Perseverance with Perspective

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding..." ... Then Job answered the Lord and said: "I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You... I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 38–42)

When suffering is certain, only an eternal perspective lets us persevere without becoming bitter.

We All Suffer — The Question Is How We Respond

We began this series in the book of Job six weeks ago, and I hope you've seen what a fascinating story it is. If you've missed any of it, I'd encourage you to listen online, or to recommend it to someone going through a trial right now. I've received a great deal of feedback throughout this series, and I think it's because each of us experiences suffering at some level.

Suffering is relative. What seems insignificant to one person can seem overwhelming to another. But we all experience it, and even when we don't personally suffer, we are constantly impacted by the suffering of others in a world that bombards us with heavy news. We may not suffer to the extent Job did, but the question is never whether we will suffer — it's how we respond.

There are really only two ways a person who seeks to walk with God comes out of suffering: hardened and angry toward Him, or drawn closer to Him, realizing He is working something in the midst of it. You can come out better or you can come out bitter. I've met people hardened by suffering because God didn't intervene, or because they felt He was doing something to them. Yet Job — whose suffering came directly from the hand of God, with no way around it — does not end up bitter. A transformation takes place. Everybody suffers in this fallen, broken world, but not everybody emerges as Job did, in a better situation.

James and the Promise of a Blessing

In the New Testament, James deals with this. He writes:

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. (James 1:2–3)

Many of us have heard that verse — and few of us do it well. People even joke, "Don't pray for patience," or "Don't read Job, or your whole life will fall apart." But you will encounter trials regardless. You will only enjoy a benefit through them, and there's only one way to experience that benefit. James continues:

Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. (James 1:12)

The words endures and patience are the same Greek root, as are temptation and trials. "Blessed" means "Oh, how happy." How happy is the person who is patient in trials — not because of the trial, but because of the outcome. The blessing is not in the trial; the blessing is in the outcome for the one who patiently endures.

You Have Heard of the Perseverance of Job

This is a theme James returns to as he closes his letter:

Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord... My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. (James 5:7–11)

This is the one reference to Job in the New Testament, so it's fitting that we land here at the close of our series. Notice the "them" James counts blessed — they are the prophets. People love to read the prophets for clues about the end of the world, the Antichrist, or the second coming. But some of the earliest Christians, James among them, said that's not the best way to read them. He says, remember the prophets as an example of suffering and patience.

I've studied and taught Isaiah and Jeremiah for years, and one thing you find is that these men lived through the end of their world. In Isaiah's day the Assyrians annihilated the northern ten tribes and destroyed forty-six cities of Judah, surrounding Jerusalem itself. Isaiah was convinced it was the end of the world — yet he endured. About 150 years later, the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and burned down the temple, and Jeremiah lived through that suffering. Ezekiel experienced it as an exile and prisoner of war in Babylon. James says: take them as your example of suffering and patience.

That gives us our first point: Job's patience and suffering is an example we should remember and follow. We count men like Job and the prophets blessed who endure, because after the testing comes the blessing.

What Is the Crown of Life?

That brings us to our second point: God promises a blessing to those who patiently endure trials. James identifies it as the crown of life. To understand what that is, we look at the only other place the phrase appears — Revelation 2, in Jesus' letter to the suffering church at Smyrna:

These things says the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life: "I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich)... Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested... Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life." (Revelation 2:8–10)

Notice that Jesus doesn't promise to stop the suffering — He gives a word: do not fear. The crown of life is given to those who remain faithful unto death, by the One who was dead and came to life. It is eternal life — life after death, life because of the resurrection — given to us by the One who wore the crown of thorns for us.

Jesus told Smyrna they would suffer "ten days." Most teachers, myself included, take that not as ten literal days but as an example of something temporary. That's a real challenge for us, because in the midst of suffering we begin to think, this will never pass, it will never get better. But the promise is that it is temporary. Even if you were to suffer every day of your life, it is temporary. This life, with all the suffering it could hold, is temporary. So we count them blessed to endure.

The End Intended by the Lord

James also says, "you have seen the end intended by the Lord." So return to Job 42. Job says, "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" — very much like Isaiah, who, seeing the Lord high and lifted up, said, "I am undone." Then comes this:

And so it was, after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has." (Job 42:7)

That's remarkable. After all of Job's words, even spoken in suffering, God says Job spoke of Him what is right, while the friends did not. God instructs them to bring offerings, and Job is to pray for them. Then:

And the Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. (Job 42:10)

Job's family and acquaintances came and consoled him, and the Lord blessed his latter days more than his beginning — fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, a thousand female donkeys, seven sons and three daughters. After this Job lived 140 years and saw four generations of his children, and died old and full of days.

James, inspired by God, calls this "the end intended by the Lord." That gives us our third point: God has an intended end and purpose in suffering. We may not always see it or fully comprehend it. You may have prayed, "God, I don't understand what You're doing." But we can and should trust that God has a purpose He is accomplishing.

