Job: When the Righteous Suffer - John Piper (Part 1)

would you pray with me father we take up now a theme a reality that is so raw and so real for many that I tremble to think of the presumption of just talking for an hour about it whom have we in heaven but you and on earth there is nothing that we desire beside you our flesh and our heart may fail but you are the strength of our heart and our portion forever account everything is lost because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord Father come work the miracles that we long for in this room and there are two one is healing and we believe in it and I pray for it but some would date their deliverance from disease or a broken marriage or a wayward child or a depression from this night and Lord for others who are to suffer longer the miracle of though he slay me yet will I hope in him so these double miracles we ask for I can't make them happen but the Holy Spirit can so I invite him to come would you help me to be faithful to your word to be true - what it says let there be a spirit about this time together that is in accordance with the truth and the weight of the truth I thank you Lord Jesus for the words blessed are you when men persecute you and revile you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account rejoice in that day and be glad for great is your reward in heaven not here for so many the prophets who were before you so Lord come and give us the assurance of heaven and help us to know that this slight momentary affliction that lasts only 80 years or 90 is not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed and is working for us a weight of glory beyond all comparison bill these convictions down to the roots of our being I pray through Christ and then thank you so much for being here it's great fearful honor to me that you would come to hear about these things because it is so easy to get it wrong wrong theologically and wrong emotionally job's friends Elif as Bildad and Zophar got it mainly right theologically not always and they just got it so wrong practically and so I hope you'll be praying for each other and praying for me that we won't get it wrong either way that will be faithful to the word and what it says and will in our speaking and our dealing with each other between the sessions we will be very very alert to where people are on this issue people are here because they're dying you need to know that I have emails people are here because others have died so if it felt from the beginning like there was an unusual seriousness about this there is I have 10 or 11 reasons for why I've come to talk to you about suffering from Joe and we list them off they don't take long but I'm going to give you these do you want it why did you come to this place to talk about this to us here here they are number one hundreds of you have suffered or are suffering and you are looking for light in the darkness for example one of you wrote me I prayed that God would show me how to respond that he would anoint John Piper this weekend I am praying that God would speak through John Piper in his words about suffering that this would help me better understand God's purpose for me and my family now after that number two your suffering is coming for sure basic discipleship included for the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 14 verse 22 you remember he's coming back on the missionary journey going to every church strengthening the souls it said strengthening the souls of the disciples saying through many tribulations you must enter the kingdom there is no other path that's basic discipleship if you work disciple that should be on your agenda early you come to Christ you come to suffer there is no other path to heaven that's number two number three persecution disease war disability disaster freak accident assault they're all the same with regard to two things which is why I don't want anybody to start making distinctions about oh that's just relating the persecution not disease they're all the same with regard to two things number one the design of the devil is the same in all of them destroy your faith and the design of God in all of them strengthen your faith doesn't really matter whether somebody's putting a gun to your head or cancer is in your head it's to say issue the faith issue is the same and that's why I'm here I want to deal with that I want your faith to be stronger I don't want the devil to win in your life number four natural disasters have put theodicy that is the justification of God and his ways in the news more than ever in my lifetime in the last five years say since 9/11 or since the tsunami or the cyclone in the early 90s we just forget these so fast half a million people were swept away in Bangladesh in 1991 way bigger than the tsunami and we just forget them tornadoes down in your neck of the woods here and and flooding up in my neck of the woods these are strange days and almost whenever anything like that happens NPR and the stations they're on the phone to a Jew an imam and an evangelical and tell us where God was this is news therefore we need to think about it it's not private it's not a private issue that only Christians talk about number five God is rejected wholesale by many because of suffering in the world and because of these issues the other day i was listening to a debate between doug wilson and Dan Barker an atheist it was valuable for me to listen not because of what Doug said because I knew what he'd say and I liked it all but because of what the atheist said which simply took my breath away it is so good for me to