Got Questions

Job 38:1 thru Job 40:5

We are winding down our time with Job.  I hope you picked up on the fact that we have read countless questions Job has had for God over the past 11 days and yet when God answered Job in the whirlwind (38:1) that He didn’t really answer Job’s questions at all.  In fact today alone we read over 50 questions God had for Job.

Job did not have his favorite verses in the Bible (seeing as it was not written yet) to tie his faith in God to so God has taken Job on a little tour through creation; from cosmology, oceanography, meteorology, astronomy and zoology. 

Here’s how Robert J Morgan sums up our reading today…

God just said, “Job, you are boxed into your limited perspective of suffering, but lift up your eyes.  Look at the earth beneath you, the world around you, the stars above you.  I created all these things, and I do all things well.  I know what I am doing.  I know how to take care of you, and you can trust Me even if you can’t understand My ways at any given moment.”

All Job has wanted was for God to speak to him and explain why he was going though such difficult times.

God does speak, but He has not said even one word about Job’s suffering or problems.  Instead God tells Job to look around at the wonder and the mystery of the universe; all that God governs and has made. 

God is trying to get Job to see that if He can create and sustain all that Job's eyes are seeing, then surely he can trust God enough to know that God knows what He is doing and has his best interest at heart.

Jesus said it like this in Matthew 6,

 Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?...

Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you.

Job is now beginning to realize that he needs more than answers; he needs the God who holds the answers.

So do we.

Songs in the Night

Job 35:1 thru Job 37:24

Today is the last day we will hear from Job's friends and over the next couple days we will hear from God. Job has been asking many questions and he is about to get his answers.

We all have them, questions that is, when we go through the dark nights of life filled with sorrow, persecution, doubt, bewilderment, anxiety, and oppression.

Today I want us to focus in on one verse from our reading.

Job 25:9-10 says, People cry out when they are oppressed.  They groan beneath the power of the mighty.  Yet they don't ask, 'Where is God my Creator, the one who gives songs in the night?...'

The well known hymn It is Well with My Soul is one of the most famous songs of all time.  But most people are not aware of the circumstances surrounding its origin. 

The hymn was written by a Chicago lawyer, Horatio G. Spafford and you might think to write a  song entitled, It is Well with My Soul, you would indeed have to be a rich, successful Chicago lawyer.  On the contrary, they came from a man who had suffered almost unimaginable personal tragedy.

Horatio G. Spafford and his wife, Anna, were pretty well-known in 1860’s Chicago. And this was not just because of Horatio's legal career and business endeavors. The Spaffords were also prominent supporters and close friends of Evangelist D.L. Moody.

In 1870, however, things started to go wrong. The Spaffords' only son died of scarlet fever at the age of four. A year later, in 1871, every one of Spafford's real estate holdings was wiped out by the great Chicago Fire.

Aware of the toll that these disasters had taken on the family, Horatio decided to take his wife and four daughters on a holiday to England. And, not only did they need the rest, D.L. Moody needed the help. He was traveling around Britain on one of his great evangelistic campaigns.

Horatio and Anna planned to join Moody in late 1873. And so, the Spaffords traveled to New York in November, from where they were to catch the French steamer Ville de Havre across the Atlantic. Yet just before they set sail, a last-minute business development forced Horatio to delay.

Not wanting to ruin the family holiday, Spafford persuaded his family to go as planned. He would follow on later. With this decided, Anna and her four daughters sailed east to Europe while Spafford returned west to Chicago.

Just nine days later, Spafford received a telegram from his wife in Wales. It read:

Saved alone.

On November 2nd 1873, the Ville de Havre sank in only 12 minutes, claiming the lives of 226 people. Anna Spafford had stood bravely on the deck, with her daughters Annie, Maggie, Bessie and Tanetta clinging desperately to her. Her last memory had been of her baby being torn violently from her arms by the force of the waters.

