“Seeing the Sovereign Goodness of God”
[Job
42:1-6]
October 18, 2015 Hope Reformed Church
October 25, 2015 Second Reformed
Church
One of my doctors, who is an
Orthodox Jew, asked me this week, “Given the violence and murders and killing
that we see in the world, how do you understand God’s creating the world the
way it is?” Given what we know about God
and His Character from the Bible, why did God create the world in such a way
that all of this horror and suffering – at least could – occur?
The question he asked me comes under
the general question of what is called, “the problem of evil” – if God is
all-good and all-powerful, why is there evil in the world?
It’s a question that bothered me terribly
before I became Reformed – it’s one of the reasons I studied Buddhism in
college – because in Buddhism, if you do something wrong, you get knocked down
a peg, if you do something right, you go up a step – and this process continues
on and on through various lives. It made
sense: what goes around comes around,
and eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, karma – evil is punished, good is
rewarded – simple. The only problem is,
there is no explanation for how we first got into this mess – how it all began.
The Reformed understanding of the
Scripture makes sense of the “problem.”
I’d like us to consider Job this morning –
especially the last thing he says in the book – but let us begin by remembering
who he was and what happened to him.
The date of the history of the events of
the book of Job is unknown, but it is likely that this account took place
rather early in the history of humanity.
We’re told that Job lived in the land of
Uz, and he is described as “blameless and upright, one who feared God and
turned away from evil” (Job 1:1b, ESV).
Now, let us understand that Job was not sinless – he was not like Adam and
Eve before the Fall, and he was not perfect and holy. However, compared with most people, Job was a
“saint” – he was the most holy person anyone knew. Yet it would be wrong to say that what happened
to Job is unjust because he was sinless.
That’s just not true – Job was a sinner, but he was someone who strove
to be faithful and obedient, and he was an exemplary person.
Job was married and had seven sons and
three daughters.
We’re told that Job was the wealthiest man
in the “east” – he had 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 oxen, and five hundred
female donkeys, and an enormous number of servants.
Each of his sons hosted a feast for the
family each of the seven days of the week, and then, as their father instructed
them, Job would consecrate them, and offer up burnt offerings for each of them
for any sins they might have committed during the day.
Job was a man who had prospered in every
way and loved his family, but loved God and obedience to Him even more.
Since Job didn’t know what happened next,
and we don’t know all of the workings of the Mind and the Counsel of God, we
will skip the next section of the history.
Now, one day when the daily feast was
occurring, and a servant came to Job and
told him that the Sabeans – a known, vicious, cattle-rustling group of people –
attacked Job’s herds and took away all of his donkeys and oxen and killed all
the servants who were trying to stop them.
Then another servant ran in and told him that fire had come from heaven
and killed all the sheep and all the servants with them. Then another servant came and told him that
the Chaldeans – another known vicious cattle-rustling group of people –
attacked Job’s herd and took away all of his camels and killed all the servants
who tried to stop them. And a final
servant came and told Job that a great wind had arisen and caused the house of
his son to collapse and kill all of his children and all of the servants in the
house.
His wealth was gone; his children were
gone. So Job tore his robes and cut off
his hair and worshipped God, saying, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and
naked I shall return. The Lord gave, and
the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the
name of the Lord” (Job 1:21, ESV).
Let’s understand that Job was not
unfeeling – he was deeply in mourning – as we see in the tearing of his clothes
and the cutting off of his hair. What he
was saying with these words is that God is Sovereign and God is always worthy
of worship – no matter what any of us may be enduring.
And then Job was struck down with painful,
foul-smelling sores, from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, and he
sat on the ground with the piece of broken pottery and scraped the sores off –
cutting off the sores being the lesser pain.
At this point, Job’s wife had had enough,
and she urged him to give up his integrity before God and to curse God and die
– surely, she reasoned, death would be a relief from this profound
suffering. But Job did not sin, and
instead responded, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we
not receive evil?” (Job 2:10b, ESV).
