Job 11-14 "Though You Slay Me"

and help them to have a deeper understanding of who you are, to love you, and to live their lives for you.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. We're going to be in Job chapter 6 and 7 today.

It's going to be quite the bite of text. Just know that I'm hoping to get through these things somewhat quickly and rapidly.

I say that on the front side, and I feel like it should be said that we gained an hour last night, so we'll go ahead.

Yeah, we'll use that up in church, right? So, we're good, right? I'm only kidding with this, of course.

Let's go ahead and pray again, especially lift up these little ones this morning. Lord God, I thank you so much,

Lord, for the blessing it is to have little feet running through this church,

Lord. God, I would ask that you would just look over each one of the children of Valley Baptist, Lord, that you would bless them.

They might know you, they might profess you, Lord. God, this body would be a body that would be there through seeing them take their first steps, to seeing them say their

I do's, to seeing them profess and be baptized in you, Lord. So God, I would just ask that we would all take that venture together,

Lord. So God, let us glorify you in the raising of these children, especially in our households and also here in the household,

Lord. God, it's a great privilege to do those things. Lord, I would ask today as we look here in the book of Job, in Job chapter 6 and 7,

Lord, that you would be glorified and magnified in the preaching of your word. And we say this in your name,

Jesus Christ, Amen. Job chapter 6 and chapter 7.

Before we read anything, I do want to remind us again of the context of what's going on.

In the prior two chapters, we have seen the response from Elias, Job's friend.

The very first friend that is to speak up against Job and what Job has said in the previous chapter, which is,

I think I should die instead of suffer right now, is what Job is getting at. This picture of death is going to be the redemptive quality for Job here in the physical flesh.

So Elias gives him some of the best advice that he can, and I would urge you not to read that and then apply that to how you ought to talk to your friend who is suffering.

First of all, I think the reason I would say something like that is that we have to approach any book in the

Bible with the hermeneutics that it tells us to approach it with. And what I mean by that is that we have guardrails set out for us in the book of Job to help us know that which is helpful and know that which is not helpful for us.

In the very beginning of this book, we see Job saying,

Yahweh gives, Yahweh takes, blessed be the name of Yahweh. Does it say that he sinned by saying anything like that?

No, no, it says that there was no sin or deceit on his lips. So first of all, we could look at something like that and say

Job did a good job at saying what has come to him is Yahweh taking something from him, that God's sovereignty is in the midst of these things.

However, we would also see, so that's at the beginning of this book, chapter 1 and chapter 2 says that Job has not sinned in saying these things.

And that's because he's focusing on God's providence and sovereignty in the midst of his suffering. However, we would see at the end of this book,

Elias, Job, and his other two other friends that are here in this scene of ours, they get rebuked.

And so we have to at some level admit and say that there's some advice, some wording that they say in these things to Job that are sinful, right?

And so now it's up to us to probably sift through that and see which is good and which is not good.

So I think we'll start seeing even Job in these two chapters start to err and go and fall into not great places.

I think we'll see that. But what was Elias' formula for Job? I would say that at first he said that if you sow wickedness, how do you expect not to reap what you sow, right?

So Elias, his formula is sin leads to suffering, and suffering leads to grief or misery.

What is Job in? He's in misery. So Elias has his mind. The suffering that you have is because of wickedness, some sort of hidden sin.

That's the formula of Elias. Does he get rebuked at the end of the book? Yes. So I would not say that that's the biblical, especially in light of the other wisdom books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes that we see life is hallowed, that bad things can happen to people that are acting in a morally correct way, and that's

God's purpose being done. And so instead of Elias saying, Job, your life, your suffering has been to the exact minute that God has declared for it to be, lest it be the name of Yahweh, he's saying

Yahweh has added these things to you because of your sin, right? That doesn't work in the other texts of the

Bible. So when we come to, again, chapters 6 and 7, those are our guardrails to help us understand that which is good and that which is erring in the side of sin.

