Knowing that God is Trustworthy
Book of Job
St. John’s United Church of Christ
Greeley, Colorado
July 6, 2025
Rev. Juvenal Cervantes
The last few weeks we’ve been asking questions about God, is He real? Is He absolute truth? Is He accepting? Is He exclusive? Is He compassionate? These are questions that clarify our faith and give voice to apologetics, defending and proclaiming our faith. It is more a study about the character of God. Today we ask, “Is God trustworthy?”
Our response to our question today may be quick and little dismissive. We may say, “Yes, I believe God is trustworthy. Done deal. Now, let’s go to lunch.”
The reality is that we do believe. It is easy to sit in a service, sing to Jesus, hear great testimonies of what God is doing, but we all know when things get dark, when things get difficult, we do begin to question. Can I really trust God?
The older I get, the more I realize that much of life is this sanctification process, becoming like Jesus is a lot about God just stripping away our idols. This is kind of easy to talk about, but it is terrifying in real life and some of you know what I’m talking about. If you’ve lived past twenty-five years old, you likely might know what I’m talking about.
Several times in my life, during times of transition, I’ve gone through dark nights of the soul. When things don’t go the way that I want them to go. It is a hard time when things are being stripped away. Going through a horrific car accident in recent years, death of family members, mentors and friends, feeling like I’m ineffective in ministry or as a teacher in public education. I began to think of certain things that were idols in my life.
Today I want to talk about this process, how God refine us and how challenging this can be and how we can trust God through it all. I’ve learned much and I am still learning and growing through those dark and difficulty times that we all face because that is a part of life.
One of the greatest resources that we have in all of literatures and in scriptures, it the book of Job. This book is one of my favorite books of the bible. It was theologian Peter Craige, who wrote one of the best commentaries on the book of Job. Craige said, “Reading the book of Job is a lot like a child eating spinach, just close your eyes and open your mouth. It is not sweet tasting, but it will put iron in your blood and it will allow you to come to grips on how we worship God during hard times.”
Job is about a man that goes through suffering and how to be faithful through suffering, but it is much more than that. What I discovered is that the book is more about worship, worshipping God through the varied seasons of life and what worship really is.
In essence, do we worship God when all things are going well, or do we worship Him because of who He is?
We are going to read selected passages of Job and we’ll see three ideas: 1) Job’s dilemma (which is all of our dilemmas), 2) Job’s deconstruction (a lot of people talk about deconstruction of faith and Job goes through this process and I think that we all do this. We’re talking about analyzing our faith with its assumptions and apparent contradictions), and 3) Job’s declaration (at the end, what he comes to). Today, we’ll focus on Job’s dilemma.
I. Job’s dilemma
There are a lot of twists and turns in this book. The entire book is set up in the first chapter. The first five verses tell us that Job the greatest in all the east. The writer goes through a great length to tell us that Job is blessed, Job has been given so much, Job is the wealthiest man in anywhere you can find. He’s got this amazing family. On top of that not only is he successful, wealthy, but he is faithful to God; those things don’t always go together, but when they do it is a beautiful thing. He is all in.
This man is blameless, and he is innocent. That is key is setting up the story. We often think that life is about reciprocity; do well and things will go well, don’t do well and it will not go well with you. That is not what happens in this story. This story, as it is in most scripture, as we’re reading it, it actually reads us. This is the power of this book.
The book of Job, unless you’ve read “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” this the oldest book you’ve ever read; this is the oldest story you’ve ever read. Many take this book further back than Moses, further back to the patriarchs, though the times of Abraham. There is a storyline.
There is a reason the book of Job has stood the test of time. It is one of the most spectacular, deepest, short stories you’ve ever read in your life. It is my hope that you and I see this today.
This man has done nothing wrong, but this is what happens. One side of the stage the spotlight is on Job. Here is Job living the life in the land of Oz. Then on the other side of the stage we have God and Satan, in the first chapter, who are having a dialogue. Job knows nothing of what is taking place between God and Satan, but we do. This is fascinating; we see what is happening behind the scenes. We see that it is truly your life and mine. We see what is happening, God is up to something else. This is an amazing story, Job knows nothing about this.
Chapter one, verse eight:
“And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”
Job knows nothing about what is going on. Then verse nine is the key that unlocks the entire book, it changes everything about how we approach this book.
Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason?
Other translations say, “Does he fear God for nothing? He is implying, watch this, “Of course he worships you, look at how you’ve blessed him!” All the verses prior to this are about how God has blessed him, how he’s got everything going for him. He’s got a good family, lacks nothing, he’s so righteous and upright that he is actually offering sacrifices on behalf of his family, just in case they sin. This man is legit, he loves God.
So satan is saying, “No wonder he worships you, look how you’ve blessed him.” Here are the key questions that we ask: How would we know if Job worships God because of all that God has given him or simply because He's God?
This gets into the heart of worship. Do we worship because of what God has given us? Do we say, “God, give me, give me, give me!” as if God is some Amazon man in the sky. “As long as you give me what I want, I’m all in. If it doesn’t happen this way, I am out.”
We all struggle with that, don’t we? When things don’t go our way, we say, “God, what are you doing? I’ve got plans, and now all is coming at me?!!!”
I want you to consider today what you are facing. Scripture exists so that we apply it to our lives. What are you struggling with? Some of us are going through the hardest season of our lives, a lot of it is private. Some of us are wrestling with worry, anxiety or depression. We’re struggling with relational issues and loss and grief.
How would we know if we worship God because He is so good to me or we worship Him simply because of who He is, because he is God almighty, Creator of heaven and earth?
Take it away. There is not another way we would know.
The last verse of chapter one, we all know it, verse 21:
“And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.
Game over, he is set.
What do you do when God takes what you most hold on to in life? There are many incredible examples of people in the Bible who persevered and continued with God despite things not going well for them. In 2 Samuel we find out that Absalon, David’s son, dies. Immediately after that, David went to the temple and worshipped God. What will you do if you lost what is near and dear to your heart?
We can still believe in God. When we cannot reconcile our loss with our faith, we either abandon our faith or cling to it in the dark. True faith takes on its deepest meaning when exercised in the darkness.
Will we truly believe what Scripture tell us: “the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended” (Isaiah 60:20). One day “death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:40.
The most courageous and faith-driven thing we can do when things don’t go our way is to realize that we are not walking alone. Even when we cannot see God’s hand, we can trust God’s heart. This is the word of the Lord and God’s invitation to us. Amen.