LIFE LESSONS
JOB
DR. JIM DIXON
JOB 1:6-12
JUNE 6,2004
The Book of Job is one of the most mysterious books in the Bible. The book is anonymous. We don’t know who wrote the book. The author does not give his name. The Book of Job tells the story of a man named Job who was from the Land of Uz. Of course, the problem is Bible scholars do not know what the Land of Uz was. We don’t know when the Book of Job was written. Some Bible scholars believe Job is a very old book, the oldest book in the Bible. They believe the Book of Job was written during the Patriarchal Period, making it the earliest of Old Testament Books. But other Bible scholars believe that Job is a young book relatively, that it was written during the Hellenistic Period, making it the latest book in the Old Testament. Obviously a vast difference of opinion spanning many years.
It is also true that the literary genre of Job is often debated. There are some Bible scholars who believe that the Book of Job is parabolic literature, that God is speaking truth to His people through the use of parable, even as Jesus spoke truth through the use of parable in the New Testament. There are other Bible scholars that believe that the Book of Job is historical literature and they sight the Berlin Execration Rights written in the 19th century before Christ which mentions a man named Job who was the Prince of Damascus. They say maybe this is the biblical Job and maybe Damascus was part of the Land of Uz. They also cite the Amarna Correspondence written in the 15th century before Christ which mentions a man named Job who was the Prince of Pella. They say maybe this was the biblical Job and maybe Pella was part of the Land of Uz.
Of course, Job is mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel and also in the Book of James. There is no reason to doubt that there was a man named Job and that his life is historical. There is no reason to doubt that but, you see, there’s also no doubt that the Book of Job is very complex literature with a variety of genres. The Book of Job is a book of poetry written in dialogue with a narrative prologue and a prose epilog. It is a masterpiece of literature and a great gift from God.
Now, most scholars believe that the man Job probably lived during the Patriarchal Period long, long ago. His story was passed on from generation to generation by oral tradition and then finally during the time of Solomon. wisdom literature was very popular. The Book of Job was written prompted by God, inspired by God, and for one purpose. That purpose is to answer the question, “Why?” “Why do the righteous suffer?” In the corollary to that question, “Is God Just?” Perhaps you’ve asked that question. “Why do the righteous suffer?” Have you ever pondered that? In the Book of Job, there are basically three answers given. First of all, Satan. The righteous suffer because of Satan. This of course is the clear and inescapable message of the Prologue of the Book of Job. It is Satan who afflicts Job. It is Satan who causes Job to suffer.
On February 9, in the year 1855, a strange thing happened in the country of England, in Southern England in the Region of Devon. It snowed that morning of February 9, 1855. Snow was very rare in Southern England. It had been a bitter and a cold winter and the people woke up and they saw snow just covering the ground. They saw something more strange. They saw footprints in the snow and these were not normal footprints. These were cloven hoofs. These footprints were not from a quadruped. They were not from a 4-legged animal. This was from a bipedal animal. Cloven hoofs from an animal with two legs that stood upright. They knew that there is no such animal so they thought maybe this had been a prank. For the next two or three days, they followed these footprints, and to their amazement, they went for 100 miles. This must have been a serious prank. More amazingly, they saw that these hoof prints went up on the sides of homes and went up the sides of walls and right over the rooftops. They didn’t even go around homes and houses, just went right over the buildings.
The rumors began to spread and then finally the London Times in headlines printed these words, “The Devil Walks in Devon.” Of course, to this day, no one knows what walked in Devon that winter, and I don’t know, but I do know this. The history of the world is filled with history. I know that the history of the world is also filled with mythology. The image of the devil as a homed, cloven-hoofed creature is from mythology. The image of the devil with a pitchfork is from mythology. Mythology has nothing to do with the Bible. The Bible simply tells us that the devil is a spiritual being with great power. Don’t think that Satan is mythological. Don’t make the tragic mistake of denying the spiritual warfare so clearly revealed in the pages of Holy Scripture. It’s intellectual arrogance to believe that man is the only intelligent being in the universe. We would be intellectually bankrupt if we thought the material world was the sum of reality.