be exposed to the horrors inside people's heads that come out in blasphemous words tripping off the tongue as though the earth would not open up underneath which in mercy it didn't but one of the things he said was any God who creates a Hell deserves to go there and many other such things now he'll simply represents the worst suffering the worst in intensity and the worst in length and therefore dealing with that is what many people simply cannot handle and therefore they right got off he just does not exist at least the God of the Bible doesn't we've got to deal with it because people reject God because of these issues number six there are Christian critics of the sovereignty of God oh how they how they spoke loudly after the tsunami and in regard to personal suffering here's a page from Mission frontiers one of my favorite missionary magazines in which my good friend I love this guy to death Ralph winter he'll probably watch this and I'm going to take him to task while he watches wrote insofar as we automatically attribute all misfortune all disease all sickness to the mysterious mind of God that perspective cuts the nerve of any intense intentional fighting back for example Charles Colson is as brilliant and dedicated a Christian as they come yet after his daughter had struggled for many years with an autistic son called him Alex Colson praised her when she came to the conclusion that quote Alex is exactly the way God wants him to be first winter says the idea that God would want any child to be brain-damaged is inconceivable even more important this fatalistic perspective no matter how brave and noble cuts the nerve of anyone wanting to join the increasing number of parents who want to get to the bottom of why autism is skyrocketing I don't believe either of those statements is true I don't believe it's true that it's inconceivable that God should will your child's disability and I don't think it's true that those who believe in the absolute sovereignty of God are less involved in fighting evil and sickness and every other kind of horror in the world than those who don't believe in it or I don't think historically that's true and I don't think it's true today but that's what some Christians are saying or David Hart in The Wall Street Journal says after the tsunami no Christian is licensed to utter odious banalities about God's inscrutable councils or blasphemous suggestions that all this mysteriously serves God's good ends well I do uh Terr that with no fear in the presence of God Almighty that it is blasphemy number seven the wise good just absolute sovereignty of God is passed orally precious beyond measure I've been a pastor for 28 years I have buried many people I know that one of my 17 year olds is still in a coma from the accident last week I know these things I live with this every day of my life I also read the newspaper I also look at the internet we are I am inundated with pain my own and my peoples and I testify and I'll just argue I testify after 28 years the absolute good wise total sovereignty of God over our lives is passed orally precious beyond measure it's not an embarrassment in the hospital I promise you it's not the words Satan meant it for evil and God meant it for good have sustained many a broken heart number eight suffering is appointed as one way for the gospel to spread this is what I'm going to talk about at a conference here later on the weekend called The Purpose Driven death that's a very very very biblical title and it's rooted in Colossians 1 24 do you remember what Jesus said to Peter and John when they were talking at the end of the Gospel of John and he said what is that to you and then he said I will show him by what death he will glorify me I will show him by what death he will glorify me in the last verses of the Gospel of John that's a Purpose Driven death now the point here is God doesn't just use after the event suffering to spread the gospel God designs to spread the gospel by the suffering of his agents the suffering of his agents is one of his appointed means by which he will make himself look magnificently superior to life the steadfast love of the Lord is better than life Psalm 63 3 how can you show that if you only prosper talk talk talk talk won't do it one of the best histories of modern actually the totality of mission since Jesus is Stephen Neal's book the history missions and he has a few pages which I copied out here on why was it under God that the Christian movement virtually conquered the Roman Empire in three hundred years what was it about these simple people that so vitally spread throughout the Roman Empire and he lists six reasons and the last one was this quote under the Roman Empire Christians had no legal right to exist we Americans we just get bent out of shape when our rights are taken away which is like it's like why do you think Christians should have any right for anything this country is a footnote on the future reality a weird one and we we act like it's not fleeing but about what if we can't post our commandments or we can't preach our sermons why read your Bible they we don't have any rights in this world we are aliens and exiles and refugees Satan is the god of this world we testify unto death I'm starting to paraphrase let me get back here and read under the Roman Empire Christians had no legal right to exist every Christian knew every Christian knew that sooner or later he might have to testify to his faith at the cost of his life that's why it spread American wimpy Christianity won't spread it's those who know it may cost them their lives who-who treasured