Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Job and the Whirlwind

Episode Date: May 3, 2023

Many people say, “I want to meet God. I want to have an encounter.” But the way Job gets to an encounter with God is through absolutely horrible suffering. Job is a book for adults. It’s not easy. It’s certainly not sugarcoated. When God shows up, it’s not a Hallmark-card, folded-hands, rays-of-light-coming-through-the-stained-glass-window kind of religion. Oh no, not at all. Let’s look at the story of Job, and then let’s look at what it teaches about what it means to know God. It shows us 1) the philosophical lesson, 2) the foundational lessons, and 3) the practical lesson. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 15, 1996. Series: Daring to Draw Near. Scripture: Job 42:1-10. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel and Life. The Bible teaches us that while God is infinite, He is also intimate. In other words, it's possible for us to draw near to Him. But what does it actually look like to draw near to God? Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller is teaching about what it means to experience God in a way that is personal and intimate. No plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?

Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. You said, listen now, and I will speak. I will question you, and you shall answer me. My ears have heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." And after the Lord had said these things to Job, He said to Ella Faz, I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has. So now, take seven bulls, seven rams, go to my servant Job, sacrifice a burn-off ring for yourselves, my servant job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal

with you according to your folly. You have not spoken of me what is right as my servant job has. So aliphaz, build ed, and so far, did what the Lord told them and the Lord accepted Job's prayer, prayer. And after Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. And this is God's word. Well, we're looking in a series here in the evening services, a series called Daring to Draw

Near. We're looking at close encounters with God, famous, almost all of them are, famous situations in which people like Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Joe, had direct encounters. You see here in verse 5, this is my ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. Now what he means is, I heard of you. I had had a conceptual knowledge of you. I believed in you.

I obeyed you, but I never actually had a direct encounter with you. And so what we're doing in every one of these evening services is looking at some encounter that people had, a person had with God and saying, what do we learn from it? And every time what we do is we take a look at the encounter and we stand back and look at the story that that encounter is always the climax of, and then we draw its lessons out. Now, tonight, what we have to do is we have to look at Job. And all I can tell you is on the one hand, because we're celebrating the Lord's Supper tonight, we won't be extensive. We'll sort of look at this and who Job is and what he did and what he experienced here,

fairly briefly, but Job is a book for adults. And what I'm going to tell you is for adults. It's not that easy. It's certainly not sugar-coded. You see, when it comes to encountering God, when so many people say, I want to meet God, I want to have it encounter, especially now, this is very, very popular. Let's have spirituality, let's have spiritual experience. That's very popular and people say, I'd love to have a meeting with God.

First of all, the way Job gets here is through absolutely horrible suffering. You know, when people, when you sit down and you say, oh Lord, I want to meet you, I want to see you face to face. What you usually think of is, well, I guess in order to do that, I'll have to pray and I have to obey and I have to surrender, I have to do all these things. This tells us that not only sometimes, but almost always,

the way God gets you face toto-face with him is through suffering. And then, of course, as you can see right here, an experience of God's presence is not necessarily pleasant at all. This is not by any means. We saw this last week, Jacob wrestling. When God shows up, it's not hallmarked card, folded hands, you know, raise of light through the stained glass window, coming through kind of religion. Oh no, not at all. Let's see what the story is of Job,

to which this is the climax. Then let's draw at our lessons and see what it teaches us. About really, what it means to know God, to see God. Not just hear about it, not just have a general conceptual knowledge, but to really know him. What do we learn? Well, here's the story. And now the story, in some ways, the book of Job is one of the hardest books that for me in the Bible, and I'll start being a little bit biographical.

When I was a new Christian, all I could tell was that the book of Job was about suffering. It was about the biblical book, the longest book, 42 chapters. This is the end. In the Bible on suffering. And I sat down and I said, great, when I was a newer Christian and I said, now I'm going to find out. And I read that, I've read Job several times and in the early stages of my Christian life, I must tell you, it was one of the most disappointing books to me. I didn't get it.

