The Mystery of Sovereign Suffering: Finding Peace in the Hippo

• The Problem of Suffering [00:09:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor introduces the acute problem of suffering, specifically why a godly man suffers, using the story of Job and a personal anecdote about a mother with a sick child.
• Satan's Role and Limitations [00:15:05 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that Satan is a finite, fallen creature who is not omnipotent or omniscient, and must give an account to God, debunking the idea that Satan is the ultimate cause of all evil.
• God's Sovereignty [00:18:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that God is sovereign even over Satan and suffering, rejecting open theism and asserting that God is at the center of Job's suffering, not just a passive observer.
• True Worship and Integrity [00:22:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts Satan's accusation that Job only fears God for reward with Job's response of worship and submission, defining true faith as holding fast to integrity regardless of circumstances.
• The Doctrine of Instant Retribution [00:26:40 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor analyzes the friends' argument that suffering is always direct punishment for sin, labeling it 'instant retribution' and 'health and wealth' theology, before deconstructing it as an incomplete truth.
• Job's Integrity and Response [00:22:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor highlights Job's worshipful submission ('The Lord gave... blessed be the name of the Lord') and contrasts it with his wife's and friends' lack of wisdom.
• The Role of Suffering [00:39:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > Through the figure of Elihu and the story of Horatio Spafford, the pastor suggests suffering can be instructional and educative, bringing believers closer to God, though this does not negate the complexity of Job's situation.
• The Silence and Sovereignty of God [00:40:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor addresses Job's cry of 'Why?' and God's response from the whirlwind, framing it as an epistemological contest where God challenges Job's limited understanding of divine wisdom.
• The Nature of God's Response to Suffering [00:41:42 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes God appearing in a whirlwind, not with comfort, but with a challenge to an 'epistemological fight' about knowledge and wisdom.
• The Limits of Human Wisdom [00:42:49 ▶️ 📄]
  > God questions Job to demonstrate that human understanding is insufficient to comprehend the reasons behind suffering, silencing Job's demands for explanation.
• The Purpose of Creation and Suffering [00:48:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using the examples of Behemoth, Leviathan, hippos, and alligators, the pastor argues that the ultimate reason for God's creation (and by extension, suffering) is His own glory, a mystery humans cannot fully grasp.

• Sermon Illustration [00:06:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal story from his early ministry about visiting a young mother whose daughter had hundreds of brain tumors. The husband abandoned them, and the mother repeatedly asked 'Why?' despite the child living far beyond the expected age, illustrating the acute pain of suffering in the godly.
• Sermon Illustration [00:16:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of a vacation to explain the difference between hell and heaven: hell is like being a vagabond with no home, while heaven is like coming home after a long trip, emphasizing the comfort of God's presence.
• Sermon Illustration [00:36:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a personal visit to a hospice where a dying mother of three was told by a minister that her cancer was due to a lack of faith. She died robbed of her peace, serving as a modern example of the harmful application of the 'instant retribution' theology.
• Sermon Illustration [00:39:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > The story of Horatio Spafford, who wrote 'It Is Well With My Soul' after his three daughters drowned in the Atlantic Ocean, illustrating that suffering can be instructional and increase faith.
• Sermon Illustration [00:29:28 ▶️ 📄]
  > The biblical story of Uzzah touching the Ark of the Covenant and being struck dead, used to show that 'reaping what you sow' has precedents in the Old Testament.
• Sermon Illustration [00:30:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > The biblical story of Ananias and Sapphira lying about the proceeds of land sales and being struck dead, used to show that 'reaping what you sow' applies in the New Testament church context.
• Sermon Illustration [00:44:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a story about a woman from Iowa on the game show 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' who failed to answer the first question correctly, losing the $1,000 prize, to illustrate the unfairness of God's questions to Job.
• Sermon Illustration [00:48:02 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about preaching in Tallahassee, Florida, where he stated he could live without alligators, causing a divided reaction in the congregation, to highlight the absurdity of questioning why God created dangerous animals.
• Sermon Illustration [00:48:39 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the hippopotamus as an analogy for God's mysterious creation, noting its disproportionate and silly appearance, to argue that just as we cannot fully understand why God made a hippo, we cannot fully understand why He allows suffering, except for His glory.

[00:00:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:01] Turn with me, if you would, to the book of Job, and we're going to read together the first chapter, the book of Job in chapter 1.
