Lessons from the Life of Job: Week 2

Welcome to Church at the Crossing. My name is Andrew.

If you're new, if you're visiting, welcome. We are continuing

in this series on the life of Job and his

story is found in the Book of Job in the

Old Testament. And the story of Job is a complex

and complicated story about the struggle of good and evil.

And I want to encourage you. If you missed last

week's message, you can catch up watching that online. Each

of these messages this summer is going to build one

on the other, so that by the end of summer

we have a comprehensive understanding of this complicated book in

the Old Testament, and so encourage you to continue to

build as we journey through this. But as we get started,

let's pray together, Father God, thank you for your grace,

Thank you for your presence, Holy Spirit. We invite you

to come and teach us today. Would you challenge us, God,

would you challenge some assumptions that we might have about you.

Would you show us your truth today? But most of all, God,

we pray that your word, which is alive, would inspire

us and draw us closer to you. May we feel

more of your love through what we learned today. In

your word, and we pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen.

In Job, chapter one, we learned that Job is a really,

really blessed guy. Job has a beautiful family. He has

a wife and ten children. He's also wealthy. He has

thousands and thousands of camels and sheep and livestock. And

Job is a righteous man. In chapter one we read

that Job is the greatest of all the people of

the East. There is none like him who fears God

and turns away from evil, blessed, wealthy, and righteous. However,

in chapter one, Satan accuses God of protecting Job from suffering.

Satan was so confident that if Job lost his prosperity,

he would also lose his faith, and so God gives

Satan permission to attack Job's prosperity, to ruin his prosperity,

to test his faithfulness. And so all of Job's livestock

was destroyed, consumed by fire, his camels were stolen by bandits,

all ten of his children were killed in a tragic tornado.

Job was ruined, his prosperity was taken from him. And

all of that happened in just chapter one. And today

we turned to chapter two, have you ever wondered or

thought to yourself, could things get any worse than this man?

It's so bad right now? Could anything get worse? I

think of a friend of mine who worked for his

company for nearly two decades. Good employee, helped generate revenue.

Just recently the company decided to go in a different direction,

and my friend lost his job, and the company promised severance.

But then, as if things couldn't get any worse, the

company changed his mind and revoked the severance. Could things

get any worse? Well? Chapter one was so bad for job?

Could chapter two be any worse? Well, let's find out.

Let's look at verse three. 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. He still

holds fast as integrity, although you incited me against him

to destroy him without reason. When Satan answered the Lord

and said, skin for skin, all that a man has,

he will give for his life. But stretch out your

hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he

will curse you to your faith. And the Lord said

to Satan, behold he is in your hand. Only spare

his life. I just noticed for a moment here that

God draws a boundary around Satan. Right here, he says,

only spare his life, just like I'm drawing this box.

God has drawn a box around the devil. You need

to know today that the struggle between good and evil

is not an equal battle. Just we need to reject

that idea that evil is on the same footing as good. Yes,

Satan is powerful, but he is not all powerful. God

alone is all powerful. And God has set a boundary

around Evil. But hold, he's in your hand, Only spare

his life. So Satan went out from the presence of

the Lord and struck Job with loathsome swords from the

soul 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. Historians

have speculated about Job's diagnosis. Some say it was leprosy,

Others say it was an extreme exzema. Some thoughts are

this could be ancient smallpox, but we just don't really

know what it was. But the point is it was miserable,

it was painful, and it was gross. For the rest

of these forty two chapters in Job, you can get

glimpses of Job's symptoms along the way. Some of those

symptoms are painful itching, loss of appetite, depression. These sores

would scab over and then reopen and get infected, and

even worms and parasites would grow inside the open wound.