The Bible says there is a spiritual world and there’s such a thing as spiritual warfare. Satan is real. A spiritual entity with great power. In Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 are veiled references to Satan and the day of his beginning and the dawn of his life. If these are veiled references, as many Bible scholars believe, then the devil in the beginning was named Lucifer, which means, “light bringer,” but Satan brings the light no longer. He brings only darkness and he is fallen as described in Revelation, chapter 12. He afflicts the saints. He tempts. He deceives, and he wants your soul.
According to last week’s issue of Newsweek Magazine, 74% of the people in the United States of America believe that the devil exists. Seventy-four percent of the people of America believe that Satan is real—93% of evangelicals. But, you see, the devil doesn’t care. He doesn’t care whether you believe this or whether you believe he doesn’t exist. He just wants your soul and he afflicts and he tempts and he deceives because he wants your soul.
You can travel to the Republic of Turkey today and you could go to the city of Izmir. Izmir is a city about the size of Denver. The greater metropolitan area about 2 million people. In biblical times, in the time of Christ, in the days of Jesus, Izmir was called Smyrna. Even today in the middle of the city of Izmir are the ruins of the ancient biblical city of Smyrna. For a fee, you can go into a gated area and you can walk those ancient streets and you can see the pillars. Barb and I did that with some friends. We found an ancient spring on a stone street. We sat down there and we had a Bible study.
We remembered the message that Jesus sent the church at Smyrna when Jesus told the Christians at Smyrna that they were about to suffer, that they were about to be persecuted, and Jesus told them it would all come from Satan. This message should not surprise you. Jesus consistently spoke of the devil as real and the afflicter of God’s people. We see this message in the Old Testament and the New. Satan causes suffering.
So, we look at Job and it’s very clear Satan afflicts Job. Satan afflicts Job physically and Job loses his health. Satan afflicts Job financially and Job loses his wealth. Satan afflicts Job emotionally and relationally and Satan snuffs out the lives of Job’s children. Of course, the hard thing, I think for many of us, God allows it. That’s very clear in the Prologue. God allows it. This should not surprise us either because the Bible is consistently clear. God allows His people to be tested. Maybe you’re feeling tested today. Maybe you’re feeling tested financially. Maybe you’re suffering. Maybe you’re afflicted physically in your health and you’re suffering. Maybe you’ve lost a loved one. Maybe you’re being tested emotionally and relationally and spiritually. Testing. God does allow it. Maybe your testing, maybe your suffering in part comes from Satan because spiritual warfare is real.
I read kind of a humorous story and yet it’s allegedly true about the FAA. It seems that some years ago, the FAA developed a new test for commercial airplane windows. They developed an apparatus, a machine that was kind of like a rocket launcher. They would use this machine to launch dead chickens at the windshields of commercial airliners. The airliners would be on the ground and stationery but they could adjust the machine and set the speed and velocity to approximately what happens when a bird crashes into an airplane windshield, and they wanted to make sure these airplane windshields were safe so they had these machines that launched dead chickens.
Of course, in London and in England, they have high-speed trains and they have the same problem with these high-speed trains that move at more than 200 miles per hour. They are very fearful of the impact of birds on these train windshields. They heard about the FAA’s new machine and they asked the FAA is they could borrow this machine to test their high-speed trains. The FAA said, “Sure.” They sent the machine and the instructions over to England and they conducted the test and they used this rocket launcher to launch this dead chicken right at the windshield of the train. To their amazement, the chicken went right through the windshield and passed through a section of the engineer’s chair and embedded in the back wall of the engineer’s cabin. They were like, “WOW! What did we do wrong?” They wrote the FAA and they said, “What did we do wrong?” The FAA wrote back and said, “Thaw the chicken.” It’s allegedly true.
Maybe you feel like you’re being tested and something has got to be wrong. Something must be wrong because you’re not passing the test. But God wants you to know that if you’re really a Christian, if you really believe in Jesus and you’ve made that commitment to Jesus Christ as your Savior and your Lord and you’ve committed your days to follow Him, God wants you to know that He is working sovereignty in your life. He is working providentially in your life. He will not allow you, the Bible says, to be tested beyond what you’re able to endure so He wants you to trust.
