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00:00:01 hi good morning church today's scripture reading is taken from Job 1 oh sorry Job chapter 1 verse 1 to2 and 20 to 22 I'll be reading from the ESV version there was a man in the land of us 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
00:00:40 East his son used to go and hold a face 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 con 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 curse God in their hearts Tas jobed it continually now there was a day when the sons of God came to present present
00:01:18 themselves before the Lord and Satan also came along among them the Lord said to Satan from where have you come Satan answered the Lord and said from going to and from 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 earth a blameless and upright man who fear gods and turn away from Evil the Satan answered the Lord and said does job fear God for no reason have you not put a h around him and his house and all that he
00:01:55 has on every side you have blessed the work of his hands and his POS posss 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 verse 20 to 22 then job 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
00:02:35 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 this is the word of the Lord good morning Brothers and Sisters in Christ can you hear me yes good good morning all right um before we continue further uh am I supposed to make any announcements or don't okay all good all right okay so before we continue any further uh I think we'll just Commit This Time to the Lord in prayer let's bow our heads together and
00:03:20 pray Our God and our father we come before you with Thanksgiving for the person of our Lord Jesus Christ we thank you our father he loved us and gave himself for us we thank you our father for the Redeemer a redeemer that we did not know we need but truly Our Father the one that he has been provided even for us father we come with Thanksgiving even this morning and we pray our father that our lives may be transformed even um through him and father even as we consider your word we we come with truly
00:03:54 grateful hearts and yet Our Father we are humbled to know that there is so much that we do not yet understand about you our father we pray that with eyes of faith our gaze May pierce the clouds above and we may see you we pray Our Father for a glimpse of you even as we consider this character of job and father we just ask that the meditation of our hearts will be acceptable in thy sight and so father we ask this even the spirit's guidance as we open your word again we give thanks and pray in the
00:04:26 name of the Lord Jesus Christ amen all right now um the reading has already been uh read to us about this man called job um and he is a character that's well known in the Old Testament okay so uh today is going to be a little different from the usual uh study because usually what we do is uh you know we expose it and we exit so we are not going to stick with the text completely today it's not to say we're going to be unfaithful to the text we'll still stay faithful to the text but we need to understand it in the
00:05:02 grand scheme of the entire book okay let's go through it without further Ado we'll look at an overview okay it's really divided into four parts the whole book of job so job chapters 1-3 is about job's suffering and um how Satan came before God Before the Throne room and he comes along and says you know okay you know uh this man he's only serving you he is only faithful to you he's only um worshiping you only because you have protected him so then the Lord says okay you know take those away and see what happens after that chapters 4
00:05:39 to 31 is about a debate between job and his three friends and we know that the three friends the name is elifas bildad and zofa again we will not read those passages in detail but we will have them before us and then another man comes along named Eli who sounds okay so at this point you will be saying like you know what's the point we'll see that that and chapters 38 to 42 is about a revelation from the Lord so chapters 1 and 3 is the prologue as it were there is an epilog chapters 38 to 42 chapters
00:06:12 4 all the way to 37 is actually a debate a lot of questions asked why why why if we suffer why so this book really addresses a very ubiquitous problem that all of us face and that's suffering all of us at one point or another or even at this very moment we suffer and job went through exactly that so let's look in detail about Job his person so job in chapter 1 ver8 in fact in also chapter 1 verse uh one and also in Chapter 2 there was a description of him he was a perfect and an upright man one that fearth God and a stew of evil
00:06:58 wow big word yeah this morning someone asked is that a misspelling no it's not it's Old English so perfect upright fear of God as je of evil four things to describe this man all right now we can actually just divide it in the way that actually they correspond to one another the perfect and upright talks about the what what is he and the fear of God and she evil talks about the how it's his conduct so you can say there are some what related one to another and if I put in a table so the first two are his
