“The Gospel According to Job” Blogpost 1
by Jason
Job is one of the most unique men in church history. He strikes a chord with people who have never felt drawn to any other biblical characters. Many people reject Jesus, but no one rejects Job. People of all walks of life respect Job — the rich and poor, businessmen, parents, spouses, outcast, skeptics, outlaws, and prisoners; he is truly the “everyman.” He didn’t found a religion or cult or ever ask anyone to follow him; he simply suffered… enormously… and thereby won the world’s heart.
Many sermons have been preached and many commentaries have been written about the Book of Job, most of which try to deal with the issue of “Why do people suffer?” But that is not really the question that is asked in the text; the actual question that is asked in this book is “Will a man serve God for no reason?” (Job 1:9). The Devil believes that the only reason that anybody would serve God is because there is such a blessed “payoff.” He doesn’t believe that God is worthy of worship just based on His nature alone.
Last year Murrieta Valley Church hosted a debate between Steve Scianni and Gene Cook. Steve said in that debate that he had no problem believing in “God” but he just didn’t believe that the God of the Bible was worthy of our faith. Steve questioned the worthiness of the biblical God, and when the Devil sees someone serving God, he is suspicious of that person’s motives. The Devil doesn’t believe that a person could serve God for nothing in return. So the Devil questioned whether Job would serve God if there was no “payoff.”
The great question of the Book of Job is not “Why do the righteous suffer?” but “Why do people serve God?” Would you serve God if there were no blessings attached? What if God were to show you no mercy? What if there were no heaven? What if there were no hell? Would you still serve God? Why or why not? The Devil asked a legitimate question.
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Jason Robertson is a husband and a father and a pastor. He is dedicated to leading and equipping his the Church with God’s word and biblical theology for life ministry, using a combination of pastoral, church planting and evangelism experience. He holds a Master of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is experienced in church planting, evangelism, missions, and the training of pastors and Bible teachers.
Jason has been preaching the gospel since 1985, serving the first ten years of ministry as a Southern Baptist itinerant evangelist out of Milldale Baptist Church in Zachary, LA which ordained him in 1993. He has preached in hundreds of churches in over 30 States and 4 countries. He planted churches in Siberia, Russia in the summers of 1993 and 1994. He founded Murrieta Valley Church in California, which he planted in cooperation with the SBC NAMB in 2001. He also teaches ministry students at California Baptist University.
You can hear his sermons and read his manuscripts on sermonaudio.com. Just follow the link to "sermons" at the top of this page.
I wonder how many of us would be willing/find contentment to be used as Job’s children were, giving their lives (literally)to the end that another may be made more righteous through suffering? Should we have the same attitude as some of the puritans who thought we should be so in tune with God’s will that we would be content if he were to have us suffer all the pains of hell if it would glorify him?
I’ve never walked in Jobs’s specific shoes, but I have dealt with what I consider my personal maximum disaster tolerance, lifted my head towards heaven and said, “whom have I in heaven but you?” I decided that living through difficulty with the peace and strength of Almighty God to help me through it was better than struggling through on my own. So there is more to faith in God than earthly blessings, we were made to need God.
Would this scenario still include the indwelling of the Holy Spirit?
mbell,
Which scenario are to talking about? Job’s? Or one of the commenters’ scenarios? Please clarify your question. Thanks.
Sorry. In the question posed “Would you still serve God if there were not any blessings?”, would the Holy Spirit be included in the absence of blessings?
mbell,
Speaking on behalf of the Devil (which many believe I do so with easeJ), I would say “Yes” to your question. The question in Job is tested as Job loses his wealth, his family, his wife, his friends, his health… he even felt like he had lost God himself. If there were no payoff for serving God, including no fellowship with the Spirit of God himself, would you still serve God.
Considering God as creator, and us as His creation, He is well deserving of our service. Even Job when he lost everything still received blessings that came from God’s creation (life, food, shelter, sun, etc.)
In addition, without the Holy Spirit, I believe it would be impossible to truly serve Him. Our fallen nature would make our service to Him imperfect. Sadly, most likely the god of self would prevail without the Holy Spirit.
Jason,
I think that this question is impossible to answer because, and I mean this in the best way possible, it is absurd. Since God has made us in His image and gives us life and breath, and seeing that even the condemned serve God’s purpose, I cannot imagine a scenario wherein I would not be serving God’s purpose or, especially as a child of God, enriched by that service. It’s like the old, “Can God make a rock bigger than He could lift?” question, isn’t it?
