PASTOR'S MESSAGE

 

Ending with Hope

Job 7:1-7

 

A man and his wife are awakened at 3 o’clock in the morning by a loud pounding on the door.  The man gets up and goes to the door where a drunken stranger, standing in the pouring rain, is asking for a push.  “Not a chance,” says the husband, “it’s 3 o'clock in the morning!”  So, he slams the door and goes back to bed.  “Who was that?” asks his wife.  “Just some drunk guy asking for a push,” he answers.  “Did you help him?” she asks.  “No, I did not’ it’s 3 o’clock in the morning and it’s raining outside!”  “Well, you have a short memory,” she says.  “Can’t you remember about three months ago when we broke down and those two guys helped us?  You ought to be ashamed of yourself!  Now, go down there and help him out.”  So, the man gets dressed and goes out into the pouring rain.  He calls out into the dark, “Hello, are you still out there”  “Yes.”  "And do you still need a push?”  “Yes, please!” comes the reply from the dark.  “Where are you?” asks the husband.  “Over here.......on the swing!”

            Talk about the height of frustration and futility.  I think if I were that man, at that point I would just give up.  Oftentimes that’s what the trials and tribulations of life are like.  They seem to be pointless, futile, and without purpose.  Take for example the person who works in an office and is forced to do mindless paperwork, or the home-maker, who is constantly having to clean house, wash clothes and do dishes, all of which just keep getting dirty again.  Even the student is sometimes compelled to do busy work, which the teacher has devised simply to keep him out of trouble.  I’m sure we’ve all experienced that feeling of futility.  Add to that things like a business venture gone sour, conflicts in the home, a debilitating illness, or the prospect of getting old, and at times it all seems hopeless.

      Such was the case in our text for today with the patriarch Job.  He, too, felt like his situation was futile and hopeless.  Not only had he lost his possessions and his loved ones, but his suffering seemed to be unbearable.  We know from scripture that Job was afflicted with a terrible disease.  The precise nature of Job’s sickness is uncertain, but its symptoms were painful festering sores over the whole body, nightmares, scabs that peeled and became black, disfigurement and revolting appearance, bad breath, excessive thinness, fever, and pain day and night.  Listen to how he describes it in our text:  “My body is clothed with worms and scabs, my skin is broken and festering. My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope.”

            Clearly Job felt that his situation was futile and hopeless.  That’s why he said, “My days come to an end without hope.”  He thought his life was like a story with a sad or tragic ending.  As a matter of fact, in Hebrew the verb ‘end’ means: ‘to be consumed or exhausted, to fade away,’ which is just how Job felt.  And who among us hasn’t at some time in our life felt that we too were going through the sufferings of Job?  Yet, in the midst of all his struggles, Job made an interesting observation.  He said:  “DOES NOT MAN HAVE HARD SERVICE ON EARTH?  ARE NOT HIS DAYS LIKE THOSE OF A HIRED MAN?  LIKE A SLAVE LONGING FOR THE EVENING SHADOWS, OR A HIRED MAN WAITING EAGERLY FOR HIS WAGES, SO I HAVE BEEN ALLOTTED MONTHS OF FUTILITY, AND NIGHTS OF MISERY HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED TO ME.” 

            Here Job compares his circumstances to that of a servant.  A servant has hard labor all day long, doing precisely what his master tells him to do.  But during that whole time he’s longing for the reward he will receive at the end of the day.  He will receive respite from the burning heat of toiling out in the field.   He’ll be able to rest in the cooling shade of the evening.  Likewise, a hired man works diligently for his boss, because he anticipates the wages he will be paid.  He eagerly awaits his monetary reward.

            In a self-righteous way, that’s what Job felt like.  He felt like a servant longing for rest, like a hired man eagerly awaiting his wages.  Job felt that he had labored hard all his life, doing precisely what his Master, the Lord God, had told him to do.  He had obeyed his Heavenly Boss right down to the letter.  And in return he expected a sumptuous reward.  But the only reward he had received was misery and suffering.  It just didn’t seem fair.  Job thought that God was not treating him the way he “deserved.”  And he was fed up with it!

            My friends, have you ever felt that way?  Like you self-righteously deserve something better than what God is giving you?  Well, if God were to give us what we truly deserve, it would not only be the suffering of Job, it would be the suffering of hell – the painful festering sores of God’s wrath and condemnation for all eternity.  If God were to pay us our rightful wages, the Bible says that the wages of sin is death.  For no matter what so-called ‘righteous’ things we do, all our righteous deeds are like filthy rags to God.  That’s because by nature, at our heart and core, we are sinful human beings, who deserve nothing but God’s anger and punishment. 

