Suffering Well: Job’S Stubborn Faith

By Joshua J. King

Author Joshua J. King guides us through Job chapter by chapter, verse by verse, highlighting truths we ordinary Bible students might too easily overlook. He delivers fascinating insights into the trials of Jobs wife, as well as the theologies and character of his four friends, and he provides a compelling analysis of Job, his stubborn faith, and the true longings of his heart.

Any Christian who wants to know more about the heart and character of God and how that God works for our best through suffering should read this book. Its a very thoughtful piece.

Tracey Bianchi co-author of True You: Overcoming Self-Doubt and Using Your Voice and author of Mom Connection: Creating Vibrant Relationships in the Midst of Motherhood and Green Mama: The Guilt-Free Guide to Helping You and Your Kids Save the Planet

A uniquely uplifting exploration of an important Old Testament booka new view of human suffering. Highly recommended!

Kitty Foth-Regner, author of Heaven Without Her: A Desperate

Daughters Search for the Heart of Her Mothers Faith

and www.EverlastingPlace.com

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490893853

Joshua J. King

Joshua J. King has served as Associate Minister at New Creation Bible Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Besides his day job, he currently serves with his wife and two children at Humble Area First Baptist Church in Humble, Texas.

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Copyright © 2015 Joshua J. King.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-9384-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-9386-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-9385-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015911246

WestBow Press rev. date: 07/23/2015

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Preface Confusion

Chapter 1 Consider Job (James 5:11)

Chapter 2 First: The End (Job 42)

Chapter 3 Priorities (Job 1–2)

Chapter 4 Joy in Unrelenting Pain (Job 3–7)

Chapter 5 Wanted: Arbitrator (Job 8–10)

Chapter 6 I Hope, He Longs (Job 11–14)

Chapter 7 My Intercessor, My Friend (Job 15–17)

Chapter 8 I Will See God (Job 18–19)

Chapter 9 Under the Sun: Absurdities (Job 20–21)

Chapter 10 Treasure His Words (Job 22–24)

Chapter 11 Intimate Friendship (Job 25–31)

Chapter 12 Beyond Our Understanding (Job 32–37)

Chapter 13 A Sneak Peak (Job 38–41)

Chapter 14 Suffering Well

This book is

dedicated to my late mother Ellen L. King (deceased April 2006) and my father James N. King for living out the lessons contained in this book.

Suffering Well

When life seems the bleakest, Christ shines the brightest.

-Ellen L. King

April 2006

Stubborn Faith

Stubborn: inflexibly declining to change a chosen position, line of behavior, opinion.

The New Lexicon Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language. 1989 ed.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks first to Jesus for saving me, adopting me and loving me. I thank Him for His Word and the wonderful truths contained in it.

To my mother Ellen L. King, who went to be with the Lord in April 2006, and my father James N. King for both showing me living examples of Suffering Well with Stubborn Faith.

To my loving and incredibly intelligent wife Paloma King. I praise God for your encouragement to continue with this project when I was ready to give up. For being understanding all the late nights as I ferociously typed away and for your insight and feedback this past year.

To my beautiful daughters Natalia and Karina. Thank you for being a source of joy and motivation in my life.

To my best friend and Pastor, Joseph Dallas of New Creation Bible Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for being a true friend and standing by my side during my own dark days and always remaining encouraging. For showing me what faithfulness to God looks like and for teaching me how to be a true follower of Jesus Christ.

To my church family at New Creation Bible Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for being a wonderful loving family and for showing me such support and grace in my life. Even though I’m far away you will always be my home church.

To my mother-in-law Aurora Lopez Iracheta for reading through the manuscript more than once and providing such precise and valuable feedback that changed the direction of the book for the better.

To my sister-in-law Amelia Denise Gonzalez Lopez for also reading through the manuscript and for your encouraging words. Your handwritten note on the back of the manuscript kept me moving forward with the project.

