Job and his friends are on a search for wisdom. Their speeches are poems that attempt
to understand Job’s suffering. Ironically,
however, this lengthy search for wisdom does not get Job and his friends very
far. Job is confident that his friends
do not have the answer to his suffering, but he hasn’t found the answer
either. This whole exercise is a
powerful illustration of what we saw last week in Job 28:1-28, that wisdom can only be found with God. Today, though we will see an improvement, we
are in for more of the same territory.
In Job 29-37, the author of
Job recorded Job’s final speeches and the speeches of Elihu to once again
demonstrate the limits of our wisdom and to point us to God. Now don’t gloss over the fact that we are
making the same point again. When God
takes up this much space in His word to make a point, we need to be sure we do
not miss it, and if He tells us something more than once it is because we need
to hear it more than once. We too must recognize the limits of our wisdom and we
need to allow them to draw us closer to the only wise God, whether we are the
one suffering or whether we are trying to help someone who is suffering. So my prayer for us all today is that we would
not miss this lesson but would instead cling to God with all of our hearts when
we cannot grasp the reasons for suffering.
I.
WALKING THROUGH:
a.
Job’s Final Speech (29:1-31:40)
i. Job’s Former Glory (29:1-25)
ii. Job’s Present Misery (30:1-31)
iii. Job’s Steadfast Integrity (31:1-40)
This is Job’s final speech before God speaks to
Job. Here Job first recounts his former glory (29:1-25). He remembers the “good ole days” when “God watched over” him and “the friendship of God” was upon his
home (29:1-6). These were days when
Yahweh had “gave” (Job 1:21a). In those days, Job was greatly respected by
others (29:7-11, 21-25) and when he spoke, everyone listened. Job “lived
like a king among his troops” (29:25).
In those days, Job was a help to those who were in need (the poor, the
orphan, the widow, and the stranger) and stood against injustice
(29:12-17).
But all of this has been turned on its head for
Job, which is why in the next chapter Job then contrasts his former glory with his present misery (30:1-31). He was now living in the days when Yahweh had
“taken away” (Job 1:21b), and this caused Job both outward (30:1-15) and inward (30:16-31) misery.
Now, instead of being respected by others, worthless people who Job
wouldn’t have even set with the dogs of his flock were laughing at him, mocking
him, and murmuring about him (30:1-15).
Inwardly, Job says that he felt as though his “soul” was being “poured out
within” him (30:16). He says, “The night racks my bones, and the pain
that gnaws me takes no rest. With great
force my garment is disfigured; it binds me about like the collar of my tunic”
(30:17-18). He also says that his “inward parts are in turmoil and never
still” (30:27) and that his joy has been turned into mourning (30:31). Here we see just how hopeless and helpless
Job feels, and please don’t miss that the greatest source of Job’s misery is
the perceived estrangement that he
feels from His God. While the reader
knows that God is actually pleased with Job and that He has been there all
along, listening to these speeches (42:7-8), at this point in the story, Job
feels as though God has abandoned him and is after him (30:19-23).
In spite of Job’s present misery, however, he
refuses to compromise his steadfast
integrity (31:1-40). Notice all the
occurrences of the word “if” (16x) in
this chapter. This was a standard way to
declare one’s innocence in ancient times.
Rather than simply say, “I’m innocent,” a person would, in the form of
an oath, say something like, “If I have committed such and such crime, then let
me suffer such and such punishment.” These
are not self-righteous statements,
but rather are legitimate claims of
innocence on Job’s part, and this list of character qualities is quite
convicting to read through!
Job first defends his purity (31:1-4,
9-12). He says that he has “made a covenant” with his eyes and has
not allowed his heart to be enticed by a woman or to lie in wait at his
neighbor’s door (to commit adultery). He
calls this a “heinous crime”
(31:11-12). If only more men today,
myself included, felt this strongly about sexual sin. Job then defends his honesty (31:5-8). He has
not walked with falsehood or been deceitful with others. Can you say the same? He also defends his generosity (31:13-23)
and his love for his neighbor. He has
not “rejected the cause” of his
servants, but rather counts them as his equals
because they too are made in God’s image.
