Lessons From Job 3-7: Walking With Others Through Life’s Painful Valleys

I really appreciate this idea and this illustration about puzzles, as I shared with the first sermon that we gave, which was entitled, Puzzles of God. Because when we really go through some of these really hard trials of life, health trials, loss, just really hard things that kind of bring us down to our...well, they do bring us down to our knees in prayer, often we're trying to put the pieces together of what we're going through and why. Tell me, God, what is this that I'm supposed to learn from this lesson? Like, what is it that I can glean from this? What is it that I can apply and grow and learn from? And it's like God gave us that box of puzzle pieces without the instructions or the photo, and we're starting to try to figure out where the edges are and where the pieces go, so that we can start to understand that image. What is it that God is trying to show us? And I'm going to continue...I plan to continue to show of this puzzle as we continue to put some of the pieces, as I put some of the pieces together, and as we continue to work through the book of Job.

I encourage you maybe to look at it, consider it, if you feel like it, see if you can figure out what it is, what this image is. Because I think this is the practice that we go through at times.

We're not quite sure. We start getting ideas, could it be this, or could it be that? There's certain hints that we see along the way in our journeys with God that we're like, I think this is where He's leading me. I think this is something that I can apply. But until that full picture comes into display, or until God continues to show us, we go through this process of continuing to journey with God as this puzzle continues to be put together, and we continue to make more sense of what can we learn from these journeys of life. The book of Job, as we talked about in the first sermon, isn't really about suffering. That's probably the first time I read through the book of Job. I'm like, yeah, this is just a book about suffering and about trusting God. But lots of books in life and other accounts in the Bible talk about suffering. Job is something about something much bigger. It's about what we do when life, our life, and our experience doesn't fit what we believe God is, our theology, God's theology, when Job doesn't fit our theology, when God's actions seem to contradict His character. That's another challenge that we see displayed in this story. And also, when God is silent, what do we do? These are those things that pop out from the story of Job. Job teaches us that faith isn't having every answer.

Faith is trusting the God who does. Going back to, again, the puzzle. God knows what the picture is. He knows what it's supposed to be, and we have to trust Him that He will show us as time goes on.

These deeper lessons highlight the limitations of human wisdom, highlights the sovereignty of God, and it highlights learning to trust Him when life makes absolutely no sense. And this is where we find Job in his journey. When everything came crashing down, losing all his prosperity, and losing his children, Job remained blameless.

He worshiped God, and he did not charge God with wrong. It's an unbelievable, most experience of seeing someone go through what he went through, but also not being angry with God through it. But Job will have to wrestle with suffering without cause as we continue the story, and this will press Job harder than anything has ever pressed him in his life.

I think for many of us, we seem to feel closest to God when we're on those mountaintop highs with Him. When we feel like we're at the peak, and we can be close, and we feel like we're close to God. Maybe it's when you heard that best sermon ever that really impacted your life, and it actually motivated you to change.

And you feel like, thank you, God, for talking to me, and thank you for giving me your spirit that I can actually go in a different direction. And we feel really, really close on that mountaintop with God in those moments. Or attending the Feast of Tabernacles and coming home on that spiritual high of the lessons and the fellowship and the journey and keeping our mind and our focus on the Kingdom.

And we come back feeling on that mountain high. Maybe it's serving someone in their time of need and thanking God that He led us to them, and that He could use our talents and gifts to help someone. Or attending a youth camp or a women's weekend or a winter family weekend when we gather with others and then we come back inspired and rejuvenated.

Or maybe we feel close to God on that mountain high, hearing a piece of worship music, which just praises and gives glory to God. And then in our hearts, we feel moved to do the same thing for all that He has done in our lives and for how great He is.

Or even seeing God answer a prayer that we have prayed, where we then feel very close to God and close to His love. These are those mountain highs. And we know there's nothing wrong with any of these experiences or with feeling this way, but when it comes to God's transforming work, God does some of His deepest work in the human life through suffering. It just is the reality of this human experience. If being on the mountaintop is where we feel we see God for who He truly is, being in the valley is where He establishes who we really are.

If feeling like we're closest to God on those mountain highs and we can almost see His face, we can sense and feel how He operates, how He thinks, and we can feel His love, then being in the valley is where He establishes who we really are. The highs and the lows of life, the fullness of life's experiences. We last left off with Job 2 and verse 10, so let's go back to the book of Job, and we'll pick up the story there.

I'm picking it up in verse 11. Job 2 and verse 11. Here is where we meet Job's friends who interact with Job for the majority of the rest of the book. But before we get to their discussions with Job, notice what Scripture says about those, these friends, who came to him.

Job 2 verse 11. Now, when Job's three friends so these are not just acquaintances or people that heard about the story, but these are his friends, heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Namathite, for they had made an appointment together to come and to mourn with him and to comfort him.

