[AI translation] I want to say right at the beginning that just as I left out of the first part last Sunday, I'm going to leave out of the second part here, the scene that happens in heaven, the appearance of Satan before the throne of God and the whole problem of that. This invisible, spiritual background to the Job story - with God's help - I want to deal with separately next Sunday. So for now, we will try to group the message of Scripture around just one question. This question was formulated by Job's wife, and its meaning is: is it worth believing in God? More than once the world asks this question of us believers - but more than once our own hearts ask this question of ourselves. Let us see, then, what answer we find in the Word, in this passage from the story of Job.Last Sunday we saw how, almost out of the blue, Job's life was hit by one after another series of plagues. From one moment to the next, he lost his possessions, his servants, his flocks - and eventually his children, all ten of them. The happy, fortunate man became at once miserable, miserably wretched. And yet he did not collapse! He stood steadfast in the storm, because he clung to God and not to God's gifts. God was more and more precious to him than what he could get from Him! And if his fellowship with God can be preserved: that is a supreme good which makes up for all other painful losses!"- So Job endured this first series of terrible calamities with steadfast faith. "One would think that no man could endure more suffering, more calamities, but it would not be fair! He has suffered enough, he has enough burdens, he deserves to see better days! But the ordeal is not over yet. He's not at rock bottom yet. Our word tells us of two more very heavy blows! It is popularly said that trouble does not come alone. In addition to the total financial loss and the devastating grief, there is now a very painful illness. Until now, at least, he had the support of a healthy body to help him through the great shock, but now he could no longer rely on that either. A mysterious illness had taken the already severely tried man by surprise, leaving him with ulcers all over his body for which there was no remedy. We do not know exactly what the nature of the disease was, but in all probability it was the most terrible of all: intestinal leprosy, leprosy from which the only prospect is a slow but certain death. He can't even call a doctor - how can he afford one - but what can medical science do for him? Sitting in ashes, he scratches the festering ulcers with pieces of pottery.
It is good to think sometimes, in our healthy state, of the terrible sea of suffering that surges around us in hospitals and sickrooms, of the terrible weight that the hand of God can lay on a man's life. Let us hear some of the anguished cries of the suffering Job as he writhes in agony: "If I lie down, I will say, 'When shall I rise? But the night is long, and I am full of tossing and turning till the morning twilight. My body is covered with worms and the dirt of the dust, my skin tightens and sags... When I think that my bridesmaid comforts me, my bedchamber relieves my lamentation: then you will terrify me with dreams and disturb me with visions," he complains. (Job 7:4-5,13,14) Such are the torments! And when we think of such things, or see such things, all the problems that we saw as so big before are suddenly dwarfed, and we are suddenly ashamed that we could complain, be discontented, quarrel over such small things. At the sight of human life suffering under really great trials, the rebellious heart in us also stirs: what is my burden compared to X's or Y's?! I know very well that the mere sight of human suffering is not yet a solution for us, but it can help us in that direction. So for this reason alone, it is good to sit down by a sickbed, to visit a so-called 'doomed', unfortunate brother or sister, like Job and his three friends. He who knows from experience what physical suffering means, what a burden the misery of a sick body puts on a man every morning anew: he knows truly what a good thing, what a relief in the midst of pain, the appearance of a kind face, the warm, friendly, brotherly handshake, the sympathetic look of a compassionate, kind-hearted man. Even if he does not say words of comfort, as Job's friends do here, he is there: his presence can bring a ray of sunshine into a dark sickroom. I can't resist inviting you - although this is not strictly relevant here - that even if there is no Sunday for the elderly and sick in the congregations: don't forget them! Any expression of love for them: blessing for them and blessing for you!
But let us return to Job: another heavy blow - this time on his soul! His only support in the midst of so much loss, as you know, is his wife, the companion of his life. Now he loses this one and only support. She does not alleviate her husband's terrible suffering, but exacerbates it, by what she says at this tragic hour: '...do you still stand firm in your integrity? (Job 7:9) It can be terribly painful when a man is tempted by someone who is closest and dearest to him, and the attack comes from where he least expects it. Adam was tempted by Eve, Jesus by Peter! Job's wife almost becomes Satan's stronghold, his bridgehead against Job's faith. This overburdened life of faith is already in ruins, it should be helped, supported, and here is the one who could do this in the first place: mocking, ridiculing, undermining, weakening Job's faith. The greatest gift a believer can receive from God in this earthly life is to have a life partner who is also a partner in faith, a prayer partner, a confessional partner, a fellow servant in the cause of God. And the greatest sadness if he is not! For the partner is the other half of one's life. The two become one body, one whole in marriage. If one does not believe, hope, serve and relate to God as the other does, then the life of faith of the other may become a struggle, like a bird trying to fly with one wing. Not so with Job. Although most commentators consider this situation to be Job's most serious cross, Job's faith can withstand even this.
