Reeling and Recovering from Devastating News │ Msg 2/22

0:01 I want to read for you and then ask you to participate in the reading at the end in a worshipful manner, unlike we normally end the scriptures. You'll be ready for it when we get there. And I want to read the passage like the dear Dr. Chaffer, I understand, used to read it when he would read Job 1, 12 through 22. Then the Lord said to Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.

0:35 So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord. Now what happened on the day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, that a messenger came to Job and said, The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabaeans attacked and took them, they also slew the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another also came and said, The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another also came and said, The Chaldeans formed three bands and made a raid on the camels and took them and slew the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another also came and said, your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house.

1:28 And behold, a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house and it fell on the young people and they died. And I alone have escaped to tell you. Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell to the ground and worshiped. And said, naked, I came from my mother's womb. Naked, I shall return. The Lord gave. The Lord has taken away.

2:19 Blessed be the name of the Lord. Through all this, Job did not sin or blame God. Blessed be the name Blessed be the name Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name. the name

3:22 it's one thing to read that it's one thing to sing that it's another thing to believe it and say it our father Blessed be your name when you give. Blessed be your name when you take. Blessed be your name at the birth of our children. Blessed be your name at their death. Blessed be your name when they serve you.

4:02 Blessed be your name when they fight with you. Blessed be your name when our home is full of nice things. Blessed be your name when we don't even have a home. Blessed be your name when the car is new Blessed be your name When the car is old blessed be your name when the church is growing blessed be your name when the growth stops Blessed be your name when we're getting along. Blessed be your name when we can't get along.

4:55 Blessed be the name of the Lord. You are to be most blessed. No one else gives like you give. No one else has the right to take as you have that right.

5:16 Because you have given, we today are able to give. and we glory in your name because we can and for those who can't we glory in your name blessed be the name of the Lord in the name of the Lord we give and we pray God's people said December 7, 1941, November the 22nd, 1963. September the 11th, 2001. if you've lived as long as I have, those three dates are like creases permanently etched in your brain. We remember where we were. We remember what we were doing. We remember how we felt.

6:16 devastating news the imperial army of japan has now bombed our ships and our men and women in the military at pearl harbor Some crazed gunner has assassinated our president, Daley Plaza, Dallas, Texas. A group of unnamed terrorists have found their way onto airplanes they've turned into missiles. and in Lower Manhattan, the Twin Towers are no longer there, and a wing of the Pentagon is destroyed. in the quiet countryside of southwest Pennsylvania, of all things, another plane has gone down.

7:19 All of us remember the last. In the wake of the last tragedy, or atrocity I'd rather call it, a name has emerged. Many others have been heroic, but this one especially. the name of a man we've never met, who is now in our mind a hero, Todd, Todd Beamer.

7:44 Faithful husband and devoted father of two, wife Lisa carrying their third. And we know now, having traced back and listened to recordings, that he called GTE Communications Center in Oak Brook, Illinois, and he spoke with a superior, interestingly, a woman with the same first name as his wife, Lisa Jefferson. And in the conversation, mixed with tears and panic and some calm words, he asked her to pray with him the Lord's Prayer. and following the prayer his last words, are you guys ready? Let's roll! And indeed they did. And they diverted that missile from killing yet more than it did all on board as that ill-fated United Flight 93 crashed into a meadow Pennsylvania.

8:53 He was just a passenger on the plane. Todd Beamer was not trained to fight terrorists. Probably never dreamed he ever would, or perhaps ever could. but he did and they did. And without realizing it, he had lived his whole life for that moment and became in that unusual way, even in his short life, heroic. As I heard of the report, the words from the 19th century of Henry Longfellow came to mind. the heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight but they while their companions slept were toiling upward in the night funny isn't it we would never consider something we're going through as heroic I don't know if you've ever thought of it but the way we will be remembered by some will be for them heroic traveled back with me centuries to a date no one could name, to a place few could point out on a map, to a setting that seemed idyllic.

