1. People Who Are Suffering Are Looking for Answers

A. They go to Job because they think the book's theme is suffering and Job gives us the answer.

1. The theme of the book of God, not suffering

2. Job gives us only a few answers to the problem of suffering

3. Job's overriding theme is that god is big enough to help us when life caves in

B. The Old Testament is rich in its teaching about suffering, yet we do not find a detailed theology of suffering

1. What we find is a sharing of the experiences of people who have suffered and what we can learn from it

2. Jacob suffered because he disobeyed God and made his way through his early life conning people

3. Joseph suffered because his godly life caused others to hate him; suffering prepared him for the great things god was going to bring his way

4. Israel suffered because they sinned and violated God's covenant. Their suffering revealed to all how much God cared for them, even when they had strayed from His path

5. But this was not the case with Job. He was moral, godly and had a blameless reputation

C. God Himself states that He had no reason to afflict Job (Job 2:3); yet God put him through trials that few people could endure

II. Job Had Normal Feelings About His Trial

A. At times he wished to die, he wished he had never been born

1. I understand why Job wanted to die

2. He lost his wealth, his health, his children and possibly even his wife

3. He had faith in the living god but when he turned to Him for help - He wasn't there

4. He cried out to a silent heaven - why do you hide your face and consider me your enemy (13:24)

B. Satan had accused Job of being a rice Christian

1. Job only served God because God had served Job

2. Job doesn't serve you God because he loves you, sneered Satan.

3. Put him to the test and see if what you say about him is really true

4. Can God gain man's love totally apart from His gifts?

C. Our relationship to God must be based on the 'commercial'

1. By that I mean we must love the giver, not his gifts

2. How do we respond to God when we lose our jobs, our investments, our loved ones and our health?

III. Consider that Job Paid a Great Price for You and Me

A. Because job lost everything and by his suffering proved God a liar, we don't have to lose everything

1. Remember, Job did not question the fact of his suffering but the extent of his suffering

2. He didn't feel he was above the difficult circumstances of life, he just couldn't understand the amount of suffering he had to endure

3. Add that to the fact he felt God was far from him and that he was unable to communicate with him (19:7)

4. With this great burden of heart, he cried out for a lawyer (9:33)

B. The Only Thing Job had left was His Faith in God

1. Had Job known what was going on behind the scenes between God and Satan, he would have responded differently

2. But it was important that Job not know because God wanted him to walk by faith, the same as us

3. Because Job suffered and did not know, we can suffer today because we do know

C. Robert Frost, in his poem, " A Masque of Reason" has God saying to Job,

1. But it was of the essence of the trial

You shouldn't understand it at the time

It had to seem unmeaning to have meaning

2. Why? Because where this is "unmeaning" there must be faith

3. If we trust God, it must be because we know He is the kind of a person to be trusted, even though we may not always understand what He is doing

IV. Job's Friends Had a Commercial View of Faith

A. His friends became Satan's helpers

1. They were saying, "If you obey God, He will bless you"

2. Since Job was undergoing trial, he must be a secret sinner or God wouldn't be dealing with him so harshly

3. They were say, "Job, confess your sins and get right with God and He will prosper you once again."

B. That philosophy is a doctrine from the gates of hell

1. If you do what is right, you will escape pain and receive manifold blessings

2. Do we obey God to get material blessing, or do we obey Him because we honor and love Him, even if He permits pain to come into our lives?

3. When a person practices "commercial faith", he has only two options when life caves in on him.

C. You can bargain with God to change the circumstances

1. Or you can blame God for breaking the contract and thus refuse to serve Him

2. Job refused both options, he blessed God (1:21)

V. There Were Times He Vented His Hurt (7:16)

A. Job wanted to die and be rid of His pain

1. He felt his life now had no meaning. He had lost all his possessions, he was now helpless and needed help for himself

2. He had lost the respect and love of his wife

3. He had lost 10 children all at once, can anyone even imagine his sense of loss and bereavement?

4. Think of it this way, even with all His loss, if a person had their health, they work to regain this wealth.

5. They can start a new family, even get a new wife

6. But even Job's health was taken from him

7. No one, other than Jesus Himself, suffered more than this man Job

B. So Jos was only being human when he wanted his life to be over and to have this anguish to end.

1. It was only normal for Job to vent his feelings

2. God remembers our frame - it is only dust

3. We need to be honest with God, He knows how you really feel anyhow. Tell him you are hurting, ask for His comfort

C. Beware of cut and dried theological formulas about suffering. God often does the unexplainable to keep us humble and broken before Him (Is. 55:8)

1. God purposes are often hidden from us, He doesn't owe us any explanation. We owe Him our love and obedience.