Suffering and our Final Hope

Text: Job 42:7–16

I have never been one of those people who say that I wish my kids would never grow up. I still remember a haggard looking mom who came up to us in a store once when we had our five little kids in tow and she said, “Treasure these years while they are little, it definitely doesn’t get better!” as she shot a glare at her two teenage kids following her.

 I have never felt that way. Don’t get me wrong, I love young kids and I am highly aware that teenage years can be difficult. It is amazing to watch young people grow, see and learn this life from fresh eyes, to mature right in front of you. Yet, babies have one communication language—crying and screaming. Are they hungry? They will cry or scream. Are they wet and need to be changed? They will cry or scream. Are they sad, sick, confused, tired? They will cry or scream. One of the things that got me through many of those moments was the reality that it will not always be this way.

 Sooner or later children survive to the two-year-old phase. And now they have words. Granted, it may be only five words and they most likely will choose to use the word “NO” almost exclusively. It will not always be this way. A four year old’s passion for Disney’s “Let It Go” on constant repeat for hours will wane, a seven year old’s obsession with Pokémon cards will peter out, and your ten year old in the 1980’s will not always think is cool to wear a white suite with rolled up sleeves, loafers, and a hot-pink polo shirt to mimic Don Johnson. It will not always be this way.

You don’t have to have kids to understand this. The first week on a job can feel overwhelming. So many new terms, new structures and processes to learn, you wonder why anyone would switch out of their old job. And slowly, the fog lifts and you begin to actually operate in these structures and processes. It begins to “click” and makes sense. It will not always be this way.

The first week at school is filled with dreams of walking partially clothed down the hallway, or realizing you are in the wrong classroom for a final test. It will not always be this way. This even extends to physical suffering. A two year old may think they are dying when they have a sore throat or the flu, but as an adult you go buy six bags of cough drops and begin eating them around the clock or resign yourself to bed with your saltines and ginger ale for two days and you have learned, it will not always be this way.

I would suggest that this is one of our main wonders in suffering. We are usually confident we can handle suffering if we know it is “light and momentary.” Let me know that this will end, and I can make it through it. Yet, so often, it is almost impossible to see outside of our current condition. Job’s suffering makes him cry out and curse the day he was born, presuming it would have been better had he never lived (Job 3:3–26).

In our section of Job this morning God has been so sweet to us. Not only has he pulled back the curtain and shown us his conversations with Satan, showed us his love for Job, given us understanding of his very nature through his conversation with Job, but he has shown us a picture of the very good ending that awaits us. You and I, we can find joy in the midst of our suffering in God because we have a final hope—it will not always be this way!

Suffering and our Final Hope: Right Relationship Can Begin in Suffering

Our passage starts with God’s last comments in the book of Job.

“After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the LORD had told them, and the LORD accepted Job’s prayer. (Job 42:7–9 ESV)

For all that Job struggled with God, God’s final statement of him is that “you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” God is still pleased with Job. This statement is similar to the fact that David was a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22). That doesn’t mean David never sinned (see David & Bathsheba; 2 Samuel 11). And here it doesn’t mean that all the things Job said about God were right or perfect. Job is seen by God as one who speaks rightly of him in part because he repents and realizes his own pride and wrong assumptions when God visits him.

Not only does God help Job to see him rightly, but he helps reconcile Job and his friends. He has his friends go to Job to offer sacrifices for their wrong attitude and words (notice that Elihu is not included as those God is angry at).

This section speaks to reconciliation: God and Job have been reconciled, and Job and his friends have been reconciled. And Job is still in his suffering. God has not lifted his diseases; he has not restored his family and livelihood. Yet Job is in right relationship with God and with his friends. If God is telling Job and you and me that it will not always be this way, he starts with relationships.

From the beginning we have seen that suffering doesn’t mean you are out of God’s will. Similarly, our hope in suffering begins in realizing that we can be right with God and others even in the suffering times of our life. That is great news and joy for me and you because while some of our suffering has nothing to do with us, much of it does. Much of our suffering is from sinful choices, bad decisions, and a broken body. Yet God can say to Job and can say to you, “You spoke right of me.”

This hope is started in our salvation. We are told that part of the good news of the Gospel of Jesus is that:

“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 ESV)

Our God has never expected us to clean ourselves up to have right relationship because we can’t. That is the whole point. And he also doesn’t expect you to have a life void of difficulties before you can be in right relationship with him and others.

Do you realize your suffering and your relationship with God are not linked. Just like Job, you may be in a situation of suffering out of your control. Perhaps a friend, family member, or spouse has wronged you. Maybe they have hurt you, emotionally, spiritually, physically, financially. You can still come to God in the midst of the suffering, and he is there for you. You can also find peace and reconciliation with those people in your relationship with Jesus Christ even if all the pieces aren’t fixed.

