What To Do if You Are In a Tough Place and God Seems Distant
I have read the book of Job many times. I have heard sermons about it, but some did not ring true with me. “Job doubted his children, and his doubts caused the crack in the protection.” I don’t think so. And why was God talking to Satan? Do you understand that? Speculation about the behemoth and leviathan can get us sidetracked from the book’s message. The council from Job’s friends actually sounds pretty good, like something I might say or hear at church. Now, after reading it this book once again, I am seeing it in a new light. This is a book about faith that God completely forgives us.
1. Job’s friends: “God is fair. God’s treatment of Job is fair.”
2. Job: “I am forgiven by God. This is not fair.”
3. God: “Look at nature. There are tons of things you do not understand.”
4. God:”The friends are wrong. Job is right.”
5. The message: “When things seem all wrong, look at nature. Meditate on the greatness of God and how much we do not understand. Hang on to promise of Redemption and don’t let go. Help is on the way.”
1. Job’s friends are convinced God is fair. They are convinced Job must have sinned, and God is punishing him.
a. Consider Zophar, in Job 11:13-19 “Yet if you devote your heart to Him and stretch out your hands to Him, if you put away the sin…you will surely forget your trouble…you will be secure because there is hope…many will court your favor.
b. Consider Elihu, in Job 35:10-12 “But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,…He does not answer when men cry out because of the arrogance of the wicked.”
2. Job spends a lot of time in the book questioning God’s “fairness”. He realized that though he had sinned in his youth, 13:26, God had forgiven him. This was not deserved punishment.
a. Job 23:3,4 “If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to His dwelling! I would state my case before Him and fill my mouth with arguments.”
b. Job 27:2-6 “As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice…I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it…”
c. Job 19:25 “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth.”
3. God concludes:
a. There are a lot of things no human understands. 38:4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?”
b. If you start to doubt Me (God), look at nature. (Nature documentaries are good. Walks in the woods and camping trips are good. Being quiet in the wilderness is good). 39:1 “Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?” What about wild donkeys, and oxen, and ostriches and huge animals? What about the stars, and thunder and lightening? Who hung the earth in the sky? Who feeds the lions?
c. Job’s friends are wrong, to think that what happened to Job was fair. 42:7 “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.”
d. Job is right to trust in complete and total forgiveness.
CONCLUSION:
A: There are many things we do not understand. They are just not right.
B: When God seems distant, spend time looking at nature and thinking about how God created it.
C: Ask God if there is anything you need to repent of, and if there is anything you need to make right. Once you have done this to the best of your understanding…hang on to your Redemption like a shipwrecked sailor hangs onto his lifejacket. Scan the horizon for help if you have the strength.
D. God is still moving as powerfully today as when He created everything.
E. There are a lot of things we do not understand, but we know this: The Kingdom of God is here now, AND the Kingdom of God is coming.
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