Job-Suffering and Sovereignty Part 1
Job: A Story of Suffering and Sovereignty
Job 1:1-22
Keith Crosby
Opening Illustration: Have you every put together a mosaic?
1mo•sa•ic \mō-ˈzā-ik\ n
[ME musycke, fr. ML musaicum, alter. of LL musivum, fr. L museum, musaeum] 15c
1 : a surface decoration made by inlaying small pieces of variously colored material to form pictures or patterns also : the process of making it
2 : a picture or design made in mosaic
6 : a composite map made of photographs taken by an aircraft or spacecraft
[1]
A mosaic is like a puzzle. It’s made up of all these little parts that fit into a greater whole that provides a larger picture.
When I was a child my parents gave me a mosaic kit. All these little flecks of stone which seem to bear no relation to one another but when you put it all together the picture made sense.
As Christians, we all play a part in God’s plan to redeem the lost. That’s why we exist.
We are small parts of a greater whole. Sometimes the things that happen to us don’t quite make sense to us at the time.
That’s the way it is with suffering, sometimes. Because we are not God we don’t understand all the little pieces of our lives and suffering and where they all fit into the larger picture.
But from the Divine plan we know that all things work together for good to those who love God to those who are called according to His purpose. This is true for Job and us---although there is no guarantee in this life that we will fully understand all that went on in a given situation.
As we begin our study of the book of Job we will come to understand this better which may help us, if we listen, to deal with our sufferings in the here and now. This indeed is a timely book for many.
We are, after all, in a period of financial upheaval, trial and tribulation. Many people have lost their nest eggs and are perhaps asking, “Why?”
I’m certain that there’s at least one person who is having a difficult time that is unrelated to the present global financial crisis. Perhaps your life is not going the way you wish.
Perhaps your relationships are not what you had hoped. Perhaps your health is a wreck.
Perhaps you are tempted to shout at God, “Why God, why?” Perhaps you are angry or displeased with God because you believe that the hardships you suffer are undeserved or unjust.
Or, perhaps you’re just a believer in need of a little comfort. One of the things that the book of Job might serve to help us do is to maintain perspective.
We often think that our trials are unique, that our hardships are unparalleled---or unlike anyone else’s. The book of Job shows, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:13, that whatever your trial, hardship, or difficulty is, it’s not unique and that God is with you in the trial enabling you, as you depend upon Him, to bear up under it.
God never, ever gives us more than we can handle. Job shows us that we are never alone, never without assistance and God is always timely in His intervenItion---never late, never early---but right there when we truly, really need Him.
If you are suffering, then Job is the book for you. If you are inclined to be embittered toward God, or hopeless, in your suffering and hardship, then Job is the book for you.
If you are inclined to be angry in your suffering, then Job is the book for you. Job is an amazing book about an amazing God that gives us the larger picture and the proper lens through which to view our world, our suffering and our situation.
Let me give you some additional information on the book of Job.
Author. The author is unknown to us.
We know that Job is not the author because we know that Job never knew or understood all that what going on around Him. He simply trusted God.
Some speculate that Moses was the author. We can’t know.
What we do know is that the author, the human author that is, is a wise, educated, and astute man whose knowledge of nature and surrounding cultures speaks to his breadth of knowledge. Given the writer’s familiarity with the flood and Adam and Eve (prior to the writing of Genesis) is appears that the writer lived as a contemporary of the Patriarchs (i.e. Abraham).
He writes in a poetic living style that is quite beautiful. The vocabulary and grammatical structures of Job are almost unique to Job.
The human author never names himself in this book although some believe the writer is Job, himself. Ultimately, regardless of what human instrument was used, we know the writer to be the Holy Spirit, moving this person to write in his own unique style and vocabulary.
Date: 1000 B.C. or thereabouts.
Liberal commentators are all over the board. Who cares what they think.
Organization/ Outline. The most simple outline is as follows.