[00:00:23] And I sound as though I come from Jackson, Mississippi.
[00:00:26] There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job.
[00:00:40] And that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and turned away from evil.
[00:00:58] There were born to him seven sons and three daughters.
[00:01:03] He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys and very many servants so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.
[00:01:28] His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
[00:01:42] And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all.
[00:02:00] And Job said, it may be that my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.
[00:02:09] Thus Job did continually.
[00:02:12] Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came among them.
[00:02:25] The Lord said to Satan, from where have you come?
[00:02:34] Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it.
[00:02:44] And the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil?
[00:02:58] And Satan answered the Lord and said, does Job fear God for no reason?
[00:03:07] Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side?
[00:03:14] You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
[00:03:21] But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face." And the Lord said to Satan, behold, all that he has is in your hand, only against him do
[00:03:48] not stretch out your hand.
[00:03:52] So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
[00:03:57] Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, and there came a messenger to Job and said, the oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabaeans fell upon them and took them and struck down
[00:04:22] the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.
[00:04:29] While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, the fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.
[00:04:46] While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, the Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.
[00:05:05] While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people,
[00:05:35] and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you." Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.
[00:06:00] And he said, naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return.
[00:06:09] The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
[00:06:20] In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
[00:06:43] I was a young man fresh into ministry.
[00:06:51] I had been ordained barely a couple of months.
[00:06:54] I was 25 years old, and a young woman who had just given birth to her first child asked me to come and visit.
[00:07:10] I had heard some of the background but wasn't aware of all of the details, and I went, admittedly a little nervous.
[00:07:24] She had given birth to a little girl.
[00:07:31] She had a condition, this little girl.
[00:07:35] It was a condition that to all intents and purposes meant that her brain had hundreds of little tumors on it.
[00:07:50] The husband walked out the day the child was born, has never returned.
[00:07:59] To my knowledge, never even given so much as a dime of support.
[00:08:08] This young mother who is a believer, a godly, godly woman, she says to me, Pastor, I want to ask you a question. I know that you probably can't answer this question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Can you tell me why? Seminary hadn't prepared me for that. I would visit
[00:08:45] this woman, I was a minister there for 18 years, and I probably visited her once a month, every six weeks and every single time she would smile and she'd say, Derek, I'm going to ask this
[00:09:10] question again, but I know you can't answer, but it helps me to ask it. Can you tell me why?
[00:09:22] The doctor said this little child would only live until she was two or three years of age.
[00:09:27] She turned 40 just a few months ago.
[00:09:33] Never was there a more devoted, loyal, loving, kind mother.
[00:09:42] I don't think I've ever met one.
[00:09:46] It's the problem of suffering, acutely drawn to our attention again by what has been transpiring in Haiti.
[00:10:01] It's what the book of Job predominantly is addressing.
[00:10:06] Here is a man, he is the godliest man on the face of the planet.
[00:10:16] He is not sinless, but he is a godly, godly man.
[00:10:24] We are told that three times, twice in the first chapter, once again in chapter two.
[00:10:31] It is not just the opinion of the author of the book of Job.
[00:10:37] These are words that are put into the very mouth of God.
[00:10:44] God says that He is blameless and upright and fears God and turns away from evil.
[00:10:53] Here's the problem.
[00:10:59] There's a problem about suffering in general.
[00:11:08] Why is there suffering?
[00:11:11] You heard Dr. Sproul and myself attempt to answer that last night by reminding us of the issues of sin and guilt and the holiness of God and the brokenness of this world.
[00:11:33] But that is not the issue here.
[00:11:37] This is not why do bad people suffer.
[00:11:45] we wish they would suffer a little more, perhaps, if we are honest.
[00:11:51] But that is not the issue here.
[00:11:52] The issue here is acute.
[00:11:55] The issue here is a moral dilemma of immense proportions because this is a case of a godly man who suffers.
[00:12:13] In this first chapter, he loses everything that he has.
[00:12:22] He loses his wealth.
[00:12:27] He loses all ten of his children.
[00:12:32] I can't imagine that.
[00:12:36] It may be possible this morning, all too possible in fact, that some of you know exactly what that means.
[00:12:43] You have lost a child, a stillborn child perhaps, but a child nevertheless.
[00:12:55] Maybe you have lost a teenager in a motor accident as many of us have known friends of ours who have endured such pain and hardship.