Jesus more than they treasure life let alone any lifestyle this add the rest will just shrink into its little comfortable Enclave that's number eight number nine the supreme value and glory and admirable ness of Christ is shown where people see him as more valuable than anything else we could lose I didn't say very well let me try say it again the the beauty the admirable Ness the glory of Jesus Christ is displayed demonstrated shown revealed most clearly where Christians treasure Christ more than they treasure what they're losing child health life marriage if you get in God's face and begin to demean him or belittle him or diss him because of something that's being taken away you're showing where your treasure is and it doesn't speak well to the world about him being our supreme treasure there's the big issue that's the big issue this seminar that's the big issue of the book of Job that's what Satan wanted not to be known that God is more valuable than job's family he desperately didn't want that to be known that's number 9 number 10 job is the main book in the Bible for dealing with this issue straight up it can help us with all of these things it was written unlike any of the other books mainly for this the issue is all over the Bible but job is where it comes to a head as we heard Scott quote from james511 I wrote down one more as I was coming over here this is number 11 in my own name I have no right to address suffering people about suffering I haven't suffered much and I thought today as I reflected on that okay but there aren't two classes of people in the world suffers and non suffers there are hundreds of classes of people namely everybody suffering at different levels some more one day some less another day some more one year less another year and therefore if we start saying who can talk to whom about how much they've suffered almost nobody will talk to anybody about this besides that I do not speak to you in my own name and I would encourage you not to believe anything John Piper says that is not warranted by the Bible if I cannot show you what I say in the Bible you have a full reason to say not sure about that and put it on the question mark and go home and think about it so mainly we're going to be looking at the Bible in this in this session so if you have a Bible which I hope you do let's go to Jobe it's almost in the middle of the Bible a little bit before Psalms I mean right before Psalms we'll get maybe through chapter 31 tonight you believe that I never get through 31 chapters in years let alone minutes but that's my goal and if I don't reach it i'll quicken the pace tomorrow job chapter 1 there was a man in the land of us whose name was job and that man was blameless and upright one who feared God and turned away from evil so he sets up the author sets up the book with a very good man nobody like him blameless upright feared reverenced treasured God I don't think the word fear is slavish doesn't work in the context if it's a kind of cowering slavish fear it's a kind of trembling Wonder and awe and delight to come into the presence of God a fear that you would do anything to dishonor him or demean him or belittle his value he fears him and the implication or the the result of that in his life was that he turned away from evil verse 2 they were born to him seven sons and three daughters he possessed seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels five hundred yoke of oxen five hundred female donkeys and very many servants so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east so his goodness had been blessed with prosperity as many of yours has verse four his sons used to go and hold a feast now this is a illustration of the kind of uprightness that he has 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 Joe would sin and consecrate them and he would rise early in the morning and burn 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 and thus job did continually what comes out there are two things about job one a jealousy for the name of God my kids curse the name of God I don't make that right as right as a dad can make it and the second thing is concerned for his kids if they've cursed god oh god would you receive this offering would you have mercy upon my children this is what dads do they get up in the morning they pray for their kids right dance right dad's we get up in the morning and we lay hold on God and say preserve those marriages Oh God keep their faith of God guard their orthodoxy Oh God protect their children guard their hearts fight from my kids God and you pray it a lot more when they're adults or maybe most when they're teenagers although now I don't think that's true because I only have one teenager she's 13 and all my boys are grown and I'm mainly concerned about them then the calamity came I'm going to skip over verses 6 to 12 and come back to it in a moment now there was a day when his sons and daughters this is verse 13 chapter 1 verse 13 there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house so having one of those parties and there came a messenger to job and said the oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them and and the sabaeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword and I alone have escaped to tell you or 16 while he was yet speaking there came another and said the fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them in the I alone have escaped to tell you verse 17 while he was yet speaking there came another and said the Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid and and the camels they