Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / How Not to Respond to Suffering

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How Not to Respond to Suffering · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Happy Reformation Day everyone. I hope you've joined our Here
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  Speaker 1: we Stand series this month and are enjoying it and
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  Speaker 1: being edified by it. A remarkable gift to have the
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  Speaker 1: Bible in our own language so that we can read
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  Speaker 1: it for ourselves, and to read the Book of Job
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  Speaker 1: for ourselves, which we begin tomorrow in the Navigator's Bible
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  Speaker 1: Reading Plan. Here's a question about those early chapters in
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  Speaker 1: Job from Lisa, a listener to the podcast Pastor John,
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  Speaker 1: Hello and thank you for apj. We often focus on
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  Speaker 1: how Job responded to suffering the steadfastness of Job, as
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  Speaker 1: James says in James five to eleven, but we often
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  Speaker 1: don't focus on Job's wife's response in Job two, verses
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  Speaker 1: nine and ten. Can you expound on her response and
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  Speaker 1: tell us what lessons we can take about how not
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  Speaker 1: to respond to personal suffering.
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  Speaker 2: Both in the Old and the New Testament. Amazingly, God
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  Speaker 2: uses Satan to serve his own purifying, strengthening, preserving purposes
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  Speaker 2: in the lives of his precious children. In other words,
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  Speaker 2: God baffles Satan by making him the instrument of the
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  Speaker 2: very thing he hates, namely trust in God and holiness
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  Speaker 2: in life. And I mentioned this just to make sure
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  Speaker 2: that none of us thinks that Satan's involvement with Job's
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  Speaker 2: suffering is somehow exceptional in the Bible and can be
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  Speaker 2: marginalized as though it weren't going to happen to us.
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  Speaker 2: Remember how Paul describes his own thorn in the flesh
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  Speaker 2: and why it was given to him in Second Corinthians
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  Speaker 2: twelve seven to me to keep me from becoming conceited
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  Speaker 2: because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations. A thorn
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  Speaker 2: was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan,
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  Speaker 2: to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Now,
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  Speaker 2: Satan's purpose in our lives is not to keep us
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  Speaker 2: from becoming conceited. His purpose is to make us conceited,
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  Speaker 2: make us proud and arrogant and self sufficient. But this
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  Speaker 2: thorn was given to keep Paul humble, keep him trusting God.
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  Speaker 2: So it was sent from God. But the messenger that
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  Speaker 2: God used to send it was Satan. So if we
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  Speaker 2: see Satan's hand in our suffering, it doesn't mean that
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  Speaker 2: the suffering has no good design from our loving Father.
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  Speaker 2: So we're not surprised when we read in Job one
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  Speaker 2: to eleven that God makes Satan the instrument of the
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  Speaker 2: terrible suffering that he used to test his servant Job.
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  Speaker 2: Satan says to God, stretch out your hand and touch
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  Speaker 2: all that he has, and he'll curse you to your face.
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  Speaker 2: And the Lord said to say, and behold, all that
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  Speaker 2: he has is in your hand, only don't touch him.
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  Speaker 2: And Satan goes out and, with God's permission, takes all
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  Speaker 2: of his ox and all his camels, all his donkeys,
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  Speaker 2: and then kills all ten of his children. And Job's
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  Speaker 2: astonishing response that magnifies the worth and trustworthiness of God,
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  Speaker 2: is this naked. I came from my mother's womb. Naked,
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  Speaker 2: Shall I return the Lord gave? And the Lord has
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  Speaker 2: taken away. He didn't say Satan has taken away. The
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  Speaker 2: Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
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  Speaker 2: He pays no attention to Satan whatsoever, For all we know,
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  Speaker 2: he doesn't even know what happened in heaven. He's with
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  Speaker 2: regard to Satan, but goes straight to the ultimate source
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  Speaker 2: of his pain, and blesses God. Trusts God cast himself
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  Speaker 2: utterly on God. So Satan makes one more challenge against
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  Speaker 2: Job and against God, and says, skin for skin. Although
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  Speaker 2: the man has he'll give for his life. But stretch
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  Speaker 2: out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh.
