In our Old Testament reading this morning we learned a bit about a man named Job. In it we find that Job once had a very, very bad day. Now keep in mind that Job was not some evildoer who went about causing trouble and hurting innocent people. Rather he was quoted in Scripture as being a “righteous” man. Yet his world comes crashing down around him in a space of but a few minutes or hours. Have you ever felt like a “modern-day Job”?
Here you are, a child of God, yet suddenly, out of the blue, something bad happens to you or someone you love. How do you react? Many times we begin to feel frustrated and feel that we have a legitimate reason to complain to God. Don’t you sometimes wish that God had a complaint department with a little box and notepad where you could write your complaints and how you would like them resolved, drop them in the box, and voila, instant fix! Well, this morning, as we spend some time with the original Job, we see how God responds to Job’s complaints. And if we listen closely to how God talks to Job, we find that God is also talking to you and me. In doing so, we also are going to find out a few things about how God thinks and works.
First of all, we are going to find out that we are not as smart as we often think we are, and second, we are going to learn that God is much wiser than we will ever truly comprehend. People often talk about Job, even those who have never, ever read the book that bears his name. They almost always talk about the “patience of Job”. But the reality is that even Job eventually lost his patience and began to complain about God, which is not terribly hard to understand as a human being, given all of the horrible things that happened to him. See, unbeknownst to Job, Satan was after him. The Devil wanted to prove to God that Job was really a “fair- weather” believer. Satan said that the only reason that Job worshipped God was because God had “built a hedge around Job” and kept bad things from happening to him. Satan said that if God would take away His protection of Job, then Job would surely “curse you (God) to your face.”
So to prove to Satan that Job was no mere “fair-weather” believer, but rather a true worshipper of God, even when things were not going well, God allowed Satan to turn Job’s world upside down. And turn it upside down he does! First, Satan took away all of Job’s flocks and herds. That is like someone coming along and taking away all of your money, your bank accounts, stocks, bonds, etc, and then you lose your job on top of that. Next, Satan has all ten of Job’s children killed at the same time. That is a horror unbearable to think about. Finally, Satan attacks Job’s health. Satan has Job completely incapacitated by having Job covered from head to toe with sores and boils. Remarkably, through all of this, Job remains a faithful believer in God.
So far the “patience of Job” remains steadfast. Then along come his friends. At first they are quiet and just sit with Job as he suffers. Sometimes that is all that is necessary. Words may not even be necessary to comfort someone who is hurting. Just the presence of a friend is enough. That is how Job’s friends start out. They are well-meaning people who care about their friend. But their silence doesn’t last. They begin to speak, and instead of encouragement, they begin to offer their collective opinion that Job has suffered these horrible things because of some terrible sin Job had committed. Well, Job knew that was not true, so back and forth the argument goes as his friends tell Job that he needed to repent of whatever the terrible thing he had done. But Job kept telling them that he had not done any terrible thing to cause these bad things to happen to him and his family.
Then, as may be expected, Job begins to lose his patience. Because of his friends’ nagging, Job begins to question and complain to God. Job tells God, in essence, that God does not know what He is doing. In the Pastor Walt translation, Job says, “I have been faithful to you, and look what you are doing to me. Why me? Why are these terrible things happening to me? You are not being fair, God! If I could talk to you face to face, boy would I have questions for you. I would give you a piece of my mind, for sure!” The patience of Job had run out and he was yelling at God.
God understands that we get frustrated because of our lack of ability to understand the way God works, so He allows us some room to complain. But even God has His limits and we can go too far. That is what Job did. Job kept up his complaining and soon a dark, black cloud formed in the west. A storm was brewing and it was not an ordinary storm. As the black clouds with their thunder and lightning moved over Job’s head, God spoke. Scripture says, “Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm.” God spoke, and He was not happy! God said, “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.”
Yes, Job had gone too far when he questioned God and accused God of not knowing what He was doing. Now, it was time for God to question Job. God had come to remind Job, and us, that we are not as smart as we sometimes think ourselves to be. “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you know, who marked off its dimensions?” God reminds Job that it was God who created the Earth. God describes how He made the oceans and the sky and how He set up the tides. God then goes on in the next few chapters to describe how He has set up life and death, light and darkness, the stars, the weather, the seasons, and the agricultural systems of the world.
Why did God do that? What was the point of all this? God was reminding Job that he was just a human being and there are things that go way beyond Job’s ability to comprehend. Even though Job was considered to be a very intelligent and wise man, there are things about God that even the Job could not understand. God was telling Job, “Don’t try to understand me fully. Just trust me. Respect me. Honor me. Obey me.”
And so it is with you and me. When things happen in our lives that make it seem like God does not know what He is doing, we need to remember that God is wise way, way beyond our ability to understand. When things happen to us that we don’t like, things that seem completely illogical, completely unfair, then it is time for us to fight. But we must not fight God. We must fight the temptation to complain about God. We must fight the temptation to disrespect God. We must fight the temptation to shake our fist in the face of God and tell Him that He has no clue about what He is doing. We must fight those temptations and humble ourselves before an Almighty God who is indeed in control, and yes, does some things that are beyond our ability to comprehend and find the good that can come from whatever it is that is being done at the time.
See, Job had no idea what was taking place behind the scenes, so to speak.
If there ever was a time when it seemed that God did not know what He was doing, the moment Jesus Christ died on the cross is it, especially for the Disciples. They must have had thoughts like, “How could a loving God allow His only Son to die that horrible death on the cross of Calvary? How could God allow Him to suffer that way? God is unfair! God is unjust!” Those thoughts and more must have flooded the minds of the Disciples as they watched Christ die. But in three days, Christ rose from the dead revealing to the Disciples and all the world that God does indeed know what he is doing. That moment at the cross was God’s way of taking away all of our sins. That’s why God can look at you and me and call us His children. That’s why we are forgiven and can know that we are going to Heaven one day. It is because God did something that seemed completely wrong, illogical, unfair and unjust. Yet, in reality, it was the most loving and righteous thing ever done.
So when you are feeling like a “modern-day Job”, when things are happening to you and you don’t know why and when you feel totally baffled by what is happening in your life, those are the times to trust in God. Don’t try to understand. Don’t try to argue. Just trust in God. Trust that God is wise. Trust that God knows what you are going through. Trust that God knows what he is doing. Trust that God loves you and will not leave you hanging out to dry. Trust in God.
When you are tempted to turn your back on God, when your faith and trust sometimes seem to fade, remember Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all you heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” Amen.