took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword and I alone have escaped to tell you verse 18 and while he was yet speaking there came another and said your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house and behold a great wind maybe a tornado came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young people and their dead and I alone have escaped to tell you well so much for jobs prosperity in one afternoon all of his possessions are gone and all of his children are dead in one afternoon the most upright the most god-fearing man in the east what happened this makes no sense right this is absurd this is unintelligible we would ask what on earth is going on and and the answer of the book is earth will never give you the answer heaven will give you the answer not the whole answer that you want maybe but it will give an answer so let's back up now to heaven and see what happened verse 6 of chapter 1 now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord I think that means angels and Satan also came among them the Lord that's Yahweh absolute sovereign Lord said to Satan from where have you come and 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's none like him on the earth a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil that's weird a thief sneaks into the jewelry shop at night while the owner is in the backroom looking to steal diamonds and he runs into the owner and the owner says what are you doing here he says I'm looking around for diamonds to steal and the owner says have you seen the biggest one it's up front under glass here's the key this is strange now I assume that God's not a bumbler he's like I didn't mean to say that I didn't mean to draw attention to job I I should have brought attention to some carnal Christian over here therefore I do assume God is setting him up use whatever words you want God is manifestly proud of job and I use the word carefully I'm very hesitant to use that word of humans feeling about humans because pride means you have some stake that you've got some causality in what they are like if God had a huge tank in what Joe was like and therefore I say he was hugely proud of job feared god job fear of God called so much attention to the work and value and power truth and justice and goodness and wisdom and grace of God that God beamed over job in the front in the presence of Satan well Satan is not impressed verses 9 to 11 then Satan answered the Lord and said does job fear God for no reason have you not put a hedge around him in 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 you stretch out your hand and touch all that he has he will curse you to your face they see what he's doing this is the setup this is what's at stake in the book this is what the book is about the book is about will it become evident that job values his possessions more than God or will it become evident to the devil and all the hosts of heaven and all the people of us that job values God more than he values his children and his sheep and oxen and camels and donkeys that's the issue of the book God could have said I don't need to prove anything to you Satan I know the heart of my man I see everything I know job better than job nose job or anybody else nose job he doesn't need to prove anything to you or me begone that's what he could have done just like Jesus said begone to the demons and they obeyed him Satan always obeys God he commands the unclean spirits and they obey Him Satan is in God's presence by massive sovereign permission but God evidently has already set this up he's not going to change his mind he knows where he's going so when Satan says the only reason he worships you the only reason he fears you the only reason he treasures you is because you give him stuff verse 12 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 and somebody killed the servants and the kids God is in the process here of demonstrating to the heavenly hosts and to any others who have eyes to see that he himself is paramount in the heart of job that's what he's aiming to do that's the most important thing in the world to God I didn't throw that sentence out quickly his being paramount in the hearts of his people is the most important thing in the world to God everything else is a means to that in his supremacy in the hearts of his people all right round one job Victor let's read it verse 20 then job arose tore his robe shaved his head fell on the ground and say the word say it and be amazed he worshipped and he said naked I came from my mother's womb naked I shall return the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away blessed be the name of the Lord so job's answer to the question who killed the kids is God that's what it says the Lord took them away and he took all my donkeys and all my camels now you can argue Herman ethically oh this is like Ecclesiastes ninety-nine percent of the book is false that won't work here and there are numerous reasons why the biggest one is in the next verse where the author foresees that objection and answers it verse 22 in all this job did not sin with his lips or charge God with wrong he didn't sin in other words when he said the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away that wasn't wrong that wasn't sin he wasn't saying anything about God that would be sinful that's why that verse is there because it's so breathtaking job you're saying you you've you've shaved your head you ripped your clothes you're weeping your eyes out for weeks and you're saying God did it and you're worshiping him that's what he says scarcely could the victory be over it seems I don't know how