Job 23 Finding God in Suffering

Church is described as the people of God, body of Christ and temple of the Job

1 Then Job replied:

2 "Even today my complaint is bitter;
his hand ^[a] is heavy in spite of ^[b] my groaning.

3 If only I knew where to find him;
if only I could go to his dwelling!

4 I would state my case before him
and fill my mouth with arguments.

5 I would find out what he would answer me,
and consider what he would say to me.

6 Would he vigorously oppose me?
No, he would not press charges against me.

7 There the upright can establish their innocence before him,
and there I would be delivered forever from my judge.

8 "But if I go to the east, he is not there;
if I go to the west, I do not find him.

9 When he is at work in the north, I do not see him;
when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.

10 But he knows the way that I take;
when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.

11 My feet have closely followed his steps;
I have kept to his way without turning aside.

12 I have not departed from the commands of his lips;
I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.

13 "But he stands alone, and who can oppose him?
He does whatever he pleases.

14 He carries out his decree against me,
and many such plans he still has in store.

15 That is why I am terrified before him;
when I think of all this, I fear him.

16 God has made my heart faint;
the Almighty has terrified me.

17 Yet I am not silenced by the darkness,

by the thick darkness that covers my face.

Footnotes:

1. Job 23:2 Septuagint and Syriac; Hebrew / the hand on me
2. Job 23:2 Or heavy on me in

It seems that everywhere we look these days, there is another tragedy, another sorrow confronting us. Some are big. The war in Afghanistan. The genocide in Rwanda. The riots in Mexico. In some strange way, these big sorrows are easier to deal with. We pronounce judgment, but out lives are not shattered. | There is another kind of sorrow that is closer to home. A family member commits suicide. The police officer who normally sits next to you in the pew is killed in the like of duty. A car accident leaves a vibrant pastor paralyzed. This is where our scripture lesson this morning finds me, and it seems that it is also where Job confronts you. Your friends and family members are battling serious illnesses, and we are left to wonder why and even more, to find our way through the maze.

I must confess to you this morning that these hard times have left me confused many times over the past year, and there have been no easy answers. In August 2005, a good friend of mine named Alyssa was found unresponsive in her bed. She was 14, a student in my youth group, and both a friend, and a daughter of friends. I would like to share her story with you today. The day after her first seizure, I boarded a plane and flew to North Carolina for the first time. I spent the next several days on the phone and on my knees as Alyssa laid in a drug-induced coma in ICU while doctors ran tests and attempted to stabilize her condition, and eventually diagnosed her with an inoperable brain tumor. | And I wrestled with God while Alyssa became my personal Job.

In Job 1 we learn that Job is a blameless and upright man who serves God, even offering sacrifices for his children’s sins. Job’s life is going well; he is wealthy, a respected man in his community, and he has been blessed with 7 sons and 3 daughters. Suddenly we are transported into the heavenly realm. The adversary challenges God. ^1:8 “Then the Lord said to the adversary, ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is possessing of integrity and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.’” ^1:9 “Does Job fear God for nothing?” the adversary replied. ^1:11 “But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” So the adversary gains permission, and Job’s flocks are carried off and his children are killed in a storm. Then Job himself is afflicted, and his body is racked with pain and illness. And Job tears his robe in lament and falls to the ground, and he sits in the ashes, publicly lamenting his loss and pain. And Job’s wife says, ^2:10 “Are you still remaining in your integrity? Curse God and die!”

From the very beginning, Job certainly teaches us that life can be difficult, painful, and full of temptation, even, or perhaps especially for God’s faithful servants. Life is not always sunshine and roses, in spite of popular books and preachers. Job has lived well his whole life long. He has worshipped the Lord Almighty, and he isn’t even an Israelite. The Bible tells us that he comes from the lands of the pagan Gentiles. And it is Job’s very faithfulness that brings the attacks and sufferings from the adversary. Job is in good company. Jeremiah was the only true prophet left in Israel, and he had to announce the coming defeat and exile of God’s people. He was despised and rejected, and in the end he was taken captive with the rest of unfaithful Israel. Jesus spent three years teaching his disciples and caring for the people. He was faithful in every way that Israel had not been. Yet when it mattered, he too was despised and rejected. His disciples slept while he prayed in anguish and then they fled and denied him, and he was stripped and beaten and hung on a cross for the world to see his failure. Stephen stood before his people to share the good news of Christ’s saving power, and they rose up against him and stoned him while he prayed for God’s forgiveness for those throwing stones.

