**It’s been a while since I shared an excerpt from my book, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘰𝘥, but I thought this would be a good one to share. It speaks to God’s sovereignty seen in the book of Job and deals with the common motif of suffering. This is perhaps one of the hardest lessons for us to learn about God’s sovereignty. I hope you enjoy this excerpt.**
In {Job} Chapter 3, the stress of his shattered life comes bearing down on Job. It’s not a chapter of disbelief or from a man whose faith is weakening. It comes from the soul of a man burdened and facing the reality of his broken existence. Job went from the pinnacle of life in every way to a shattered downfall where he lost his wealth, security, respect (as we will soon see), and children. When we face loss, God does not expect us to take it stoically. He understands the pain that loss brings to us. He grieves with us, and it hurts God to see us hurting. I fear that sometimes, we put undue burdens on our shoulders as we try to stoically cope with suffering as though any sign of sorrow or despair over our circumstances is somehow a slight against God or a chink in our armor.
When Jesus suffered because of His imminent death and the cup of wrath and sorrow He would have to endure on the cross, the text tells us just how intense His prayer was:
“And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (Luke 22:44 ESV).
If Jesus wasn’t immune to having an emotional and physical reaction to intense suffering, then perhaps we need to show ourselves and others grace when we endure our own painful moments of suffering. And it wasn’t just for Himself that Jesus felt this kind of pain; He also empathized with others. In the shortest verse in the Bible, we read in John 11:35 that Jesus wept. His friend Lazarus had just died, but Jesus knew He was going to raise His friend from the dead, and in a matter of moments, He would be speaking to and sharing a meal with Lazarus that very day. A close examination of the text shows us why Jesus was full of emotion so intense that it made Him cry:
“Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.” (John 11:32-33 ESV).
It seemed to be the pain He saw in His friends which caused Jesus to be deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled Him. So, as we read Job 3 and see Job curse the day he was born and speak about how bad his life was, we need to give Him the same grace that the Lord would give him; the same grace that the Lord gives us when we are hurting and go through the process of coping with our pain.
It’s important to note that 3 of Job’s friends had come to him when they heard of his tragedy. They came to comfort him. As they approached, Satan had done such a number on Job’s body that they didn’t even recognize Job. They all wept with him, and then the text tells us that they all sat with him in silence for seven days. Job broke the silence with the curse he made on the day of his birth in Chapter 3. After this, his friends begin to speak.
Before we look at their words, it will help us to understand the prevailing wisdom that people in the days of Job had about God and how He interacted with people. We will see this borne out in the advice and accusations we see them make to Job. But it might be helpful to understand that up until now, it is likely Job shared the same beliefs his friends shared.
From the advice his friends gave to Job, we learn that they believed in a straightforward reward/punishment paradigm between God and man. If you obeyed God, He would reward you. If you sinned against God, He would punish you. Therefore, by looking at whether people prospered or suffered, you could tell whether they were sinful or obedient to God. Because of how Job handled his friends’ accusations against him, I suspect that he, too, probably believed in this reward/punishment paradigm. But the problem came when his personal experience didn’t fit into this paradigm. He knew he was faithful and righteous. He knew he had not sinned against God, yet, he was suffering in such a devastating way that it was hard to believe that his lot was caused by anything other than the hand of God against him. Here is the crux of the belief Job and his friends struggled with:
1. God was sovereign as the Creator and all-powerful in the affairs of men.
2. God rewarded good behavior and punished evil behavior.
3. Job’s suffering was so complete that it must have come by the hand of God.
Here is where Job and his friends diverge, which we will look at in detail throughout this chapter. Job’s friends kept the convention of the paradigm that they believed in. Therefore, the only reasonable conclusion was that Job’s suffering resulted from sin against God. The utter harshness and completeness of his suffering meant Job’s sin was great against God. The only remedy and course of action for Job, then, was to confess his sin, repent, and God would then shower His blessings upon Job again.
Until now, it is quite possible that Job believed in a similar punishment/reward paradigm. Some of his responses lend to this conclusion with Job. For example, when Zophar stated the obvious in his eyes, he told Job:
“If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away, and let not injustice dwell in your tents. Surely then you will lift up your face without blemish; you will be secure and will not fear. You will forget your misery; you will remember it as waters that have passed away.” (Job 11:14-16 ESV).
Zophar reminded Job about this common belief that God punished the wicked and rewarded the just. He encourages Job to become just, and God would reward Him. Notice when Job responds to Zophar, he doesn’t argue the basic assumptions of this belief. He responds rather sarcastically, reminding Zophar that he is not teaching Job anything new:
“Then Job answered and said: “No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you. But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?” (Job 12:1-3 ESV).
