Job 5:6-7, 17-26/Romans 8:14-23/St Matthew 11:25-30
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
We misunderstand Job. Job suffers because God is punishing him, or teaching him a lesson, or humbling him, or so we think. We’re not sure. When we suffer, when our loved ones suffer, we turn to the book of Job. But if we misunderstand Job’s suffering, we will misunderstand our suffering as well; and the suffering of our loved ones. We will miss the point of the book.
Job’s suffering is nothing short of horrendous. His ten children are killed, all his possessions are stolen or destroyed, and Job himself is afflicted with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. He is left with nothing and no one, sitting on the ash heap. On top of that, Job’s four friends spend the better part of the book torturing him with their subtle, and not-so-subtle accusations.
Eliphaz (who speaks the words of our text) thinks where there is smoke their is fire. For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground. He believes Job is suffering for some reason. That he has does something to deserve his suffering. We assume he has.
Eliphaz is wrong. And so are we. He presumes that there is a reason for Job’s suffering; that it is just. It is not. Job’s suffering is not his fault. He suffers neither on account of his sins nor are they the cause of his agony.
The same is true of Carol. Her suffering was nothing short of horrendous. She was moved out of her home, then out of her housing. She grieved over her family, her grandchildren. Her body and her mind suffered terrible agony. On one occasion Carol expressed to me that she felt as if she were being wrung out, wrenched and twisted, both physically and mentally.
Carol’s suffering was not her fault. She suffered neither on account of her sins nor were they the cause of her misery.
Does this mean that Carol was sinless? Was Job? Hardly. He knew his sin and he confessed it. God declared him blameless and upright, one who fears God and turns away from evil (Job 1:1). He asserts his innocence. And in the end, his assertion is vindicated. In the end God rebukes not Job, but Job’s friends, Eliphaz and his two companions.
Carol likewise knew her sin. She confessed herself a poor, miserable sinner desperately in need of our Lord’s mercy and redemption. The words of the Psalm were her prayer as well: The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!” (Ps 116:3-4).
And though she was isolated in her hospital room, Carol was not alone. She learned from Job to suffer innocently. Her faith did not waiver, in spite of the weakness of her flesh and the assaults of the devil. And as she prayed the Psalms, Christ prayed with and for her. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said of the psalms of lament, that, “Spread out before us here is the anguish of the entire Christian community throughout all time, as Jesus Christ alone has wholly experienced it. Because [suffering] happens with God’s will, indeed because God alone knows it completely and better than we ourselves, therefore only God can help. But then, all our questions must also again and again storm directly against God” (Prayerbook of the Bible, 169).
This is what St Paul means when he says that God subjected creation to futility. He did so in hope. God allowed Satan to afflict Job. He did so to strengthen Job’s faith. He took everything away from Job so that Job would continue to trust in Him. God does not use Job to prove something to Satan. That is Satan’s game; not God’s. God uses Satan to prove Himself to Job. Job is not God’s pawn; Satan is.
And so with Carol. Her faithfulness to God in the midst of her suffering is remarkable. More so, though, is God’s faithfulness to her. Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple. He has delivered Carol’s soul from death, her eyes from tears, her feet from stumbling. She walks before the Lord in the land of the living. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints (Ps 116:15).
Why? Precisely because Job’s story is about Jesus. And so is Carol’s. Theirs is the suffering of the innocent, the agony of the blameless and upright at the hand of God. Theirs, properly understood, is the Cross of Christ.
Satan did his worst to innocent, blameless, upright Job. Satan does worse to Jesus on the Cross, worse than he ever did to Job. But at the Cross, Satan isn’t Jesus’ real problem; God, His Father is. Satan, false friends, real enemies, Pilate, Herod, the Jewish authorities, the Roman soldiers - God uses them all against His Son. Job was not being punished. He is innocent. But Jesus is being punished, even though - in fact, because - He truly is innocent. Jesus suffer all this from God for us. For Carol.
Job shows us what the Cross looks like in the life of those whom God has declared innocent, blameless, and upright on account of Jesus. Through her Baptism into the Son, Carol received adoption into the Son. She received the Spirit of God, by whom she cried out, “Abba! Father!” She is an heir. An heir of God and fellow heir with Christ. She has suffered with Him. She is now glorified with Him.
Was she sinless? No. But her suffering was not punishment for her sin. It could not be. Jesus already suffered the punishment for all her sin. And she has been declared innocent for Jesus sake. The same is true of you, by faith.
And the sufferings of this present time, this temporal time, are not worth comparing to the glory that is now hers in Christ, which shall be revealed on the Last Day.
The Father hid these things from the wise and understanding. They were hidden from Job. We only know them as readers of the book. Job did not. We do not know the reasons for Carol’s suffering. But we do know the mercy and faithfulness of God. His gracious will was to put His Son to death for Carol. He is her Redeemer, even as Job confessed. He lives. And because He lives, Carol also lives.
In this present time He laid upon her His yoke. And Christ’s yoke is sweet, His burden is light. How did Carol remain steadfast? Her faith unwavering? “When sin has been forgiven and the conscience has been liberated from the burden and sting of sin, then a Christian can bear everything easily. Because everything within is sweet and pleasant, she willingly does and suffers everything” (AE 26:133).
Her suffering is now ended. She rests from her labors in the Sabbath peace brought by Christ’s own suffering, death, and resurrection for her. In faithfulness and love we shall place her remains in God’s acre, as we wait eagerly the redemption of our bodies.