[00:13:11] And then in the second chapter, he loses his health.
[00:13:16] He quickly deteriorates.
[00:13:18] He has something, elephantiasis perhaps, something that looks remarkably and sounds remarkably like AIDS.
[00:13:31] His flesh is withering away.
[00:13:34] His skin breaks out in sores and ulcers.
[00:13:39] He is skin and bones, a term that comes from the book of Job.
[00:13:45] Ah, but we know the answer.
[00:13:51] The answer is the devil did it.
[00:13:57] Why is there sin?
[00:13:59] Why is there suffering?
[00:14:01] Why is there evil in the world?
[00:14:02] The answer is the devil made me do it.
[00:14:08] It's his fault.
[00:14:09] It takes your breath away as you read this opening chapter that there is a place in the universe where Satan comes into God's presence, whatever that means.
[00:14:31] God is everywhere present, and in that sense, God is present in the location where Satan dwells.
[00:14:42] His judgmental presence is there.
[00:14:51] He comes into God's presence, the text says, to give an account from where have you come, and he must report.
[00:15:05] It's a little reminder, do you see, that Satan is not omnipotent.
[00:15:12] Satan is not omniscient.
[00:15:17] Satan doesn't know everything.
[00:15:20] Satan isn't all-powerful, nor is he everywhere present.
[00:15:27] He's a finite creature, a fallen creature, once a glorious creature, but now a fallen creature.
[00:15:36] But he must give an account to God.
[00:15:41] There's a test of your belief in the sovereignty of God, that He is sovereign even over the demons, that He is sovereign even over Satan.
[00:15:53] Do you notice the answer that Satan gives as to where he has been from going to and fro in the earth, walking about on the face of the earth?
[00:16:09] He says, he's a tramp.
[00:16:14] He's a vagabond.
[00:16:15] He has no home.
[00:16:16] You know, that's what hell I think is.
[00:16:21] It never feels like home.
[00:16:27] And I think heaven will be the opposite.
[00:16:29] I think when we get to heaven, it will be like coming home.
[00:16:36] I say to my wife, the best part of a vacation is coming home.
[00:16:40] You know, however good the vacation is, there is nothing quite like driving up your own driveway and walking into your own front door and getting into your own bed.
[00:16:50] It's home.
[00:16:57] And God says to Satan, have you considered my servant Job?
[00:17:11] With friends like that, you say.
[00:17:16] I mean, Satan had never considered Job.
[00:17:22] It had never dawned on him.
[00:17:25] What a great idea.
[00:17:32] Yes, I think we are meant to smile from the perspective of those of us who love and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, but you know, that just makes the dilemma even greater because We can't answer the question why suffering and say it is all because of Satan, because
[00:18:03] Satan apparently didn't even know about Job before God brought him to his attention.
[00:18:09] No, God is in this.
[00:18:14] God is at the heart of this.
[00:18:18] Where was God on 9-11?
[00:18:22] R.C. said the same place as he was on 9.10 and 9.12.
[00:18:30] Where was God in Job's suffering?
[00:18:33] He was right at the center of its inception.
[00:18:40] Now there's the moral dilemma.
[00:18:44] That's how acute it becomes.
[00:18:49] This is not, you see, the open theistic view that God isn't aware of these things, that God's hands are tied, that there is an aspect of God's sovereignty that must bow and kowtow to Satan and other forces, that his power is limited in some way.
[00:19:14] No, God is right at the very heart of this.
[00:19:21] In the second chapter, Job is allowed to suffer personally, physically.
[00:19:33] You notice in chapter 1 in verse 12, behold, all that he has is in your hand.
[00:19:43] You understand that Satan cannot move so much as a muscle without the permission of Almighty God, that even Satan is subject to the sovereignty of God.
[00:20:00] You notice that God sets boundaries only against him, do not stretch out your hand.
[00:20:11] And then in the second chapter, he is allowed to stretch out his hand against Job, but not to kill him, not to destroy him.
[00:20:28] Satan's question in verse 9 was, does Job fear God for no reason?
[00:20:41] The only reason Job fears God is because of what he can get out of it.
[00:20:50] If the gospel is, come to Jesus and all your troubles will disappear.
[00:20:59] Come to Jesus and find the good life now, the best life now.
[00:21:07] Come to Jesus and find that inner strength which lies within you.
