What is Job Clinging to?

Well, thank you so much, Neil. Folks, let me encourage you to have those chapters open in front of you as we try and take in the breadth of these four wonderful chapters of Scripture.

These honest, these raw, but yet these glorious chapters of God's Word.

And let me try and give us a picture that I hope we can kind of carry with us as we journey through these chapters today to help us see the kind of key thing I think that's going on.

You know, something that we often do with the kids when we're on holiday by the seaside is we get up early in the morning when the tide is out and we go crabbing.

Right. Ever been crabbing? Yeah. You go in the rock pools and you try and find some stuff.

But if you're lucky, you'll see a crab. If you're fortunate enough, you might see some sea enemies.

They're always pretty cool to see or some sea urchins. We don't see an awful lot, if I'm honest, where sometimes we go.

It's more the expectation that you might find something. But I tell you, without fail, what we see hundreds and hundreds of every time we go down to the rocks.

We see hundreds of limpets.

You've had that experience of finding a limpet, probably hit your foot before you touched it.

Hundreds and hundreds of limpets. You know these little guys.

OK. Unimpressive. Unspectacular.

And as far as I can see, I'm no mollusk expert, but as far as I can see, limpets are good at one thing and one thing only in life.

OK. They're good at clinging.

That's all they do, isn't it? They just cling.

And come calm, come rain or come raging storm.

These little guys cling.

That's all they do. They cling.

And what we're going to hear from Job today, I think, really simply, is what he is clinging to.

Now, remember the story so far.

God has allowed Satan in this book of Job, this believer.

God has allowed Satan to take everything from him.

Isn't he? His children, his possessions, his health.

And all of it is in an attempt to get this limpet dislodged from his trust in God.

So what this has been all about, we've been privy to that as the readers in the opening chapters.

Remember that we are the, I think we have to see ourselves as the sinners in the stalls watching this happen.

OK, this is what we've been privy to, that Satan wants to make Job curse God to his face.

Expose Job as a kind of prosperity gospel guy.

He doesn't really want you, God. He just wants your stuff.

So if you take the stuff away from him, it will expose the fact that he didn't really love you.

OK, and yet this man Job, in the height of the storm, as the waves have come painfully crashing one upon another through his pains and his questions that we've journeyed through,

what we're going to see today is him tell us what he's clinging to.

In other words, we're going to see him tell us where his hope is.

Where his hope is.

And I guess I want us to see straight off the bat that his hope isn't in the place that we might expect.

OK, I remember last year, not long after we went into lockdown, watching the news.

And there was a clip of a poster that someone had put up in town.

And it simply said, believe that this will pass.

OK, don't know if you saw that in the news.

Believe that this will pass.

That's what the poster said.

In other words, keep going.

Let's keep going, believing that this is going to get better.

You know, and by God's common grace to us as a nation, it looks like things are getting better.

Do well to remember that for many people around the world, countless millions, it's not.

But in our nation, it seems to be getting better.

I'm so glad to have my second vaccine the other day.

God's common grace to us.

But I remember at the time, reading that poster and thinking to myself,

but what if it doesn't?

What if it doesn't?

You know, we know, don't we, that life isn't as simple as that.

I mean, friends, what of our struggles with mental health?

What if they remain a constant battle for us on and off, on and off for the rest of our days?

What if the pain of seeing a loved one suffer, the emotional scars that it leaves in us,

what if they never really fully heal?

What if the difficulties of parenting and the emotional tiredness of it all

and the relational tensions in our families remain a persistent challenge

day after day after day, year after year?

What if the job that you hoped would come to fruition,

the job that you poured yourself into trying to get

with all the hopes and the dreams and ambitions that were tied up with it,

what if that never comes to pass?

What if things don't get better?

The thing for us to see today is that Job's hope is not in things getting better.

Job's hope, we're going to see it today.

And indeed, this is right at the heart of the good news of Christianity,

is that there is a better hope for this life,

that there is a more sure and a more steadfast hope for this life,

that God himself has made a way to happen.

And it's one that he invites us as people, particularly as believers,

to come and embrace.

I love it that God in the Psalms is described as a safe refuge in times of trouble.

And Job is going to testify to that.

So come with me to Job chapter 16 and let's take our seats again

Job 16 · chapter mention

as the sinners in the stalls,

as this man Job once again takes centre stage.

Now, a good question to ask ourselves as we try and take in the breadth of these chapters

and everything that they contain,

is to ask ourselves, why are they here?

Why are they here?

Here's what I want us to do in the time that we have remaining.

As a congregation this morning,

I want us just to think about three reasons why they are here.

Okay, ready for this?

Here's number one.