I. The Dilemma (Job 1:1-2:13).[2]
The Dilemma is the ramifications of the scene in heaven played out in Job’s suffering here on earth. Job is a righteous man, whose integrity is challenged by Satan. God allows Satan to test Job’s faith.
The dilemma for some is how or why God pursues this direction. The dilemma is also the question of whether Job is faithful because his life is one that knew/knows only blessing or will such an extreme test break his faith? Is all this, as it were, worth the risk?
II. The Debate (3:1-37:24)
What follows Job’s trials is a series of debates between Job and his friends. His friends came initially to comfort him but, in effect, turn on him as they come to believe he is overly confident in his own righteousness. Indeed, the question is eventually asked, “is anyone righteous before the Almighty? (Keith’s paraphrase)?” Job is described as a blameless man by the sacred writ.
Job at times clings to his righteousness and his faith (“though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him”) and at other times in the depths of great suffering and seeming despair curses the day of his birth. He also insists on a court date with God so that Job can exonerate himself before God and his own friends, who have turned on him.
III. The Deliverance (38:1-42:17).
God intervenes and confronts Job in his own self-confidence. Job gets the court date he wants but refuses to testify on his own, or in his own, behalf. God asks Job to consider a number of questions and Job says that he, Job, repents in dust and ashes.
The Lord also rebukes Job’s friends for their harsh criticism of Job. The Lord restores Job, formerly a prominent chief of the East to Job’s previous position and then some.
Job 42:10 The LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the LORD increased all that Job had twofold. 11 Then all his brothers and all his sisters and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversities that the LORD had brought on him. And each one gave him one piece of money, and each a ring of gold. 12 The LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He had seven sons and three daughters. 14 He named the first Jemimah, and the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. 15 In all the land no women were found so fair as Job's daughters; and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers. 16 After this, Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons and his grandsons, four generations. 17 And Job died, an old man and full of days.
(For greater detail, you could consult a commentary or the MacArthur Study Bible)
Purpose: Job was written to teach us a number of lessons (hope and comfort being chief).
Commentators all agree as does any thoughtful reader that the purpose of this book cannot be reduced to a single statement of purpose. It is a multifaceted gem filled with teaching and wisdom.
The umbrella theme is about God and human suffering. But there are side bars about man’s need to be in total trust and submission to his Creator, understanding God’s character and that there are larger battles going on, of which we only get the occasional glimpse.
The book of Job serves to remind us that man’s knowledge of divine actions and purposes is limited (Deut. 29:29). We can never know the big picture—fully and totally (and often to our satisfaction).
But our knowledge of God is all we really need to live life in this fallen world. This book will disturb some because throughout the book there is no studied attempt to justify God with regard to the suffering of the innocent.
At the same time, the thoughtful believer is bound to note that the book demonstrates that God does not abandon the sufferer but communicates with him at the proper time. Another of lessons we learn is that man can be called “upright” and be imperfect.
Job is called blameless but he’s not perfect---he’s merely saved, as an Old Testament saint who has put his trust in God’s promises. Also, contrary to what many of our charismatic friends might tell us, no one, rich or poor, small or mighty—saved or unsaved---is immune from suffering.
Ultimately, as God reminds Job that He, God, is the Creator and Sustainer of all that is, Job included, not the enemy that Job seems to begin to perceive God to be. God comforts Job, as He always will us, if we let Him.
Finally, Job is never told why God tested him (hence he can’t be the human author). Nevertheless, Job comes to accept God on God's own terms and while we know the full story, Job had to walk by faith even after he was exonerated.
Job never requests restoration of goods, family, and wealth. But God, having achieved his higher purpose through Job, restores him double.
That God never seeks to explain or justify His own actions troubles some. But, as one commentator noted:
The issues raised in the book are among the most profound and difficult of human existence. The answer was already on Job's lips in the Prologue when he said, "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;/ may the name of the LORD be praised" (1:21b); and "Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" (2:10). The truth Job learned was that God must be God and that of all values and all existence only God and his glory must ultimately prevail.[3]
This is a lesson that must not be lost on us, beloved. We are not the center of the Universe, God is.