10:17 A man who hadn't been trained to endure the loss of everything lost everything. And though himself also a good husband and a devoted and faithful father, and a splendid businessman whose life was marked by integrity watched it all leave in one fell sweep of events.

10:45 And interestingly, Job would be remembered not for being healthy, wealthy, and wise, but for enduring the loss of everything. even in the biblical days when James took up his pen to write said you have heard of the endurance of Job who pull money endurance to abide under the load you have heard of the man who endured under the load of the loss that hit him like a ton and a half pallet of bricks one after another, after another, after another, and he endured. And for that, he was heroic. How many lives facing radical surgery in a hospital have taken comfort from the life of Job?

11:42 how many grieving parents laying their son or daughter to rest long before they ever dreamed it would ever happen, thinking they themselves would go before the daughter or son, have turned to Job and found in his life and in his endurance the hope to go on. How many who have had failed businesses have turned to Job and discovered a reason they can make it because he made it. There is no date.

12:20 There was no warning. There was no explanation before the fact. And therefore, there could be no understanding at the time why it happened like it did. We forget that because we know why. we've read Job 1 and we've read Job 2 and we know of this strange cosmic agreement between the giver of light and life and the ultimate wicked spirit Satan we know the deal that was struck. Job knew none of it. None of it. And he didn't know for the longest time, if I may, maybe never, till he died the whole story. but acting with the character he had developed over years of trusting with trusting God and walking with him the loss of everything did not cause him to curse God and turn against him I think Philip Yancey is on to something he writes in his 1988 bestseller Disappointment with God, it helps to think of the book of Job as a mystery play, a whodunit detective story.

13:50 Before the play itself begins, we in the audience get a sneak preview, as if we have showed up early for a press conference in which the director explains his work, chapters one and two. He relates the plot and describes the main characters, then tells us in advance who did what in the play and why. In fact, he solves every mystery in the play except one.

14:25 How will the main character respond? Will Job trust God or deny him? later when the curtain rises, we see only the actors on stage. Confined within the play, get this, they have no knowledge of what the director has told us in the sneak preview.

14:50 We know the answer to the whodunit questions, but the star detective, Job, does not. He spends all his time on stage trying to discover what we already know. He scratches himself with shards of pottery and asks, why me? What did I do wrong? What is God trying to tell me? To the audience, Job's questions should be mere intellectual exercises, for we learn the answers in the prologue, the first two chapters. What did Job do wrong? Nothing. he represents the very best of the species. Didn't God call Job blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil? Why then is Job suffering?

15:43 Not for punishment. Far from it. He has been selected as the principal player in a great contest of the heavens. But he didn't know it. All he knew is one day things were great and the next day things were horrible. The next day he was healthy and the following hours he was sick unto death. and he never knew why. I have found in life that when you don't know why you're suffering, the suffering is harder. If I could just pinpoint the reason,

16:25 if I could just find a sin that I could confess, and having confessed it and dealt with it, maybe the suffering will be easier to bear and I'll get out from under this. But when I cannot find one, certainly not one that would merit this kind of experience i i i'm just like joe i'm at a loss and so are you there's an interlude that passes that I don't want you to miss between verses 12 and 13 of chapter 1.

17:00 I know that familiarity with the book has caused some people to sort of yawn their way through Job. I regret that. This is sort of like seeing a movie for another time. As people will say, I saw more the second time. I saw even more the third time. If you will, act like you've never read this before. That'll help. Please notice the end of verse 12. So Satan departed. The beginning of verse 13. Now it happened. stop.

17:39 All the scene between God and Satan is invisible, as I've said, not known by Job. We know from what we read later that the kids have all gone to Job Jr.'s home for a little feast time together, all 10 of them having fun as only grown family members can have, if they're still talking together. And this family is. They're eating and they're feasting and they're having one great time, and the father, being the good father that he is, not super pious, but genuinely concerned, the father goes to prayer. Perhaps one of the kids will have begun to drift, or maybe something will be said that will cause another to do something off-color or inappropriate, and would somehow hurt the relationship that she has or he has with the Lord. and so Job turns to prayer and is on his knees in his bedchamber.