And as we go along, I'll tell you where the place is, where it really rubbed me. The book of Job is actually, the story itself, is in the very beginning and the very end. In the middle, there's these long, long speeches. And in the beginning, this is what we're told about Job. Job was a man who feared God and shunned evil. He was an upright man, you see.

He was a devout man. And he also was an extremely wealthy man. But God allowed Satan to attack him. And twice Satan said, I'm going to do this to Job. And God said, well, let you do that, but not that. And the second time, Satan said, I'm going to do this to Job and God said, well, I'm going to let you do that, but not that. And what Satan did, of course, is as the story goes, one day Job was standing in his home

and a messenger comes up and says, I was keeping all your cattle. And plunderers came and attacked and took them all and killed the servants and I alone have escaped to tell you. And then a second servant comes running up. And he says, I was with your sheep. And lightning came down from the sky and destroyed all the sheep and all the servants

and I alone have escaped to tell you. And then another comes and says the same thing, roughly the same thing about the camels. And of course this means all of his capital is gone. He's wiped out. He's a poor man. And finally a fourth servant comes and says, I was in the home where all of your children, his grown children were feasting together and a wind came out of the desert and the house

collapsed and all of your children are dead. All ten, seven sons, three daughters. And I alone have escaped to tell you these things. Now the first stroke from Satan, what we're told is Job ripped his clothes, shaved his head, fell to the ground, and said, it says he didn't sin. He says, he says, naked I came and naked I shall return.

The Lord has given. The Lord has taken. Blessed be the name of the Lord. It's pretty remarkable. And at the first stroke, his self-control holds in. And it's tremendous realism to say what he said. He's actually dealing with the issues theologically. He says, naked have I come into the world and naked,

will I go out? Now what is he saying? And then after that, he says, he says, naked have I come into the world and naked will I go out? Now what is he saying? And then after that, he says, he says, let's be reasonable. We all came in here with nothing. Nothing. I mean, nothing, naked, total. Now the thread on us.

He says, well, you know what, we're going to leave that way. All of us. Oh, we try. We put all sorts of things. They crumble. And he says, therefore, everything we have in this life is alone. We came in naked. We came with nothing. Everything is alone. When somebody says, here, you can have my car and three years later they come and say, by the way, I need my

car back. You don't say, why are you doing this to me? You don't say, how could you do this? Well, maybe some of you do, but by and large, most rational people don't. They say, well, it's just an incredible gift that I even have a car. I was naked, I was without a car, somebody gave me a car. Now, you see, you have given and now you've taken away blessed by your name. It's quite good. I mean, it's amazing. And frankly, if that was the last stroke, you know, that could have been the end of the

story. And in some ways, it would have been helpful to us, but not as helpful. Because actually that's a great sermon there, Job 1, and one of these days I'll do it. Job chapter 1, naked I came, naked I go. But then there was a second stroke and Satan attacks them again and God says, I'll let you do this, but not this. And this time he does two things and it's too much for Job. And the first thing he does is he attacks his health,

and we're told, and it's just such great narrative, it's such great storytelling. We're told that he was afflicted with these running sores, and he sat at an ash heap, and he scraped himself with pieces of pot, getting on the pus off, and it says he was afflicted with these sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. But that really wasn't, I don't think, the kicker.

Somebody who, the great theology of naked, I came naked, I go, you know, I think you could have handled it. But then God gave him four terrible counselors. Or is it Satan sent them? And you know, God, I'll let them come. We'll get to that in a second. Four terrible counselors. And actually, there was one in three, Job's wife,

and Job's three friends, Alifaz, Bill Dad, and so far. And on the one hand, it's interesting. You'll see they have two very different and very wrong approaches. On the one hand, Job's wife said, and this was her counsel, Kers God, and die. You see that in Job chapter two, in verse nine, Kerstha and die. And even there, he's still holding on because he says, you're talking like a foolish woman.

