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BY GLENN PEASE
NOTE: For messages on suffering in Job, see the book
ISSUES OF SUFFERING.
CONTENTS
1. THE COURTROOM OF HEAVEN Based on Job 1:6-12
2. JOB'S WIFE Based on Job 2:1-13
3. THE SAINT IN DEPRESSION Based on Job 3
4. DOWN IN
THE DUMPS based on Job 3
5. SINFUL SYMPATHY
Based on Job 4
6. SANCTIFIED SYMPATHY Based on Job 4
7. JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS Based on Job 5
8. DISCOURAGING COMFORT Based on Job 5
9. JUSTIFIABLE COMPLAINT Based on Job 6
10. SELF DEFENSE Based on Job 6
12. JOB AND SELF-ESTEEM Based on Job 27:1-6
13. THE TREASURES OF THE SNOW Job
37:1-14 and 38:22
14. A HAPPY ENDING Based on Job 42:1-6
1. THE COURTROOM OF HEAVEN Based on Job 1:6-12
The FBI has some amazing ways of bringing criminals to
justice. One of these ways is by means
of the Petrographic Unit of their famed laboratory in Washington, D. C. This unit is devoted to the analysis and
identification of different kinds of soil.
They know what soil is from a South Dakota corn field, or a moss
cranberry bog, or an Arizona desert. By
analyzing the mud on a mans shoes, or from the underside of his car fender,
they can tell where he has been.
For example: In March
of 1960 a car had been abandoned near the dump in Atlantic City, New
Jersey. It had been set afire and
burned out. The FBI took samples of the
soil under the fender, and they sent it to this Petrographic Unit. The soil revealed that that car had come
from Morrison, Colorado, where Adolf Coors III had been kidnapped and murdered
less than five weeks before. This
evidence put the FBI on the trail of Joseph Corbett Jr., owner of the car, who
is now serving a life sentence. The mud
under his fenders led to the discovery of the corruption in his heart. The FBI has developed some marvelous methods
to get their man.
Satan, in the book of Job, is portrayed as a sort of FBI agent
of the spirit world. He walks to and
fro upon the earth like a spy seeking to detect some evidence to show that even
the best of men are no good. It is not
just the guilty he is after, but the innocent.
Satan seems to have a compulsion to prove that all goodness is mere
sham. He feels that righteousness is only a racket, and that men
are pious only because it pays. God has
a different view of man, however, and he proudly calls attention to his
righteousness servant Job. Satan
clearly despises Job whom God so admires.
Satan is a pessimist about man in general, and Job in particular. He knows he could prove that Job is a pious
hypocrite. He just needed to the
freedom to put him to the test. He is
saying to God, "Just let me analyze the soil is he make of, and I can
prove he is rotten to the core. By his
own mouth he will reveal his guilt, for he will curse you."
We are comparing Satan with the FBI, but he is really more
like the diabolical secret police, or Gestapo, who are determined to ensnare
the innocent, and prove that the loyal are really enemies of the state. God thinks Job is an ideal man, loyal and
loving and committed to what is good.
Satan is the great accuser who says it is all a hypocritical facade. God does not ignore this accusation, but
takes it seriously, for Satan appears to be a servant of God. His duty is to investigate, and bring back
reports to the court of heaven. God does not scold or rebuke, but gives him
greater power to test his theory, and get more evidence. Satan is like a prosecuting attorney in the
court of heaven.
Before we pursue this case, and the methods used by the
prosecuting attorney to prove Job was a scoundrel, we need to do a little FBI
work ourselves, and investigate this zealous accuser. A slang expression for confusion is appropriate here, as we
ask: Who the devil is this Satan who
marches into the presence of God with these charges against Job? We are forced by the book of Job to confess
how ignorant we are about Satan, and his function in God's total plan. It is not wise to be ignorant about one
whose job it is to know everything about you.
The CIA of our nation has spies in the Intelligence agencies of other
nations so we can know what they know about us. If you don't know what your enemy knows about you, he has an
advantage over you. Paul said this of
Satan in II Cor. 2:11. He said we are
not ignorant of Satan's devices, or designs.
The purpose was to keep Satan from gaining the advantage over us. Paul is saying, what you don't know can hurt
you.
