The Roles of Sin and Contentment in Suffering

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

1. Lesson #1: Suffering is Inevitable, But Don’t Live in Fear [Realism] 
2. How Much Suffering Has Come from Adam’s Sin? 
3. God warned Adam what would happen 

Genesis 2:16-17  And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;  17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” 

1. Incalculable what has come from that one man’s sin! 
2. An education in evil 
3. Suffering is Inevitable 
4. Eliphaz said it! 

Job 5:7 “Man is born to trouble as sparks fly upward” 

1. Job himself agreed 

Job 14:1  “Man who is born of woman is few of days and full of trouble” 

1. Job’s “how much more” argument 
2. If Job, a man “blameless and upright, who feared God and shunned evil” had so much pain and sorrow, how much more should we! 
3. New Testament assertions  

 [Jesus said] “In this world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33) 

Paul taught the new disciples in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, 

 “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).  

Peter warned that  

 “now, for a little while, you have had to be distressed by various trials” (1 Peter 1:6) 

1. BUT That Should Seem Strange! 

Believers in the God of the Bible have accepted scripture’s descriptions of his nature: he is infinitely wise, immeasurably powerful, and perfectly good 

So evil and suffering should seem strange, alien to his nature 

Scripture reveals that it is 

Isaiah 28:21  The LORD will rise up … to do his work, his strange work, and perform his task, his alien task. 

Ezekiel 33:11  ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’ 

Lamentations 3:32-33  Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.  33 For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men. 

Much suffering in the world is actually God destroying what he himself has built!! 

Jeremiah 45:4-5  This is what the LORD says: “I will overthrow what I have built and uproot what I have planted, throughout the land.  5 …. For I will bring disaster on all people, declares the LORD 

So it is with human death. Every death is the destruction of a body specifically crafted by the hand of God. As Job said so poignantly about his own body: 

Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether.  Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust?  Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit (Job 10:8-12). 

But the grave totally destroys that magnificent creation of God. 

God actually became impatient over the suffering he himself was inflicting on Israel during the days of the Judges. (See Judges 10:16) 

1. Christ the Effortless Healer Points Ahead to a Future World 
2. Jesus shows that disease and death are his personal enemies by the astonishing river of healings he did in his ministry 
3. Jesus healed comprehensively, effortlessly and with 100% effectiveness 
4. Every disease and sickness among the people (Mt. 4:24) so it was said of him, “He has done everything well!” (Mk. 7:37) 
5. Those healings point ahead to a world in which pain, suffering, sickness, injury, sorrow, and death are completely obsolete! 
6. The Source of All Suffering: Sin 
7. Though the book of Job makes it plain that any simplistic connections of suffering to personal sin in every case is false 
8. Yet the Bible makes the link between sin and suffering and death absolutely clear 

At the forbidden tree, Adam willingly joined Satan’s rebellion against God. Through Adam’s rebellion, sin entered the world and death through sin, and all Adam’s descendants were counted sinners by his sin (Romans 5:12-14). By Adam’s sin, creation itself was cursed and enslaved in bondage to decay (Genesis 3:18; Romans 8:21), Eve was condemned to bring forth children in great pain, and they and all their descendants would eventually die. 

1. An Eternal Education in Evil 
2. The name of the forbidden tree tells us much: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil 
3. Since Adam and Eve rebelled, we have been on a six thousand year journey into the dimensions and nature of evil of every sort 
4. We ourselves have been on a similar personal journey 
5. God worked in redemptive history to INCREASE the evil from Adam’s sin 

Romans 5:20  The law was added so that the trespass might increase. 

1. Why? To put evil on full display so we understand its dimensions and nature 
2. AND so we will hate evil as Christ does 

Hebrews 1:9  You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. 

Romans 8:29  those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 

1. A Taxonomy of Suffering 

Job’s four great losses 

1. He lost his wealth 
2. He lost his loved ones (children) 
3. He lost his health 
4. He lost his good reputation with his family, friends, and community 
5. Types of suffering 
6. the direct consequence of personal sin 
7. innocent victims of the sins of other people 
8. natural disasters and impersonal daily life occurrences 
9. diseases 
10. dashed hopes 
11. sorrows brought on by compassionate service to others (like Jesus, a “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”) 
12. Yet… Don’t Live in Fear! 
13. [Wait… some fears are healthy!] 