To Pastor Barry Jeffries at Humble Area First Baptist Church in Humble, Texas (www.hafbc.com) for your willingness to read the first draft of the manuscript. Your detailed notes and time spent going through each and every page with me meant more than you can imagine.

To my Life group: Koinonia at Humble Area First Baptist Church in Humble, Texas for your support as you were the first to receive the lessons contained in the book and for your encouraging feedback. Your excitement inspired the creation of this book.

To my good friends James and Laurie Dearth for encouraging me in this project, for your feedback on sections of the book and most of all for your prayers.

To Kevin Hrebik, DMin, and owner of (www.mypaperwhisperer.com) for your collaboration on this work. Your line editing and proofing was invaluable. You had a passion for this project and this book wouldn’t be what it is without you. I’m thankful to the Lanier Theological Library in Houston, Texas (www.laniertheologicallibrary.com) for referring Kevin Hrebik.

To Kitty Foth-Regner author of Heaven Without Her: A Desperate Daughter’s Search for the Heart of Her Mother’s Faith (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2008), and (www.EverlastingPlace.com). Thank you for responding to an email from an unknown author/stranger needing help. I can’t thank you enough for the investment you put into reading and editing the manuscript as well as helping me with the writing process. Thank you for your endorsement and for writing the cover description. You’ve become a mentor to me.

To Tracey Bianchi co-author of True You: Overcoming Self-Doubt and Using Your Voice (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015), and author of Mom Connection: Creating Vibrant Relationships in the Midst of Motherhood (Ada, MI: Revell, 2012) and Green Mama: The Guilt-Free Guide to Helping You and Your Kids Save the Planet (Grand Rapids, MI: 2010). For your willingness to read and endorse this book.

PREFACE

Confusion

The smell of freshly roasted beans permeated the warm air of the dimly lit, two-story coffee shop on Milwaukee’s East Side. It was a welcome escape from the brisk winter night as I sought out the other members of my evangelism team—brandishing Bibles and surveys in the hope of conversing with some representatives of the open minded, intellectual community for which the East Side is known.

I found them at the top of a creaky, narrow staircase, seated on the floor with a student from the local university. He was asking probing questions about the Book of Job, and I was quickly drawn into the discussion. Sadly, we found ourselves unprepared for his inquiries, as he had more profound thoughts about the book than we did, and he willingly admitted his confusion while we were ashamed at our own.

In retrospect, I find it intriguing that, of all the topics in the Bible, Job was the book that inspired the most conversation that night. Perhaps it’s because the book of Job is about suffering—something we’re all destined to experience in this life, along with emotions from panic, anxiety, despair, depression, and exhaustion. But for most of us, suffering is above all confusing; we have a hard time making sense of it. For the most theological among us, even though we trace it back to sin, we’re still left with questions such as, Why did suffering miss them but hit me? and What does God have to do with this calamity in my life?

In our search for answers, we may run to a Christian book or our Study Bible to look up suffering. Almost inevitably, we’re encouraged to read the book of Job.

Been there, done that? If so—and if you’ve followed this advice by plunging in to the book of Job—you may have yet another question: Why was I led to such a complicated book of the Bible during the most perplexing time of life? Theologians refer to such questions as theodicy, which tend to spur us to seek out the best books on the subject, or commentaries and sermons on Job, or send us straight to Google for the latest thinking.

More often than not, we’ll end up even more confused. The simple truth is that during times of suffering, we want answers and we want them now. Our confusion drives our questions, which leads us to interpret the book incorrectly, and we end up even further away from God during our time of greatest need. Ironically, our search starts with a motivation to figure out what Job did to cause his misfortune. If we can find the answers to this question, we reason, we can discover the formula to cure our own pain.

In this volume, you will find a unique approach to the difficult subject of suffering—an approach that will both reduce your confusion and shed new light on your own suffering. I begin with a fresh look at how the Word of God instructs the discerning reader to look at Job. Just as a single key is used to open a door, I’ll use one key verse as the way to unlock this mystery and unveil the lessons that God wants His people to learn from this wonderful Old Testament book. My hope is that, during times of deep suffering, these insights will help Christians come away from the book of Job encouraged, because they saw with new eyes how a man of stubborn faith managed to suffer well.

