Deliverance by Affliction

Well, those of you who are observant probably have drawn the conclusion that this morning I want to talk to you about suffering. No one wants to suffer. We may welcome small trials, counting them joy, as Jane would encourage us, because of what they will do for us, but no one invites life-altering pain.

No one wants to lie awake in the middle of the night wondering about what this pain, what this diagnosis, what this doctor's report is going to bring. Affliction is an unwelcome guest. We don't pray for it. We don't seek it. And when it does come into our lives, we are consumed with relief from it. We cry to God that we might be delivered, that we might be rescued, that there may be reprieve. But in Job, we discover a surprising truth. Sometimes, deliverance comes by affliction.

Can you say that again? Sometimes, God's purpose in affliction is to deliver us by affliction. I'm going to try and come at this a number of ways, so if things are a little foggy as we move forward, I trust that it will be clearer to you. What if, in your suffering, God doesn't purpose to deliver you from the storm that has come into your life, but to deliver you in the storm?

That is, His purpose is to do something greater for you and in you than to provide temporary relief. I was reading in my Bible reading a number of months ago in Job chapter 36, and I was reading in the English Standard Version. I'm going to read it to you here in the New King James that I read in your hearing earlier, and then I want to read it to you in the ESV.

But that will be the focus of our attention this morning. Job 36 verse 15, he delivers the poor in their affliction and opens their ears in oppression. Listen to it in the English Standard Version. He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity. In one sense, it doesn't seem to make sense. The statement seems to make no sense at first glance. How can affliction deliver the afflicted?

That's the question. It seems that God's purpose is to rub salt into the wound. He delivers the afflicted by their affliction. Again, we want to be delivered from affliction, to have whatever is troubling us removed, and we pray and we work and we seek that. So if we want rescue and relief from affliction, how can we possibly find it by affliction? Now we need to think about this because what seems to be implied here that there is something that is of greater threat to us than the temporary suffering and affliction that's come into our life. And the question that we must wrestle with is what is so great a threat to our spiritual well-being that God will send affliction in order that our lives might be delivered from it? This text is saying that whatever deliverance God has in mind is greater than our desire to be delivered from the affliction itself. So we must be willing to look below the surface and to begin to think and contemplate and develop a robust, scripturally sound theology of suffering because suffering is so much a part of our lives.

So this is the way I would like to proceed this morning. We're going to look at the messenger in verses one through four of this chapter and do that very quickly, the messenger, and then we're going to look at the message itself. So let's examine, number one, the messenger. And who is he?

Who is the human messenger? You notice his name is Elihu. And we're introduced to him in chapter 32. And he speaks from chapters 32 all the way through chapter 37. He's not to be confused by Job's other three friends who came and spoke to him and spoke words to him of God. And God will later on in the chapter rebuke those three friends for their misrepresenting him. Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad, those three men. So this man is not one of those three men.

He is a different man. So look with me at verses one through four and let me read them again and very quickly I want to point out five things to you about him. Elihu also proceeded and said, bear with me a little and I will show you that there are yet words to speak on God's behalf.

I will fetch my knowledge from afar. I will ascribe righteousness to my maker for truly my words are not false. One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

Behold God is mighty but despises no one. He is mighty in strength of understanding. And the reason I think it's important to think about this man as the messenger is because these other three men spoke things about God that were false, were misrepresentation. So I want you to see that this man stands apart from that and what he says about God is trustworthy. So five things about Elihu. I want you to see number one, an appeal, number two, a motive, number three, an authority, number four, an aim, and number five, a claim. So very quickly, the appeal.

What is the appeal? He says, verse two, bear with me a little while and I will show you. Bear with me a little while and I will show you. I have something to say. Elihu knows that we do not naturally listen to God's truth.

We need to be encouraged on grappling in truth. So he says, bear with me a little while and I will show you that there are yet words to speak on God's behalf. And perhaps those words have an arresting effect on you this morning and you've come and you're here and yet you're not here.

