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May 10 - Job 1-2:10 - "The Problem of Suffering"

MPC 10th May 2009.

Derek Hanna

There are some parts of my job that I would prefer never came up. Last year I had one of those times.

I held a funeral for twins who died while in their mother's womb. My visit to them after she had delivered the children was heart breaking. The twins were in the cot next to the bed, lying next to each other, not much bigger than my hand. The contrast in the room was stark. There were the twins in the cot - so beautiful, such fine features, perfect faces, yet dead. And there were the parents - alive, but distraught, and reeling from the pain of losing their two beautiful daughters. It was suffering at its most acute.

For some things you read in the Bible, it seems hard to find the relevance to your life today. But the book of Job is not one of those books. I do not need to introduce you to topic of suffering. You'll be well familiar with it. And if you're not, it's only a matter of time. Everybody suffers. To varying degrees, sure. But everybody suffers.

And one of the most reassuring things for me about the book of Job, is that it exists. Because before we had even our first glimpse of suffering, and before we could even begin to utter the words, "Why would God allow this?" God had written the book of Job. So far from God avoiding the issue of suffering, and far from God being unaware that his creation struggles with suffering, he provides us with a book that challenges and encourages us build a framework for thinking about how we view and deal with suffering in relation to God.

No other book in the Bible deals with suffering to the scale that the book of Job does. But Job is not God's textbook to suffering. It's more like God's survival guide. It'll tell you what to look out for. It'll tell you what pitfalls there are. It'll describe to you the struggles you'll face in your trials. It'll show you ways in which people will lead you astray in your suffering. And it will show you God.

But as we consider the issue of suffering, if we immerse ourselves in the book of Job, and never emerge - while we will learn many helpful things about suffering, we will sell ourselves short. It would be like reading the prologue of a story... without ever bothering to get to the epilogue which resolves the story. If you never get past Job, you may be able to resign yourself that God has things in hand... but you will never find the answers, comfort and hope that Jesus Christ provides in suffering. So without shame this series, we will constantly come back to God's clearest answer to our sufferings - Jesus Christ.

Because to address this issue, without relating it to him, would be like trying to talk about the greatest cricketer ever, and not mentioning Bradman. Now the first chapter really sets the groundwork for how the book will play out. And there's a lot in it, so let me try and direct your attention to the main issues it raises.

The first is that we are dealing in this book with innocent suffering.

Have a look at the description of Job in the first 5 verses. Three times he's called blameless and upright - and twice it's God who's saying it. (1:1,8; 2:3) It's not that he was sinless. But Job is a man who heart seeks God. Whose heart is turned towards God. (Prov 20:7)

And you can see that in his actions. His regular custom (end of v.5) was to sacrifice for his children just in case they'd done anything wrong. It doesn't say they had... but Job was taking out an insurance policy on his children, just in case God had taken offense at anything his kids had done, or failed to do. Here was a guy who thought God was pretty special, and cared deeply for his kids.

And his good standing with God was reflected in his wealth. In a world where livestock was currency, he was the Bill Gates of his time. (v.3) Job was the greatest man of all the people of the East according to v.3.

There is meant to be absolutely no doubt in anyone's mind that when you read about Job... Job has done everything to warrant a good life... and nothing to warrant suffering.

Now this makes a massive difference to the storyline. Because what we're learning is that:

Even the innocent suffer and it's possible to suffer, and it not be the result of your sin. And that's important because I don't think people question suffering so much when the person receiving the suffering is evil. So when Ivan Milat the serial killer chopped his finger off in gaol a couple of months ago, it was reported on the news, but very few people were sympathetic to his plight and his mental state... because of what he's done. In that instance, we think that his suffering may well be deserved. Not suffering, justice perhaps. But when we heard of that 6 year old girl being thrown off a bridge around the same time... it's hard to fathom how God can allow that to happen. And that's the category Job falls in to. He is suffering as an innocent man.

And what kicks events off for Job is the Satan's accusation that Job may look innocent, and he may look obedient and pious... but that's only because God is being nice to him.

Satan says it twice - 1:9-11 and 2:4-5.

So Satan suggests to God that if you remove the hedge from around Job, you expose him to the harshness of the world, take away from him the things he values... you'll see he's no different to anyone else. Now that seems like a reasonable observation. Can't we view our relationship with God in the same way we view our relationship with others? You serve those who will serve you... right up until the point they don't, and then you move on. Your job, your relationships, your church... a reasonable observation from Satan based on an accurate assessment of human nature I would say...

And remarkably, God agrees to put Job to the test to show Satan that not everyone works like that. Especially in relation to God. First his material wealth goes, and then his family... and it'd be comical if it wasn't so tragic. (1:13) Before one set of bad news ends, the next starts... "While he was still speaking..." But Job doesn't curse God. He mourns... but he also falls to the ground to worship God. 1:21. It's remarkable. He must know God's behind it, but he did not charge God with doing wrong. Satan loses round 1.

So Satan goes for the jugular. Maybe Job is so selfish that while he loved his family, he'll hold on to God in the hope that God lets him off the hook. Let's give Job some physical suffering to go with his emotional and phsychological suffering he's experiencing. Let's see how he goes when there is nothing that he can find to thank God for. Let's see how he treats God then. Well, remarkably, God wins the bet, because Job doesn't curse God. Even his wife is telling him to curse God... but Job refuses. He's lost everything, he knows who's responsible... but what does he say? 2:10. God wins the bet.

Job doesn't curse God. He's as good as God says he was, and the Satan slinks off into his slumhole never to be heard of again in the book of Job. But at what cost does God prove his point? At the cost of Job's wealth? At the cost of Job's health? At the cost of Job's family? They're pretty high stakes.