Regardless of what you’re going through, we all have this in common. We want the Lord to protect us don’t we? We want the Lord to do for us what he did for Job in the beginning and that’s build a hedge. We want the Lord to build a divine hedge around our health, around our wealth, around our families, our loved ones. We all want that hedge. We don’t want to be tested. Yet God would remind us that this life is just a classroom. Death is graduation. Heaven is eternal. We’re going to be tested in this world. The Lord says, “Trust Me.” The Bible says, “Behold, your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist Him firm in the faith, knowing that this same experience of suffering is required of your brothers and sisters all over the world. When you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus will restore you, establish you and strengthen you. To God be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
This is the promise we have in Christ. Why do we suffer? The first answer in the Book of Job is Satan, spiritual warfare. The second answer in the Book of Job is sin. Why do we suffer and why do the righteous suffer? The answer is sin because no one is completely righteous. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Even Job was a sinner. And so, the second answer from the Book of Job is suffering comes from sin. Of course, this is the message given to Job by his three friends, sometimes called his three counselors.
One of those was Bildad the Shuhite. Of course, Bildad the Shuhite is the answer to the Sunday School trivia question, “Who’s the shortest man in the Bible?” Some Sunday School teachers say, Nehemiah, but knee hi is higher than Shuhite. Now, we go astray… So, Job had three friends, Bildad the Shuhite, Zophar the Naamathite, and Eliphaz the Temanite. These were the three counselors that came to Job. They gave him counsel and they told him suffering is caused by sin. Of course, we know experientially (I mean, it’s tautological) that sin brings suffering.
We can look at the prisons of the world and millions of people incarcerated, and most of them are suffering because of their sin. And perhaps by their sin they have caused others in the world to suffer as well. We also see that in our own lives sometimes. Sin brings suffering. Even the suffering of illness and disease can be related to sin. People involved in sexual misconduct, sexual sin and sexual promiscuity can suffer from a variety of sexual diseases because sin and suffering are associated. This is a lesson our culture just refuses to learn.
We look in the Bible and we see Jesus healing the ill and the afflicted, the diseased. So, often He touches them and He says, “Your sins are forgiven you.” He’s healing them of some disease but He says, “Your sins are forgiven you,” because in the mind of Christ sin and suffering, sin and disease are associated. So, you come to the Book of James, the 5th chapter, and we’re instructed that when we are diseased, when we’re ill, when we’re sick, call for the elders of the church. Ask them to pray over you. Countless members of this church have called for the elders of the church to pray over them, over you. The elders of this church have always been faithful and we’ve never turned anybody down, but that passage in the Book of James also says that if you’re suffering and you’re ill and you’re sick, confess your sins. Do you do that? Do you have any known sin? Is there any practice of sin that you’ve not repented of? That you’re not at war with? Sin is dangerous.
Now, we come to John, chapter 9, and we see the man born blind. The disciples say to Christ, “Who sinned? This man or his parents that he was born blind?” Jesus said, “It is not that this man sinned or his parents but rather that the glory of God might be manifested, and Jesus healed the man born blind and the glory of God was manifested. But the message of this is clear. Not all illness, not all disease, not all suffering is caused by our personal sin. We should not judge somebody when they’re sick or ill. It could be related to their sin but it also could not. We also should understand that this relationship between suffering and sin can be societal. Societal sin brings massive suffering. So, the societal sin of racism which characterized large portions of the German people in the 1930s and the 1940s ultimately brought about the suffering of the Jewish people and the gassing and incinerating of 6 million Jews.
The societal sin of racism which characterized the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century ultimately led to a massive genocide of the Armenians. One to two million Armenian people were slaughtered because of the societal sin of racism in the Armenian Holocaust. Of course, in our own nation and in our own history, we’ve had this societal sin of racism, and it produced the horror of slavery and untold suffering for millions of African Americans. Societal sin. Of course, a society characterized by the sin of sloth will have an undue number of impoverished people. A society characterized by the sin of greed and materialism will find its wealthy oppressing its poor because sin and suffering are always linked.
