Message by Pastor John Culp : February 17, 2008
“Behold, I Tell You a Mystery – Part 3”
Text – Job 2:1-10
Let us suppose for a moment that you are a great aficionado of ballet. Now I know that for some of us, that will require more imagination than it will for others! But it’s always good to exercise our ‘imagination’ muscles. So I’m going to ask you to do that, as needed, for the sake of our discussion.
Suppose you are sitting at a performance of one of your favorite ballets. Chances are, as you sit there in the theater, lost in your enjoyment of the performance, that you never think of all that’s going on behind the scene: all the technicians working to control the lighting and sound in the theater; all who have labored to prepare the costumes and stage sets. And that’s just behind the scenes in the theater itself. Far more people are involved in the community at large, to maintain the infrastructure necessary to allow the performance. There are those who work to provide electricity, water and heat to the concert hall; the police and firefighters who work to keep the community safe so that the performance can go on. Then there are the countless thousands of behind-the-scenes hours devoted by every dancer on stage, every musician in the pit, in order to enable them to perform at the level of true artistry.
For all the activity you see readily enough on stage, vastly more energy is committed behind the scenes to make it all possible.
I want to talk today about how God works ‘behind the scenes’ in our lives – particularly when it comes to the matter of suffering.
Through this season of Lent, we’re taking a close look at the problem of sin and suffering. I call it a ‘problem’ not only because it is unpleasant for us. That of course is true enough! But it’s a great ‘problem’ even if we’re not in the midst of suffering ourselves. Even for those who seek to understand it all from a detached distance, sin and suffering pose a great problem.
That problem is so great, in fact, that a whole branch of theology is devoted to its study: the area of theodicy. The central question of theodicy is this: If God is all good and God is all-powerful, why is there sin and why is there suffering in the world in the first place?
So far we’ve tried to lay some important groundwork in our study. On Ash Wednesday, we noted that the sin that is a universal plague on the human race means that we each really deserve condemnation from God, along with the suffering that His righteous judgment brings. Last week Janice Good made the point that we have to accept that in this life we will never fully understand the mystery of suffering. Our theme verse for that lesson was Deuteronomy 29:29 – “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (NKJV)
It turns out that the Bible has a lot to say on this subject! And some of the most profound insights it offers to the whole problem come to us in this ancient tale of Job. The book of Job encourages us to look behind the scenes of the sin and suffering that are so evident to us in all of life.
The story of Job teaches us that behind the scenes of our suffering
stands always the God who is sovereign and in control –
our almighty and loving Creator.
Old Job can help us tremendously as we face the dark mystery of pain in our lives, based on both what he does not know, and what he does know in the story. We need to look closely at both.
We should start by considering all that Job doesn’t know as his tale of woe unfolds.
All his ghastly suffering is the work of Satan in his life – the devil whom God has given license to torment Job in this way, as a test! Satan has charged (1:9-10) that Job is so good simply because God has blessed him so richly. He claims that if God takes away all his perks, the ‘righteous’ Job will curse God to His face (1:11). So God allows the devil to test Job. First he takes from him in one dark day all his wealth, and all ten of his children.
Job’s godly response to that terrible tragedy is this profound theological statement: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (1:21 NKJV).
This of course infuriates the enemy of our souls! We read that in his second audience with the Lord, Satan cynically quotes what is likely a bit of ancient folk wisdom that comes from the marketplace: “Skin for skin!” (2:4).
That raises for us a very serious question concerning our faith – and one that might make most of us squirm at least a little. Is our ‘religion’ merely a matter of bargaining with God? Do we imagine that if we’re good little boys and girls, God will bless us with exclusively good things? If so, what will our attitude toward God be when hardship – even tragedy – strikes? Satan has charged that Job’s ‘religion’ is just such a matter of quid pro quo; that if God withdraws His hedge of protection around His boy, He’ll see Job’s true colors.
Now it is absolutely crucial to the story to note that Job knows none of this! We as the readers are privy to all the behind-the-scenes drama in heaven. Job sees only the action as it plays out on the stage of his tragic life. The narrator never explicitly mentions Job’s ignorance of all this. But that underlying assumption of the story is foundational to its plot.
All through the ages many have questioned: How could God allow such diabolical pain to come to one of His own? There’s no easy answer to that question! Just as Job doesn’t know about the test itself, we must acknowledge that we don’t fully know the answer to this mystery. But we do need to withhold judgment until we see the rest of what God has for us here in chapter 2. Even more, we need to know the rest of the story of Job (which we plan to look at next week).
But the very fact that Job is unaware of all that’s going on behind the scenes has a lot to teach us! In the face of tragedy of epic proportions – Katrina; 9/11; the Holocaust – we can’t help asking: Why? Or to make it even more up close and personal: Why does God give cancer to my father – or to me? Why does He strike your spouse with Alzheimer’s Disease? Why does He take away my job – or your child?
The pain that tormented Job day and night – mental as well as physical – had to scream at him so shrilly as to consume all his attention. But his story teaches us that Job had such a small view, such meager understanding of the whole picture! So it is for us in the midst of our pain.
