. And he has done that at the cross. He has, in fact, delivered us from his own wrath by the death of his own dear son. And as you're listening to me today, you may actually have walked into this place today under the wrath of God because of your sins. For all the years you have been rebelling against him and sinning, you have piled up and stored up wrath against yourself for the day of God's righteous wrath when his judgment will be revealed, but the beauty of the gospel is all of that stored up wrath, can in fact, be transferred to Jesus, the substitute, he died under the wrath of God that we might live free, and there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Only God can deliver from God. Praise God for it.

Sixth, God's natural wonders really are amazing. Job 5:9-10, “He performs wonders that cannot be fathom, miracles that cannot be counted, he bestows rain on the earth, sends water on the countryside.” Now, God himself is going to celebrate his own creative power for many chapters at the end of the book and I'm going to enjoy going through that, but let's just stop for a minute and look at this one statement by Eliphaz. Is rain amazing? I would've read right by this except for a devotion I read a number of years ago by John Piper and he zeros in on this statement. And so let me summarize what Piper says in that devotional. He says, “Is rain a great and unsearchable wonder brought by God? Picture yourself as a farmer in the near east, far from any lake or stream, a few wells keep the family and animals supplied with water, but if the crops are to grow and if the family has to be fed from month to month, water has to come on those fields from another source, from where? Well, from the sky. The sky? Water will come out of the clear blue sky? Well, not exactly. Water will have to actually be carried in the sky from the Mediterranean Sea over several hundred miles and then be poured out from the sky onto the fields. Carried? Well, how much does the water weigh? Well, if one inch of rain falls on one square mile of farmland during the night; that would be 206 million gallons of water, which adds up to 1.6 billion pounds. That's heavy. So how does it get up in the sky and stay up there if it's so heavy? Well, it gets there by evaporation, meaning that the water sort of start stops being water for a while so it can go up and not down. So how does it get down? Well, condensation happens. Well, what's that? Well, the water starts becoming water again. By gathering around little dust particles between a thousandth and a 10000th of a centimeter wide, that's about a hundred times smaller than the eye of a gnat, that's small. What about the salt? Salt? Yes, the Mediterranean Sea is salt water that would kill the crops. What about the salt? Well, the salt has to be taken out. Oh, so the sky picks up a billion pounds of water from the sea, takes the salt out, then carries it for 300 miles and dumps it on the farm? Well, actually it doesn't dump it. If it dumped a billion pounds of water on the farm, the wheat would be crushed. So the sky dribbles the billion pounds of water down in little drops and they have to be big enough to fall for about one mile or so without evaporating, but small enough to keep from crushing the wheat stalks. So rain really is a great unsearchable thing that God has done. I think I should be more thankful for it than I am.” That was a good devotion, wasn't it? By the way, I stripped out a lot of the scientific details that I would find interesting, but I don't think you would.

Seventh, blessed is the one whom God disciplines. I gave a whole sermon to this last week so I'm not going to circle back. Except that God wisely brings affliction in the lives of his children to purify them, to get them to repent from sins, and so that whenever trouble happens, as we said last week, you should ask the Lord to search you and know you and show your faults to you, whatever sins he may be bringing about through the discipline and through the hardship.

Eighth, God wounds and God heals. Eliphaz was right that God has the power to restore us completely. And he does bring wounding in our lives, but he also brings amazing healing. And in the end, the healing is going to be infinitely greater than the wounding ever was. After the resurrection of Jesus Christ with all of the New Testament theology that we have now, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth and resurrection bodies, which blessedness far outstrips even what happened to Job at the end of his life. Because those blessings, that prosperity, that health will never, ever, ever be taken from us. And so the Lord does wound, but the healing is amazing and we'll spend eternity swimming in that healing.

So that's what Eliphaz got right. What did he get wrong? Well, first, the law of sowing and reaping doesn't work in reverse, it doesn't work in reverse. While it is true that people who sow evil, reap bad consequences, the whole book of Job exists to say the opposite isn't necessarily true. People who are reaping bad consequences necessarily sowed evil, that isn't true. Job is there to prove it. Not everyone in this world suffers because of their own sins. Job had no vast mountainous iniquity proportional to the sorrow going on in his life. It just wasn't true. So that logic just didn't work in reverse. And I would say the vast majority of the suffering in the world is not in any way directly connected to the sins of the people that are going through that suffering.

Secondly, failure to listen sympathetically and what we would say: believe the best about your friend; believe the best about your friend. Eliphaz and the other two think Job is lying when he says: “Nothing like that has happened. I didn't do anything. I'm not aware of any great sins in my life.” They think he's lying and they won't accept it. And it says in first Corinthians 13, “Love believes all things,” that doesn't mean credulity, we'll just accept whatever, but there's just no evidence of Job's wickedness. There'd be no reason to doubt him. And so there's something in the Christian Church called the judgment of charity. We're going to accept people as what they appear to be unless there's evidence the other way, “by their fruit you'll know them.” And so Job and his friends should have been sympathetic listeners and believed him when he said: “I'm telling you nothing like that has happened.”

Thirdly: failure to be humble. Remember, last week I talked about those two categories of sins, those common sins that plague us every day where David said, “My sins are more numerous than the hairs of my head?” And then there are those grave, life altering sins, like David with Bathsheba. We need to be aware of both when we're going through afflictions, but of the first everyone is subject to them. We all have moments of sinful pride and arrogance and anger and selfishness and idolatry and all of these things we battle all the time. And Eliphaz didn't seem to realize that was true of him too. A matter of fact, Eliphaz and his two other friends actually believed Job was guiltier than they were, that's why he was singled out for such grievous wickedness. We know the exact opposite is true. If any of those three men had been more righteous than Job, it would've been them that it happened to, not Job. So it's ironic that actually he being more righteous than them was chosen by God for this sorrow and suffering. Instead, when we see the afflictions going on in other people's lives, we should be humble about our own sins. It should be an opportunity for us to repent and be humble about what sins we've committed.

Fourthly: failure to show compassion. To extend compassion, to speak words of comfort and consolation, specifically lined up with Job as a righteous man suffering. And when they just go off the rails, “You must be a great sinner to suffer such great sorrows. You must be an exquisitely great sinner to suffer such exquisitely great” so they are off the rails at this point, and they had no compassion.

Fifthly: failure to deal honestly with all the data in this world. Eliphaz said, “I've observed this, I've seen this” well, is this all you've seen? Have you not seen wicked people prospering right to the end of their lives? Haven't you seen that? Job's going to deal with that in Job 21. It's there in Psalm 73, the wicked prosper. Some of them die in their beds surrounded by people who love them. And so that should open the door to the fact that God doesn't settle all his accounts in this world and the righteous die; all of them die, not having received any of the best promises, because they're all in the future. And many, most wicked die not having received retribution for the wicked things they did in this life. It would be just good for us to be aware of that. God doesn't settle all those accounts here. When does he settle them? Judgment day and more specifically the eternity that follows. Heaven and hell that follows. That's how God settles his accounts.

Sixth: understanding God's complex response to evil. It is not a simple thing what God is doing with the problem of evil and suffering in this world. And they try to make it simple. It's a vast, complex tapestry of events and causes and effects that's far beyond our ability to trace out and they should be more humble- should have been more humble about the complexity of it. And seventh, failure to see from an eternal perspective, the very thing I just said. We have an even better eternal perspective because of Christ's death and resurrection, but they should have been able to see this whole thing from an eternal perspective.

