Faith Challenged
Job 2:1 – 10
It was my first Christmas at the Chatham Charge and things were going well. I was learning about you all and you were getting used to your new pastor. On Christmas Eve we had poignant and moving services at Liberty and St Louisville with nice crowds. The Christmas holidays always put a bright and comforting glow on our lives and our situations and Christmas of December 2019 was no different. Most of the people of the churches were healthy and happy. The folks that wanted jobs, had jobs. Many were enjoying the fruits of their retirement.
For the most part there was a feeling of safety and security among the Children of God. It certainly seemed as though the churches, the people and the communities around us were blessed by God, and our Faith was strong. But then came 2020, the year that the Pandemic arrived, and seemingly everything changed.
Over the past many months, when the Book of Job would come up in the Lectionary, when Job would come up as one of our Sunday readings, I would promise, maybe a better word would the threaten, to do a series of lessons on the how the Book of Job, the story of Job could help us to put into historic context what we have been going through now for a year and a half, with apparently no end and return to normal in sight. The Book of Job has come up again over the next month and this seems like a good time to lean on and lean into the story of Job for spiritual edification.
I believe that the story of Job can serve as a kind of lens, through which we can understand our relationship with God in the midst unimaginable and unexpected trials for us and the world around us. I believe we can see that Job’s circumstances then and our experience with the Pandemic now have several similarities, which will help us identify with Job, with his suffering and ultimately prove to us that the Lord who gives and takes, does all of it for our good.
The Book of Job begins with these simple words as we heard in the message lesson, “In the land Uz, there was a man whose name was Job”. Although other people are introduced later in the Book, as the title of the book suggests, the apparent focus of the book is on one man, Job. The scenes that follow focus on what happens to Job. The long speech cycles with his friends are all addressed to Job or spoken by Job. Even the Lord addresses his speeches to Job, and Job replies. It really seems to be “the Book of Job.”
The first chapter of the book tells us much of what we need to know about Job. We are told that Job has great character. Job is blameless, upright, fears God and has turned away from evil. He resolutely stayed on the straight path and turned away from the crooked byways of sin. Because of that it seems that Job was “blessed”!
What are some of those blessings? Well, let’s begin with his family. Job is married and has seven sons and three daughters. As for his possessions Job had 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 pairs of oxen and 500 female donkeys. In addition, he had a large staff, huge numbers on his payroll. He is a picture of great wealth and power. He is described as the greatest of all the people of the east. In fact, God will say this about him “there is no one like him on the earth”.
Job is blessed like none that had come before him and because of his godliness, righteousness and faithfulness, so we assume that there is no reason that he would ever see pain and suffering in his life. However, we will soon see that that assumption is terribly wrong! There is a Spiritual Pandemic coming his way. Soon Job is going to have his Faith Challenged by circumstances beyond what he could imagine.
So how does that happen? Well this book can be viewed like chapters of a novel or scenes from a movie and Job is either on the stage or the subject of discussion at every point in the book. In first scene the setting is Heaven, it appears God is having a council meeting of all of the “Sons of God” which are those beings whose existence is derived from God, meaning God created them so they were to be subservient to God.
As chairman of the Board, we can visualize God going from angel to angel and asking for their report. When he got around to Satan the Accuser, God asked Satan “What have you been up to?” Satan answered, “Going here and there, checking things out on earth.” God said to Satan, “Well then have you noticed my friend Job? There’s no one quite like him, honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil.” (The Message)
A thought flashes in Satan’s mind, “So do you think Job does all that out of the sheer goodness of his heart? Why, no one ever had it so good! You pamper him like a pet, make sure nothing bad ever happens to him or his family or his possessions, bless everything he does—he can’t lose!
“But” Satan growled, “what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away everything that is his? I know that he would curse you right to your face, that’s what he would do.” Confidently God replied, “We’ll see. Go ahead, do what you want with all that is his. Just don’t hurt him.” Satan leaves Heaven to do his worst to Job. End scene one.
Open scene two and the setting is Earth. To make a long story short, we see that Satan has waged terrible spiritual warfare on Job, his family and his possessions. Four different servants come to him in rapid succession, the next one coming before the one before them can even finish. These messengers came bringing terrible news.
First the oxen and donkeys with their workers are killed, then the sheep with their shepherds, and then the camels are stolen, and their keepers killed. Three times Job hears frightful news from messengers, who each finished their tales with the words, “I alone have escaped to tell you”.
