Dennis Tuuri

Well, that’s a great psalm leading into today’s message. It’s one that I regularly use with people when they have times of distress or trouble or affliction. It really describes two sorts of situations. Those that are out of our control and the second, those that are too difficult for us to attain to in terms of understanding what’s happening. And so in those circumstances, we’re commanded to trust God and to take a hold of ourselves and our soul waiting for God to relieve us.

So, it’s a great psalm. I encourage everyone here to memorize that psalm and to use that psalm when you have difficulties or times of trouble. Today’s sermon is about times of trouble and it’s found in James 5:10 and 11. And this is—we’re going slowly through the concluding section of this epistle from James and we’ll look at verses 10 and 11 with more instruction on what to do in times of difficulty.

James 5:10 and 11. Please stand. “My brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed, we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seeing the end intended by the Lord that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.” Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you that as we come before you today, you remind us that you are compassionate and merciful—things we are apt to forget in difficult times which we all have. Bless us Lord God today with a consideration of the examples you provide to us to encourage us to faithfulness and endurance and patience in our sufferings in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Please be seated.

Couple of weeks ago, I said when we started chapter 5 of James that this sermon would not bring conviction to people because none of us are rich. And here we have the opposite. It’s not going to bring conviction, but it should bring hope. And it should bring hope to every one of us because we all have trials and tribulations, difficulties.

Now, he’s been talking about the difficulties to this community from the opening verses of this epistle and he’s encouraged them in their afflictions to be patient and long-suffering and enduring. And then he’s given us a lot of information as to what that looks like. And so here, as we move to the conclusion of the book, he repeats these same basic messages and sort of sums them up and he gives us a couple of examples.

You know, it’s good for us to have practical examples, illustrations, but better yet—examples. God has made humans, whether we like it or not, and a lot of times people don’t, to be basically imitators. We imitate one another. Now, if that’s all you do, that’s not a good thing. But if you don’t do that or don’t understand that that’s what God calls you to do over and over and over in the Bible, then you’ve kind of missed something fairly important, I think, for your sanctification.

We’ve given sermons about this in the past, but you know, we’re exhorted throughout the New Testament to imitate Jesus or to imitate those who brought us to the faith or to imitate the godly examples of people around us. That’s a good thing to do. We are not BBs. We are leaves on a tree and we flourish in community. He just told us the couple of verses leading up to this that one of the worst things you can do is grumble against your brothers in the church when you have difficult times because it isolates you to get through the struggles and trials. We need community and that community is important for us for giving us examples of what we’re supposed to do.

So he gives us a couple of examples here, the prophets and Job. So what we’ll do is we’ll talk about the again the characteristics that are mentioned here: perseverance, patience, endurance. Then we’ll talk about those two specific examples and kind of the obvious stuff and then maybe a couple of things that aren’t quite so obvious to you. And then we’ll look at the end, the goal of all this. And that goal, the verses tell us, has to do with the compassion and kindness of God to us. So that’s kind of how we’ll approach this.

But we start by thinking of examples. And this is what it will drive us to is to think of examples. Now, in the church, you actually have specific instructions in several places in the New Testament to imitate or to follow the faith of the pastors or elders of the church, right? For instance, in Hebrews 13, we read: “Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow considering the outcome of their conduct. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

Christ mediates his presence to us through people. And one of the groups of people that he does that with—to you—to encourage you in your trials are your elders. Those that speak the word of God to you. The same way the prophets are commended in our text as those who spoke the word of God. They’re to be looked at as examples and you have contemporary people in your midst as well.

As I thought about this, I thought it’s interesting how the Lord God in the last few years has taken the three elders at RCC and made us suffer in differing ways, but very real ways, right? Everybody knows about my health situation and much of my suffering for the last few years has been centered around physical afflictions or difficulties. Doug, on the other hand, he’s suffered pretty much for the last couple of years vocationally. It’s been a real trial for him and that has impact on his money, etc. So that’s a different kind of suffering, very real, very difficult as those of you that have ever gone through vocational problems are aware.

Chris, on the other hand, he suffered I think in terms of his family relationships, right? And most notably recently the death of his father. And so there’s several things that have happened in Chris’s life over the last few years that has to do with family and extended family and it’s been quite a trial on Chris—relationships. So it’s interesting to me that God has in his providence taken the three of us through different sorts of struggles.

And as you look at the three of us, you’re watching men who are enduring, right? I’m not commending us in terms of any great results, but I’m saying that we have endured. We have not given up. We continue to persevere through these various trials. That should be an encouragement to you. And not just an encouragement. You’re supposed to follow our faith, which means our faithfulness, our endurance and perseverance. Even though I’m sure that each of us have sinned in the context of these difficulties and trials, but we’ve endured.

And so, you have these positive examples around you: when you’re sick, me; when you’re going through vocational and money problems, Doug; and then when you’re going through family and friends issues, Chris. You know, it’s—and those are just some examples, but it’s the sort of thing I think that God tells us is quite important to us. He wants us to look at examples around us.

