Key Truth: Suffering can drive us to get angry with God and question ‘Why?’ which evidences our belief that He has the power to answer our question and change our circumstances.

Introduction:

Q: Is anger ever appropriate in our interactions with God?

“Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil."

Ephesians 4:26-27

Job’s Defense: Of Reproof and Wind

Job 6:24-30

“(Job) was in utter darkness and perplexity, and unable to apprehend the reasons of the dispensation (of his suffering). And the only solution that offered itself, and towards which he was persistently driven by antagonism to the inadmissible position urged upon him by his friends, was not reconcilable with the goodness or justice of God.”

William Henry Green, Conflict and Triumph: The Argument of the Book of Job Unfolded

Q: Have you ever been unjustly accused of something? How did you make you feel? How did you respond?

Job’s Anger, Part 1: Of Hired Hands and Vanishing:

Job 7:1-10

“…Job makes his way to God with prayers that are sobs. Narrow and inhuman is the religion that bans weeping from the vocabulary of prayer. So Job, in his anguish, does not curb his speech, but breaks out into even greater vehemence.”

Francis I. Anderson, Job: Tyndale Old Testament Commentary

Q: What renders life meaningless? What gives your life meaning?

Job’s Anger, Part 2: Of Anguish and Questions Why:

Job 7:11-21

“It seems counter-intuitive initially, but when we ask the question ‘Why?’ we actually reveal that we believe there is a God, and not just any God who could and should be powerful enough to make things different, and who might care enough to want to both answer our question and make things better. The question ‘Why?’ reveals that none of us can escape the paradox that we believe in a powerful and loving God, albeit we don’t understand how we can reconcile this with a broken world replete with injustice and suffering.”

Krish Kandiah, Paradoxology: Why Christianity Was Never Meant to be Simple

Q: Have you ever called for God to leave you alone? Do you ever feel like He is unnecessarily disciplining or judging you? What does this reveal about your belief in the character of God?

Application:

Job 6-7 teaches us that:

-we should humbly defend our integrity when unjustly challenged and be open to rebuke when justly challenged

-a meaningless and brief view of life should make us angry

-meaningless suffering should also make us angry and cause us to question “Why?”

-our anger evidences a belief in the God who can redeem and reconcile

Benediction:

Romans 5:6-11