God and Evil

I've heard of you by the ears, but now my eyes have seen you, Job says.

That is what we want, Father, today.

We want to see you.

We want you to give us a great vision of who you are, of your son Jesus.

And, Father, we know that I can't do that.

We need you by your spirit working in our hearts.

So please speak to us.

Speak through these words.

Please speak through this very old, challenging book deeply to our hearts.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Yeah.

Great.

So, yeah, we are.

Let me change my mic.

I've got Ed's mic now.

Yeah, fantastic.

That's better.

Great.

So, yeah, the book of Job.

Although, as you've, I don't know if you've been going through the, there's a lot about suffering, right?

If you've been going through the watermark reading plan, we've been going through the Psalms.

And so many of the Psalms are also pretty dark, right?

A lot of laments.

A lot of, you know, Lord, what is going on?

But there's one big cry that they always ask, the famous words from the Psalms.

How long, oh Lord, right?

How long?

What do people want?

If you're going through a hard time, you want it to end.

You want an end to your suffering, right?

They're not really asking why.

They're asking when will it end.

Because if you know, if you're going through a difficult time, if you know when it ends, that makes it bearable, right?

Maybe a year ago, you were in quarantine for COVID.

And that was hard.

But you knew it would end, right?

You knew it was only three weeks, two weeks, one week.

You could get out.

If you're sick, but you know, hey, in a week's time, it's over.

You can do it.

The question is, what if we don't know why we suffer?

Well, it's not just difficult that we don't know.

It's also difficult that we don't know when it will end.

If we don't know the reason, why would it end?

And if your suffering will never end, why would you keep going?

Why not give up?

Right?

Those two questions are interlinked.

Why and how long?

And as we are going to the end of the book of Job, I think that's something that will come into view.

We've been struggling.

Okay, why do we?

Yeah, there are some things that in our life, in the world, that we just don't understand.

Job didn't understand this good man, why he suffered.

And so he wants to know why.

And he wants to know how long.

And as we look at today's passage, that is kind of where we're going to go.

Now, some of you are new here.

And we're going through Job.

Maybe you're youth here as well.

And last time you were here, we were in chapter 3.

And now we are actually in chapter 38.

So I thought, let me put again up on the screen where we have been and where we're going.

So this is kind of all the chapters of Job.

Job 3 · chapter mention

Chapter 3, Job had just lost everything.

And he suffered so much.

He wanted to die.

But then we've been struggling with why.

And, well, one week we had just lots of debate about, you know, is this due to my sin?

And the answer was, no, it isn't.

A lot of debate between Job and his friends.

But then why?

Why?

And, yeah, the writer says, actually, there are some things we just don't understand.

We have to trust God.

And we are getting a few speeches that are much more one-way answers.

Last week we looked at Elihu, this guy who shows up.

And he says, Job, you know, make sure you listen well.

Make sure you don't sin when you suffer.

But today, well, something special is going to happen.

As you can see at the end, the Lord himself shows up.

Right?

38 verse 1.

And the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind and said, God himself shows up and speaks to Job.

That's amazing, right?

I mean, out of the whirlwind must be quite overwhelming.

But I hope you can see grace here, right?

Here is the God of the universe.

And here is one suffering believer.

And he shows up and talks to him for his benefit, for our benefit.

He speaks to him, you know, directly, not even a prophet.

Just God speaks to him directly.

And, yeah, he's going to give Job and us a greater vision of him.

And so we're going to listen to these.

Well, it's four chapters.

So, again, we have an abridged reading.

It's basically two speeches of two chapters each.

God will talk about creation.

He will talk about the animal kingdom.

And he's going to talk about two monsters, Behemoth and Leviathan.

And, yeah, talk about his justice.

So why don't we listen to that?

So Henry and Florence will come up, Florence and Henry, and do the reading.

And why don't we listen to that?

Thanks, Niels.

So we're reading from the Bible, from the book of Job, chapters 38 through to 41.

Job 38 · chapter mention

But excerpts from that, you've got it either as an insert in the bulletin, or you can follow along on the screen behind.

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said,

Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

Dress for action like a man.

