Someone recently asked me if a particular phrase came from the Bible. The phrase was something like this, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
I replied that this phrase is a non-biblical cliché. Because many Christians quote this phrase, we sometimes think the phrase comes from the Bible. This phrase does not come from the Bible, but the practice is seen in the Bible and in Christian work.
There is another phrase that Christians and non-Christians believe is in the Bible, and the phrase is, "God helps those who help themselves." This phrase is not in the Bible, and this phrase is not consistent with what the Bible teaches.
All of us have been in situations where we are powerless or unmotivated to help ourselves. If God only helps those who help themselves, all of us would be in deep trouble and without hope of God’s help. Helplessness is endemic to the human existence.
I remember hearing two weeks ago the interview of those who survived the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center. One lady coming down the stairs when the building collapsed became trapped between concrete and steel for more than 27 hours, unable to help herself. She was the last person found alive in the rescue effort.
The feeling of helplessness can also come from professional or financial setbacks due to company layoff or the stock market crash. The feeling of helplessness can come from sudden or chronic illness. The feeling of helplessness can come from the attack by a burglar or by someone you love. The feeling of helplessness began at birth and usually precedes our death.
Everyone, given enough time, knows the feeling of helplessness. But not everyone knows how to recover from times of helplessness. We will discover some answers this morning from the Book of Job, chapter 3.
Here is a man with a death wish. Before we look at how to survive helplessness, I want to review briefly and make two observations from Job 3. This way, even if you have not been with us during our study in Job you’ll still have context for understanding.
The first observation is that suffering is not always the result of sin.
In chapters 1 and 2, we read that Job was blessed with great wealth and many children. And if we were not given revelation about what went on in heaven, the test God placed on Job incited by Satan, we might guess the wealth and children were taken from Job, because Job disobeyed or displeased God. The opposite was true. Job was faithful to God.
Yet, attackers carried off Job’s wealth. Raiders killed many of his servants and stole his livestock. Fire from Heaven burned his sheep and more servants. A tornado killed his children. And Job became afflicted with painful sores from head to toe. And we read in chapter 1, verse 22, "In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing." Suffering is not always the result of sin.
Ray Stedman tells about the time the editor of a magazine asserted that Billy Graham’s illness is due to a secret sin. The assumption was that the illness was God’s punishment for Billy Graham’s disobedience against God. And then a few months later, the editor fell down a flight of stairs. At that point, the editor blamed Satan for his suffering a broken leg.
Some of us are more consistent in our application of this false belief that suffering is always the result of sin. When your company lays you off work, your mind darts to your besetting sin. When you get a flat tire, you remember how you mistreated your wife. When you become seriously ill, you confess every sin from first grade through the present.
If God were to punish us today for the sins we’ve committed, all of us would be in the hospital or in the grave. Not one of us would be well enough to be at church this morning. We need to thank God for His patience and mercy, rather than believe our sins deserve only physical and mental anguish. The truth is, suffering is not always the result of your sins.
The second observation is that when God doesn’t answer our questions, we already know enough for the test.
We’ve all taken tests in school, and we’ve all tried to ask the teacher for the answer in some way, especially when we were in elementary or middle school. But as we get into high school and college, we realize that the teacher will not give the answer because he already gave us enough before the test.
In chapter 3, Job is asking God why such a hard test? Job asked, "Why did God allow me to be born? Why didn’t I die at birth? Why can’t I die to escape this anguish?"
When we are in the midst of life’s test, we often ask, "Why me? Why do I have to have cancer?"
"What is the purpose of this test? Can’t I learn the lesson some other way?"
"Why can’t it end now? I can’t handle this any longer."
When no answer is given, many respond by cursing God and longing to die. Others ignore the reality of God and try to face the test alone. They are consequently destroyed by the test because they leave the only One Who can help them pass the test.
Job did not curse God. Job did not leave God. We read his reply in Job 2:10, "Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?" In all this, Job did not sin in what he said. Job knew enough about God’s goodness to answer his own heart’s questions.
Many of us are still in the middle of the test. The test can be an illness, a frustrating marriage, horrible work situation or hurtful in-laws. We have our questions. And God hasn’t answer them.
