All right, Job chapter 2 today. Turn to Job chapter 2. And you may want to find II Corinthians chapter 12, we'll be looking at that at the very end of today's time together.
Let's suppose it's during the week and you're driving to Starbucks. Can we just imagine that? You want to get there early, you want to get there first before all the selfish people. And um, so you're speeding, you're going 25 miles over the speed limit to beat the line. Well as you do that you pass a police office. And imagine him doing this________, just waving and smiling, and then you realize, "I'm going twenty-five miles over the speed limit and I didn't get a ticket." Question: Does that haunt you all day long? Do you lie awake at night thinking, "This wasn't fair. I deserved a ticket, I'm going to turn myself in tomorrow and make sure that justice is served." Uh, I don't think so, I think you're going to be really glad that you didn't get one even though you did deserve one. But let's reverse the circumstances. Let's say you're not really speeding, maybe going one or two miles over the speed limit, that's allowable, at least in your mind. And you get a hefty ticket for that. You didn't deserve it but you get a ticket. Now what do you say? "Not fair. Not fair." You're angry. Let's say you get the ticket on the way to church, maybe you haven't come for a while and you wake up in the morning and go, "I'm going to go to church today. I'm going to give my life completely to serving the Lord." And as you do you get a ticket. Well maybe now you're tempted to say, "Well how can a God of love allow me to get a ticket when all I really want to do is serve him. Life isn't fair." Well wouldn't you say that Job's sense of fairness was assaulted after everything that happened to him? Lost his children, lost his position, lost his health, he doesn't get any better. It linters on and on, a very painful diseased condition.
I want to share something that I read with you this week. Michael Green writes, "God does not always chose to heal us physically, and perhaps it's well that he does not. How people would rush to Christianity and for all the wrong motives if it carried with it automatic exemption from sickness. What nonsense it would make of Christian virtues like long suffering, patience, and endurance if instant wholeness were available for all the Christian sick. What a wrong impression it would give of salvation of physical wholeness were perfectly realized on earth while spiritual wholeness were partly reserved for heaven. What a very curious thing it would be if God were to decree death for all of his children while not allowing illness for any of them." That's good wisdom, it's a good reminder. And yet, whenever things go from bad to worse we inevitably ask, "Why?" When my brother died I asked that question. When both of my parents died I asked that question. When the doctor several weeks ago, after my wife's surgery, used that huge word, "Malignant." Why? Why? It happens to everyone but when it happens to you and it hurts, you ask, "Why?"
Well, we've been looking at Job's suffering. We've been noticing this guy who was at the top of the heap in riches, goes from riches to rags. That was the message last week and we continue it this week. And today we're in chapter 2, we're going to look at three experiences: the resentment of Job's wife, the resolve of Job's will, and the refreshment of Job's friends. Each one of those points will have a principle. I don't care if you remember the points but I do want you to grab a hold of these principles. Three life principles that we're going to look at today. But go with me in chapter 2 to verse 8. I want to begin there because verse 8 is a snapshot of Job's desperate condition. "And he took for himself a potshard (that's a piece of broken pottery, a broken piece) with which to scrape himself." Remember he has running lesions on his body, he's itching, scraping himself. "while he sat in the midst of the ashes." Can you picture that? Job is now outside of the city, that's where the ash heap was. The ash heap was the city dump. Job's on the city dump, the place where garbage and dung is burned, the place that dogs look for scraps of food, the place that beggars ask for alms. And now the leading man of that city is not sitting at the city gate but on the ash heap, scraping, scraping, scraping. Now Job is a social outcast with the rest of the beggars in a rotting slum.
