“GOD’S ANGER IS WHY I AM SUFFERING” IS NOT THE WHOLE TRUTH by Dr. Shah, Clearview Church, Henderson, NC

Introduction:  How many of you have seen the movie “The Truman Show?” Jim Carey plays the role of Truman Burbank who unbeknownst to himself is the star of a reality TV show with a worldwide following. He was legally adopted by a TV studio as a baby and cast as the star of his own life. Everything was great until he becomes suspicious, through some sympathetic co-stars, that something was wrong with his life. When the director of the show Christof (starring Ed Harris) finds out that Truman was trying to escape on a sailboat, he sends a mechanically induced storm. Truman was raised with the fear of water, after a supposed drowning of Truman’s father in a boating accident. The scene where Truman almost drowns and manages to make it back on the boat is chilling to say the least, but the part that always gets me is when he cries out “Is that the best that you can do!” To which, the director comes back to give him more…Many people view their lives as their own Truman Show. They find themselves in the middle of some suffering and feel that God is the one behind it. They feel that calling on God is no use because God is not only aware of it, but he is angry with them and causing it. In our series on the book of Job, we’re going to see how even Job felt as if God was angry with him and trying to kill him. We’re also going to see how Job declared what you and I need more than anything else – a mediator, one who could touch both God and us.

Job 6:4 (page #783) “For the arrows of the Almighty are within me; My spirit drinks in their poison; The terrors of God are arrayed against me.”

Context: Last weekend, we learned the value of dialogue to process trauma in life. From Job 4 – Job 41, it is dialogue after dialogue between Job and his friends, and even God and Job. Quoting Mister Rogers: “Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable.” What psychologist, counselors, and therapists have understood in the past 100 years, the Bible told us 4000 years ago! Many times, people don’t want to talk about what has happened, and we can understand that, but failure to talk to someone is the cause of much physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and relational problems in our world today!

So, yes, dialogue is helpful in processing trauma, but not every dialogue is equally helpful in processing trauma. Last weekend, we learned about the structure of the book of Job, how it can be divided into 3 major dialogue cycles, followed by the Elihu speeches and the two Yahweh exchanges with Job. In each dialogue cycles, each friend spoke and Job responded, until the last dialogue cycle where the conversation broke down. We also learned that Job’s friends repeated the same schema over and over again. Schemas are deeply held (core) beliefs which we pick up along life’s journey. What was their schema, the one and only one? It was the Principle of God’s Retributive Justice – “when you suffer, it is because God is punishing you for some sin.” In other words, “What you sow is what you reap.” Although there is some truth in it, not every suffering is because of sin. There are many other reasons why we go through bad times (we looked at them in last weekend’s message). Unfortunately, Job’s friends repeated the same schema again and again in every cycle. In fact, they even got more aggressive and sarcastic with him!

There was a reason for this aggressive and sarcastic tone. Let’s go back to Eliphaz from the first dialogue cycle. There is something that he says in Job 4 (page #780) 12 “Now a word was secretly brought to me, (more accurate translation = “and toward me a message was stolen;” compare to Jeremiah 23:30 “Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who steal My words every one from his neighbor.” Stolen revelation = sign of a false prophet. In other words, this is not a good spirit. See works by Duane Garrett and Sungjin Kim) And my ear received a whisper of it. 13In disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, When deep sleep falls on men, 14 Fear came upon me, and trembling, Which made all my bones shake. 15 Then a spirit passed before my face; The hair on my body stood up. 16 It stood still, But I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; There was silence; (When God’s people saw angels in the Bible, they were scared initially, but then they were assured with “fear not.” No such assurance here. Similar to Mohammed and Joseph Smith’s encounter –Sahih al-Bukhari 4953 and Joseph Smith History 1:16) Then I heard a voice saying: 17 “Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker? 18 If He puts no trust in His servants, If He charges His angels with error, 19 How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, Whose foundation is in the dust, Who are crushed before a moth? 20 They are broken in pieces from morning till evening; They perish forever, with no one regarding. 21 Does not their own excellence go away? They die, even without wisdom.’ Job 5 (this is still the Spirit, not Eliphaz) 1 Call out now; Is there anyone who will answer you? And to which of the holy ones will you turn? 2 For wrath kills a foolish man, And envy slays a simple one.” The tone is very similar to Satan’s in the opening chapters of the book of Job. Also, the extreme hatred for humanity is much more than any high regard for God’s holiness or any disdain for man’s sinfulness.

