FBT Daily Devotional: Job 38

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Your hair is beautiful. Alrighty, ladies and gentlemen. This evening we're going to be taking a look at the book of Job. And I just want to give a um shout out to Miss Robin, who inspired me to look at it a little bit differently this morning. She got me going. So we're in uh chapter 38 this evening, and we know that Job has been going through a lot of human reasoning going on, a lot of accusation, a lot of suffering. And finally, God responds to that in chapter 38. And so he God begins by sort of giving him this sweeping tour, if you will, of creation. And I want to read just a little bit about it in case you haven't read it, or just to review, so you kind of get what God's talking about. So I'm going to start verse 38, chapter, chapter 38, excuse me, verse 1. And the word of the Lord reads, Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said, Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man. I will question you and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me if you understand. Glory to God. Sorry, lost my place. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know. Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set? Or who laid its cornerstone while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb? When I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, This far you may come and no farther, here is where your proud ways halt. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Okay. So my question was: why does God answer Job like that? What is the point? Why does he confront Job the way that he does? Well, God is reframing Job's perspective. Amen. He's not shaming him. Now, again, we know that Job has spent a long time asking the questions, why? Why is he suffering? But in the midst of all that, he never curses God, right? He does, but he does demand answers. And he insists that if he could just talk to God directly, right, he could prove his case. He could prove his innocence. God's response is not, you're guilty, which I love. He doesn't say you deserve this, but he says, Let me show you, Job, what you don't know, right? He takes Job on this tour of creation, not to crush him, but to remind him that the world is bigger, it's more complex, it's more held together than you can possibly imagine. So Job's suffering is real, and we're not denying that, but we know that that's not the whole story. God is saying you're asking for answers from a place that cannot see everything I see. Right? So God is shifting the conversation from why to who, right? Job wants an explanation and God wants to give revelation. So instead of asking, why is this happening to me? God responds with, look at who I am. Look at what I sustain, look at what I understand, look at my wisdom, my creativity, and my power. And it's as if God is saying, if you can trust me with the stars and the oceans and the creatures and the chaos, right? Excuse me, you can trust me with your suffering even when you don't understand it. That isn't avoidance, it's redirection to the only solid foundation, of course, and that's God's character. So God is affirming that Job's questions are welcome, but he understands that they are limited. Now, Job had some friends, and you all know this as we've gone through the book, that think that the world was pretty simple. They live by this doctrine of rewards and punishment. For example, you all know about Eliphaz. We've been talking about him. He starts over in Job chapter 4 and he runs through 15. And this young man argues that suffering only comes to the sinful and that prosperity only comes to the righteous. Well, Job begins to challenge their world views, and believe it or not, God agrees with Job. But God also says your categories are too small. Amen. The universe is not a simple moral equation. It's vast, it's interconnected, it's mysterious, like the sea breaking its boundaries or constellations being held in place by forces of which Job has never heard. God's questions, like, you know, where were you when, or can you? They're philosophical in nature. They're not being sarcastic, right? The bottom line is, and he's talking to Job, same as he's talking to you and me. You are not in a position to run the universe, Job. And that's good news. Thank you, Jesus. So God is restoring relationship. He's not giving a lecture, right? The whole book is leading up to this moment. Job has been crying out, God, speak to me. Let me face you. I want to plead my case. And then God actually comes, right? The whirlwind is not judgment, it's mercy. God is saying, I'm still here. I've not abandoned you. Let's talk face to face. Now, Job 38 could be the beginning of Job's healing, right? Not because he gets answers, but because he gets God. Amen. Hang on just a second. So what were some of Job's emotional responses to God's speech? And I know that we can all um uh uh what's the word I want, um not agree with, but um we've all had the same kinds of feelings, right? So Job's responses unfold in layers, right? There's it's almost like him, you know, being able to finally breathe again, right? He's been drowning in all this confusion and