Job struggles with aligning his suffering with his belief. In all honesty, Job has no clue what he did that could have been so bad to bring down this harsh judgment from God. As he racks his brain to connect the dots between his beliefs and circumstances, Job starts to say things that challenge this paradigm. When he does this, the attacks against him grow bolder and harsher from his three friends, and Job responds just as obstinately in his own defense as they do in their attacks against him. To illustrate, look at these exchanges. In exasperation, Eliphaz quits beating around the bush and accuses Job of specific sins:
“Is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities. For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing and stripped the naked of their clothing. You have given no water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry. The man with power possessed the land, and the favored man lived in it. You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless were crushed.” (Job 22:5-9 ESV).
Later, Job responds to these attacks by reminding them that not only isn’t he guilty of these charges, but his actions testify to his righteousness:
“When the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it approved, because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him. The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know. I broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made him drop his prey from his teeth.” (Job 29:11-17 ESV).
So, you have Job and his three friends who seem to believe God rewards the good and punishes the evil. Job’s friends, however, see Job’s suffering as evidence of his evil. On the other hand, Job knows he has been righteous and has done nothing to deserve punishment. And this sets up the very action from God that will cause the sovereign Creator’s anger to burn against the three friends as well as take Job to the woodshed for the way he demanded a defense from God.
Do you remember the mistake that the Sadducees made? First, they erred by not knowing the Scriptures and by not knowing God’s power. Job and his friends made the same mistake the Sadducees made when they built a belief system based on faulty inferences.
The friends’ faulty inference was that God always rewarded the just and punished the evil. We know that isn’t true. Proverbs give us truisms that teach wisdom, but these sayings are not absolutes. That is the point of the book of Ecclesiastes.
“Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11 ESV).
But we also know that:
“Be assured, an evil person will not go unpunished, but the offspring of the righteous will be delivered.” (Proverbs 11:21 ESV).
The error the friends made is forgetting time and chance play a part in fortune, misfortune, and God’s sovereignty. God’s sovereignty can override time and chance if He so chooses. Job sees his own circumstances and concludes that sometimes bad things happen to good people and sometimes good things happen to bad people. When he makes this observation, it sets his friends off:
“Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power? Their offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them.” (Job 21:7-9 ESV).
And:
“One dies in his full vigor, being wholly at ease and secure, his pails full of milk and the marrow of his bones moist. Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of prosperity. They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them.” (Job 21:23-26 ESV)
It is to this that Eliphaz makes the specific accusations against Job in chapter 22 we read earlier. We understand what Job and his three friends didn’t understand; we know God does not always punish right away or reward right away. The martyred spirits in Revelation 6:10 cried out, asking when the sovereign God would avenge their blood. And 2 Peter 3:9 reminds us God is longsuffering and doesn’t always punish immediately as He often gives men time to repent and avoid His wrath.
So, putting a stake in the ground with a faulty premise caused the three friends to come to a false conclusion about God. Their misguided belief meant that they laid the blame for Job’s suffering at His feet, and it caused them to falsely accuse an innocent man of doing something he did not do. What was God’s response to this?
“After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” (Job 42:7 ESV).
These men did not recognize the basic understanding of God’s sovereignty, and I fear it is the same sin we are often guilty of committing. We put our stake in the ground with beliefs and inferences about God and then accuse God of evil if He violates these beliefs, or we say God must behave in a specific way because of these beliefs. Sometimes we end up erring because we do not know the Scriptures (though we think we know them), or we do not know the power of God. We must learn from Job’s friends that God always gets the benefit of the doubt from us. We must never say God must act a certain way or not act a certain way, lest He is guilty of evil. This is about as close to blasphemy as we can get, even though we say these things with a clean heart based on the Scriptures we read. Suppose we are in error in our understanding of Scripture or have an incomplete understanding of Scripture. In that case, we end up attacking God’s sovereignty because He does not live up to our inaccurate understanding of His word.
God’s sovereignty means we never lay accusations at His feet and never say God must or must not act a certain way. Neither will we ever say if God acts in a certain way, it is evidence of Him being evil. God is free to tell us what He will or will not do, but respect for a sovereign God means we always know where our boundaries are and never cross them. As we will see in a moment, Job crossed those boundaries, even when he did not accuse God of wrongdoing. There are just some things a created being cannot do to a sovereign God, and accusing Him of evil or demanding that He give a defense for His actions/inactions will always cross the line and cause us to be guilty of profaning His sovereignty.
