Suffering

Consider the following quotes. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. That's Elizabeth Gilbert from her best-selling book, Eat, Pray, and Love. Or consider this quote, the most important thing is to enjoy your life, to be happy. It's all that matters. Audrey Hepburn. Or, the purpose of our lives is to be happy. The Dalai Lama. And my favorite philosopher, I'm going to quote this morning, happiness is a choice. Join team happy and get off team hater. Some of you probably already guessed it, Kim Kardashian. What is life about? What is life about? This is a sampling of quotes from a very diverse culture, yet they seem to be saying very similar things. The goal of life is personal happiness now. After all, how many times have we heard the advice, as long as you're happy, as long as you're happy. But what I've seen in the church at large is I've seen the church take their cues or her cues from the secular culture. We've made, yes, of course, we affirm God as the American church in general, but We have made God to be about our personal happiness on our own terms. But if the old catechisms are right, and I think they are, according to the Bible, the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy God on his terms. So today, many Christians still certainly affirm God and believe in God. Yet, very subtly, I think, in our culture, in our culture of evangelical Christianity, we've made God to be about our personal, individual gratification. In other words, God has become the means to another ends. He has become the means to the American dream. He has become the means to health or wealth. or simply comfort. And one of the symptoms, and of course, for the Bible, God is the ends as well as the means. We serve and we worship God to get God. But I think one of the symptoms of this repackaged version of Christianity is that it does not know how to handle suffering. It simply does not know what to do with it. After all, if God thinks I'm awesome, and He wants me to be happy and healthy and rich and successful with little to no pain, then what are we to say, well, when life isn't all of those things? But I think it's helpful before we dive into the book of Job for us just to step back for a second and consider this secular view. What does it have to offer those who suffer? It's a bit of a worldview kind of thing. but not just simply logically looking through the arguments for the existence of God, but saying, how do these worldviews actually interact with reality? How do they help? A purely secular view says, there is no God, so there is nothing higher than self. You are the most important thing, so live for yourself. Do whatever makes you happy. That's what those quotes were saying. They weren't logically working through this, that this is where this is coming from, but that's where it's coming from. But then what does that worldview, do whatever makes you happy because you're the ultimate, how does that actually deal with suffering? Well, I think at least in three ways. For one thing, the secular view, because it says suffering is meaningless, it says to avoid it at all costs. At all costs. Now, of course, as Christians, we can sympathize with this. We shouldn't strive to suffer. We shouldn't long to suffer as if somehow that's a good thing. And so we can resonate with them on this point, but Christians are also realistic. As many seculars are as well, if you're here today. We all know that you can't simply avoid all suffering. No one can escape all suffering. That's part of this world. Hence, the second response from seculars is often simply to learn to cope. There is suffering, it's meaningless, but you've just got to deal with it. So, they advise to learn coping strategies. Find the good in life. And if that doesn't work, drink to cope, medicate to cope, stay busy to cope, but this is all you have, so you better simply suck it up." Now, they might advocate that this has a dose of realism, this is just how it is. Yet, I find this to offer very little solace to those who are actually going through suffering. After all, how many times have you had your a friend who wasn't a believer in God in any way, or certainly didn't have anything too religious. Maybe they would show up to church every now and again, but they would never really talk about God, or talk about Jesus, or talk about faith. And then all of a sudden, suffering and tragedy hits them. Suddenly, suffering and tragedy hits our country, and we begin seeing the tweets, or the Facebook messages. Pray for these people, and you wonder, How come all of a sudden everyone's wanting to jump on this religion train, to jump on the bandwagon, to find God in the midst of suffering? I would suggest because that worldview doesn't offer solace. When you're standing at the graveside, when you get the call from the doctor that says you have weeks to live, The view that there is no God and that this life is it simply offers no comfort. Finally, considering this worldview, the most consistent response from this worldview, I believe, is to marvel at suffering. The famous philosopher, Frederick Nisky, wrote to a friend after 200,000 people were killed in a natural disaster and he wrote, 200,000 wiped out at a stroke. How magnificent. You have to give him this. He was consistent. He denied the existence of God. He believed that there was no absolute value judgments. So there was no such thing as evil. Pain or death itself could not be viewed as bad. So instead of weeping, which is part of human nature to mourn when something like that happens. He carried this worldview to its logical completion and he marveled at it. He was consistent. But I find that most atheists can't be this consistent. Because intuitively we know that yes, there