The revelation of Jesus in suffering

27th May - Laurence Singlehurst

Job is about a failed strategy, how the devil got it wrong. Also about what Laurence calls ‘deep magic’. Job is a book of secrets, a book of good deep things.

Laurence reminded us that what he says is an opinion only. To know the truth, read the Bible and make up your own mind.

The failed strategy is right at the beginning, the devil thinks that if he can cause pain to Job he will walk away from God.

The devil thought that pain would drive people away from God, but instead as things are stripped away we are pushed even more on God, forces us to ask the big questions – why am I here, what's it all about. Makes us reflect.

Throughout history when people are on their own and in pain they often look to God. For example Alexander Selkirk, on whom Robinson Crusoe was based. He was a reprobate mariner, whose friends abandoned him on an island, but when he was found a few years later he was a changed man, he had discovered God. But as time passed and he moved back to to live, he lost some of what he had found.

A discipling force

We are discipled by circumstances. The easer it is the harder it is, and vice versa. Sounds perverse but it’s true. The persecuted church grows. Persecution pushes you into God because there's nowhere else to go. It’s an external discipling force. Also pushes you onto other like minded believers. We look after one another because it’s hard.

Laurence told us about some people who went to with YWAM, who were split into three groups for their accommodation. The first group got the best accommodation, the second group got some mediocre accommodation, and the third group were left with some pretty awful accommodation. But at the end of their stay it was the third group who had had the best experiences of God, and the first group who got the least out of their time there.

The challenge to the western church is that we need to learn to live like the persecuted church, as if we were under that pressure, although we don't want to be actually persecuted.

If we look at times of difficulty and times of ease, we have followed God more diligently in the hard times, prayed more, connected better with friends.

Pain is not our enemy

Pain is therefore not a bad thing. CS Lewis said it’s a gift of God, although God doesn’t cause it. The God of love allows us to feel pain so we can find him in it. That’s part of the ‘magic’.

As we cry out in moments of awfulness, and we think we're really alone, as Job cried out, convinced that God is not there, he stumbles upon the secret that God is already there. In Christ, God has stepped into our pain.

Pain often causes us to ask the right questions and to see the future. (Artists often are very creative in the midst of pain.) Job says in chapter 9 v 33 there is no umpire between him and God but there in fact is, Jesus. He is crying out for Jesus even though he doesn't know it. Chapter 10 v 4 ‘do you have eyes of flesh, can you see as a mortal sees’.

Satan thought he understood God but he didn't know God's secret that he would experience the pain of mankind. God knew that the Jesus strategy would be necessary, as mankind went its own way and would need a redemptive plan. Not even the angels knew this secret.

Pain was there from the beginning in God in Christ, although not fully incarnated until Jesus walked the earth. In pain we connect with the God of pain.

Jesus has been there

People are born in pain, and they feel separated by colour or race or wealth or poverty, Jesus has been there. Identity issues, Jesus understands. In our identity crisis the voice comes from heaven and says ‘you're mine’.

Jesus had to demonstrate the kingdom of God through love and with words, not with the sword and power. An impossible task. He understands what it's like to walk in a way that's hard to understand.

Have you been rejected, had friends turn away from you, not receive your message. Jesus knows too, the rejection. In that he offers his love and acceptance and offers his hand.

In the darkness of physical pain, Jesus went through the awfulness of crucifixion.

Spiritual pain, Jesus experienced separation from God on the cross.

Job is experiencing the ‘deeper magic’ that God does know all this.

What you say to God is never a problem between you and God. What you say about God can be a problem. Job was honest to God, but never cursed about him to others. God is always open for honest discussion.

Feelings and truth

‘Though you slay me I will follow you’ chapter 13 v 15. Honesty, take your doubts and temptation to God. The devil says that God doesn't care, God isn't real. Job 9 v 4 God's power and wisdom, a place of truth and conviction.

We have to sometimes call our feelings and circumstances lies, and believe the truth about God. Our feelings are responses, not a guide to truth. Our emotions say all sorts of things to us, they are not a guide to truth, just a guide to our present circumstances. Job speaks the truth.

Job 14 v 13 ‘hide me until’ … when? Until God is no longer angry with me, until the resurrection of Jesus, Job is thinking deeper. The devil still had no idea that the resurrection would happen.

Job 19 v 25 ‘I know that my redeemer lives and he will stand upon the earth’. Job has discovered the secret of the coming of Christ. Job’s suffering has turned him into a mystic prophet who understands that God is a God of pain.

As we pray, think about your pain. It's not your enemy, in a way it’s a friend as it tells you about life. God doesn't cause it, but in your pain God calls you closer, he understands, he is there. When we experience Jesus in our pain it gives a deeper reality. As Christians we look for mountaintop experiences to transform us, but we will be more transformed in the valley of pain. As we meet God there, we know the deeper reality.