Feb. 11, 2018 AM How To Explain Suffering by Eric Hollingsworth

Job’s Suffering and the Question of Retribution

Thank you, Pastor Josh, and thank you all so much for your generosity in letting me stand up here once again. Please open your Bibles back once again to Job chapter 3. The book of Job breaks down into several larger sections.

Last hour was section 1, the setup to the rest of the book, chapters 1 and 2, where God and Satan are first discussing Job, and then Job starts suffering. Next, this hour, comes the largest section, chapters 3 through 31, those several cycles of discourses of Job and his three friends.

So this hour, we'll consider the question that Job and his three friends debated so hotly, and so very thoroughly, for 29 chapters. Do I deserve this pain and suffering that's happening to me? Is God punishing me?

Is this God's curse on me for my sins? Has this question ever kept you up at night, filled you with dread, remorse, and sorrow? If so, maybe, just maybe, if you are a child of your Heavenly Father, you have been asking the wrong question.

So far, we've seen Satan boast to God about his dominion over the earth, over God's image bearers on the earth, while God pointed to Job, who was blameless and upright, who feared God and who shunned evil.

So Satan replied that Job doesn't truly worship God or love God for who he is, because Job doesn't serve God for nothing, but rather, Job serves God for something, for that protective hedge that God had placed around him, for God's blessings and gifts, including vast numbers of camels, sheep, oxen, and donkeys, great wealth, ten happy and healthy children, a noble wife, the admiration of his friends, and of course, his own good health.

But that if God, said Satan, took everything away from Job, he would show his true colors and he would curse God to his face. So then we saw God place Job into Satan's hands. The oxen, camels, and donkeys were stolen, the sheep were burned, the servants were killed, and all of his children died.

And then Job's flesh was covered with painful boils. And then even his wife turned against him. Financial collapse, crushing grief, physical pain, relational misery. Yet in all of these gut-wrenching moments, any one of which would drive me to despair, Job refused to curse God and die.

In fact, he blessed God. In fact, he worshiped God. But by now, things have changed. Job 7 verse 3 tells us that it's months later. Months of Job laying in that ash heap, scraping his boils, wasting away.

Months for Job to marinate in his agony, to maul over his life. Months for Satan's last and greatest temptation to really settle in. Can you guess what that temptation was? It was the growing sense that Job was forsaken, that Job was cursed by God.

Because as you read through Job, you don't see him talking very much about the loss of his wealth. He never again mentions his wife or children. And he doesn't even seem all that focused on his physical pain.

Though it does come up often. But over and over, Job talks at length about his loss of God. God, where are you? God, why won't you come to me and explain your actions to me? God, tell me why this all has happened to me.

It's like Proverbs 18 .14, The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, but who can bear a broken spirit? Job's spirit, by chapter 3, is broken. Because Job no longer knows God as he once thought he did.

He thought that he could count on God to bless his obedient worship. But now he sees God afflicting him for no reason, for no known sin. God had even told Satan that Job was blameless. And in fact, Job himself knew it.

He proclaims his innocence repeatedly in these cycles of discourses. So why does a servant of the Most High God have to wallow in an ash heap, heartbroken, waiting to die? Job doesn't curse God, but he feels cursed by God.

So much so that he wished he had never been born. Job chapter 3, verse 1. After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job spoke and said, May the day perish on which I was born, and the night in which it was said, a male child is conceived.

May that day be darkness. May God above not seek it, nor the light shine upon it. Skip to verse 9. May the stars of its morning be dark. May it look for light, but have none, and not see the dawning of the day.

Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide sorrow from my eyes. Job says my life is a terrible mistake. My whole life should never have happened. Have you ever been there? Turn now to chapter 10.

Job's being honest with his feelings. Very honest, which in itself is not dishonoring to God. After all, Jesus was honest when he prayed, Let this cup pass from me. And again the next day when he cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

But now Job takes things a step further. He's no longer merely venting his feelings. Now he's complaining to God. He's grumbling against God. Demanding that God defend himself, and essentially calling God on the carpet for his actions.

Job 10 verse 1, my soul loathes my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will say to God, do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me. Does it seem good to you that you should oppress?

That you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked? Do you have eyes of flesh, or do you see as man sees? Are your days like the days of a mortal man? Are your years like the days of a mighty man?