So, now what? What should Job do now? Shat should Job's course be now, after losing all of that? Well his wife steps in to give him some advice in verse 9. Let's look at it, "Then his wife said to him," now stop right there. This is what most people miss, it doesn't say, "His wife said to him." It uses the word "Then, his wife said to him." I'll tell you why that's important. Children have died, property has been destroyed, everything has been lost, her husband is diseased, "Then (that'll just help a bit) his wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die.'" Wow. "Quit being so holy about this, Job. If you just blaspheme God he'll strike you dead, it's better to die quickly than to linger and live." Now Mrs. Job, let's call her that, shall we? Mrs. Job I believe has suffered at the hands of many a scholar and at the mouths of many a preacher, self included. I think she's gotten a bad rap. I did a little study and I realized this, it was Agustin who labeled her diaboli ajutrix, which means ‘the devil's advocate. Crisostum, John Cristostum called her the devil's best scourge. And this is what he said, "Why did the devil leave him this wife? Because he though her a good scourge by which to plague him more acutely than by any other means." Even our good old buddy John Calvin called her organum satani or "the embodiment of Satan." You know I read some of these this week and I thought, "You know, I wonder what kind of marriages these guys had, to give her that kind of rap." I think it's unfair, I think Mrs. Job has been treated a bit unfairly. After all, these weren't just Job's kids that died, they were hers as well. In one day, this woman lost ten children. And her husband is diseased with no hope for his future. That would devastate any woman, any mother, any wife. And this is her emotional reaction. She is bursting forth what she feels at that moment. Her husband is suffering, she's not able to help. Job will have his own outburst in chapter 3. This is hers.
I read a book that just helped me a little bit with this, this last week and the week before. It was a book that was sent to me by one of the authors of this book called Emotional Intelligence 2.0. And these two research PhDs tell us that our brains are hardwired to experience emotion first, that every impulse we have whether it's touch or sight or sound goes through the spinal cord into the brain at the base of the skull. And before it gets to the frontal lobe where rational thought is conducted, where reason and logic is employed, it must first travel through the limbic system, that's where we emote, that's where we have our emotions. So the authors are pointing out that we have emotion before we have logic. This is her emotional outburst before she deals with how she feels. She just lets it out. Now that doesn't take her completely off the hook. She said, "Curse God and die." Blaspheming God is never a good idea under any circumstance and Job will rightly rebuke her. Now what she doesn't know when she says, ‘Curse God and die,' this is exactly what Satan told God Job would do if God took away all that Job had. ‘He'll curse you to your face,' look at chapter 1 verse 11, "Satan says (in a challenge) Stretch out your hand and touch all that he has and he will surely curse you to your face." Job did not do that in chapter 1, but again in chapter 2, verse 5, "But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will surely curse you to your face." So you've got to know that when she says, ‘Dude, curse god and die,' that Satan and hall of his demons in the netherworld are going, ‘Yes, yes. Do that.' He did not do that.
Here's the principle: Good people can give bad advice. Good people can give bad advice. You might have well-meaning people in your life, when you suffer that can give you dumb advice. And this is a good example of that. People do not always have a divine viewpoint. They may love you, they may mean well for you but they may not always think like God thinks. There's only one source for a divine viewpoint and it's not a preacher or a counselor, or a Christian book. It's this book, this is the divine viewpoint for all of life. So no matter who you listen to, it has to be filtered through the truth of this divine viewpoint. Good people can give you bad advice. In fact, I'll take it a step further: Satan can work through people dear to you. Do you believe that? Do you remember when Jesus announced to his disciples that he was going to go to Jerusalem and suffer? He was going to be arrested, they're going to beat him and then they're going to kill him. Do you remember Peter's immediate reaction? "Farbeit from you Lord." Here's Peter, ‘I'm going to save Jesus.' ‘Farbeit from you Lord, this can't happen to you. Now he thought he was going to get a pat on the back, ‘Thataboy, Peter. Thank you.' Jesus said, "Ahem. Get behind me Satan. You are an offense ot me fo ryou are speaking not as God would speak but as man would speak." You see the reason Jesus came to the earth was to die on the cross. And here's Peter trying to say, "We're going to protect you from that, Jesus." And he said, "I recognize that voice, that's exactly what Satan wants, he wants to keep me from going to the cross. Peter was a friend, Peter was well-meaning but this was not good solid advice. But when we're suffering and somebody very close to us gives us well-meaning but bad advice, we are tempted to listen to them because we do love them. And so Adam listened to Eve. Bad mistake. So Abraham listened to Sarah and she said, "Look, this whole having a kid business, look at me, not going to happen. Take Hagar my handmaid, have a baby with her." The temptation is more severe. And so Job's wife, Mrs. Job says, "Just get it over with. Quit now. Curse God and die." That's never good advice. When life is difficult, when life goes from bad to worse, it's easy to give up, it's also the very worst thing you could do. A history professor put it beautifully, "If Columbus would have turned back, nobody would have blamed him. But nobody would have remembered him either." What is Job remembered for? His good looks? Do people think of Job as, "That guy could really dress well. Boy I tell you what, that sermon that Job gave or that great city he built…" No, what we remember is his perseverance. James in the New Testament said, "For you have heard of the patience (ore perseverance, endurance) of Job." Job could have done this but he didn't and he was remembered for his perseverance.
