Job 1-2, Job Part 1

Job chapter 1 and 2 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was

Job and that man was blameless and upright One who feared God and turned away from evil

There were born to him seven sons and three daughters he possessed seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred female donkeys and Very many servants so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the

East His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day and they would send and invite their

Three sisters to eat and to drink with them and when the days of the feast had run their course

Job would send and consecrate them and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings

According to the number of them all for Job said it may be that my children have sinned and have cursed

God in their hearts Thus Job did continually Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the

Lord and Satan also came in among them The Lord said to Satan from where have you come?

Satan answered the Lord and said from going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it and the

Lord said To Satan have you considered my servant Job that there is none like him on the earth a blameless and upright man

Who fears God and turns away from evil? Then Satan answered the Lord and said Does Job fear

God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side?

You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land but stretch out your hand and touch all that he has and he will curse you to your face and The Lord said to Satan behold all that he has is in your hand only against him.

Do not stretch out your hand So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house and there came a messenger to Job and said the oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them and the

Sabians fell upon them and took them and struck them and Struck down the servants with the edge of the sword and I alone have escaped to tell you while he was yet speaking there came another and said the fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them and I alone have escaped to tell you while it was yet speaking there came another and said the

Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword and I alone have escaped to tell you and while he was yet speaking there came another and said your sons and daughters were eating and Drinking wine in their oldest brother's house and behold a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house and It fell upon the young people and they are dead and I alone have escaped to tell you then

Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshipped and He said naked

I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return The Lord gave and the

Lord has taken away Blessed be the name of the Lord in all this

Job did not sin or charge God with wrong again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the

Lord and Satan also came in among them to Present himself before the Lord and the

Lord said to Satan from where have you come? Satan answered the Lord and said from going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it and the

Lord Said to Satan have you considered my servant Job that there is none like him on the earth a blameless and upright man

Who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity. Although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason

Then Satan answered the Lord and said skin for skin all that a man has he will give for his life

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

And the Lord said to Satan behold he is in your hand only spare his life so Satan went out from the presence of the

Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown Of his head and he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes

Then his wife said to him. Do you still hold fast your integrity curse

God and die But he said to her you speak as one of the foolish women would speak

Shall we receive good from God and shall we not receive evil and all this

Job did not sin with his lips Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him

They came each from his own place Eliphaz the Timonite build at the shoe height and so far the name of site

They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him and when they saw him from a distance

They did not recognize him and they raised their voices and wept and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads

Toward heaven and they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights and no one spoke a word to him

For they saw that his suffering Was very great May the

Lord had his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word. Well, do you think you have

God figure it out? I'm sure you may not be a great theological scholar, but you figure you know

God, you know Basically how he works you think you know when someone at school or work or a friend mentions

God You're like you are when you know the answer to a Jeopardy question, you know, I know this one After all, is that that how we've been selling

God? The gospel and the church for the past few generations.

It's it's not about religion We like to say but a relationship about intimacy with God That is you can know

God like you might know your husband or wife You can know how God acts because you know him so well

You can say isn't that just like God like you might say about your children? is it that what we've been suggesting and This has given rise to a certain kind of person that you might encounter among professed

Christians Whatever you want to call them the friends of God, I guess they and God are best buds

Now they hang out together they know what God is feeling they know what he's going to do They're sure of it because they're intimate with God.

How do you know? Well, they'll tell you for sure many people claim to want to know God want to have intimacy with him some claim to already have it and Some are dangerous because of it

But still it's a noble goal Then how are we to reach it to know God? We could go the theological route and discuss all the philosophical proofs the existence of God the various attributes of God his complete knowledge

His power is perfection in every way go from one isolated verse to another all over the

Bible discussing those qualities of God But out of context and without any practical examples, that's the way of most people who call themselves reformed

Theology is the way to know God they think I don't think there's anything wrong with that kind of study

But it does seem to me that if God himself had wanted us to learn about him that way