All right. So what applications should we take from this? Well, first, I'm taking the whole angle of this sermon in terms of counseling, counseling somebody who's going through grief and sorrow. Start with yourself. We did a whole sermon last week on this so I won't spend much time, but when you are going through sorrow and sadness ask the Holy Spirit to show you: is there sin in my life that you're dealing with? Is there something that I'm doing that's offending you? Is there some way I am violating your standards in my conscience? And whatever pops in your mind at that moment, deal with it. I'd be surprised if nothing did. If nothing did proportional to the sorrows and sadness you're going through, I understand that. That's why the book of Job is here. Then you bear it patiently and ask the Lord to work on the sins that you do know are in your life. But ask the Lord to search you and know you. What about counseling a suffering friend? Well, as I said at the time earlier in the sermon, go there and be there, don't pull back. I had a friend this very week, he was going through a struggle because of sin in his own life and he acknowledged it, very humble, dealing with it properly and all that. But he said, “I've been very lonely the last three months and many people have pulled away from me.” Don't do that. Go toward people that are broken, toward people that are sorrowing, toward people that are going through suffering and then, ministry of presence, maybe ministry of silence, don't go with a big packet of words. Just go and sit, put an arm around them, spend time with them. And then listen, just listen and then pray, a ministry of prayer. Don't force your theology like a square peg in a round hole. That's what Eliphaz and the friends did. Don't force it. Be humble about your own sins when you go. Point them to Christ; point them to Christ, his death, his resurrection. Point them to heaven. Point them to the eternal perspective we should have as Christians. If they do confess sins, if they say: “I think this is why this is happening, I think I've sinned.” Then point them to the cross. Point them to Jesus's death, which is sufficient to atone for all of our sins. Allow them to talk about that. Don't say, oh, don't do that. The Holy Spirit may very well be dealing with them in their sin. Don't do that, just listen, but be humble as you do. Say Jesus's blood is sufficient. If they don't confess sin then, and there's no evidence, believe them. You're not their judge. You're not the one they're going to stand before on judgment day. So that's what I think, “love believes all things,” means; there's a sympathy that we have with our friends so you're going to listen to them and again, point them to Christ.

And then finally, all of us, let's look again to Christ who is truly the only perfect sufferer there has ever been in this world. He's the only one that did not suffer for his own sins, but he did for ours. I Peter 2, it says, “He committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth, when they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” Close with me in prayer. Lord, thank you for the time that we've had to walk through these two chapters and the learning that we have from Eliphaz. Lord, help us to take these many lessons to heart and to allow them to be woven into our lives by the power of the holy spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Eliphaz speaks some wise words, some foolish, a tangle which we must sort through to find a theology of suffering that fits with Scripture.

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In this eighth episode of the Peter Podcast Series, Andy and Wes discuss 1 Peter 4:1-11. Peter commands Christians to live their lives maximally to the glory of God in holiness and fruitfulness.

The post Peter Episode 8 – Living for God as the End of All Things Draws Near appeared first on Two Journeys.

In this episode, Andy first provides context by taking a quick look at the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the development of gun powder, then moves to an examination of the life of Raymon Llull (1232-1316) and his missionary efforts to reach Muslims. 

The post Journeys from the Past – Episode 19: Ramon Llull (1232-1316) appeared first on Two Journeys.

In our suffering, the temptation grows to be angry with God, but the truth is that blessed is the one whom God corrects!

The post Blessed is the One Whom God Corrects (Job Sermon 4) appeared first on Two Journeys.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a sermon on Job 5:17-18. He focuses on the healing discipline and correction that God gives those he loves. 

 So turn in your Bibles to Job chapter five, we're looking at just these two verses today. We will go back and look at chapter four and five next week more fully, but I wanted to zero in on these remarkable words. One of the great reasons that I love church history is I'm able to learn from the lives of those that went before us, heroes and heroines of the faith. One of the great heroines of the faith for me is Sarah Edwards, the wife of Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards was a pastor and a theologian who lived in colonial Massachusetts in the first half of the 18th century, arguably the greatest American theologian of all time, but he was also married to an amazingly patient, wise and godly woman, Sarah. She was every bit his equal in Christian maturity, powerful ministry, and God chose by a bitter providence to put her character on display for all time.

Jonathan, her husband was away from her. He was preparing to become president of the College of New Jersey, what we know now as Princeton. And he received a smallpox inoculation, as many did in those days, but it went horribly wrong. His throat swelled up with the disease, his fever raged, and he soon died, March 22nd, 1758. Sarah received the news of his death and wrote this timeless letter to their daughter, Esther: “What shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. Oh, that we may kiss the rod and lay our hands on our mouths. The Lord has done it. He has made me adore his goodness that we had him so long, but my God lives and he has my heart. Oh what a legacy my husband and your father has left to us. We are all given to God, and there I am and love to be. Your ever affectionate mother, Sarah Edwards.”

So here is a godly woman who deeply loved her husband and has now learned that she would never see him again in this world. This was her reaction. She's well aware of her sorrow. She feels deeply her pain for she speaks of a dark cloud that's come over her. She embraces the doctrine of God's sovereign disposal in her life, for it is God who has chosen to cover her with this dark cloud. She says, clearly the Lord has done it, but she does not charge him with wrongdoing, instead she calls him holy and good. Furthermore, she is clinging to him as her living treasure, for she says, "My God lives and he has my heart." Her true delight is God, not her godly husband, Jonathan. "We are all given to God. There I am. And there I long to be", she writes. She is well aware that she is on display even while she writes to her dear daughter. She wants Esther to know we are all given to God. She's deeply thankful for the past goodness of God, in having had such an incredibly godly and fruitful husband as she did. She is mindful of the legacy Jonathan has left to future generations of Christians, yet it was very personal to her and to Esther for she calls him my husband and your father. But for me by far the most amazing part of this letter, are these words: “Oh that we may kiss the rod and lay our hands on our mouths.” what incredible maturity this reveals. The rod that she mentions is the chastening rod of reproof by a loving heavenly Father. No matter how godly she is, she's well aware that there is still within her and in all of us who live, deep seated corruptions of indwelling sin. And that God uses these kinds of bitter moments to drive the sin out of our souls.

But that only happens, optimally; if we kiss the rod, if we accept, willingly accept what God is choosing to do in our lives. We must see such painful providences as part of God's wise and fatherly plan to sanctify us through and through, and thereby fit us for heaven, but she also knows her own weakness. And so she quotes Job like Job in Job 40:4. She says, "We need to lay our hands on our mouths." Why is this? Well, because the tongue “is a restless evil, full of deadly poison,” James 3:8. It will speak the hidden corruptions of our hearts in bitter accusations against God if we do not set a guard over the door of our mouth, Psalm 141:3. So friends this morning, I want to commend to you the theology of Sarah Edwards. I want us to learn how to kiss the rod. I want you to learn to expect the rod, to not think of it as a strange thing when it happens in your life, to expect it, but to see the goodness of God in it. In order to do all of this, I would want to commend to you the words of Job's friend, Eliphaz the Temanite. Look at verse 17 and 18 of chapter five, “Blessed is the one whom God corrects. So do not despise the discipline of the almighty for he wounds, but he also binds up. He injures, but his hands also heal.” Now, as we come to this statement, we come to some of the challenges of interpreting the book of Job.

Now we believe in the doctrine of inerrancy; 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All scripture is God breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” Psalm 12:6 says, “The words of the Lord are flawless like silver refined in a furnace of clay purified seven times over.” But, there are some difficult aspects of interpretation of scripture, and scripture interprets scripture. And with that brings us some of the challenges of the book of Job, for God himself said about Job's statements at the end of this book in Job 38:2, "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?" that's what God said about Job's statements. And then later he speaks of Job's friends in Job 42:7, “After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the team Temanite, ‘I am angry with you and your two friends because you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has.’” so where does that leave us? The words of Job and the words of his friends make up the bulk of the book. And God's already said negative things about both what Job says and what his friends say. And yet later in redemptive history, the apostle Paul quoted Eliphaz the Temanite as he was writing I Corinthians; the plot thickens for us in interpretation. The Holy Spirit moved Paul as he's writing the inerrant scripture, I Corinthians, to quote Eliphaz. Job 5:13 Eliphaz says, "He catches the wise in their craftiness and the schemes of the wily are swept away." Then Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I Corinthians 3:19, "For the wisdom of the world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written, he catches the wise in their craftiness."

