Perseverance of Job, a sermon series for the Fall from the book of Job, week 1 of 4, preached Oct 6, 2024
Question of the Day
Today’s question is, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Group up in twos or threes and discuss this question together for just a few moments. Ready, Go!
(Open YouTube livestream, muted, on iPad, and chat with online attendees?)
Great! For anyone wishing to share, in person or online, what did you come up with?
Context
This question has haunted humanity since we began. Another way of asking it is simply “why do bad things happen?” as in, to anybody, good or bad… or a more theological way of asking it is… “where does evil come from?”
Today, and for the four Sundays of October, we will study the Book of Job, and its unique attempt to respond to our question about bad things happening.
This first Sunday, we meet Job, a good person, and see really bad things happen to him. Next Sunday, some friends of Job come and discuss with Job why these bad things happened and advise Job what to do. The third Sunday, Job and God have a confrontational conversation. The last Sunday, God responds to Job and his friends.
Before we read scripture and preach, let’s pray…
Prayer for Illumination
God as we open your word, may it open us. As we read your word, may it read us. And may these words we say or hear point our minds, hearts, and whole selves toward you. Amen? Amen.
Scripture Job 1:1-
1 There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. 2 There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 3 He had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.
4 His sons used to go and hold feasts in one another’s houses in turn, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 And when the feast days had run their course, Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all, for Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned or cursed God in their hearts.” This is what Job always did.
6 One day the heavenly beings[a] came to present themselves before the Lord GOD, and Ha Satan [b] also came among them. 7 The Lord said to ha satan,[c] “Where have you come from?” Ha satan[d] answered the Lord, “From going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it.”
8 The Lord said to ha satan,[e] “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.” 9 Then ha satan[f] answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12 The Lord said to ha satan,[g] “huh… Very well, all that he has is in your power; only do not stretch out your hand against HIM!” So the Ha Satan[h] went out from the presence of the Lord.
13 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the eldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were feeding beside them, 15 and the Sabeans fell on them and carried them off and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; I alone have escaped to tell you.” 16 While he was still speaking, another came and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them; I alone have escaped to tell you.” 17 While he was still speaking, another came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three militias, made a raid on the camels and carried them off, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; I alone have escaped to tell you.” 18 While he was still speaking, another came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house, 19 and suddenly a great wind came across the desert, struck the four corners of the house, and it fell in on the young people, and they are dead; I alone have escaped to tell you.”
20 Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.
This too is the word of God for the people of God… (Thanks be to God)
Sermon
In our Wednesday morning Interpretations group, where we reflect on last Sunday’s scripture and sermon and study for next Sunday’s, we read this text, and Diana suggested with a chuckle it reminds her of that movie with Dan Akroyd and Eddie Murphy, “Trading Places.” In that movie, if you don’t remember it, some wealthy businessmen sit in their club and discuss a young gifted talented man on the rise in their industry, and end up betting $1 they could destroy him, turn this gifted successful person into a homeless junkie, all with just a few tricks and tortures.
Is that, kind of, what this introduction to Job feels like? God, the one God, has a council of “heavenly bodies” and they discuss one faithful successful person, and the discussion becomes a debate on whether or not Job would crumble if some bad things happen to this good person.
There are several things we need to notice from this first chapter of this long book of Job. First, notice this God is our God, and in this story, there are no other Gods, no one and no-thing above or equal to God. Everyone and everything are under God’s knowledge and power and care.
Next, notice this God is not alone but in community. Despite God’s unequaled awareness, power, and compassion, God surrounds God’s self with a community of “heavenly bodies”. Some might translate that as angels or messengers, maybe advisors, or even servants, disciples, or friends.
Third, notice one of God’s community or council has a unique role. The Hebrew is ha satan. That isn’t a name, Satan. A “being” named Satan is a result of Christianity misinterpreting scripture and isn't a Jewish concept. Ha Satan just means “the adversary”, or opposer, or accuser. That role is built into creation, not by the creator, but by the freedom we are given. The knowledge, or temptation to do good drags along beside it the opportunity to do the other. Will I love or ignore, tell the truth or lie, commit or cheat. Whenever we the created face down anything adversarial to goodness, to God, we are facing ha satan, not some being equal to and opposite of God that God created, but anything, anyone that opposes God’s will in God’s good free creation.
Fourth, for some reason, God calls attention to Job, a successful and faithful person. Only then does the adversary play their role on the God council. “Well, he’s only faithful because you’ve protected him and made him successful. Well, he’s only faithful still because you haven’t done anything to him personally.” That’s how the other option arises. That’s what ha satan sounds like, whether it comes from someone we love, or a stranger, or a pundit or politician or preacher, or inside our own head. Ha satan takes a beautiful option, a good option, something wonderful or possible or worthy of celebrating, and questions it, belittles it, insults it. Don’t we all know that voice?
Fifth, God does not accept ha satan’s assumption, that Job is only faithful because God did something for Job. God seems to believe, or maybe trust or hope, Job’s faithfulness is not dependent on Job’s success. And God does not take credit for Job’s success and faithfulness, and does not expect Job’s faithfulness to crumble is Job lost his worldy success.