The reason I say that is in chapter 7 of this text, we're going to see, I think, Job starts to walk that line of blasphemy to God.

Okay? We're going to see that. So chapter 6, verse 1 through 3.

Let's read this. Then Job answered. So this is Job responding to Elias' previous statements.

Oh, that my vexation were actually weighed and laid in a balance together with my destruction.

For then it would be heavier than the sands of the sea. Therefore my words have been rash.

So Job is saying in chapter 4, where I've said the things like I should have died in my mother's womb, the rash words were because the situation has brought about those emotions in him.

And what he's depicting for us is imagine that lady justice, the blind statue of a woman that's holding the scales out before her and they're supposed to be balanced, right?

Job's saying on the one side, it has his anger and his destruction over the current situation and that outweighs all the sands of the sea.

This is tremendous remorse and grief that Job is in. We have to remind ourselves. This is why his words sound so harsh in some ways.

And brothers and sisters, I think what's being done for us, this balancing of the scales are actually a really great way to how we ought to approach situations in life, right?

There's some Christians that would say you should never get angry in your life. You should never approach a situation with anger in your heart.

Well, I say that's ridiculous, first of all, because Jesus himself demonstrated anger.

And so if that's an emotion that Jesus was able to demonstrate, that's an emotion that we can too. But there's a danger because if our emotion outweighs the balance scales of the situation, then we can walk that line of falling into sin.

Jesus in Matthew chapter 21 drives out with a cord, a whip, those that were in the temple selling things where they ought not to have been doing it.

The question is why would Jesus do that? Why would Jesus, the one that, of course, the modern evangelical picture of Jesus, this hippie, long robe, careless, free -thinking individual, how would he whip somebody to get out of the temple?

Think about this for a moment. What was one of the greatest revelations of who God was in the Old Testament?

The temple. What was the temple pointing forward to? Jesus says, destroy this temple and I'll raise it up on the third day.

The temple was always pointing to God becoming flesh and dwelling amongst us, Jesus Christ.

And so he's there, standing in that which should be an accurate picture of him. And what have they done?

They've changed it from that to be a place where thieves and money and all these kind of things, sin taking place in there.

So Jesus has that situation before him. Man creating a bad picture of who he himself ought to.

And he meets that situation with the perfect outpouring of emotion.

I would tell us that if you are in life, if you are in your families, at work, at church, and there's something that is upsetting, and it's justifiably upsetting, it's wrong, it's sinful, it's not good, we shouldn't think to ourselves,

I can't rise to the occasion in emotion. In fact, I would tell you we ought to rise,

God has given us emotion to glorify him with, but don't let that emotion outweigh the situation.

That's when it gets bad and dangerous and not correct. And so Job in this text,

I would ask you, if you were in tremendous sorrow or grief, has Job gone too far in what he said?

I would say that maybe he has. And we can see this in today's world, if somebody dies in today's world, and you see the family member that was really close to that individual, and they're not mourning at all.

There's no emotion on her face. We would probably say there's something not going correctly on her.

That's not correct, that's not right. That doesn't appear to be the way that it ought to be. There's something wrong there.

Emotion has not met the situation. It's unbalanced. Likewise, if somebody passed away and you have somebody ten years later unable to process the grief and the mourning and the hardship of those things, you'd probably say emotion has outweighed the situation.

That doesn't appear to be healthy and correct. It's been amplified too much.

I would say Job is still in that time period of seven days after his death with all his sons and his daughters, that he's acting within reason.

But I still think he said some things that were in error in chapter four, right? He's gone too far in those ways. But it's within reason given the time.

So he says, Therefore my words have been rash. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. They have poisoned my spirit dreams.

The horrors of God are arranged against me. The horrors of God are arranged against me.

Does the wild donkey, the wild ass, does it bray, hee -haw, right? Does it bray over the grass?