[00:21:13] to Jesus and have health and wealth, just name it and claim it, gab it and grab it.
[00:21:25] If that's the gospel, Satan is correct.
[00:21:29] He's onto something.
[00:21:33] If the gospel is what you can get out of this world here and now, Satan is onto something.
[00:21:42] Take all of these things away and you will see what he's made of.
[00:21:48] He will curse you to your face." Never was there a more poignant response than Job's.
[00:22:07] The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
[00:22:16] He responds in worship.
[00:22:21] He responds in submission.
[00:22:23] He takes His cross and bears it with profound godliness.
[00:22:37] In chapter 2, we are introduced briefly to Mrs. Job.
[00:22:46] She says in verse 9 of chapter 2, do you still hold fast your integrity, curse God and die?
[00:23:00] Augustine called her Diabolus Matrix.
[00:23:10] You don't have to know any Latin to know that's not a compliment.
[00:23:17] She was the tool of Satan.
[00:23:23] She was in the grip of Satan.
[00:23:24] Well perhaps, but let's be kind to Mrs. Job because she had lost ten children too.
[00:23:34] And perhaps, I don't know, perhaps she was saying what we might be tempted to say to a man whose skin and bone and has lost everything and is in the depths of despair, curse God
[00:23:47] and get this over with.
[00:23:48] I don't want to see you suffer anymore." And Job says to her, you speak like one of the foolish women, fool in the biblical sense.
[00:23:59] You don't speak from the worldview of wisdom.
[00:24:02] You don't speak from the perspective of God's revealed revelation, but you speak like a fool, one who says there is no God.
[00:24:14] And again in verse 10, in all this Job did not sin with his lips.
[00:24:24] And then we are introduced to three friends, but before those three friends begin to speak, Job descends into the abyss.
[00:24:38] We don't have time this morning to cover Job chapter 3.
[00:24:42] It's of immense significance.
[00:24:44] It's a dark, dark place.
[00:24:49] One of the darkest Psalms in the Bible, Psalm 88, ends with the words, darkness is my only friend.
[00:24:57] That is pretty dark.
[00:25:01] The Psalmist seems to have been alluding in the Psalm to Job chapter 3.
[00:25:07] Jeremiah, you remember in chapters 19 and 20, finds himself after spending the night in the stocks, descending into spiritual depression.
[00:25:21] And you'll find that Jeremiah cites Job chapter 3.
[00:25:26] It's of immense importance pastorally.
[00:25:33] But then these three friends emerge, Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar.
[00:25:42] Eliphaz says in chapter 4 and verse 7, and this is the gist of his first argument, remember who that was innocent ever perished, or where were the upright cut off?
[00:25:59] And then a little further on in verse 17, can mortal man be in the right before God?
[00:26:05] Can a man be pure before his maker?
[00:26:07] What's he saying?
[00:26:10] Eliphaz is a dreamer.
[00:26:15] He's a man who's had visions.
[00:26:17] It's hard to speak to somebody who says the basis of his authority is experience and puts all authority on the experience and the vision that he has seen.
[00:26:30] But this is the gist of it.
[00:26:33] Job is suffering because he is a sinner.
[00:26:40] It is the doctrine of instant retribution, that all suffering is punishment.
[00:26:50] We reap, Eliphaz says, what we sow.
[00:26:58] No more and no less, there is no room for argument, there is no room here for negotiation.
[00:27:08] This is the moral basis of the universe in which we live.
[00:27:13] We reap what we sow.
[00:27:15] Every time, a hundred percent, in every case, Job, man up.
[00:27:23] You're getting your just desserts because who that was innocent ever perished?
[00:27:38] You know, that's the doctrine of health and wealth, isn't it?
[00:27:41] I mean, the reason you don't drive that Cadillac or live in that multi-million dollar home is because you don't have enough faith, and not having enough faith is a sin.
[00:27:54] You realize that.
[00:27:56] So the reason why you're not in possession of all of those things that we're meant to be in possession of as Christians is because we're sinners.
[00:28:10] God is judging us.
[00:28:11] It's at the heart of that theology.
[00:28:14] Well, let's think about it for a second.
[00:28:18] You reap what you sow.
[00:28:20] The doctrine of instant retribution, what do we make of that?
[00:28:27] Let me suggest to you this morning that it is partly right and partly wrong.
[00:28:37] It's partly right.
