Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house;4 and there came a messenger to Job, and said, “The oxen were plowing and the asses feeding beside them;5 and the Sabe′ans fell upon them and took them, and slew the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another, and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another, and said, “The Chalde′ans formed three companies, and made a raid upon the camels and took them, and slew the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another, and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house; and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
Then Job arose, and rent his robe, and shaved his head, and fell upon the ground, and worshiped. 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.”
In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
Job 1:13-22
I’m writing all of this week’s messages a few days early and in anticipation of losing power and not being able to write, so I won’t be writing in real time after Tuesday. My mind, and the minds of many people around me, are not on the challenges to our faith, but on this impending storm, and so the rest of the messages this week will focus on that, and we will return, hopefully, to regular messages next week. If there is no message on Tuesday, October 15, it will be because we have no power. If we lose power, we will get the Prayer Team up and running again as soon as we can. We haven’t missed a day in the almost ten years that the Prayer Team has existed, so I pray we will not now either. I pray you find encouragement and hope in these messages.
I’m writing this message on Tuesday morning, October 8, racing against the clock to get things done before we inevitably lose power for a while. You’ll be reading this message on the morning of October 10. The hurricane is supposed to pass through Florida sometime during the night of October 9-10. We won’t know the extent of the storm until Thursday. Some people will have lost a lot by the time you read this message. I have no idea what lies in store for me, my family, my parish, my parishioners, and my city, in terms of material loss and temporary inconvenience. As I meditate on what to write about in anticipation of the aftermath of this storm, my mind this morning goes to the book of Job. This is a book that some of us are probably unfamiliar with. It is forty-two chapters long. The first two chapters are about tremendous losses that Job suffers—he loses property and his children. The next thirty-nine chapters are how Job copes with this loss. He has all the emotions you would imagine he should have—he is angry, confused, despondent, resolute—and in all this, he remains faithful to God. He has friends that visit him who aren’t particularly helpful. Instead of encouraging his faith, they do a great job in trying to create doubt in him. They even mock his faith in a God who allowed for all of this misfortune to happen.
Many people will feel like Job this morning. Many people in the southeast have felt like him for the past two weeks, as they got clobbered by Hurricane Helene. Many people, maybe more people, will feel like Job at some point in life, as they feel the material foundation of their life crack under some kind of crisis—divorce, loss of job, job relocation, sickness. Sometimes the foundation seems weak even when something good happens—a new job, a promotion, starting college, starting a career, getting married, having children, sending a child off to college, retirement.
There are two important takeaways from the book of Job, one from the first chapter and one from the last chapter. After losing his property and his children, Job arose, and rent his robe, and shaved his head, and fell upon the ground and worshipped. (Job 1:20) His first recourse during his time of extreme loss was to turn to God. To worship means to turn our attention, our thought, our respect and our hope to someone greater than us. In times of distress and loss, it means acknowledging, as difficult as it may be, that there is something in play that is greater than our understanding. It is where we stop asking why, or how, or when, and we just surrender, placing our faith in a God we know, even as we don’t necessarily understand His will or His plan.
Then Job said “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21) Just last week, I had the opportunity and privilege to minister to someone just a few years older than me who died. As I sat by her bedside with her family, all that she had was gone. Her clothes were not even her clothes—they were a hospital gown. Her freedom was gone—I had never seen so many tubes in someone trying to keep her life going. All that’s left in a moment like that is faith. What’s left when nothing’s left? Either it’s faith in God and all that comes with it—love, hope, purpose—or it’s truly nothing. In Job 1:22, we read that In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. And this is the goal for everyone who is affected by Hurricane Milton, including me. No matter what happens, can I avoid the temptation to sin or curse God? Pray for me, and all of us, that we can.
Skipping all the way to the end of the book of Job, we see that his faith is rewarded. Job 42:10 reads “And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends; and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.” Two things of note in this verse. Job remained steadfast, AND he even prayed for his very unhelpful “friends.” He not only found faith, he found forgiveness. And in these things, he found redemption—in his case, a material reward of twice as much as he had before.
There are some people who may never materially recover from Hurricane Milton, or Hurricane Helene. I encourage you to think of it this way: at the end of my life, this storm won’t matter. Because at some point (or points) in my life, there will be nothing left. To answer the question, “what’s left when nothing’s left,” the answer is “my hope in God is what will be left when there’s nothing left.” And that hope, combined faith, forgiveness, repentance, and love for others (manifested in service to them, using our God-given talents [Matthew 25]) is what will lead to redemption and salvation.
Lord of the Powers, be with us, for in times of distress, we have no other help but You. Lord of the Powers, have mercy on us.
Have mercy on us, O God, according to Your great mercy, we pray to You, hear us and have mercy.
Again we pray for the protection of our churches and cities, and every city and country, from wrath, famine, earthquake, flood, hurricane, fire, foreign invasion, civil strife, accidental death and acts of terrorism; that our good and loving God will be merciful, gracious and favorable to us, by keeping away all wrath and disaster that is against us.
Again we pray that the our God will hear the voice of the petitions of us sinners and have mercy on us.
Hear us, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth; and be gracious, O Master, be gracious to us and have mercy on us. For You are a merciful and loving God, and to You we send up glory, to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.
For those who are not affected by these hurricanes, please offer a prayer for those who have been. For those who are affected, may your prayer today be simple: Blessed be the name of the Lord. Let us all remember that at some point in life, we will all experience what it’s like to have nothing left. And in preparation for that moment, whether it arrived this morning with Hurricane Milton, or it one day arrives as we prepare to exit this life, let us make sure that the void is filled with hope in God.