He has not withheld from or oppressed the poor, the orphan, or the
widow. Job defends his humility as well (31:24-28).
He has not committed idolatry by putting his trust in his riches and he
has not looked to himself as the source of his wealth. Job even defends his stewardship of the land God has given him (31:38-40)! He’s even been kind to the dirt that he
farms! Job 31:29-37 is then a summary of his integrity (he hasn’t rejoiced
over the downfall of his enemies, he hasn’t failed to provide for others as
best he can, he is not hiding any transgression, and he hasn’t lived his life
by the fear of man but of God) in which he makes one final plea for an audience with God. The words of Job end with him clinging to his
integrity and hopeful of his vindication before God.
b.
Elihu’s Speeches (32:1-37:24)
i. Introducing Elihu (32:1-5)
ii. Elihu’s First Speech (32:6-33:33)
iii. Elihu’s Second Speech (34:1-37)
iv. Elihu’s Third Speech (35:1-16)
v. Elihu’s Fourth Speech (36:1-37:24)
Once Job’s words are ended, a new character that
appears in our story. He is a young man
whose name is “Elihu the son of Barachel
the Buzite,” and he is the only character with a Hebrew name in the book. His appearance alerts us to the fact that Job
and his friends had an audience
during their debate (or the fact that Elihu is a ninja who suddenly dropped in
out of nowhere and then disappeared!).
The text says that he speaks because he has become so angry with Job and his friends that he
cannot contain himself any longer (32:2-5, 18-20). He is angry at Job’s friends because “they had found no answer, although they
were declaring Job to be in the wrong” and angry at Job because “he justified himself rather than God.”
To be honest, Elihu is somewhat of a conundrum to me. A conundrum is an intricate and difficult
mystery and the reason I call Elihu a conundrum is because it is really
difficult to decide just what we should think about what he has to say. We’re told later that Job’s friends were wrong in their diagnosis of the problem
and that Job, though he was in need of some repentance (42:6), spoke rightly of Yahweh (42:7-8). But we’re not told anything about Elihu,
neither Job nor his friends respond to him, God never says that He was angry
with him, and the author of Job thought that what he said was important enough
to devote six chapters to him. For this
reason, many commentators think that we should see Elihu’s speeches as God
speaking to Job though him before He speaks to Job Himself (much of what Elihu
says anticipates Yahweh’s speeches).
However, Elihu does make some of the same
accusations against Job that we, as the readers know to be false. In Job
34:7-8, he says that Job is a man “who
drinks up scoffing like water, who travels in company with evildoers and walks
with wicked men.” Job 34:10-12 sounds a whole lot like
the retribution theology Job’s three
friends, that God repays people according to their ways. He accuses Job of adding “rebellion to his sin” in Job
34:37. Also, what are we to make of
Elihu’s implications in Job 35:12-15,
where he says that God “does not answer”
because of “the pride of evil men”
and that God does not “hear an empty cry”? The implication seems to be that Job is a
proud, evil man and his prayers are empty.
He also says that Job is “full of
the judgment on the wicked” (36:17).
We know from the book’s introduction and conclusion that this is simply
not the case. For these reasons there
are many commentators who have a very negative view of Elihu and think that he
basically rehashes the arguments of Job’s friends.
Do you see why I call him a conundrum? I think any conclusion about him should be
tempered by a recognition of the limits of our own wisdom. Whether we view him positively or negatively,
we should be willing to admit that we could be wrong. I personally see him as someone who speaks
much better than the friends do, but who, in the end, is also limited in his wisdom as well. Again, the big idea in Job is that wisdom is
only found with God.
Since Elihu does speak better than the friends and
does bring something new to the table, lets take a second to consider what he
gets right? Elihu shares some great truths
about God ways in our suffering, of which we will mentions just a few. First, he points out that God often speaks and reveals more of
Himself to us through our suffering (33:19-33; 36:15-16). Suffering may be where we have our deepest
experiences with God and hear Him most clearly.