So some of what Job's friends said is true. So how do we sift through all this. Now next week, we're going to begin answering this question more broadly as we look at Eliphaz's entire statement and his approach and that of his friends. But today I want to lift up this statement because I find it corroborated in other scriptures, and I want us to ponder it: “Blessed is the one whom God corrects, so do not despise the discipline of the almighty, for he wounds, but he also binds up. He injures, but his hands also heal.” I want to walk through this as true and helpful to us in the Christian life.

First, blessed, behold, blessed is the one whom God corrects. Let's unfold Eliphaz's statement; Blessed means happy in God, richly blessed, richly gifted by God, that's what he means. And the word corrects could be translated chastens or reproves or chastises. The implication is that we're having our sin addressed by God. The discipline is of the Lord. The idea is that we are capable of wandering away from the path of holiness and righteousness through sin, or that we could have some deep-seated inner sin issues in our hearts that we didn't even know were there, some idolatry, some false expectations, some things inside that need to get dealt with.

Therefore, since this is a great blessing from God to have your sin addressed, to have him reprove you for your sin, therefore as a result of this assertion, that you are blessed of the Lord, chastised, you should not despise the Lord's discipline. You should not reject it. You should not refuse it. You should not get angry about it, or as Sarah said, you should kiss the rod. We're not just going to be neutral about it, we're going to actually be thankful for it. We're going to see the goodness of God in it, welcome it into our lives. And why is this? Verse 18, because of God's final healing. God's final healing. God wounds, but then he binds up the wounds. God shatters, he strikes, he injures different ways of translating, but then his hands heal. I think about the healing hands of our savior, Jesus Christ, how often he uses hands as instruments of God's sovereign healing.

Again and again, we see this. In Mark 1:30-31 Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. So we went to her, took her hand and helped her up. We know that Jesus didn't need to even go see her. He could just speak the word and she'd be healed, but he just loves to touch sick people and heal them. He does the same with a leper who no one would've touched back in those days, you'd be unclean. But Jesus was never made unclean by touching a leper. He made the leper clean. As light drives out darkness, so Jesus' health drove away sickness. In Mark 1:40-42 it says, “A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said, ‘Be clean.’ And immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.”

He did the same with Jairus' little daughter who was dead, “He took her by the hand and said, ‘Talitha koum!’ (Which means, ‘Little girl I say to you, get up.’)” And she got up. He took her by the hand. I love how in the movie, Jesus of Nazareth by Franco Zeffirelli, mid '70s it was made, just beautiful, the light streaming in from the window and Jesus bends over her and she's just laying there. And he zeros in on his hand, and it's shining in light. And he reaches down and takes her hand, and then her eyes start to move and she sits up and hugs him. It's just very powerful. And so you've got the hand of Jesus picturing what Eliphaz is talking about. His hands will heal.

So God wounds us and hurts us deeply, then with his own hand, he binds up the very wounds that he has made. Hosea 6:1-3 speaks of this, and I love these verses so I commend them to you. Go study them this afternoon. They're so beautiful. Hosea six: "Come let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us. He has injured us, but he will bind up our wounds. After two days, he will revive us. And on the third day, he will restore us that we may live in his presence. Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear. He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth."

Now we need to see and understand what God finally brought about in job's life. How Eliphaz's words came true when it came to Job, James 5:11 speaks about what God finally brought about: "As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered," says James 5:11, "You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.” What did the Lord finally bring about? Well, Job 42:12-17 speaks of some of it, "The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first. He had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, 1,000 donkeys. He had also seven sons and three daughters. And the first daughter named Jemima and the second Keziah, and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job's daughters. And their father granted them in inheritance along with their brothers. After this job lived 140 years, he saw his children, and their children to the fourth generation. And so he died old and full of years." Well, that's just the language of old covenant blessedness, even though I don't know where the old covenant was at that point, whether Job was before it or during it, but this is the language the Old Testament uses of earthly blessedness. But we Christians, we know that the real blessing comes at the resurrection. That's where all the healing happens. Not just symbolic healings, partial healings, temporary healings, not just the giving of physical blessings that will be taken away from us at death. I'm talking about the kingdom of heaven for all eternity. That's the ultimate healing we're going to get through the salvation work of Christ. That's the true happy ending, and the new heaven, new earth, where it says in Revelation 7:16 and 17, "Never again will they hunger. Never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them nor any scorching heat. For the lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will lead them to Springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” so that's where the final blessedness that Eliphaz is speaking of comes. I don't think he fully understood it, but we understand because of the New Testament promises in Christ.

Now God's children alone are thus blessed. God's children alone are thus blessed. The reprobate also experience many of the same afflictions. Most of these afflictions that we talk about are common to the human race, happens to everybody. Cancer diagnoses, touches both the righteous and the wicked. COVID doesn't care whether a person is pious or an atheist. Natural disasters happen to all, floods and hurricanes and earthquakes sweep away the homes of both the righteous and the wicked. They don't distinguish at all, these tragedies befall everyone alike. Sudden tragic deaths happen to both believers and unbelievers alike or to their loved ones. Believers and unbelievers alike have to bury children after car accidents or drownings. Economic downturns happen to both the righteous and the wicked, unemployment, poverty, economic struggles. So all people experience these same things alike, but the wicked do not benefit from them at all. Actually in most cases it just hardens them more. Human beings are naturally rebellious against God, and they are like anvils that only get harder when struck. There is something in metallurgy called work hardening. You heat up a piece of iron and then pound it and pound it and pound it. You're actually making it harder as a result. Work hardening pounds carbon into the molecular structure and makes it harder.

And you see this biblically with the unregenerate and their afflictions. We see it very clearly in Revelation 16:8-11: "The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun. And the sun was given power to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God who had control over these plagues. But they refused to repent and glorify him." just made them harder, "And then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast. And his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done."

So these afflictions for the wicked don't do them any good. They're actually just foretaste of hell, just as the sweet outpourings of the spirit are foretaste of heaven for the righteous. Actually far worse for the reprobate is to experience prosperity and success in the midst of a life of rebellion against God. That's worse for them. The worst thing, I believe, that God can ever do to anyone in this world, not in the next, but in this world, is to give them over to their sins. There's nothing worse that God can do to anyone in this world than to give a sinner over to his sins. It says it three times in Romans 1:24, "God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another." Then again in 1:26, "Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts." and then again in verse 28, "Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done." what does this mean? It means God isn't interfering anymore. He's not bringing any feelings of guilt anymore. They don't feel any conviction. They actually feel vindicated by their prosperity and their success, and they're not thinking self reflective thoughts about the path they're on. They think it's just a path of success and happiness. So Psalm 73:3-6, the Psalmist says, "I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles. Their bodies are healthy and strong. They're free from the burdens common to man. They're not plagued by human ills. Therefore pride is their necklace. They cloth themselves with violence." what does it mean, “pride is their necklace?” They're confident that their way of life is just fine.

Job's going to speak about this at length in chapter 21:7-13, it says: "Why do the wicked live on growing old and increasing in power? They see their children established around them, their offspring before their eyes, their homes are safe and free from fear. The rod of God is not upon them. Their bulls never fail to breed, their cows calve and do not miscarry. They send forth their children as a flock. Their little ones dance about. They sing to the music of tambourine and harp. They make merry to the sound of the flute. They spend their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace.” But God chastises his children in love.