is meaning. In fact, recently reading in reviewing a book by Bart Ehrman who is a well-known agnostic and a professor at UNC Chapel Hill. He wrote a book in 2008 called God's Problem. And throughout the book he's arguing against there being any afterlife, really there being any God. And this is what he says though at the end of the book. We should also work hard to make our world the most pleasing place it can be for others. Whether this means visiting a friend in the hospital, giving more to a local charity or an international relief effort, volunteering at the local soup kitchen, the list goes on. And then he says, what we have in the here and now is all that there is. We need to live to its fullest and help others as well to enjoy the fruits of the land. He has said that this life is all there is. basically denied the existence of God, yet in his conclusion, he comes to a very Christian understanding, to love others, to care for others. Yet, where is he getting this idea from? After all, if there's no meaning to life, and I'm the ultimate, and we are the ultimate, why wouldn't we just simply serve ourselves? What if I don't feel like helping others? But intuitively, He has something in Him where He gets to at the end of this book and He wants to give application for us to serve others. And I say, yes, amen. But you can't do that. You can't have that application point unless there is a God who has called us to do that. The secular worldview, we must leave behind this morning because it simply doesn't answer the questions of pain and suffering and evil and it certainly doesn't sustain those who go through suffering and evil, as we all do. So, moving forward, as we were about to crack open the book of Job with that introduction, a few diagnostic questions for you this morning. I assume many or most of you are believers here this morning. I would assume even more than you, even if we expand it out, most of you believe in God. If you don't, we would love to talk to you more. this morning, but a few diagnostic questions. Why do you serve God? What if God allowed everything to be taken from you, your family, your money, your health, would you still serve him? Would you still worship him? Welcome to the book of Job. Now, I feel like I need to give a bit of an apologetic since It's been said that I'm preaching the whole book of Job. And that's probably concerning some of you on multiple levels, including lunch. Perhaps an analogy would be helpful here. Imagine you going off to some distant country and leaving the one you love the most. For many of that, for many of you, that would be your spouse. If you're not married, perhaps your parents or your best friend. And there is no internet, there are no phones, and you have to go back to the old method of actually writing things out by hand to communicate back and forth. Assuming that you still know how to write letters without a keyboard, You and, just to use the specific analogy here, and assume you're wife, you and your spouse are riding back and forth, and because you're off in a very distant place, the letters are slow going back, and you don't get them very often, and you get a letter from her. And you open it up, and you read the first sentence, and you close it back. And you meditate on that for the rest of the day. And then the next day you open it up and you read the next sentence. Close it up, you meditate it for the rest of the day. Until you complete the whole letter. I assume that's not what you would do. I would, if it was me, I would open it up and I would read through it all the way through. And then I would dive in, especially if I wasn't getting these too often, and I would pick it apart and I would meditate on it as well. Of course, we wouldn't simply just pull out one thing and one thing here because we want to see what that loved one has written us. We're going to cherish those things. And cherishing a letter, cherishing communication can mean both reading and getting the big picture And seeing how everything that's going on and yet also diving in because we know, and to bring the analogy to the Word of God, we know that God has inspired this book in the details and in the macro structure. And so I have to confess that normally I take the bits and pieces, but I found it helpful both for me and for my people when we take big chunks, and the book of Job is especially one of those books that I have found it helpful. So that's what we're doing this morning, and though we will not be reading all 42 chapters, but we will be going through and seeing the big picture of the book. So starting off with me, look at verse 1 in chapter 1 of Job. There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East. So, right off the bat, we learn a couple of things about Job. One, we learn he is rich. I find that normally with students, this isn't very impressive. I tell them that he had 500 female donkeys, and they're not moved. But, of course, in this society, having livestock meant you were rich. He was very, very wealthy. So, we learn he's rich, and we also learn he is righteous. It tells us he was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and turned away from evil. Moving ahead, look at verse 6. We learn more about him. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, From where have you come? Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it. And the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job? That there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil." God tells Satan what we already have seen. Satan is a righteous man. He is, more than that, the most righteous man on the earth. And then we see how Satan responds. Verse 9 there. Then Satan answered the Lord and said, Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side? Have you blessed the work? You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has and he will curse you to your face." In other words, Satan says, God, Job doesn't really love you. He loves the stuff you give Him. Take away the stuff, take away the gifts, and He will not love you. This is the accusation. Job only serves you because he loves the gifts, but he doesn't love the giver. Verse 12, And the Lord said to Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand. So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. In the verses that follow, we see Satan uses natural disasters, he uses war parties to wipe out Job's wealth, to kill his servants, and to kill even his own children. And then in verse 20, we see Job's response. Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, now I have to tell you, there's a lot of theological, there's a big theological debate here on how this next word is to be pronounced. I'm from Georgia, so I pronounce it naked. I'm assuming you guys pronounce it naked. So I'm going to go with your pronunciation. to be contextual. And he said, naked I have come from my mother's room, and naked shall I return. And the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. Now, several things here we don't see from Job. One, we don't see from Job, be calm and carry on. He doesn't say, I haven't loved these things. I just love God, I don't love the stuff He's given me, so no big deal." That's not what he says. Some other religions, Stoics and Eastern religions, say that the key to living at peace with the world is not to get attached to things. They've recognized that, yes, we do... bad things happen, so therefore, if you don't get attached, you lose things. If you don't get attached to those things, then suffering will be minimized. However, that's not what the Bible teaches. That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches, obviously, everyone, even probably the smallest child here today could say, God has called us to love. To love Him, yes, first, but to love His creatures. To love His creation. And therefore, if it's right to deeply love things, then it's right to deeply mourn the loss of the things you love. To lament them. That is not unspiritual. Lament is a biblical genre. It's difficult to read through the Psalms and not see these lament Psalms where where the believer is still a believer, yet wrestling with God, coming to God, seeking God. And we see Job do that here. Nicholas Wolterstorff says this, he had Nicholas Wolterstorff lost his 20 years. He was his son who was in his 20s in a mountain climbing accident and wrote a little book. I'd recommend it. It's called The Lament of a Son or For a Son. And this is what he says there. He says, The Stoics of antiquity said, Be calm. Disengage yourself. Neither laugh nor weep. Jesus says, Be open to the wounds of the world. Mourn humanity's mourning. Weep over humanity's mourning. Be wounded by humanity's wounds. Be in agony over humanity's agony. But do so in good cheer, that a day of peace is coming." And so here we see Job, he weeps, he mourns, but he worships. Yes, we need to recover this into the church. A worshiping in the midst of grief, not hiding the grief, but worshiping God through that. Now, of course, we as readers, we got to see the behind the scene of this interaction with God and Satan. And Job doesn't get to see it. And yet we learn some things knowing that previous discussion and seeing how Job responds here. We learn some things about God and suffering and evil in the world and some biblical principles that we must keep intact as we think about these things. Number one, God is ultimately in control. God is ultimately in control. Job is able to say correctly according to verse 22, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. I once was praying. We had a dear friend of mine in my church who lost his 19-year-old daughter in a car accident several years ago. And I was, of course, it was Saturday night. I got word early Sunday morning and then I was preaching. But in the pastoral prayer, It wasn't planned, I didn't have anything written, but I said, I began to pray these words, Lord, we know you are good, we don't understand this, but you give and you take away. Like I said, it wasn't planned, but this came to me and then we preached the sermon and someone came to me afterwards, met me at the door and was furious. He said, how could you say that? And of course, I didn't know. I had preached the whole sermon. That was just the pastoral prayer. And I said, I'm sorry, what are you speaking of? And he said, how could you say that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away? And I said, I was just quoting Scripture. I was quoting Job. And he said, well, Job got it wrong. And I said, well, let's look at verse 22. And all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. God is ultimately in control. Number two, God is not the author or doer of evil. These are often in tension in our mind and I understand that, but clearly this is biblical. Here we see Satan is the one who carries these evil things out. So God is ultimately in control. God is not the author or doer of evil. And number three, God, we need to add this, God does allow evil to exist in the world. Satan can only do here what he is allowed to do by God. He must seek God's permission. We've seen that from behind the scenes. But through all of this, all that's happened, we see here, Job worships God. And then the next scene in this story is that it shifts back to behind the scenes. Again, we're getting to see this, where Satan comes back to God. And he says, yes, Job continues to worship you, but you didn't let me touch his health. Let me touch his health. Then he will deny you. And so God allows Satan to attack Job's health, and we see This in chapter 2, Job, flip there with me, chapter 2, verse 7. So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes. Then his wife said to him, Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die. I was sharing with a class on Wednesday that my brother has recently gone through quite an ordeal, and he was at the brink of death, and we were discussing this passage, and my brother still had his sense of humor. And we were talking about these verses, and he said, you know, this is the only line in the whole book of Job that's given to his wife. Look what it says. Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die. What a legacy to leave. She apparently did not have the gift of encouragement. Why don't you just die? I'm tired of your whining. Verse 10, But he said to her, You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this, Job did not sin with his lips." There's a repetition here. It's as if the author, i.e., God, doesn't want us to miss this point. Job did not sin by saying this. God wants us to understand that ultimately, He is sovereign. Ultimately, He is in control. We see from Job's response to his wife, here is a man who hasn't all of a sudden entered into suffering and grief and hasn't thought deeply about it. We see a man here who has thought deeply even when life was good, even when things were going his way. Here is a man who has thought deeply about suffering and God. and His response when it would come. In fact, if you just look ahead into the next chapter there, Job says in chapter 3, verse 25, For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. In other words, when life was well, he had dreaded this day. He had feared this day would come where those things you love would be taken away. He has thought through this issue. He hasn't waited until suffering hit him. He thought it through. He prepared himself for that day because it will come for each of us. The only way it will not come for you is if you die young. You will experience the loss of friends and family. There will be, for some of you, for some of us, months and even years of deep sickness, bad things will happen to us. The question is, will we be prepared? Will we be able to answer in the way Job has answered? And in most of the book of Job, and this is why Job is sometimes not touched in sermons, is a back and forth between Job and his friends. And Job has some pretty rotten friends. But I want to say this. It wasn't as if Job's friends meant to be rotten. It wasn't that they meant to be bad friends. It was that they had bad theology. Yes, your theology can dictate what type of friends you are. And they, of course, in these back and forth, and I'm going to give a very brief explanation of what their theology was here in just a second, but they say lots of true things as well. So it wasn't as if they didn't know anything of the things of God, they did. But they got off track, and therefore they had bad theology, and therefore their counsel was poor. Job's friend, affirmed what is called, at least what we call today, a strict retribution principle. Here's how the strict retribution principle works out. If you do something wrong, you will get paid back for that wrong in this life. I used to think of this as I was younger. I don't know why. I don't know why I did, but I would stump my toe. I would hurt myself and I began to think, what did I do earlier today to deserve this? If you're suffering, therefore some specific sin that you've committed against God is attached to that. It equals out in this life. Now one of the things we see in this narrative is that at the end of the book, Job's friends get the stiffest rebuke from God. They tried, they were trying to put God in this box. And say, this is how God reacts in some kind of mathematical formula, one plus one equals this is how he's going to act. And so they accused Job throughout of throughout these discourses and this interaction, they accused Job of having sin. And yet they didn't see it before, but it must have been secret sin. And they're relenting. And they're relenting, all trying to help. You just need to repent, Job. Just repent of your sin. And yet Job throughout maintains his integrity. A great example of this is in chapter 23. Look with me there. Starting in verse one, then Job answered and said. Today, also, my complaint is bitter. My hand is heavy on account of my groaning. Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat. He's talking about God. I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know what he would answer me and answer what he would say to me. Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No, he would pay attention to me. There an upright man could argue with Him, and I would be acquitted forever by my judge." Now, Job is speaking this way because he knows that he hasn't done anything worse than his friends to deserve all this suffering and pain that has come upon him. He denies the retribution principle in the way they're articulating it. He was a good man, relatively speaking. He's not claiming to be perfect. But he's saying, listen, I've done nothing more than you men to deserve this. And now he's saying here, and what he echoes throughout these interactions with his friends is he's saying, listen, I would lay my case before God and I would be vindicated. Come down, God, come and let's have this out. And then what's surprising, as you read the book, is God does come down. God does come down into His mercy. He did not owe Job an explanation. And in fact, what He offers isn't quite an explanation. But in His mercy, He condescends and He comes and He speaks to Job. Chapter 38. Sometimes as we read these words from God, He can seem harsh, but we must remember that it's out of His mercy He is speaking and coming to Job. