The Test of Faith
August 12, 2018
Scripture: Job 21
I. You will be tested in your faith when people of faith behave and speak badly.
A. We see an example of Job’s three friends behaving and speaking badly in Job 21:3: “Bear with me, and I will speak, and after I have spoken mock on.” The friends all believe that sin produces suffering. What then does Job’s great suffering prove to his friends? It proves that Job is a great sinner. And the three friends of Job have been telling Job what happens to great sinners. In the previous chapter, Job 20:7-9, we see Job’s friend Zophar tell Job what happens to great sinners. They will die a premature death.
B. But Job responds to Zophar in Job 21:7-9 that there are plenty of wicked old people who live prosperous lives and are surrounded by their grandchildren. They end their lives in peace and prosperity even though they are rebellious toward God (Job 21:13-14). When people of faith say hurtful things to us like Job’s friends said to Job, we need to examine if what they say is really true. And we need to remember that we should not put even the godliest people on a pedestal. Sometimes, even the godly are wrong and sinful.
II. You will be tested in your faith when you focus only on this world.
A. If you lose the fact that there will be eternal rewards for the righteous and eternal punishment for the wicked, your faith will be tested. What does Job say he sees as he looks at wicked people in this world? We see in Job 21:17-26 that he sees a bunch of wicked people running around not being punished. The wicked don’t seem to get what is coming to them. Job anticipates that his friends will argue in vs. 19 that God might not punish the wicked, but he will punish their children. But Job’s response is “So what?” The wicked don’t really care about their children.
B. When Job looks at life only in this world, what does he see? He sees in vs. 23 and 24 a wicked, wealthy man who enjoys good health into old age until his death. And then Job sees in vs. 25 and 26 a man more like himself. He sees a righteous man dying in bitterness of soul> Where is God’s justice in that? But the wicked who do not turn from their sin in this life will be punished forever. Matthew 13:30: “Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”
III. You will be tested in your faith when you forget that God has suffered.
A. One thing that helps us pass our tests of faith is knowing that God Himself, in the person of Jesus, had suffered for me. Jesus knows what it is like to suffer as we can see from the cross. He’s been there. Jesus, unlike Job’s friends, has true empathy for those who suffer. The apostle Paul gives the church an important command in Romans 12:15: “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” Do you know why we can weep with those who weep? Because when we wept Jesus wept with us. We worship a Savior who suffered and died for us on the cross. He knows what it is like to weep during a test of faith, and so He weeps with us during our tests so that we can weep with others in their tests.
Application:
Your test of faith will not last forever. Jesus will rejoice with you when your test is over.
Sources:
The book of Job
Commentaries on Job by Christopher Ash and Francis Andersen
“For the Love of God” by D.A. Carson