Hebrews 12:5-7 teaches this openly, "My son do not make light of the Lord's discipline and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?" This is the rod that Sarah Edwards was referring to, the rod of fatherly chastisement. Now, we need to understand the theology of salvation. Our salvation from sin comes to us in stages. And at the very beginning of the Christian life, at the moment of faith in Jesus, at that moment, all of our sins are completely forgiven, past, present, and future. And God sees us in Christ positionally as perfectly holy and will for all eternity. In that state, we, the justified through faith in Jesus, will stand holy and blameless on judgment day. And we should be thankful and happy about that every day of our lives. But then God rolls up his sleeves and gets busy on you. And then the next stage of salvation is sanctification. And here he's dealing not with your position, which is set for all eternity, but with your actual heart state and practice, how you actually think and feel and reason, and then how you behave. And there is much indwelling sin in all of us. Romans seven makes that plain. Paul himself said, "The very thing I hate, I do. And the thing I want to do, I do not do." why is that? Because of sin living in me. And God will not allow that sin living in us to triumph over us, to trample us. He loves us too much for that, and so the rod. This is the rod. And we have to get these things clearly. It doesn't mean God doesn't love you. It's quite the opposite. Doesn't mean that he doesn't see you in Christ, holy and blameless. In one sense, God sees no sin in you, but in other sense, he sees all the sins in you. And many, most of them you don't see. And so he is lovingly chastising.

Now God, with the righteous, not with the wicked, but with the righteous, he combines the external afflictions with internal working through the Holy Spirit. And he brings about conviction of sin internally, and then assurance of final triumph. That's what he's doing. He combines a sense of conviction and repentance for specific patterns of sin and issues of sin. And along with that, a promise and a sense of hope of final triumph over all sin through glorification and eternity in heaven and he testifies with our hearts that we're God's children. Romans 8:15 and 16, “You receive the spirit of sonship, and by him, we cry, ‘Abba father.’ And the Spirit himself testifies with our spirits that we are God's children.” while he's chastising us. And that God's Spirit within us tells us in Romans 8:18, "I consider that our present sufferings aren't even worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” So that's what the Spirit's doing inside of the righteous while the afflictions are going on. And he will in the end perfectly and completely bind up every wound, and lavishly restore prosperity in ways that go even far beyond what Job experienced, and I'm talking about heaven. All of our afflictions lead to heaven.

Now there is a complex connection, therefore, between our sins and our sufferings. We need to understand this. This is one of the great lessons of the scripture, not just in the book of Job. Now, the common wisdom that we get if you know enough about the book of Job, about Job's friends is: don't be like Job's friends. I mean, if you've had any teaching or any encounters with the book of Job, it's like, don't be like Job's friends. They're merciless Pharisees who judge Job harshly and think they're better than him. So if your Christian friends ever go through some earth shattering loss, death of a loved one, a cancer diagnosis, or loss of a home through a house fire or something like that, the worst thing you can do, you're told, is to be like job's friends. Well, what does that mean? Well, don't even hint that any of their suffering has anything to do with sin.

The worst thing you can say to, you know, a woman who's lost a child, let's say, is, "Honey, is there some sin you need to confess in your life?" Well, I think there's a lot of truth to that. There's a lot of truth, but counseling strategy and the doctrine of the connection between our sin and suffering are related but different. Timing matters. Word choice matters. And there are deeper issues that we have to address. And I'm going to say later in the sermon, but I'll just go ahead and say it now. Pastors preaching sermons to huge groups of people can get away with things that individuals in hospital rooms can't. So, I'm giving you general biblical principles to help you and enable you to apply them when the time comes for you, because I'm not singling any of you out and I'm giving you things that the Bible tells that will help you. But then when the time comes, you probably should behave like Job's friends did initially, and put an arm around someone and just be quiet and weep with them for a long time. But it could be down the road, a year or two down the road, that there may be some deeper conversations that you're able to have depending on your relationship with the person. Let's talk about some of these deeper themes. First of all, let me just say what should be obvious. We are not Job. That should be obvious to all of us. God singled job out on planet earth, and said there was no one on earth like him. He boasted about him to Satan to that end. "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him. He's blameless and upright. A man who fears God and shuns evil."

Ironically, Job's friends had it completely wrong. Their basic approach was, "If you were as righteous as us, this wouldn't be happening to you." Well, the shoe is actually on the other foot. If one of them had been more righteous than Job, he would've been selected for Job's role. So that's, I think, rather ironic. They couldn't carry Job's shoes and neither can we. So when we're suffering we should not think quickly that we are like Job. We shouldn't go so quickly there. Secondly, in the lives of Christians, there are differing layers or types of sin. First of all, generally, there's just that general sinfulness that all of us have to deal with all the time. Commonplace yes, but still repugnant to God. And David spoke of those kinds of sins like this in Psalm 40:12, "My sins have overtaken me and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head and my heart fails within me." So those are those numerous sins that are just afflicting us all the time.

Then secondly, there are specific soul shattering or soul damaging sins in which you have ruptured your conscience and your relationship with God, what we would consider like a skeleton in the closet, and you know immediately what is happening and you know what's going on and others may not know, but it's a significant sin like David with Bathsheba. Now on the first, those sins more numerous than the hairs of our head, we're all struggling with them daily. The corruptions at levels that go far worse than Job. We have bad habits, laziness, procrastination, lusts, covetousness, greed, lovelessness, sinful anger, bitterness, gossip, slander, pride, pride, pride, and more pride. And then after that more pride after that. That's what we are dealing with all the time.

And some of the effects of the suffering we go through is to burn some of those off, that we would forsake those daily sin habits and flee to God and grow in holiness. Not that those sins are why our loved one died, but that God may actually be using that time of overwhelming tragedy to work in us a quantum leap to put aside those sins that are hindering our walk with God, because we need God more than ever before, and we just can't afford those things, not that we ever could have before, but we are moved ahead in our holiness when we go through these times of suffering. Because God, we know, wants clean hands and a pure heart. And so wherever we have violated our conscience, wherever we're sinning, we want to put that to death. And so we are by the rod of affliction moved much further along in our daily sanctification.

So while we cannot say, "God is punishing me for all of these heart sins, that's why he took my child from me." or something like that, we can say that God is wise and is going to use this pain and this sorrow to help me grow as a Christian. But then there are some sins that are huge, things we know, like what David did with Bathsheba, committing adultery, murdering her husband to cover over the pregnancy. And the sinner knows it. It's been concealed from everyone else, but it's not been concealed from God. Now a child has died. An infant has died. Is there any connection? Yes, there actually is.

You remember when Nathan confronted David concerning his sin with Bathsheba? David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." Nathan said, "The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die." That's an amazing statement. Wow, is that scary to hear that? “You could have died. I could have killed you, but you're not going to die. However, because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die." And the child did die. And David knew full well there's a direct connection between his sin and the child's death. Now, even when it comes to those kinds of sins, there's not such a clear connection between this thing that happened and this sin that occurred. We're not prophets like Nathan. We don't get to say there's that connection. But if there's anything that is going on in your life while you're going through affliction and your mind immediately goes to that, I think you should deal with that, whether you can fully understand the connection between that sin and the thing that's happened.

Now in the issue of massive secret sin, this is exactly where I think job's friends went wrong. They assumed that Job must be doing that massive secret sin, very bad stuff in proportion to the trial he was going through. And the biggest problem is they just simply didn't believe their friend when he said, "Nothing like that is happening." In this way they were insensitive and arrogant. They didn't listen to him. And their theology forced them in a bad direction. We'll talk more about this next week.

Now, big picture, in fact, all human suffering, all of it is connected to sin. All of it. Not some of it, all of it. Why is this? Well, because in heaven we will not experience any suffering at all. There won't be any rod of chastisement ever again. “There'll be no more death, mourning, crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away,” Revelation 21:4. We know theologically that death entered the world through sin, Romans 5:12. Adam's sin: “Sin entered the world through one man and death through sin. And in this way, death came to all men because of sin.” So you just take that word death out and make it broader, painful afflictions including death, all of that misery entered through Adam's sin. So sin and death are forever linked. Every single human being is cast into a world of hurt and pain and sorrow and suffering and death because of Adam's sin. That's what we're all dealing with. So all pain is in some way connected with sin, and God's orchestration of world history is his response to this fact.

