In the play and movie "A Man for All Seasons," Sir Thomas More was confined in prison because he refused to sign an oath with which he did not agree. While he was there, his daughter Margaret was allowed to come and visit him to try and convince him to sign so that he could be set free. The following dialog is from their discussion about this matter:
This week’s lesson is about a man named Job who chose in spite of danger and disaster to stand fast a little.
1. Job is sorely tested.
Job’s trials are a warning to us that personal righteousness will not protect us from trials and tribulations. Job was a very good man. A careful reading of his story shows us the following about his excellence.
-He was perfect (1:1)
-He was upright (1:1)
-He feared God (1:1)
-He avoided evil (1:1)
-He instructed many (4:3)
-He strengthened weak hands (4:3)
-He supported those who were falling (4:4)
-He strengthened the feeble knees (4:4)
-He walked in the Lord’s ways (23:10)
-He did not turn away from the commandments (23:11)
-He loved the Lord’s words more than food (23:12)
-He delivered the poor (29:12)
-He cared for the orphans (29:12)
-He helped those whom no one else would help (29:12)
-He gave the widow cause to sing with joy (29:13)
-He was eyes to the blind (29:15)
-He was feet to the lame (29:15)
-He was father to the poor (29:16)
-He searched for people in need of his assistance (29:16)
-He never found joy in the suffering of his enemies (31:29)
-He never wished evil on his enemies (31:30)
-He opened his home to strangers (31:32)
-He did not try to hide his sins (31:33)
-He would not follow a multitude to do evil (31:34)
-He refused to be silent because of the disapproval of others (31:34)
What a man! But his undiluted goodness did not protect him from trials. When the Lord used Job’s goodness as evidence of the success of the gospel plan, Satan responded with a challenge:
Let me try to paraphrase this observation from Lucifer. “Of course he loves you and obeys you. You bless him in everything he does. Being good is making him wealthy. But let him suffer a little and he will not keep his covenants nor serve you.”
How do you feel about your covenants? Would your commitment to them waver if they offered no protection? Are you determined to honor your covenants not matter what happens? Lucifer was sure that Job was not.
Read Job 1:13-19. The visits of the four servants with their announcements of awful calamities cannot have occupied more than five minutes, and yet in those few moments Job received word that he had lost everything—his oxen, his asses, his sheep, his camels, most of his servants, and all ten of his children.
Satan was of course wrong about the nature of Job’s reaction to this devastating setback. Job did not curse God nor blame Him for this catastrophe. He said:
The Lord pointed out to Satan that Job had remained faithful in spite of Lucifer’s attempts to destroy his faith (see Job 2:2,3). To this observation Satan replied,
"Job has not suffered physically," the adversary pointed out. "When the pain is personal, he will not keep his covenants."
I had an associate in Arizona who got a single boil on the end of his nose. We called him “Rudolph” for the duration of his discomfort. And he had some discomfort. His nose was so sore that he breathed only through his mouth, refusing even to afflict his nasal membranes with the passage of air. Job had “sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown” (Job 2:7). This affliction, which might have been a result of a disease like elephantiasis, caused Job to be severely disfigured. When his three friends came to comfort him in his calamity, they “knew him not” (Job 2:12). He said of his affliction,
Job was so miserable that he “took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes” (Job 2:8). His wife did the very thing Satan was sure Job would do.
To this challenge, Job gave one of the finest lessons in scripture:
That is, if we believe that God is smart enough to know when we need a blessing, then we must believe that he is smart enough to know when we need a trial.
These first three trials—the loss of property and family and health—were tragic. But they were only the beginning of his troubles. The next struggle came when Job tried to sleep. Instead of escaping pain and anguish in restful slumber, Job found his sleep filled with nightmares and discomfort
The 5th trial came in the form of ridicule from those who had respected him. He was humiliated because of his afflictions. There was a time when men listened to Job and respected him greatly (see Job 29:21-25),
In the midst of this adversity, Job might have found some solace in the solicitous attention and associations of family and friends. But this did not happen, and its absence is the 6th trial:
Job’s own expressions show us a man whose pain is multiplied by the fact that the Lord will not answer his prayers and explain to him why he is being punished so severely. This 7th trial must have been particularly distressing.
Life for Job finally became a nearly unbearable burden. He wished he had never been born, or that he could die. This is the 8th trial.