He would have put a book in the Bible. It talks about God like that, you know one

Subject after another one category one aspect of his character after another but he didn't There's no book in the

Bible in which God in his ways are discussed like that in sort of a systematic theology way

But there is a book in the Bible in which God in his ways are discussed Debated directly and to make it more practical

God has discussed right in the midst of a crucial slice of a man's life and That book, of course is the book of Job Now many scholars and poets have praised the book of Job is one of the greatest works of literature ever

I Hope it sometime in your life. You'll read the book of Job not like you might regularly read the

Bible Maybe a chapter or two a day, but like you read a book. You're really engrossed in Reading reading it completely through in one sitting it might take you an hour and a half to two hours

But Job is Philly is it meant to be broken down into verses or chapters? But taken as a whole it would be peculiar I think

I wouldn't know how to preach if I went, you know chapter one one day to the next three and four and you know

The whole sermon talking about how Eliphaz or Bildad is wrong and this or that that wouldn't make much sense

It's meant to take you on a journey from the beginning with a blameless man who feared

God and shunned evil We begin with a man so scrupulous You notice he sacrificed just in case

His children scorned God in their hearts, you know where he couldn't even see it or hear of it But in their hearts they thought something

Wrong about God He's gonna sacrifice just in case they did that and then up to the courts of heaven where the

Lord points to Job as his Servant and he takes Satan up on a challenge that Job is just doing it for the reward.

And so the Lord allows Because Satan can't do anything without God allowing him Lord allows

Satan to take everything away and yet still Job does not sin

We see the scenes and quick succession of disaster after disaster It's a drama meant to engross us and then again back in heaven the

Lord points to Job There's no man on earth like him Satan says skin for skin

He's just doing it for the for the life insurance take his health away and then he'll curse you

God And so the Lord allows him and then back on earth Job is afflicted with boils and even his wife tells him to curse

God and die Well, that's the scene Where we'll find out what it means to know

God witness the disaster in the land of ooze Eavesdrop on the proceedings in the

Lord's court You weighed the debate Between Job and his friends through three rounds of back and forth

Job speaks than a friend Responds to him and Job responds to that and then another friend then

Job responds to him then the last friend and then they all start over three rounds of that and then finally

Tremble at the voice from the whirlwind then You'll never be the same again

You'll never be someone who glibly blathers about how you know

God how you figured him out When you know, he's beyond your grasp You think have

God figured out? Well, Job has three friends Eliphaz build out and so far who do they're they're sure of it

They were good friends at first noticed out sitting in silence with Job for a whole week

Those are good friends up to that point, aren't they? But because they were so smug so sure of themself when finally

Job breaks the ice and laments may the day of my birth perish Otherwise, I wish

I'd never been born. He moans What I feared has come upon me what

I feared has happened to me in chapter 3 verse 25 The prosperity preacher Kenneth Copeland said that that was the reason that all these bad things happened to Job Because he feared them

Job caused them Job himself. Yes. He didn't read the first two chapters I'm not sure what's going on with him, but Job caused them with his fears

Copeland showed that he's no better than the friend No, that's not right. He's actually much worse than the friends

The at least the friends understood that God was in control And I think one of the things that makes

Job too hard to understand to a lot of modern people even modern Christians Is that everyone in Job?

Understands the sovereignty of God Everyone in Job understands that everything that happens is under God's control

What they don't understand what they're arguing about is why but everyone understands it all comes from God He's presiding over it

Well, the friends were so sure that they knew God that they thought that they could correct Job that they knew why these things happen

Now some people believe that the book of Job is primarily about suffering It's partly about that, but I don't think it's primarily about that.