Life isn’t about us---not matter what Joel Osteen and others might say. It’s about glorifying God.
We will never know the reasons for all that befalls us in this life. But we can learn to rightly view them and life from our study of Job.
Why do afflictions upon afflictions befall the righteous man? This is the question, the answering of which is made the theme of the book of Job. The answers we will see is that we must come to know that God sends afflictions to me because, since sin and evil are come into the world, they are the indispensable means of purifying and testing us, and by both purifying and testing of perfecting me,—these are explanations with which we can and must console ourselves. [4]
Why do afflictions befall the righteous, the saved man. The larger answer, with which we must console ourselves is that every individual life, every Christian individual life, has an intimate connection with God’s redemptive history and future and His plan for the world in the most incomprehensible of ways.[5]
God uses trials to grow us (James 1:2-8); to grow us closer to Him in wise dependence. And our trials are always for a reason, and many times for many reasons, more than a few of which we cannot yet see, or may never see.
Therefore, by faith, we trust God to be God, perfectly righteous and good in all things and all perfections and we cling to His robes knowing that it’s all good even though there are some things we can’t know on this earth.
Deuteronomy 29:29 "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.
Beloved, we can’t know every reason behind every hardship and disappointment, but we can learn a lot from what God reveals in His word, particularly in the case of Job, and apply this divine wisdom to our finite thinking and lives, in the here and now. We can’t know the reasons, not all of them, but we can grow through the trial.
Having said all this, let’s begin our study.
Job 1:1-22 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. 2 Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. 3 His possessions also were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants; and that man was the greatest of all the men of the east. 4 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. 5 When the days of feasting had completed their cycle, Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, "Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." Thus Job did continually.
We look at two different situations in this passage. We toggle between locations and “people,” starting with Job, on earth, on continuing with God and Satan in the heavenly realms.
What do we learn of Job? The Hebrew words in the description tell us Job was a believer.
He lived a life that was characteristically blameless,[6] above reproach. Upright speaks to Job being straight, or moral.[7]
Fearing God speaks to Job’s being a believer who revered and honored, and, yes, “feared” God. We would do well to follow Job’s example and model his attitudes and tendencies.
Turning away from evil speaks to Job’s abhorrence of anything unrighteous. He turns[8] his back on the ugliness of iniquity. You wouldn’t find him watching the Simpsons. He had no interest in things crass or edgy.
We also see that God has blessed Job. Job is quite wealthy.
Job 1:3a 3 His possessions also were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants;
Job was a prince of sorts, a great man, a wise man. He was a giant among his contemporaries, a man of great prestige---possibly even a King of the East, or a prince of some kind; a chieften.[9]
Job 1:3b 3and that man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
Job has gained much, humanly speaking. God has blessed Job’s obedient faithfulness.
“Men of the east” seem to prominently figure in redemptive history don’t they? Think of the wise men who came to see Jesus, from the East.
Job was not a Jew (as we understand it) but an Edomite. This is before the times of the Jews, before the sons of Israel were born, before Jacob—Job is likely a contemporary of Abraham.
Job has gained much and has much to lose. Since most of us know what happens to Job, the following verses are particularly poignant and telling.
Job 1:4-5 4 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. 5 When the days of feasting had completed their cycle, Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, "Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." Thus Job did continually.
Here is a picture of a pious man, a family man, a godly man who loves God and adores the children God has given him. Like a good father, like a good shepherd, he prayed for them, sacrificed for them, interceding with the Almighty on their behalf.
Look at his children. With so many bickering siblings and divided families, this picture of his children is heart warming, touching.
Job raised his children right. They are best friends.
Middle Eastern culture today demeans women. Muslims in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and places like these see women as property, furniture.
This is not the case with Job’s children. No doubt he raised them right.
I could go out on a limb here and suggest that his children were believers. They seem to be counter cultural each of his sons providing for the other on his day in turn and for their three sisters and their families.