For God the Father who created her body; God the Son who redeemed her body by His Blood; God the Holy Spirit who sanctified her body to be His temple, shall keep her remains until the resurrection of all flesh. Her eye shall behold Him, her dear Redeemer, and not another.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
We misunderstand Job. Job suffers because God is punishing him, or teaching him a lesson, or humbling him, or so we think. We’re not sure. When we suffer, when our loved ones suffer, we turn to the book of Job. But if we misunderstand Job’s suffering, we will misunderstand our suffering as well; and the suffering of our loved ones. We will miss the point of the book.
Job’s suffering is nothing short of horrendous. His ten children are killed, all his possessions are stolen or destroyed, and Job himself is afflicted with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. He is left with nothing and no one, sitting on the ash heap. On top of that, Job’s four friends spend the better part of the book torturing him with their subtle, and not-so-subtle accusations.
Eliphaz (who speaks the words of our text) thinks where there is smoke their is fire. For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground. He believes Job is suffering for some reason. That he has does something to deserve his suffering. We assume he has.
Eliphaz is wrong. And so are we. He presumes that there is a reason for Job’s suffering; that it is just. It is not. Job’s suffering is not his fault. He suffers neither on account of his sins nor are they the cause of his agony.
The same is true of Carol. Her suffering was nothing short of horrendous. She was moved out of her home, then out of her housing. She grieved over her family, her grandchildren. Her body and her mind suffered terrible agony. On one occasion Carol expressed to me that she felt as if she were being wrung out, wrenched and twisted, both physically and mentally.
Carol’s suffering was not her fault. She suffered neither on account of her sins nor were they the cause of her misery.
Does this mean that Carol was sinless? Was Job? Hardly. He knew his sin and he confessed it. God declared him blameless and upright, one who fears God and turns away from evil (Job 1:1). He asserts his innocence. And in the end, his assertion is vindicated. In the end God rebukes not Job, but Job’s friends, Eliphaz and his two companions.
Carol likewise knew her sin. She confessed herself a poor, miserable sinner desperately in need of our Lord’s mercy and redemption. The words of the Psalm were her prayer as well: The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!” (Ps 116:3-4).
And though she was isolated in her hospital room, Carol was not alone. She learned from Job to suffer innocently. Her faith did not waiver, in spite of the weakness of her flesh and the assaults of the devil. And as she prayed the Psalms, Christ prayed with and for her. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said of the psalms of lament, that, “Spread out before us here is the anguish of the entire Christian community throughout all time, as Jesus Christ alone has wholly experienced it. Because [suffering] happens with God’s will, indeed because God alone knows it completely and better than we ourselves, therefore only God can help. But then, all our questions must also again and again storm directly against God” (Prayerbook of the Bible, 169).
This is what St Paul means when he says that God subjected creation to futility. He did so in hope. God allowed Satan to afflict Job. He did so to strengthen Job’s faith. He took everything away from Job so that Job would continue to trust in Him. God does not use Job to prove something to Satan. That is Satan’s game; not God’s. God uses Satan to prove Himself to Job. Job is not God’s pawn; Satan is.
And so with Carol. Her faithfulness to God in the midst of her suffering is remarkable. More so, though, is God’s faithfulness to her. Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple. He has delivered Carol’s soul from death, her eyes from tears, her feet from stumbling. She walks before the Lord in the land of the living. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints (Ps 116:15).
Why? Precisely because Job’s story is about Jesus. And so is Carol’s. Theirs is the suffering of the innocent, the agony of the blameless and upright at the hand of God. Theirs, properly understood, is the Cross of Christ.
Satan did his worst to innocent, blameless, upright Job. Satan does worse to Jesus on the Cross, worse than he ever did to Job. But at the Cross, Satan isn’t Jesus’ real problem; God, His Father is. Satan, false friends, real enemies, Pilate, Herod, the Jewish authorities, the Roman soldiers - God uses them all against His Son. Job was not being punished. He is innocent. But Jesus is being punished, even though - in fact, because - He truly is innocent. Jesus suffer all this from God for us. For Carol.
Job shows us what the Cross looks like in the life of those whom God has declared innocent, blameless, and upright on account of Jesus. Through her Baptism into the Son, Carol received adoption into the Son. She received the Spirit of God, by whom she cried out, “Abba! Father!” She is an heir. An heir of God and fellow heir with Christ. She has suffered with Him. She is now glorified with Him.
Was she sinless? No. But her suffering was not punishment for her sin. It could not be. Jesus already suffered the punishment for all her sin. And she has been declared innocent for Jesus sake. The same is true of you, by faith.
And the sufferings of this present time, this temporal time, are not worth comparing to the glory that is now hers in Christ, which shall be revealed on the Last Day.
The Father hid these things from the wise and understanding. They were hidden from Job. We only know them as readers of the book. Job did not. We do not know the reasons for Carol’s suffering. But we do know the mercy and faithfulness of God. His gracious will was to put His Son to death for Carol. He is her Redeemer, even as Job confessed. He lives. And because He lives, Carol also lives.
In this present time He laid upon her His yoke. And Christ’s yoke is sweet, His burden is light. How did Carol remain steadfast? Her faith unwavering? “When sin has been forgiven and the conscience has been liberated from the burden and sting of sin, then a Christian can bear everything easily. Because everything within is sweet and pleasant, she willingly does and suffers everything” (AE 26:133).
Her suffering is now ended. She rests from her labors in the Sabbath peace brought by Christ’s own suffering, death, and resurrection for her. In faithfulness and love we shall place her remains in God’s acre, as we wait eagerly the redemption of our bodies.
For God the Father who created her body; God the Son who redeemed her body by His Blood; God the Holy Spirit who sanctified her body to be His temple, shall keep her remains until the resurrection of all flesh. Her eye shall behold Him, her dear Redeemer, and not another.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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