So that is the resentment of Job's wife. Now let's look at verse 10 at the resolve of Job's will. "But he said to her, ‘You speak as one of the foolish women speak.'" That must have been hard for Job to say to his wife whom he loved but it needed to be said. She was talking like a fool, not a silly ridiculous person but somebody who lacked real discernment when she said that. And here's the reason: "Shall we indeed accept good from God and shall we not accept adversity? Boy that is great theology. "Honey, we've been blessed by God, look at all that He's given us, we've been so comfortable. We've had it all. Couldn't God be allowed to give us adversity? Honey, both come form God. Both come from God." It's very good theology. In fact, wouldn't you agree that affliction provides the contrast to make times of blessing more pleasurable. I don't know how early you got up this morning but it was crisp, cool. And I rode my motorcycle in, it was like a worship service for me, it was wonderful. But the reason I said, "Oh it's so crisp and cool," is because the last couple of weeks have been hot. In contrast to that, it's wonderful. So when you're going through a pleasurable time, it is so enjoyable because you can compare that to something that's not so pleasurable. "Honey, God gives both, affliction as well as blessing."
One of my favorite dead guys, I like to call them, dead authors is Samuel Rutherford. Lived in the 1600s, was a preacher in Edinborough, Scotland; was persecuted, suffered immensely. But left us a bunch of letters. And I have a little book called The Letters of Samuel Rutherford. Well one of the things that he said that I've committed to memory is a great short little poem. He said, "Why should I tremble at the plow of my Lord that makes deep furrows in my soul? He is now idle husband, he purposes a crop." You understand the truth of that? Why should I tremble when God cuts deeply into my life and it hurts. It's like the pain is searing into my experience. "Why should I tremble at the plow of my Lord that makes deep furrows in my soul? He's no idle husband." He's just not wanting to make us hurt so he can go, "Huh, how does that feel?" He has a purpose. He purposes fruit, a crop, something to come out of it. That's why in a time of crisis our first question should not be, "How can I get out of this?" But, "What can I get out of this?" Here's the principle: It's the second principle in this story, in times of crisis truth will make you stable. In times of crisis, truth will make you stable. When your life goes from bad to worse and trust me there will be times it does, when your life goes from bad to worse, sound theology will keep you strong. Isn't it amazing how Job after all these cataclysmic events could think so clearly, so correctly, so lucidly? "Honey, shall we not accept adversity as well as good?" And here's the final resolve, the end of that verse says, "In all of this," in all of this, after all that Job lost, after his ten children are dead, his property is gone, his health is gone; after all of this Job did not sin with his lips." Now I might want to put in parentheses, yet. Yet, give him chapter 3 to get into that. But here's something Job understands. Job at this point understands what we talked about last week and continue this week. Remember that little syllogism we gave you? Number one, evil exists; number two, God allows evil in the world to exist; and number three, and we just touched on it, now I want to amplify it. God has a purpose for evil to exist in our lives. God has a purpose. Now some of you in hearing that immediately go, "What purpose could God possibly have for things like earthquakes or hurricanes or accidents? Well, you know, our universe is governed by natural laws that are blessing. One of them is the law of gravity. Aren't you glad for that law? If there weren't gravity, the moment you were born, you'd just cut the cord, you'd float up and in about three minutes be dead. It keeps you tethered, earthbound. But because of the law of gravity, if you fall off a bicycle or fall off a building, there will be consequences to that blessing of a natural law. Hurricanes, as devastating as they are, are earth's means of releasing pent-up energy. As hot anir moves south to north it releases energy in the form of winds that are created. It becomes strong but if they weren't there would not be that adjustment. Fault lines are necessary. Ten tectonic plates are on the earth that keep that thing together. If there were no plates, if there was no movement we'd be in a heap of trouble. But if you build a home on a fault line and it moves, it's a little ridiculous to stand outside and shake your fist at God and say, "How could you…" Wait a minute, you built the house. That's part of the natural order, that's part of the blessing of existence upon the earth. They can become consequential and even seem bad and feel really bad but they can also be really good. Now let me take it a step further. Let's make it personal: Suffering in the hands of a loving God can be used to bring about great good. If you're a Christian, you know what I'm talking about. Suffering in the hands of a loving god can be used to bring about great good.