And when they raised their eyes from afar and did not recognize him because just they're traveling, they know where he lives, they see this person out in front of their house, and they're like, that can't be Job. He was disfigured. He was the the boils from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet. It had done so much physical damage to his body they didn't even recognize him. It says they lifted their voices and they wept, and each one tore of his robe and sprinkled dust on his head towards heaven.

And so they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word for him, for they saw that his grief was very great. These three verses could be a full-length sermon in of itself, and I want to continue to move through the book, but we're going to spend about 20 minutes kind of evaluating these these three verses, because in them we see truly how deep these relationships were that Job had in his life and how important they were, and how they even how they handled it in the right way.

These were his friends, as Scripture clearly articulates, and they acted as close friends. When they somehow got word, they didn't have email or cell phones, when they somehow got word of his grief and what he was going through, they communicated with one another, and they were sharing among themselves like we often do, did you hear what happened, and my heart hurts, and I want to go do something, and then the other friend must have said, I do too, and there's communication among them because they reasoned together, and they wanted to come journey and come find their friend and find him in his grief and in his discomfort.

And so upon hearing this, they came, and they mourned with him, and they comforted him. I couldn't help but think of a few passages, one being from Ecclesiastes 3, but another one from Romans 12 and verse 15, where you can write this in your notes, Romans 12 verse 15, where Paul says, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, right?

We see this counterbalance of life, to spend time together and to celebrate the mountain highs that some of us have in our lives, but also to be there when our family is at their lowest of lows. Let's go ahead and you can put a marker in here because we're going to come back to Job in just a minute if you want. Let's look at Ecclesiastes 3, because there's a couple passages that I'd like to look at. Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, if you need help like I do, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes 3, and we'll read verses 1 through 4, parts of 1 through 4.

This is a passage we often read at a memorial or funeral upon recognizing that there's these highs and low seasons of life among everything in life. There's seasonal changes that we're going through physically right now, but also in our life as well. Solomon in his wisdom shared this, to everyone or to everything, Ecclesiastes 3 verse 1, to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. In verse 2, a time to be born and a time to die, right? We know that. Verse 4, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.

And as we continue experiencing and going through life, we encounter these times. We all have.

These messages are kind of challenging for me to give as a pastor because I scan across the room, and I can pretty much point out everybody's been at different points of this journey that Job has been along the way, whether it's job losses, whether it's losing a loved one or a spouse, whether it's a severe health trial that some of us have been through. Like, I did it in Detroit, I didn't count point anybody out, but like, it's hard because I'm giving this message and I'm like, you understand and you get it. And I and you guys are all like, yeah, I see a lot of head nods and things like that as we're sharing this because we recognize it. We've been through these hardships.

We've been on this journey of life, some of us for 60, 70, 80, 90 years. We recognize that there's been times to weep and times to laugh, times to mourn and times to dance. And for those of us who've sat with others in their grief, we know how hard and uncomfortable it is. But for those especially close to us, we also know there's no place else we'd rather be than along their side. All right.

I remember when my brother-in-law, Glenn, died in 2021 due to COVID and things. I was sitting at my computer. It was, I think, a Thursday night. It was 9 p.m. I remember the time that my nephew called and shared the devastating news. And just the grief that I went through was the most severe grief I've been through at this point in my life. And we, as a family, sharing it then with Kelsey and Laura and then us talking about it and all of us just grieving, we just sat up till 2 or 3 in the morning because we just couldn't sleep. You're just going over it and you're just in a state of shock and you're just extremely uncomfortable. And where do we go from here? And calling my brother and we're talking about things. And I just remember the spirit in our heart was we wanted to be near all the rest of our family. And we knew that just getting up and throwing things in a bag and driving wasn't going to fix anything. It wasn't going to make it any better. But we had agreed that evening, we'll take tomorrow morning, we're packed, we're going to go. We need to get there tomorrow and be with family. And that drive to Cincinnati, we have done countless times, right? I could tell you the mile markers, halfway point, where the rest areas are and all the things that come along that. So it's a common journey, but it felt like the longest drive to Cincinnati that I'd ever taken. And it wasn't because we were dreading getting there. It wasn't like we're like, oh, I don't want to be there. And it just feels like forever. It was because I couldn't get there fast enough. I don't know if you've ever felt like that when you wanted to be near someone else and their grief. You wanted that companionship, you wanted to be near them, you wanted to be along their side. You also wanted that comfort yourself. Like we just felt like the car was just going 20 miles an hour, that whole drive. And we just couldn't get there fast enough because I just wanted to be near family. We wanted to be together. There's something very special about being present with someone during their most difficult time of life. Something I would even say is spiritual. In the moments, these moments, along another person's side, we contemplate the deep meanings of life. Why are we here? What is our purpose? What is our future? Where do we go from here?

