Bad Things, Pt 2
Sometimes, the only/best answer we have for why bad things happen to us is because Satan is out to get us, so how we respond to the bad things that happen is far more important than why they happened.
Intro
Bad things happen. It’s a fact of life. Bones break. Cars wreck. Stock markets crash. Loved ones - children - get sick and die.
Two natural questions
Why do bad things happen?
How should we respond when they do?
Detour: When Life Goes Wrong
Study of Job
“greatest man among all the people of the east” (1:3)
In one day in chapter 1, he lost
his entire fortune
7,000 sheep
3,000 camels
500 yoke - pair - of oxen
500 female donkeys
all his servants
all 10 of his kids
On another day in chapter 2,
he lost his health, inflicted with painful boils from head to toe
then, his wife turned against him, encouraging him to “curse God and die!”
If you’ve ever read Job, you may be aware that, by the end of the book, Job was entirely restored and then some. And I guess we can take some comfort in the notion that, no matter how bad things get, we can still be restored, if not in this life, in the next.
But let’s be honest: when you’re going through the bad things, the comfort offered by that notion is often very small.
So we’re studying Job to see if we can’t answer those two questions which have plagued mankind almost since the beginning of time.
Last week, we started our discussion by opening chapters 1-2
Didn’t necessarily answer our questions, but we discovered that
Bad things happen to great people, too: Bad things don’t necessarily happen to us because we were bad or God’s mad at us, etc.
Even when bad things happen, God is always in control.
That’s not to say that He causes bad things
Rather, He allows them to happen because He has to give us an alternative to loving and trusting Him.
He doesn’t like them any more than we do
And He doesn’t exempt Himself from bad things: He had the choice to send Jesus or not, and He did.
Today, we return to Job 1-2, to pick up the discussion because the behind the scenes info we get here provides us with unprecedented, unparalleled information about what was going on behind the scenes of Job’s suffering, including
a peak into heaven
the chance to eavesdrop on the exchange between God and Satan, the one who was ultimately responsible for Job’s trouble and pain.
This is about the best prospect we have for figuring out, at least, the answer to the question of why.
Satan is out to get us (1:6-12; 2:1-10).
Job 1:6-12: One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord , and Satan also came with them. The Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?” “From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered Him, “and walking around on it.” Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.” Satan answered the Lord , “Does Job fear God for nothing? Haven’t You placed a hedge around him, his household, and everything he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out Your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse You to Your face.” “Very well,” the Lord told Satan, “everything he owns is in your power. However, you must not lay a hand on Job himself.” So Satan left the Lord ’s presence.
Job 2:1-9: One day the sons of God came again to present themselves before the Lord , and Satan also came with them to present himself before the Lord. The Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?” “From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered Him, “and walking around on it.” Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited Me against him, to destroy him without just cause.” “Skin for skin!” Satan answered the Lord . “A man will give up everything he owns in exchange for his life. But stretch out Your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse You to Your face.” “Very well,” the Lord told Satan, “he is in your power; only spare his life.” So Satan left the Lord ’s presence and infected Job with terrible boils from the sole of his foot to the top of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself while he sat among the ashes. His wife said to him, “Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die!”
Once again, though, the first thing that we see is a “why not.”
1:8; 2:3: “Have you considered My servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.
Once we get past the “Did I do something wrong?” it is not at all uncommon for people to think that bad things happen because “God is out to get me.”
But are these the words of someone who is out to get us?
They’re the words of a proud father!
On the other hand, take a look at what Satan has to say.
1:7; 2:2: The Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?” “From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered Him, “and walking around on it.”: He’s walking all over us.
Then, in 1:9-11; 2:4-5, he drops in a little manipulation and basically throws down a gauntlet: I can’t ever think Job is a legitimate saint unless you smite him.
So while God brings up Job to brag on him, Satan is the one who is actually out to get the poor guy: Satan is out to get us.
But Job goes farther, revealing the three key strategies Satan’s going to use to get us.
Strategy #1: Lie
1:9-11: Satan answered the Lord , “Does Job fear God for nothing? “Haven’t You placed a hedge around him, his household, and everything he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out Your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”
Underlying suggestion: Job only reveres God because God protects and blesses him.