Now, the text tells us that he’s going to give us a couple more examples. You know, misery loves company, right? That’s what they say. And if you look at that from a biblical perspective, misery is helped. You help endure it by knowing other people who are miserable or have been miserable, but persevere in the faith. And so misery loves company—don’t stay in isolation, but be careful the company you keep, right?

That’s the other maxim we can bring to bear on this. So the people you surround yourselves with, particularly when you’re going through trials and afflictions, is quite significant and important for you. They can be a very positive encouragement to you or if you choose the wrong company during those times—and we are likely to do that—to run off to the wrong sorts of people, they’re going to serve as a positive or a negative force on your walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, leading up to these examples, what does he say? He says, “Take the prophets.” We’re going to look at the prophets here in a couple minutes. “Who spoke the name of the Lord as an example of what? Suffering and patience.” So they’re two specific things here. Now, it’s interesting because the suffering word here, this is the only place it’s used in the whole Bible. And in fact, some people think James made the word up. I mean, it’s got a base in other words, but it’s really a combination of two words, which mean the basic meaning of it is you suffer evil.

So evil things happen—not just, you know, difficult things or little trials or little problems. Evil—you suffer evil. And what are these saints doing that he’s writing to? Well, they’re suffering evil—difficulties. There’s evil people that are creating situations for them. They persecute them, drove them out of Jerusalem, and then there’s difficult circumstances.

And so, this word “to suffer” is a unique word, and it draws attention to the sorts of evil that we suffer at the hands of other people. This word “patience” is the word we talked about last week. It’s not the same as at the beginning of James’s epistle. We’ll talk about that in a minute. But here at the end, this word patience means “long-suffering”—so you don’t get angry right away. You know, anger is not always wrong, but it’s wrong to have too quick of anger. This really, you know, tries to keep things calm and not get all boiled up about things when you’re going through various problems. And this can cover not just people, but this can cover also circumstances.

So, what’s happening in these two verses is he’s sort of broadening the afflictions that he began to talk about in the last couple of verses out to include not just difficulties with people, but also difficulties with circumstances. The sort of thing that they would suffer in exile, the sort of thing that fills our lives as well. Both these things fill our lives, right?

We live increasingly—I was talking to a couple of people this week about a particular curse word, but it doesn’t seem to be a curse word anymore. It’s a word that when I was a boy, you would have definitely got your mouth washed out with soap. Nobody used this word. And now everybody uses the word. It’s part of the common jargon. I saw a really good kid have a Facebook post this last week and the site that he was linking to used this word and I thought—that good kid would use this word, but it’s common jargon now.

So we are now in a place in time when evil—and the word in the Bible uses is “kakos,” right? It’s related to “kaka.” You know, it’s not good. Evil is kind of in the world now generally. And hopefully, you know, we’re like Lot whose righteous soul was vexed in these kind of times. Evil is in our face all the time these days. Right now, we live in a time of judgment and that’s what happens. And the other thing that happens is difficulties occur. It comes—it’s more and more difficult to do anything. There’s more and more problems with circumstances. Whether it’s work and the inability to keep up with wages or the increasing inflation in terms of food, you can’t feed your family the way you’d like. Whatever it is, circumstances are also difficult for us.

And this is always true in men’s lives. But it’s particularly true in the context of a group of people rejecting Jesus. And that is what happened to James’s people. And that is the times we’re in as well. So these words suffering and patience really connect this up with the two dimensions that we go through in our lives as well. You know, everybody suffers. You’ve suffered. You’re probably suffering right now, a lot of you. And it’s the degree to which you suffer that changes. And those sufferings usually are related to people and evil in the world or just to difficult circumstances in the other dimension.

And both aspects are included here and we’re told to look to the prophets which we’ll do in a couple of minutes. They had both things going on as well. Then in the next verse he goes to a different word. “Indeed we count them blessed who endure.” Interesting because he connects up blessing here. He’s moving on to Job. But the example of the prophets of course is given to us in the Beatitudes, right? You know, “blessed are you” and “men shall persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you. Why? Well, they did it to the prophets too,” he says.

So the prophets were blessed in spite of the great sufferings they had. And Jesus tells us that to think long term, we have to recognize this is moving us toward blessing. Let me just say something about the long term, too. By the way, in a way, you could subtitle this sermon, “How Not to Be a Secularist.” Sounds weird, I know it sounds weird. You know, we know we don’t like secularism. We like Christianity. We like taking a perspective of life that isn’t devoid of relationship to God.

But do you know what secularism actually is in its etymological root at least and what it really was meant to describe? It describes what some have called “nowism.” The word “secular”—its etymology comes from the moment, from now. It’s really that simple. Secularism only considers the now. It’s all about now. Right now. So if you’re suffering now, you see that’s the important thing. But the Bible says no. God is in control of history and he doesn’t want us to be secularists, only concerned with the moment.

And if you think about it very long, a concern with the moment will lead you in all kinds of bad directions in terms of trying to alleviate your sufferings. But God wants us to be people that are “long line” people, right? I mean, these people are said, consider the example of the prophets and Job. Could you do that? Do you understand the prophets well enough to see how they’re an encouragement to these people? You sort of do. Job—they’re to be conversant with the long line of the Bible that brought them to the place they were and will take them on into the future into the transformation of the age in AD 70 and then ultimately the transformation of the world through the proclamation of the gospel.