Job suffered weight loss, fever, chills, much much more. Job

was miserable, constant pain. Just when things can't get any

worse for Job, things get worse. Years ago, I was

in my first semester in Bible College and I was

taking my very first class. It was an Old Testament

class on the book of Job. This class was taught

by Professor Dan Diyke, and Professor Dike had a reputation

on campus for being a eccentric, zany, big personality guy,

like like a movie character like Doc Brown and Back

to the Future, just out there, and so everybody was

everybody wanted to sign up for a Dandyke class because

it was gonna be entertaining. You weren't gonna fall asleep

in this class. He would tell bizarre stories and ramble

on rabbit trails, and he was known for forgetting assignments

for getting the great assignments just eccentric, but he was

a brilliant Old Testament professor and he specialized on the

Book of Job. And so in this class we asked

the big questions, you know, the questions like, if God

is all powerful and all loving, why do people suffer?

I do bad things happen to good people? Is God

really in control? If there's evil and atrocities in this world?

Those were the questions that we asked. And Professor Dyke

taught me a term in that class that I had

not learned before, and he taught me the term theodicy.

Would you say the word theodicy? Theodicy it is the

defense of God's justice in view of the existence of evil.

It comes from two ancient Greek words theo meaning God

and dk meaning justice. So theodicy is an argument. It's

an attempt to answer those questions like how can a

loving God allow suffering? Does God know all things? Does

God control all things? How does God remain just and

allow evil? That's what a theodicy tries to explain. And

so in this class, for my final exam, I had

to write a ten page theodicy using Job as a

source text. And in my research I learned that many

theologians build their theodicy around the story of Job. I

also learned that some theologians advocate a theodicy that's called

open theism. Now, open theism is not biblical. Open theism

believes that God does not know everything that will happen

in the future. The future is continuing to unfold. Open

theism says, because human beings have freedom of choice, God

can't possibly predict or know the future with one hundred

percent certainty. He may know all of the possibilities, but

he does not know the future. Theologians that advocate open

theism point to the Book of Job for this, and

they say open theism explains because it would be cruel

of God to allow Job to suffer. If God knew

all along that Joe was going to pass the test

and stay true to his faith, that would be cruel,

and so they use open theism to explain this. But

open theism is not biblical. It is a flawed theology.

In the words of Dahl, open theism is heresy because

the Bible is replete with evidence that God does know

the future and controls outcomes. One example is Psalm one

thirty nine. You know when I sit down, and when

I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar. You

search out my path am I lying down, and are

acquainted with all my ways, even before a word is

on my tongue. Behold, o, Lord, you know it all

together in your book. We're written every one of them,

the days that were formed for me, when as yet

there was none of them. God does know the future,

and God is continuing to work things together for his glory,

for his purposes, even the bad things. Now that does

not mean that God causes evil or causes suffering. But

God does not allow evil to get the final say.

He may allow it temporarily, he may allow it under

some boundaries. But in the end God always gets the fire.

I say, because God's justice spans time in space. You see.

The Gospel of Jesus is based on this. Yes, the

Father allowed the son to suffer. He allowed the son

to be tortured, to be accused, to be abused. He

allowed the son to be crucified on the cross. But

the Father also raised the son from the dead. You

see on the other side of the crucifixion is the resurrection.

God always gets the final say no matter what we suffer,

no matter what we endure. Now, my message today is

not an argument against open theism, but the reason I

mention it is because I want to help you when

we suffer. When you suffer, suffering will test your theology.

And when you are suffering, when you are hurting. It's

tempting to look for humanistic philosophies to comfort ourselves and

our pain. But I want you to good theology when

your children are hurting, when your grandchildren are in pain

and even angry at God. I want you to have

good theology so you can help them. So why did

I tell you all this stuff about theodicy and open theism.

I know some of you are really interested in this.

You've already googled theodicy on your phone. And there are

some of us who are just bored and you're you're

nearly asleep. But I mentioned that because I want to

introduce a new terms. It's a word, a term that

I made up for this message, and it's the term theophalos.

Would you say the word theophilos theofhulos. It means godly friendship.

You may recognize this word as the name of the

person that Luke wrote to in the Book of Acts.