I take it that they are here firstly to expose the folly of Job's friend.

Because Bildad, do you see him?

He's back on the scene.

And we met him last week and here he is again,

offering his opinion as to why Job is suffering.

We're back in at chapter 18.

You know, it was Rebecca McLaughlin who said,

she's a Christian author,

she said, sometimes we love people best by acknowledging that we don't understand.

You feel the love in that, the warmth in that statement?

Sometimes we love people best by acknowledging that we don't understand.

Well, that's not the approach that Job's friends have taken, is it?

See what Job calls them at verse 2 of chapter 16.

He calls them miserable comforters.

Do you see it?

Miserable comforters.

And you feel his pain in that phrase, don't you?

Guys, you're not helping.

You've not helped.

Through my tear-filled, question-ridden, physically sore, sleepless nights,

and restless days that he talks about there at verse 16.

Job once again declares his innocence in the sight of God.

Verse 17.

And he's saying to his friends,

I won't find a sensible one among you.

Okay, that's why we're jumping around a little bit today,

but it's the kind of breadth of it to help us see it.

Verse 10 of chapter 17.

I won't find a sensible one among you.

You're not helped.

You're not helped.

And so Job has said this,

you're miserable comforters, you've not helped.

I'm innocent in God's sight.

And yet Bildad, having heard what Job has just said, he doesn't agree.

He doesn't agree.

And you can hear his frustration come across as he launches into his response at chapter 18.

He says, why are we counted as cattle in your sight?

Verse 3.

In other words, why do you treat us like we're stupid?

You know, listening to what we have to say,

because I think the thing we need to understand is that in Bildad's mind,

the world works in straight lines.

Okay, have you ever look at a map of the city centers of places like Glasgow and New York?

Okay, it's why they're filming that film, aren't they, in Glasgow?

Because it's a lot cheaper than doing it in New York,

but you still get the same thing.

What do you get?

You get grids.

You get grids, don't you?

This street goes straight to that street.

This lane intersects with that lane at that point.

Everything is neat and in straight lines.

That's why I love these kind of places.

It appeals to my sense of neat and order.

But in Bildad's mind, that's how he sees the world.

Straight lines.

And we have to say that it is largely true, of course, isn't it, of the world that God has made,

that there is order.

He sovereignly governs all things.

But, you see, in Bildad's mind, that order, that straight lines means that the law of cause and effect,

action and consequence is directly in play.

You behave good.

You get reward.

But if you go down sin street, at some point you are going to intersect with suffering street.

It's his world for you.

It's his world for you, isn't it?

Sin leads to suffering.

And so surely in this neat and ordered world that God has made, that that is what explains Job's predicament.

And you see him express it in verse 3.

In the language he uses, the similes, the metaphors.

He says, God deals with the wicked like a man putting out a light.

Again, just see that snuffed out.

Like one who set a trap for them.

You see his conclusion at verse 21.

What he effectively says, Job, what's happening to you?

It just goes to show that really you don't know God.

Which is such an insensitive thing to say, isn't it?

Now let me give you two gaping gaps in Bildad's view of the world.

And particularly his understanding of how God works.

Firstly, friends, there is no room for grace in Bildad's view of the world.

No room for grace.

The thought that this God, because of who he is, out of his mercy, he wouldn't treat us as we deserve.

In my experience of doing the Christianity Explored course, I've done several here in my time,

that the most hotly debated evening is not the evening on sin and judgment.

The most hotly contested evening is the evening when we look at grace.

Every time.

The notion that we don't need to do anything to be right with God,

except to trust wholly in Jesus and on his work on the cross for us.

People instinctively hear that and say, that cannot be right.

I cannot be right.

Surely we must have to do something to be right with God.

Surely he looks at the good deeds.

Surely we're better than that person.

That means we're more qualified.

I always find that when people hear what I do for a job,

they instinctively, more often than not,

they start talking about the good things that they do in life.

The church that they grew up in, the Sunday school that they attended,

the fact that they loved the Boys Brigade,

the fact that their community does a food bank,

the fact that they're good and lawful citizens trying to do their bit.

It's obviously deeply ingrained in us, friends.

We're all people who like to think of the world in straight lines,

that we can earn our salvation.

We can be right in God's eyes to the things that we do.

That's how Bildad sees the world.

There's no room for grace in his understanding of who the Lord is.

And secondly, he sees no reason and no sense for Job to be waiting and trusting as a believer.

The thought that God might have bigger purposes here in this story for his glory.

Of course, the ones that earlier on in the book we became privy to is the reader

and that are working themselves out through Job's suffering.

All of that, that waiting and trusting in the Lord.

