November 3, 2021
Author: Pastor Gordon Cook
November 03, 2021
“Then Job answered the Lord and said, ‘I know that you can do all
things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that
hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not
understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Hear,
and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me. I
had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
Job 42:1-6
Job at this point is back to full health and strength. We don’t know
how many months he has gone through, maybe even a couple of years of the
intense physical suffering; he lost his children; he was hit hard
financially. This is the last snapshot that we have of Job. Next to
chapter one where we get a beautiful snapshot of him, this is maybe the
most beautiful snapshot we have of Job.
What is obvious from Job 42 is that Job is not a bitter man. You
couldn’t say that when you work through some of those other chapters.
Job has an edge of sarcasm, even a sense of bitterness and anger, even
towards God. But not now. Job is not a bitter man. He is a better man
and he learned some important lessons. One thing you and I need to pray
when we go through suffering is that we need to learn and we need to
grow. One of the great reasons why God sends suffering into our lives is
to produce fruit. He wants us to grow. We are disciples and disciples
are learners. We are to learn from our sufferings.
What does God want us to learn? I realize everybody is different in
terms of what we learn and the truths that God impresses upon us. Here
are four things we can learn:
1. Suffering gives us opportunity
to learn about God. You see that with Job. When you compare Job on the
front end or in the middle part of the book of Job, you can sense he is
struggling. He is struggling with who God is; with God’s goodness, God’s
grace, God’s mercy. But when we come to the back end in Job 42, there
is a great difference here. You could say Job finally gets out of the
hospital and has regained his strength and his health and he is thinking
differently about God. Verse 5, “I had heard of you by the hearing of
the ear, but now my eye sees you. He sees God, he sees more of God, he
understands God better. He doesn’t understand God perfectly, none of us
do, but he understands God better, he has grown in his experiential
knowledge of God. It is not just a head knowledge, it is experiential.
That is one thing you should pray for when you pray for the sufferer.
Don’t just pray that he be delivered from his physical suffering. Paul
never prays that for himself; he suffered a lot physically; not that
it’s wrong to pray that, but we should pray that we grow in the
knowledge of God. Sufferings can be wonderful eye openers to the glory
of God. We see more of His love, His faithfulness, His kindness. We get
better glimpses of His sovereignty.
2. We need to learn more
about the devil. I am not convinced that every human ache and pain can
be attributed to the devil, but there are at least four to five
incidents in our Bible where you see the devil’s involvement in human
suffering. Job is certainly the classic example. Remember what Paul says
in 2 Corinthians 12, he refers to his thorn in the flesh as a messenger
of Satan. That is strong language. We can say this, “If we believe the
devil is the devil who hates God and hates
the Christian, the
devil loves to use our suffering to turn us against God.” That is what
he is doing with Job. He really wants to turn Job against God. He wants
to activate our fear; he wants to have us doubt God’s goodness; question
His kindness, His love, even His sovereignty. That is what is happening
in the book of Job. As long as the devil is the devil, he will seek to
take advantage of our suffering. That should always have us on red alert
whenever we begin to suffer physically, emotionally or whatever; the
devil is probably going to come after you. So we should be praying for
one another, not simply that we be healed, but that we would learn. We
are disciples, we learn about God, learn about the devil. Let’s not be
ignorant of his devices and his stratagems.
3. We should learn
about ourselves. Suffering is a great revealer, often a humbling
experience. Suffering reveals two major things about ourselves. Our
physical infirmity; we realize how weak we really are; and our spiritual
vulnerability. Suffering exposes our weaknesses, our limitations, often
our sins. It is far easier to get irritable and bitter, angry, envious,
fearful and anxiety ridden when we are in the midst of suffering. The
devil knows it. Here is the great warning with regard to suffering, it
can be a time of spiritual regress, not a time of spiritual progress. We
need to be careful when we are in the midst of suffering. We have to
pray for one another that we could come out stronger Christians, not
weaker because of our suffering.
4. We need to learn about Jesus
Christ. 2 Corinthians 12 is a key passage where Paul makes reference to
the devil. Paul talks about his thorn in the flesh (I am becoming more
convinced the thorn was a relational thorn) and sees the devils
fingerprints all over that thorn, that’s what he calls it, “a messenger
of Satan.” He knows that God is using that thorn for his good. He even
uses language to suggest that this is given ultimately from God. He is
not saying that the devil is in control ultimately; no, God is in
control. But God is using the devil to accomplish His purposes and that
is to keep Paul from becoming proud. Remember, he has had a lot of
privileges and he needs to be made keenly aware of his weaknesses.
That’s really what God is doing here. So Paul can experience not just
his weakness, but he can experience the sufficiency of Christ’s power
and grace. That is the point. God wants His servant Paul to come to a
deeper appreciation for Jesus Christ; His sufficiency of grace, His
power in the midst of our weakness. We learn that the good shepherd will
be with us. Psalm 23, “Yea though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, You are with me.” We learn that His love is a never
failing love, that He will never, never forsake us in the midst of our
weakness and our frailty.
Every one of us suffers. Some more than others. But we will all have
opportunity to put God on display. Dr. Piper says, “We were made to
glorify God and suffering provides some of the greatest opportunities
for us to glorify God.” Do you want to glorify God? Here is the
opportunity in the midst of our suffering. Where did Jesus glorify God
the most? On the cross. Often when we glorify God our Father we put
Jesus on display when we are in the midst of suffering.
We need to pray for one another, that we would learn not only how to
suffer well, but that we would learn some very important lessons about
God, about the devil, about ourselves, and about Christ.
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