Theophulos comes from two words Theo meaning God and phi

loss meaning friend. Please hear me. The message today is

gonna help you build a theology to be a good

godly friend in suffering. That's the message. It's a theology

of friendship in suffering. You need the theology of Theophilos.

When your spouse is grieving, you need this theology. When

your family is discouraged and hurting, you need this theology.

Job was utterly alone in his suffering. Everybody abandoned him.

Everybody rejected him, even his own wife. In verse ten,

then his wife said to him, do you still hold

faster your integrity? Curse God and die when you're suffering?

Do you need a lecture when you're in pain sitting

in the hospital bed. Is it really comforting for somebody

to come in and say everything happens for a reason,

there's a silver lining around every cloud. When you're suffering tragedy,

you've lost your job, or you've suffered a financial downturn

and you're trying to figure it out, is it really

helpful for someone to say to you, well, when God

closes the door, he opens a window. I don't think so.

In fact, we find that the Book of Job confronts

every one of those silly little sayings. Here's the first

point of the theology of Theophilos. We may want an

answer for why we suffer, but what we need most

is a true friend who is with us in suffering.

I was a young boy when my parents divorced, and

you've heard me mention this before in the past, and

I was hurting. I was angry. This also coincided with

the time of my life. I was going through puberty,

so my hormones and emotions, all this stuff was churning

inside of me, and my family was breaking apart, and

I just long for somebody to affirm me and to

love me, and to encourage me, and to tell me

that what I was feeling I would heal. I had

one cousin who said to me, don't worry, you'll get

over it. I had another relative say, you're supposed to

be a Christian, so just forgive and move on. I mean,

doesn't that sound a lot more like Job's wife, just

just get over it. But there was one person who

did meet me in my pain, my grandma. My grandma

had a large open kitchen in her home, and she

had a island in the middle of that kitchen. And

if you know me, you have learned that I'm a

verbal processor. I talk out loud, I think about what

I'm feeling, and I verbalize what I'm thinking, and that's

how I process. And I can remember visiting Grandma and

walking around, pacing that island, talking to her about what

I was feeling, telling her about my frustrations with visitation schedules,

venting about divorce court and arbitration meetings, and just just

saying all of these things to Grandma. And Grandma listened

as I paced around her isle, and Grandma encouraged me.

Grandma prayed with me, Grandma laughed, she cried with me,

and Grandma fed me. You know, grandma's kitchen is another

name for therapy. The thing that I remember most about

talking to my grandma is that she never said a

negative or harsh thing about either one of my parents.

She always found something positive to say. You see, my

grandmother became my theophilos, a friend in the suffering job

was all alone, covered in sores, covered in wounds, just suffering,

and because of this, he was considered unclean. So was

banished outside of the city. And now he sat down

in the city dump, outside the city walls, and he's

scraping his body with broken pottery. This is his lowest moment.

And we keep reading in verse eleven. Now, when Job's

three friends heard of all this evil that had come

upon him, they came, each from his own place, Elephaz

the Temanite, build Dad, the shoe Hype, and so far

the name of Thighte. They made an appointment together to

come and show him sympathy and comfort him. And when

they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him.

They raised their voices and wept, and they tore their

robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. And

they sat with him on the ground seven days and

seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him,

for they saw that his suffering was very great personally.

I wonder if Job's wife sent word to these friends.

It's not a text, but I just wonder if she,

you know, threw her hands up and said, I can't

get through to him. Maybe he'll listen to you guys.

But these three friends became Job's theophuloss. They met him

in his suffering. They were godly friends in the suffering.

They were not ashamed to sit with him. They were

not put off by his disgusting appearance. They ran to him.

They met him in the suffering, and I want to

observe that. After chapter two, Job's three friends get impatient

with Job and they try to fix Job. They try

to explain why he's suffering. One friend accuses Job of

having unconfessed sin that's to blame for his suffering. A

second friend says that Job needs to just pray more

and not be so self righteous, and then the third

friend he says that Job should just accept his lot

and stop questioning God. So yes, Eventually, these three friends

get impatient. They try to help, they try to fix,

but I don't want to move past chapter two. I

don't want to dismiss these three friends immediately. Because they

had the courage to come, they had the compassion to

sit there for seven days. These three friends loved Job.