Also, since we know that Job’s trials are the result of God’s judgment, or punishment, for sin it seems the more likely his children fear God. I could go out on a limb but I suppose I won’t—let’s not get wander into needless speculation any more than we have.
What we do see is the picture of the idyllic family in an idyllic setting. Late in life, Job seems to have it all.
He’s a good man with good children. He is a faithful man---a strong believer, an uncommon believer, some would say, deserving God’s blessings. In fact, many would say because he follows God so faithfully, he has it all: health, wealth, and prosperity.
God does bless our obedience. God certainly punishes our disobedience.
His family is loving, intact, and happy. He’s daily praying for them.
All is right in Job’s world. Or is it?
We move from this earthly scene to a heavenly one. Look at verses 6-13.
Job 1:6-16 6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. 7 The LORD said to Satan, "From where do you come?" Then Satan answered the LORD and said, "From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it." 8 The LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil." 9 Then Satan answered the LORD, "Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 "Have You not made a hedge about 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. 11 "But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face." 12 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him." So Satan departed from the presence of the LORD.
Here is a peculiar--peculiar to us--picture of a heavenly transaction. There is nothing like it in Scripture to compare to, or with.
Satan presents himself to God. The Almighty and Satan speak.
Obviously, this is after the Fall of Man (and the Fall of Satan). This is after the Fall of the Angels (demonic hordes) who rebelled against God.
God seemingly points Job out to Satan. No, not seemingly, He deliberately points Job out to Satan.[10]
“Here is a righteous man,” says God. “Big deal,” says Satan, “I’d be righteous, too, if you gave me all that, as a man, and made my life easy. Take what he has and he’ll turn on you.” Satan seems confident after having enticed rebellion of 1/3 of the holy angels in heaven.
You might think that God is not doing Job any favors. Actually, He’s doing Job and you a favor.
What is the favor, or grace that He’s showing us, Job and us? I’ll address that later.
God agrees to allow Satan to strip Job of all Job holds dear on earth. Watch it unfold.
Job 1:13-19 13 Now on the day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, 14 a messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, 15 and the Sabeans attacked and took them. They also slew the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you." 16 While he was still speaking, another also came 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." 17 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "The Chaldeans formed three bands and made a raid on the camels and took them and slew the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you." 18 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, 19 and behold, a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people and they died, and I alone have escaped to tell you."
Satan stirs up Sabeans to raid his property and steal his oxen ( think “tractors and food”). They kill his servants as well (skilled laborers who run that aspect of his business).
Satan next appears to cause a natural disaster to destroy other flocks and those who care for them. The Chaldeans come and took his camels and killed those watching over these herds.
Add to this his children die in a seemingly freak windstorm. Job has lost almost everything.
Consider how profound the loss. Animals can be replaced while children cannot be replaced.
Moreover, there is no one really to help him as most of his servants are killed to (so much for having the manpower to rebuild one’s empire). Job is ruined.
He’s no spring chicken. His best years are behind him and his legacy and wealth and beloved offspring are taken from him all in the same day—he receives words of multiple tragedies successively, in a few minutes.
The shock would have killed most men. But Job is not most men.
He’s a strong believer. I wonder how I would have handled it.
How did Job respond? Let’s see.
Job 1:20-21 20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped. 21 He said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD." 22 Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.
First, he grieved. Wouldn’t you be?
He did arose, tore his robe and shaved his head. He visibly recognized the loss according to the customs of the Ancient Near East.
He went into mourning. And then what did Job do?
Did Job say:
“Why God, why? What did I do, what did they do to deserve this? What kind of God are You to reward Your believers this way? I want nothing to do with You! Away with You! ---no, that’s not what Job said, or did.
Notice that Job fell down and worshipped. The pose was one of humility and dependence.
The act was one of dependence, reverence, and trust. And the words that Job uttered are recorded for us.
Job 1:21 21 He said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD."