18:38 At the same time, if you were to look out Job's window, you would see the oxen plowing the field preparing for the next crop. It's a sunny afternoon, a little cloud in the distance, but not much. There are sheep grazing on the field and donkeys are feeding nearby. The camels are being made ready for the next trucking experience along the caravan as Job is involved in that trucking business we mentioned last time.

19:05 All of the field hands are at work, working with animals they know by name. Sons and daughters are having one great time telling family stories and laughing over recent events. And if you listen closely through the door, you could hear the prayers of a good father as he remembers one child after another by name. Dads do that. suddenly there's a knock at the door and Job normally is not interrupted by any of the servants but this messenger has something worth interrupting to say and after that Job's life will never be the same again ever it's like the phone call you would get in the middle of the night it's like the rap at the door it's like the visit from someone who is an official from the government and the messenger bursts in without being told it's okay, and he says to Job, the oxen, the oxen were plowing, and the donkeys were feeding beside them, and those people from Sheba, they attacked.

20:07 We talked about the possibility of coming, they've attacked, and they took those animals, all of those animals, and they cut the servants to ribbon while he was still speaking. Another one came on the scene, and he said there was this bolt of lightning. It was like fire from heaven that came down, and it consumed all of the sheep and all of the field hands who take care of the sheep. And I'm the only one left. And another pushes him aside and says, Job, you wouldn't believe it, but three raids from the Chaldeans have hit that area where we have the camels and they have taken all the camels away and they have killed every one of the servants. And I alone am left. And Job is not even able to get up off his knees, at least thinking I've got my kids. And there's one more that says, Job, Job, the sons. No, no. No, no, no, no! There was this tornado that swept through the wilderness and wooden carts were thrown in the air when the wheels were blown apart and it came right over the house of your oldest son and the house exploded and every one of the kids was killed. Okay.

21:16 I have in my library half a shelf of books on Job. One of them is a treasured volume that has some wonderful works of art in it. And as I thumbed through the book just this past week, I came across the artwork of Gustave Dory, circa 1860, two woodcut prints, showing two scenes that the scripture leaves almost too sacred to describe of Job. They're both called Job hearing of his ruin.

21:56 And one of them shows an old man with his forehead across his eyes. His mouth is open. There's a little spittle. and it's like the wailing cry of a daddy after the news of everything gone and now the kids as well the next scene that dory paints and puts in woodcut shows a man prostrate flat on his face barefoot alone also named Job hearing of his ruin. And what about his wife?

22:45 She lost everything too. For those of us who have seen Saving Private Ryan, there is a very moving scene. In a country house, the Ryan family. And the mother is at the kitchen sink, and she's working, and she looks up in a brief moment, and she detects coming along the country road toward the front of the house a strange car painted in olive drab with government license plates. And there are four stars in her window.

23:36 And she clutches her apron to her face. we regret to inform you, Mrs. Ryan, and she hears of the death of three of her four sons. And she drops to her knees. It is the most moving setting. The audience is as silent as you are. And that sets the whole plot for the finding and saving of Private Ryan to preserve the family name. Forgive me if this doesn't sound fair, but I will tell you there is some sense of dignity in the loss of a son to preserve the liberty of the United States of America.

24:32 There is a nobility in placing those precious remains in a casket and in a grave, knowing they died right. Job lost all ten in a freak storm directed by Satan.

24:58 All of them. And for the first time in 35, 40 years, Mr. and Mrs. Job are childless. And when you read the account and come to the end of the 19th verse, as four trembling messengers are standing there, a couple of them still bleeding from the escape. You have to pause and let the grief seep in. I would plead with all of you who love the Bible, leave room for its emotion. It's full of it. those who tell me the Bible bores them tip their hand in telling me they have just read words.

25:56 They've not let their emotions run. the only one taking delight in this scene is Satan. He and his demonic hosts on the edge of their seat of authority, as it were, watching, waiting for the cursing that's going to come from those lips.

26:25 He can't make it. spoiled man that he is. We've taken it all. See the then in verse 20? I don't know how long. Could have been all the rest of the afternoon he lay there.

