Real Christians Suffer
May 27, 2018

Scripture: Job 6 and 7

I. Real Christians respond to suffering by maintaining their faith.

A. In Job 6:2 Job says that his suffering has been a source of vexation to him. He was annoyed by it. And in Job 6:4 he doesn’t say that Satan is the cause of all his pain. No. Job is still a true believer. He is a real Christian who knows that in God’s universe, God Himself must somehow be behind the tragedies that have happened to Him. Satan is a nothing in comparison with God. It’s God who is in control of everything that happens in the universe. Not Satan. And so these tragedies that have happened to Job feel like God has shot poison arrows into Job.

B. In vs. 9 Job wishes that God would crush him and end his life. This is not because Job wants to be released from his suffering. It’s because what Job really wants according to vs. 10 is to remain faithful to God. Job feels like he is at the breaking point. He does not want to dishonor his God. Isaiah 53:5: “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” Jesus actually was crushed for us to bring us peace with God. Great good came out of great suffering. So keep your faith when you go through suffering.

II. Real Christians respond to suffering by wrestling with God and God’s people.

A. At the end of Job 6 we read Job say to his friends in vs. 24, “Teach me, and I will be silent; make me understand how I have gone astray.” Show me where I have sinned, Job says. I haven’t done anything wrong. In fact, Job insists in vs. 28, that “I will not lie to your face.” Job is not going to take his friends’ accusations lying down. Job had such high hopes for his friends. He hoped that they would bring him some comfort in his suffering. But his friends turned out to be like a dry river bed in the desert (Job 6:15).

B. The results of Jesus’ suffering are found in Romans 5:19: “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” Jesus wrestled with God in prayer. And then He obeyed God because of His faith. As a result, we Christians were made righteous. Don’t shrink back from wrestling with God. Real believers wrestle with both God and their believing friends.

III. Real Christians respond to suffering by being honest with God.

A. Job is saying to God in Job 7:1-4 that life is hard, and then you die. Or if he were like Thomas Hobbes he would say, “Life is nasty, poor, brutish and short.” Job says in the second half of vs. 8 that God’s eyes are on him. And if God is watching over him, then Job ought to matter. His life ought to have meaning and significance. But everything about his suffering suggests that Job does not matter to God. Job here is arguing with God. He is being completely honest with God that he feels like he does not matter at all to God. Then in Job 7:16-18 Job asks God to leave him alone. Are these the words of a true believer? Yes. An honest believer. Jesus was honest in Matthew 27:46: “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying… ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” Out of Christ’s honest question to God came the great truth that we can be forgiven because He suffered for us.

Application:
Don’t turn away from God in your suffering. Be honest with God. Keep the faith.

Sources:
The book of Job
Commentaries on Job by Francis Andersen and Christopher Ash
“For the Love of God” by D.A. Carson