#1
You may or may not have followed the case of the mushroom murders.
In 2023 Erin Patterson invited round her ex-husband and his family, and proceeded to serve them a meal laced with death-cap mushrooms.
#2
The ex-husband himself didn’t actually show up, and one of the others eventually just recovered from the poisoning. But all the others present were killed as a result of eating.
The question is: did she do it deliberately? Or was it just the result of foraging for mushrooms and accidentally picking the wrong ones, as she claimed?
The people of Australia have been gripped by the case.
#3
It’s been covered by every media outlet non-stop. There’s been a daily ‘mushroom trial podcast’.
Documentary -makers have flooded the small country town where it all took place. A standard dinner invitation in Australia today finishes with the assurance: there’ll be no mushrooms!
And maybe the kind of interest that can sustain a daily podcast is not surprising.
#4
It’s got all the elements of a true crime drama or an Agatha Christie. Sleepy country town. Hidden secrets. It was the cook, in the kitchen, with the Beef Wellington!
Well this week, the verdict finally came. Erin Patterson has been found guilty on all charges and now awaits sentencing.
There is resolution at last!
But spare a thought for the man who recovered and survived, Ian Wilkinson.
#5
He was the sole survivor of the poisoning and as it happens a friend of a friend of mine. What an awful experience he has had. He was robbed of his wife and her family and came within a whisker of being killed himself. I wonder how you’d expect him to react to what happened? You’d probably expect him to be bitter and furious, I suppose. And no doubt those thoughts were part of his reaction.
But speaking last year, after he’d recovered and Erin Patterson had been charged, and he’d had a chance to process it all, on the day after what would have been his wedding anniversary, what he actually said was this:
#6
‘The ways are sometimes hard. But God is good. He is with us. He promised to never leave. And I can say: that is true.’
What a response!
But then you see, Ian Wilkinson is a Christian. Those words were spoken to his church, Karumburra Baptist Church. In a sermon in fact – his first sermon after the whole incident, on the 25th anniversary of him becoming pastor of that church.
And you can see the maturity of a suffering saint shining through. Don’t you?
‘The ways are sometimes hard. But God is good. He is with us. He promised to never leave. And I can say: that is true.’
We’ve been thinking about another suffering saint these past few weeks on a Sunday morning.
#7
Another man who lost his loved ones, and in fact everything that made life good. Because we’ve been journeying through the Bible’s Book of Job. And it’s been giving us a bit of a workout in the way we think about suffering.
So a quick recap.
#8
• In chapters 1 and 2 of the book, it was the who question that came to the fore. Who really stands behind the hard things in life?
And the answer we were shown was maybe surprising: it was that – ultimately – even though there may be different influences at work - God himself is still sovereign over all things, even those hard things.
• In chapter 3, it was the what question. What does it feel like when everything that used to bring you pleasure is taken away from you?
We found Job having had that exact experience, was now in a dark, dark place, wishing he’d never been born! It was gut-wrenching to see him in that state.
• But then last week we glimpsed at the next 20 or so chapters, as Job’s comforters argued with him about the why question. Why does suffering come to the believer?
Job’s 3 so-called friends were convinced that it had be a punishment from God for some sin he must have committed. Now that does fit with some things we know about God – he does care about right and wrong. But the problem was that both we the readers and Job himself know that it can’t be right in this particular instance, because he hasn’t done anything particularly bad – certainly not something worthy of this kind of suffering. So that why question is left open.
• Today we’re switching the spotlight back to Job, and effectively the question we’re going to be asking is the how question: how does the experience of suffering shape the faith of the one who suffers?
Pray
Read
#9
Do have that chapter in front of you. It’s just one chapter among a number in this book which record Job’s responses to his friends. But we’re going to focus on this one because it seems particularly revealing.
Have a look at that scream of pain Job lets out in verses 21 and 22.
#10
21 “Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.
22 Why do you pursue me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?
Why?!
That’s his question, isn’t it?
• Why are you giving me such a hard time, you who are meant to be my friends? Lay off me!
• And come to think of it, why is God giving me such a hard time. I mean, isn’t he meant to be my friend too? Aren’t I one of his people? Why is he putting me through all this pain?
I’m sure there’s a load of us here who’ve asked that question of God from time to time.
And it’s a tough one, isn’t it?
Assuming it is a genuine question – which to be fair it might not be (it might just be a whinge, a moan, a cry of anguish – Aargh – life is just so rubbish! – it might be just that. And that would be quite understandable.