The Lord Is Very Compassionate and Merciful

You may even question whether that intended purpose is worth waiting patiently for. But consider how James finishes: the Lord "is very compassionate and merciful." We need to hold those words close, because the enemy would love nothing more than for us to question the goodness, compassion, and mercy of God. That's exactly what he has been doing since Genesis 3, where the serpent implies that God is holding something back, that He isn't as good as He could be. From beginning to end, the Scriptures hammer home the opposite: God is very compassionate and merciful. We need to be reminded of that, and to remind others.

A few things are worth noting as the story resolves. First, the ancient Hebrews did not yet have a clear theology of death, resurrection, and the afterlife. It was fuzzy and dark for them, and so death was fearful — as it still is for many today. Surveys consistently list death near the top of people's greatest fears (though public speaking often comes first, which means most people would rather be the one in the casket than the one giving the eulogy).

So when we read this poetic book and see Job's restoration — everything doubled, better than before — we are meant to see a picture of resurrection. Job goes through a kind of death and rises to great restoration. Job's restoration is a type of resurrection.

The End God Intends Is Not the End of This Life

Now, not everyone who suffers is rewarded in this life. Not everyone gets back what Job got back. But the Bible reveals that God has an expected good end for those who love Him — exactly what James says: the one who endures will receive the crown of life promised to those who love Him. That puts everything we face into perspective. Paul writes:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16–18)

You might think the book of Job is a story about one man's suffering and people's responses to it. But I'd suggest the book of Job is about God's ability to resurrect and raise one up out of suffering — the hope of the Christian.

I mentioned at the start of this series Rabbi Harold Kushner's 1981 book When Bad Things Happen to Good People, written after his son Aaron, diagnosed with a terminal genetic disorder, died at fourteen. Wrestling with how a good God could allow such suffering, Kushner concludes that God is not all-powerful — that if He were, He would stop such things. I don't believe that's what Scripture teaches. What's fascinating is that about a third of the way through, he mentions eternity and resurrection only to set it aside: who can know? So he offers no ultimate hope. That's a very ancient Jewish way of seeing things — dark and uncertain about what lies beyond death.

But 2 Timothy 1 tells us Jesus "brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." What was unclear in the Old Testament is revealed in the New: Christ in you, the hope of glory. This is why Paul could tell the Thessalonians that we "do not sorrow as others who have no hope." We do grieve loss, but not without hope. "Comfort one another with these words." That is our fourth point: the end God intends is not the end of this life, for that is just the beginning.

We live in an increasingly naturalistic, materialistic culture that believes this life is all there is. If that's true, and this life is full of suffering, then you have every reason to be depressed — especially watching the apparent success of others. In Psalm 73 the psalmist looks around and says it isn't fair that wicked people prosper while he suffers. It's a bad perspective. Job helps us gain a better one — an eternal one.

A Proper Perspective Sustains Hopeful Endurance

It was not planned, but I don't think it's a coincidence that just before this series Pastor Mark taught on eternity from Colossians 3 — setting our minds on things above where Christ is seated. Our culture constantly urges us to "live in the moment." There may be some truth to not being distracted, but there's also a necessity of stepping back to see God above all things. That's what Isaiah did: "In the year that King Uzziah died" — when the nation was in chaos — "I saw the Lord, high and lifted up." That gave him perspective. Hopefully Job does the same for us. Paul offers an important meditation:

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (Romans 8:15–18)

Ten verses later: "We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." That brings us to our fifth and final point: a proper perspective of suffering will help us maintain hopeful endurance in any and every trial.

This has been my own experience these last six weeks. When I told the staff we'd go through Job, Pastor Mark joked, "Things are about to get terrible." That thought runs through people's minds. But the truth is, things go bad all the time — and when you read through Job, you have a different perspective on them. In just these last weeks we had to put one of our dogs down; days before, we rebuilt the suburban's transmission for $3,800; a week ago, identity thieves nearly wiped out $5,000 from my savings account; my homeowner's insurance dropped me as a fire risk, and the new quote came back five times higher; and then Dan McAllister's Christmas letter arrived to remind me my property taxes are due. Through all of it, I've had a different perspective. There is a peace that surpasses understanding, because "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us," and because He works all things together for good to those who love Him.

Closing Prayer

God, I thank You for Your Word. It is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing joint and marrow, soul and spirit, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of our hearts. I pray that as we come to Your Word our eyes would be lifted to see eternity — for the outward man is perishing, but the inward man is being renewed day by day, being prepared for the day when we come into Your presence, where there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore, and where You have promised to wipe away every tear. So I pray that You would help us endure by Your strength, by Your Spirit, by the encouragement of Your Word, and by the uplifting of the body of Christ, to walk through the challenges we face, knowing that the testing of our faith is producing something — even if we cannot perfectly see what it is. Lord, help us to have that conviction. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those who agreed said, Amen.