"The Big Questions of Life (Book of Job part 4) - Pastor Doug Batchelor

good morning how many of you have been here so far for all of the first three presentations on Joe alright I know there's always new people and so maybe it is a good to sometimes do a little bit of review and to bring us up to speed today again our message is from the book of Job and this is our fourth presentation just in case you're wondering there will be five the way it's planned right now anyhow and today is the big questions of life the big questions of life we're talking about the book of Job and just to give you the background and a job was this great man and it mentions him as a man who is very wealthy but there's a challenge from heaven and the devil comes as a representative of the earth to this heavenly meeting and he says the only reason that job is serving you is because of what's in it for him and the Lord allows the devil to bring a series of trials on job that reduces this man that was one of the greatest of the men in the world so that he's scarcely recognizable by his friends I remember hearing a few years ago when Howard Hughes died and you know he's more from my era than than some of our younger people here my dad was in the aviation business business I think he shared some interest with Howard Hughes they were mostly competitors my mother when she was an actress got an invitation to go on a date with Howard Hughes but she was married to my father at that point or who knows what would have happened but the Howard Hughes used the frequent that you know the Hollywood scene for a while inherited machine company and was a very good businessman at 18 years old both parents had died and became very wealthy by the time he was 60 years old he was the wealthiest man in the world he dabbled in aviation in Hollywood and medical supplies in space research I mean just all kinds of things but because he had an accident he was a pilot he was flying an experimental aircraft it seriously injured him while he was in the hospital he invented the hospital bed did you know he was an engineer too you've heard of the Spruce Goose that he built so he's just a very eclectic man but why he was in the hospital he invented the hospital bed because he had been burned and he couldn't move and he wanted the electronic bed they finally got it built but that was about the time he was sent out of the hospital he never actually got to use it but a lot of people have since then but he became because of the pain from his accident he became dependent on codeine and Valium and it got worse and worse we heard in the news not too long ago were a famous musician Prince they finally determined he died from an addiction to opiates and that's codeine if I'm not mistaken doctor is that and that same family yeah it's an opiate addiction when they finally were taking him to the hospital because he'd become so sick they didn't recognize him he'd become afraid of people he was living in constant fear of disease you couldn't hand him anything without first putting on gloves or handing it to him by holding up a Kleenex he didn't wear any clothes he did wear clothes he were afraid they were contaminated he frequently burned them walked around his apartment his he lived in a hotel room most of the time wearing Kleenex boxes on his feet he ate candy bars his teeth all fell out it just turned into just the shell of a man he was six foot four in his prime when he died in flight which was probably appropriate for a man that was a pilot they were flying him to a hospital in Houston when he died of kidney failure 90 pounds his fingernails he did not cut his hair he did not cut they're all grown like Eagles claws like Nebuchadnezzar when he went mad FBI insisted on getting fingerprints they said that's not Howard Hughes and it was they didn't recognize and that's how job's friends felt when they saw him after the devil had put him through a series of terrible trials emotional trials lost everything materially he could lose lost his health even his wife was repulsed at him and he felt like he'd been forsaken by everybody but he would not give up his faith in God and so the book of Job is - it's one of the great books of history not just the Bible I think it's probably one of the greatest books in the Bible a matter of fact the Victor Hugo of the famous novelist he suggested that if all the world's literary efforts were to be destroyed and he could save one sample it would be the book of Job that's quite a statement the book of Job it's an old book it's an ancient book written hundreds of years before Moses it's in what they call paleo Hebrew the difference between Jobe and what you normally read in the writings of Moses and many of the modern prophets any of you ever written have any of you ever read a 1611 version of the King James Bible I was in England not too long ago and I was looking at a Wickliffe Bible written by him and you couldn't read a lot of the words because they used an F for an S and there are a lot of differences in some of the language well that was the difference between paleo Hebrew and the books of Moses when Moses is reading Joel Moses is reading an old book you understand so this is one of the most ancient books in the world and it is a beautiful book and it's filled with sublime poetry now the book of Job is divided in six parts I know I only have five fingers in this hand that's all I got unless I'm a son of Goliath you've got so you had six parts and here's what they are starts with a great man then there's a great challenge a great tribulation a great debate a great revelation of God and vindication now today we're gonna cover quite a bit of the book there's five scenes really in the book of Joe starts on heaven on earth goes through scene in heaven goes back to scene on earth goes back to a scene in heaven goes back to a scene on earth and ultimately God appears and he speaks the book is filled with a number of the big questions of life and it's it's wonderful that the Lord reveals himself through this book because the characters in the book of Job are asking a lot of the basic questions you know when you read the book of Job it deals with zoology it deals with weather it deals with politics it deals with farming it deals with finance that deals with minerals and geology it deals with just about all the sciences in some form of life social relationships political is it's amazing you read through it it just it covers the spectrum of life an incredible book and it does it in a very unique rhythmical poetry first part of the book and last part of the book is written in prose in the middle is really poetry now here's one of the first questions that pops up in the book of Job Satan challenge is God and he says it does man serve God for nothing he said the only reason that job serves you is because of what's in it for him the whiffle whiffle what's in it for me as what the devil is saying if you take it away he won't serve you anymore the only way God gets people to serve Him is he has to bribe them now there's a lot of preachers that exploit that darker side of human nature and they always say you serve God and heal them you know you have faith and you'll give you money he'll give you health