Sermons
Pentecost 11, August 9 - Job 38:4–18
Other Lessons: Psalm 18:1–6 (7–16) Romans 10:5–17 Matthew 14:22–33
The book of Job is a somewhat difficult book to read, mainly because it is poetry, with long discourses back and forth in poetic form between Job and his 3 friends, making it hard to track their arguments. And even here, when God speaks and responds to them all, it is still written in poetic form, and a small portion of that is selected for our lectionary. Nevertheless, with God’s final word here, he shows himself not only as the supreme creator with ultimate authority and power over all things, but that he is also a redeemer, one who would ransom and save Job from sin and death and even the devil, and finally as the one who gives eternal life.
The whole story begins with Satan daring to challenge God’s claim with regard to Job’s character and faith. Satan, which actually means “adversary, slanderer, accuser” (devil is the Latin equivalent), says to God in ch1, “You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face. (1:10-11)” God then allows Satan to destroy all that he has, including all his possessions and even his ten sons and daughters. Chapter 1 then concludes with these words: “20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshipped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away blessed be the name of the Lord.” 22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.” But Satan challenged God a 2nd time, claiming that Job did not sin only because he was not bodily afflicted. So again God lets Satan afflict Job so that now his whole body is covered in “loathsome sores”. Even so, he did not sin against God. But the real challenge (quite ironically) is from his so-called friends, who initially seemed to sympathize and have pity on Job, but throughout most of the book, they turned out to be more like agents of Satan than anything else. All throughout the exchange, they are trying to convince Job that what he’s experiencing is clearly God’s wrath against some unconfessed sin. They “know” this based on their the experience of forefathers, personal experience, and visions (3 categories of “knowledge” according to the 3 friends but not according to God’s word), and therefore they concluded that Job should just admit his wrongdoings. It is after 20 chapters of this back and forth that Job finally had enough and overstates his innocence and righteousness, to the point that he was calling God unjust and unforgiving. A fourth friend chimes in rebuking all of their wrong ideas about how God works, including Job and the other 3 friends. Then finally we get to our reading today in chapter 38, in which God speaks and has the final word.
Pretty much from chapter 38 until the end of 41 God asks Job a series of rhetorical questions, primarily regarding creation and the order of the world. Notice that God does not explain why Job suffered (although it is made known to us readers), nor does God justifies himself in letting Job suffer, and neither does he confirm Job’s claim of innocence or his own personal righteousness. God doesn’t answer any of Job’s question or complaints because God doesn’t need to as though God owes him anything. Through a series of rhetorical questions, God shows himself to be beyond our power, intellect, or wisdom, so that even if he should explain anything, Job would probably not comprehend. And even if he does comprehend, what is he going to do?
Herein lies the dilemma of this book. Why does God only ask a bunch of questions that clearly no one can answer? What is God trying to prove? Is God trying to bombard Job with unanswerable questions so that he doesn’t actually have to answer Job’s questions? Does God just randomly let the devil do whatever he wants with us? If the devil is allowed to mess around with a pious man like Job, one whom God himself commends, how can we know that we will not face the same harassments and afflictions? Wouldn’t it better to be less pious so that we don’t draw their attention too much, so that they would leave us alone?
In reading the book of Job, our true fears are revealed. We fear suffering. We fear the suffering of losing what we have built up, our wealth, possession, property, money, and everything else that we have accumulated in this life like Job who lost everything from raiders and fire from heaven. All the things that we worked hard for, all the time and effort and energy that were spent, can suddenly disappear in a moment. There’s also the fear of losing loved ones, like Job who lost all his sons and daughters together from a great wind that collapsed the house that they were in. The sadness, sorrow, and grief can overwhelm us emotionally. And we also fear bodily ailment, sickness, disease, bad health, aging, which can also happen so suddenly without notice.
Indeed, we fear these things, we fear evil, and as this book shows us, we may also fear the devil whom God allows to wreak havoc upon the believers, even if only in this life. But I think the greatest fear in reading Job is the fact that God allowed all these things to happen. This is the worst fear, to fear suffering under the hand of God, and more specifically, to fear God as a capricious, unpredictable, whimsical supreme being who is generally nice, but who knows what he will do. This kind of fear is the unholy kind of fear. It is the kind of fear that is not based on faith. It certainly believes God, but it does not believe a good and gracious God. It is the kind of fear that makes you stay away from God, hide from him, and do all kinds of things to keep him away, just like Adam and Eve who hid themselves and tried to cover themselves with their handmade coverings of fig leaves, which were desperately inadequate. When you believe in such a God, where can you hide? Where can you run? To whom can you call for help? How can you get on his “good side”?
When God through the prophets tell us to fear him, he was not talking about this kind of fear, a kind of fear that comes from a lack of proper knowledge of who God is. Luther’s explanation of the first commandment offers great insight for the church. He explains that we are to “fear, love, and trust” in God above all things. These 3 things work together to inform us our proper relationship to God. This fear that God desires from us is shaped by love and trust of God, and vice versa.