I I believe the suffering is the setting For God to reveal himself. The book is really mostly firstly about God Suffering is the context to reveal

God to get our attention our Pains our Job's pains are in CS Lewis's words

God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world to rouse people who are deafened by their own smugness

Their own assurance that they have God figure it out I wonder whether Lewis had adapted that got that and adapted it from Job because in chapter 36 verse 15 a lie who says

That God and I just saw this yesterday God opens people's ears by their adversity

He opens people's ears by their adversity here

The adversity opens our ears to three warnings three things were warned against in Job first against any potted plans to know

God Second against moralism and finally against arrogantly questioning

God Do you think you have God figured out? the book of Job is a warning against any potted plans to gain knowledge of God to master him with your

Understanding if you come to God with the cocksure attitude that you haven't pretty much figured out that You know, you know mostly about him

You're so intimate with him that he really doesn't surprise you if that's your attitude Job is meant to chew you up and spit you out

So that the end you're sitting in dust and ashes and saying I spoke of things. I did not understand

I lay my hands over my mouth and repent Job will reveal to you what it means for God to be

God Do you think you have God figured out You have other things figured out

Whatever your occupation is your job You probably have it pretty much figured out if we want to gain knowledge of something say say engineering

We know that we can we can get where we have it figured out We can follow a certain course of study follow the plan laid out by a university read the right books

Take the right courses take the right steps and voila. We earn a degree and we can claim to understand

Engineering way to get in good physical condition. We can follow a good diet Like an exercise program and we should be able to achieve fitness even for gaining intimacy with people

Although it's that's more complicated because we need their cooperation It is it is possible if you follow the right steps to really

Grow to know someone but it's not that way with God the book of Job destroys any idea that knowing

God can be reached just through a plan to understanding some principles a Course that you master and therefore you mastered him

We cannot have a guaranteed three steps to knowledge of God In fact, as long as you think you can know God by some strategy or discipline or course of studies, right learning the right

Principles you will never really know him the book of Job teaches us that the first step to knowing

God is that there are no Steps to knowing him it cannot be done. He's too far beyond us

Job's friends are the finest examples of those who thinks they have God figured out They believe they have learned the laws

That God always works by and once they found those laws Well, they figured

God out. That is they believe that there is a principle of justice, which God always abides by Technical kind of philosophical language.

That's the law of retributive justice Learn the laws God is bound by Then you have mastered

God right like like someone studying physics learn the laws of physics physics You've mastered physics same with God They believe that God must reward righteousness and punish wickedness to the question of why do bad things happen to good people?

They say it doesn't If you see bad things happening to someone You can be sure they are not good people

Because God who always acts according to the law of retributive justice Would never allow bad things to happen to a good person

God's in charge of all things everything that happens therefore is is justice is what people deserve So Job's friends like a lot of people today see

God as Predictable like the laws of science They believe God always responds in an automatic way when people sin

He always punishes when people are good. He always rewards in this life. Therefore God is pretty easy to know

Listen to them Eliphaz says in chapter 4 verse 7. Remember he says remember like this is something everyone understood everyone knew

Who that was innocent ever perished who that was innocent ever perished never happens If you're innocent, you don't die young or tragically it doesn't happen

Someone dies young or tragically they weren't innocent. They were bad people How would that sound?

How would that sound? Alex If we're talking about your brother

Parker How that sound to you Rachel talking about your cousin Jordan Bill dad says in chapter 8 verse 4 if your children have sinned against God gives him

He has delivered them into the hand of their transgression Almost Joe your children are dead because of their sin

Don't you know that? So far says in chapter 11 verse 6 know them that God exacts of you less

Than your guilt But she's just assuming that your guilt deserves You're guilty

Joe In fact, you actually deserve worse than this. I'm pretty sure you deserve worse than you're getting God's been easy on you so far

Joe and So on they go for three cycles like that each getting shorter and shorter like they're kind of petering out

They believe they have gone figured out, but they don't really know the most important quality about God Did he really is

God that he is the ultimate they believe in a God who can be Manipulated a

God who is subject to certain laws whom they can you can make a flowchart of how he will react

They believe God is a blessing and punishing Machine if you go to a soft drink machine you put in the right amount of coins push the right buttons outcomes