and give you whatever you want last night I saw it again you know I have the satellite with free a be an amazing fax TV and in that okay you've got a few charismatic stations and I couldn't help myself I watched one of these preachers for a few minutes and when he started telling people that they were gonna get a new home God told him that someone out there was gonna get a new home I changed the channel so there they go what's in it for me and joel proves that he worshipped God and serve God for who God was intrinsically regardless of what was in it for him you can see some examples for that when Jobe loses everything he says Joe 1:20 naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I'll return the Lord gave and the Lord took away blessed is the name of the Lord it's he's God this is what he wants to do and then after his second series of trials he says to his wife shall we Incept good except good from God and not accept adversity and all this job did not sin with his lips he was submitted to the will of God and he loved God first John 4:8 he who does not love does not know God for god is love the reason to serve God is because you love him now not wanting to go to hell and wanting to go to heaven or maybe a suitable starting point but ultimately God wants us to mature to the point where we serve God because of who he is and we love him regardless of what's in it for me there may be things that are in it for us Peter said Lord we've forsaken everything to follow you what do we get it's kind of you know a normal thought but ultimately we need to love the Lord I serve him just because we love him now finally and I quoted this to you last week Jobe gets to the place Reese's though he slayed me I will trust him it's not because of what I'm getting it's because of who he is all right how are you all feeling tit right now how's your thumb you got your Bibles we're gonna be music to my ears last week was when I heard the rustle of all the pages it's gonna be warm out today we're gonna create our own air conditioning as you flip through the pages of the Bible because I am getting ready to go through about 40 chapters with you I'm gonna read a lot if you don't take notes you want to read it for yourself you'll have to listen carefully because we're getting ready to enter into the great debate the book of Job is a great debate jokes three friends come and they sit down with him and you've met them before and it's almost like a boxing match picture if you will there's a ring you got four corners you got job in one corner it's kind of a verbal boxing match you got Al of faz and yet Bildad you got two so far and they're all occupying different corners and job steps into the middle of the Ring any boxer was with them with words and then they take turns coming out and they box back they go back to their corner and the joke comes out and they always after each one of his friends gets it done with the discourse job comes out and he responds and then they come out again and they're slugging at each other with words and thoughts and wisdom and the things they say are so profound in a sense everything they say is true where they're making a mistake is they don't know what's happening behind the veil like you and I do because in the book it tells us what happened in heaven that helps us understand what's happening on earth because you don't know what's going on in heaven it's hard to always understand why things are happening on earth and so we're getting ahead of ourselves this is one of the longest poems in the world I don't know any of you go to college and they made you read John Milton's Paradise Lost I see a couple of hands that's some book I looked it up again last night it's a Christian story John Milton he was blind when he wrote it longest poem in history hundred and eighty-six pages one poem thousands of verses how'd you like to have to memorize that poem some sentences are thirty lines before you get a period one sentence thirty lines it's amazing and the grasp of vocabulary that he has in his poem is astonishing job is a match for John Milton in this book so here we go now I am going to quickly go through these chapters it will be here all day and so job comes out of his corner in Chapter three he finally after seven days of silence there weeping with him there watching him suffer he can't take it anymore he opens his mouth and he asked the big question which is why is there suffering why do we suffer you know job says in verse one he cursed the day of his birth why wasn't I born and he's really pleading with why do you allow me to live and suffer I mean have you ever wondered were born in this life nobody really faxed me in advance and said how'd you like to be born suddenly we're here we're born and we're born into a world where they're suffering but God is good and if God is good and if God is all-powerful why does he allow bad things like suffering and pain and so people struggle to reconcile those big questions let me give you in a nutshell I don't have time to go through all the reasons but let me give you about eight reasons why we suffer then the ones interested I can share this with you it's not original with me one suffering keeps the world from becoming too attractive God doesn't want us for this world we're pilgrims were passing through Paul says in second Corinthians five verse one we know that our earthly house this tent is destroyed we have a building from God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens for in this weak groan earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven as we suffer with these bodies we think I really want the heavenly body it helps us keep a perspective this is temporary and we live with the idea of eternity in mind that's one thing accomplished by suffering second suffering can bring out our best we ever seen when people are neighborhood or some city goes through a trial or crisis people start sacrificing you see they start giving they see other people suffer and it sometimes brings out good things in the nature and I've got verses for all these I just don't have time 3 suffering gives an occasion to silence the enemies of God as you see in the story of Job you know when you're the best witness for the Lord not in your prosperity we're the best witnesses in our adversity what a people what people are cheerful and nice when they got everything they want wow that's so what but when you see people suffering and they're still kind I had somebody that I was waiting for service somewhere and I won't go into the details or it'll tell you too much and I don't always think of myself as a patient person but I must have been feeling patient that day but I waited and waited and waited and several people around me became irritable and very unkind and this and the person who was attending to us came up later and said I couldn't believe how patient you were and I thought there must be a Holy Spirit because that's not how I'm normally and I said well I'm a Christian God helps me he's teaching me patience but my showing patience through adversity became an opportunity to witness we do our best witnessing through trials not when he saves us from trials the greatest witness of Christ was on the cross and the