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge, dressed for action like a man? I will question you and you make it known to me. In other words, You had questions for me, now I will question you. I will answer you by asking you a question. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurement? Surely you know. Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone? When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. And God goes on. He goes on like this for four chapters. God answers Job by not answering Job. It's the best non-answer in the Bible. Where were you when I made the world? What knowledge do you have of the things of God? Do you have the mind of God? Where were you when I made it all? Of course, the answer is Job wasn't around and neither were we. Of course, Job doesn't have the mind of God and neither do we. There is a rebuke in this for Job. Yes, he was righteous in what he did. God's not claiming that the retribution principle here, he's not saying that Job really did have some secret sin and that's why he did this and not to his other friends. It's not what he's saying this, but there is a rebuke here for Job. This is how Don Carson puts it. The reason he, speaking of God, calls Job on the carpet is not because of Job's justification of himself, not his defense of his self, but because of Job's willingness to condemn God in order to justify himself. It's not his justification of himself, but his willingness to condemn God to justify himself. Notice what God doesn't do here is explain all of the whys to Job. He's not giving all the whys and all the answers that Job has sought. Oftentimes, that's what we want. God, tell me exactly why this happened, and if you do that, I'll be okay. If it's logical to me, if I can understand it. But that is not God's promise to us, and it's not what He gave Job here. Look with me in chapter 40. We see in this exchange, actually, Job gets to respond to God in the middle of God's speech. Chapter 40, verse 1, And the Lord said to Job, Tell a fault finder, contend with the Almighty. He who argues with God, let him answer it. So here we have in the middle of God's speech, God calls on Job to answer. And all of a sudden, surprisingly, Job no longer wants to argue. Verse 3, Then Job answered the Lord and said, Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I've spoken once and I will not answer twice, but I will proceed no further." In other words, Job says, God, you are God and I'm not. What we humans want, what I desperately want, Naturally, at least what I think I want is to have a God's eye view. I want to see it all. I want to know all. I want to know why this is happening to me now. Don't make me wait. We want to be able to understand all the reasons. Some will even reject God on this basis. I can't understand why this happens. Therefore, God must not exist. But is that really a reason to reject God? In fact, believing in the God of the Bible means believing in a God who is infinitely wiser and whose ways are beyond our understanding. If you reject God because you can't understand what He's doing, then you need to understand this this morning. You are rejecting an imaginary God. Certainly not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible promises us that many times we won't understand. Tim Keller puts it like this. Just because you can't see or imagine a good reason why God might allow something to happen doesn't mean there can't be one. Again, we see lurking with this supposed hard-nosed skepticism an enormous faith in one's own cognitive faculties. If our minds can't plumb the depths of the universe for good answers to suffering, well, then there can't be any. This is blind faith of a high order. And then we see Job respond to God. Remember, God comes to Job, doesn't give him a direct answer, but says, this is who I am. Remember who I am. And then Job responds. Look at chapter 42. Then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?" In that first part of verse 3 there, Job is actually repeating a question that the Lord has asked. The ESV, I believe, puts it with little single quotation marks to signify that. But he's repeating what God has said, and now Job is going to respond to that, the end of verse 3. Therefore, I have uttered what I do not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know." And then again in verse four, he's repeating something that God had said to him. Signified by the quotation marks, here I will speak, I will question you and you make it known to me. And then Job responds, five and six, and he responds here as a changed man. Look at 5 and 6. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. Through all the suffering, not only has Job understood now that God's reasons are often beyond him, He has grown though, even though he now accepts that he can't understand everything and all the reasons why, but now he has grown in the knowledge of God through his suffering. That sounds like a paradox, but it's not. Here is a man who has had everything taken away, but he bows his knees because through his suffering he has seen God more. He hasn't understood all the whys, but God has used these circumstances to shape Job. He comes out of this thinking less of himself and more of God, to the glory of God. He comes out of his trials loving God more deeply. So I ask you this morning, why do you serve God? Do you serve Him to get His stuff? Do you serve Him so He will keep you safe and healthy and make things go generally in the way you want them to go? Or do you simply serve Him because He is God and you delight in Him? And all you ask is more of Him. The way we can