Book of Job EXPLAINED - Key Pieces to the Puzzle 3 with Allen Nolan

as I've said over the past month or so my primary job as a pastor is to help you understand the Bible now that's not to say that I don't have other responsibilities because I do but my primary job as a pastor is to help you understand the Bible in fact I want you to be able to read the Bible and understand it on your own instead of depending upon me to interpret it for you and to be able to do that you need key pieces of information because it's those key pieces of information that unlock the meaning of some of the more difficult passages of Scripture so a big part of my job is giving you those key pieces of information that you need to know in order to unlock the meaning of a book like job or difficult passage of Scripture now this morning as I've already said I'm going to be talking about the book of Job and what you need to know in order to understand it job is one of the most fascinating books of the entire Old Testament in fact I will say this it's probably my favorite book I say that about every big nothing but it's one of my favorite books and it falls into three different categories within the Bible first of all it falls under the category known as the wisdom literature Joe proverbs and Ecclesiastes are considered to be in this genre they're referred to as the wisdom literature because they revealed the collected wisdom of generations of godly people job also falls into the category of the poetic books of the Bible that's right job is written as a point yes it's a story but it's written in a poetic form now some scholars believe that it's the greatest poem that was ever written in fact it's an epic drama much like the Iliad and the Odyssey which were points that were written by Homer it's also a book of history you see Joe was an actual living person and these events really happened and God recounts them for us in a beautiful poetic style so that we might have some answers to the questions that arise from suffering so as I said Jobe is one of the most fascinating books of the Old Testament but it's also one of the most disliked books of the Bible because it sparks fear fear that what half and to job could also happen to us so it's a book that most Christians avoid because they don't want to think about suffering and the possibility that it could happen to them or to someone that they love but as a result they miss out on some of the greatest teachings from the Bible and they miss out on the answers that job provides especially as it pertains to suffering so let's start with the basics who wrote the book of Job and during what period of time to job live well job is known as an anonymous book which simply means that the person who wrote the book of Job is not named he's anonymous so we really don't know who wrote the book of Job but early rabbis attributed to Moses and I tend to agree with them so when did Jobe live well the answer the story must have taken place some time before Abraham and let me explain why I say that first of all job is called the greatest of all the men of the east in chapter 1 verse number 3 that implies that he lived some time before God instituted the covenant with Abraham plus there's no mention of the patriarchs there's no mention of Abraham Isaac Jacob or even Joseph secondly there's no reference to any of the Old Testament covenants the law or any of the Mosaic institutions such as the priesthood the tabernacle or even the feast thirdly job's wealth is measured by the amount of flocks and herds that he owned which points to the time of the patriarchs or earlier it doesn't talk about money it talks about all these great herds that he owned fourthly job lived to the age of 200 plus years which corresponds to the age of Terah who was Abraham's father who lived to be 205 and Abraham who lived to be a hundred and seventy five and Isaac who lived to be a hundred and eighty and last but not least the sabaeans and Chaldeans are referred to as nomadic tribes in chapter 1 verses 15 and 17 in later years they were settled in their own land so job lived before they established a homeland which happened before the time of the patriarchs so when you put all of this together it indicates that job lived before the time of Abraham or he was a contemporary of Abraham and the events took place why Abraham was still in the land of Earl so the bottom line is this job either lived at the time of Abraham or he lived shortly before Abraham now let's talk about its message because most people misunderstand what job is all about in fact if we took a little poll here I would dare say that not one person here would understand what job is all about most people think it's a theodicy and that's what most of you think and that's why I said I doubt very seriously that one person here would get it right because the majority of us think that it's a theodicy in fact most scholars believe that if you go to seminary most of your seminary professors will teach that job is at theodicy but Jove is not a theodicy now everyone knows what if the Odyssey right is right it's a Greek poem no it's not no it's not the word theodicy comes from two Greek words fat ass which means God now you've probably heard it pronounced Theo's in fact many times that's how I pronounced it because I'm from Oklahoma we're not as educated as those from Arkansas babes it has an epsilon in it and it's always a short e therefore it's not the US and we always pronounce it the US it's actually fast but it means God and D K now DK has an e OT in it the Yoda can sometimes be pronounced with the long e so we pronounce it DK DK means gesture righteous now when you combine these two words together it literally means to justify God and that's what a theodicy is it's an explanation of why a loving Almighty and all-knowing God allows evil to exist so in essence you're trying to justify why God would allow evil to exist in this world you see evil is one of the main arguments that atheists use to try and deny the