And this is no less true if the suffering is of your own making. Maybe you are the one who has hurt others. Maybe you sit under a mountain of debt of a difficult moment in life because of poor life choices and sin. You can be reconciled to God even in the midst of that suffering, and even if you don’t see immediate relief.

This is the beginning of a great hope that we have. Hope that is in the midst of suffering and fueled by the good works of Jesus Christ, not yours. Do you have this type of hope?

Suffering and our Final Hope: Better than you can imagine!

God would still have been good if he had stopped right there. If the story of Job ended at 42:9 we would have seen so much.

• We would have seen how God allows the righteous—me and you—to suffer for his own purposes and his glory, as well as our own salvation, not necessarily because they have done anything wrong (Job 1:1–2:22; 33:14–33).

• We would have seen that God is still there in the suffering—he never leaves you (Job 3:1–26).

• We would have seen that even in bad counsel (Job 2:11–13; 12:1–12), even though the wicked may look like they are prospering (Job 21:7–16), God judges righteously by his good and glorious word.

• We would have been assured, like Job, that we has an arbiter and a redeemer, a God who steps in and reconciles Job and us back to himself (Job 9:33; 19:25).

Even if God’s purposes in Job’s life had stopped there, he still would have shown us that he has a purpose, he is in control of all things, and he is our arbiter and redeemer in Jesus Christ!

Yet God doesn’t stop there!

And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.

And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations.” (Job 42:10–16 ESV)

You may read this section and scoff. Many use this section as their reason for why they say Job is just a fairy tale or moral story, and not real. Good endings like this are assumed to be fake. But that is exactly the point here. We have many promises of the goodness of heaven and the rewards that await us. The same kind of ending for you and me that we see here in Job’s life. God seems to want to use Job’s life to show us the totality of the experiences we will have. Yes, we will have suffering, but we also have a final hope that sustains us through all the suffering—It will not always be this way!

The hope that you started to understand in your salvation is much larger than you even imagined. Paul talks about the greatness of this hope with the Colossians. In Colossians chapter one he says it this way:

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel,” (Colossians 1:3–5 ESV)

Paul says there is a hope that is motivating him and the Colossians. Hope that drives his prayers, hope that is part of their faith, and hope that is behind their love for their brothers and sisters in Jesus. And this hope is located in the gospel of Jesus. A couple verses down, he continues to explain how he understands this hope in the Gospel of Jesus:

“giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:12–14 ESV)

Something utterly amazing happened in your salvation. God not only brought you back into relationship with himself through Jesus, but he also completely changed your reality. You are no longer in the domain of darkness, but you are instead in the kingdom of the beloved son of God. You have redemption, forgiveness of your sins, and you now have an inheritance with all of God’s saints. It may not always feel that way, and that is why the ending of Job is so amazing. We live through suffering in this life and we may never see the kind of happy ending that Job sees here on this earth. But you will have that happy ending. It will not always be this way.

Listen to how Peter talks about this hope, this reality for you and me: 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:3–9 ESV)

You may not see it clearly now. You may be grieved by various trials and sufferings that test your faith. But the final outcome is nothing short of glory, Peter says. It is the salvation of your soul. And God follows that promise up with even more promises. You can know how wonderful the salvation of your soul and right relationship with God will be, when you look at the pictures he has given us. You can be assured that it will not always be this way.

Start right here with Job! Job:

• had 7000 sheep, now he has 14,000,

• had 3000 camels, now he has 6000,

• had 500 yoke of oxen, now has 1000,

• He has sons and daughters again, and Job himself lives to 140, double the amount of time most people’s lives are measured in according to the Psalmist (Psalm 90:10).

Doubly good, amazing beyond what Job could have ever imagined. God was gracious to give us a glimpse through Job’s life at how amazing the salvation of our soul and life with God forever more will be. He uses terms and pictures that we can understand, and that I think represent the very least of what it will be like to be with God in the new heavens and the new earth. Jesus says it this way:

““Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”” (Mark 10:29–31 ESV)

Do you believe that it will not always be this way?

Do you really believe that if you have been suffering an illness here on earth for 10, 20, 30 years that you will, one day, call that a “momentary and light affliction” in comparison to the millions of years you have in glory with the God who saved your soul.

Do you live today without a healthy relationship with a mother, father, brother or sister? Do you have hope that God can restore any hurt you have from that, and can bring you mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters one-thousand-fold in your relationship with him?

Have you lost money, status, comfort? Be reminded of what Paul says to the Corinthians:

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:17–18 ESV)

It will not always be this way, and this is what all of Job has been point us to. Or rather who Job has been pointing us to. Jesus Christ, the God man, who has bought us redemption and an inheritance—life forever more with our God in glory and that is what we celebrate today. In communion we see clearly that suffering can accompany great hope of a future that promises it will not always be this way. It will be doubly good and beyond anything we can hope for.

Benediction

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:17–18 ESV)