And for the Christian believer, this is where we connect with God. We see His face and we seek His understanding. We may have our questions, right? That's for sure. We have our questions.

And we may have our emotions, but we want to be near to our God in these moments. But reaching this pinnacle of wanting to be near God may take time to process, as we process this initial shock and seek our initial understanding. And this is why being present with others in their grief is so powerful, to let them know they're not alone and to let them know that they're loved.

And what is so perfect and beautiful about Job's friends is that they sat with him in silence for an extended period of time. They knew their words would not be able to ease his grief or suffering. They knew their words, if they uttered any, would fall flat. So they did the most powerful thing that they could do. They sat with their friend in his grief. That's it. They just spent time along his side in his grief. Personally, I carried a huge burden when I entered into ministry that I brought upon myself, realizing that in these times of someone's grief and times of discomfort, they're going to look to me as a pastor, as a minister, for the answers of life. Tell me why God is allowing this. Tell me a scripture that I can have and that I can put in my mind that will help me and take away some of this grief and carry some of this burden. And I felt like as a minister, I better be ready. I need the game plan. And I remember kind of even talking with Steve Myers, who was my mentor, and saying, kind of, how does this work?

And what he did was he showed me how it worked when he sat with people, and he didn't say much.

And he was just present with them. And when we've been able to do that with others, I realized that's what most people want. Of course, there's a few times the question comes up, or can you help me understand something? But those are few and far between, those moments where we just sit with one another. And that alone brings healing and help and comfort.

It doesn't give all the answers, right? But just someone's not alone in their grief.

And I was bearing, I added on to a burden on to ministry that God didn't add on to it myself.

People just want to be near others in these times of grief to help them bear that sorrow and that sadness. Turn forward just to Ecclesiastes chapter 4 and verse 9.

Ecclesiastes 4 and verse 9. This is a passage that Laura and I often share with those who are counseling for marriage, because the principle is very strongly connected to that relationship between a husband and a wife. But it also fits for a sermon like this, and for being together with others. Notice what, again, King Solomon wrote. He says, "...two are better than one." Ecclesiastes 4 and verse 9. "...two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will gift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up." You can almost say woe to him who has no one to sit with him in his grief, because no one's there to help bear that burden and to have that companionship with them. So, two are better than one. Verse 11, again, "...if two lie down together, will they keep warm?" Yeah, they will. But how can one be warm alone?

Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him, and a three-fold cord is not quickly broken. It's a beautiful verse just by itself, symbolizing the unity that we have as husband and wife when God is that third, third, forward, third, forward, third-fold cord. I can't say that three times fast. Don't ask me to. But God acts as that third cord, that unifying cord in a relationship between a husband and a wife. And I think it applies here in grief as well, as we are comforting our friend. God's Spirit is present. God, His truth is in our hearts.

And so He acts, He's in those moments as well when we come together to share in one's grief.

There is so much that can be considered, and gleaned from this example of just three verses of Job's three friends. And if you're looking for homework or a passage to study this week in your own personal Bible study, go back to these three verses and say, okay, how do they apply to my life? How can I be this type of friend to others? What are the ways that I can exhibit this type of friendship and this type of support for someone else?

And taking time to consider and meditate, it's not a bad thing to do when it comes to this passage that we just read, because we share time with one another on this planet. And God gave us these relationships for many purposes, and one of them is to just be together and to be this comfort and help in a time of loss. But I want to continue with the story of Job. One thing I've noticed, maybe more this reading through than previous ones, is just how many layers to the story, how many lessons there are to draw from. Because again, when we consider it like we do often, like an onion and it's multiple layers, when we simply look at the story of Job, it's like looking at a whole onion, and we're like, yeah, I know what it is.

It's an onion. Yeah, I know what Job's story is. It's about suffering and loss. But then as we continue to just read through chapter by chapter, these layers keep coming off. And we continue to see more about this journey that Job is on and the lessons he's learning. And as we peel these layers back, it applies and we see how it fits more and more with our life. Often, going back to the puzzle analogy again, we think we know where this journey is leading us when we go through a challenging situation. We think we can make out the picture, but then God keeps giving us the pieces that keep coming together.

And then we're like, oh, that's okay, now I understand better. And then more pieces come together. Oh, I didn't realize that aspect. And it keeps coming more into clarity. And we see ourselves better for who we really are, and we see better what God is really doing in our lives. And chapter 3 opens up with another layer to the story. And chapters 3 through 41 are written in a more of a poetic style.

So you may notice a little bit of a tone or a little bit of a phrasing change as we continue to read through the story. And then after 41, it switches back to more of a straight line approach in what is going on in the story away from a poetic nature.