I am in Numbers in my daily Bible reading. In chapter 11, the people complain about having only manna to eat. Think about this... hundreds of thousands of men, millions when you consider women and children, are wandering in the desert. Deserts do not have an abundance of food or water, yet the Lord provided daily for their needs.
But it was not enough for the people. They complained, and it angered God. But God told Moses that He would send meat for them to eat for a whole month. This was Moses' response to God:
“But Moses said, “The people among whom I am number six hundred thousand on foot, and you have said, 'I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month!'
Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, and be enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, and be enough for them?” (Numbers 11:21-22 ESV).
What goes through Moses' mind are logistics. Where, he wonders, will we be able to find enough meat in the desert for a meal, let alone for an entire month?
“And the LORD said to Moses, “Is the LORD's hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.” (Numbers 11:23 ESV).
Let's admit it. Sometimes, we wonder how God will do what seems impossible for us. Rather than rule out God's help because of the complexity of what we need, shouldn't we have faith and commit it to God's sovereign decision for us? If we rule out any petition simply because our requests seem impossible, we show a lack of faith in God's omnipotence. This is what the Lord says to Moses:
“And the LORD said to Moses, “Is the LORD's hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.” ... Then a wind from the LORD sprang up, and it brought quail from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day's journey on this side and a day's journey on the other side, around the camp, and about two cubits above the ground.” (Numbers 11:23, 31 ESV).
The next time we need something from the Lord, let us ask without giving God a crutch. Indeed, His hand is never too short. Let us ask in faith and respect His sovereignty in answering the way He wills. Our God can do far more than we ask or even think.
Let us dig deep concerning what we believe and what we are willing to do for our belief in Jesus and His Kingdom.
We should be willing to be put out of the synagogue rather than put out of the wedding feast He is hosting.
“Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue;
for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.” (John 12:42-43 ESV).
I am finishing up the book of Numbers in my daily Bible reading. Chapter 30 starts by talking about vows. The whole chapter deals with when vows are binding and when vows are null and void.
By the time Jesus arrived, the Jews had all kinds of rules that explained when you had to keep your vows and when you didn't.
“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.'
You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred?
And you say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.'
You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.
And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it.
And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.” (Matthew 23:16-22 ESV).
But when Jesus spoke of vows in the Sermon on the Mount, His message was much simpler and left no room to assign some vows as vows a person didn't have to keep:
“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.'
But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,
or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.
Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from evil.” (Matthew 5:33-37 ESV).
Citizens in Jesus' Kingdom don't need rules to determine when we must keep our word and when we can get by with breaking our word. Jesus tells us not to lie; therefore, His citizens will simply live by their word.
Our yes will be yes, and our no will be no simply because we are people of truth, and we live by truth.
I am in the book of Deuteronomy in my daily Bible reading. Moses is ready to depart as Joshua begins to take up the mantle of leadership. But before Moses leaves, he prepares the new generation to take their inheritance by reminding them of what God has done for them in the past.
He reminded them when the whole assembly heard the voice of God and how overpowering His presence was. Moses told them that the people approached and said to him,
“Go near and hear all that the LORD our God will say, and speak to us all that the LORD our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it.” (Deuteronomy 5:27 ESV).
This was pleasing to God. This was the heart that God wanted from His people. In fact, listen to how this spirit touched the heart of God:
“Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!” (Deuteronomy 5:29 ESV).
Oh, that we all had this heart for God always. The heart to do all that he says. To revere Him with all our hearts. To be moved to obey Him no matter what influences and pressure we feel in our society. To follow Him and not yield to the power of evil.
Oh, that we should have such a heart as this always.
Why read the Bible daily? Because it is written to guide us in Kingdom living as we give our allegiance to King Jesus. In His grace and providence, Jesus has preserved His word and made it available in every man's tongue.
We do not need priests to tell us what God wants us to do. We do not need a clergy-laity distinction defining who can and cannot understand God's simple message to us.
But it takes a commitment to spending time in the Word. It takes discipline and dedication. It will not come by osmosis or through a supernatural imparting. We must love the Word and make it part of our daily activity.
If we don't read the Word regularly, we will be susceptible to someone else telling us what we should believe. The Bible is simple enough for us to understand Jesus' will for us. While there may be wisdom in seeking insights from others, Jesus should be the One we go to first and last.
Others may impress us with their theology and oratory skills, but unless we become as these little ones, we will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Listen to the wisdom of others, but follow Jesus, and let us not let anyone convince us to do or believe something we cannot see in the Word as we spend time daily in it.
Many are willing to be the ones who tell us everything we need to believe, but it will be Jesus, not them, to whom we will answer on Judgement Day.