You can look at the church of Jesus Christ in the I” century and you see suffering because of the sin of the Roman Empire, because of the sin of the Roman Empire and the Roman Empire’s religious intolerance and religious oppression. From Nero to Domitian and beyond, the Roman Emperors persecuted Christians and this was sin, bringing suffering. When you think of the Colosseum or the Flavian Amphitheater, you think of Christian persecution and you think of the Circus Maximus and the Roman Hippodromes throughout the Roman Empire, you think of Christian persecution. When you think of Roman crosses lining the Via Sacra, you think of Christian persecution.
The Romans turned persecution into an art form. They had a variety of ways of cutting people in two. For their amusement and their entertainment, they rolled Christians in tar at night and lit them on fire like burning living torches, watching them scream until they died. It’s a matter of historical record that they wrapped Christians in flesh, in animal flesh, in the daytime and then fed them to wild dogs for their amusement and entertainment. They drove Christians into the earth. Dead or alive they drove them underground. When you think of the Roman Catacombs, you think of Christian persecution and it’s all sin. It’s all sin.
And don’t think the persecution of Christians, by the way, ended with Constantine the Great. Christians are being persecuted today and in massive numbers all over the world. You look in the Sudan today, Southern Sudan, where an Islamic regime is persecuting and slaughtering human beings in mass. More than 2 million human beings, most of them Christians, have been murdered and executed in the Southern Sudan. It’s all sin. Numbers of people who have died in Afghanistan or in Iraq, it pales when compared with what’s happening in the Sudan. The media doesn’t care because it’s not politically relevant to their agenda. There are Christian persecutions taking place all over the world and it’s documented by Freedom House, by the Hudson Institute, by Amnesty International, by the NAE and by the United States Congress. These are documented persecutions.
According to Open Doors, the slaughtering of Christians in the Sudan is only the third worst nation in the world when it comes to Christian persecution. It’s the third of 87 nations that have documented cases of Christian persecution—87 nations—and it’s all because of sin.
This is D Day. June 6, 1944 we remember those men, courageous, brave and afraid all at once, who stormed the beaches of Normandy and they did it because of sin, because of the sin of racism that characterized the Nazi world, because of the greed, the insatiable thirst for power that characterized the Nazi world. They did it because they were fighting sin. We paid a dear price and we honor their memory. Of course, all of the allied powers suffered. War always involves suffering. The English people suffered during World War II. You can remember the Battle of Dunkirk in Northern France and how the British and the allied forces there were defeated in 1940 and they fled en masse across the English Channel, returning home—800 ships, 338,000 soldiers crossing the English Channel seeking safety in England.
The English people were in shock. They thought their nation was about to fall and the Nazis thought the same. Hitler thought England was about to surrender and they were about to surrender, but then Winston Churchill gave a speech in May of 1940. Winston Churchill gave a speech called the “Blood, Sweat and Tears Speech.” Remember that? He said to the Parliament and to the British people, “All I have to offer you is blood, toil, tears and sweat.” By the grace of God, the people rose up, convicted, courageous and they prevailed by the grace of God.
Jesus Christ speaks to His people and He says to us, “If they hated Me, they will hate you. If the world persecutes Me, the world will persecute you.” Jesus said, “You will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.” Jesus said, “I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.” Jesus said, “He who would come after Me, let him take up his cross and follow Me. He who would save his life will lose it, but he who would lose his life for My sake and for the sake of the Gospel will find it.” This is the call of Christ on His people.
We’re at war with sin. We’re engaged in a spiritual war. We’re at war with the sin within us and we’re at war with societal sin in all of its diverse forms. Sin brings suffering. Why do the righteous suffer? The first answer is Satan and the second answer is sin.