Unfortunately, we cannot push this pain into the past because it confronts our own lives. Part of our struggle is that good people perish, and Alyssa was no exception. She was faithful, listening to God and serving him constantly. She was preparing to serve on the worship team to help people draw closer to her Lord. She was full of the life and joy of the Holy Spirit. That joy and life never left through her seizures, medical procedures, and chemotherapy and radiation to battle her brain tumor, but they also did not free her from suffering. Over the course of a year, Alyssa lost much of her sight, her short-term memory, her physical agility, and her normal life. But Alyssa paralleled Job in another way: She never let go of God. She prayed, and she worshipped. She came to church, and trusted Jesus, and loved deeply.

It is in part this continual clinging to God that sets Job apart, and that helps us wrestle with our response to suffering. Repeatedly, we are told that Job is a man possessing of integrity, and the temptation offered by his wife is to relinquish that integrity, to let go of God. Job reminds us of another man who refused go let go of God. Jacob wrestled with God all night, and in the end, he becomes the patriarch Israel, the father of a nation. Fortunately for us, Job also resists this temptation to turn away, and we see him wrestle with God for 36 agonizing chapters.

And so we end up in chapter 23, just one of Job’s responses to his friends’ accusations. Job’s complaint is bitter. His three friends surround him on every side, preaching the conventional wisdom that suffering is a punishment for sin. Like the man born blind in John 9 the pain becomes his fault. But Job does not have Jesus to announce that Job has not sinned, so he seeks his vindication from God.

^23:2 “Even today my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning. ³ If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! ⁴ I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. ⁵ I would find out what he would answer me, and consider what he would say to me.”

Job certainly does not fear speaking the truth. He knows that he does not deserve suffering; he knows that he has been faithful, and he is seeking God to tell him so. After all Job knows God’s promises.

^23:6 “Would he vigorously oppose me? No he would not press charges against me. ⁷ There the upright can establish their innocence before him, and there I would be delivered from my judge.”

God will not continue to oppress him when he is judged according to his activities. The Biblical story until now confirms Job’s view. Abraham was given a son, Lot was rescued from the midst of wicked people, Israel was brought out of suffering in Egypt, and they were brought into the land flowing with milk and honey. Perhaps Job has neglected Genesis and the entry of sin and death into the fallen world where the innocent suffer alongside the wicked.

Regardless, Job feels abandoned, but he never stops seeking God’s face.

⁸ But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. ⁹ When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him ¹⁰ But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. ¹¹ My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside. ¹² I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.”

Even in the midst of his suffering, Job can continue to affirm his passion for God and declare his own faithfulness, but he cannot find God. Job sounds like Jesus on the cross crying the words of Psalm 22. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” “My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.”

It seems that the suffering is only to continue. Job must endure seven more chapters of his friends’ accusations. The Psalmist will continue his lament for another 28 verses, and Jesus will die hanging on that cross. Our suffering endures in this world as well. Those of us around Alyssa watched helpless as she continued to grow weaker this summer. Her parents had to explain to her, again and again, that she had a brain tumor and would not survive. Eventually she recognized almost no one. The passionate athlete and musician slowly became confined to her bed. And those of us around Alyssa suffered as well. We had questions for God, and we were beginning to grieve. It was Alyssa who reminded us that suffering and death is not the end of the story.

God came to Job in the whirlwind, finally answering Job’s pleas to confront God. The scene was not the one Job had expected; God was questioning him not the other way around. Job was confronted with the majesty of God’s creation, and he learned that the dangerous things which God has created are beautiful because they are created. The death and destruction they cause are not beautiful, but the rain, the hail, the lightening, the lion are all beautiful because God has created them that way. There is a beauty in the unpredictability of God’s creation because there is also an unpredictability in God. It includes his decision to become incarnate in the form of a baby, and it includes the innocent suffering of God on the cross.