00:07:34 character the second two are his conduct how did he conduct himself so he was perfect he was upright fears God as je evil look in this in detail so that's the what and then the how and um we can actually alliterate this when you say perfect he's faultless upright he's faithful fears God and then when you say asue evil is to turn away from evil or to forgo evil so let's look at these four points very quick so the first is perfect now the word perfect U brings to mind Perfection as though there's
00:08:09 sinlessness but that would be an untrue and wrong understanding of this word perfect so when the Lord uses the word perfect about job he's saying that he's blameless he's a man of integrity not to say that he's completely sinless and we will see later on in the book actually um job was really uh someone who's still sinful and he could still be swelling up in Pride but the word blameless means to be complete to be whole it really talks about integrity was he a person that would do things differently if people weren't
00:08:49 watching let's look at some examples uh in chapter 2:s 9 and 10 which we didn't read his wife saw how he was suffering so now let's look remember the suffering he have a lot of losses at this point um he had the loss of his you know his cattle his sheep his camel he it's not not just loss of physical property it's a loss of his family all right we haven't read that earlier so um just a bit of context he lost a lot of things he lost his children in the process um all 10 of them there were seven sons and
00:09:27 three daughters so imagine if you're in that situation and you have lost everything you ever own you have lost all your family all your children and then suddenly after that you have health issues now job was experiencing exactly that he was struck with boils or you can stay very very big pimples on his body and then the wife you know saw how pitiful that situation was in in Ming you say how Cen he was and the wife said you know do you still retain your Integrity before are you still going to you know maintain your
00:10:03 ways why don't you just Curse God and die even a wife you could say cannot tahan all right so what does that mean it really means that she was saying just give up there's no point being a man of integrity but he said to her you know you speak as one who is a fool shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil so job recognizes the fact that his suffering is also part of what God has allowed and permitted in his life in all this did not job sin with his lips he did not say
00:10:36 anything that was wrong number two my lips shall not utter um or speak wickedness nor my tongue utter deceit so he's also very careful with what he says so that is Job chapter 27 number three example he also talks about his eyes I made a covenant with my eyes so he's a man who really is faultless as if we can put it that way but a better word to translate that would be a man of integrity okay that's part one he was also a man who was faithful he was a man who was upright and there are different words to
00:11:14 describe this again but I think in the Old Testament there is a phrase that was used about the Kings so in First Kings chapter um 15 and verse 5 you will always see this phrase and he did that which was right or I he did which was evil in the eyes of the Lord so the word upright means to do something right you're righteous your Justice uh you're just and you are um righteous so if you were to refuse evil but choose good and in Job chapter 23 very beautifully sums up his life he says my foot have held his steps his way
00:11:53 have I kept so imagine this he's saying that I've kept God's ways and then he ES esteem now that's the second verse that's verse 12 in chapter 23 I have esteemed the words of God's mouth more than my necessary food it's hard for us to say that right you know we esteem God's word more than our food you know imagine if uh someone comes up to you and say would you like a meal or would you exchange it with God's word for this one meal and then you just say no I'm too hungry you know but job is saying I
00:12:22 esteem God's word more he's a real upright man so his uprightness is also seen in chapter 31 he cared for his servants he cared for the poor the Widow and the fatherless there's a huge list a huge um uh list of accolades that that job had about his uprightness he did not idolize riches you know he was a man who did not take revenge he will not um leave the stranger unwelcome before him he cared for the stranger uh he did not hide his sins it's a huge list of whatever um that he did he was also showing compassion
00:13:00 upon the poor and also the fatherless we read that in Job chapter 29 he was full of compassion okay now we're singing his Praises now continue on with the next he fears God now a man who fears God what would he do remember when he was suffering we read in chapter 1 verse 20 uh 21 chapter 1 verse 21 it says there naked came I of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thether the lord gave and the Lord have taken away most of us would usually quote that verse and say full stop but go job goes a step further
00:13:46 blessed be the name of the Lord he looked back at the time of his birth naked k out my mother's womb he's saying I came out with nothing and looking ahead going into death he says I am going to die with nothing thing and the only thing that he ever has is the Lord blessed be the name of the Lord he looked up you could say that he was really looking at the giver and not the gifts that God gave 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 7 we w't have time to look at that job also understands justification chapter
