I. In the opening verses of the book of James we’re confronted with what we might call an emotional dilemma.
A. James says, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.” (James 1:2)
1. The dilemma is being able to face trials with joy.
2. Is that how YOU face trials?
a. James isn’t talking about the minor setbacks and struggles we all face in life.
b. He’s talking about trials that put our faith to the test.
3. How well do you handle trials that put your faith to the test?
B. Let’s be painfully honest with ourselves for a moment.
1. The truth is, when we’re hit with major trials and afflictions – major losses in life – all of us encounter a serious testing of our faith.
2. We begin to question “Why?” – Why me? Why this? Why now?
3. And like one particular Old Testament character, we may never know “Why.”
C. Of course, the Old Testament character I’m talking about is Job.
II. In the first two chapters of Job, there are five scenes that result in calamity.
A. God permitted Satan to carry out an unprecedented assault upon Job.
1. Through four of these scenes, we can track Satan’s activities as he tried to destroy the man who was “blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and shunned evil” (Job 1:1).
B. In the chapters that follow, we see Job struggling to understand “Why.”
1. Here was a godly man undergoing some of the most horrific trials we could possibly imagine.
2. Job couldn’t understand why all this was happening to him.
3. It was the common thinking in his day – and many in our day believe this too – that only those who are evil or who have sinned against God suffer like Job.
4. Even Job’s closest friends thought he was being punished for some hidden sin and needed to repent of it.
5. But Job wasn’t hiding any sin – he was simply a god-fearing man who ended up losing everything of value to him.
C. But the most important thing we learn from the book of Job is how he responded to these terrible losses.
1. In fact, we’re going to see four very specific and unique ways Job responded to the calamities that struck his life.
2. And these are ways we can also respond to the calamites that will hit us sooner or later.
D. Since calamities and major losses will impact our lives sooner or later, we need to know how to keep trusting in God in the midst of those trials.
1. Let’s begin by looking at the opening chapters of Job, and take a closer look at the five scenes that switch back and forth between heaven and earth.
BODY:
I. FIVE SCENES: Scenes that switch back and forth between heaven and earth.
A. Scene One: On Earth (Job 1:1-5).
1. Job is introduced as a righteous man, and is described as “the greatest of all the people of the East.” – KJV says “the fattest man in the east.”
2. This scene closes with Job showing his deep concern for the spiritual attitudes of his children.
B. Scene Two: In Heaven (Job 1:6-12).
1. Satan appears before God in heaven at the same time as the “sons of God” are gathering about Him.
a. The Lord asks Satan where he’d come from – another way of saying, “what have you been up to?”
b. Satan says, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” – i.e. I Peter 5:8 “…your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
2. God asks him if he’d considered His “servant Job.”
a. God is not suggesting that Satan should tempt Job, He’s asking Satan if he has encountered Job while he had been our roaming looking for victims – Job a man of faith and integrity.
b. Satan responds, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side?”
c. The implication is that Job’s faith and reverence toward God is based solely on the fact that God had blessed Job abundantly.
d. Satan said that if God would “touch” all that Job had, Job would curse God.
e. So, God grants Satan the right to test his theory.
C. Scene Three: On Earth (Job 1:13-22).
1. Satan hit Job with wave after wave after wave of the most terrible losses.
a. But Job’s response wasn’t what Satan thought it would be.
(1). Upon hearing the news of these losses, Job tears his robe, shaves his head, and falls to the ground crying out, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
b. Then we’re told, “In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.”
D. Scene Four: In Heaven (Job 2:1-6).
1. Satan comes before God once again to make a new charge.
a. “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”
b. Did you notice here that Satan wanted God to inflict Job with some terrible terminal disease?
c. He wanted God to be the source of Job’s pain.
2. Again, God allows Satan to test his new theory, but with one restriction.
a. “...he is in your power, but spare his life.”
E. Scene Five: On Earth (Job 2:7-13).
1. Satan inflicts Job with boils “from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.”
a. His pain and disgrace are intolerable (Job. 2:7-8; 7:3-5; 30:30).
b. Even Job’s wife plays into Satan’s hands and says, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!”
2. But once again, Job response is different from what Satan expected.
a. Job replies, “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?”
b. Then we’re told, “In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”
II. Job’s plight is beyond the comprehension of most people.
A. In a moment of time:
1. Job was taken from:
a. Honor to disgrace.
b. Abundance to poverty.
c. Health and productivity to writhing in pain.
2. Job’s life had been completely altered – completely turned upside down, and inside out!
a. He had become a desolate, lonely figure sitting on a smoldering dunghill at the edge of the city.
b. His ulcerated skin oozing with puss filled infected sores – the stench would have been horrible.
c. I don’t want to be overly graphic, but do you get the picture of pain and suffering here?
B. However, when we look further in the book of Job four ways Job responded we learn some powerful lessons about the way Job responded to these terrible circumstances.
1. And these are the lessons we need to learn.
2. The most outstanding thing we see in Job is his trust in God, even though he didn’t understand why these things were happening to him.
3. We need to know how to develop that same kind of trust.
4. So, let’s take a closer look at how Job was able to keep trusting in God during a time of intense trials.
III. Here we find FOUR RESPONSES that reveal a great deal about Job’s INTEGRITY.
A. Worship (Job 1:20).
1. We would expect Job to cry out, begging God for relief.
a. But instead, Job prostrates himself before God.
b. Dr. Franz Delitzsch calls this “the posture of worship.”
2. Worship doesn’t result from having all the answers.
a. Rather, worship comes in the absence of answers.
b. It comes when all we can say is, “God, I adore You, I praise you still, even though I don’t know why.”
B. Humility (Job 1:21-22).
1. Job didn’t need “things” or abundance to stimulate his worship.
a. He completely abandoned himself in a trusting faith toward God.
b. “The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
2. He had God – he needed no one else.
C. Silence (Job 2:7-8, 11a, 13)
1. That’s a rare commodity today.
a. Plagued by what was believed to be an incurable illness (the “Black Plague”) – a disease accompanied by itching, pain, fever, stench, and loss of sleep – Job’s words were few, if any at all.
D. Finally. . . Acceptance (Job 2:10).
1. Job had worshipped, humbled himself, and remained silent, uttering no words of blame or bitterness toward God.
a. He possessed that rich, rare spirit of acceptance – believing that if God had chosen to strike him down, God knew what He was doing.
2. We commend Job for his patience and wisdom, but often overlook this specific attitude so seldom found among those who are suffering and who are afflicted – the attitude of acceptance.
IV. In studying the life of Job, we learn there were THREE REASONS for Job responding as he did – reasons that helped him maintain his integrity and regain spiritual STABILITY.
A. He looked UP:
1. Job was content to bow down in submission to the sovereignty of God.
a. Job1:21; 2:10.
B. He looked AHEAD:
1. Job was reminded of God’s wonderful promise.
a. Job 19:23-27.
C. He looked WITHIN:
1. Job was shaped through God’ s wonderful teaching and instruction.
a. Job 42:1-6.
CONCLUSION:
I. How would you respond if God allowed you to go through the same kind of intense trials as He did with Job?
A. Would He find you shaking your fist in His face, or would he find you giving Him your worship, humility, silence and acceptance?
B. It’s been said, “there is a story behind every hymn.”
1. One of the most beautiful stories of trusting faith in the midst of trials is found in one of the songs we often sing. Allow me to take a moment and read the story – the story of H. G. Spafford.
2. The French liner, “S.S. Ville du Havre,” was
the most luxurious ship afloat when it sailed from New York in November, 1873.
Among her passengers was Mrs. H. G. Spafford of Chicago. She and her husband
had planned to travel to Europe with their four young daughters for a much
needed vacation. But Mr. Spafford was not able to make the voyage with his
family because of business commitments in Chicago, which had just two years
before been ravaged by the Great Fire of 1871. So, Mr. Spafford told his wife
and daughters “Goodbye,” promising to meet them in France in a few weeks.