all the whys and all the pain. And finally it's like he can come up for some air. So he's overwhelmed, right? But he's not humiliated. So when God speaks, Job's not crushed. He is humbled, but it's a humility-filled uh time, right, for him, with awe rather than with shame. He essentially saying, I spoke of things too wonderful for me to know. And that's found in Job 42 and 3. Emotionally, maybe this is the moment when he stops fighting for control. His anger softens, his tension dissolves, he is overwhelmed by God's largeness, but also God's presence. Amen. Job realizes he never saw the whole picture. God was never absent, and his suffering didn't mean abandonment. He experiences relief, as all of us would, deep relief. For chapters, you know, those first 35 chapters, he keeps begging, where are you, God? Why don't you speak to me? And finally, God does. Now he may not understand the answers, but emotionally he knows that something even better has happened. He knows that he's not alone, that God has been right there all the time. And so sometimes presence is in the miracle, right? God's nearness is the comfort Job didn't realize that he needed the most. Job feels seen, unseen, unanswered, so to speak, and let me back up. He feels seen, excuse me, answered and respected when God reminds him that he's there. He doesn't dismiss Job's pain. He doesn't say, stop complaining, boy. He doesn't say get over it. He doesn't say you're wrong, but instead, God engages him. God gives Job the dignity of dialogue, right? How does Job respond? He says, My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. That's Job 42 and 5. Right? That's an emotional time for Job. He moves from theory to encounter, from religion to relationship. I gotta hurry. Job experiences surrender, not because he loses, but because he trusts. His final emotional shift is not defeat, it's release. He stops demanding explanations. He stops trying to make sense of everything. Ever been there? I have. He doesn't need the courtroom he once asked for. Why? Because when you trust the heart of God, you don't need to understand the mind of God. And I'm gonna say that again. When you trust the heart of God, you don't need to understand the mind of God. So Job discovers that meaning is sometimes not found in answers, but in the one who holds the answers, right? And as believers, we go through some of the same things, right? We hit those seasons where we're saying, okay, God, you're feeling silent. Um, my prayers feel like they're not answered. Life is unfair, Lord. This and that and the other's happening to me. Suffering seems senseless, but God teaches us through this story of Job that He's not threatened by our questions, not in the least. God hears the cries of the wounded, the Bible tells us so. And we can be honest with God, isn't that wonderful, without being faithless? God often answers with presence, not explanations, right? We want clarity. Oh, I just need the clarity, Lord. I need the solutions, I need the meaning, I need the reasons. But God often gives something better and deeper, right? He gives himself. He may not explain the storm, but we know that he steps into it. He may not erase the suffering, but he stays beside us in it, right? Job's experience shows us that God's presence is a response, even when his words are mysterious in nature. We don't understand, right? Encounter transforms faith more than information does. So many of us know about God. Job knew God, but it was suffering and divine encounter that opened his spiritual eyes. Amen. For a believer, glory to God, our spiritual growth is not limited to reading more. It's not limited to hearing sermons, and we can certainly get it that way. And it's not limited to gaining all this religious head knowledge, but it can come from facing our limitations. It can come from that humility, maybe losing our illusion, stop questioning God so much and just trust and believe him. It can come from meeting God in the secret place or in those places where maybe we didn't expect him, right? True faith makes room for mystery, right? We want to know why this happened? What is God doing? How's it gonna be fixed, right? It shows us that faith is not the absence of questions, it is the decision to trust when the answers don't come, right? It's not blind faith, but it's rooted faith. Faith says if God can handle the foundations of the earth, he can handle the foundations of my life. I'm gonna say that one again. If he can handle the foundations of the earth, he can handle the foundations of my life, right? Restoration often comes after surrender, not before. Job's restoration, we'll see that when we get to chapter 42, is important, not because he earned it. His restoration follows humility, it follows encounter, it follows trust, and it follows a reconnection with God. And so, in the same way, we as believers often find healing, and that's a big word for us as a beyond community, after, and I know I gotta work on this, after we release our need to control the narrative, right? After we release that. So repri restoration can begin when we let God be God and allow ourselves simply to be held. And with that, we can go to breakout rooms.