Job's Lament: Understanding Suffering and Faith

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk

about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome

to another episode, presuming that you've listened before to the Bible Guys. My

name is Chris, and this is Quinn because Jeff is off in another country

somewhere, and so Quinn you, yeah, you were a guest on Monday.

Yes, I was a guest on Monday and excited to be back.

Yes, And we are excited to have you. And actually I'm most excited

about this segment that we're gonna do with you because Quinn again has only been

on here once, so you may not know him. And honestly, he's

only been on the staff with our church for only a few months, so

I don't know him as well as I would like to. But he's gonna

give me two truths and a lie, and I'm gonna have to guess and

see which one's to lie. Who are we allowed to lie on the Bible

guys? We love it? Well, only if that's another segment for another

Only if you've ever told a lie in your life? Okay, all right

too, truth and a lie? And then if we got time. You're

gonna do it too. So you but you didn't know this was coming.

I did, so I'm prepared. You got to just come up with something.

Yeah, I'm fine, you could do that. I'm so. You're

a witty guy. I am. He's good looking, he's witty. What

can he do? All right too, Trista and Rye? All right?

You ready? Yep? I love to fly. I love being in the

sky. I love being on an airplane. Oh you mean in an airplane

being You don't mean like Superman. That would be cool if I could do

that. Yeah, but you love to fly, I got it. Okay.

I have been to forty two different states. Okay. The third one

is I have won multiple food eating competitions. Uh, there's no way that

you have won. Well, wait a minute, you did say overeating on

Monday. You did say you did say overeating. So I want to did

that to throw them off. Yeah, so I'm gonna I'm gonna say the

food competition is feasible. So I'm gonna I'm gonna lean toward the truth.

There, you've been to forty two states or you love to fly? Okay,

I'm gonna go with you don't love to fly. You're correct. I

used to travel. My first ministry gig out of out of high school was

I was a traveling preacher, but we traveled around travel with the traveling Youth

group. But we traveled around on a bus. And I've been to forty

two states and then recently I got to go to Hawaii with my wife,

which was pretty cool. But I didn't always hate flying. But coming back

from Hawaii when the turbulence was this and it's shaking, and this thing's falling,

oh dropping for an hour, I'm like Ever since then, I don't

like flying anymore. I don't enjoy it. Well, I mean, it'll

do it to you. Yeah. I've been in some scary turbulence where I

actually thought I was convinced we were gonna go down. Yeah, but nobody

else was worried. You know what I always do whenever I freak out,

as I look at the flight attendants. If the flight attendants are calm,

then I'm good. If they freak out, you start praying. Well yeah,

if they freak out, I know everybody's in trouble, right, but

I just look at them and if they're just literally I just to hohum I'm

just like, Okay, then I have to be I have to calm down

here, right, Yeah, So I don't. I don't love flying.

I haven't always hated it. I hate it more now than I'm getting older,

and I'll probably get more motion sickness and stuff, but I had when

I was younger. I've won a few uh eating competitions. I want a

cupcake eating competition. One time at a little church Halloween event, it was

like first one to eat half a dozen cupcakes and I just throw threw those

things back like skittles. Wow. And then one time at we grew up

uh downriver and so out in UH. I think we were in Monroe at

like an apple festival and I was walking or a pumpkin festival or something.

I was walking down this festival and they had a pumpkin pie eating contest and

I was like eight or nine, and I missed, true story, I

missed my division. But there were the teenagers were about to go, like

the thirteen through eighteen. They're like, you could do it with the teenagers.

And I beat all the teenagers and he ate they. I think they

quartered the pumpkin pies and you had to eat a quarter of a pumpkin pie

with just your face. And wow, I did that better than all that.

Now were you a bigger guy back then? Yeah? I was a

little bit bigger. Yeah, okay, all right, wow well good well

hey man, First of all, thank you for you know, airing out

that laundry, but also pat on my back. Hang on, let me

oh pat myself? Uh because I because they got it right, that's right.

Yeah. Okay, here's real quick. We have a couple of seconds.