We’re long line people. And if you’re going to talk about patience and endurance, you have to have that perspective. So what he says is don’t be a secularist. Don’t be so tied to the moment. You see, be tied to the long line. That’s hard for us as moderns, right? Everything is pop—comes up. If the song’s over 3 minutes, it’s too long. Blah blah. My sermon—if it’s over so much time, it’s too long. We want things short, you know, talks are now 18 minutes at the Q gathering or at TED talks. Short, short, short—blipverts, right? Little shots of information.

That’s because we’re so tied to the moment as we’ve left Jesus. We’ve left the long line of being patient and listening to, for instance, a long piece of classical music that’s complicated. It has several things going on. It’s got a ground bass going through it that leads to a conclusion. We’re not like that anymore. So, you know, this is about how not to be a secularist. And he wants us to consider the examples of the prophets and Job.

And he wants us—have us as a result of this—in the face of evil to be patient, not get angry about every little thing that happens in the moment. And to endure, to stand firm. That’s what the word means, you know, to endure here. And that’s the word that’s used, by the way. It says, “you’ve heard of the perseverance—have heard of the patience of Job.” Bad translation. It’s the same basic word as he just said. He said, “Indeed, we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the endurance of Job.” That would be a better translation. It’s the same word.

What is it? It means to stand firm in the moment because you know what the future is. So we’re prepared for standing firm. You know, being patient, not flaring in anger, but also enduring, right? Standing firm, to be set, to be resolved. You see, we’re prepared by that by the example of Job.

So he gives us these words that are significant that tells us several different dimensions of our response to sufferings and then he says after bringing up Job and he says “you’ve seen the end intended by the Lord that the Lord is compassion, very compassionate, merciful.” So he’s saying that again—long line—there’s an end to this. There’s a culmination. There’s a purpose for the sufferings that you’re going through. There was a purpose for the sufferings of the prophets. There was a purpose for the suffering of Job.

It’s not abstract. It’s not secular. It’s not “nowism.” You’re looking to the purpose. And that gives meaning to your afflictions, meaning to your sufferings. And that helps you to not flare in anger in the face of evil—to endure in following and keeping the faith once delivered—to endure following the Lord Jesus Christ.

So those are the terms, kind of the characteristics that he’s lining out for us. This—let me read a couple of verses. First of all this is sort of tying off this endurance theme where the book began.

Okay. Now I said that last week’s text and the first verse in this text—it’s not the same word as patience as the earlier word but this endurance is—so in James chapter 1 he says he’s writing to the tribes that are dispersed who are in difficulty, trouble and trial, right. And he says: “This my brethren count it all joy when you fall into various trials. It’s the same message, right? Count it joy knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience—while endurance is what the word is there. The testing of your faith produces endurance.”

Okay? And then he says: “Let endurance have the perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Okay. So now we’re back to the original purpose of the beginning of this epistle. We’ve got the bookends established, and the bookends are endurance. The bookends are staying resolved to be Christians and to see a long line and not in the moment become secular—tied completely to the moment here now.

And what he says is the end result of this: “If any of you will lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives liberally and without reproach, he will give it to him.” So if we endure, God will give us things. Okay? And to endure, we seek the wisdom of God and he gives it to us. So endurance is kind of the bookends of this. And the reason why specifically we’re given the example of James—or I’m excuse me—of Job specifically.

Let me read a few verses that exhort us to endurance. And it just means to remain set, resolved in place. Okay, here’s what Matthew 24 says: “He who endures to the end shall be saved.” Okay? Spend a couple weeks sermon on this one text. But what it says quite clearly is that you know the idea that we’re once saved always saved has to be qualified. Has to be qualified because here it says “he who endures to the end shall be saved.”

Nowism is apostasy. In other words, to fail to endure is apostasy from the faith. And let not that man feel that he somehow has eternal security just because he happened to pound a stake in his backyard in a day when he prayed to Jesus. This tells us very clearly, you must endure to the end to be saved. Mark 13 says the same thing: “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. He who endures to the end shall be saved.” Okay, so endurance is a necessary requirement. It’s going to help you in troubles. It’s what you’re supposed to do in times of troubles, but it’s actually tied to your very salvation—to endure, to keep the faith. Okay? To look at the examples of people around you—pastors, the prophets, Job—what’s at stake is your eternal destiny. From this perspective at least, endurance is what it’s all about.

2 Timothy 2:10 Paul tells us why he endured and it wasn’t for that reason—it wasn’t for himself. Listen what he says: “Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” Why do we endure? Well, ultimately it’s not a selfish purpose for our own salvation. Our endurance hopefully is for the sake of other people. That’s why Paul endures.

So the endurance is a “discipleship of Jesus Christ for the well-being of other people,” right? That’s what it seems to say here. And listen, 2 Timothy 2 says there is a personal goal or personal result. “If we endure we shall also reign with him.” So if you endure, reign with Jesus. We read this verse last week. Hebrews 12:2. “We’re to look to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

So Jesus is the ultimate example of endurance—to death, the shedding of blood. And he does it for the joy that was set before him. And if we tie that in with what Paul said, part of that joy that’s set before him is you, your salvation. Jesus’s endurance was for the sake of the elect. He is joyful over your participation in the life of the gospel. He delights in you and because of you, he endures the cross. Okay?

