Dark Nights of the Soul - Job 19:1-7, 23-29

Dark Nights of the Soul

Job 19:1-7, 23-29

Lesson Setting

Not surprising, a scholarly debate endures about dating this most important book of the Bible.  Adherents to the school of higher biblical criticism posit the book was written years after the patriarchal period coinciding with the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  In contrast, scholars who favor an inerrant perspective on scripture argue internal evidence in the book suggests that Job lived one hundred and forty-two (142) years following his return to prosperity and restoration to health (Job 42:16).  Were his life to span hundreds of years, then he most appropriately lived during a historical period similar to the longevity of the patriarchs.

Lesson Outline

I.                 Job 19:1-4 – Shameless and Pious Attacks

II.            Job 19:5-7 – “God has wronged me”

III.        Job 19:23-24 – “Oh, that my words were recorded!”

IV.        Job 19-25-27 – A Grand Statement of Faith

Unifying Principle

Even when people admit their shortcomings, they are often ostracized by others and receive no justice.  Where can they get strength and reassurance?  Job and the Psalter proclaim – no matter what happens – God, the Redeemer, lives and constantly send forth steadfast love to all people.

Introduction

Who demonstrates greater faith, Abraham or Job?  Known as the “Father of faith” and the recipient of the covenant with Israel (Genesis 12), Abraham trusts Almighty God four hundred and fifty years before the Law is written down and obeys His will by relinquishing a pagan and polytheistic lifestyle.  As a result, God pledges forever faithfully to provide and protect Abraham and his descendants who will equate the number of stars in the night sky and grains of sand on the seashore.  Abraham’s simple yet significant act of faith resembles the dawn of the creation.  His trust and obedience yields the great religion of Judaism inclusive of monotheism, the Law, the Prophets and the blessings of the Covenant for anyone who believes and obeys.  In the “fullness of time,” Abraham’s obedience yields the “New Covenant” of God’s gift of salvation to humankind through the shed blood and atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  Within good and challenges times, Abraham maintains an unwavering faith in God.  Even as Abraham waits patiently for an heir, Isaac, he does not waver in faith but believes God is indeed able to fulfill the promise of a son.  Scripture and history greatly applauds Abraham for his faith.  We admire the blessings he receives as a consequence of his belief in the One, True God, Creator of the Universe.

In stark contrast, Job begins life as a very wealthy man until the Lord permits a major faith crisis in Job’s life.  With the colossal lost of his ten children and entire fortune inclusive of all financial acquisitions, material wealth and real estate.  The question arises as to whether Job will persevere in faith in God considering the depth of agony and lost.  Strikingly, Job articulates a genuine faith that seems to surpass his religiosity and ritualism prior to the devastation of his life.  Job personalizes the dark night of the soul.  What do we do in the midst of a faith crisis and it feels as if God abandons us to our dreadful circumstances?  Job’s example teaches us the necessity of steadfastness and meekness regardless of daily challenges. 

Recently, I read an amazingly quote.  “The young, new and innovative Christians of today will become the Pharisees of the next generation.”  As traditions solidify in thinking and practice, people rely more considerably upon their longstanding rituals, creeds, doctrines and customs than they do the Word of God and the vibrancy of the Holy Spirit.  Initially, the Pharisees prioritized the Law as a means of understanding God’s holiness and righteousness.  They taught Israel and Judah to obey the Law as the surest method of rightly relating themselves to God.  In time, their commentary on the Law, the Talmud, and their lengthier expository notes, the Midrash, superseded the actual Law itself not to mention God’s holy character and presence.  The Pharisees began to impose a yoke of slavery upon the people as they demanded greater allegiance to their interpretations and commentary than the Law itself.  When the Lord appears on the scene proclaiming the “New Law of Love” in a simplistic yet significant manner enabling the common person to grasp the message of the Father’s love, the Pharisees forcefully fight Him and seek His death and destruction.  Job’s friends resemble the Pharisees as they do not understand how a man can remain steadfastly righteous and experience the wholesale loss of wealth, health and good fortune that Job does.  Job demonstrates that righteousness does not exempt believing disciples from hardships and tribulations.