Job is confronted with the beauty and goodness of God, but he never receives the answers to his questions about suffering; he is never told what we knew from the beginning: his suffering came because of his faithfulness not because he lacked it. Still, Job was redeemed. He received the answer of God’s presence, and his questions somehow melted away when he was face-to-face with God. Remember the adversary’s challenge to God? That Job would curse him to his face? Here too, Job resists the temptation.

^42:11 “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.”

Likewise, Jesus’ cry from the cross is incomplete without the story of the resurrection. God had not abandoned Job, and he had not abandoned Jesus either. The Father and the Spirit raised the Son on the third day, defeating once and for all death and the Ruler of this world. So we cling to God even in our pain, and we seek his face while we pray for Christ’s return and the New Jerusalem to come in its fullness.

^{Rev 21} “And I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with humans, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Creation will be restored to perfect relationship with God, and we will worship before the throne.

And how does Alyssa’s story end? In joy and sorrow, grief and hope. On July 4, 2006, one month after her 15^th birthday, Alyssa’s body succumbed to her 11 month long battle with cancer. With her friends and family by her side, she was sung across the Jordan to meet her Lord face-to-face, just as she had sought him all along. And we who love her are left behind to grieve. There is an emptiness in our hearts that will only be filled when we join Alyssa in the presence of our Lord. We are spending all of our time with God crying out in desperation and we are doing the next thing, “simply because it is next.”

But I mentioned joy and hope. Through her whole life, Alyssa taught us to laugh, to live life with joyful freedom, and we continue to do so. Throughout her illness, Alyssa listened to a song called For the Moments I Feel Faint by Relient K. One of Alyssa’s closest friends wrote, “I was just thinking, that maybe this song is her and God’s gift to us…a reminder of God’s love and grace. It’s like her reminder to us to never underestimate her Jesus…our Jesus…the Jesus she is dancing with at this moment.” It goes like this:

Am I at the point of no improvement?
What of the death I still dwell in?
I try to excel, but I feel no movement.
Can I be free of this unreleasable sin?

I throw up my hands
"Oh, the impossibilities"
Frustrated and tired
Where do I go from here?
Now I'm searching for the confidence I've lost so willingly
Overcoming these obstacles is overcoming my fear

Never underestimate my Jesus.
You're telling me that there's no hope.
I'm telling you you’re wrong.
Never underestimate my Jesus
When the world around you crumbles
He will be strong

I think I can't, I think I can't
But I think you can, I think you can
Gather my insufficiencies and
place them in your hands, place them in your hands, place them in your hands

Never underestimate my Jesus.
You're telling me that there's no hope.
I'm telling you you’re wrong.
Never underestimate my Jesus
When the world around you crumbles
He will be strong, He will be strong

Jesus is strong, even in our weakness and suffering. Our hope, even in that suffering, is in our Lord Jesus Christ and his coming kingdom. Maranatha! Lord Come Quickly! Amen.

Answered and Unanswered Prayers

For the past year, I have been doing my best to walk between two extremes in regard to answered and unanswered prayer. Shortly after Alyssa's diagnosis last fall, I called an old friend with nothing but questions. Why Alyssa? The Smelley family? The rest of the crew? These are all God-fearing people who faithfully served God day in and day out through good times and bad. I wanted God to heal Alyssa, physically, and not just live in the suffering with her. My friend asked me, "Do you want God to heal everyone?" My answer? "Yes. Yes I do." What I really want is for God to step in and miraculously heal disease and war and faminine, and somehow that answer is exactly right in that it is precisely the desire for God's kingdom to come in its fullness. The Christian faith is not complete without the return of Christ.

Still, we do not yet live in that kingdom. We live on earth, and we are faced with tragedy (Will Wiersma, Wes Nishimura, Nate Fawell), illness (Uncle Don, Wilma Wilson, Leslie-Ann Malan), and death (Alyssa Smelley, Gus Gustavson, Fred Bauersfeld, Larry Holloway). I think that often we are faced with opposing choices. 1) Trust that God has already healed... If you have enough faith... God answers our prayers... or 2) God doesn't care about... God doesn't stop unjust suffering... God is not just. Loss of faith.

