When God's People Suffer: Misunderstanding Suffering

something, Job responds, and they do it again three times. This endless, if you like, getting

at Job about his suffering, and we're going to be looking at that just at different sections. So

we're going to be at Job chapter 4, so you'll need your Bibles open as we flick from page to page.

Job 4 · chapter mention

Well, let's pray and ask for God's help for us this morning.

Father, again, we recognize that in dealing with such a subject of suffering, it is not

only very real for so many people, it's not just an intellectual problem, it is experiential,

whether it's in our own lives or we see it in the ones we love the most. And therefore,

we ask for your help to be able to understand suffering from your perspective and to see

it how we should, and to pray for your Holy Spirit's help to understand your word, the

life of Job and how it points us ultimately to the Lord Jesus and his suffering for us.

So we pray for your help to us all today. Amen.

Amen.

I'm sure many of you have heard of the lady called Joni or Joni Erickson Tadda. She's a quadriplegic.

Basically, it means that she's got no movement from the neck down to her toes. She's been like

this for over 40 years of her life. As a teenager, she broke her neck in a diving accident.

And she's been confined to a wheelchair ever since. And as a follower of Jesus, she's written

and she's spoken many, many times about suffering and has been a means of support to many people

around the world. In her recent book, I have it here, it's called A Place of Healing. And

if you are suffering, I recommend this as somebody who has suffered greatly and is suffering greatly,

but finds great hope in the Lord. An excellent, excellent book. Well, in this book, she recounts

a time where she met this man one Sunday morning after the meeting. Let me read it to you.

It was a beautiful Sunday morning and services were over. I was wheeling across the church parking

lot toward my van when a handsome young man who introduced himself as David stopped me.

Are you Joni? he asked. I smiled, nodding yes. Oh, great, David exclaimed. I'm a visitor here and I was

hoping I would run into you today. I've really been praying for you. My eyes got wide. Really? What about?

You're healing. I've been praying for you to get out of your wheelchair. At that point, my spirit hesitated.

David was a visitor. He came to church hoping to see me and he wanted to see me healed.

Well, I never refuse a prayer for healing, I assured David. The guy wasted no time in getting down to business,

launching into what sounded like a prepared speech. Have you ever considered that it might be sin

standing in the way of your healing? That you've disobeyed in some way? Before I could answer, David

flipped open his Bible, both of us still in the middle of the parking lot, and read from the Gospel of Luke.

Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus.

When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up onto the roof

and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd right in front of Jesus.

He closed his Bible and reminded me that the paralyzed man in the story was healed,

and I could be healed too if only I would but confess my sins and have faith to believe.

He added,

Joni, there must be some sin in your life that you haven't dealt with yet.

Now, there is some truth, and hear me out, there is some truth in what David said to Joni.

Sometimes, sin does lead to suffering.

So, if I indulge myself in all kinds of physical pleasures and kind of live the life of Riley,

and I end up with a failed liver, HIV, and a broken marriage,

well then, yes, sin has led to my suffering.

But to say in this instance, as we read from this story,

that sin always leads to suffering,

is a terrible misunderstanding of suffering.

Sometimes, innocent people, like Joni, suffer terribly.

Job finds himself in a similar situation.

His three friends that we met at the end of chapter 2,

Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar,

have come to sympathize and comfort him.

Well, that was fine until they got their Bibles out

and started to preach to Job for 23 chapters.

Their message was simple.

I've put it up on the screen here.

Their summary of all their teaching was simply this.

If you suffer, God is punishing you for your sin.

Job, you're suffering.

Therefore, Job, there must be some terrible sin in your life

that you haven't yet confessed.

Now, while there is some connection between sin and suffering,

to say that Job's suffering was connected to his sin

is really to misunderstand Job's innocent suffering.

Chapter 1 has told us very clearly that he was blameless.

He loved God.

He loved God.

He hated evil.

So what do these three friends have to teach us

in their misunderstanding of suffering?