It was working properly outcomes the right drink. So to Job's friends thought that if someone lives a righteous life and Says the right prayers like punching the machine the buttons on the machine

God will always bestow the right blessings on the flip side if someone lives a wicked life scoffs at God God will bring curses

God will punish them So if someone wants God's blessings all they must do is be be good and pious make the right sacrifices say the right prayers

It's really quite simple. And so Job's friends believe that Job must have sinned because he is suffering

You can just you can count on it. We know for sure look at his suffering. Therefore. We know he deserves it they don't know of any sin that he has committed, but they're utterly convinced that they that he has committed something because They figured

God out they think That they conclude Job simply must be guilty of some horrible sin

And so they assume that the way for him for Job to be restored is for him to confess that horrible sin that he keeps

Denying and repent they don't understand that by the end their words are so worthless That the only way

God will forgive them is if Job sacrifices on their behalf They've impugned the dignity and the freedom of God and this is the main lesson of the book of Job that God is free

Almost all the time in theology today people are obsessed in proving that that they are free that we sinners are we're the free ones

We have free will or we would or do we not we debate that back and forth We desire something get we can choose anything.

We want whatever it is. We can do anything we want God has to respond to to our actions in our

Religion God is bound by our free will people argue but in Job the issue is whether God is free

Can he do whatever he wants or is he controlled by our?

actions Well, he is revealed to be the Almighty El Shaddai the name for God frequently used in the book of Job and Job is

Different from most of the rest of the Bible in this and that most time God is called

El Shaddai sometimes just the Shaddai part. It means Almighty You'll see over and over again read

Job the Almighty the Almighty that in Hebrew That's Shaddai Julie translated in typical Western abstract fashion is is

God Almighty It's literally means something like God the mountain one is though would compare a

God to a huge mountain imposing Overwhelming. He's so powerful.

Satan can't do a thing without the Lord's permission. Do you notice that? Satan may be our adversary.

We saw last week in first Peter chapter 5, but he's no competition for the Almighty and the big picture

Satan is such a minor character He disappears from the scene after chapter 2.

It's God who looms large So do you think of God figure it out

First were warned about potted plants to know God second Were warned about moralism now many people assume that the key to know

God is by being moral our moral acts Control God we think doing moral things are the coins you put into the

God machine to get the result you want But Job's friends are apparently they're apparently very moral they assume that they were moral enough to accuse job and job does not accuse them back of sin and the folk religion of our day the moralistic therapeutic deism if you're moral if that is you're a decent person or at least try to Be then you can be sure that God is on your side

That you'll go to heaven You can take that pretty much for granted if you're relatively decent person.

Hell is really only for Hitler Paul pot You know who else

Tom Brady maybe No, God is tame. He automatically rewards our good behavior like a dog who sits on command.

He helps us to feel good He'd never take all our family and our stuff and give us boils

So that the only relief we can get is by scraping ourselves with broken pottery. He's not really in control of the bad things either

He's the footprints God who wants us to feel better going through the hard times even carrying us when necessary That's the modern

God many people think they know but in Job were shown to God who presides even over our tragedies who isn't tameable with our morality

And the Chronicles of Narnia CS Lewis writes of the three children and seeing Aslan, you know, there's enormous

Lion who is a symbol for Christ and one of the children asked if Aslan is Aslan a tame lion

They're told no Aslan is not tame but he is good and That's the

God of Job in chapters 40 and 41, he's the creator of behemoth and Leviathan is gargantuan magnificent fearful wild Beast and God asked can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?

No, you can't you're too small too too weak for that You can't capture or subdue or domesticate him

No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up God says how much more the implication

God is saying how much more me? I'm much more fiercer and that you dare not stir me up.