Notice Job 3 in verse 1. After this, Job opened his mouth and he cursed the day of his birth. Notice he didn't curse God, but he rather cursed the day of his birth. There's a big difference between those two things. In a sense, he's cursing the horrible circumstance that he is currently in. And that is okay. I think we've all been in bad situations, bad deals, bad things of life, and it's okay to call that circumstance bad.

We've all been there, where we're having a really bad day and we're upset about it. And it's okay to mourn, as Job is in the situation, that life is really difficult right now. And notice as he goes on, and Job spoke and said, May the day perish on which I was born, and the night in which it was said, a male child is conceived. May that day be darkness, and may God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it. And then in the following verses, we're not going to read through all of the verses in these chapters as we work through, but in the following verses, Job pretty much summarizes, it'd be better if I never lived.

It'd be better if I was never born to my mother. He goes on in verse 11 to say, Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb? For now I would have, for now, or verse 13, for now I would have lain still and been quiet. I would have been asleep. And notice, then I would have been at rest. In this opening conversation that Job is having with his friends, it's not a fun or easy chapter to read through, because we see the rawness of him expressing what's going on in his mind and in his heart.

We can feel his grief and how much he just wants it to stop as far as just he just wants peace to enter back in. He says he longs for the grave and is envious of the dead because those who are in the grave, they don't feel anything anymore.

They're not feeling the hurt and the pain. And in speaking of the grave, notice verse 17, he says, There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. Again, using that term, at rest. There the prisoners rest together. They do not hear the voice of their oppressor. The small and the great are there, and the servant is free from his master.

And so for those in the grave, their test is over. No additional testing or trying is necessary. And this is important to understand because some think Job in this passage, this opening conversation, is considering what it would be like if he ended his life. And taking one's life is a complete is a tragedy. And it's not what Job is talking about here.

We know that God has put eternity into the hearts of man. That's why the story of trying to seek out and find the fountain of life exists. And that's why mankind continually continues to look for ways to make our life more comfortable and to live longer, and to be able to experience more things, even if there's a way to capture our spirit of man, our mindset, our personality, and put it into a robot so that robot can live. Because in a sense, we're continuing to live. There's all these ideas and money being spent to just continue to live life to the fullest and as long as we can. This is inherently part of who we are. God has placed this in our hearts. And so if you or someone you know is struggling with hurting themselves or taking their own life, please get the professional help to work through these feelings and thoughts. The reality is, when you take a group of people, and even God's people, from each congregation, there's going to be people who are struggling in this way. And so I have to, as your pastor, as someone who loves you, when we come across these types of passages or these types of difficult passages to read and where it could be like, well, is this what Job's talking about? We have to enter into these conversations because the reality is some are struggling in this way. And it's not weak to seek out help from counselors or from doctors or from even medication. It's not weak. It's actually a sign of strength because you recognize, I want to feel better. I want to live more life more fully. And so I'm going to do the things that I need to to experience that. We would never tell somebody suffering from a heart issue or a lung issue or diabetes or other things. Oh, no, just think happy thoughts and it'll get all better. No, we actually encourage, go get the help you need. And that's a great thing. And so mental challenges of harming yourself or if suicide, these ideas that enter in, help the person along the way because it's not a sign of weakness. That's Satan lying to us. That's 100% what it is. It's our mind and Satan tricking us into believing, oh, I'm weak right now and I should be able to manage this. I should be able to think differently. And that's just a lie for those who are struggling in this way. And so this is why it's so important for anyone struggling like this to have our empathy, to have our compassion, and to have our support no matter what it takes so they get the help they need. This has to be our response, not judgment, not condemnation, or simple words like, well, just think happy or thoughts.

Sadly, I've heard that expressed to people struggling in this way, and it's not helpful at all.

The reality is anyone in this state has tried thinking happy or thoughts probably more times than you or they could ever count, and that's not fixing what's inside and what they're battling with their mind. And so of all times in their life, what they need is for us to love them as God loves them. And if we truly love someone, we seek out what's best for them. We seek out what their needs are, and we walk with them on the journey. As we work through this chapter of Job, again, we have to broach this topic and not shy away from the reality that some are struggling, some in our family are struggling at different times, and that's going to be the lessons of life.