Job did not know that Satan had accused him of serving God for
the profit in it. He was at a
tremendous disadvantage because of this lack of knowledge. We have this information, however, and we
can see what Job never did. Satan's
primary function is that of man's accuser.
God is for man, and Satan is the opponent of man. The Jews have an ancient tradition that
Scripture seems to support. They say that
Satan fell because of his jealousy of man.
This would explain why he tempted man to fall. God made him a marvelous being of glory, but he became envious
when God made man in His own image, and began to devote so much love and
attention to man, as the crown of His creation.
Cain envied Able because God accepted Able's offering, and not
his own. This led to murder. It is generally believed that Satan hated
God first, and that was the motive to get man to oppose God and rebel. But, as the International Standard Bible
Encyclopedia points out, there are more scriptures that suggest, "Satan's
jealousy and hatred of manhas led him into antagonism to God, and consequently
to goodness." This fits the
picture we have in Job, and most all of the Old Testament. Satan is a servant of God, but by the time
we get to the New Testament, he is a total enemy of God, and the reason is
clearly due to the opposition Satan took to man. God is determined to love and save man, but Satan is determined
to destroy man.
The New Testament supports this view by showing Satan to be
the chief opponent of the plan of salvation.
He alone could hinder it, and in the book of Revelation, in 12:10 we
read this description of Satan's being cast out of heaven. "I heard a loud voice in heaven,
saying, now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the
authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been
thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God." Satan has always been man's great enemy, and
Jesus is the only defense attorney who can help him escape the charges, for
Satan is right when he accuses man, and man's only hope is pardon through the
blood of Christ.
Satan was wrong in his accusation against Job. Had he just accused him of being a sinner,
he would have been accurate. Satan was
really out to get Job as a fraud, but Job was good and loyal to God that Satan
could not tolerate it. Job was
destroying Satan's whole plot to undermine God's faith in man. Satan had to prove that Job was a pious
hypocrite, to prove all righteousness of men was a sham. At its very core, the book of Job reveals a
battle over the worst and dignity of man.
Satan argues he is worthless, and not worth saving. God takes the position that men can be
faithful, and pass any test they have to go through. Here were the two views of man, and Job was the one who would
prove either Satan or God the wisest, and the best judge of the worth of
mankind.
How Job responds to this test will determine if Satan's
pessimism should govern the destiny of man, or God's optimism. As the Advocate and Accuser of mankind watch
Job, it is a good thing he didn't know what was going on in heaven, for such a
responsibility would frighten anyone into panic. This glimpse into the court of
heaven is worth the focus of our attention for a few minutes.
Presidents call their cabinets together, and kings call
their courts and nobles together for counsel.
Leaders and authorities in all walks of life meet with others to hear
reports and make decisions. This
pattern, according to Scripture, is also followed in heaven. The implications are, God has multitudes of
servants, active in all parts of His vast universe, which is beyond our
comprehension. These servants come
before God from time to time to report.
All of the millions and billions of spiritual beings God has created are
not idle, but are active, an Satan is but one of these servants, here in Job.
This strikes us as being very unusual, but this concept is
referred to many times in the Old Testament.
God is supreme ruler over a host of celestial beings who are sometimes
called gods. When Satan is called the
god of this world, it is easy to see how this planet was assigned to him, by
God, in the counsel halls of heaven.
Listen to some of these verses from the Psalms. Psa. 86:8, "There is none like thee
among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like thine." Psa. 96:4, "For the Lord is great and
greatly to be praised. He is to be
revered above all gods." Psa.
135:5, "For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all
gods." These gods, so often
referred to, are obviously the celestial members of God's heavenly
counsel. They are gods, or rulers, over
various parts of God's creation. Satan
being the god of this world. All of
these gods are created beings who are servants of Jehovah.
We have to use our imagination, but just think of the great
assemblies among men. The supreme
court, the congress, the U. N., and imagine how much more impressive the gathering
of those ambassadors of God, who have come back to the court of heaven from the
far corners of the universe. God rules
the universe through a great host of principalities and powers in heavenly
places. We know very little about the
vast complex government of God's total universe. Psa. 82:1 gives us just a glimpse. "God has taken His place in the divine council; in the midst
of the gods He holds judgment."
