It has been awhile since my previous post but I have finished my notes for your review. I pray you find Dr. Keller's wisdom as illuminating and helpful as I have while experiencing my own "furnace".
Chapter Fourteen: Praying
In order to understand what the
Bible says about suffering, one must come to grips with the book of Job. Rabbi Abraham Heschel famously stated, “God
is not nice. God is not an uncle. God is an earthquake.” Philosopher Peter Kreeft says “Job is a
mystery. A mystery satisfies something
in us, but not our reason. The
rationalist is repelled by Job…[but] something deeper in us is satisfied by
Job, and is nourished…It puts iron in your blood.” Job conveys that the problem of suffering is
both a philosophical and emotional problem.
The traditional religious answer is that the sufferer must have done
something wrong. Yet Job’s suffering is because of his goodness. The secular answer is that there is no good
reason. A good God wouldn’t allow this,
so either he doesn’t exist or is cruel.
But Job tells us that both of these are wrong.
The book opens with Satan in heaven
accusing Job before God. This raises a
question, what is Satan doing in heaven?
Wasn’t he cast out? We must
remember that the Bible is quite selective about what we are told. We must also keep in mind the author’s
purpose in the details we are given. The
Bible gives us few details about the supernatural and it can be noted that
Satan does not show any deference to God – he does not address him as Lord, does
not bow to him, nor show him any respect.
What we are told is that Satan, which means “accuser”, is before God
accusing Job of only being in relationship with God because of the benefits he
receives from God. Just think of any
love relationship. How would you feel if
someone you loved left you because of a financial reversal? Wouldn’t you feel used? They’ve loved you for the benefits, instead
of for who you essentially are. It’s the
same with God, we should love him for who he is, not for the benefits he gives
us. But how do we get there? One of the primary ways is hardship. Suffering affords the opportunity to focus on
God in ways we haven’t before.
As the story unfolds, the book does
not depict a dualistic view of the world with equal and opposite forces of good
and evil. God is completely in
charge. Satan can only go so far. And we see also that God is not the one
inflicting the pain. Evil is not God’s
will, but Satan’s. The first calamities
to come to Job are the loss of his wealth and his children. He is not stoic. He grieves, yet shows proper gratitude and
appropriate deference. Next, Job loses
his health and his composure. He blames
God and struggles with what feels like a grave injustice, yet he does not turn
away.
Job’s friends, with typical
conventional piety, say many things that are true propositions in the
abstract. There is moral order, bad
behavior has consequences, we should humble ourselves, examine ourselves and
trust God. But true words and moralistic
theology “can be thin medicine for a man in the depths.” God could never be so unjust to let all this
happen unless Job had done something wrong.
All Job needs to do is confess his sin, get his life straight and
everything will be good again, guaranteed.
Then we see that God appears, and
Job lives. He answers Job out of the
storm and invites Job to answer him in dialogue. We see Job “put in his place – not by a
rebuke, nor by a warning against questioning God, but by the gracious advent of
God who allows himself to be seen inasmuch as that is humanly possible. As a result, the [appearance of God] can only
be understood as an act of grace.” The
paradox should not be missed. God
appears as both a gracious, personal God and an overwhelming force – at the same
time. On the cross we see that God is so
holy and just that Jesus had to die, but also so loving that he laid down his
own life willingly. The God explained by
the gospel as both loving and furious meets Job on a dark and stormy day.
We also see that God answers, but
does not. Job expects explanation. His friends expect condemnation. Instead, God gives a discourse about the
wonders of the natural world. He could
have said, “Job, I know it has been painful.
But you must realize that because of all this, you will become great and
someday be an inspiration to hundreds of millions of sufferers until the very
end of time. No one except my own Son
will be better known for patience under affliction.” But God says nothing, why? Francis Anderson explains, “It is one of the
many excellences of the book that Job is brought to contentment without ever
knowing all the facts…To withhold the full story from Job, even after the test
was over, keeps him walking by faith, not by sight. He does not say in the end, ‘Now I see it
all.’ He never sees it all. He sees God.
Perhaps it is better if God never tells any of us the whole of our life
story.”
When we become truly free lovers of
God and leave our mercenary, conditional religion behind, we will understand
that obeying God will bring us no benefits.
And that is when we reach the point where seeking, praying and obeying
God will begin to change us. Job never
sees the big picture, he only sees God, and that is all we really need. Gods plan includes evil and that confuses and
angers us. But Job helps us see that God
allows evil just enough space so that it will defeat itself and bring about the
opposite of what it intends.
Next we see that God is God, and we
are not. God’s catalogue of natural
wonders makes this simple point. A
seven-year-old cannot question the calculations of a world class mathematician,
yet we think we can question how God is running the universe. Job does not have the power to be judge, and
neither do we. This is the way of
wisdom, that we willingly admit that God alone is God. Anderson notes, “There is a rebuke in it for
any person who, by complaining about particular events in his life, implies
that he could propose to God better ways of running the universe than those God
currently uses. Men are eager to use
force to combat evil and in their impatience they wish God would do the same
more often. But by such destructive acts
men do and become evil…Only God can destroy creatively. Only God can transmute evil into good.”
Dr. Keller quotes Elisabeth Elliot,
“God is God. If He is God, He is worthy
of my worship and my service. I will
find rest nowhere but in His will, and that will is infinitely, immeasurable,
unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to.”
When we get to the end of the book
of Job, we find God affirming Job who earlier cursed the day he was born,
challenged God’s wisdom, complained bitterly and expressed deep doubts. Why did God vindicate him? Because Job never stopped praying. He complained to God, he screamed and yelled
at God, but he did it all to God. His suffering did not drive him away from
God, but toward him, and that makes all the difference. Even if we cannot feel God, he is still
there. We must seek him, go to him,
read, study, fellowship, serve, pray and obey.
To pour out your heart to God means
to look honestly at your doubts, desires, fears and hopes. While you examine and listen to your heart,
you must also remember to talk to it as well.
Much of what we experience as unhappiness is due to the fact that we are
listening to ourselves too much. If you
are suffering or depressed, you should spend regular time reading the
Bible. But this must be done as study
for content and truth. To attempt to
read devotionally seeking inspiration and uplift can become quite
unhelpful. “Remind yourself of who God
is, and who you are in Christ, and what he has done for you.” Ponder the truth, pray to God and wait. And, like Job, you can gain assurance in the
midst of suffering, you can be sure that you are loved and accepted and that
you can trust God’s grace. And how can
we know this? Because of Jesus
Christ. He was homeless, naked,
penniless and innocent. He took the
condemnation we deserve. And ultimately, he was willing to give his life for us
and experienced the abandonment of God so we won’t have to. “[When] you suffer without relief, when you
feel absolutely alone you can know that, because he bore your sin, he will be
with you. You can know you are walking
the same path Jesus walked, so you are not
alone – and that path is only taking you to him.”
Next week (yes) Chapter Fifteen: Thinking, Thanking, Loving
Until then, don’t take my word for
it, read the book – don’t wait for the movie,
and have a little hope on me,
Roger
To learn more about Timothy Keller and his work at Redeemer Presbyterian Church, you can check out his personal website, his Facebook page or the church homepage.
Keller, Timothy (2013), Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering. Penguin Group. ISBN 978-0-525-95245-9
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