existence of God and this is how they form their argument they say it's an all-powerful all-loving God were to exist such a God would immediately take action to remove all evil and suffering from human experience or never let it happen in the first place and since evil and suffering do exist then God must not or at least the God of the Bible that's not so if there is a God he must be an immoral God or an impotent God for allowing evil to exist in this world and that's the argument that atheist make if evil exists then the God of the Bible must not exist so as you might have guessed theologians tried to explain why God would allow evil to exist in this world and that's what if the Odyssey is it's an explanation of why your loving omnipotent and omniscient God would allow evil to exist in fact let me give you the technical definition the reason I want to do that is because I have quite a few pastors that listen to my sermons believe it or not they correspond with me and sometimes it'll ask me questions as to why I thought that or to give them some type of reference of where I got that information so every once in a while I'll have someone come up and say well you know it technically that's not right and I can't really blame them for saying that because Lisa knows me sometimes I'll listen to other pastors who technically that's not right so let me give you the technical definition of a theodicy all right here it is if the honesty is a theological argument or doctrine that seeks to explain how the existence of evil in the world can be reconciled with the justice and goodness of God that's what if the Odyssey is now listen to me very closely because this is very very important the book of Job is not a theodicy in fact it doesn't even touch on the subject of why God allows evil to exist in this world instead it assumes that we all know that evil does exist and Satan is the person behind it not God let me say that again Satanists the person behind it and not God and evil will continue to exist until the day our Redeemer comes to judge sin and reward righteousness so the book of Job is not a theodicy it's not an explanation of why God would allow evil to exist now other parts of the Bible explain that but not Joe now if you want to know why God allows evil to exist then you need to listen to my sermon entitled why pray at least I think that's what it's titled I asked Lisa you know what the title is and she tried to look it up and couldn't find it now let me explain why we have a little bit of confusion there I title my sermons in a way that I can find them in the future sometimes I want to pull out some information I thought on that before I want to remember what I said or I want to see where the reference is so I title all of my sermons in a way that I can find him my staff thinks that I'm uncreated so my wife and Josh and some of the others they come in and say no one wants to hear a sermon title like that so they changed the title so I have no idea what they titled it but I titled it why pray I think that's what they titled it - I hope so but in that sermon I explained why evil exists and why God allows it to exist for the time being and I explained when God is going to put an end to evil once and for all I also explained why prayer is necessary and order for God to intervene in this world the truth is it's a great sermon even if I do say so myself and you need to listen to it in fact I think at the end of that I say that's good teaching pastor Alan so what's Jove about if it's not a theodicy well believe it or not it's about grace everyone knows what I mean by grace right if I asked you to define it you probably could but let me give you a layman's definition I'm not gonna give you a technical definition let me give you a layman's definition of grace it's the unmerited favor of God toward man that's what grace is the unmerited favor of God toward man you see job had to learn a very important lesson a lesson that all of us need to learn and that lesson is this we cannot earn God's favor listen to me if you earn something that means you deserve it so it's not of grace it's of works in fact Paul even said that in the book of Romans you deserve it because you earned it you worked for it and the truth is we cannot earn it the truth is we are all vile sinners and what we deserve is death not life but death and what we deserve is punishment not reward but punishment but there's something within man that thinks that he can earn God's favor that he can earn salvation that he can earn blessings from God yeah in fact it's human nature to have what I call a works mentality everyone knows what it works mentality is right it's the mentality that God rewards and punishes us based on our works if you do good things God rewards you and he blesses you if you do bad things God punishes you and he makes you suffer and Jobe had as well as well as his friends a works mentality and he's gonna have to learn a very important lesson and that lesson is this you cannot earn God's favor there is nothing we can do to earn our salvation or God's blessing because as righteous as we think we are when it comes right down to it we are all vile sinners even Joe yeah look at job chapter 40 verses 1 through 4 and I'll explain next week why it says that he's blameless Ament and integrity of good character next week but I want you to notice what Jobe says about himself this is in job chapter 40 verses 1 through 4 now I'm gonna read this in the NLT because it's easier to understand until I get down to verse number 4 and then I'm going to insert the King James Version because it's a more accurate translation so here it is chapter 40 verses 1 through 4 notice what it says then the Lord said to joke do you still want to argue with the almighty in other words he's saying are you gonna still argue with me is that what you want you want to argue with me joke then he goes further he says you are God's critic but do you have the answers in other words do you want to criticize me he criticized