            However, contrary to Job’s opinion, our situation is not hopeless, but hopeful.  You see, the sure and certain hope of the Gospel is that God does not pay us the wages of death we deserve.  Instead He gives us the reward of forgiveness and salvation purely out of His grace.  As Jesus once told His disciples:  “REJOICE AND BE GLAD, FOR GREAT IS YOUR REWARD IN HEAVEN.”  Then again, the Book of Colossians says:  “FROM THE LORD YOU WILL RECEIVE THE REWARD OF THE INHERITANCE, THE INHERITANCE OF THE SAINTS IN LIGHT, WHICH IS REDEMPTION, THE FORGIVENESS OF OUR SINS.”  And the psalmist declares:  “GOD HAS NOT REWARDED US ACCORDING TO OUR INIQUITES.  FOR AS HIGHT AS THE HEAVENS ARE ABOVE THE EARTH, SO GREAT IS HIS LOVE TOWARDS ALL THOSE WHO TRUST IN HIM.”  Heaven, forgiveness, God’s love, which blots out our sin – that is our great reward.

            Now certainly it is not a reward that we deserve.  We have done nothing to earn such blessings.  But God serves them up to us on a silver platter, as a free gift, simply because of what Jesus did on the cross.  That’s what the crucifixion was all about.  It was Jesus doing all the work so that we could reap all the benefits.  It was Him dying so that we could live.  Because of Him, instead of our sins consuming us, He has consumed them and destroyed them for good.  Instead of our life being like a sad story with a tragic ending, we have the ultimate happy ending.  We get to live happily ever after in heaven, just like the story of Job had a happy ending.  At the end of the book, not only is he healed of his sickness, but God gives him twice as much as he had before.  In the same way, we have been healed of the sickness of our sin and have the double blessing of forgiveness right now and eternal life in heaven some day, and all because of the reward Jesus won for us at the cross.  You know, a reward is often a prize given to someone for help in apprehending a criminal.  Well, you and I are the criminals.  But Jesus allowed Himself to be arrested in our place, so that we could cash in on the prize of salvation and eternal life!

            We could picture it this way:  Father Maximilian Kolbe was Polish priest, who lived during the second World War.  Imprisoned for hiding Jews, he was sent to the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.  In July of 1941, a man from Kolbe’s bunker was thought to have escaped.  As it turns out, the escapee was later found drowned in a camp latrine.  Nevertheless, because the fugitive had not yet been found, the remaining men from his bunker were led out.  Commandant Karl Fritsch sternly said:  “Ten of you men will die for him in the starvation bunker.”  Ten were selected, including a Polish resistance fighter.  Hearing the news, he cried out in anguish:  “My wife, my children, what will they do?”  Father Kolbe stepped forward and said to the commandant, “I am a priest.  Let me take his place.  I am old; he is young.  He has a wife and children.”  Kolbe’s offer was accepted.  He was thrown into Building 13 and left there to starve.  After two weeks, only four of the ten were still alive.  But the cell was needed for more victims, so the executioner injected a lethal dose of carbolic acid into the arms of the four men.

            Dear friends, what an amazing story of selfless, sacrificial love.  And yet, it pales in comparison to what Jesus did for you and me.  When we were about to be executed by God’s wrath and anger, Jesus stepped forward and took our place.  Yet, He did that not just for you and me, but for the entire world.  And He suffered not only the painful death of crucifixion, but the pangs of hell itself, so that we could be released from our imprisonment to sin, death and hell, and set gloriously free.  And because of that, the precious reward of forgiveness, life and salvation is ours as a gift through faith in His name.

            However, the goodness of God is so abundant that He distributes those gifts to us continually in the Means of Grace – not just one Means of Grace, but three – His holy precious Word and the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion.  In those Means of Grace He declares us forgiven and free, cleanses us of all unrighteousness, and nourishes us with pardon and peace.  Which is why we should long for them, just like a servant in our text, longing for the refreshment of the evening shadows.  You see, in Hebrew the verb: ‘to long for’ actually means:  ‘to gasp or pant.’  It’s the description of a man who’s been out working on a sweltering hot summer day.  The sweat is just rolling off him.  He’s dehydrated and he’s gasping, panting for water.  He craves it so much that he will stop at nothing to get some.  That should be our desire for the Means of Grace, for that’s where God supplies us with the hope of forgiveness and salvation, which helps to carry us through the hopeless situations of life.  May that encourage us, then, to make diligent use of the Word and Sacraments for our good and His glory.  For then our ending truly will be with Hope, for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

           

 

                                                                                                           

                     

           

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