I'm gonna give you two or three very fast things. Okay, I'm

ready. Number one, I have saved somebody's life from drowning twice, two

different people. Number two, I've gotten two hold ones on legitimate golf courses.

And number three, I have two five hundred comic books in mostly mint

condition in my attic. I think I've heard you tell the golf story before,

so I'm pretty sure that's true. So the false one's either got to

be the comic books or the drowning. I'm gonna go with the drowning.

I'm gonna say, you haven't saved two people from drowning. Uh yeah,

so I only saved one person from down Yeah and so and so, Yeah,

that is actually the false one. But I I, you know,

I do hold in ones. That's impressive. Well, they were totally lucky,

but I had I had to hang on to a thread of truth.

I saved a kid from drowning one time. So I just thought, I'll

say convincingly by saying it's two. But I actually do have a bunch of

comics somatic that I, you know, collected and grew up reading. And

then uh, and then yeah, I luckily get two hold ones. That's

great. Yeah, so good job, and we both won a good job,

buddy, way to go. Wow, that was riveting, riveting,

I tell you yeah about me. My birthdays actually on Friday. Nobody cares.

That's nobody cares, like Starbucks. That's funny. I just snorted.

Okay, so today, Quinn, you were going to be reading from Job

chapter three. Uh, this is actually the the heading says the three Friends

answer Job, and then this is Job's first speech. So we're gonna read

verses one through twenty six. All right, you guys ready, Yeah,

Job three, here we go. At last, Job spoke and he cursed

the day of his birth. He said, let the day of my birth

be raised. And the night I was conceived. Let the day be turned

into darkness. Let it be lost even to God on high, and let

no light shine on it. Let the darkness and utter gloom claim that day

for its own. Let a black cloud overshadow it, and let the darkness

terrify it. Let the night be blotted out off the calendar, never again

to be counted among the days of the year, never again to appear among

the months. Let that night be childless, Let it have no joy.

Let those who were experts at cursing, who's cursing could ruse Leviathan curse that

day wow. Let its morning stars remain dark. Let it hope for light,

but in vain. May it never see the morning light. Curse that

day for failing to shut my mother's womb, for letting me be born to

see all this trouble. Why wasn't I born dead? Why didn't I die

as I came from the womb? Why was I laid on my mother's lap?

Why did she nurse me at her breasts? Had I died at birth,

I would now be at peace. I would be asleep and at rest.

I would rest with the world's kings and prime ministers, whose great buildings

now lie in ruins. I would rest with princes rich in gold, whose

palaces were filled with silver. Why wasn't I buried like a stillborn child,

like a baby who never lives to see the light. For in death,

the wicked cause no trouble, and the weary are at rest. Even captives

are at ease and death when no guards to curse them. Rich and poor

are both there, and the slave is free from his master. Oh,

why give the light to those in misery and life to those who are bitter?

They long for death and it won't come. They search for death more

eagerly than for hidden treasure. They're filled with joy when they finally die,

and rejoice when they find the grave. Why is life given to those with

no future? Those God has surrounded with difficulties? I cannot eat for sighing.

My groans pour out like water. What I always feared has happened to

me. What I dreaded has come true. I have no peace, no

quietness, no rest, only trouble colms. Yeah, this could be one

of the most heart wrenching speeches probably in the Bible. And notice that he

doesn't curse God. There's no sin, there's no it actually doesn't even seem

to include any type of anger because he's not angry. He doesn't pass blame.

In fact, I don't know if you caught it, but did you

catch how many times you read the word Why? Why wasn't I born dead?

Why wasn't I late in my mother's lap? Why was I born this

way? Why wasn't I buried like a stillborn child? You know? Why

is life given to those future? He asked over and over that one question

that we talked about a lot of questions yesterday with Kyle, which was which

was you know, you don't know the why of some things, some bad

things happening. But let me also point this out as well, and that

is, you know, it stuck out to me this time that I read

this, and I've never thought of this any other time I've ever read this,

is that at any given time that he was talking about that, he

never contemplated or indicated that he was going to take his own life. Right,

So he said, why couldn't I have been born as a stillborn child

who's at peace? You know, comparing it to you know, those who

are living in misery, Because those who live in misery, they long for

death. But he said, he said, they're finally glad when does come.

