Small Group Questions:

1..What do you make of God’s response to Job?

2. Job 38 teaches us that:

• God is wholly other
• God is the sustainer of the world
• We have to trust God’s wisdom even when we don’t understand

Which of these do you struggle to wrap your head around most?

Which of these helps you process through suffering most?

3. Romans 8:28 “God works all things together for good for the ones who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Why does ‘God working’ and not ‘all things’ give you more reassurance and comfort?

Where have you seen God work things for good in your suffering?

4. Talk about what has been your biggest take-away from this series? What have you learnt about God or yourself?

THE MAIN POINT

We have a God who promises to work all things for good.

THE BIBLE

Job 38: 1-13

THE CONTEXT

Chapter 38 is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. It’s the moment where we think God will explain himself to Job and justify all the hurt and pain he has gone through. The moment when God will give answers to Job’s questions, and that Job’s world will be made right again. But God, in his wisdom does something different.

Healthy spirituality, healthy faith, and healthy Christians hold onto the tensions and mysteries of God. Tensions of lament and silence. Tensions of protest and trust. Tensions of petition and submission. Tensions of faith and mystery. What we learn from Chapter 38 and the last couple of Chapters of Job is that we worship a God who is our comfort, friend, saviour, father, and helper. But he is also Lord, king, ruler, powerful and uncontrollable. These are some of the tensions in being a Christian. On one hand, we trust and believe that God is in control, but on the other, we know that God is entirely uncontrollable and his ways are so much higher and different than ours.

Healthy Christians, live in the tension. The tension of the known and the unknown.

So what does God do?

He asks Job lots of questions, about 50 questions… and they are about the creation and origins of the universe. And the questions themselves are simple:

– Where were you when I made this?

– Where were you when all this came into existence?

– When did you ever do what I’ve done?

– Who is the one who sustains everything?

– Can you do what I do, and make it look easy?

God doesn’t respond with answers but with questions. This sounds kind of frustrating right?

It doesn’t sound that comforting, it doesn’t seem as if it will bring Job the answers and peace he is looking for. But we see that God’s response to Job is good.

And there are 3 reasons why it is good and why it helps us.

THE CORE

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

1..God is wholly other

This is a theological truth that if you want to be a follower of Jesus, if you want to be a Christian, you have to wrap your head around this and sit in the tension. This simply means that God is very different than us, and does things very different to what we do.

In the 1990’s a young female Christian youth leader from Michigan, Janie Tinklenberg started a Christian movement that took the world by storm. You may not know who Janie Tinklenberg is, but she created the WWJD bracelets (what would Jesus do). It was a movement of Christians who would wear this bracelet on their wrist so that in every situation they would be reminded to think, WWJD. This is a great question and it is important to put Jesus at the centre of our life in our big choices and our small decisions.

But there is a small problem with WWJD. The problem is, that all throughout the gospels, those closest to Jesus, often had absolutely no idea what he was doing and why he was doing it! When you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John it’s so evident that Jesus was often confusing people. He did not follow the culture and trends of the day but often did things that made people ask questions. He gave grace to people that the world had no use for. He judged religious people who thought they were in. He touched people who had never been touched before and had meals with religious fundamentalists. He then would go to the cross and die for our sin. There are so many moments where we don’t know what Jesus would do!

When we read Job 38 we realize that God’s ways are so different from our ways. Jesus’ ways go against the grain and often our way of thinking. And the reason being is God is Wholly Other. He is distinct. He is unique. There is no one in all of creation whose ways are on the same playing field as God’s. When we understand this, when we realize this… it causes humility in us. That we are not God, that our brains don’t always think God’s thoughts. That humbly we come to God and trust that he knows better. He is wholly other.

2. God is the sustainer of the world

In Ch 38-40 God speaks and tells Job that he is the sustainer of the world. That everything was created and everything is sustained by his power. These chapters seem incredibly puzzling because God’s words seem so disconnected from Job’s questions. Job is asking “WHY AM I SUFFERING?!” And God responds with “Have you ever made a horse?” (Ch 39:19) What does Job’s suffering have to do with horses?!

God is not as confused as Job or we may think. What God is doing here is reminding him (and us) that he is the creator and that he is also the sustainer. God is the one who made all things, and cares for all things. God is reminding Job that as he sustains the universe as he holds all things together, he can sustain and hold Job together.

In our suffering, trials, grief, and pain, God is our sustainer, maintainer, and he is close.

God is the one who can hold us together. If he can do it for the universe, he can do it for you.

3. Trust God’s wisdom and creative ways, even when you can’t figure it out.

God is inviting us to trust, not to have total understanding. This is not easy, but it’s the invitation. We will not know all of the workings of the universe, why everything happens, the reasons for every moment, because the universe is not centered around you and me. The world is centered around God. It is God who created, God who sustains and God (through Jesus) makes us right with him again. Everything is centered around God.

Through suffering, either in the moment or even in hindsight, it can be so difficult to see or understand what God is doing or where he is. We often use the verse Romans 8:28 to comfort ourselves or others, but it’s often used wrong. When someone is hurting, you may hear someone say, “Don’t worry, all things will work together for good!” But often this feels detached emotionally and just becomes a mantra. But that’s not how this passage should be translated. The subject in this verse is not “all things” it’s actually God.

“God works all things together for good for the ones who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.”Romans 8:28

It’s not ‘all things’ it’s ‘God works’. This means there is never a moment when God is not working. Even though we might not understand his wisdom or his ways. God is always working. It is Jesus’ death, resurrection, and conquering the grave that assures us and promise that all things might not come on this side of eternity. But we will see it.

God gives these words to Job in chapters 38-40 not to crush him, or belittle his opinion, but to offer him a new perspective, reminding him that he has not been abandoned. That God will sustain him. God will work all things, even the worst things, for good.

THE APPLICATION

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

We can choose to respond our own way, or we can respond how Job responded. What God spoke to Job seemed to bring healing, restoration and life-change (Job 42:1-6)

• Job responds to God by listening to him, by acknowledging that he doesn’t know everything, and by finding comfort in God as he puts his trust in him.
• Ch 42 speaks of some of the restoration Job received.
• We may never have the answers to all our suffering, but we have a God, who more than understands and has experienced deep suffering. A God who longs to be your comfort and hope. And whose arms are always open to embrace you. Sometimes like Job, we have to call out in pain; to lament. Sometimes we have to worship. Other times we have to ask hard questions, and other times we have to sit in silence and allow God’s words and presence to be our comfort.
• This is the tension of faith. Holding grief and God together.