A RIGHT AND WRONG VIEW OF GOD IN SUFFERING

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Job 16:1-22

Why is it important that we have a right view of who God is and His character? 

Why? Because if we have a skewed view of God, the danger we face is creating a God in our image. Culturally people see their god as someone who is unpredictable and becomes easily angered and displeased by the way we live. So what does that person do to fix that problem? They do things to please their god and win favours with their god. They do things out of fear and uncertainty, because if you do good God will bless you, and if you do bad God will curse you and bad things will happen. Unfortunately this is a terrible lens to view God through. John MacArthur said “The tendency to treat God like a wax figure who can be reshaped according to human tastes and fashions is certainly nothing new. It is a form of idolatry that has been around at least since Sinai, when the disobedient Israelites portrayed Jehovah as a golden calf.” He went on to say “Modern Christians seem plagued with uncertainty about whether the God of Scripture is really relevant in today’s world. Some deliberately omit or ignore all the difficult biblical truths about God and seek to portray Him as a friendlier or more approachable than they think Scripture does. Others openly advocate “reimagining” God in feminist terms or some other politically correct form.”

See! Having a wrong view of God will determine how you speak and bring wisdom for others to hear. This is what Job was faced with as it relates to his three friends. Does Job need new friends? We would say yes, but I would say no, because they are only speaking the way they know how. Yes! Job’s friends have a wrong and miscued view of the God and unfortunately for Job this is not helping him one bit. Job needed someone to stand with him, not against him. He needed someone to build him up, not tear him down. Without any emotional support or encouragement, Job was left with only faultfinding and accusations. This is because his friends had a wrong view of who God is. These men created a God in their image and that understanding lead these three men to be hostile and accusing for the sake of God’s integrity. It’s like they are saying “Job, you better get on God’s good side and everything will be ok, but if you continue to rebel and do wicked things God will send destruction and punishment your way.”

Is that true?

For these three friends it was, but for Job they were completely wrong. What separated Job from his friends? Job had a great understanding of who God is and His character. And his friends did at times; but they lacked in the understanding of God’s mercy and grace. A W Tozer stated “What comes into the our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” What we know about God determines our worldview and our reality of everything. What we do in….. Life, death, marriage, singleness, how we handle sin, All the decisions we make, the gospel, how we handle the Word of God, How we handle the gospel in daily life. Our view of the church and its importance, its leaders, pastors and so on. I say this because Al Mohler makes a great point when he said “The anemic view of God held by many church members is evident in doctrinal confusion, corrupted worship, compromised evangelism and spiritual deadness. The absence of AWE, wonder and exaltation in our worship indicates that we have rejected one of the most critical teachings of Scripture, the fear of God.”

How does this happen? 

When we have a skewed view of who God is. We live in a society that attempts to imagine God in our own image. 

“My God would never do this or that.” 

My God is all about health and wealth, and He wants you to be rich and to have your best life now.” 

“My God is all about love” or that person that goes to the other extreme “My God is all about justice and wrath for the reprobate who deserves His Almighty wrath.”

The dangers of this are….. We have created a god who makes us feel comfortable, one who we can control and manage, and a god who dependent upon us. As Steve Lawson said “Forged upon the anvil of sloppy handling of Scripture and shallow thoughts about God, their user-friendly sovereign is a strange kind of codependent god, and we see the effects of his influence around us. Many churches have become nothing more than entertainment centers, giving slick performances to growing numbers of mesmerized but unproductive churchgoers.”

We know this to be true and it would happen!

 Paul said these words to Timothy “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” 2 Tim 4:3-4. This is because we have a wrong view of God and His purposes in our lives and even in our sufferings. Our lives are not determined with the level punishment we receive by the faith given by you and me. We have all been born into troubles and if we go through suffering, we have to stop blaming the devil or our circumstances. We are by nature …..Rebels to God, and hostile towards His character and we deserve His wrath whether we are good or bad. We are all sinners fallen short of His glorious standard. Sufferings in this life, is a facts of life, but it should never diminish our love and understanding of who God is.

How good or bad your life is going should not be the determining factor to how you should view God. If that is so then the apostles would have given up long before us, when they boldly, willingly, died for the sake of the gospel. We are never to think that God is some evil Thanos some fictional supervillain who loves to see destruction and mayhem. Do you recall what Jesus said to John and James? Mark 10:35-39 we see the conversation between Jesus and the two brothers “And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." And he said to them, "What do you want me to do for you?" And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory." Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" And they said to him, "We are able." And Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized,”

We would expect Jesus to say “No here!” to the cup that He is about to drink, no sinful man can ever drink this cup and live. This! Referring to the cup of Judgement and wrath for the sins of mankind. You and I will never drink the cup as a dying substitute for sins. But nevertheless…. you will feel it in a real experience as Disciples of Christ. In some manner you will taste the wrath of God against sinners, even though your sins are forgiven. Christian’s today continue to drink from this cup in their experiences of redemptive suffering. Job is a prime example of this many years before Jesus drank the cup redemption for us. Nigeria alone more than 3,700 Christians were killed last year and many Christian women are being targeted with sexual violence. See, it’s in the suffering we experience and learn to anticipate the Lord to intervene and return. It’s in the suffering we learn some measure about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Robert Murray McCheyne wisely said “For every one look at your sins, take ten looks at Christ.” It’s from the wisdom of Robert McCheyne where David Powlison reminded himself when it came to his cancer “For every one sentence you say to others about your cancer, say ten sentences about your God, and your hope, and what he is teaching you, and the small blessings of each day. For every hour you spend researching or discussing your cancer, spend ten hours researching and discussing and serving your Lord.”