Bildad's thinking, Job, you're wasting your time.

You're wasting your time.

No room for grace and no room for waiting in the world,

the way that Bildad sees the world.

And of course, friends, grace and waiting on the Lord,

aren't they the two wonderful truths of the Christian life?

The words of the old hymn by William Cowper, sung by believers down the generations.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace.

Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face.

I take it these chapters are here firstly to expose the folly of his friend.

And I take it secondly there here to help us enter the depths of his pain.

So as we enter chapter 19, what would appear to be true

is that because of what Bildad has said and how he has said it,

things have taken a turn for the worse for Job.

He's made it worse.

And I take it in our relationships with one another, friends,

as a lesson there that we need to strive with great care,

not just with our word choice, but our word tone as well,

as we seek to help one another.

Words that come from our mouths that build up and don't tear down.

Words that come from our lips that encourage and don't dishearten.

Words of truth.

Because look at what Job says, verse 1,

How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with your words?

There's the effect that Bildad's words have had on Job.

And Job tells us, doesn't he, how he's suffering.

And again, we plunge ourselves into the pool of his pain

to see how he's suffering.

He's suffering physically.

Verse 20,

My bones cling to my skin.

Hear him describe it.

Perhaps him describing just how deep and painful the sores in his body have gone.

Or it might just be him telling us how malnourished he is.

He's thin.

He's not eating right.

He's not sleeping.

It has an effect, doesn't it, on your body.

He's suffering physically.

He's suffering mentally.

Verse 7,

Hear his cry.

Even when I cry out, talking to God,

there is no answer.

There is no justice.

I always remember my friend Wayne Sutton,

who's a pastor down at Crubber's Christian Centre.

He always talked about openly,

and some of you might remember this from our weekend away a few years ago,

talked about his mental,

what he called a breakdown a number of years ago.

And he talked about how all he could do for that time

was go into a room at the front of his house

and just stare out the window at the Pentland Hills.

That's all he could do.

And just pray.

As he mentally suffered.

Something of that isn't there in what Job is going through.

He's suffering physically.

He's suffering mentally.

He's suffering socially.

And I want you to see this one.

Particularly verse 13.

What does he say?

He says,

My family are far from me.

And hear what he's describing.

Verse 14.

My friends have failed me.

And in verse 19.

Even my closest friends,

even my most intimate friends have turned away from me.

And what he's doing is he's describing

the spiraling sense of isolation and loneliness that he's feeling.

He's suffering.

And we have to enter the depths of his pain.

And I take it, friends,

that as he wants these words to be recorded,

we see that later in chapter 19,

I take it that as we read this,

that we have to understand that there will be at times,

there will be and there can be,

these kind of things that are the experience of the Christian believer.

Maybe that's you this morning.

Maybe you are struggling physically.

Maybe it is you're struggling mentally.

Maybe you are struggling emotionally.

Maybe you are struggling socially.

And I'd encourage you,

if that is you today,

please do reach out.

Please do reach out.

The wonderful thing that God has done

in giving us as a church community

to walk through life together.

And maybe off the back of that,

you deeply resonate with what Job is saying here.

And particularly you relate to what Job says at verse 21.

What does Job so desperately want?

For someone to have pity on him,

do you see?

He doesn't need his friends' lectures.

He needs his friends' love.

He needs their presence.

He needs their prayers.

He needs their sympathy.

He needs their tears of affection.

He doesn't need lectures.

He needs the love of his friends.

And I take it we're challenged at this point

to think about the way that we can show

love and compassion to one another

as a church family.

Friends, think about it right now.

Who do you know that needs love and support right now?

Maybe you are privy to something.

Who can we show love and support to right now?

You know, I was reading a book

about the human body the other day,

one of the kids.

And I know there's doctors here today

who I'm sure will know much about more than this than me.

But this is my layman's understanding of it, right?

We're reading this book

and the author's talking about

how sometimes you have a cut in your skin.

You ever wondered how scab forms?

Right?

What happens is your body,

when the cut comes,

your body works extra hard

to pump blood to that part of your body

that's suffering.

And that's why the scab develops

to shield it and protect it from the outside.

So what your body does

when something's hurting,

just vroomf,

we're sending blood.

You don't want to be that kind of

Christ-centered community.

Something's hurting,

somebody's hurting in the body,

vroomf,

we're sending people,

we're there.

We want to help,

we want to love.

We're present.

We care.

And let me just give you

one holiday reflection.

You know,

from reading Luke's gospel.

Try and do this on holiday

every time I go away on holiday.

Just take a book of the Bible

and just immerse myself

in it devotionally.

Right?

So going through Luke's gospel.

