Job 7:1-7 * Epiphany 5
*
Dear Friends in Christ,
I came across this poem by an anonymous author several years ago in a Christian periodical. The title of the poem is “Shadows,” and the One supposedly speaking these words is God.
Those who walk with Me must sometime walk in shadows.
You must be prepared for silence as well as speech.
I do not always explain what I am doing,
and I want your unqualified trust in Me. If everything were
absolutely clear, you would be walking by sight, and for my own
reasons,
I have called you to the walk of faith.
Faith grows in the shadows, but shrinks in the light.
You will understand this better when it becomes clear.
In the shadows, practice praise.
Go steadily in the path I have laid out
for you, and be of good cheer.
The man who is central to our text for today, the great Old Testament figure Job, would have understood this piece of poetry. In fact, he pretty much lived it. But my guess is he isn’t the only one that understands it. My guess is that to one degree or another at some time in our lives each of us has spent some time in the shadows.
And that is why the text before us today, although not particularly uplifting or optimistic or Gospel-centered, is nonetheless extremely important for us as Christians to consider. An honest evaluation of these words, set in the context of Job’s entire life (as opposed to the single pessimistic snapshot we are given here) can be exceptionally meaningful and helpful for us today. So on the basis of this text, let’s talk about
LIFE IN THE SHADOWS
1. Two stubborn myths to let go
of
2. One great truth to hang on to
Let’s begin with just a little more information on Job. Briefly his story goes like this…
Job, a faithful and devout believer who probably lived sometime in the days of Genesis, was allowed by God to be tested in his faith. Within a short period of time he lost everything. First, his possessions; next, his children; and finally, his health. Shortly thereafter, Job was visited by three friends who came to commiserate with him and offer him the wisdom of their advice.
Much of the book of Job is a dialogue between Job and these
individuals. All three basically told Job the same thing, and all three were
entirely wrong. What they said in effect
was this: “Job, you reap what you sow. You
must have done something terrible for God to punish you like this. Find out what your sin was, repent of it, and
God will leave you alone.”
The truth was that Job hadn’t done anything more wrong than any other sinful human being, and actually had done quite a bit that was right. In chapter one he is described as being “blameless and upright.” Consequently, one of the great lessons of the Book of Job is that God is not a vengeful, scorekeeping God who dishes out punishment to His children whenever they mess up.
Rather, hardship and times of testing can be and are intended to be instructive in nature, and a part of God’s divine wisdom in refining the faith of His children. Adversity in one form or another is the instrument God often chooses for the important purpose of bringing His children closer to Himself. This is a lesson Job would learn, and, in fact, come to appreciate. But at the time of our text, he wasn’t there yet.
Our text picks up shortly after Job has heard a “reap what you sow” speech from one of his friends. That’s really not what he needed from them at this time, he says. And then he addresses his feelings – and his complaints – to God. “Does not man have hard service on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired man? Like a slave longing for evening shadows, or a hired man waiting eagerly for his wages, so I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me.” Comparing life to a time of forced labor, Job characterizes his days as being futile, meaningless and with little to look forward to. His nights are miserable.
“When I lie down I
think, ‘How long before I get up?’ The
night drags on, and I toss till dawn.” Hoping
to find relief in sleep, Job instead discovers that night is his worst
time. He can’t sleep, and when he does –
as he tells us in later verses – his sleep is marked by nightmares. This is all apparently part of his condition,
the physical aspects of which he now describes:
“My body is clothed with worms
and scabs, my skin is broken and festering.”
Bible scholars have rendered guesses ranging from leprosy to elephantiasis,
but we don’t know the precise nature of Job’s malady. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.
“My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle and they come to an end without hope. Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again.” Job sees his life as hopeless, quickly coming to an end, and at this point he cannot conceive of ever seeing happiness again. And on that pained and pessimistic note, our text for today ends.
What are we to make of these words and the situation behind them? What instruction for our lives can we find in them? Here is where a couple of commonly held myths can be dispelled.
Many people – sometimes Christians among them – buy into the philosophy of Job’s friends. You know, the idea that when we experience bad things or tough times God is punishing us for our past or present sins. But that’s a myth. Let’s talk about it.
Does God punish our sins? The answer is yes. Does God punish us for our sins? The answer to that is no. Both answers are harmonized in the cross. On the cross God punished Jesus in our place. The Apostle Peter put it this way (1 Peter 2:24): “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” Or as Isaiah says in his magnificent 53rd chapter: “… the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Spiritually healed, that is.