You're not fully engaged. Your mind is wondering and you need to be reminded that God has something to say. God has something to say to us today from his word. We desperately stand in need of it and he's a gracious God in order to give it to us.

So, number one, an appeal. Number two, he has a motive. And what is his motive? His motive is that he is speaking on God's behalf. There are yet words to speak on God's behalf.

He's God's mouthpiece. I cannot tell you adequately enough how many times my mind has been arrested by the fact that God has been kind and gracious to me in ways I cannot detail to you simply because of his concern for you. That God wants to communicate truth to you and therefore God has worked in my heart and life, not just for my benefit. I've been the beneficiary of the kindness and mercy of God because God wants to communicate his truth and he wants to communicate that truth through me to you. So I'm grateful for you because you have been, in a secondary way, a means of grace in my life. God has been so kind to me and I cannot tell you how many times I've said to God, God, thank you for your mercy.

I don't deserve this. You've been kind to me beyond what I would ever expect and therefore you must love these people because you want to speak through me to them. And that's what's going on here. He has a motive and his motive is to speak on God's behalf. What is his authority? Notice he says, I will fetch my knowledge from afar. I will fetch my knowledge from afar. In other words, I'm not drawing on my own insight.

I'm not drawing on my own intellect. And that phrase, from afar, that expression is found other places in the scriptures. The psalmist says to God, you discern my thoughts from afar, Psalm 139 verse 2. Jeremiah says that God calls himself a God far away, Jeremiah 23, 23. So what Elihu is saying, that his authority is outside himself. He is being informed by God. He is a messenger of God. That's his authority.

I will fetch my knowledge from afar. I will ascribe righteousness to my Maker. His aim. What is his aim? Well, his aim is to ascribe righteousness to his Maker, to prove or to demonstrate that God is just in his dealings.

And that's been Job's complaint. As he's walked this incredibly difficult, dark path, he's come to the conclusion that there's a measure of injustice with God. And Elihu is going to speak to that issue and bring correction. And then finally, what is his claim? What is Elihu's claim? Well, Elihu claims that because his motive is right, that his authority is God-given, that his aim is God-honoring, and the content of what he says is reliable, that it is not false. He's claiming to speak as a prophet of God.

And all of that to say that what is recorded here for us is not erroneous. It's not a misrepresentation of God. He is indeed a prophet of God. And as we go through the rest of the book, God will rebuke Job's three friends who spoke untruth and misrepresentations of truth, but he will not rebuke this man because this man is a prophet of God.

He is speaking truth. He is representing God aright. Think with me, secondly, about the message. The message, and I'm going to focus on verses 11 through verse 15. Well, let me back up to verse 8. Let me read these verses again, and we're going to go through this a couple of times and then bring some application.

Number 8, verse 8. And if they are bound in fetters, held in the cords of affliction, then he tells them their work and their transgressions, that they have acted defiantly. He also opens their ear to instruction and commands that they turn from iniquity. If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasures. But if they do not obey, they shall perish by the sword. They shall die without knowledge. But the hypocrites in heart store up wrath. They do not cry for help when he binds them.

They die in youth, and their life ends among the perverted persons. He delivers the poor in their affliction and opens their ears in oppression. Elihu is describing affliction, and he uses the language of captivity. People are bound in chains, and they're caught in the cords, verse 8.

They're bound in fetters, held in the cords of affliction. And affliction and suffering has that kind of effect on it, doesn't it? It has an arresting effect. It grabs us. It gets our attention. We feel enslaved by it, bound by it. We can't get away from it. It controls us.

That's what he's saying. And it is God who's the one who's doing the binding, verse 13. The hypocrites in heart store up wrath. They do not cry for help when he binds them. So God in affliction binds, arrests. That's his purpose, to get our attention. Elihu is going to argue here that God uses the captivity of affliction to speak to people in their sin, verse 9.

Then he tells them their work and their transgressions. When God brings suffering, God brings affliction into our lives, it's to get our minds, our thoughts, our focus on things far more important than temporal relief. What is God doing? What is God exposing? What is God wanting to deal with in my life? What sins are boiling to the surface?