I.e., Job is only in it because it benefits him. It’s all about Job.
The problem: “He [really] was a man of perfect integrity, who feared God and turned away from evil.” (1:1)
2:4-5: “Skin for skin!” Satan answered the Lord . “A man will give up everything he owns in exchange for his life. But stretch out Your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”
Underlying suggestion: Job isn’t phased by the loss of his fortune and/or family because he’s entirely engrossed in himself.
I.e., as long as Job, personally, doesn’t suffer, it’s all good.
The problem: Whenever a round of banqueting was over, Job would send for his children and purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought: Perhaps my children have sinned, having cursed God in their hearts. This was Job’s regular practice. (1:5).
He absolutely was concerned about his family, and elsewhere he speaks of how he would sit at the city gate to help others, too!
Satan is a liar. He lies. It’s so integral to who he is that his very name means “false accuser.” And so it should come as no surprise that, when he goes after us, he won’t hesitate to lie. To God, and most certainly to us!
Strategy #2: Destroy
1:11: But stretch out Your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”
2:5: But stretch out Your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse You to Your face.
Notice the similar phrase: “But stretch out Your hand and strike”
“stretch out Your hand” was symbolic of the power of God
“and strike”
violently strike
beat
smite
strike
destroy
Both times Satan entices God, his plan is to destroy. Destroy. Destroy. Destroy. That’s what he does.
Strategy #3: Betrayal
2:9: His [own] wife said to him, “Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die!”
Get that? After Job had lost everything - fortune, family, and his own health - his own wife turns against him, too.
Talk about the ultimate wound!
It’s not just family: whatever is our greatest strength or asset, he will try to use against us.
Do you begin to see a pattern?
Satan will stop at nothing to get us.
He won’t hesitate to play dirty.
He will do everything he can to turn us against ourselves.
And his ultimate objective is to wipe us out.
All because Satan is out to get us.
Our response is essential (1:20-22; 2:10).
Job 1:20-22: Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped, saying: Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Praise the name of Yahweh . Throughout all this Job did not sin or blame God for anything.
Job 2:10: “You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” Throughout all this Job did not sin in what he said.
So I guess that’s a reason why bad things happen, but I have to admit, it’s not exactly satisfying, particularly when the bad things are happening to me.
We’ll keep looking throughout the book of Job for a satisfying “why,” but if I can be honest with you, we need to remember that Job didn’t even have the insight we do into what was going on in heaven. We have the benefit of being able to read these first two chapters, to see that God thought Job was righteous and to overhear the exchange between Him and Satan; Job did not. And at the end of the book, when God finally responds to Job, He doesn’t really sit down and explain, “Okay, so here’s what’s going on,” as much as He says, “Hey, I know a whole lot more about what’s happening than you could ever possibly comprehend.”
So the truth may be that we might not get - indeed, there might not be - a better answer to the question of why bad things happen than that it’s not necessarily because we’re bad people or God has lost control, but because Satan is out to get us.
But I don’t want you running around, looking for the devil behind every bush. I mean, St. Peter was right: our enemy, the devil, is prowling around, looking for people to devour. But that doesn’t mean we should be dominated by fear.
And when bad things happen, I don’t want you simply flopping down on the ground and crying, “Oh, Satan is out to get me!”
So as much as we want to figure out why, let’s turn our attention toward that which was far more important to the author and to God, to the question of how we should respond when bad things happen.
See, in the book of Job, the first two chapters are really the only part that focus on the question of why. The next forty chapters really concentrate on how Job responds to the catastrophes which have rocked his life. And even these first two chapters take breaks to highlight Job’s response.
All of which leads me to conclude that, in the end, why bad things happen is far less important in God’s eyes than how we respond when they do, a reality which leads us to our second point: our response to the bad things that happen to us is essential.
Three things, in particular, I want us to notice about Job’s response to the cataclysmic events of chapters one and two.
Before we get to them, though, let’s make sure that we’re all on the same page, knowing exactly what happened to this poor man.
See notes for Bad Things, Pt 1