Books of the Bible
- Old Testament
Job
Old Testament Sermon Series
Job 1:6-11, 2:1-10
Pentecost 18B, Job 1:1, 2:1-10
Pentecost 3B, Job 38:1-11
A sermon on Job.
Suffering.
Suffering is part of life. Suffering is part of your life and
suffering is part of my life. That is just the way life is.
Suffering is part of the real world.
When suffering
happens away from us, it does not affect us so deeply. That is, we
hear on TV about a rushing flood and eleven people were killed or we
read in the newspaper about an airplane crash that killed two
hundred people, and we are bothered by that. But when the tragedy
comes real close to home and our house, either in your own family or
your own neighborhood or your own congregational family, you often
ask the question: "Why me? Why us? Why is this evil happening to us?
Is God punishing us? Why is God allowing this evil to happen to us?"
One often has feelings of anger, rage, bitterness and sorrow. We
often persist in the question: "God, why did you allow this suffering
to occur within my family?"
All of us expect a
certain degree of tragedy during our life time but certain
individuals and families seem to have more than their fair share of
suffering. In our mind’s eye, we have this sense of a roughly
equal distribution of pain for each person or family or nation, and
so when a particular person or family experiences what we feel is an
excessive amount of pain, that bothers us. Certain individuals or
families experience such incredible pain that they have more than
their fair share. So was it for the following people in our parish.
During the past
thirty years of my ministry here at Grace Lutheran Church, there has
been an enormous amount of suffering, and so many people and so many
families have suffered so immensely. I will recall for you three
incidents, but there are hundreds more.
Years ago, on Mike
Kallianenen.’s wedding day, the groom went for a joy ride on
Highway #99, and when the joy ride and car accident was over, two
young adults were dead down at Harborview Medical Center. The whole
wedding party was gathered down at the trauma center at Harborview.
The groom was brain dead, and it was many months, perhaps years, he
died. It was the biggest mess emotionally and spiritually that I
have even been part of. A person asks the question: "Why did this
happen? Why is God picking on me? Why has this terrible tragedy
happened to our family? Why was this allowed? A person screams these
questions out into the night?
Or we recall the tragedy of when
Marvia Custer’s older daughter, Deanna, was murdered. Like all
murders, it was a cruel murder and it left everyone in the family
devastated. It was a few years later when Marvia’s second young
adult daughter was tragically killed by an irresponsible driver who
went to jail for his crime. You go out to that cemetery and you
visit the graves of two daughters lying there side by side.
A person asks the question in that situation: why did this
happen? "Why is God picking on me? Why has this terrible tragedy
happened to our family? Why was this allowed?" A person screams these
questions out into the night?
Or, I think of Gene and Joanne Johnson
from years ago, when their daughter was killed and their
granddaughter was killed in a car accident. Then, a few years later,
their son, only forty, died of a heart attack. It was almost two
much for a mother and a father to bear. And in that situation, they
legitimately asked the question: "Why God? Why did this happen? Why
is God picking on me? Why has this terrible tragedy happened to our
family? Why was this allowed?" A person screams these questions out
into the night? Sometime during our lives, all of us will ask those
questions in personal ways.
As we work through
the classic books and personalities of the Old Testament, we
discover that the Old Testament had an answer for these questions.
That is, when you look at the major personalities of the Old
Testament, these gigantic mountains like Abraham, Moses, Joshua,
Judges, Samuel, David, Solomon, and all the prophets, one after
another. In all of these Old Testament authors, it is absolutely
clear: if you obey God and walk in the ways of God, God will bless
your life. But if you do not obey God nor walk in the ways of the
Lord, God will punish you and you will experience the wrath of the
Lord. AND, these Old Testament authors took it one step further when
they said: when bad things happen to people, it must be as a
consequence of something evil that they have done. Any suffering
that happens to you is a consequence of your sin. It is either your
sin or your parent’s sin or your children’s sin. That became the
iron law.