And he sat down with the father on high. He directs all things as a result of his endurance, of his endurance. And he’s given as an example. Consider him, look at him as an example. We’re told in Hebrews 12:3: “Who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged by your souls.”

See? So endurance and those that have endured—whether it’s your pastors, Job, the prophets, ultimately Jesus—this allows you to continue to be faithful and endure yourself. Hebrews 12:7: “If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten him.” So here, see, it isn’t just you have to endure because those people out there are bad. You’re enduring because God is actually doing something with you through the trials and afflictions that you’re going through.

It’s part of the way the Lord raises you, matures you, makes you better. So you endure them. You endure them for many years in the case of, you know, the prophets, for instance, or others. So you—”Blessed is the man, James 1:12, is the man that endures temptation. For when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him.”

Ultimately, endurance is a demonstration of our love for Christ, a trust in him, not being seduced by nowism. And we’re promised then we get the crown of life. Jesus endured and reigns. We endure and receive the crown of life. We reign. The prophets brought in a new world. Job endured and was blessed. So the plain picture here is that kind of endurance. Okay.

Let’s talk about the prophets and Job. The prophets and Job.

So they’re supposed to know their Bibles. They’re supposed to have gone to Sunday school. They’re supposed to have gone to synagogue school, whatever it was. And they know the prophets. Well, we know something about the prophets, of course, but I don’t think we necessarily keep in mind what the meaning of the prophets was. Now we know that in the New Testament, Hebrews 11:32 tells us that they had all kinds of difficulties and trials, right?

“Others had trials of mockings and scourging. Yes. And of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy.” So, so we know generally that the prophets didn’t have good times. We know that they were enduring the kinds of afflictions and trials and troubles that most of us are never really called to endure. And so, first of all, when we compare ourselves to the prophets, when we consider their example, okay, so we go through difficult times, but they went through tougher times.

That’s that’s valuable in terms of a consideration of the prophets. And that’s exactly what the author of Hebrews says. He says, well, if we look at all this, then let us run with endurance. He goes on to say in the next couple of verses: “Let us run with endurance the race that’s been set before us looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of the cross who for the joy was before him endured the cross.”

See? You know, this is the example ultimately culminating in Jesus. So we know that about the prophets. We know that they had difficult lives and they endured to the end and we know generally that sort of stuff. But you know, I’ve not studied all of the prophets but I’ve studied enough to know a little bit more than just that. And you should know I’ve preached sermons on Isaiah. I’ve taught it in the Sunday school classes, written curriculum.

What’s Isaiah about? Actually, what are all the prophets about? Are they moral encouragers? They’re just trying to encourage Israel to be better. I don’t think so. The prophets, you know, God told Jeremiah, “I’ve appointed you to tear down and to build, and not just you—the nations and Israel. You’re going to tear down and build the nations and Israel.” He tells Jeremiah in chapter one. If you read the story of Isaiah, what does he tell Isaiah? “I’m going to send you to a people and they’re not going to hear you. They’re not going to listen. You are going to go for me to a people who will not listen.”

Okay. Jeremiah, you’re going to tear down the nation. Your job is not to call them to moral reformation and salvation. Your job is to announce to them death. The message of the prophets is overwhelmingly an announcement of death to a nation—to two nations, Israel and Judah—who had forsaken God and who had committed great evil. And the answer is death. That’s not where it stops, though.

If you look at Isaiah, it’s it’s so radical the shift in Isaiah. People have thought, well, maybe there’s two different guys that wrote this book because the message is quite different. After chapter 39. In chapter 40, you know, “comfort, comfort my people.” And 39 is all about “we’re going into captivity, boys. We’re going to be hauled away.” The change is so radical in subject matter and in tone. People say, “Well, there must be two Isaiah.” No, there’s not two Isaiah, but there’s two messages.

He announces death in chapters 1 to 39. Staved off for a while with Hezekiah’s prayer in the temple, but death is coming. But he also announces resurrection—life is coming. He says there’ll be an end to the exile. You’re dying. You’re going to be taken away. You’re going to go into exile, but you’ll come back from exile. Through that death, at the end of that death, there’ll be a resurrection into the land. He says that’s the message of Isaiah.

And Jeremiah isn’t appointed just to tear down. He’s appointed to build up. He’s going to uproot things and he’s going to plant. Okay? Now, Jeremiah had a particularly difficult calling. God says, “Well, Jeremiah, here’s the deal. Nebuchadnezzar is coming, and I want you to tell my people when he comes, give up. Just give up. Don’t fight him.”

And then after he takes you into captivity, then I want you to tell my people, don’t try to get home. Just stay where you’re at. Seek the peace of the place where God has planted you. Eventually, I’ll bring you home, but not in the short term. You’re there for a long time. Just hang out and be faithful witnesses to me. Jeremiah’s like, “Hey, you know, if I tell them those things, particularly the first message, they’re going to say I’m a traitor. They’re going to say Nebuchadnezzar is paying me.”