greatest witness of believers is when we're burying our cross patiently so that's one reason that we suffer suffering makes us appreciative if you always get everything you want when you want you don't appreciate anything but sometimes when you're suffering boy it feels so good to feel healthy after you've had a few weeks of feeling sick you know what I mean it is so nice to wake up and not have your head spin after it's been spinning for a week no normally you don't appreciate God that your head isn't spinning there's so many things that you would be thankful for right now if those things were taken away so when you suffer and the sufferings removed you are very grateful suffering can make you appreciative suffering makes us more dependent on God have you noticed you pray more when you struggle to and you got a burden on your back it seems to send you to your knees suffering makes us more dependent suffering helps purify us there's a sanctifying influence and in the book of Job it talks about you'll be tried like gold that is purified and Peter talks about that suffering makes us sympathetic I remember hearing one time about a man that was in a hospital and he had had this surgery and I guess it was a painful surgery and his nurse came in the room and she said it's time to change your sheets and she's throwing them around he's groaning and howling from the pain as she moves them and she changes the bed and then she walks out and he thought that she was pretty rough next day bed need to be change again this nurse came in and she was so gentle and she was so kind and he said wow I just got to tell you said another nurse was brushed she's pretty mean pretty rough and he said you're so nice big difference she said well I'll tell you why she said I had the same surgery you have I know how you feel suffering makes us sympathetic I had a procedure from a doctor a little while back that was rather uncomfortable I wanted to ask the doctor have you ever had anyone do this to you I bet you'd be a little gentler if you had someone do this to you that's too much information isn't it suffering teaches us how to pray so that's just like a list of eight things I'm sure there's more but there are blessings they're good things that come from suffering now none of us prays for suffering but God in His love sometimes allows even those that he cares about to suffer because he doesn't care so joe curses the day of his birth elephant's comes out chapter four and he starts the box back remember now whoever perish being innocent if you're suffering and you're just about dying you've done something wrong or where were the upright ever cut off there are times when the upright are cut off isn't that right he also says elif as goes on for several chapters job 5:17 behold happy is the man that God corrects he's right there therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty for he bruises and he builds up he wounds but his hands make whole job then comes out of his corner chapter seven by the way the name job means persecuted or heated now we don't know if it meant that before if it came to mean that because of what he went through job seven what is man that you should exalt him that you should set your heart on him that you should visit him every morning and test him every moment job is asking a big question why does God spend all this time on men even Shakespeare said what a wonder is man you think about it he's made us the head of the creation of this world God himself think about everything in the universe how big it is how many unfallen worlds there are why would God leave all that become a human come to this world to save these creatures he didn't come to save gorillas he didn't come to save whales I mean I like animals too but he came to save people what is man job is saying something David quotes a joke did you know that David actually quotes Jobe in Psalm 8 what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you visit him you've made him a little lower than the angels and you've crowned him with glory and honor you've made him to have dominion over the works of your hands and put all thing under his feet jhope asks that question what is man that you should exalt him by the way that was saw me verse 4 Joe then goes back to his corner and Bildad comes out in chapter 8 verse 3 does God's vert judgment or does the almighty pervert justice there's a question is everything God does just is everything God does fair is everything fair are we all born with the same opportunities we all born with the same IQ well we all born in the same circumstances same good nice families everything normal no baggage no physical adversity is life always fair God is just but this world is a war zone and so you won't always see that everything seems fair now our politicians promise that they're gonna make it all fair but I suspect they're gonna have a hard time doing that so Joe so bill dad is asking that question and he goes through his whole poem I can't read the whole chapter you're gonna have to read it how many are reading the book of Job is we're going through this I'm hoping some of you are looking at it what a great book this is not supposed to be a substitute for you're reading the book then job comes out after bill dad he comes back from his corner job nine verse two how come and be righteous before God can a man there's a question for you yeah all have sinned I think it was Elif ass that says man is prone to evil as sparks fly upward can't a man be righteous before God is there a way for us to be righteous before God there is God has provided a way that we can be righteous in his sight Jesus has told us to seek first his kingdom and what his righteousness job 10 9 remember I pray you that you have made me like clay and you'll turn me into dust again this is what Moses quotes in Genesis Ash as you are and then to ashes the word is the same dust plain you shall return a man is he's exalted man and yet we know what happens when you die given a little time we just returned back to the elements of the earth but here we are 150 pounds of chemicals thinking moving altering the face of the world wondering where we come from and where we're going clay that God animated into life so far then comes out of his corner job 11 can you stretch out the deep things of God can you find out the limits of the almighty they are higher than heaven he's a job you're trying to explain God he's beyond explanation which is true what can you do deeper than hell and shield is a word what shall you know this is what paul says romans 11:33 oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out and so sometimes people are wondering why did this happen why is this happening to me have you always ever tried to analyze when good things happen bad thing I wonder what did I do something that caused this did I do something good that earned this did I do something bad or I'm being gestae what you can't always search out the reason for everything that's happening sometimes God's ways are marvelous and mysterious Isaiah 55 for as the heavens are high above the earth so are his ways above your ways now that was so far was making that point he goes back to his corner job comes about back out and the answer