Hebrews 11:36-38.
This chapter is known as the “heroes of faith’. In the verses above is another group of people. They didn’t gain great victories out on the battle field. They didn’t enter the arena of life before large audiences and perform great feats for God. These are the “others,” and they are the ones who, if you want heroes, are really God’s heroes. They had trials and mockings and scourgings and bonds and imprisonment.
I want you to notice a contrast here. Back in verses 33 and 34 there were victories that were won, it spoke of how they “subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire. escaped the edge of the sword.” They “escaped” the edge of the sword, but in verse 37 the “others” were slain with the sword.” How do you explain this. One group by faith escaped the edge of the sword, and another group by faith were slain with the sword.
There are a great many people who have demonstrated their faith by winning battles and by being delivered, but there are “others”, multitudes of them, who have suffered for the faith!
My friend, if you can walk up and give your testimony and tell how God has healed you-and I will join you in that-or if you can get up and say how successful you have been in business, I want to remind you that there are multitudes of God’s saints today who are suffering. They are paying a tremendous price. Do you know how they are doing it? They are doing it by faith! They have lots more faith than I have, and I think they are choicer saints than I am!
The writer of Hebrews is speaking of a company of people who lived by faith. He simply calls them “others”-I love that! I don’t want to forget the “others” who are today living by faith and dying by faith. The suffering has ended for many of them, and they have already gone into the pesence of the Lord and will never die again. This passage means something to me that it didn’t before, and I hope it means something new to you also!
My wife has had surgery removing her entire colon. She also has had a bi-lateral mastectomy. She is now going through chemo every week for three months. Although we know God does not always heal everybody of this dreaded disease, we do ask for your prayers that no matter the outcome, we would bring glory to our Lord.
Ike
Reminds me of the debate faced by Jonathan Edwards and Samuel Hopkins (among many others) over whether the mark of a true saint is his or her willingness to be damned for the glory of God.
Jason,
I have to agree with Brad on this one, at least partially. I’ve heard it said many times, especially in reformed circles, that the highest praise of God is for his divine being, independent of his works. This just seems greatly at odds with the scriptures – where the most glorious psalms, the highest acts of thanksgiving, and the most passionate words of Jesus himself, are all centered on God’s mighty acts – in his creative goodness and his covenant faithfulness. When you go down the road of “just for his being” too far (which would be bypassing huge portions of the scripture), you get uncomfortably close to the question of “would you serve God even if he were evil”?
The question from the Devil, in context, does not strike me as questioning God’s worthiness of worship, but rather God’s success as a creator of good things. God holds up Job as a model of his handiwork – for him to consider. Satan accuses Job of being a mere poser; God knows him to be the real deal. The test is the suffering.
Job’s passing of the test is intrinsically connected to his demanding of God to give him his day in court. It is precisely by appealing to the justice of God that Job pays tribute to the truth of his justice. It is because he neither curses God and dies, nor reconciles himself to evil as good, that Job proves his righteousness to be what God knew it to be and what Satan could not see. And the vindication of the creature on Earth becomes the vindication of the creator in Heaven.
Let us not act as if we can separate the character of God from his works, but neither let us lose faith in him in the face of the evil and injustice which might bring it into doubt. Let us follow in the footsteps of Job (and more than that – the one he ultimately typifies), and hold fast to God until he blesses us.
“Would you serve God if there were no blessings attached?”
Yes, I serve and worship the God of gifts, not the gifts of God.
“What if God were to show you no mercy?”
Yes. Whatever plan he has for me, it is for my good.
“What if there were no heaven?”
A nonsense question that has no basis in reality.
“What if there were no hell?” Would you still serve God?
Same.
The Devil asked a legitimate question.”
That the devil would even need to ask clais “begging the question.” -jw
I believe God is a God who makes sense. It’s we who have trouble making sense of God , so we’ve come up with the idea of God making us suffer to “test” us or refine our faith , as an interpretation of Job’s story. How about this as a question , from the other side:
Would God work to perfect us if there were no chance of his having success? No , because it would be useless. Thus from our side we wouldn’t and probably shouldn’t worship God if there were no beneficial aspect to it. What would be the purpose of such worship? I think Satan’s question to Job was something of a deliberate distortion to give Job the impression that his existence and worship of God was meaningless. Make sense?