And they did. They did think that. They did throw him in a pit, you know, he got beaten. I mean, he was just totally persecuted because of that message, right? And Isaiah’s like, “Okay, so I’m going to tell people that they should follow God and they’re not going to follow you. And so they’re going to die. That’s what I’m supposed to tell.” Yeah, that’s it. God says, “Just do that thing.”

Hosea’s given a tougher task, right? I want you to know what it’s like to have an unfaithful wife. So marry this woman. She’s going to be a prostitute. And that’s you’ll know how I feel about what Israel is doing to me and why judgment is absolutely coming. Why the message is death.

But then on the other side of death, there’s always in the prophets a message that through the death there’ll be resurrection on the other side. So the prophets had a tough message and that’s true. They suffered. They’re an example to us. That’s true. But they’re an example of the long line, a line that they didn’t know what it would terminate in ultimately. They were really proclaiming or prophesying the coming of Jesus Christ, the death and resurrection of the true Israel, the lion of Judah, right? Ultimately, they were picturing that, but there was real death and resurrection for the people.

Okay? And they didn’t, you know, they couldn’t see all of that. They just knew kind of what they were supposed to do the next thing and point out where we’re going here. And so, the prophets are this example to us—not just because we’re supposed to suffer when bad things happen for doing what’s right in the abstract. And as a secularist would suffer, just in the moment, I’m feeling bad. This is hard. I’ll be like, the prophets will just tough it out. No, the prophets could tough it out because they knew—didn’t know the details, but they knew that in addition to death, they were proclaiming resurrection.

We don’t serve a God who just calls you to suffer passively in the present, but he launched a place before you the long line of where we’re going here—that the death is unto resurrection. Okay? So, the prophets are an example of that. They’re an example really ultimately of creation and recreation, right? Death is coming. That’s when everything falls apart. Your body falls apart. Then you return to the dust and then new Israel comes up and goes back into the land because of the suffering servant Jesus who died for our sake.

So ultimately the prophets are a picture not just of suffering as a secularist would suffer with some sort of vague hope about eternity, but the prophets are messengers of death and of resurrection. And so when he tells when he tells these Jacobean churches—the churches that James, whose name actually is Jacob, plants—he’s telling those churches, look, remember what the prophets were about? Yeah, they were about death, but unto resurrection. Do you know what you’re going through? You’re going through death. Yeah, but there’s hope at the other end.

And in fact, here in shortly, the judge is at the door. Judgment will happen. Jerusalem will fall. You’ll be vindicated, right? Now, “shortly” meant 30 years, 30, 40 years, something like this. So, you know, again, we’re not secularists. “Shortly” doesn’t mean tomorrow. Sometimes it does. But that’s what the message of the prophets is. The prophets are an example of not flaring up in anger over things and of dealing with evil by looking to the long line of what God is accomplishing, not to the ultimate distant return of Jesus ultimately but actually that God in history is changing things and vindicating his people.

Now this is the same message as Job is, right? I mean, maybe we don’t quite understand the Job thing but again he tells them look at Job as an example of endurance. Well who’s Job? Well we know he’s a guy who suffered. In fact he seems to be—if you think about it—probably the guy that’s you know apart from Jesus taking our sins on the cross. He probably suffered more than anybody else, right?

He had evil people. He was dealing with—these other country comes in, invades his country, kills his children, takes his crops. And in fact, if you look at other texts from the book of Job, the devastation is not limited to Job. He’s a story that’s really a part for the whole—the whole kingdom over which he probably ruled was being shaken by an invading force. ISIS was in, right? And so he was he was losing and he was losing so bad that he couldn’t even protect his own children, his own crops, his own servants.

And so that’s the kind of thing Job goes through. So he’s got evil going on, the effects of evil, you know, food shortages, blah blah. He’s got his three mighty men—his three chief guys in the kingdom—they’re now coming as adversaries. They’re little Satans coming to accuse him that all this is because of his sin, which of course we know from the beginning of the book is completely untrue. But he’s got adversaries that he needs vindication from, right? He’s got accusers. His own wife, you know, tells him, you know, give it up, man. Just curse God and die. And he’s got physical stuff, right?

So, I mean, if you think about it—Doug, Dennis—he’s got it all together, all wrapped up in one package, that kind of suffering. And he’s given us an example of endurance. Now, what kind of endurance does Job have? Well, he just sits there. He doesn’t ever get upset about things. He passively submits to God. He endures because he knows that God is good. Is that the message? No, it’s not the message.

In fact, it’s so much not the message. Do you know what some commentators say? They say, “Well, how would—why would James give—and these are good men, by the way, good commentators. Why would God give—why would James use an example of Job?” So, all he did was grumble about things. Grumbled through the whole dark book. And he grumbled pretty loud and boisterously to God.

He can’t be the example of the sort of thing James is talking about. And in fact, they say, “Well, you know, probably what it was, you know, James wasn’t really using the biblical account of Job.” Well, he was. But there were other books about Job. And these other books said, well, actually, Job wasn’t the one who said all that grumbling stuff that’s recorded in the book of Job. You know who it was? Books were written by men. You know who it was. It was all Job’s wife. Job didn’t complain. All that stuff it says about Job. Actually, he’s just taking the blame for his wife.