But if it is a real question, it’s a tough one to crack. Because God has form for using pain to accomplish different things.
• Sometimes it’s a trust thing.
#11
• As in: where are you and I placing our trust? Is it actually in God? Or is it somewhere else and we need a bit of a wake-up call to realise it?
Why did God allow the apostle Paul to suffer so much in his missionary journeys? Why was he brought close to death?
Well, Paul is later given insight into that very question. ‘that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on Christ’ (2 Cor 1:9).
God uses suffering to help us put our trust, our confidence, in the right place, the right person. Sometimes.
• Sometimes it’s a growth thing.
#12
• As in personal growth. Character formation.
Later in that same letter, Paul talks of ‘a thorn in his flesh’ that was given to him by God. What’s he talking about? What’s this thorn? We don’t really know. But most people think it’s some kind of chronic pain issue.
But that’s horrible. Why would God put Paul through something that?
Well, Paul tells us: ‘to keep me from becoming conceited’. (2 Cor 12:7) That is, it was God’s sharp tool to stop him getting too big for his boots. Which apparently might otherwise have been an issue for him. It’s a similar thing in Hebrews 12 and its talk of God disciplining a child like a Dad disciplines his kids.
God uses suffering to train character in his children. To cause growth.
• But sometimes it’s bigger than the individual. It’s not a personal trust thing or a growth thing; it’s a kingdom thing.
• The Book of Acts tells the story of how – right after the death of Jesus – the news about him left the confines of Jerusalem and started spreading across the world. But how did all that get started? As it happens, it was through a terrible persecution of Christians which led to a mass exodus of them out of Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria.
But what happened next? ‘Those who were scattered went about preaching the word.’ (Ac 8:4). You see? No social media in those days. If you wanted news to spread, you needed to get people somehow to leave their comfortable lives and get it out there! And suffering was what it took. It’s similar with Joseph and his sufferings, which God used to bring his family, the family of Jacob, alive and well to Egypt.
God uses suffering to advance his kingdom.
You see the point? God has form in using the suffering of his children for different purposes. Not just punishment. In fact for the Christian, it’s never actual punishment.
#14
Our punishment, the punishment for any wrongdoing we commit, has already been paid. Romans 8:1 – ‘…there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’.
In fact, that’s the wonderful thing about making a commitment to the Christian faith, as Joe and Bex have done. God has offered you – Joe and Bex – and all of us here today - the opportunity to live life as friends with him for all eternity, by removing all the barriers that might make that a problem.
‘Let’s be real’ – God says to us – You’ve pushed me out of your life. You’ve acted like you’re God, which you’re definitely not. Like I’m not even here, which I definitely am. You’ve lived life just the way you wanted to, without a thought for how I wanted you to live it. And that has consequences. But in Jesus and his death, I’m going to absorb all those consequences. Take them on myself. So that you and I can be friends forever.
That means there’s no punishment left for things we do wrong. It’s all been paid for, for the Christian. I hope – even if you’ve been a Christian for years, or even decades – you never tire of rejoicing in that security and enjoying the fruit of that work of Jesus. And if this is all new to you, please do come and ask me about it later – it’s too important, too potentially life-changing to just walk past.
So anyway, there a number of reasons why God might allow his beloved children to experience pain.
#15
Of which punishment is probably not one – certainly not for Christian people today.
But what is it for Job? Why is God putting Job through all this pain? How is he going to use all this to mould Job? To change him?
Well let’s see if we can follow the progression here in this chapter.
Have a look at where Job is in his head in the first part. This is verses 1-12.
In a nutshell, he is the suffering saint who’s feeling badly beaten up.
#16
The effect of his friends’ words on Job - for chapter after chapter - has been horrific. They might think they’re being helpful. But for him, it’s felt like just one battering after another.
Verse 2
“How long will you torment me
and crush me with words?
Verse 3.
You reproach me…. you attack me
End of verse 5.
You use my humiliation against me.
‘You’re meant to be my friends; you’re meant to be for me, but it feels like you’re against me. It’s like you’ve got it in for me’ – that’s his beef with them.
It’s a horrible place to be, isn’t it, when you’re already in a bad way, but then your friends turn up and you’re expecting them to being a bit of perspective, a bit of empathy, a bit of love, maybe. And yet when they open their mouths to help, they end up making you feel even worse, rather than better.
Have you experienced that?
But there’s more to come. Because it turns out Job feels under attack not just from his friends, but from God himself.
Can you sense the pain in verse 6:
know that God has wronged me
and drawn his net around me.