me but do you know everything you don't know what's going on behind the scenes and yet you want to criticize me then it goes further then Jobe replied to the Lord behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay mine hand upon my mouth in other words if we were say this will say I'm gonna zip it that's what saying now the word vile is translated from the Hebrew word halal and it means despicable awful deserving of hatred and contempt you think when you compare job's life to other men he was considered to be blameless a man of integrity someone who feared God and a person who stayed away from evil but when you compared him to God's standard of holiness he was viable and he desperately needed God's grace so believe it or not job is about grace now that's the overarching message of the book of Job but there's also a lot of valuable information packed into this book Plus that gives us a lot of insight into human nature and the and the application that we can make to our own personal life is mind-blowing so we're gonna do a quick walk through the book over the next two or three weeks I hopefully can finish next week but I doubt very seriously that I can so I'm gonna say the next two to three weeks so I can point out the important pieces of information that you need to know in order to understand the book of Job and I believe that by the time I finish many of you gonna say that's my favorite book yeah is that sound good pastor Allen anyways so now that you know the overarching message to the book we'll start with the prologue everyone knows what a prologue is right a prologue is an introduction but it's much much more than an introduction it's an introductory section that includes the events or actions that lead to another event or situation so in this introductory section the curtain the curtain is going to be pulled back so we can see the events that took place in heaven that led to job suffering because if we can't see what happened in heaven then the suffering that job went through on this earth doesn't make any sense so we just had an introduction this is the life of job and immediately we went into his suffering we wouldn't understand it and the reason we wouldn't is because we don't know the events that took place in heaven and it's because of the events that took place in heaven that caused Jobe to suffer on this earth so it's not just an introduction it's a prologue it's the events that happened in heaven that caused the suffering that Jobe experienced on this earth so let's see what happened turn with me if you would to Joe chapter 1 and let's read verses 6 through 12 we're gonna stop on the way so we won't do it all at once but notice starting in verse 6 what it says one day the members of the heavenly Court came to present themselves before the Lord and the accuser Satan came with him where have you come from the Lord asked Satan Satan answered the Lord I have been patrolling the earth watching everything that's going on then the Lord asked Satan have you noticed my servant job he is the finest man in all the earth he is blameless a man of complete integrity he fears God and stays away from evil Satan replied to the Lord yes but Jobe has a good reason to fear you God hmm now let's stop right here for a second and let me point something out the way this is translated it makes it seem like God is calling Satan's attention to Joe it seems like he's pointing him out to Satan look at verse 8 again and you'll see what I'm talking about notice what it says then the Lord asked Satan have you noticed my servant Joe doesn't it sound like God is calling Satan's attention to job that Satan might not have ever noticed job had it not been for God and that's scary because we think what if he did that - what if Satan hadn't noticed us but God decided to call his attention to us what if he pointed this out to Satan think about this what if one day Satan comes from the presence of God and God says you've been in Oklahoma haven't you and he says yes I have have you noticed my servant Alan Nolan in Tahlequah Oklahoma he's the pastor of cornerstone fellowship no I have it well you need to look into him I'd be thinking wait a minute God what are you doing don't point me out to Satan don't call attention to me a sec looking at me I have all the trouble I need without Satan on my back right yeah well let me calm your fears because this is a horrible translation horrible you think verse 8 isn't really a question as much as a statement of fact the truth is God had noticed that Satan had been watching job and studying job and he called him out on it in fact this is a rhetorical question that's meant to point out the obvious and it should have been translated like this notice what it says then the Lord asked Satan you've noticed my servant joke haven't you he is the finest man in all the earth he is blameless cement a complete integrity he fears God and he stays away from evil in other words God was saying I've watched you Satan as you've patrolled the earth studying everything that's going on and I've noticed that you've become fixated on jump let me tell you job is blameless a men have complete integrity he fears me and he stays away from evil I want you to notice the Satan didn't deny it in fact Satan's response shows us that he was not only very familiar with the joke but he'd given a lot of thought as to why Joe was such a good man and he had purposely come into the presence of God to accuse Joe notice Satan's response in verses 9 through 11 Satan replied to the Lord yes but Jobe has a good reason to fear you God you have always put a wall of protection around him in his home and his property you have made him prosper in everything that he does look how rich he is but reach out and take everything take away everything he has and he will surely curse you to your face now remember Satan is called the accuser because he makes accusations against us and I hope you notice the accusation that he made against Joe if you didn't notice this is the