“Job: The Comforting Hope of
Everlasting Life”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen. The name Job has become synonymous with suffering. In the first
chapter of Job, he loses everything he has, all his property is destroyed, and
his children all die. In the second chapter, he loses his own health as he
is covered with painful sores. The rest of the book is a dialogue between
Job and three friends who come to comfort him. But, as the saying goes,
“With friends like that . . .” Because, what they say to Job is not really
comforting at all. They assume that all these sufferings have come upon
Job because he is being punished by God for something he has done. My father had an earthmoving business, mostly building waterways and
terraces for soil conservation. One day when he was about 60 years old,
Dad was on his grader out in a lonely field when a man pulled up in a pickup.
Thinking it might be the landowner, Dad drove his grader over to where the
pickup was parked. Dad didn’t recognize who the man was, but when he introduced himself,
Dad remembered him as a former grade school classmate. Right off the bat
he told Dad he had an apology to make. Dad was completely mystified, and
couldn’t imagine what it could possibly be about, since they hadn’t even seen
each other in nearly 50 years. This man then proceeded to apologize to my
father for having pushed him down on the playground at recess in the fourth
grade! My father was flabbergasted! He told the man he couldn’t even
remember such a thing, and he wondered what in the world had prompted him to
come and apologize for it now. The man was a member of what’s called an “old order” religious group,
one which is found in that part of central Kansas. It turns out the man’s
farm was failing, and the leaders of his church told him it must be because of
some sin for which God is punishing him. The only way to save his farm was
to figure out what this sin might be, and then make amends for it. So,
this poor, misguided man had searched back through his whole life, and finally
concluded that God must be punishing him for pushing down Leroy Vogts one day on
the playground at recess in the fourth grade. That TRUE story illustrates the tendency we humans have to think that
when something bad happens to us, it must be some kind of punishment for
something we have done or have failed to do. We think that way because in
our world, that is how it usually works. At work, at school, in every
aspect of our day-to-day lives, we expect to be rewarded for doing good, and
punished for doing bad. That’s exactly the way the Job’s friends are thinking. They tell
Job all his misfortune must be because of some sin for which God is punishing
him. Like the leaders of the church that poor man who came to my father
belonged to, Job’s friends urge him to search back through his whole life and
figure out what this sin might be and then make amends for it. But, does God really work that way? Does God keep a carefully
recorded accounting of our sins, just waiting to one day pay us back for the
wrong we have done? Some people have a photographic memory; they can instantly remember
entire books. When I was in college there was a professor who had
memorized the entire Bible. You could give him any chapter and verse reference,
anywhere in the whole Bible, and he would instantly recite it. He just
passed away a couple of months ago, and his obituary said, “He will be
remembered for his . . . unbelievable ability to memorize and recite . . .
Scripture.” God, of course, has a perfect memory, but he chooses to forget your
sins. As the Lord declares in Isaiah, “I blot out your transgressions, for
my own sake, and I remember your sins no more.” God chooses to forget your sins, not because you have earned or deserve
forgiveness, but for his “own sake,” because your sins have all been blotted out
by the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ, who suffered for you all the punishment
your sins deserve. Paul puts it this way in Ephesians: “Christ loved the
church and gave himself up for her to make her holy . . . and to present her to
himself . . . without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and
blameless.” Because of his Son’s substitutionary sacrifice, your heavenly Father
completely forgives and forgets all your sins. Through faith in Christ you
are “holy and blameless” in his sight. If you were to stand before the Lord
right now and ask him to tell you all your sins, he would say simply, “I
remember your sins no more.” What about that misguided man my father met? Was his farm really
failing because he pushed my father down on the playground at recess in the
fourth grade? Or maybe there was some other sin God was punishing him for?
No! God doesn’t work that way. As Psalm 103 says, “He does not treat
us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities . . . as far as
the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”
For the sake of Jesus Christ, God forgives and forgets. “I blot out your
transgressions, for my own sake, and I remember your sins no more.” Today’s Old Testament Reading is the climax and turning point of the
book of Job. In the midst of all the sadness and gloom, Job’s terrible
losses and suffering and then his misguided friends accusing him and saying his
afflictions are a punishment from God, Job cries out in faith. Faith in
the coming Messiah, his Redeemer. Faith in the comforting hope of
everlasting life: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will
stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my
flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes.” In 2nd Corinthians, Paul beautifully expresses the comforting hope of
everlasting life that is yours in the midst of your struggles in this world: “We
are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;
persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. . . because
we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us
with Jesus. . . Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are
wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light
and momentary troubles are bringing us to an eternal glory, that far outweighs
them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.
For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” What are some of the bad things that have happened, or are happening,
to you, in your life? Problems at work or school? Financial
problems? Problems in your marriage or family? Illness? The
death of a loved one? The life lesson you learn from Job is that in the
midst of your afflictions, in the midst of all this world’s sadness and gloom,
find peace in your Redeemer, his forgiveness of all your sins, and the
comforting hope of everlasting life. “So we fix our eyes not on what is
seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen
is eternal.” “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon
the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will
see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes.” It is this comforting
hope of everlasting life that we confess in the Creeds: “I believe in . . . the
forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. . .
I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.” Return to Top | Return to Sermons | Home | Email Church Office
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