But how do we love him or trust him? We have these only when we are in Christ. As John says in his first letter chapter 4: “8 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.” The same apostle also writes in his Gospel: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (the “so” should be understood as “in this way).” This is how God loves the world – he gave his son as a ransom, as the blood price, the payment for sin and death, through which also released the clutches of the devil. For now there is no more condemnation as Paul says in Rm8. There is no condemnation, then there cannot be any accusation. The devil has actually formally lost his job, he has no say in the heavenly courtroom of God, though he still continues to lie outside of that courthouse in order deceive and make people believe his accusations. We don’t need to listen to him since God has now given his word to us, written and preserved for our ears. And so Paul wriest at the end Rm8 saying, “ 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” Not only has Jesus taken our sins so that there is no accusation or condemnation, but because now he is risen from the dead and ascended on high at the right hand of God, he intercedes for us, he defends us, he justifies, he speaks good words for us before God.
In the cross of Jesus Christ, we are shown that God is not capricious, unpredictable, or whimsical, but that he was faithful throughout all human history to fulfill his plan of salvation, to bring about the forgiveness of sins. Through the cross of Jesus, God redeems and saves this fallen world. Through the suffering of his own son, God overcomes the world and all the evil and sin and death, and he conquers the devil for us.
True and proper fear of God must and can only come when we see God hanging on the tree for the forgiveness of our own sins. By seeing Jesus on the cross can we then have the right kind of fear for God, the fear that is reverence and love and trust in him. When you have the true fear of God, then you will fear nothing else. Therefore Paul concludes in Rm8: “35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? … 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
And when you have fear of nothing else, when you only fear God with love and trust, then you will hear him say, as we heard him say to his beloved disciples in our Gospel today: “Do not be afraid!” When you have thrown out all the wrong fears, the bad fears, when you have thrown out the fear of this and that of this world, when the only fear left in you is the true fear of God, and then God says to you “Do not be afraid!” What then is left but comfort and peace?
In the old testament reading for today, God asks a series of questions not in order to overwhelm and crush Job and all his believers, but that he desires that we all learn to fear, love, and trust in him. We grow in Christ as we continue to be immersed in the word of God, to hear Christ crucified for us, to hear the forgiveness of sins, to hear the giving of the Holy Spirit and faith and all the fruits of the spirit. In Christ then we will not be afraid, but will live in peace and joy.
Other Lessons: Psalm 18:1–6 (7–16) Romans 10:5–17 Matthew 14:22–33
The book of Job is a somewhat difficult book to read, mainly because it is poetry, with long discourses back and forth in poetic form between Job and his 3 friends, making it hard to track their arguments. And even here, when God speaks and responds to them all, it is still written in poetic form, and a small portion of that is selected for our lectionary. Nevertheless, with God’s final word here, he shows himself not only as the supreme creator with ultimate authority and power over all things, but that he is also a redeemer, one who would ransom and save Job from sin and death and even the devil, and finally as the one who gives eternal life.
The whole story begins with Satan daring to challenge God’s claim with regard to Job’s character and faith. Satan, which actually means “adversary, slanderer, accuser” (devil is the Latin equivalent), says to God in ch1, “You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face. (1:10-11)” God then allows Satan to destroy all that he has, including all his possessions and even his ten sons and daughters. Chapter 1 then concludes with these words: “20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshipped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away blessed be the name of the Lord.” 22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.” But Satan challenged God a 2nd time, claiming that Job did not sin only because he was not bodily afflicted. So again God lets Satan afflict Job so that now his whole body is covered in “loathsome sores”. Even so, he did not sin against God. But the real challenge (quite ironically) is from his so-called friends, who initially seemed to sympathize and have pity on Job, but throughout most of the book, they turned out to be more like agents of Satan than anything else. All throughout the exchange, they are trying to convince Job that what he’s experiencing is clearly God’s wrath against some unconfessed sin. They “know” this based on their the experience of forefathers, personal experience, and visions (3 categories of “knowledge” according to the 3 friends but not according to God’s word), and therefore they concluded that Job should just admit his wrongdoings. It is after 20 chapters of this back and forth that Job finally had enough and overstates his innocence and righteousness, to the point that he was calling God unjust and unforgiving. A fourth friend chimes in rebuking all of their wrong ideas about how God works, including Job and the other 3 friends. Then finally we get to our reading today in chapter 38, in which God speaks and has the final word.
Pretty much from chapter 38 until the end of 41 God asks Job a series of rhetorical questions, primarily regarding creation and the order of the world. Notice that God does not explain why Job suffered (although it is made known to us readers), nor does God justifies himself in letting Job suffer, and neither does he confirm Job’s claim of innocence or his own personal righteousness. God doesn’t answer any of Job’s question or complaints because God doesn’t need to as though God owes him anything. Through a series of rhetorical questions, God shows himself to be beyond our power, intellect, or wisdom, so that even if he should explain anything, Job would probably not comprehend. And even if he does comprehend, what is he going to do?