Well, they teach us simply what we should not say

and what we should not think

about those who suffer through no fault of their own.

So we're going to look at their three friends one by one

and see what they have to say,

how they misunderstand suffering

and how we should be careful not to misunderstand in the same way.

So let's start with their first friend, Eliphaz.

His message is very simple.

Innocent people, he says, don't suffer.

Look at chapter 4, verse 3.

He's speaking to Job.

Job, think how you've instructed many,

how you have strengthened feebled hands.

Your words have supported those who stumbled

and you have strengthened faltering knees.

But now trouble comes to you and you are discouraged.

It strikes you and you are dismayed.

Job, if you're wondering how an innocent man like you is suffering,

well then let me give you an answer.

Verse 7.

Consider now who being innocent has ever perished.

Where were the upright ever destroyed?

As I have observed those who plough evil

and those who sow trouble reap it.

At the breath of God, they are destroyed.

At the blast of his anger, they perish.

You see, Job, it's simple.

Innocent people don't suffer.

And if you had behaved yourself,

then all these bad things would never have happened.

The best way to understand your suffering, Job,

is to see it as God's discipline in your life.

Look at chapter 5, verse 17.

Blessed is the man whom God corrects.

So do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.

For he wounds, but he also binds up.

He injures, but his hands also heal.

Verse 27.

We have examined this, and this is true.

So hear it and apply it to yourself.

Well, Eliphaz is not finished with Job.

He picks up another speech in chapter 15.

Let's have a look at that.

Chapter 15 and verse 17.

He's got more so-called wisdom to pass on.

Chapter 15, verse 17.

Listen to me and I will explain to you.

Let me tell you what I have seen.

What wise men have declared.

Hidden nothing or hiding nothing

received from their fathers.

Verse 24.

Distress and anguish fill him with terror.

They overwhelm him like a king poised to attack

because he shakes his fist at God

and vaunts himself against the Almighty.

Can you see what's happening, Job?

If you would only stop fighting God,

stop claiming your innocence,

and just admit your sin to God,

and everything would be all right.

And in case we're missing the point

that Eliphaz is trying to make,

look at chapter 22, verse 4.

Is it for your piety that he rebukes you

and brings charges against you?

Is not your wickedness great?

Are not your sins endless?

Verse 21.

Submit to God then,

and be at peace with him.

In this way prosperity will come to you.

Accept instruction from his mouth,

and lay up his words in your heart.

If you return to the Almighty,

you will be restored.

If you remove wickedness from your tent,

and assign your nuggets to the dust,

your gold of offer to the rocks in the ravines,

then the Almighty will be your gold,

the choice of silver for you.

It's a little bit like the words of David to Joni.

They completely missed the point.

And this line of thinking, unfortunately,

is not uncommon.

I had a brief watch again of the God channel

just to make sure that what I think

is actually what they teach,

but if you listen to it,

and don't really listen to it

because there's nothing there to listen to,

you will hear speaker after speaker

claiming that if you just confess your sin,

you will be healed.

All you need to tell God is the problem,

and he's going to deliver you from it.

And they'll stand there and say,

in the name of Jesus,

confess your sin,

and don't forget to write a check

and send in a few dollars,

and all your suffering will end.

The idea that innocent people don't suffer

and that sin is the cause

is a common way that people try to explain suffering

in people's lives.

But it's very wrong,

very misunderstood.

Well, let's look at his second so-called friend,

Bildad.

His message is simple as well.

Godless people are punished.

Let's go to chapter 8.

Job, do you want to know

why all your children and all their families

were wiped out in that tornado?

Well, let me give you a reason

for why that happened.

Chapter 8, verse 4.

And let's remember how suffering,

how awful this suffering was for this man

and what has happened to him.

And he gets advice like this.

Verse 4 of chapter 8.

When your children sinned against him,

he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.

But if you will look to God

and plead with the Almighty,

if you are pure and upright,

even now he will rouse himself on your behalf

and restore you to your rightful place.