Job rightly feared God, and as a result, he turned away from evil (Job 1:1, 8; 2:3). Job feared the secret heart sins of his children and made constant sacrifice and prayers for them (Job 1:5). Job feared God’s judgment on him if he was sexually immoral, knowing that God saw his every step (Job 31:4). He knew that sexual sin would uproot his harvest… he would lose everything he’d ever worked for (Job 31:12). He also dreaded the vengeance of God if he should ever lift his hand to strike the fatherless or take advantage of them in court (Job 31:23). Job himself said, “The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to shun evil is understanding” (Job 28:28) 

1. But… this is gone: 

A nagging dread of constant loss in this world is unhealthy. Job confessed to some of that fear when he said, “the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes” (Job 3:25-26). This kind of constant anxiety in this world of suffering is exactly what faith in Christ has the power to drive away. Jesus again and again called on people to believe and not be afraid. 

1. Constant faithless fear robs joy in this world 

If we are constantly living in fear of earthly suffering, we cannot live the life God has called us to give. We cannot enjoy a single blessing this side of heaven for fear that we might lose it one day. Imagine if Job, still stung by his overwhelming experiences, was unable to delight in the ten children God gave him after he was restored. Suppose he refrained from embracing his beautiful daughters, Jemimah, Keziah, and Keren-Happuch (Job 42:14), keeping a careful distance from them because he was guarding his heart from yet more suffering. He would not have been a good father to them at all. Nor could he have enjoyed his restored wealth or his greatly increased stature in his family, with his three friends, or with his community. 

1. Also suffering is essential to our salvation 

James 1:2-4  Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,  3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 

1. And suffering is essential to the spread of the gospel 

John 12:24  Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 

So, suffering is sure to come, but it helps us to know that, in Christ, no suffering will do any Christian ultimate harm. Instead, faith tells us that God will use all the sufferings and blessings of life wisely to prepare us for a glory that far outweighs them all 

1. Lesson #2: Delight in Your Earthly Blessings, But Don’t Idolize Them [Contentment] 
2. The “Happy Ending”… everyone loves it! 

JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings… Bilbo: “I want to see mountains again, Gandalf – mountains; and then find somewhere where I can rest. In peace and quiet, without a lot of relatives prying around, and string of confounded visitors hanging on the bell. I might find somewhere where I can finish my book. I have thought of a nice ending for it: and he lived happily ever after to the end of his days.” 

Some happy endings seem like fairy tales, or “too good to be true” 

But this is exactly what hindered the disciples from believing in the resurrection of Jesus: 

they “disbelieved because of joy” (Luke 24:41) 

The Book of Job ends on a happy note: 

And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations. And Job died, an old man, and full of days (Job 42:10-17) 

1. But Still… Some Lingering Questions 

. No one knew better than Job how transient all physical blessings are. “When your eyes light upon [wealth] it is gone, for it suddenly sprouts wings, flying like an eagle to heaven” (Proverbs 23:5). How could Job possibly forget that day when wave upon wave of loss cascaded upon him? We can easily picture him toward the end of his life, looking out over his estate and seeing his kids and grandkids laughing and playing, but seeing it all with experienced eyes and a reflective heart. He knew better than any man in history how transient all earthly blessings are. The Book of Job invites us into that wisdom with him 

This is especially true in that all of us are going to die, and every one of Job’s earthly losses will become ours to some degree. Everything physical and temporal we cherished in this world will be taken from us 

Job 1:21  “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. 

Ecclesiastes 5:15  As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. 

1 Timothy 6:7  for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 

1. Job’s Fears Confirmed, His Hopes Dashed 
2. Job was a man who lived in fear to some degree 
3. Fear of the Lord 

Job “feared God and shunned evil” 

1. Fear of sin 

Job 1:5  Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom. 

I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman. For what is our lot from God above, our heritage from the Almighty on high? Is it not ruin for the wicked, disaster for those who do wrong? Does he not see my ways and count my every step? (Job 31:1-4) 

1. Job also feared… vaguely… the very things that eventually happened to him 

“For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me” (Job 3:25) 

1. Job eventually testified to his whole concept of hope being destroyed 

Oh that I might have my request, and that God would fulfill my hope, that it would please God to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off! (Job 6:8-9) 

My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and come to their end without hope (Job 7:6) 

… the waters wear away the stones; the torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you [God] destroy the hope of man (Job 14:19) 

If I hope for Sheol as my house, if I make my bed in darkness, if I say to the pit, “You are my father,” and to the worm, “My mother,” or “My sister,” where then is my hope? Who will see my hope? Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust? (Job 17:13-16).   