Sixth, God does not take direct action against Job. The way the story is written, God does appear to give permission? to God’s underlings to allow chaos to land on Job. And Job is hit with waves of bad or evil things. Other humans, Sabeans, steal from Job and kill servants. Fire falls from the sky, maybe embers from a forest fire or volcano, and destroys Job’s livestock and more servants. More humans Chaldeans invade and steal and kill. A great wind, maybe a tornado or hurricane, collapses a home and kills Job’s grown children inside. Had we kept reading, sores and disease strike Job’s body, from head to foot.
These things happening to Job, are they bad things or are they evil? The humans who invade, steal, kill, we might say that is evil, but what if we learned Job had invaded and stolen homelands from Sabeans and Chaldeans and they were trying to reclaim what Job had stolen? Would we call that bad or evil, or consequences? The natural disasters, fire and wind, are those bad or evil? We might say since they are natural, they can’t be evil. But what if the fire was started by a company’s burn pit, or from someone flicking a cigarette butt out the window? Surely a hurricane or tornado isn’t evil. But what if hunger and greed for coal and oil puts so much carbon into the atmosphere that winds and floods exceed anything God ever imagined or designed for this world, and whole families and towns are wiped away by human-induced climate change? What then? Do we call them bad or evil, or both?
When bad or evil things happen, humans feel the need to blame. Blame those Sabeans and Chaldeans, they’re terrorists. Blame the guards for not securing the borders of Job’s land, not being ready and prepared to defend us. Blame the contractors who built the houses and didn’t make them strong enough to survive hurricane-force winds. In the face of bad or evil things, we look to blame somebody, anybody but ourselves.
Sometimes humans will even blame the victim. Well, Job was greedy and grew beyond his ability to protect his family and business. What goes up must come down, and he probably wasn’t paying his fair share of taxes, so he had it coming. Humans will sometimes blame the victims of bad or evil things, as if they should have known better, or dodged.
One other option, when bad or evil things happen, is to blame God. Maybe this God isn’t all-knowing as we’ve been told, and this God didn’t even see the bad or evil things happening. Or maybe this God isn’t all-powerful as we’ve been told. God knew about the bad or evil things, but wasn’t powerful enough to stop them? Or maybe, this God did know and is powerful enough, but just doesn’t care. Some are tempted to blame God in the face of bad or evil things.
This last one has an odd antidote from religion. Sometimes religion teachs us to avoid blaming God by dismissing the bad or evil as not bad or evil at all. We just don’t understand it. In some weird twisted way, it must be good, all a part of God’s plan. Instead of acknowledging the real evil, pain, or suffering in someone or ourselves or in our world, someone will say something they heard is faithful, something like, “Well, I guess God had a plan,” as if God’s goodness designed and intended the car crash or cancer diagnosis or flood.
I was 6 years old at my father’s graveside funeral when I overheard a well-meaning church lady say “I guess God needed him more than we did,” as if my daddy’s death from some terrible mistakes and suffering was all God’s good plan… as if my sadness, anger, and grief were the intention of God’s love and justice.
It took me 20 years to unlearn that bad theology, and to be able to say, “No lady, that’s not faithful trust in God. That’s blindness to the reality of sin, evil, suffering, and death. That’s denial.”
See, some people’s faith is immature or weak, and they cannot distinguish good from evil, good from bad, so they shrug and guess it might all be God’s plan? Some people’s faith is fragile, and they desperately cling to the positive and encouraging, as a coping mechanism to avoid looking too long at anything bad or evil because they hate the feelings of responsibility or powerlessness. Some people’s faith is distorted, and they twist God’s good character, take God’s good name in vain, and attribute to God some sinful, evil things in our world.
This is just the first chapter of Job, and Job’s faith is going to change and grow a lot over the next 40 chapters. Job’s early response to suffering has a hint of that distorted faith. ‘The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.” Is that what happened to Job. Did God give Job the successful business, and the big family? Then, did God rip those away from Job as some sort of $1 bet with ha satan?
The story of Job begins this way because the author knows we sometimes think of God this way, as having a plan where every accident and storm, every success and failure are micromanaged by God, maybe to teach us a lesson, or maybe to make us stronger, or maybe to accomplish some big greater good we cannot yet see. Those are quick easy responses to the mystery of sin and evil and bad things. But they do not do justice to a good, loving, just God. They do not explain the why behind bad and evil. More often than not, the reasons behind bad and evil things are complicated, and we might be tempted by ha satan to blame God or even the victims or to gas light ourselves into believing bad sinful evil things aren’t bad at all, just a part of God’s bigger plan. In the coming chapter we will hear how Job’s friends, and Job, and God respond to this shallow understandings.
For now, remember, God is good, and loving and just. God does not micromanage all things good or bad, but all things are under God’s knowledge, power, and love. In the freedom of God’s love, there will always be another option, and that option will cause suffering and harm. God’s creation is a dangerous place, and as much of a gift as life itself is from God, so too will some suffering, pain, and eventually death be true for all created things. And usually, if something is sinful or evil, it most likely came from humans, and imagine yourselves being God’s hands and feet, walking into the brokenness, and remembering them until all things are whole again.
To God be all glory and honor, now and forever more, Amen? Amen.
Charge
11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all these troubles that had come upon him, each of them set out from his home—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They met together to go and console and comfort Job.
Benediction
Now blessing, laughter, and loving be yours, and may the love of a great God who names you and holds you as the earth turns and the flowers grow be with you this day, this night, this moment, and forever more. Amen? Amen.
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