Vindication Through Suffering: Trusting God's Perfect Timing

The book of Job is interesting. It's one of the wisdom books, and it's very much like Ecclesiastes as a counterbalance to the book of Proverbs. Some of you know this. The book of Proverbs is essentially just like a father's list to the son of Herod. Here's some things that are going to tend to be true. This is how it works on planet Earth. These are the rules, so to speak. And he talks a lot about, you know, if you do good, you're going to get good. If you do bad, you're going to get bad. If you walk with wise people, wise things will happen to you. If you're generous, people will be generous back to you. If you throw in with scoundrels, you're going to end up in a bad way. [00:02:16] (32 seconds)


And so it just says, hey, man, this is how it is. But then Job and Ecclesiastes come along, and they counterbalance, and they say, well, those are true, but it's not always true that if you do good, you'll get good. It's not always true that if you obey, you'll be healthy and wealthy. It's not always true that if you do bad, you'll get bad. Because sometimes, and we know this, people do bad, but they end up with what seems like good, at least for now. [00:02:48] (26 seconds)


So the book of Job is here to provide some much needed correction to our hearts and minds because we can begin to think this if we're not careful. We can begin to think, why is it that I'm doing something right, but wrong things seem to be happening to me in consequence? And one of the things the book of Job is trying to say is you may have underestimated how damaging sin was. [00:03:24] (26 seconds)


See, if we were in the perfect paradise that God originally created for us, there would be no bad anything. There'd be no bad decisions and there'd be no bad consequences. Now, if you cranked up the evil a little bit and the damage a little bit, you could say, well, there is damage on earth now. Now, good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. The damage is here, which means if you choose the bad, bad things are going to happen. But if you turn the damage that was done to planet earth up to 11 as it was, you find that's not only true sometimes, sometimes the innocent suffer. [00:03:54] (39 seconds)


Sometimes bad things happen to the very people that were doing something good. And that is the picture of the creation that we live in and Job is telling us about it. So the book of Job starts with this heavenly kind of courtroom and God is there with a bunch of his entourage, and Satan rolls in, and God and him get to talking about Job. God's a little bit bragging on Job. He's like, man, I don't know if you've seen Job, but he is dope, man. He's my servant. He's awesome. He's always doing right. And Satan just kind of throws down the gauntlet and says, you know, he only does that because you bless him. [00:04:37] (31 seconds)


You know what it's like to suffer, don't you? You know what it's like to have the particular kind of suffering, not just pain, but where you feel wronged, you feel disgraced unfairly. You feel denounced. You feel dismissed. You feel like you were valued less than you should have been. You were competent and you were treated as incompetent. You were wise and you were treated as unwise. You were the only one acting virtuous and yet you were treated as though you were not. And we can all begin to wonder, what is up, God? [00:08:06] (32 seconds)


Like, is this because I was like, am I poor because I'm lazy? I don't feel lazy. Why am I so poor? Or God, like I'm sick and all these other people aren't. Is it, do you hate me? What is going on? Or they're really like way ahead in doing the thing I wanted to do. God, why? You must, I guess you like them more than me. I guess I better work a little harder to get back into your good graces. Or God, why did their marriage work out? And it seemed like I had two that tanked. Is that because you're against my happiness? [00:08:36] (34 seconds)


You're just a little guy. And you're suffering, but you're not considering the possibility that I may be doing something that is greater than anything you can possibly comprehend. Job doesn't know that the book of Job is going to be written. He doesn't know what's going to happen later on. He doesn't know how that's going to encourage folks over the centuries. He doesn't know any of that. All he knows is he's trying. He really is trying. You watch Job. He's trying. He's trying to trust, but everything is working against his experience. He knows that it's unfair, and he feels utterly disgraced. [00:10:16] (37 seconds)


And then he breaks out with this idea. Verse 23. Oh, that my words could be recorded. Oh, that they could be inscribed on a monument, carved with an iron chisel and filled with lead and engraved forever in rock. He's saying, I didn't do it. What they're saying I did, I didn't do. I'm probably going to die any day now. And I just want the world. I want the world to know I did not do this. And I wish I could have a monument like the ancient kings would set up a monument and write all the things that they did just so future generations would know. Job says, I want future generations to know. [00:10:43] (32 seconds)


when they hear about me, I've denied this right to the very end. I did not do anything to deserve these things that are happening to me. Let's, let's pretend, let's contemporary, contemporize it a little bit. Let's pretend there's a businessman who's been framed for fraud and it's bad. And he's going to go to jail forever, except the enemies that framed him. It's all over the news. The enemies that framed him though, they also poisoned him. And he just realized he's about to die. And he, he wants the world to know it. It's, it's all over the news. This guy is a fraud. He did all this bad stuff and he wants to write it down. I didn't do this. I've been treated wrong. That's how Job is feeling right now. I did not do this. Why am I experiencing this? [00:11:00] (43 seconds)


I will be vindicated at some point, maybe not today, but I will be vindicated about everything at some point, and good will come of this just like good came for Job, but even more importantly, just like it came for Jesus. He says, my redeemer lives. Now, there's a redeemer. Folks who are under Israelite law, they knew there were redeemers. If your family member gets in a lot of trouble, okay, if maybe the spouse that's supposed to be taking care of the money around here dies, there's a relative, the redeemer, the kinsman, has to sweep in, and they have to defend them. They have to rescue them. They have to go get them and protect them. They can't just let them fall away. [00:13:23] (40 seconds)


And Job is saying that there's a redeemer for me who's going to come. For those of you who remember, who are familiar with the story of Boaz and Ruth, Boaz is the redeemer. He's supposed to come in and rescue everybody. And Job says, that's who my God really is. Even though I feel like he's my enemy, he's the one who has to come in and defend me and avenge me and rescue me. And it's the cry of his heart. But my friends, it's more than the cry of Job's heart. It's the reason, one of the reasons for Christmas. It's the reason Jesus was sent. It was sent to be the redeemer and the redeemer that lives. [00:14:11] (41 seconds)


Jesus was sent to be the redeemer. Christmas is not just about extra lights on the Christmas tree. It's not just about eggnog. It's not just about terrific meals. Those are great things to bring along. But Christmas is about the fact that I find myself on the do -it -yourself. I find myself on the doomed planet and I need a redeemer. I find myself on the planet where everything is going wrong. And maybe, my friends, maybe it's not that you're all that jacked up. Maybe you just, you're on like the hardest planet to be on. Because just hard stuff happened. And it's so bad that sin is cranked up to 11. And so even the innocent suffer sometimes. [00:14:56] (36 seconds)