Pentecost 5 (Proper 7), June 23, 2024
Questions to Live (and Suffer By Text: Job 38:1-11 Other Lessons: Psalm 124; 2 Corinthians 6:1–13; Mark 4:35–41 Sermon Theme: Instead of questioning God when we suffer, we can remember his questions to Job, which remind us of his wisdom and His Love for us in Christ Sermon Goal: That the hearers be strengthened in faith to trust in God through times of suffering. Based on a sermon in Concordia Pulpit Resources by Rev. Dr. Aric A. Fenske,
Sermon: The story of Job is perhaps the most tragic story in the entire Bible. To say that Job suffered would be an understatement. We are also told that through all his suffering, Job never lost his faith in God. But he was certainly being tempted to! Time and again, Job complained to God and questioned God’s motives. If he didn’t outright accuse God of being unfair to him, he certainly got close! Job even insists that he be given the chance to defend himself before God: “But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God” (13:3).
Perhaps you’ve been there. Maybe you haven’t experienced suffering to the same extent that Job did, but you do know what it means to suffer. I know that some of you have had to bury your children and your husbands or wives. Some of you have faced financial ruin for one reason or another. Many of you deal with painful, lingering illnesses or have endure terrible treatments for various conditions. The suffering that Job faced, while extreme, wasn’t really all that uncommon. As sinners living in a broken world, we all face suffering.
And when we suffer like Job, we often question God as Job did. We want to know why God has allowed these terrible things to happen. Why would God allow a thirteen-year-old girl to die of cancer or get killed in a car wreck? Why did God send that torrential rainfall that flooded out our entire crop for the year? Why would God make me suffer for years with this disease? Why am I still languishing here on earth while my wife and all my friends are already in heaven?
Suffering of any kind is a severe test of our faith. It shakes us and makes us wonder if God is really good, and if he really cares about us at all. It makes us wish that we could stand toe to toe with God and ask him straight to his face what he’s doing and why he’s doing it.
And that brings us to today’s text. God gave Job the chance he was looking for. “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind” (v 1a). Job stood toe to toe with God. But he didn’t get the answers he was looking for. In fact, instead of Job doing the questioning, it was God who asked the questions. The Almighty doesn’t have to answer to us; we answer to him!
Of course, Job had no answers for God’s questions. He couldn’t make any of this known to God. “ Job knew that God alone had done all these things. He just had no idea how! How did God lay the foundations of the earth? How did God create the seas and sets their limits? None of us know this! Science has done wonderful things, made amazing discoveries about God’s universe, but the truth is that we’ll never fully understand how God made the universe and how he continues to uphold it and rule over it. God’s wisdom is so much greater than ours.
And if we can’t understand how God does those things in creation, why would we think we could understand the deeper mysteries of God, like how God can make “all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose”(Rom 8:28)? We can’t. And that will finally be Job’s only reply. After several more chapters of questions from God just like these, Job finally gets the courage to speak. “I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. . . . I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (42:3, 6).
Job repented. We, too, should repent in dust and ashes and quit uttering things that are too deep for us. We don’t know the specifics of why God allows the things that he allows. And even if he told us, we wouldn’t be able to understand it.
But we do have one unique advantage over Job. We can look back at the work of Jesus. We know that the very same God who laid the cornerstone of the earth (v 6) became the Cornerstone of our faith! “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” (Mt 21:42). Unlike Job, we can see both the wisdom of God and the love of God at work in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of our Lord for our salvation—events that God had planned before he laid the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4; 1 Pet 1:20).
Knowing all of this means that we can answer some of God’s questions in ways that Job could never have imagined. “The Lord God, who created and upholds the universe by his divine power and wisdom, has also reconciled you to himself through the blood of Jesus. Therefore, you, my friends, are beloved by God. So we can confess along with Paul that “he who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom 8:32). I know it’s sometimes hard for us to see and even hard for us to believe, but God does not allow anything to happen to you that is not ultimately for your eternal good. This means not only should we trust that he knows what he’s doing, but we should also trust that what he does, he does because he loves us and because he wants only what is good for us.
In the midst of our sufferings, these are the truths we must cling to. We can’t comprehend the inner workings of God. His wisdom and his ways are just too deep for us. And that’s okay. We have to let God be God. If we can’t understand how he holds the universe together, how could we expect to understand how or why God could allow and use suffering for our good? But in the midst of things we don’t understand, we do know that God knows what he’s doing and that he loves us so deeply he was willing to come and suffer and die for us. So, Instead of Questioning God When We Suffer, We Can Remember His Questions to Job, Which Remind Us of His Wisdom and His Love for Us in Christ. To God alone be all glory, forever and ever. Amen.