But we can walk with them, we can help them, and God can heal. And so this passage is difficult because of the rawness of Job's suffering. Job is really getting down to saying, if this is what I must suffer, so be it. I just wish it wasn't. I just wish it wasn't. That's what he is saying here in this passage. He goes on in verse 24, for my sighing comes before I eat. He's like, he's not even looking forward to eating a meal. He's like, I'm hungry, I have to eat, because he says, and my groanings pour out like water. And so the condition that he's in, the sores that he has in his head and mouth, everything is just raw, and it's painful. And he's probably groaning with every bite that he takes. And we get to verse 25, which I think encapsulates the heart of what this chapter is about. For the things I greatly feared, notice that word, has come upon me, and what I have dreaded, another key, has happened to me. There's a fear that's been in his mind, a dread that he hoped he would never have to walk, that has now come upon him. He says, I am not at ease, nor am I quiet. I have no rest, for trouble comes. It's hard to say exactly what he feared most or dreaded most, but it could be any of the things that he's suffering, whether it's loss of prosperity, loss of family, loss of his own health, the health difficulty. It's like, one of these things, or all of these things, combined, is what he greatly feared and he dreaded. When we suffer loss, it tends to burn away everything else secondary in our life, doesn't it? When we go through something tremendously hard, those little arguments, those little preferences, where somebody puts the blender on the counter, doesn't matter anymore, right? Because we're so focused on the big important thing now of rallying together, of being in unity, and of seeking just comfort and emotional support.

Everything else is secondary. It doesn't really matter at all.

When we go through the severe trial, it's good that we focus on the most important things, and we prioritize them first. The professional boxer, Mike Tyson, we don't quote Mike Tyson very often from the lecture, do we? But he's quoted as saying, and I did some research, and he said this in a kind of a, this might be a paraphrase of what he said, but he got to the heart of this point. He says, everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face. I think there's so much truth in that statement. Everybody has a plan, right? How I'm going to handle my day, how I'm going to go through life, what decisions I'm going to make, boom, until you get punched in the face. And then that whole plan just goes out the window, like you're shocked, you're dazed, you're trying to figure out, okay, what's up and what's down? So much truth. And for Job, he's taken the biggest punch any of us could ever imagine taking. And so we have to give him room to navigate his emotions, his words, his expressions, not just chapter three, but as we continue through this journey, because he's on a journey that he doesn't understand. That puzzle is the hardest puzzle he's ever seen, and it's the most frustrating one for his life. And he has, and he does not have the comfort of reading chapter one and chapter two, like you and I did, right? He doesn't know why this is all happening, and who's behind it, and how this is all unfolding. All he knows is he has taken the greatest punch he has ever taken, and now he's questioning and coming to God with a lot of different emotions and feelings that he's never felt before.

Now, starting in chapter four, we'll see his friends begin a discourse and a conversation with Job about their understanding of good versus evil and God's blessings and his punishments.

And after seven days of silence, they open their mouths and begin to speak. Notice Job 4 in verse 1, then Eliphaz and Temanite answered and said, if anyone, if one attempts a word with you, will you become weary? So they've been silent up until Job started speaking, and so they're asking him, can we say a few things? But who can withhold himself from speaking? I feel like, Job, we're friends, we're close, you know me, I know you, I really need to say something. He says, Shirley, you have instructed many, Job. You've guided people with wisdom and counsel. You've helped them in their journeys and shared God's wisdom with others. Shirley, you've instructed many, and you have strengthened weak hands. Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have strengthened the feeble knees. He should have just ended here, but he didn't. But now it comes up on you, Job, and you are weary. There's not a question mark in my Bible here, but I feel like there's kind of some questioning going on from his friends. It touches you, and you are troubled. Is not your reverence your confidence? There is a question mark, and the integrity of your ways, your hope? Remember now, whoever perished be an innocent, or where were the upright ever cut off? Even as I have seen, in my experience, Job, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. And this begins a discourse which appears to be the religious thought and worldview of this time, that sin equals suffering.

This is the idea Elphaz is bringing forward. Sin will always bring suffering. Therefore, if you see suffering, then there must be sin. And since God isn't evil, something in Job's life must have caused this sorrow he is dealing with. This isn't an explicit condemnation of Job's sins, we'll see his friends get to that later on in the story. But rather a gentle reminder that cause and effect are at play in people's lives. He's planting the idea in a general way. Well, Job, if we see someone suffering, then there must be something they have done in their life to cause that suffering. I'm just saying. You ever had somebody use that phrase? I'm just saying and giving you some advice or something. Like, shouldn't you? I'm just saying. I think you'd be better off if you... it's kind of like his friends are saying, if you see someone sin, Job, or you see someone suffering rather, then there's something going on in their life that's sinful. I'm just saying. He goes on in verse 17, can a mortal be more righteous than God? I... come on, you're not perfect like God, are you? Your righteousness doesn't match God's righteousness. Can a man be more pure than his Maker? If he puts no trust in his servants, speaking of God, and if he charges his angels with error, how much more are those who dwell in houses of clay, this physical body, this physical earth that we live in, whose foundation is to dust and who are crushed before a moth? Come on, Job. We're nothing, right? We're flawed human beings. Acknowledge your flaws, because that's why you're in the situation you are.

