Welcome to church! Regular activities continue at First Baptist, as we move into the Fall.

• Tuesday nights 5:30-7: Food Pantry open. Now that it’s too cold outside to grill hot dogs, we are moving on to “Soup Sisters” — a hot meal to go available with the food bags.
• Wednesday nights at 6: Bible Study, studying the book of Jeremiah. Dave Riggs is filling in while Pastor is on vacation.
• Sunday mornings at 9:45: Adult Sunday school, studying the book of Matthew. Donna is filling in as teacher.
• Sunday mornings at 11: worship service, followed by fellowship time snacks.

And mark your calendars for these special events coming up:

• This Saturday 10/30 9-12: Church workday and cleanup. Lunch will be served!
• November 24, 4 pm: Thanksgiving Pie social!
• December 19: Christmas Dinner after the service (please sign up so we have enough food and decorated tables for this special event.

Suzanne Wall gave the message today, from the book of Job.

Message for 10/24/2021: Asking Why

The Bible passage for today comes from the book of Job, in the Old Testament.

Job tells the story of a man who experienced tragedy, and asked why. The book is mainly speeches, with Job lamenting and asking questions, and his friends trying to explain things. And then God joins the conversation, not giving answers but asking even more questions that help Job put things in perspective.

As context, notice that the Old Testament has a lot of books that are mainly history, but Job isn’t one. Job is one of the books of wisdom, like Psalms and Proverbs. So when we read it, we don’t get a lot of detail about a specific time and place. What we’re reading is poetry and wisdom – in this case, wisdom about suffering.

Our assigned text today is from the last chapter of Job. I’m going to read that, then back up and tell the story leading up to this conclusion.

Job 42:1-6

42:1 Then Job replied to the Lord:

² “I know that you can do all things;
    no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
³ You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
    Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
    things too wonderful for me to know.

⁴ “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.’
⁵ My ears had heard of you
    but now my eyes have seen you.
⁶ Therefore I despise myself
    and repent in dust and ashes.”

To quote Pastor Steve, Job’s conclusion is basically saying: “Now I am starting to understand who God is, and who I am not.” And Job had quite a road to that bit of insight.

The book starts out with a kind of “Once upon a time” type introduction.

1:1 In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. ² He had seven sons and three daughters, ³ 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.

So, the intro tells us two important things about Job (1) he was a blameless and upright man who respected God and avoided evil, and (2) he was very blessed, including, very rich, with a big family and lots of stuff.

And it makes sense, right, that Job was blessed? The book lets us know that he was faithful to his wife and family, fair to his employees, generous to the poor, and responsible to the land. Living like that naturally has good results. The Bible is full of promises about the blessings and prosperity that follow from doing right.

But something’s about to happen.

The story goes on to give a Heavens-eye view of God and the angels looking down on Job.

God speaks out to praise Job.

And then someone called The Accuser speaks up and makes a point. The Accuser basically says, what if Job is only good because he’s blessed? Really, how hard is it to be upright when you’re rich and healthy and nothing bad ever happens to you? What if Job respects God just as a kind of transaction, in exchange for God’s gifts and protection? The Accuser says to God, I bet if you stopped putting a hedge of protection around Job, Job would curse you.

And in the story, God allows that accusation to get tested. Job didn’t know anything about that scene in heaven, but he started getting bad news.

A gang of marauders came to town, and this time Job wasn’t protected. A servant came running to say Job, all your oxen and donkeys got stolen. And then another report: all Job’s camels got stolen. And then a storm whipped up, and Job didn’t get special protection from that either. High winds hit the house where his children were gathered for a party, and the house collapsed. And on top of all that, Job lost his health. He broke out with painful sores from head to toe.

Before, Job had just enjoyed the nice parts of life. Now here he is suffering personally from the bad things life can throw out: violence, and natural disasters, and disease.

And there’s a question: how’s Job going to respond to that? The Accuser thought that Job would respond by cursing God.

In the story Job doesn’t do that, but it can happen. I guess we all know someone who rejected God after a very tragic experience.

But Job is in the Bible as an example, so let’s see how Job responded to tragedy.

Right after he lost everything, Job started out strong, with words that proved the Accuser wrong.

1: 20At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship ²¹ and said:

“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.”

²² In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

The book points out – that’s one example of a right response. “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”

If you’ve heard the song Blessed be Your Name, that’s based on these words from Job. It’s hard for me to hear that song without tearing up, because I think about my friends who played it at their daughter’s funeral. One of the verses goes:

Blessed be Your name When the sun’s shining down on me When the world’s “all as it should be” Blessed be Your name

And blessed be Your name On the road marked with suffering Though there’s pain in the offering Blessed be Your name You give and take away You give and take away My heart will choose to say Lord, blessed be Your name

Those are very brave words, and very difficult. I was so moved and amazed how my friends could choose that song as they dealt with their daughter’s death.

But the book of Job doesn’t only have examples of brave words. There are 36 chapters that record Job and his friends lamenting and asking why and trying to make sense of things, and … not always making a lot of sense.

Job’s friends showed up to comfort him, and the smartest thing they did was probably at the beginning when they didn’t say anything.

2:13   Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.

But then the friends started talking, and they gave Job a lot of pat answers.

Basically, the friends had this explanation.  God is just, and therefore bad things only happen as just punishments. The friends explain a simple world with a guaranteed order of reward and punishment. The good end happily, the bad unhappily. Therefore Job just needs to repent and stop sinning and God will restore him.

And that’s not exactly wrong, as a general rule. But, it’s not that simple, and not comforting for someone in the middle of a hard time.