Therefore, from our parish, the Kallianen’s would ask:
what did we do so wrong that there was that tragic car accident the
day of the wedding? Or Marvia would ask the question: what did I do
wrong that I was so severely punished? Or what did my children do
wrong that we were all so severely punished. Or the Johnson’s
would ask: what did we do wrong that our daughter and granddaughter
were killed and our son died of a heart attack?
The Bible was clear
for a thousand years, from 1300 BC to 300 BC, and the answer was
clear to any Jewish mind: You have violated the law of God and you
are experiencing the wrath and punishment of God. … The Bible is
so clear in Deuteronomy and Exodus and the Kings and the Psalms, the
Proverbs and the prophets: if you walk in God’s ways, God will
bless you. If you violate God’s ways, God will punish you. AND
many people came to the erroneous conclusion is that all suffering
is the result of sin, either my sin, my parent’s sin, or my
children’s sin.
But…about a
thousand years later, after the law of Moses and after the kings and
after the prophets, we see another mountain. In fact, we need to go
and visit a whole another mountain range called the Olympic
Mountains out on the Olympic Peninsula and there on that mountain
range west of Seattle is the grand old mountain, Mount Olympus. This
symbolizes Job, Mount Job, a whole another mountain range and
mountains. The book of Job suggests to us that there is enormous
suffering that happens to us which is not the result of your
sinfulness. That suffering is part of the fabric of life and that
suffering is not the result of God’s punishment. That book, the
book of Job, will become a hint of a whole new understanding of
suffering as we move into the New Testament, Jesus, the cross and
his suffering on the cross. One of the major differences between the
Old Testament and New Testament is the role and purpose of
suffering.
Let us continue
this sermon by focusing on the story of Job. Once upon a time, there
was man by the name of Job. He was one of the wisest and richest men
who had ever lived and he was a very good and fine man. Job walked
with God, was blameless and upright and did everything to avoid
evil. He was truly a man of God. Job had seven sons and three
daughters. He was enormously wealthy. He had seven thousand sheep
and three thousand cattle and a thousand oxen and five hundred
donkeys. Job had enormous wealth. When he or his family would throw
a party or a feast, when the party was over, Job would give an
atonement offering to God for any sin that had been committed
unwittingly. Job was as upright and as good and as loyal and as
God-fearing as had been any person before him.
One day, an angel,
the fallen angel called Satan, was up there standing before the
council of God, and God said, “Where have you been lately
Satan?” Satan replied, “I have been out there, roaming around
the earth.” God said, “Yes, I know. In your wanderings, did you
see my servant Job? A man who loves me, is upright and does
everything to avoid evil.” Satan said, “O yes, I have seen your
servant, Job. You protect Job from all the disasters and if you,
God, did not protect him from all those disasters, he would not be
so obedient to you. He is obedient to you because he knows that you
will protect him. If you take all his protection away, he will curse
you.” God said, “Go ahead. We’ll see what happens.”
The next day, it
all came crashing down. Have you ever had that happen? Where you
thought that life was going along real smoothly and in one day, your
house of cards came crashing down. The whole thing came crashing
down. It was a total disaster. You have seen it happen to other
people, and therefore, you know that it can happen to you. You and I
build our illusions of security, and one day, it all comes crashing
down. That is what happened to Job.
On that day in
Job’s life, the warring enemies attacked, the Sabeans, and they
killed all the donkeys and all the servants taking care of those
donkeys. Before you knew it, there was a lightning storm that wiped
out all the sheep. Before you knew it, the Chaldeans attacked and
killed all the camels. And then, all ten children of Job were having
a party and all the children and grandchildren were there at the
house, and a sudden storm came roaring through and shattered the
whole house and everyone who was in it. All ten of Job’s children
were killed. A servant came to tell Job all of this. Job experienced
enormous despair and inner pain and said, “I came into the world
with nothing and I will leave this world with nothing. The Lord
gives and the Lord takes away. Praise be the name of the Lord.”
And the Bible adds, “And Job did not blame God” for the
disasters that happened.
