WHAT'S THE ANSWER?

Dr. Richard J. Henderson October 8, 2006

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Psalm 26 (responsively)
Job 1:1; 2:1-10

Introduction

There are lots of misconceptions about poor old Job. The most blatant is the idea that he was "patient as Job." He was just the opposite. Job wasn't patient at all. The other is the image of Job as the silent sufferer. Many people think of Job as enduring whatever happened to him quietly. Actually, Job responded with anger - he yelled at God and demanded to know why this was happening to him.

I

Let's take a quick overview of Job's life. He was a righteous man who had done very well. Satan said to God that Job was only obedient because it payed off for him. Job had everything going his way, but if the situation should change, Job would drop his faith in God and curse him to his face, Satan said.

So disasters happened to Job, beginning with sores that covered every inch of his body. Job remained faithful. The problems became more serious - invaders raided his fields, killed his animals and stole his servants. Fire destroyed his other animals. And finally, his children were all together when a great wind came and destroyed the house, and they died.

Job's wife encouraged him to curse God and die - probably not the best support in that sort of situation! But Job responded by saying, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."

II

At first he took a very noble stand. But as time went on, he became angry with God and wanted some answers - the same answers we want in times of suffering and pain: "Why me? What have I done?"

Things got worse for Job when his friends arrived. They were pious men who knew that every suffering must be the result of some evil that the person had done. When Job said he was innocent, they said he must be hiding something.

So not only did Job suffer, but his friends told him he deserved it. With friends like that...

Job wanted answers. He railed at God demanding that God justify what he was doing. He insisted that God explain why he had to suffer like this.

When God responded, it wasn't to explain to Job, but to ask questions of him: "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" "Have the gates of death been revealed to you?" "Do you know the ordinances of heaven?" These kinds of questions went on and on until Job realized that God is God and he is not. In the end, Job didn't get answers to his Questions; he got something more.

III

Job wanted answers to his questions, but he got God instead. Rather than answering unanswerable questions, God gave Job his presence; he was there with Job. While most of us haven't faced as serious disasters as Job did, we have been in situations like that. We have asked, "Why me? What did I do to deserve this? What have I done wrong?"

You and I know what it's like to cry out at God - even to yell at God. We know what it is to demand answers. We want to understand why bad things happen to good people.

Sometimes we try to make deals with God. "If you let me live, I'll serve all the rest of my life." We are notoriously bad at keeping up our end of those deals. We get what we want and move on.

A pastor told of the pianist in his church, whose daughter was dying in the hospital. She said, "If my daughter dies, I will never play the piano in church again." She did; and she didn't.

IV

Maybe we also know what it's like to have friends who, although well-intentioned, just make the situation worse. One woman who lost her son at a young age told me of a comment someone made to her during visiting hours at the funeral home.

Her son was a good baseball player and coached several teams. This person said, "Well God needed your son for his baseball team." In his own obtuse way, he meant it to be helpful, but that comment was deeply hurtful. She thought to herself, "What a selfish God that is!"

Actually, there aren't many answers we can give in that situation. Much as friends try, there aren't simple solutions or pat answers that will explain it - much less make the pain go away.

From my experience people don't want you to give them glib answers; they want you to be there for them. Your presence is much more important than whatever explanation you can come up with.

Most of us prefer someone who understands what we're going through and who empathizes with us. We want someone there who cares, and even someone who we can rant and rave to. We want someone who honestly is concerned for us.

V

The Bible says that's what we get. We don't get a lot of explanations in the Bible, but we get the promise of the presence of God. The New Testament especially reconfirms that Christ is with us when we are in pain. God has come to us in Jesus. God know what pain feels like from the inside.

Christ knows the pain we feel, the anxiety, the worry, the anguish we go through, because he has been through it. God experienced what we experience. The theological word for it is incarnation - that is, God with us "in-carne" - in the flesh. Because Christ has been here with us, he can be here for us.

When we are suffering, we remember Christ who went to the cross for us. If we are betrayed by friends, we remember that Jesus was on trial when his disciple, Peter, denied he even knew him.

Conclusion

When bad things happen in our lives, we want answers. That's what Job wanted. But, like Job, we don't get answers, we get God. God promises to be with us in our times of trouble, to stand beside us and give us his strength. In our pain, Christ comes to us having experienced enormous pain himself, and he helps us.

A friend of mine once preached a sermon titled, "No Bridge Over Troubled Water." His point was that God doesn't carry us over the difficult times, but that God walks through them with us.

When we cry out to God, we don't get platitudes, we get his presence.

Amen

©Richard J. Henderson 2006