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May 30, 2021

"Facing Suffering as Christians"(Job 42:1-7)

 Job 42:1-7

 

The story Job has a questionable happy ending. The loss of his sons and daughters seems too much to be ever compensated. Yet, Job still praises God, and he gains some new insights into suffering and the nature of God. The first insight is that God is far more powerful than we can imagine.

 

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?

Job 38:1-11 ESV

 

God takes care of all these things and suffering is inevitable. One decision cannot change everything. Our suffering might bring relief to someone else, but the reality is that God is beyond our understanding. His greatness is much more than we can comprehend. When our prayers are unanswered, we should be open minded and not limit God in our plans. Rather we should try to find out what God’s plans are for us in His kingdom.

 

‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’

Job 42:4 ESV

 

The second insight is that we need to listen to God and not the other way around. God does not always answer our prayer the way we always think. God's plan for us is not always what we think it should be. God wants us to know him. It is our unanswered prayers which are affirmations to God's plan. We should trust and leave up our destination to Him.

 

The third insight of Job is we need to experience God.

 

I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job 42:5-6 ESV

 

Job may have heard if God and even understood the theology of God, but Job had not experienced God. We need to experience God through direct experience in order to know him. God is a divine being, but we still have the responsibility to know God and to experience God. Jesus taught us to pray to God to know him through the experience of depending of God daily.

 

Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread,

Matthew 6:9-11 ESV

 

Job knows God and has a relationship with God.

“Remember: 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.

Job 4:7-8 ESV

 

Job is honest with God and tells him what he really thinks. It is this genuine relationship with God which makes his complaint not a sin. The same cannot be said about his friends who do not know God.

 

“Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers.

Job 8:20 ESV

 

Job's friends may know Levitical and Deuteronomic laws, but they do not know God.

 

God demands our absolute devotion and obedience, but he is also merciful and loving towards us. The duality of God can he confounding to us because of our black and white thinking towards God. Yet, in God’s profound wisdom which transcends our collective wisdom over the ages, we are at best left speechless when trying to explain why God lets events happen the way they do. Sometimes, all we can say is, “I don’t know.”

 

Worship Songs



One Way
 

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