The Victory of Faith

Job 42:12-17

William F. Schnell

October 25, 2009

When the members of a Bible study group were asked to share their favorite verse of scripture one old fellow said that, while he had a lot of favorite texts, there was one that had been most helpful to him throughout his life.  “In fact,” he said, “it is five little words that are found all over the Bible.”  When asked what they were he said, “And it came to pass.”  I suspect he must have used a King James Version of the Bible where that phrase is found over 450 times throughout both testaments of scripture.

When the old fellow was asked to explain why that was his favorite text he responded, “Don’t you see?  When the Bible says that “it came to pass” that means it did not come to stay.”  He continued, “During my life many troubles have come but, thanks be to God, each time trouble reared its head it did not come to stay.  It came to pass.”  I am reminded of a similar saying that is often heard on the lips of those who have been around awhile and have become wise unto life: “This too shall pass.”

Today’s message is the fourth in a series of four from the book of Job.  The story of Job is the story of undeserved suffering.  Job was an exceedingly righteous and blessed man whom Satan severely cursed in an attempt to destroy his faith.  But when Job found his previously blessed life cursed, his response was to draw closer to God.  He said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised."  In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing (Job 1:22).  The title of our first message was, “The Give and Take of Faith.” 

But if Job did not curse God, he certainly questioned God.  “Why is this happening to me?”  What did I do to deserve this?”  Of course, Job did nothing to deserve it.  Could there be another purpose for life’s trials and troubles—a redeeming purpose?  Job came to see his trials as a test of his faith.  Anyone can say they have faith in God, but it is not until our faith is tried and tested that it can be proven to be more than lip service.  The title of the second message in our series was, “The Testing of Faith.”

Job passed the testing of his faith when he humbled himself and submitted himself to God’s ways and thoughts even though they remained a mystery to Job.  As God spoke through the prophet Isaiah, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord.  "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-10).  The title of the third message in our series was, “The Mystery of Faith.”

Which brings us to the fourth and final message in our series.  As we said, Job humbled himself when he acknowledged how very big God was and how very small he was in comparison.  Jesus said: …whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Matthew 23:12).  In our text for today God is going to exalt a humbled Job in a surpassing way that will more than compensate for all the trials he has endured.  The title of today’s message is, “The Victory of Faith.”

The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first.  He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys (Verse 12).  You will recall that when the story of Job began he was considered very prosperous, owning seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys.  If you do the math, he ends up twice as prosperous as he was before in terms of material blessings.

It is hard, however, to put a value on the seven sons and three daughters he lost.  But God did bless him with seven more sons and three more beautiful daughters.  Indeed, Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters… (Verse 15).  Furthermore, according to Jewish tradition which says that Job was 70 years old when the calamities struck, God granted Job to live twice as many more years in keeping with the extreme old ages of the patriarchs.  After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation.  And so he died, old and full of years (Verses 16-17). 

In short, God blessed Job is a surpassing way that more than compensated for all the trials he endured with his persevering faith.  Hence the ancient story of Job became an inspiration for the first Christians in the early Church who were persecuted for their faith.  James, the pastor of the Mother Church in Jerusalem, encouraged his flock to persevere when their faith was being sorely tested.  He wrote: 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 (James 5:11)

This is the victory of faith, not that we will somehow avoid life’s troubles and trials, but that by God’s redeeming power even they will achieve for us a surpassing blessing once we pass the test.  As St. Paul put it …our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (II Corinthians 4:17).  He wasn’t diminishing the kinds of trials Job or he or you or I endure by calling them light and momentary.  He was saying that there was simply no comparison to what they achieved for us by God’s redeeming grace working through persevering faith. 

There has been some persevering faith evident in this congregation over the preceding year of grave economic uncertainty.  Let me remind you where we were last year at this time.  I was attending the Schooler Institute of Preaching at the Methodist Seminary in Delaware, Ohio when the panic of the “Great Recession” began in earnest.  The second day of the conference started with a complementary breakfast and Plain Dealer newspaper with the following announcement: “Wall Street joined in a world-wide cascade of despair Monday over the financial crisis, driving the Dow Jones industrials to their biggest loss ever during a trading day.”  

Everybody was talking about the news from attending pastors like me to the guest presenters to the faculty to the students.  How should we, as preachers, respond to this terrible uncertainty in the air?  During a small group session, each person in my group was to share what our planned topic was for the coming Sunday and how the breaking news might affect our approach.  When it came my turn to speak, I said that the next Sunday was the kickoff day for our annual stewardship campaign, and the entire group let out a collective gasp of horror.

