Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Job 7:1-7
Pastor: Pastor Berg
Sermon Date:  February 7, 2021

How long is your rope? Where do your wits end? How high is it, “up to here?” How far down is your rock bottom? No matter who you are, you’ve felt frustrated from time to time. No matter who you are, there’s been a moment in your life when you’ve been tempted to think that God doesn’t care about you, that God doesn’t love you anymore. All of us, no matter who you are, have felt like we’ve reached the end of our rope, that we’re at our wits end, that we’ve hit the bottom of the barrel and reached the top of our tolerance. There comes a point, doesn’t there, where you just can’t take it anymore, right? 

We’ve all been there. So what pushes you there? What pushes you to that breaking point? What drives you to the end? It can be many things, various things, all different sorts of things for each of us; but they all neatly fit together under the category of suffering. Suffering comes for many reasons. As Jesus promised, we sometimes suffer because of our faith. Who hasn’t been ridiculed or picked on or ostracized because you did the right thing, because you stood up for your faith? We call this the theology of the cross. Sometimes, we suffer because of simple life circumstances. It can be as simple as your car breaking down or you get sick, or as traumatic as losing a loved one. And sometimes we suffer because of our own sinful choices. We abuse our bodies and pay the consequences. We choose not to do what God wants us to do and suffer as a result.

And it’s also true that suffering comes in many shapes. Our suffering can be physical–aches and pains that come with age or because of the way we’ve lived. Our suffering can be mental–perhaps we deal with memory loss or fatigue because of stress. Or, our suffering can be emotional. All of us suffer in some way. Frankly, it’s a part of life. 

Just for a moment, I want you to think about the lowest point in your life, when everything was going wrong, when you felt as if you could take no more. You have that moment in your mind? You remember how you felt? As bad as it was and not to minimize it in any way, Job’s was worse. No matter what you endured, Job endured more. No matter how bad you felt, Job felt worse. In one day, Job lost most of his possessions and all ten of his children died. Then, to top it off, Job became ravaged with disease. Painful sores covered his body, for which there was no relief. And to make matters worse, instead of his friends coming and sympathizing with Job, they accosted him and said that all of this must be Job’s fault, that he was being punished by God for some horrible sin he’d committed. So perhaps you can sympathize with Job when he says,    “Isn’t man’s time on earth like being compelled to serve in the army? Aren’t his days like those of a hired man? Like a slave, he longs for shade, or like a day laborer, he waits for his pay. In the same way, I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of agony have been assigned to me. When I lie down, I think, “How long before I get up?” But the night drags on, and I am filled with restlessness until dawn. My flesh is clothed with maggots and caked with dirt. My skin scabs over and then oozes again. My days pass by more swiftly than the shuttle of a weaver’s loom. They come to an end without hope. Remember that my life is just a breath. My eyes will never again see good fortune.”  

Can you say, “end of his rope,” “rock bottom?” Job had suffered so much in such a short span of time that it seemed like his life had lost its purpose, that there was no hope for the future, that he was living for nothing. Job had reached the point of despair. And perhaps what makes this all the more shocking is that God allowed this to happen! Satan came to God and said that the only reason Job was a believer was because God had so richly blessed him. Satan said if all his blessings were taken away, Job would cease to believe. And God agreed to let Satan take everything away!

That’s not fair, is it? Job didn’t deserve that, did he? After all, God himself praises Job: “There is no one like him on the earth, a man who is blameless and upright, who fears God and turns away from evil.” Job deserved better than to be tortured by Satan, to suffer unimaginable tragedies. I mean, after all, he was blameless and upright–he feared God. So he deserved all those blessings. He earned them, right? 

Friends, here is the hard truth that all of us need to remember. Job didn’t deserve anything. No one thing. Job didn’t deserve one ounce of blessing from God. What Job deserved was to spend not only his life on this earth in suffering and torment, but his eternity as well. That’s the truth. And if that’s true about a man God says there’s no one like, a man whom God calls upright and blameless, what does that say about me? What does that say about you? 

Why do people suffer in this life? It’s because of sin. When sin entered the world, suffering walked in right behind. And the fact of the matter is that we suffer because of sin. Sure, sometimes we don’t bring the suffering upon ourselves intentionally, but we suffer because we live in a sinful world. We suffer because we ourselves are sinful. Our bodies break down and get sick, our minds worry and fret and stress and eventually start to slip, our emotions are frayed and torn–we feel pain because of sin. When someone says, “I don’t deserve to suffer,” they’re wrong. That’s exactly what they deserve. When someone says, “God’s not fair,” they’re right. He’s not in his dealings with us. God is not at all fair–no, he’s merciful. 

You see, all of us, Job included, deserve to suffer here and for all eternity. But God didn’t want that. God didn’t want anyone to perish eternally. So God sent Jesus into the world. And what do we see Jesus doing today in our Gospel–healing, removing suffering. Jesus came into this world as one of us. And while he was here, he helped people who were suffering from disease, from sickness. He helped people who were suffering from guilt and shame. He helped people who had made sinful choices in life, who were victims of life’s circumstances, who were persecuted for their faith. Jesus helped people with their physical, mental, and emotional suffering. But he did so much more than that. Jesus took the suffering that you deserved, the suffering that I deserved, the suffering that Job deserved, and he suffered it himself. He suffered in this life and then he suffered hell itself on the cross, not because he deserved it, but because we did. He suffered hell on the cross because he didn’t want us to suffer there. 

And it’s in this picture of Jesus that we see that God does care about us. He cared so much that he was willing to give up his one and only Son so that we might be spared eternally.  And it’s in this picture of Jesus that we realize there is no reason for us to despair. There is no reason for us to feel as if we’re at the end of our rope, the bottom of the barrel, the end of our wits or the top of our tolerance. There is never a reason for us to feel like God doesn’t love us any more. What did Paul say in our second lesson?    “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

When you find yourself in the midst of a disaster, when you find yourself suffering, physically, emotionally, spiritually, The Hidden Glory of Suffering is that it draws you back to God. It draws you back to God and you remember that God does love, that God is in control, that “all things work together for the good of those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.” God has a reason for suffering in your life. Maybe he’s using it to draw you even closer to himself. Maybe he’s using you to inspire someone else, to cause someone else to ask how you can still be joyful in suffering. Maybe he’s using it as an opportunity for you to share your faith in the God who is merciful and loving, who suffered hell for you.

How long is your rope? Where do your wits end? How high is it, “up to here?” How far down is your rock bottom? No matter who you are, you’ve felt frustrated from time to time. No matter who you are, you’ve had the limit of your patience tested. No matter who you are, there’s been a moment in your life when you’ve been tempted to think that God doesn’t care about you, that God doesn’t love you anymore. But we know that’s just not true! We know that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. We know that the suffering we experience now won’t even come close to comparing with the joy that we will experience in heaven. If you’re suffering, find the Hidden Glory by clinging to the Word. Cling to God’s promises to help you, not to harm you. Cling to the cross and the hope of eternal life it promises you. 

Job’s suffering is extreme but by no means unique. The glory revealed and the power of the gospel is evident in that fact that Job prays at all, that he continues to trust in God’s mercy and his promises to hear and to help in the face of such suffering. May we do the same. May our faith never waver. May we say with Job in all circumstances, even in suffering: “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. May the name of the LORD be blessed.” Amen.