Sermon(Job 2:10): a sermon for the afflicted

The original korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025220307

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Do you reject disaster from God, receiving only his blessing?

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Scripture reading: He replied, ‘You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?' In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.’ (Job 2:10)

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A shrewd opportunist in business is considered as a wise man in the world. A businessman does not do business to lose money. There are none who are doing business in order to go bankrupt. Such men, if there are any, must be foolish. Of many words of the Bible, the book of Job teaches us the profoundest truth of faith. The theme of Job is whether you are willing to trade with God if there is loss. If there is someone who has harmed you in the world, you can run to him right away, shout at him in anger and seize him by the collar. And if your rage is not still abated, you'll strike a blow at him or hand him over to the police. But if we suffer a grave damage while serving God, we can't vent your anger on him. You can't complain to him because you can't even take hold of his clothes. (You don't know his whereabouts!)

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With today's words of Scripture, we can understand why such hardships as Job suffered may befall us. once we know why, we will have the faith by which we can overcome the ordeal. And having overcome the ordeal, you'll be the last winner.

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Job 1:1 says that Job was blameless and upright, and feared God and turned away from evil. 'Job was blameless' means that his mind and deeds were not mixed with impurities and sins. Impurities and sins are greed, lewd behavior, envy, discontent, hate, and so on. Job was a blameless man without such impurities. Job was upright (honest). Nothing can be more trustworthy to us than the uprightness. An upright man abhors lies. The God, being honest, does not like falseness and those who lie. Prov 12:22 says, "The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful." According to Jn 8:44, the Devil is the father of lies. Therefore everyone who is full of deceit and lies is a son of Devil, and the Devil loves him. Such thing (love between a liar and the Devil) is not to be called 'love' but 'servitude'. Job was always upright and was loved and trusted in by God, but became an eyesore to the Devil. And Job feared the God. To fear God is to live according to the laws of God and to obey the word of God.

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This beautiful religious life of Job was recognized by God. God said to the Satan (the Devil) who had looked around the world and returned, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? (Job 1:8)" The Satan might have lured Job endlessly in the world. But Job always overcame all the temptations by the faith and reverence toward God. Now Satan replied to God, "Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land." Although a reply of the father of all lies, it is not entirely wrong. In fact, Job was blessed by God very much. He had seven sons and three daughters, and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.

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Beloved brethren, why did Job fall into the pit of affliction? It is not because God hates Job or because God has the right to do to man as he likes to. Surely God knows the righteousness of Job, and still loves Job. However Satan says further, "But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face." Satan predicts! But Satan's prediction is not effective. It's just like chaff that the wind blows away. Don't worry if someone says ominous words to you. Nor keep them in your mind. God allowed Satan to strike Job's all, except Job himself. From this you can know that Job found credence with God and that, however, his faith was not yet acknowledged as genuine by Satan, so he had to drink a cup of suffering. God allowed the test because he wished Job to beat Satan. And you must know also this: To doubt the faith of a man whom God approves, to test him endlessly and to give him a hard time is an evil deed instigated by Satan.

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Brethren, only he who has defeated Satan can become a great worker in the kingdom of God. You must first pass many tests before you can do something great. For example, not everyone can be a judge. You must pass many tests in order to be a judge who sentences criminals to imprisonment or to death. Finally you must pass the bar exam. You have to undergo tests to become a church worker. And the test is not a test of secular wisdom but enduring of all the affliction from Satan. You must endure destitution to be able to exhort ones who are in temptation and trial thanks to destitution. You must overcome insult in order to encourage the people who were insulted and distressed. It is natural that you and the church suffer hindrance of Satan and hardship when you do the work of God. Now only he who has overcome Satan's temptation completely can be a suitable worker for God and lead the church.

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Satan made all Job's sons killed and all his and their livestock plundered in a day. This time Job endured the hard test. Job's wife also managed to endure the test this time. The faith by which Job overcame such a hard test was as follows: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised. (Job 1:21)" Brethren, in fact this confession is true. Job believed that God had given him his sons, daughters, and all his wealth and that therefore God could take away his possessions from Job. It was perfectly understandable to Job, a man of honesty. Someone pays back money reluctantly. But it is not an honest heart. one who sees the reality and is upright like Job does not complain to God even when God retrieves his sons or riches from him. We can win Satan’s test if we have such faith. When we have this belief, we can overcome all the sufferings of the loss of wealth, sons or family. Brethren, if my rich neighbor refuses to lend me some money despite my pleas, can I hate or complain to him, or spread a rumor that he is bad? An honest man does not do that! An honest man does not bear a grudge against him if he refuses to lend money, because the honest man acknowledges that he has the right to refuse. If you happen to be poor, is it right that you think ill of God if he ignores your earnest prayer that he should make you rich? No! An upright man like Job does not express dissatisfaction with God even if he did not give an answer to his prayer. Job was a honest man. So he acknowledged that his all, that is his property and his sons and daughters, was God's, and didn't complain to God when he carried it away. You have to have such an honest faith as Job had. He who recognizes God's as God's is an honest believer.