00:14:16 9:2 he says I know it is so of a truth but how should a man be just how should a man be righteous with God how can a man justify himself before God last point he foros evil he excuses evil now this is a very interesting statement um made about job so during the time um when this was written we don't know um what the system was was it the levitical system but nevertheless job made sacrifice for his children he was acting as a priest on their behalf he Sanctified them so remember this that he rose up early in
00:14:55 the morning um he had his priorities right he wasn't just preach ly he offered up burnt offerings and sacrifices that was propitiation made for his children and interesting enough he actually describes it this way for job said it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their heart so he's actually thinking so far ahead not just about himself but about his own Sons it is is possible that my children have sinned and he wanted to make sure that there is a sacrifice made for that and then he was also piering because he
00:15:28 did this continually now this could be just the um the topic and of interest in the entire uh consideration that we have this morning of chapter one and full stop um but then we have a problem because this becomes a very moralistic message so you're going to say okay so the word of God is trying to tell us that we should be perfect upright fear God and asue Evil is is that wrong no that's not wrong that's correct but the problem is then that it is very possible that we are trying to gain our salvation by works which is not
00:16:14 the case the Old Testament is full of the truth that salvation is by faith alone and same in the New Testament so the problem of Salvation is not in the picture here this this whole book book is not about salvation it's about suffering so that's problem number one that has been cleared up now problem number two if we stop here we stop short and just say okay done with chapter one you know job was a good man we've been singing his praises great but what then it doesn't answer the question is there all there is to
00:16:52 job he was a good man full stop not really because that doesn't answer the question of why was he suffering why did job being a man who is perfect upright fears God and exced Evil why did he suffer we always come to think of it that you know if there is such a person if I am righteous if I perfect if I Fear God and I you evil then I won need to suffer it becomes a very transactional sort of relationship so that's question number one one problem number one that job asked the Lord why did he suffer and he
00:17:37 complained and interestingly enough again if you read the entire all 42 Chapters at the end God never gives an answer God doesn't give an answer to job as to why job is suffering but we'll see in a little while what did God do question number two is God just is God correct in allowing the righteous to suffer okay is God just in allowing the righteous to suffer so if we are going through a hard time there is a chance that these questions will pass through our mind and this is what the Book of Job is really trying to
00:18:17 address now we've read Satan claimed before God you know job is only faithful because you are protecting him there is a hedge that you have set around him and that is why he is faithful to to you and job says take away what is Good from him and see whether he will curse you to your face see whether job will turn away all right and if you think about it job is claiming that I Satan is claiming that job is having a transactional relationship with God and it's very possible that we might have that kind of relationship with God
00:18:59 and here Satan is trying to say that if that's the case let me prove it and God says well if it's true go ahead and try and that's exactly what Satan did he took away whatever he had you know the seans came there was a fire from God and then there was the calans so many things happened and then the house that the children were in fell down and the children died and he suffered great losses so let's take a look as to the theory as to why job suffered now this is going to be a little um intense as it
00:19:34 were so let me set the background if you remember in the earlier sites we had um an overview of the entire Book of Job and chapters um four all the way to 31 is a debate between job and his three friends so think about it it's a conversation all right if I am suffering and then your friend comes along to you and then he mour with you or she he or she mours with you and then you have a discussion and then these three friends alfas build and zofa they discussed these things with Joe in that conversation so they were say things
00:20:18 like oh you know it's because this and this happened they're trying to explain why Jo was suffering remember it's a conversational start one chapter would be about this Alas and then another chapter will be job replying and then builda will come into the picture and then job will reply zofa comes into the picture in another chapter and then job replies so it's a back and forth sort of conversation now remember it's very very long but it's very very dense Hebrew poetry which we will try to condense and
00:20:46 summarize um of course we will fail to do so in great detail uh and definitely you know if you can it'll be good to study in your own time so three perspectives about these three people so let's give the back background of job's friends remember this starts in chapter 4 which we did not cover okay this in a sense is a survey it's an overview of the book of job so that we can understand why job being a perfect upright a man who feels go and choose evil can suffer okay so the background so first is elifas he was a pragmatist
