Title: Finding our place
Text: Job 1:1; 2:1-10
Topic:
I. Introduction
An Atheist response
Being from the bible belt, we usually don’t come across many people who don’t believe in God. I think it has been said that 86% of US citizens believe in God. I’m certain that number is much higher in the South. So whenever I do come across an atheist, I like to ask them, “Why don’t you believe in God.” I sometimes get pretty thought provoking answers. Sometimes I get, “I don’t believe in God because Christians are so hateful.” I’ve also heard, “I don’t believe in God because I’ve never seen him. If he’s real, why won’t he show himself? I have to see before I believe.” I heard many answers, but the one that I have heard by far the most is this: ” I don’t believe in God because there is so much suffering in the world. I refuse to believe that if a good God exists, he would allows these bad things to happen.”
Many questions
The book of Job raising many questions. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why would God allow these terrible things to happen to Job? It’s not just in Job. If you spend time seriously reading the bible, you will come across stories that will probably make you question God. As you look at the lives around you, the same questions will arise. Why do you allow this, God? Like Job, I’m sure that we have asked this question. But the truth is, Job doesn’t give us an answer for this. The truth is, good people will suffer.
II. Good people will suffer.
Zac
I have a friend that I knew pretty well when I was growing up. He was a really good guy. The kind of guy that would do anything for you. Well, about three weeks ago he was jumping into a shallow pool and broke his neck. The doctors are saying that it will be a miracle if he will ever walk again. As I’ve thought about this, I can’t help but ask God Why?
Job didn’t deserve suffering. Who does?
We usually read that Job was an upright man and automatically think, “It’s not fair for him to suffer!” But seriously, does anyone deserve to suffer? Does anyone deserve to lose all that he or she has, including his family and health? Does Job’s righteousness have anything to do with this? Sure, good people like Job and Zac certainly don’t deserve this, but does anyone?
Hurricane Katrina
I remember when Hurricane Katrina happened in the fall of 2005. It destroyed many lives. One church put on it’s sign “The Big Easy is the modern Day Sodom and Gomorrah”. I have had many conversations where people actually believe that this terrible tragedy happened because God was mad with some people in New Orleans. No wonder we question God. If we truly believe that God causes terrible tragedies like this, we can rightly question him.
We are never promised that life won’t hurt.
The truth is, God never promises us a life that won’t hurt. We are never promised that, once we follow Christ, all will be well with life. As a matter of fact, Jesus warned the disciples on many occasions that following him could possibly bring on more suffering. Maybe the problem is that we enter the Christian walk oblivious to suffering. Maybe, when we share our faith with others, we fail to tell them the whole story. Maybe, while trying to share the love of Jesus with others, we forget to tell them Jesus’ words that in order to follow him, we must deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow. Maybe we enter our Christian faith with unreal expectations.
Life hurts
Life hurts, but the truth is, God still speaks to us, even when we suffer.
C.S. Lewis/ Problem with pain
In C.S. Lewis’s book, Problem with Pain he says this: We can rest contentedly in our sins and in our stupidities, and everyone who has watched gluttons shoveling down the most exquisite foods as if they did not know what they were eating, will admit that we can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
GPS
I’m terrible with directions. I still get lost almost everytime that I go to Henderson. Well, knowing how bad I am with directions, Jade bought me a GPS this past Christmas. The GPS is a great invention. However, it’s pretty pointless if I don’t turn it on. Every now and then, when I’m feeling confident that I know where I’m going, I won’t turn on the GPS. It always feels better to find something on your own rather than using the GPS. However, if I’m not 100% sure where I’m going, I usually still get lost and end up turning on the GPS anyways.
Like paying attention to the GPS when we are lost, we have a way of paying attention to God when we are suffering. No, I don’t think God causes the suffering, but we can be more attentive to God. C.S. Lewis says that God whispers in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pain.
Good people will suffer. But like, Job, when we suffer we are still called to continue to be faithful to God.
III. Like Job, we are called to continue to be faithful to God.
Job 2:9,10 shows a conversation between Job and his wife. After his suffering, his wife says to him; “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
He asked questions.
Job stayed faithful to God, regardless of his circumstance. However, as we continue through the book of Job, we see that he indeed questioned God. He lamented. He wondered, “Why is this happening to me?”
We have questions
We somehow think that if we question God about something then we aren’t being faithful. That’s not true. Job questioned God. Moses questioned God. Jesus questioned God. It’s ok for us to express our human feelings to God. We like to point the finger at Job’s wife here and say, “you should be more like Job!’ But truthfully, if we are honest with ourselves, we are probably more like his wife. We may not vocalize it, but we may feel it. That’s ok. It’s ok to tell God and God’s people what’s on your mind. For far to long the church has been a place where people have come with artificial smiles. People who pretend that everything’s ok because, well we wouldn’t be true Christians if it wasn’t. God wants us to be real and authentic.
Put back in our original place
This text doesn’t answer our question, “Why does God allow suffering?” It doesn’t give us a guideline for helping someone who is suffering. I think this text asks another question: It doesn’t raise the question “why doesn’t God allow pain?”, but rather It asks, How do we understand our place in the universe? I think this story of Job helps us to find our place in God’s world. Are we the center? Is the world made simply for the sake of humanity? Is God’s goal in creation our happiness? Is the world designed in a way that we always get what we deserve? If not, and I believe the answer is no, then human happiness isn’t the end for God’s creation.
Copernicus
In the 13th century, a man by the name of Nicolaus Copernicus caused an uproar in the church. Prior to him, everyone believed that the earth was the center of the universe and that everything revolved around it. Copernicus, the astronomer, saw that that wasn’t the case. He point to the sun and said, “behold, the center of the universe.” He was condemned from the church because of his beliefs.
For the longest time we thought that we were the center of the universe. It’s all about us. Everything is created for us. The sun burns for our pleasure. The stars exist to give us decoration. Copernicus changed that. Just like Copernicus, we must seek to understand our place in this universe. We aren’t the center. God’s the center and all things are created by him and for him. Instead of asking the question, “Why do bad things happen to me?”, we should ask “Where’s my place in the universe?”
God calls us to be faithful, regardless of our circumstances
I think that Job understood his place. Just like Job, we are called to be faithful, even when it hurts. We can ask questions, but like Job, let us “not sin with our lips”.
IV. Closing
God is with us
As you read the book of Job and you see his suffering, you will notice that God is with him. We can find hope in our suffering because God is still with us.
Christ suffered
We have hope. We have hope in the resurrection. We also have hope because we worship and serve a Savior who suffered with us. He’s not asking of us anything that he himself has not went through. We at times find life to be full of pain and hurt. So did Jesus. Be reminded this morning that God, even through pain, has been there. He is still with us. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