Job, it's simple.

You can't disconnect your suffering

from your sin.

Verse 11.

Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh?

Can reeds thrive without water?

While still growing uncut,

they wither more quickly than grass.

Such is the destiny of all who forget God.

So perishes the hope of the godless.

Job, can't you see what's happening?

Your children suffered because they forgot God

and now you're doing exactly the same.

Verse 20.

Surely God does not reject a blameless man

or strengthen the hands of evildoers.

Sort your life out, Job.

Well, Bildad is convinced that

if you live a godless life,

then things are going to go wrong from you.

Look at chapter 18.

Chapter 18, verse 11.

He's saying here,

if you live a godless life,

then the sign of a godless life is,

well, things are going to go wrong.

Chapter 18, verse 11.

Terrors startle him on every side

and dog him his every step.

Calamity is hungry for him.

Disaster is ready for him when he falls.

And look how these next verses

relate so much to his own suffering.

It eats away parts of his skin.

Death's firstborn devours its limbs.

Verse 18.

He is driven from light into darkness

and is banished from the world.

He has no offspring or descendants among his people.

No survivor where he once lived.

Verse 21.

Surely such is the dwelling of an evil man.

Such is the place of one who knows not God.

And if we think they haven't kicked Job enough,

Bildad is ruthless in his final charge.

Chapter 25, verse 4.

Chapter 25, verse 4.

How then can a man be righteous before God?

How can one born of a woman be pure?

If even the moon is not bright

and the stars are not pure in his eyes,

how much less man who is but a maggot,

a son of man who is only a worm.

Now this way of explaining suffering

is also very common.

I've heard countless pastors and Bible teachers

and let me say very bad Bible teachers

who come up with suggestions and reasons like this

that the reason why the Twin Towers,

that terrorist attack on 9-11 happened

was well because America allows abortion.

And that's why it happened.

In the same way when the tsunami hit Indonesia,

people were coming out saying

it was God's punishment on the awful sex trade

that there is in Indonesia.

Likewise, when the earthquake destroyed Haiti,

people claimed that it was God's judgment

on all the witchcraft and the voodoo

that was going on.

But I ask ourselves the same question,

who are we in this country

to make such judgments on behalf of God?

Are we really any better to the rest of the world

that we have escaped such suffering?

It's a very dangerous line to pursue

and to make quick judgments

that that is what God is doing.

God hasn't said it,

and neither should we.

Well, let's turn to the third friend, Zophar.

We need to go to chapter 11 for that.

His message is also simple.

Wicked people deserve worse.

Zophar is of the belief

that the greater the sin,

the greater the suffering.

So if you sin lots,

well, then you're going to suffer lots.

Look at chapter 11, verse 4.

He's speaking to Job.

He says,

You say to God,

My beliefs are flawless,

and I am pure in your sight.

Oh, how I wish that God would speak,

that he would open his lips against you

and disclose to you the secrets of wisdom,

for true wisdom has two sides.

Know this, Job.

God has even forgotten some of your sin.

In other words, Job,

it's only because God is so patient

that you are not actually suffering more

than what you are.

Verse 13.

Yet if you devote your heart to him

and stretch out your hands to him,

if you put away the sin that is in your hands

and allow no evil to dwell in your tent,

then you will lift up your face without shame.

You will stand firm

and without fear.

But because you're not turning from your wickedness, Job,

look at verse 20.

The eyes of the wicked will fail

and escape will elude them.

Their hope will become a dying gasp.

In other words, Job,

you deserve every bit of suffering that you get.

And once again,

his final speech in verse 20.

He just heaps abuse upon abuse onto poor Job.

Job 20:22

Chapter 20, verse 22.

This is how he understands

what's happening to Job's life.

Chapter 20, verse 22.

In the midst of his plenty,

distress will overtake him.

The full force of misery will come upon him.

When he has filled his belly,

God will vent his burning anger against him

and rain down his blows upon him.

Verse 27.

The heavens will expose his guilt.