Remember, you are not left alone. You will have the help and the resources you need to see you through the suffering. Paul wrote “And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Phil 4:1 See, it’s in the suffering we have this deep longing in the heart to know Him more to receive comfort and rest. Job’s friends could not do this because they had a wrong view, blinded by their image of who God is. They believed that God’s love is determined by our actions and lifestyles towards Him. Again! “If I behave a certain way God is pleased; and if I behave another way God is angry with me.”

Job knows the religious system and rhetoric and the effects of this are not helping. (v1-v5) Job says your “Miserable comforters” (v2) Your wisdom is not helping, so rethink your religion, because you’re not listening and you’re only making things worse. Remember what Job said previously? He said the diet they offer is repulsive (Job 6:5). The only thing Job is seeking from his friends is what he would do if the tables were turned and he was visiting his friend who has gone through this tragic time in life. (v5) In the NKJV we read “But I would strengthen you with my mouth, And the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief.” The only thing Job’s friends had to do was “comfort” him. That’s it! Sadly! They didn’t because they tried to rationalize everything Job did wrong so they could figure out why this happening in his life. But as Jesus said to John and James “you will drink from His cup, the cup of redemptive suffering.” It is through our suffering we find comfort and rest that God has and will never leave our side, even if it means death comes upon us in this life. Job’s friends failed to recognize this because they already had a skewed view of God, which they created in their image.

This has been evil plan of Satan from the beginning of this letter. Satan’s plan is having its effects on Job’s patience and soul. As the bricks are beginning to crumble underneath his feet. And Job is beginning to feel the pressures of this suffering by what we read in the next verses. (v6-v17) Job says “God has worn me out” it’s like Job is saying “put a fork in me I’m done!” (v7) This hedge of protection that I had has now been removed and all I’m left with is this broken pathetic wrinkled broken body. (v8) I have nowhere to lay my head and I’m worn out! I’m ready to tap out of this fight.

Who else didn’t have a place to rest His head?

Matt 8:20 it says “And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." Jesus lived with nowhere to lay His head. His natural family didn’t believe Him either. John 7:5 we read “For not even his brothers believed in Him.” Even when Jesus was beginning to have a large following they all left him; with the exception of the twelve, and one of them was… a fake, an imposter, and a deceiver. In John’s Gospel we read “When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life….” John 6:60-71

And even those who remained deserted Him at the end and on the Cross Jesus hangs deeply alone between two criminals. Matthew penned “At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, "Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled." Then all the disciples left him and fled.” Matt 26:55-56

What Job was going through in the physical is a great reminder of what Jesus went through in the physical as He prepared Himself for our redemption.

Job’s suffering and our sufferings should remind us of the redemptive suffering that Christ endured so that we could have eternal life. Our sufferings in this life are to be viewed as a blessing and privilege to taste a bit of our Lord’s suffering.

Paul also said with boldness “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” Phil 3:7-11

I say that! Because Job is very clear in who is doing this to Him! He indicates that God is the actor, the agent and the attacker in these verses. (v7) For Job he was feeling that he was being attacked from all sides, God was afflicting him and his friends were accusing him. He felt like an animal being hunted in the woods and there was no letting up until he was completely destroyed. So don’t miss this or excuse it away! God is the Great Conductor and Job is His music notes as He makes a Symphony like no one has ever heard before. This is God we serve and love, even in our sufferings, as we taste but a drop of redemptive suffering. Look what Job says here in (v11) “God gives me up to the ungodly and cast me into the hands of the wicked”

What Job is saying is “Evil people, like a pack of scavengers, have gathered around me and they are hungry because God as made me an easy target.” (v10) This a moment we see Job feels utterly helpless because his friends are tearing him down piece by piece. Who else was handed over to evil men? In Matthew’s gospel we read “Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.” Matt 27:27-31

We see colorful detail to how Job feels at this moment in his suffering and it seems to be relentless and unceasing. (v12-v22) For Job this is his suffering, all his protective skins, hedges, and walls have been breached. This violent attack that would seem unfair and uncalled, but this is exactly where God wants him. And here is the kicker to our sometimes skewed view of suffering and God’s goodness in our suffering. Christopher Ash said “Job experiences the violent, continuous hostility of God. And yet all time we readers know that Job is actually God’s “servant” the man God approves of, the man God singles out for his exceptional piety and morality.” 

Grasp that truth this morning and you will see your present suffering in a different light. It’s through this we see our mediator as we taste a little bit of redemptive suffering. (v17) The sinless, spotless, Lamb of God who has conquered sin and death. God is the One who avenges innocent blood and uncovers the cry of the innocent blood. God is the One, who will bring all things to a close in His perfect timing and not one stone will go unturned that God won’t bring to justice.

Isaiah penned these words “For behold, the LORD is coming out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it, and will no more cover its slain.” Isa 26:21. God has you exactly where He wants you in your suffering.

My question to you is? 

How much time are talking and learning about God as you do complaining or worry about your present suffering? The answer will determine what you truly believe about God and who He is.