Or does the ox blow over his fodder, this food, this mixture of food for this ox?

Does he blow over it? Can something tasteless be eaten without salt?

Or is there any taste in the slime of a yolk? For my soul refuses to touch them.

They are like loathsome food to me. Job is saying in this text that it's become tasteless.

His life, everything around him, there's no joy that he can see in it. It's without flavor.

This severe, melancholy grayness that we have with Job right now, it just is bleak.

There's no hope for me here in Job's life. Again, is he speaking rash?

He says he is, obviously. Second of all, what do we see at the end of the book? He does have a future hope.

And so it's wrong. He's stepping into error, saying, I have no hope. Life is never going to regain its taste for me.

And look here. Let's see now verse 8 through 13 here. It says, O that my request might come to pass.

Whoa, time out. What is the request of Job? And that God would grant my hope.

What was his hope? Has he said anything here in the previous verses about him? He's referencing chapter 4.

He's referencing, if God would grant me, then I'd die. That's the hope.

That's my only hope right now. Life is so tasteless right now. The only thing that will relieve that will be death itself.

That's what I want God to grant for me. Would that God, willing to crush me, that he would release his hand and cut me off.

What's remarkable about all these things is that, how does

Job view life and death? Is it something that he sees that he can take into his own hands and go and commit suicide?

No, he says that this is God. God, if I'm going to die, that's going to be your right and privilege to bring to me.

But I wish and desire that. I think that's important to take notice of, especially in a culture that almost romanticizes the idea of suicide.

That you can take your own life into your own hands. Where Job is saying, my life, my death, is in the hand of God, and I wish that he would grant it to me.

This is, again, I think that emphasizes the relationship to life and death that Job has in his mind.

He's, again, what is at the beginning of chapter 1 and 2 for us? Yahweh gives,

Yahweh takes, blessed be the name of Yahweh. He's saying that everything that's come to him is from Yahweh.

And so he's saying, life and death is so precious that I can't take it myself.

God, crush me. God, crush me. The verse 10,

I think, is remarkable. The book of Job is written in a day where he doesn't have 66 books of the

Bible. He doesn't have 45 books of the Bible. He doesn't have one book of the Bible.

Listen to what Job says. But it is still my comfort. Pause here and think about this.

Has Job given any inclination to any type of hope other than death that he has in this text?

But it is still my comfort. And I rejoice in unsparing pain that I have not at all hidden away the words of the

Holy One. What is Job talking about in this text?

Again, I think the best way to do this is through the verbal tradition. He's saying, my great -great -

I don't know how many greats go back to Adam and to Job. But my great -great -grandpa once lived in a garden with God.

And he was promised that one day a seed would crush the head of a serpent. And I know that that serpent is what has brought death.

The thing that I'm even desiring. I know God will one day bring about somebody that will crush him.

That's the hope that Job has in this text. The words of the

Holy One. Again, brothers and sisters, Job, I think, is even saying in this text, I wish my friends would encourage me with those words.

Not with the words of their own philosophical gestures, but that they would comfort me with God's word,

His promises. Now, verse 11 -13 says, What is my strength that I should wake, and what is my end that I should endure?

Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze? Is it that there is no help within me, and that the success of sound wisdom is driven from me?

I would tell us right now, what Job is seeing, is he's saying, I'm emitting defeat. I'm here.

God, there is nothing. God, if you just were to let the straw bell fall on my head,

I would die. That's how weak I am right now, God. Just grant that to me. That's what Job is desiring.

And he's saying, I have nothing left, God. There's nothing that keeps me going other than your word.

Just bring a swift death to myself. Just bring it to me, is what

Job is seeking. Again, this is bleakness, this is grief, this is depression.

This is depressing for us to even read, is it not? Verse 14. And this now changes, so I want you to pay attention.

He's speaking in verses 1 -13, just speaking out loud about his current situation.

