FBC Morning Light – 1/20/23
A brief bit of encouragement for the journey from God’s Word.
Speaker: Mike Gottemoller
Today’s Scripture reading: Job 11-17
Transcript
Good Saturday morning people of faith. We are in Job chapter 11 chapters 11 through 17 this weekend
And I'm just gonna give you a brief overview of those chapters And then we're gonna talk mostly about chapter 12 in verse or in chapter 11.
We have Zophar And Zophar is making assumptions, of course about Job's The reasons behind Job's condition and is calling for Job to repent and then in verses or chapters 12 through 14
Job responds to Zophar then then in chapter 15 Eliphaz continues on that same theme of accusing
Job of doing something wrong in chapter 15 and then in 16 and 17
Job Responds again, so let's head back to chapter 12 now We're gonna pick it up very briefly in in verse 2 and then we're gonna jump down to the end of the chapter but in in verse 2 we have a
Very popular expression. It's maybe not the most popular, but it's still used to this day
It says no doubt you are the people and wisdom will die with you
I remember my father saying that to me when I was a young man and Thought I knew something.
I didn't really know and He would say Oh surely wisdom will die with you
And I got the picture of what he meant. It was very sarcastic and meant to say you don't know all that you
Think you know and that's often the case with us as people so the rest of the what we're going to talk about today starting in verse 13 of chapter 12 is
What is God like and It says here in verse 13.
This is what Job says he says with him that is with God our wisdom and strength he has counsel and Understanding if he breaks a thing it cannot be rebuilt if He imprisons a man there can be no release if you think of times when you've been in a struggle perhaps if you ever have wrestled someone who was
Stronger or bigger or had better technique than you and you got yourself in a situation where you were pinned and there was
No escape Well, there would still be hope But if it were
God himself that were pinning you there would be no hope for escape You may have been tied up by someone at some point in your life or maybe even put in jail or prison
But if it's God, that's the one that is the one that put you there There will be
No escape. There is no judge above God that you could appeal to in order to get your release
If God put you in prison There you will remain
He says in verse 15 if he withholds the waters they dry up if He sends them out.
They overwhelm the earth God is in charge of whether there is drought or flood or anywhere in between Of whether there is snow or bitter cold or wind to make the the drifts of snow
Make roads impassable, whatever the whatever the case may be the
Lord himself is in charge Verse 16 with him our strength and prudence the deceived and the deceiver are his
He leads counselors away plundered he makes fools of the judges He loosens the bonds of Kings and binds their waste waste with a belt
He leads princes away plundered Overthrows the mighty he deprives the trusted ones of speech and Takes away the discernment of the elders he pours contempt on princes and disarms the mighty he uncovered he uncovers deep things out of darkness and Brings the shadow of death to light.
He makes nations great and destroys them He enlarges nations and guides them
He takes away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth and makes them wander in a pathless wilderness
They grope in the dark without light and he makes them stagger like a drunken man
Any understanding that anyone has? Ultimately goes back to the
Lord and in the in the very sense of he created Everything that there is the reason that there is order to this world is because the
God who created it is a God of order so even those who are faithless men who would make understanding of far away worlds or things unknown on this or a world would do so because the
God of order has Created it Let me jump to the book of Isaiah and chapter 46 now the setting here is that there are people who go out and Take gold and give it to someone and he makes an idol out of that gold and it says about that that gold they they
They hire the goldsmith and he makes that gold a god with a lowercase
G They prostrate themselves to it and worship that little statue
That statue then has to be picked up and carried along because it can't walk and follow them
Yet, they still worship it. They cry out to that idol yet at the same time that Idol never responds back to them.
It is not a god And it says in verse 8 of chapter 46
Remember this and show yourselves men Recall to mind. Oh you transgressors
Remember the former things of old for I am God and there is no other
This is this is the Lord speaking through Isaiah He says
I am God and there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning and From ancient times things that are not yet done
Saying my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure
So you see many things here about our Lord that he can first of all declare the end from the beginning
Whether that's a a game you play or or things that are happening on the world stage
Small things great things and everything in between he knows the end of it before it's ever started
He knows these things he is God he has he has declared things that will be even though they are not yet and We can rest assured that those things that he has declared shall in fact
Come to pass he is God he has declared the end from the beginning
Let's pray Heavenly Father. Thank you for your word that we learn about you that you are one who
Knows all things that you can declare the end From the beginning that nothing is hidden in your sight
That you are you are alive and active and I ask that you would grant us this day that we would be able to walk