And these three friends provide you and me with an

example for how to love those we love who are sufferings.

The next point of the theology of Theophilos. When the

people we love suffer, they need a compassionate witness not

a quick fix. I don't know about you, but when

someone I love is suffering, I want to fix it.

I want to do something about it. I want to

solve the problem. I want to say the right words

that'll dry up the tears and dissolve the grief. I

want to do something. But what my friends and family

need most is not a quick fix. But they need

a compassionate witness. What do I mean by compassionate witness.

A compassionate witness is a person is a friend who

moves towards somebody in suffering, not with a mind to fix,

but with a heart to love, with an ear to listen,

with a shoulder to lean on. A compassionate witness sees

you in your pain, validates your feelings, listens to what

you're going through, and says you're gonna be okay. I'm

with you. You are not alone. Today's message is speaking

to us in two ways. On one hand, God is

leading many of us, prompting many of us to become

a compassionate witness for someone you love to be a theophilos,

a godly friend in their suffering. On the other hand,

there are some of us God is revealing that you've

been suffering alone, You've been in isolation, You've been nervous, shy,

maybe embarrassed to share what's been going on. And God

has given you permission today to raise your hand, say

I need a compassionate witness. I need a friend in suffering.

See Job's three friends became his the awful loss. They

met him in their suffering. They became his compassionate witness.

You know the gospel of Jesus Christ is the good

news that Jesus is the greatest compassionate witness. No one

has plumbed the depths of suffering nor carried the burden

of pain as Jesus has. He was accused, he was abused,

he was rejected, he was misunderstood, he was lied about,

he was tortured, and he was executed. And he did

it all willingly so that he could be with us

in our suffering. Isaiah fifty three Rites of Jesus. This way,

listen to how Jesus identified as our pain. He was

despised and rejected by mankind. If you feel rejected, if

you feel isolated, despised, ann Jesus knows a man of

suffering and familiar with pain, Jesus knows your pain. If

you are hurting, if you are fighting illness or disease,

Jesus knows. Surely, he took up our pain and bore

our suffering. Jesus has borne your suffering. If you are weeping,

he weeps with you. If you are hurting, he feels

with you. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was

crushed for our iniquities. Anybody feel crushed today? Anybody feel

the pressure is crushing you, The depression is crushing you,

The expectations are crushing you. Jesus was crushed. Jesus was crushed.

The punishment that brought us peace was on him. If

you feel hopeless, if you feel giving up, if you

feel like life is not worth living because you don't

have peace, there is hope. Because Jesus provides peace. By

his wounds, we are healed. Jesus is the greatest compassionate witness.

He's not far away, he's not distant. He's not removed

from us. He's with us in the pain, in the grief,

in the sorrow. Trauma specialist Bessel Vanderkoch says, trauma is

when we are not seen and known see. We need

a compassionate witness in our pain, because healing and recovery

are nearly impossible. When we suffer alone, isolated from others,

distant from God. In loneliness, depression and despair will take root.

We need a compassionate witness in our suffering. Job's three

friends can give us some advice for how to be

a thiophulos, a God friend and suffering, how to be

a compassionate witness, And so for the rest of our

time today, I just want to share three lessons from

Job's three friends. The first one we read in verse eleven.

They made an appointment to come to show him sympathy

and comfort him. The first lesson is show up, intentionally,

show up, physically, show up, deliberately, show up. This is

more than thoughts and prayers. This is the ministry of presence.

A compassionate witness will show up without being asked. A

compassionate witness intuitively knows when their friend, when their loved one,

needs the ministry of presence. More than eight years ago,

my grandfather was in the hospital and it was getting worse,

and I lived out of state at that time. I

knew if I wanted to see him before he passed

and have a conversation. I needed to go immediately. Just

made that decision in just a few short hours, and

I asked one of my dear friends to drive with

me five or six hour drive, and he was willing

to drive with me. And so that afternoon, my friend

knocked on my door to pick me up for the drive.