It's interesting. I think about that in my, our own marital communication. Notice he doesn't say you are a foolish woman. He says, I've known foolish women and you're acting similarly. He's very, you know, just wonderful. Shrevend is self-control, curse God and die. And on the other hand, Ella Fas build that in so far. Now here's what's interesting.

She says, get up and say, I hate God. But Ella Fas build that in so far, say, get up and say, I hate me. See, they have a totally different approach. She completely blames God and says, God is wicked. You should curse God. You should hate God. Get rid of God.

Curse them and die. Ella Fass, Bill Dean Zofar, they get up. And they say, and I quote, as Ella Fass says, I've never seen an innocent man perish, like you. And what he's saying is, you must be to blame. God wouldn't do this unless you're doing something wrong. Is a terrible thing. He says, you must be to find something that's wrong.

Repent. See, one says, say, I hate God. The other says, say I hate me. One says, blame God. One says, blame you. And Job goes ballistic. And from chapter three, all the way to chapter 30, well, into the 30s for a long time, they go back and forth, he and his miserable counselors. But what Job does is he continually says two things.

He cries out, he yells, he screams, he curses, he says, I curse the day that I was born. And the night they cried, it's a boy. The poetry is astonishing. I curse that day. He says, why didn't I die at birth? Why did those knees receive me? Why did those breasts suckle me?" And he curses the day he was born and he continually goes on and says two things. And those two things are this. First of all he says, I am an innocent sufferer. Again and again he says, I am suffering innocently. I'm righteous. I am a good man. Actually in Job 29, 30 and 31, when he goes through and says the kind of life he's living, it is an astonishing life.

And it's one of the highest, most noble, most complete systems of ethics. You're going to find anywhere in all of literature. It is amazing. He talks about social righteousness and he talks about personal righteousness and sexual righteousness and relational righteousness. It's amazing. He says, I'm a good man. I am an innocent sufferer. And the second thing he says is, God won't talk to me. I've been cut off. There's this one tremendous place where he says, it's in, it's in Job 23, he says, oh, if only I knew where to find him, oh, that I knew where to find him.

If I could just go to his dwelling, I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments, I would find out what he would answer me and consider what he would say. So he says these two things, I'm an innocent suffer and I've been cut off. Finally God shows up. And he shows up in chapter 38, near the end,

and he appears in his great storm and whirlwind. And he answers Job. Now, this is where I had my biggest problem. And I think most people, at least the first time they read what God says to Job, who's suffering terribly and been through hell. And once they know why, why? God shows up and he goes on and on and on and on.

And the thing that amazed me and what troubled me was this, the two things God does not do. And this is where, this is where, I can say his job is a book for adults. First of all, he gives no explanations. No explanations at all. We have a lot of idea about why God is doing what he's doing. I mean, the conversation between God and Satan in the beginning,

and I'll get to that in a second. All the reasons that God does have purposes. God has ways in which he's enriching Job, God has ways in which he's going to hone Job and deepen Job and change Job and make him a person of more useful. God has also had purses purposes, and he doesn't say one thing about it to Job. He's making Job has been asking for chapters

and chapters why and God says not a thing about it. He gives no explanation, and the second thing is he gets from what I can tell, at least when you first read it, absolutely no comfort at all. In fact, God goes relentlessly against Job and he has seems to say one thing over and over and over and over again and Job gets it. Because you see Job says you said who is this? There have never been stronger calls for justice than those we have heard in

recent years. What does the Bible have to say about it and how does God's word help bring about justice? In Tim Keller's book, Generous Justice, you'll discover that the Bible gives us a rich and complex understanding of what justice is and what it means to live it out. The book provides a biblical framework for justice, one that calls every Christian to a life of generous justice fueled by grace. Generous Justice is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the hope of the Gospel with people all over the world. So request your copy today at GospelOnLife.com-slashgive.

