Confidence Shaken
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Job Narrative Lectionary Summer 2020 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 8:33
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· 78 viewsJob's life has been utterly destroyed, and yet he doesn't curse God. For me though that's not the real issue here. God still has confidence in Job. Job is really hurting, and God knows that the goodness that is in Job will not disappear. God has the same confidence in us -- we may hurt at times -- yet God has confidence that we can find the goodness that is in us.
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Poor Job
Poor Job
I can’t imagine being in Job’s shoes. After losing all that he had — his possessions, his children — in other words, his present and his future — as if that wasn’t bad enough, Satan get’s further permission from God to afflict Job.
If you don’t remember last week, we looked at the beginning of the story of Job, and Satan was given permission by God to test Job — to test his faith. Satan was sure that Job would curse God in he lost his present and his future. Job didn’t. Somehow he remained faithful. He was hurt, but he didn’t blame God for all that happened to him.
What we didn’t hear in the readings was the beginning of chapter 2:
So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes.
The sores on Job’s body are so bad, that his wife comes to him, suggests that Job should curse God, so that God would take his life and end his suffering.
It looks so bad, that when three of Job’s friends come to see him, they don’t even recognize him at first. It truly is awful.
Job’s friends
Job’s friends
Job’s friends are of no help.
Eliphaz’s words are no source of comfort:
“Think now, who that was innocent ever perished?
Or where were the upright cut off?
As I have seen, those who plow iniquity
and sow trouble reap the same.
By the breath of God they perish,
and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.
Job just wants to be left alone
Job just wants to be left alone
While if this pandemic has taught us anything, it might have taught us how much we really value human connection.
However Job, in the midst of his sores, in the midst of his distress, just wants to be left alone — and not left alone by his friends — but left alone by God.
What are human beings, that you make so much of them,
that you set your mind on them,
visit them every morning,
test them every moment?
Will you not look away from me for a while,
let me alone until I swallow my spittle?
… left alone
… left alone
Now granted, it may not be a long time that Job wants to be left alone for, but it is clear that he’s appealing out to just be by himself … and he’s appealing for God to leave him alone.
The depth of his pain, the depth of his anguish, the depth of his hurt is so much that he wants to just be alone — and alone from God.
Now we probably won’t ever be able to solve the question of why bad things happen to good people — we can only guess at why there is suffering in the world — we do believe in a God who is good — and I believe in a God who would never inflict such suffering on anyone.
If anything, I cling to something that God says twice about Job at this point:
The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason.”
God’s confidence
God’s confidence
God has confidence in Job’s goodness. I believe that to be true of God about all of us. I believe that God has confidence in the goodness that is in me — that is in you. While we may not feel at times like we live up to the standard Job has set, God is still confident that we can find the good within us.
Let’s not live lives where we focus on sin, on the things we’ve done wrong, on the things others have done wrong. Let’s live lives where we are examples of the goodness that is in us.
For Job it was probably hard for him to find it — and for God it was still evident. For us, it might be hard to find it — and for God it is still evident. For God’s confidence in us, even when we don’t have confidence in ourselves, we give thanks. Amen.