Which leads us to the most confronting question in the book of Job. Why does God allow innocent suffering? In particular, why does he allow the suffering of an innocent, faithful man like Job? Because it's made very clear here that the Satan doesn't head out by himself and start inflicting Job. He fronts up to God in His heavenly court, and it is God who initiates the discussion on Job. He doesn't initiate the wager, but he does make a point of singling out Job. (v.8) So while the request comes from Satan to make Job suffer (v.9), he can't lift a finger until God gives permission (1:12, 2:6). Satan, and evil are bound by God. He does not instigate the suffering, but he certainly uses it for his purposes here.

And his purposes here are:

But Job doesn't know that. He doesn't know what we know. He can't see God's purposes. And when it comes to suffering, we know the purpose for it in Job... but we're not always going to know it. And even if you knew it, you might not agree with it. Just as you might not agree with it in Job. Just as Job doesn't.

So in the coming weeks we're going to be working through the questions of suffering that the book of Job raises. What hope and comfort is there in suffering? Where is God's justice when the wicked prosper and the innocent suffer? Why doesn't God give us answers in our suffering? What can we expect in the end? Underlying all these questions - questions that Job himself asks - we need to grapple with what I think is a more fundamental and foundational question. Where will you grasp when you suffer? What will you hold on to when the tidal wave of pain and frustration encompass you? What will you look to as your comfort when you feel like your world collapses?

Look at where Job grasps in his pain and his suffering. He's lost his entire family and wealth... and look what he clings to - 1:21-22 He loses his health and comfort... his wife tells him to curse God and die... and look at what he clings to - 2:10. When Job's world comes crashing down, and everyone around him tells him to chuck it in and abandon God... but Job refuses to abandon God. He doesn't understand, and he can't see how it's fair, but the thing, the person he holds on to when his world falls apart is God. He doesn't do it quietly. He questions, complains, groans and moans... but he does it from within a relationship with God. And that's Job is commended at the end of the book.

But you couldn't blame him if he chucked it in could you? I read of a man last year who lost his entire family in a freak accident. He was at work, when a Navy Jet landed on his house killing his wife, two daughters and mother-in-law. You could understand him being bitter, couldn't you? You could understand him crying out to God and demanding an answer. You could even understand him abandoning his faith in God. You could understand him descending into bitterness and anger, into a fatalistic view of life and wanting to end his own life.

So before you approach any other question in the book of Job, you need to understand the position that Job approaches God from. Not happy, sure. But willing to listen. Looking to God for answers. Knowing that God is the only one who can provide any meaningful answer and hope in the pain. Now I don't think Job gives us a nice neat answer to suffering. You might find God's answer to Job in chapters 38-41 wholly unsatisfying.

In fact, I don't think the Bible gives us a nice neat answer to the idea of suffering. It gives us reasons and some explanations... but there are grey areas. It gives us an overview of the answer, but not (unlike in Job) explanations for why we are suffering the way we are in our specific circumstance. But what will you do with those grey areas? Will you seek your answers in God? Or will you resign yourself to bitterness and anger?

But perhaps the unacknowledged factor is this. How do you perceive God thinks of you? You see, the same action applied to two different people can be perceived very differently. I can withhold red cordial from my son after the service today, and he won't doubt that I love him. He may question me, and be angry with me for denying him liquid energy... but he won't doubt I love him. But I do that to another child who has no knowledge of me - for the same reason, and same motive - and he may well consider me petty and mean.

If you have no concept of what God thinks of you, you will tend towards considering your suffering as punishment from a mean and vindictive God. You will wonder if God loves you. And if he even cares for you. But if you are aware of what God thinks of you, the question won't be if he loves you - that's a given. The question will be how he loves you. And it's those how questions that Job asks. And it's those how questions that Christians need to ask.

But the reason I can so quickly move to the how question as opposed to the if question is this. 1 John 4:10 - This is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice. That is, I am confident that God loves me, not merely because He's said it, but because he's shown me at enormous cost to himself. By sacrificing His own Son, so that I can have peace with Him, so that you can have peace with Him. The easiest question to answer is if God loves you. But it's the question you need to grapple with before you can hear how God is loving you. Because in the midst of suffering, you're going to want to fall back on something solid. You're going to want to be absolutely certain in the midst of your pain that God has your best in mind... even when things look pear-shaped. And the clearest expression of God's love to mankind is Christ. And as we're going to see in the coming weeks, he's also our hope and our future.

So as the platform for the series, struggle over this question over the coming week. Where will you hold to when you suffer? Do you think God has your best in mind even when you suffer? These are questions that are best asked, and best answered when you're not suffering. But whenever you ask them - they need to find an answer. Let me finish telling you about the twins I mentioned at the start of the talk. Or more particularly, let me tell you about the parents. They are people who love the Lord. They have given up their lives to serve Him. And it would have been the easiest thing in the world for them to ask God why. Why when they had give up so much for Him would he repay them in this way? But that was not their response. They struggled with why, they grieved over their daughters... but they trusted in God's love for them. I remember asking them if there was anything I could do for them. They asked me to read the Bible. They wanted to hear from their God. They wanted to find comfort in His Word. They were people who knew God. They were a couple who had sorted out the if question, and who knew that God loved them. They didn't know the how then, and they still don't know. But they did not abandon God. For he was their hope. I wonder whether I'd be so gracious and faithful faced with that much pain and suffering. I pray that I will be. I pray that you will be as well.

But I know this with certainty. That God has loved us unlike any love we have ever know before. That He sent His Son to die for us while we were his enemies. And that in His Son alone is comfort and hope in our suffering.

The Lord will give, and the Lord will take away. But the name of the Lord be praised.