Fourth, Job's blamelessness presents him as an example of the general education on sin and suffering in this world. God put Job on a pedestal, not just for Satan, but for all readers of the book of Job. He is a special case, but he proves that there is suffering that happens in this world that is not in any direct way connected to specific sins. Job didn't do any of those sins and yet he suffered greatly. And yet Job is a part of God's overall strategy to instruct us his children about sin and sorrow and suffering. The idea is this, if blameless Job could suffer like this, then how much more we who are not blameless like Job. There is a pattern of innocent suffering in this world. We just need to understand that.

Fifth, Job did eventually sin. We're not there yet in the book, but it's going to come out. One friend of mine talking about this said, "It seemed like God just smoked him out." You know? Like there's a criminal deep inside and he just kind of set a fire around the house and waited, and sooner or later he came out. He put pressure on him and the sin just oozed out or crucible kind of thing with the heat, the dross bubbled to the surface, it was down there. It was down there and Job acknowledged it. The end of the book in Job 40:1-5, “The Lord said to Job, ‘Will the one who contends with the almighty, correct him. Let him who accuses God answer him.’ Then Job answered the Lord, ‘I am unworthy. How can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer, twice, but I will say no more.’” and then in chapter 42, “then Job replied to the Lord. ‘I know that you can do all things. No plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge.' Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak. And I will question you and you shall answer me.’ My ears have heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you, and therefore I despise myself and I repent in dust and ashes.’” So there are deep-seated issues and idolatries and attitudes and expectations that trials bring to the surface, and when they do, we need to repent of them as Job did.

So how do we counsel ourselves? Afflictions are going to come. Don't be surprised when they come. The Bible makes it very plain. You can't go to heaven without them. So how will we counsel ourselves? Well, first in counseling others as I said, be careful not to be like Job's friends. Don't take your theology and run roughshod over someone. Have some tenderness and compassion. Jesus, it was said of him: “a bruised reed, he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” He knew how to deal with people.

So be gentle. We're going to talk more about this next week. When suffering, however, individually, when it's in your life, you should go to God and say, "Is there any sin in my life you're dealing with?" And as I've said before, if something pops to your mind right away, you don't even need to wonder about it. Yes, deal with that. Before the affliction happened, this was an issue. Now the Lord is highlighting it. So on the daily issues, sins more numerous in the hairs of your head, they're hurting you. They're hurting you now. They're making your life difficult. We're told in Hebrews to lay aside every obstacle or the sin that so easily entangles us. Like we've got a net and a weight around our waist as we're running a marathon race. Lay them aside. Afflictions are times that help us to unbuckle and lay those sin patterns down.

And as we've said, many times before Psalm 139:23 and 24, "Search me, oh God and know my heart. Show me and teach me if there's any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." And then just listen to him. And then as sin appears in your life in the time of affliction, James 4:6-10 are the steps: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Then humble yourselves: “submit yourselves then to God.” that's what Sarah did. That's what kiss the rod means. I'm going to humble myself under what God's doing here. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners and purify your hearts. You double-minded, grieve, mourn, and wail, change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up.”

Final word I want to say is concerning the gospel. A group this large, is it possible that someone walked in here today unregenerate? Yes. In any case, it would be wrong for me to take this pulpit and assume all of you were born again when you began hearing the sermon. Now you've heard the gospel. You've heard it before. Sometimes God brings afflictions into the lives of unbelievers to cause them finally to flee to Christ. This could be that day for you. I don't know what's going on in your lives, but I know this, there is one and only one savior for sins. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12. That's Jesus. Call on the name of the Lord, and you'll receive that gift that I talked about earlier: Justification, full forgiveness of all sins, past, present and future. Close with me in prayer.

Lord, thank you for this powerful word today from Eliphaz. Thank you that you put it in scripture for us, that we would understand your wisdom in dealing with us. Lord, we know that we've got so many sins in our lives. We thank you that we are forgiven in Christ. But Lord, I pray that we would be as mature as Sarah did when she found out about the death of Jonathan, and that we'd be willing to both kiss the rod and put our hands over our mouths and not charge you with wrongdoing. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

In this seventh episode of the Peter Podcast Series, Andy and Wes discuss 1 Peter 3:18-22. They focus on the work of Christ in dying on the cross and rising from the dead, and how this should be encouraging to Christians in times of trial.

The post Peter Episode 7 – Christ Died to Bring You to God appeared first on Two Journeys.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a sermon on Job 3 and talks about the first time Job opens his mouth to lament following the trials he has experienced.

So, turn in your Bibles to Job, chapter three. Jesus said, as he was preparing his disciples for his own death, "In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world." The apostle Paul said, "Through many tribulations, we must enter the Kingdom of God." Peter wrote, “It is hard for the righteous to be saved.” These are verses that come heavy on us and as we think about it, we realize, especially the older we get in the faith and the more mature, how true they are. It is not easy for us to walk through this cursed world. Even as Christians with the promises of eternal life, it is not easy to be saved. Finally saved. So, in God's goodness, he's called us together today to hear his word. You just heard Job 3, 1 through 15 read and think wow, these are gloomy words, these are difficult words, and they are, but I am relying on the wisdom of God, the Holy Spirit, to put these words in the perfect scripture that has been passed down generation after generation. He wants us to hear these words. He wants us to read them and to understand what Job said as he went through this terrible crushing trial.

We've already begun the prologue of this great book. We looked last week at Job one and two we've learned who Job was. A godly man unlike anyone who lived at that time on earth. He was blameless and upright. A man who feared God and shunned evil. He was a man who was lavishly blessed materially in this world. He had abundant possessions. He had a large happy family. He was a man who understood the deepest truths of a healthy spiritual life. He understood that appearances can be deceiving. That even his children, as they were feasting and having a good time with one another, might somehow be cursing God in their hearts. And so he himself was no whitewashed tomb who looked good on the outside but inside was corrupt.

We've learned even more significantly that almighty God, the ruler of the universe, was very pleased with Job. That he actually boasted about Job. Singled him out among any that lived at that time saying, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is none like him on earth. A man who is blameless and upright," and this commendation from God is infinitely more valuable than anything else Job could possibly have taken delight in, for it is not the one who commends himself or the one whom people commend, but it is the one whom God commends, who is truly righteous. We've been led by the scripture into the heavenly courts, into the heavenly realms. Ordinarily we'd not have access, but through the word of God, that's where God the king reigns and we've also seen the presence of the accuser, of Satan, who says all of Job's piety is based on his prosperity. That God had put a hedge of protection around Job. And he said, “If you take away that hedge and let me get at him, he will curse you to your face.” Said that to God. God permitted Satan to do that. One terrifying day, Job lost every earthly blessing that he had. An avalanche of suffering poured down upon him wave upon wave, culminating in the news of the instant death of all 10 of his children. And if that weren't enough, then Satan came at God and at Job a second time, this time concerning Job's physical health. He claimed that a man would give all of his possessions for his health and that if God struck Job's body, he would curse God to his face. Once again, God permitted Satan to go out and afflict Job, and Satan struck this tragic man with a terrible disease resulting in physical agony from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Beyond this, Job's own wife tempted him openly to despair, effectively speaking Satan's words to her own husband. It's terrible how we can, through certain circumstances, do Satan's work in the lives of others. Satan can take us captive to do his will. We can say things that we shouldn't say; “Are you still holding onto your integrity? Curse God and die.” With her own heart breaking, certainly. Job responded with amazing patience. He worshiped God and he said all the right things. “Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I will depart,” “The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised,” “Shall we accept good from God and not difficulties?” Said all the right things, but trial always goes on longer than we want it to. Keeps on going. Grinds away. For Job, at that point the trial was just beginning.