is again see how they're going back and forth back and forth job says in chapter 14 if a man dies will he live again that's a big question this message is about the great questions all the days of my hard service I will wait till my change comes you will call and I will answer you the Lord will descend from heaven you will desire the work of your hands you jump to verse chapter 19 he talks about this again job 19:25 for i know that my redeemer lives and that he will stand at last upon the earth and after my skin is destroyed this i know that in my flesh shall see God how will that be if after his flesh is destroyed he sees him again God's gonna give us new bodies amen so after Joe deals with this question about will we live again is this all there is isn't that a question people ask LFS comes out chapter 15 of Jove verse 14 what is man that he could be pure and he that is born of a woman that he could be righteous if God puts no trust in his saints and that word Saints there means angels they knew some angels had fallen that's how the devil enters into this story and the heavens aren't pure in his sight how much less man who is abominable and filthy you drinks iniquity like water is it possible for a man to be pure Joe best is it possible for a man to be righteous jesus said blessed are thou what the pure in heart so is it possible only through the Lord job says and they're giving him a hard time they're saying how are you how did how dare you say you're pure Joe nobody's pure you're suffering because of your wickedness and Jobe is saying I just wanted to throw this in chapter 16 he comes back out in his response I could also speak as you do if your soul was in my soul's place that means if we traded places I could heap upwards against you and shake my head at you but I would strengthen you with my mouth and comfort you with my lips and I would relieve your grief he said some friends you are he says if we were in if the roles were reversed here I wouldn't be talking about well you're getting what you deserve that's not very encouraging to a friend who's suffering bildad the shuhite he comes out then that's chapter 18 of joe verse 15 they dwell in this tent that are none of his brimstone is scattered on his dwelling he's talking about what happens to the wicked his REITs are dried out below and his branch withers árbol of good things don't happen to the wicked job says he or they do Malachi chapter 4:1 not like I was quoting bill dad when he says and the day that's coming for the wicked will burn them up it will leave them neither root nor branch talking about the eradication of the wicked I was pulling weeds yesterday and you know when you pull some weeds if you just pinch off the part sticking above the ground it's gonna be back in a couple days especially in this weather I got to stick my fingers right down on the dirt and get that little heart of the root ball and pull it up and then it won't come back you get rid of it root in branch the only way to pull weeds can I get an amen just want something from you Jobe then comes out he responds the Bildad chapter 19 see we're moving on right along how long will you torment my soul and break me in pieces here's a question with words they're boxing with words these 10 times you've reproached me you're not ashamed that you've wronged me here you're my friends and you just hitting me right and left and telling me I'm getting what I deserve I need to fess up because of my wickedness job 19 21 have pity on me you know I just put this in here I'm just taking sound bytes from each chapter you realize and this one touches my heart have pity on me have pity on me he said is it twice oh you my friends for the hand of God has struck me if you see someone that's been struck down by circumstances show them mercy maybe they are getting what they deserve you know don't you hate it when you're suffering because of a mistake that you've made and someone reminds you that's why you're suffering most people who are suffering because of a bad decision know it they don't need you to tell them sometimes my kids have done things that caused problems you know they call you and they say uh dad cars outta gas I'm on the road and I bring them a can of gas do I need to tell them if you'd watch your gas gauge you wouldn't run out of gas or did they know that at that point they already know that don't they you know that idiot light that comes on the dings that says you're almost out of gas you they don't need you to tell them that the lesson is that they had to call you and ask for help they already know now that's just one example of a thousand times but we still tell them anyway don't we just in case they've missed the lesson so the jokes aside encourage you have pity on me for the hand of the Lord has struck me now why is it the hand of the Lord of the devil so job doesn't know what's going on sometimes when bad things happen to us we think why is the Lord doing this maybe it's not the Lord can the Lord strike people sometimes the devil struck people and they died and sometimes the angel of the Lord struck people and they died God can send a storm the devil can send a storm as he did in the story of Joe and then it says so far the neophyte comes out chapter 20 verse 4 do you not know this of old since man was placed on the earth that the triumphing of the wicked is short and the joy of the hypocrite is but just a moment his haughtiness mounts up to heavens and his head reaches to the clouds yet he'll perish forever like his own refuse those who have seen him will say where is he is it true that the triumphing of the wicked is always short miss fatale Castro still alive today 57 years so far since 1959 when he came into power there in Cuba and in the country has been suffering under his leadership and communism ever since I don't know if any of you've been to Cuba but they don't have a lot of prosperity there because of their policies so it isn't always true that the the wicked are the triumphant of the wicked is short God is very patient who was the longest reigning king of Judah Manasseh who was the wickedest king of Judah Manasseh why did God there were that wicked King so long he did terrible things he made his children pass through the fire to pagan gods he killed Isaiah the prophet and he lived he reigned 55 years he lived longer than there I think he was 12 when he came to the throne but you know he repented at the end of his life and came back to God so we don't know why God is waiting so long there may be hope for Fidel the Pope went to visit him little sarcasm I'm sorry peace only think he's 89 or 90 now and so here's another big question why did the wicked seem to prosper quite a bit of the book is dedicated that job spends a lot of time saying it's not just bad things that happen to bad people sometimes good things happen to bad people and and bad things happen to good people Joe says in this section you can lead reading joke 21 verse 7 why do the wicked live and become old yes they become mighty and power their descendants are established with them in their sight their offspring before their eyes their houses are safe from fear neither is the rod of God upon them their bull breeds without failure their calves cat their