The earth will rise up against him.

A flood will carry off his house,

rushing waters on the day of God's wrath.

Such is the fate God allots the wicked,

the heritage appointed for them by God.

Now, unfortunately,

this is also a common philosophy today.

It goes something like this,

that if you do good,

then good will be returned to you.

In Hinduism, it's called karma.

If you do bad,

then bad will be given out to you.

And even within our own Christian society,

we've imbibed that same kind of belief.

So why is it that when something goes wrong in our life,

we immediately think,

I must have done something wrong

and God is punishing me for it.

Or, if we do something good

and we do lots of good things,

then we sometimes think,

well, maybe God is going to bless me

because I did all these good things.

It's a terrible way of thinking.

God does not respond to us like that.

It's a common way to think,

but it's a very wrong way to think.

So that's the wisdom of Job's three friends.

They have failed to understand

that sometimes our personal sin

is actually not the cause of our suffering.

Sometimes innocent people,

just like Joni that we read about at the beginning

and even Sandra shared at her testimony,

sometimes innocent people suffer

through no fault of their own.

Well, I guess the question

that we are all asking now is,

how do we know

when suffering is related to my sin?

Hmm?

I wonder if somebody wouldn't mind

just running around to our lovely spraying friend

and ask him to go past the door a little bit.

Thanks, Rob, very much.

Maybe he could do the front.

I did give him a cup of tea in Buns,

so it's all right.

We're not out against him.

But there's a question that we're all asking,

isn't there,

that how do we know then

when my suffering is related to my sin?

There is a connection,

but how do I know if it is my sin?

Well, let me give three ways

to understand our suffering

so that whenever we get a headache

or we happen to hit our thumb with the hammer,

we're not immediately thinking,

there's some unconfessed sin in my life.

Three things that we'll look at.

First,

we live in a sinful,

broken world.

Genesis records for us

the good world that God created.

We know the story of how God looked out

on the world

and when he had finished his creation,

he said it was very good.

There was unity

and there was harmony within creation.

But when we get to Genesis 3,

we read that man who was created by God

rebelled against his creator, God.

And the consequences of all that

have been felt ever since.

Now we live in a world

where there's death and disease.

There's disorder

and there's brokenness.

Life doesn't work the way it's meant to.

The cogs in the wheels

have got stuck and jammed

and everything grinds and twists

with terrible suffering.

That's why we have earthquakes

and tornadoes and tsunamis.

That's why we have mindless,

violent attacks on children

like we saw in Toulouse this week.

That's why we have terrible tragedies

like the recent bus crash in Switzerland.

Sometimes suffering happens

not because of our specific sin,

but simply because we live in a broken

and a disordered world.

In John's Gospel,

the disciples came to Jesus

on one occasion

and tried to make this connection

between personal sin and suffering.

There was this man

who was blind from birth

and the disciples asked him,

chapter 9, verse 1 of John's Gospel,

his disciples asked him,

Rabbi, who sinned,

this man or his parents,

that he was born blind?

Listen to Jesus' reply.

Neither this man nor his parents sinned.

But Jesus said,

this happened so that the work of God

might be displayed in his life.

You see, sometimes suffering happens

simply because we live

in a broken and a disordered world.

Secondly, then,

we are not treated

as our sins deserve.

We're not treated

as our sins deserve.

One of the underlying questions

that comes out of the book of Job,

and indeed it's raised in the whole Bible,

is not,

why do I suffer?

But why do I not suffer more?

That's the real question.

Not why do I suffer,

but why do I not suffer more?

The reality is,

we are actually more wicked

and more rebellious

than we realise.

And the history of the world

in which we live

is a catalogue of disaster.

Wars and genocide,

greed and corruption,

unjust leaders

and power-hungry leaders.

There's the abuse of children,

trafficking of women,

the oppression of the poor,

relationship fallout,

marriage breakdown,

anger, hate,

slander and lies.

And it goes on

day after day after day.