This is the real Supreme Court.
Psa. 89:6-7 says, "For who in the skies can be compared to the
Lord? Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord, a God feared in the
council of the holy ones, great and terrible above all that are round about
Him."
We tend to miss this Old Testament concept, and see God alone
on the throne, or Jesus at His right hand, but we do not see the Parliament, or
the Congress, that host of powers by which God governs His universe. I am grateful for the book of Job, for it
compels us to consider the facts of God's heavenly government, and it helps us grasp
some things that other wise are too obscure.
One of these being the nature and role of Satan. Satan's existence, fall, and battle with
man, all make sense when we see him as a ruler gone corrupt, because of pride
and envy. Job had to suffer because of
Satan's recommendation in the council of heaven, just as all men often suffer
because of decisions made by government bodies.
It is clear that Job was not suffering to make him a better
person. It was designed by Satan to
prove he was never a good person in the first place. If God wanted to improve somebody by suffering, He would have
chosen somebody other than Job. Job was
selected to suffer because he was the best man alive. He did not need to be purified by the fires of affliction. There is a lot of truth to the idea there is
value in suffering, and the idea that people can be made better through it, but
you have to ignore Scripture to think that is an adequate explanation of
suffering. It is another half truth
that becomes a whole lie where it doesn't fit.
To say to someone who has lost a child that God allowed it to make them
stronger, is to stand with Satan against man, rather than with God, and for
man. All the ideas about suffering
being of value have limited application.
In Job's case they don't fit at all.
Job was not a better man for his suffering. The only real bad thing he ever did, he did because of his
suffering.
Another view of suffering is that it brings out the good in
others. There is no doubt about the
truth of this view. Disaster and great
human suffering always produce heroic deeds, and noble responses. Most all humanitarian acts of love are in
response to human suffering. Again,
however, it is folly to think of this as the ultimate value of suffering. To
kill 7,000 people in an earthquake, to produce heroic deeds, and give many
people a chance to express compassion, it not good planning, if you mean to
imply, God allows such tragedy for these weak reasons. It would be equivalent to your sticking your
arm in the combine, so your son can learn emergency first aid. No one would be impressed with your wisdom.
This view of suffering does not fit the suffering of Job at
all; not even superficially. His
suffering brought out the worst in everybody.
His friends were compelled by its severity to be severe in their false
judgment that he was a terrible sinner.
Job's wife was likely a sweet godly woman, but his suffering made her
bitter, and she called upon Job to curse God and die. The only way you can get good out of all suffering is by the
Procrustes method. You have to chop off
what doesn't fit, and stretch everything else so it does. The honest mind can find no comfort in this
kind of exercise. The flow of lava
enriches the soil, but do not think this will bring comfort to those who have
just seen their families and villages wiped out by a volcano. Christians who latch on to one theory of
suffering, and apply it to all situations, do great harm, just as did the
friends of Job. When the theory does
not fit, people are forced by the theory, if they really believe it, to think
of God as unjust or uncaring.
Job the sufferer had to suffer even more because of the
non-sufferers easy solution to his problem.
So when you are trying to persuade the victims of a natural disaster
that it produces unity and heroes of compassion, they will be lamenting your
blindness to the looters and thieves.
Easy answers are almost always false answers, when it comes to the realm
of suffering. Job is a victim of a
jealous enemy, who is Satan. Job is so
good and godly, and such an ideal man, that God has blessed him in every way,
and it makes Satan sick. Job never
would have been the target of Satan's testing had he been more worldly and
wicked. Satan is out to get Job just
because he is so good. The facts are
just the opposite of what the friends of Job spend hours arguing about. Job does not suffer because of sin, but
because of the lack of it. He suffers
because of his opposition to sin, and he proves you can suffer plenty by not
sinning.
Satan is no amateur accuser.