26:50 He could have stumbled outside to look for himself in the distance to see the house, now a shambles, holding the bodies of his children. and I'll tell you, as painful as the words of the messengers were as he played them over in his mind, something even worse was the silence of God, not one word of comfort from the heavenlies. You've been there, haven't you?

27:32 No one to answer why. No one to explain the reason for the ruin. Alexander White puts it so well. Job's sorrows came not in a single spy, but in battalions. before he could catch his breath from one there was another and from the other there was yet another and maybe he lay on that ground till the dew fell then I read this two dozen times in the Hebrew. There are nine words in the Hebrew text of verse 20, which tells us what Job did before it tells us in 21 what Job said. And of the nine words, five are verbs. The English version I use has 19 words, but still five verbs.

28:30 When you read your Bible, not only catch the emotion and enter into that. Pay attention to the verbs. They will move you through the action of the event. Let them say what they say. Job peeled himself off the ground. He arose. the next verb tells us of a strange thing. He tore his robe. The word for robe is a garment that fits over a loose tunic, like a dress one would wear that goes down below the knees, called a tunic in biblical days. This was the seamless garment Jesus wore until they stripped him naked for the crucifixion and they gambled for that piece of garment, not wanting to tear it. This is not the tunic, however. This is the robe that kept him warm at night. And he reached and not finding a seam, but finding a part of the fabric, he rips it.

29:29 And in the ripping of the robe, he is announcing his horrible grief, the anguish. And it's used several times in the Old Testament for the expression of grief, the tearing of the robe. and then we read the third verb, he shaved his head. The hair is always pictured in the scriptures as the glory of an individual, the worth. And the shaving of the head is the picture of the loss of glory, the unworthy moment in time. and every artist picture that shows job following this moment shows him bald no hair and this time he falls to the ground not in a collapse of vacuous grief but for another purpose look at the last verb Shaka.

30:36 Shaka is a verb that means to fall prostrate in utter submission. and worship. I dare say most of you have never, ever worshipped on your face on the ground. The most ancient form of obeisance and submission to the Father, I suggest you try this sometime, palms down, face down, knees and toes touching the ground, body fully extended, pouring out your heart in worship. the only one cursing is Satan.

31:31 He hated it. He hated it that Job would live through this. And of all things, worship. A God who would allow this kind of thing to happen. There wouldn't be one in 20 million on this earth who would do that. and he thought Job was one of the millions but he didn't realize As many who knew Todd Beamer in growing up years would have ever imagined, he would have been that kind of man. the wicked spirits sit with their mouths wide open, as it were, as they watch a man who follows all of his adversities with adoration, who follows all of his woes with worship, no blame, no bitterness, no cursing, no fist raised high to the heavens, saying, how dare you do this after I've walked with you all these years?

32:36 None of that. Instead, look at what he says. This is magnificent. This is one magnificent response. Naked I came, as he looks back, to his birth. naked I will return as he looks ahead to his death.

33:01 Think of that. At birth, we all come naked. At death, we all leave naked as we're prepared for burial. We have nothing in coming. We have nothing when we depart.

33:23 So everything we have in time is given. All we have is skin wrapped around bones and organs and muscles. That's all we have. And a soul for which we must give account before our God. And Job's taking care of that. And he calls into perspective that which is right. Get it. The one who gave. and has put everything on loan to me in time, has chosen and has every right to choose this manner, has chosen to take everything away.

34:04 I won't take anything with me anyway. Blessed be his name for loaning it to me while I had it. get that get it affluent americans as we are get it when you walk through your house and see those wonderful belongings get it when you and i get behind the wheels of our cars and drive them on loan on loan get it when the when the business falls and fails it was on loan when the stocks rise and when the stocks fall it's on loan what'd you bring to this scene a naked body and not too good looking one at that and what would you have when you leave a naked body and a i'll leave it at that Just added a lot of wrinkles I've never seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul You take nothing because you brought nothing, which means you own nothing.