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  Speaker 2: And you know I can't When I read that, I
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  Speaker 2: couldn't help but think that Eve was this is now
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  Speaker 2: at last bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.
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  Speaker 2: Could this also include his wife, his bone, and his flesh?
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  Speaker 2: And he will curse you to your faith. And God
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  Speaker 2: is willing to take this test one step further and
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  Speaker 2: takes Satan at his word and says, behold, he's in
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  Speaker 2: your hand. Only spare his life. So goes out and
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  Speaker 2: under God's sovereignty, he strikes Job with terrible, terrible sores
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  Speaker 2: verse seven. So Satan struck Job with loaths sores from
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  Speaker 2: the soul of his foot to the ground of his head.
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  Speaker 2: And then comes Job's encounter with his wife rest chapter two,
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  Speaker 2: verses nine and ten. His wife said to him, do
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  Speaker 2: you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die.
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  Speaker 2: Now that's exactly what Satan wanted Job to say. I
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  Speaker 2: curse you God, and I'm done with life. So Job's
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  Speaker 2: wife had lined up with Satan and becomes part of
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  Speaker 2: his temptation. Bone of his bone, flesh, of his flesh
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  Speaker 2: becoming part of what Satan wants him to do. So
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  Speaker 2: what's the author's purpose in telling us about Job's wife's
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  Speaker 2: apparent despair. I think it has a double purpose. One
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  Speaker 2: is to show that in our suffering, our most precious
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  Speaker 2: friend or loved one may turn against us. At least
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  Speaker 2: it may seem so. Our flesh and bone, part of
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  Speaker 2: our very self, may become part of Satan's test. The
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  Speaker 2: other purpose, I think is that we not let tests
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  Speaker 2: embitter us, to show that Job didn't let the test
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  Speaker 2: embitter him, but rather bring out of us a response
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  Speaker 2: of hope to the very loved one who has become
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  Speaker 2: part of the Satanic temptation, and that we bring clarity
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  Speaker 2: to that loved one about God. And I think that's
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  Speaker 2: what Job models here. He says, you speak as one
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  Speaker 2: of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good
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  Speaker 2: from God and not receive evil? In all this Job
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  Speaker 2: did not seem with his lips. So he says two things. One,
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  Speaker 2: let's be clear about God. He has the right to
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  Speaker 2: comfort and calamity into our lives. He owes us nothing.
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  Speaker 2: We don't deserve anything from him. We can't negotiate with him.
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  Speaker 2: He has done us no wrong, wife, His ways are high.
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  Speaker 2: We will understand by and by even if we don't now.
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  Speaker 2: And the other response is hope, hope that his wife
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  Speaker 2: is not settled in her opposition, but only weakened for
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  Speaker 2: a moment.
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  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 2: I think that the author of this book wants us
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  Speaker 2: to see this. People don't always catch this, but I
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  Speaker 2: think the author tips us off in several ways. I
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  Speaker 2: see at least four pointers to the hopefulness of her
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  Speaker 2: situation that Job sees first. Up to this point in
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  Speaker 2: the story, even though all ten of her children had died,
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  Speaker 2: there's no mention of her despair or bitterness when Job
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  Speaker 2: says the Lord took away. Second, at the end of
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  Speaker 2: the book, when Eliphaz, Bildad and so Far are rebuked,
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  Speaker 2: she's not among those who get rebuked. Third, when Job
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  Speaker 2: explains to her that God has a right to bring
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  Speaker 2: good and evil, comfort and calamity, there's no pushback. And
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  Speaker 2: most importantly, Job does not say you are a foolish woman.
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  Speaker 2: He says, you speak as one of the foolish women.