That you should seek for my iniquity, and search out my sin, although you know that I am not wicked. And there is no one who can deliver from your hand. Your hands have made me and fashioned me, an intricate unity.

Yet you would destroy me. He accuses God of injustice, of destroying an innocent man. But even these shrieks of pain and bitterness toward God shouldn't cause us to think that Job isn't saved, that he isn't justified by faith alone.

Turn to chapter 14, Job 14. Even in the midst of great suffering, Job professed a hard-fought faith in God. For instance, Job 13, 15,. Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. And chapters 14 and 19 make it clear that Job believed God, the same as Abraham, to whom his faith was accounted for righteousness.

And in fact, in Job 14, Job talks about a resurrection unto life. Start at verse 7 of Job 14. For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its tender shoots will not cease.

Though its root may grow old in the earth, and its stump may die in the ground, yet at the scent of water, it will bud and bring forth branches like a plant. But man dies and is laid away. Indeed, he breathes his last, and where is he?

As water disappears from the sea, and a river becomes parched and dries up, so man lies down and does not rise. Till the heavens are no more, they will not awake, nor be roused from their sleep. Oh, that you would hide me in the grave, that you would conceal me until your wrath is passed, that you would appoint me a set time and remember me.

If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service, I will wait till my change comes. You shall call, and I will answer you. You shall desire the work of your hands. Job says that just like an outwardly dead tree stump can bring forth new life, so too will a man who trusts in God be raised from the dead.

This is what Job believed. He says to God, under your wrath, I'm about to die. So hide me in the grave until your wrath is passed, and then remember me, remember me. Job likely had no written word of God, no revealed doctrine of resurrection, but I think he reasoned that it had to be true.

Why? Because if a man like Job can suffer as Job has in this life, if God is just, there must be a life to come to make things right. See, even as Job was raging against God's apparent injustice, he still really believed in a just God.

You know, like so many of us, he was a confused saint. Turn now to Job 19. Job chapter 19. I'm wondering, in the book of Ruth, do you remember what Boaz was called? As a picture of Christ, Boaz was called Ruth's kinsman redeemer, the Hebrew word goel, which means one who restores, one who puts something back to its original condition, who puts something right.

So, at this point in Job, Job 19, he's yearning for someone to restore his life. And ruminating on that ash heap for months on end, Job has arrived at yet another stunning theological conclusion. See, because pain really can give us a laser focus on what really matters.

Reading from Job 19, verse 23, Oh, that my words were written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book! They are. That they were engraved on a rock with an iron pin and lead forever. For I know that my redeemer lives, my goel.

And he shall stand at last on the earth. And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh, there's the resurrection again, I shall see God. Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another, how my heart yearns within me.

Like Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, 12, for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then, then, face to face. Job's words here are so doctrinally rich. He says, this I know, my heart is convinced, that if God is just, then he will raise me up.

And that if God will raise me up, then there must be one who will redeem me, who will restore me, who will make my life right again, who will stand with me at last on the earth. It's stunning. Job has deduced Jesus the mediator, the necessity of a mediator, redeemer, someday restoring Job and redeeming his people and reclaiming his earth for himself.

The blessed hope that Job came to in the midst of pain. But in the meantime, in the ash heap, Job's three friends have now come from afar, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. And when they first see Job, end of chapter two, they're shocked by his appearance.

They cry out and weep, tear their robes, throw dust in the air, sit on the ground, and just wait, speechless, for seven full days. For seven days, they sit with no one breaking the silence. They have that much respect for what Job is going through.

But as soon as Job opens his mouth and starts accusing God, tearing into God, you're being unjust to me. Now Job's friends start to tear into him. And they've come now to their own theological conclusions.

They say, actually, Job, since we know that God is just, and since it's clear that you are suffering, then you must be guilty of great sin. Job, you must deserve what's happened to you. And you need to repent if you want God's blessings again, rather than remaining under His curse.

It would have been better if they had just kept quiet. Remember, always make sure a brother is guilty of sin before you accuse him of sin. See, it's ironic, because Job's three friends had not come to scold him, but to comfort him.

Job 2, verse 11. But when they saw Job not repenting of his supposed sin, but rather implying that God had sinned against him, any thought of comforting Job went right out the window. Now it was time for tough love.