He understood then what Paul would later say to the unruly, self-centered church at Corinth---he only had what he had received from God. He was nothing special.
Job 1:21 21 He said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD."
You and I can learn at lot from Job’s example. Do we only love God when things are going easily for us?
Let me call your attention to one final comment that is made about Job and his conduct. Look at verse 22.
Job 1:22 22 Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.
Let me read this to you again. Listen!
Job 1:22 22 Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.
He did not sin. He did not blame God.
Why? As a God fearing man, he well knew God’s character.
We have what Job didn’t have—the bigger picture. But Job didn’t need at this point the bigger picture, he knew his God.
When we encounter trials and hardship, we can go to the book of Job, read the Psalms, or the Gospels---or look for wisdom in the Proverbs. Job did not have these resources but Job knew God (do you?).
We, friends, can and need to look at our world through the lens of Scripture, not the lens of emotions, circumstance, or difficulty. “Trust God, no matter what…” appears to be Job’s credo.
We should make it ours. Today, I want you to learn three lessons from this narrative so that you can approach the difficulties of life rightly.
I. Know that in all that happens you don’t see the larger, redemptive picture.
Job 1:1-3 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. 2 Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. 3 His possessions also were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants; and that man was the greatest of all the men of the east…
Job 1:6-16 6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. 7 The LORD said to Satan, "From where do you come?" Then Satan answered the LORD and said, "From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it." 8 The LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil." 9 Then Satan answered the LORD, "Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 "Have You not made a hedge about 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. 11 "But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face." 12 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him." So Satan departed from the presence of the LORD.
A. Job’s life seemed fine; he seemed safe (verses 1-5).
1. But he couldn’t see how redemptive history was shaping up around him.
2. He had no idea what was going on in the spiritual realm.
3. He had no idea that we would be reading about him nearly 3,000 years later and some would be taking comfort from his plight and example.
B. I don’t know where you are but God is using you, whoever you are.
1. You may not know how.
2. Job didn’t.
3. But remember this God is using you as a player, in a role, in redemptive HIS-story, if you are a believer—you’re like a piece of a larger, wonderful puzzle.
Illustration: It’s like a mosaic, little stones, or pieces of stone that combine to make up a larger picture.
Know that there is a bigger picture, a larger purpose to all that is going on around you. You only have a small glimpse of your own tiny piece of redemptive real estate.
You are part of a larger, Divine mosaic!
II. Realize that hardship is not necessarily the result of sin.
Job 1:1-3 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.
A. Job was blameless, above reproach.
1. He was straight, straight-laced, and upright.
2. He loved and revered God.
B. While it nowhere says that Job was sinless indications are that Job was an obedient believer.
1. In fact since he made sacrifices we know that he was not sinless.
2. A sacrificial system speaks to the reality of a fallen world.
3. His actions speak to a desire to be right with God.
4. He was one who is characterized by God as having turned his back on evil.
Job 1:8 8 The LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil."
C. He was characteristically a righteous man, not a swearer, or drunk—a believer.
1. And look what happened.
2. Look at all the hardship.
a. Loss of property and livestock (vv 14-17).
b. Loss of family (vv. 18-19).
3. None of this was because of what Job had done wrong.
a. It actually happened because Job was a servant of the Lord.
b. It all happened because Job was a faithful believer, a righteous man who feared God and turned away from evil.
c. We need to be careful of doing what some do when others are suffering---“Hey… what have you done to deserve God’s wrath?”
Illustration: God is trying to tell you something---since your baby died… When I was in North Carolina. A man lost his wife and later his young daughter. Someone in the church walked up to him and said, “hey, you must have done something, or the Lord is trying to tell you something.” Sometimes the Lord is not trying to tell you anything but you, like Job, are involved in a larger part of redemptive history that you can’t see.
Realize that your misfortune (bad choice of words) or hardships—or someone else’s---aren’t necessarily the result of sin.
III. Remember to cling to what is true---God is to be the focus of your worship not your self-pitying wrath.
Job 1:21 21 He said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD."