much time elapses between chapter 1 and chapter 2 it doesn't say and so we're given the impression it wasn't long he's covered with sores chapter 2 verse 7 in the middle of the verse loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head and you took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ash is now these were horrible sores if you read the rest of the book just looking for instances where they're described there's one place where they get so grimy with dirt and then they get worms in you've never experienced anything like these sores and it was from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet and they were loads they were horrible horrible to look at horrible to touch he wouldn't even touch him with his fingers he took a piece of broken pottery just to scrape the pus out and try to get the worms in the dirt out just anything this was horrible and so we asked again what is going on he passed the test and he was the best man to start with he worshipped you with his kids were killed what more do you want what is going on and the answer is given in verse 3 following again the Lord said to Satan who had come again like he did before looking around 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 and then he adds he still holds fast his integrity although you incited me you Satan and cited me against him to destroy him without reason that's an amazing verse God now not job says I did it you incited me against my boy and I did it without reason now that's a not a helpful translation in the RSV it has without cause that's closer the point is if you take the man job and look at his life there's nothing there that explains why this came down on him and that's right there is it there's nothing there that explains the magnitude of this suffering coming down but but when you translate it without reason it sounds like you might be saying there's no purpose that we're going to find out is not the case but it sure looks irrational and absurd I mean if you're gone to ordain that boils come on a person pick a bad person which is exactly what Elif as Bildad and Zophar are going to hammer job with very soon verse six now let's start at verse four then Satan this chapter 2 verse 4 then Satan answered the Lord and said skin for skin all that a man has he will give for his life you made in other words you made me not touch his life you put those limits on me but you stretch out your hand verse 5 you stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh he'll curse you to your face and the Lord said to Satan behold he's in your hand only spare his life you see God's sovereignty there thus far and no farther you may go I draw the lines for Satan everywhere he goes I pulled him back I let him out he's never free from my sovereign rule so Satan went out for seven from the presence of the Lord and struck job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in ashes and now what's the result his wife can't take him anymore I feel sorry for his wife in the poem that I wrote I created a conversion for her I have a lot of sympathy with this woman now I think the author and job do too because of the wording here look how its words then his why me she's just lost her kids all right ten children and she's watched her husband who valiantly worshiped God be struck with boils this is not easy I'm going to cut her a lot of slack right if words come out of her mouth there's this beautiful verse in chapter 6 that talks about words for the wind will you judge a man for words that are wind has a lot of words for the wind in the midst of tragedy pastors need to discern what are words for the wind and he doesn't correct them he just lets them go off into the wind he knows they will say better tomorrow I hope she does too although we're never quite made clear but here's what it says you still hold fast to your integrity curse God and die but he said to her now here's what he did not say you are one of the foolish women he didn't say that he said you speak as one of the foolish women would speak I just think that's intentional giving her a break you're not one of them honey this isn't you and he answers let me just put in a little princess there this has almost nothing to do with anything it's just here in my brain I have a 13 year old daughter who often says things to her mother she shouldn't I hear the tone of voice from the living room she's storming out of the kitchen on the way upstairs and I stopped her talath of forgive me for telling this story because it's really a tribute to you stop her in the middle of steps I said tell the wait a minute before you go up that wasn't you telephone that's your old nature honey you're a believer you're a new woman in Christ that's not the way the new woman talks let's go up and get right with your Lord and your Savior and then come and talk to your mom I just mentioned that to you because I think if you don't build into your kids an understanding of how they as Christians can sin they will become class a legalists from the get-go so just make sure you have a way of doing the correction and doing the rebuking if the child has made a profession of faith I'm assuming not every child is a believer but if they have so close that princess wherever that came from and I've totally lost my bearings here now thank you here's what he says this is verse 10 but he said to her you speak as one of the foolish women would speak shall we receive good from God and shall we not receive evil in all this job did not sin with his lips so you have an exact parallel to verse 22 of chapter 1 job did not sin or charge God with