Hopelessness Produces Sluggishness (What is the cause of sluggishness)

Job 17:1-2,11-16

¹“My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;
    the graveyard is ready for me.
² Surely there are mockers about me,
    and my eye dwells on their provocation.

¹¹ My days are past; my plans are broken off,
    the desires of my heart.
¹² They make night into day:
    ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’
¹³ If I hope for Sheol as my house,
    if I make my bed in darkness,
¹⁴ if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
    and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
¹⁵ where then is my hope?
    Who will see my hope?
¹⁶ Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
    Shall we descend together into the dust?”

Have you been there? Do you know what it is like to feel complete hopelessness?  Do you look around and only see defeat, no progress, no victory no hope for any change in your life only defeat?  So did Job.

Just to summarize what we just read:

• He had a broken spirit and a broken body
• His friends were mocking him
• His reputation was depleted
• His eyes were dim and his members like a shadow (only a silhouette of the man he was)
• His plans are gone He does not see a future
• His hope has left him to the point where he desired death (he takes comfort in the idea of dying)
• How did Job get to this place in life?
• Was it because of some grotesque sin he committed?
• Did he make some poor life choices that brought him to this state of calamity?
• Or was it something else?

Job 1:1,5,8

¹ There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.

Look at the words that characterize Job: blameless, Upright, feared God, turned away from evil.  Job did everything right.  He even honored God in all aspects of his life even in his household.  The scriptures says He continuously made intercession to God on behalf of his kids. 

⁵ Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.

Job did the right things, and he did them continually. God even brags about Job to the devil

⁸ 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?” 

What a compliment to have the creator of the universe declare about you; that there is no one like you on the entire earth.  Job was not sluggish in his spiritual disciplines rather he did that which was right. He put forth the necessary effort, as a result He was known as a man of integrity.  He was an upright man, he was a diligent man.

What would cause a man who had so much hope in God to get to a place which he is so hopeless that he loathes his own life and desires to die? (chapter 17)

For Job it was a series of events that happened.

1. Satan asked permission from God to “touch all that he has”
2. God grants satan permission and says “all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.”
   1. God does not inflict the righteous, but he does give satan permission to do so.
   2. Satan can only do what God gives him permission to do.
   3. This should comfort us if we truly believe that God is a good God and that He will not test you more than you are able to handle.

1 Corinthians 10:13

¹³ No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

3. Everything is taken away (oxen, donkeys, sheep, camels, servants, even his sons & daughters)

That alone would have stripped every ounce of hope from most of us.  Many of us at that point would have said what is the point of living blameless and upright lives, what is the point of turning away from sin, when everything I have worked for is gone.

But Job shows us why God said that there is none like him in all the earth.

Job 1:20-22

²⁰ Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 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.”

²² In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

Even after experiencing all that he had it still seems like he is so far away from the utter hopelessness that we find in chapter 17.  Something else must have took place.

4. In chapter 2 Satan is given permission to afflict Job’s body with loathsome sores from the top of his head to the sole of his feet. It was so bad

Job 2:9-10

⁹ Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” ¹⁰ But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

                  Job is still hopeful and still has full trust in His God. 

5. Job’s “Friends” arrive on the scene, it is then that Job first laments the day he was born.If He was hopeful, his friends made him aware of his hopelessness. This is how they come to the scene

Chapter 2:12-13

¹² And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. ¹³ And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

Have you ever heard the expression “misery loves company.”  The phrase means that those who are unhappy seek to make others unhappy too.  Let’s just sit around and throw ourselves a pity party.  Let’s just wallow in our sorrow.  Oh, poor Job. 

We cannot deny how Job felt before these guys arrived on the scene, he had accepted both the good and the bad that had been given to him.  Neither cannot deny what Job says in the very next chapter 3.

Job 3:1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 

We know that it was his “friends” who were the main source of his grief because the Lord confronts them in the very end. (42:7) It escalates to the misery that we read about in Chapter 17

Let’s read chapter 17:1 & 15 again

¹ “My spirit is broken; my days are extinct; the graveyard is ready for me.