What sins are being exposed by this affliction that he's brought into my life? So he's arguing that God uses the captivity of affliction to speak to people about their sins and to open their ears to his correction, verse 10. He also opens their ear to instruction, verse 15. He delivers the poor in their affliction and he opens their ears in oppression.

Yes, God has this purpose. C.S. Lewis says, pain insists on being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, he speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world, so says C.S. Lewis. God shouts.

Why? He wants to get our attention. And few things in life get our attention more than suffering and affliction. And then there's a contrast. There's a contrast between those who listen to God and those who refuse to listen to God.

C.S. Lewis, verse 11, if they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasures. But if they do not obey, what? They shall perish by the sword and they shall die without knowledge. Die without knowledge. Die without a knowledge of salvation.

They will perish. That's the essence of what God is saying to us here. Now again, think with me about these words. He delivers the afflicted by their afflictions and he opens their ear by adversity. There are four areas that I want to enumerate for you about God's deliverance.

And here's the question. What does affliction deliver us from? And what is more precious than relief from our temporal affliction?

Let me mention four things to you. Number one, deliverance from disobedience and rebellion. God uses the instrumentality of affliction to deliver us from disobedience and rebellion. Number two, to deliver us from wrath and judgment. Number three, to deliver us from self-reliance and human autonomy.

And number four, to deliver us from the love of the world. Deliverance from disobedience and rebellion. The Psalmist said, before I was afflicted, before I was afflicted, I went astray.

There's something about a carefree life. There's something about a life of blessing and prosperity that promotes waywardness. And wars against walking closely to the Lord. Before I was afflicted, I went astray. And if we do not recognize that spirit, that tendency, that proclivity in us, we're in danger. Prone to what? Wander.

Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Even as redeemed children, that spirit is with us. Before I was afflicted, I went astray. But he says, but now. But now I obey your word, the Psalmist says. Deliverance from disobedience and rebellion. That's the first thing that this text is pointing to. And again, I want you to see this.

He delivers the afflicted by their affliction. Have you noticed how the same sun that melts the crayons on the dashboard? That's a mess to try and clean up, isn't it? The same sun that melts the crayons on the dashboard hardens the clay in the field. Same sun, same heat.

What's the explanation for the difference? The constitution of the two things, the crayons and the dirt, has everything to do with the condition of our heart. And that's why it says here, God brings affliction. He opens their ear to instruction. He commands that they turn from iniquity. If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity. There's a new take on the prosperity gospel, isn't it? Affliction.

Affliction. God brings prosperity by affliction. If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity in their years and pleasures. But if they do not obey, they shall perish. By the sword, they shall die without knowledge. Those who refuse to listen to God's voice, God's dealings with them, will perish. They will die without knowledge. They will die with lack of a saving knowledge of God. Their suffering reveals the godlessness of their hearts, which is shown by their simply getting angry and resentful toward God. Verse 13, the hypocrite in heart store up wrath.

They do not cry for help when he binds them. Some, in the heat of affliction and suffering, are drawn to God. Others are repelled by God. That's why I don't like God. That's why I won't submit to God. That's why I despise God.

Look what he's doing to my life. That's the natural tendency. And this text says that those who are unwilling to obey, who have a hard heart, their life is a downward spiral toward judgment. Verse 14, they die in youth. Their life ends among the perverted persons.

That's where it goes. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is death. But those who are made palatable, their hearts are softened, they're open to instruction.

What about them? God brings them to a place of humbleness, open ears and soft hearts. And he does that by means of adversity. Let me revisit that verse in the psalm. Psalm 119, verse 67. Again, before I was afflicted, I went astray.

But now I obey your word. Whoever this man is, this man at this particular place in his life has a revelation. It has suddenly dawned on him that the trouble in his life, sorrowful, upsetting, annoying, pressure-packed, painful as it may be at the time, had been good for him. It had been good for him.

And it had been specifically sent by God to benefit him. That's the revelation he's come to. Now listen to what he wasn't saying. He wasn't saying that the trouble itself had been good.

