WHEN THINGS GO FROM BAD TO WORSE

Job 2:1-10

“There is a story about a boxer who was being badly beaten by his skilled opponent. Battered and bruised, the boxer leaned over the ropes and said to his trainer, “Throw in the towel! This Guy is killing me!” To which the trainer responded “Oh, no, he’s not. That guy is not even hitting you, He hasn’t laid a glove on you.” At that point the whipped boxer spit blood from his bruised mouth and said “Well you better watch the referee. Somebody is sure hitting me!”

The point of this story is that all believers are sooner or later struck by the blows of life. No matter what people think, the bible teaches that Satan is alive and well on the planet earth and he is out to cause as much chaos as he can before his time is up. Steve Lawson said “many well-meaning Christians live as if peacetime conditions exist. But in reality a bloody war is being fought all around them. Souls are being defeated. Lives are being attacked. None of us can afford to be uniformed about this invisible war. Satan the evil emperor is working behind the scenes, unleashing his diabolical power with fury and hatred. This sinister opponent is determined to attack every person’s life, assaulting their faith, and conquering their soul.” We need to be ready and alert as we take a few spiritual blows from our opponent.

What do we know this far? God challenged Satan by offering His faithful servant Job. (1:6-12). Satan was given permission by God, to strikes Job possessions and children. (1:12-19). Job was hit so hard, but not one of those blows touched his body. You can call it shock, numbness or whatever you want, but Job did something that should encourage our hearts to do, if, and when, it happens to us. Throughout this experience Job did not sin! “In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.” (1:22)

  

What does this mean? Job’s heart did not display any animosity towards God or have any angry words or thoughts towards God throughout this whole ordeal. We also learn that …..Job did not worship God for the abundance of prosperity. Job knew that man’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions, but in the LORD alone. Job’s response to all this, should be our plumb line when we are struck with the blows of life. Job responded in true faith in God, believing that He rules over all things according to His own perfect will. Job’s high view of God caused him to praise God in the midst of suffering.

Understand! A child of God who has a high view of God, will always come out the other side resting in His grace. Prime example……In Daniel we read the account of three men “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up." Dan 3:16-18. The child of God rests in His sovereign arms, even if it leads them to possible suffering and death. The God who will see us though the present and future storms of life, without question or delay in His perfect timing.

So we come to another day in creation! God is in counsel with his angels preparing them for the day to fulfill His will. (v1). Guess who’s there again? Satan, the accuser (v1) Satan is like “a fool”, who will never learn “a glutton for punishment”. This encounter reveals the complete smugness, arrogance and persistence that Satan has, and his unwillingness to quit his destruction on the earth. So God asks Satan again the same question as pervious! (v2). Satan responds with the same attitude and contempt towards the Almighty. (v2b)

What is God’s response? God gives Satan a little more detailed answer then the previous one about Job and the situation. (v3) We see who initiated this conversation and who is in control despite the previous outcome to Job’s livestock, helpers and his precious children. Why do I say that? Look what God said to Satan! “although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.” (v3c) God is maintaining that Job’s suffering was without any reason. And although Job went through severe trail and pain, it was not because of any sin he had committed. This might seem sadistic or cruel behavior on God’s part, but God knows the heart of man and He is using Job’s suffering to reveal the genuine love the image bearers have in God.

Now! Satan has two options! Back off and accept the defeat. Elevate the stakes in order to find victory over the Almighty God of the Universe. See! Satan is like the “Megamind”, the villain who needs the superhero to fulfill his evil so-called plans. Megamind said “A villain without a hero is a villain without purpose.”

So, what is Satan’s response? (v4-v5) Again you see the complete arrogance he has towards the LORD God. It’s like that idea “Go big or go home” or “I’m all in on this one” It’s interesting to note that Satan doesn’t ask to take Job’s life. Satan needs a breathing Job, to accomplish his mission to curse God and die. A dead Job can’t do that, so Satan mocks God again with the only reason he fears is because God has bought his affections. Attack his flesh, his person and he will surely curse you God (v5)

So God gives the orders and Satan once again obeys (v6-7a) You think to yourself what else can happen to poor Job that could be any worse? Job has already lost his livelihood, his farm help, and his children. What could possibly top all this than what has previously happened? Answer! Attack on the physical well-being of a man who is already broken, weak and suffering. The bible says Job received “Loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.” (v7b) This means that Job had this all over his entire body from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head. This wasn’t like having the chicken pox, the measles, a man cold or feeling a little under the weather. This was something far greater than anything you or I could imagine.

