Sermon: It's Not Fair (Job): Pastor Tito Dizon

[This sermon was first preached on July 29, 2012 at Folsom Community Church by Pastor Tito Dizon]

Job
It’s Not Fair.

How would you advice or comfort a Christian brother, a former well to do friend, who lost his business just like anyone else due to economy, have to his house foreclosed and has rent instead, and on top of that got a failing health because of old age and is having a relationship problem with his wife.

Did this thing somehow happen to you? You are a committed Christian, who never misses church, attends Bible study, contributes and helps in the ministry of the church, gives your tithes and volunteers in projects. But then, in spite of that, negative things happened in your life. That is hard to explain. The company downsized and you received the pink slip, at the same time your car broke down, and needs a transmission repair, the bills are piling up, and children are acting up or out of control.

Suffering In the world touches many levels-personal, the next door neighbor. In the Philippines, during the typhoon Ondoy – many people lost their house and everything in them. Some lost their business or livelihood. A few even lost their loved ones;

1. The Purpose of Job

Job answers the question: Why do the righteous suffer if God is loving and all powerful?

How can His attributes be reconciled with His actions, especially when those actions appear to run counter to all He claims to be?" "How can a God who elsewhere in Scripture is described as the very essence of love and grace initiate or even allow suffering in the lives of His saints? God inspired this book to reveal answers to questions that arise from God's nature and His ways with human beings (us).

Specifically, what is the basis on which God deals with people? Elsewhere in the Old Testament we find God typically repaying good with good and evil with evil, but that is not how He dealt with Job.

These two questions will be dealt with in the book of Job.

First, lets have a General Observations on the life of Job

2. The Life of Job

A. Job’s Character (1:1-5)
¹There once was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless—a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil.

He was an exceptionally admirable person because of his character and conduct. "Blameless" (Heb. tam) means complete. The word usually describes integrity and spiritual maturity. When Job sinned, he dealt with his sin appropriately, an evidence of his blamelessness. Job was not sinless (cf. 13:26; 14:16-17).

² He had seven sons and three daughters.

³ He owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 teams of oxen, and 500 female donkeys. He also had many servants.  He was, in fact, the richest person in that entire area.

Job was wealthy (1:2-3). v.3  Evidently there were several other great (wealthy) men in that part of the world in his day,  but Job surpassed them all.

⁴ Job’s sons would take turns preparing feasts in their homes, and they would also invite their three sisters to celebrate with them.

⁵ When these celebrations ended—sometimes after several days—Job would purify his children.  He would get up early in the morning and offer a burnt offering for each of them. For Job said to himself, “Perhaps my children have sinned and have cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.

". . . the meaning is apparently that the seven brothers took it in turn to entertain on the seven days of every week, so that every day was a feast day. "

Job demonstrated the proper spiritual concern for his own family members as well as interest in their physical and social welfare. Evidently he offered sacrifices each week for his children in case they had committed sins in their merriment.  (cf. v. 8; 2:3) Job was no ordinary man. He was not even an ordinary good man.

God chose to test an extremely righteous man so all of us could see that it was not Job's personal goodness that formed the basis for his relationship with God. If Job suffered being righteous, righteousness must not preclude suffering or guarantee God's protection.

So what’s the basis? ... We’ll see later on…

Satan’s thinking about Job: What will happen if Job suffers?

Job’s Calamities
God permitted Satan to test Job twice. The first test touched his possessions, including his children (1:6-22), and the second his person (2:1-10).  The writer takes us behind the scenes (peek view) (1:6-2:10) so we can know why Job's calamities befell him, the very question that Job and his friends debated hereafter.

The first test (1:6-22)

⁶ One day the members of the heavenly court came to present themselves before the Lord, and the Accuser, Satan, came with them.
⁷ “Where have you come from?” the Lord asked Satan. Satan answered the Lord, “I have been patrolling the earth, watching everything that’s going on.”
⁸ Then the Lord asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.”

God allows us to experience temptation from other sources for our welfare (James 1:2-4, 12). The primary sources of our temptation are the world (1 John 2:15-16), the flesh (James 1:14), and the devil (Job 1—2).

Here we can learn the enemy’s schemes: Satanology 101 Satan is real, The Devil’s lie…we don’t believe that he exists.

v.6 Another Satan’s name: Accuser…do you hear that always in your ears, heart, mind or conscience …
v.7 In “Roaming”  mode, even here right now….
v.8 God is very proud of Job. Job was righteous in God's estimate as well as in the eyes of his fellowmen (vv. 1, 8) What is our reputation? Before men? Before God? We  seek the commendation of people here many times. We can be good looking outside but rotten inside. The greatest Test- what do our children, wife think of us? Our neighbor- or closest to us, our enemies? But even them, we can fool…. But not God….A lot get away in this world, but not with God.

God knows us, everything about us, whether we’ve been bad or good (Not Sta. Claus) When experiencing pain (suffering), God knows us, our past…

⁹ Satan replied to the Lord,   “Yes, but Job has good reason to fear God.