But nowhere in the scripture does he actually say that he wants it to

end or take my life now. And you know, we later on we

read that Elijah actually has those thoughts. Right, Elijah says it's better for

me to die, like you know, he wants his life to end because

he's so depressed running from Queen Jezebel. But nowhere does Job indicate that.

And I think that that's really important because there's probably a lot of people out

there and if you consider Job's misery, chances are it's probably more miserable than

any listener out there. Yeah. I mean he lost everything. His lifestock

is family and everything you can think of. And not only did he lose

everything, but God is directly to blame. See a lot of times we

say, oh, that just was happenstance, that was this? Okay,

guess what. It was a large gust of wind that came and blew down

the walls where his daughters were eating with their oldest brother. And it was

a god. Even even the insurance company calls that an act of God.

Right, So it was an act of God that took away his family's life.

It was fire that came down from the skies that burned up his sheep

and his in his crops. Right, So so it was it wasn't just

that everything was taken from him. It was that he had no other place

to blame except for God. Like like, it is very obvious that supernatural

things have done this to me, so you know, and and again we

know that that was Satan attacking him, but he could have very easily interpreted

it as God is to blame. Now. Job seemed like a good person.

It seemed like he had his affairs in order. And I used to

when I was a youth pastor for a long time, we would always do

a series where we would ask let the teens ask random questions. They could

ask whatever they want. Sometimes he would get goofy questions. You get dumb

questions a kid would ask, could could God could Jesus microwave a burritos so

hot that he himself could not eat it? You know, sometimes you get

those questions I've never heard that in quite that way. Or could God create

a mountain that he couldn't move? Yeah? You know, but sometimes you

would get some serious questions. And this one came up a lot. I'm

sure you heard it before. So I'm about to ask you a deep theological

question. Oh sure, you don't know what's coming, but I'd love to

get your perspective on it. And Job was probably thinking this. He's probably

thinking, why do bad things happen to good people? And I'm sure there's

people watching this who have thought that and would love to hear your perspective on

it. Why do bad things happen to good people? Yeah? Well,

I honestly believe that. First of all, that is I just want to

acknowledge the fact that that is the number one question, that's the hottest question

in the world today when it comes to God. Right, So we all

know that tragedies happen. Bad things happen like forces of nature, Like we

just talked about innocent babies. You cancoct diseases, right, Tragedies happen where

evil men commit heinous acts of crime, and there's victims left and right.

So whether it's whether it's a natural disaster or whether it's the will of man,

whatever, And and here's what I believe. I believe the short answer

is I referred to it, yes, and yesterday's podcast romans A tells us

that we live in a broken and messed up world. We live in a

world that is under the disease and the curse of sin. Right, So

when when when God created Adam and Eve, when he created the garden,

it was perfection. There was no weeds that came out of the ground.

So, in other words, uh, when when when sin changed? When

sin changed the world, it literally changed the Earth's DNA, It changed humanity's

DNA, because then disease came to be a thing. Uh, you know

it, death became a thing, right, and so uh, And so

here's what I believe. I believe that God created us with free will.

And the reason why he created us with free will is because true love cannot

exist without free will, because because you can't. If he if he would

have created us all like robots and forced us to love him, then great,

there's no chance for evil or death or wrongdoing or sin. But that's

not true love. But God created us for relationship and for love, and

true love cannot exist without free will. And so therefore mankind had free will.

Mankind chose sin sin. The punishment for sin was death. We live

in a broken and messed up world. And so there are consequences for sin

now the acts of God, you know, tidal waves and things like that.