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Having seen all this, Satan stood before God again. God rebuked Satan, saying, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason. (Job 2:3)" Then Satan replied, "'Skin for skin! A man will give all he has for his own life. But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face." Brethren, Satan predicts again, but his prediction is not potent. Summarizing Satan's word, Job didn't feel resentment against God because he did not yet think he had suffered loss from the trade with God. Satan argues that Job thinks he has not yet suffered loss because God has retrieved what belongs to God. Thus Satan proposes that God should strike Job himself so that Job may feel kind of loss. Satan declares that Job will surely curse God then. Now God allows Satan to strike Job except his life.

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You can know from the Scripture how Job suffered. ‘So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes. (Job 2:7-8)’ ‘My body is clothed with worms and scabs, my skin is broken and festering. (Job 7:5)’ ‘My breath is offensive to my wife; I am loathsome to my own brothers. (Job 19:17)’ ‘My skin grows black and peels; my body burns with fever. (Job 30:30)’ See also 19:20; 30:17, 18. He suffered also from insomnia and nightmares. (Job 7:4, 13-15)’ Notice that Satan can cause not only diseases of body but also insomnia and nightmare upon the righteous man. Therefore, having nightmares may not be the result of a bad faith. You do not have to worry about nagging nightmares if you have not sinned these days. And do not think that the Spirit of God departed from you and an evil spirit came into you to harass you because you sinned. Of course, you need to check your faith when you have nightmares. Anyway, Job’s diseases were such that the situation was almost unbearable not only to Job himself but also to his wife. Maybe this situation can be more unbearable to her who nurses a patient than to Job. Then Job's wife begins to collapse. Losing her temper, she says, "Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die! (Job 2:9)"

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When we hear of her words, we can know this: she felt a sense of betrayal towards God and thought that she had suffered a great loss by believing in God. But even now Job sticks to his former faith. "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble? (Job 2:10)" Job says that he was blessed by God, and that he may suffer disaster from God. Strictly speaking, there is some reason in Job's remark. Even though he has suffered such severe physical ordeal and dishonor, Job still thinks that he is not yet justified to speak ill of God. Job thinks how much he was blessed by God in the past. He thinks of the blessings: health, offsprings, respect shown him by many people. The blessings he received from his birth up to now in his old age is greater then the disasters he is suffering now. At this stage, Job's wife thought that she suffered a loss through the relationship with God, and felt a sense of betrayal towards God, but Job was more considerate than she, so that he thought that he did not yet suffer any loss. Husbands, be more considerate than your wife! Maybe Job will not think ill of God even when he takes away Job's life in a terrible way. Because the life itself is God's. Job overcame Satan’s test at this stage as he thought of the blessings he had received before. Brethren, we happen to meet incomprehensible disasters sometimes. A believer who is honest like Job does not bear a grudge against God then. Being honest is admitting what you have already received. Does your child sometimes bother you? You may not hate him because he has given you much greater joy than the agony he is giving you now. Are you disappointed at your wife or your husband once in a while? You should not hate him or her because your spouse has given you much more pleasure than displeasure so far. Brethren, in whatever human way you may think, you can not make a complaint against God at all. He who feels chagrin against God is not an honest believer.

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Up to now, Job was right. Job lost his all and suffered disaster that befell his body. At that time Job had the faith that he was born naked and would die naked and that he had been very much blessed by God, so he could not complain about the disaster. And exactly speaking, in fact the disaster itself didn't come from God (but from Satan). If we have just this kind of faith, we can overcome all tests from Satan.