I read something by Peter Creeft, a Yale postgrad philosopher who tried to give us a good example. He said, "Imagine a bear trapped in a cage and a hunter is on the outside. But the hunter wants to release the bear. The bear doesn't know this. Now the hunter could say, "Ahem, excuse me Mr. Bear, I'm going to set you free." Will that help? The bear isn't a human, cannot articulate, cannot adjust to the auditory sounds to know what that communication is all about. So the hunter raises his gun to shoot a hypodermic dart to sedate the bear. What does the bear think when the hypodermic is being thrust its way? "That dude wants to kill me. He doesn't want my good. He wants my death." Shoot! "Ah, it hurts so much." And next the hunter takes a large stick and prods the bear to move to the back of the cage to release the tension on the trap door. All the while the bear is thinking, "He wants to harm me, he wants to hurt me. Why would he allow this to happen?" Says Peter Creeft, "We cannot comprehend God's moves any more than that bear can comprehend the hunter's moves." It's a brilliant truth. It is the truth. We don't get the whole picture. We don't know what is in the motive and the mind of God in allowing it. But suffering in the hands of a loving God can bring about great good. Now if you're wondering, "What good could possibly come?" I'll give you three this morning. Number one, suffering will keep you pure. Number two, suffering will keep you humble. And number three, suffering will keep you dependent on God. I want you just to consider them before we move on. Suffering will keep us pure. I wonder how many of you recall the words of Peter in that first letter in the new Testament, I Peter chapter 1, it says, "These trials have come upon you so that your faith be much more precious than gold that perishes though it is tried in the fire may be proved to be genuine. Isn't that a great picture? God's like a goldsmith. A goldsmith will put gold into a smelting furnace long enough for the heat to affect it, long enough for the heat, the fire to burn off all the impurities. Do you have any rough edges in your personality? I'm going to make a wild guess, a wild stab, and just say that probably there's nobody sitting here that's perfect. I don't know, I may be out to lunch, but probably you all have some rough edges in your personality. I will guarantee you that suffering will be the sandpaper that smooths them out. I have met people so full of who they are and about their plans and I listen and I think, I don't say it but I think, "They need some suffering." It's true. It's very very true. It will purify us and clarify us like nothing. Second thing suffering does is it keeps us humble. Now I'd like you to turn in your Bibles as I mentioned to II Corinthians chapter 12 just for a few verses. II Corinthians 12 and here's why. This is one of the most powerful passages penned by Paul (boy there's a lot of p's in that sentence). Here Paul the apostle is very forthcoming, very emotional. He opens his heart wide. In chapter 12, he says, "It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast, I will come to visions and revelations in the Lord." Now here's the deal: Paul has suffered from his enemies, Paul has been accused by the very church he gave his heart to for having impure motives on and on. So he opens up his heart and he goes, "Look, I don't want to brag, I don't want to boast, but let me just tell you what God has done. I come now to visions and revelations," look at verse 7, "and lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I be exalted above measure."