And then notice chapter 5 as Elphaz continues his discourse in verse 6, Job 5 and verse 6. For affliction does not come from the dust, it doesn't just come from nowhere, nor does trouble spring from the ground, yet a man is born into trouble, as the sparks fly upward. As natural as you light a fire, and the sparks from the wood fly up into the air, it's as natural as when one sins, they reap suffering. And then the advice comes in verse 8. He goes, but ask for me, Job, if I was in your shoes, Job, I would seek God and God would commit my cause. And we get into actually a beautiful discourse in verses 9 through 18 that I think if Elphaz would have just started here and said this to Job at the beginning and left it at the end, it would have been a beautiful passage to offer encouragement and hope to Job. Everything he says here is true, but notice we already read what he started with and we'll see what he finishes with. Notice what he says to offer Job some encouragement. Speaking of God, I would seek God and to God I would commit my cause. Verse 9, who does great things and is unsearchable, marvelous things without number. He gives rain on the earth and he sends water on the fields. He sets on high those who are lowly and those who mourn are lifted to safety. This is beautiful advice, beautiful reminders of the God that we serve and how much he cares for us and our individual lives. He goes on to say, he frustrates the devices of the crafty so their hands cannot carry out their plans. He catches the wise in their own craftiness and the counsel of the cunning comes quickly upon them. He goes on with these negative people they meet with darkness in the daytime and they grope at noontime as in the night. He gives out equally to those who deserve punishment, those who are doing things that are not good for others, they get their reward. And it goes back to the positive, but he saves the needy from the sword, from the mouth of the mighty and from their hand, so that the poor have hope. You could say so that the poor in spirit have hope. And injustice shuts her mouth. Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore, do not despise the chastening of the Almighty, for he bruises, but he binds up, he wounds, but his hands make whole. Again, Elphaz is not wrong in any of this discourse that he goes through. And in fact, I feel it's a very encouraging passage that he shared with his friend, helping him to say, like, yeah, God is bigger than what we're going through in life. God knows what we're dealing with. He understands our plight and he lifts up those who need his help.

And if he would have just started and ended with this statement, I think Job would have felt much different about this friend and about how this conversation is going, because this is what Job and all of us in our time of need needs to be reminded of about our wonderful God that we serve, because this is truth. But he didn't stop. Notice verse 27. He says, Behold this, and he's, Eliphaz is referring to everything he said to Job in chapter 4 and 5. Behold this, we have searched out. It is true. Hear it and know for yourself. Job, this is where things stand.

Eliphaz's argument speaks as if this is a natural law of God. It's as natural as smoke rising from a fire, right? If you see smoke, then you know there must be a flame, right? It's as natural as that. We would never think that there's smoke, and while there must not be anything burning, he's equating this aspect that if there's sin and there's suffering, if you see suffering, you see the smoke, then there has to be a fire. There has to be the sin. It's black and white. This is how the natural law of God works. So, Job, you must have done something to bring all of this up on yourself. But a question for us, is it as simple as Eliphaz is making it out to be?

On the surface, sure, maybe someone could say this about another person's life. Maybe somebody could say this about your life, and maybe they're actually right. But in this situation, you and I have read chapters 1 and 2, and we already know that Job is not suffering because of his sins or something that he has brought up on himself. You and I know the facts of this story.

Let's finish today's sermon by reading a few sections of Job's response to Eliphaz in chapters 6 and 7.

Job 6 and verse 1, then Job answered and said, Oh, that my grief were fully weighed, and my calamity laid with it on the scales. He's saying, let's balance this out. If God is a just God, if he is a fair God, let's weigh it out on the scales, and we'll see how this all plays out. He says, For then it would be heavier than the sands of the sea. He's saying, What I am going through is so unjust that the scale analogy would be tipped to the other side. So far, that not even anything could bring it back to the other direction. He's saying that I am suffering unjustly. And the difference between Job and his friends up to this point, they're not really disagreeing with the theology, which again is not accurate to how God works. They're both under the same understanding of where they're approaching things from. They both approach it from the theology that sin leads to suffering. The difference is that the friends saw the suffering and assumed that there must be a sin. Job knew that there was no sin, so why the suffering? Do you see, like, what's going on here in this back and forth? They both agree on the big idea, but they reach different conclusions because of their different perceptions. And this is what you and I can take away from this today, because I just said sometimes we can look into somebody's life, right? And we know why they brought this up on themselves, right?

Are we right? Do we truly understand every in and out of their life? I mean, sometimes things happen, right? Somebody steals a candy bar at the grocery store and they catch them on video.

We know what happened here, right? But we can jump to conclusions in others' lives very quickly, like Job's friends did, and start to put cause and effect together and say, yeah, they said this, or they did this, and it's probably leading to this, and if they would just only do this. Going back to that scale analogy with Job again that he's using, he's saying, look at the scales. My sight is tipped all the way to the bottom, and what is on God's side of the scale? And he's saying nothing. Nothing. If God is a just God, then the scales have to be balanced. And his friends are saying, yeah, Job, yeah, okay, Job, I'm sure that the problem is with God and not with you, Job, yeah. Like you're saying, they're questioning everything that Job is saying, because Job is saying justice demands an equal balance of the scales. But is that how God always works? He's a just God, no question about it. God is always a just and fair God. But when we suffer, is that only because of something we've done in our life, or something that God isn't doing for us? Getting back to Job's response, and after a moment again of coming back to the reality of his pain and his suffering, and just wishing it would end, because he gets into that discourse again in this chapter, he says in verse 14, to him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friends.