In this week’s lesson, we explore several key aspects of faith from Job’s perspective, a devout and God-fearing man who loses all of his children, his health and every material possession he owns in a very short period time.  Job aids us in developing compassion and sensitivity towards persons who feel “God has wronged me.”  How do we encourage fellow disciples who resolve “there is no justice” in faithfully serving Almighty God?  He permits tragedy and colossal loss to befall his righteous sons and daughters?  What difference does it make to devote your life to His service if He fails to protect and shield you from such danger?  Perhaps, God utilizes pain and misfortune to burn the dross of hidden sin, pride, arrogance and self-righteousness in the character of sons like Job.  His friends certainly offer this idea as a valid explanation for the sudden, unexpected albeit seemingly unfair turn of events in Job’s life.  Let’s explore in great detail Job’s reply to his friends who also are his main accusers. 

Still, Job exemplifies an unwavering belief in God’s redemption power specifically as it relates to his suffering.  How is it possible for Job to affirm boldly, defiantly and proactively, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last He will stand upon the earth?”  Job’s example proves God’s unfailing love for disciples who suffer much without yielding to the temptation of abandoning the faith.  Job’s life acknowledges the myriad and mysterious ways in which God demonstrates His patience and love and blesses His hurting children in times of trouble.  This most significant book of the Bible is a missionary text that informs readers that the Redeemer lives regardless of the circumstances of their lives.

Exposition

Point I – Job 19:1-4 – Shameless and Pious Attacks

With friends like Job’s, who needs enemies?  If your friends vociferously criticize you, do you need the scorn of adversaries?  Job’s friends who visit to comfort him actually spew forth incessant sanctimonious and pious accusations.  Convinced Job is hiding some deep unconfessed sin, they forthrightly recommend that he admit what he has been doing.  “He needs to come clean.”  Allowing Job repents and reveals his previously undisclosed sin, his dire circumstances will reverse.  As Job insists he has not done anything wrong and his previous blessings were divine rewards for his obedience and faithfulness, his friends contend he is being defiant.  They straightforwardly indict Job’s claims to righteousness.  Ironically, they hear of his misfortune and come to support him but in so doing they forcefully accuse him of hypocrisy and arrogance.  Imagine Job’s predicament as his friends “console” him with such character assassination.

Job’s friends raise a prevalent and troubling theological issue in many church circles.  What if any correlation exists between physical illness and disease and sin and rebellion?  Is sickness a matter of reaping what a person has shown?  A clergy colleague of mine shares a story of a startling hospital visit to a stalwart member of his church in which he finds another congregant severely castigating the patient.  As he enters the room, he overhears these words, “You’ve fooled all of us for a long time.  The devil has got you now as you deserve to be sick like you are.  You are finally getting what was coming to you.”  Regrettably, those frightening words of that parishioner are held sacrosanct by countless disciples.  Possibly, Job’s friends would agree readily with that idea.  Nevertheless, this prominent church teaching that God uses sickness, diseases and financial misfortune to punish sin rests upon a few very faulty premises which negate the biblically revealed character of Almighty God.  If human sin necessarily yields illness and disease, then human choices actually limit God’s abilities and redefine His sovereign prerogative.  Additionally, this idea concludes sadistic impulses lie in the character of God.  As the all-kind Heavenly Father, God does not visit pain, punishment and judgment upon humankind with any gleefulness.  His mercy actually withholds His justice and punishment.  Whereas He permits us to face the consequences of our choices, He still redeems our pain and leads us toward a greater purpose in living as a result of our mistakes.  He does not delight in destruction, depression and devastation amongst His people.

Oftentimes, during a difficult season of bereavement for congregants as we plan the “Service of Witness to the Resurrection,” I strongly suggest to hurting and grieving families that they wisely select those persons who will offer tributes and words of condolence at the service.  People, however well-intentioned, do not always say the most helpful things.  Some of them automatically and uncritically recite petrified church clichés which lack biblical foundation and reason.  Yet, they firmly and relentlessly recite these words believing their bereaved congregants will find comfort and consolation in them.  Remarkably, a sister will tell a widow that she knows how she feels as she leaves with her husband.  Persons who have never lost a child will tell heartbroken and bitterly weeping parents something similar.  In this passage, Job’s friends are just as dreadful in their actions and words although they are well intentioned.