tell how we would truthfully answer these questions is how we respond when suffering does hit. Do you shake your fist at God, or do you bow the knee to God? We glorify God in our suffering when we follow the path of Job. Not as Stoics. I'm not saying I didn't really care about that anyway. I'm too religious to weep. No, but that we mourn and we weep, but we weep and we mourn as those with hope. And we weep and we mourn as those who trust a sovereign God who has His ways that we can't fully understand. Job grew in this. Job was in a great position to see, a really great position to see this as the book ends. But we as Christians are in even a better position to see this. My youngest son is six months old and we When you're, as most all of you know, you go through these shots, series of shots that you have to take them. Me and my wife kind of fight over who's going to have to do it. We don't want to take him there and see him cry. And I was thinking about it the other day as we were talking about this, and I know that a six-month-old can't logically work this out like we do, but I could just imagine what he's thinking as we take him to the pediatrician. You go to the pediatrician, there's clowns on the wall, and there's bright colors, and young nurses, they're all smiling. Oh, he's so cute! And we take him to the back, and he's smiling, and then that nice, cute nurse takes out the big needle. And he's looking at the needle, and he's looking at us, and he's saying, I could imagine, certainly not, but I would be imagining, surely not, This is my mom. She feeds me. And my daddy throws me in the air all the time and I like it so much. They love me. I know they love me. And then sure enough, we give them the shots. Or we're standing back as the nurse gives them the shot. It must be like that sometimes with us and God. Now, my son surely can't. If he can think this out, when he's at the age, he can think this out. He might not understand why we're giving the shot, but he should know that he can trust us. He can trust us. He can trust his mom. He can trust his dad. And what we need is a lot like what my son needs and a lot like what children need. Not necessarily how the shot works and what's going on there. I don't even know that. But what we need to know is this God can be trusted. And when we look to the cross of Christ, we see a God who can be trusted. Because He's not sitting back and saying, oh poor humans, but this God has entered into the world to suffer for us and with us. This is a God who loves us despite our sin. Despite our rebellion. And so, He came and entered into the world The Son of God died for our sins. He loved us so much. So while we don't know the whys, what we do know is this God can be trusted. The book of Job ends in a way that some people don't like. I'm going to tie things up here. It ends in a way some people criticize the book for. Not normally Christians, but critics of the Bible. And it ends with Job getting all of his stuff restored. In fact, we see a summary statement there in Job 42.10. And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. And the critics say, well, Job got all his stuff back anyway. This isn't reality. This isn't what I see in the world. This is a man who gets twice as much back. That's not how it normally ends. Three things to close with that we need to remember in light of that and in light of this closing. Number one, Joe's still suffered immensely. I mean, none of you would dare say, well, I lost my first four children and now I have four more, so it's OK. No, that would affect you the rest of your life. Yeah, you would rejoice in your four children, but you would still be mourning and weeping and be affected by the loss of your other four children. So in some sense, this critique doesn't even match reality itself. Number two, Job, still at the end here, doesn't know why all of this happened. He still doesn't know why. It's not as if we've gotten to the end and God says, okay, now let me explain everything. That was a good exercise. No, he still must trust in a God that he doesn't know fully why he did the things he did. And finally, the end of Job reminds us, in the Old Testament kind of way, that ultimately God will make all things right. That because, and we certainly as Christians And as we're reminded of the cross, we know that He will make all things right, and it is guaranteed He will be, because His Son has died for us on the cross to redeem all things. And so, yes, in this life we mourn and we cry out to God, but we are reminded that there is a day coming when He will make all things right. There will be no cries of injustice because God will bring justice. He will make it right. And that better day is coming. And so as we walk through suffering, we also walk through suffering looking to the cross, but then looking beyond that to a day when Christ returns. And we pray, come Lord Jesus. And let us pray now. Lord, that is our prayer. Lord, we pray we would run to the cross when suffering comes. We would run to the cross as we prepare for suffering to come. Lord, I pray that Jefferson Park Baptist Church would be a place where people are ready for the real world, that we would not In any way, seek out pain and suffering, but we would be prepared for that day. I pray for this church that it would be prepared to glorify You to a lost and dying world when suffering hits. I pray that our churches, my church back home and the church here would be A place where we mourn and we weep as brothers and sisters for each other when trials come. Lord, I pray that we would be a people who would live now looking for that better day that is coming. And thanking You for Christ who has secured that day. And we pray all this in Christ's name, Amen.