I will question you, and you make it known to me.

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell me, if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements?

Surely you know.

Or who stretched the line upon it?

On what where its bases sunk?

Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Oh, who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?

When I made clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band,

and prescribed limits for it, and set bars and doors, and said,

Thus far shall you come, and no farther.

And here shall you proud waves be stayed.

Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you?

Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go, and say to you,

Here we are.

Can you hunt the prey for the lion, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

when they crouch in their dens, or lie in wait in their thicket?

Who provides for the raven its prey,

when its young ones cry to God for help, and wander about for lack of food?

Who has let the wild donkey go free?

Who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey,

to whom I have given the arid plain for his home,

and the salt land for his dwelling place?

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 have spoken once, and I will not answer twice,

but I will proceed no further.

Then the Lord answered Job, out of the whirlwind, and said,

Dress for action like a man.

I will question you, and you will make it known to me.

Will you even put me in the wrong?

Will you condemn me, that you may be in the right?

Have you an arm like God?

And can you thunder with a voice like his?

Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity.

Clothe yourself with glory and splendor.

Pour out the overflowings of your anger,

and look on everyone who is proud, and abase him.

Look on everyone who is proud, and bring him low,

and tread down the wicked where they stand.

Hide them all in the dust together.

Bind their faces in the world below.

Then will I acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you.

Behold, behemoth, which I made as I made you.

He eats grass like an ox.

Behold, his strength in his loins,

and his power in the muscles of his belly.

His bones are tubes of bronze.

His limbs like bars of iron.

He is the first of the works of God.

Let him who made him bring near his sword.

Can one take him by his eyes, or pierce his nose with a snare?

Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish hook,

or press down his tongue with a cord?

Can you put a rope in his nose, or pierce his jaw with a hook?

Will he make many pleas to you?

Will he speak to you soft words?

Will you play with him as a bird,

or will you put him on a leash for your girls?

Lay your hands on him.

Remember the battle.

You will not do it again.

And no one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up.

Who then is he who can stand before me?

His back is made of rows of shields,

shut up closely as with a seal.

Out of his mouth go flaming torches,

sparks of fire leap forth.

In his neck abides strength,

and terror dances before him.

His heart is hard as a stone,

hard as the lower millstone.

When he raises himself up,

the mighty are afraid.

At the crashing, they are beside themselves.

Though the sword reaches him,

it does not avail,

nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.

Clubs are counted as stubble.

He laughs at the rattle of javelins.

On earth there is not his like,

a creature without fear.

He sees everything that is high.

He is king over all the sons of pride.

This is the word of God.

Thanks very much, Henry, Florence.

I mean, these are great words.

It's a pity we cannot read all of it.

So why don't you maybe,

you know, summer holiday,

read again through Job

and just read through the whole thing

and hear the majesty of everything God is saying.

Especially this reading,

these chapters,

and all the questions God is asking, right?

He is just,

Job, let me ask you a few questions.

And before we look closely at suffering,

what is the big impression we get here?

One big impression is just that we can't,

but God can, right?

We, we can't understand,

but God can.

We can't run the world,

but God can.

Those kind of things.

So much of Job is about giving us

the right view of God

because we so often complain about him, right?

Hey God, my life is not going as it should.

You should do your job a bit better.

Let me give you some tips, right?

This is how you should run the world.

Actually, maybe we should see how God,

great God is

and maybe then we will not complain as much.

So 38, this is what God says.

You know, who is this that darkens counsel

by words without knowledge?

Job, I think there's a few things you don't know.

Let me dress for action like a man.

I will question you.

You make it known to me.

Let me ask you a few questions, Job.

And then he just gives this,

this big tour of creation.

And Job, have a think about who you are and who I am.

So Job, where were you

when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Tell me if you have understanding.

Who determines its measurements?

Surely you know, right?

Who stretches line upon it?

On what were its bases sunk?

Who laid its cornerstone?

You can see what God is doing, right?

Job, did you make the world?

Were you there when I made it?

Do you know what I made it out of?

Do you know how I measured it and planned it?

I mean, the answer is obvious, right?

No, Job, I wasn't there.