It was his wife who was doing all the complaining, right? Sorry, women. That’s just who we are in a fallen state. I mean, they actually say this—that the only way you can use Job as an example is if Job didn’t do the things that the Bible clearly says he did. And so that’s one way to look at it, right? But it’s not very satisfactory. If we’re to know the story of Job, we want to use the inherent account of God’s word.

What’s the other way to look at it? Well, maybe we’ve got the idea of endurance a little bit goofed up, right? Maybe we have a Greek view of suffering and endurance where we’re, you know, well, this is just the body. The body’s not important. The body is something we want to get out of anyway. It’s good that God tears it down because it’s lousy and I really want to be a Buddhist anyway and just can have thoughts, pure thought, and realize this body is my problem, right?

I’m a good Greek. I’m a good Buddhist. I’m a good Christian who was birthed in the context of Greek philosophy and culture. You know, I don’t do all those things that people do with their bodies. I’m abstracted away from reality. And when I suffer, it’s the same way. I just suffer stoically, right? I don’t necessarily smile, but I certainly don’t frown. I’m just passive about the whole thing. You know, I am the Buddha. So, so maybe that’s kind of the impression you get. That’s why these commentators have problems with Job.

But, but if we let the story of Job be the example that it is to us about endurance. What does it tell us? What does it tell this church that he’s writing to? I know things are really tough. And you know what? It’s okay to talk loudly to God and do some complaining as it were—to say, “Hey man, I don’t get this. This hurts like heck. This is really tough. I do not understand it. It’s not.” Now we’ve got these guys accusing me. They’re trying to destroy the kingdom or take my kingship away.

By the way, when I say Job was a king, I’m pretty sure of that. And the reason why is that at the end of the book of Job in the Septuagint version. Okay. So, what’s the Septuagint? Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Old Testament text. It was produced in 2nd or 3rd century BC—230 years before Jesus. And at the end the book of Job, it adds a description of who this guy was. And so it’s not the inspired text of scripture, although if you’re Eastern Orthodox, I think they sort of think it is, but it’s not the inspired text of scripture. But it’s an attempt to maintain the oral tradition of knowledge.

So that Job’s identification, which is quite tricky if you just use what’s in the book itself—it’s possible to know the places, know that this was an Edomite area, etc. But they clear all that up because at the end of the Septuagint they put a little paragraph and they say well this guy Job—he’s actually the same as Jobab—he was a descendant of this guy who was a descendant of Esau and he was a king in this country, okay? So they actually tell us that Job was an Edomite king and his name is actually a shortened form of Jobab. And if you go to Genesis where it lists the descendants of Esau it lists the kings that were Edomite kings and Jobab is one of those guys.

So I’m pretty sure that’s who Job is. It’s not inspired. I can’t, you know, stake my claim on it, but it is history, oral history recorded for us to help us to understand the story. So he’s a king. The three guys are probably his mighty men. They want to take it over. They’re driven by envy.

So now the attack comes. They lose confidence in the king. They inspire a lack of confidence in others. Everybody who had treated him as a king before. It’s what he says in the in this actual book of Job. When I walked by, I was treated like a king—the way you treat a king—probably because he was the king. And now they sneer at him and spit at him. Blah blah. So the whole country has turned against him because they’re evaluating things secularly, right? They’re secularists in the moment. He seems to be losing. And we’re not thinking about the long line of this thing.

Okay? And so this is who Job is. And so a lot of Christians are sort of like the miserable comforters. Not totally, but we sort of think, well, you know, he sins in the book, he complains, so just shows his real character. But that’s not the point at all, right? God tells us what the point is. Job is perfect. Job is a great guy. Job is an excellent king at the beginning of the book.

He’s so good that God puts him up against whatever Satan can throw at him. And at the end of the book, he doesn’t just restore Job to what he had before or a little less or whatever. No, he’s given more blessings, right? His amount of sheep and holdings are more, his blessings are more. Same number of sons and daughters, but we’re told explicitly these are the most beautiful women in the world. Okay? So, even his children seem to go from glory to glory, right?

And what’s happening in the book of Job is first of all, he’s giving us an understanding of how we’re supposed to endure. And it doesn’t mean passionless. Job is extremely passionate about what he goes through. He articulates his passions to God. He articulates his passions to his friends. You know, I—he may have sinned some. He seems to have repented at the end of the book, but I don’t think most of what goes on in the book of Job is sin. It’s the way we’re supposed to suffer.

We suffer knowing that life is real. The problems we go through are real. The pain is real. The difficulties are real and they hurt like heck. Whether it’s physically, culturally, socially—Job goes through it all. Friends and relationships, vocation, everything’s destroyed that he has. Health gone. And through it all, what does he do? He endures. He keeps the faith. He doesn’t say, “I don’t believe in God. I’m not going to curse God and die.” He does absolutely the opposite.