You’re acting as though I’ve done something wrong, says Job. But if anyone’s doing the wrong thing, it’s God. It’s just so unfair.
I feel… unheard.
Verse 7:
“Though I cry, ‘Violence!’ I get no response;
though I call for help, there is no justice.
Unheard.
I feel… trapped.
Verse 8.
He has blocked my way so I cannot pass;
he has shrouded my paths in darkness.
Trapped.
I feel… disrespected.
Verse 9.
He has stripped me of my honor
and removed the crown from my head.
I feel torn down – v10 –
uprooted,
burnt.
If you really want to know, I feel – end of verse 12 – like someone who’s been sleeping in their tent, wakes up, pulls down the zip, and instead of the beautiful, serene mountain view I was expecting, I find there are military tanks all around my tent, there are snipers with their sights trained on me, there are F14s circling in the sky.
There’s an army there. And it’s God’s army – all lined up against me.
Call me paranoid, if you must, but that’s how it feels right now – says Job, in a manner of speaking.
It’s a horrible thing to feel under attack. And all the more when those who look they’re out to get you… are the very people you thought you could count on. The people who were meant to be on your side. Even God himself.
Horrible.
But it can be easier if you have the confidence that the one who’s giving you the hard time is actually for you. Could be the nurse attacking you with that big needle, because she knows it will save your life. Or the rugby coach demaning another 40 push-ups, he wants you to win the game on the Saturday.
Might God – who seems to be attacking you – actually be doing it for your good?
Joni Eareckson Tada was a busy, outdoorsy teenager. But at the age of 17 she misjudged the depth of some water, and dived into it, only to snap her neck, and sever her spinal cord, and be left permanently paralysed…
#17
She had quite a journey – depression, grief, doubt and all sorts of things. But later in life she used this kind of attack language in a slightly unexpected way.
#18
When suffering sandblasts us to the core, the true stuff of which we are made is revealed. Suffering lobs a hand-grenade – there it is – into our self-centredness, blasting our soul bare.
But she went on…
(blasting our soul bare), so we could be better bonded to the saviour.
In other words, I guess, God may be permitting the attacks of our suffering not because he’s against us, but because he’s for us. Not because wants less friendship with us, but because he wants more. And this is the way to make that possible.
I wonder if you’ve ever thought your pain and hardship that way?
I wonder if Job will get there.
Certainly not yet, because right now, all we’re shown by way of results of this feeling of being under attack is a profound sense of loneliness.
Job is the suffering saint who is cut off from normal relationships.
#19
That is, he has a real sense of abandonment. Of being deserted – by everyone!
Look how every relationship seems cut off for Job.
• First, in verse 13, it’s his immediate household.
“He has alienated my family from me;
• Then his wider social circle.
my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
• Then – verse 14 - it’s the cousins and so on, the wider family
My relatives have gone away;
• Even his best buddies prove to have been just fairweather friends:
my closest friends have forgotten me.
• And then it’s even his servants - verse 16 – people you’d think might be in their interests to honour him – even they stay away.
• Even his wife - verse 17.
• Even the random kids in the street – verse 18.
• Even those he is closest to in the whole world – verse 19:
All my intimate friends detest me;
those I love have turned against me.
It’s a profound sense of abandonment he feels, isn’t it? He’s been pushed away. Sidelined. People walk the other side of the street rather than pass him by. Who wants to hang out with such an obvious loser.
Again, it’s an awful feeling. And I wonder if you recognise anything of it? Have you been there? Felt like there’s no one can trust any more? Not really. No one who even really wants to know you - whatever they say! You can sense it. You can see it in their eyes. Or in the length of time it takes to return a message. They feel a sense of duty towards you in your pain and hardship. But they don’t really want to spend any time with you. They don’t really want anything to do with you.
Long-term sickness might get you to a place like this - eventually. Mental health breakdown. Losing a status job or having your financial situation come crashing down.
Or just old age.
The sufferings and infirmity and indignities of old age can be so isolating, can’t they? People you thought really cared… just seem to be busy with their own lives. Your friend pops in from time to time, or at least used to, but gradually the visits have become less frequent, and to be honest it’s so exhausting getting ready for their visits, you don’t even mind that much. Or you’re embarrassed to let them see you like this. They’re focussed on thriving in different areas of their lives. You only have the energy for… surviving. It feels like you’re on your own.
Worst of all, it feels like you’re on your own… with God. Did you spot that in verse 7? ‘I get no response’.
