“You’re Free to Do What I Want”
[Job 1:6-12]
March 29. 2020 YouTube
Why is coronavirus in the United
States? And let’s assume that it is here
– you can find people online who say that coronavirus is a hoax for this reason
or that reason. But, let’s assume that
this is really happening – a horrible virus that originated in China is spreading
around the world. Why?
There are many levels of answers to
the question of why – some we can give answers to, some we cannot. If we look at this as being, “Why do bad
things happen to good people?” We’ll,
we’re all sinners, so, as Jesus said, “Only God is good” (Mark 10:18). So, the question becomes “Why do bad things
happen to bad people?” And that’s not much of a question, is it?
There is an answer we can get to –
and there is a response to the answer that we ought to have as believers. We may find it as we look at the beginning of
the book of Job.
In the opening verses of Job, we
read:
“There
was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and
upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him
seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500
yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man
was the greatest of all the people of the east. His sons used to go and hold a
feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their
three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had
run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early
in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all.
For Job said, ‘It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their
hearts.’ Thus Job did continually” (Job 1:1-5, ESV).
Job
is a man who is blameless, upright, who feared God, and turned away from
evil. He is a man who takes his belief
and faith and obedience to God seriously.
He is a sinner – we know that every mere human born after Adam and Eve is
a sinner, but he strives with everything in him not to sin – to be obedient and
faithful. And his neighbors are
witnesses to Job’s faithfulness and obedience – he is known as someone who
strives after holiness.
God has blessed Job tremendously –
he is married with seven sons and three daughters and he is the wealthiest man in
the Eastern world. And Job loves and
cares for his family – he is the family priest to them – and in case his sons
or daughters sin in their heart and don’t even realize it, Job offers up
prayers and sacrifices on behalf of each of them regularly.
Job is the holiest man his neighbors
know. If we listen to most of our TV
preachers, Job is the man of whom they would say, “See, Job proves that if you
live a good life, God will give you fertility and cars and boats and money, and
everyone will speak well of you.”
And they have it wrong, of course,
God does not bless Job for being faithful and obedient; Job is faithful and
obedient to God because God has blessed him.
But that’s another sermon.
And then we come to this morning’s
text, and we see:
God uses His Creation to accomplish
His Will.
“Now
there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the
LORD, and Satan also came among them. The LORD said to Satan, ‘From where have
you come?’ Satan answered the LORD and said, ‘From going to and fro on the
earth, and from walking up and down on it.’ And the LORD said to Satan, ‘Have
you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a
blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?’”
A
day comes when the sons of God come before the Lord, and Satan shows up as
well. And God sets a trap:
“Oh,
Satan, where have you been?” God knows exactly where the accuser has been and
the evil he has been doing.
“I
have been walking the length and breadth of the earth.”
Why? It would seem most likely that Satan had been
walking over the entire extent of the earth tempting people to sin.
And
then God sets up the rest of the book:
“Oh,
and did you happen to see my servant Job?
You know, the one who is unlike anyone else on earth – the one who is
blameless and upright, who fears Me and turns away from evil. You know, the one who you have the most difficultly
tempting because he is so embedded into My Word that he sees your schemes from
a mile away and denies you time and time and time again. Did you happen to see him by any chance?”
God
knows Satan has seen Job – Job is a thorn in Satan’s side. Job would be a great prize if Satan could get
him to sin and sin and deny God and have a great fall. And now God has got Satan fixating on Job. And the reason God has trapped Satan into
fixating on Job is that God is going to use Satan to accomplish God’s Will.
And
we might think, well, that’s not fair to Satan.
God is tricking him – trapping him – just like the great deceiver would
do to one of us. How can God be just is
using Satan to accomplish His Will?
After
God has finished disciplining King Nebuchadnezzar, we read:
“At
the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason
returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who
lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom
endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are
accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of
heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or
say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:34-35, ESV).
In
Jeremiah:
“The
word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: ‘Arise, and go down to the potter's
house, and there I will let you hear my words.’ So I went down to the potter's
house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of
clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel,
as it seemed good to the potter to do.
“Then
the word of the LORD came to me: ‘O house of Israel, can I not do with you as
this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter's
hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel’” (Jeremiah 18:1-5, ESV).
Once
again, Paul writes:
“You
will say to me then, ‘Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his
will?’ But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say
to its molder, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Has the potter no right over
the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another
for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known
his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for
destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of
mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called,
not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?” (Romans 9:19-24, ESV).
God,
as the Sovereign Creator, has the right to do with His creation whatever He
wills, and He uses Satan – and you and me – to accomplish His Will.
Second,
Satan is the accuser.
“Then
Satan answered the LORD and said, ‘Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you
not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side?
