It's a question as old as time itself. Why do good people suffer? Not the ones who've walked away from God or compromised their integrity, but the faithful ones, the ones who've done everything right. Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl will dive headfirst into this issue as we begin our series, Job, a Man of Heroic Endurance. If life has ever felt not just difficult, but genuinely unfair, If you've ever wondered where God is in the middle of your pain, then you're in the right place.
Chuck sets the stage. If you have a Bible with you, I'd like to invite you to turn to the book of Job. If you're not familiar with your Bible, it's just, it's a large book just before Psalms. toward the center of the Bible. By the way, it's a good time for me to suggest if you don't own your own copy of the scriptures.
And I find that more common than one would think. This would be a good time this week for you to go to a Christian bookstore. And purchase, I would suggest the new American Standard Bible. If you want to follow along with the text that I use. And uh Be sure you get the whole Bible, not just the New Testament.
And you may want to get a study Bible. It's a little more serious work. It has some helps in the bottom and then you'll find out where I get all my ideas. Um You get a hold of a good study Bible, and then you'll begin to mark it, and it'll become your own. One of the great legacies we leave for our children and our children's children.
is our Bibles. I have my dad's Bible. I have a copy of one of my mother's Bibles. On occasion, it's very insightful to read through there and see the times they were praying for me, among other things.
So, anyway. Book of Job, let me read for you the first 12. Verses of chapter 1. There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And that man was blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning away from evil.
Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. His possessions also were seven thousand sheep. 3,000 camels. five hundred yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys. and very many servants And that man was the greatest of all the men of the East.
His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day. that probably refers to his birthday. On his day. And they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. It came about when the days of feasting had completed their cycle.
That Job would send and consecrate them. Rising up. Early in the morning, and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, Perhaps my sons have sinned. and cursed God in their hearts.
Thus Job did. continually.
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. And Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, From where do you come? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, from roaming about on the earth and walking around on it. The Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job?
For there is no one like him on the earth. a blameless and upright man, Fearing God. and turning away from evil. Then Satan answered the Lord, Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has?
on every side. You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But Put forth your hand now. and touch all that he has. He will surely curse you to your face.
And the Lord said to Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only do not put forth your hand on him.
So Satan departed. from the presence of the Lord. You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into today's topic, be sure to purchase a copy of our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbook by going to insight.org/slash offer. Chuck titled today's message, Setting the Stage for Disaster.
When Scott Peck picked up his pen to write his best-selling book, The Road Less Traveled. He began with a three-word, blunt sentence. Life is difficult. When the writer to the inspired book named Job picked up his stylus to write his book, He too could have begun with a blunt three-word sentence. Life is Unfair.
Difficult, most of us have learned to handle. But unfair.
Something kicks in that makes it almost intolerable for us. Our drive for justice overrides our patience in pain. A couple of examples come to mind. You're born Canadian. And you're on ice skates almost for as far back as you can remember.
And as you skate along the ice, you are dreaming. As this little boy or this little girl, with hopes someday of making it to the Olympics. You fall more times than you can remember, but in every fall, you learn another lesson. And in a period of time, you begin to skate very well. You get a special teacher.
And in doing so, you also find a partner who will skate with you, also from your homeland. And the two of you skate along with dreams of being at the Winter Olympics. Then your moment comes. Your names are announced, and you slide out on the ice, and then you do a performance, that routine, better than you've ever done it before. And you know when you finish, it was a gold medal performance.
Until you see the scores. And your heart sinks. Life is difficult. As you read those numbers, you know that you'll get the silver medal. And another country will get the gold.
In a few hours' time, however, you find out that. The judging was skewed. and that the competition was fixed. And in fact, one of the judges ultimately would be removed. You didn't know that at the time you hear.
When you find out that it's unfair, That's a whole different subject. You can't bear the thought now of not getting what you have coming. Once you find out that it was judged unfairly. The second example doesn't have as good an ending. You're a single parent, and you live 1,200 miles from a job offer that comes from Houston.
And you give thought to moving you and your three children, who are all under the age of 15. Down south, so that you might get a job working for a company that is really going up. It's called Enron. And You become employed, and you are involved not only in a fine job, but you begin to invest in the stock, and oh, it just seems like there's nothing but flashing green lights. The money is pouring in and the The news is everywhere that this is the company to be a part of.
They're even naming the new stadium after the Enron Corporation. Then you began to hear something at the water fountain. The scuttlebutt around the office isn't Very encouraging. You doubt it, you question it. In fact, you.
Put it out of your mind because after all, your entire retirement. funds are there and and your health benefits are there. And it isn't but a few more days and You get a pink slip. And it's all over. You lose everything.