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  Speaker 2: In other words, he's not yet willing to put her
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  Speaker 2: in that category. I don't see you yet, dear wife,
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  Speaker 2: as one of the foolish women, but as temporarily giving
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  Speaker 2: way under the horrible losses you have endured. So I
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  Speaker 2: think the reason Job's wife is introduced in this story
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  Speaker 2: is mainly not to condemn her, but to highlight again
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  Speaker 2: the triumph of Job's faith and hope and love. You
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  Speaker 2: may remember, Tony, and maybe a few of our listeners do.
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  Speaker 2: I doubt it, but maybe. I wrote a cycle of
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  Speaker 2: four long poems about Job, and I tried in the
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  Speaker 2: second one to capture this hope, and it was all
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  Speaker 2: about the encounter with Job's wife, and I thought it
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  Speaker 2: might be good to end this apj by crawling inside
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  Speaker 2: Job's had in an imaginary conversation with his wife to
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  Speaker 2: see how they might have resolved this together. So here
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  Speaker 2: we go, just a few lines from this poem. He
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  Speaker 2: pulled himself up from his place, and by some power
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  Speaker 2: of grace, he stood beside his wife and said, I
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  Speaker 2: would no doubt in your place feel the same. But wife,
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  Speaker 2: I cannot curse the name that never treated me unfair,
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  Speaker 2: And just this day has answered prayer? What prayer? What
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  Speaker 2: did you bid him do that I should bear this pain?
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  Speaker 2: Not you, Oh Dinah? Do not speak like those who
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  Speaker 2: cannot see, because they close their eyes and say there
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  Speaker 2: is no God or fault him when he plies the rod.
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  Speaker 2: It is no sin to say, my love, that bliss
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  Speaker 2: and pain come from above. And if we do not
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  Speaker 2: understand some dreadful stroke from his left hand, then we
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  Speaker 2: must wait and trust and see. Oh Dinah, would you
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  Speaker 2: wait with me? I'll try, she said, I didn't mean
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  Speaker 2: that you should die. I'm more unclean than you with
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  Speaker 2: all your sores. She knelt and found between a boil
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  Speaker 2: and welt a place to put her kiss. Is there
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  Speaker 2: some evidence that God could care for such as me?
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  Speaker 2: Job touched her hair? You are another answered prayer.
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  Speaker 1: Very compassionately put. Pastor John, thank you for this perspective
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  Speaker 1: of temptations and love for a spouse at the same time.
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  Speaker 1: And if you want to find this and the other poems,
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  Speaker 1: google search it for job Poems by John Piper. For
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  Speaker 1: Job Poems by John Piper. A Google search will get
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  Speaker 1: you into that nineteen ninety four series of poems on job,
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  Speaker 1: all four in one series that you eventually find it
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  Speaker 1: zarronodot work. And with that we enter job together this weekend,
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  Speaker 1: and that means we are entering the final weeks of
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  Speaker 1: our Bible reading plan in twenty twenty four. Let me
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  Speaker 1: know what you think. Did it encourage you to hang
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  Speaker 1: with the Bible reading this year as we made it
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  Speaker 1: a focus of our podcast. Perhaps this was your first
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  Speaker 1: time reading the whole Bible through in a year. Maybe
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  Speaker 1: you started and you dropped out. Whatever happened, I would
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  Speaker 1: love to know your experience and how we can better
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  Speaker 1: serve your commitment to reading the whole Bible in twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty five. We may use this Bible reading plan again
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  Speaker 1: next year, but you tell me. Email me your thoughts
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  Speaker 1: at ask Pastor John at Desiring Good dot org and
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  Speaker 1: put Bible reading in the subject line. Well, there are
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  Speaker 1: dark stories of people who get taken advantage of this
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  Speaker 1: world and who want revenge. That's the case next time
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  Speaker 1: when we hear from a listener to the podcast who
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  Speaker 1: has endured a lot of pain at the hands of
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  Speaker 1: her enemy. I'm Tony Rank. You will see on Monday