A short time later,
the angels were all up before the council of God and God asked
Satan, “What have you been doing lately, Satan?” Satan replied,
“I have been roaming around the earth.” God said, “Have you
seen my servant, Job, down there? He is a really upright man. He
worships me and avoids evil and has stood up to your test.” Satan
replied, “Yes, but you didn’t let me take his health away. You
let me take his health away and I will bring that man down to his
knees. You wouldn’t let me touch his body, but when I do, that
will make him crack.” God says, “Go ahead.” … So Satan went
down to earth to find Job. Satan gave Job this disease and Job was
covered with sores from head to foot. Job went out to the garbage
dump and took a piece of pottery, broke it, and with the sharp
piece of pottery, Job scraped off his sores. Job’s wife came out
of the garbage dump and said, “Job, curse God. Curse God and
die.” Job said, “No, I am not going to curse God and die. The
Lord brings good things in our lives; the Lord brings bad things in
our lives; praise be the name of God. I will not curse God.” And
Job did not blame God for the disasters which happened in his life.
Then, things
change. Three friends come to visit him. Job was sitting there in
the dump and these three friends see the disasters that have
happened to Job. For seven days, the friends say nothing. Meanwhile,
Job was simmering and simmering and simmering and on the seventh day,
Job’s anger explodes when he said, “Curse be the day that I was
born. Curse by the night that I was born. My pain is so great that I
want to die. God has been miserable to me.”
Now, the three
friends had carefully read Moses, Samuel, David, Solomon and the
prophets. These three friends knew the rules. They knew that when
Job was suffering, it was his fault, his parent’s fault, or his
children’s fault. Somebody has to be blamed. And so, for the next
thirty chapters, these three friends stick it to him, trying to
convince Job that he is at fault.
Here what the first
friend says in the book of Job. In chapter four (TEV, Today’s
English Version), Eliphaz says, “Job, will you be annoyed if I
speak and give you a little advice? Happy is the person whom God corrects. Do not resent when God
corrects you for your sins.” Job would get angrier and angrier
inside. He was simmering and smoldering and simmering and smoldering
inside.
The next friend,
Bildad, says (chapter 8), “Are you, Job, finally through with your
windy speech? God never quits justice. God never fails to do what is
right. Your children must have sinned against God” and God
punished them with the punishment that they deserved. All ten of
them. Job became angrier and angrier and angrier. He was simmering
and smoldering and simmering and smoldering inside.
The third friend,
Zophar, says (chapter 11), “Put your heart right, Job. Reach out
to God. Put away the evil and the wrong that you have been doing and
repent of your ways.”
Three blind people
who thought that they knew how to use the Bible, who used the Bible
in order to condemn Job and said, “You Job are guilty of sin.”
Meanwhile, Job was
just as blind as they were. Job starts blaming God. Listen to what
Job says, “I am innocent but I no longer care. I am sick and tired
of living. Nothing matters. Innocent or guilty, God will destroy us.
When the innocent man’s son dies, God laughs. God gave the world
to the wicked. God made the judges blind.” If God didn’t do it,
who created all this misery in the world? God did. In other words,
Job blamed God for all the disasters which were happening throughout
the world. “I am tired of living. Listen to my complaints. Tell me
the charges that are against me. Is it right for you, God, to be so
cruel? To despise what you yourself have made? And then to smile at
the schemes of wicked people.”
Job becomes as
blind as his three so-called advisors because Job began blaming God.
This goes on for thirty chapters. It is just like when you have an
argument that goes around the same circle over and over again, the
same words, the same thoughts, the same arguments, over and over
again, for thirty chapters. The three friends finally fall exhausted
and another friend comes on the scene.
Elihu is his name.
Elihu is tired of it all. In chapter 32, Elihu says, “I cannot
control my anger any longer because Job is justifying himself and
blaming God.” Elihu was also angry at Job’s three friends. …
Elihu was the youngest and he finally began to speak, “God teaches
human being through suffering and uses distress to open their eyes
to God.” All along, Job had been saying, “Let me see you, God. I
want to see you face to face.”
Elihu said, “God uses suffering and distress to finally
open our eyes to God.”