Oh, he struggles with God and he prays prayers that we may be a little uncomfortable praying, but maybe we shouldn’t be. That’s the point. Job is an example of how you do this. And you don’t do it as a secularist—in the moment, just thinking it all doesn’t mean anything. It’s all okay ’cause God’s in control somehow. No, it’s not okay. Job wants vindication. He is passionate about it. And you know what? God gives him just that. When God comes at the end, that’s what Job always wanted—was to see God and to talk to him.

When that happens, God declares his verdict. These so-called friends, your counselors, your comforters, they’re of no comfort. They’re useless. They have sinned. They don’t know what they’re now. They’re quoting proverbs a lot of the times. You ever have, you know, people do this? You know, this is what these guys do. You read what the comforters say and you think, well, I know the Bible tells you they’re bad guys, but gee, a lot of what they say seems awful right.

Well, it is right, but Proverbs is not law. It’s wisdom. It applies in particular situations. So, they’re quoting or alluding to real wisdom from the Proverbs and they’re completely misapplying it in the case of Job. Okay? And Job receives vindication from that. When we endure, we want to be vindicated and we want our enemies to either convert or have temporal judgments brought upon them at some point in time. And God says, “Amen. You want that because that’s what I want.”

And you know what? It’s going to happen. So keep constant. Endure because just like Job and just like the prophets, death and resurrection are what are coming for your opponents. And actually, it’s coming for you. Job was a great king, a perfect man, right? Not perfect in the sense of completely perfect, but I mean, he was mature. But you know what? The Bible makes it quite clear that the arc of his character is he’s more mature at the end. He’s a better king at the end. He’s more blessed by God at the end. He goes from glory to glory is what Job does.

And that’s what God says to us. You’re going through troubles, trials, tribulations, difficulties. Don’t think you’re just supposed to smile and grin and bear it. That is not what you do as a Christian. What you do as a Christian is you suffer. And but you don’t leave the faith. Yeah, wrestle with God. You know, Jacob is James. James is Jacob. And there’s a lot of interesting correlations between Jacob and Job—with three adversaries, etc.

And Jacob is another example. He’s not passive in reference to God. He’s wrestling with God at the brook. And God is teaching him, “Jacob, you’ve been wrestling with me even in the midst of people that act in a very ungodly way—your dad and your brother, or maybe a guy who is ungodly, a guy who is ungodly, Laban. But you’ve been wrestling with me. I am sovereign. I’m in control of all this stuff.”

And when you suffer, wrestle, wrestle in prayer. Wrestle in your discussions with God. Don’t receive, you know, just abstract advice from people and just sort of take it. Look, the Lord God wants you passionate in your endurance and he wants you looking to temporal blessings—in the short term or not short term from our perspective but short term this side of eternity—okay. All these examples—whether it’s Jesus or the prophets or Job—these are people that are vindicated in time and history.

That people are taken into Babylon and then the people come back out the world is reborn through all of that and Jacob—or Jeremiah—he’s uprooted not just Israel but the nations and the nations are changed as a result of what happens in time in history. Okay? And Job in time is restored. And these are examples to us of how we’re supposed to be patient and not flare out in anger, but also how we’re to be enduring properly.

And that endurance is based upon a passionate relationship to God in prayer as Job shows us—and a hope for vindication—which we’re told we should never hope for as Christians. But that’s what it is. Vindication from our enemies and that this vindication will happen in time in history. That’s how Job does it. That’s how we’re supposed to do it. I think the example of Job is just that. Just read the beginning of the book and the end of the book and the whole thing’s there, right? From glory to glory. Job’s story.

Why is this? What’s the end, the telos of all this? Boy, I’m going a little long. Sorry. Please forgive me.

What’s the telos in verse 11? “Telos” means “end.” Teleology is the study of why a thing happens the way it does toward a particular end. It says “you’ve seen the end intended by the Lord. That the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.” Those are two different phrases. What’s the end intended by the Lord? Maturation. Going from glory to glory. Vindication, blessing, positive movement in time and space. That’s the end of all this stuff.

The end of the sufferings is a new world, new Israel, new nations. In Isaiah’s time, the end is the glorification of Job. He becomes a better king with more influence and more blessings from God. The end of what you’re going through, Jacob tells these people, is the same end that I had. I went through all these troubles and then I was named the one who is ruled by God and who rules for God. I become seated with Christ in the heavenlies while on this earth doing my job. That’s the end. That’s the end that happened with Jesus and that’s our end as we remain faithful and have endurance in the midst of our trials.

Let me close with a couple of verses here and you know these—you know these verses. But you know the end is that—and the end is a complete affirmation that God is compassionate and kind—compassionate and kind or merciful. He’s compassionate and merciful. Compassionate means he has absolute empathy for what you’re going through. He has bowels of mercy magnified by, you know, a factor of a thousand or whatever it is.

Cast your cares upon him. He cares for you. Not like the way you care for somebody, but magnify the care that you have, which is a good care, a good sympathy for people, empathy with them. Magnify that by a thousand. You won’t even get close to who God is. He is that kind of love for you and compassion to you and he is absolutely merciful.