I believe it's because the DNA of the earth changed. I believe that

that was not a God's original design. From the garden of Eden. I

believe that we don't know why God doesn't swoop in to intervene and stop all

evil. We don't know why, but we do know that God says that

one day he will stop all evil. Right, one day he will conquer

and cast Satan into the lake of fire, and he'll be bound and changed

up for a thousand years. One day God will defeat all evil. But

in the meantime, God has not chosen to defeat all evil. So the

consequences of sin have played out from the guard of Eni until this day.

And God tarries, and he gives the reason why he tarries because he it's

his wish that everybody would have the chance to be saved, to know his

love. So he is patient in his second coming. And and one last

thought, one last thought is I believe that a lot of times when we

want to place blame and there's nowhere up there's no person to blame, then

then we we we have no choice in our reasoning, sometimes in our warped

reasoning. But the places at the feet of God. But I believe that

God, you know, most likely sits up there, you know, saying

why are you blaming me? You know this is this is a consequence of

the world that mankind has created. Yeah, and God's not to violate free

will. He's not going to make that person go steal Robert Bank, kill

you, become a drunk driver. Whatever that person chose to do, that

was that person's choosing. God didn't cause that. So you've probably heard that

a lot. I've heard that of Christians saying, oh, God's punishing me

or God's doing this to me, and that's that's not the character of God.

Well, I hear I hear people talk all the time about like,

you know, like a child will die for instance, and then and then

they'd say, in fact, let me let me tell you a real life

example. There was there was a there was a funeral that I did not

actually do, but I heard about where there was a little four year old

kid who was on a tricycle rolling down a steep driveway and the grandfather was

watching the child and the grandfather was chasing the child. The bike rolled out

and get rid over by ups truck. Wow, so the child dies,

right? So I remember it? Why because that's one of the most horrific

things I've ever heard, Right, and and uh, and that poor grandfather,

et cetera. Right, and then here and here's here's the reason why.

I also remember the story because a person got up at the funeral and

said it was God's perfect will that that should happen. Right like God,

God allowed it and he and he caused it to happen for reasons that we

just should accept. And my first instinct in my humanity is to say,

well, wait a minute, if that's true, I'm not sure I want

to serve a God like that. I'm not sure I want to serve a

God who says it's my will, I choose for that to happen to that

family, right, And that's in my humanity, that's my emotions. Right.

But even in my theology, I've come to understand and I fully believe,

the only explanation that makes sense. And by the way, it's the

only explanation that is able to connect the dots for every scripture given. If

you take every scripture given about who God is, his character, his nature,

our free will, our predestination. You know about and death and disease.

You connect every truth together. The only explanation that I have found is

that bad things happen because we live in a broken and messed up world.

And all of it, every bit of it, is a result of sin

and death and curse and disease. And God sheds a tear every time we

shed a tear. God is with our pain. God is with us always.

It is not God's will, perfect will, in my opinion, for

that child to get, you know, to have that tragedy, that's not

God's perfect will. That just happened. Like God didn't cause that driver to

know down that road that day. No, it is that it is a

broken world. That's what we live in. We live in a world of

pain. It's a broken and messed up world. So, speaking of pain,

if someone who's watching this, who's maybe they feel like Job. They're

going through some hurt they're going through. Maybe they just feel lost. Maybe

they're out there breaking like Job's at his breaking. He's looking for peace.

Multiple times in this chapter he says, I need peace or I need rest.

There's someone out there hurting, they're struggling, they're looking for peace and

rest. What's your advice to that person? What did they do if they

see themselves as job and they're like, I'm struggling, I need help.

Yeah, So you know, it sort of goes back to yesterday's podcast,

but I'll say it in a different way today. Did you ever grew up

listening to Christian music? A little bit? A little bit I get a

little bit older when I'm probably a teenager. Yeah. Did you ever hear

of an old group called New Song? There's still I think they may still

even be out there, the members of Switch, but I think they like

MC and winter Jam I went to one time or soth Oh did they?