Job's friends came to comfort him and when they saw him, they could scarcely recognize him; he was so changed. They were stunned into seven days and seven nights of silence, just sitting there with him, lamenting with him wordlessly. Wordlessly. Job just sat there with them. Wordlessly. But the words are about to come aren't they? They're about to flow. They're about to flow like a river, and they start with this chapter, this bitter lament from Job. Job's not a lifeless stone. He's not a brute beast. He has a mind, he has a heart, and these events have shredded him from within. Jesus said, "Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks," and it's time for Job to speak what's in his heart, and so we get Job three.

He begins in chapter 3, verse 1 through 10, by cursing the day of his birth. Look at it with me. “After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. He said: ‘May the day of my birth perish in the night it was said, 'a boy is born.' That day - may it turn to darkness; may God above not care about it; may no light shine upon it. May darkness and deep shadow claim it once more; may a cloud settle over it; may blackness overwhelm its light. That night - may thick darkness seize it; may it not be included among the days of the year nor be entered in any of the months. May that night be barren; may no shout of joy be heard in it. May those who cursed days curse that day, those who are ready to rouse Leviathan. May its morning stars become dark; may it wait for daylight in vain and not see the first rays of dawn, for it did not shut the doors of the womb on me to hide trouble from my eyes.’” Why did Job do this? Why did he curse the day of his birth? Well, he doesn't want to curse God. To charge God with wrongdoing, but his heart is broken. He's reeling. He's swimming in an ocean of agony, pain, and he must speak. He has to say something to express the inner volcano of pain. The pain within him. He doesn't curse himself and he doesn't curse God, as his wife urged him to do. Instead, he curses the day of his birth. He just wants that day removed from the calendar of the year. Sort of an anti birthday. Birthday celebrations are a way of people saying to a person: “I'm glad you were born. It's a good thing you came into the world. It's a good thing you came into my life.” That's what we do at birthdays. Job wants the opposite message, engraved with an iron stylus on an iron tablet of the years' calendar and the history books: “May it be as though that day never existed, for I am immeasurably sorry that I was ever born and I certainly don't want to celebrate that fact.”

What are the details of the curse? Well he says, "May that day perish like it never existed. May the day turn into darkness. May God turn away from that day, like it seems he's turned away from me. May he refuse to care for that day like has withdrawn his care for me. That day, may it swim in deep darkness." A day happens when the sun rises and the light expands to fill the world and the day becomes the full brightness of noon day. It illuminates a world of sunlight and warmth. That's what a day is. “Now, I am saying, I wish that day had never occurred at all. I wish that blackness would just overwhelm that day, with no sunrise at all. And that celebration that happened when I was born; may it be stricken from the record books of history. There was a shout of joy. A boy is born. A son is born into the world. Maybe a messenger running to my father, bringing him the good news. You have a son. And may we assemble all those that are good at cursing days, all the great cursers of days on the earth. Talented people, to stand as a chorus, all of them, to curse that day with all the powers of their skills as cursers of days. And may the morning stars not sing in anticipation of the dawn. May that dawn actually never come. Let the days stay shrouded in darkness of the night that preceded it, like that day never happened at all. Why? Because I was born into the pathway of life that led to this. That's why. Because of the pain that I'm feeling.”

So Job is questioning life itself in verse 11 and following. He says, "Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb? Why were there knees to receive me and breasts that I might be nursed? For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest with kings and counselors of the earth, who built for themselves palaces now in ruins, with rulers who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. Or why was I not hidden in the ground like a stillborn child, like an infant who never saw the light of day? There the wicked cease from turmoil, and there the weary are at rest. Captives also enjoy their ease; they no longer hear the slave driver's shout. The small and the great are there; the slave is freed from his master." Verse 20. "Why is light given to those in misery and life given to the bitter of soul, to those who long for death that does not come, who search for it more than for hidden treasure, who are filled with gladness and rejoice when they reach the grave? Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?"

So, what's going to follow this initial outbreak of cursing of the day of his birth is a series of questions. One after the other they flow. With that word: why? Again and again, why? They pour from the deepest recesses of Job's agonized mind: “I don't understand, oh Lord, what you're doing. I have some serious questions. There must be a reason why. Why all of this has happened, why did I not perish at birth, why did I not die as I came out of my mother's womb? Why at that moment did I get what I needed to survive? When I was so vulnerable, it would've been just so easy to let me perish at that moment. Why instead were their knees to receive me and a mother to nurse me? What was the point of all that? Of my ever being born, and then from that point on being sustained day by day? If only I had died then, if they had just cast me out at that moment, then I would now be at peace.”

So Job looks at the grave as a place of peace and rest and quiet. Of rest from all of this agony, far better than the melting in the crucible of this cruel fate. He's in a hot fire and he's getting melted and he hates that pain and he just wants darkness and peace: “Now, if I had died then like so many infants do die, in infancy, then I would now be in that place of dark nothingness. I would be in that place of absolute stillness. I would not be feeling anything. I'd be like those kings and the counselors, the great men of old, who lived prosperous and successful lives, but now they lie unmoving and unmoved in a dark grave somewhere. Those successful kings went through the whole process of building up great kingdoms that now lie in ruins, in the ruins of the dust. They learned from experience that everything is vanity and dust in the wind, but if I had died the day I was born I would be with them in the exact same place of darkness and nothingness, and that would've been far better for me. Far better than the journey from that first day that I was born until this moment that brought me here. My mother scooped me up. She hugged me. She wrapped me in a blanket. She nursed me, met all of my needs, did it day after day, but what for? So I could eventually be tormented like this? Now, if I had been a stillborn, like so many babies are, I would've been wrapped up and planted in the earth, and that's what's going to happen to me anyway, so why was I ever born? Now, in the grave where I long to be nothing ever happens; even the wicked cease from turmoil; the successful achieve nothing. In the grave where I long to be, slaves are free at last from the lash of their wicked slave drivers. Everything is still. It's motionless. It's quiet, and especially there's no pain, no world of bad news coming upon me, wave upon wave.” So why are suffering people born at all?

In verses 20 through 23, Job gets down to the business at hand: “Why is light given to those in misery and life given to the bitter of soul? To those who long for death that does not come? Who search for it more than for hidden treasure? Who are filled with gladness and rejoice when they reach the grave? Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?” “Why does God knit people together in their mother's womb who just end up living in this level of pain and agony, yearning for the grave? That makes no sense to me,” cries out Job in his agony. “I don't understand it.”

Now in verses 23 through 26, Job begins to question God. Now, it's going to ramp up over the chapters that follow. Here it's just beginning. “Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?” verse 23, “For sighing comes to me instead of food. My groans pour out like water. What I feared has come upon me. What I dreaded has happened to me. I have no peace, no quietness. I have no rest, but only turmoil.” Job speaks of a man of sorrow whom God has, he says, hedged in. It's the second time in the book of Job we have the concept of Job inside of a hedge.

The first time, Satan says it, “Have you not put a hedge around Job?” and Satan is frustrated by the hedge, because he'd like to pummel this man. He hates him, but he can't get at him. God won't let it happen. Job 1:10, “Have you not put a hedge around him in his household and everything he has?” But here Job says, “God has hedged me in, in my misery. I'm in a prison of misery and sorrow and God has bound me in behind and before. He's held me in this place and I can't get out.” So whereas Satan is saying God has hedged Job in for his own protection, Job is saying God has hedged me in for my own misery and sorrow and I can't get out. There's no escape for me.

And he begins to question God. Though he doesn't do it overtly, it's starting to bubble to the surface. He'd like to ask God, even at that point, why God gives life to those who end up suffering. Why God hedges their way in so they suffer and there's nothing they can do. Job's agonies are very great. “Sighing,” he says, “comes to me instead of my food. I have no desire to eat. All I do all day long is sigh. My heart is broken. From deep within, from my intestines, from my heaving stomach, many groans come. My muscles are groaning in pain. Groan upon groan. They pour forth from me like water out of a fountain and they're not going to stop,” and he says, "What I've feared has come upon me. I was always afraid this would happen.”