35:18 What a grand revelation. Listen to me, you don't even own your children. They're God's children on loan for you to take care of, rear, release, and pray for. This is a perfect moment to pause and look at one statement Paul makes in 1 Timothy 6, verse 7. Please, 1 Timothy 6. And having looked at it, go back to Job 1, 21 and put it in the margin of your Bible and memorize it this week. 1 Timothy 6, 7. It will help you when the interest rate goes up we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either.

36:20 If we have food and covering with these, verse 8 adds, we shall be content. Put that not only in the margin of Job 1.21, put that in another crease in your brain. We brought nothing. We take nothing. in the meantime we borrow everything as a good friend of mine tried to teach me years ago God owns it all I know your name is on the title I know it won't be when you're gone I know you built that place and you're proud of it that's nothing wrong with that nothing wrong with having it nice Nothing wrong with having things in it. Nothing wrong with driving a fine car. We've gone over this before.

37:11 It's not about that. The problem comes when the car drives us. And the possessions own us. They never owned Job. This is the curve that he threw back into the heavens, into the face of Satan. In your face, Lucifer.

37:35 I never set my affections on them in the first place. And I've understood from the get-go, when we had our first until we had our tenth, they're all gods. The one who gave it all and the one who had the right to take it all whenever he wanted it all was the same one deserving of all my praise. Blessed be his name. And I love the benediction through all this. Job did not sin Nor did he blame God Get this lesson Get it really clear When you understand that everything you have is on loan Then you are better prepared To release it when the owner wants it back and the less time you will spend between utter, sheer, and understandable grief and worship.

38:42 that is why I believe a memorial service at a funeral can be one of the most meaningful worship services of one's experience, because we can't take it with us. My good friend and one of my mentors in the early years of my ministry, Ray Stedman, tells a true story. He had traveled to a site for ministry through a week, had forgotten there was a very nice evening dinner. He was to attend and speak at, therefore he needed a nice suit that he had failed to bring with him. He realized it toward the afternoon when the hour was getting late. He was located near a funeral home, and he thought maybe for a pretty quick moment the funeral director would at least loan me a suit that would have gone on a cadaver.

39:44 And he went over and he bargained with him and got the suit. And he said, that evening, Chuck, as I stood up to speak, I was addressing all the people, and as was my common practice, I reached down to put my hand in my pocket. And I realized their cadaver suits have no pockets. Thank you. I read this past week, shrouds have no pockets. we enter the world with fists clenched as little babies but we always leave the world with hands open on our chests naked naked And in the interlude, Lord God, blessed be your name for loaning me all that you've loaned me.

40:48 through all this, Job did not sin. Isn't that wonderful? Nor did he blame God. Why blame God? As Francis Anderson has written, God has given him a rehearsal for death. All things belong to God, absolutely. To be given as gift, not claim. to be taken back without wrong. There is no talk of human rights. The Lord is the sovereign owner of all, and Job rejoices in this wonderful fact.

41:29 When perspective returned, he put his arm around his grieving, precious wife, held her close, and whispered, God gave. for some unrevealed reason, he chose to take back. This entire message could have been delivered in three words.

41:54 Some of you are thinking, why didn't you do that? You can help finish the sentence. You'll know the third word. Hold everything loosely. Say it again. Hold everything loosely.

42:20 Let's bow our heads. If you've never met the Lord Jesus Christ, he's a master. He's the master worth following and is available. is available to you.

42:41 A relationship with him will give you a perspective like Job's. Todd Beamer had that relationship. His wife, who survives him now with their new baby, tells their story of Todd's salvation and her confidence that God brought along Todd for such a moment as that. What perspective? I invite you to visit the cross and to look up and see a man who was God, who held everything loosely, even his own life, and at the age of 33 paid the supreme penalty for sins. Not his sins, but ours.

43:34 and invite you to come to him like a little child. I urge you to do that today. and then you will say with fellow Christians, blessed be the name of the Lord.

44:01 Blessed be your name, Lord, for having loaned me what you have, these precious children I tuck in bed at night.