A. He blessed God. He was grateful to God.
1. He realized in his life he’d been given what he’d been given by God.
2. All he had was God’s—time, treasure and talents.
3. He looked at his world through the lens of truth, not the lens of feeling or experience---or entitlement.
B. God gave; God could take away by rights.
1. He blessed God’s name.
2. He did not lash out at God in word or thoughts.
Job 1:22 22 Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.
C. What can we ever blame God for? A fallen world? Our sins?
1. All of us at this moment, saved or unsaved, believing or unbelieving, have received better than we deserve.
2. We nailed His Son to a tree, we deny Him daily as we pursue relationships, behaviors, and priorities without giving much thought to His will, or His glory.
3. We disrespect parents, teachers, blow off classes, work assignments rather than doing all things to the glory of God.
4. We engage in idolatry, in other words.
5. We have all, right here and right now, received better than we deserve.
6. Job knows this even in the midst of such a terrible trial.
a. How many of us are having a time as difficult as Job was at the moments recorded in our text?
b. Let me answer this for you—none!
Illustration: C. J. Mahaney---“I’m doing better than I deserve…”
You MUST cling to what is true. As believers we always receive better than we deserve (Romans 6:23).
We deserve so much less than we receive from God. God treats us so much better than we deserve.
Too often we fail to consider how bad we are, were. We don’t take into account just what we do deserve. We forget that there is none righteous, no not one. There is none who sought for God. All have sinned and deserved death.
Closing Illustration:
Eric Johnson, cancer patient, chemo recipient; Christian. He said, “it’s all good; it all brought me to a place in closeness with God that I otherwise would not have known. Until you’ve stood in the doorway of death, you can’t know what it means to trust God with your life and what it means to experience His grace and provision in the fullest ways imaginable.”
That’s where we find Job at the end of this book, at the end of chapter 42. As you go through the coming week remember that God allows trials not to punish us but to draw us closer to Himself in faith-filled trust and dependence.
Please remember these three lessons as you go from this place:
· When hardship comes you have to trust God realizing there is a bigger picture and you are part of it---you may not be able to see it.
o Don’t lose perspective.
o All things happen for a good, a very good reason.
· Therefore, understand that your trials and travails may not stem from sin but from God’s larger plan---a crucial part in redemptive HIS story.
o You may not see it now…
o But God is using it for good---your growth and to bless others as He brings glory to His name through you.
o What a privilege.
· That’s why you must cling to what is true, not what you feel—or what men say but what is true.
o Don’t let Satan whisper into your ear lies.
o Don’t give in to self-pity.
o Don’t let your pride seduce you into blaming God, or sinning against Him.
o Job didn’t and he had less revelation then than we have today.
God is good; He’s given you all you have, Himself; salvation; life; family; friends. If He chooses to take some or all of it away, as He did with Job and to a lesser extent Erick Johnson---it’s all good because God is good.
You may have to wait until you get to heaven to understand fully. But it’s all good.
We would do well to internalize these three lessons and take them to heart so that we can manage, survive and persevere through trials and help others do the same.
Let’s pray…
Job: A Story of Suffering and Sovereignty
(Sunday Evening-January 18, 2009)
(Job 1:1-22)
Keith Crosby
Premise: How are you doing? Think you’ve got it tough? It is highly likely that none of us have had it tougher than Job. The book of Job provides us a great lesson in keeping our perspective in times of trial and great suffering. Even within the first chapter we learn that despite the loss of property, livestock, employees and dear children Job does not sin or blame God for his troubles. Chapter one provides us with three important lessons about trials and suffering in this life.
Notes:
Review:
I. ________________ there’s a bigger picture.
II. ________________ suffering is not always the result of sin.
III. ________ __________: cling to what is true (see life thru the lens of truth, Scripture, not experience).
Application: As Christians we are responsible for applying God’s word to our lives as we cooperate with Him in our spiritual growth.