He knows that if you can bring the best man to a fall, you don't have to
worry about lesser men. Satan goes
right to the top. God is so proud of
Job that he flaunts him before Satan, the first pessimist of the universe. Have you considered my servant Job God
asks? That is, in all your snooping and
spying out the defects in man, have you been able to get anything on Job? Satan is aggravated that his file on Job is
as empty as his heart is of love. He
insists that the reason is because Job has a, let's make a deal religion, and
God is giving him such a good deal he can't afford to be a sinner. Satan says just stop the handouts, and you
will see, Job, like a spoiled child will throw a tantrum, and curse you to your
face.
Satan is no atheist.
He not only believes in God, and that God is good, he believes God is
too good to man. Satan does not attack God,
but man. His goal is to prove to God
that man is not a being worth saving, for he only loves God for purely selfish
motives. If Satan can get man to curse
God, and God to condemn and forsake man, his ambition will be fulfilled. Note how directly opposite this is to the
role of Christ as the one mediator between God and man. His goal is to get man to love God, and God
to pardon and save man. Satan,
therefore, is the anti-Christ. If Satan
could get his way, he would be a top leader in God's universe, and man would be
scraped as a failed experiment.
Satan charges that what appears so good is really a cover
up. Man's chief nature is selfish, and
what's in it for me is all he cares about.
Remove the fringe benefits and he will drop his faith without
regret. If Satan is right, and he can
prove it with Job, then God's whole plan for man is a flop. What value is goodness if it is only
purchased behavior? If evil paid more,
then the person would be evil. Man is
not loyal is what Satan is arguing. He
is good when it pays, but cut off the check, and he will side with evil. Satan's question is a key factor in this
whole book. Does Job fear God for
nothing? Would he be truly good if the
wages were withdrawn? God looks at Job
and says yes.
But if Satan is right, God can have no true relationship with
man, for all religion is a fake loyally for a price. God had to let Job be tested, for the value of the whole plan of
salvation depended on Job proving Satan wrong.
I wonder if God could have the faith in us that he had in Job? We need to examine our lives in the light of
Satan's charge. Do we love God, serve
Him, come to church, live righteously, all because it pays, or would we do all
of this even if the blessing were taken away?
Would you be one of those who lets tragedy cause you forsake the church,
and God's people, or could you say with Job, "Though He slay me yet will I
trust Him." The book of Job makes
us ask the question, can God believe in me?
2. JOB'S WIFE Based on Job 2:1-13
Because of his great novel, War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy became
one of the most famous Russians that ever lived. His fame and fortune did not bring him happiness, however,
because of his wife. They were about as
compatible as a porcupine and a bubble.
She loved luxury, and he hated it.
She loved the plaudits of society, and he sought to escape them. She just loved the use of wealth for power,
and he felt it was a cursed sin. She
was so filled with jealousy that she drove all his friends away from the
home. She even drove out her own
daughter, and then rushed into Tolstoy's room and shot the girls picture with
an air-rifle.
For years she nagged, scolded, and screamed to get her own
way, and when he resisted she would fall to the floor in a fit with a bottle of
opium to her lips, swearing she would kill herself. Finally, at age 82, Tolstoy fled from his home into the cold not
knowing where to go. Eleven days later
he died of pneumonia in a railway station house.
I share this history, of a less than ideal wife, because most
of the commentators of history feel that Job's wife was in this same category,
or even worse. Way back in the early
centuries of Christianity, preachers were saying, Job's biggest tragedy was
that his wife was not visiting the kids when the tornado hit. Job lost everything but his wife, and
leaving her was Satan's most cruel blow.
Modern preachers say this same type of thing as a joke, but many of the
great theologians have meant it in all seriousness. Augustine called her the
devil's accomplice. Calvin called her a
Diabolical Fury.
No woman in history has been so severely condemned for so few
words. She only steps on the stage for
a moment, and she utters about ten words.
On the basis of those few words she has been psychoanalyzed by preachers
and scholars, and they have concluded, she was to Job what Judas was to
Jesus. She was just a terrible
wife. Kuyper, the modern preacher and
theologian, expresses the pessimism of the centuries about her. He writes, "In her the last spark of a
woman's love, the last remainder of feminine devotion, has been completely
extinguished." God made man just a
little lower than the angels, but here was a woman who seems to be just a
little higher than the beast.
You women will be glad to hear that there is another, far more
merciful, view of this poor woman.