And now verse 14 is going to be directed more at his friends, namely Elias. For the despairing man, loving kindness should be from his friend.

But he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. Pause here and remind us, what was my conclusion from chapter 5 and 4 of Laiaphas?

That he saw a demon and was giving him not great advice? And why, again, is there a reason

I would say that? Job is recognizing, Laiaphas, you have forsaken the fear of Yahweh. That the words that you gave him were not in remembrance and consistent with the fear of Yahweh.

And he's saying in here, loving kindness should be from my friend. He's saying, you haven't given me that.

My brothers have betrayed me like a wadi. Your translations might say like a brook or a river of some kind.

Like the torrents of wadis, these brooks, which pass away, which grow dark because of ice and upon which the snow hides itself.

When they become waterless, they are silent. When it is hot, they vanish from their place.

The paths of their course wind along, they go up into formless places and they perish.

How many of us, and I know myself and the Eversons with children, and I would even say if you are a grandparent and you've seen this, how many of you have ever seen

Louie, the TV show? I love it, it's great. All the kids are raising their hands, right?

There's one episode in there that's called The Creek. And in that episode, the dad of this animated show takes his children to the creek that he went to as a child to play in.

And you can almost see in the episode that he was joyful that his kids and his friends were able to play in the creek, was he not?

Lydia's saying yes, that's the way it goes. Imagine for a moment that you had that creek of some kind in your own life, that you remember growing up, the river, right?

The place that you would go and find joy and happiness in life. And now you have your child with you and you take them there and what do you find?

It's dried up. There's no joy there anymore. Maybe you go there and it's frozen over in Job's analogy here, you can't get in the water.

Maybe you go there and the water has carved out a different path than what you remember. It's changed, is what

Job's saying. The things that used to bring me happiness, my friends, it's not there anymore.

It's different, it's changed, it's dried up. The joys that I had, the friends' advice for me is no longer enjoyable to Job, but yet it is an empty well.

It is a dried up river. It does not bring any peace to Job. Again, this is bleakness that we see in this text.

Look at verse 19. The caravans of Telma looked. The travelers of Sheba hoped for them.

They were ashamed for they had trusted. They came there and were humiliated. Indeed, you have now become such.

He's speaking to his friends. He's speaking directly to the face of his friends. You see a terror, speaking to himself, and are afraid.

Have I said, give me something, or offer a bribe for me from your wealth? Or give me escape from the hand of the adversary, or redeem me from the hand of the ruthless men?

Job has not asked this from his friends. Verse 24. Instruct me, and I will be silent.

And cause me to understand how I've erred. How painful are upright words.

But what does your reproof prove? Do you think to reprove my words, or think the words of the one in despair as wind?

You would even cast lots for the orphans, and bargain over your friends. So now be willing to face me, and see if I lie to your face.

Now turn from this. Let there be no unrighteousness. Even turn from this. My righteousness is yet in it.

Is there unrighteousness on my tongue? Cannot my palate discern destruction? In the general sense, does

Job have sin? Obviously. No one is righteous. No, not one. But what Job is saying is, Liafiths, you're wrong.

There was no sin that I committed that has brought God to do this thing to myself.

Your words are just nothing but emptiness to me. There's nothing there for me. Now, look here at chapter 7, verses 1 through 6 here.

And the way that I would look at this is, just in the previous text, as he's gone through these things, he's saying here, and he continues this fiery tongue response to Liafiths.

I almost think to myself, my wife and I would encourage you, if you have not read this book, my wife and I are right now reading through Pilgrim's Progress, and one of the early chapters, it talks about how this gentleman named

Mr. Worldly Wisdom gives the main character, Christian, bad advice.

He tells him, go to this village, legalism, to go and justify yourself, to take this burden off your back.

And he follows that advice, and guess where it gets him? Into a mountain that he can't climb. And the burden's too heavy for him.

It was bad advice. And I look at this text and I see what Job is saying is, your advice, friend, is terrible advice.