That's GospelOnLife.com-slashgive. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. The thing that God says over and over and over again doesn't seem to be an explanation, doesn't seem to be comforted is who are you? Incredible prose, an unbelievable verse with incredible eloquence, but over and over again who are you? For example, here, he says, Job, where were you when I laid the earth's foundations? Where were you when I gave orders to the morning and set the dawn in its place? Surely you were there.

Where were you when I set the doors and bars on the oceans, the vast oceans and said to them, go here but not there? Surely you were there. You're so old, you're so wise. And surely the lightning bolts report to you. They come to you and say, here we are the way they do to me. And then you must send them along as I do. Come, this must be true because you know so much about the course the world should take.

You know, he, that's just first, that's just chapter 38. And God, the first thing that happens is when I didn't go to it here, Job says, he stammer's out a first response and he says, I cover my mouth. I have nothing to say. I don't know how to answer you. And you know what God says? I'm not finished. And then he goes on and he says this in chapter 40, he says, you say I am unjust, must

I be condemned that you be justified? Try your own hand at justice, Job. Look at every proud man and bring him below. Crush the wicked where they stand, bury them in the dust, and then I will admit that your own right hand can save you. Now this doesn't, this never seemed to me, and I, no explanation, no comfort, and yet, the most flabbergasting thing of all is that Job

is utterly changed by it. You see Job says, what does he say? Job says You asked, who is this that obscures knowledge? I spoke of things I did not understand. You said listen now I will speak. I will question you. My ears have heard you. My eyes have seen you I rips, but despise myself and repent and dust and ashes. That turbulence inside Job is put to rest. That anger goes away.

That pride is humbled. And he has changed. And he has satisfied. I think it's so upset me is it seemed like Job. God came and did all the wrong things to Job, and it helped him immeasurably. And then God turns around and says over and over again, my servant Job, you have responded properly. Did you see how many times he said that at the end?

He says, Delephan, my servant Job has spoken rightly. You have not. Go to my servant Job. Make those sacrifices to my servant Job. And my servant Job. Now, what's all this about? What do we really learn? Here's what we learn. There are some

philosophical lessons, which I'll be very brief about. There are some foundational lessons that tell us how we can deal with suffering, and then there's one practical lesson. And here they go. First of all, the philosophical lesson, and here's a lot of people get very amazed at that dialogue between God and Satan. And they really do. They say, how in the world could that be? But if you don't get distracted by the fact that this is a narrative and this is a way for God to get across something, you realize what he's saying? And so you get all, don't get distracted. Some systems say, God is good, but he can't be powerful.

See, he loves us, but he can't be powerful. See, he loves us, but he can't control evil. And other systems say, God does it. He evils part of him. He wills it. He's evil himself. In other words, many people say if he's powerful, he's not good, if he's good, he's not powerful. And God shows you that though it's not that

necessarily easy, he's not trying to answer all the questions. He's trying to show you in this remarkable, early part of the book, that he is both, that on the one hand, nothing comes into Job's life that is not part of God's plan. On the other hand, God controls Satan. He keeps Satan down. It's very clear that suffering and evil

is not God's original design. And yet, on the other hand, he is absolutely in control of everything that comes in. God's original design. And yet on the other hand, he is absolutely in control of everything that comes in. It's astounding. God hates evil. He weeps with those who weep. He didn't design it.

And yet, he never lets anything out of control. He says Satan, you can do that, not that. Because he has purposes for his children when they suffer. That's the philosophical lesson. It's pretty amazing, but here's the foundational lesson. First of all, when you deal with suffering, you ought to listen to God Himself. And this is what God tells you. First of all, he says, don't obscure my counsel without knowledge.

Now this is fairly simple, but this is an adult thing. This is strong medicine. Listen. There is no neutrality when it comes to your life. Either you are competent to judge God's knowledge. You can sit in judgment on Him or else He is superior and competent to sit on you, but there's nothing in the middle. And see God is saying to Job, Job, and one of the reasons why you are in such difficulty is simply because you assume that you can understand all these things.

