“Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:

“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell me, if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements—surely you know!

Or who stretched the line upon it?

On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone

the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!

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Today we heard a few verses from the book which tells us about the most famous bet in the history of humanity. Job. This godly man was caught in the crossfire of this bet between God Yahweh and Satan.

God was delighted in Job’s faithfulness. Satan was challenging that Job’s faithfulness was conditional. Because God had blessed him so abundantly. They made this bet. Let everything be taken from Job and then let’s see, whether he still remains faithful to God Yahweh or not. Sounds quite awful. How can you do that?

But off they went… without asking for our opinion. Everything was taken from Job. His family. His property. His health. Everything was gone. That was the bet.

We are not strangers to similar situations. Probably not to such an extent. But still. Loss of our loved ones. Problems in the family. Financial struggles. Health afflictions. Uncertainty. Messiness, conflicts and confusion in the church. That’s us.

What did Job do? What did his friends do? They all were trying to understand “why”. They all were looking for explanations. Explanations… What had caused Job’s misery? Whom to blame? Who was responsible for that wretched situation?

Have you noticed? When we are doing well, when our lives are in order and reasonably predictable, we can be quite patient, quite optimistic, our threshold of tolerance towards others and what is happening around can be quite high.

But… When we struggle, when we face various challenges, something happens with our vision. We get a really clear vision to see all the specks in the eyes of those around us. And there are so many of them, so easy to find. We zoom in and they become for us like little coins that can cover the Sun. And all we tend to see are those specks.

And then we get less and less patient, we get angry, emotions boil over, we become more and more negative and bitter. We can see this especially in online discussions, where people just lash out at one another, no brakes needed.

I try to avoid even reading such things. There is so much anger, bitterness, ugliness, slander, lack of grace. All of that is magnified. And you see, the truth is, I don’t need to go online to witness that ugliness. I can see it elsewhere, much closer to home.

Can you guess where? I can see all of that in my own heart, in my thoughts and emotions. Brothers and Sisters, please, forgive me if this situation brings out the worst in me. Please, forgive me if I don’t have all the answers that we all would like to hear. Please, forgive me if I cannot bring that clarity that we all so desire at this time. Please, forgive me whichever way I may have sinned against you.

Job. What can we learn from his story? At least two things. Let’s learn about seeking the Lord and let us learn about being blessed by the presence of God. About seeking the Lord our God and about being blessed by His presence.

First, about seeking the Lord. Whatever confusing our situation may look from our perspective, we may actually have a very unique opportunity given to us. Let’s see! What did Job do in his situation? He wanted to meet the Lord God. He wanted to be completely open with the Lord. He challenged to be examined by the Lord.

We shall do the same. We have this gift in the Church, we have almost forgotten about it. What is it? Private Confession and Absolution. Where instead of searching for explanations by blaming others, we ask the Lord to help us to examine our hearts.

We look at God’s Law as a mirror, we ask the light of the Word to dispel the darkness or our hearts, so that we can see all the planks in our eyes, confess our sins before our gracious Brother Jesus, put them in His light and ask Him to take them away.

What a joy! To kneel before the Lord. For we are His own. To be completely open with Him. To turn away from what eats us from the inside, to ask Him to take our sins away. What a blessing! But… you may be wondering: “Who would need such a thing?”

“Not me, I am not that bad, there is nothing in me that I would want to put in light, to repent of, or to turn away. Who would need such a thing?” You know the answer. We all. Me and each one of you, without exceptions. We all need our Father to help us.

We all need to let holy God shine into our hearts, to help us to see clearly planks that we have in our eyes, we need His help to take them out, to heal us, to restore us with His fatherly love and grace, to fill us with gratitude and divine peace. We all need it.

Seek the Lord! Come with repentant hearts! Be healed, be restored, be made well! Ask me, I am here to help you to receive these wonderful gifts of our Lord. His grace, His forgiveness, freedom from our sins, good and joyful conscience. This is why I am here.

Second lesson. Be blessed by the presence of our God. Job was seeking God. He was crying out to Him. And finally, God Yahweh appears, as we heard in our today’s reading from the book of Job. But then… surprise, surprise!

He doesn’t answer any of Job’s questions. Instead, He challenges Job. God questions Job. “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.”

God Yahweh doesn’t answer Job’s questions, He does something infinitely more. He comes to Job. He engages with Job. He reveals Himself to Job. He grants Job to experience His holy and gracious presence. He blesses Job with His very presence.

How much it means! How powerful was that experience! How much it meant for Job! He hadn’t experienced God’s presence so intimately, so powerfully, in such a transforming way when everything was well in his life.

After God has spoken to Him, Job uttered: “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore, I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Job was blessed to experience God’s presence in the very midst of all his terrible afflictions. Not despite his situation, but because of it.

When all the structure of this life, where he felt good and comfortable and in control were taken from him. Where there was nothing left to cling to or to trust in, but God. That is when Job realized that this God Yahweh, His presence was all he needed. “I had only heard about you, now I have seen you, I rest my case. I am at peace.”

It is in such trying times when we can be blessed to experience God’s presence as never before. God’s presence in the midst of this world’s turmoil. When the ground seems to be shifting under us, when familiar structures fall apart. God’s presence.

If we seek Him… In prayer, in His Word, in the Divine Service, in the Lord’s Supper, in the community of saints. This may be our unique God given opportunity. There may be another bet going on. But you can be assured that our God is betting on you. You can be assured that He will win this bet too, for it is God’s own Spirit who dwells in you.

I pray that the Spirit of God in you helps you to see our situation from God’s perspective. I pray that we would use this situation not to attack one another, not to blame one another, but with repentant hearts asking our Lord to come closer to us.

I pray that the Spirit of God invites us all to examine our hearts first, and to remove planks in our eyes first. I pray that our Father would use this time to bring us closer to Him, in His very presence, and at once, also closer to one another in His family.

As imperfect, but forgiven and loved people of God, as one body of Christ. For that is who you are. Amen.