Sermon Tone Analysis

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

There were born to him seven sons and three daughters.

He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.

His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.

And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all.

For Job said, ‘It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.’

Thus Job did continually.

“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.

The LORD said to Satan, ‘From where have you come?’ Satan answered the LORD and said, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.’

And the LORD said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?’ Then Satan answered the LORD and said, ‘Does Job fear God for no reason?

Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side?

You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.

But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.’

And the LORD said to Satan, ‘Behold, all that he has is in your hand.

Only against him do not stretch out your hand.’

So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

“Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and there came a messenger to Job and said, ‘The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.’

While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, ‘The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.’

While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, ‘The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.’

While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, ‘Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.’

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

And he said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return.

The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.’

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

Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD.

And the LORD said to Satan, ‘From where have you come?’ Satan answered the LORD and said, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.’

And the LORD said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?

He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.’

Then Satan answered the LORD and said, ‘Skin for skin!

All that a man has he will give for his life.

But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.’

And the LORD said to Satan, ‘Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.’

“So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.

“Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold fast your integrity?

Curse God and die.’

But he said to her, ‘You speak as one of the foolish women would speak.

Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?’

In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

“Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite.

They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.

And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him.

And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven.

And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

“After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.”

[1]

“Skin for skin!

All that a man has he will give for his life.”

Is that true?

Is this momentary existence so precious that we will exchange anything for one more breath?

The modern perception is that people are so self-centred that they will not act nobly.

The movie “Titanic,” perpetuated the modern myth that men shoved women and children out of the way to get into the lifeboats.

In fact, it is reported that there were no instances of men acting out of self-preservation.

One example was witnessed in the American businessman and millionaire, John Jacob Astor.

Astor kissed his wife good-bye before she was put in the lifeboat.

He said to her, “I resign myself to my fate,” and saluted in farewell.

He had surrendered his own place in the boat because he had seen a woman running toward the boat.

He was last seen assisting Major Archibald Butt lower lifeboats until the last one was lowered.

When gunfire erupted at the July 20, 2012 premier of “The Dark Knight Rises” at the multiplex in Aurora, Colorado, three of the men killed were killed protecting others.

Jonathan Blunk, Alex Teves and Matt McQuinn were each killed shielding others from the gunfire.

Each gave his life so that others might live.

Their actions demonstrate the lie that reigns in contemporary mythology.

Men still give their lives defending others; mothers will still sacrifice their own comfort and even their lives, for their children.

Nor should we imagine that such sacrifice is something only seen in this day.

Jansuz Korczak willingly surrendered his life, escorting orphans who were marched to the Treblinka death camp.

Christians who have grasped the essence of the life they now enjoy in Christ the Lord will sacrifice themselves for others.

Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan friar, volunteered to take the place of a man condemned to die in Auschwitz.

When the U.S.S.

Dorchester was torpedoed with 900 raw recruits aboard, four chaplains—George Fox, a Methodist minister, Clark Poling, a Dutch Reformed minister, Father John Washington, a Catholic priest and Rabbi Alexander Goode, surrendered their lifebelts so that others could live.

These four stood atop the ship singing hymns until she went sank beneath the waves.

There is no question but that Christians are prepared to give their lives for another.

People have grappled with the question of why bad things happen to good people since earliest days of the Faith.

The truth is, we don’t have all the answers—we have never had the answer to this question.

A book that attempted to grapple with this problem was published in 1978.

Harold Kushner, a conservative rabbi, had watched his son die from the effects of an incurable genetic disease, progeria.

His conclusion was that God wanted to do good, but He couldn’t always do what He wanted.

Perhaps Rabbi Kushner’s god is such a truncated deity that he is incapable of doing what he wishes.

The True and Living God is not pitiful, paralysed and powerless, however.

The Psalmist has testified of the Living God,

“Our God is in the heavens;

he does all that he pleases.”

[PSALM 115:3]

Elsewhere, among the Psalms is found another statement of God’s power.

“Whatever the LORD pleases, he does,

in heaven and on earth,

in the seas and all deeps.”

[PSALM 135:6]

A powerful king of a pagan land painfully learned this lesson on one occasion.

Driven from his kingdom and suffering from lycanthropy, he was compelled to testify, “At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever,

for his dominion is an everlasting dominion,

and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;

all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,

and he does according to his will among the host of heaven

and among the inhabitants of the earth;

and none can stay his hand

or say to him, ‘What have you done?’”

[DANIEL 4:34, 35]

Among the membership of any congregation will be those who have experienced unexpected and severe reversals of fortune.

Some within any given assembly will have faced chronic debilitating conditions that have taxed their energies, leaving them exhausted and questioning why they must suffer so.

Others, whether they actually say the words or merely think them, will feel as though all hell has been unleashed against them.

These saints who suffer would wish to have an answer for what is happen, though it is doubtful that they will ever receive a satisfactory response to their struggles.