Sadly, his friends barrage him with accusations to such an extent that Job pleads for mercy and relief.  He asks them how long they will continue to exacerbate his agony with their sanctimonious and pious attacks.  His equates their destructive sayings with the crushing of rocks.  It is as if Job feels he is being stoned to death.  Repeatedly, they reproach him definitely believing that they are helping him.  Misguidedly, these “smart bombs” usually result in more extensive damage than those persons launching them anticipate.  Job’s friends seek to destroy his spiritual pride thereby causing his repentance and thus yielding God’s mercy.  In their campaign to coerce Job’s confession, they inadvertently indict the character of Almighty God who appears to possess a sadistic streak in contrast to His previous revelations of Himself.

Vehemently chastising his friends for their shameless attacks, Job reminds them that any sin or errors he commits remain a private and personal matter between God and Job.  Job’s friends lapse into judging Job for his hidden and sin.  As a consequence, they imply their spiritual superiority to Job.  They may also cloak a measure of jealousy as they relish Job’s reversal of fortune and health considering is spiritual inferiority to them.  Possibly, they feel that they are more deserving of the bounty Job previously enjoyed.  A self-reliant piety grounded in external religious practice and mores usually results in the harmful and shameless attacks exhibited by Job’s friends.

Point II – Job 19:5-7 – “God has wronged me”

After castigating his friends for their lengthy humiliation of him and thus exalting themselves above him, Job offers a provocative statement of faith.  Job declares “God has wronged me.”  To his listeners and perhaps many contemporary disciples, Job’s bold statement sounds arrogant and sacrilegious.  However, were his friends able to listen with an open mind and willingly try to understand Job’s perspective, they may agree that his words albeit angry and volatile are appropriate for a man living in the dark nights of the soul.  As there is not external and reliable evidence to prove any wrongdoing on Job’s behalf, his righteous indignation is warranted.

In these few verses, Job delves deeply into the morass and treacherous emotions of someone who feels that God has betrayed him.  This emotional gall is very symptomatic of someone who spends sleepless nights during a bleak spiritual and personal period.  The parents of a fourteen year-old daughter who was killed in the crossfire of a gang initiation ritual as she sat on a New York City Transit bus can relate wholeheartedly to Job’s feelings.  A mother of four-month old baby who lost a most valiant fight for life after being born prematurely may offer a similar cry.  Any of the mothers of the first grade students who were massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut could understandably make this claim.  The residents of Moore, Oklahoma who experienced two devastating tornadoes within fourteen years can additionally share these heartfelt and bitter sentiments.  Conceivably, any of these mothers may suspect that Almighty God actually sneered on the day their children were born.  In His infinite foreknowledge, He knew the pain and irreparable heartbreak that lay ahead of them.  Considering He is ever-present and all-powerful, what explains His failure to prevent their personal disasters?  Did He enjoy any sadistic pleasure and maniacal humor at their expense on the day when their worst nightmares began?  Job, many centuries prior to these twenty-first century tragedies, succinctly and sourly embeds these and similar questions in his ironic statement of faith, “God has wronged me.”

In fact, Job accuses God of drawing a net around him.  As a disciple experiences dark nights of the soul, it appears that his circumstances forcefully eclipse God.  Dread and depression are so overwhelming that they seemingly eliminate God’s presence.  When anger and angst combine, they produce feelings of abandonment.  Eventually, the mental hysteria leads a disciple to believe that God shockingly creates the conditions of his misery.  Job’s words depict a caged animal waiting for slaughter.  How could Almighty God betray me in such a fundamental and monumental way considering my faithful service to Him?

Reminiscent of his pious and sanctimonious friends, many contemporary disciples may characterize Job’s indictment of God as sacrilegious and inappropriate.  Equally justifiably, Job’s words are the desperate plea of a genuine disciple who refuses to accept simple answers to complex problems.  Job will not settle for clichés and simple-minded formulas.  He forcefully, angrily, bitterly yet sincerely asks His God to explain the onset and duration of Job’s current loss of health, wealth and good fortune.  Should the Lord’s grace, love and mercy fail to respond, the Job concludes his assumption that God has wronged him is correct.

Point III – Job 19:23-25 - “Oh, that my words were recorded!”