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But now Satan with a sense of defeat begins to pamper himself without God's permission. He uses tricks that are not in the regulations of God, which, however, is his own task. Satan hurts Job's pride through human beings, and gets Job to complain to God. At last Job gets angry. Job's three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, came to him to comfort him. But in fact they scolded Job, saying, "You or your sons must have sinned, so that the disaster has befallen you. Therefore, repent your sins before God, and be pardoned!" Job could endure everything but this. Because Job couldn't deny that he had lived upright life, fearing God, until that day. As a matter of fact, isn't it somewhat nonsensical to repent sins which one has not committed? A bogus repentant prayer? Even God acknowledged that Job was the most righteous man in the East. Job did not have much to repent of. Above all, he has never committed such grave sins that he should suffer this severe disaster. It was a fact. His friends, one by one, rebuked him (in the form of exhortation) like this: "Job, you pretended to be righteous while in fact you were committing sins secretly. Didn't you abuse orphans and widows? You were holy outwardly, but adulterous inwardly." As they tried to make Job repent like this, Job cried out to God in defiance, “My God, show yourself before us and settle my problem, their misunderstanding about me! Tell them that I haven’t sinned!” Brethren, now do you understand that it is a grave sin to condemn others without reason, to treat them as sinners, to force them to acknowledge their unsubstantial sins, to insult and rebuke them that they are proud and haughty and disobedient when they refuse to admit their sins? only with the eyes of Devil, you can see him, whom God loves and approves, as a sinner. Jesus warned frequently that you should not condemn brethren.

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In a church, a gwonsa and a janglo whom I knew quarreled with each other. (Gwonsa is a kind of rank in church of Korea, meaning 'exhorter'. Janglo is a Korean-style presbyter (or an elder). Jibsa, gwonsa, janglo are positions of the laity in the church of Korea. Jibsa is the lowest, gwonsa the middle, janglo the highest of them.) The gwonsa couldn't stand the condemnation of the pastor and the janglo, for he (the gwonsa) had done nothing to be blamed. At last, he departed the church. Nor did he attend some other church. He said, "I will attend my church only when the church from which I have departed restores my damaged reputation." I talked with the gwonsa several years after he had left the church. He was still loving God! Yet he didn't attend any church. Like this, to condemn an innocent man can be a severe sin to kill his soul. He who is treated as a sinner in a church can hardly remain there. Keep in mind that condemning others is the last resort of Satan. (By putting a blame on an innocent believer, you can kill the soul in the holy church! This means: I dislike you, so you must die anyway. Condemnation is the best means now. It needs no substantial proofs.) You have to undergo eye surgery first, that you may not be an instrument of the last resort of Satan. Look at brethren with the eyes of love. Acknowledge your neighbor as a good man. And don't judge others by that disgusting self-righteousness. You should not condemn others in the church by the moral and ethical standards that you set unless they are committing sins that are stipulated in the Bible. Because everyone has his own standards of morals and ethics. Who of you that believe in Jesus would intentionally transgress morals and ethics to make light of, and to harm others? Therefore you should not regard a believer as a bad man so long as he does not commit the sins defined in the Bible, offensive as he is to you. You should see him as a better man than you. This is the normal Christian attitude. Someone condemns others, finding fault with their facial ｅxpression, voice, even laughter. I can't understand that kind of mindset. Bible warned that you should not judge others by appearances. Devil came into Jezebel. And she made Naboth, an innocent man, stoned to death for the sin that he cursed God and king. Devil came into the religious leaders of Israel. And they laid the sin of sacrilege upon Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, and crucified him. Why do you argue with others on the ways that they love God? Would it be nice if your aged neighbor tried to interfere over and over again in the ways you love your wife? Are you interested in other people's beliefs very much? Why do some people regard as a sinner him who prays briefly? Why do they conclude that he who didn’t receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit even didn’t receive the Holy Spirit, and make light of him and insult him? Why do they rebuke a believer that his love of God is so lukewarm, and think him to be a sinner? Leave him alone! God accepts and delights in him, so you look at yourself! It is the preposterous sin and the ultimate instrument of Satan to declare a guiltless man a sinner. A humble man does not become such an instrument.

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In your Christian life, you may be able to bear all tribulations except one, others' doubts about your faith itself. Job slipped a little here. Condemning an innocent man causes even a great believer like Job to fall down. In fact, while we are living in the world, sometimes the most dreadful thing is the eyes of others, the estimation of others about me. You may think then, 'I'd rather live alone on a desert island and suffer alone!' Job should have endured the harassment of his friends and relied on God in his tribulation, I think. We must not fall down because of the eyes and judgment of others. on the contrary, we must sincerely comfort and strengthen others when they fall into tribulations. The attitude of condemnation is wrong.