The final answer in the Book of Job is sanctification. The righteous suffer for the sake of sanctification, and this message comes from Elihu, this mysterious messenger who comes to Job after the three friends. You see the three friends in chapters 4 to 31, but Elihu’s lengthy speeches are found in chapters 32 through 37. The message of Elihu is suffering is for the sake of sanctification. Even if you are without sin, even if you are relatively righteous, suffering is educational. It produces spiritual formation. It’s involved in what we would call discipleship. Suffering brings growth. This is the third message of the Book of Job. We suffer because Christ is trying to refine, or God is trying to refine even the righteous.
On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded only 73 second after its launch and the nation was shocked. The biggest shock since the assassination of JFK in 1963. This nation was shocked. For the first time in American history, the President cancelled the State of the Union Address. Ronald Reagan, who of course passed away yesterday, was the President. He cancelled the State of the Union Address. He waiting three days and then Ronald Reagan addressed the nation. He began by expressing sympathy and sorrow for those who died and for all of their loved ones and for all the pain and the tragedy and then he began to rally the nation. He said, “We’ll never give up!” He said, “We’re engaged in a quest and no amount of suffering is going to deter us from that quest. We seek knowledge. We seek to know the universe. This is part of our quest and we will not be deterred.”
As Christians, we’re engaged in a quest—we should be—and that quest is to become like Jesus. Our quest is the character of Jesus Christ. This is my quest. Is this your quest? The character of Christ? It involves some suffering. It involves some pain. But of course, it’s for the sake of sanctification and therefore in James, chapter 1, verse 2, we read, “Count it all joy when you experience various trials for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” So, it’s all for the sake of sanctification.
I think many of you know that violins, the greatest violins, play beautiful and majestic music, but those great violins are not made from soft pinewood. They’re made from hard wood, wood that’s been weathered, wood that has been tested. Christ wants to make beautiful music through you and through me, and it involves some weathering. It involves some suffering.
C.S. Lewis once said, “God whispers in our pleasures. God shouts in our pain!” Of course, I have not found it always to be so. Some people in the midst of their pain can barely hear God, but oftentimes it is true that in the midst of suffering we draw closer to the Lord and that’s sometimes where growth really takes place.
In Bangkok, Thailand today, there is a temple called the Temple of the Golden Buddha. Inside this temple, there is a statue, an image of Buddha, and incredibly it is 5,000 pounds of pure gold worth more than $100 million. The Temple of the Golden Buddha in Bangkok, Thailand. This statue was found in 1951 while a road construction company was building a highway. They unearthed this statue. They knew it was old but they didn’t think it was valuable because it appeared to be made of clay. Then as they tried to move the thing, they dropped it and the clay casing broke and they saw the solid gold Buddha underneath. They discovered that this Buddha had once belonged to the King of Siam in the 17th century. When he was being attacked by the Burmese, he ordered that this golden Buddha be covered with clay, that he might hide it from the enemy.
If you’re a Christian, if you’re a genuine Christian and you really believe, the Bible says, “There’s gold in you.” Deep inside of you now, there’s pure gold. There wasn’t before Christ, but now, pure gold. The Bible says that when we accept Christ and we make that commitment to live for Him and follow Him, in that moment we make the commitment He sends His Spirit within us and His Spirit brings a new nature. The nature of Jesus actually comes deep within us. Pure gold. But the Bible says we still have the old nature and it’s like clay that covers the gold. We still have that old nature, that sin nature, and so there’s this process in life called sanctification and God, Christ, is seeking to chip away the clay and get to the pure gold, that the character of Christ might be manifested in us. Of course, this involves some suffering and I think too that our suffering is not only for our sanctification but it’s also sometimes used by God to sanctify others. Are you willing to suffer that someone else might be sanctified? Am I willing to suffer that somebody else might be sanctified?
I read a short time ago about a man named Zev Traum. Zev Traum was a Jewish man who lived in New York City in 1979. He was a young Jewish man and proud of his heritage. Of course, in 1948, Israel had become a nation again. In 1967, the Jews had captured the city of Jerusalem. Many Jewish people were returning to their homeland and Zev Traum, this Jewish man who lived in New York City, this young man in 1979, decided to go and live in Israel. And so, he did. He went there and he met a woman named Brenda, a young Jewish woman, and they were married. They fell in love and they were married and they loved each other.
