Sermon Dan
Neary
Job: Desired Encounter
Now
through 37 chapters of Job and there has been a great deal of discussion about
God… now here in chapters 38-41, God himself speaks into the circumstances.
This “Desired Encounter” is the encounter between the man Job and the Almighty God.
After a brief introduction of
Job himself in the first verses of chapter one, the book opened in Heaven. The
Lord and Satan (the accuser, our enemy) have a conversation about creation…
more specifically the Lord’s prize creature, humanity… and even more specific
than that this fine example of a man, Job. Satan asked the question that
started this whole scene in Job (more of an accusation really than a question)…
“Does
Job fear God for nothing?”
“What kind of creature is this?”
“Doesn’t he only serve/worship/fear
God because you treat him so well?”
This is certainly an accusation
concerning the creature Job… but it
is more profoundly an accusation concerning the creator God. Satan really asks… “What kind of a God are you? A God
who holds up this puny example of a
prized creature?”
So Job is released to Satan’s
abuse and looses everything… wealth, family and health.
Job
encounters profound suffering. In spite of his wife’s urging to give up… to
“curse God and die”… Job does not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
In Job’s suffering we hear from
·
Job himself
·
His three friends (Eliphaz,
Bildad, and Zophar)
·
Elihu
Job seeks to justify himself
before God and his friends… the others offer their theories on why God is
allowing Job (or probably even causing Job) to suffer.
They are all sort of right… but
they’re all wrong. They are right in offering theories based on principals of
retribution (that Job is being punished for wrongdoing) or that God is somehow
trying to teach Job something. The theories offered are all reasonable… but
they are misapplied because they lack perspective.
Nobody, including Job, knows the
whole story. All of the theories and proposals and accusations and postulations
miss the mark because they don’t know the whole story.
Now
chapter 38… now enters God!
The only one that knows the
whole story enters the scene… great news for Job! Right?
Finally he would have relief…
finally he would get answers to his questions… finally this terrible wrong
would be made right.
I asked George to read the first
verses of chapter 40 to give you a bit of the tone of the discourse between God
and Job… but the conversation starts in chapter 38 where the NIV says
Then
the Lord answered Job out of the
storm.
Other translations, including
the KJV, say out of the whirlwind. It
is a word that is translated storm, whirlwind, or tempest. It isn’t uncommon
for God to reveal Himself in the context of a storm or whirlwind.
We prefer that God speak to us in the sunshine, but
sometimes He must speak out of the storm. This is how He spoke to
Job, who had lost his family to
a terrible wind, was now meeting God out of the Whirlwind. It was a storm that
Elihu had predicted in chapter 37. God invaded Job’s circumstances with
overwhelming force… God showed up with shock
and awe.
2 “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?
3 Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.
4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who
marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?[2]
God’s address to Job centered on His works in nature and consisted of seventy-seven questions interspersed with divine commentary relating to the questions. [It seems that] The whole purpose of this interrogation was to make Job realize his own inadequacy and inability to meet God as an equal and defend his cause.
“Then summon me, and I will answer,” Job had challenged God, “or let me speak, and You reply” (Job 13:22, NIV). God had now responded to Job’s challenge.
God’s
address can be summarized in three questions:
1. “Can you explain My creation?” (38:1–38)
2. “Can you oversee My creation?” (38:39–39:30)
Job’s first response (40:1–5)
3. “Can you subdue My creation?” (40:6–41:34)
Job’s second response (42:1–6)[3]
Can
you explain My creation?
As we read the Book of Job, we
get the impression that Job had confidence in his knowledge and wisdom… God
puts an end to this delusion right off the bat. God basically says “who do you
think you are?” God doesn’t question Job’s sincerity, or integrity, or even
righteousness… He merely points out that any wisdom, knowledge, perspective or
power that Job has is meaningless when compared to God. Job’s speeches lacked
humility; God was now reminding Job just how little Job knew.
Can
you oversee My creation?
God moved from the earth and the
heavens that he created to the beasts he created. God reminds Job that Job
knows so very little about the vast array of animals God created and cares for.
As a sort of humorous aside,
chapter 39 reminds me of one of the antics of my pal Merlin. Apparently when he
graduated from college (
5 “Who let the wild donkey go free? [4]
5 “Who has let the wild ass go free?[5]
But of course it isn’t just the
wild donkeys that receive God’s care. In
this short passage, God rattles off a long list: lioness, goat, hind [deer],
wild donkey, wild ox, horse, raven, ostrich, stork, hawk, and eagle. We could
add to the list the likes of us too.
I
was thinking… If there was some sort of continuum, with God on one end and a
donkey on the other… where do we fit?
We think of ourselves being
created in the image of God, so we might think we’re a whole lot closer to God
than a common animal. We often act like we’re more close to God on the
continuum. We treat God as if we’re just a little smaller, maybe a little
weaker than He is. We certainly treat all the other creatures as if we are far,
far superior.
But in the great scheme of
things, if we could indeed measure the continuum, we would find a vast gap
between us and God, and not so much space between us and all other creatures.
We’re certainly much more than donkeys, and eagles, and goats, and ants… but if
we could somehow gain a perspective that would let us see a continuum like
this, we’d realize that the difference between us and God is vast, and the
distance between us and all other creatures is tiny in comparison.
