6/23/24 Job 38:1-11 Series B
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who loves you with his very life. Amen.
The story of Job, is probably the oldest book in the Bible. Like, the technical details of the book and the intricacies of the original language make it seem really really old. It’s like the shakespearean form of English, only in Hebrew. And I tell you this because of the contents of the book and the whole issue it seeks to address. The question of “how do I interact with God when things are going bad” has been a question for literally as long as we have had a bible, from the very earliest book through, well, through us today.
A very, very brief summary of Job. Job is one richest guys on earth. He has a beautiful wife, a beautiful family, and most importantly, a very strong faith. And the devil himself sees this and challenges God. He tells God that the only reason that Job has faith is he’s so blessed. That it’s easy to believe in God when things are going well. But if God were to take away the blessings, Job would crumble, his faith would shatter.
God accepts the challenge. Because God knows that faith is deeper than blessings. So slowly but surely over some time, God permits Satan to take away jobs blessings. First his wealth, then his family and finally his very health. And just 2 chapters into the book Job has gone from private jets and private islands, to sitting in a literal pile of ashes in his burned down home, scooping up a broken piece of pottery, a broken plate, and using it to scrape out pus from his open wounds that he has been cursed with by no less than Satan himself.
Then the next 34 or so chapters are Job and his friends trying to figure out what happened. They ask the questions, “What did you do to deserve this?” And they come to the conclusion that God is punishing Job for some sin. That’s what makes sense to them. They believed that God had rewarded Job with material stuff for faithfulness and that Job must of done something big to cause God to take it all away.
But Job didn’t. He was very faithful, very pious. He would offer sacrifices daily just on the off chance that someone in his family had sinned. He prayed, he went to church, he worshiped and meditated on God all the time. He was as pious as pious can be. He hadn’t done anything to deserve what was happening to him. It seems that what happened to him was done just to prove a point to the Devil, of all things.
But Job doesn’t know this. He doesn’t know why bad stuff keeps happening to him. In chapter 2 he says, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” That’s not something that many of us have the faith to say. We are comfortable accepting good things from God, but the idea that God allows bad stuff to happen to us? That makes us really, really uncomfortable. More than that, at the end of his discussion with his friends, Job stands up, fed up, and demands that God tell him why. Why all this wretchedness has come his way.
And to everybody’s surprise, God shows up. And like, it’s not a happy thing. YHWH the God of Armies, the LORD of Hosts, shows up in a raging storm. And this storm is angry. The first words that God says to Job after all the hardship are, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.”
“Dress for action” is the modern equivalent of “Gird your loins” or “Dress for battle.” Like a man. God says. Enough of this talk and self pity. You have a bone to pick with God, prepare for God to take you to task. Prepare for battle.
Now, to be sure, this is not a situation that anyone, literally anyone wants to be in. It’s one thing to endure hardship. It’s entirely another to be standing there, with no where to hide, as God comes to question you in a raging tempest, in this display of power and might.
And to sum up what God says here, he’s like, “The audacity. What makes you think that you can give me advice? Where you there when I created everything? Did you determine the laws of Physics? Did you decide how big the earth would be? Did you design and create all the creatures? Do you still take care of them?” And my favorite one, “Do you know when mountain goats give birth?” God is with every animal when it’s having a baby. Every animal on the whole earth. God knows them and their babies.
And that’s really the crux of this book. God knows what he’s doing. He doesn’t need any advice. He knows what’s up. In the beginning when the devil tries to offer God advice and say, “he only likes you cause he’s blessed.” No. God knows what he’s doing. When the hardships come, God knows what he’s doing then too. The book of Job ends with Job’s wealth being restored and he has more children and he prospers again. God knows what he’s doing.
And that’s still true today. In our lives, we experience all kinds of problems, from sicknesses and cancers, to the modern epidemic of loneliness, to losing jobs, to an unstable economy, to wars and rumors of wars, to bad weather, to whatever else. And the message is the same: God knows what he’s doing.
Don’t let God off the hook, if something is happening, God knows about it. And you can and should tell him how you feel about it. If life is hard, let God know. If life is really hard, let God know. If you are angry or lonely, let God know. If things are going great, let God know. But in the midst of all of it, both the bad and the good, trust that God knows what he is doing.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 5 that God knows. He tells us to consider the birds and the wildflowers. God cares for even the grass in the field, of course he is caring for you. He knows what you need, he provides for you. God knows what he is doing.
Because the God who knows where Leviathan swims in the deep, who knows where the cornerstone of the earth is, who knows when each flower will bloom and knows when mountain goats give birth - he knows the number of the very hairs on your head.
You are God’s creature. You aren’t the creator. You are the creation. God formed you. And he loves you for it. He’s proud of what he has made: you! How’s the kids song go again? “Knows my needs and well provides me. Loves me every day the same, even calls me by my name!” Of all the grandeur of creation, God chooses you. Of all that is created, you are made in God’s image. Not Leviathan, not the mountain goats, you.
And to show just how serious God is about caring for you. God sent his son for you. God died on the cross for you. It sounds so familiar to us for we were raised hearing this good news, but it’s a huge deal. The creator died for you. And if he is willing to give up his very life for you, he’s got your back. He knows what he’s doing.
At the end of God’s discourse here in Job, which lasts a few chapters, God calls Job to repentance and calls his friends to repentance. And Job does. He sees the truth that the creature doesn’t know better than the creator. And that’s true for us too. We repent of our sins, of our desire to be God and we trust that God knows what he’s doing. That Jesus has forgiven our sins.
Will life be hard? Absolutely. But no matter the storms we face, WE Trust that God has our backs.
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