Does God care when we are suffering? Does it matter to God when are going through severe trials? When we are going through trials we can be tempted to wonder if God cares about what we are experiencing. We can look around and think that God simply has no concern about what is happening to us. In our lesson today we are going to look at if God cares and how we should consider our cries to God when we are suffering and going through trials. We are in the middle of Elihu’s speeches to Job and the three friends. What Elihu is doing is giving explanations about how God runs the world. Not only this, and perhaps more importantly, Elihu is challenging Job for the words he has said about God and about how God runs the world. Open your copies of God’s word to Job 35 and we are going to continue our look at Elihu’s instruction to Job.
Charging Job (35:1-3)
As Elihu continues his speech, you will again notice that he is challenging Job’s words. Elihu is not condemning Job’s life like the three friends did. Job is not saying that Job is a sinner and that is why he is experiencing this severe suffering like the three friends said. Elihu returns to what Job has been saying. Job has been saying that he is right and God has done him wrong (Job 35:2). Job has said that God is doing him wrong to bring this suffering on him. Job has said that there is advantage in not sinning because the righteous and the wicked will both suffering (Job 35:3). We see Job say things like this in Job 9:28-31; 9:22-24; 7:17-20; 22:2).
I want us to think about this challenge that Elihu presents because this is a common temptation for God’s people. There are countless people who serve the Lord but stop because life gets hard. They stop serving the Lord because of their suffering. But if you were to examine the reason for walking away from faith in God, what you will frequently find is the belief that God does not care. The idea goes like this: my service to God should give me certain life benefits. My righteousness should keep me from these kinds of trials and suffering. But since I am suffering in spite of my righteous living, then God must not care about me and about my righteousness. So I will walk away from God and stop serving him. This is what Elihu wants to unpack in chapter 35.
God Is Not Dependent on Human Behavior (35:4-8)
Elihu begins his answer to Job and the three friends by asking them to reflect on some questions. Look at Job 35:6-7. If you sin, how does it affect God? Does your sin accomplish something against God? If your sins are many, what does that do to God? Do you think you are really sticking it to God when you sin? Do you think if you stop serving God that you are really “showing him”? Do you really think you are making some big point to God if you choose to sin? Further, if you are righteous, do you think you are paying God back? Are you able to put God in your debt for all the righteousness you do? What do you think you are giving God by serving him? What does God get because you did what he said to do? You are not punishing God when you stop serving him and you are not putting God in debt to you when you obey him. The point Elihu is making is that God is not dependent on our behavior. God is not changing because of us. Here is what I mean by this. If we stop serving God the way we ought, God does not see that and think, “Oh wow, I guess he or she is really upset. I guess I should do what they want.” The opposite idea is also true. If we do serve God the way we ought, God does not see that and think, “Oh wow, I guess I have to answer their prayers now. I was going to say no but since you went to church I guess I will say yes.” We are not making a point to God by sinning and we are not forcing God to do something if we are righteous.
In verse 8 Elihu makes the point that your wickedness only affects you and your righteousness only affects you. Now we need to be clear that Elihu is not saying that wickedness does not hurt other people and that righteous acts do not help other people. Our sins do hurt others. Our good works do help others. That is not Elihu’s point. Elihu’s point is that you are not hurting God when choose to sin. You are only hurting yourself. You are not forcing God to do something with your unrighteousness. You are only ruining yourself with your unrighteousness. In the same way, you are not putting God in your debt with your righteousness. But you are helping yourself. Righteous living is good for you. God’s laws are given for our good, not his. God’s directions are for us. Our wickedness or righteousness is affecting you. You are not making some point to God. This is the imagery of verse 5. Look at the heavens and clouds and see how much higher they are than you. What do you think you are doing to the Lord God in heaven as you sit down here gazing into the sky? God is so much greater than you and higher than you. What are you going to do to him? What are you going to do for him?
God Does Not Respond to Empty Cries (35:9-16)
But now Elihu is going to dig even deeper with a stinging observation. People cry out to God because of the severity of their oppression and suffering. They plead for relief and help from the arm of the mighty (cf. Job 35:9). Please cry out to God for help. But they do not cry out to God for God. Look at verses 10-11. Elihu says that people cry out to God for the suffering to stop. But no one cries out to God my Maker who brings me joy, who teaches me in my suffering, and who makes me wiser through my pain. Elihu continues in verse 12 that God does not answer those who cry out in their pride and arrogance. God does not answer cries of selfishness. This is something that we know the scriptures teach. In James 4:3 we read James teaching that the people were asking and not receiving from the Lord because they ask wrongly, with wrong motives, so that they could spend it on their selfish passions and pleasures.