William Blake, the English poet-painter, produced a book of paintings
depicting the major scenes of the book of Job, back in 1825. He did not follow the lines of tradition,
and write her off as one of Job's problems.
He portrayed her at Job's side sharing in his suffering, in every
scene. He vindicated her against the
scorn of the centuries. This made many
Bible expositors look more closely at the record of Scripture, rather than
tradition, and their closer look changed tradition.
For centuries nobody ever stopped to consider that the ten
children Job lost were also her children, and that as a mother, she would have
a more severe struggle with grief, even than Job had. Plus, there is the fact that she now, on top of it all, has a
husband who is helpless, and apparently fighting a hopeless battle against a
dreaded disease. It is often more
difficult to watch a loved one suffer than to suffer yourself. For centuries
men looked upon Job's wife as an uninvolved bystander, who could have been a
great encouragement to poor Job in his time of need, but she blew it. Nobody ever bothered to ask what she was
going though. Everybody talks about the
great suffering of Job, but few ever talk about the greater suffering of his
wife.
Modern scholars, more sensitive to the grief she was trying to
cope with, see the whole account in a different light. They no longer see her as a tool of Satan
trying to get Job to turn on God. They
see her as a woman in despair who cannot take anymore of the heartache of
seeing her husband die a slow agonizing death.
She, therefore, urges him to end it quickly by cursing God. It was a common belief that sudden death
would result from cursing God. She was
saying that he should commit suicide.
Her motive was mercy, for she was advocating mercy killing.
Job clearly rebukes her for her desperate advice, and tells
her it is folly to be angry at God. You
have to take the bad with the good, and that is just life. "You buy the land, you get the
stone. You buy the meat, you get the
bone." Job has a spirit that
handles crisis in a calm philosophical manner, and he stifles his wife's more
emotional reaction to grief. What we
have here, in this couple, is a very
common experience. Two people coping
with tragedy with two different perspectives, both of which represent millions
of personalities.
When we get the record straight, we discover that Mrs. Job's
reaction is just as common, and just as normal as that of Job. All this business about her being the devils
accomplice is nothing but slander against a Godly woman. God no where condemns her. He had a good chance at the end when he
condemns Job's friends, but God obviously did not see her as a vicious
foe. Instead, she becomes the wife and
mother of the ideal family again, and they live happily ever after in God's
blessing. I prefer to see Job's wife in
the light of God's treatment of her, and Job's love for her, rather than in the
light of histories condemnation of her.
If we learn nothing else from the study of Job's wife, let us
learn this: Do not ask only, what do
great men say, or what does tradition say, but ask, what does the Bible
say. Check your convictions against the
Word of God. If they don't fit the
facts of Scripture, you should be glad to change your convictions. Once you know what Scripture says, then it
is of value to search history and tradition for support. The contemporary poet, Thomas John Carlisle,
in his book Journey With Job, has this excellent sympathetic description.
Job's wife is often
caricatured
as a second Satan since she
said
"Curse God and
die" though few would like
to have their own biography
encapsuled
in one phrase in or out of
context.
At least she didn't
prostitute theology
and make believe to dust her
husband's ash pit.
Perhaps she had to take a
job
to shield herself from the
poor house and provide
for doctors bills-if one
would come-
and to take her mind off
what the patient looked like
and all that had happened to
her as well as him.
Job did not cry which
doesn't mean she didn't.
It's hard to have a hero for
a husband.
Lest you think the modern poet
is too sympathetic with her, let me share with you the fact that the merciful
and optimistic view of her goes back before any preacher ever condemned
her. The Septuagint is the Hebrew Bible
which was translated into Greek 200 years before Christ. This was the Bible of New Testament
Christians. In that Bible this
paragraph was added to the story of Job to give more details. The 70 scholars who translated that Bible
apparently felt that no woman could say only ten words and be done with
it. So they added this expansion which,
though it was not Scripture, does give us a commentary on how they saw Job's
wife. They saw her as an exhausted
grief stricken woman who had come to the end of her rope. That addition reads like this:
After a long time had pasted
his wife said to him, "How long will you exercise patience, saying See, I
will persevere a little longer, waiting and hoping for my redemption? For consider, the memory of you has vanished
from the earth, your sons and your daughters are no more,
those who were the pains and
the travail of my womb, and for whom
I exhausted myself in
vain. As for you, there you sit, your
body
rotting amid worms, and
spending the nights in the open air.