And friends,

I don't think I've ever noticed

just how many times

Luke records Jesus

having what on people?

Pity.

The word compassion.

Right?

Let's give me a few of these.

The story of the widow

losing her son,

Luke 7.

Right?

None of these are easy.

Enter into the people's pains

as you read about them

in the gospel.

The widow loses her son.

Jesus has what on her?

His compassion.

He tells a parable

of the Good Samaritan,

Luke chapter 10.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

Not just a story

about how we can be

better people.

Of course,

that is part of it.

But it's also in the context

him describing

what he is going to do

as the ultimate Good Samaritan.

And what happens?

There's a man

at the side of the road.

What does the Samaritan

have on him?

Pity.

Compassion.

Give you two more.

Jesus meets the ten lepers

in Luke 17.

Jesus,

son of David,

have what on us?

Have pity.

Have compassion.

Same thing,

Luke chapter 18

Luke 18 · chapter mention

with the blind man

who's outside Jericho

who presumably is Bartimaeus.

He shouts out,

Jesus,

son of David,

have mercy on me.

The exact same cry.

And Jesus does.

He does.

Oh, friends,

what a Christ we have.

Charles Spurgeon

declared all those years ago,

I have a great need

of Christ,

but I have a great Christ

for my need.

Jesus,

the one who has pity

and compassion on us,

it's almost as if

our infirmities,

our sorrows,

he is drawn to us

in that moment.

Then I went to get my jab

the other day,

got the jab,

felt a bit

peely wally,

there's a good Scottish term for you,

had to go and sit.

Ambulance man comes,

we're chatting away for ages.

He says,

why did you get into this business

of being a minister?

Answer,

Jesus.

Never met anyone like this.

Never read of anyone like him.

All power,

all compassion,

who is like him?

Who moves towards us

in our sufferings.

What we sing with the kids,

Jesus,

strong and kind.

Friends,

can we find a friend

so faithful

who will all

our sorrows share?

Jesus knows

our every weakness.

Take it to the Lord

in prayer.

This is who he is.

I take it these chapters

are here

to help us

enter

the depths

of his pain

and thirdly

and finally,

I take it

that they are here

to encourage us

to embrace

the source

of his hope.

Come with me

to chapter 19,

verse 25 onwards.

This is the time

we have left.

We'll just look

at this section

and to some

of the most famous

and the most glorious

words in the Bible.

What is Job

clinging to?

He is clinging,

do you see it,

to the phrase,

his living Redeemer.

Now,

a Redeemer

in a context,

someone who

in your family line

steps in

when somebody dies,

takes financial

and practical

responsibility

for you and your family

in your time of need.

That's what a Redeemer does.

Someone from the outside

in your family

comes in

and takes responsibility.

Now,

Job might not know

the precise

how

this is going to happen,

but you see

how his confidence

is that at the end

of the course

of his life,

God will

vindicate him.

That's what his confidence

is in

and he will do it

through this living

Redeemer.

And after death,

he will stand

and

he will see God.

That's the rock

that this limpet

is clinging to.

That is what

Job's hope

is in.

And that's the confession

as we turn to the pages

of the New Testament.

is very similar

to the one

that Martha makes

to Jesus

in John chapter 11.

John 11 · chapter mention

If you wondered

where we were going

with that.

Now,

the context

of Martha's confession

is not a philosophical

discussion.

Her brother

has just died.

Right?

Just journeying

with people

young and old,

the pain of that

never gets any easier.

Enter into her pain.

Brother has just died.

Her world is turned

upside down.

And feel the pain

in Martha's confession.

Lord,

if you had been here.

Right?

If you'd been here.

Where were you, Lord?

Of course,

in the context,

John has told us

that Jesus delayed

in going.

But he's also told us

that Jesus loved them.

He loved them.

And yet,

this was all about

them understanding

something much more

profound about

who he is.

Where were you?

Jesus says to her.

Your brother will rise

again to which

she responds,

I know he will

rise again

in the resurrection

at the last day.

Again,

do you see,

it's so similar

to Job's confession.

And she probably

doesn't understand

the how.

Right?

She knows

something of the what,

but she doesn't

understand the how.

Do you see,

Jesus answers her how,

not with a how,

but with a who.

I am the resurrection

and the life.

The one who believes

in me will live

even though they die.

And whoever lives

by believing in me

will never die.

In other words,

Martha,

I am

the living

redeemer.

Your world is turned

upside down.

Your pain is real.

But I have your life.

Just in case you thought

that was a cold response

from Jesus,

very next scene,

he is at the tomb

weeping

because of the

carnage that death,

because of sin

has brought into

the world.

