First Presbyterian Church
of Inglewood
100
North Hillcrest Ave
Inglewood,
California 90301
Telephone
numbers: (310) 677-5133 Fax (310) 330-8342
Electronic
mail: PRESBYTS@SBCGLOBAL.NET
Sunday,
July 19, 2009
Rev.
Dr. Harold E. Kidd
Job 23: 1 - 10
GOD WORKS THE NIGHT
SHIFT
“Look, I
go forward, but He is not there,
And backward, but I cannot perceive Him;
When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him;
When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him.
But He knows the way that I take;
When He has tested me,
I shall come forth as gold.” Job 23: 8 – 10
May the Lord bless our understanding
of these words. Have you ever considered the fact that while we are sleeping
others are working? When most windows are dark. When most cars are in the
driveway. When most of us are sleeping. Some are wide awake, either at work or
preparing to go to work. It’s the nightshift.
On the 3rd floor of Centinela Hospital a nurse in her cotton uniform walks the
floor of the intensive-care unit, moving from bed to bed, her eyes scanning
monitors, charts, IV bottles, pulsating lights, and the faces of men, women,
and children whose care is in her hands. It’s the night shift.
Long before dawn, a sleepless father
slips out of bed and drops to his knees on the carpet, and in the heavy silence
he utters a prayer for a daughter in a far-away city, praying for her
well-being and guidance. It’s the night shift.
A baker in the kitchen of Krispy Kreme pops a tray of
muffins into an oven, then shakes chocolate sprinkles over a dozen pink-frosted
doughnuts for the sleepy-eyed customers who will stumble through his door at
dawn to purchase their favorite doughnuts and some hot coffee on their way to
work. It’s the night shift.
At 4200 feet over a moonlit sky, the
pilot of Southwest Airlines flight #58 flips two switches, murmurs an
affirmative to a distant air traffic controller, eases back on a lever, and
guides his craft through the skies en route to LAX while 358 souls asleep in
the semi-darkness behind him having entrusted their care and arrival in Los Angeles
the next morning into the hands of this flight crew. It’s the night shift.
An EMT crew at a firehouse, equipment
in readiness, waits for the phone to ring. It’s the night shift. Somewhere
between Las Vegas and Los Angeles a trucker is moving produce and other needed
items from a warehouse to the Von’s or Ralphs nearest you, to arrive just in
time to be stocked for our next visit. It’s the night shift.
In the artificial daylight of mercury
lamps, a road crew hurries repairs to an off-ramp on the 405. It’s 3 AM, but
soon enough, the first wave of morning commuters will descend upon the 405
parking lot, without much thought of those who labored through the night to
prepare the way for a less time-delayed
commute.
Maybe we don’t give much thought to
those who work while we sleep, nevertheless they are greatly needed. In fact
much of the goods and services we depend on would come to a standstill if it
were not for those who work the night shift. Life would not be the same without
them. Their eyes are open while ours are asleep. They work while we rest. They
punch in as we are punching out. They are climbing into their work clothes when
we are slipping into our PJ’s.
But there is someone else who works
the night shift. The psalmist expressed it this way, in the 121st
Psalm, “He who keeps you will not
slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord
is your keeper.” Suggesting to us that God who does not sleep nor ever
takes a day off, works the night shift. Amen. Have you ever thought about God
working the night shift in your life?
He’s on the job when we are in our
dreams. He’s fully engaged in our struggles at midnight, when we have pulled
the plug. He is the God who moves outside our vision of comprehension and understanding,
working in our behalf, even when we cannot see Him, discern Him, or understand
Him. He’s planning, and watching, and waiting, and acting when we’re
unconscious of His movement and intervention in the nighttime of our lives. I
wish I knew how to make it plain.
Embrace this morning the wonderful
reality that God works the night shift in our behalf. Working in ways we cannot
work. Moving in ways too mysterious for us to fathom. When it comes to our
lives, God never stops working. “For I know the plans I have for you,” the Lord
declared to His people through the prophet Jeremiah, “plans to prosper you and
not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
Yes, His people were in Babylonian
captivity, yet God sent Jeremiah to reassure them that despite their feelings
that God was absent, despite their inability to discern His presence, God was
actually working through the circumstances of their living, God was working in
their day-by-day experiences to accomplish His eternal plan and purpose. In
their midnight, God was working the night shift.