Four different times, just recorded in the Bible, God spoke to Paul personally. Boy that would be a head trip, wouldn't it? If God actually spoke to you the first time on the Damascus road, one time you went to heaven; but four times recorded in the Bible God personally spoke to Paul and nobody else. So here's Paul, he is godly, he is self-sacrificing, but even Paul admits, "I still have this old flesh attached to me and I can have a problem when it comes to pride." "And so God allowed these things to come upon me, a thorn in the flesh." It actually means an impaling stake, not, "Oh I have a little thorn." "I have this huge stake, some physical infirmity, a messenger of Satan but allowed by God," that's why Paul never entered into the ridiculous notion of binding the devil because why would he be going against the very thing God is using to perfect him? A messenger of Satan, a thorn in the flesh, lest I be exalted above measure."
I suppose it would have been hard for Paul not to pull out this revelation card. You know he could be talking in a conversation as people are saying, "Well I've done this and I've done this," and Paul could have said, "Well you know the other day when God was talking to me personally, or was it a couple weeks ago when I got that other revelation? Oh no, I know what it was, it was the time I went to heaven, that's it." Well it would be very hard to argue with that. Can you imagine Timothy and Silas saying, "Paul, I have talked to the people and we reel we should do that, let's go with this plan." "No, let's go with my plan." "No, let's go with this plan." "Uh, how many of you guys have been to heaven?" "Ahem, none." "Okay, we'll go with my plan." But Paul said "that prevented that kind of pride, keeping me humble by allowing suffering in my life." So it'll keep you pure, it'll keep you humble. Third, it'll keep you dependent. Verse 9, "And he said to me, ‘My grace is enough. It's all you need. It's sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness, therefore most gladly I would rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, reproaches, needs, persecutions, distresses for Christ's sake; for when I am weak then I am strong."
We didn't read it but go back to verse 8, let's look at it now, "Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times." You know, this affliction was enough to keep Paul going back and back and back to God. "Fix this, God. Heal me, God. Please Lord." Three times, it kept Paul dependent. Suffering draws us to God. Until finally the Lord said, "You know what, Paul? Here's the secret, the weaker you are the stronger I can be. When you come to an end of your strength, my power just then kicks in." Just then kicks in. No one is ever too weak to be powerful. But I meet plenty of people who are too strong to be powerful. "I can handle this, no problem. Buck up, good attitude, move through it." Okay, you've got plenty of your own strength. Let me know when you admit your weakness so God says, "I can give you my strength." That's where Paul now says, "I get it. I get it. I embrace suffering. It makes me weak. When I am weak I'm more dependent." So wouldn't you agree those are three good things? It'll keep you pure, it'll keep you humble, it'll keep you dependent.
Now let's go back and finish out the story, Job chapter 2, let's look at his friends. This is the final stroke of the story. In verse 11, Job's friends come and they were friends, at first. They become his enemies when they talk but as long as they shut up they're great. Verse 11, "Now when Job's three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place." You've got to give them that, you've got to acknowledge that's pretty powerful. "Eliphaz the Temonite, Bildad the Shuhite, Zophar the Naomithite, for they made an appointment together to come and mourn with him and to comfort him. When they raised up their eyes from afar and did not recognize him, they lifted their voices and wept and each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven. (It's a sign of mourning for the dead) So they sat down with him on the ground in the ash heap on the ground, seven days and seven nights. And no one spoke a word to him for they saw that his grief was very great." Now you know who these guys are: Job's comforters. Job will say later on, "Miserable comforters are you all." But at first they're not miserable. At first they're great. They come from a long distance, they show emotion for Job, they're not stoic. They sit with Job on that ash heap for seven days and seven nights, they said nothing. This is called the ministry of presence. Sometimes all you need to do is just be there. Sometimes you don't need to say a word. Sometimes you don't need to do anything, just be there. If you've been in a hospital, you know the joy of looking across the room when you wake up and seeing a family member or a very intimate friend who's there. And they don't notice when you wake up and go, "Okay now, I'm going to read you this scripture." Or, "Let me give you advice, let me tell you why I think you're suffering." Or, "Hey let me tell you what you've missed all week while you've been in the hospital, what' going on." None of that. They just are there, they sit there. Here's the principle I want you to see: Sensitive friends know when to come, how to stay quiet, and what to say if anything. I wish that Job's three, actually there were four you'll find out in chapter 32, I wish his friends would have said nothing, just got soup, fetched water, ministered to Job. But they didn't, they talked. When they talked it went downhill quickly. Let me tell you why they did it, there's a very key point because we always get down on these guys again, they were true friends until they started pontificating. But the reason they start pontificating is Job in chapter 3 let's out his emotional outburst. Don't miss this, chapter 3 verse 1, "After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. Job spoke and said, ‘May the day perish on which I was born and the night in which it was said, ‘A male child is conceived.'" Go to verse 11, "Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came out of the womb?" Verse 25, "For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me. And what I dreaded has happened to me." Now that's Job's outburst, that's his limbic system kicking in. His friends couldn't handle that. You might read that and go, "Job, I wish you wouldn't have said that. You were doing so good in chapter 2 and then you opened your mouth." It's the words of a suffering, deeply suffering person. So he spoke that because his kids are still dead and his body is still diseased and he's thinking, "This is enough." And his friends heard and saw that emotional outburst and listen carefully, they couldn't handle it. They couldn't just let that guy emote. They now have to give the reasons why Job suffers. So they do.