So the question

is not,

why do we suffer?

But why is God

so patient and long-suffering

with us

and with this world?

If God was being just,

he would wipe us all out

and the world would end.

That's the real surprise.

Well, why is God

so long-suffering

and patient with us?

Well, the answer comes

through the Bible story

as he shows his character.

If you want,

you can turn to Psalm 103.

We actually sang

from this psalm earlier on.

Psalm 103,

Psalms 103:8

verse 8.

verse 8 of Psalm 103,

the Lord is compassionate

and gracious,

slow to anger,

abounding in love.

He will not always accuse,

nor will he harbor

his anger forever.

He does not treat us

as our sins deserve,

or repay us

according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens

are above the earth,

so great is his love

for those who fear him.

As far as the east

is from the west,

so far has he removed

our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion

on his children,

so the Lord has compassion

on those who fear him.

Of course,

that love and compassion

is shown supremely

on the cross,

the place where God died

for my sin

and for your sin.

The God who suffered

for you

and for me.

So we live in a sinful

and broken world.

Second,

we're not treated

as our sins deserve.

And third,

we can look forward

to a world

without sin.

God made a good world.

We see that in Genesis 3

and he's promised

to renew

and restore

this sin-infested,

broken world.

God promises

that there is a world

to come

that's going to be

without sin

and without suffering.

However,

between this point

where we are now

and the point

of Christ's return,

he also promises us

that there will be suffering

and that we should

expect suffering.

But to give us hope

and to help us

through our journey

in this life,

he gives us

these pictures

of this wonderful promise

to all those

who will turn to him

and those

who will trust him.

One of those pictures

is found in Isaiah

Isaiah 65 · chapter mention

chapter 65.

And all I ask

is just that you

just be quiet

for a minute

and just listen

to these words here

that paint a picture

of a world

without sin

and without suffering.

Just meditate

and think

on these words.

behold,

I will create

new heavens

and a new earth.

The former things

will not be remembered

nor will they come

to mind.

But be glad

and rejoice

forever

in what I will create.

For I will create

Jerusalem

to be a delight,

its people

a joy.

I will rejoice

over Jerusalem

and take delight

in my people.

And the sound

of weeping

and of crying

will be heard

in it no more.

Never again

will there be in it

an infant

who lives

but a few days.

An old man

who does not

live out his years.

And we can add

to that

there will be

no more shootings

in Toulouse

and there will be

no more sudden death

of a nephew.

They will not

toil in vain

or bear children

doomed to misfortune

for they will be

a people blessed

by the Lord.

They and their

descendants with them.

Before they call

I will answer.

While they are

still speaking

I will hear.

The wolf

and the lamb

will feed together.

And the lion

and the ox

will eat straw.

But dust

will be

the serpent's food.

They will neither

harm nor destroy

on all my

holy mountain

says

the Lord.

Let's pray

together.

Let's pray

together.

Let's pray

together.

Let's pray

together.

Let's pray

together.

Let's pray

Father

we thank you

for this

amazing picture

that one day

there will be

no more

weeping

no more

crying

there will be

no more

sin

and there

will be

no more

suffering

things will

never go

wrong

there will be

no wheel

chairs

and there

will never be

another car

crash

we thank you

that one

day

Christ

will come

and he

will put

all things

right

we thank you

that you do

not treat

us

as our

sins

deserve

but we

praise you

and we

thank you

that you

have entered

our suffering

world

to do

something

about it

help us

with the

eyes of

faith

to look

to the

Lord

Jesus

help us

to trust

him

help us

to walk

with him

and we

pray this

in Jesus

name

amen

before we

share together

around the

Lord's

supper

we're going

to sing

a song

that

it's the

next song

could you

go on

to

yep

there's a

place

where the

streets

shine

it points

us forward

to a

world

without

sin

and a

world

without

suffering

and the

chorus

reminds us

that all

our sins

have been

washed

away

and that

is why

we have

that hope

let's

stand

together

as we

encourage