There were several well-meaning suggestions that the date might better be postponed, and I admit that I was sorely tempted by the idea, but in the end went on with Loyalty Sunday as planned.  The title of our message was, “Out of the Most Severe Trial,” based upon a text from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians where he wrote: And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.  Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity (II Corinthians 8:1-2). 

Well, today, one year later, I would like to tell you about the grace that God has given The Church in Aurora.  With a little prudent belt-tightening combined with some rich generosity the church was not only able to come up with a balanced budget for the present year but, according to current estimates, there is a decent chance that we will end the year without a deficit.  And we have been able to do this without cutting staff or programming.  Indeed, a highly grateful and motivated staff has worked hard with our leadership to expand our programming in many ways as we celebrate our bicentennial year.

Our worship attendance is up several percentage points over the previous year, I believe we will have a solid group uniting in membership in a few weeks, and I believe our stewardship campaign for this year will prove to be sufficient by God’s grace working through your persevering faith.  It is my custom to worry and fret through each year’s Faith Promise campaign as the rest of the staff scolds me: “O Ye of little faith.”  But this year I am strangely calmed and confident, which is ironic when you consider that our world, nation and congregation are not out of the woods economically speaking.

But I would like to point out that our gravest fears of a year ago have not come to pass.  Exactly one year ago the President of the United States of America was using words like “panic,” “chaos” and “disaster” in his public statements.  There were very real and widespread fears of another Great Depression attended by a run on the banks and unemployment approaching 20%--one out of five workers--as in the 1930’s.  Indeed there are still some who think we are heading for such a crash, although not so many as a year ago since most economic indicators are now suggesting otherwise.

I guess it remains a debatable issue for now.  What we do know for certain is that our greatest fears of a year ago have not come to pass up to this point.  God is doing his part to preserve us in these uncertain times, and we need to continue doing our part to persevere in our faith.  What does it mean to persevere in our faith during uncertain economic times?  I think the answer is written on every American coin and dollar bill.  It doesn’t say, “In the almighty dollar we trust.”  It doesn’t say, “In mammon we trust.”  It says, “In God We Trust.”

God asks us to trust him with a very small percentage of what we like to call “our” money.  Not so that our lives will become diminished by that small percentage, but so that our lives may become enriched by the grace of God in a surpassing way beyond compare.  Through one prophetic voice God challenges us: Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.  Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it (Malachi 3:10).  

Today is Loyalty Sunday, when we respond to God’s loyalty with our own.  Today we kick off our annual stewardship campaign so that we may present a balanced budget for the year head.  Today we persevere in our faith with a Faith Promise.  Actually, we have many eager givers who have already turned in Faith Promise cards signifying increases over the previous year, providing the rest of us with spiritual momentum to follow their lead.  We can do that by placing our Faith Promise card in the offering plate as it is passed among the pews this morning.

If you did not bring a Faith Promise card with you today, you will find one located in the pew rack closest to the aisle (along with a pencil).  If you were among those who have already returned a Faith Promise card, but feel inspired by the example of your fellow church members, or God’s Word to us today, to increase your Faith Promise then you can fill out a new Faith Promise card and place it in the offering plate.  When the Stewardship Committee comes across two Faith Promise cards from you signifying different amounts, you can be sure that they will keep the right one.

If you are struggling with your finances right now, I want you to give something.  You may not be able to give the congregational average of approximately $1,500 a year, but you can give something.  I know, because there was a time in my life when I was pretty much indigent.  But I always had a little something to give to the Lord, and I did, and I don’t want you to miss out on the surpassing blessing that comes from it.  Please trust me.  Even a little something on a Faith Promise card is infinitely better than nothing.  I am confident that our Faith Promises will be made sufficient by God’s redeeming grace.  I am also confident that our lives are going to be enriched and blessed, like Job’s, in a surpassing way beyond compare. 

This is “The Victory of Faith” and it is within our grasp and we are going to proclaim it with a hymn “Faith is the Victory.”  We have never sung this hymn while I have been a pastor of this church, so we are going to ask the choir to sing through verse one while we become acquainted with the tune.  Then we are going to join in on verse 2, and get better on verse 3 and become thoroughly acquainted by verse 4.  I might point out that this hymn first appeared in the Christian Endeavor hymnal used by members of this congregation when that Christian Endeavor quilt was made to commemorate the first hundred years of faith and service at The Church in Aurora.