Father God, we thank and praise you for the chance to gather.
We thank you for your word and that you are a God who wants us to know him.
You're a God who has revealed yourself.
And we ask that as we look at this chapter tonight, that you would give us insight, that your spirit would work, that we might hear what it is you are teaching us, Lord.
And ultimately, we ask that the result would be that we would know you better and see you more clearly.
Amen.
So as I said, we're in the middle of a rosy series in the book of Job.
It's just a small part of our wisdom series, but we are three weeks in now.
And so the question that I want to ask us is, what have we learned so far?
We are 28 chapters into the book, or 27 technically, not including today, chapters into the book.
We've heard argument and response from Job's friends and then back to Job.
But the question is, have these arguments actually taken us anywhere in this book?
Is Job any better off now than he was in the first two chapters?
For those of you who possibly are in your own times of difficulty or struggle or trial,
have the words of advice from Job's friends given you any light in your situation?
Have Job's responses shown you a path through your time of darkness?
I'm guessing probably not, because it feels like after 27 chapters,
the only progress that we've made is that Job's situation is now worse.
In chapters 1 and 2, we saw him lose his family, his house, his slaves, his livestock, his everything.
And you would think it can't get any worse, but all that's happened in the 25 chapters after that
is that Job has now a strained relationship with three of his friends,
because they are arguing with one another about the cause.
In fact, his own character is now on the line as well,
because they're saying, Job, it's your fault that you're suffering.
You've done something wrong and God is punishing you.
So rather than making the prospect of suffering seem somehow lighter,
if anything, the book of Job is making it seem worse.
Seeming like when you try and fix the problem when you're struggling,
you just spin the wheels and work your way down and down.
And look, the harsh reality of this book is that even once we reach the end of Job,
we still don't get an answer to his question,
why am I suffering?
We spent a bunch of time last week trying to figure it out,
but the reality is at the end of 42 chapters, God doesn't answer.
At least he doesn't answer that question.
He doesn't sit Job down and go, well, you know, I've got a plan.
I'm doing this here and this here and you fit in in this bit and it needs to happen.
He doesn't answer.
And that might be frustrating for you to hear,
especially if right at the moment you're in a time of your own pain.
But I need to be clear with you that if it's an answer to that question that you need,
Job won't give it to you.
If it's an answer to the question, why am I suffering?
Why is this happening to me?
The Bible does not offer it.
But chapter 28 has something better.
Chapter 28 doesn't give you what you might be looking for,
but I believe firmly that it offers you a better answer.
This chapter is different to every other chapter in Job.
This chapter jumps out of the conversation that's been happening back and forth between his friends.
This chapter is written like a poem.
It sits there in three distinct sections.
And it's basically Job's summary of what he has learnt over the course of his suffering.
It's Job's summary of his insight.
After all this back and forth and all this bad advice and everything that's happened,
this chapter is kind of like the high point of Job.
Even though it's not at the end, this is the pinnacle of his understanding of his situation.
And in this chapter, he gives us the key to growing through suffering.
The things that he shares with us in this chapter are the difference between us growing bitter
instead of growing better.
Now, Steve told us last week that suffering is compulsory in life if you're a follower of Jesus.
Reality is it's going to happen to just about everyone.
But if you're a follower of Jesus, suffering will come.
But he also told us that growing through that suffering is optional.
How you handle it when it comes, how you respond, that is in your court.
And here in this chapter, Job wants to give you his insight.
He wants to guide you in your time of difficulty and doubt.
And I've noticed in conversations over the last couple of weeks of this series
that a lot of us are suddenly realising we don't really know what it means to suffer.
Now, I'm not presuming that for everyone.
I know that there are some people in this room who have experienced more pain
than any of us would ever wish on our worst enemy.
But for some of us, we sit here and we live in comfy houses.
We have good families.
We have good jobs.
We have nice cars.
We have good public transport.
We have a meal all the time.
We have a great after party after church.
And it's hard for us to think through what would it mean to experience suffering.
But I want to tell you that having this insight now is really, really important.
And I'm going to show you why as we work our way through this book.
Two key things in this chapter that Job has discovered that he wants to share with you his insight.