At the end of the story here, we’re said we’re told, look, the ultimate reason why you endure is a knowledge that God is good. He loves you. And he loves you more than you love yourself. And he has more wisdom than you do. And he has more control than you do. And that’s why your life isn’t how you want it. Because he’s got better things for you planned than what you’ve got planned.

Let me read a couple of verses here. You and you know these things, right? In Acts 2:23: “Him Jesus being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands and you have crucified and you have put him to death.” What’s the point? God’s sovereign. That’s the point. The worst thing that ever happened in history. Far worse than Hitler. Okay. They crucified the Son of Glory. The God who had created them and was in the process of loving them. They crucified him.

But what was behind it? The eternal decree of God, the predetermined foreknowledge of God brought that event to pass. Okay? God is most sovereign. Most sovereign. But that sovereignty has a purpose. You’ve heard me read this verse before. As for you, Joseph tells his brothers, “You meant evil against me, but God intended it for good.” Period. Okay.

And you’ve heard me talk about this. You know, evil men do things, but God intends it for good. Well, that’s good. But that’s not the end of the verses. It turns out in order—telos—the conclusion, the purpose of this: “in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.” Why did God do this? Because he has a lot bigger concerns about the universe than you or I do. And our little lives—they’re not unimportant, but they’re part of a process where God is bringing many people to life.

He used Joseph to feed the world. He used the his wisdom flowing through Joseph to prevent global starvation at the time or at least that part of the world. God’s yeah, God intends it for good, even the evil of men. Just like he determined, predetermined foreknowledge of God, Jesus is crucified. But don’t stop there. Why? Because he’s saving the world, right? He’s got bigger purposes. How does your suffering relate to that? I don’t know the specifics, the details, but I know those are the big picture that God sets before us.

The end of the matter is to recognize the compassion and mercy of God, not just toward you, but to the world. He’s doing big things, and we’re part of those big things in our tiny little sufferings. Okay. How about this verse? Psalm 62. “God has spoken once, twice, I have heard says, ‘The power belongs to God. Also to you, oh Lord, belongs mercy or loving kindness. For you render to each one according to his works.’”

What are the two things? Power, sovereignty, but also belonging to God, compassion, mercifulness, love, kindness. Those are the two things together. And his sovereignty brings us into difficulties, trials, and afflictions even from evil people. But God is behind it all. And God is not just sovereign. God is good. God is good. So the purpose of all this is your well-being. And so we’re not secularists because God tells us that he’s sovereign and he’s good and he’s loving and he wants us to realize that. He wants us to claim that.

Let me one last set of scriptures. Psalm 37:1-6. “Do not fret because of evildoers. They’re there. Don’t fret. Do not be envious of the workers of iniquity. Why? For they shall soon be cut down like the grass. Vindication is coming. Change history is changing and winter—and wither rather like the green herb.”

And then a command. This is a command. “Trust in the Lord.” He says next. “Do good. Don’t flirt up in evil. Don’t be a zealot in the bad sense of the term. Don’t forsake the faith and just go after money and comfort in this life. Don’t be a secularist. He says, ‘Do good. Dwell in the land. Feed on his faithfulness.’”

When you can’t feed on good food, feed on the faithfulness of God. “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart.” That’s the context. We know that verse. We take it out of context. Delight in the Lord, he’ll give you the desires of your heart. Great. Well, what happens when troubles come? Well, that’s the specific thing he’s talking about. He’s saying it’s when troubles come, that you’re supposed to remember to endure, to trust in the Lord.

He’s commanding you, right? It’s a choice you’ve get to make. And in that choice, he lays before you that if you do that, then he gives you the desires of your heart, right? “Commit your way to the Lord. Another command. Trust also in him. Third time. And he shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noon day”—your vindication, the justice of God.

The purpose of today’s verses is to trust in the common events of life. You become blessed. Who becomes blessed in the kingdom of God? Somebody that does a great thing that produces some great product—that gets up and preaches a great sermon? No. It’s people who simply endure when the problems and the difficulties that come upon you.

These are the greatest blessed people in the kingdom. Simple. Small acts in our lives—the things we do tomorrow morning when we get up and bad things are happening—doesn’t mean passionless. We passionately cry out to God but recognize that your justice is coming. He’ll give you the desires of your heart. He wants you in the midst of that to trust him. He’s given you all of history so that you’ll know—your history—that your long line is one in which the justice and mercy of God will surely come to you as came to the prophets and to Job and ultimately to the resurrection and ascension of our Savior.

Let’s pray. Father, help us today as we come forward giving our tithes and offerings to you to offer ourselves. Help us to forsake Greek notions of passivity in times of suffering. Help us, Lord God, to be passionate people who look for your actions in history. Help us not to be so self-centered that we can’t see, as Joseph saw, that you are bringing many people to life even through the evil doing of his brother.

Bless us, Lord God, with that long line. Help us not to be secular, tied to the moment, and to dwell in the moment and how we’re feeling right now. But help us to trust, to endure, to be faithful, recognizing that as we’re faithful, Lord God, and as we obey your commands, to trust, to delight ourselves in you, and to see your hand at work in all things, we know, Lord God, that things will change in our life and in this world.

Bless us as we come forward then as we make new commitments to you to trust you in our difficulties in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.