In Job’s condition, Job expresses his
dismay that he cannot see God, discern God; even waiting on God has become a
problem. It is the nighttime of his
life. When there seems to be no perceived activity on the part of God. “I go forward, but He is not there, and
backward but I cannot perceive Him; when He works on the left hand, I cannot
behold Him; when he turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him.”
Job is expressing his dismay that He
cannot discern the activity of God in his situation. Job is asking, where is
God? Why hasn’t God shown up? Why hasn’t God given any indication that He is
with me? Job understands this morning what the preacher is trying to
communicate. He was going through a
nighttime. His finances were obliterated. His cattle, his donkeys, his oxen all
destroyed. His crops have been wiped out. He is living in the nighttime of a
bad economy.
Normally he would have been able to
turn to his family and seek some comfort and encouragement. But he has lost his
children, and his marriage has deteriorated to the degree that Job says his
wife is repulsed by his breath, the very sight of him. Moreover, his body is
filled with disease. And so Job is struggling to discern God’s presence and
God’s help in his circumstances.
Maybe not under such drastic
conditions, but we too have our times when we ask ourselves, “Where are you Lord?” “How long, Lord, before a breakthrough?” “How
long, Lord, before the blessing?” “How long, Lord, before the answer is
revealed?” ”How long, Lord, must I go on like this?” “How long, Lord, must I
put up with this?”
There was no shame in Job’s game,
because he wasn’t shy about letting others know he had come upon a season in
his life where he was desperately seeking to find God. (Vs.3) “Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, that
I might come to His seat! I would present my case before Him, and fill my mouth
with arguments.” The reason for this
God-hunt, in the words of Rev. Christopher Davis, is because there are times
when we grow weary of human answers. Crucial times when the perplexities of our
lives require more than just good advice.
Times when we need to hear from
heaven. Times when we ask, “Is there a word from the Lord? So we all will have
our season when like Job, like David, like Jeremiah, like Mary the mother of
Jesus, when we are moved to go on a God-hunt.
“Oh, that I knew where I might find Him.” Yes. Now the text says in
verse 9, “When he works on the left hand,
I cannot behold Him; when he turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him.”
In the Bible, the right hand
symbolizes power and authority. That’s why Jesus is described as seated at the
right hand of God. The right hand symbolizes when God moves openly, visibly,
and with power. When everybody is able to see what the Lord has done. When God
raised up Jesus, He set Him at His right hand. When God sent the angel to the
tomb to comfort Mary and Mary Magdalene, God placed the angel on the right side
(Mark 16:5).
In Luke 5 Peter and the other disciples
have fished all night and caught nothing, Jesus tells them to launch out into
the deep and cast down their nets. The catch is so great until their nets begin
to break. The miracle of this story is that Jesus shows concern for their
day-to-day routine, fishing. So the right hand symbolizes God moving in ways
where we can see, discern the blessing.
The left hand, however, symbolizes
God working the night shift. God working, moving, being present in our lives,
when we are unconscious of His presence. Activity and movement. The night shift
is God being with, and working through Jesus on the cross even as Jesus cries
out, “My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?” The night shift is God
working behind the scenes to get Job through his season of trouble, even though
Job could not detect the presence of the Divine. The night shift is God working
behind the scenes, down through years of separation and hostility, the night
shift is God working in the hearts of both Jacob and Esau, so that when these
two brothers do meet, they are able to reconcile with each other.
The night shift is God working to
transform a vendetta of death into a scene of homecoming between Jacob and
Esau.. For in Genesis 33, Jacob kneels to the ground as he approaches his
brother, and Esau embraces Jacob around the neck, kisses him, and “they wept together.” God works the night shift.
The reality of Job’s life, which has
been recorded in 42 chapters, in all probability occurred over a period of several
years. Meaning God didn’t show up on just the first note of trouble, but he was
working in the background on the night shift. Just because we at times cannot
see God, nor discern God’s presence in our circumstances and life situation,
does not mean that God is not working the night shift in our behalf. He may not
come when you and I want Him or even expect Him, but he will come, and He is
always working the night shift.
Folks know you made it, but they
don’t know how you made it – The Night Shift.
Folks know you were diagnosed with
it, but they cannot see how you are still living through it – The Night Shift.
Yes. God is aware of our circumstances and moves among them, offering grace and
mercy – The Night Shift.
They saw us fall down, but don’t know
how we managed to get back up again – The Night Shift.
When reconciliation happens, against
all odds, and we cannot say exactly how it happened – The Night Shift.
God works The Night Shift.