First one is there in verse 1 all the way through to 19.
Wisdom cannot be found.
Job begins by marvelling at the incredible advances of man.
If you look there, he gets excited about how humans have mined the earth,
how they have discovered the precious riches of the world,
how they have harnessed natural resources as fuel and other things.
We're smarter than the animals.
They don't know what's going on under the surface of the ground,
but we can dig down and find things.
We've discovered things that no one else knows about.
And if we were to add to this hymn now,
remembering this was written thousands of years before Jesus,
we could add amazing advances like we've walked on the moon.
We've cured diseases and we seem to make progress each and every day.
Our capacity is increasing.
There's new inventions, new cures.
And you have to wonder,
will there come a time when we've discovered everything there is to discover?
That's kind of Job's point is we are discovering stuff.
We are figuring stuff out.
We are the pinnacle of creation
and we're working out how everything else around us works.
But in the midst of him going, wow, aren't we good?
His conclusion in verse 12 is still,
where can wisdom be found?
Even though we have learned so much,
even though we can figure out that there's things under the earth
that you can't see with your bare eyes,
where can wisdom be found?
See, we've increased our knowledge,
but wisdom still eludes us.
Wisdom and knowledge for Job are not necessarily the same thing.
Knowing information and living wisely are not necessarily directly related.
There might often be some overlap,
but here Job is saying all those discoveries don't count towards wisdom.
Now, it's worth us taking a step sideways at this point
and actually being clear what we mean when we say wisdom.
We need to define wisdom because that's what we're looking for.
That's what this series is about.
That's our goal.
And I want to say that wisdom is defined by purpose.
So living wisely has to be anchored to an ultimate goal or an ultimate purpose.
And see, our problem is that when we experience suffering in our lives,
our goal becomes immediate.
It becomes, I need to survive this suffering.
I need to escape this suffering.
I need to get to the other side.
And we lose sight of the fact that our lives actually have a purpose already.
Suffering doesn't change the purpose of our lives.
All of life, all of creation, all of the earth, all of you,
exists from God, for God, and to God.
The purpose of everything that exists is to glorify God.
That's why He made it.
The Bible says it's from Him, for Him, and to Him.
And therefore, wisdom is the ability to do that purpose.
The ability to give God the glory and honor that He deserves
in every situation and circumstance that we face, including suffering.
One writer defines wisdom a little bit more compactly than I do.
He calls it competence with regard to the realities of life.
The ability to handle reality.
And that's not a bad definition as long as we understand that the ultimate reality is God.
He is the thing that defines all other reality.
Let me give you a personal example of what this looks like in our own lives.
When I was about 14, I started to deal with my own family disintegrating.
So my parents' marriage fell apart.
My mum, she was already there, I guess, but she started living as an alcoholic.
My older brother moved out of the house.
And so me and my younger siblings were left living in the house with Dad's key card.
And basically, we went into survival mode.
It became about trying to just get through and act like we were normal
so that people weren't always asking, are you okay? Are you okay?
Okay.
So we wanted to go to school just like everyone else.
We wanted to pretend that we were fine, that everything was normal.
And the only way that I could think of to handle that situation was to blame my dad
and to harbor all this hatred towards him so that it was his fault.
And if it was his fault, then I was justified to do whatever I wanted without any consideration for him.
And I figured, I'm 14, I can't look after anyone else, so I'm just going to look after myself.
And so I didn't think about anyone else.
All I cared about was being normal and trying to pretend that my life was continuing on
and that this didn't affect me.
All I cared about was getting to the other side of this divorce and everything that was going on.
But can you see that God has a design that's bigger than that for me?
God's design, according to the Scriptures, is that I would forgive my family in spite of what they've done.
That I would honor my parents in spite of the mistakes that they had made.
That I would care for my younger siblings.
But worldly wisdom, the wisdom that we come up with, excuses me, doesn't it?
And I can see you.
In your eyes now, you're saying, it's okay, Sam.
You tried your hardest.
That was a difficult situation.
You did the best that you could.
But this isn't about whether I feel okay about it now.
This is to show you that when we figure out a situation, when we apply logic and reason,
the wisdom that we come up with isn't even close to true wisdom.