Have we looked at what God has already said in His Word, the Bible? Do we know enough of God’s ways and goodness to answer our own heart’s questions? God gives open book tests and group tests. When God doesn’t answer our questions, we already know enough for the test. We can use the Bible and seek counsel from other believers.
Knowing enough for the test does not mean that we will apply what we know to the test. Sometimes, applying what we know to the test requires recall, willingness, emotional stability and confidence. During a test, most of us draw blanks and forget what we know.
Job forgot the specific ways God was good to him. Life’s tests have a way of blurring God’s goodness. Job was in such anguish that he wanted to die. He lost everything that gives us meaning, his possessions and his family. The one who remained, his wife, encourage him to take his life.
But why didn’t Job take his life? Why didn’t he commit suicide? I believe Job didn’t give up, because Job knew God’s character didn’t change in the midst of life’s test.
Let me suggest that Job’s lament and questions reflected his helplessness but not his hopelessness. Helplessness is the feeling or the fact of powerlessness to help oneself. Our wealth, our friends, our support systems and even our will to live can be taken from us. At that moment, we are helpless and only hope in God will enable us to recover.
Listen to the words of Isaiah 40:28-31, "Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."
Where we put our hope in good times and in helpless times will determine whether we have the will to live, whether we regain strength for the race, and whether we will pass the test. In the remaining 15 minutes, I want to highlight three characteristics of God in which Job placed his hope. We won’t find this in his confession of helplessness, but they are revealed in later chapters. Let’s look together.
First, Job placed his hope in God’s sovereignty. We read this in Job 7:17-19 and 42:2.
By God’s sovereignty, we are saying that God is control. He is in charge. This is not to say that we are like puppets on God’s string or like bricks in a wall, that we will stay put until God moves us. Instead, God’s sovereignty assures us that even when the earth quakes, even when the doctors can’t help, even when our life’s dream turns into a nightmare, even when we are out of control, God is still in control.
Susan and I have been doing childcare lately for the Mandarin Fellowship and for the Marin County Church’s One Voice gatherings. You need to know, I can handle middle school or high school boys any day. But put me in a room full of little girls and little boys, and I am as helpless as a dying duck in hailstorm.
But I’ve boldly done childcare knowing there would be little boys and girls in the group, because my wife was with me. Susan has the skills to keep the attention and the discipline of all the little kids in a room. All I do is what she tells me to do. And even when I fail to do what she tells me, I know she’s still has control of the kids. That’s sovereignty.
Someone wrote, "There is no attribute more comforting to [God’s] children than that of God’s sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, [we] believe that sovereignty has ordained [our] afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all."
Job was helpless, but he was not hopeless. Job didn’t know he was the subject of a test between God and Satan, but he knew God was in charge and that he belonged to God. And that was enough for Job. God’s sovereignty is enough for us.
Second, Job placed his hope in God’s righteousness. We read this in Job 4:17, 8:3 and 12:13.
When we speak of God’s righteousness, we are speaking about the fact that God will always do what is right. God has full understanding of the situation, and His motives are pure. His evaluation is accurate, and His knowledge is complete.
Let me share with you the story of the Woodcutter’s Wisdom (Excerpted and abridged from Max Lucado’s In the Eye of the Storm: A Day in the Life of Jesus.):
Once there was an old many who lived in a village. Although poor, he was envied by all, for he owned a beautiful white horse. Even the king coveted his treasure.
People offered fabulous prices for the horse, but the old man always refused. "This horse is not a horse to me," he would tell them. "He’s a friend, not a possession. How could you sell a friend?" The man was poor and the temptation was great. But he never sold the horse.
One morning, he found the horse missing from the stable. All the villagers came to see him. "You old food," they scoffed, " we told you that someone would steal your horse. How could you ever hope to protect such a valuable animal? It would have been better to have sold him. You could have gotten whatever price you wanted. Now the horse is gone and you’ve been curse with misfortune."
The old man responded, "Don’t speak too quickly. Say only that the horse is not in the stable. That is all we know; the rest is judgment. If I’ve been cursed or not, how can you know? How can you judge?"
The people contested, "Don’t make us out to be fools! We may not be philosophers, but great philosophy is not needed. The simple fact is that your horse is gone is a curse."