¹⁰ You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything he does.  Look how rich he is!
¹¹ But reach out and take away everything he has,  and he will surely curse you to your face!”

v.9-10 Satan accused God of bribing Job so he would act piously (vv. 9-11).  This idea, that the relationship between God and man rests on retribution—we always reap in kind during our lifetime what we sow—is one that Job held. (godliness results in prosperity) Are people only religious because Of what they can get out of it?

Is your faith in God dependent only on the good you think it will do to you? Extrinsic use: A person’s religion is for such a person a social status symbol, or a set of rituals for alleviating anxiety. Why do we serve God? Is it just for what we can get out of it? Or (Intrinsic) is ours a faith rooted in the reality of a personal communion with God himself.

The distinction can be expressed by saying that for some people their faith in God serves as a means to some other end, whereas for others, God is seen as an end in himself.

v.11 Satan determined to prove that Job would not obey God if he got no blessing in return. Satan’s taunt- Goodness cannot survive in the real world of human pain.

Satan suggests that: Job's relationship with god is merely a contract which has benefits both, for Job in terms of prosperity, (He believed selfishness prompted Job's obedience rather than love).  And, for God, in terms of his illusory  belief that he has evoked a real response from Job. (God would not get worship from Job if He stopped blessing him).

AP : Are Satan’s Theology and Our theology the same? We believe God will withdraw his blessings if we will not attend church, pray….Our attitude sometimes is that God owes us… because Of what we’ve been doing for him, if not,”Tampo sa Diyos”-Tantrum. Satan accused God of something: Playing Santa Claus, but if He is no Santa… they’ll be gone from the Church

¹² “All right, you may test him,”  the Lord said to Satan. “Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically.” So Satan left the Lord’s presence.

v. 12 Satan had to ask permission to take Job’s wealth, children and health away. Satan was limited to what God allowed (limited in power and authority) We must learn to recognize and not fear Satan’s attack because Satan cannot exceed the limits that God sets. We must remember that the contest is not between equals. Also, You are more powerful if Christ is in you.

AP: Don’t give him much power in your mind as if he is omnipotent, omniscient... You are more powerful if Christ is in you…that’s why we can cast out demons…unless we are not walking in the light…

"From the outset, the writer reminds us that, no matter what happens in this world and in our lives,  God is on the throne and has everything under control."

13-19 Successive Trials/ Suffering

¹³ One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting at the oldest brother’s house,

¹⁴ a messenger arrived at Job’s home with this news: “Your oxen were plowing, with the donkeys  feeding beside them,
¹⁵ when the Sabeans raided us. They stole all the animals and killed all the farmhands. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”

(Pause) What was Job thinking?

¹⁶ While he was still speaking, another messenger arrived with this news: “The fire of God has fallen from heaven and burned up your sheep and all the shepherds. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”

(Pause)

¹⁷ While he was still speaking, a third messenger arrived with this news: “Three bands of Chaldean raiders have stolen your camels and killed your servants. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”

(Pause)

¹⁸ While he was still speaking, another messenger arrived with this news: “Your sons and daughters were feasting in their oldest brother’s home.
¹⁹ Suddenly, a powerful wind swept in from the wilderness and hit the house on all sides. The house collapsed, and all your children are dead. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”

What will be our reaction after these successive trials? (pause)

Job’s response: Not why me? Not why God? Not why my ungodly neighbor

v.20 Tearing one's robe typically expressed great grief in the ancient Near East. Shaving the head (v. 20) evidently symbolized the loss of personal glory.  Job apparently fell to the ground to worship God (v. 20). Job grieved but worshipped. These two activities are not incompatible. He saw God's hand in the events of his life.

His first instinct is to react Godwards – worship. How few of us find that worship is our first reaction even at the best times. Would that we could learn to make that our first reaction to crisis- to pray.

v.21 Job's recognition of Yahweh's sovereignty was a key to his passing his test. Underneath he knew God was his sovereign. This conception of God is one that Job never lost, though many people who go through trials do.

"Job's exclamation is the noblest expression to be found anywhere of a man's joyful acceptance of the will of God as his only good. We should have a deep-seated joy no matter what happens to us knowing that we are in the Lord's hands and that He has permitted whatever happens to us. (Phil. 4:4).

"Anybody can say, 'The Lord gave' or 'The Lord hath taken away'; but it takes real faith to say in the midst of sorrow and suffering, 'Blessed be the name of the Lord.'"

A man may stand before God stripped of everything that life has given him, and still lack nothing."

He had a proper perspective on his possessions. When everything is stripped away, we are to recognize that God is all we ever really had. Job learned that when nothing else was left, he had God and that was enough. Through suffering, we learn that God is enough for our lives and our future.

v.22 Integrity – Hold on, did not charge God or blame God. Results of Suffering to Job: hindi sya nawala sa church, mas um-attend. Praised God honestly… Not - Acts of God but by men

Ondoy- floods, garbage everywhere, patayo ng bahay sa bawal na lugar, binulsa paglilinisp ng mga canal. Flashfloods (Luzon, Vis, Mindanao): cut all the trees.

2. The second test (2:1-10)

Why a 2^nd round? Will the result be different?

