Sadly, we live in a world where there is much pain, much sadness, much suffering.
This is not academic. Many of us live with hardship on a day-to-day basis. And if it’s not us, it’s friend we know, love and care for.
What does God have to say about this? We’re tempted to put God in the dock sometimes. To ask him what he’s playing at.
The Bible contains the story of a man who wanted to do just that. His name was Job. He lived about the time of Abraham. He was a righteous man. Not perfect. Not sinless. But very good and upright.
And then one day his life fell apart. He lost his home, his family, his health – everything except the breath he breathed.
His friends tried to tell him it must be his fault. God is just and fair. If he’s had a rough ride, it must be deserved somehow. Job knew that can’t be the answer. But what galled him was that he didn’t have the answer. He could see no good reason for what he was going through. It seemed to him that God was doing a pretty bad job at running the world.
As I’ve been reading around this chapter of Job during the week, I came across a quotation from King Alphonso the Tenth, a Spanish King from the thirteenth century. ‘Had I been present at the creation I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe.’
Maybe you even feel like that sometimes. “I don’t know what God’s playing at, but if he’s supposed to be in charge he’s got some pretty sick ideas about how things are supposed to work.”
Well, after Job and his friends have gone back and forth a few times, something quite unexpected happens. If it doesn’t take you by surprise, you either know the story too well, or you’ve fallen asleep after so many chapters of poetry.
There’s a massive storm. A whirlwind. God’s been behind the scenes until now. But he’s about to step onto the stage. He’s about to come out of hiding. He’s about to speak.
We’re wondering: Perhaps we’re about to get some answers. Job’s wondering the same thing.
When God opens his mouth, it’s 2 speeches of poetry, spanning 4 chapters of Job.
This is exciting. Hearing God speak is what Job longed for most deeply. It is also what he feared most greatly.
It’s also disappointing, in a way. There is no neat answer here. No simple explanation.
But it is an answer. God invites us to see the world the right way up. It takes trust to do that. God’s speeches don’t give us pat answers. They draw us in to trust him through the darker times of life, as God shows us a bit more of himself.
In the opening verses, that we had read, God wants to show Job two things about himself.
God is big, and we are small.
First, God is big, and we are small. God is big, and we are small.
God’s speech is a string of questions. They’re poetry.
When the earth was made, who wrapped a tape measure around it to measure how big it was? Who told the sea where it stops and land begins? Who gives the sun his orders first thing in the morning, like a foot soldier? “Time to get out of bed, and go and wake the world up!” When it snows, and millions of flakes pour down on the earth, where’s the storeroom they all fall from?
We know more about science than Job did. But God’s not asking Job about science. He’s not asking how these things work. He’s asking who does them. Who’s behind the science?
For all that we know and understand, we’re as overawed by these things as Job was. At least, we should be.
The story is told of a vicar who visited his local primary school. He wanted to find out how much the children knew about God. So he asked them a question: Who made the world? There was a stunned silence. So he looked around the room, and asked again: Who made the world? Still silence. “Come on, children, it’s not hard. A nice easy question to begin with. Who made the world? Eventually, a shy looking boy from the front row put up his hand. When the vicar asked the boy to answer, he simply said: Please sir. It wasn’t me, sir.
Job is in the same position as that little boy. God asks Job all these questions. Who made the stars? Who wraps clouds around the earth? Who designed light’s bedroom? And Job is forced to answer each time: “Not me”
Although it goes beyond Job having to say “Not me”. He’s forced to say: “Not me. But you did. You do. You can. You know.”
And by asking Job questions, God makes him think. If God had just made a speech, he’d be really boring. “I did this. I did that. I know this.” Instead, he makes Job think. He questions him. And so the truth starts to go deep.
God is big and we are small.
God is in control, so we are in good hands.
Second: God is in control, so we are in good hands. God is in control, so we are in good hands.
God does more than ask Job a string of questions he can’t answer. He does more than just “wow” him. Let’s look briefly at the content of what God says to Job:
Verses 4-7: Think of the earth as a great building project. I drew up the plans, dug the foundations, set the walls straight. And then, verse 7, the angels, pictured as the stars, were so overjoyed that they burst into song.
Verses 8-11 describe the sea. In the Bible, the sea is often a picture for chaos and evil. The sea is pictured like a small child. It causes havoc, but it’s placed in a playpen. Its damage can only go so far. There are boundaries. God remains in control even of the sea. Even of chaos and evil. Even of the troubles that have afflicted Job. Yes, God’s allowed them. But with evil, he always says: “This far you may come and no farther. Here is where your proud waves halt.”
It’s good to know that evil is on a leash. But I’m guessing Job would like evil to disappear completely. Well one day it will.
Verses 12 to 15 has mixed metaphors. Every time to the sun comes up, it’s like shaking out a table cloth. People who do bad things always prefer to work under cover of darkness. So when daylight comes, it’s like shaking all that evil and trouble out of the world. It’s temporary, but it’s a sign that God is more powerful than the darkness.
The apostle Paul taught in Athens in Acts chapter 17. He taught about the resurrection of Jesus. And he said that Jesus’ resurrection proves that one day God will shake wrong out of the world for good. The apostle Peter spoke of the first coming of Jesus as being like the first glimmer of dawn. One day, the sun will come up and stay up. All will be light, and darkness will be driven out.
Yes we live in a world that’s full of trouble. But God’s reply to Job makes clear that he’s in control. It’s a good world he made. All the trouble and chaos in it is on a leash. This far, and no farther. And one day, the event that each dawn foreshadows will come about – a permanent end of darkness.
God is in control, so we are in good hands.
Application
There are no neat answers to the problem of suffering. God speaks. Not to give Job instant answers. But to draw him to trust him, which is what he wants to do with us this morning.
And to do that, God tries to steer us away from two extremes.
He steers us away from thinking we know too much. If we think we understand how the world works, how things fit together, we are in danger of thinking we know too much. If we think we know God, because we’ve met him in his word, and supremely in his Living Word, the Lord Jesus, we are in danger of thinking we know too much.
They say that the more you know, the more you know you don’t know. Job had forgotten this. God wants to show us afresh that he is big, and we are small. Not we don’t count. By God’s grace, he loves and blesses us. But we don’t know everything. If we think we do, our hardships will never make sense. If we remember God is bigger than we are, we won’t suddenly understand why bad things happen to us. But we might shake off the feeling that we have a right to understand.
God also steers us away from the other extreme – not knowing enough. God is a wonderfully good God. Yes, there is much in this world that is not good, but it is never outside of God’s control. He has his reasons, and he has his timing. The resurrection of Jesus proves that one day all darkness and sadness will be shaken out of the world, like crumbs from a tablecloth.
We’re right to be humble. But if we fall for thinking we know nothing about God, we lose the reassurance of knowing that God is in control. We lose the chance to be certain that he will work everything out in the end, that he has a plan.
Conclusion
So God appears to Job — in the whirlwind. He shows Job how big he is. He shows Job how good and powerfully in control he is. It doesn’t answer all Job’s questions. But it invites him deeper in, to trust his God.