The readings
Job 3:1-10
After this Job opened
his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. Job said: "Let the day perish in which I was born,
and the night that said, "A man-child is conceived.' Let that day be darkness! May God above not
seek it, or light shine on it. Let gloom
and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds settle upon it; let the blackness of the
day terrify it. That night—let thick
darkness seize it! let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not
come into the number of the months. Yes,
let that night be barren; let no joyful cry be heard in it. Let those curse it who curse the Sea, those
who are skilled to rouse up Leviathan.
Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light, but have none;
may it not see the eyelids of the morning—
because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb, and hide trouble
from my eyes.
4:1-9;
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: "If one ventures a
word with you, will you be offended? But who can keep from speaking? See, you have instructed many; you have
strengthened the weak hands. Your words
have supported those who were stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble
knees. But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and
you are dismayed. Is not your fear of
God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope? "Think now, who that was innocent ever
perished? Or where were the upright cut off?
As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the
same. By the breath of God they perish,
and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.
7:11-21
"Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak
in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I the Sea, or the Dragon, that you set a
guard over me? When I say, "My bed
will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,' then you scare me with dreams and terrify me
with visions, so that I would choose
strangling and death rather than this body. I loathe my life; I would not live
forever. Let me alone, for my days are a breath. What are human beings, that you make so much
of them, that you set your mind on them, visit them every morning, test them
every moment? Will you not look away
from me for a while, let me alone until I swallow my spittle? If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of
humanity? Why have you made me your target? Why have I become a burden to
you? Why do you not pardon my
transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; you
will seek me, but I shall not be."
The message
This is our second week with the book of Job. I am going to start with the same introduction
as last week. Everything we know about God does not come from the book of
Job. The history of God’s communication
with the world is ultimately a story of love, care, forgiveness and grace, one
fully told through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. When we hear
God’s actions in Job that are uncomfortable or appear to be extremely unfair or
cruel, we have to look again, understand the context, purpose and history of
the story or even put those things aside and remember our God is the one who
loves us, forgives us, invites us to live better lives and promises us eternal
life.
This week, we have three readings. In our first reading,
from Job chapter 3, we hear Job give voice to his suffering and curse the day
of his birth. This is Job response to having lost his family, riches and
friends, a cry of deep despair, the asking what was I born for, why have lived
at all just for this suffering. Similar laments are found in the prophet
Jeremiah (who has much less reason to complain than Job, but does so
anyway). After a time of imprisonment, suffering
for his work and a general the world not listening to him, Jeremiah cries out
Cursed be the day I
was born! May that day not be blessed when my mother gave birth to me. Cursed be the man who made my father very glad
when he brought him the news that a baby boy had been born to him! May that man be like the cities that the Lord
destroyed without showing any mercy. All
I experience is trouble and grief, and I spend my days in shame.
Our next reading comes from chapter 4 of Job. Here we hear
from the first of Job’s three friends
who try to console, correct or help him.
Eliphaz the Temanite believes that the righteous do not perish or
suffer. In his view, the world exists in a way where only the wicked suffer and
it is in direct relation to how often and much they have sinned This
argument is, in part, rooted in what Eliphaz believes to have been a personal
revelation he received through a dream. Job’s other friends, Bildad the Shuhite and
Zophar the Naamathite, will speak later in the book. All three of them never wavier from some
version of the belief that God punishes and rewards based on sin (and therefore Job must have done something awful)
Job responds to this first form of the “you must have sinned
argument” by saying that even if Eliphaz was right, that God doles out reward
and punishment based on our good deeds and sins, Job’s punishment was far
beyond anything deserved or fair for whatever unknown sin he committed.
After this Eliphaz encourages Job to be patient, to endure
his suffering and trust that things will get better. Job responds with our reading from chapter 7.