accusation Jobe only serves you because you bless him and you protect him but I guarantee if you take away everything he has he'll curse you to your face and he'll stop serving you that's the accusation that Satan made against Joe now think about this Joe was the - man in all the earth at that time in other words he was the best person living on the earth from a moral perspective that's what that means so compared to everyone else he was blameless a man of integrity someone who feared God and stayed away from evil that's what verses 1 and verse number 8 of chapter 1 says so if Satan could get to job and he could get him to curse him and stop serving him then there's not a man on the earth that wouldn't do it and basically that's what Satan was saying he was saying man or should I say plural men only serve you because they're afraid that if they don't something bad will happen but I guarantee if you guarantee you if you take away your protection and they start suffering they'll curse you to your face and they'll stop serving you and I'll prove it to you job is the best man that you've got and I guarantee I can make him curse you to your face it might take a little more suffering than most people but you'll see he'll curse you to your face by the time I'm through with him all you have to do is remove your protection and let me at him and you just watch and see so that's what Satan was accusing job of and it's what he was accusing all minute he's saying that each person has a certain point at which they'll get mad at God and become bitter and start cursing him and stop serving him and it's different for each person for some all it takes is something for something trivial to happen and they'll curse God for others they have to suffer a little bit more but every man has a point at which they're cursed God to his face and stop serving him that's Satan's accusation so the challenge is on honey it's on and what transpires is recorded for all the world to see it's recorded to see if the devil is right or if he's wrong but in this challenge job is going to learn a valuable lesson about grace and his need for an advocate in his need for a savior but I'm getting ahead of myself that's next week or maybe the week after next depending upon how fast I want to walk through this book but for now let's slow down and I want to point out a few things first of all I want you to notice that God didn't tell Satan what he could do to joke no he only told him what he couldn't do you think Satan had already decided what he wanted to do to joke long before he came into God's presence he'd been thinking about him long before then he started thinking about jokes breaking point as he was studying him so God didn't tell Satan what he could do to Joe or even what to do he only told him what he couldn't do in other words God set certain restrictions and limitations on Satan and people that's comforting to know because I guarantee you Satan wants to do a lot of things to you and to me horrible things but God sets restrictions and limitations on him the truth is Satan wants to kill us and everyone in our family he wants to strip us of her income so we become poor and destitute he wants us to suffer and to and to experience pain but thank God he puts restrictions and limitations on Satan and people that's comforting to know you see every time I'm suffering something every time I'm ex period be a lot worse if it wasn't for my god because my God is putting certain limitations and restrictions on what can happen to me so no matter how bad it gets I always know it could be worse now my mom never knew this growing up but every once in a while she had five kids you know five kids can be complainers and whiners why did you get that why didn't I get that and you know I never have anything on my way my mom would always look over said it could be worse and the truth is it could be worse thank God he said certain limitations and restrictions on Satan secondly I want you to notice that God didn't cause job suffering Satan did look at verse 12 all right you may test him the Lord said to Satan do whatever you want with everything he possesses but don't harm him physically so Satan left the Lord's presence how did you see that God said to Satan you may test him he didn't say I'll test him no he said you may test him notice what else God said he said do whatever you want with everything he possesses but don't you harm him physically now that's important because we need to know that God doesn't kill steal or destroy I wish Calvinists would get this Calvinists believe that everything that happens is God's will even sin someone gets murdered that was God's will someone gets raped that's God's will something horrible happened to you that's God's will people that's not true why do you think we're supposed to pray for God's people to happen on this earth because not everything that happens is God's will I can't tell you the number of times I go to funerals that other pastors are preaching in this site we don't know why God chose to take them little three-year-old that passed away I mean I Got News for You the Bible calls enemy death in fact it says that the last enemy to be defeated will be death if the Bible refers to it as an enemy it's an enemy of God but I don't know why Calvinists just don't get that but I want you to understand something God doesn't kill still or destroy in John chapter 10 verse number 10 Jesus is speaking and of course he's the Express image of the Father the book of Hebrews tells us and notice what he says in John 10:10 the thief cometh not refer to steal and to kill and to destroy I am come that they might have life and they might have life more abundantly now I like the way the NLT puts it it's not as accurate but it gives you the essence of what it's saying so let me show you what it says it says the thief's purpose is to steal kill and destroy if you were to ask Satan what is your purpose now what's your mission say I would tell you to kill to steal to destroy but