Unfortunately! We don’t need a diagnosis or a doctor’s appointment to see and understand how bad this truly was. The scriptures give us enough detail to see what Job is going through. We read in this letter…. Job says “When I lie down I say, 'When shall I arise?' But the night is long, and I am full of tossing till the dawn.” Job 7:4. This pain is keeping him up at night and he cannot sleep. Job 7:5 we read “My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt; my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh.” His sores are infested with maggots or worms, he is covered in scabs, that the skin is black and peeling, that the sores are open and oozing pus. This leads to Job having a fever as well.  Job says later on “My inward parts are in turmoil and never still; days of affliction come to meet me. My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat.” Job 30:29-30 Job even says his own family finds him repulsive “My breath is strange to my wife, and I am a stench to the children of my own mother.” Job 19:17

And throughout this how did Job deal with the pain and etching? (v8) Job uses pottery to soothe or to perhaps ease the itching to release the infection from the boils on his aching and broken body. He probably used these broken pieces of pottery because his own hands or fingers were probably ulcerous and unfit for that use. He did all this as he “sat down among the ashes” this is an expression of grief. Humbling oneself under the mighty hand of God, so, in the same spirit of self-abasement and humiliation.

It’s even more significant than that! See historically it’s called “Council incinerator and the rubbish dump” where garbage burns in a pile outside the city gate. The same place that Jesus was later to use as the best human image to represent Hell. One Historian Theologian wrote “The Gehenna Valley was thus a place of burning sewage, burning flesh, and garbage. Maggots and worms crawled through the waste, and the smoke smelled strong and sickening as written in Isaiah 30:33. It was a place utterly filthy, disgusting and repulsive to the nose and eyes. Gehenna presented such a vivid image that Christ used it as a symbolic depiction of hell: a place of eternal torment and constant uncleanness, where the fires never ceased burning and the worms never stopped crawling.” Jesus said “And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” Mark 9:47-48. This posture of Job reveals to us that he is completely broken and all alone. A so-called “Hell on earth” moment! 

This leads me to ask “Could it get any worse for Job?” Yes, it does get worse! One theologian said it this way “Of all the scenes, perhaps this is the saddest.” Referring to encounter and interaction Job had with his own wife. A wife who is probably heartbroken, sad, confused, in shock, numb and more than likely angry at God. Why? She goes and says something that I would never want to here come from the lips of my wife (v9)

Augustine called her “the devil’s assistant” 

John Calvin called her “Satan’s tool”

Why would these theologian/pastors say that about her? What she is asking is exactly what Satan wants Job to do….”curse God” She is asking Job to abandon this foolish faith that he has in God. Satan used Job’s wife as an instrument against him. Job is already drowning in pain and sorrow and one he depends on the most in this minute is abandoning him. Do realize what his wife is asking? Stop this madness and just kill yourself! His wife’s lack of understanding is something we are going to see over the course of this letter as his friends come on the scene. They are going to say “You must have some sin in your life for all this to happen to you.”

Where else have we seen this as an explanation to someone’s physical aliment? In John‘s gospel we read this “As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” John 9:1-3. What a comforting truth! That sometimes our tragedy has a greater purpose for the glory of God. See! Job’s wife is just as confused as the disciples were and many people today. His own wife possibly sees that this is some incurable disease and recommends that he curse God and die to end his suffering. 

How much anger and hate do you have to have to say that to your spouse, the father of your now deceased children? Job responds to his wife with righteous rebuke and compassion for the glory of God. (v10) He says “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak.” 

“Foolish” here does not refer to “intellectual foolishness” but to “religious apostasy.”

“Apostasy” is a defiance of an established system or authority; a rebellion; an abandonment or breach of faith.” In the first-century world, apostasy was a technical term for political revolt or defection. Job calls his wife “foolish” Why? This word foolish is used in the same way found in Psalm 14.