Far from it. But looking back on his life, he could now honestly admit that it had produced a good effect in him. It had turned him, and he needed turning. He'd been heading in one direction, then wham! God got his attention. The cords of affliction had captured him. He'd been flattened by whatever it was, event in his life. And he acknowledged that before this affliction came, he was heading down an unwise, unhealthy path.

I think many of us can relate to that. If we do not understand God's posture toward rebellion centers, when Adam sinned in the garden, what was the result of that? Did he go looking for God in repentance and sorrow? He hid from God. God came looking for him, right? Folks, that's the gospel. God comes looking for us.

And if God didn't take initiative, if God didn't come looking for us, we'd all continue to hide and run from God. So this man, in Psalm 119, he acknowledges that before this affliction came, he was heading down an unwise and unhealthy path, astray. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, away from God, out of the path of blessing, out of the path of righteousness, on the path that leads to death.

That's the path I was on. Then, then the affliction came. The bad thing, that became a good thing. The wound, the disappointment, the setback, the pink slip, the rejection, the heartache, the divorce, the failure, the doctor's report, whatever it is, the affliction. It intruded into his life and it took hold of him. It took him by the shoulders. It took him and got his attention and it dragged him back on course. And now, many miles down the right road, he's looking back and he's saying to himself, you know, that was a very hard thing, but thank God for it.

Right? We can all, not all, but most of us can say, you know what? There are some things in life I do not want to revisit.

They're too hard or too painful. But as I sit here, I thank God for them because I am the person I am today. I'm on the path toward heaven that I'm on today because God used that in my life. And had God not intervened, had God not gotten my attention, had God not enwrapped me with the cords of affliction, where would I be today?

Yes. So not only deliverance from disobedience and rebellion, but number two, deliverance from wrath and judgment. Deliverance from wrath and judgment. That's what awaited this man.

Again, the contrast. If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity. But if they do not obey, they shall perish by the sword. They shall die without knowledge. The hypocrite in heart stores up wrath.

They do not cry for help when he binds them. Storing up wrath. What a sobering, troubling thought. That the longer a man persists in his disobedience and in his rebellion and his defiance and continues on the path away from God, he is storing up wrath.

Storing up wrath. So God brings affliction into our lives to deliver us from wrath and judgment. I think if we had the time and we had opportunity to hear people's salvation testimony, most of us would say, you know what, life was going well. I thought I had life figured out and then bam, God did this, God knocked the props out from under me.

There I was. That's the testimony of a lot of people. That's what God does. And it's a kind mercy of God when he does that, right? When he afflicts us in our affliction to do us good.

Number three, deliverance from self-reliance and autonomy. Listen to what Paul said. Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 8, he's talking about a time of intense affliction, intense suffering. He says, we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Now think about that. That's not your ordinary run-of-the-mill type of suffering and affliction.

That's an intense kind. We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. We're so self-reliant, aren't we? I got this.

Yeah, this is a bump in the road, but I can handle this. That's the American way. Self-reliance, autonomy, independence, and all those things war against our relationship with God because God is wanting to make us dependent on Him, desperately dependent on Him. So God brings affliction into our life to deliver us from self-reliance and autonomy.

And we don't understand that. When we feel our weakness, we don't like that. When we come to the end of ourselves, we don't welcome that. We don't see that as advantageous. But when those things happen, it is spiritually advantageous because we're not looking to ourselves.

We're not looking within. We're looking outside of ourselves. We're looking to the God who has saved us to sustain us. So it's a kind mercy of God that afflicts us so that we would be delivered from self-reliance and autonomy.

We sang this morning. But oh, when gloomy doubts prevail, I fear to call thee mine. The springs of comfort seem to fail and all my hope decline. Yet gracious God, where shall I flee? Thou art my only trust. And still my soul would cleave to thee, though prostrate in the dust.