You know,

we so often go to

celebration services

of people,

don't we?

But I think there is

a right and proper place

to grieve

as a Christian

that death isn't real.

Sorry,

death isn't the way

it's supposed to be.

And Jesus weeps,

but he weeps.

And in case you thought

that was an unfounded response,

know that he is the one

who speaks

and Lazarus rises.

Jesus who is

all compassion,

all pity,

and he is

all powerful.

And Jesus who would

himself suffer

physically,

mocked,

beaten,

Jesus who himself

would suffer mentally

as he sweats

drops of blood

at the sheer terror

of the cross

that is ahead of him

in the garden

the night before.

And Jesus who would

suffer socially,

abandoned by his friends,

betrayed by the,

one of those

who was closest to him.

Jesus who would go

to the cross

to pay the price

of our sin

on the cross

with his blood

as he,

the truer

and greater Job,

entrusts himself

to his father

who judges

justly.

and Jesus

who on the third

day rose

again

as God

vindicates him

in the eyes

of the watching

world.

Friends,

a great question

to ask as we come

to the Old Testament

is what difference

does it make

to this

that Jesus

has come?

What difference

does it make?

Well,

it means

how much

more

can we

declare

in him

that Jesus

our

living

redeemer

lives?

I take it

they are here

thirdly

to encourage

us to embrace

the source

of his hope.

And now

just as we close

let me tell you

just a really

short story

about two

friends of mine.

I won't tell you

their names

just to protect

them a little bit

but I'll tell you

a tiny bit

of their story

just because

it continues

to speak volumes

to me.

Right?

A number of years

ago they lost

their first son

who lived

tragically

only a handful

of days

and I cannot

begin to fathom

the depths

of pain

that they felt

and the scars

that they will

carry with them

but you know

what they called

them?

They called

them Joshua.

Okay?

The man in the

Bible who leads

God's people

into the promised

land.

Joshua,

I'm going to

do this really

quick.

Joshua,

the Hebrew

name,

literally Yeshua,

Jesus.

And it was

their way

of declaring

in everything

that's going

on that

they were

tying their

eternal destiny

and that of

their son to

that of the

greater and

the truer

Joshua.

The one who

will do right,

the one who

will make all

things new,

the one who

loved us,

and the one who

will take us to

the promised

land.

Friends,

what are you

clinging to?

What are you

clinging to?

Here's the

thing,

going back to

my limpets,

right?

You can be

the Sylvester

Stallone of

limpets.

You can be

the strongest

one there,

but see if

you're clinging

to a weak

rock,

all it's going

to take is

a wave that

is stronger

than the rock

that you're

clinging to,

and boom,

you're gone,

right?

Contrast that

if you're a

weak,

an unspectacular

looking

limpet,

and yet

you're clinging

to a strong

rock.

There is no

wave that is

coming that's

going to hit

you.

Your life could

not be in a

better place,

and the waves

will come,

but because your

rock stands

strong,

so will we,

friends.

So will we.

The strength of

our rock is the

strength of Christ,

our living

redeemer,

and boy,

do we have a

solid rock in

the one who

declared,

I am the

resurrection and

the life.

So,

friends,

what are you

clinging to?

Job says,

my redeemer

lives.

So here's what I

want us to do.

I just want us to

be quiet for a few

moments,

just as we

close our time

together,

and I trust that,

friends,

that the Lord by

his spirit will be

moving amongst us

as we respond to

his word this

morning.

Let me encourage

you to bring

your prayers to

him in the

silence.

And then I'm

just going to

read one thing

as we close in

prayer.

So why don't we

do that together?

Just in the

silence,

let me just read

these words slowly

of a hymn by

Stuart Townend.

And just allow

the truth of

what we've read

today to speak

to you.

There is a

hope that lifts

my weary

head,

a consolation

strong against

despair,

that when the

world has

plunged me in

its deepest

pit,

I find the

Savior there.

Through present

sufferings,

futures fear,

he whispers

courage in my

ear,

fear,

for I am

safe in

everlasting

arms,

and they

will lead

me home.

Father, thank

you that you

love us.

And so,

Father, we pray

for everyone

here today,

Lord,

each of us

individually who

perhaps are

suffering in

different ways.

O Lord, we

pray that you

would help us

be a community

that cares,

that loves,

and particularly

for those who

are hurting

just now,

Lord,

would you be

ministering to

them.

Thank you,

Lord,

that in Christ,

with sins

forgiven,

standing

righteous before

you,

that he will

lead us

home.

And so,

Father, we

commit this

time to you,

Lord, in

Jesus'

wonderful name

we pray.

Amen.

Amen.