Here is the point Elihu is observing. So often people cry out to God in their pain and misery out of selfishness. They cry out to God with the wrong motives and the wrong desires. They cry out to God in their pride and arrogance, telling God what he needs to do in their lives. They do not cry out to God as their Maker. They cry out to God as the genie in the lamp who needs to grant their wishes. They do not cry out to God as the One who teaches us and makes us wiser through our trials. They cry out to God because they just want to be comfortable. They do not want to learn from God through the trial. They just want the suffering to end. Look at Job 35:13. “Surely God does not hear an empty cry, not does the Almighty regard it.” God is not listening when we cry to him with the wrong motives and the wrong intentions. This truth should powerfully hit our hearts. We may know that the New Testament says that we can ask God wrongly in our prayers. But have we thought about how we are wrongly asking God in our suffering and trials? Have we spoken to God from pride or selfishly about our trials rather than speaking to God as our Maker who is teaching us? What a different heart and a different perspective this requires of us when we turn to God in prayer when we are in trials!
Now Elihu is going to apply this principle to Job in versus 14-16. How much less is God going to listen to you when you say you have brought your case to God and you are waiting for him to answer you? How do you think God is going to listen to you when you say that you do not see God? When you are complaining to God that he does not care, is not treating you right, and is not responding, do you think God is going to listen to those cries?
This is a fascinating component of the trial of Job. In the first two chapters of this book we have seen Job rightly defend God. Job has said that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Job’s wife told Job that if his righteousness was going to be repaid by this kind of suffering, then you should curse God and die. Essentially, why serve God if he is going to keep you from this kind of pain? But Job rightly corrected his wife, telling her that we cannot accept the good from God and not also accept the adversity. So what has happened where now Job has said such words to God in the midst of his suffering? I think two things have happened. First, the friends have worn Job down. Bad counsel can take us the wrong way. We need to listen to those who are our spiritual leaders and follow their directions. Too often we listen to the wrong counsel. Further, we get beaten down by the bad advice we are receiving. Second, the trial has worn Job down. It is a lot easier to say that the Lord gives and takes away on day one than it is on day 301. While the full blast of the trial can knock us down on day 1, the constant pressure of the trial day after day can cause that strong faith which we acknowledge to finally bend and ultimately break. I think the duration of the trial has Job saying words that he did not and would not have said in the first two chapters of the book. But here we are in chapter 35 where at least months have gone by (cf. Job 7:3; 29:2). The early prayers of faith have turned now to empty cries that God does not see him and God does not care.
Life Messages
There are two keys that we need to consider from Job 35. The first key is that often people only look to God when they are in trouble. Elihu wants us to think more deeply about our prayers and requests. Is our request merely for ourselves or are we looking to the plans and purposes of God in our lives, in our families’ lives, and in the world around us? We can be so upset and broken by our trials that we fail to think about God’s greater purpose through our trials. We can be so desirous of returning to a time of comfort that we are not letting God do his work. When Jesus taught us to pray, he did not begin the prayer with “give us this day our daily bread.” Before he taught us to move to our requests, he first taught to express our acknowledgment of who God is and the priority of this world. God is in heaven and his name is holy. Your kingdom is the concern. Your will being done is the goal. God is our focus, not ourselves. Elihu is reminding us to recenter our prayers when we are suffering. Do not let your cries be empty because they come from pride or selfishness.
The second key for Elihu to Job is to shift the question. The question is not if God cares for us when we suffer. The question is if we care about God when we suffer. When we say that God does not care about us in our suffering what we typically mean is that God is not doing what we want. But Elihu has flipped the question over. It is not that God is uncaring toward us when we suffer. It is that we are uncaring about God when we suffer. We sing a song that asks the question, “Does Jesus care?” The chorus repeats that Jesus does care and we know that he cares. We should know that he cares because he died for us. Once we have affirmed our hearts that Jesus does care for us, we need to ask a follow up question. Do we care for Jesus?
This is the essence of the problem that Elihu observed earlier in this chapter. Is all that you care about is what Jesus is doing for you that if you do not feel like he cares that you will stop serving him and start sinning because that will show him? If you do not think he cares, do you think he will pay more attention to you if you stop doing what he has told you to do? Do you think he will be in your debt if you start becoming more righteous in your activities? You see that this is not caring for Jesus. This is manipulation. We are trying to manipulate God by our righteous or sinful acts. God does not listen to our empty cries. Christ Jesus does care for you. But do our prayers show we care for him? Do our actions reveal that we care about his ways above our ways? Are our thoughts on God or just about the pain and the suffering we are experiencing? Elihu challenges Job and the friends, as he challenges us, to evaluate how you look at God in your life. Is your life about what you think God should do for you? Or is your life all about what you want to do for God because he cares for you and is teaching you through your suffering?