I created his fierceness as a Normandy and his strength God is saying

I'm his maker El Shaddai is not tame our morality or religion doesn't train him to do the tricks

We want from him So in Job though the friends think they think that morality is the solution

They conclude with absolute certainty that Job must have been immoral because they believe with absolute certainty that morality manipulates

God being good is how we just kind of pulled his levers in the contemporary folk religion of America the religion of the folks

Moralistic again therapeutic deism God must exist to help us be good He wants us to be good like Job's friends here the folks today believe that they can figure

God out and manipulate him with good behavior He'll respond well to me acting right

They think we're told they are like Job's friends though, perhaps with even less reverence toward God than than them

The original liberals by the way that the rationalists believe the same thing Be moral

God wants you to be dutiful do good things and he will respond well to you But when the

Great Awakening came about 270 years ago, the evangelical preachers rejected this idea They understood that God was

El Shaddai. He was sovereign He was the king and the good works do not obligate God to do anything for anyone that God will not be bound

One of the evangelical preachers criticized the rationalist the beginning of the liberals as always he said driving driving to duty duty

Evangelicals on the other hand emphasize that instead we must simply trust God and be born again

So today we make a great mistake if we teach that morality is the main thing At a

Chinese church in Philadelphia. They asked me to give a little talk to their youth about Violence I Assume being against it.

They didn't specify but I assume they wanted to be to teach the kids to be against violence I thought to myself though, that sounds awfully boring

I mean talk to a group of Chinese American teenagers probably all of them aiming to go to some Ivy League University To be doctors or scientists or scholars talk to them about Why you shouldn't be a violent gangster like that's really their need

But that's what the religion of the folks today The moralistic therapeutic deism is all about tell the youth about why they should be moral why they should be obedient and quiet and polite kids

Do your homework? Graduate with honors and then go make a lot of money. That's your life Instead I took

Matthew chapter 11 verse 12 where the Lord Jesus says the kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force and And so they these youth they need to violently seek

God's rule They're just like violent people. It's actually a virtue to violence You know, it is violent people just throw caution to the wind and they rush headlong.

They're only thinking about their one goal And that's what Jesus said.

We should be about the kingdom of God Think about that one goal doesn't have to give up everything else even your life

You're going to get the kingdom of God in your life And if we tell our children and those outside that they can earn a blessed life

By just living a moral life by being decent in their behavior and mild and always cautious we're sounding an awful lot of like like Job's friends.

We're telling people that God is a blessing machine. Don't break open the machine with a sledgehammer Just put in the right coins

Instead we need to tell our children and those outside that God is El Shaddai that he is the

Lord that he is gracious. He's good sure But he's not tame.

He holds Satan's leash He speaks out of storms He's violent

Now morality is not nothing but it's not the main thing It's not a tool for knowing God or manipulating God God will not be controlled like a puppet or Ourselves with ourselves pulling his strings with our morality a righteous life is what we live as a fruit of having been made righteous

By a righteous God and in this book and joke We see that we need to learn that the issue is not ethical

It's not morality. The question is not Why and the need is not

Understanding the issue is spiritual. The question is who and the need is trust

So there's a limit to morality Job's friends thought that they had figured out God and the morality was the key

But their need in our need are not fine theologies which purport to explain God to us are the illusionary promise that if you just understand those principles and you

Practice the right disciplines you be a moral person. You will have mastered God No, the book of Job shows that what we need is a personal revelation of God that makes us tremble and stand amazed and the result of that will be

That we will no longer have that smug belief that we have figured God out that we have him domesticated like a good pet

But that he is so much larger than we have we can comprehend that he is utterly out of our control

That he overshadows us like an enormous mountain and that we can only

Worship him. Do you think you have God figured out?

You think you understand him so well, you know things don't go exactly like you want You can you can question him you can interrogate him

We're not doing what you thought what you thought you earned from him by your good behavior and your good religion

Finally were warned about the folly of arrogantly Questioning God that's

Job's fault Job assumes that God Almighty should be more interested in giving us explanations than in being worshipped and trusted

Job reduces God by asserting that God owes him an explanation as though God was obligated to anyone.