Let me give you a word, to those of you who are well, if you're around somebody who is sick: Don't try to explain everything. It doesn't help. "Well, let me give you the rational explanation." Be quiet. We don't care. And the explanation won't help heal the hurting broken heart. Just be there. Pray. Love. Sometimes that's the best thing. There'll come a time for the explanation. But it's not always then. Listen to the words of a sufferer who gives us insight, he said, "I was sitting torn by grief. Someone came and talked to me of God's dealings, of why this happened, of hope beyond the grave. He talked constantly and said things that I knew were true. I was unmoved except to wish he'd go away. He finally did. Another came and sat beside me. He didn't talk. He didn't ask leading questions. He just sat beside me for an hour or more, listened when I said something, answered briefly, prayed simply, and I was moved. I was comforted and I hated to see him go." Folks, it is so easy to play Monday morning quarterback with somebody else's suffering. Somebody else is suffering and they say something. And you go, "I can't believe he's a Christian and would say that." Really? Just wait. Just wait. Walk softly around a broken heart. That's probably some of the best advice I could give. Walk softly around a broken heart. Very tender, very soft, very compassionate.
Well, where does Jesus fit into all this? Remember what we've learned last week and this week? Evil does exist, that's obvious. God permits evil to exist. God has a purpose in evil existing. And what you need to know in closing is that God plays by his own rules. He doesn't put those truths into a universe and let us deal with them. He himself plays by those rules. You see, think of it this way, what would the worst possible thing ever be in human history? I can answer that: The death of God. Killing God on a cross, getting rid of God. That's the worst possible thing. Well it may have seemed like the worst thing cut it actually turned out to be the very best thing. The worst thing that could happen to Jesus Christ, his death, his suffering, has brought salvation for the world if we'll take it.
So, perhaps your pain, your affliction, your suffering would lead you to Christ. And by leading you to Christ, put your name in heaven forever. And I would say it was worth it. And I hope that you will one day be able to say, ‘It was worth it," and one day be able to say like Paul, ‘I will rejoice in my infirmities, in my weaknesses, because it makes me pure and humble and dependent upon God.' C. S. Lewis said, "God whispers to us in our pleasures but he shouts to us in our pain." "Pain," said Lewis, "is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world." It gets people's attention. God has gotten my attention on many an occasion and I can simply stand before you and say, "All things work together for good to those who love God."
Let's pray together. Our heavenly Father, it is our prayer that we will not waste the time of suffering that we go through as believers. We pray that the resolve that Job had, that not only you give and you take away and blessed is your name but that you permit evil for a purpose. That you give affliction as well as blessing and we would receive it, in fact even rejoice in it for your glory and our refinement. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for what you have taken us through and thank you for your promises that get us to the other end. I pray for those of my brothers and sisters here who are suffering. I don't know exactly what, but some have suffered tremendously in this failing economy, they have lost seemingly everything. Some have lost homes, some relationships are broken, some are facing illnesses that are insurmountable, some are facing death. Be to them everything that they need and draw some to your Son. In Jesus' name. Amen.