While I, wondering about a slave, roaming restlessly hither and thither,
from house to house, await the hour of a sunset that I may rest from my
weariness and from the sorrows which now press
upon me. Now say some word
against the Lord, and die.
Job's wife carried even a greater burden than he, and so her
grief reaction is more understandable.
The apocryphal Job says she made the supreme sacrifice and sold her hair
to buy bread. The Koran does accuse her
of being tempted by Satan to have all her former luxury restored if she
worshipped him. She told Job, and he
swore to give her one hundred lashes if he recovered. The Koran, however, ends the story with mercy for her. Job was
aloud to keep his oath by striking her with one blow of a palm branch with one hundred
leaves. G. Campbell Morgan, that prince
of expositors, sums up the positive perspective on this suffering woman. "Don't let us criticize her until we
have been where she was." He says,
she just felt she would rather see him dead than to suffer so.
All of this was to set the stage for a study of grief. There are two basic responses to tragic
suffering: Resignation and
rebellion. Job took the route of
resignation, which is clearly the best way to go, but his wife took the way of
rebellion, which is so much harder. So many people have to take this more
difficult route, because they are just not made like Job. They need to be angry in their grief, and
get their negative emotions expressed before they can adjust, and accept their
suffering. If they try to suppress their
rebellion and anger, and pretend they are resigned to their fate, as the will
of God, they risk a lifetime of bitter resentment. Honest rebellion is far more healthy than hypocritical
resignation.
Job's wife was no hypocrite.
She was angry at life, and angry at God, and angry at her husband for
his excruciating patience. Maybe he did
not mind dying by inches, but she could not tolerate it, and she cried out,
"For heaven's sake get it over with.
If God won't make you well, then get on with the inevitable-cruse God
and die." The Speaker's Bible
says, "The sorrow of Job's wife has never been dealt with-perhaps never
will be; certainly never by a man."
I know what the author means. A
man can never know what a mother of ten children feels like when she is
suddenly, and tragically, left childless.
But certainly men are not so hard and insensitive that they cannot come
to some intelligent grasp of her grief.
Edgar N. Jackson, the outstanding authority on grief, in his
books Understanding Grief and The Many Faces of Grief, says the goal of the
counselor and comforter is not to say, "I know how you feel." That is superficial, and can never be fully
accurate. What is important is not to
feel what they feel, but to let them feel what they feel. You must give others the full right to feel
their real feelings, and share them, rather than try to make them feel in ways
that conform to what is acceptable to others.
In other words, do not try to make them feel like you feel they ought to
feel.
Poor Mrs. Job would have ended up in an asylum had she gone to most of the preachers of history
for counseling. Most of them could not
have tolerated her feelings of rebellion.
The fact is, however, that her feelings were normal, and common even
among Christians, when they faced tragedy.
To accuse her of being Satan's assistant is as cruel a thing to do as
something dreamed up by Satan's assistant.
The record shows that Job also became very angry and rebellious as his
suffering continued. Even this near
perfect man, with nearly infinite patience, could not escape the rebellious
emotions. He charges God with hunting
him like a lion, and comes very close to doing what his wife asked him to do.
In chapter 9:22-23 he says, "He destroys both the blameless and the
wicked. When disaster brings sudden
death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent." If cursing God would have led to sudden
death, Job came exceedingly close here, and elsewhere. The point I am seeking to establish is, it
is not just the emotional female, but also the rational male that goes through
the rebellious stage of grief.
It is very important to know this so that, if and when it
happens to you, you can be aware that it is normal, and that God will not condemn
you for your rebellious anger. Why
not? Because the fact is, tragic death
is not His will, but is suffering that comes from the enemy. It is evil, and we have every right to be
angry about it. Jesus in His humility
was angry as He saw the sorrow that the death of Lazarus to Mary and
Martha. He was angry at the injustice
of the money changers in the temple.
What is not right should make us angry, and tragedy is not right. The death of any loved one is a robbery by
our enemy, and anger is perfectly normal.
