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