⁴ Satan replied to the Lord, “Skin for skin! A man will give up everything he has to save his life.

⁵ But reach out and take away his health, and he will surely curse you to your face!”

v.4 Satan insinuated that Job had been willing to part with his own children and his animals (wealth) since he still had his own life (skin, v. 4). "Satan implies that Job, by his doxology had only feigned love for God as the exorbitant but necessary fee for health insurance."

⁶ “All right, do with him as you please,” the Lord said to Satan. “But spare his life.”
⁷ So Satan left the Lord’s presence, and he struck Job with terrible boils from head to foot.
⁸ Job scraped his skin with a piece of broken pottery as he sat among the ashes.

v.6 Satan could do nothing to Job without God's permission.

v.7 -8Having received that, he went out to strip Job of his health.

In view of the symptoms mentioned later in the book, Job's ailment (vv. 7-8) seems to have been a disease called pemphigus foliaceous or something similar to it, perhaps elephantiasis.

·         2:12 friends could hardly recognize him;  
·         7:5 5 My body is covered with maggots and scabs.My skin breaks open, oozing with pus.;
·         16:16;  my face is red with weeping, deep shadows ring my eyes;
·         19:20 I am nothing but skin and bones;
·         30:17 night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never rest,
·         27 The churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me,
·         30 My skin grows black and peels; my body burns with fever;
·         33:21 His flesh wastes away to nothing, and his bones, once hidden, now stick out).
·         7:3 It have afflicted Job for several months (I, too, have been assigned months of futility,
    long and weary nights of misery.).

Job's illness resulted in an unclean condition that made him a social outcast. He had to take up residence near the city dump where beggars and other social rejects stayed.

He had formerly sat at the city gate and enjoyed social prestige as a town judge (29:7). The change in his location, from the best to the worst place, reflects the change in his circumstances, from the best to the worst conditions.

⁹ His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.”
¹⁰ But Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.

The person that could hurt you the most are the people closest to him: his wife. If you were Job’s wife, what will be your reaction? Formerly living in comfort, with children around her, partying almost every day because of prosperity. Then suddenly losing everything…..home, children, now husband in very bad shape. It is so hard to live near to someone who is suffering and to be utterly unable to do anything. Our own frustration is often turned to irritation with the one who is in pain or caused the pain: we blame the suffering person for causing us such discomfort. She gives evidence in the text of being bitter toward God.

Job’s  wife  suggests that he is as one already dead: why not cut the remaining suffering short by cursing God and provoking Him to strike Job down. Or to end her misery too.

B.v.9 She evidently concluded that God was not being fair with Job. He had lived a godly life, but God had afflicted rather than awarded him. She had the same retributive view of the divine-human relationship that Job and his friends did, but she was "foolish" (v. 10, spiritually ignorant, not discerning).

Though many people today conclude, as Job's wife did, that the reason for suffering is that God is unjust, this is not the reason good people suffer. (Colorado Massacre)

v.10 Job calls her foolish…WHY?... simply refuses to accept that good people can and do get suffering. 1. Bad things happen to good people. 2. That God is not unfair

The third result of Job's suffering was his fresh submission to God. Even though Job did not understand why he was in agony, he refused to sin with his lips by cursing God.

This response proved Satan wrong (v. 5) and vindicated God's words (v. 3). 1.22, 2.10  Job’s fear (reverential trust) of God ran deeper than Satan realized.

Why does God allow Satan to test believers? He allowed Satan to test Job, to silence Satan and to strengthen Job's character. God permitted Satan to afflict Job to demonstrate and to purify Job's motives for worshipping God and for living a godly life (cf. James 1:2-4).

Conclusion
Jesus and Job were the most extreme example of bad things happening to good people. Where is God? What is God doing in all this? What comfort can faith offer now?

The author has skillfully brought us face to face with the unchanging perils of

·         War – the attack of the sabeans
·         Destitution – the loss of sheep, cattle, camels…
·         Humiliation – the riches to rags
·         Bereavement – the loss of children
·         Sickness – the sores from head to toe
·         Depression – just read chapter 3.

Then consider Jesus:

·         Loss of Heavenly Environment,
·         Poor- Carpenter, In Ministry: support of women
·         Humiliation- sentenced as a criminal, died with criminals on both side,
·         Injustice- mistrial and kangaroo court,
·         Persecuted- bodily and politically,
·         Death by the most painful way- Cross

We may experience what Job and Jesus experience. Even though God has disclosed to us much more of his purposes, there is hidden world of divine purposes of which we know only a part. Faith is learning to trust god in the dark, in unknowing, in apparent failure. Faith is what God gives us to help us live with uncertainties.

Job (his character) is important because this book reveals that the basis of the relationship between God and people is essentially God's sovereign grace and our response of trust and obedience.

The book of Job deals essentially with man's relationship with God, centering on two questions:

Question 1: Why does man worship God?  Why do we (you) worship God?  The basis of the relationship between God and his people is essentially God’s sovereign grace.

Question 2: How will man react to God when God seems unconcerned about his problems? Our response of trust and obedience.