It's a false teaching. You're burdening my back more. You're actually hurting me more, friend, because you're saying, not only did

I suffer in the loss of these things, but you're saying the suffering was because of me. You're hurting my character,

Elias. The burdens of life that are on our backs are not relieved by false teachings, brothers and sisters.

The burdens that are on our back is only relieved from God and God himself.

Again, what is the hope of Job that he's always said? The words of the Holy One. Those are my only hope.

Let's look here at chapter 7. So listen, the fiery tongue of Job now is responding to Elias.

Is not man constricted to labor on earth? And are not his days like the days of hired men, as a slave who pants for the shade, and as a hired man eagerly hopes for his wages?

So am I a portion of month of worthlessness, and nights of trouble are appointed to me.

Again, what was the thing that Job, that Yahweh said that Job did not sin on his lips?

He said, Yahweh gives, Yahweh takes. Blessed be the name of Yahweh. What has Job just said in this?

I am a portioned month of worthlessness, and nights of trouble are appointed to me.

He's still recognizing God's sovereignty in these things. He's still recognizing that God gives and God is taken away.

If I lie down, I say, when shall

I rise? But the twilight continues. It's picturing an endless night, continual darkness.

If I lay down, when shall I rise? But the twilight continues, and I'm saturated with tossings until dawn.

My flesh is filled with worms and a crust of dirt.

My skin scabs over and flows out again. Again, I'm blessed to know that there's a couple

EMTs and firefighters in this room, whether past, present, or future in that sense. We've all seen the disgustingness that is of a scab giving way and just pouring out fluid.

And that's what Job's saying. That's my clothes right now. That's what I've been given. This is what covers me.

It's this disgusting picture of me. What does he say in this, though?

What is he picturing? I would say that when we look at Job, we should be reminiscing even what is the words that has given him hope.

I would argue it's those promises that have come before him. But he also knows the curses that are given to Adam.

You will toil for the rest of your days. Thorns and thistles will be before you.

What has Job said? I suffer the curse of the fall. I'm suffering the curse of the fall.

Remember, verse 7, remember that my life is but wind. My eyes will not again see good.

The eye of him who sees me will behold me no longer. Your eyes will be on me, but I will not be.

The pause here just reminds us, I think in verse 6, we then have a turning to then directing his fiery tongue to God in this text.

So Job has directed his anger towards Elias and his other friends, and now he's directing his anger to actually

God in this text. Remember that my life is but wind, my eyes will not again see good.

Is Job jumping to conclusions in this text? Yeah, he is. Does he see good in the future for him?

Yes, he does, because Yahweh had a plan for him to bring about that good. So Job, you're preaching to the choir regarding God's sovereignty, but you're not waiting on the

Lord to bring those things about. In one hand, you're proclaiming the truth, but you're also not letting the truth lead you into what

God has in store for you in the future. The eye of him who sees me will behold me no longer.

Meaning, I'm going to die. God who's watching me suffer these wounds, I'm going to die.

Your eyes will be on me, but I will not be. A cloud vanishes, and it is gone.

So he who goes down to Sheol, the grave, does not come up.

I would caution us when we read this, don't think that Job is denying a resurrection in that sense.

He's saying, I'm going to the grave. I know that death is before me, God. I see all the destruction you brought to me.

I know I'm going to the grave. I know you're not going to see me again one day, God.

I'm going to die. He will not return again to his house, nor will his place recognize him anymore.

Indeed, I will not hold back my mouth. I will speak in the distresses of my spirit.

I will muse on the bitterness of my soul. Am I the sea or the sea monster that you have set aguard over me?

If I say my bed will comfort me, how many of us, after a long day of work, go and take a nap?

Or we go and we lay down in bed, and it's where we find comfort. It's where our physical body can find relief, right?

Or maybe we go and we sit on our couches after a long day's work. But listen to what Job says about his bed and his couch.

