Faith in a time of tears (2)

1:20  At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship  and said:

1:21  “Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
    and naked I will depart.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
    may the name of the Lord be praised.”

1:22  In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing…

 

2:9  His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!

2:10  He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?

In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

Job1:20-22 and 2:9-10

Last time we thought about the appalling sufferings of Job and the truly impressive response he made to them. I suggested three areas where we can apply his experience to ourselves as God’s people today. First, we too have an enemy, and we need to take him seriously. Second, our enemy is powerful, but his power is limited, as he is ultimately under God’s control. Third, we needn’t be ashamed to vent our emotions in times of trouble, as Job did.

But I never got on to the defiant, faith-filled words of Job especially in 1:21 and 2:10. They are worth focussing on. But first, a short digression…

I have a friend whose wife, tragically, died quite young after prolonged sickness. As part of the lead-up to the inevitable she held what she called “Getting ready for heaven” parties. What did they consist of? Intense periods of prayer? In depth Bible study? A free flow of tears? Well, I never went to one myself – I only heard about them. But I’m pretty sure the answer to teach of those questions is No. Not that prayer wasn’t ever offered, or the Bible never read. Nor that there were never tears. Yes, of course, each of those. But as far as I could gather they were in essence relaxed and even happy occasions where there was plenty of chat and some nice food and drink.

A far cry from the experience of Job, of course! But, like his, essentially positive.

I recently happened to read in the paper about an organisation I had not come across before called Death Café. My, that sounds grim, doesn’t it! - but, on reflection, rather like my friend’s wife’s gatherings. On their web-site the organisers state: “Our objective is to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives.” No hint of religious, let alone Christian, input, but I’m sure people of no faith or any faith may participate. But the recognition of a need for mutual support, of a need to look death fairly and squarely in the face rather than turn a blind eye and pretend it’s not going to happen, the need, ultimately, to be positive is key.

What did Job say?

First: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall depart”.

We tend to shy away from such stark realism, but facts are facts. My own father, not at the time a Christian, and not a man prone to opening his heart too freely, received some troubling news from the doctor and expressed a hope that I would look after my mother “in case anything happens to me”. I didn’t need to ask what he meant.

I remember also a woman approaching ninety who was somehow forced to think about death, and responded “Oh, I don’t like to think about things like that”. Well, no, that’s understandable. But “things like that” are exactly what we do have to think about, aren’t they? A woman running a care home greeted me at the desk and told me that the person I had come to visit “had been given her wings”.

Many of us, in effect, try to bury our heads in the sand.

But what is the point? That evocative psalm, Psalm 90 verse 10, tells us that “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures”. That’s looking facts in the face, and can only be healthy.

I know there are people – it’s hard not to call them simply crackpots – who are so wedded to this earthly life that they are planning to have their bodies frozen at death so that they can later be resuscitated and have another go at it. Surely, never was the old saying about “people with more money than sense” (such procedures don’t come cheap) more appropriate!

Second: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised”.

Job here is referring not only to life as a whole, but also to all the possessions and trappings, above all the riches, that we pick up along the way. As we saw last time he was a massively wealthy man, but his faith was robust enough to enable him to say good-bye to it all as and when God saw fit. He knew the truth of the old adage, “You can’t take it with you”, which invites the question, “so why treat it as supremely important?”

Of course “things we pick up along the way”… well, that’s a rather loose and careless expression for me to use because it includes husbands and wives, families and children, work and leisure and other aspects of our experience that have been deeply precious to us (I mean no flippancy). But, whatever Job may have understood about these things, cannot we whose trust is in Christ have a firm confidence that nothing of ultimate value and beauty will be finally lost?

Third, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?

But back to the reality of our present experience. We often say that in this fallen life of ours there are “ups and downs”. That, of course, is a sad and bitter truth (I’ve just been following news of the forest fires ravaging large areas of Europe), and indeed the expression “ups and downs” doesn’t begin to do it justice. Earthly existence is afflicted with terrible pain and suffering, with war and disease, with unspeakable cruelty and terrible disease.

There is no logical reason to explain the relative joys and sorrows – why one person seems to reach seventy or more years in relative ease and comfort, and another is buffeted throughout life with crisis after crisis. It’s very natural to cry out “It’s not fair!” But there is no answer to that, and that is where our faith in God is vital; he is a just and loving God, and the ultimate test is to cling to him through thick and thin – and to be whatever loving support we can be for those whose way is harder than ours.

Three further quotations…

“In all this, Job did not sin in what he said” (Job 2:10). May that be true also of us.

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). (And Paul, who wrote those words, knew about suffering!)

Jesus answered him (the dying thief), “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

Lord God, please help me to cling by faith to the crucified, risen and ascended Christ, until that day comes when I see him face to face. Until that day, help me to bring light and hope to all whom I meet. Amen.