00:21:20 he relied on experience and let's see what that meant you will see this phrase over and over when you read the book of Job especially in the places where alfas was um speaking he says I have seen I have seen I have seen he's relying on what he saw he's relying on his observation as to why things are happening and the key verse that describes in is Job chapter 4 and verse 7 and this is very um you could say a summary of exactly what alfas builda and zofa were accusing um job of in chapter 4: 7 it says remember I pray the whoever
00:21:59 perished being innocent whoever died whoever suffered being innocent or where were the righteous cut off or killed essentially saying this if you are innocent then why are you suffering because innocent and righteous people shouldn't suffer that was ala's key verse it's trying to tell us that well if you are righteous no suffering will come upon no evil will come upon you now remember that um when you approach The Book of Job it's very easy to take the verses out of context and apply it in a way that is
00:22:47 really not intended for ourselves if we take ala's words Lock Stock and Barrel we can say that you know oh yes then definitely we need to be righteous and if we are righteous God will bless us and we will never need to suffer again taking the word of God out context is a very dangerous thing and that's why we are doing this exercise now let's look at friend number two build up he was a traditionalist he relied on his Traditions that he's heard from the past from his fathers from the time of the Ancients okay he in in job
00:23:24 8:8 he says for inquire please of the former age in the past and consider the things discovered by their fathers so let's look at what our fathers have said you know Through the Ages and have been passed down to us you know if we follow those rules all these people were quite legalistic in a sense if this then that if this then that they claim to know everything how God works you know Etc now his key text in job chter 8:20 behold God will not Cast Away a perfect man neither will he help the evildoers same kind of theme but this
00:23:56 time he's relying on this tradition friend number three zofa he was a theorist he made a lot of assumptions he assumes he knows what God is going to do you know um there's a there's a lot of times that we will say oh yeah I know exactly what God would do in this situation God would definitely judge that person but who are we to say that how can we as finite creatures understand who God is it's hard especially by assumption and that's exactly what zofa did but oh that God would speak and open his lips against
00:24:28 thee If Only God can speak now you will hear these words you know that actually what you are suffering now is what is exacted of you now is less than what you deserve that's what zah said whatever you're suffering job is actually less than what you deserve you should actually have suffered more you know your suffering are actually not as bad as you think it could be worse you know God could make it worse for you and there are a lot of situations where friends may come up to tell us that exactly in chapter 20:4 and 5 it says
00:24:58 noce thou not of this of old again is a bit similar to his other two friends that the triumphing of the wicked is short they're going to die very fast so if you are wicked you won't live long and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment it's just temporary he's saying this but there's one thing in common between all these three verses that we have taken a look at it's always talking about a relationship between righteousness and reward even Vil and Punishment they're trying to simplify the explanation of why people
00:25:37 suffer if you are innocent then you shouldn't need to suffer if you are evil then yes there will be punishment is that right or is that wrong and actually the three friends are not entirely wrong so alfas build and zofa they had some points that were correct and some points that were wrong and the some points that were right is that yes God is just but they for God that God is a god of Grace and God is a god of love they only focused on one attribute that God had so remember this was their assumption they
00:26:19 assumed that righteousness led to reward and evil led to punishment and this is a teaching that has gone out through the entire world even um by other preachers if you were to be faithful to God God will bless you you know you will have great material wealth you have a great family great promises that God makes you know the promises of Abraham will be yours if you were to believe God if you're righteous you'll be rewarded but that's not the gospel is it the gospel is that Christ died for us so that we may live and it's very possible
00:26:56 that by living the gospel you will actually suffer in in this life and being righteous we are punished but isn't that how the world works again that's their assumption and it's very easy for us to fall in that assumption as well so we have a very moralistic view be good and full stop or just don't be evil but again that is oversimplifying the matter Job chapter 22 we don't have time to read it I'll try my best just to sum it up there are just a few verses you don't have to turn to it so this is what um bildad uh zofa