It
appears that Job began to get the point. In chapter 40 God calls on Job to now
answer God. It is as if in the great courtroom of creation, God calls out and
says “The Prosecution has paused, let’s hear from the Defense.”
Job now has the sense to reply
“nothing further your honor.” Job chooses to shut his mouth… he chooses wisely.
The Lord then goes on and
reminds Job that Job’s power is puny in comparison to God’s power. He asks Job
to consider the behemoth and the leviathan (we’d understand this better
as the elephant and the crocodile). It is as if God says, “Alright,
all of creation is too much for you to handle, why don’t you just try these two
simple creatures of mine. Can you control these?”
Job, of course, knew he was
beaten. In Job’s first response he chose silence;
in Job’s second response he took the necessary step beyond silence to submission.
Then Job answered the Lord:
2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without
knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
4 ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.’
5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;
6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust
and ashes.” [6]
There was no way he could argue his case with God. Quoting God’s very words (Job 42:3–4), Job humbled himself before the Lord and acknowledged His power and justice in executing His plans (v. 2). Then Job admitted that his words had been wrong and that he had spoken about things he didn’t understand (v. 3). Job withdrew his accusations that God was unjust and not treating him fairly. He realized that whatever God does is right and man must accept it by faith.
Job told God, “I can’t answer Your questions! All I can do is confess my pride, humble myself, and repent.” Until now, Job’s knowledge of God had been indirect and impersonal; but that was changed. Job had met God personally and seen himself to be but “dust and ashes” (v. 6; 2:8, 12; Gen. 18:27).[7]
Job
had hoped for, demanded really, an explanation… he received, rather, a revelation.
God does not need to explain
Himself. He can’t be contained by the bounds of our understanding or logic. He
doesn’t need to give an answer; He is the answer.
Job finally realized this. He no
longer needed relief from his suffering or answers to his questions. Even
though the suffering was very real, and the questions were very real, the reality of God now revealed to Job
eclipsed everything else.
So
what? Are there lessons for us here?
Anything we can apply to our lives and circumstances?
I suppose that, first off, we
can always be reminded that we are not the center of the universe.
We are not God… not even close.
We may act like it. It is so
easy for our view of the Almighty God to be hidden by the smallest inconveniences
in our lives. One moment we can be in awe of a great and glorious God… the next
moment some little things obscures our view.
I might be standing in view of a
great and glorious mountain… then some gnat flies into my eye and the view is
entirely obscured. That is the way it is with us so often… it doesn’t take the
sort of suffering that Job had to endure to obstruct our view… to get us
looking to our circumstances rather than God’s goodness and glory. I would like
to think that if I found myself in Job’s circumstances that I would be able to
glorify God through the suffering… but I’m afraid that I would be kidding
myself. The smallest little things can so quickly draw our concern to only
ourselves.
I need God’s help to fulfill his
purpose through me… and His chief aim is the same as the highest Goal that
Jesus had for himself and His church and that is to glorify God. We’re not at
the center… God is at the center.
It is so easy for us to place
ourselves at the center… even in church. Sometimes our worship, even, is so
very me centric. Of course Jesus died for me, and he wants me to prosper, and
it feels good to be in God’s presence… but God help us to not get all caught up
in ourselves. Yes, God loves you and me, Jesus did in fact die for us, He is our
Savior, He takes away our sins… but that wasn’t merely for us, this is all to
glorify God. We need God’s help to enjoy all that He has for us and all He has
done for us without thinking more of ourselves than we ought.
On Father’s Day, I suppose it is
good to reflect on what I’m learning about my Heavenly Father by being a
Father. I’ve learned a great deal from the simplest things… like this one
simple word:
Why?
There are times when my Boys ask
me why
out of a genuine quest for knowledge and understanding. It is quite gratifying
to see there minds working… to see them beginning to put concepts together.
But too often why isn’t so much
a quest for knowledge as it is defiance.
Do you know what I mean? When my Boys respond to me by asking why, they are
sometimes demanding that meet their requirements before they obey or trust me. It
is as if I need to convince them. My explanation needs to pass their test
before they move on. We do the same thing with God… we saw Job do it with God.
Knowledge and understanding are
good. Wisdom is a great prize worth seeking. But we err, terribly, when we
insist that God answer all our questions.
Sometimes we joke, and sometimes
we are quite serious, when we say things like “When I get to heaven, I’m going
to ask God about…” But when we’re in our right minds we ought to ask ourselves
really? I think that our questions are likely going to melt away when we
experience that pure revelation of God’s majesty in heaven.
We
can expect that our questions will be overwhelmed by revelation… just like we
see in these passages in Job.
Now, please, don’t misunderstand
me. I’m not advocating that we turn off our brains and wait for spiritual goose bumps. I’m all for spiritual goose bumps… I hope you get
them on occasion right here in our services… but revelation comes through our
ability to perceive. I think the
best revelation comes as a result of asking questions and looking for
answers… Answers that lead to revelation…
not merely our satisfaction.
It is good that we ask why…
as long as our why is for that which is far greater than simply our
satisfaction… our whys need to be motivated by a
desire for revelation.
We need God’s help… we need
eyes, and ears, and hearts, and minds, that are focused on seeking a revelation
of our holy, mighty, righteous, just God.
We
will pray to that end, and then the Chapel singers will lead us in worship with
a song prepared to focus our gaze on God’s holiness.