In a matter of mere minutes Job has found out that he has been bankrupted. The greatest man of the region has been emptied of all his wealth in minutes, truly it is a riches to rags tale. But the news only gets worse for Job, a fourth and final messenger runs in with a tearstained face and says “Your children were having a party at the home of the oldest brother when a tornado swept in off the desert and struck the house. It collapsed on the young people, and they died. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
How would any of us face such a trying few minutes? It would be easy for Job to believe that he had fallen out of the favor of God. His head must be spinning with the whirlwind of tragedy that has befallen him.
All of his children and all of his wealth are gone, in mere minutes. This drastic change in reality would make anyone feel his Faith Challenged, and Job is no different. But Job got to his feet, ripped his robe and shaved his head in agony for his children, then fell to the ground and worshiped God by saying:
Naked I came from my mother’s womb, naked I’ll return to the womb of the earth. God gives, God takes. God’s name be ever blessed. Not once through all this did Job sin; not once did he blame God.
End scene two and fade to scene three, the setting is once again in Heaven. We pick up the drama with our message lesson this morning. Once again God calls a council meeting and once again Satan presents himself. Knowing that He had challenged Satan to try and sway Job, God begins with Satan.
“Have you noticed my friend Job? There’s no one quite like him, is there honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil? He still has a firm grip on his integrity! You tried to destroy him, but it didn’t work.”
Satan has seen that his previous deeds may have challenged but did not destroy the faith of Job as he had desired and so he tells God that there is still work to be done. Bitterly he says to God:
“A human would do anything to save his life and his life was not threatened. What do you think would happen if you reached down and took away his health? Well he’d curse you to your face, that’s what he would do.”
Again, God trusting that Job would remain loyal to Him and would continue to glorify him despite the challenges, says to Satan. “All right. Go ahead you can do what you like with him. But mind you, don’t kill him.” So, Satan storms out of this Heavenly council meeting intent on finding Job and to do his worst to him without killing him. End scene three.
Finally, we come to the fourth scene, our message lesson for today, once again the setting is Earth. The scripture tells us “Satan inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.” Now it is Job’s person has been invaded; and the last vestige of the protective hedge around him has been destroyed.
Job has become so distraught that he climbs up on the community rubbish dump and incinerator, where rubbish is continually burned in a heap outside the city gate. To understand what a miserable type of place this is, this is the type of place that Jesus uses many years later as the best earthly image to represent what Hell is like. Job is so tormented and distraught by the affliction that he goes and sits “in the ashes” of this place. Physically and emotionally Job is broken now and his Faith Challenged but has it been lost? Will he sin with his lips as Satan has boldly predicted?
Here Job’s wife makes her only appearance in the story. At this moment of lonely suffering, she pleads with him, “why are you still holding on to your precious integrity? Curse God and be done with it!” She knows, as well as Job does, that to curse God brings a human being under sentence of death, a death that will end his suffering. But Job rather than cursing God, he says to his wife “We take the good days from God should we not also take the bad days?”
Even despite his trials, Job’s heart is full of God the Creator who is the giver of all good gifts. All the good he has received, he received from God. Can he not trust this same God to give him harmful things and yet believe that God knows best? Our scripture ends this morning with this “in all this Job did not sin with his lips” which was exactly what Satan had suggested to God and tried to get Job to do.
Here the Good News my Friends……
We see here that Job has passed the first test, “in all this Job did not sin with his lips”. “Do we accept the good that comes from God and not the trouble also?” Job won this day, but his challenges are not over, we are not done with his story.
In our Pandemic lives, we often feel lonely, but we are never alone. Job remained faithful to God, understanding that God is present in both good and troubling times. Job shows us sanctifying grace, the kind of grace that helps us move toward perfection in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Grace is the mystery of God’s love evident in us, through us, and all around us. God is present in the good and the bad. Grace undergirds us during times of difficulty and disorientation, so that we, like Job, can remain faithful to God. We are on a journey as people of faith, moving toward the goal of Christian perfection.
By God’s grace and the Holy Spirit, we are given the strength to overcome life’s most difficult moments. By seeking God’s grace in all things, we will discover the internal strength that bears witness to God’s love in the world, even in the midst of external hardships and Challenged Faith.
But today Job trusted God in light of present hardships, and his faith did not grow weary. If we trust God, we will overcome what appears to be insurmountable. God is always with us and has equipped us with His grace to withstand challenges that come our way. Amen.