The old man spoke again. "All I know is that the stable is empty, and the horse is gone. The rest I don’t know. Whether it be a curse or a blessing, I can’t say. All we can see is a fragment. Who can say what will come next?"
The people of the village laughed. They thought that the many was crazy. If he wasn’t, he would have sold the horse and lived off the money.
After fifteen days, the horse returned. He hadn’t been stole; he had run away into the forest. Not only had he returned, he had brought a dozen wild horses with him. Once again, the villagers gather around the woodcutter and spoke. "Old man, you were right and we were wrong. What we though was a curse was a blessing. Please forgive us."
The man responded, "Once again, you go too far. Say only that the horse is back. State only that a dozen horses returned with him, but don’t judge. How do you know if this is a blessing or not? You see only fragment. Unless you know the whole story, how can you judge? You read only one page of a book. Can you judge the whole book?
Life is so vast, yet you judge all of life with one page or one word. Don’t say that this is a blessing. No one knows. I am content with what I know. I am not perturbed by what I do not know.
"Maybe the old man is right," they said to one another. So they said little. But down deep, they knew he was wrong. They knew it was a blessing. Twelve wild horses had returned with one horse. With a little bit of work, the animals could be trained and sold for much money.
The old man had a son, an only son. The young man began to break the wild horses. After a few days, he fell from one of the horses and broke both legs. Once again the villagers gather around the old man and cast their judgments.
"You were right," they said. "You proved you were right. The dozen horses were not a blessing. They were a curse. Your only son has broken his legs, and now in your old age, you have no one to help you. Now you are poorer than ever."
The old man spoke again. "You people are obsessed with judging. Don’t go so far. Say only that my son broke his legs. Who knows if it is a blessing or a curse? We only have a fragment. Life comes in fragments."
It so happened that a few weeks later the country engaged in war against a neighboring country. All the young men of the village were required to join the army. Only the son of the old man was excluded, because he was injured.
Once again the people gathered around the old man, crying and screaming because their sons had been taken. There was little chance that they would return. The enemy was strong, and the war would be a losing struggle. They would never see their sons again.
"You were right, old man," they wept. "God knows you were right. This proves it. Your son’s accident was a blessing. His legs may be broken, but at least he is with you. Our sons are gone forever."
The old man spoke again. "It is impossible to talk with you. You always draw conclusions. No one knows. Say only this: Your sons had to go to war, and mine did not. No one knows if it is a blessing or a curse. No one is wise enough to know. Only God knows."
We do not know the future and cannot see our situation in light of the whole picture. Our moment of helplessness may turn out to be the foundation for our triumph.
Job was helpless, but he was not hopeless. Job did not curse God or take his own life in times of helplessness, because he put his hope in the fact that God will always do what is right with his life. And that was enough for Job. God’s righteousness is enough for us.
Third, Job placed his hope in God’s redemption. We read this in Job 19:25-27.
By redemption, Job is speaking about God as the One Who will justify or pay back what we’ve lost in life. No matter how we have been abused, persecuted or served an unfair hand in life, those who hope in God’s redemption will see God make the correction and the payback, if not in this life, for sure in eternal life.
Unfortunately, many people drop out of the test because we want immediate gratification. We want our situation to improve right away. But only by putting our hope in God’s redemption can we overcome helplessness in this life.
Paul said, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.... For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently (Romans 8:18, 24-25).
In a materialistic and instant society, it is hard to hope in the unseen and to hope in the future. But if we want to have courage, strength and perseverance to move through helpless times, we must have hope in God’s future redemption.
Job was helpless, but he was not hopeless. Job persevered, because His Redeemer is God. More than 3000 years after the life of Job, God revealed Jesus Christ as Redeemer for mankind. Jesus Christ is our hope of God’s redemption.
God promises to repay much more than what He exacts from our lives. And that was enough for Job. God’s redemption is enough for us.
In 1980, as the famous French atheist existentialist philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, was sick and approaching death, he wrote, "Despair returns to tempt me.... The world seems ugly, bad, and without hope. There, that’s the cry of despair of an old man who will die in despair. But that’s exactly what I resist. I know I shall die in hope. But that hope needs a foundation."
The hope that Job had and that we have been introduced to this morning has a foundation. Our hope rests on God’s character of sovereignty and righteousness, and God’s promise of redemption.