            ¹⁵ where then is my hope? Who will see my hope?

Being sluggish (nonchalant) in choosing our friends can really lead to the destruction of the hope we have in God.  In addition, Job finds himself consumed with these friends and we do not find him making any offerings to God as he had done in time past, until the very end. 

Part of him being an upright man is that he did what was right.  He made continuous offerings to the Lord on behalf of his children.  He was a man of prayer.  Yet we do not find these two disciplines to be evident in his life until chapter 42.  Job 16:17, Job 21:15, Job 22:27, Job 36:26

His “friends” made him aware of his hopelessness.  This led to his sluggishness when it came to those two important disciplines.  Which eventually led to carelessness because Job blamed God for everything that happened.

Job 16:11-14

¹¹ God gives me up to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of the wicked.  ¹² I was at ease, and he broke me apart; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target; ¹³ his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground. ¹⁴ He breaks me with breach upon breach; he runs upon me like a warrior.

Hopelessness leads to Spiritual Sluggishness which leads to carelessness.

Has anyone ever been in a hopeless situation?        

• A hopeless relationship
• A hopeless job
• A hopeless result from the doctor
• A hopeless addiction that you just can’t shake
• A hopeless financial situation
• A hopeless frame of mind
• A hopeless sin patterns
• Hopeless prayers that seem to go unanswered

(story) I did that already 

You feel as Job “All there is, is defeat.” There is no progress, there is no victory, there is no hope of changing.  There is just hopelessness, so what is the point in praying if it does not get answered, what is the point in reading my bible if things just get worse.  What is the point of persevering when it is just much easier not to?  Many in the world are successful. 

Job became hopeless, which led to sluggishness, which led to carelessness.  He blamed God for what happened, and if we are not careful the same thing will happen to us that happened to Job. 

This story does not end in hopelessness for Job.  God responds to Job in chapters 38-41 and basically tells Job that He was God and Job was not.  Job 40:7 Dress for action like a man;

• Job 38:4

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

• Job 39: 19

“Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane?

• Job 41:1

¹ “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord?

Job 42:2-3

² “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ³ ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

The reason Job had lost hope, was because he lost sight of who God is.  He lost focus on the fact that the world revolves around God and not the other way around. But now it is all coming back to him. He acknowledges “You can do all things,” and “There is no purpose of yours that can be twarted.”

Job’s hopelessness turned to hopefulness as he finally understood that God can do all things, He created all things and He is in charge of all things.  Furthermore, His plans will be accomplished regardless and without any help from us.

This is exactly what Job needed to hear.  Though he had suffered a great deal, he needed to know that God was still in control, and that He had an incredible plan for Job’s life.  Perhaps you need to hear the same thing.  God is still in control, and His plans will be accomplished for your life as a believer.

In chapter 42 Job repents for blaming God.  God then addresses the friends who brought about his hopelessness. 

Job 42:7-8

⁷ After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. ⁸ Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly.

Two things are put back in place, the burnt offering and prayer.  At first Job is found praying for his children in case they have sinned against God now he is interceding for his friends.  The scriptures say that God will accept Job’s prayers. 

When God told satan to “touch all that he has” God already had in His mind to restore everything the devil has touched including Job’s worship and prayer life.  satan wants to rob you of your praise, God wants to restore it. Every area that the devil touched, God gave him double (oxen, donkeys, sheep, camels, servants, even sons & daughters)

Romans 11:33-36

³³ Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ³⁴ “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”

I don’t know what hopeless situation that you are facing.  Perhaps that hopelessness has led to sluggishness which has led to carelessness.  You have blamed God.  Repent from that.

I don’t know what the enemy has touched in your life, but I do know that the God’s hand is bigger than the devil’s hand.  He is wanting to take you from a place of hopelessness to hopefulness.  Before the devil was given permission to touch that part of your life, God already had a plan to restore you.

Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Christ our righteousness. He is the hope of glory, He will not disappoint.  Everything must be viewed through the cross.