Now it's time to speak the truth in love. Although, I gotta tell you, it doesn't come off all that loving. It's more like a lecture on sound theology. And each in their own unique self-righteous style.

The Friends and the Law of Retribution

First, Eliphaz, who is the cold intellectual. Turn to chapter 22, please. This is just an excerpt from what he says. First, Eliphaz brags about his great understanding, and then he simply, in this chapter, calculates the sins that Job must be guilty of.

It's breathtaking. Like, since you're suffering really bad, your sins must be really bad. In fact, here, I have a list that I've prepared. Job 22, verse 4. Is it because of your fear of him that he corrects you and enters into judgment with you?

Sarcasm. Is not your wickedness great, and your iniquity without end? For you, Job, have taken pledges from your brother for no reason, and you, Job, have stripped the naked of their clothing. He's just making stuff up.

You have not given the weary water to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry. But the mighty man possessed the land, and the honorable man dwelt in it. You have sent widows away empty, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed.

Therefore, snares are all around you, and sudden fear troubles you. Eliphaz just deduces all of these sins. No wonder God has a bone to pick with Eliphaz at the end of the story. Next up is Bildad, the staunch traditionalist of the group.

Turn back to Job chapter 8. Job 8. Bildad is the fundamentalist Christian in the bunch, the black and white legalist. Job 8 verse 1. Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said, How long will you speak these things, and the words of your mouth be like a strong wind?

In other words, Job, you blow hard. Does God subvert judgment, or does the Almighty pervert justice? If your sons have sinned against Him, He has cast them away for their transgression. It's just as simple as that.

Black and white. If you would earnestly seek God and make your supplication to the Almighty, if you were pure and upright, surely now He would awake for you and prosper your rightful dwelling place. Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would increase abundantly.

And here comes Bildad's source of authority, tradition. For inquire, please, of the former age, and consider the things discovered by their fathers. For we were born yesterday and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.

Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words from their heart? The fathers. It's black and white, Job, cut and dry, just like our fathers told us and their fathers before them. God blesses the upright, and God punishes the wicked in this life.

Well, last third of the group is Zophar, who is the proud zealot. Job chapter 11, please. Job 11. Eliphaz and Bildad both speak three times, but you'll notice Zophar only speaks twice because I think he loses patience with Job and stalks off.

That's how zealots are. Now at Job 11 verse 2. Should not the multitude of words be answered? And should a man full of talk be vindicated? Should your empty talk make men hold their peace? And when you mock, should no one rebuke you?

For you have said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in your eyes. But oh, that God would speak and open his lips against you, that he would show you the secrets of wisdom, for they would double your prudence.

Know therefore that God exacts from you less than your iniquity deserves. Job, not only do you deserve what's happened to you, you deserve far worse. But can we see how utterly self-righteous these three guys are?

Basically all of them are saying, Job, I don't deserve to suffer like you because I'm a good person. I'm upright, and you're not. And having seen behind the curtain in Job chapters 1 and 2, it is chilling to us how very wrong they are.

But they're just giving voice to a principle that's called the Law of Retribution. Which is that God blesses the righteous with good things, and curses the wicked with bad things. The Law of Retribution.

In this life, that's how it is. So if you do good, you get good from God. If you do evil, you get cursed by God. The Law of Retribution is like karma, or what goes around, comes around. Except in Job, there's a personal God to enforce it all the time.

And ultimately, of course, God does enforce this Law of Retribution, because in the age to come, the wicked outside of Christ will experience hell. And the righteous in Christ will experience heaven and the new earth.

But in this present age, those ledgers often don't seem all that balanced. So that in many Psalms, for instance, David cannot understand why the wicked are prospering. And the whole book of Habakkuk asks the same question.

Why does God seem to be so unjust in the short term when we can plainly see so many of the wicked flourishing and so many of the righteous suffering? What's going on in the here and now in our own lives of serious illness?

Where's God when we lose our jobs? When our finances go south? Why doesn't God protect His saints from tornadoes and floods? From accidents and crimes? Why doesn't God protect us from others' sins? From the broken vows of a spouse or the broken trust of a friend?

We can be very confused too. We know that we didn't bring this on ourselves. And so we ask God, what kind of God are you? Why was our friend Pastor Tony Bartolucci and his 14-year-old daughter Gianna hit by an illegal immigrant drunk driver on Christmas Eve, their car bursting into flames, Tony grievously injured, and Gianna holding on for six months before she died?