You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in
the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will
curse you to your face.”
Satan
answers, “The only reason Job is faithful and obedient is because You keep Him
safe and give him a family and wealth and happy neighbors – all the money and
power and happiness anyone could ever want.
That’s why he’s faithful and obedient.
If You would dare to take anything away from Your pet, he would curse
You to Your Face.”
“You’re
buying him off, God! If You stopped
making like a slot machine that keeps paying off, he would curse You out!”
Two
things to notice here – God does protect His people. The Good Shepherd does keep His sheep in the
sheep fold and bears the rod and staff against any robber or predator.
A
couple of weeks ago we looked at Jesus’ testing in the wilderness and we
referred to Psalm 91:
“For
he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On
their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You
will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will
trample underfoot” (Psalm 91:11-13, ESV).
And
we said that we must read this carefully.
It is not a promise that the angels will always keep us from ever
suffering. Anyone who is alive knows
that’s not true. What the Psalmist is
saying is that God sends the angels to protect us and we have less suffering in
this world than we would have had, had we not been believers in Jesus for
salvation.
Again,
believers die horrible deaths – Job’s sons and daughters are crushed to death
in the rubble of their homes. Still, in
looking over the whole of any believer’s life – due to God’s protection, we
suffer less – overall – than we would have.
And second, is that the best Satan
can come up with? “You’re bribing Job!” “You’re engaging in quid pro quo” – as
we have come to understand in modern times.
And
so, Satan is the accuser. He will accuse
us to get us to sin – He will even accuse God – for all the good it does
him. Satan has followed God’s lead to where
he wants him to be.
Third,
God is Sovereign over the sin and evil in the world.
“And
the LORD said to Satan, ‘Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against
him do not stretch out your hand.’ So Satan went out from the presence of the
LORD.”
God
tells Satan, “Ok, let’s put your accusation to the test. Have at it.
Do whatever you want with everything he has – just don’t touch him.”
(We
know that Satan will come back, and God will tell Satan that he can do anything
he wants to Job, as well, but he cannot kill him.)
And
so, Job’s cattle are stolen, his children all die, his wife turns away, and he
becomes horribly, painfully sick.
God
allows Satan to do what God wants him to do.
God
lets Satan loose to harm Job which is what God’s Will is.
If
it had not been God’s plan for Job to suffer like he did, God would not have
allowed Satan to have at Job the way He did.
So,
God does not do evil or cause evil, but God will allow evil and sin and
suffering to accomplish His plan. God is
Sovereign over evil and sin and suffering – they cannot occur outside of God’s
Providence.
But
Job’s friends come by and for chapter after chapter after chapter, they say,
“Job, you must have sinned a real doozie – just confess it and God will set you
right again.”
But
Job insists he didn’t sin. So, why did
Job go through all this suffering and death and pain?
Job
shakes his fist at God at the end of the book and says that God owes him an
answer, and God says, “Really? Were you
there when I created everything that is?”
God asks Job many questions he can’t answer. “Can you take Leviathan for a walk?”
But
seriously, why?
God
wants Job to better understand God’s character.
God does not give Job an answer, but a window into Who God is is made
larger for Job. He is able to look at
everything that happened and trust God and know that God is God and he is not.
God
wants to bring all these horrible things together for Job’s good. In the end, God restores everything and more
for Job – which is joyful for him, but the greatest good for Job is what He has
learned about God, His Savior.
Why
is coronavirus in the United States?
Where
were you at the Creation? Can you take
Leviathan for a walk?
And,
remember that God is trustworthy, and He promises:
“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).
God
is working this virus together for the good of those who love Him. Even if we get sick. Even if we die. Even if our friends and family die. Even if they get sick. Even if this virus changes the world in ways
we could never have expected. God is
working this together for the good of those who love Him.
Peter
is writing to Christians suffering persecutions from Rome and the Jews, but we
can receive it as Christians in whatever way we are suffering:
“Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy,
he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled,
and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded
through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this
you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved
by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious
than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in
praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have
not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him
and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the
outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (I Peter 3:1-9, ESV).
Listen
to the doctors. Trust God. Trust Jesus. It will all work together for
our good.
Let
us pray:
Almighty
God, You are the Sovereign Creator of all.
You direct every molecule in all of Creation, and each one is under Your
control. We ask that whatever You choose
to come to pass, You would cause us to be at peace in You – trusting You –
believing that You are bringing this all together for our good. We thank You for the history of Job. We ask You would give all the medical
personnel working on this virus safety and wisdom that they would come up with
a vaccine. And, if You are willing, we
ask that You pluck all the coronavirus out of the world and put it to
death. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray,
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment