Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35b
Job 38:1-7, 16-18, 34-38 & 40:3-5
New Living Translation
and sermon, “Father Knows Best”,
by Pastor Ruth L. Foss
Suncook United Methodist Church
Suncook, NH
October 18, 2009
“Father Knows Best”
The Lord be with you
And also with you
Let us pray…
Creator, Sustainer, Almighty God, you who created all that we see. We have come into your house to worship you this morning and hear the word you would have for us this day. We pray for your presence and your Spirit here with us as we listen to your word. May we leave this place today understanding more about you and your will for our lives. May the meditations of our hearts and the words of our mouths be pleasing to you oh Lord, our Rock and Redeemer. Speak Lord; your children are…
Children…I just love children. They are just full of wonderment and awe at the world them. They are also full of a lot of questions. Why is the sky blue, why does it snow, why do we have to do homework, why can’t I stay up all night watching TV, why…why…why? It can get taxing at times answering all of their questions. I don’t know about you but…there are times that I get to the point where I just say “because I said so…” We don’t have all the answers but they sure seem to think we do…
Even we, as adults have our own set of questions. Questions like, how am I going to get done all that I have to do, why won’t anyone listen to me, does anyone even care about what I have to do…etc.. We are full of so many questions in life. Some days I really can relate to Job. Even when I am doing the right thing, it seems to come back and bite me. I try as I might to live a good life, a life that would be pleasing to God but something goes wrong any way. What am I to do, doesn’t God see that I am trying to do what is right? Why is God allowing these things to happen? I just don’t understand. There are time when I just cry out to God “that’s it…I don’t know what is going on but I have tried to do good but it just isn’t working. I know I haven’t done anything wrong so why is this happening. It’s not fair!”
You see…Job was a pious man, he was blameless and upright. He was a God fearing man and “turned away from evil.” He cared so much for his family that he interceded regularly to God on their behalf. He was a family man (he actually had 10 children). He was a truly blessed man with a lot of material possessions. Until one day…Job lost his blessing…he lost his children, his possessions, his status and self-respect and his health. (I know that there are many of us who can relate to Job…having things and suddenly losing them for some reason…our health, our jobs, our homes; our trust…the list goes on). His life was plagued with natural disaster (a fire and wind storm), his enemies had taken away his possessions, but through all this…we are told that he never cursed God or sinned.
Job had people in his life that came to speak to him in his despair but they really weren’t any help. His wife told him to “curse God and die”…be done with it…His three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar were no help either. They kept telling him that he must have done something wrong, this was why he was being punished, he needed to own up to this fact and repent to get his stuff back. He gets angry with them when they accuse him of forgetting how small he was in the universe…no one is pure in God’s sight…The whole time Job kept insisting on his innocence…insisting that there is nothing wrong with his relationship with God.(how many times in our lives do we cry out to God in our innocence, how many times are we the recipient of injustice because of someone else, this is all too familiar to us).
But as we see in Job’s story, his seeming acceptance of his circumstance masks a deeper reaction to what is happening in his life…the complete injustice of the whole thing…remember, he is upright and pious. All of the sudden, Job changes from perfect piousness to him cursing not God but himself, the day he was born…it would have been better if he was born still born…died in his mother’s womb. (How many times in our lives that we are in such a “stooper” that we wish we were never born, that God made a mistake in making us, we are full of despair and anguish over our situation)
There are even a few times in this book that Job actually wants to go one on one…mono e mono…with God. He says things like “I insist on arguing my case with God…here is my signature! Let Shadday answer me!”
Well…with challenges like that…I am sure you know what happened. God shows up on the scene. (God appears in a whirlwind…much like the whirlwind of life that Job had been living lately)But…God doesn’t answer Job in a way that you might think…instead of answering Job’s questions, God asks a few of his own…
The LORD Challenges Job
1 Then the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind: 2 “Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words? 3 Brace yourself like a man, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them. 4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much.5 Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line? 6 What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone 7 as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
16 “Have you explored the springs from which the seas come? Have you explored their depths? 17 Do you know where the gates of death are located? Have you seen the gates of utter gloom? 18 Do you realize the extent of the earth? Tell me about it if you know!