Why did my wife Karen have to suffer with MS for the majority of our lives together? Blameless, but suffering. See, but like Job's friends, I also operated under the law of retribution, that God should make sure that bad things only happen to bad people, not to me.

I mean, not in so many words, not out loud, like these three guys, you know, going on and on about the law of retribution, but in my heart, I fully expected God's blessings. I felt entitled to them. Why am I under God's curse?

Hey, because I wasn't even just a Christian. I was in seminary when my wife got sick. And I was a pastor when I lost my job. In fact, twice now. So I was just as confused as Job, because I was outwardly extremely righteous.

I was serving God. I was in my Bible. I prayed. I was faithful to my wife. I was tithing, even in poverty. Of course, inwardly, I was a self-focused, self-worshiping, sensual-minded mess. I'm so grateful now that God has been so merciful to me.

But outwardly, I was punctilious in my self-righteousness. I did everything I was supposed to do. So I figured, yes, that God owed me. In fact, I figured the more righteous I could make myself, the more punctilious I could be in my righteousness, then the worse I could make God feel about how badly he was abusing us.

Kind of like Job. God, can't you see how unjust this all is? As if it wasn't me sinning against God. No. It was God sinning against me. I very clearly remember that my most predominant thought for many years as a believer was this.

God, you stole my life. Let that sink in. God, you stole my life from me. I said, I only get one life, and you've taken it away. I will never have what others have. I'll never be happy like others are happy.

It's stunning to me in retrospect how wrong I was and how arrogant it was to accuse God of wrongdoing and then expect him to jump up and serve me. And how easy it was for me to completely miss the most basic truth of Christian faith and pilgrimage.

Whose life is it? Is it my life? Romans chapter 6, we're slaves of God. 1 Corinthians 6 .20, for you were bought at a price at the cross. So then who ought to be serving whom? But as we've seen, I wasn't alone in trusting in my own self-righteousness.

So did Job. Turn now to Job 27. In this last discourse of Job, his final words until the appearance of God, despite his faith in God, despite his faith in a resurrection, despite his faith in a coming Redeemer, Job labors at length to defend his own blameless righteousness, his own innocence, and therefore the injustice, the injustice of God towards him.

Job 27 verse 2, As God lives, who has taken away my justice, condemns God. And the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter, this is all God's fault that I'm bitter. As long as my breath is in me, and the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.

Far be it from me that I should say, you are right, to his friends. Till I die, I will not put away my integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go. My heart shall not reproach me as long as I live.

As if clinging to his own righteousness is the only hope, the only shred of hope that Job has left. And as if pitting his righteousness against God's righteousness can ever be an effective strategy. Turn to Job 31.

In his final chapter, Job lists the seven commitments of his life. Seven great commitments. To fight against lust. To speak the truth. To be faithful to his wife. To be fair to his servants. To care for the poor.

To not be greedy. And to live with integrity. Seven commitments. Now, these are all very good things to be committed to. But all the way through, Job betrays the fact that he completely agrees with the theology of his three friends.

The law of retribution. And that really the only thing these four guys disagree on is whether or not Job is guilty of sin. Because Job says that if it broken any of his seven commitments that even as a believer he would expect God's curse.

The law of retribution. Job 31 verse five. If I have walked with falsehood, let me be weighed. Wow, that's a bold statement. Verse seven. If my step has turned from the way, then verse eight, let me sow and another eat.

Verse nine. If my heart has been enticed by a woman, if I have lurked at my neighbor's door, then let my wife grind for another. Verse 10. For that would be wickedness. Yes, it would be iniquity deserving of judgment.

Verse 16. If I have kept the poor from their desire. Verse 19. If I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing. Verse 21. If I have raised my hand against the fatherless, then, verse 22, let my arm fall from my shoulder.

Let my arm be torn from the socket. Job says suffering is God's expected punishment for sin in this life. But I have not sinned. Therefore, this is unjust. Finally, verse 40. Job's words are ended. And what has it been all about?

His final discourse. It's been about Job. Justifying Job. In fact, let me sum up these 29 chapters of discourses for you. Job and his friends. I don't deserve this. Yes, you do. No, you don't. No, I don't.