00:27:33 and elifas were saying about job and this actually was spoken by alfas himself he is accusing job in verse four is not thy wickedness great are you not a great Wicked person greatly Wicked person and thine iniquities infinite your sins are many for thou has taken a pledge from thy brother for not and verse 7even thou has not given water to the weary to drink you have withhold bread from the hungry Ry etc etc he's saying you know you don't even care for the fatherless you know but these are false
00:28:06 accusations again remember that the three friends were accusing that job had a secret sin that no one knew about and that's why he's suffering but we have read earlier on the first you know 10 to 15 minutes that job is a righteous man so that makes this argument false it is not true that job was secretly sinning against God and that's why he's suffering because they had a very very narrow view of who God is it if you're having sin in uh if you're suffering in your life and God is just clearly God is bringing a punishment
00:28:47 upon you otherwise why would you be suffering okay so they falsely accused him of his sin they claim that all suffering is because of a particular sin only one thing and that was in job 4:7 which we have considered their premise God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked but there is a problem because this is very shallow theology this is not who God is in a sense they are misrepresenting God because the question remember about job is is God just is God righteous is God correct it's like saying this now Now can anyone
00:29:30 tell me what this is I know it's a bit hard to see can anyone give a try if you're from a more sciency background you might actually um know any word that comes to mind Tada anyone okay let's change the question has anyone seen something like that before does it have to be exactly the same something like that no okay never mind this one I I can forgive you if you have never seen it this is matths okay okay mathematics all right so sorry if if you didn't quite get that but it's complicated okay maths is difficult
00:30:28 maths is complicated you can learn it from your Elementary School from um preschool in fact all the way in the university and still never you know exhaust what mathema mathematics is essentially what job's friends were saying that is ah math is very simple it's just 1 plus 1 equals to two Okay maths is not that complicated they were oversimplifying the method they were misrepresenting God as how we can misrepresent math and tell people math is easy it's just 1 plus 1 equals two how hard can it be clearly you have not
00:31:02 done calculus you know differentiation integration all that kind of stuff okay the same way they only understood God in a single Dimension that God is a God of Justice that God is a God who is Justice they are not wrong but they're only looking at one aspect of who God is when God has so many different attributes they only focus on one attribute they will misrep representing his person and it's very easy for us to do the same thing their Viewpoint was very very narrow and sometimes our viewpoints can be narrow
00:31:38 as well I'm suffering now because of such and such a thing you know or I'm doing well because I have been righteous before God you know and I'm successful because you know I have been I I I all right the god inverted commer here that alfas build that and so had in mind was small enough to be explained and understood when in fact God is way beyond our understanding and he clearly misrepresented they clearly misrepresented God and even job had to make a sacrifice on their behalf imagine this if you require a sacrifice God is
00:32:15 essentially saying you have sinned against me and elifas build zofa did exactly that they have sinned against God in saying that he's just that simple being because they can't understand him they try to just put him in a little box and say yeah this is uh what I understand but that's just an image of who God is to us it's not really God we can't step in and say that I know God I know exactly what he will do are we like elifas builda or zofa do we rely on our experience our traditions and our assumptions of who God is and we
00:32:50 make an image of him in our minds do we oversimplify God because if we do that we will experience very similar things to job but we still we will not even want to trust God if my God can allow me to suffer like this why should I trust him if Christianity is never about being you know uh blessed it's about suffering why should I believe in the Lord Jesus do we ever ask those kind of questions why do we suffer do we have a onedimensional view of who God is just like the three friends is he like a
00:33:28 Genie in a Bottle that we can summon at any time you know and he and we have become God now actually haven't we we are asking him to do things for us rather than we approaching our creator and saying like what must we do is our view of God narrow that I know who God is or do we really search who God is because God will reveal himself to those who search for him what about job's response remember that is back and forth with his friends right um and he had very very natural very human reactions to his problems he
