The Oldest Story In The Book - Week 3

Today, we are continuing our sermon series, the Oldest Story In The Book, a study in the book of Job from the Old Testament

The book of Job seeks to answer the question: “Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

Today: Sometimes, the only answer to our questions about suffering is that we are never meant to know everything.   

Sometimes, we go through hard times that might seem unfair, unjust, arbitrary, or wrong. What do we do when we want to find meaning in our suffering, and there doesn't seem to be any?

How [Not] To Speak of God - Peter Rollins

What happens when we try to describe the infinite?  How far do our imaginations go?

Quotes about God 

Not only does God play dice, but... he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen. - Stephen Hawking

God is a verb, not a noun. - R. Buckminster Fuller 

People see God every day; they just don't recognize him. - Pearl Bailey 

“I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn’t work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.”— Emo Philips

“If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss Bank.”— Woody Allen

"Religion has convinced people that there's an invisible man ... living in the sky. Who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn't want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer, and suffer, and burn, and scream, until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you. He loves you and he needs money." ~ George Carlin

And yet—we keep trying to understand God, what God is up to, how God works, what God is like, and why God keeps allowing bad things to happen to good people with no rhyme or reason.  

What do we do when all of our images of God fail us?  What happens when all the ways we've tried to imagine God fall apart?  This is the focus of our study today in the Book of Job. 

And we're going to discover one question we might need to ask about this ancient parable:  Is the Book of Job more about the questions than the answers?

WHEN WE TRUST THAT GOD IS GOD, WE ARE FREE TO TRULY LIVE

Job 38:1-7, 34-41

God finally answers Job’s complaints, but it’s not what Job expects. 

1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:

2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

3 Gird up your loins like a man;

    I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

This is more of an interrogation - “gird up your loins” 

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

    Tell me, if you have understanding.

5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!

    Or who stretched the line upon it?

6 On what were its bases sunk,

    or who laid its cornerstone

7 when the morning stars sang together

    and all the heavenly beings[a] shouted for joy?

“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,

    so that a flood of waters may cover you?

35 Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go

    and say to you, ‘Here we are’?

36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts[a]

    or given understanding to the mind?[b]

37 Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?

    Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens

38 when the dust runs into a mass

    and the clods cling together?

39 “Can you hunt the prey for the lion

    or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

40 when they crouch in their dens

    or lie in wait in their covert?

41 Who provides for the raven its prey,

    when its young ones cry to God

    and wander about for lack of food?

God’s response relates the beauty and intricacy of Creation (ancient view)

The longest part of it is a love poem to Leviathan (?)

That the answer comes from the whirlwind is instructive. God is the master of chaos. 

The story of Job does not shy away from the unsettling side of a God who cannot be understood.  

What We Learn 

1. We can’t know everything; maybe it’s best we didn’t.  

2. The Bible can be truthful without being factual. 

3. What we understand of God through Jesus paints a more intimate portrait.  

WHEN WE TRUST THAT GOD IS GOD, WE ARE FREE TO TRULY LIVE