Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost August 22-23, 2026
“Consider Job’s God” Job 16:19-21
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
There was a church that had run into a problem that no church ever wants to face. Mice. Mice can ruin a church. They eat their way into a kitchen. They can get in between the walls. They can destroy an organ. And they multiply almost overnight. The pastor of that church approached the Lutheran pastor in town and asked how he has handled those darn mice.
The Lutheran pastor said, “Oh, we solved that problem years ago. We baptize them and confirm them, and they haven’t been back since.”
Sadly, there are times when that is true. But that is not how it is supposed to be. Jesus told us this, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20) Baptism. Instruction. Confirmation. But this doesn’t end at 14 years of age. It continues every day until we have no more days upon earth.
Today I want to talk about how God uses suffering for the growth of our faith. Job suffered greatly. He endured his friends. And through his troubles he learned more about his God.
500 years ago, Martin Luther spoke about how God matures believers. He used three words to describe it. Meditation. Prayer. Trial.
Meditate on God’s word. Do you want to grow up in faith? Then you have to read the Bible. This is God’s word. Have daily devotions. Attend a Bible Study. Learn what God has to say about life. Learn more about God. When speaking about God’s word, Psalm 19 says, “The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.” (Psalm 19:9-10)
Then Luther said we are formed in Christian discipleship by prayer. The needs for us and for others are huge. We are God’s children and we speak with a pleading heart to our Father in heaven. In the New Testament Jesus gave us the Parable of the Persistent Widow with these words of introduction, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show that they should always pray and not give up…” (Luke 18:1)
Maybe you have this meditation thing down. You know the Bible frontwards and backwards. And maybe you are a constant prayer. God hears you knocking at His door incessantly. But there is one more thing that God is doing in you to create a faith that is as strong as can be. You face trials. You are assaulted by temptations. But you are able to live with hope while you are suffering.
There are two ways that you can go when suffering keeps knocking at your door. There are two ways that you can go when temptations to do evil keep harping at you and the devil tricks you into being unfaithful to your faithful God and unfaithful to others in your life. You have reached the breaking point. There is no fight left in you. You fall. You fail. The temptation is too strong. You break.
There are times when people face things way too hard for them and it becomes the breaking point for them. They leave the faith. They reject their baptism. They give up on God. For some people suffering is the breaking point.
Or – the other road – the other road is the turning point. The hardest moment becomes the best moment. Suffering will do one of two things for you. It can be your breaking point, or it can be your turning point.
Job, at times felt suffering was going to be his breaking point. He had nothing left. But, in the darkest hour, God found him and Job would speak words of hope. Job says, “Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend as my ears pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend.” (Job 16:19-21)
It was a turning point when Job would speak his words in chapter 19, words that helped Samuel Medley write the hymn, “I Know That My Redeemer Lives”. “Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever! I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand uponthe earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes – I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me.” (Job 19:23-27)
Having faith in the goodness of God, especially when life is so heavy, is a turning point. Faith knows that God’s love for us is true and strong even when we can’t feel it. Psalm 42, “The Psalm of the Discouraged” says, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” (Verse 5)
Do you know where Martin Luther got this thought that trials help grow a Christian? He got it from the Scriptures. Here are some words that are true:
And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. (Romans 5:2-4)
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (II Corinthians 12:7-10)
In this you greatly rejoice, though now, for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (I Peter 1:6-7)
When you seek someone who you can look up to, don’t look to the perfect person, look to the one with a few scars, a few heartaches, a few failures. They can teach you about life. Like Proverbs says, “For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again.”(24:17)
But the greatest turning point for Job was the moment of his repentance. Job had told God of his innocence repeatedly throughout this book. Job demanded justice. Job spoke out of turn. In chapter 38 God finally speaks to Job, “Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said, ‘Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you and you will answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know.” (Job 38:1-5) For 4 brutal chapters God sarcastically asks Job some questions that he couldn’t even fumble with.
In Job, chapter 40, this man now humbled, says to his Creator, “I am unworthy – how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer – twice, but I say no more.” (Job 40:4-5) Job, a few chapters later would add, “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know…Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:3, 6)
Do you know what suffering does? It allows us to ask some hard questions. Sometimes we brought the misery upon ourselves. Sometimes we have lost focus of God and His ways. Sometimes our pride needed to be humbled.
If suffering drives us to our knees and brings true repentance, then we have benefited. If suffering makes us seek after God and ask for forgiveness and a new beginning, then we have benefited. If we can say with Paul, “When I am weak, then I am strong”, then we have benefited.
Consider Job’s God. Job’s God is Jesus, the intercessor, the Redeemer. Consider Him. Amen!!