00:34:08 was going about a roller coaster ride this is Chapters 4 all the way to 31 it's between the negative and the positive it goes back and forth and back and forth remember he's struggling so much internal conflict you know in chapters three let's take a look at some of the responses that he had I cannot cover all of them all right we just going to look at some examples in chapter 3 verse one he laments he says you know he curses the day of his birth why was I even born I wish I wasn't even born he cursed his day let the day
00:34:36 perish wherein I was born and the night in which it was said there is a Manch child conceived he just wished that he hadn't been born have you ever come before that before I wish I hadn't been born because I'm suffering so much he laments and he very natural to lament he was complaining remember after the loss of all his you know property and the loss of his family he complains in chapter 6 and verse two uh the whole of chapter 6 in fact actually he he goes on to talk about how God has in a sense really attacked him he complains
00:35:13 that his grief was so heavy why is This calamity upon Him me he says the arrow of the almighty the arrows of the almighty are within me God has taken an arrow and shot him that's why he claims he claims he's a victim of Injustice God is Not Just yeah I have you know I've not rightly received what is due unto me because I've been a righteous man why do I need suffer he accuses God of destroying everyone even the in Job chapter 9 verse 22 the righteous and the wicked they both are destroyed by God
00:35:48 that's what he claims and he goes on to accuse God even more now this is where things get a little more you can say in the in the gray zone for job he's stepping Beyond his boundaries already now it's not he if he were to cross any further than this he can be you know treading in areas which are dangerous he's starting to accuse gods of things he's accusing that God hates him as well he accuses God of denying Justice he's saying that God is actually laughing he's mocking me like yeah you know uh yeah you're facing
00:36:24 Injustice is okay you know he he just laughs and scorns that's how job felt he but he comes to a point where he starts to defend himself I'm so righteous you know I I'm a really good man and he remember we have read through in the early part just now in the first 15 minutes there's a lot of things that job said about himself he cares for the poor he cares for the um those who are fatherless who are widows etc etc he does that which was right but he makes one final claim very very interesting um don't know if we
00:36:56 have come across that before but it's very possible he demands an answer from God he says I want to plead my case before you as in a courtroom in a sense he is saying I want an answer why is it that I am suffering what sin have I committed to deserve all this essentially that what that's what job was trying to say that's chapter 31 and that ends job's complaints long long long list remember chapters 3 all the way to 31 is all about complaining and laments and all that all the negatives let's look a bit about the positives he
00:37:33 trusts God nevertheless in his situation he trusts God and this one of those things we can learn from him though he slay me yet will I trust in him but I will maintain my own ways before him now job was a very interesting man in that he's saying this even if God were to kill me I will still trust in him and I think that this is a very right thing that job did but he of course complained in the process he's just human isn't he he's just like every one of us we would complain I think the same way if he were
00:38:01 to face anything that job faced his faith in God was is irrelevant whether death was in the picture not he will still trust God he says though he slay me though though God is even going to kill me I will still trust in him that's chapter 13:15 he may not understand why but at this point at this point he doesn't quite understand yet that God is good loving and trustworthy he still wrestles with the fact but later on he'll see that so when we suffer and we don't understand why learn to trust the Lord and we'll see exactly why instead
00:38:36 of Defending ourselves before him just like job did he Longs for a mediator he says if only there was a days man between us the word days Man released the word mediator is that a mediator between God and myself if only there was he Longs for someone to plead on his behalf in chapter 16: 211 oh that that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleaded for his neighbor and I think let's take a moment to pause here and think we have a mediator that job didn't have I think we should be very grateful
00:39:12 in whatever suffering we have remember all mediators the Lord Jesus Christ for there is one God and one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus one mediator God and man our lord Jesus is that very man and we are told that he's a high priest a great high priest who ever lives to intercede for us with God wherefore he's able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them when we suffer sometimes we want a lawyer on our behalf we want an advocate we want a
00:39:46 mediator and job felt that but we have that I think we should be grateful for that so go to our mediator in times of trouble job also looked for a redeemer he he looks beyond in the future very interesting statement in chapter 19 it says therefore I know that my redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the letter day upon the Earth he's talking about future events now and though my though and though after skin worms destroy this body yet my flesh shall I see gone it's a bit of a glimpse of Resurrection in the