And I didn't make it.

And I have no idea.

But you do.

Okay, Job, how about, you know,

have you been to the bottom of the sea?

Do you know what's there?

Do you know what's underneath?

Can you make the sun rise and go down again?

Can you put the planets and stars in its place?

Well, no, I can't, right?

Job, can you control the weather?

Here's, you know, verse 34.

Can you lift up your voice to the clouds

that a flood of waters may cover you?

Can you send forth lightnings that they may go

and say to you, here we are, right?

That's a great picture, right?

Can you get the lightning bolts

to kind of stand in front of you and obey you?

And, well, yeah, you can't, right, Job?

But I can.

Job just needs to see, hey, I'm small.

And you are so big.

And you can do things that I can't, right?

God is not bullying Job here.

This is just making him see kind of, yeah,

who he is and who Job is.

So that Job actually, okay,

maybe there are some things that, you know,

I don't know how the world works, but you do.

And I don't know how to run the world, but you do.

And I need to be more humble.

And actually, if you think about it,

God is doing a pretty good job, right?

I mean, if you read this,

if you think about the world,

the world is pretty good and pretty ordered, right?

The world is stable.

And day and night, they come without fail.

You know, and the weather,

all the different kinds of water, right?

The snow and the hail and the rain,

they all come at the right time.

I mean, maybe we don't understand why it's so rainy now,

but, you know, God says it's all perfectly ordered

and at the right time.

And maybe zoom out.

You know, we also look at our life and think,

it looks like it's not going well.

You zoom out to the whole world.

Look how the world keeps running.

Look how stable it is.

Actually, God is doing a pretty good job

of running the world.

I mean, people talk about the laws of physics

for a reason.

Why do they talk about laws of physics?

Because laws don't change, right?

Laws, they are stable.

They're unchanging.

And the world, well, it's good and unchanging.

And God does that.

And we're not the ones doing that.

So God is, yeah, God is great.

Job, do you see that?

Can you see the great world out there?

It's beauty.

It's goodness.

It's order.

Now, that's part of the answer, right?

That's part of seeing how great things are.

But that's not really an answer to Job, right?

That's only step one.

Because, of course, Job's life isn't great at the moment.

Why, you know, I lost everything.

Why am I in so much pain?

God is going on to that.

But to see that, actually, we need to look a bit more closely

at some of the poetry.

Because God does talk about evil.

We just don't see it as clearly.

I don't know if you, what you thought of the reading.

Is it just lots of, you know, how beautiful creation is?

Well, actually, God says, the world is not just beautiful.

There's also, if you want to see the world and understand it,

well, there's the presence of evil.

There's the presence of evil in this world.

Now, when I say evil, I mean evil in the biblical sense.

So we use evil mainly in English just to mean, you know,

moral wickedness kind of, right?

But in the Bible, evil is also kind of disaster, suffering, right?

Bad in a kind of material sense rather than bad in a moral sense.

Does that make sense?

So, yeah, basically the presence of chaos and evil and suffering.

And Job, if you see the world, it's beautiful and good.

But actually, there is suffering.

There is chaos.

There is evil.

First of all, you see that in the sea.

Now, I don't know about your summer holiday plans.

Most of us, maybe you plan to go to the beach and see the sea.

And you think of an island.

Actually, in the Bible, the sea is not a nice place.

The sea is a dangerous place of chaos.

Think of Jonah.

Think of the disciples in the boat.

The sea is dangerous.

Think of, yeah, that sad event this week with this submarine, right?

Seeing the Titanic.

The sea is dangerous.

And in the Bible, the sea is a place for, yeah, for evil.

It's why the new creation has no more sea.

But the thing is, God says, the world also has a sea, right?

I gave it a place.

Verse 8.

Okay, wait.

So, verse 8.

Who shot in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?

When I made clouds, its garments.

In thick darkness, its throttling bands.

Okay, so who welcomed the sea?

When the sea was born, who kind of took care of it and gave it a place?

That's also God, right?

God gave a place to this dangerous sea.

Of course, he sets limits on it.

Verse 10.

I prescribed limits for it.

And set bars and doors.