My bed will comfort me. My couch will ease my bitter musing. Then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me by visions.

What dreams and visions is Job talking about? I would almost imagine if you were

Job and you went to the house and saw your seven boys dead underneath the gate as they've been crushing your three daughters there dead before you, that what he's talking about is he's seeing these new visions and dread and dreams reoccurring in his mind of that dreadful day when he saw his children die.

And terrify me by visions so that my soul would choose suffocation, death rather than my pains.

I have rejected everything. Your text might say that, and I can't remember the direct translation, but the picture of this is saying that I'm destroyed in this text.

My body, there's nothing in my body that will give me relief. I'm rejecting it all.

It's bad. It's terrible. I will not live forever. Leave me alone for my days are but a breath.

What is Job saying in this? I'm going to die. It's going to happen. I know it. I'm already there.

I'm literally on the line of death and life, and I don't have any joy in life.

I'm right there. God, I know. Verse 17 is a very interesting statement here in chapter 7, verse 17 through 19.

Why is it interesting? Let's look at what it says. What is man that when you set your heart on him, that you examine him every morning and test him every moment, will you never turn your gaze away from me, nor let me alone until I swallow my spit?

Brothers and sisters, what did we read today for our whole worship? What is man?

We've been a little while lower than the angels. Job would be saying this very similar poetic language that the psalmist would use in Psalm chapter 8, and I think there's a reason for it.

Job is here sitting as this picture of what the cursed man from the fall is to look like.

Job is bearing these things. He's sitting there, and he's asking God, what is man that you magnify him?

What is man? God in this text, even in this text, is seen as infinitely greater than you and I.

And Job is pictured as and is picturing us as those that are infinitely worse than what we ought to even think we are or how we think we are.

And so what he's done for us, and you would see this in every book of the Bible, on every page before us, is that great chasm that is the distance between lowly man and the greatness of God.

Yet in this text, and Job's not knowing these things to the fullness of what he has been revealed as, when he asks the question of what is man, he's saying, look how lowly

I am, God. Why let me live any longer, God? Look how low

I am. Our mind should immediately take us to that which is the great, infinite mercy of God in becoming flesh for you and I.

It's true how low is man. We are very, very infinitely lower than what we can even think of, especially in light of who

God is and how infinitely great He is. And that is, as Phineas has even said today with Christmas, that's the whole point of the

Incarnation and how humiliating, how humble God was in that event.

That God Himself would take on flesh, walk amongst

His creation, the one that is outside of all things, would step into all things. And He would live for us and die for us and rise again for us.

And in these things, what is man that would magnify Him?

Again, our relational being who is God has done these things to glorify

Himself so that we can know Him, be in relationship with Him. Us as undeserving creatures would be with our mighty, beyond understanding, merciful

God forever and ever. What is man? Let's look at verse 20 now.

Have I sinned? What have I done to you? He's talking to God still. O watcher of man, why have you set me as your target so that I am burdened to myself?

Why then do you not forgive my transgression and take away my iniquity?

And now I will lie down in the dust, and you will seek me earnestly, but I will not be.

Brothers and sisters, this is the text I was talking about at the beginning of the message today. This sounds like Job is walking on the border of blasphemy.

He's right there. He's right there talking these things through, walking these things through. And you must remember that Job is in the middle of it.

We know what the story ends, and we can look back and see hindsight 20 is 20 in these ways. But Job is in the middle of these things, and he is hurting very, very badly.

And he's seeing, okay, God, here I was this righteous man. I don't think I've sinned, but Elias is saying

I sinned. What has God already declared Job as?

A righteous man, upright man. That's what Yahweh has said about Job. That's what we ought to say about Job as well.

He was a righteous man, upright and blameless in all his ways. Because Yahweh has declared him as such.

But now what does Job do? When? Why then do you not forgive my transgression and take away my iniquity?