For example in Chapter 8, Job’s friend Bildad basically says look, we know God is just and always does what is right. Therefore Job, when your children died in the windstorm they must have deserved it, it must have been a penalty for their sin. And if you’re not prosperous right now, well that’s your fault Job, and means you must be separated from God and not living right. Because if only you were pure and upright and sought God earnestly, then things would go well for you.

And so Job agonizes, not only because of his pain and loss, but because his friends try to explain it by saying he deserves it. Job struggles to stand up for his relationship with God, when all the signs of God’s favor in his life have disappeared.  

Before, Job knew God’s presence and approval through all the good things that happened to him. But when bad things happened, how can he understand that? Does that mean that Job is bad? Does it mean that God isn’t just, or isn’t paying attention, or doesn’t care, or that the relationship is broken?

A lot of Job’s speeches in the book are struggling with those questions, and he says straight out “I desire to speak to the Almighty, and to argue my case with God.”

Here’s a sample of how Job prays to God, from Chapter 13

13:20 “Only grant me these two things, God,
    and then I will not hide from you:
²¹ Withdraw your hand far from me,
    and stop frightening me with your terrors.
²² Then summon me and I will answer,
    or let me speak, and you reply to me.
²³ How many wrongs and sins have I committed?
    Show me my offense and my sin.
²⁴ Why do you hide your face
    and consider me your enemy?

When Job is talking, he can sound like he’s going way out of his lane. But apparently it’s ok to talk like that, because God responds.

Job Chapter 38 starts out “Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm.”

Job gets the conversation he asked for, but it doesn’t go like he expected. Unlike Job’s friends, God does not explain things, or talk about what Job deserves or doesn’t deserve. Instead, the book records a speech where God asks questions that make Job think about how little he really understands about anything at all, much less about justice. 

God’s first question for Job is “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?”

Ok. Point taken.

The questions go on and ask Job to think about God’s design in nature, in everything from wild animals and wild weather to baby birds that get God’s care. There’s like a whole page about a  crocodile, just talking about how scary and beautiful and amazing it is.

God’s review of nature could seem off topic, but it reminds Job that he’s part of a world that’s so much bigger and more complicated than what he understands, or that simple predictable reward/punishment machine-like world that the friends tried to explain.

In the end God does not give a direct answer to any of Job’s “why am I hurt” questions.

What Job does get is overwhelmed by a direct view of God’s power and goodness, and how they go way beyond his life and experience, and his small understanding.

And that leads to Job’s conclusion that we read to start, I’m going to read it again.

42 Then Job replied to the Lord:

² “I know that you can do all things;
    no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
³ You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
    Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
    things too wonderful for me to know.

⁴ “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.’
⁵ My ears had heard of you
    but now my eyes have seen you.
⁶ Therefore I despise myself
    and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job is saying, I don’t understand the Lord’s plans, and I realize that I can’t understand them. But I believe that that the Lord has plans, and that they’re wonderful. And I believe that because I’ve seen God with my own eyes, and God has spoken with me. I’m backing down from my arguments, because I have more perspective now on who God is and who I am.

God responds by validating Job, and telling the friends that they got it wrong.

42: 7After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.

My study Bible has this note:

Despite Job’s mistakes in word and attitude while he suffered, he is now commended and the friends are rebuked. Why? Because even in his rage, even when he challenged God, Job was determined to speak honestly before God. The counselors, on the other hand, mouthed many correct and often beautiful creedal statements, but without living knowledge of the God they claimed to honor. Job spoke to God, they only spoke about God, Even worse, their spiritual arrogance caused them to claim knowledge they did not possess. They presumed to know why Job was suffering.

I can just imagine the friends quaking in their boots when God said “I am angry with you,” because they thought they knew that messing up automatically leads to suffering punishment. But God surprised them too, and didn’t punish them. Instead, God gave the friends a chance to apologize and make things right, and said

^42:8 My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly.

Meanwhile, God praised Job for speaking the truth.

Even in his complaining and confusion, Job was on the right track because he spoke to God, and persevered in holding out for God’s good response.

Job didn’t give up on the relationship just because he couldn’t feel God’s favor, as the Accuser had expected.

God didn’t give up on Job just because Job struggled and faltered.

When Job couldn’t see God anywhere in his painful circumstances, he still cried out “I desire to speak to the Almighty,” andGod responded personally to that prayer.

Job reached an amazing conclusion “now my eyes have seen you.”

The main message I get from the book of Job is that we shouldn’t only look for God reflected in our circumstances. If we do that, we’ll think God is good and loves us when everything’s going well for us, and then the flip side, when the pain comes, think there’s no good God, or God’s angry.

Job learns that God is so much bigger than that, and the world is so much more complicated than that.  Job learns that God’s loving presence and justice don’t just show up in blessings and punishments. When he feels completely abandoned by God, Job even finds out that God will come meet him face to face.

God is very much present in the hardest times and places, and will respond to people who persist in calling to him.  That was Job’s testimony.

And we can hear that testimony today too. Today there Christians all over the world and in this very room who have experienced terrible loss, and the worst things that can happen in our broken world.

And still here you are in church today, because you persist in seeking God, and God has found ways to show you that he is good and strong and loves you. That is an amazing witness.

I’m going to close with a prayer that was written to go with the scriptures of today.

Eternal One, whose thoughts and ways are not ours,
you alone are God, awesome, holy, and most high.
Teach us the ways of faith and wisdom,
that we, like Job,
may learn to truly see and hear,
and in humility find blessing.

Amen.