So there's a song called Trust His Heart, and it says God is too

wise to be mistaken. God is too good to be unkind. So when

you when you don't understand, when you can't see his plan, when you

can't trace his hand, trust his heart. And what they're saying is is

there they're basically saying the same thing I said in yesterday's podcast, which is

when you don't know the why, I lean into the who. That's good,

right, lean into who God is because you know, the one thing

that we want more than anything else in this world is why. And that's

the one thing that we perhaps will never get this side of eternity for a

lot of tragedies. And so people would just they say, I'll be okay

if I just understood why. But the bottom line is is we could you

know, the chances are will never know why, right, And I believe

it's just we live in a broken world, that's it. You know,

I've set up at funerals before and I've said, why does you know bad

things happen to good people? And I said, I've been a pastor for

thirty two years, i have a Bible degree, I've read hundreds of books,

I've had thousands of conversations, and my theological professional view is this crap

happens, right, that's it. Right, that's it. So what do

we do about it when crap happens? Yeah, well it's leaning into the

character of God, you know. And you know, God is faithful.

God is still a God that's worthy of our praise. He's still worthy of

our trust. And just like Job said, Job said, shall we accept

the good and not accept bad? And so you know, we have no

choice because what do a Psalm seventy seven say to what other God are we

going to run to? Right nowhere? There's nowhere else to go. God

is the God of the universe. Right But if God before us, who

could be against us? We have no other choice but to trust in God.

Because God is a God that exists. He's the God in control.

He's the God who is good, and his nature is good. So when

we suffer, you know that is our lot, and that is the world

we live in, and that is a shame. And I tell you we

don't wish it on to anybody. But through our pain, God is there,

and through the fire, God sometimes brings out refined gold. Right.

I think about the scripture that Jesus said, if you abide in me,

if you get close to me and stay close to me, I'll get close

to you and stay close to you. If you abide in me, I'll

abide in you. And another scripture. You mentioned this a few days ago,

but I'm gonna read it in Matthew eleven. Jesus said, come to

me all who are weary, and I will and carrie heavy burdens, and

I will give you rest. In verse twenty nine, take my yoke upon

you. Let me teach you because I'm humble and gentle at heart, and

you will find rest. And so I think that's the answer, right if

you come to Jesus. His yoke the thing that and we talked about a

little bit the other day. But the yoke, the thing that kept the

Oxens together, was a big heavy thing that kept him. They had to

walk in step. But Jesus said, my yoke is easy and it's light,

so it's not this big heavy thing that's connected. It's not hard to

get connected to me. He's saying, it's real easy and it's light.

And so just calm, and you're gonna find rest, and you're gonna find

peace, and you're gonna find joy even when it's hard, even when it

seems impossible, which is a wide thought to think about, Like all I

have to do is get close to Jesus and eventually I'm gonna have peace,

rest and joy. But he is those things, like we were talking about

earlier, that's in his character, as he loves us and he gives peace,

and he is peace, and he is joy and he is rest,

and so is as hard as it is. I think what we're both saying

is we need to get close to Jesus and stay close to Jesus. That's

right. And just to wrap it up, because our time is coming to

an end, I would just say, when looking at Job chapter number three,

one of the saddest and probably most heart wrenching speeches in the Bible,

just know that it says that Job did not sin, so it is not

sinful to lament, to to be sorrowful. And you know, and and

and ask the question why this isn't a sin? But in all of this

Job did not sin. And and notice he did not ever contemplate taking his

own life, and and and good thing he didn't because the end of the

story, for you know, spoiler alert, you know he's gonna end up

with twice as much blessings because of his faithfulness and and so you know,

God, you never know what's around the corner. Don't give up, don't

don't you know, don't decide that God's not there, that God has stopped

working, that God doesn't hear you, that God's abandoned. You don't give

up because you never know what tomorrow may bring. You never know what a

year may be. You know what a difference a year may make, or

even a week for that matter. So and keep going to Jesus and your

doubt and your questioning. God's not offended by our questioning. We say,

God, why does this happen? Why this thing? Why that? That

doesn't offend God. I think he loves when we come to him and sit

at his feet and ask questions, even if it's things we don't understand.

Right, that's great. Well, hey, that is our time and so

hopefully we will see you next time on the Bible. Guys,