cows calves without miscarriage you know the book of Job it's an agricultural society so they're measuring success by how their flocks are growing they send forth their little ones like a flock and their children to dance does David talk about this Psalm 73 for I was envious of the boastful when I saw the prosperity of the wicked are there some very rich wicked people so just because a person the devil sometimes casts prosperity in a person's path to trip them up because it's hard for a rich man to get into the kingdom those aren't my words take that up with Jesus for there are no pangs in their death but their strength is firm they're not in trouble as other men nor are they plagued as other men therefore pride serves as their necklace violence covers them like a garment their eyes bulge with abundance you see there's a person that he's is so full their eyes are buggin now they have more than the heart could wish they'd scoff and speak wickedly concerning oppression they speak lawfully they set their mouth against the heavens their tongue walks through the earth Psalm 37 verse 1 do not fret because of evildoers nor be envious of the workers of iniquity for they will soon be cut off written by the same person they'll be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb compared to eternity they don't have long they might appear to be prosperous you know one reason that the wicked may appear to prosper times the devil doesn't have to worry about them he's got him he leaves him alone he'll make the life of the Lost looked attractive the devil wants to make the life of the Lost look attractive and so you'll sometimes see people out there they seem to totally scoff at God and religious things and it seems like everything's going well for them and as soon as you try to get out of Egypt the Pharaoh tightens his grip and all of these plagues happen whenever a person tries to escape the devil's grip then they got all these trials isn't that what happened to the Israelites Jesus said you'll be hated of all nations for my sake does the Lord promise everything goes well for believers if they persecuted me he said they'll persecute you all that live godly will suffer persecution and so it isn't just good things happening to good people and bad things happening to bad people this is one of the things the book of Job is trying to teach us is there's a complicated war going on between good and evil Ecclesiastes 8 now here Solomon really gets the right answer listen carefully please II ask these eight verse eleven because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil what he's saying is because God is good in these patients and he's even patient with a wicked and because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily a loose translation is because lightning does not zap a person on the head as soon as they sin they saw I stole I didn't get caught I guess I'll steal again I curse God and nothing happened I guess I'll keep crazy whatever the sin might be and they say because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil he goes on though listen I'm still reading Ecclesiastes 8 now verse 12 though a sinner does evil a hundred times and his days are prolonged yet I surely know it will be well with those who feared before God it will not be well with the wicked nor will he prolong his days which are as shadow wife is a shadow David says because he does not fear before God it may look for a while like the wicked or prospering but just wait it's not gonna go on forever isaiah 57:21 there is no peace says my god for the wicked and a lot of these people out of the wicked that looked like the prospering would you want to be Howard Hughes from how he lives 60 years on his miserable livid in fear do you know he had one pilot he lived in so much fear that for a six-month period Howard Hughes had a private pilot fly him to a different hotel throughout the southwest almost every day and he was afraid for his life and he'd stay in a hotel room and stay up all night watching movies just living in fear a billionaire what profit is it if you gain the whole world and lose your soul now the wicked don't prosper that much all right after job says that elephants comes out of his corner in job 22 and he says to job is not your wickedness great and your iniquity without it they won't let up on the guy they're saying this is happening to you and they're looking at lost everything you're covered with sores your family's gone your wife's rejected you you smell bad God's punishing you your wickedness is great fist up job job then Ken steps to the microphone they go back and forth joke 23 verse 10 he knows the way that I take and when he has tested me I will come forth his goal this is a trial Peters quoting Jobe first Peter 1:6 in this you greatly rejoice though now for a little while did Jobe suffer forever was it for a while for a little while now Jesus was tempted in the wilderness it says Satan left him for a season it doesn't last if need be you've been grieved by various trials if it's needed that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes though it be tested by fire may be found to praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ at the end of his trials the genuineness of job's faith brought glory to God and it brought shame to the devil so you don't know you might be going through a trial and all of heaven is watching so that you can give glory to God regardless of what happens to you job 2311 my foot has held fast to his steps I've kept his way and have not turned aside I've not departed from the commandment of his lips I've treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food this is an interesting verse and I learned a lot studying for this series one thing is the words of his mouth was any Bible written yet when he had this experience no but did they have the Word of God it was passed down orally back then I've treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food didn't Jesus say man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God Jeremiah says I found his words and I did eat them talking about the Word of God like food job finishes bill dad comes out and verse chapter 25 bildad the shuhite verse 4 how then can a man be righteous before God or how can he be pure that is born of a woman this is a repeat of what was said before even the moon does not shine and the stars are not pure in his sight how much less man who is a maggot and the son of man who is a worm you know we forget what the what was that song in our hymnal it said such a worm as I and the the the hymn committee in our church didn't like that they changed it to such a one as I they thought it was just bad for our self-esteem to sing such a worm as I yeah I forget what you know what I'm talking about Navy everything at the cross yeah at the cross yeah they teamed to know we want to sing about being worms do we that's what the Bible says that's what I just read but I mean compared to God what is man he's so small he's so small joke than answers joke 26 verse 7 he stretches north over the empty space in other words says things that we don't understand it's interesting he knew that the North was spread over a Arctic barren wilderness nothingness