Psalm 14:1 we read “The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good.” To curse God is essentially a way of denying God. Job is willing to believe his wife is only talking like a blasphemer. Understand this bold statement of faith is one of the strongest responses ever uttered about God and suffering. This response reveals to us Job’s genuine heart of adoration towards God despite what has and is happening to him at this time in life. We know this is true by God’s description of Job in (v3). What Job displays for us is that the glory of God is more important than our comfort in this life.

Another prime example of this is found in the Joseph as a woman is trying to seduce him. “And after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, "Lie with me." But he refused and said to his master's wife, "Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" Gen 39:7-9. To go against God is suicide, because He is worthy of our praise and our suffering.

 So Job loving reminds his wife with a truth that we need to meditate on every day! (v10b). Job responds with a question that we all need to ponder and answer in our own hearts. (v10) Think about it! Shall we not receive good or evil? Should these two be the determining factor to our worship of God? If that’s true than what do we say about the apostles who were brutalized for the sake of the gospel? The early church where many were raped, tortured, died for the truth of God’s word. The countless number of Christians throughout the ages who go through cancer, persecution, unrest, sickness, death, unemployment, poverty and so on. 

What do we say to all those people that go through those things? 

Are we supposed to believe the prosperity, health and wealth gospel is the foundation to our happiness and God’s good pleasure over our lives?

Are we to assume that evil is only for sinners who don’t believe and the haters of God?

No! Job says “we” rejoice in the good and the bad. We are to humbly “receive” God’s providential plan over our lives whether that includes the good and the evil. As the Apostle Paul said “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” Rom 12:12. James’ letter reminds to be patient in suffering! He says “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.” James 5:7-11

  

In this entire calamity “Job did not sin with his lips” (v10c) Throughout this ordeal Job‘s love and adoration towards God never changed. His faith never failed under the pressure of the circumstance. Job past the test! In regards to whether he would curse God. Job’s response is affirmation of why and who we worship! The Creator who is worthy of all our worship in the bad times as well as in the good times. 

Let me close with this account of a Surgical Doctor. Dr Brand was an orthopedic surgeon who specialized in treating leprosy in India and Louisiana. Leprosy (or Hansen’s disease) is a disfiguring disease caused by bacterial infection. Once considered incurable, leprosy can know be cured with antibiotics. One of the effects of this disease is that it destroys the nerves and causes numbness, a lack of pain, or sensation in the limbs. On one occasion when the disease was still considered incurable and antibiotic treatment were still unknown Dr Brand, was traveling by train in England. As he was getting ready for bed, he removed his shoes and socks and discovered to his horror and dismay that he had no feeling in his heel. He rubbed his heel and the numbness persisted. He took a pin out of his suitcase and jabbed it hard into his heel. Blood came out from the puncture wound but still he felt no pain.

His mind racing with fear Dr Brand spent most of the night lying awake. Imagining his new life as a leprosy victim. He would have to live in insolation from his family and suffer the progressive deterioration caused by a then incurable disease.

In the morning, he sat up from the bed and decided to conduct one more test. He took the pin, jabbed it hard into his heel…and cried out in pain! “It hurt” Thank God, it hurt!” He realized the numbness the night before was due to the long train ride and he hadn’t gotten up to stretch his legs. The long period of immobility had numbed the nerves leading to his heel. It was from this experience that Dr Brand would often speak of what he called “The Blessing of pain.”

We tend to think pain is a curse or some sin in our life, and we tend not see it sometimes for what it is “A blessing”. Understand…. God doesn’t waste a hurt or a pain that is true in this chapter of Job. God sometimes has a purpose in our pain that we cannot see. Though we cannot see Him, understand He is right there with you though the whole experience. As it is written in Isaiah “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” Isa 43:2

We know this is true for us as well, right?

Why do I say that! Your still here! And God is saying “Have you considered my servant ______________!” (Add your name there) Our suffering is for the glory of His Name to be known in a world that doesn’t understand how to deal with suffering in their lives. May we exemplify our great God as we go through our seasons of suffering and our seasons of peaceable rest.