Fourteen years later in 1993, Zev Traum got up one morning like any other morning. He had breakfast with his family, his two children and his wife Brenda. When he was finished with breakfast, he kissed his kids before going to work and he held Brenda and kissed her. He told her that he loved her. Then he went out the door. He went to the Gaza Strip where he served as a military policeman. He was two hours into his patrol when it happened. A bullet came from somewhere. To this day, they know not where, but it went right into his chest. When Brenda arrived at the hospital, her husband was already dead. He was being kept alive artificially but she knew his soul had already left the body. She kissed her husband. She went and signed the papers that the machines would be turned off. She signed more papers and they took his strong beating heart and they put it into the chest cavity of a 43-year old Palestinian Arab. It saved that Palestinian Arab’s life with the heart of Zev Traum.
His wife said that in the midst of the suffering and in the midst of the pain, it somehow gave her some comfort to know that Zev’s heart had been used to save another life and particularly the life of a Palestinian Arab because she said this would have pleased her husband. Years later she said she couldn’t believe the goodness of God. God had taken this suffering and this pain and brought so much good because word spread that a 43-year-old Palestinian Arab was walking around with a Jewish heart. That word, as it spread, had an impact and Arabs and Jews began to come together and many Arab and Jews became friends. Good out of suffering and sanctification came to some through the suffering of another.
There are lots of stories like that and of course we all hope and pray that when we suffer, God will use it for good. Yet there’s ultimately no satisfactory answer sometimes for why we suffer. We know Satan is working and spiritual warfare is real. We know that sometimes suffering is related to our sin or societal sin or somebody’s sin. We know that sometimes, and virtually always, there’s a purpose of sanctification that’s involved, either our sanctification or the sanctification of somebody else. But suffering remains a mystery. Sometimes personal pain can be an imponderable.
A few years ago, I was having lunch with Barb at a Chinese restaurant. We were just having lunch there and Barb looked at me and she said, “You know I’m often amazed at how many beautiful women are attracted to such ugly men.” I said, “Are you talking about me? Are you talking about us?” Barb pointed to another couple in the restaurant and she was a beautiful gal and she was with this guy with long hair which wasn’t the problem, but his long hair was unkempt. It was grody and he had a face to match. They were holding hands. As they were holding hands, you could just see they loved each other. There was something imponderable about that. Kind of a mystery there although I’m sure they both had beautiful hearts.
I was reminded of a book by David Feldman called “Imponderables.” It dealt with mysteries that don’t matter really. Like why women open their mouths when they put mascara on. Or why Sugar Frosted Flakes have the same number of calories as Corn Flakes without the sugar frosting. Imponderables. And of course, it never deals with any of the big questions. This book didn’t deal with anything big or significant.
Nothing like why do the righteous suffer? But, you see, God deals with that. The Bible deals with that. God wants you to ponder this and He wants you to know that these three answers are good answers. Satan, sin, sanctification. It’s all related to suffering but ultimately it’s still a mystery. You come to the end of the Book of Job in chapters 38 to 42 and suddenly God appears and God speaks to Job out of the whirlwind and Job is speechless. He sees the glory of God. It must have been like Moses on Sinai. Or Peter, James and John at the Mount of Transfiguration or John in his later years on the Island of Patmos, visited by the resurrected Christ. He saw the glory of God and he was speechless.
I think ultimately that’s what it comes down to. As Christians we know when we see Him, every tongue will be stilled. Every tongue will be silent. This life is a classroom. Death is graduation. Heaven is eternal. In this life there is suffering and we’re here to help each other and love each other and comfort each other because it’s not easy. We’re meant to grow into the image of Christ. Satan wants your soul and he wants my soul. Sin brings suffering. Individually or corporately, sin brings suffering. We’re at war with sin and suffering brings sanctification and therefore we count it joy because we seek the character of Christ, knowing one day we’ll see His glory. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.