[00:28:38] After all, we teach our children, you reap what you sow.
[00:28:44] If you touch something that's hot, you're going to burn your fingers, so the little child reaches out and touches it and screams, and you say, didn't I tell you?
[00:28:57] You have reaped what you have sown.
[00:29:05] When Uzzah, you remember when the ark was being carried back on the back of that cart with the oxen, and it is going along the road and there are potholes everywhere, and the cart is bumping along, and the box, the ark of the covenant that represents the very presence
[00:29:28] of God is about to fall off that cart, Usher put out his hand and touched it.
[00:29:38] He did what God had said must never be done.
[00:29:41] No one was allowed to touch that.
[00:29:43] Not even the Kohathites, a branch of the tribe of Levi, they could only touch it using poles, and God struck him dead.
[00:30:08] But that's Old Testament, you know.
[00:30:14] We're New Testament folk, you know.
[00:30:17] That's why we are New Testament folk, except right in the beginning of the story of the emergence of the church of the New Testament, you have that story of Ananias and Sapphira.
[00:30:36] In days of the outpouring of the Spirit, in days when glossolalia were present, in days Days when miracles abounded, in days of the growth and multiplication of the church and extraordinary blessing, Ananias told a white lie about the cost of a piece of real estate
[00:31:07] which the church had no business knowing anyway, and God struck him dead, shocking.
[00:31:21] And his wife, right there at the very beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, you have got two graves, a reminder that you reap what you sow. Doesn't Paul write to the Corinthians who are sick and some of them are dying, and Paul says, it's your own fault.
[00:31:47] You're reaping what you have sown, he says. Doesn't Paul actually cite that verse, you reap what you sow, in Galatians? As a principle of morality, you reap what you sow is true, but it's not true in every instance. That's the problem. You can't take that principle
[00:32:17] and apply it across the board in every single instance. You can't do that about Haiti. You can't do that about 9-11, that every single individual that incurred that terrible, terrible suffering and death, that in each case, it was a case of reaping what they had sown, because Job
[00:32:55] is a godly man. And again, and again, and again, God underlines for us that he did not sin, at least not initially, and that the reason for his suffering lies outside of the consideration Generations of judgment and punishment.
[00:33:30] There's Bildad, the second speaker, who's kind of boring.
[00:33:39] He's orthodox, but he's irrelevant.
[00:33:44] He whitters on and on, but he doesn't say anything.
[00:33:50] And then there's Zophar, and Zophar is Mr. Angry.
[00:33:57] You know, there's always a Mr. Angry in every church.
[00:33:59] Have you noticed?
[00:34:01] Any church of any size, there is always one Mr. Angry, who is angry about everything.
[00:34:08] And he is angry about Job and vents his spleen.
[00:34:12] He says it is more likely for a donkey to give birth to a human being than for Job to listen to wisdom.
[00:34:21] That is pretty angry.
[00:34:24] He calls Job a windbag.
[00:34:32] You know Calvin preached 159 sermons on the book of Job in 1554 and 1555.
[00:34:47] They were preached on weekdays, and he says two extraordinary things in the opening sermons.
[00:34:56] The first, he says, is that Job had a good case, but he argued it badly.
[00:35:14] And his friends had a bad case, but they argued it extremely well.
[00:35:20] That he says is the key that unlocks the book of Job.
[00:35:25] Job has a good case, but he argues it badly.
[00:35:29] His friends have a bad case, but they argue it extremely well.
[00:35:34] That's the first thing.
[00:35:37] The second thing that Calvin says is about the three friends, that they only have one song and they sing it to death.
[00:35:50] Over and over and over their message is the same.
[00:35:57] It's one of instant retribution that Job is suffering because he had sinned.
[00:36:04] It may be a big sin.
[00:36:06] It may be a medium-sized sin.
[00:36:08] It may be a small sin.
[00:36:10] It may be a sin of his youth.
[00:36:12] It may be a sin that he can't even remember, but what he needs to do is confess his sin and repent, and God will restore him.
[00:36:30] I went into a hospital one time thirty years ago.
[00:36:36] It was a hospice, and you know you only go to a hospice for one reason.
[00:36:44] She was a mother of three girls, teenage girls, husband was a policeman.
[00:36:52] She had had breast cancer.
[00:36:53] She had been through all of the stages of chemotherapy and so on, but she was dying, and she knew she was dying, and she was within, as it happens, 24 hours of dying.