These verses hint to the thoroughness of the oral culture in which Job lives.  They also reflect his adamancy in his position.  Job believes so firmly in the correctness of his interpretation of God’s violation of His covenant with Job, personally, and anyone who believes in God, generally, that Job demands that someone record his petition for redress.  Fortunately, Job’s words were recorded eventually as a means of encouraging and empowering contemporary and all future generations of disciples as they experience dark nights of the soul.  The Book of Job teaches us how to persevere in genuine faith during difficult seasons.  Although Job issues several very harsh critiques of God, Job never considers his wife’s recommendation to curse God and die.  Moreover, Job does not abandon his faith and relationship with God solely because he loses his fortune health, children and material possessions.  Job’s example demonstrates faith’s essence is internal and spiritual not external and empirical.  Mostly, Job shows us that genuine faith centers upon a vibrant and developing relationship with God.

Point IV – Job 19:25-27 - A Grand Statement of Faith

Let’s join Job and sit with him.  Take a moment and survey the boils that afflict his entire body.  Can you smell the putrid fluids that emerge from His cells?  Look at Job’s unkempt face.  Can you imagine how awful Job’s hair smells?  Chances are you will not sit close to him as his clothes smell.  I imagine the furniture is most austere and the surroundings are very meager. Shockingly, in the midst of this bizarre, impoverished and dreadful setting, Job boldly declares a grand statement of faith.  “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth.”

This great statement of faith is not recitation of a longstanding religious dogma or ecclesiastical creed.  Rather, it is a very personal appeal for vindication by the God whom Job knows and serves.  These words portray a deep intimacy between Job and God.  Earlier, Job called for a mediator between God and Job.  He seeks someone to advocate his cause as God appears to ignore Job’s pleas relating to rewards and righteousness and exemption from pain and punishment.  In possibly the best known and most cited verses in the Book of Job, he finally awakens to the reality Almighty God whom Job indicts actually is His Advocate and Redeemer.  Job affirms His faith in God and God’s unquestionable faithfulness thereby testifying to Job’s genuine reliance upon God and wholehearted certainty that God will transform Job’s adversity and tragedy whether Job lives or not.  Practically speaking, Job believes Almighty God will have the final word relating to Job’s predicament.  Job hopes fiercely and waits patiently for God’s redemption never wavering in his resolve that it will materialize.

Job’s grand declaration of faith serves two other purposes.  First, Job articulates his belief in life after death.  He believes he will see God on the other side of his pain and agony.  Although Job’s belief in the afterlife does not equate the formal system of thought that Paul details in 1 Corinthians 15, Job discovers hope in an eventual face-to-face conversation with Almighty God in order to understand completely God’s previously hidden mysteries and ironies as it pertains to redemptive suffering and other types of injustice.  Interestingly, the life’s furnace of affliction best burns away the dross of inadequate religious beliefs.  The pure gold of an intellectually respectable faith in God usually emerges in daily experiential learning rather than theoretical and formulaic knowledge.  A textbook faith hardly suffices during extended periods of trial and tribulations. 

Second, Job’s faith statement hints toward the coming of the Messiah.  As a messianic prophecy, Job alludes to the birth of Jesus Christ, who as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” and the atoning sacrifice and propitiation for humankind, is the Righteous Advocate for all disciples.  In the example of the crucifixion, Christ demonstrates the essence of redemptive suffering as His life, death and resurrection demonstrate this divine possibility for anyone who suffers.  A religious scholar and victim of domestic violence who cannot teach, lecture or write for a year finds new life in the example of the cross.  A mother who loses here one and only son to the dreadful disease of alcoholism and drunk driving finds resurrection in starting MADD, Mother Against Drunk Driving, and saves countless other lives.  An infertile couple finds resurrection in parenting through the process and gift of adoption.  It is impossible to exhaust the examples and enumerate instances of redemptive pain and subsequent triumph that innumerable disciples experience during dark nights of the soul.  As they read the Book of Job, they grasp a concrete, personal and perfect example of a man of genuine faith who unswervingly holds his belief in God’s righteousness, truth and justice.

The Lesson Applied

Let’s Talk About It

·        Who do you believe has greater faith Abraham or Job? 

·        Do you think anything that Job’s friend say has any merit?

·        Has God ever wronged you?  If yes, how did you respond to feeling betrayed by God?

·        Are you comfortable enough in your prayer life to be frank and straightforward with God?

·       Share an encouraging word from a time when you lived in the dark nights of the soul.