This is a point C.S. Lewis powerfully made in his book, The Problem of Pain. He says that “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but he
shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone
to arouse a deaf world.”[1] This is exactly what Elihu says in 36:15, that God opens the ear of the
afflicted by their adversity. Francis
Andersen says here, “Every experience,
good or bad, brings fresh opportunities to learn more about God. The wise man rides the wave; the fool is
drowned by it.” [2]
Another thing that Elihu gets right is the fact
that God is just, regardless of what Job
has suffered (34:10-30, 37:23). Job
has questioned God’s justice to some degree in his confusion. Elihu is right to point out that God is just
in all He does, even if Job cannot see it at the moment. This is a helpful observation. We want to cut Job some slack because he is
the only character who is actually suffering in the book, but we can’t cut him
so much slack that we excuse all of his questions about God. He needs to be called on some of them. I think Elihu is right to point out that Job
should be justifying God and not himself.
Also, Elihu rightly points out that in God’s sovereignty, He has multiple
purposes in what He brings about (37:13).
In describing God’s sovereignty over the weather, Elihu points out that
God has multiple purposes in the weather he sends us. Sometimes it is “for correction.” Sometimes
it is “for his land.” And sometimes it is “for love.” Likewise, in our
suffering, God in some way causes it to happen, and He has His reasons. It is hard for us to wrap our minds around it
at times, but sometimes our suffering is God’s way of loving us and refining us
more into His image.
II.
STEPPING BACK: How does this passage call us to cling to God in the mystery of our
suffering and the suffering of others? It
teaches us that…
a.
When we cannot grasp the reasons for suffering, we
can exercise caution in showing compassion
We need balance here because we could take this so
far as to think we can never know anything about someone’s suffering and think
we can’t say anything. That would be
using a little too much caution!
However, I have found that we are far too quick to judge, draw
conclusions, and gossip far too often when we don’t have all the details about
someone else’s suffering. All of these
characters who mean well and try to help Job end up hurting him because they
don’t have all the information. This
should humble us and drive us to our knees when someone we love is
suffering. It should move us to cry out
to God and beg for wisdom. It should
move us to be people who are slower to speak and quicker to hear (James 1:19-20). It should move us to weep with those who weep
before we speak. It should cause us to
exercise caution in our compassion.
b.
When we cannot grasp the reasons for suffering, we
can cling to our integrity and our God
We already know that there is a connection between
“fearing God” and “turning away from evil” (Job 1:1, 8; 2:3; 28:28). The fear of the Lord is wisdom in any area of
our life, especially our suffering. This
is why Job’s integrity is important here.
Since the fear of the Lord is to turn away from evil, in refusing to
compromise his integrity, he is actually refusing
to forsake his God (in spite of all the questions he still has). Like Job, sometimes our integrity is all that
we have, and we can choose to hold on to it and in so doing hold onto God or we
can choose to cave in and forsake our integrity and in doing so forsake our
God.
What is your response to suffering? Many people do not just question the benefits
of fearing God when they suffer; they actually forsake God in their
suffering. They turn to alcohol to drink
their pain away. If their spouse commits
adultery, they feel justified to go and do the same. Not Job, he holds onto his integrity. How do you measure up to Job’s catalogue of
integrity? He is a model for us, perhaps
only surpassed by Christ. Here we could
also say that Job is perhaps only surpassed in his sufferings by Christ as well. This is another reason that it will be
important for God to speak. We learn
from the rest of the Bible that Job is not the only sufferer in the book of
Job. The gospel is that God became a
human being in the person of Jesus Christ and suffered more greatly than Job
could have ever imagined. This is good
news for those of us who feel conviction after hearing of Job’s integrity. Let your failure to cling to integrity be a
force that drives you to the cross. See
your failures nailed there in the bloody hands of Jesus and know that you can
now stand as bold as Job does, not because you are righteous, but because the
work of Christ has made you righteous.
And as you bow at the foot of the cross, may you thank God for the gift
of your suffering and surrender to His good wisdom. He knows how to show you more of
Himself. Declare with Job, “Though he slay me, I will hope in Him” (Job
13:15)!
If you are reading this online, I closed this sermon by playing a video of Shane & Shane's song, "Though You Slay Me." You can view the video and lyrics at the link below:
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