Though you were doing a good job. You move for all the right reasons and And now there's the threat of losing your house. A couple of days later, you're showering and you notice Under your left breast. A lump You you can't believe it. Two days later, the The biopsy shows the physician that you are.
suffering in an advanced stage of cancer. Oh, I failed to mention your husband. Three years ago, he ran off with his secretary, and by the way, they're doing great. Both of them have a new car and find jobs and No kids. And you now are going to move in with your aging parents, neither of whom.
is all that healthy. And the home just has three bedrooms. It isn't fair. It isn't fair. Welcome to Job's world.
Without knowing it, you had just walked onto Job's turf. Yeah. And to think some people believe the Bible is not relevant. Yeah. This book to which I invite you to turn.
Represents one of the oldest and best pieces of literature in all of time.
Some would date it back to the days of Genesis. Certainly, in light of Job's age, it falls in the category of being written during the days of the patriarchs. Martin Luther once referred to Job with the two words magnificent. and sublime. The Scottish essayist 19th century Thomas Carlyle wrote: There is nothing written in the Bible or out of it.
of equal literary merit. Victor Hugo, the French poet and author. Concluded that Job is perhaps the greatest masterpiece of the human mind. Eugene Peterson, one of our contemporary writers. In the writing of the wisdom books, in paraphrase, says this in the introduction of Job.
It is not only because Job suffered that he is important to us, it is because he suffered in the same ways that we suffer. In the vital areas of family, personal health, and material things. It is not suffering as such that troubles us, it is undeserved. Suffering. Almost all of us in our years of growing up, writes Peterson.
Have the experience of disobeying our parents and getting punished for it. When that discipline was connected with wrongdoing, it had a certain sense of justice to it. When we do wrong, We get punished. One of the surprises as we get older, however, is that we come to see that there is no real correlation between the amount of wrong we commit and the amount of pain we experience. An even larger surprise Is that very often there is something quite the opposite?
We do right. and get knocked down. We do the best we are capable of doing, and just as we are reaching out to receive our reward, we are hit. from the blind side and scent reeling. That's exactly what happened with Job.
Life was not only difficult, Life became For Job. Absolutely. categorically Unfair. You may not know the story of Job, and so I might be shooting in the dark. Allow me a few moments for a quick and dirty analysis.
He's a man of unparalleled piety. He's a man of well-deserved prosperity. He is a good and rich man. a fine husband, and a faithful father. In a quick and brutal sweep of calamities he is reduced.
Two uh twisted mass of brokenness and grief. The extraordinary accumulation of back-to-back disasters are enough to finish off. Any one of us. Job is left penniless, homeless. Helpless.
and childless. Standing beside ten fresh graves on a windswept hill. His wife heaving in sobs beside him, Having heard him say, Whether he gives or takes, we will follow him, she secretly whispers, just curse God. And die. I have a friend who is in ministry, and I emailed him this past week, told him of my plans to go into the To the book of Job, he wrote back, warned me about watching out.
You never know what happens when you get into books, how often you become the very part of the story that you're that you're uh preaching on. He also added, I have a friend who was driving across Texas one night searching for a radio station and tuned into a country preacher. Who was beginning a study on Job. He had titled his message, I Can't Eat by Day, I can't sleep by night, and the woman I love don't treat me right. That's Joe.
And the only thing funny about the story is the title. There's no laughter in Job. Misery and mystery are added to The insult and injury of his experience. As he sits there covered with skin ulcers that are now erupting with pus. Swelling his body with fever and maddeningly.
giving him an itch that will not go away. There are three friends that arrive. Mm-hmm. They sit and stare for seven days and seven nights without a word. Just imagine.
First, they don't recognize him. Which tells you something of the swelling. and the sores all over him, And then they are at a loss for words. Unfortunately, they lost that loss for words. And when they spoke, they had nothing but blame.
You're getting what you deserve. Though they couch it in much more philosophical terms. That was bad enough. But the misery turns to mystery with God's silence. If the words of the friends were hard to hear, The silence of God was intolerable.
Not until the 38th chapter of the book. Does God speak?
However long that took. If it were just months. Try to imagine. You're the object of your alleged friend's accusations. And the heavens are brass as you plead for an audience with the Almighty.
And nothing. comes to you by way of comfort. And you have done nothing to deserve. Such pain. The book opens with a wonderful resume of A good man.
Don't make Job into something other than a man. That's all he was. He's called a man. He's no superhuman being. He's no quasi-angel in human form.
He's a man. He's just a man. Blessed, for sure. But look at him as a person. There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job.
That man was blameless. It doesn't mean perfect, it means he. He did not compromise with moral evil. He was a man whose business was handled with integrity. He was a man who was respected by those around him, whether in or outside the family.