I'm not satisfied with either option.

This morning, the two worlds of healing and no healing, answered and unanswered prayer collided. In two weeks I will be preaching my first sermon in five years... on Job. Forty-two agonizing chapters of unjust suffering and brokenness. In chapel this morning, I cried through the entire sermon as Bishop Carder preached on Job 23. The innocent sufferer who cries out to God... A God who didn't prevent the adversary from inflicting the suffering. The world of unanswered prayer. Then I moved into planning my youth group lesson this week. I'm doing a series on the ways God works in the world. The people pray, and the Berlin Wall falls, Apartheid ends, nine miners are rescued alive. The world of answered prayer.

I have always had a problem with people who tell me that God will heal if the person asking has enough faith. It is dangerous. But I wasn't sure why I thought it wasn't true. After all, Jesus has only words of acclamation for the faith of the people who ask for healing. Job provides my answer: It isn't about us; it's about God. If the basis for healing is OUR faith, it isn't God, just as in salvation where if the basis is us, it isn't God. If it is about our faith, then we become magicians who can bring about wonders, and it is no longer the Lord who works the miracles. Besides, what do you do with the faith of hundreds of people who pray for a miracle and do not get it? Last year, I had a friend tell me that they were praying for Alyssa's healing. She has moved towards Pentecostalism and belief in miraculous works, which certainly do happen. Do not misunderstand me. God does heal. God does tear down dividing walls and break cycles of injustice. My problem was not that God is performing miracles in California, Washington, and the rest of the world. My problem was that she told me that we have to thank God for already doing the healing, and he will. That still makes us the ones who control the healing, but it also leaves us with a bigger problem. What do we do when the healing doesn't happen?

Jesus told us that we can move mountains with a mustard seed of faith. This is not a trick or a slight of hand where a small seed represents a huge amount of faith. The mustard seed is small, like the tip of a pen or a watchscrew. Jesus is not saying that we have to conjure up faith to ask for GOD to do big things because it is up to GOD. He has that power, but he still sometimes chooses not to heal. Not to do big things.

The common answer is that God knows better for us when he chooses not to answer our prayers. That he has a better plan or a more wonderful solution. We have problems here too. Is it better that a college student feels so lost and hopeless that he commits suicide? Better that a 23-year-old is killed in a car accident? Better that a 15-year-old dies of cancer? Better that family members suffer and grieve? Dr. Geoffrey Wainwright told us, "We cannot believe that God gives illness." It is not a better solution. It is a product of our fallen condition and our fallen world. When the kingdom comes, these things will pass away. "And I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with humans, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

I don't know that I have a way out of this maze yet, although I think that Job may actually provide our solution. Dr. Ellen Davis taught us that Job is one of only two men in the Old Testament who are said to be "possessing of integrity." Even Job's wife tells him to let go of his integrity and curse God and die. Instead, Job holds on to his integrity by holding on to God and asking him questions and talking to him. To let go of his integrity would have been to let go of his faith. Job teaches us that it takes great faith to cling to God when the miracles do not come. He is the only one in the book to do so. Job also teaches us that the dangerous things which God has created are beautiful because they are created. The death and destruction they cause are not beautiful, but the rain, the hail, the lightning, the lion are all good because God has created them that way. There is a beauty in the unpredictability of God's creation because there is also an unpredictability in God, and it is beautiful in God as well. It includes his mercy in choosing Israel as his people to spread his light to the nations. It includes his decision to humble himself to become incarnate in the form of a baby. Finally, it includes the suffering of God on the cross, where he joined us as an innocent suffering, and who, like Job, was redeemed out of that suffering through the resurrection. It is precisely this dangerous unpredictability which provides the grace which covers all of our sins with the blood of Christ and reconciles our relationship with the one who created us.

It takes great trust to cling to a God who is unpredictable in a world that is fallen and broken when suffering strikes and the miracles do not come. Lord, I trust! Help my lack of trust!