Let’s be clear on this. Though our sins are deserving of God’s righteous punishment, we don’t pay the penalty. Jesus did. Jesus bore our sins as our substitute. Every sin that we have committed or will commit has been nailed to the cross of Christ. Our sin, which once barred us from the door to heaven, has been replaced by the perfect righteousness of Jesus – and heaven is ours through Him. We are redeemed, restored, forgiven; free to live for God now and in eternity.
Nevertheless, while on this side of heaven, we still contend with sin. And because of the fact we still have a sinful nature, we still do sinful acts. As Christians this is not our desire, but it happens. And sometimes by our sinful actions or unwise choices (that ignore the counsel of God’s Word) we bring consequences upon ourselves. And sometimes those consequences can be painful. But that is our doing, not God’s.
On the other hand, sometimes God allows things to come into our lives which are not connected to the consequences of our own sin. That was the case with Job. Let’s develop this a little farther. In order to do this, we must understand the Scriptural concept of “discipline.” “Discipline” is altogether different from the “punishment” Job’s friends spoke of. The classic section of Scripture on this topic is Hebrews 12:7-11:
Endure hardship as discipline;
God is treating you as sons. For what
son is not disciplined by his father? If
you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are
illegitimate children and not true sons.
Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we
respected them for it. How much more
should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while
as they thought best; but god disciplines us for our good, that we may share in
his holiness. No discipline seems
pleasant at the time, but painful. Later
on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who
have been trained by it.
What is God telling us here? He’s telling us that in His love for us He will discipline us so as to purify and refine our faith. And that’s a good thing. In other words, while we generally always see pain or hardship as being negative and something to be avoided, Scripture speaks of hardship and suffering being – or at least leading to – something positive.
And what could that be? The Lord may bring something – or a number of things – into our lives so that we must rely totally on Him, and then experience firsthand His power to preserve and sustain us even in unfavorable circumstances… Or perhaps the Lord is preparing us for something later on in life… Or maybe because of the experience we’ve gone through we can later be of comfort or strength to another Christian going through the same thing.
Whatever the case, of this we can be assured: God has a plan. And to understand that is to understand the words of the hymnist: “What God ordains is always good.” So myth number one: Do not mistake discipline for punishment. There is a big difference.
Let’s move on to a second commonly held myth, even among Christians. And that has to do with how the believer can or may react during times of adversity, whether from the loving, disciplining hand of God, or simply as the result of living in a sinful world…
The words of Job are the words of a dejected man. There is no way to misunderstand them. Job was down. Depressed. He was still a believer, but he was despondent. And it should be noted that in the record of Holy Scriptures Job is not alone among believers who from time to time became despondent over their circumstances. Others include Moses, Joshua, Elijah, King David, Jeremiah, and the Apostle Paul, as well as some lesser known figures. Stepping outside the Bible, Martin Luther was said to have periods of melancholy.
What’s the point? Just this: Because we carry around our sinful nature, the believer can and will become despondent or down at times.
Maybe you’re saying, “I know that. That’s not such a brilliant observation.” And it isn’t. But we mention it because there is a myth that real Christians will never get down or depressed. Or that the person who gets depressed must have a defective or weak faith. As a result, some Christians who have low periods begin to question their faith and in the process heap all kinds of guilt upon themselves for feeling low.
But as can be seen from Job and other examples, these feelings can happen. They don’t mean that God doesn’t love us or that we are losing our faith or even that our faith is necessarily weak. It’s simply part of being the imperfect human beings that we are.
The good news is that there is a cure. The cure for going through difficult times is to redirect our focus away from our troubles and back to the wisdom and love and power of God. And the greatest example of that is the cross of Christ. When we do that, the periods of despondency in our lives will be momentary and not lasting. Seasonal, but not terminal.
And that’s where Job finally ended up (that’s also why it’s not fair to judge him solely on this portion of Scripture). He looked beyond his own plight to the wisdom of God. He came to understand that even in difficult times, God had not abandoned Him. As a result, the words of our text, which seem so bleak and hopeless, later turned to praise and worship as Job, guided by a gracious God, did indeed see happiness in his life again. And that’s the great truth of our text, the great truth to hold onto especially when we find ourselves walking in the shadows: God will never leave us or forsake us. The depth of His love as seen in Jesus Christ cannot be questioned.
So, what have we learned today? First, that the idea of God punishing us for past sins with present hardship is a myth. Our sins have been paid in full on the cross...
Secondly, that at times even Christians may become down. This doesn’t mean they don’t have a strong faith – it only means they are human…
And finally, that the down times in our lives will become momentary and seasonal as we focus not on ourselves, but on the cross. Because there we see the ultimate example of God’s enduring love and wisdom: Jesus Christ our Lord.
So what it boils down to is this: Behind the shadows, the Son is always shining on us. Amen.