Job reflects on the brief, temporary and short lives we have. There is not enough time to stay quiet, not
complain and not seek explanation and answers. Job talks about being treated
like the Sea and dragon. Those were seen
as symbols of cosmic chaos, the stuff that God destroys completely and totally
in order to create the world. That sort
of attack on a good person must be explained. This was not time for patience. It was easy
enough for someone like Eliphaz, outside and merely observing the oddity of
Job’s suffering to say be patient, but doing so after what Job endured, was
something else.
As we go through Job, we become more and more frustrated
with Job’s friends. As they find
countless ways to suggest Job must have sinned and brought this suffering on
himself, we know that is not the case.
From the middle of the first chapter, we know something that Job and his friends do not. We know why Job
suffered. Job suffered all this loss and pain because of this conversation
between Satan and God, the debate over “if people would remain faithful to God
without receiving rewards” At the end of the book, God confirms that sin and
suffering are not dealt out in such a neat and orderly way. God informs Job
that Eliphaz (and the others) are completely wrong, that reward and punishment
are not dealt out according to our sins. (Interestingly, God never reveals why
these things happened to Job)
I want to look at 2 points, first, is how we talk to people
in suffering with faith and the other is the hope and joy we have in Christ (we
never need to worry about God holding us
accountable for the full weight of our sins).
In one way, Job’s friends are trying to console him. After all, since
they believe Job’s punishment and suffering were caused by his sin, admittance,
confession and repentance would be the only possible way to allelivate it. The
quicker Job admits that sin, the quicker things will improve. In a much
stronger way, they have made his suffering into an “I am right and you are
wrong contest”. They keep telling Job he must have sinned. It stops becoming an
attempt to comfort and turns into an “I can argue better than you, I know more
or I have seen more than you”. They have
also placed human stuff at the center of faith and this need to be right
overcomes their desire to help their friend.
I wish this was something we could say was another oddity of
Job but it happens all the time. On Wednesday, we had the Elmhurst clergy
meeting. One of the pastors there was
talking about having problems with the parks department and police during
outdoor public ministries. As he talked
about the problems he faced, everyone else started to tell him “can’t be”, “we
set up there before”, “the police never bothered us”, “you must have done
something wrong” and even a joking “maybe they just don’t like you”. What he probably really wanted to hear was a simple,
“that’s tough, you’ll figure it out or maybe we can help”. What he got was a “we know how it works and
you clearly don’t”. One of the other
people in the group said “wow this is like Job and the conversations with his
friends” and then I said, I’m doing a 6
week series on Job, im going to mention this”. As we walk with people in
suffering, mourning or anxiety, we are reminded to not be like Eliphaz and
Job’s friends. It’s not a debate, it’s
someone’s life. We are asked to listen, show we care and share the good news of
God’s presence in suffering. We are set free to do this because Christ died and
rose again.
(after the events of
this week in Dallas, Baton Rogue and Minnesota, I added a few sentences during
my sermon which ill try to repeat as best I can here). I wanted to share some thoughts about a much
more serious example of when we fail to see things from other people’s
perspectives, when we insist on being right or winning instead of being
compassionate, understanding or helpful.
We had the killing of 2 more people of color by police at times when
hindsight shows us it shoudn’t have happened and we have the killing of 5
officers in Dallas and wounding of 7 more there, who all trusted a peaceful
protest would be peaceful. As we live
and act like Jobs friends, as we combine an inability to understand the other,
recognize our own bias, faults and responsibilities
and to not hear others with lots of guns, these debates over racism, poverty
and public safety become death and communities in crisis. When we act like Job’s friends, when we want
to be right, not faithful, when we will not change our minds, or see and learn
from other different perspectives, we become the cause of suffering.
Finally, after two weeks, I have found some good news in
Job. The joy of our faith is that Eliphaz and his friends are wrong, God does
not hold our sins against us, because Christ lived, died and rose again the
wages of sin are not death. One of the true joys in God’s gift of forgiveness
is that when people say “God is punishing them” or “they are suffering for
their sins”, we can say no Christ died so you don’t have to.
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