Let's just slide this one in, Elphab.

Just saying, you know, Elphab's just saying back to Job. Now Job's just saying back to him, just saying, Job, to him who's afflicted, kind of should be shown to his friends, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. Job, put yourself in, or Elphab, put yourself in my shoes for just two minutes. And not with the judginess, not with the, I know what's going on in your life, just put yourself in my shoes for two minutes. That's all I ask. And in the next few verses, he uses an analogy of a stream of water that flows freely during the cooler months, but then is quickly burned away when the summer heat takes hold. He's equating his wife to that again. In verse 22, he said, did I ever say, bring something to me, or did I ever offer a bribe for me from your wealth, or deliver me from the enemy's hand? Did I go around telling people to, or redeem me from the hand of the oppressors? Did I not just take what came in life? I didn't come and try to get other things from other people. He says, teach me, friends, and I will hold my tongue. Cause me to understand, friends, where I have erred. He's saying, if I'm missing the point here, show it to me. He goes, how forceful are right words, but what does your arguing prove? He's saying, if I have a blind spot, show it to me and I'll acknowledge it. But he goes, I haven't done anything wrong. And he is telling the truth. He hasn't done anything wrong. And as his, Job's response continues in chapter seven, he talks about how hard it is just to go on day by day with no real reprieve and from the hardship and suffering, which I think many in this room, and I know many online can relate with. He opens up in chapter seven, verse one, by saying, is there not a time of hard service for man on earth? Are not his days also like the days of a hired man? He's going to start building this analogy of a hard worker, someone doing some hard labor with the goal in mind that at the end of the day, you get a reprieve, you get a rest, you get to go home, you get a shower, you go eat a nice meal, you get some sleep through the night, and you're ready to work hard again the next day. He says in verse two, like a servant who earnestly desires the shade, you've been sweating out in anybody worked in fields or on a farm, or outside of construction, out in the weather, the hot heat of the summer. It's like to take a 10-minute break and sit underneath a tree, it's that reprieve. It's like, okay, this feels good. I'm getting my energy back. He's saying, like a servant who earnestly desires the shade, and like a hired man who eagerly looks for his wages, meaning the day's over, I'm getting paid, so have I been allotted months of futility, and we're some knights have been appointed to me. He's not getting a reprieve. He's not getting a rest. He goes, isn't this justice too? Isn't this how life works?

He says, when I lie down, I say, when shall I arise, and the night be ended, for I have had my fill of tossing till dawn. I think some of us have been in those experience of pain and discomfort where we just, I can't sleep any longer. It's, it's worthless even trying to lay here, just going to get up, even if it's 4am, 3am, because laying here isn't isn't helping any.

He's just asking, when will I catch my break, and all of this be behind me? When can I finally get some rest and get some sleep? But for Job, the relief doesn't come. He goes in verse 5, says, my flesh is caked with worms and dust. My skin is cracked, and it breaks out afresh. My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle. They just fly by and are spent without hope. Verse 13, when I say, my bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint, right? If I can just get a good night of sleep, and we know how precious sleep is, and we know when you've worked hard, or you've been battling an illness, and you can finally rest, and you wake up the next day after sleeping all night, and you feel like you can take on the world. He's saying, I think that when, when, when I think about my bed comforting me, and he says, verse 14, then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions. Probably thinking back of just the, the weightiness of this loss that he has suffered.

And when we go through these difficult times, and we hope that we can get a good night's sleep, it's one of those few welcomed reliefs, but we also know that with many health trials, sleep is its own challenge. And even getting comfortable to sleep is difficult. In Joke's case, it's interrupted sleep, it's uneasy sleep, which is adding a challenge on top of the pain and discomfort. It's just like nothing is letting up. And I want to go back to VersaL'Gavin, because I skipped it on a purpose, but it, it brings kind of, it brings, I believe, clarity and, and some encouragement. Because it's a side of Job we need to see, because it's the reality of really hard trials. He says in Verse 11, therefore I will not restrain my mouth, I will speak in my anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. In one sense, we would be like, nice attitude, Job, like this is not what God would be wanting you to do, or this is not appropriate to just be out of control, is what, what it sounds like he's saying that he's doing here. But I believe more it's a sense that he's saying I need to verbalize my suffering.

