True and Better: JOB. Job 19:21-27 September 13&14, 2014 Pastor Bob Petterson

Transcription

1 COVENANT PULPIT True and Better: JOB Job 19:21-27 September 13&14, 2014 Pastor Bob Petterson Covenant Church of Naples PCA 6926 Trail Boulevard, Naples FL (239)

2 Glenn Chambers was a rookie missionary, heading off to Quito, Ecuador. Shortly before it was time to board his flight, he spied a piece of advertisement on the terminal floor. Printed across its center was a single word in bold letters: WHY? He scribbled a final note to his mother on the back of the flyer, stuffed it into an envelope and dropped it into a mailbox. A few hours later, his Aviancia Airlines DC-4 slammed into a fog-shrouded mountain in the Andes, killing everyone on board. Glenn s heartbroken mother had already heard about her son s death when she received his last letter. As she pulled the note from the envelope, staring up at her was that single word: WHY? Of all life s questions, these torment the most: Why? Why me? Why this? Why now? Even Jesus screamed, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Rabbi Harold Kushner asked why his son was born with progeria, a genetic disorder that causes rapid aging in children. When his son died, an old man at age fourteen, Rabbi Kushner s faith in God collapsed. He became fixated on Job, that ancient sufferer who buried all ten of his children. His obsession led to his bestseller, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Kushner asks the most baffling why question of all: why does a good God allow bad things to happen to good people? How could he allow Glenn Chambers to work so hard to become a missionary, and then let him perish short of the mission field? Why would he allow a baby to be born, only to die as an old man while still a teenager? Why did God allow Satan to devastate a righteous man like Job? Maybe you have some why questions too? Job didn t discover all the answers. None of us will, this side of heaven. Even if we did, answers don t always bring comfort. But Job did find the true and better Comforter. As he sat on his ashes, covered in hideous boils, he eventually cried out, I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. (Job 19:25) Job teaches us this powerful principle: When we can t understand why, When we can t see how, When we can t predict when, We can know the Who. I have just returned from a sabbatical in Germany where I wrote my newest book a fresh look at the story of Job. For weeks, I immersed myself in the life of this ancient sufferer. My book is a culmination of 20 years of reflection on what I believe is one of the towering masterpieces of biblical literature. I tried to get inside the mind of Job. (I gave up trying to wrap my mind around Job s God.) Through it all, Job became my

3 friend. But the One he points to, the true and better Job [Jesus Christ], has become an even better friend. I ve concluded that the greatest question in Job s story is not why God allows his righteous servant to suffer, but why he allows his righteous Son to suffer infinitely more. I don t know what bad thing you ve just faced, are facing today, or will face tomorrow. But, when you can t understand the why, when you can t see the how, or when you can t predict the when, you can know the Who the true and better One who will see you through. As my mom used to say, Bobby, we don t know what tomorrow holds, but we know who holds tomorrow. Let s look at Job and see if my mom was right. 1. JOB ON THE ASH HEAP. His story opens with one of the most familiar lines in literature: In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. No one knows for sure where Uz was. It was probably in Iraq, somewhere near the ancient city of Ur. Abraham may have known Job, and handed his story down to his descendants. Job was a Gentile who lived before the Bible was written, but his spiritual credentials were impeccable: This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. He had seven sons and three daughters, and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East. Job 1:1-3 His original name was Jaab, an ancient Semitic word that means to love or desire. Later the Jews changed it to Jobé. Jaab lived up to his birth name. He was loved and desired because he was blameless and upright. The word blameless means that no one could find fault in him. Job was a man of unimpeachable moral standards, fastidiously honest in his dealings. The word upright means that he walked tall. He could stride boldly into any room, and look you straight in the eye, because he had nothing to hide. Since people trusted him, his business grew until he became fabulously wealthy and powerful. Job also shunned evil. British Lord Acton wrote, Great men are seldom good men. Years earlier the British Lord had observed, Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. When CBS newsman Dan Rather asked President Bill Clinton why he had an affair with White House Intern Monica Lewinski, he replied, I did it because I could. We should stand in awe that prosperity, power, and prestige didn t corrupt Job. Instead, Job 1:1 says, he feared God Job knew that The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. (Proverbs 1:7)