Prayers just seem to bounce back off the ceiling.
I don’t know about you, but I have to confess I’m quite glad to see this kind of pain and frustration and questioning of God here in the Bible. Especially when God later says of Job that he didn’t step out of line.
Because it means that: that real-life faith most of us have, that kind of messy faith, that faith with questions and uncertainties – is still faith. Faith doesn’t have to be shiny and squeaky clean and all tied up nicely - for it to be real. When suffering strikes, it rarely is any of those things. And it doesn’t need to be. Faith just has one job. It just has to cling on to Jesus, to lay hold of him, and not let go.
Which brings us to the last part of the passage, from verse 23 on, where we see Job, the suffering saint who hangs on.
#20
When you read the Old Testament, every now and then you come across somebody described as a ‘redeemer’.
• A redeemer is someone who – if you were murdered, say – might avenge you
• Or if you were widowed, might look after you – think Ruth and Boaz
• Or indeed if you’ve been enslaved– will set you free – that’s what God does for Israel.
A redeemer.
Well, do you know what? Job needs a redeemer. You see Job’s now got two issues.
• He’s got the suffering, the loss, the grief, the tragedy he’s been through
• But on top of that, he’s now got this ‘guilty’ verdict hung around his neck by his so-called friends. They’ve decided he must have done something really bad to deserve all this. He’s definitely guilty. And it looks like that’s the Job that history will remember after he’s gone.
So in verse 23, he longs to have the record set straight.
“Oh, that my words were recorded,
that they were written on a scroll,
He’d have a chuckle – maybe – if he knew we were reading these words thousands of years later!
But you see what he wants – he wants something on record for the future that might do away with that guilty verdict that’s been attached to his name.
But as he ponders that, he finds this deep conviction in his heart, rising to the surface. It was always there, but thinking about the ‘forever’ thing – end of verse 24 there – thinking about his status even after he dies, has got this deep conviction bubbling up to the top.
Of course! He already has someone who can rescue his name from disgrace. Who can challenge that guilty verdict on his behalf.
He has a redeemer!
That redeemer is one will live on even when Job himself dies. Verse 25
I know that my redeemer[c] lives,
and that in the end he will stand on the earth.[d]
That redeemer is none other than God himself. 26
26 And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet[e] in[f] my flesh I will see God;
And that redeemer is someone he will one day come face to face with. 27.
27 I myself will see him
with my own eyes—I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!
Job has found his convictions about what lies ahead. In all that he’s been through, it turns out he’s still hanging in there, clinging to God.
These words here have become part of the cultural fabric of our country. That’s largely as a result of Handel including them in his famous work ‘The Messiah’. But if you know that work, you’ll know he added in some extra words – or at least his librettist did.
I know that my redeemer liveth… for now is Christ risen from the dead.
It was a bold move to put those two things together. But the truth is, Christians down the ages have seen in these verses a reference to the risen Jesus.
And not surprising.
• Isn’t Jesus the one who lives even beyond death – the way, the truth and the life
• Isn’t Jesus the one who shows us God himself – I and the Father are one
• Isn’t Jesus is the one of whom it is said – ‘every eye will see him’
Job perhaps spoke better than he knew of the great redeemer to come. The one who holds out to everyone here the offer of our guilty verdict being reversed. The one says to us: I will rescue you from the predicament your sin has put you in, and bring you into friendship with God.
It’s a wonderful offer to accept for the first time. And let me invite you to do just that. To respond as Joe and Bex have both done to what’s on offer in Jesus.
But it’s also a wonderful offer to cling on to right through life. And it may be that, like Job, the experience of pain and suffering in our lives is what allows the strength of that conviction to come bubbling up to the surface. Maybe that’s what we needed, so that we could see through all the clutter of life and check that Jesus really is the one our hearts are hanging on to.
#21
Do you remember Ian Wilkinson. The Aussie who lost his wife and her family in the mushroom murders. And those words of his that I read. I wonder struck you about them. For me it was the personal conviction of them. The hope of them, where we might have expected despair
‘The ways are sometimes hard. But God is good. He is with us. He promised to never leave. And I can say: that is true.’
I suspect it had taken all that been through to be able to say those words in that way, and to mean them as he did.
And it strikes me the same is true of Job.
I know that my redeemer lives.
I thought I did; but now I really do. I know – not just in my head, but in experience. In my life.
And whatever you and I are going through now, it might just be that God is to build in us that conviction, that hope, confidence – and so prepare us for eternity.