And said, thus far shall you come and no further.

And here shall your proud waves be stayed.

Your proud waves.

We're going to see the word pride quite a lot in these chapters.

Proud is, of course, opposed to God, right?

So, the sea is proud.

It's kind of opposed to God.

But it's there, right?

It's there.

It has limits.

But it's there.

So, you know, here is the world.

And it's pretty good.

But actually, there's a sea.

There is danger within limits.

And it's the same for the animals.

And then chapter 39, basically, we get this great tour of, you know, like a zoo, all the animals.

Like here's the lion and the wild ox and the wild donkey and the ostrich and all kinds of animals.

And partly, wow, yeah, God is, I can't do this, right?

Can you feed the lions?

No, I can't.

Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?

No, I don't.

But there's a certain theme to these animals, if you think about it.

Because Job knew about animals.

He knew about, like, camels and sheep.

Because he had thousands of them before on his farm.

But all these animals are kind of wild.

Like the wild donkey out there on the plains.

The mountain goats in the mountains.

They are untamable, unpredictable animals.

And, you know, your life can seem pretty controlled and easy.

But out there, there's wild stuff.

There's stuff you don't control.

There's dangerous stuff.

Lions.

You know, can you feed the lion?

Now, lions.

I don't know what you think.

You think of a zoo, lions with their nice fluffy manes.

Think about it.

How do lions get food?

Well, they hunt and kill.

Right?

I'm not going to show a picture.

But, yeah.

Right?

That's what lions do.

So, God says, look, my creation.

You know, the world you see out there, it includes hunting and killing.

So, for Job, actually, yeah, wow.

I don't understand the world, right?

Here is a good world.

And yet, you know, God, why am I suffering?

Well, look over there.

There's a lion eating a gazelle.

Suffering happens, right?

It is part of the world.

And you don't understand it.

You are not in control of it.

But I do.

I understand it.

I run it.

The world has pockets of suffering.

There's more to say.

But I think, for me, that's quite difficult to accept, right?

We like our life to be in control.

And we want to understand everything.

And why do we want to understand it?

Because we want to control it, right?

That's why on our phone, there's all the apps.

And maybe you're into the stock market.

And you can always see the life updates.

And you can always sell and buy it, right?

We want to be in control.

Someone mentioned the steering wheel.

I hate being in the passenger seat.

I want to be in the driver's seat.

I want to have everything under control.

And God says, no, you can't.

You are too small.

And the world is wild.

And there is a lot of stuff you don't understand.

And so you need to trust me.

Because there's something behind it.

There is the presence of evil.

But God says, actually, do you and have you thought about the source of evil?

Because there's something behind that evil, right?

And, well, Job is a bit quiet after the first speech.

But we get this second speech.

And it's mainly a description of two monsters, Behemoth and Leviathan.

And, well, I mean, lions, they get like three verses.

But Leviathan, he gets a whole chapter, 34 verses, describing, well, this animal.

Now, some people think God is just talking about a hippo and a crocodile.

Crocodile, I don't, you know, this is like the climax of God's speech.

And I don't think a crocodile is the answer to evil in the world.

No, what is Leviathan?

If you know that culture, if you know the Bible, it's a mythical creature.

It's a storybook creature.

You know, in the Bible, it's a sea monster with many heads that breathes fire, that lives out in that dangerous sea.

It's a sea monster.

A dragon is a great word.

I like dragons.

I don't know if, I don't think dragons exist.

Probably they were inspired by dinosaurs.

They're not there.

But we all know what dragons are, right?

And God says, look, there's this sea monster, Leviathan.

And he's like, in the Bible, the source of evil.

And like other verses, if you don't know, like Isaiah, he talks, Isaiah 27, God talks about what he will do at the end of time to make everything right.

And what will he do partly?

Well, verse 1 of 27.

In that day, the day of the Lord, the Lord will, with his heart and great and strong sword, will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent.

Leviathan, the twisting serpent.

And he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.

This sea monster, this great dragon in the sea, one day God will slay it.

So that is what we should think with Leviathan.

The Greek translation, it translates it not with crocodile, but with dragon.