What about you? Is there anything you fear in this world? What would you put in here? “I always feared this would happen.” What? What do you have in mind? Well, I guess it might be similar to the things Job went through: loss of material possessions, loss of loved ones through death, physical agony coming on your body. That probably would be it. The loss of everything in this world that you find delightful. “I always feared that this would come on me.” So this is a glimpse into Job's heart life even before any of this happened. Like yeah, things are going well, but waiting for the other shoe to drop. That's exactly, isn't it, why Job offered sacrifices for his sons and daughters thinking they might have cursed God in their hearts? To forestall this kind of thing? That some great tragedy might sweep in and snatch them from him, he feared this. I have no peace, no quietness, no rest, just a raging turmoil in my mind. So Job is experiencing, even at this point, extreme anxiety and deep depression all at once, “Why, oh Lord?”

All right, that's the chapter. Now, what are the answers? What are the answers? Well, Job's friends are about to speak. They have some answers. As we'll discover, God willing, next week, they're going to say a lot of right things and they're going to say them in some very wrong ways. So we're going to see what's right and what's wrong about the friends and so we'll push them off to the future, but they do want to give an answer. The desire to give an answer wells up inside them. And since we believe, based on the scripture, in a rational God who's sovereign over everything that on the earth, we do believe that there must be a very good answer or an array of very good answers, but we've come to the limits of our knowledge. Come to the edge of our knowledge. We saw last time the things that Job knew nothing about.

Number one, he didn't know about God's high esteem for him. My sense is that was at the root of his misery, “What does all this mean about God and me? Does God actually hate me? Is he actually against me?” the vertical aspect is the biggest question. Job doesn't know, what God thinks about him, what he expressed about him in the heavenly realms. He doesn't know about it. Secondly, he doesn't know about Satan's activity in destroying him, which God willingly permitted. He wasn't aware of that. And he doesn't understand thirdly, the infinite dimensions of wisdom whereby his suffering actually will make sense. There are reasons why.

Now in his classic, Knowing God, theologian JI Packer writes powerfully of the kind of wisdom that God gives us here on earth. So what can we expect by way of answers? What answers does scripture give? What answer will God give? This chapter in the book Knowing God was entitled: “God's Wisdom and Ours,” and he uses an analogy from the York train station, which is one of the busiest terminals in England, outside of London. He says, “If you were to stand at train level and watch all the trains coming and going, you might be bewildered as to the actions and the schedule and timing of many of those trains. You wouldn't really know what's going on. However, if you had a friend in a high place there who led you up into the control room and you could look at the digital control panel and see on the master panel you could see all of the lights representing the lines and the trains coming in and out, and then he began to give you an education from the train master’s perspective of why this particular train is held on a siding for five minutes, why this one's allowed to go right through without stopping, and on and on, each one of those things has an explanation.” Then JI Packer says this, “The mistake that is commonly made is to suppose that this is an illustration of what God does when he bestows wisdom. People feel that if they were really walking close to God, he would impart wisdom to them freely and they would, so to speak, find themselves elevated into the heavenly realms and get a look at that control panel. They would be at the signal box and they would discern the real reason of everything that's happening to them and to the people they love. They'd get an explanation. If they were walking close with God, that's what you can expect. Well, that's wrong.” Packer is right to set our expectations far below that. During our lifetimes, God does not invite us up into the heavenly realms to hear those heavenly conversations. To gain a perfect perspective on what others have called the mystery of providence, and it is mysterious.

As the apostle Paul said, "Oh, the depth of the riches, of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out," Romans 11:33. "God's ways on earth cannot be plumbed to their depths, they cannot be searched to their limits, they cannot be tracked in their sequence. Instead of detailed inside information,” Packer says, "God gives theological principles, rules of the road, by which we can drive. We can navigate the twists and turns of the complex road that Providence takes us on.” At the end of that chapter, JI Packer, tied off his meditation with these words: "Let us see to it then that we do not frustrate the wise purpose of God by neglecting faith and faithfulness in order to pursue a kind of knowledge which, in this world, it is not given to us to have."

So let's not neglect faith, let's keep trusting in God, even though we don't have the explanations. And let's not neglect faithfulness; let's do what God's called on us to do in the time we have to do it. Faith feeds our faithfulness. Let's not neglect that, and let's not seek that specialized insider information which Packer says, “in this world, it's not given to us to have.” Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “the secret things belong to the Lord, our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever that we may follow the words of this law.”

So there's two different categories: things revealed, things concealed. There's some things that he has revealed and explained to us and some things he hasn't, in this world, but what about the next world? What about the next world? I believe God will give us an explanation of everything. We have plenty of time and we'll have greatly improved minds and the danger will be past, dear friends, and there'll be no more death, mourning, crying or pain, and can you imagine almighty God shrugging and saying, "You know, I really don't know what I was doing at that moment in your life. Very sorry for your pain. There really was no reason for it, but welcome to heaven." It's impossible. Can you imagine he had a perfectly good reason, but he won't tell it to you? “Yes, I can imagine, why would he tell it?” Because that's the direction of salvation. He's letting you into his councils. We're no longer slaves not knowing the master's business, we're actually adopted children, in which he's explaining himself to us, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do? No, I won't hide it. I'm going to explain what I'm doing.” Full explanations, however, will happen in heaven and they will be satisfying. They will be satisfying. You'll delight in them, and you'll have so many “Aha!” moments, and guess what? You won't just care about your own misery and pain and all that. You'll care about your brothers and sisters and the journeys they went through, and you'll see all of the wisdom of God and all of it. You're like, “wow, that's a big study!” We have plenty of time, and at the core of that study is the glory of God. How good and wise and powerful God is in all of this.

As William Cooper said in the hymn I quoted last time, "God is his own interpreter and he will make it plain," just not now. Not now. And he has given us, in the New Testament, some more detailed explanations of the theology of suffering than Job had available to him at his point in redemptive history. We have some more explanations. So let's borrow a few of those lessons and apply them in the remaining time that we have here. Why were you born? Why are we born into a life of sorrow and suffering? First of all, just knowing that there is a very good reason why you were born. You're not here accidentally, that's actually impossible. There are no accidental human beings. None. I understand that there are strange circumstances by which two human beings can come together and a child can be conceived. I understand that those individuals may not have planned the child, but understand God's direct activity in knitting babies together in their mother's wombs. As Job himself will say in Job 10, 10-12, "Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? Clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness and in your providence, you watched over my spirit." Not only are there no accidental babies, it's not accidental that they stay alive and that they do receive what they need to stay alive from infancy and then every day of their lives, it is God's kind providence that they stay alive. It's not accidental. God had a reason.

We know theologically the reason is spiritual. God made you to have a relationship with him. As Augustan put it, "You have made us for yourself, oh Lord, and the heart of man is restless until it finds its rest in you." That's why God made Job, and that's why God made you and me. To have a relationship with him. An intimate, loving relationship as Jesus himself said in John 17:3. "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, in Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." So why did he make you if all you're going to do is suffer? Well, if you were chosen from before the foundation of the world to be one of God's children, holy and blameless in his sight, he did not choose you ultimately to suffer. That's not his intention, but rather to dwell in a perfectly glorious world, beyond all death, mourning, crying and pain, and to spend eternity in that world. That's what he chose you for, but as I said at the very beginning of this sermon, the journey there will inevitably involve suffering and pain. It can be no other way.