He's our only hope. And then God uses affliction to deliver us from the affliction of loving this world. We are masters at ewing out cisterns, places in the world where we think is satisfaction only to see the water that's in that broken cistern leak away, and it doesn't satisfy. And why would we run to a broken cistern that doesn't hold water when Jesus says, I am what? He's the bread of life. He is the springs of living water. Would you rather drink from a open spring you know is uncontaminated, or would you rather drink from a canteen full of water that's been out in the sun for four days? Well, we know what we'd rather drink of, but our sinfulness, somehow we're attracted to that canteen of tepid water that is not satisfying to the taste.

And we walk right past the brook, the satisfying brook. That's the nature of sin. And God wants to deliver us from the love from the world. Affliction has a way of making us long for heaven, because we become aware, acutely aware, that this world is not our home. That when our dreams are broken, we understand that we're living in a broken world. Our dreams cannot be built on this world, because if we do, it's like building sand castles. A lot of time, a lot of effort, but as the tides come in and you go back there the next day, they're gone.

They're gone. The greatest joy of heaven will be seeing the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus, which will make everything in our lives, even these present sufferings, worth it all. Because not only is our pain not worth comparing with the joy of heaven, but Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4 that those afflictions, those sufferings, are actually preparing us for glory.

Well, let me take five minutes to conclude with this conclusion. God has a campus of higher learning, and it is the school of affliction. The instruction that is received here comes through adversity, assigned by God's sovereign and omniscient hand. That is to say that what God has ordained for one person, he hasn't ordained for another person, because God knows this affliction is designed to address that need for that person, but something else is needed over here. So the instruction received in God's school of affliction comes through God's sovereign and omniscient hand.

It is the school of our redeemer's alma mater. We sing, stricken, smitten, and afflicted. See him dying on the tree. Jesus is no stranger to suffering and affliction. The Bible tells us that he learned obedience through the things that he suffered. We didn't learn anything in his deity. He was omniscient, but he learned something about suffering in his humanity.

And if I'm considering going to a school and enrolling in a school, I'm interested in the commendations and the endorsements from former students. Listen to the psalmist in Psalm 119. Psalm 119 verse 71, the psalmist said, it is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. Psalm 92 of Psalm 119, unless your law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. Psalm 34 verse 17 to 19, the righteous cry out and the Lord hears and he delivers them out of all their trouble and saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but what?

The Lord delivers them out of them all. Job said in Job 13, 15, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Job said in 23 verse 10, he knows the way that I take when he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 was taught that God's grace was sufficient for him whose strength is made perfect in weakness. And Paul could say most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

And every time I read that I think, oh my, I have a lot of growing to do. I got a lot of maturing to do because I have not grown to the place where I say I'd rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ might rest upon me. I want the power of Christ to rest on me, but I want that without suffering, without infirmities.

And God says, no, it's a package deal. But despite these encouragements, despite these commendations and these endorsements, and despite the promise of good to our souls, we are reluctant to enroll in God's school of affliction. Oh, we wish there was another place to learn the difficult lessons, but we soon discover that to be a Christian, to be a follower of Christ automatically enrolls us in the school of affliction.

In this school of affliction, the book fees are minimal. There's only one primary textbook and it is the Bible. And in it we will learn all that we need for life and godliness. Tests are given regularly, sometimes daily, tests of love, tests of endurance, tests of faith, tests of patience.

God tests us so that we might know what kind of progress we're making. And we can be slow learners, but aren't you thankful this morning that there is a patient professor who is committed to and will see to it that every student passes. And there is a crown and a gown that replaces the customary cap and gown reserved for every student. And one day each will receive a diploma that states all was given in love and intended for your everlasting good.

And oh, what a graduation party there will be. Let's pray. Father, teach us humility. Teach us willing submission to your ways. Grant us a measure of grace that tethers our soul to you and will not let go until you accomplish all your good purposes in us. Help us to grow and develop a more mature, a more robust, a more biblically informed theology of suffering. And dismiss us this morning with a sense that we will view affliction perhaps different than what we have in the past. Not something to run from, but something to embrace knowing that there is a God who is superintending it for our good in His own glory. Hear us, our God. For Jesus' sake, we pray. Amen.