Job's wife was a heavy cross for Job because she had formulated a haunting thought that, when it settles in the heart, like termites in a house, will grind a man's whole life of faith from the inside. Let's look more closely at what he says: the understanding of religion, of God, of this woman who lived 3,000 years ago, is incredibly modern. People today would say: 'Are you still so firmly attached to your religion that nothing can disappoint you? Cure you? What good is it to you? What do you gain by it? What is the use of the whole matter if, instead of rewarding you for your service, your worship, your faith in Him, your loyalty to Him, God whips you! Hurt! He does not protect you from harm, He lets the evil of men, the power of sickness, deal with you. What reason have you given for all this? Is this God worthy of faith, of love? Has He heard you, has He given you what you have asked of Him? Does the God you believe in even exist? Do you still believe?" You know these voices, you have heard them, perhaps not from the outside, but from your own heart! Or perhaps, "So weak are the believers, so much wickedness has been done by the priests and church-goers: have you not yet been disappointed in this weak company, have you never been disappointed in Christianity? What does humanity mean by the fact that millions and millions of people have believed in God for 2,000 years? Was it worth spending so much on Him, sacrificing for Him, fighting for Him? Has the world become a better place?" Are the atheists not right when they say that we don't need any religion or belief in God, because it will get us nowhere! Job's efforts were in vain, and it was a pity! Trouble had caught up with him as much as anybody, and perhaps even more! - That's why his wife said, "Curse God and die!" Don't care for God any more, don't believe in him any more, don't pray to him any more, leave the whole thing, it's not worth it!
It is like telling a man hanging on the edge of a precipice, with a dark abyss below him, to let go of the rope he is still holding on to! For if, in such a situation, a man rejects the hand of God, he is left with the advice of Job's wife: die! That is, suicide - or to kick aside the word of conscience, the law of God, to enjoy without scruple all the pleasures of life while one can - which is also suicide, but in a different form. I can almost feel Job recoiling from Satan's offer and pressing his arm of faith even further into the invisible hand that has been holding him. He rejects the temptation with all his might: 'You speak as one of the foolish. If we have taken away the good from God, shall we not take away the evil? In all these things Job sinned not with his lips." (Job 7:10) There is something quite touching in the confidence expressed in these words. So Job still trusts. But in what? That he will be healed? That everything will be all right?! No! He is not trusting in luck, but in God! In the God whom he knew to be just, loving, kind, powerful, omnipotent - who can do no wrong, or wrong to anything. Whose child he is, Job, even now, even in this way, even in misery! Nothing has changed, and yet the suffering face seems to brighten as he says, "If we have taken the good from God, shall we not take the bad?" If we have accepted so much good for the body that was good for the body, would we not want to accept something good for the soul? Things, burdens, trials, that are good for the soul, that make the face sadder perhaps, but the soul better, the body weaker, but the soul stronger? Here is the secret of Job's faith: he trusts, let me say trusts, one hundred per cent in his Lord God! And if Job of the Old Testament could do this, how much more so we, the people of the New Testament!
I said before, what is my possible suffering compared to Job's?! Now let me continue: what even is Job's suffering compared to Christ's! Job at least took the good from the Lord, but Christ only the bad! And the worst of all evils: the full weight of God's wrath and punishment! The deepest misery of damnation! If ever there was an incomprehensible, undeserved, humanly unjust suffering, it was Christ's! An old prophet foresaw this suffering: 'We thought that he would be scourged, scourged, tormented of God' (Isa 53:4). Because it was for us, for our redemption! It was humanly unjust and unjust that suffering and agonizing death there on Calvary, but it was done out of God's love, because it was done for us and on our behalf! He took away evil from God so that everything would be good for us, even evil for our good! In this God, who wants so much for our good, we can really trust and rely one hundred percent!
We started from the question: is it worth believing in God? Well: not in the way Job's wife believed, that is, that I believe when and as long as what I want, what I want, what I imagine for myself, happens! So it is not worth it! But it's worth it the way Job believed: completely, one hundred percent, so that whatever it takes, I am His for life! Because there is power in that faith! This faith says, almost defiantly, I shall not lose heart because of this, for God does not give me a trial measured by my strength, but He gives me a strength measured by the trial - so I grow through Him! This faith is also of benefit to others: for 3,000 years, through the faith of Job, many suffering people have been comforted and strengthened by the Lord! He believed even with his suffering.
I have said before that a true believer is one who makes it easier for others to believe in God. A person whose faith is a good deed, a help, a service of love, a comfort, a blessing for the people around him. This is how Job believed, this is how the apostles, the reformers, our ancestors who believed - this is the only way we should believe in the Lord our God: through Jesus Christ! So let us pray:
My faith now looks to you,
My Saviour, my God,
On Calvary:
Hear my prayer,
and take away my sin;
From now on let me be,
only thine.
(Canto 466, verse 1)
Amen
Date: 17 August 1958.
Lesson
Jób 2,1-13