wrong here jojje job did not sin with his lips when he said shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord and not receive evil now here's a catch he said I have received evil from the Lord meaning I have received calamity I've received my disease from the Lord look at verse 7 again Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Joe with loathsome sores it says Satan struck him with loathsome sores is one of those verses wrong no it's very right to give Satan his due here Satan was evidently the immediate agent however he does it like the woman that was bent over for 18 years remember in jesus healed her and says shall not a daughter of Abraham whom Satan has bent over for 18 years not be healed on the Sabbath Satan does that kind of thing in your life in my life but what Jobe knows and he knows it because of all these things we're seeing is that Satan's on a leash you can't do anything without God's ordaining and permitting and therefore he's just he's looking right through the immediate cause up to the ultimate cause and says shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord and not receive evil now I personally have a vision of heaven at this moment that moment in which Satan is kept on the leash you know going away going to watch this and when those two times Jobe says blessed be the name of the Lord though he give and take and I will not curse him my wife because doesn't he have a right to give good and evil I see ten million angels and 20 million hands go blessed be the god of Jobe for His infinite Worth and value in job's heart and I see Satan that's why we suffer those choruses wring out quietly here in hospital rooms among nurses and they wring out with unbelievable power and the vindication of God's purposes in the heavenly places where all the demons cower and all the Angels celebrate the triumph of the worth of God in the hearts of his people let me just draw out a few lessons here that are real obvious Satan aims to destroy your joy in God and your treasuring of God that's very clear here number two God aims to magnify his worth we've seen that very clearly and the mirror that he chooses to show it in is the indestructible joy of his people in him even when they lose everything on the earth third God grants to Satan limited power to cause pain he's on a leash behold all that he has is in your power only upon himself do not put forth your hand chapter 1 verse 12 chapter 2 verse behold he's in your power only spare his life number four Satan's work is ultimately the work of God that's why it says in two three you incited me against him and that's why it says in chapter one verse 21 the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away and that's why it says in chapter 2 verse 10 shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord and not receive evil and just in case we missed it you might want to flip over to chapter 42 it's the last chapter if are we putting too much weight on this is this really the way the whole book is being conceived and structured by the author just want to direct your attention to one verse in chapter 42 verse 11 then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before and ate bread with him in his house and they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him so there it is all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him you know we're going to turn to the three friends now there was one thing about which the three friends and Jobe totally agreed and it's the one thing that Christians today don't agree with many these four and you could include Elijah here and you could include jobs wife here these for when they grapple with how to solve the problem of suffering never call God's sovereignty into question never that's the first thing we call into question amazing they had other questions is he good is he righteous is he just but is he in charge never so let's meet these fellows who show up here Elif as Bildad and Zophar are coming they're in chapter 2 verses 11 following now in jobs three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him they came each from his own place Elif as the team of night bildad the shuhite so far the namma fight they made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort and then they sat with him for seven days without saying a word because they were so stunned at his depth of suffering and that was their golden moment because they didn't say anything and that's probably what you should do when you show up at the hospital for a season as well just sit quietly don't be afraid of the truth one of the lessons we're going to learn in this next unit which is a big unit chapter 3 through 31 is true theology can hurt people really badly you can use true statements very unwisely so keep your eyes peeled for for that now I'm going to have to do some real big overviewing here right we're going to do we're going to do through chapter 31 in the next 15 minutes or so what you have in these chapters is three cycles of speeches what I mean by cycle is this LFS speaks job speaks though bill bill dad speaks job speaks zophar speaks job speaks then it repeats itself again LFS bill dead so far with job in between when you get to the last cycle its Elif has job bill dad job and it's over now the structure itself so far dropping off the end of the three cycles and breaking the symmetry is not an accident in fact the speeches of Elif as Bildad and Zophar get shorter and shorter and shorter and Joe becomes increasingly faith-filled and increasingly strong as you move through these chapters bill dad's last speech is a mere six