CHAPTER 1

Consider Job (James 5:11)

I couldn’t help but read the statement over again. It read, cause of death: adult failure to thrive. My eyes fixated on that phrase like a person who passes a stranger on the street but swears he knows him from somewhere.

I quickly looked up the medical definition and learned that failure to thrive usually refers to infants born with serious medical issues—infants who suffer from organ failure and die because the body can no longer thrive. Failure to thrive for adults is a little different. It also comes from organ failure but typically it’s a choice. That choice often involves no longer eating, depression, or just giving up. Frequently, it’s associated with Alzheimer’s and severe depression in older adults. Granted, choice may be challenging when someone has suffered from such a harsh disease as Alzheimer’s, but adult failure to thrive also affects other elderly adults who have made the decision to give up. A person can go from being a baby in the arms of a loving mother who did everything to help him or her thrive in this world to being old, alone, cared for by strangers, and suffering from a horrible disease, incapable of managing even basic functions such as eating, and then eventually dying from failure to thrive.

Life is short in this rebellious, sinful world of absurdity and pain; our lives will be punctuated by misfortune in countless ways. We do everything we can to avoid it: we ignore the signs of it, avoid others who are going through it, and spend the majority of our prayer life asking God to protect us from it. Unfortunately, suffering captures us all in one form or another, sooner or later. When that happens, even if our bodies aren’t thriving, will we find ourselves spiritually failing to thrive as well? In this life, we’re called to thrive in our relationship with Christ through faith. When suffering strikes, our God can help us thrive before, during, and after.

Consider these words from the book of James: As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy (5:11).

No other book or passage in the Bible mentions Job’s experiences, his perseverance, or the Lord’s work in his suffering, except this New Testament letter to the church written by James, Jesus’ half-brother. This key verse is essentially the New Testament commentary on the book of Job.

James’ life was unlike any other, as he was born and raised in the same household as Jesus and always knew Jesus as his older brother. He initially doubted Jesus then saw the resurrected Jesus and believed and became a leader of the church in Jerusalem—to whom even the apostle Paul gave account—with his life ending in martyrdom. It would be hard to find a better witness to lend authority and credibility to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as well as to what a faithful life in relationship with Him looks like. His perspective is wholly unique.

In his letter, James addressed the persecution and suffering the believers were enduring and called for authenticity and tenacity of faith as the way to persevere. His letter begins, Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything (1:1-4).

Note that James began with the phrase consider it pure joy (v. 2a) not pure joy for the safety and security of the church or pure joy for the blessed Christian life, but pure joy when you face trials (v. 2b). This is something that’s hard not only to accept but also to live out.

We all would like to live courageous Christian lives, as faithful witnesses for Christ while basking in the safety and security of persecution-free lives. James asks us to reconsider this position, and he spends the rest of the letter encouraging believers to live out their lives of faith regardless of suffering and persecution. At the end, he summed up this persevering faith using an example of a life from the Old Testament. Of all the individuals he could have chosen, he picked one—a person who must have shown faithfulness to the Lord that was authentic and tenacious.

He chose Job.

James asks us to consider Job and his perseverance. If we’re to consider Job’s perseverance, then we must see that his determination developed from a deeply rooted and abiding faith in the Lord. His grit didn’t come from human strength or a strong will but rather from the power of God working in his life. James calls us to this kind of faith and perseverance. This perseverance is our resolve to be faithful in our relationship with Jesus because only in His power can we thrive.

James then reminds us of the benefit of persevering, and have seen what the Lord finally brought about (5:11). When we read the end of the book of Job, we find him better off than he was at the beginning. Job was restored but his restoration wasn’t found in new possessions, physical health, or renewed relationships. Rather, Job’s restoration was found in God’s affirmation to him of their relationship. The lesson from