Small Group Questions:

1. Which metaphor do you find yourself going to when thinking about Christianity? And why?
   Decision
   Battle
   Journey
2. Were you surprised by Job’s response in chapter 3 in comparison to chapters 1 & 2? If you were one of his friends, what would you have said to him?
3. “God is not offended by your grief, questions, or doubts.” What grief, questions, or doubts do you struggle to bring to God and why?
4. “Following Jesus means paying attention to God, paying attention to myself, and paying attention to others, especially in times of great suffering and pain.” How does this statement play itself out? What can we do as a youth group to live like this?
5. “Prayer is not about being nice before God, it’s about being honest before God.” Eugene Peterson. Spend some time praying honestly.

THE MAIN POINT

The invitation of the Christian life is to be brutally honest with God, including in our suffering. We can receive God’s presence and comfort. And can be empowered to support those who are suffering.

THE BIBLE

Job 3:1-5,11-13, 24-26

THE CONTEXT

The story of Job is fascinating because if we only stopped at chapter one, we would believe that Job simply worshipped God and felt better, but that is not the reality. During his grieving process, we see a number of responses.

RESPONSE 1

Chapter 1 (Job & God) – “At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground and worshipped.” v20

Job responded in mourning, grief, surrender, and powerlessness.

RESPONSE 2

Chapter 2 (Job and his wife) – “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” v10

Job’s response is fascinating. He carefully listens and watches his beloved wife shrink under the weight of their shared hardships. At first, his words read like a harsh rebuke. But if you listen to Job, you almost hear admiration. He didn’t say his wife was foolish. He didn’t even say her words were foolish. He said, “She sounds like one of the foolish women.” In other words, “You don’t sound like yourself.” You might read these words like this: Sweetheart, that’s not you talking. This doesn’t sound like the woman of God I know and married. That is not you talking, my wife. Let’s remember God’s promises. Let’s remember his goodness. Job knew his wife’s suffering was just as acute as his. Seeing the pain in her eyes may have added to Job’s great suffering. It’s likely she was in a state of shock. Sudden loss has a way of clouding our judgment, and distorting our view of reality and of God. Often those living in the thick of tragedy make contradictory statements about faith and life. Apparently, Job’s words were what his wife needed wife to soothe her soul because she isn’t heard from again in the remaining chapters of the story.

Job responded in wisdom to his wife as she asked him to curse God. With deep faith, he spoke truth and comfort in the middle of his own pain.

RESPONSE 3

Chapter 3 (Job to God) – READ Job 3:1-5, 11-13, 24-26. Job seems mad, angry, depressed, and at the end of himself. Because the responses in Ch 1 & 2 are so different from Ch 3, many scholars have wondered if it’s the same guy. Yet it is the same guy. This story shows us that:

We all respond differently to grief and it can manifest itself in different ways on different days.

THE CORE

As you prepare the core of the message using personal story and questions keep in mind these points:

When we experience suffering, we need good theology about our faith to help us ask the question, “God where are you?” St. John of the Cross described the sense of the absence of God as “The Dark Night of the Soul”. We often relate with this language of the Dark Night of the Soul, asking, “God where are you?” Or feeling a sense of absence of God because of the metaphors and language we surround Christianity with. Here are three ways to look at the Christian life:

1. Christianity is a Decision

• • I made a decision to follow Jesus and I get the benefits: forgiveness of sin, I go to heaven when I die, I get to experience the goodness of God today.
  • The limitation of only using this metaphor is that we often get confused when difficult things happen to us. “We made a decision!” “Things should be better!” “I should experience God’s goodness every day so why am I hurting?”
  • This metaphor is helpful but is an incomplete one.

2. Christianity is a Battle

• • To see that Christianity is always about a fight that we are in.
  • The Bible says that we have an enemy called Satan and that there is a spiritual battle going on around us in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12).
  • But Christianity is not always a battle. If we see everything as a battle then every time there is a shot coming or a difficult moment we blame the devil and call it a battle when in fact it may be God testing us or allowing us to go through harder moments.
  • If we only see Christianity as a battle then we miss the gifts God may be giving us during difficult moments.
  • Christianity being a battle is a helpful image but is an incomplete image.

3. Christianity is a Journey

• • Probably the most helpful metaphor.
  • There are ups and downs, moments of joyous celebration, and moments of tears.
  • As part of a journey we often hit a dark night of the soul.
  • Using the journey metaphor it is easier to understand that suffering is part of the journey and we should be less surprised when it comes our way.

How we understand our faith shapes how we understand suffering. The difference between a spiritually healthy person and someone who is not healthy is the ability to recognize grief, sorrow and sadness and lift it up to God, rather than suppressing it.

THE APPLICATION

As you prepare the application, challenge and/or encouragement, keep in mind these points:

• Job demonstrates that God is after our honesty, not our perceived notion of holiness.

Ever heard the saying “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it.” The tragedy is we have taken that bit of advice and applied it with our relationship with God. We end up believing that if we have nothing nice to say to God, nothing “praise-worthy” then we don’t end up saying anything to him. “Prayer is not about being nice before God, it’s about being honest before God.” Eugene Peterson. When we misunderstand holiness (being right with God) we end up being stoic towards pain as if it doesn’t affect us or we end up being perpetually happy in the midst of life, and as a result, we are not honest before God when pain comes our way. God is not offended by your grief, questions, or doubts. This means when we pray to God, we pray our grief, we pray our sadness and we pray our anxiety. God wants our honesty. His shoulders are big enough to carry our burdens. “Scripture encourages the externalizing of grief, not the suppression of it.” Rich Villodas

• We read Job’s story as an invitation to join those who are suffering.

We need Chapter 3 because it teaches us to be honest with God but also to enter into the experience of others who are suffering.

We will all suffer on different levels. Not all of us will experience the same levels of suffering. But the book of Job is not designed to give us a comparison as to our suffering versus someone else’s or to carry guilt because we’ve not experienced the same level of suffering as someone else. The book of Job tells us that the point of the Christian life is to enter into the suffering of others and to encounter the God who suffers with us. Following Jesus means paying attention to God, paying attention to myself, and paying attention to others, especially in times of great suffering and pain. Christians are to have their understanding and view of suffering aided and molded by our understanding of Jesus. Jesus understands suffering. He understands taking on the burden of sin on his body. What Jesus did on the cross and his resurrection was put an expiration date on our suffering that one day there will be no more pain, no more tears, and no more grief.

The invitation of the Christian life is to be brutally honest with God including with our suffering. To receive his presence and comfort.And to join with those who are suffering.