The Devil Went Down to Uz

Sermon as Preached 10/7/12 at Lambs and Evington UMC

Scripture Job 2:1-10

We’ve all probably heard the great Charlie Daniel’s Band song “the Devil Went Down to Georgia.” If you haven’t it goes a little like this.

The devil went down to Georgia, he was looking for a soul to steal.
He was in a bind 'cos he was way behind and he was willin' to make a deal.
When he came across this young man sawin' on a fiddle and playin' it hot.
And the devil jumped upon a hickory stump and said: "Boy let me tell you what:
"I guess you didn't know it, but I'm a fiddle player too.
"And if you'd care to take a dare, I'll make a bet with you.
"Now you play a pretty good fiddle, boy, but give the devil his due:
"I bet a fiddle of gold against your soul, 'cos I think I'm better than you."
The boy said: "My name's Johnny and it might be a sin,
"But I'll take your bet, you’re gonna regret, 'cos I'm the best that's ever been.”

And then a great fiddle battle ensues. It’s fun song, and a song with a fascinating story about the devil making a bet for the soul of a young boy. For how entertaining that song is, for all the drama wrapped up in those words in in those fiddles, they still don’t compare to the drama that we find in our very own Bible, in the book of Job. Here in the book of Job we also find a sort of bet or wager, but this time it’s not between the devil and some random boy, this bet is between the devil and God!

            The story in our passage today starts out with God surrounded by the angels when all of the sudden the devil shows up. God asks the devil, “where did you come from?” and the devil begins to tell about his journey around the earth tempting humans, causing them to doubt their beliefs, causing them to give up on God. You can tell that the devil sort of enjoys bragging about this to God, it seems to make him feel powerful, and he seems to suggest that he is so powerful that he can turn any human against God. But God challenges him, God says, “Have you considered my servant Job?” He tells the devil that Job is a faithful follower, that he is righteous, that he has and will always trust and follow God.” Challenge accepted! The devil sees this almost a dare, and tells God that all humans when it comes down to it will choose their life over God.

            When hearing this story what troubles most Christians, and probably Jews for that matter, is that God goes along with this bet. All that God says to the devil is that you must spare his life. Why? Why would God allow this to happen? Why wouldn’t God simply step in and solve? This is something that has been questioned for centuries, it is something that I cannot stand here and act as if I have all of the answers to this question, but let me present it in one way that may at least help us to think about it in another way. First let us make it clear that it is the devil who wishes to harm Job, not God. The devil is the one who enjoying putting afflictions upon Job, God on the other hand allows it because he trusts Job. The devil has become so cocky about his own works and now God trusts Job to put the devil in his place. This does however mean that Job does however have to go through hardships, it must be tough for God to watch and do nothing. It really reminds me of a parent with their child. A baby that cries throughout the night makes you want to get up and hold the baby and rock the baby to sleep, and you do for a while, but then there comes a point where in order for the baby to learn to sleep throughout the night a parent has to let the child cry throughout the night. I can imagine as a parent how difficult this must be, especially if you have one of those baby monitors in your room, you hear the baby and all you want to do is comfort it, but you know you can’t, you have to let the baby cry for its own good.  Or when a child grows up and is struggling with math, and you see the problem you know the answer and you just want to do the work for them, but you know they have to struggle through it to learn it. This is how I imagine God in this passage, God wants to help so bad but knows he can’t. The unfortunate e part of this story is that such a heavy burden is placed upon Job. Job is already a righteous man, maybe the hardships may strengthen his faith a little, but it is not as though Job needed these challenges to be closer to God.  Poor Job, because of his righteousness has this placed upon him. He has become God’s shining beacon of humanity, the one who will stand up to the devil. God  allows all of this to happen because he trusts Job, trusts that he will not falter, and through all of the hardships that Job faces, we must recognize that to have this sort of trust put on you by God is in fact, quite an honor.

            And Job did have many hardships placed upon him. In chapter one of Job we find a similar scene with a wager between the devil and God, which is common in writing of this time. Repetition was often used to emphasize the importance of something but also to make distinctions. In the first chapter after the bet, the devil attacks the things that Job has. Job’s livestock are stolen, his servants either burn to death or are attacked and killed by outsiders, and his children are killed after their house collapses on them.   In our passage today we find that the devil inflicts Job with horrible and painful sores all over his body, so bad that he must sit around and scrape them off with a broken piece of pottery.  This physical attack of the body, along with what happened to his family, servants and livestock would have been interpreted by people at the time as God being displeased with Job. They would think that Job must have sinned in some way and now God is paying him back for his sins. This thinking gets so bad that even his wife doesn’t believe him anymore. She says to him, “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God and die.” But here we have one of the most poignant responses by Job, he says, “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?”

            Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad? As Christians this is a question that we need to seriously ponder. We are quick to give praises to God for the ways in which he blesses our lives, but when we face times of trouble we are also quick to curse God, or even worse believe that God is not even there.  Or like the wife of Job we tend to believe that it is some sort of punishment for our actions, that we didn’t so something well. How many times have you heard someone say well if I had only prayed harder, things would be different?  This thinking is the same as saying that you are being punished by God, and this is what Job is challenging. The simple fact is that evil exists, humans are sinful, temptation is real, and there are just situations that we don’t understand, but in these times let us remember Job’s question, “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad.” This question is at the very heart of this book. As we explore Job further the next three weeks we will hopefully begin to understand this question better.  But for now, be comforted by the fact sin and death no longer has a hold on us, that God called another man to take on the devil, and this time even required the sacrifice of his own life. So as we prepare for communion let us give thinks for that sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, and let us be filled will the grace that flows forth from his blood.