At two o’clock on the morning of November 22, 1873, when the luxury
liner was several days out, she was rammed by the English iron sailing vessel,
the “Lochern.” In less than 30 minutes, the “Ville Du Havre,” one of the
largest ships afloat, slipped beneath the waves, carrying with her some 226
souls, including the four Spafford children. Fortunately, Mrs. Spafford was
pulled from the water by sailors from the “Lochern,” along with a small handful
of survivors.
News of the tragedy soon reached New York and spread across the country in the matter of hours. H. G. Spafford learned of the disaster and waited anxiously for days to hear of his family’s fate. Nine days after the mid-ocean shipwreck, when the survivors landed at Cardiff, Wales, Mrs. Anne Spafford cabled her husband these two words, “Saved alone.”
What makes this true story so incredible is that the Spafford’s had lost everything they owned in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and just a year before that they lost their only son to yellow fever. Now, in a tragedy at sea he lost his four precious daughters.
As soon as he could, Spafford booked passage on a ship to Europe to join
his grieving wife. On the way over, just weeks after the tragedy, the Captain
of called Spafford into his cabin and said, “I believe we are now passing over
the place where the ‘Ville du Havre’ went down.”
That night Spafford found it impossible to sleep. So in his cabin, there in the
mid-Atlantic, he took out pin and paper. And out of a heart shattered by
unbearable grief, but a soul still clinging to faith, H. G. Spafford wrote these
words:
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
"It is well, it is well with my soul."
Tho' Satan should buffet, tho' trials should
come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And has shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin (Oh the bliss of this glorious thought)
My sin, not in part, but the whole
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
And, Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be
sight,
The clouds be rolled back like a scroll,
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend,
Even so - it is well with my soul.
3. But the story of H. G. Spafford’s loss doesn’t end here. One of his dearest friends was Philip Paul Bliss (P. P. Bliss), a famous song leader and composer, who had written many wonderful hymns that we still sing today -- “Hallelujah! What A Savior,” “I Will Sing of My Redeemer,” “Let The Lower Lights Be Burning,” “Almost Persuaded,” “More Holiness Give Me,” “Whosoever Will,” “Wonderful Words of Life,” and more than a hundred others.
Phillip Bliss thought it would be a wonderful tribute to Spafford’s daughters if the poem Spafford had written was set to music and made a hymn. Spafford was deeply moved and agreed to his friend’s request, and in the matter of days, Phillip Bliss had set the poem “It Is Well With My Soul,” to music. The song became an immediate success, and was soon being sung in churches all across the Northeast.
On December 29, 1876, Bliss and his devoted wife Lucy were traveling by train from New York to Chicago. They had just spent a wonderful Christmas with family at their home in Rome, New York. But since the trip to Chicago would be a lengthy, Philip and Lucy Bliss left their two children with other family members, while they made the trip to Chicago alone.
Shortly after 8:00 p.m., the train carrying Mr. and Mrs. Bliss began slowly crossing the 100 foot high trestle over the Ashtabula river in Ohio. Without warning, the trestle collapsed sending eleven rail cars plunging into the icy ravine below. The cars immediately bust into flames from ruptured kerosene-heating stoves that had warmed the passengers on that cold December night. Before the night would end, over 100 of the 160 passengers would perish, and many of those that survived would later die from their injuries.
Witnesses said Philip Bliss was thrown free of the wreckage and, though seriously injured, immediately began a desperate search for his beloved wife. Suddenly, he realized Lucy was still trapped in the burning passenger car. Unable to free her from the twisted wreckage, Bliss wrapped his arms around her and perished in the flames by her side. Philip Bliss was 38 years old.
H. G. Spafford now had to cope with another terrible loss. Remember, he had lost his son to yellow fever in 1870, lost all his possessions in the Great Chicago fire of 1871, lost his four daughters in a mid-Atlantic shipwreck in 1873, and now lost his dearest and most precious friends Philip and Lucy Bliss in 1876.
4. When tragedy and disaster strike your life, and it will someday, will you be able to look heavenward and say, “Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, ‘It is well, it is well with my soul?’”
5. When you’re troubled, will you be able to trust in God?