Because we become so absorbed in our situation and circumstance that we lose sight of the God-given purpose for our lives.
And if we fail in the day-to-day circumstances of life, how much more will we struggle when the flame of suffering is added into the process?
The first thing that Job has learned in his life and in his suffering is that wisdom cannot be found.
No amount of sitting around with his wise friends will enable him to figure out the best path forward.
No amount of sitting down and reflecting and applying reason will enable him to find wisdom and the path that God has designed for him.
No amount of effort will unveil wisdom for those who seek it.
Now, there's not much arguing this point when you look at the kind of advice that Job's three learned friends were giving.
Wisdom is certainly nowhere to be found in these early pages of Job.
But look at where this discovery leads him.
Having figured out that in his situation he can't find the answer for himself,
have a look at verse 20.
Where then does wisdom come from?
Where does understanding dwell?
If it can't be found, if I can't attain it somehow,
then where does it come from?
Because some people live wisely.
Some people live the lives that they were designed to by God.
In fact, I think Job has wisdom even though he doesn't realize it all the way through the book.
Job has it all along and so he wants to know where does wisdom come from?
As we wrestle with suffering and difficulty, how can we find a path through?
And the second thing that Job learns asking this question is that wisdom belongs to God.
Look at verse 21.
It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing, concealed even from the birds of the air.
Destruction and death say only a rumor of it has reached our ears.
God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells.
For he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.
When he established the force of the wind and measured out the waters,
when he made a decree for the rain and a path for the thunderstorm,
then he looked at wisdom and appraised it.
He confirmed it and tested it.
Wisdom is the domain of God alone.
Because if wisdom is understanding the realities of life,
all of those realities being accountable to him,
if wisdom is the ability to understand how our circumstance fits with someone else's circumstance
and how all of history is working together towards the ultimate aim of glorifying God,
then a necessary prerequisite for wisdom is to be able to see all of those circumstances,
is to have been there from the beginning and to be here till the end.
And God alone can claim that.
God alone is eternal.
God has laid out his plans and his plans are beyond our understanding.
Even if we could somehow raise ourselves up and look down on all of history,
we would lack the capacity to understand what it is that God is doing.
Even if God was to try and explain it to us,
it's beyond us.
There's a passage in Isaiah 55 that tells us exactly that.
It says in verse 8 of Isaiah 55,
Wisdom is not found in the details of our lives and our suffering.
It's not found in experience.
It's not learned from mistakes.
What we learn from mistakes is how to make new mistakes that we hadn't thought of before.
Wisdom belongs to God alone.
Because he alone can see all.
He alone knows all.
And he alone has mapped a path through all.
God is wisdom.
His ways are beyond our comprehension.
And so the key verse of this book,
and I think the key verse of all the wisdom books in Scripture,
is here in chapter 28 and verse 28.
Having looked at wisdom and appraised it,
having confirmed it and tested it,
God says to man,
The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.
And to shun evil is understanding.
God's told us what wisdom is.
He's unveiled the unfindable mystery.
Fear the Lord, shun evil.
It's so simple.
It's almost frustrating.
Maybe even a little unsatisfying.
If you were to put yourself into Job's shoes,
would this verse be an encouragement?
If you had just lost your family,
your house,
your health,
everything that you owned,
would fear me be an encouragement?
In the dark times in your own life,
as you wrestle with God,
demanding an answer for why this is happening,
would fear me be sufficient?
Because that's the only answer that God gives.
And the thing is,
for Job,
it was sufficient.
It took him some time to get there,
but for Job,
fear me was enough
for him to see the wise path
through his suffering.
And so with the time that we've got left,
I want to wrestle with you
with three questions.
If fear the Lord,
is the thing that we need,
not just when we suffer,
but in all of life,
if that is wisdom,
if that is the guiding principle
for us to live well,
then we need to ask the questions,
what does fear of the Lord look like?
In my life,
in my day to day,
what does it look like
to fear the Lord?
Secondly,
how do I do it?
How do I train myself?
How do I teach myself?
And lastly,
I just want to see
what difference does it make
to fear God
when I'm suffering?