and this this has really been an interesting and he hangs the earth upon nothing now that's really did showing you the wisdom in the book of Job even some of the scientific interests there because the ancients the Greeks for instance they thought that the world sat on the back of atlas who was standing on a bowl that was on four turtles and they never did explain what were the turtles on but they always thought the earth was on something all many of the ancient cultures if the earth was resting on something that about the pillars of the earth but job says he hazy or if I want and we know now since we got that shot from the moon the earth there it's it's like that blue jewel suspended in space he hangs the earth on nothing they weren't much wiser back then they looked up in the sky and saw the other planets and they knew that so just moving along here in the story you're going back and forth go to job 27 3 he says as long as my breath is in me and the breath God is my nostrils my lips will not speak wickedness nor my tongue utter deceit Jobe has quite a discourse at the end here job 28 but where can wisdom be found and where is the place of understanding either hearing all these ideas in this philosophy coming from these great patriarchs in the book of Job and he's saying where is wisdom found Solomon says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom now go with me to the book of Job oh man I'm looking at the clock goat of chapter 29 I want you to notice job finally they give up his three friends finally give up answering him they all took turns I think is so far sacrificed his last response his responses kept getting shorter until he just gave up you go to job 29 job does his summary defense here you know in a court sometimes they'll have the summary prosecution and the summary defense job is giving a summary defense he continued his discourse and he said oh that I was in past months so how long were his suffering years or months he's looking back a few months and when things were good that's an important point as in the days when God watched over me when his lamp shone on my head when by his light I walked through darkness just as I was in the days of my prime when the friendly counsel of God was over my intent when the Almighty was yet with me when my children were around me you can hear him yearning he's lost his children when my steps were bathed with cream and the rock poured out rivers of oil they used to press the oil in a rock and you'd see a spout Rock spout the oil came out when I went out to the gate by the city when I took my seat in the open square young men saw me and hid the age arose and stood the princes refrained from talking and even princes refrained from talking and put their hand over their mouths the voice of nobles was hushed and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth when the ear hooded he said people were in town respected me I was the greatest man I was prosperous God's blessing was with me and so he spends the next few chapters telling his friends look at how it was a couple of months ago how obviously blessed I was do you think I suddenly turned to a life of crime and all these things came upon me or is there something else going on here see what he's saying to his friends why did it change so suddenly maybe it's not because of my wickedness maybe it's a test now joke goes on until chapter 32 and something very interesting comes up I don't know the answer I can give you some ideas and I invite your your suggestions your ideas you study it you tell me out of the blue a fourth friend appears a fourth character his name is Elihu chapter 32 of job job ended his words you can see it begins by saying job's words are ended chapter 32 so these three men ceased answering Joe because he was righteous in his own eyes then the wrath of Elihu the son of barkal a bark yelled the buzz light and he can find where it talks about husband buzz he's evidently a descendant of buzz which would be the buzz lights they were honey makers I made that up I don't know that Elihu the son of Barclay all the buzz light of the family of RAM was aroused against Jobe his wrath was aroused because he justified himself rather than God also against his three friends his wrath is aroused because he had found no answer and yet he had condemned Jobe now because they were in years older than Elihu he waited to speak to Jobe some people have said oh this was the Holy Spirit well says he's a man he says he's a friend he says he's young so I think he's a real person they were sitting there and summits wondered if Ella he was the one who actually wrote the transcript of what everyone's saying now keep in mind these people lived hundreds of years back then their minds were much sharper than ours are today they had almost photographic memories to remember oratory they did not go around with earbuds in their heads hearing music blaring all day long so their brains were fried and they couldn't or anything when people spoke back then that was the entertainment and they had better memories and so they had you know he wrote this down they did have writing because job talks in his book about though it was written something was written and so they there was writing certainly back then Ella he might have been the writer he takes up several chapters and they sit and they listen to him very eloquent he's a young man but he's a bright young man most of what he says is right on again he's not sure why job is suffering but here's job keep justified just my on alright this is a new microphone I really like it we just got to put batteries in it can you hear okay yeah it's a good microphone I try to look at it I can't see it so Elihu he's sort of a mystery character but he goes on and I don't have time to read all that he says he spends quite a bit of time saying joke listen to me verse 10 therefore listen to me and I will declare my opinion I waited for your words I listened to your reasoning and one thing you notice here the respect for age in the book of Job joke talks about you know the respect that they had for age this fella sat through 31 chapters he's got very strong opinions but because the elders are speaking he doesn't say a word he waits until they're all done before he says anything today they keep interrupting they didn't have the same attitude about elders and parents back then that they had now they used to honor their parents I heard someone asked the father said you ever strike your child he's only in self-defense lest you say verse 13 of chapter 32 we found wisdom God will vanquish him not man now he has not directed his words against me so I will not answer him with your words they are dismayed and answered no more he said the four words have escaped them and I waited because they did not speak because they stood still unanswered no more I will also answer in my part he's taken a whole chapter explain why he's gonna say something indeed my belly was like wine that had no vent for mending wine is ready to burst like new wine you're wanting to say something so bad you just feel like you're gonna explode Paul said woe unto me if I preach not Christ had something he had to say so he goes on now for several chapters and he talks about the