Few verses later, Eliphaz says in Job 5:13 “He catches the wise in their own craftiness, And the counsel of the cunning comes quickly upon them.” Two thousand years later, the apostle Paul in writing to the Corinthians, who thought that they were wiser than Paul, quoted Eliphaz in 1 Corinthians 3      18Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness.” Paul was condemning both the Corinthians and Eliphaz here.

Paul also teaches us what to do with the evil spirit(s) – 2 Corinthians 10      3 “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”

Application: Whom do you listen to when you go through suffering and trauma? Here’s how to test if the right spirit is speaking to you – 1 John 4 (page #1867-68) 1 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” Make sure that the person you’re listening to is full of the Holy Spirit. If not, they will give you advice from the wrong side…

Thankfully, Job didn’t buy into Eliphaz’s vision or wisdom. To the contrary, Job kept moving from one commonly held schema to another that people struggle with when they go through suffering. In other words, he was saying, “I don’t agree one bit with what y’all are saying, but I want to share with you what I am really facing/struggling with.” What was Job struggling with? He was struggling with another common schema – “God is angry with me, and that’s why I’m suffering.” That’s how he’s feeling in the moment, but he knows better. Many times, when we go through difficult times or times of suffering, we feel that God is angry with us.

To begin with there is truth in God’s Divine Wrath. God’s anger or wrath is a function of his holiness (D. A. Carson). God is not some emotional and angry being, but “he is determined in his holiness to oppose evil.” For God to back up on his wrath would be for God to back up on his holiness. For God to back up on his holiness would be for God to cease being God. For God to cease being God, lights out! 

 Here are some examples from the Old Testament:

• Self-description: Ezekiel 7:9 “My eye will not spare, Nor will I have pity; I will repay you according to your ways, And your abominations will be in your midst. Then you shall know that I am the LORD who strikes.”
• Against Evil: Exodus 15:7 “And in the greatness of Your excellence You have overthrown those who rose against You; You sent forth Your wrath; It consumed them like stubble.”
• Even his own people: Psalm 90.       7 “For we have been consumed by Your anger, And by Your wrath we are terrified. 8 You have set our iniquities before You, Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.”
• Future judgment: Isaiah 13       9 “Behold, the day of the LORD comes, Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, To lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners from it…13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, And the earth will move out of her place, In the wrath of the LORD of hosts And in the day of His fierce anger.

There are also examples from the New Testament:

• On those who reject Jesus – John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
• On those who suppress the truth of God – Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
• On the time of judgment – Revelation 6       15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, 16 and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!

Why can’t God correct sin without getting angry? Anger implies immediacy, urgency, intense hatred, etc. Failure to do so implies tolerance. Nonetheless, God does not do that all the time. If he did, we would have Noah’s Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, and Ananias and Sapphira incidents all the time. He is “longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9)

Having said that, God’s children through Jesus are no longer under his wrath:

• Romans 5        9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
• 1 Thessalonians 1       9 “…and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
• I Thessalonians 5        9 “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. 11 Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.”

Even though Job lived before the cross, he understood this truth. He knew that for this truth to be applied, there had to be a mediator. Job 9 (page #786) 1 Then Job answered and said: 2 “Truly I know it is so, But how can a man be righteous before God?…30 If I wash myself with snow water, And cleanse my hands with soap, 31 Yet You will plunge me into the pit, And my own clothes will abhor me. 32 “For He is not a man, as I am, That I may answer Him, And that we should go to court together. 33Nor is there any mediator between us, Who may lay his hand on us both.” The word for “mediator” is “mokiach” = umpire, referee. Job is not just asking for a “mediator.” He is telling us that without a “mediator,” we cannot stand before God. Job knows that there is a “mediator” coming who can touch both God and man – the Man, Christ Jesus. In his suffering, Job is not only comforting himself with these words, but he is also calling us to find comfort in Jesus. 

Praise God that, for us, he has already come! Hebrews 4 (page #1836) 15 “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” 

Do you know him? Are you saved? “That” problem you can take to Jesus, and he will welcome you.