How does that change anything
if I fear God?
Those three questions
I want to try and answer with you.
Firstly,
what does fear of the Lord look like?
Now,
when we hear the word fear
in the same sentence as God,
those of us
who have been around church
for a little while
really quickly want to get God
off the hook.
And so we want to soften off
that idea of fearing God
and so we add in fear God
but He's loving.
Fear God
but He's gracious.
Fear God
but He's merciful.
But before we start defining God
by the things
that we want to hear,
let's look at the Bible
and see if there are
some helpful examples
of what it looks like
to fear God.
You can scribble these down
to look at them
in more detail later on
if you want to.
You could go to Isaiah 6.
When Isaiah's eyes
behold God,
he falls down
on his face
in terror
knowing that
he is unworthy.
Knowing that
he is faced
with a holy God
who is powerful
and just
and has every right
to destroy Him
in that moment.
In Luke's gospel
when Jesus helps
the disciples
with a miraculous
catch of fish,
suddenly Peter
is confronted
with the holiness
and power
and majesty
of his Lord
and again
he falls on his knees
and he says
get away from me Lord.
I'm a sinful man.
I don't deserve
to even be
in your presence.
And finally
and perhaps
the most significant
example
is Jesus himself
is said
to fear the Lord.
In Isaiah chapter 11
this is prophesying
that Jesus would come
and it says this
the spirit of the Lord
will rest on him
the spirit of wisdom
and of understanding
the spirit of counsel
and of power
the spirit of knowledge
and of the fear
of the Lord.
And verse 3
and he will delight
in the fear
of the Lord.
Fear is not
necessarily
a negative description
in a relationship.
Jesus delights
in his fear
of God.
He delights
in it
and it's
the appropriate
response to God.
It's the inevitable
response to God.
When you
meet God
and you see him
for his glory
and majesty
and power
the creator
of the universe
the sustainer
of the universe
the one who is
over all things
the only right response
is to fall
on your knees
in fear.
But that doesn't
make it a negative thing.
It's not dissimilar
really to the way
that we relate
to our parents.
Our parents
love us
and care for us
mostly
love us
and care for us
and provide for us
and do all those
sort of things
but they also
discipline us
and we know
we have a healthy
fear
that we need
to live
according to the rules
that they have given us
or there are consequences.
It doesn't mean
that there's no love
but fear
is the right
way to relate
to somebody
who has
power and authority
over us
and that is the relationship
we have
with God.
So the result
of fearing God
is that we get
to see God
as most important.
We get to see
Him as the one
who is driving
the agenda
of our lives.
We get to see
Him as the one
whose agenda matters.
Fear of the Lord
enables us to care
about what He cares
about
and not just
what we care about.
It lifts our eyes
to Him
who is powerful
Him who is sovereign
Him who is in control
and fear of the Lord
enables us
to not need
all the answers
as to when
and why.
The answer
God gives
to Job
in this book
is
it's me.
I'm in control.
You don't need
to know
what's going
in this situation.
You just need
to remember
I'm God.
I've got
all the power
in the world.
There is nothing
that compares
to me.
I am good
beyond your wildest
dreams
and I love you
more than anything.
That's all
you need to know.
For Jesus
fearing God
meant trusting Him
and obeying Him
all the way
to the cross.
And for us
in our lives
it means
we trust God
and we obey Him
even when
and especially
when He doesn't
give us the details.
When He says
go
we go.
When He says
stop doing something
we stop doing it.
It means we trust God
even when He doesn't
need to give us
all the answers.
Can you see
that wisdom
cannot be
simply about
knowledge?
You cannot
learn this.
We don't come
to know God
simply by studying
not even just
by reading the Bible.
It's part of it
but not until
God reveals
Himself
in the Bible
by His Holy Spirit
are we able
to know His heart
and His mind
and His character.
And see
wisdom then
is more about
revelation.
It's more about
God showing us
Himself
and that becoming
the guiding principle
for our lives
because God
alone is wisdom
and only
as He makes
Himself known
can we share in it.
As I was studying
this passage
this week
and trying to
understand
what does this
mean in our
circumstances
what keeps this
from being just
a trite slap
in the face
that says
suck it up
when you're
suffering.
and I came
across this
story
which was
really helpful.
