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Sermon Notes: Job 38:1-7, 34-41

Posted onAuthorKen Corder

The Mystery of Christ: Silenced                            Job 38:1-7, 34-41

Mystery of Christ Silenced

  1. We have been diving deep into the story of Job, a successful man who for all purposes lost everything. The story is about the uncertainties of life and disorientation we feel when things go awry in life.  The story is about maintaining hope when we feel deserted by everyone around us even God.  The story is about not accusing life but instead affirming it, saying yes to life, even with all of its ups and downs, seasons of joy and seasons of grief.
  2. Two key phrases we have focused on from Job over the past two weeks:
    1. The first phrase, occurs when his wife tells Job, “”Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die.” Job answers, “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?”  Job realizes the nature of life is to have good seasons and bad seasons and that we are to affirm God in all seasons.  This morning, we’ll find out why it make sense to affirm God even though life is difficult and not ostensibly fair.
    2. The second key phrase we have come across in Job, which we encountered last week, is when Job, who is by now faint and terrified, says, “Yet I am not silenced by the darkness.” And in that sentence is an affirmation of life, a yes to the gift of life even in moments of intense suffering.  It is a yes that is founded in hope.  We said in our suffering, when God seems distant, God is in the hope.
  3. So a few important things we’ve learned about life and suffering already from the story of Job.
    1. Maintain your integrity. Do not curse God and die.  Do not give into nihilistic impulses that would lead you to throw in the towel, proclaim life evil and blame God.
    2. Something else we have learned from Job is to place hope in God, even if God seems distance. Do not be silenced by the darkness, but seek his face, wait and hope.  You will find God is in the hope.  Power and purpose accrue to those who overcome, who remain strong against all odds.
  4. This morning our story rises to its climax. Job and God come face to face.  Job finally has a chance to place his complaint before God.  Job’s complaint is founded on a question that is universal to all of us when we suffer.  When we are in the middle of our suffering, our loss and pain, we have an overarching question.  We want to know why.  Why is this happening?  I want to understand?  I want there to be meaning in this suffering. Why?
  5. A quick survey of our passage this morning and you realize very quickly that the story of Job is ultimately about this very question “Why?” and the frustration we have because we lack knowledge and we lack understanding about how life works and why it works the way it does.
  6. Look at the verses in our passage that deal with knowledge, questions, lack of understanding, lack of wisdom:
    1. 38:1 the Lord answered
    2. 38:2 without knowledge
    3. 38:3 I will question you
    4. 38:4 If you have understanding
    5. 38:5 surely you know
    6. 38:36 wisdom in the inward parts
    7. 38:6 give understanding to the mind
    8. 38:37 who has the wisdom
  7. The question the book of Job asks is why? Why do good things happen to good people?  And by the end of the passage, you will either be satisfied with the answer you find there, or, I acknowledge, you may be more frustrated than before.  The Lord offers up an answer to Job’s question of “Why?”  I hope you like the answer, but if you do not, it does not change the answer.
  8. We get a sense very early in the passage that the Lord is going to deliver a harsh but ultimately realistic and life-affirming answer.
    1. The Lord answers Job out of a whirlwind. I don’t know about you but I prefer my God to appear as a dove lighting on my shoulder or in a still small voice.  His arrival in a whirlwind is a bit intimidating.  I suppose it is meant to be, or at least to indicate God’s answer is not going to be for the light-hearted.
    2. This becomes apparent in verse 38:3 when the Lord says to Job, “ Gird up your loins like a man.” It’s time to put your big boy pants on, the Lord says.  Girding your loins means to pull up your tunic, roll it over your belt, so that you prepare and strengthen yourself for what is to come.
  9. The Lord says, be quiet for a moment and let me ask you a few questions, Job. Then the Lord asks Job a series of questions which establish the Lord’s authority, supremacy and prerogative.
    1. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding.  Who determined the earth’s measurements?  Surely you know!  The Lord is talking smack here?  I’m not for sure, but he’s making his point clear.  Where were you when I hung the stars in the sky?
    2. The Lord goes on for a few pages, asking such questions. Can you make the lightning bolts strike and report back to you, “Here we are!”?
    3. This is a great story, isn’t it? What is Job doing during this divine lecture?  Hands in pocket, pushing his sandal back and forth over the dirt?  Or is he is angry and bitter?  Is he in awe?  Is he getting an answer sufficient to his need?  What we do know is that he is silenced.  He says nothing as he stands before such power and indisputable logic.
  10. Here is the Lord’s answer to Job’s why. Job, you don’t know the half of it.  Your counsel is darkened because you are without the whole picture, the complete knowledge.  Not one person has the wisdom to number the clouds, so we cannot begin to think we know the half of anything.  We might pretend that we know a whole lot, what with all our spreadsheets, scientific discoveries, medical improvements, clever algorithms, and engineering wonders.  But we don’t know jack.
  11. And all Job can say in reply over in 40:4 is, “I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth.”  What does this silencing mean?  Just shut up and take it?  Life is tough, pull up your pants, tie your shoestrings and bear the load?
  12. I suppose that’s part of it. Life is not for the faint of heart.  But there is something deeper happening here.  It has to do with the silence.  Go through your phase of asking why.  It is natural.  Jesus asked why on the cross.  But don’t get stuck on why.  To overcome in your suffering, you must move on to the how.  How will I overcome?
  13. There is something about the silence that makes things clearer and opens up room for the Lord of the universe to enter into our life and make a new thing.    In the silence, we quiet the why question and start allowing the Mystery of Christ to be revealed.  Something happens when we settle into silence and begin to quietly meditate on and pray about our situation, the struggle or pain in which we find ourselves.  A Light appears in the darkness.  We discover that our existence, our soul, our life is much deeper and much fuller than the craziness that is happening on the surface.  We find in the deep silence a holy wisdom, the Hagia Sophia.  We find just as the Lord tells Job, the Lord has put wisdom in our inward parts and given understanding to our mind.  But we have to settle into the silence for this wisdom to open up to us.  That is why I said a few weeks ago to not allow drama to be added to your suffering.  Drama is one of the biggest distractions from meeting Christ in the silence.
  14. Have you ever noticed that Jesus Christ is always telling the storms, the demons and people who are talking at him to be quiet? Some versions translate be quiet as shut up.  Jesus tells us in our suffering, our disorientation, our desertion, be quiet, maybe even shut up, will you?  Settle into the silence and listen and observe for a moment.  It can be a terrifying exercise to sit in silence with the Lord.  All kinds of little, destructive thoughts come flying at us.  The Eastern Orthodox Christians call those assaultive thoughts logosmoi, little thoughts.  But if you meditate and pray long enough and let those thoughts come and go, eventually you begin to discover the holy, strong, empowering, saving power of Christ.  You discover the WORD, and he will speak to you in the silence.
  15. What we eventually find when we stop asking why and become silent before the Lord is the how. And the how is always God’s grace.  How will I overcome?  By God’s grace.  How will I make it another day?  By God’s grace.  How will I find my way through the dark? By God’s grace.  And God’s grace is sufficient.  But God’s grace is unleashed when you say yes, when you affirm life, when you grab hold of God’s hand and say, “Let’s do this thing!”
    1. Isaiah 41:13 For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, do not fear, I will help you.
    2. James 1:2-4 2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
    3. John 1:5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
  16. Ask why, go through that phase, but then get quiet. Be still and know that God is God.  Acknowledge your present condition but do not become resentful and bitter.  Rather find victory by affirming life and trusting in the God who saw fit to give us this gift of live.

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