4 His respect for God s holiness extended to his family. Though he never pampered his trust fund babies, it s hard for the children of affluence to escape its corrupting affects. Job 1:4 tells us that Job s kids took turns holding parties in their homes. We don t know what happened during those bashes, but enough reports came back to worry their daddy. Later, when they were killed in the tornado, he cried out, What I have feared has come upon me (Job 3:25) He knew that sin had consequences. Though his wayward children repeatedly broke his heart, this godly dad never failed to seek their spiritual welfare: When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would make arrangements for them to be purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Job 1:5 He took his children to God s throne of grace. An animal was burnt on the altar. The blood of that animal was sprinkled on his kids for their purification. How did this Gentile from the Persian Gulf know to do this? Somehow the Holy Spirit revealed to him the story of grace: one day a true and better Lamb would give a true and better sacrifice for his sins, and those of his family. This guiltless One would be burnt in the fires of hell even while he hung on a Roman cross, bearing the sins of all God s sons and daughters. Job was not a saved man because he was a good man. Rather, because God declared him to be righteous, and heaven s purifying grace transformed him into a man of spiritual goodness. Job 1:8 says, Then God said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. Let me repeat it: God declared Job to be righteous. Indeed, Job was a trophy of God s grace! Job was not only righteous, he was rich. Job 1:3 gives a repetition of tens: ten children, a thousand head of sheep and camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen and donkeys. In Hebrew numerology, the number ten or its multiples is symbolic of completeness or fullness. Job lacked nothing. He had cornered the stock market. He was the Bill Gates of his day. Job 1:3 sums up his charmed life: He was the greatest the rarest of humans, great and good at the same time. Maybe that s why, some 4,000 years later, his monumental collapse still causes us to ask, How could so many bad things happen to such a good person? Notice what happens next. The devil and a delegation of fallen angels from hell have come before the throne of God, even as Job is offering his sacrifices.

5 God is proud of his boy, Job. Have you considered my servant Job? There s no one on earth like him (Job 1:8) The lord of darkness snarls back, Does Job fear God for nothing? (Job 1:9) In short, Of course, Job serves you. You ve prospered him, and put a hedge of protection around him. There s no way that Job will do anything to jeopardize a sweet deal like that. The Accuser challenges the integrity of Job s faith: Stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face. (Job 1:11) The devil knows human nature well. Most folks are in it for themselves. But, when their needs are not met, they bail out of friendships, marriages, careers, and churches. Let tribulation strip them of a spouse, child, job, money, or health and they will soon shake their fist at God. The question that Satan asks of Job is also directed at each one of us: will we still love and serve God if life brings great affliction? Could we say what Job later says from his own ashes, Even if the LORD slay me, yet will I still hope in him. (Job 13:15)? Satan is attacking more than the integrity of Job s faith. He is challenging the integrity of God s grace. The real issue isn t why did Job suffer, but will Job persevere? Can grace keep us all the way home to glory? To quote St. Paul in Romans 8:39, Will anything be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord? If everything that gives comfort and security to Job is stripped away, will God s grace still be sufficient to see him through? If he is reduced to nothing, will God s power still be sufficient in his weakness? If his wife tells him to curse God, and his friends say that he is suffering because he s a sinner, will God s grace still be strong enough to keep him going? Satan may accuse Job of being a phony believer. He might accuse God of stacking the deck in heaven s favor. But when he challenges the grace of God, the devil crosses a line. Amazing grace is the greatest thing God has to offer his creation. Our LORD will never allow a diminishing of his grace to go unchallenged. So he unleashes the lion of hell. Job loses everything: his vast herds of livestock are stolen or destroyed, his servants are killed, and his ten children are crushed to death in a tornado. In a single day, his whole world collapses. Job is devastated. He rips off his clothes in a frenzy of grief, shaves his head, and then showers it with dust. Grace doesn t mean that we won t suffer. But grace does hold. Job goes out to the graves of his ten kids, and prostrates himself on the freshly dug dirt. He bursts forth in a praise song: Naked I came from my mother s womb and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised. (Job 1:21) Stand in awe of such praise! Grace has prevailed, and Job has persevered, his faith rock solid.

6 So Satan asks for another shot at Job. Skin for skin. (Job 2:4) The devil is quoting a Middle Eastern proverb. A man will do anything to save his own skin: give up family, betray country, or recant faith. In the end, we love ourselves more than anyone or anything else. So God lets Satan go after Job s health. What happens next is beyond description. Over the next several chapters we read a clinical description of black leprosy. It is marked by burning eruptions in the skin that are first red, and then turn black, enveloping every inch of the victim s skin until the body is one burning ulceration. Eventually, the skin swells until it resembles the hide of an elephant hence its other name: elephantiasis. Its symptoms: an intense, unrelenting itching, maggots in open ulcers, disintegration of the bones, blackening and falling off of skin, and terrifying nightmares. The disease systematically breaks down the nervous system and addles the brain. The stench is unbearable. Black leprosy is untreatable and incurable. A death sentence would have been better because the wretch afflicted by this disease can survive for years. Job piles up a mountain of ashes because they are the only thing soft enough to allow him to lay down on the open sores that cover his body. He can also rub the ashes into his skin to give some relief from the unending itching that drives him crazy day and night. When the ashes cease to do their work, he scrapes his festering wounds with shards of broken pottery. What a sight. He sits like a shriveled black elephant on the ash heap, covered with blood, scabs, maggots and soot. Could it get any worse? Yes! His grieving wife tells him to curse God and die, and then she abandons him. His remaining servants ignore his calls for help. His relatives and country club friends are nowhere to be found. But things can still get worse. Three fellow believers show up to tell him that his afflictions are God s judgment on him for some sin he s committed, or his lack of faith. He lashes back by defending himself. For some thirty chapters they argue. At times Job has soaring faith. At other times he rages against God for being unfair to him. Sometimes he is angry. Occasionally, he is a raving heretic. Mostly, he is on the ragged edge. Pain and suffering can forge great faith. It can also reduce us to bitter cynics. Nothing will prove our faith, or reveal its flaws, quite like affliction. That s why suffering is a great gift from God. That s also why we need a true and better Job. 2. JESUS ON THE ASH HEAP. When Job is at his lowest point, feeling alienated from God, he cries out in exasperation, If only there was to mediate between us, someone to bring us together (Job 9:33) The Hebrew verb for mediate literally means to put a hand on someone s shoulder. A mediator is someone