Apparently
in Wales
there's a
valley in
Wales
where they
raise sheep
tend sheep
whatever they
do with sheep
and they have
an issue
there with a
parasite
and if it's
left untreated
effectively
these sheep
will be eaten
alive by these
parasites.
And so what
the shepherds
are forced to
do
is once a
year they
gather the
sheep
and they
have to
submerge
them into
antiseptic.
This is not
something that
the sheep
look forward
to.
Sheep are
not swimmers
and in the
story they
explain that
basically the
shepherd's got to
force these
sheep into
the vat
and the dog
is on the
other side
barking at
them to
make sure
they don't
jump out
the other
side
and the
sheep's
trying to
spin around
and climb
back out
and the
shepherd has
to force
it under
head and
everything
eyes,
nose,
mouth,
all under
in the
antiseptic
before it
can be let
out and
put back out
to pasture
and you
feel this
tension that
the shepherd
cares for
his sheep.
He probably
wants to
explain why
he has to
do this.
If you could
just let
them know
why this
is helping
them.
But have
you ever
tried to
explain
something to
a sheep?
It doesn't
matter how
much you
want to
do it,
it's not
going to
work because
we operate
on a
different level
of reality
to sheep.
We understand
things that
they will
never understand.
We interact
with things,
we reason,
we logic in
ways that
they are not
capable of.
And it's
the same
with God
when he's
interacting with
us.
God exists
in a reality
that we
can't even
begin to
comprehend.
He is
eternal and
infinite.
And so
even if he
was to try
and explain
to us
why he's
doing things,
we couldn't
understand it
anyway.
And so
all we're
left with
is to
just look
at the
shepherd and
know that
the shepherd
looks after
us,
feeds us,
provides for
us,
and to
trust.
There is a
lot for us
to learn from
Job's journey
about what it
looks like to
fear God
because he
does go on
a journey.
This book
is 42
chapters long
because it
takes time
to wrestle
with the
things that
he is
wrestling with.
The truth
of God's
sovereignty
and character
doesn't switch
off the pain
that Job
is feeling.
It doesn't
make everything
suddenly better.
In fact,
if you look
at Job
chapter 1,
one of the
first things
we learn
about Job
is that he
fears the
Lord.
He's had
the wisdom
all along,
but it's
taken him
time for
that wisdom
to apply,
that wisdom
to shape
his steps.
He's been
through the
steps of
crying out
and yelling
at God
and demanding
answers.
And so
the Bible
is not
saying
wisdom
solves
everything.
The Bible
is not
saying
live well
and everything
will be
fine.
In your
pain and
in your
depression
and in
your suffering,
it is right
to grieve
and to mourn
and to feel
sad and
to cry
and everything
else that
goes with
dark times
in your
life.
What wisdom
does is
it shows
you the
path through
those times.
The Bible
licenses you
to feel
how you
feel.
As
Christians,
if anyone
ever says
to you,
you need
to smile
because the
Bible says
rejoice,
I give you
permission to
slap them
lovingly.
Because
Job is
red from
weeping.
he's
sitting on
the ground
scratching at
his saws
with a
piece of
pottery
and it
takes time
to process
things.
Job's
fear of
God
allows him
to ask
questions
but not
deny God.
Job refuses
to curse
the God
who made
heaven and
earth even
though his
wife says
that's what
he should
do.
Job's
fear of
God means
that he
will not
doubt the
character of
God's
goodness and
mercy even
though his
friends spend
27 chapters
trying to
convince him
that it's
his fault
and God
is angry.
That's a
really crude
summary of
the first
part of
Job but
it's not
that far
off the
mark.
But because
Job fears
God,
because Job
knows God,
he refuses
to doubt the
character of
God's
goodness.
And Job's
fear is
enough of an
anchor to
keep him from
falling into
complete despair
and giving
up on
life itself.
One of the
amazing things
through the
book of
Job, and
Steve pointed
it out last
week, is
that progressively
as Job
responds to
his friends,
he gets
more confident.
At the
beginning he
wants to
die.
