Awaiting Comfort

Job 19:20-29; 2^nd Corinthians 1:3-12

Rev. Chris Harbin, Rocks Baptist Church—Pamplin, VA

28 August 2005

We live in a comfort society. Among our highest values are those of comfort and entertainment. Recent years have seen the rise of what we now call an industry of entertainment. Our health care system views comfort as one of its primary aims. We yearn for comfort—to be at ease. What we seem to overlook is that comfort only has meaning in the face of distress. Eliminating distress is like tracking an ever-moving target. Is there another way to gain the comfort we so desire?

Job has been hailed as the prime example of patience. While Job’s patience finds exaggeration in our literature and popular thought, his restraint and persevering character are notable at the least. Job’s story of loss is hard to imagine outside a John Grisham novel of falling from exceeding wealth and power. He is not so much patient in dealing with his loss as he is restrained in his response. More than patience, we find Job’s acceptance that the wealth he had enjoyed was not his—it all belonged to God.

Job became exasperated with his so-called friends, as their attempts at comfort were futile. Rather than support, they brought criticism—determined to display their understanding of things beyond their grasp. The friends were determined that material blessings were God’s repayment for righteous living. They were determined that Job was responsible for the loss of his wealth, the death of his children, and the disease plaguing his body. They thought they understood, but they didn’t. Their answers were hollow and fell short of strengthening and encouraging Job. They were more worried with being right than seeking to offer the strength of their presence and consolation.

Job needed comfort. He did not need understanding of the situation. He did not need answers as to why life was not going according to plan. He did not need absence of distress. He needed comfort amid the distress, toil, and suffering of his experience.

He petitioned Yahweh for answers. God did not regard him as needing them. Job held fast to his claim of righteousness, but that was not at issue before God. He wanted God to vindicate his right standing to affirm him before the social order. God has no compulsion to give satisfaction to those he creates. God needs no justification before men. It is humanity who must give account of our actions to God. No, God did not give Job answers, and yet Job remained assured that God would vindicate him at some point.

Job was in anguish before his friends, but most deeply for the inadequacy of their consolation efforts. His faith in God was tested and increased in his suffering and loss. His true comfort was in his assurance that God would yet redeem him. Job’s words in chapter 19 speak of a hope in some form of a resurrection—after he died, he would still see God and find some reward for his faithfulness. He trusted in God amid his anxiety, even with no understanding of how or when God would restore him.

Paul speaks of God’s comfort amid the anxiety of great distress. He speaks of God allowing us to experience great distress in order that we might learn to trust God more. We cannot be comforted while our lives are free of distress, pain, discomfort, hunger, and heartache. It is in discomfort that we turn our attention to God, seeking that which we cannot provide for ourselves. We learn to rely upon God as we face dis-ease and anguish, for it is then that God’s comfort can shine through.

If Job is a prime example of the just who suffer, Paul is another. In fact, we might even look at his life to say that everything was going well until he turned to accept Christ. Up until the point of his conversion, Paul had a life of relative ease. He had a good education, he was a leading figure among the Jewish community, and he was moving up the social and political ladder. En route to Damascus, his life took an unexpected turn. From persecuting those accepting Jesus as the Messiah, he became one of those suffering persecution.

Paul’s theology is somehow different from ours. His perspective on life is a radical departure than the messages from our healthcare, marketing, and entertainment industries. While we tend to think of suffering and distress as pointless experiences that need to be avoided and overcome at whatever expense, Paul deems them to have a purpose. It is in our distress and discomfort that we appreciate God as reaching into our lives to strengthen and encourage us—comforting us that we might comfort others.

What a strange notion to 21st Century American ears! God allows us to experience distress that we might learn to rely upon God and so comfort others. Paul understands comfort not as a state of existence, but as an active verb—God reaching into our lives to strengthen and encourage us in our distress. He somehow links suffering with the experience of salvation. The sufferings of Christ spill over into our lives in order that we might comfort others even as God comforts us. Paul says it is in this process of falling upon God’s comfort that we learn the essence of faith—reliance upon God.

Paul had learned to rely upon God, for he had faced situations with no other recourse. It was in such circumstances that he learned to trust God. As James writes that suffering produces faith maturity,^[1] so Paul attests to God’s sufficiency amid his own distress. Paul can speak of suffering as something we need not fear and avoid. He speaks from his own experience, an experience that he would live out again and again. His words to the Corinthian believers are words that he lives up to as he prepares for a trip to Jerusalem amid warnings that imprisonments await him there.^[2]

For Paul, faith was worth the cost. Following Christ was more important than the fear of facing uncertainty, discomfort, and pain. Faithfulness was worth stepping into uncharted territory. He knew that God was faithful. He had the conviction that there were more pressing matters than living for his own benefit and comfort. He could trust God to comfort, strengthen, and encourage him. After all, Christ would not call him to anything that Jesus had not already undergone personally. He could await God’s action to comfort and strengthen.

Will we trust God for comfort and courage to face uncertainty, or will we trust ourselves alone? Will we value comfort as our society, disparaging opportunities for our growth in faith and reliance upon God? As we look at a new budget year looming ahead, will we assume our financial responsibilities for tithing in confidence that God will be faithful to meet our needs? Are we willing to sacrifice our time and energy in comforting others who have yet to experience the grace and faithfulness of God in their own lives? For Paul, being faithful was more important than the setbacks of pain and distress. God took upon himself immense suffering to evidence love for us. Will we deny the gospel of Christ to accept the gospel of American commerce? I would rather await God’s action to comfort. How about you?

—©Copyright 2005 Christopher B. Harbin

This sermon in pdf

¹ James 1:2-4.

² Acts 20:22-24.