7 who puts one hand on a person s shoulder and his other on another person s shoulder, and then he brings the two face to face with one other. At that moment, Job has a prophetic glimpse of the Cross. Jesus hangs there as the great Mediator, arms stretched out on the crossbeam. One nail-pierced hand grabs the shoulders of sinners, the other grasps hold of his heavenly Father s shoulder. At the cross, Jesus brings the sinful and Holy together, the hurting and Healer together, the afflicted and Comforter together. What Job couldn t do, the true and better Job did. There is another ash heap outside Jerusalem. Only this ash heap is a pile of rocks shaped like a human skull. The Son of God hangs impaled on the stake driven into the rock. He is a mangled mass of open and bloody wounds, as grotesque as the elephant man of Uz. His agony is infinitely more intense. He too has lost everything. He also has been abandoned by those closest to him. He too has been misunderstood, accused of being a sinner and enemy of God. He also feels forsaken by God. Just as he went after Job, Satan has pulled out all the stops to destroy Jesus. For every sufferer like Glenn Chamber s mother, Rabbi Kushner, Job and his wife, and any of us who have endured some affliction that put us on the ragged edge of life, God is saying, I ve come down to share your tribulations. I have taken on myself all your sins, sorrows, diseases, disappointments, and even your death. I ve been tempted in every way that every human has ever been tempted. I m sitting with you on the ash heap. At the Cross Jesus has sanctified our afflictions. But Jesus has done even more on his ash heap. He has shown us what true obedience to God means. Job gets another glimpse of Jesus when he says of God, Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him. (Job 13:15) God didn t slay Job. But he did slay the true and better Job. God the Son knew that this would happen when he left heaven to slip into Mary s womb. Yet, he never hesitated. He was willing to suffer hell itself if it would glorify his Father in heaven. Finally, he has triumphed over affliction, and, through him, so will we. Job gets yet another glimpse of Jesus: I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes I and not another. How my heart yearns within me. Job 19:26&27 Jesus didn t stay nailed to the cross. Job s sufferings had an end. So will ours. Jesus rose from the dead, triumphant over his afflictions. So did Job, and so will we. God s power in Jesus persevered, just as his grace in Job persevered. Nothing could separate him from his Father s love, nor

8 can anything separate us from God s love. Satan is a liar when he claims otherwise. Jesus rose from the dead. Job rose from his ash heap. No matter how devastated we may be today, we will rise bodily from the grave, and stand with him in the Land of the Living. Our best days are always ahead of us when we are in Christ. 3. US ON THE ASH HEAP. Each of us will spend a season on the ash heap. We won t always know why bad things happen to good people. Frankly, Rabbi Kushner is wrong: none of us are ultimately good people. Jesus said to the rich young ruler, Why do you call me good? Only God is good. (Mark 10:18) We have no leg to stand on when we ask, Why isn t God fair? The last thing we should ever want is a fair God. Fairness would require him to treat us the way we deserve. Thank God that the Psalmist said, He does not treat us as our sins deserve, or repay us according to our iniquities. (Psalm 103:10) If God were fair, we would all be in a heap of trouble. Rather, God is super-fair. He treats us better than we deserve. His mercy won t allow him to punish us as we deserve. His grace drives him to bless us more than we deserve. Though Job lashed out in anger at God, his heavenly Father returned double for everything he lost. It is this grace and mercy of God that St. Paul laid claim to when he was on his own ash heap of affliction: Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Are you sitting on an ash heap today? God has proven through Job that his grace is sufficient. Through the true and better Job he has given us everything we need for victory. We will see our Redeemer in the land of the living. So we look beyond what is temporary to that which is eternal. When we can t understand why, or see how, or predict when, we do know the Who. Mary Petterson was right: We don t know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future. Copyright September 13&14 by Covenant Church of Naples /PCA