And again, let us understand, Job was not
saying that God does evil – that God sins.
Job was saying that every good and every disastrous thing that happens
in the world happens only according to the Will and Plan of God – nothing can
occur that God does not allow to occur.
Then Job’s friends came to offer him
sympathy and comfort – and for seven days and nights they just sat with him in
solidarity. But then they opened their
mouths, and for thirty-five chapters, they explained to Job that suffering
comes from sin: “It’s a simple
equation: if you sin, you suffer. People who don’t sin, don’t suffer. So, you must have committed a sin – and it
must have been a terrible sin with the amount of suffering you are suffering,
so think hard, confess your sin, and everything will be right again.”
Job has two responses – one to his
friends, and one to God:
To his friends, he argued, “I did not sin
– this suffering is not the result of sin.
Sometimes suffering follows sin, but not always, because God is not just
a just God, He is a God of mercy and forgiveness. God is patient and long-suffering. There is no simple and obvious equation
between sin and suffering.”
To God, he pleaded, “I know You are the
Holy God. I know You are the Almighty
God. I know You have the right to do
whatsoever You will with Your creation.
I just want to know why? God,
please just tell me why? Please give me
a reason for this suffering – and then I will be satisfied.”
Job was not suffering for his sin – that
is made clear in the historical record – but it is also clear that at this
point, Job does sin: Job sins in
demanding that God give him a reason for his suffering: “I just want a reason God – that’s the least
You owe me – explain Yourself God!”
In chapter thirty-eighty, God responds to
Job, speaking to him through a whirlwind – and for the next four chapters, God
asks Job, “Who do you think you are? Who
are You to question Me? Were you there
at the Creation? Can you control the
monsters? I don’t have to explain Myself
to you.”
We
read Job’s final response this morning, and we see:
First, Job acknowledged the absolute sovereignty
of God: “Then Job answered the Lord and
said, ‘I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be
thwarted.’
God is able to do anything and everything
that dies not contradict His Being. God
has a plan and God is carrying out that plan through various means – through
directly speaking His Will, through allowing others to do both good and evil to
bring about His Will – and nothing and no one can possibility hinder God’s Plan
– His Purpose – to Glorify Himself.
Everything that God desires and plans and
wills to happen will happen. God cannot
fail to accomplish everything He has set out to do – the greatest of these
things being to glorify Himself in all that He is and does.
We can be assured that everything God has
planned and promised will come to pass.
Consider the ultimate example: who crucified Jesus?
Peter preached, “Men of Israel, hear these
words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested
to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him
in your midst, as you yourselves know – this Jesus, delivered up according to
the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the
hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:22-23, ESV).
It was God’s Will and Plan that Jesus be
crucified, and God accomplished that through the sin of the Jews and the
Gentiles who crucified Jesus. God may
act directly to accomplish His purposes, or He may use our good works, or He
may use our sin, or some combination of these things, but God Sovereignly
accomplished everything He wills.
Job confessed that he knew and believed that
God is absolutely Sovereign and will accomplish all that He desires.
Second, Job confessed the greatness of God.
He began by quoting God’s question: ‘“Who is this that hides counsel without
knowledge?” Therefore I uttered what I
did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.’
God said to Job, “Who is this that is
calling Me to explain Myself while he does not take what he knows about Me into
the equation?”
Job answered, “I repent of speaking
foolishly – of asking questions that are far beyond my ability to understand.”
God is so great that we can’t possibly
understand everything about God and what He does – our minds are finite – and
even if God were to explain, it is unlikely we would understand, because God is
so much greater than we are.
Even as we look forward to the full coming
of the Kingdom of God, we will not understand everything in the Kingdom,
because we will still be creatures – perfected creatures – but still creatures
with limited minds and understanding.
God knows everything and how everything works together – that’s His
business – our business is to be faithful and obedient.
And so we see Jesus, in His humanity,
praying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be
done” (Luke 22:42, ESV).
