Sometimes it just doesn’t make sense
How should I not respond to other people’s suffering and loss?
A Flawed Appeal to Justice
Job
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4:6
Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?
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4:7
Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?
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4:8
Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.
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5:27
Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy good.
We know from Job 23:15 that Job fears God and that even here he is reminded by Eliphaz that they both know what the wages of sin are. Job’s hope and confidence was in reaping good by sowing good as is evidenced by reading 31:1-20. The crux of all of their problems lies in verse 7 thinking that innocence and righteousness should be a guarantee of safety and no problems, a sort of insurance policy or a token of cosmic justice which this entire book contradicts. In other words, isn’t this what you’re all about, Job? We both know that bad things happen to bad people and don’t happen to good people. John 9:1-3 shows that misfortune isn’t necessarily the result of someone’s sin.
What were the absolute worst words of “comfort” you have ever received?
Flawed Appeal to Tradition
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8:4
If thy children have sinned against him, and he have cast them away for their transgression;
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8:5
If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty;
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8:6
If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.
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8:7
Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.
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8:8
For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers:
Bildad’s approach is very clear. “Stop spouting off about your troubles; God doesn’t make any mistakes. If your children sinned, they deserved to die, and if you would get right and seek God and clean up your life, He would prosper your latter end and increase your prosperity.” This, of course, is just what the Lord does in the end. What Bildad says is true and they are not “pious platitudes”. But Bildad makes a mistake in time. No, you don’t hustle God into anything and God is not just a glorified bellboy who is just waiting to bring your breakfast up to your bedroom on a silver platter. You were created for HIS pleasure (read Revelation 4:11) and it is His good pleasure to predestinate the person who is going to receive the Lord Jesus Christ into being adopted into God’s family (Ephesians 1:5). It’s His good pleasure to reveal His mysteries to us as per Ephesians 1:9. It’s His good pleasure to work through you (Philippians 2:13) and to chastise you and whip you into shape as in Hebrews 12:6 and, in fact, that chastening is a blessing as in Psalm 94:12 and we are told not to hold that chastening in contempt in Proverbs 3:11 as it is a sign of his love in Proverbs 13:24. It is a sure sign of being a child of God as in Deuteronomy 8:5.
The problem is, that NOW is the time for trust, THEN will come the time of understanding. Your reward, your home is not here. We are shocked when trouble comes to us particularly when we are trying to serve the Lord because for all of our pious ramblings about how we know we are going to a heavenly reward we act as if this is all there is, just like the unsaved person. You may not only NOT get an answer for your pain now, you may not get any words at all outside of God’s word in His Book. 1 Corinthians 15:19 tells us that if there is nothing waiting for us on the other side we are the most miserable of mankind. Bildad telling Job that if would just get right maybe God would not only stop hurting him but actually bestow physical blessings on him is just wrong, a possibility, but not very good advice.
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Flawed Appeal to Reason
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11:13
If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him;
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11:14
If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles.
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11:15
For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear:
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Zophar’s assumption that Job is guilty of something and that if he would just get right with God and get the bad out of his heart he could face God on even ground. Is this the speech of a friend? Don’t you just love it when something goes wrong and everyone assumes the victim is guilty of something? I’ve heard it about victims of rape, child abuse, burglary, and all the way down to being sick. If my heart is prepared, my hands are clean, and I am not consciously engaged in sin there is still no guarantee given in either Testament that I will not get sick and die, perish in an accident, or become the victim of someone else’s sin. These are the facts of life as laid out in the word of God. Period.
Flawed Appeal to God
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13:20
Only do not two things unto me: then will I not hide myself from thee.
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13:21
Withdraw thine hand far from me: and let not thy dread make me afraid.
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13:22
Then call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer thou me.
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13:23
How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.
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13:24
Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?
Job says he’s ready to appear in court. He won’t “hide among the stuff” like Saul in 1 Samuel 10:22 and Adam in Genesis 3:8. However, he requires two breaks; “stop tearing me up and let me speak and you answer me”. How many times have you been in that dark place in your life and you would have loved the opportunity to question God face to face? Do you see here that nearly 4,000 years ago someone else wanted the same? When
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we think that God has abandoned us because we are suffering we are wrong. Look at Matthew 28:20 and Hebrews 13:5. The words will forever haunt me that someone once wrote who was suffering mentally enough to want to die, “I love God and He knows that I love Him but why has He abandoned me?”
The Holy Spirit, speaking through Paul, gives us the best advice in Romans 12:15 and we are told some of the “why” we are permitted to suffer in 2 Corinthians 1:3,4.
What are the worst things you have ever said to someone who was in pain, either emotional or physical?
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