Questions Better Than Answers

The Book of Job

God’s Delight in Job

• Personal devotion to God (1:1)

• Bringing family to God (1:5)

• “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” (1:8)

Satan’s Challenge• Prosperity and protection: “Does Job

fear God for nothing? Have you not put a hedge of protection around him and his household and everything he has?” (1:9).

• Self-preservation: “Skin for skin. A man will give all he has for his own life.” (2:4)

The Patience of Job• Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised. (1:21)

• In all this Job did not sin in what he said (2:10).

• You have heard of the patience of Job and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. (James 5:11)

Faithful Friends

They set out from their homes… to go and sympathize with him and comfort him… they began to weep aloud… Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.

Job 2:11-13

The Impatience of Job• After this Job opened his mouth and

cursed the day of his birth… “Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb?” (3:1,11)

• “Why is light given to those in misery… to those who long for death that does not come?” (3:20-21)

Easy Answers (Eliphaz)

• Where were the upright ever destroyed? As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it. (4:7-8)

• A word was secretly brought to me (4:12)

• I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him… Do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. (5:8,17)

Easy Answers (Bildad)

• Formula, not faith

• Merit, not mercy

• When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin. (8:4)

• How can a man be righteous before God… man, who is but a maggot, a son of man, who is only a worm! (25:4,6).

Easy Answers (Zophar)

• Know this: God has even forgotten some of your sins. (11:6)

• You must have some dirty secret.

• If God seems far away, guess who moved!

• Just pray harder, live cleaner, and you will have wealth and prosperity.

Rejecting Easy Answers• A despairing man should have the devotion

of his friends, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. (6:14)

• Now you too have proved to be of no help. You see something dreadful and are afraid. (6:21)

• Doubtless you are the people, and wisdom will die with you… Men at ease have contempt for misfortune (12:2,5)

• I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all! (16:2)

The Impatience of Job• I will complain in the bitterness of my

soul (7:11)

• Does it please you to oppress me… while you smile on the schemes of the wicked? (10:3)

• Surely, O God, you have worn me out; you have devastated my entire household (16:7)

The Impatience of Job• God shattered me; he seized me by the

neck and crushed me. He has made me his target (16:12).

• God has wronged me (19:6)

• Why should I not be impatient? (21:4)

Questions Better Than Answers1. Shall we accept good from God, and not

trouble? (2:10)2. What is man, that you make so much of

him, that you give him so much attention? (7:17)

3. How can a mortal man be righteous before God? (9:2)

4. If a man dies, will he live again? (14:14)5. Why do the wicked live on, growing old

and increasing in power? (21:7)

If Jesus is the answer, what’s the question?

1. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble? (2:10)

• We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22)

• Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (Romans 8:17).

2. What is man, that you make so much of him, that you give him so much attention? (7:17)

• He is not a man like me… If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand on us both (9:32-33).

• Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend (16:19-21).

• For there is one God and mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim 2:5)

3. How can a mortal man be righteous before God? (9:2)

• Give me, O God, the pledge you demand. Who else will put up security for me? (17:3)

• Christ Jesus… has become for us wisdom from God, that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption (1 Cor 1:30).

4. If a man dies, will he live again? (14:14)

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—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! (19:26-27)

5. Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power? (21:7)

• For a little while they are exalted, and then they are gone… they are cut off (24:22-24).

• Don’t judge the destiny of the wicked by what they get away with now.

• Don’t judge the status of the righteous by what they suffer now.

• God changes many enemies to friends.

Only God may answer!

“Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face” (13:15)

“Oh, that I had someone to hear me!

I sign now my defense—let the Almighty answer me.” (31:35)

Answering questions with questions.

• The Lord answered Job: “I will question you… Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?” (38:3)

• “Have the gates of death been shown to you? (38:17)

• “Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind?” (38:36)

The Wild Kingdom

“Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?” (38:33)

• “Will the wild ox consent to serve you? Will he stay by your manger at night?” (39:9)

• “Any hope of subduing leviathan is false… Who then is able to stand against me?” (41:9-10)

Comforted With Conundrums

When Job’s friends offer clear religious answers, Job’s “question still remains and open wound. But God simply refuses to answer, and somehow the question is answered. Job flings at God one riddle, God flings back to Job a hundred riddles, and Job is at peace. He is comforted with conundrums.”

--G. K. Chesterton

Too Good to Be Told

“Job has been told nothing, but he feels the terrible and tingling atmosphere of something which is too good to be told. The refusal of God to explain his design is itself a burning hint of his design. The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.”

--G. K. Chesterton

From Integrity to Encounter

“My ears had heard of you,

but now my eyes have seen you.” (42:5)

Saved by a Sufferer’sSacrifice and Prayer

• The Lord told Job’s friends, “My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” (42:8)

• “Jesus is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” (Hebrews 7:25)

The Only Answer

Could it be you make your presence known so often by your absence?

Could it be that questions tell us more than answers ever do?

Could it be that you would really rather die than live without us?

Could it be the only answer that means anything is you?

--Michael Card