verses and Zophar can open his mouth any more job silences his friends so what we want to see here is what were they saying what's the big picture of what they were saying and why were they silenced by what job was saying because neither of them is saying very good things because God really gets in job's face who is this that darkens counsel against me and he's talking to job and jump had it better than the three friends so that's what we want to do in these next few minutes now these fellows break out of their silence because of jobs breaking out of his silence in a way that really makes them upset chapter three verse one after this job opened his mouth of seven days they're sitting together just groaning in aching silence and job opened his mouth and cursed the day he was born the nave his birth job said left that day perish on which I was born verse 11 why did I not die at birth come out of the womb and expire why did the knees receive me why the breasts that I should nurse verse 20 that I that I should nurse verse 20 why is light given to him who is in misery and life to the bitter in Seoul now job is questioning whom here God because the Lord gives and the Lord takes away the Lord gives I'm born by the design of God why did you do that to me I don't like the idea that I was born far better not to have been born than to have these boils that's what he's saying Elif as Bildad and Zophar don't like that and so they begin their work chapter 4 LFS verses 7 and 8 remember who that was innocent ever perished or where were the upright cut off as I have seen those who plow iniquity and so trouble read the same that is the principle unpacked in the next 25 chapters the wicked suffer now they say it's soft at first by the time they're done there could be brutal shows you wear a an inadequate theology will take they are going to be brutal chapter 5 verse 17 behold blessed is the one whom God approves therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty now the reason I quote you that is to cut Elif as some slack here Elif as is willing to hold out the possibility this is discipline and not punitive that job is good and God is disciplining not punishing but that vanishes in a hurry I just want to show you the complexity of this writer does not make it easy for us the way he puts things together because things are nuanced and you think somebody's all bad and suddenly they're not all bad or you think somebody is all good and it or not all good it's a very complex book Elif as does not have a totally haywire theology that would make it easy if he did but it's not that easy chapter five verse eight as for me I would seek God and to God I would commit my cause as as though job weren't it's too simple Elif as job protests verse chapter six verse 10 this would be my comfort I would even exult in pain unsparing for I have not denied the words of the Holy One he's protesting his innocence here chapter 6 verse 20 for teach me and I'll be silent make me understand how I have gone astray so you say this is owing to my sin show me my sin he wasn't upright man he was blameless he feared God he turned away from evil his reputation throughout the land was this is a good man show me my sin bill dad comes in now and responds in Chapter 8 chapter 8 verses 3 & 4 does god pervert justice or does the almighty pervert the right if your children have sinned against him he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression and I put an exclamation point in my margin way a long time ago I thought can you talk like that to this man got killed him because they sinned maybe if you will see God verse 5 pleaded the almighty for mercy etc job responds that this is the party line and he's about tired of it chapter 9 verse 22 chapter 9 verse 22 it's all one therefore I say he destroys both the blameless and the wicked you say the blameless get rewarded the wicked suffer I'm telling you they both suffer when the disaster brings sudden death he mocks at the calamity of the innocent the earth is given into the hand of the wicked he covers the faces of its judges if it is not he though that is it in other words what job is bringing to bear against the artificial theology of his opponents his reality just reality I can point to a thousand good people who are suffering he says and I can point to a thousand wicked people who are prospering give me your platitudes of the righteous prosper and the wicked suffer that's a lot of crap and so is the contemporary prosperity theology because that's what this book is about so far chapter 11 verse 14 that Joe far have so far have a word here chapter 11 verse 14 if iniquity is in your hand put it far away and let the injustice dwell let not injustice dwell in your tents surely then you will lift up your face without blemish you will be secure and not fear they only have one solution for job suffering you've got hidden sin that's it and he's getting tired of hearing it because it is so out of sync with reality job knows it and they can't see it for the nose on their face and so he begins to use sarcasm job does in his responses in Chapter 12 verse 31 he talks about these moral common places in chapter 13 verse 12 your proverbs of Ashes in chapter 13 verse 4 worthless physicians are you all chapter 13 verse 3 how would speak to the Almighty I would desire to argue my case with God not you I might get something right from him that was the end of cycle one and the other two cycles don't have anything new they don't have anything new they just keep coming back to it again again only they get brutal consider in cycle two these words I'll