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Job maintained his innocence and honesty and rejected his friends' condemnation to the end, so they gave up forcing him to repent. Then God appeared and answered Job out of a storm. Much was said, but the key contents were these: 'God is mighty. In the world God created, there are secrets Job can't understand.' God rebuked Job's friends who asserted that Job suffered the disaster because he had sinned secretly. Thus Job could clear himself of suspicion that he was caught in the tribulation because he had sinned before God. He could be satisfied with God's answer which didn't say of the reasons why God had sent him such a disaster. Because he met directly the God whom he had longed to meet whenever he had worshiped him. And because he realized that there were many secrets beyond his understanding in the world in which God ruled over all, and that the disaster he had suffered was one of those. The final faith of Job was this: How can I, a creature of God, argue against or for what God does, because he is omnipotent and merciful? An honest man has also a strong ability to fathom the nature of things. Truth knows truth, love love. Sometimes people are unable to tell the reasons of something to an inquisitor. It’s one of the ways of afflicting others to exact the answer then. Of course, it will be a love not to call them to account without asking questions. Thus we can overcome also all disasters which seem without any reason if we have, like Job, the faith that acknowledges the absolute sovereignty of God.

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Brethren, I want to think deeply again about what Job said in the second disaster. “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble? (Job 2:10)” This statement has something in common with that of Jesus which he said when he was arrested by Roman soldiers, "Shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me? (John 18:11)" It will be a calamity to you if a man takes off your kidney and runs away with it. Suppose there were husband and wife, two lovebirds. The husband loved the wife really devotedly. This wife always appreciated the love. But a misfortune befell him. He got a kidney disease. The illness was aggravated, and it was not possible to recover completely without kidney transplant surgery. All family members were examined for biopsy. Fortunately, some of them, including his wife, were able to donate their kidneys. Out of these family members, who should have the catastrophe of taking away one's own kidney? Who gave the kidney to the husband? Wouldn't it be the wife who was loved most by the husband? Shouldn't she be a volunteer sufferer of the disaster (of losing her kidney), stopping others from donating the kidney?

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Brethren, did God bless only Job in the days of Job? Clearly, many people must be blessed by God then. However, Satan constantly says to God, "All of them worship you just because they've got blessings from you." So the God thinks, 'Someone of them has to meet a disaster just once and overcome it, so that he may show a good example of a true faith to many people. Who should be the sufferer?' Brethren, the kingdom of God needs men who are very much blessed by God and live well and boast of the blessing to the public and glorify God, and needs also such a man as Jesus who has to suffer the curse of crucifixion in order to fulfill the work of God. If one must suffer a disaster from God to repel Satan's sophistry, who deserves the disaster? Isn't it Job who has been blessed and loved most by God so far? Jesus was to be worshipped, exalted and loved by all human beings and angels. This is the biggest blessing of God. By the way, one who is to suffer the curse of crucifixion is needed for the work of God. Who must be the sufferer? Isn't it Jesus who is blessed most by God? Who should be the voluntary sufferer of the disaster from God? Isn't it the man who was loved most by God, so loves God most?

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In fact, it is not religiously appropriate to mention that you met God and suffered a loss or gained a profit. I’ve mentioned profit and loss to show that, even though we think humanly, we can’t complain to God, whatever may happen to us. When we meet such a disaster as Job met, when we are faced with a disaster like that, and if it is a suffering for the kingdom of God, remember what Job said: “God loved and blessed me most. Shouldn’t I suffer most for the kingdom of God? (This was Job’s thought.)” Do you, by any chance, attend a newborn church that is planning to construct a chapel? From a human perspective, it’ll be clearly a disaster if you offer excessive money for the construction and suffer a little financial difficulties. But he who thinks he has been blessed much by God can bear such a disaster for the God. You must do all this in a mature state of belief like Job. You’re unequal to the task when you take account of only others' appraisal on you or resolve rashly. So you yourself have to pray much. Advance neither before the Holy Spirit nor before prayer. (Just follow after both of them!) However good the task may be, you’ll fail in the task if you are not led by the Holy Spirit.

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Job received blessings twice as much as he has lost through the tribulation. God doesn’t want to owe a debt to none! How lovely Job was to God! His tears and insult were only for the glory of God. Not every believer is to meet the disasters from God. God allows those whom he loves most to suffer some disasters, and rewards them double later. He rewards more than double. All that read the book of Job commended him for being a faithful believer. This can not be evaluated in money. We do not praise a man for his being blessed much by God. Who commends him who inherited much wealth from his parents? only he who suffered for God deserves a praise. God allowed Satan to afflict Job briefly in order to give Job even the blessing of honor. Affliction is short, honor is long - this is the law of faith. May all of you be blessed with the blessing Job received!

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Chong Tack Kim

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                               - Dongtoma Sunshine Church -