And so in the New Testament, that's picked up, right?

Revelation talks about the great dragon.

And now we know who the dragon is, right?

So this is actually about Satan.

In the New Testament, yeah, Satan is identified with this dragon.

And so that's interesting, right?

We get a whole chapter about Satan.

The writer knows it's a fallen angel, right, from chapters 1 and 2.

And yet here is like this sea monster, Satan.

And we get a whole chapter, and it's terrifying.

I mean, what is this Satan like?

What is Leviathan like?

You can't control him.

41 verse 1, can you draw out Leviathan with a fish hook, Job?

Or press down his tongue with a cord?

Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?

You know, can you fish him out of the sea and, you know, put a ring in him and take him along to the market?

You can't do that, right?

What will he say?

Will he make any pleas to you?

Will he speak to you soft words?

You know, and here's Leviathan.

Oh, please, please don't hurt me.

Please, I'll do anything.

No, right?

Job, you can't tame Leviathan, right?

Can you?

He is, and his skin is impenetrable.

His back is made of rows of shields.

Shut up closely as with a seal.

Out of his mouth go flaming torches.

Spars of fire leap forth.

This huge, fire-breathing, impenetrable dragon that just can't be defeated, right?

Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail.

Nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.

An undefeatable, evil dragon.

And look at the last verse.

He sees everything that is high.

He is king over all the sons of pride.

Remember, pride, opposition to God.

He is the king of opposition to God.

He is the source, the king of evil, this monster.

Now, what is God saying by including a whole chapter in his speech about Satan, about the dragon?

Well, he tells us two important things, right?

First, I mean, clearly Satan is involved, right?

Satan is involved, which, you know, some people, they read this speech, and it looks like God is not giving an answer to Job, right?

And Job just says, God just says, hey, you can't understand everything, so be quiet.

But actually, we have a whole chapter about Satan.

And we know from chapters 1 and 2, what was the problem?

Well, partly it was Satan, right?

If Satan wasn't there in chapters 1 and 2, then Job wouldn't have suffered.

And so to say that Satan is involved, in a way, God is, I mean, God isn't giving all the details.

He doesn't talk about what Satan said and what he said and everything.

But Satan is involved.

A lot of evil in the world, the Bible says Satan is involved in that.

Job and his friends, they were very limited.

It's either Job's fault or God's fault.

And God says, actually, there's another party, right?

How about the dragon?

How about Satan?

He is involved.

But at the same time, it's very clear, God is in control.

Yes, Satan is involved, but God is in control.

All right?

He can say, in the end, he's a creature.

Verse 33.

On earth, there is not his like, a creature without fear, a creature, something made, a product.

In the end, Satan is a product.

He's a creature, right?

The fact that God knows everything about Satan, he knows all the details.

In the Bible, knowledge is control, right?

So if God knows everything, then he's in charge.

And Satan can only do what God allows and what God permits.

God is greater.

Verse 10.

No one is so fierce that he dares to stir Leviathan up.

But who then is he who can stand before me?

You know, if you don't dare stand up to Leviathan, well, then Leviathan also can stand up to me.

Because I'm greater, right?

So Satan is a creature under God's control.

He's involved in all the suffering.

He's involved in your suffering.

But it's by permission.

And, of course, we struggle with that.

I've been challenged by that, right?

We find it very hard to believe that God allows Satan to do things.

But then again, what if the second thing wasn't there?

Have you ever thought about it?

What if we deny it?

That, you know, God is not in control.

I mean, some Christians, they do that.

And they think that this lets God off the hook, right?

Now we don't have to worry about God.

God didn't mean any of this.

God isn't behind.

You know, Job's suffering, it had nothing to do with God.

Is that reassuring?

Think about it.

I don't think that's reassuring at all.

Because then the question is, who is stronger?

Right?

If God didn't want Job to suffer and Job went through all of this, Job due to Satan, then, you know, what kind of God is that, right?

What kind of powerless God is that?

You know, was God not paying attention and, oops, Satan got Job?

Is that the God we worship?

Or, you know, God tried really hard to stop Satan from inflicting Job's suffering, but he couldn't.