What the caterpillar calls the end, God calls a butterfly. (James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited [Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988] p. 149.)
If we can remember that in the face of the hardship that comes into our lives, Job will have taught us a life-changing lesson on this whole problem of pain.
But in all this we need to take careful note as well of what Job does know!
Job knows that God is in control. He never even speaks of the work of Satan. If he considers at all the devil’s role in his suffering, he seems to know beyond any doubt what is clear to the reader: that Satan cannot move one inch beyond the leash in which God holds him tightly. That’s clearly a valuable lesson for us to remember as well!
Commenting on that profound truth Paul Scherer writes: “Hell makes its moves on
the checkered squares of human existence; but all its moves are on heaven’s own chessboard.” (The Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 3, p. 921)
Job demonstrates his clear understanding of who is in control when he replies to his wife’s harsh cynicism: “Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” (2:10 NLT).
But Job’s wisdom goes far beyond any mere stoic acknowledgment that God is in control. Even in the pit of his pain, Job knows that God is good!
It should if anything be easier for us! We have the privilege of knowing everything faithful Job knew. But we know as well the precious truth of the Gospel. In our New Testament lesson today we read the ringing affirmation of Saint Paul. As he wrestled with challenging questions of eternity, the apostle declared: “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7 ESV).
As we confront the mystery of sin and suffering, we should readily admit that just like Job, we live out our days with a great deal hidden from our sight. But what we must keep clearly in view always is the goodness of God. How do we know He’s good?
We see His goodness certainly in the beauty of the snowfall. We see it in ten thousand blessings He showers on us. But even if we ever allow our pain to drive the memory of those blessings from our minds, we need only to remember one thing: The cross.
The cross says it all to us. It reminds us of the reality and the horrific cost of sin in the world – and in our lives. But the cross cries out as well: ‘This is how much I love you. I sent My beloved Son to this horrible death – for you.’
You know, you could make a strong case that the most important single thing we do each Sunday is that little three-second litany at the opening of worship in which remind each other that ‘God is good – all the time!’
Nearly three centuries ago, Johann Schwedler expressed it well:
Ask ye what great thing I know That delights and stirs me so?
What the high reward I win? Whose the name I glory in?
Jesus Christ, the Crucified.
Who defeats my fiercest foes? Who consoles my saddest woes?
Who revives my fainting heart, Healing all its hidden smart?
Jesus Christ, the Crucified.
This is that great thing I know; This delights and stirs me so:
Faith in Him who died to save, Him who triumphed o’er the grave:
Jesus Christ, the Crucified. (translated by Benjamin H. Kennedy)
Leith Anderson has served a church in Minnesota as its pastor for a long time. His father was a pastor before him – for more than fifty years. Anderson recalls a favorite story of his father’s.
It’s the story of a little boy who was desperately ill. His parents recognized that he would probably soon die. They sent for the local pastor.
The pastor came at night to visit the child, who was semiconscious. He was unable to speak and apparently never spoke to acknowledge the pastor’s presence. The pastor was alone in the child’s upstairs room and left late at night. He returned early the next morning after the boy had died. He did his best to console the parents. He prayed with them. He grieved with them.
Later the parents asked the pastor if he had any explanation for something that had happened. They told the pastor that in the hours before their son died and at the time of his death, he was holding the ring finger of one hand with his other hand. He died in that position.
It was then the pastor explained what he had said that night in the boy’s room. He had wanted to explain to that child on the edge of eternity not only the importance of being a Christian, but in language a child could understand how to become one. So he turned to the opening words of the beloved Twenty-third Psalm.
He said he had taken their son’s hand and first held his thumb and had said, “The – because, we’re talking here about one of a kind.”
Then he held his first finger and said, “Lord – because He’s the King.”
For the middle finger, he said God himself is right here.
The next finger: my, a personal commitment and relationship.
For the last finger: shepherd, the one who owns, who cares and loves, who died: Jesus.
While he had not spoken, the child had heard. Before he died, he put his hand around that ring finger to say, “The Lord is my shepherd.”
(Leith Anderson, “The Lord Is My Shepherd,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 136.)
There was so much that precious little one couldn’t know. But that dear little boy knew this: Jesus was right there with him, in the midst of his suffering; Jesus was his; he was his Lord’s. And knowing that much made all the difference in the world.
In the depths of his great pain, there was so much Job didn’t know. But even in the depths of his great pain, Job knew this: God was always in control, the sovereign Lord of life. Even in his great pain, Job knew that God is good, all the time.
Learn that lesson of Job, and you will not have fully unraveled the mystery of suffering. But you will have found the secret of going far beyond merely surviving pain. You will have learned the secret of victory over sin and suffering – victory in your victorious Lord Jesus.
Let us pray. Thank You, heavenly Father, for the inspiring example of Your servant Job, for his steadfast faith. Thank You even more for the cross, Lord Jesus, and for teaching us there about the amazing love Your Father has for us in You. When You call us to walk through the valley of the shadow, please teach us to keep our eyes ever on the cross – ever on You – that we might remember always the power and the goodness of our Father, and know the ultimate victory that only You can give us. We ask it in Your blessed name. Amen.