And James cautioned, “Instead you ought to
say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:15, ESV).
We ought to acknowledge the greatness of
God and His Will, submit to Him, and humbly be aware that His Will has priority
over anything we desire.
Job confessed the greatness of God.
Third, Job confessed the mercy and
holiness of God.
Again, Job quoted a question God put to
him first: “Hear and I will speak; I
will question you, and you make it known to me.”
And Job responded, ‘I had heard of you by
the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you; therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.’”
Job stated that he heard about God – he
knew about God – by hearing about God.
There were teachings about God that he had heard taught and
preached. But now, Job said, he saw God.
How did Job see God?
Job made a great confession earlier in the
book, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the
earth. After my skin has been thus
destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my
eyes shall behold him, and not another.
My heart faints within me!” (Job 19:25-26, ESV).
Job confessed and prophesied that God, his
Redeemer, would come to earth in human form that he would see with his eyes,
after he had died and had been risen from the dead. And Job is with Him now, and we who believe
also have that great hope that we will see Jesus in our flesh on the Day of
Resurrection and for all of eternity in His Kingdom.
But that is not what Job is referring to
here.
Job could be referring to “seeing” God in
the whirlwind – since God spoke to Job through this violent natural phenomenon,
and Job recognized that it was God speaking.
Job saw the mercy of God as this
destructive force stood before him, but God did not strike Job.
Still, even more so, Job saw God in his
suffering: in the loss of all of his
cattle and the death of his children and servants, in the desertion by his
wife, in his great illness and physical suffering, and in the suffering at the
false wisdom of his friends, Job understood that God was behind it all –
sovereignly, not as a punishment, but as part of His good plan. Even though God never told Job why he endured
all the suffering he endured, Job saw the Sovereign Goodness of God through it
all.
Why did it all happen? He never knew, but he knew God well enough to
know that God was completely in charge, even when horrible things happened, and
that God is good – all the time – God does not sin.
That is not to deny our real emotions in
times of trouble – look at Job, look at the Psalms – be emotional, weep, tear
your clothes, cut off your hair, but never, never, never think that God slipped
up or that God sinned against you. No,
let us have this rock solid confidence:
God is Sovereign – all the time – and God is good – all the time.
And whether or not we suffer when we sin,
let us repent of our sin and follow after God again – as Job did, because God
is holy and does not tolerate sin, yet He will forgive us – He is full of mercy
– if we come to Him truly repentant of our sin.
Job confessed the mercy and holiness of
God.
And we might think, “OK, Job acknowledged
the sovereignty and greatness and mercy and holiness of God. He admitted he overstepped and sinned in
demanding that God explain why he was suffering. I understand we are to trust God and obey God
and have faith in God, knowing that God is Sovereign and Good. But, isn’t there anything we can say about
the suffering that we are enduring? Yes,
we have comfort in God, but is there any comfort about the very things in which
we are suffering?”
Paul wrote, “And we know that for those
who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called
according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28, ESV).
If we love God, if we have believed in
Jesus and His Gospel savingly, if we know God to be Sovereign and Good, then we
can believe this promise: everything
that happens to us – everything – every thing – everything that happens to us –
will work together for our good. That
doesn’t mean we will be healthy, wealthy, and wise, after we suffer – but
surely, we will at least receive good spiritually from whatever comes to pass. Because we have been called according to His
Purpose.
God has a plan – a purpose – and God is
bringing us through everything that must occur to accomplish His Will – the
Will of our Good and Sovereign God – and every moment – from the highest joys
to the deepest sufferings – God is working together for the good of every one
of us who believes.
Do you believe?
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for the example
of the life of Job. We thank You for allowing us to see that You are
Sovereign and Good – that everything is happening according to Your Plan, and
even when we don’t understand why suffering occurs, You are bringing all these
things together for good for all we who believe in Jesus Christ. Lord, strengthen us to trust and believe on
our weak days. For it is in Jesus’ Name
we pray, Amen.
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