He wasn't good enough.

That's terrible, right?

Either, you know, either Satan's in control or God's in control.

Who do you want to be in control?

I prefer God to be in control.

I mean, who's going to win if it's just Satan and God fighting and we don't know who is stronger?

Then what hope do you have that one day God will win?

You have no hope.

Right?

It's really important to remember, yes, there's a Satan.

Yes, he's evil.

He's powerful.

But he's under God's control.

And anything he can do is only by God's allowance and permission.

This is just, it's so important.

I mean, again, this is not just Job.

This is regularly.

Let me give a New Testament example.

Here is in Luke.

It's on the Last Supper, Jesus talking to Peter.

And, yeah, it's very similar.

So Jesus says to Peter, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat.

But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.

So clearly here Satan is involved.

Right?

The disciples, they're going to get a terrible trial when Jesus gets arrested.

Satan is involved in that.

But Satan demanded to have you.

Satan was, he's asking.

Right?

Satan can't do it by himself.

He needs to ask for permission.

He demanded permission.

And Jesus prayed and it was all fine.

Right?

God is in control.

Satan's involved, but God's in control.

But I hope you can see what God is saying.

You know, Job, you want to understand your suffering.

Have you thought about Leviathan?

As you look at this world that's so difficult to understand, have you thought about this evil sea monster?

You've heard of him.

Do you really know him?

Do you know how real he is?

How powerful he is?

How evil he is?

You know, you don't know that, Job.

You know, there's things that you don't understand.

You need to leave this with me, okay?

In your suffering.

Again, that's challenging, but it's so important to leave it with God.

Because if God is in control, then the most important thing he can do one day is he can defeat evil.

Because where is this going?

Well, God will one day defeat evil.

He will defeat the source of evil.

I mean, we want to make the world right, right?

We want to make an end to suffering.

What does it take?

Right?

Is it more education?

If people just go to school more, then the world will be perfect.

Do we need more money and economy?

Do we need more technology?

That's what the world thinks, right?

Well, God has just said, actually, if you want an end to suffering, you need to deal with Satan.

You need to find a source of evil.

But the thing is, God will do that.

God will bring justice.

Because this whole speech, the second speech, it starts off with God's judgment.

Because that was partly what God is, what Job was saying.

Hey, God, you're not doing justice.

You're not dealing with evil as you should.

And so in verse 8, God asks, hey, will you discredit my justice?

In the NIV.

Will you discredit my justice?

And Job, why don't you have a go?

You know, Job, can you try to bring justice?

So verse 10.

Hey, Job, adorn yourself with majesty and dignity.

Clothe yourself with glory and splendor.

Yeah.

Pour out the overflowings of your anger and look on everyone who is proud and abase him.

Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand.

Okay, Job, why don't you suit up, put on your glory and your majesty, and then you go and judge the world.

You go and, you know, find all the proud people and destroy them, right?

Why don't you deal with all the opposition?

He can't.

Job, you can't bring justice, right?

And God is not saying, hey, I'm doing my best.

Don't blame me.

He is saying, look, Job, you can't do this.

But again, I can, right?

You can't deal with the proud, but I can.

And especially the king of the pride, right?

The king of the proud.

And swords are useless.

Javelins, he laughs at.

Humans can't defeat him.

Money and technology will not slay the dragon.

But God will.

One day God will slay the dragon.

He'll destroy Satan.

And so Job, yeah, life will be unpredictable.

Life will be uncontrollable.

But one day the dragon will be gone.

One day I will slay him.

And everything will be right.

That is your hope.

There will be an end.

I'm in control.

And one day I'll bring it to an end.

That is what he's saying.

And that is such a vision of God that you need to have, right?

When life goes wrong, when, you know, when things are uncertain and out of control, here's a God who is good and who is in control and who will one day bring an end to suffering.

I think it's just so fascinating how this fits with the whole Bible, right?

I don't know what you think of the book of Job.

So much of the Bible, well, we know it's about Jesus.

But then the book of Job doesn't see much about Jesus.

There's nothing about the Messiah and the son of David.

Well, no, it is, right?