We can internalize a lot of things, and we sometimes do, and there's a healing that can come by us just talking it out with another person. By, by using the gift that God has given us to be able to just talk some things out. Have you ever just expressed a frustration that once you did it, though, there was a little bit of peace that came back? I shared that with when the first sermon that I shared on this topic when I was having that really bad day, and I didn't want to go to church, and then God sent me those guys who understood because their own wives that had health trials, and just by me talking it out, I wasn't in a right great attitude that day, but by talking it out, it brought some healing. And I think this is what Job, and when we consider what he's expressing in chapter 3 about, I just want my life, I just want rest, he is processing all of what's been going on in his heart and his mind since his trial began. And remember, we're months in at this point. We're not just a few days or a few weeks, we're months in of his suffering.

And he's verbalizing and trying to express whether it's balanced or not, what is all in his heart and his mind, and he's just trying to talk, talk it out. And again, isn't this what all that we need sometimes, just to talk it out, express our sorrow, our pain, and that's why again, it's so powerful when one of us can walk along someone in this moment and just hear them out. We don't have to offer all sorts of advice or solutions. Definitely they don't need our judgment, but rather just to be present in their difficulty. And that's why I appreciate this verse being included, and why it gives us some insight to what is going on with Job right now. Verse 17, he begins to reason with God, maybe for the first time through this account, but he starts this process of almost, well, beginning to reason with God. He says, verse 17, what is man that you should exalt him or lift him up? That you should set your heart on him? Why is it that you even look down on us? That you should visit him every morning and test him every moment? How long will you look not... how long... well, excuse me, how long will you not look away from me and let me alone till I swallow my saliva? Have I sinned? What have I done to you, a watcher of men, God being the watcher of our daily lives? Why have you set me... why have you set me as your target so that I am burden... a burden to myself? Why then do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now, I will lie down in the dust and you will seek me diligently, but I will no longer be. I believe in this passage, he feels like, I don't know how much time I have left. Like, I am physically spent. This has taken every ounce of energy from me. I'm sick. I don't know how much longer I'm going to physically last. I think is what he's getting to here. He feels like his life is coming to a close because of everything he's going through. He obviously doesn't feel like he has a future, and I believe he's saying, I don't think I'm going to live much longer. Obviously, we can't continue. We have to bring today's discussion to a close.

But through these passages, a concept has been introduced about why bad people suffer and good people are blessed. This concept and this idea has been around since the beginning of time, as we can see, and it still makes inroads into the Church of God today. But the reality is that sometimes we are stretched and pulled much further than we think we can handle or think is even possible, and it's so that we become something greater through the process. This is one of the big key lessons of Job and lessons of life. The key to the story is in chapter 1 and 2, as we've mentioned before, and these first chapters also hold the key to our life. Job did not do something wrong and thus is being punished by God. Rather, God is working with and testing Job to bring him to a place that he could never arrive to on his own. That's really the crux of the matter here. Job had aspects of his life that needed to develop to a certain point that could not come any other way than by going through a challenge. Job's sense of justice is being tested through this passage, and it's often a similar test for you and me today.

Job is suffering and facing a crisis of faith, and it's not a lack of faith in God. Never through this account does he ever lose faith in God. Rather, it's a crisis of understanding how God works in man's life. I think I've been there at times. Not that I didn't believe that God existed, but I'm like, I'm not sure I understand how you work anymore. I'll be honest, there's been times where I don't understand. I thought I understood you, but clearly I don't. There's times where we go through these things and we have our own crisis of faith, but we don't quit. As we heard in the sermon, we continue our race, we continue our journey. God continues to walk with us. He continues to take some of the puzzle pieces and put them into place for us so that we can then get a little bit of a bounce of hope again and say, oh, he's still with us. He's still giving me little clues. He's still helping to bring this picture to light of why I'm going through what I'm going through, so that then clarity begins to come more and more of the picture. In those moments, we're like, he's still here. I know he's still good. I know he's still gracious. I know he still loves me. I'm just having to continue to learn how he works and who he is and what he's doing in my life.

In our next discussion, we'll focus more on this idea and concept that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people because it is critical as a Christian that we understand exactly where God stands on this and what he wants us to learn as we move forward in life. But we'll conclude here today. Again, I think every time I read through the story of Job, it touches me different because I'm different. I think if you read through this along with us on this journey or if you pick it up in two years or five years, it'll touch you differently. Continue to look to those ways that God shows his face to Job in this story because God's present.

He's quiet for quite a few chapters here, right? As he's quiet in a lot of our lives and in some of our dark moments, but he's right alongside with Job. He's hearing everything Job is verbalizing. He's hearing everything that his friends are telling him. He's seeing everything that Job is going through. He knows his internal plight, and he's waiting for the moment to say, Here I am, Job, just like he does so often in our lives. So we'll continue the story, hopefully, next time I'm with you.