Anna was only saved from the fate of her daughters by a plank which floated beneath her unconscious body propping her up. When the survivors of the wreck had been rescued, Mrs. Spafford's first reaction was one of complete despair.

Upon hearing the terrible news, Horatio Spafford boarded the next ship out of New York to join his bereaved wife.

Bertha Spafford (the fifth daughter of Horatio and Anna born later) explained that during her father's voyage, the captain of the ship had called him to the bridge. A careful reckoning has been made, he said, and I believe we are now passing the place where the de Havre was wrecked. The water is three miles deep.

Horatio then returned to his cabin and penned the lyrics of his great hymn.

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

The sweetest songs often come from nights of affliction. 

Anybody can praise God when times are good.  Spafford's song reveals a man whose trust in the Lord is as unwavering.

It would be very difficult for any of us to predict how we would react under circumstances similar to those experienced by the Spaffords. But we do know that the God who sustained them in the night will also be with us.

The Spaffords went on the have more children and moved to Jerusalem and helped found a group called the American Colony whose mission was to serve the poor. The colony later became the subject of the Nobel Prize winning book, Jerusalem, by Swedish novelist Selma Lagerlöf.

God's unfailing love enables us to be masters of our circumstances and not victims and the Spaffords' refusal to give up on God and life is an inspiration to us all. 

I love what Jennifer Rothschild remarked upon learning she was losing her eye sight at age 15.  She said, It is well with my soul, even if it is not well with my circumstance.

Job has been a victim of his circumstances for quite some time now. God is about to turn it all around.

In his dark night, Job is about to emerge with a song.

Job's New Friend

Job 32:1 thru Job 34:37

We had a new character step forward today that we did not even know was there listening to Job and his friends banter.

Elihu is young but wise beyond his years.  I kind of like this new dude.  One reason is because I feel he is the only one who was really listening to Job's words and heart because he is the only one who quotes Job verbatim. 

Elihu gives insight in chapters 32 and 33 illustrating through three examples the meaning if Job's suffering.

Job 33:14 he says, For God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it.  Then he illustrates three ways that God may speak to a person and to Job.

#1 Through dreams and visions (Job 33:15).  Job thought that the dreams he had in the night were examples of divine torment (7:14).  Now Elihu is gently suggesting they might God's speaking to Job.

#2 Through the chastening of sickness (Job 33:19-22).  Job lamented his suffering, feeling that it was an example of how God hated him (16:9).  We know that was not the case.

#3 Through the voices of a mediator or a friend (Job 33:23-25).

Elihu's major point here in chapter 33 is that God may be trying to get Job's attention through his current condition.

We are seeing how Elihu is intelligently interpreting Job's dilemma in a way that will ultimately lead Job to see things differently.

How many times has God tried to speak to us through our situation to teach us, stretch us, and mature us but we were so tuned into our suffering that we tuned God out?

Our reading ended today with Elihu telling Job, ...you speak angry words against God.

God is the one who is for Job and yet Job is speaking against God.  Elihu tells Job he is speaking out of ignorance and his words lacked insight (34:35).

Job has had so many voices speaking to him that he cannot hear the one voice that matters most, God’s.  Elihu is a voice of reason.  We all need friends like that, people who do not just tell us what we want to hear but what we need to hear.

I want to give you a way to know if someone is a true friend in your life or not.  Ask yourself this question, Am I a better person because of their presence in my life?

Another great question is, Is someone else a better person because of my presence in their life?

We have almost come to the end of our time with Job and his friends.  I really hope we are learning to view our troubles in life a little differently.  

When we go through hard times let's ask ourselves... What is God teaching me?  How is this making me a better person?  How can I use this time wisely? 

When our perspectives are correct, we can walk through almost anything.  And a little help from our friends goes a long way.

So let's allow our prayers today be to hear God's voice through our friends, our dreams, and even our sicknesses.

Hope you have a great Saturday friend,