Because, of course, Job, he lived before Israel.

He lived outside Israel.

He didn't know about the Messiah or whatever.

But there was an earlier promise.

I mean, think about the whole Bible.

How does the whole Bible start?

It starts with the Garden of Eden.

And who was there and who messed it all up?

In a way, Satan, right?

Satan tempted Adam and Eve and they listened and everything went wrong.

So the whole Bible, why is there suffering in the world?

In a way, it can be traced back to Satan.

But God promised one day, what will he do about it?

Well, the serpent will be defeated, right?

It is promised in Genesis 3 to the serpent,

I will put enmity between you and the woman

and between your offspring and her offspring.

He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

Someone was going to crush the serpent.

Someone was going to crush Satan and make things right.

And so that's the promise that's in the background.

And yeah, Job, he can't do it.

God, yeah, someone needs to come who can crush the serpent.

And we know that, yeah, we know who that is, right?

The serpent crusher, Jesus.

And Job is about Jesus and what he will do one day to make things right.

The only thing is, of course, that it was very different from what Job expected.

When you think about it, Job was expecting like this great victory, right?

Where God comes with a sword and slays the dragon and those kind of things.

Actually, when God did come, he came as a man.

And he came as an innocent man.

And, you know, God, in a way, he let Satan lose as never before.

Satan could do something he had never done before.

He could attack God in person.

I mean, here God really knows about Leviathan, right?

He knows about Satan.

34 chapters of details.

And yet as Jesus came into the world and suffered, he experienced Satan as he could never do before.

Because he was a man.

God and man in one.

And he suffered.

And he felt the full onslaught of Leviathan.

Leviathan, out of love for sinners like us to die for us.

Isn't that amazing, right?

That is, it's amazing that through this innocent suffering, actually God fought, Satan fought he was winning.

Actually, through that he was defeated, Jesus suffered for us.

And that took away Satan's power.

And so, in principle, it's great to know, right?

You want an end to suffering.

Satan has been defeated.

It's less than a promise.

He has been defeated.

Of course, he's still around, right?

And Satan gets defeated in two stages.

A book of Revelation.

You know, there's chapter 12.

And the great dragon was thrown down.

That ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan.

The deceiver of the whole world.

He was thrown down to the earth.

And his angels were thrown down with him.

He's no longer in heaven.

He's no longer there before the throne to do something.

But we still need to get rid of him.

And in chapter 20, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were.

And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

One day he will be gone.

And God is saying, that is your hope.

And when you face difficulties, you know, God understands your suffering.

He knows and he's in control.

And one day he will deal with the source.

He will deal with Satan.

And he will make everything right.

That is the greatest comfort, right?

If we want to go through suffering, we need to know it will end.

And it will end.

That is our hope.

So can you hold on?

Can you hold on in faith?

Can you hold on in hope?

Trusting the one who knows.

Trusting the one who is in control.

Trusting the one who has won the victory.

And will one day do it.

I hope this is, yeah, it's a beautiful chapter, but it's encouraging.

Right?

God has won your future.

He has suffered the defeat to win the victory for you.

Why don't we take a moment to think about that as we, you know, take in this vision.

I've put two questions here.

Let's just, for a minute, think about these questions.

You know, how have you been challenged in your view of God?

And, you know, how do you feel about Jesus' defeat of evil on the cross?

Think about that for a minute.

And then I'll pray.

And then we will sing.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's pray together.

Our Father, thank you for enlarging our vision of you.

We admit that we are so small and things we don't understand.

We don't understand your control of evil.

We don't understand why you allow Satan to roam.

We are just glad that it is by your permission that you are great and that you know things that we don't,

that you do things that we can't, that we can trust you completely.

And particularly as we look to the cross and see how you have defeated evil and one day Jesus will come back and make everything right.

Whatever we're going through right now, whatever we're struggling with, whatever we don't understand,

would we look to you and your love and your power?

Would we look at Jesus who has won the victory?

That we would trust him and follow him.

Lord, whatever, we need this ourselves so deeply.

If we want to live in this world, this world that we don't understand, we need you.

So please, Lord, yeah, give us this vision.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.