righteousness of God and how he deals with man and I I've got to leave out so much cuz it's just no not possible to read all these chapters in chapter 34 Elihu further answered and said hear my words you wise men give ear to me you have knowledge for the ear test words as a poet taste food let us choose justice for ourselves let us know among ourselves what is good for Jove has said I'm righteous but God has taken away my justice should I lie concerning my right my wound is incurable though I am without transgression what man is like Jobe who drinks scorn like water who goes in company were the workers of iniquity and walks with wicked men free has said it profits me nothing that I should delight in God he's now accusing job like his friends therefore listen to me you men of understanding far be it from God to do wickedness and from the Almighty to commit iniquity for he repays man according to his work and makes man to find his reward according to his way is it true that God rewards people according to their works ultimately yeah it is in the great judgment every man has recorded rewarded according to his work I'm gonna jump on here because I think we ought to give God a chance to speak go to chapter 38 joke never speaks to in response to Elihu he listens and then finally the Lord interrupts chapter 38 now these fellows have been talking all day and at the end of the day God speaks this all happens in one day when you add up the time it would take to read these and God speaks from a whirlwind and he says who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge now we don't know who's he talking to God may be talking to all three of them he but they're all still sitting there whose darkening counsel by words without knowledge sounds like you know much of what's on TV words without knowledge now prepare yourself like a man and I'll question you now he's addressing job and you will answer me where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth tell me if you have understanding who determined its measurements surely you know or whose is that God being a little sarcastic or who stretched the line upon it to what words foundations fastened or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy these are the watching angels that were at the meeting at the beginning of the book of Job or who shut in the sea with its doors when it burst forth and issued from the womb when I made the clouds garments and thick darkness its swaddling bands when I fixed my limit for the sea and said bars and doors when I said thus far you shall come but no farther here you must hear your proud waves must stop then God goes on now for several chapters and he's asking these questions about creation about the mountains about the animals and he mentions a couple of very interesting animals he mentions one called the behemoth and there's been a lot of speculation about what was this creature because it does grinds a creature that behemoth it's big he's saying the greatest of God's works the chief of his works this is great creature it's not an elephant it's it's got a tail like a cedar tree well it's got a little rope tail it talks about it being in the marshes sleeping under the Willows and some it said its power is in its thighs talks about its hind legs and dinosaurs if you've seen him there hind legs were much bigger than their front legs and some of them had tails like a cedar a number of Bible scholars have wondered if this is an example of dinosaurs living contemporaneously with man and God is asking job what do you think of the behemoth and then he talks about the Leviathan I'll say something about the Leviathan next week and so basically God is talking about the bigness of the world the bigness of the sea the bigness of the creatures the mystery of the creatures and he's saying how how can you say you understand the ways of God said I am so much a greater than you and Joe he hears God talking job answered go to chapter 42 verse 1 Jobe answered the Lord and said I know you can do everything and the no purpose of yours can be withheld from you and Matta fact ov answers in chapter 40 also I jumped over that moreover the Lord said to job shall one who contends with the Almighty correct him verse 3 Jobe and so the Lord said Behold I am vile what should I answer you I lay my hand over my mouth I've spoken once but I will not answer twice but I'll proceed no further and then job answered the Lord answered job from the whirlwind so now prepare yourself like a man and I'll question you and you answer me you've been asking questions chapter 42 42 he says I know that you can do everything and no purpose of yours can be withheld you asked for who is this who hides counsel without knowledge therefore I've honored what I didn't understand things too wonderful for me which I did not know you know friends you know one of the important lessons from the book of Job trust God when you don't know what's going on just trust the Lord don't try and have an answer for everything things too wonderful for me listen please and let me speak you have said I will question you and you shall answer me I ever heard of you by the hearing of the ear but now my eyes see you the Lord appears to job in his whirlwind therefore I Arbor myself and repent in dust and ashes now you notice all through the book this is something of a mystery does God ever say joke did anything wrong does James refer to the patience of Job does Ezekiel refer to the righteousness of job he does God honors job as a righteous man at the end of the book tells job to pray for his friends calls him a righteous man at the beginning says to the devil have you considered my servant job he's just an upright but when job sees God all have sinned and fallen short says I repent in dust and ashes you see it's is it wrong for well let me put it differently if Michael Jordan says I'm a good basketball player is it bragging if he said he's not a good basketball player it's not humility it's lying right he's an incredible basketball player at least he was I don't know if he's kept up with it when job is defending his righteousness he's not doing it out of a self of Pharisee ism or pride he is saying I have lived for God how many of you remember when Hezekiah was dying Isaiah said you're gonna die set your house in order Hezekiah turns his face to the wall he starts to pray and he cries he says lord please remember now how I followed you and I've kept your Commandments and I've served you and God said you know yeah you have and so I'm gonna hear your prayer and I'm gonna give you 15 more years what says a kind lion was he bragging how was he saying god I've served you I've loved you and so this is all that job is doing when he's defending himself through the book you see no God is not punishing me for my wickedness I've lived for God to the best of my human ability so but now he sees God he says I repent in dust and ashes and so it was after the Lord had spoken these words were almost done that the Lord said to Elif as a team a night my wrath is aroused against you Elif as must have been the oldest he addresses him my wrath is aroused against you and your two friends we what about Elihu only addresses the three of them notice you have not