Elihu finishes his
speech and there is a pause. There is a long pause and then there is
a whirlwind, and God speaks out of the whirlwind and says (chapter
38), “Who are you to question my wisdom, Job? With your ignorant
and empty words. Stand up like a man like a man Job, and answer the
questions that I ask you. Where were you, Job, when I made the
world? Where were you when I created the days and the nights and
laid the foundations of the earth? Where were you when I made the
leviathan and sea monsters? Where
were you Job when I created all the world, you Job who think you
know so much about me? Who are you to say that I am the cause of
evil in your life? Who are you to blame me? Job, you know so little.
Are you, Job, trying to tell me that I the Lord God am unjust? Are
you saying that I am unfair because you have suffered in this
world?”
Finally, Job falls
to his knees and says in chapter 42, “Lord God, I know that you
are all powerful. I am so very ignorant. I have talked about things
I did not really understand.” This is the key line in the whole
book, “In the past, I knew only what others have told me but now I
have seen you with my own eyes and I am ashamed of what I have said
and done.” In my
suffering, I have seen you with my own eyes. Job falls to his knees
in repentance.
After God had
finished speaking, he told Job’s three friends to go and give
sacrifices and ask repentance for giving Job such bad advice.
Shortly after, Job’s brothers and sisters gathered around him and
they had pity on him. What Job’s friends never had was pity. His
friends gave advice; they did not have pity. Some people are good at
giving advice but not good and giving compassion and pity.
The book of Job
concludes positively, with Job receiving children and grandchildren
and living to a very old, old age.
Mount Job is in a
different mountain range that the other Biblical mountains. That is,
Mount Moses, Mount Samuel, Mount David, Mount Solomon, and all the
mountains of the prophets say a similar message: if you obey God and
his commandments, you will be blessed. If you don’t, you will
experience God’s curse and punishment. That is true. BUT, that is
not all the truth. When the Old Testament authors reached the
erroneous conclusion that all of your suffering was a result of sin,
that is wrong. The book of Job is a testament to us from God that
says that all suffering is not a result of sin.
Then we move into
the New Testament, and in the New Testament, you find that there is
a fundamental difference towards suffering from vast majority of
books of the Old Testament. You hear the words, “God did not spare his Son from the
cross, but God chose the way of the cross and the way of suffering
in order to save the world.” When you get to the New Testament,
you find a whole new attitude towards suffering. If God did not
spare his son, Jesus, from the cross, why should God protect you or
me from the cross? God used suffering to save the world. It is part
of the grand mystery that none of us understand.
The Apostle Paul
wrote” “Suffering produces endurance and endurance produces
character and character produces hope and hope will not disappoint
us.” Paul invites us to learn the wisdom of the cross, the wisdom
of the crucified Christ, the wisdom and benefits of suffering.
In the Old
Testament and the background of the New Testament, when someone had
leprosy, blindness or lameness, you avoided them because they were
being punished by God. But in the New Testament, when somebody is
suffering, you go to the place of suffering. Where people are being
crucified the most, you go the most. Where suffering is, there is
God in the midst of those people.
The primary symbol
of the Christian faith is the cross, the way of the cross, the way
of suffering to save the world.
Mountains. How I
love mountains, especially the Cascade Ranger with Mount Baker in
the north, then Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, Mount Hood, Mount
Jefferson, Mount Shasta. Those mountains are gorgeous. How I love to
spend time on those mountain tops and experience their particular
beauty. But my eyes also turn West and there is another mountain
range, the Olympics, and there is Mount Olympus standing tall. Just
as the Olympic Mountains are different than the Cascade Mountains,
so also is Mount Job is different than Mount Moses, Samuel, David,
Solomon and the prophets. We learn much about God when we spend time
and hike on Mount Job. Amen.
CHILDREN’S
SERMON: Discuss
with the children different kinds of pain and suffering. There is a
pain that comes from disobedience. The children disobey and they are
disciplined; that is, they may get spanked, sent to their room or
denied a pleasure such as watching television.
But there is pain that come from life itself such as the
death of a grandparent or parent or brother and sister. That is
different than the pain of disobedience. When the death of a grandma
or grandpa happens, people are very sad. Through the years, I have
discovered that children are the very best comforters of mothers and
fathers during the death of grandparents.
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