Herein lies the dilemma of this book. Why does God only ask a bunch of questions that clearly no one can answer? What is God trying to prove? Is God trying to bombard Job with unanswerable questions so that he doesn’t actually have to answer Job’s questions? Does God just randomly let the devil do whatever he wants with us? If the devil is allowed to mess around with a pious man like Job, one whom God himself commends, how can we know that we will not face the same harassments and afflictions? Wouldn’t it better to be less pious so that we don’t draw their attention too much, so that they would leave us alone?
In reading the book of Job, our true fears are revealed. We fear suffering. We fear the suffering of losing what we have built up, our wealth, possession, property, money, and everything else that we have accumulated in this life like Job who lost everything from raiders and fire from heaven. All the things that we worked hard for, all the time and effort and energy that were spent, can suddenly disappear in a moment. There’s also the fear of losing loved ones, like Job who lost all his sons and daughters together from a great wind that collapsed the house that they were in. The sadness, sorrow, and grief can overwhelm us emotionally. And we also fear bodily ailment, sickness, disease, bad health, aging, which can also happen so suddenly without notice.
Indeed, we fear these things, we fear evil, and as this book shows us, we may also fear the devil whom God allows to wreak havoc upon the believers, even if only in this life. But I think the greatest fear in reading Job is the fact that God allowed all these things to happen. This is the worst fear, to fear suffering under the hand of God, and more specifically, to fear God as a capricious, unpredictable, whimsical supreme being who is generally nice, but who knows what he will do. This kind of fear is the unholy kind of fear. It is the kind of fear that is not based on faith. It certainly believes God, but it does not believe a good and gracious God. It is the kind of fear that makes you stay away from God, hide from him, and do all kinds of things to keep him away, just like Adam and Eve who hid themselves and tried to cover themselves with their handmade coverings of fig leaves, which were desperately inadequate. When you believe in such a God, where can you hide? Where can you run? To whom can you call for help? How can you get on his “good side”?
When God through the prophets tell us to fear him, he was not talking about this kind of fear, a kind of fear that comes from a lack of proper knowledge of who God is. Luther’s explanation of the first commandment offers great insight for the church. He explains that we are to “fear, love, and trust” in God above all things. These 3 things work together to inform us our proper relationship to God. This fear that God desires from us is shaped by love and trust of God, and vice versa.
But how do we love him or trust him? We have these only when we are in Christ. As John says in his first letter chapter 4: “8 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.” The same apostle also writes in his Gospel: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (the “so” should be understood as “in this way).” This is how God loves the world – he gave his son as a ransom, as the blood price, the payment for sin and death, through which also released the clutches of the devil. For now there is no more condemnation as Paul says in Rm8. There is no condemnation, then there cannot be any accusation. The devil has actually formally lost his job, he has no say in the heavenly courtroom of God, though he still continues to lie outside of that courthouse in order deceive and make people believe his accusations. We don’t need to listen to him since God has now given his word to us, written and preserved for our ears. And so Paul wriest at the end Rm8 saying, “ 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” Not only has Jesus taken our sins so that there is no accusation or condemnation, but because now he is risen from the dead and ascended on high at the right hand of God, he intercedes for us, he defends us, he justifies, he speaks good words for us before God.
In the cross of Jesus Christ, we are shown that God is not capricious, unpredictable, or whimsical, but that he was faithful throughout all human history to fulfill his plan of salvation, to bring about the forgiveness of sins. Through the cross of Jesus, God redeems and saves this fallen world. Through the suffering of his own son, God overcomes the world and all the evil and sin and death, and he conquers the devil for us.
True and proper fear of God must and can only come when we see God hanging on the tree for the forgiveness of our own sins. By seeing Jesus on the cross can we then have the right kind of fear for God, the fear that is reverence and love and trust in him. When you have the true fear of God, then you will fear nothing else. Therefore Paul concludes in Rm8: “35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? … 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
And when you have fear of nothing else, when you only fear God with love and trust, then you will hear him say, as we heard him say to his beloved disciples in our Gospel today: “Do not be afraid!” When you have thrown out all the wrong fears, the bad fears, when you have thrown out the fear of this and that of this world, when the only fear left in you is the true fear of God, and then God says to you “Do not be afraid!” What then is left but comfort and peace?
In the old testament reading for today, God asks a series of questions not in order to overwhelm and crush Job and all his believers, but that he desires that we all learn to fear, love, and trust in him. We grow in Christ as we continue to be immersed in the word of God, to hear Christ crucified for us, to hear the forgiveness of sins, to hear the giving of the Holy Spirit and faith and all the fruits of the spirit. In Christ then we will not be afraid, but will live in peace and joy.