How could that be, he says? Were you there when I invented the lightning bolt? So they come to you? Were you there when I invented snow? Were you there when I laid the foundations of the earth? Were you there when I said to the dawn, when I said, how in the world do you dare? And see by going after Job in this way, this seems very harsh, but what he's really saying is this is why you're so miserable. He says, be reasonable. There's nothing in the middle. There is no neutrality. Either there is a God and therefore I have to know more than you do about the way things are or they're or you know or you can sit in judgment on me

And you're wise or the mean that's impossible and then of course as you know actually you can go push this even further You can push this even further and say and if there is no God Then what in the world are you complaining about? What the beauty about verse three is, there's a sense in which it's difficult it is to believe in God in the face of suffering. It's more difficult to not believe in God in the face of suffering. Because you see, if there is no God, then there's nothing to complain about.

C.S. Lewis put it a long time ago this way. He says, the ancients approach God or the gods as the accused approach the judge. For the moderns, the rules are reversed. Where the judge God is in the dock. We will be a very reasonable judge if God would simply have a reasonable explanation for why He permits war poverty and disease. We are all ears. We're ready to listen. We will be a very reasonable judge. We might even

be willing to acquit God if the explanation is reasonable, but the point is we start out today assuming that is the order of things. We're on the bench, God is in the dock. Now either we're on the bench and God's in the dock, or we're in the dock and God is on the bench and there's nothing in the middle. If you want to be miserable, put God in the dock. And then how will you answer what he says? You see? There's no God, you have no reason to complain. And if there is a God, how dare you think that you would know better? I mean, it's infallible logic. Is that hard? Yeah, of course it's hard. I can't do that to you if you're sitting in my office and you're crying your eyes out. I can't do that person to person.

You must do it to yourself. You'll hate me for it, but you've got to listen to God. Secondly, the first lesson is, be tough on yourself here. Either there is no God and you can't complain or there is a. And you, your knowledge can't be as good as his, you know, who obscures my counsel with words without knowledge, without sufficient knowledge, without divine knowledge. Secondly, down here, Job says, you said,

listen, and I will speak, I will question you. In the very beginning, this is the dialogue between God and Satan. God says, have you seen my servant Job? There is none like him in all the earth. He fears God and he shuns evil. And this is the question that Satan asks that has haunted me ever since I first realized the question. He says, does Job serve God for nothing? Does Job serve God for not? He says, I'm going to attack him.

And then you'll see he'll curse you to his face. Now, if that's the way the suffering begins, and that's the way it ends, at the end, all God does is over and over and over again say, my servant showed, my servant showed, my servant showed, what is he done? He has defeated Satan. Through suffering,

he has made Job into a servant. Whenever suffering comes, see Satan was partly right. Whenever suffering comes, God is saying to you this, now we'll see whether you got into this religion to get me to serve you or for you to serve me. Until suffering comes, you don't realize that what you're really doing, to some degree all of us, are actually trying to get God to be our servant to get the things we really worship.

And that's the reason why we go ballistic when sometimes those things aren't there. And every piece of suffering, every experience of suffering is about servanthood, servanthood. Every piece of suffering is God's way, the feeding Satan and evil, by getting you to the place where you say, it's not me that should be questioning you. It's not you are not the servant and me, the master.

I should not be snapping my fingers to get you to come see just what Job understands. Rather, I'm the servant and you're the master and that's liberty. I gotta keep running. But most of all, what you have to do in suffering, God says, be tough on yourself. God says, realize this, there is a purpose.

You see, notice that there is an explanation and there is a comfort in here. It's, realize this, there is a purpose. You see, notice that there is an explanation and there is a comfort in here. It's a severe comfort. And it's a severe explanation. But the last thing I'll just say in terms of foundational lessons is this. We need to look beyond. We need to look to the one who Job points to.

Job suffers through his suffering, saving his Satan's defeated, and then God turns around and says, now, Job, I want you to intercede for the people around you. Don't you see who Job is pointing to? Don't you see who everybody in the Bible points to? Don't you see who every Abraham, every Moses points to? Let me give you a quick picture of the real Job.