00:40:21 future we have a redeemer thankfully now that brings us to our next Point very quickly because we don't have much time we talk about this character called elius now it's not he's he's just someone that came along um uh we would say that you know it's a bit of an addition to what the uh friends of job mentioned he goes a step further to talk about God's character now yes it's important for us to look at God's character but in order to understand a grand scheme of things everything that eliu was mentioning is similar to what
00:40:50 elifas Builder and soof far was saying but there was a difference not just that God is gracious and he's just and he's great the these were God is just is already um covered God is gracious maybe not so much because the friends were very legalistic but eliu un likee his three friends made a very different diagnosis a very different assessment of his problem and he actually assessed it more accurately than his three friends how this actions of job job's actions may have been right the friends accused
00:41:25 him that his actions weren't right and that's why he's suffering so elu now is starting to agree yes his actions right but his attitude towards God was wrong he's starting to remember to blame God for everything he was defiant he was self-righteous I know best God why are you unjust now think about that question why are you unjust is essentially this you know God I know what Justice is how can you be unjust towards me the very God who created Justice and you are telling him that he's not just do you see that job has been in the
00:42:09 chapters he's been swelling up with pride he's saying now I know better than you and sometimes we might feel that way I know better than God why should I trust this God this God doesn't know what he's doing you know sometimes we feel that way but we should keep our attitudes in check just like what elu told job your actions may be have been perfect great you have not sinned by your attitude do you know better than the creator of this universe which brings us to our final point the Lord's answer very interesting
00:42:45 the Lord appears out of a whirlwind in chapter 38 and to summarize what the Lord did now again you read this in your own time there's a lot to cover in chapters 38 to 42 God starts off not by giving an explanation about himself I'm not going to explain to you why you're suffering but what did he do God gave a revelation of himself God reveals himself in chapters 38 39 and chapter 40 all the way to 41 about creation now this is very interesting because if you think about it why did not God give an explanation
00:43:29 and why did he choose to reveal things about creation in chapter 38 God says there about the Majesty of what he has created chapter um 38:4 where was thou where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth and then he talks about the sea he talks about rain and Hil and light he talks about not just physics he also talks about the animals so let's look at those can you explain my creation do you know how the world Works how the world can be you know the way it is now everything that you see naturally
00:44:10 occurring who is giving birth to the snow where does that come from what about the hail can you explain Creation The Very things I created can you explain them can you explain it everything that you see so God is appealing not to say that I'm going to give you an explanation why you're suffering I'm going to tell you about myself can you oversee my creation who gives the Lions and the Ravens food who is going to feed them and God says are you going to feed them and can you subdue my creation now
00:44:52 this is two creatures that God talks about the Behemoth and the Leviathan and he's saying I'm created them alongside you and they are so great that no man can tame them now we're going to take a look very quickly at this chapter 40 and what God challenged job with chapter 40:6 then answered the Lord unto job out of the worldwind and said g up your loins like a man and I will demand of thee and declare thou unto me will thou also disan now my judgment will you dis an now my judgment will you say that
00:45:23 I am unjust will you condemn me that you may be righteous and then God gives him a challenge all the Injustice in the world that you see everyone that is proud make him humble he goes on to tell them tell him if you can do all these things if you can do my job then I will say you can deliver yourself I can say that you are worthy for an explanation what essentially God was trying to tell job was this whatever you claim against me your view of me is so narrow and that's why you're making those claims you don't know who I
00:46:07 am that's why you are saying I'm unjust and essentially right after this point of seeing God's glory job learns to submit he's finally he's finally silenced in chapter 40 but in chapter 42 he submits it's a little different we'll not go into the difference of it chapters 42 uh veres 1-6 then job answered the Lord and said I know that thou can do everything and no thought can be withholden from thee he's trying to say that God you must know my situation very well inside out you know exactly what I'm going
00:46:42 through who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge therefore I have uttered that which I understood not I have spoken too hastily therefore have I understood that which I after that which I understood not things too wonderful for me which I knew not here I be and I will speak I will demand of thee and declare thou unto me now verse five is the key verse I have heard of thee by the hearing of the year but now mine eye seeth Thee I see you now and repent he finally saw God and that was one of job's greatest
