Job 23

 SIW 

13.10.24

I don’t know if it’s true but I remember reading somewhere that the Spanish language carries no blame. There is no “Paul dropped the cup” only “The cup fell”

I think that for us, this would be an impossible way of thinking. I don’t think we could go through a day without placing blame, no matter how carefully or kindly we did it, I think there would be times when our language just doesn’t allow any alternative.

I wonder what would happen if we had a language that didn’t allow us to place blame? I wonder if people would lose their unnecessary guilt? I wonder if people would become better or worse at being accountable for their actions?

If I told you that somebody had lung cancer, what would be your first response?

Pretty much all of us would ask if that person smoked and the way we ask that question causes so many problems that the medical community is investing in trying to change that approach because that stigma, that attempt to explain the disease by blaming the victim makes it more likely that people will delay treatment, refuse treatment and respond poorly to treatment. The suffering and death caused by lung cancer is increased by our tendency to lay blame.

We are having a look at Job 23 today and before that I’d like to just give you a recap on where Job was at:

Job was described in the early part of the book as a good man, a righteous man. He was faithful to God and was almost blameless.

Then this being called The Accuser says to God that Job is only righteous and faithful because he is blessed with a good life.

God says no, Job is a good guy and he is consistently faithful.

The accuser says he wants to test Job and find out if he can be faithful even in suffering and so God says to The Accuser “ok, you can test him but don’t kill him”

And that’s what happens: In one day all of Jobs children die and all of his flocks and his servants are killed in a fire. After that he becomes sick with a painful skin disease which almost certainly makes him ritually unclean and socially isolated and his wife, who has also lost her children and wealth and security is unable to provide any comfort or hope and says to Job “you might as well curse your God and die”

Just before we take up the reading in chapter 23, Job is sitting in the rubbish in his pain and misery and his friend Eliphaz is talking to him. Eliphaz and others have come to support Job but over a period of time they have started to try to understand Jobs suffering and Eliphaz can’t explain Job’s suffering except to say that Job must have somehow brought it on himself by some sin. And because his suffering is so great it must be some great sin. Eliphaz says to Job “look, there’s no other answer but to seek God and repent.

Now we know that Job is innocent. We know that there is nothing Job has done or not done to lead to this suffering, his whole situation is made by The Accuser. It’s a supernatural event.

Eliphaz says to Job that he needs to seek God and Job responds:

Today I complain bitterly,
because God has been cruel
    and made me suffer.
³ If I knew where to find God,
I would go there
⁴     and argue my case.

Job is saying “God did this, it wasn’t me and if I could find Him, I would!” Job can’t find God, as much as he wants to and he is so certain of his innocence that he would be prepared to go and argue his case. He is referring to a court type of situation, not just a conversation but a formal situation where evidence is presented and weighed. This is how certain he is of his innocence. He wants to go and confront God and seek logical, properly explored answers.

Then I would discover
    what he wanted to say.
⁶ Would he overwhelm me
    with his greatness?
No! He would listen
⁷     because I am innocent,

Job is saying I’m so confident that I haven’t done anything to deserve this that I’m is willing to go to the creator of the universe, the inventor of justice and argue my case. And God will listen. God could crush me in an instant but he will agree that I am blameless in this situation.

I feel like I hear a lot of people in the church talk about their fallibility, their guilt, there’s a sense of shame that we carry. We have this shame enshrined in our doctrine “We believe all men have become sinners, totally depraved, and as such are justly exposed to the wrath of God.

And there is truth to it but l think that sometimes it is good for us to remember that we can be innocent, that our pain is not always our fault, that we don’t have to accept the burden of guilt for every hardship, we actually can affirm our own innocence or we can refuse to blame others for their suffering.

and he would say,
    “I now set you free!”

We see that Job is assured of his own innocence and he is completely confident of God’s justice.

Who of us will voluntarily go to court and face judgement? Even when we are innocent, the sound of a police siren sets our nerves on fire, right? We aren’t assured of our innocence or of the justice we might receive.

I cannot find God anywhere—
in front or back of me,
⁹     to my left or my right.
God is always at work,
    though I never see him.

 “I’ve looked in front of me, I’ve looked behind me, I looked to the left and I went over here to the right “ We sense Jobs frustration, his despair, his overwhelming wish to connect with God, despite the fact that he doesn’t really need to seek mercy or justice.

“God is always at work, though I never see him”

Job’s faith wins over everything, he affirms Gods involvement in his life.

* ¹⁵ Merely the thought
of God All-Powerful
¹⁶     makes me tremble with fear.
¹⁷ God has covered me
    with darkness,
    but I refuse to be silent

After Job has spent time protesting his innocence we see him bemoaning Gods invisibility. We see that he is confident of Gods mercy and justice but still in fear and awe of his power. He is aware that God is working but he can’t see evidence of it.

Ellicotts Commentary says this:

  Job is The victim of an ever present paradox and dilemma; afraid of God, yet longing to see Him; conscious of His presence, yet unable to find Him; assured of His absolute justice, and yet convinced of his own suffering innocence. His history, in fact, to the Old World was what the Gospel is to the New: the exhibition of a perfectly righteous man, yet made perfect through suffering. It was therefore an effort, at the solution of the problem of the reconciliation of the inequality of life with the justice of God.

Job 23 is mostly viewed as a picture of a man who is separated from God, searching for God and feeling forsaken. And if you relate to feeling forsaken by God, please know that you are not the only one. Feeling forsaken by God is so much part of our human experience that we have a whole book devoted to it.

I also find hope in Job 23, the darkness is deep, Job says he is covered in darkness but he also says

God will not overwhelm him

God will listen to him

God is always working

And God will set Him free

 

We are going to sing now “yet not I but through Christ in me” and lets appreciate the words

The night is dark but I am not forsaken
For by my side, the Saviour He will stay
I labour on in weakness and rejoicing
For in my need, His power is displayed