notice what Jesus said my purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life listen to me God doesn't steal kill or destroy we're gonna find out something very interesting next week but I can't get ahead of myself all right the book of Job is wonderful now we're kind of running out of time so let's make some personal application concerning Satan's accusation against us you remember what the accusation was right in fact if I were you I would write down the accusation so that the next time you're reading through the book of Job you actually read this accusation so you'll understand the book but if you didn't remember the accusation here it is the accusation was men only serve God because they're afraid that if they don't something bad will happen but if God takes away his protection and they start suffering the curse God to his face and they'll stop serving him that's the accusation so let's make some personal application concerning his accusation against us because he's making that accusation against all of us and I'll use a hypothetical situation as an example to show you how this applies to us and in this hypothetical situation I want to use myself because you might get upset if I use you let's suppose that lisa has an affair and she runs off with another man that's okay that's not God's fault that's her fault and then she divorces me to marry him and Oklahoma is a community property state which means that she gets half of all of our assets plus half of all my retirement accounts that's okay that's not God's fault that's her fault but then the board decides to let me go because they think that I can't be the witness that I need to be as a divorce pastor so I lose my source of income and I can't afford to pay health insurance or keep my health insurance and lo and behold I come down with cancer with no insurance so I'm pulling out of my retirement accounts in order to pay my medical bills and before I know it all of my retirement is gone and I'm at that age of retirement sending years old oh well what's the 70 old pastor who's had cancer whose wife has left him been divorced I have no money in that thing whoa wait a minute God I've served you for 40 years and you allowed this to happen he is Satan right is his accurate accusation true do I only serve God because I'm afraid that if I don't something bad will happen and if God takes away his protection and I start suffering well I curse Scott and stop serving him hmm would I do that and at what point would I do that in other words at what point would I break and start cursing God at what point would I stop serving him at what point would I stop going to church at what point would I become mad and bitter at God remember Satan said every man will do it you just have to find each person's breaking point that's what Satan's accusation is she's another example we just had horrible flooding I don't know why Keystone didn't let out water before it came I understand they didn't know that all this weather was going to come they had no way of knowing it but it came and I got so close to the top and they realized it would breach and it would compromise the structural integrity of the dam if it went over it so they had to land out all this water and I'm telling you what they were letting out was flooding all these homes and some people had just bought new homes brand new homes paid 20% down $250,000 home that's $50,000 now they have a $200,000 mortgage and water was up to the ceiling now they're going back into these homes and they're thinking I've put all my money into this I'm mortgaged for 200,000 if my insurance won't cover it when I am dead at what point do they reach their breaking point maybe they say well we don't know why God did this it wasn't God honey we live in a sinful and world but we look at this as that God allowed it so we're in there working and we've got these financial pressures and pretty soon we're snapping at each other these people are and and pretty soon they're had problems in their marriage and maybe a year later they get divorced and you know they're ruined financially and they don't have a good marriage they've got all these problems what's the breaking point at what point where they curse God to his face and stop serving him because Satan says every person will do it if I can make joke do it I can make anyone because he's the finest man in all the earth in other words compared to everyone else he's morally perfect now let's not put him up against God's standards holiest we're gonna find that out later in the book but according to everyone else what's your breaking point do you serve God because you fear that if you don't he'll punish you and if you start suffering will you get mad at God will you become bitter at God yeah well about this time some of you are probably wondering but why did God allow Satan to do that well that's what Joe wanted to know and we'll see what God told him either next week or the week after but as you can see we're going to get a lot of answers to the questions that everyone asked when they go through periods of suffering because human nature is the same and the very same questions the Jobe ask we ask and the very same feelings the job had we have and the very same emotions that he experienced will experience so the book of Job is wonderful yeah so this is going to be a great miniseries

Channel: Cornerstone Fellowship

Views: 11,322

Rating: 4.8313255 out of 5

Keywords: book of job, book of job explained, book of job meaning, book of job bible study, book of job audio bible, book of job explanation, meaning of the book of job, wisdom literature, job, wisdom, bible study, the book of job explained, the book of job explained key pieces to the puzzle part 3, cornerstone fellowship, life changing, allen nolan, what can we learn from job's life, job's book revealed, problem of evil, why does god allow evil, why does god allow suffering

Id: P-iHvRh9t48

Length: 33min 1sec (1981 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 03 2019