Yes, you do. No, I don't. Yes, you do. No. Yes. That's it. Job spends all of his energy defending himself. You would think that at some point, one of them would have said, hey, maybe we're not getting it.

Maybe we're asking the wrong question here. Maybe we're focused on the wrong thing. On the degree of Job's personal righteousness. Rather than on the glory of God. The perfections of his character. And his abundant grace and mercy towards sinners.

The Gospel Answer: Suffering, Sonship, and Christ Our Redeemer

Back to our question. Do I deserve what's happening to me? Answer? Well, yes and no. Yes. As sinners before a holy God. As outlaws who went our own way rather than obeying our creator. As rebels under the curse of Genesis 3.

In Adam. Yes. Yes. We all deserved far worse than whatever our present suffering is. We deserved not just boils from head to toe. We deserved the flames of hell. We deserved not just the loss of children and wealth and health and relationships.

We deserved the eternal torment of separation from all that's good and holy. Eternal separation from the source of all that's good and holy. God himself. And yet at the same time. Do I deserve what's happening to me?

As the children of God in Christ? No. We don't. Why not? Romans 8. Verse 1. There is therefore now. No condemnation. To those who are in Christ Jesus. Upon further reflection I can think of many sins.

For which I should be cursed. But God is merciful to me in Christ. So assuming that your suffering isn't the simple consequence of your own sinful choices. Then no. God is not punishing you. He's not executing justice and retribution against you.

Because if you're in Christ. Then he has already paid the judicial penalty for your sins. At the cross. He fully absorbed all of God's wrath. All of God's curse. What we all deserved in our place. So if we're even asking this question.

Do I deserve this pain? If we're struggling with this question. If this is what's keeping us up at night with dread and remorse and sorrow. Then we're too focused on ourselves. And our own righteousness or lack thereof.

And we're missing the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Especially if you're sitting there with the opposite problem than Job. Who was self-righteous. No, you're not self-righteous. You're self-condemning.

As in, of course I deserve my afflictions. I'm a Christian but I just know that God is angry with me. That's why I'm suffering. And he's just been looking for an excuse to punish me. No. With Job. We can all be asking the wrong question.

Focused on our own righteousness rather than on his righteousness. Missing the point of our relationship with our Father in heaven. That because of his righteous mercy. I am his beloved. So if we're asking the wrong question.

If we're focused on the wrong thing. What can we do? Well we can take what Job has reasoned out. Reasoned out on his own. Both the doctrine of the resurrection and the doctrine of a redeemer. But, praise God, we don't need to work it out on our own.

We can have what the New Testament plainly tells us. That when Christ, our Redeemer, our Goel. Went to the cross carrying our sins. Galatians chapter 3. He became our curse. He became our curse. So that now we can never be cursed.

Jesus was forsaken by God. So that we might never be forsaken by God. And then our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, on the third day. He rose from the dead. The first fruits. The first born of many brethren. Which was the vindication of His righteousness.

Romans 1 .4. Declared to be the Son of God with power. According to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. So that now by faith we stand in His vindicated righteousness alone. Not my own.

A righteousness that we need never improve upon. And that we can never improve upon. 2 Corinthians 5 .21. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us. That we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

A righteousness that makes us blameless in His sight. And that therefore has earned for us every blessing from above. So because of this gospel. I never again have to ask that question. I never again have to worry about whether I'm righteous enough for God not to curse me.

So that even in suffering. Even in excruciating trials. I can always trust in His love. The love that was displayed at the cross. I can trust that in all things. Romans 8. He works for my good and for His own glory.

And that even if I do endure the chastening of His fatherly discipline. Hebrews 12. I can know it's for my profit. That I may partake of His holiness. Every trial. Every tribulation. Every illness. Every persecution.

Every loss. And every suffering. Though seemingly not joyful in the present. But painful. Nevertheless. I can understand and interpret it. Not as something that I either deserved or didn't deserve. But rather as a blessing.

Of sonship. And all because I stand before God. Not in my own pitiful righteousness. But always in His own infinite righteousness. Let us pray. Father. That we may know Christ. And the power of His resurrection.

And the fellowship of His sufferings. Being conformed to His death. If by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. We thank You Father for encouraging us. And strengthening us with Your word.

For Your word is truth. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.