And when I opened the door, I was surprised. Not

only did I see my friend, but one of our

second friends was there. I did not invite this friend.

He invited himself, and I was grateful. He said, I

don't want you to be alone, so I'm coming with you.

And so my friends drove with me and I was

able to see my grandfather before he passed. That's the

ministry of showing up. And you know who those two

friends are. Those friends were Pastor James and Pastor Tim.

A compassionate witness shows up. Showing up is not convenient.

You can't playing for it months in advance, you can't

mark it on your calendar. It is an interruption, but

it is necessary. It's needed, it is effective. It takes

moving things around. It is difficult. A faithful friend shows up,

So let me encourage you pick up the phone today.

Knock on the door, make the appointment, bake the meal

and deliver it. Show up, Show up. The second lesson

we learned from Job's friends is in verse twelve. When

they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him,

and they raised their voices and wept. They tore their

robes and sprinkle dust on their heads toward heaven. Look

at the verbs. These are cathartic, emotive verbs. They raise

their voices, they web, they tore their robes. This is

like extreme. This is empathy. This is partnering, meeting somebody

in their suffering. And so I call this piece of advice.

Say ouch, say ouch. A compassionate witness meets you and

your suffering and says, I see that you're hurting. I

feel what you're feeling. Ouch, that's got to hurt. See,

when we suffer, we feel all sorts of feelings. And

you know there are no bad or wrong feelings. There

are some unpleasant feelings. Doesn't make them wrong, sadness, anger, depression,

that those are unpleasant. And a compassionate witness says, I

love you and I'm with you in these feelings. I'm

with you and what you're going through. Ouch. Christian counselor

and author Chuck de Groat says, we need someone to

say ouch. We need a present person who will be

with us and who won't minimize what we're feeling. Think

of how a good parent responds to a child, whether

she scrapes her knees or falls out of the tree.

A good parent shows up either way with empathy. A

good parent says ouch, no matter the size of the injury,

compassionate witness says ouch. Now, I'm not literally suggesting that

we like literally use that word ouch in every situation.

You know, when somebody loses a loved one, you know,

coming to the funeral home and standing by the casket

saying ouch. It's probably inappropriate, but it's the spirit of it,

it's the heart of it. And I hope this is memorable.

The next time you've got a friend who's just angry

and disappointed, remember this, say ouch. I see that you're hurting,

and I can't imagine what you're going through, but I

love you, I feel for you. I'm here, and no

matter the size or the scope, we all need someone

to say ouch. Whether it's losing an aging parent or

tragically losing a child, loss hurts, whether it's an injury

or a life ending illness. Pain hurts, whether it's self

inflicted or accidental. Suffering hurts, and we need someone to say, ouch,

I'm feeling with you. There's one more piece of advice

from Job's friends. It's in verse thirteen. We read. And

they sat with him on the ground seven days and

seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him,

for they saw that his suffering was very great. Job's

three friends didn't just sit for an hour. They sat

seven days. The story of Job has produced a ancient

practice in Jewish tradition. It's even observed to this day

in many places when a Jewish family loses a loved one.

This ancient practice invites friends and family to visit the

surviving family. And when friends and relatives come first, they

stand over the casket and they tear a piece of

their clothing, just like Job, and then they sit with

the family for seven days. It's a practice called sitting shiva.