He says,
God, just
kill me.
That'd be
better.
But by
the end, or
by chapter
19 even,
he's able to
cry out,
my Redeemer
lives.
And do
you know
why?
Each time
his friends
try and
accuse him
of something,
each time
his friends
offer false
wisdom and
bad advice,
he's forced
to go back
to the God
who he
fears.
He's forced
to go back
to the
ultimate reality
for his
life, the
ultimate
purpose, and
he starts
saying,
no, you're
wrong because
my God is
loving.
No, you're
wrong because
my God
saved his
people out
of Egypt.
No, you're
wrong because
I know my
God.
And as
he reminds
himself of
God's
character,
he's able
to say with
confidence,
my Redeemer
lives.
He knows
that God
will save
him because
that's who
God is.
On the
basis of
the God
that he
followed,
Job
persevered.
Even though
by the end
of the book
he still
can't see
why it
happened,
even though
he still
can't see
what God
is doing
and remember
we get
to see
behind the
scenes.
We know
that God
is showing
off.
It's what
the book
of Job
is.
It's God
showing off
that he
is more
satisfying
than anything
in the
world.
Satan's
trying to
convince him,
no, Job
will give
up on
you, he
won't go
the distance,
but God
says,
no, I
know Job
and he
knows me
and no
matter what
you take
off him,
if he
has me,
he will
stay true.
And our
hope's no
different.
we don't
need
details
in our
life
because we've
got plenty
to base
our trust
in God
on.
In good
times and in
bad times,
we can look
to Jesus.
When we
suffer, we can
look to the
one who
suffered for
us.
When we are
unsure, we can
look to the
one who reveals
God completely.
We can look
to the one
who shows us
the character
of God,
who shows
the mercy
and the compassion and the holiness and the majesty and the humility
and the sovereignty and the power and the unfailing love,
we can look to Jesus.
As followers of Jesus, you can be sure that suffering will come.
We can be sure that life will kick us when we're down,
but in Jesus we find the wisdom of God so that we can not just survive,
but we can live and flourish and rejoice even in those deepest, darkest moments.
I think it's really important that Job begins,
the book of Job begins by telling us that Job feared the Lord,
that he already had the wisdom.
I want you to think right now, you are not yet facing suffering.
You are Job in chapter 1 before Satan rocks up and starts causing trouble.
It matters that we learn to fear the Lord in the good times and the mediocre times
and the middle of the road times in preparation for when suffering comes.
Because the God that you know now is the God that will need to sustain you
when everything else is gone.
The Bible more than allows you to have sad emotions.
If anything, I think it affirms it.
So if you need to cry sometimes, do it.
But I think the key in this chapter to growing wise in suffering
is being able to let go of that question, why?
Being able to let go of that need to know the details.
Because God hasn't answered that question.
God hasn't promised to give you the details and even if he did,
you couldn't do anything with them.
You couldn't comprehend them.
The key to growing wise in suffering,
the key to being wise in your life is not knowing everything that's coming.
It's fixing your eyes on Jesus.
Fixing your eyes on a God who is love.
On a God who is just.
On a God who gave his only son
so that you would know how much you matter to him.
Maybe like Job, when you face trial,
you will need to remind yourself of the God that you follow.
Of his love and of his grace and of his sacrifice.
And so I want to finish up by reminding you tonight
because I'm sure that some of us,
even now,
are crying out to God,
why?
Why is this happening?
And so I want you to hear the words of hope and confidence
and peace that we have in our risen Savior from Romans chapter 8.
What then shall we say in response to this?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own son,
but gave him up for us all,
how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things?
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?
It is God who justifies.
Who is he that condemns?
Christ Jesus who died.
More than that, who was raised to life,
is at the right hand of God
and is also interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall trouble or hardship or persecution
or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
As it is written,
for your sake we face death all day long.
We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
But no,
in all these things we are more than conquerors
through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future,
nor any powers,
neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation
will be able to separate us
from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Nothing can separate us
from the love of God.
When suffering comes,
fear God.
Remember the God
who gave everything for you
and he and his answer
will be sufficient.
That's why it is出来uma
not on purpose,
happen to life.
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