He owes us anything Job didn't even go so far as to challenge God to a court case.

He says in chapter 13 verse 18 Behold, I have prepared my case. I know that I shall be in the right

I'm gonna go into court. I'm gonna win in God's sight now Job is not so presumptuous as to put

God on trial He's not saying he's putting God on trial is gonna convict God But he does believe that God owes him an explanation and that if only they could meet in an orderly court

Job would be exonerated God is the judge Job rightly thinks but even a good judge

He thinks owes an explanation for for his verdicts to the plaintiffs

Now others to Granada have been far less respectful than Job at his worst

They have put God on trial As C .S. Lewis wrote that they have they put God in the dock

That is in the place of the accused in a trial in British courts So, you know understand in British courts where the accused stand is called the dock

So the dock is the place for the person who is on trial Modern people have put

God in the dock They put him on trial as as though God was the accused we human beings were the judge

Maybe the jury or both even many of the smug believers today who thinks that they are intimate with God that they're best buds

They often talk about how they can argue with God Even in the at that epitome of modern evangelical spirituality the footprints poem

It begins with a narrator questioning why Jesus left me alone here on the beach with us

Being God's fault finders Why were there only one set of footprints on the beach

God you owe me an explanation? People who think that God must stand before us

Answer our questions The questions we ask of him do not understand the first thing about who

God is God is the judge He's not the accused. He's not on trial

Like any good judge if you start talking to him like he is on trial at best He'll just ignore you or at worst to find you have in contempt of court and punish you

But this is what a lot of theology does these days trying to put God on trial Justify God to a jury maybe of unbelievers

Maybe to show that he really is innocent or maybe some atheist Prosecutors to try to show that he really is guilty and there he doesn't exist whatever they try to say

But even if you defend him you try to take the position of God's defense attorney

You're still assuming that he's on trial But he isn't

You assume that that's the problem So it is impossible for us to really know

God if we imagine that God Answers to us there were the judge or the jury that he's in the dark well alas reticent

But zealous young friend appears to tell Job basically that Elihu in chapters 32 to 37

Elihu speaks up because he is He says very angry with Job for justifying himself rather than God he's angry with the three friends because they had found no way to refute

Job and yet had condemned him and He declares Elihu declares. It's unthinkable that God would do wrong that the

Almighty Should I would pervert justice and then how great is

God? Beyond our understanding the number of his years is past finding out finally listen to this

Job stop and consider God's wonders as if he Elihu is

God's Introduction for then When Elihu was done then

God speaks Out of the storm God responds to Job not with answers

God responds with more questions question after question

God questioned Job because Job needs to see that he was never in the position to question God God asked

Job in chapter 40 verse 2 shall a fault finder contend with the Almighty with El Shaddai He who argues with God You're arguing with me

Job let him answer and So then God asked Job question after question.

Where were you? Can you do? this Who do you think you are?

I? designed the constellations I hung stars like you might hang a picture on your wall and you're going to question my judgment

It's then the Job glimpses How great God is

God is not subject to our interrogation Job wanted to meet God in court, but instead

God speaks out of a storm or whirlwind storms whirlwinds are maelstroms of Innumerable movements they look like chaos to us because we cannot explain the mix of so much

Conflicting turmoil, but God controls it all Every gust of wind every molecule.

He speaks to us out of a storm and says You're going to question me

When we finally understand that That he even orchestrates the storms that he's not on trial in our courts then finally

We begun to get some Real knowledge of God. Do you think you have

God figured out? If your instinct your reflex is to say no

No to tremble at the thought Because you know that he overwhelms you

You know your adversary the devil can't even he can't even do anything without the Lord's permission You say no because you've heard his voice out of a storm if that's your instinct

Then you might have truly begun to know him to really know him Through Christ If you don't yet know that If you've been too smug like Job's friends

Or maybe just too complacent not really caring to know him Now is a good time

To shiver at his voice from the whirlwind to be shaken out of smugness shaken into silence