Introduction:
I’m looking forward to watching Tom Brady and the New England Patriots beat the Atlanta Falcons next week in the Super-bowl 51. He demolished the Pittsburgh Steelers last weekend, throwing for a playoff career-high 384 yards with 3 TDs. Tom Brady has become a superstar quarterback. He has four rings and three Super Bowl MVPs in six career trips to the Big Game. My hope is we will be hearing a lot more about him in years to come. However once out of the limelight these superstar are soon forgotten. However, this is not the case with baseball legend Dave Dravecky.
Dave Dravecky wrote the book, “Worth of a Man”. In his book Dave shares honestly about his challenges, his faith and his discovery of a new identity outside of baseball. In his seventh year in Major League Baseball while pitching for the San Francisco Giants, a cancerous tumor was discovered in Dave’s pitching arm… The next year was a whirlwind of surgery, radiation, pain and depression, all in the glaring light of the media.
Dave made a remarkable come back on August 10, 1989 he made a highly publicized return to the major leagues, pitching eight innings and defeating Cincinnati 4-3. In his following start, five days later in Montreal, Dravecky pitched three no-hit innings, but the sixth inning, he started off shaky and on his first pitch to Tim Raines, his humerus bone snapped; the sound of it breaking could be heard throughout the stadium. Dravecky collapsed on the mound. He’d suffered a clean break midway between his shoulder and elbow, ending his season. Eventually, Dave’s arm was amputated to stop the spread of the cancer and save his life. Through it all, Dave and Jan Dravecky’s faith in God and the love He gave them through others provided the anchor they needed in the midst of their storm.
Dave Dravecky is a Co-Founder of Endurance with his wife, Jan, and an active ambassador for the ministry walking alongside those who suffer and are discourage. Their resources are wonderful, not like Job’s comforters. Dave Dravecky frequently uses this quote by Alan Redpath as he shares his testimony with audiences throughout the country. When God wants to do an impossible thing He takes an impossible man and crushes him. Such was the case of Job.
I. Job suffers Weariness (Job 7:1-5)
1. Job is weary of Eliphaz rantings; he finds no real comfort to endure in him. Therefore, Job does not refrain from telling God how unfair his trials and sufferings are. He does this openly and honesty. This chapter of poetry describes for us what certain aspects that happen to many people when they are in pain and anguish. This morning you may be able to relate to this as I can having spent two months recuperating from open heart surgery. However the scriptures are so true in the area we love and don’t love so much. Paul stated in I Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but god is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.)
2. Job is weary of living with his suffering and asks God is there not an appointed time for man upon earth. We know that there is. Hebrew 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: Job however considers the hire hand or servant. Is not the life of man upon earth a very battle? With this Job communicated both the struggle of life, together with the idea that he has been drafted unwillingly into this battle. You can sense his frustration. He did not choose this for himself. I have learned in my own affliction that we do not always get to choose what God will allow or what he will bring.
3. In verse three Job expresses the cruel vanity of the months dealing with his affliction. Wearisome night have been appointed to me: Job described his physical condition in painful terms. He suffered from insomnia and his skin affliction was repugnant as well as painful. So painful he tossed and turned and could not sleep. He longed for morning. I spend many nights lying awake in the hospital looking at the clock hoping for time to pass and then to look back only to learn only minutes had past not hours. The tossing and turning was relentless.
II. Jobs Life Feels Hopeless (Job 7:6-11)
1. Job continues in verse 6 &7: Not only can he not sleep, but he also sees his life ebbing away with no purpose to its conclusion. When he looked at his life in its entirety, it seemed to be a meaningless blur, like a weavers shuttle… spent without hope and as a breath. The weaver’s shuttle is the instrument by which the weaver inserts the filling in the woof or woven fabric.
Few examples in Jobs day would furnish a more compelling illustration of quickness than the speed with which a weaver throws his shuttle from one side of the web to the other.
That is, they are short and few, they would soon be gone, and that he was likely to be cut off without being permitted to enjoy the blessings of a long life. Verse nine can best be explained by the verse on your bulletin cover. Yes, James 4:14 life is like a breath, a vapor. Verses 8-12 we hear the anguish of Job’s soul as he believe soon he will be gone and forgotten. Job cried out to God, first wondering if he were not a dangerous creature (as sea, or a sea serpent) that needed to be guarded and restrained by God. He felt God treated him as such.
III. Jobs Dreams Are Frightening and Threatening (Job 7:13-16)
1. Job tells God in verse 14 that, “You scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions.” Job’s suffering is intense. Most nights he cannot sleep and in verse 13 his hope is to get reprieve from his pain in sleep. And when he is able to fall asleep he is greeted with nightmares that only intensify his suffering. In fact, he says he would rather be dead than in his body when he suffers such horrific dreams (verse 15).
When I was in the hospital for 10 days sleep came at a premium and when I closed my eyes the weird images and dreams woke me up. I would see images of Ancient Egyptian Amarna art a period set apart from all other periods of Egyptian art. One reason for this is the crazy prominence of certain features. For example, the depictions feature an elongation and narrowing of the neck and head, sloping of the forehead and nose, a prominent chin, large ears and lips, spindle-like arms and calves, and large thighs, stomachs and hips. Just go home google this and select images…see if you sleep tonight. However even in this God is there…we are to note in the darkness of night God is there…Psalm 139:11-14
IV. Job feels God is Cruel and Uncaring (Job 7:17-21)
1. To Job, God doesn’t even seem uncaring, He seems cruel and out of touch with how horrific his pain is. Job also wishes God would just leave him be and not antagonize him. “All Job has known about God he still believes. But God’s inexplicable ways have his mind perplexed to the breaking-point.”— ( Dr. J. Andersen) Job at this point Job is turning to Eliphaz. He said, “Just leave me alone. I will choose to strangle on my own spittle than to hear any more of your words. How long? Will you not look away from me, and let me alone till I swallow my saliva? Have I sinned? What have I done to you? Eliphaz was no help to Job either! His despair has deepened. His hopelessness has grown. He has received no help. In his attempt to help Job, Eliphaz made two huge mistakes that are often made today by God’s people when they are trying to help the hurting. These two mistakes are devastating errors because they both are based on truth. But when the truth is out of context, it becomes error.
2. Mistake number one: Eliphaz made all suffering the result of sin. It is true that suffering is the result of sin if you go back to the Garden of Eden. There would be no suffering today had Adam and Eve not sinned. So suffering is the result of sin. But not all particular suffering is the result of sin. That is where Eliphaz was wrong. Job’s suffering was not because of some particular sin he had committed. Mistake number two, Eliphaz argument minimized Jobs suffering. That is where it really hurts. The pain he suffered was dis-par-age like it was not as bad as he deserved or what he made of it.
Conclusion: Do we do that? Dave Dravecky “Endurance ministry” deals with our lack of knowing just how and when we can truly ministry to hurting people. I can relate and so can some of you. People have minimized your pain, suffering and lost when what you really needed was unconditional love, support and compassion. That is what Jesus did in His ministry and that is what he desires us to do. Have compassion on the suffering and the lost. Stop critizing and minimizing other people’s trials and tribulation…you have not walked in their shoes, only Jesus can.