34 “Can you shout to the clouds and make it rain? 35 Can you make lightning appear and cause it to strike as you direct? 36 Who gives intuition to the heart and instinct to the mind? 37 Who is wise enough to count all the clouds? Who can tilt the water jars of heaven 38 when the parched ground is dry and the soil has hardened into clods?
And I bet you can guess what Job’s answer was…
Job 40:3-5
Job Responds to the LORD
3 Then Job replied to the LORD, 4 “I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers? I will cover my mouth with my hand. 5 I have said too much already. I have nothing more to say.”
There can be so many things in our lives that we just don’t understand. Why is there pain and suffering, why do we not care about climate change, why are there wars…? But this scripture gives me a ray of hope. You see…I may question God and His reasons but the bottom line is God knows what He is doing better than I can ever think of. God is the one who knows what is best because God sees the whole picture not just the moment I am in.
Well…job does repent in the end and the “good guy” wins (with a little poetic justice). God has Jobs friends (you know…the ones that were so smart)give things to Job as restitution for their unbelief in Job. But…the thing that keeps me thinking is the fact that Job and we as the reader are left without direct answers to any of the questions raised in the book of Job. The questions of:
1. Disinterested Righteousness: the question “Does Job fear God for nothing”? What is our motivation as humans for being pious, like Job? Are we only in the relationship with God because of what we can get out of it or is it something more?
2. The Doctrine of Retribution: Are those who are righteous indeed rewarded by God in this life and those who are wicked punished? Why is there suffering in the world of innocent people then?
3. Relationship between God and Human’s: Can human beings have a relationship with a God who seemingly dispenses justice as he wills and who doesn’t appear to be restricted by the human Idea of justice?
These are all questions that we all may struggle with at some time, some point in our walk, and our journey with God. But it gives me hope to know that God is working out his plan and even though I may not understand or see God moving…He is always there, watching, interceding for and cherishing his creation. What Jeremiah says in Chapter 29:10-11 reminds me of God’s mercy:
10 This is what the LORD says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
The world may seem out of control but God will and still reigns on High. He is working out His plan. His still, small voice cries out to us in the wilderness of this world; “be still, persevere and know I am God.”
Amen
==================
edited November 23, 2018
Be careful what you ask for – v2
November 23, 2018
my response to Realistic Poetry
November 22, 2018
“As a poet, if you could use your words to go back into history
and
change one thing, what would it be and why?”
&
October 18, 2009
Be careful what you ask for
Job 38:1-7 (34-41)
&
Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35b
Job 38:1-7, 16-18, 34-38 & 40:3-5
and sermon, “Father Knows Best”,
by Pastor Ruth L. Foss
Suncook United Methodist Church
Suncook, NH
October 18, 2009
&
Psalm 8:3-4
and writing challenge
“Monday Manna for October 19 - What is man?”
posted by Joanne Sher on her blog,
“An Open Book”, at:
&
Jeremiah 18:1-10
&
Deuteronomy 18:11-20
Upper Room Daily Devotional
for October 18, 2009,
“It is God’s”,
by Margie J. Harding
&
1 John 2:15-17
Upper Room Daily Devotional
for October 12, 2009,
“Fleeting or Eternal”,
by Pastor Toomas Pajusoo
&
Mark 10:17-31
Mark 1:16-20
& message by Raymond A. Foss,
“What
is Your Footprint, Where is Your Treasure,
What
is in Your Silo; Whom Will You Follow”
Suncook United Methodist Church
Suncook, NH
10/11/09
&
John Wesley’s sermon, “On Riches”
&
Faith In Action newsletter,
Word from Winkler, 9/28/09
Congregational
malpractice
& Alive Now daily devotional
for September 30, 2009
“An Uncomfortable Nudge”,
by Roland Rink
&
Mark 10:17-31
Alive Now Daily Reflection
for October 10, 2009
&
Alive Now Daily Reflection
“All of You”,
by James Schwarzlose
for October 11, 2009
&
Upper Room Disciplines for 2009
Mark 10:17-27
for October 10, 2009
by Soozung Sa Rankin
&
Upper Room Disciplines for 2009
Mark 10:28-31
for October 11, 2009
by Soozung Sa Rankin
All
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2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. All rights are reserved. Contact me at
Ray Foss (raymondafoss@gmail.com) for usage.
See all 48,150 of my poems at www.raymondafoss.blogspot.com
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