Remember how Job said, I am the innocent sufferer. I'm an innocent sufferer, no Job. You're not the innocent sufferer. There's only one who God's ever afflicted who didn't deserve it. And remember how Job says, I've been cut off from God, no Job. You don't know what it's like to be cut off from God when you're innocent, when you love them with all your heart.

See, the two things that Job insisted were true of him were not true of him, but they were true as someone who today, if you believe in him. He intercedes with you, you see? He says, you have not spoken what is right. My servant Job has. So, my servant Job will pray for you, and I will hear my prayer, hear his prayer. Jesus Christ will intercede for you, because if you believe in Him, He is the true innocent

sufferer. He's the only one that's been through it, really. He's the one who is really cut off from God. You really aren't cut off from God. It just feels that way. Why? Because you define your relationship with God in terms of whether or not He's serving you. The one who is really cut off from God, you really aren't cut off from God, it just feels that way. Why? Because you define your relationship with God in terms of whether or not he's serving you.

And therefore you have a lousy relationship when he's not coming when you call. It's Jesus who's done that. He is the one. He's the one who's completely been cut off. And it was totally innocent. Now, last of all, here's the most practical thing. What I love, and I always have, and I say it all the time, and some of you have heard me say it, is isn't it amazing

that in the end God says, my servant Job did the right thing. Job had a very lousy day. A day. I mean, he had several lousy days. He cursed the day was born. He accused God of injustice. He ranted and raved. He was filled with self-pity. He was terrible. But here's the thing. And here's the most important thing. He always did it trying to get to God. Oh, that I might find him. He didn't have good motives. He says, oh, if I might find him, I will tell him a thing or two.

But what was he doing? He was talking to God. He was going after God. He found the meaning of suffering because he never stopped praying. He found the meaning of suffering because he never stopped going after God. And you know what in the end, he really didn't find nearly as much

about the meaning of suffering as we. We know far more. See, we know the real innocence sufferer. We know the real intercessor. We know the run who is really cut off. And yet Job got enough. Why? Because he never stopped praying. He never stopped pushing toward God. And that's, isn't it amazing? That is really it. All I can tell you, those of you who are suffering

who are saying, this is tough, this is hard. I have to tell myself these things. I have to look to these things. Where's the explanation? See, where's the reason why? The reason why is you have to see who you are and who he is. The reason why is you have to see that he's the master and you're the servant. The reason is you have to see the one who suffered innocently unlike you. That's the reason.

Stick with him. Pray to him. Go after him. And you will see him. There will be a reality eventually, not a hearing of the ear, but a seeing of the eye. We don't want that kind, I know, of experience of God. And yet, God made him suffer, not that we might not suffer, but that in our suffering, we might become like him.

He fearful saints, fresh courage take. The clouds you so much dread are big with mercy and shall break with blessings on your head. Let's pray. Our Father, we go to the Lord's table and it's hard to do that in some ways after reading something like this.

We would like to be told that everything is going to be fine, that you're going to protect us and you do protect us from Satan, even when you allow things like this to happen. But that, oh Lord, that's hard. It's difficult to see. And in the midst of it, we thank you, Lord, that you honored Job's honest crying out. Some of us are doing that now. You never said, Job, shut up. You listened. And you rebuked. And you embraced. Help us by looking at the greater Job, the true innocent sufferer, our true intercessor, to come to you in our suffering, so that in our suffering we might become like him.

The Lord Jesus, his name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching from Dr. Keller. If you were encouraged by this podcast, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel and Life monthly partner. Your partnership helps more people access resources like this podcast. Just visit GospelUnlife.com slash partner to learn more. This month's sermons were recorded in 1996 and 2009. The sermons and talks who

hear on the Gospel Unlife podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Bredemer Presbyterian Church. Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Brideemer Presbyterian Church.