[00:37:10] And I walked in to see her.
[00:37:12] I thought this may well be my final visit with her, and as it turned out, it was.
[00:37:19] As I walked in the door, I noticed a man had just exited, and we nodded.
[00:37:25] I sort of recognized him, but wasn't sure who he was, and we never spoke, and I went in and she was in tears.
[00:37:34] And I said to her, what's wrong?
[00:37:38] And she said, well, that was the minister of such and such a church, and he just told me that if I had faith, I would be healed.
[00:37:54] He had come from hell, that was my conclusion.
[00:38:00] He had robbed her of the assurance of her faith and trust in the Lord, and she died, robbed of that peace and contentment.
[00:38:19] If only you had faith.
[00:38:22] So the reason she is dying is because she doesn't have faith.
[00:38:25] In other words, the reason she is dying is because she has sinned against God.
[00:38:31] It is a judgment.
[00:38:34] It's instant retribution.
[00:38:40] So turn with me to chapter 38.
[00:38:42] I'm going to pass over Elihu or Elihu.
[00:38:47] Some commentators make a great deal of Elihu.
[00:38:50] Some think that the solution to the whole book of Job lies in Elihu.
[00:38:55] I'm not personally persuaded by that.
[00:38:58] Some dear friends of mine are, but I'm not.
[00:39:01] I think he begins well and ends badly.
[00:39:04] I think he contributes something to the argument, and one of the things he contributes to the The argument is that pain can often be instructional, that pain can be educative, that you can learn things from pain, and that is true.
[00:39:22] Horatio Spafford, we just sang his hymn, It Is Well With My Soul, written, you remember, on the very spot in the Atlantic Ocean where his three daughters had drowned.
[00:39:36] He was taking a boat across to meet with his wife who had sent him a telegram.
[00:39:40] His wife and three daughters had been sent to England, and his wife was the sole survivor of that journey.
[00:39:49] And she sent a telegram to Horatio Spafford saying, saved alone.
[00:39:55] And he went to join her, and on the very spot where, was it HMS Lough Erne had gone down, He wrote that hymn, it is well with my soul.
[00:40:12] Suffering had brought him closer to the Lord.
[00:40:16] Suffering had increased his faith in the promises of God.
[00:40:23] It had been instructional.
[00:40:24] It had been educative, and Elihu has a little of that in the first half of his message.
[00:40:31] But I want to go on to chapter 38, because it is only now that God speaks.
[00:40:43] That's one of the problems that Job has had to face, the silence of God.
[00:40:49] Where is God?
[00:40:50] Meaning, why doesn't He speak to me?
[00:40:53] Why doesn't He make Himself known to me?
[00:40:55] Why doesn't He answer my question?
[00:40:59] And Job has been asking this question over and over and over, why?
[00:41:07] Why me?
[00:41:08] now? Why so harsh?" Then the Lord answered Job chapter 38 verse 1 with a still small voice. That is what you would expect, isn't it, to somebody who is dying, who has lost everything, his ten children, his entire 401K is gone. You would expect God to come and
[00:41:42] whisper in his ear, but he comes in a whirlwind, and already, already you sense that there is something about God, there is something awesome, there is something terrible, there is something beyond our apprehension and comprehension about God.
[00:42:09] He comes in a whirlwind and said, who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
[00:42:17] He says, Job, of course, dress for action like a man.
[00:42:22] The Hebrew dress for action comes from the world of wrestling.
[00:42:32] Do you want to fight, God says, like two schoolboys in the playground?
[00:42:41] Shall we solve this with a good fight?
[00:42:46] This is an epistemological fight, you understand.
[00:42:49] It's a fight about knowledge.
[00:42:50] It's a contest about wisdom, about understanding.
[00:42:56] Job, you're demanding to understand the reason for suffering.
[00:43:00] Well, dress for action, then let's fight.
[00:43:06] You've been asking for it, then let's do it.
[00:43:12] I will question you, and you make it known to me, and you say, that's not fair.
[00:43:20] That's not fair.
[00:43:21] Job is the one asking the questions.
[00:43:23] God is the one who should be providing the answers.
[00:43:26] And God says, here are the rules for the contest.