Finally, we come to Job’s conversations with his friends. They had come to comfort him,
This kind of compassion is promising. Their shared grief seems to say a great deal about their love for him. But this apparent humanity does not last long. Before much time has passed, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar arrive at a mistaken conclusion of the cause of Job’s suffering and accuse him of grievous iniquity. Why else would God punish him so thoroughly?
Job was, we have been assured, pure and upright—even perfect—and he knew it. How unfair it was for his friends to assume that his tribulation came because of wickedness.
The final verses of the Sermon on the Mount make it pretty clear that storms blow in the lives of the good and the bad; that is, those whose lives are built on the Rock and those whose lives are built on sand. The story of Job offers compelling evidence of this. In the entire book we do not read any evidence that he was evil in any way. But it is a natural reaction to think that those who suffer are under some kind of condemnation. Job teaches us that this is an assumption we cannot make.
2. Job wonders why he has been suffering.
Job seems to have some of the same feelings about suffering that are shared by his three accusing friends.
The question he is asking is, Why is this happening to me? God must know that I have been good. In a compelling series of verses, Job describes his freedom from sin. Perhaps he could understand his afflictions if he had done anything at all to deserve them. The following statements are Job’s affirmation of things he has not done.
-If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit (31:5).
-If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands (31:7).
-If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door (31:9).
-If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me (31:13).
-If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail (31:16).
-If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering (31:19).
-If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence (31:24).
-If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him (31:29).
-If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom (31:33).
Finally, Job cries out for understanding:
There is a lesson here for us as well. When trials come, and they will, we must not ask the wrong questions.
3. Job offers us three keys for righteousness in the midst of suffering.
Job kept his covenants in spite of his pain and his lack of understanding, and he tells us how he did it. Three great passages show us how to keep our covenants and God’s commandments when our lives are collapsing around us.
“As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul; All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils; My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit. God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live” (Job 27:2-6).
“I made my covenants with my eyes wide open, and they were not conditional. I will keep them regardless of the cost.”
“Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:23-27).
“I know that my Redeemer lives and no matter what happens to this body (even if it is eaten by worms), I will see Him, in my flesh, for myself.”
“Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will. Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand? Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13:13-15).
“I know God loves me more than I love myself. I trust that whatever he does to me is better than anything I could ever do for myself.”
5. After Job has faithfully endured his trials, the Lord blesses him.
God did answer Job (Job 38:1), but it was not the answer he had hoped for. God described himself to Job in most dramatic and unusual terms. The underlying message is that God is so great that no man can question his purposes or his actions. The following questions God asks come from Job 38 and 39. Each of the questions contains an inference of the greatness of God.
-Where were you when God laid the foundations of the earth? (38:4)
-On what were the foundations of the earth fastened? (38:6)
-Who shut up the sea behind doors? (38:8)
-Have you ever commanded the dawn? (38:12)
-Have you walked in the depths of the sea? (38:16)
-Have you seen the gates of death? (38:17)
-Can you comprehend the expanse of the earth? (38:18)
-Have you entered the storehouses of the snow? (38:22)
-Who cuts the channel for the torrents of rain? (38:25)
-From whose womb comes the ice? (38:29)
-Can you bring forth the constellations? (38:31,32)
-Can you send the bolts of lightning on their way? (38:35)
-Can you count the clouds? (38:37)
-Who tips over the bottles of rain when the earth needs rain? (38:37)
-Do you hunt prey for the lioness? (38:39)
-Who feeds the ravens? (38:41)
-Who decided the wild donkey should be wild? (39:5)
-Will the wild ox consent to serve and help you? (39:9)
-Why are the ostrich and peacock so different? (39:13)
-Did you give the horse his strength? (39:19)
-Did you decide what the horse should look like? (39:19)
-Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom? (39:26)
-Does the eagle soar at your command? (39:27)
These questions seemed to reach deep into Job’s heart and to show him his mistake in questioning God’s purposes:
God speaks again to Job of His (God’s) powers and greatness. Job again responds:
The initial conversations between God and Satan disappear in the second chapter of Job. The book becomes more than a demonstration of the goodness of Job and the power of his plan. Much of the book is a picture of a man who suffers and keeps his covenants anyway, knowing that God is good and also just.
Can we return to the play "A Man For All Seasons"? More has one more thing to say about men like Job. The statement he makes about his own commitment to his consciousness of right and wrong is one of the finest quotes I have found in my life.
Image from Thinkstock