Shiva comes from the Hebrew word for seven, and family

and friends who sit shiva in grief they don't say much,

they don't do much. They're just present with their loved

ones in grief. And in pain. And so this lesson

for us from Job's friends is simply sit still. Sit

still now, sitting for seven days with somebody in our

modern culture. That may be impractical, but think about the

heart of it. It might be seven weekends. It might

be seven Sundays or seven Thursday nights at church, sitting

with that friend, making sure that they're with you. You

may need to take some time off work, you may

need to travel, move things around. But what is the

spirit of sitting shiva with those we love who are suffering,

to remind them that they are not alone. Recently came

across this story about Joe and his wife. They lost

three of their children tragically. One they lost who is

only eighteen days old, another passed at age five because

of leukemia, and their eighteen year old son died in

a tragic accident. Years later, Joe wrote these words, reflecting

on his pain. I was sitting torn by grief. Someone

came and talked to me of God's dealings, of why

it happened, of hope beyond the grave. He talked constantly,

and he said things I knew were true. But I

was unmoved, except I wished he'd go away. He finally did.

Another came and sat beside me. He didn't talk, he

didn't ask leading questions. He just sat beside me for

an hour or more, listened when I said something, answered briefly,

prayed simply, and left. I was moved, I was comforted,

and I hated to see him go. We don't have

to have all the words. We don't have to have

the advice that's going to fix the problem. We just

simply have to show up and sit still. You see,

this study in the Book of Job is gonna help

our church become who God wants us to be. We

say around here that we want to be a better church,

not just a bigger church. We want to be better

at loving Jesus, better at loving one another. And this

Book of Job is gonna help you and me better

serve one another, better show up for one another, suffer

with one another. And so I wonder, is God showing

you where you need to sit? Where is He leading

you where you need to go and sit still? Is

He leading you to the hospital room to sit in

the courtroom or in the waiting room? Is it sitting

in the doctor's office, like, where is God prompting you

to go and be present with that person you love,

present with that person you care about, to say you

are not alone. Galatians six' to two says bear one

another's burdens and so fulfill the law Of. Christ it

doesn't say fix their situation or solve their. Problem we're

called to sit with one. Another sit still with one.

Another you may need to spend the, night you may

need to sit for several, hours but show up and sit,

still And god will prompt you when it's time to.

Go you'll. Know one of my dear friends last year

was in a terrible car. Accident he was in a

car accident and the ambulance took him to the hospital

and the doctors found a fracture in his, neck and for,

many many many, months he was unable to. Move he

was in a neck brace the whole. Time and as

if things couldn't get any, worse my friend was found

to be at fault for the, accident and so he

was facing serious legal consequences because of. This AND i

remember face timing him he lives In, pennsylvania and face

him and on the screen he couldn't move his head

or his, body just in that neck. Brace he didn't say.

Anything he just wept and. Wept he was broken physically and.

Spiritually shortly after, THAT i drove To pennsylvania to see

him and we just sat out on his. Patio we

didn't talk about the. Accident we didn't talk about the

police report or the legal stuff coming. Up we just

sat occasionally, laughed, wept. Prayed we just sat sit with

the ones that you. Love as we, END i want

to invite us all to sit still right now to

hear From. God would you join me in bowing your

head and closing your. EYES i want to provide time

for us to sit still and to hear From. God,

first as you're, listening Is god calling you to be

a compassionate, witness to be a, theophiloso a godly. Friend

would you just listen to his spirit right? Now is

he prompting you to make a phone. Call is he

prompting you to pay a? Visit do you need to

book a plane ticket or make a? Drive just. Listen,

secondly as a LISTENING i wonder if you're suffering alone?

Today do you feel? Lonely have you been trying to

tough it, out trying to gut it out in? Isolation

Perhaps god's inviting you right now to ask for, help

to speak, up to open. Up he's gonna give you the.

Courage would you just listen to, Him sit still and,

listen and Then i'll close this in prayer a hope

that you've heard from The lord his tender and compassionate prompting.

Today AND i want to pray for all of, Us, Father,

god would you give us the courage and the faith

to obey what you've put on our, hearts to speak,

up to take. Action would you give us the courage

to take the next. Step And, god as we go

from here, today would you fill us with the faith

and the hope that you have overcome all pain and.

Suffering that as we leave, here may we have confidence

that our presence suffering is, temporary that we have a

hope for, heaven that we have a hope for eternity

because Of. Jesus may we walk in that confidence? Today

and it's In jesus' name we. Pray. Amen