Well, welcome back to another podcast of Struggling Well. We're glad you've joined us this week. And as we continue on in this what has now been a 2-year experiment.
Two years. It's been
two years we've been doing this. Yeah.
Oh my. So, we're almost coming up on an anniversary. So, you're going to buy me a what?
I'm going to get you a new microphone.
Oh, guy. What a guy. Or maybe a new placemat.
New place. Yeah, that would be great. Happy anniversary. Happy anniversary.
And Tim, happy anniversary to our production crew.
Yep. Our crew. Hey, you know this because you know me. and you had to come all those years when I pastored.
are you talking to me?
Yeah, I'm talking to you.
I could be talking to Tim, too, but I'm talking
I don't know if you were talking to the people in general.
No, not the people in general at this point. But what you may or may not know about me, you do, Suzi. is that one of my all-time favorite books in the Old Testament is the book of Job, followed by the book of Jeremiah, which should tell you a little bit about my personality that those are the two favorite books of mine. what I love about the book of Job is the progression. And again, we know the story because the first two chapters, Job never knows the story of why. And yet the rest of the book is a progression. And here's the thing I love about Job. and why I think he is the poster child for somebody who struggles well. in the 13th chapter, he says this, "But I would speak to the Almighty and desire to argue my case with God. and he says to his friends, "As for you, you whitewashed with lies. You're worthless physicians, all of you.", so he his longing and desire throughout the entire book, even in the midst of the confusion and the unending pain that he has gone through, is I want to argue my case before God. Well, you get to the end of the book of Job and he gets his wish. Only it doesn't go quite the way Job thought it would. And so, I know you want to say a little bit about what happens when he finally does have his audience with God.
I think one of the things about the book of Job and I don't know if we've ever spoken about this before on the podcast, but the beginning of the book is really confusing. You know, when and I think we have said this before, you know, there's Satan and God having a conversation and God points out, "Have you considered my servant Job?" And it's like, are you are offering him up on a plate? What is this? It doesn't make sense in my mind. So, and then as we watch and see what's happen, to Job. It's like, God, what why would you do this? Why would you allow this? And say excuse me, Job is asking the same questions. His friends are asking the same questions. And then when we get to chapter 40, you know, Job has had his say. His friends have tried to figure out what's wrong. And then in chapter 40 is when the Lord answers Job. And I've I too love the book of Job because I think it's a very hopeful book. It's a realistic book to me. But when you get to where God answers Job, it sounds like Jimmy's shared this with me before. It sounds like holy sarcasm. It's like God, you mean this man, you put him on a platter, you offered him up, and then all this stuff happens to him. He asks you a couple of questions. He's arguing. He wants to argue before you. And then you come in and say with using what sounds like sarcasm, "Where were you?" And off he goes into all these things that where were you when this happened and this happened and I you know I put the stars in the sky and I hold the water back and all these other things and so in the last week as some issues have come up in front of me and I've gone back to Job and I've read through the God's response definitely felt that I definitely felt that sense of God really is that how you're going to answer him and then something happened in my heart. I don't know how else to express this other than saying I think that the Lord through his spirit opened my eyes to something a little different. Now, this is not a doctrinal or a theological thing. It's just that I feel like he gave me a different way of looking at what God was saying. So, when I and I'll get there in a second, but when he says stuff like can you draw out the Leviathan with a fish hook? The Leviathan being this massive beast in the water, can you put a rope in his nose and hook him? can you who made the horse rise up to the way the horse rises up in such majesty? And he goes on and on, you know, who put the constellations out there? I mean, can you lift up your voice to the clouds? actually, he starts before 40. He actually starts in 38. and interesting too that the Lord answers Job out of the whirlwind. So imagine what that must be like. We've just been through a terrible hurricane season. Imagine God speaking out of those kinds of winds. And he says right away, who is this that darkens the council by words without knowledge? And then off he goes. Have you entered the storehouses of the snow? Have you know made a ch a cleft in the rock for the waters to flow? All these things. So as I was reading it, I feel like I just got this kind of maybe I don't know I'm just going to call it some insight maybe from the Lord and this is what came up in for me the dialogue often sounds harsh and it like I said like how do you say these things to somebody who's in pain God somebody that you've called righteous and God in the in these responses clearly states that there is no one like him Job is- certainly not like him. There's no one like God. But I think as I've been reading this particular passage that the Holy Spirit opened my eyes and my ears and each verse, God is saying, could he be saying this? And it and if you read it outside of the realm of sarcasm, could he be saying this? You cannot do what I do, Job, and I am your God. All the things that I do, I still know who you are. I still know every hair on your head. I know what's happening to you right now. And because I'm your God and I'm able to do all these things that you could never even attempt to do, you are safe with me. The God who knows when a mountain goat gives birth. The God who can draw out, like I said, a Leviathan with a fish hook. The God who commands the eagle to fly. I hear God saying, "That's me. That's me. I'm the creator. I'm the sustainer. of life and I am your God. And as I was reading that this past week, I was like, yes, yes, that's the foundational truth is that yes, life is hard. Yes, God often in his permissive will allows hard things to happen, but he is my God. And the power and the majesty that he showed at creation that he showed all throughout the Old Testament and New Testament through the birth of his son. That is my God. Me, Suzi. That's your God. Those of you that are listening. And there is safety in that. Because if my God knows when a mountain goat gives birth that seems so inconsequential, then that means that right now in whatever struggle or discomfort you're in, he knows. And he is saying to you, I am your God. You are safe with me.
And I think that's a very legitimate way to see these last chapters because I think there's some sense in which that's how Job saw it because you get to chapter 42 and Job basically says he answers the Lord and he says I know that you can do all things that no purpose of yours can be thwarted and then he says here and I'll speak I'll question you as and you make it known to me. I've heard of you by hearing of the ear but now my eyes sees you. you and therefore I despise myself and I repent in sackcloth and ashes. And then God steps in and says he's not mad at Job. He's not angry at Job. He's angry with the friends who thought they knew who he was and he wasn't that at all.
I mean, when I read that, it must have been a fearful thing to for the Lord to speak out of a whirlwind, but oh man, I want a whirlwind. And I've got it here in the book of Job and many other places. in scripture, the whirlwind of God speaking and if when we are in the dark places, the hard places, the places of struggle that seem to overwhelm us, if we can see who he is, and we got to go to scripture to see that if we can see who he is, then there will be a sense of safety and a sense of peace that only comes from him, knowing that he is God.
Yeah. And that's that gets down to the heart of what I mean, what we mean when We say we want to struggle well with life. Well, what's it mean to struggle well? It means I never stop looking to see him. I never stop looking to know him better. I never stop looking or I never turn my face away from the face of God. And so we hope and pray that whatever your life may be right now, whether you're in the midst of job like struggles or whether you're in the midst of enjoying life in sweet moments of life, that you'll never stop turning your face towards God.
Thanks for joining us.
Have a great week.