Part of that, I think, is just God giving us what Adam on our behalf asked for. An education in evil. An education in evil. That's what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was about. How are we thinking about evil? “Well, I hate it.” You don't hate it enough, but you will hate it with a perfect hatred when you get to heaven. You will, and so will I. We'll be conformed to Jesus who loved righteousness and what? Hates wickedness. We're not going to get a memory wipe and forget all wickedness. We'll benefit from this education and we will, like God, love righteousness and hate wickedness. In the meantime, there's a painful journey we have to go through and it is painful. So why was I even born? Job's deep cry is answered, “So I could know you in eternal life with pleasures forevermore at your right hand,” as Psalm 16:11 says. That's why I was ever born. That's why there were breasts to nurse me and knees to receive me and a mother to wrap me up. That's why. So that I could spend eternity at your right hand with pleasures forever more. That's why God made me.

Now, there is a tension between God's goodness and his heavenly purposes. I understand that. We learned about the goodness of God as Job has. Psalm 34 verse eight, “Taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.” And so you, like Job... Maybe not to his level. Maybe you don't have 5,000 camels, thank God you don't have 5,000 camels, but you've been blessed. You've enjoyed good at God's goodness. You've seen beauty in this world. You've tasted things that have been pleasurable to you. Taste and see that God is good. Every good and perfect gift you ever gotten has come from God. You've tasted and seen that God is good. But what happens when the inner sense of the goodness of God conflicts mightily with what is actually going on in our lives or right around us, or in the world even, as we extend our feelings out to people we don't even know but we care about and they're suffering? There comes an almost, it seems, insoluble tension between the two. “Taste and see that God is good, but this doesn't feel good to me.” And so there's that tension and that tension can stretch our faith, it seems, to the very breaking point.

So what can we possibly say to such a suffering person? What advice would you give him? We'll try to walk through as much of that counsel as we can, if God gives us time in these sermons, not finished at all today. We'll try to walk through. And I would advise such a person, I would advise you: begin by focusing on Christ's sufferings for you. Start there. Start with Christ's sufferings for you on the cross. Draw near to Jesus. Draw near to him. Don't let Satan trick you into getting further away from Jesus during trials. That's a deception, maybe even the central deception. Draw closer to Jesus, to Christ and him crucified. I love the hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” and the counsel's there again and again. You can't hear that hymn and not understand what the author wants you to do, hymn writer: “Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful who will all are sorrow share? Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer.” This is just reflecting what the author to Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter 2, verse 17 and 18 concerning Jesus, “For this reason, he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.” Our merciful and faithful high priest has once for all, by his bloody death on the cross, made atonement for the sins of his people for all time. And through faith in Christ, sinners like you and me can be completely forgiven for all time of our sins. And Hebrews 2:18 says, “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” He's able to help you. He knows what suffering's about.

Hebrews 4, 15 and 16 says, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Draw near to Christ. He sympathizes; that's why he wept in front of Lazarus's tomb, it's out of sympathy for Martha and Mary and for us. He knows this feeling, he knows what it's like to suffer far better than you or I ever will. Wasn't it Jesus who asked that why question on the cross as he's dying under the wrath of God and he cried out, “‘Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani,’ which means ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” There's a why question.

And he received no answer then and neither will we in this world, but in heaven, all things will be made plain and we will learn the true purpose behind every pain we ever endured. Christ's sufferings were to atone for our sins. I'm going to say this again over the next several weeks, but we cannot excuse ourselves from sin when we're suffering. We can't say, “Well, I know it's not because I sinned that I'm suffering. I know that we learn from the book of Job, that there's a... It's possible to be blameless and upright, one who fears God, and I know therefore that the suffering in my life is not connected to my sin.” Do you really know that? Are you like Job?

The fact is some of our suffering is connected to our sins. Sometimes we need to just say, Lord, is there something in my life that is displeasing you? Is there something, and if something immediately pops in your mind you know what that is. Then it's an opportunity to repent. It's an opportunity to ask God forgiveness. But Christ's sufferings were in our place for our sins; 1 Peter 2, 24 and 25 says of Jesus, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed for you are like sheep going astray but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.” So when you are suffering in your trial, whenever it is, maybe it's going on now, maybe it's in the future, just look to the infinitely, greater suffering of Jesus in your place on the cross. Trust in him.

Your sins don't necessarily directly lead to your sufferings, but our sins did directly lead to Jesus' sufferings. Ponder that. Your sins don't necessarily directly lead to your sufferings, but our sins directly lead led to his. Why else would he have suffered? It's because he was suffering as our substitute. Now occasionally, like I said, you know that there's sin in your life. You know that there are issues and it could be there's a connection between your sins and your sufferings. That's where Hebrews 12 comes in. God does discipline us for our sins from time to time; we'll talk more about this next time, but Hebrews 12, we'll just read it without comment, we'll talk more next time, it says, “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood and you've forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons. My son do not make light of the Lord's discipline and do not lose heart when he rebukes you because the Lord disciplines those he loves and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. So endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as sons for what son is not disciplined by his father?” like I said, we're going to more fully develop this, God willing, next time.

So, draw near to the suffering. John Calvin, in his marvelous sermon on early text in Job said, "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away, makes a powerful point about Job's embracing of his sorrows." He noticed that when he said that Job tore his robes, he shaved his head, he threw himself on the ground and worshiped. He said, "this is a role model for us. We should see the hand of God in all of our suffering. Because the Lord is sovereign, we can know it is the Lord who has done this and because he is wise, we can know that he knows what he's doing and that there's a very wise rational purpose behind it. Because the Lord is good, his purposes toward us and toward others are very good." So don't numb yourself at that time. Don't deny what's happening. Step into it. Go towards it. Some unbelievers numb themselves with alcohol and drugs and other escapes.

John Calvin said, "Those who are patient bear well their affliction." There is actually no valor in a man who's suffering but is completely unaware of his suffering. There's no virtue in it. It's terrible physical suffering, but he's not aware of it like someone in a coma, something like that. But when you know what's happening, you have the opportunity to glorify God. You're aware. Job is very aware of what happened. So face the facts. Look at what's happening. Say, “this has happened. This is hurting me. This occurred. God is doing it. It's not an accident. There's an intention, a purpose, in this.” Face the facts. I'm reminded of Romans 4, 19-21 about Abraham, “Without weakening in his faith, Abraham faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and that Sarah's womb was also dead, yet he did not waiver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”

So step into the suffering, into the circumstance, talk about it, take it back up to God in prayer, don't numb yourself or distant yourself from it or say, “I just won't think about it.” Don't do that. It's a chance to glorify God. Be thoughtful in your suffering. Ask why is this happening of the Lord, but not in an angry way. Don't say, “Why me oh God?” as though there could be no possible reason. Say, “Why me, oh Lord?” and wait for the answer. Let God give you insights into what he may be doing in your life. Then finally, and we're going to learn this, this is the lesson of the book of Job: God is enough. In the end, you will find God is enough. You're not going to get all the explanations. You may not get any explanations, but God is enough and live like that; put that on display in the people around you: That God is enough. Close in prayer.

Lord, thank you for the things that we've learned. Thank you for the timeless message of Job 3. It's not a chapter that I've ever really stepped into and immersed myself and tried to understand before, but I realize, oh Lord, that you and your wisdom have given us all of these chapters so that we can understand what suffering really is like and that we can suffer well and trust in you and grow through it. Lord strengthen us and I pray that you'd help us to draw close to Christ crucified and resurrected, our savior. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

Job finally speaks and curses the day of his birth even though God is sovereign over life, suffering, and the plans he has made for Job.

The post Job’s First Lament: Why Was I Ever Born? (Job Sermon 3) appeared first on Two Journeys.

In this sixth episode of the Peter Podcast Series, Andy and Wes discuss 1 Peter 3:8-17, focusing on the way that Christians who live righteous lives in front of others, even in the face of persecution, will find themselves with opportunities to talk with unbelievers about the gospel.

The post Peter Episode 6 – A Good Life Leads to Evangelistic Opportunities appeared first on Two Journeys.