just read them quickly instead of having you go there up to 15 verse 20 it is the wicked man that rise in pain Bildad chapter 18 verse 5 it is the light of the wicked that he's put out so far verse 5 of chapter 20 the joy of the wicked is short chip chip chip all they do is talk the old thing then here comes cycle three they're almost done it gets shorter and shorter and this time they become as brutal as they can get it might be good to look at this one chapter 22 verse 5 now this is Elif as he started pretty well and he's ending horribly verse 5 chapter 22 is not your evil abundant there's no end of your iniquities you have exacting pledges of your brothers for nothing and strip the naked of their clothing you have given no water to the weary to drink and you have withheld bread from the hungry the man with power possessed in the land and the favored man lived in it you have sent widows away empty and the arms of the fatherless you have crushed that is not true and everybody knows it's not true they're driven to lies by their theology a theology that says a sovereign God cannot bring suffering on the righteous that theology drives a person to lies which is why it is so passed orally unhelpful well bill dead tries for six verses and Zophar shuts his mouth concluding lessons here number one true theological statements can be used to harm people and become false in their divine purpose when you read these men I know you're going to stumble because they're going to sound like certain songs you read Elif as you read Bildad you read so far and it sounds just like some Psalms and the subs are good they're true they're divinely inspired you will say oh wait a minute I thought these guys were bad they are bad but they're using a lot of good theology with which to do bad stuff they're so unkind they're so impatient they're so brittle they make so few distinctions they don't have the capacity to handle the complexity of life with their little simple boxes of your bad you get back your good you get good that won't work Jobe has driven the point and silenced them and we need to know that if we go to that theology it won't work number two second lesson suffering and prosperity are not distributed in the world in proportion to the evil or the good that a person does suffering or prosperity are not dispersed in the world in proportion to the evil or the good that people do job is right in chapter 21 verse 30 when he says the wicked are spared in the day of calamity job is right in verse chapter 12 verse 4 the just and blameless man is a laughingstock and therefore brothers and sisters let us be slow to judge each other's hearts by whether we lost a job or marriage begins to falter or a child leaves home or a disease comes or reputation is sullied let us be slow we know we know now what that heart is because this and this and this happened you don't know you don't know that's the point number three lesson number three nevertheless even though suffering does not fall and prosperity does not fall according to how much good and evil people have done nevertheless God still reigns over the affairs of men from the greatest to the smallest God is sovereign that's clear in everything that's said let me read you chapter 12 verses 13 following this is job job the complainer chapter 12 verse 13 with God our wisdom and might he has counsel and understanding if he tears down none can rebuild if he shuts a man in none can open if he withholds the waters they dry up if he sends them out they overwhelmed the land with him our strength and sound wisdom he deceived and the deceived and the deceiver are his now that's job in the midst of his suffering and in the midst of his complaining saying God is still sovereign and lastly there is wisdom behind the apparent arbitrariness of this world but it is a hidden wisdom by and large not totally as we'll see when we turn to the speeches of Li hue next but let me close by reading something from chapter 28 chapter 28 verses 12 and 13 and verse 23 28 12 this is Jobe he's near the end where she'll wisdom be found and where is the place of understanding man does not know its worth and it's not found in the land of the living it's not in man verse 23 God understands the way to it and he knows its place Jobe and I'll show you more of this especially from chapter 19 as we make the transition to the speeches of Liu another another young man appears on the scene and he doesn't like what Joe has said he doesn't like what LFS Bildad and Zophar I said who is this man is what he says better or is it more of the same so we're going to build a bridge to Eli hue by going back to chapter 19 where job says I know that my redeemer lives and from my flesh I will see God let's pray father in heaven I tremble that the experience of job I do not predict what my emotions would be if you struck me with such boils I pray that every person in this room would be made ready for the day of their calamity and the day of their prosperity for Satan destroys us with prosperity as often as he destroys us with calamity indeed in America I believe more often faith is destroyed by prosperity than by calamity so help us to be ready now pray that you would strengthen our faith and cause yourself to be cherished treasured revered above life and breath and everything in Jesus name I pray you

Channel: I'll Be Honest

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Keywords: john, piper, conference, austin, job, suffering, regional

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Length: 79min 2sec (4742 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 19 2009