[00:43:28] I will ask the questions and you will answer and you want to say no that's not fair that's not right that's that's that's loading the game before it even begins and it is you see
[00:43:43] it is do you ever watch who wants to be a millionaire don't answer pretend you don't know what I'm talking about it says everything that's wrong with America you don't want to be a millionaire if you're not already one. It could ruin you. It could be the worst thing that ever
[00:44:18] happened to you and to your family. You want to know strife and discord among your family?
[00:44:26] Become a millionaire. I've only watched the program a couple of times, and the first time I watched it, and it was a woman. She was from, I don't know, Iowa or somewhere. She worked in a
[00:44:41] post office. It was her first time on television, and there are eight, nine, ten questions you're meant to answer. You're meant to get to $1,000. Here's your first question, and you get, I don't know, what is it, $20? Second question, you get $100. Here's the first question, and she couldn't
[00:45:03] answer it. She got it wrong, and the second one, and the third one, and she didn't get the $1,000.
[00:45:12] You're meant to get the $1,000." Often think about her, you know, in the post office in Iowa, and people come in and they say, you know, she's the one who, she didn't get the $1,000.
[00:45:34] Here's the first question, you ready?
[00:45:47] Where were you when God laid the foundation of the earth?
[00:45:53] And you say, that's not fair.
[00:45:56] What kind of question is that?
[00:46:03] Job is dead on the floor.
[00:46:05] It's the first question.
[00:46:07] He's dead on the floor.
[00:46:08] It's a knockout blow.
[00:46:11] You paid a lot of money for this fight, and it's over.
[00:46:15] Now there are going to be 60, 65, 70 more questions just like that about the universe and the stars and the galaxies and then down in the depths of the ocean and in caves where
[00:46:29] man has never been.
[00:46:32] And Job cannot answer a single question, not one, not one.
[00:46:43] And you say, well, turn to chapter 40.
[00:46:51] He says in verse 4, I lay my hand on my mouth.
[00:46:55] It was the best thing Job did.
[00:46:59] Then in verse 15, Behemoth, and then in the first verse of chapter 41, Leviathan.
[00:47:06] Behemoth, Leviathan.
[00:47:10] My time is gone.
[00:47:13] Let me just say, go with me for a minute.
[00:47:16] I know you have your favorite interpretation of what Behemoth and Leviathan are, and I know all about the views that says that these are just apocalyptic references to Satan.
[00:47:27] I'm not terribly convinced.
[00:47:31] For the sake of argument, it doesn't really matter, let's for the sake of argument say Behemoth is a hippopotamus, and Leviathan is a crocodile over in Florida, an alligator.
[00:47:52] I once said, preaching in a church in Tallahassee in Florida, I hate gators.
[00:48:02] I could live in a world without sports, so I had no idea of the consequence of what I just said, but I did notice that half the church started applauding, and the other half were quiet.
[00:48:16] So if I say this morning, my world would not come to an end if there were no alligators.
[00:48:31] Why did God make an alligator?
[00:48:37] Why did He make a hippopotamus?
[00:48:39] You know, a hippopotamus looks like something a committee made.
[00:48:44] It's all out of proportion.
[00:48:46] It's like that game you play with blindfold and you draw this thing.
[00:48:50] And I mean, look at the silly little tail and those little funny ears and the bulbous nature of its body. Why did God make a hippopotamus? No, I'm serious. Your life depends on it.
[00:49:09] Your sanity depends on it. Why did God make a hippopotamus? Now, I know the answer. I know the answer because I've been studying Job for the last 30 years. I know the answer to this question.
[00:49:29] Why did God make a hippopotamus? I don't know, except for his glory. That's the answer, for His glory. If you were making the world, would you make an alligator? I mean, really?
[00:49:53] Now, tell me, some of you have alligators for pets, and my illustration has gone out the window.
[00:49:56] But why would God make an alligator? And the answer, I don't know, except for His glory. And pain is like that. Why does God allow you to suffer? Sometimes all I can say is, I don't know.
[00:50:25] I have no idea. I am not even going to try and give you an answer except that it is for His glory. And you must do as Job did and put your hand upon your mouth and worship.
[00:50:49] The Lord gave. The Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Let us pray together.
[00:51:00] Father, we stand before you this morning in awe of your majesty and greatness and glory.
[00:51:14] Help us to be humble servants in the face of whatever it is you send our way, because we know and we believe that it is for our good.
[00:51:28] For Jesus' sake, amen.