The Fulfilment of God’s Plan - Luke 1:1-25 - [sermon]

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From the minister . . .

Job’s Answer

The book of Job ends with my second favourite passage of Scripture (behind Rev
4-5), which outlines one of the clearest pictures of God’s glory for the reader. Yet
this majestic passage is also perplexing. Instead of comforting Job, or explaining
his suffering, God berates Job. The fascinating thing about this is it works. By Ch
42, Job has ceased his complaining, his anger is gone, and he repents of his ill-informed
words, and he goes about serving God again. So how did this work?
In a nutshell, Job 38-41 is God reminding Job that he is not God. In fact, he’s not
even close to God in power and knowledge. As such, Job has no right
to question God’s plans or justice. If there is no God, there’s no reason to
complain about suffering at all, as we’re simply one big cosmic accident. But if
there is a God, then he knows everything about everything.
When we claim to know better than God, demanding God carry out his plans
according to our superior wisdom, we add a new layer of worry and turmoil
to the already difficult pain our suffering brings. God is reminding Job here
to stay in his lane and leave running the universe to Him.
When suffering comes, we must preach Job 38-42 to ourselves, reminding
ourselves that we are but the servant. Then, we should get on with being a servant.
When Job prays for his 3 friends in Job 42:7-9, in response to God’s command,
Satan lost the bet from Ch 1-2. This foreshadows Satan’s ultimate defeat, by the
ultimate innocent sufferer at the cross. In the same way, every time Christians
serve the Lord amid their suffering, Satan loses once again.
So instead of basing our relationship with God on whether he’s serving us or not,
let us follow Job’s lead and continue to pursue the Lord, even in suffering. That
is the answer to why God allows suffering.

Brendan McLaughlin