JOB: THE CASE FOR GOD

Matt Willmington 

Two cases: Against God, Against Job 

32:1 So these three men (Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar) quit answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes… 4 Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were all older than he. 5 But when he saw that the three men could not answer Job, he became angry. 6 So Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite replied: “I am young in years, while you are old; therefore I was timid and afraid to tell you what I know. 7 I thought that age should speak and maturity should teach wisdom. 8 But it is the spirit in a person – the breath from the Almighty- that gives anyone understanding … 18 For I am full of words, and my spirit compels me to speak. 19 My heart is like unvented wine; it is about to burst like new wineskins. 20 I must speak so that I can find relief; I must open my lips and respond.

Ch.33 God’s SPEECH

1 “But now, Job, pay attention to my speech… 4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. 5 Refute me if you can. Prepare your case against me; take your stand…

9 (You said) “I am pure, without transgression; I am clean and have no iniquity.10 But he finds reasons to oppose me; he regards me as his enemy. 11 He puts my feet in the stocks; he stands watch over all my paths.”

13 “Why do you take him to court for not answering anything a person asks? 14 For God speaks time and again, but a person may not notice it. 15 In a dream, a vision in the night, when deep sleep comes over people as they slumber on their beds, 16 he uncovers their ears and terrifies them with warnings, 17 in order to turn a person from his actions and suppress the pride of a person. 18 God spares his soul from the Pit, his life from crossing the river of death. 19 A person may be disciplined on his bed with pain and constant distress in his bones,

26 “He will pray to God, and God will delight in him. That person will see his face with a shout of joy, and God will restore his righteousness to him… 29 God certainly does all these things two or three times to a person 30 in order to turn him back from the Pit, so he may shine with the light of life.

•Job’s case AGAINST God = “I’m innocent, He opposes me, He doesn’t answer!”

◦Suffering is not your identity – it’s a season

•God DOES speak repeatedly (dreams visions, angel)

◦“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” (Lewis, Problem of Pain, ch.6)

•God REBUKES – speaks to correct the proud

•God RESCUES – to spare us from the Pit (river)

•Psalm 119:67, 71 “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.” “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I could learn your statutes.”  Ps. 49, 51, Gal. 6, Heb. 12:5-9

Ch.34 God’s SILENCE

The CASE FOR God – His Attributes / Actions

5 “For Job has declared, “I am righteous, yet God has deprived me of justice. 6 Would I lie about my case? My wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.”

10 “It is impossible for God to do wrong, and for the Almighty to act unjustly. 11 For he repays a person according to his deeds, and he gives him what his conduct deserves. 12 Indeed, it is true that God does not act wickedly and the Almighty does not pervert justice. 13 Who gave him authority over the earth? Who put him in charge of the entire world? 14 If he put his mind to it and withdrew the spirit and breath he gave, 15 every living thing would perish together and mankind would return to the dust.

21 “For his eyes watch over a man’s ways, and he observes all his steps. 22 There is no darkness, no deep darkness, where evildoers can hide. 23 God does not need to examine a person further, that one should approach him in court. 24 He shatters the mighty without an investigation and sets others in their place.

29 “But when God is silent, who can declare him guilty? When he hides his face, who can see him? Yet he watches over both individuals and nations,

•God watches the steps of individuals and nations

•God can be silent or hidden if He wants (Isaiah 45:15, Psalms)

•) “A door slammed in your face and a sound of double bolting on the inside.”  “There are no lights in the windows. It might be an empty house. Was it ever inhabited?”

•“It is not the locked door. It is more like a silent, certainly not uncompassionate, gaze.” “Peace, child; you don’t understand.” – (Grief Observed, Lewis)

•Adam / Eve started “hide / seek”, Jesus felt it (Psalm 22)

37 “(Job) adds rebellion to his sin; he scornfully claps in our presence, while multiplying his words against God. 

Ch.35 God’s SONG

9 “People cry out because of severe oppression; they shout for help because of the power of the mighty. 10 But no one asks, “Where is God my Maker, who provides us with songs in the night, 11 who gives us more understanding than the animals of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?” 12 There they cry out, but he does not answer, because of the pride of evil people.

•Evil people cry in their night – but not to God

◦He does not answer because of their PRIDE.

•Cry out in your night –to God! He gives song in the night.

◦Psalm 22:2: “I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.”

◦Psalm 42:8 “By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.”

◦Psalm 30:5: “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” (Ps.63:6, 77:6, 92:2, 119:55, 62) 

Ch. 36 God’s SALVATION

8 “If people are bound with chains and trapped by the cords of affliction, 9 God tells them what they have done and how arrogantly they have transgressed. 10 He opens their ears to correction and tells them to repent from iniquity. 11 If they listen and serve him, they will end their days in prosperity and their years in happiness. 12 But if they do not listen, they will cross the river of death and die without knowledge. 13 Those who have a godless heart harbor anger; even when God binds them, they do not cry for help. 14 They die in their youth; their life ends among male cult prostitutes. 15 God rescues the afflicted by their affliction; he instructs them by their torment.

•Godless hearts reject God

◦Hell is filled with regret, remorse, rebellion – but no repentance. (Revelation 16:9-11, 22:14-15)

•God rescues with affliction and teaches with torment 

◦33:19 “A person may be disciplined on his bed with pain and constant distress in his bones”

◦JONAH! Miriam, Uzziah, Jeroboam, Gehazi, 1 Cor. 11:27–32, David, Wilderness plagues

◦How to know? He makes it CLEAR

Ch. 37 God’s SOVEREIGNTY

1 “My heart pounds at this and leaps from my chest. 2 Just listen to his thunderous voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth. 3 He lets it loose beneath the entire sky; his lightning to the ends of the earth. 4 Then there comes a roaring sound; God thunders with his majestic voice. He does not restrain the lightning when his rumbling voice is heard. 5 God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend. 6 For he says to the snow, “Fall to the earth,” and the torrential rains, his mighty torrential rains, 7 serve as his sign to all mankind, so that all men may know his work. 8 The wild animals enter their lairs and stay in their dens. 9 The windstorm comes from its chamber, and the cold from the driving north winds. 10 Ice is formed by the breath of God, and watery expanses are frozen. 11 He saturates clouds with moisture; he scatters his lightning through them. 12 They swirl about, turning round and round at his direction, accomplishing everything he commands them over the surface of the inhabited world. 13 He causes this to happen for punishment, for his land, or for his faithful love.

23 “The Almighty—we cannot reach him— he is exalted in power!

•God shouts through storms

•God is sovereign through storms (to punish or bless) 

CLOSING ARGUMENTS…

1 God is SPEAKING

•Are you listening?

2 God’s SILENCE is purposeful

•Don’t mistake his silence for his absence.

•”The teacher is usually silent during the test.”

3 God’s SONG will come in your night

4 God SAVES through suffering and teaches through torment

•Suffering may be God’s alert to come home

•”Sometimes God sends the storm, sometimes Satan sends the storm, sometimes we bring the storms, sometimes there’s just storms.” (H.L.Willmington)

5 God is SOVEREIGN in His storms