[God] breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, and my hope has he pulled up like a tree (Job 19:10) 

Job laments “my plans are broken off, the desires of my heart” (Job 17:11) 

1. Hope for earthly blessedness is a normal and healthy way to live earthly life 

It is normal to look ahead to the future and anticipate good things, to have hopes and dreams for your business prospects or your career or your possessions. This is even more true when it comes to children and grandchildren. We wrap our hopes up entirely in their futures and dream big things for them. But any parent or grandparent realizes how fragile those hopes and dreams really are. How can we truly love frail human clay and invest hopes in each one without living in constant dread, as it seems Job did? 

1. Job had been stripped of all of that during his trials 

There was nothing he wanted in life—even the blandest food made him nauseous (Job 6:7). He had no aspirations left, nothing he wanted to try, no one he wanted to talk to. He wanted to take God on and argue him down, but other than that life held nothing for him but pain. 

He remembers wistfully his past prosperity 

Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness, as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent, when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were all around me, when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out for me streams of oil! (Job 29:2-6) 

1. What Are Reasonable Hopes in this World? 
2. Every Christian should live for eternal hopes… for eternal life, resurrection from the dead at the Second Coming of Christ, for joy in the New Heaven and New Earth, and the New Jerusalem 
3. But are there reasonable, healthy hopes for this present age? 

Should not a farmer hope for a harvest when he plows his field in the spring? Should not a pharmaceutical researcher hope for a breakthrough drug as he does his work? Should not a carpenter hope that the house he is building will satisfy his customer and meet the plans of the architect? Does not a fisherman steam out of the harbor hope to catch the swordfish his training and his bait are designed to catch? Does not a cook hope the meal she is cooking will be delicious and pleasing to her patrons? Does not the world-class figure skater perfect her jumps in the hopes of competing in the Olympics?  

More personally, does not the young couple that has just exchanged wedding vows leave the church with hopes of years of marital bliss? Does not a new set of parents hold their first child in their arms with hearts filled with hopes for their future together? Does not a father toss a ball with his toddler son hoping to teach him the sport he loved when he was a boy, hoping that he will achieve great things on the field in the future?  

All of these hope-filled people are extremely vulnerable. 

1. Theological principles that help us answer the question 

• God owns everything 
• God delights in all his things 
• God gives all our blessings, and wants us to enjoy them 
• God demands we use our blessings for others 
• God must heal our wayward affections from idolatry 
• God’s earthly blessings are foretastes of his heavenly blessings 

C.S. Lewis captured this idea better than any other author I have read. Paraphrasing his insights from his classic, The Problem of Pain, he said that every scenic vista of stunning natural beauty he’s ever looked at transports his heart in hope to the day when he will see such beauty perfected in the New Earth. Every physical detail of his hobbies has had that same transporting power, whether the sweet smell of burning wood as he cuts pieces in a carpentry shop, the rhythmic slapping of the water against the boat as he was in a harbor fishing, or the savory smell of a Sunday roast delivered to the table. All of it spoke of a deeper desire that this present cursed age can never fully deliver but only hint at. We yearn to go to the source where all that beauty came from, and that is the heart of Almighty God. Then to see what that creative power can do with a resurrected world filled with physical pleasures that will fill the perfected senses and hearts of glorified people. And no physical pleasure will be greater than perfected fellowship both with God and with the saints 

1. God Himself is Worth More Than His Gifts 

Even if all we had was the Book of Job, it would still sufficiently teach this reality: “One’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). Ok, but what does one’s life “consist in?” Scripture is clear: the essence of life is a love relationship with God. I cannot fully immerse myself in what Job was thinking and feeling when God finished talking with him from the whirlwind, what kind of awe and wonder filled his mind when he said, “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted…. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:2, 5-6). Declaring God’s omnipotence, omniscience, and absolute sovereignty, he melted with a serious joy into infinite smallness before such a glorious being. At that moment, he had had none of his possessions restored, no new children, his disease still ravaged his body. But none of that mattered. Seeing God was enough. And how much more when, soon after that, God completely vindicated Job to Eliphaz, calling him “my servant Job” four times (Job 42:7-9). The lavish gift of the personal revelation of God’s glory combined with the assurance that that God loves you and that those attributes are your treasure and not your terror is worth more than all the possessions in the universe. One’s life consists in that. 

1. Putting Christian Contentment to Work 

 “I have learned in whatever situation I am in to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11-13) 

Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail had no earthly blessings at all… but Christ was enough.