He was upright. fearing God, turning away from evil. And then the next most important part of him, following his character, would be his family. He's blessed with seven sons. Three daughters.
that had been born to him, By the time the story is told us in the text They're all grown. This is uh This is a grandfather's life at its best. If you will. By now he has amassed a remarkable number of possessions. Possessions had to do with these seven thousand sheep.
The wool from the animals could be Woven into fabric, which would be made into warm clothing for the cold winter days. The food would also be provided from them, and that would add to the diet. There were 3,000 camels. I would imagine Job. Ran a trucking business for the caravans that went from the east to the west, and his camels were for hire.
And those camels became for him his own personal transportation. There were 500 yoke of oxen. Don't miss this. That means there were a thousand of them. Two yoked together to plow the fields.
to cause the crops to be plowed and to be prepared, and the soil to be prepared for the growing of the food. And then there were 500 female donkeys. I scratched my head on that one and wondered why would that be mentioned. And I discovered in my study that in those days female donkeys provided the delicacy of the day. Donkey milk.
And I thought that's a delicacy I would do without if I lived in that day. Over and above that is a wonderful family, all grown. No diapers to change, no baths to give, no carpools, no big meals to prepare, no lunches. No boys with tattoos driving vans showing up and honking out front for the daughters. No daughters with nose rings and tattoos and pierced belly buttons to run around the house.
These are all grown kids. This guy is rich and he's got it made, and no one is criticizing because there's nothing to criticize. Vernon McGee, in his day, wrote this about him: the man lived in the lap of luxury. He was Howard Hughes, John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, and the oilmen of Texas, all rolled into one.
When I read that, I thought McGee wrote that in the 1970s. Because by the late 1980s, the closest Texas oil men got to money was when they pumped gas at the Texaco station on the corner. Today, we would say he was Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Ross Perot, all wrapped up in one. Wealthy, good, godly, but not out of touch. You will notice he did have his concerns.
His sons, verse 4, used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day. And they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. Came about when the days of feasting had completed their cycle. Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings. according to the number of them all.
Offering up ten burnt offerings in the name of each one of them. concerned that perhaps, maybe even in their hearts, There had been a A little bit of profanity or perhaps an off-colored story that was told in the feasting. And Job was so concerned not only for his walk, but for the walk of his children. Praying man. Trusting man.
Priestly man. Faithful man. What a man. One man writes, No disapproval of this pleasant life is expressed. It is a mark of good fortune, or rather, of God's blessing.
The finishing touch to this happy scene is the godly parent making doubly sure that all is well. What a man. At the end of verse five, there must have been a pause. If this were a novel, You would change chapters. Have a page go by and move into another part of the story.
If this were a film, it would be a slow fade-out. You would sit in darkness for a few seconds, and then a bright scene would appear. telling you you were in another setting at another time. If this were a stage play, the curtains would close at the end of verse 5. Audience was given a Few moments to stretch and stand and sit back down for the opening of the curtains.
as the stage hand had changed it from heaven, from earth to heaven. But there is no such marking in the Bible. You just move quickly from verse 5 to verse 6. Don't let yourself do that. Learn to read the Bible.
pacing yourself with the emotion of the moment. Chuckswindahl reminds us to slow down to feel the weight of what we're reading. Because the Bible isn't just a collection of ancient words on a page. It's a living story full of real emotions, real people, and real pain. And somewhere between verse 5 and verse 6 of Job chapter 1, everything changes.
You're listening to Insight for Living. Today's program features the first sermon in a 22-part biographical study called Job, a Man of Heroic Endurance. It's our goal here at Insight for Living to provide companion resources for each study that Chuck presents. And this series is no different. For instance, Chuck wrote a full-length book about Job's life.
And it's available right now at insight.org slash offer. Suffering is part of the human condition. At some level we all go through it. In this book, Chuck not only tells the story of Job in fascinating detail, he also guides us through the fog of confusion, anger, blame, and that gnawing silence we often feel when we're suffering. And Chuck reminds us we don't have to understand why we suffer.
We only need to trust that God is in control. In addition to Chuck's book on Job, we have an engaging Bible study workbook for this 22-part teaching series. It's part of our Searching the Scriptures studies. Flush will have access to all the audio messages as well. You can find all the details for this bundle of resources on Job, a man of heroic endurance, by contacting us at insight.org/slash offer.
or call 800-772-8888. When you reach out today, you'll be among the first to acquire these resources for Chuck's study on the life of Job.
So why not do that now while it's fresh on your mind? Go to insight.org slash offer. or call 800-772-8888. You can also request these resources by writing to us at InsightForLiving. Post Office Box 5000 Frisco, Texas, 75034.
I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindahl's biography of Job continues Tuesday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, setting the stage for disaster, was copyrighted in 2002, 2004, and 2025, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R. Swindahl, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.
Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