spoken of me what is right like my servant job has now what did he say about what job said you've not spoken right like my servant job has and getting ready for this sermon I listened to some other preachers and one preacher was saying how bad job was I said that's not what I'm getting from this God said job spoke what was right now therefore take for yourselves seven bowls and seven rams to my servant job and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering and my servant job we'll pray for you this man who you thought was so wicked he's gonna be your priest lest I deal with you according to your folly because you have not spoken of me what was right as my servant job has doesn't that settle it for everybody that's the Word of God right so Elif as the team at night bildad the shuhite and zophar the neophyte went and did as the LORD commanded for the Lord had accepted job and the Lord restored never mentions Elihu didn't say pray for Elihu he's a mystery and the Lord restored jobs losses when he prayed for his friends indeed the Lord gave job twice as much as he had before then all of his brothers and his sisters and all those who had been his acquaintances before came to him and ate food with him in his house and they consoled him and comforted him for all of his adversity that the Lord had brought upon him these friends left I said God spoke to job we heard that job was just and and he didn't deserve what happened word got out that job was still holy as everyone then felt vindicated to come and see job otherwise they thought he had a curse on him and they all came and the Lord and they all gave him a piece of silver and each a ring of gold and this contributes to his wise investment of that which Egan's doubles his increase and the Lord blessed the latter days of job more than his beginning I don't know how he could be blessed more but it's he doubled his animals for he had fourteen thousand sheep set a seven six thousand camels instead of three one thousand euro Voxx and instead of five hundred one thousand female donkeys he also had seven sons and three daughters and it's something interesting about the book of Job unlike the rest of the Bible it doesn't name his sons but it gives the name of his daughters I'll tell you why next week got to come back there's more and it says his name of his daughters Jemima she started a pancake company the name of the second was because I am and the name of the third was Karen happy Karen's name is in the Bible Doug is in the Bible too did you know that Isaac dug the wells of his father it's just spelled differently and at all but then it comments on his daughters he says in all the land they were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers very interesting after this Joel lived a hundred and forty years beyond this and he saw his children and his grandchildren for four generations so Jobe died old and full of days now when you think of Joel are you go with me and we're gonna close this off for a second if I say would you like to have the experience of Jobe most of you would say oh no but out of the 200 plus years that Jobe lived how long did he suffer a few months we don't know but it may have been you know two months you add it up and the discourse all happened in one day didn't seem like it was very long between one trial and another we go through trials but when you look at the life of job is that a cursed life or is it a blessed life it's not fundamentally blessed now when you're going through trials it feels like it'll last forever but you wait if you keep trusting God he'll generally bring us out the other side or he gives us grace amen now the big thing that the book of Job is dealing with here is that we may not know what's going on but we can trust the Lord you've probably heard the story about Augustine that great theologian he was trying to comprehend the mind of God and the Trinity and these big concepts he was walking along a beach meditating one day and and while he was walking he saw there is a child playing at the edge of the water his little child had a seashell he ran down into the water and he scooped up some of the water and he ran back up on the shore he poured the water down this little crab hole and then he ran back again he scooped up some more water in the shell ran back and poured it down the cranville and he watched the persistence of his child and he was overcome with curiosity and Augustine went up to and said child what in the world are you doing it's all mister you see all that water out there I had to put it in the hole a little hard spoke to Augustin and said for you to comprehend God it's like that child trying to fit the ocean in that crab hole and there's just so much that we won't know and the book of Job is saying trust me I love you I am just and I'll redeem you and and we're gonna learn more about job the overriding theme gonna be talking about Jesus in the book of Job I bet you didn't know Jesus was in there next week but as we close this I thought it'd be good for us to read that hymn or to sing that hymn it is well with my soul you know who wrote this a man who was wealthy and successful and had a family and he lost all of his businesses and his wife and daughters were on a boat sailing across the Atlantic and the boats sank he was gonna meet them in Europe and so he lost all of his property and he lost his family and when the boat was passing he was coming back over he asked the captain he said you tell me when we reached the place where that ship went down I lost my children and the captain said this would be the longitude and latitude and he went and I think he threw some flowers in the water at that spot and that's when he penned the words to this song is it it is well with my soul so I'm gonna invite our singers to come out oh they're there and we're gonna sing this let's stand as we sing [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Father Lord we are very thankful for this message that's come to us written thousands of years ago but the truth has not changed but in this life we will see what appears to sometimes be the wicked prospering and the righteous suffering or any combination of the above and we don't know always what you're doing behind the curtain what battles might be raging between you and the arch-villain help us to trust you that you are a good god that in the end it will be well with those that serve you lord I pray that you'll be with each person church service is ending Lord life continues help us to apply the things that we've learned to our lives to be a people that will trust you knowing you've promised to be with us always and I pray that we'll know that heaven is looking down and I pray that we can live our lives like Jobe did so that you will look from heaven and say have you considered my servants there from Granite Bay that they serve me help us be those children lord please be with us now bless us with your spirit thank you for all that you've done for us Lord and please save us we ask in Jesus name Amen god bless you man happy Sabbath

Channel: Aaron

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Id: PGbl1oGItrg

Length: 69min 16sec (4156 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 23 2018