Questions for Reflection and Application
These questions are provided for your further study and application of today’s message. Thoughtfully writing out answers to some or all of these questions will help drive home the point of today’s message. It might also help to discuss the message with others, like members of your own family, or as part of a family devotion by taking a question a day and discussing it as a family.
- Think you got it tough? Compare yourself to Job. What lessons can you learn from Job’s attitude that you, that we all, need to bring to bear in handling difficulties in our own lives?
- Sometimes we are told that all hardship is about God punishing us for sins we are committing. We are told that strong believers should have health, wealth, and prosperity. How can you know from Job chapter one that, for example, the health, wealth, and prosperity idea is a lie from the pit of hell?
- Do you find yourself “mad at God” for the suffering you are experiencing right now? Re-read Job chapter one (and read ahead into Job chapter two) taking time to repent of your self-worship (idolatry).
- What do you think of Job’s attitude of gratitude even during his time of acute loss? Where do we find it? Read Job 1:21: The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD."
- Job trusted in God’s goodness and integrity. Do you?
- The writer of Proverbs says that the one who trusts in his own heart is a fool. Job trusted not in himself, or his own feelings, or in his heart---he trusted in God. Do you?
- How do you suppose that trusting in God, even when it hurts, would sustain you in your present trial as this kind of faith sustained Job?
- Ponder what Job says in Job 13:15 15 "Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.
- Each of us has our own part to play in some scene in the unfolding drama of redemption---in redemptive history---in God’s plan. How we respond to what God sends our way may be used not only to grow us but to save others. Will you ponder this as you think through your own hardships?
| Resources for Further Study on Suffering (not in order of importance) Trusting God Even When It Hurts, by Jerry Bridges. About $13. A must read. James, by James the half brother of Jesus Christ. Free, in your Bible. A must read. 1 and 2 Peter by the Apostle Peter. Free, in your bible. A must read. |
| Memory Verses 1 Corinthians 10:31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. |
[11]
The Three Counselors
These men play a unique role. They have the same underlying theory of suffering, but each develops his case against Job in his own way.
1) Eliphaz
Based on a variety of passages, we have good reason to believe Eliphaz was an Edomite. According to Genesis 36:4, a man named Eliphaz was the firstborn of Esau, the progenitor of the Edomites, and Teman was his son (v.11). A number of prophets mention Teman as a place, an Edomite city or district (Jer 49:7, 20; Ezek 25:13; Amos 1:12; Obad 8-9). Jeremiah assumes Teman was known for its wisdom. The site may be the same as the Arabian town of Tema mentioned in Babylonian sources. Apparently Eliphaz was the senior member since he spoke first. Throughout his speeches, at least till his final speech in chapter 22, he shows a broader spirit than the others, accepting Job as a pious man gone astray. Though failing in compassion, he alone of the three showed some consideration and respect
2) Bildad
This non-Hebrew name is not mentioned in any other OT book. Bildad considers Job's struggle over the justice of God as blasphemy and uses his erudition, his knowledge of ancient wisdom tradition, to prove to Job that his family got what they deserved and warns him about a similar doom. Genesis 25:2, 6 provides some helpful information about his tribe, the Shuites. They were descendants of Abraham through Keturah and inhabitants of "the land of the east." There is a land of Suhu on the Middle Euphrates mentioned in Assyrian records (ANET, passim); but apart from a possible phonetic problem, Genesis 25:3 suggests this tribe lived near Dedan, which Jeremiah locates near Tema and Buz (Jer 25:23), far from the Euphrates. Bildad's name is probably a combination of Bil (baal, "Lord"; cf. LXX Baldad) and Adad (Hadad, Dadda), the well-known storm god. Compare Ben-hadad, the Aramean royal name, and the Edomite kings Hadad the son of Bedad (Gen 36:35) and Baal-Hanan (v.38).