Our problem is, we tend to get angry at God, for we feel He could have,
and should have, prevented that robbery.
Grief leads people to become angry at pastors for not being more
effective with God in prayer for healing their loved ones. They get angry at doctors, funeral
directors, and anyone else who seems to benefit by the work of the enemy.
Resignation is so much easier on everybody, but the facts of
life indicate that rebellion is more common, and we need to be prepared to
expect it in our own hearts, or we will give Satan an advantage over us in
grief. Sometimes the finest Christians
are shocked at how they handle grief.
C. S. Lewis has become one of the best known Christians of the 20th
century. His books are read around the
world. He has become a pillar of the
faith. Before Lewis died, he had to
watch his loving wife die. He loved her
dearly, and was very angry that disease and death should rob him of his
treasure. This great man of God would
not hurl rocks at Mrs. Job, but would have held her hand and said, "I
understand."
He tells the whole story of his own rebellion in his book, A
Grief Observed. He writes, "It is
hard to have patience who people who say there is no death or death does not
matter. There is death, and whatever is matters. And whatever happens has consequences, and they are irrevocable
and irreversible." His own grief
made him realize how easy it is to be like one of Job's friends. It is so easy to bear other people's
sorrows, and give advise, but it is all so superficial, and we really do not
grasp what grief is all about until we have to endure it ourselves. He wrote, "If my house has collapsed at
one blow, that is because it was a house of cards. The faith which took these things into account was not faith, but
imagination. The taking them into
account was not real sympathy. If I had
really cared, as I thought I did, about the sorrows of the world, I should not
have been so overwhelmed when my own sorrow came."
C.S. Lewis is confirming G. Campbell Morgan's conviction that
we ought not to condemn Job's wife for her rebellion until we have been where
she was. Let me assure you, most
Christians with a deep faith, and a clear hope of heaven, would still go
through rebellion on their way to resignation.
One of the best examples of this I have ever read is Iona Henry's book,
Triumph Over Tragedy. Mom and dad sat
in the hospital praying for their 14 year old daughter Jane. She had a brain tumor and was having
surgery. The father was already in the
rebellious stage, and was fighting a private war with God. "Jane, I told God, was only 14-too
young to die with a tumor on the brain.
I begged God for mercy and I argued:
I even threatened Him-anything to save Jane."
Jane died, and they had to go home and tell their ten year old
son. He ran into the library and began
to kick the furniture. They decided to
go on a trip after the funeral. They went to his father's place, who was a
preacher. On the way they were hit by a
train, and the father and son were killed instantly. The mother was as good as dead with many severe injuries. She spent a third of year in the hospital in
a strange town. Her book is the story
of her journey through rebellion to restful resignation in Christ.
She struggled so deeply with the issue of suffering, and I
will sharing her insights as we study Job.
For now, we want to learn from her rebellion. After her long recovery and return to a life empty of all the
people she loved, she writes, "I wandered the streets, forlorn, lost,
ready to scream my bitterness. I looked
at women with husbands and laughing children, and I hated them." Many a times she thought of suicide. She had to cling to a post in the subway to
keep from throwing herself on the tracks.
Joni, another great Christian sufferer, also said she would have gladly
committed suicide in her rebellious stage had she been able to figure out a way
to do it. Her paralysis is the only
thing that saved her.
What helped Iona come through her rebellion to a state of
peaceful resignation in Christ was not easy answers, or condemnation of her
rebellion, but acceptance of her rebellion. Those who helped her most were those
who recognized that it is a very dark world in which Christ is the light, and a
Christian does not need to pretend it is otherwise. We only add to people's grief when we fail to see their need to
feel angry at life's evils. God has a
much better psychology. He allows
people to even get angry at Him, in order to rid him of their hostility. The Psalms are full of this kind of release
for grief emotions. The more you
understand grief, the more you will sympathize with Job's wife, and not condemn
her. Christians have failed so often to
be comforters in life's trials. Let us
learn from the study of grief that Job's wife had a normal response to her
suffering, and that we need to accept this kind of response in other Christians
who suffer tragedy.
3. THE SAINT IN DEPRESSION Based on Job 3