00:47:18 blessing is not his restoration of how much he had it's to see who God is and notice suddenly the complete against all ceas his patience bore fruit he finally saw the end of the Lord that it was pitiful and he was of tender Mercy what changed go uh job's response it was a uturn a 180 degree turn from the complaining he saw God's glory essentially this we should do the same if we are suffering look for God's glory see his glory in our sufferings it's not easy but if you understand how great God is
00:48:04 what is his glory remember earlier on we read he's pitiful and full of tender mercy God is merciful god is gracious and that is God's glory job saw God's glory and in our suffering may we also learn to look at his glory and say that it is enough before we sing Our final song Let us just summarize what we have learned God is essentially inviting job to trust him God is essentially inviting us to trust him remember he was perfect upright etc etc but suffering is not necessarily reactive it's not always
00:48:47 good you receive good bad you receive bad it's very natural to think that we do not have a superficial God but a sovereign God three lessons there is no exception the righteous are not Exempted from suffering the Lord Jesus Christ was the most righteous man that ever walked and roed on this Earth but the suffering upright man job only pointed to the suffering sinless man and he suffered like no other job Justified himself but Christ did not he foreshadowed his suffering so it's not always that the righteous will be
00:49:25 Exempted for suffering number two two suffering is not necessarily a result of sin because if that were the case the Lord Jesus he would not have need to suffer because there was no sin in him our final lesson learn to trust God in his wisdom in our suffering may we be like job and this is really epitomized by the Lord Jesus though he slay me yet will I trust in him though God slays me and it is very true the Lord Jesus he was killed but yet he still trusted in God and if it were not for that we would
00:50:01 not be here living today through the gospel that he's given us may we learn to be like job though he slay me yet will I trust in him and then we can say blessed be the name of the Lord so we will just U before we sing our final song just close this time with a word of prayer Our God and our father we thank you so much for the character of job in which we can catch a glimpse of who you truly are we pray our father that we may not box you into our own imaginations of who you truly are we pray for a revelation of your glory even
00:50:41 to us that we may be changed from glory to glory we ask our father that you will transform Us by the renewing of our minds and we pray our father that we may learn to be more and more like your son though he slay me yet will I trust in him we thank you our father that you are God who is wise who is great who is gracious and full of tender Mercy we pray our father that we may continue to see you and to see your glory father we ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ amen shall We rise to sing our
00:51:16 final song thanks be to God let's sing this song together as an expression of our trust that no matter what we Face blessed it be indeed the name of the [Music] Lord blessed be your name blessed be your name in the land that is plentiful dreams of abundance flow Blessed Be Your Name Blessed Be Your Name when found in the desert Place do I walk through the Wilderness blessed be your name every blessing you pour out out turn turn back to praise and when the darkness closes in Lord still I will say blessed be the
00:52:38 name of the Lord blessed be your name blessed be the name of the Lord blessed be your glorious name [Music] Blessed Be Your Name when the Sun's shining down on me when the world's all as it should be blessed be your name Blessed Be Your Name on the road marked with suffering there pain in the offering bless be your name let's sing that together every blessing you pour out turn back to praise when the darkness closes in Lord still I will say blessed be the name of the Lord blessed be your name blessed be the name of of the Lord
00:53:59 blessed be your glorious name oh blessed be the name of the Lord blessed be your name blessed be the name of the Lord blessed be your glorious name give and take away you give and take away my heart will choose to say Lord blessed be your sing this with confidence you give and take away you give and take away my heart will choose to say Lord blessed be your name you give give and take away you give and take away my heart will choose to say Blessed Be Your Name blessed be the name of the Lord blessed be your
00:55:19 name yes blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed Be Your Glory name oh blessed be the name of the Lord blessed be your name blessed be the name of the Lord blessed be your [Laughter] [Music] glor we'll just take a reading Philippians chapter 3 and verse 8 ye doubtless I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but D that I may win Christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness which is of the law but
00:56:19 that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of god by faith have a blessed Sunday and may the Lord bless richly the reading of his word