3) Zophar
Zophar is from Naamah, but not the little Israelite town in the western foothills (Josh 15:41). The LXX took the liberty to identify him with a known kingdom calling him Zophar the king of the Minaeans (2:11; 11:1; 20:1; 42:9), which has led to the conjecture that there was a transposition of the consonants n, and m in the MT. This is not likely. The LXX also has Zophar for Zepho the son of Eliphaz ben Esau (Gen 36:11, 15). The fact is that scholars cannot agree on either the derivation of Zophar's name nor the location of the place. But it must have been somewhere in north Arabia or Edom. Dhorme (p. xxvii) gives several possible locations based on data from Eusebius's Onomasticon and from topographical surveys. Zophar was the most caustic of the counselors. His message to Job was repent or die the horrible death the wicked deserve.
4) Elihu
This character appears only in chapters 32-37, where his speeches are recorded. Some critics have banished him as nongenuine, a late addition, etc. He has the distinction of having his father's name recorded, which G.B. Gray (Driver and Gray, 1:278) takes as evidence of different authorship. It is just as likely that the name "Barakel the Buzite" (32:2) is given to identify Elihu as one whose father was a leading figure in a clan more closely related to Job. Uz and Buz were brothers according to Genesis 22:21. Elihu's name means He is my God and is the only one of the five (including Job) used by Israelites (cf. 1 Sam 1:1; 1 Chronicles 12:20; 26:7; 27:18). The Aramaisms in Elihu's speeches fit the statement that Buz was the son of Abraham's brother Nahor whose son Laban speaks Aramaic (Gen 31:47). Elihu gives his youth as the reason he dared not speak while the older men held forth. The character of his speeches and the author's intended use of them will be discussed later
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[1]Inc Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary., Includes Index., Eleventh ed. (Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2003).
[2]John Jr MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible, electronic ed. (Nashville: Word Pub., 1997, c1997), Job 1:1.
[3] Job. Expositors Bible Commentary Set.
[4]Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2002), 4:245-247.
[5]Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2002), 4:245-247.
[6] <08535> ~T' tam (1070d)
Meaning: complete
Origin: from 8552
Usage: blameless(5), blameless man(1), complete(2), guiltless(3), integrity(1), peaceful(1), perfect one(2).
[7] <03477> rv'y" yashar (449a)
Meaning: straight, right
Origin: from 3474
Usage: conscientious*(1), fittest(1), Jashar(2), just(1), proposal of peace(1), right(35), safe(1), straight(5), upright(51), Upright One(1), uprightly(1), uprightness(1), what(2), what is right(7), what was right(6), which was right(1), who are upright(1), who is upright(1).
[8] <05493> rWs sur or rWf sur (693b)
Meaning: to turn aside
Origin: a prim. root
Usage: abolished(1), avoid(1), beheaded*(1), cut off(1), degenerate(1), depart(45), departed(7), deposed(1), deprives(2), do away(1), escape(1), get(1), go away(1), gone(1), keep away(1), keeps away(1), lacks(1), leave*(2), left(2), move(1), pardoning(1), pass away(1), past(1), put away(12), relieved(1), remove(45), removed(43), removing(1), retract(1), return(1), separated(1), strip away(1), swerve(1), take(2), take away(7), take off(1), taken away(14), takes away(1), took(3), took away(2), took off(2), turn(8), turn aside(25), turn away(12), turn...aside(1), turned(2), turned aside(24), turned away(3), turning aside(1), turning away(3), turns aside(1), turns away(3), undone*(1), wanderer(1), withdrawn(1).
[9] James 1:1-12 James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings. 2 ¶ Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 ¶ But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. 9 ¶ But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; 10 and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. 11 For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. 12 ¶ Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
[10] Rosscup suggests and I agree that Satan already had his sights set on Job, which God knew. Satan cannot believe that anyone serves God, as Rosscup puts it, seeing God’s worth. Most unbelievers are like this. They see no worth in God and can’t imagine that anyone else would either. This trial is ultimately about God’s worth (glory/kadobe), His weightiness and a believer’s ability to cling to His worth, regardless of the situation or circumstances.
[11] James 5:11 11 We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.