It sounds almost like he's just hurt beyond belief at what has gone on.

But take special notice of this, church. I think underlying in this text, even, we can take away something that is greatly remarkable for you and I and Job as well.

Could Job say this if he was not in a relationship with God? I would say no.

Think about this for a moment. The parents, the ones that have raised children up, the ones—

We all have had parents, and we've probably all done this in some way or in some regard. How many of us, when we were grounded and we were throwing those temper tantrums that we did when we were in our youth, would say something,

Mom, it would be better if I was gone. Mom, I'm going to run away. Mom, obviously you're going to miss me when

I'm gone. Listen to what Job says.

For now I will die down in the dust, and you will seek me, but I will not be there.

What we see here is, again, is this right for Job to say such a thing? Is it right for a child to say, Mom, I'm going to run away.

You're going to miss me when I'm gone? It's wrong for them to say that. But they say that because they're in a relationship with you as a mom, with you as a father when they say that.

Job is saying this as somebody that is— Yes, he's walking that line of blasphemy. Yes, he's doing things and saying things that are incorrectly, because at the end of this book,

Job gets rebuked for the things that he said. But he says these things because he's in a relationship with this mighty

God that is infinitely greater than him. And so, therefore, he can say something in this way.

Let's look here real fast at Romans 8. It would appear to me, when we consider what

Job is saying, and again, we should even be comforted in what this says for us.

Romans 8, verse 34 through 39.

I would just remind us of this. Job, he's had fear in Yahweh.

He's trusted in the prior text, and now that he's in this turmoil, he's saying, God, I'm going to die, and you won't see me anymore.

You're going to regret this, because this has brought me so low in Job's mind. Brothers and sisters, if we could say that justification, salvation, was dependent on us and not on God, what would we look at Job and say in this text?

Job lost his righteousness. Job lost that relationship with God.

Job lost these things because now he's not trusting in those words, right? He's lost that.

Has he lost that? Romans 8, verse 33 through 39.

Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies.

Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction, or turmoil, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sore?

What is Job suffering in this text in Job chapter 6 and 7? The very things that were just listed out for us in Romans 8.

Maybe save it be the sword, but Job is requesting that he be crushed. He's asking for death, the sword.

Just as it is written, for your sake we are being put to death all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter, but in all these things we are overwhelmingly conquered through him who loves us.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creative thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our

Lord. Brothers and sisters, I'm sure as to some effect each one of us have said that kind of a statement to our mothers and our fathers.

You would miss me if I wasn't gone, dad. You would miss me if I ran away, mom. Was that us honoring our fathers and our mothers?

No. It was terrible sin to say such a thing. But what did our mothers and our fathers still do?

They stayed in relationship with us. They stayed loving us. How much greater is our

God, who even in the midst of Job is saying, God, you're going to miss me.

That love still exists there. He's still in relationship with Job. Not because of Job's endurance in these things, but because God is faithful in these things.

We'll see that again at the end of the book of Job. But that, I would urge us to remember that this is

Job being the tantruming, suffering, very much suffering, tantruming child in this, in relationship with a relational being who is our mighty

Lord and Savior. Next week, I would encourage you to please come back and join us as we look at the second friend, and his encouraging words,

Bill Dadd, who is going to claim that God only rewards the good.

So again, this is going to be bad advice that we see next week. So let us pray and lift up a final petition for him.

God, Lord, you've spoken to us in John 10, saying that we are your sheep.

We go in and out, we find pasture. God, in those times that we sin against you, in those times that we take the bad advice from our friends, the times that even we stagger in our faith and our sanctification, in those times that we fall back into the wrong thinking of you,

Lord, God, you are still faithful when we are not. Lord, God, I thank you as what you've done for Job in this text, even in Job chapter 6 and 7,

Lord, that you show to us that your love still exists there. It's not dependent upon him who runs, but on you who has mercy,

God. Lord, let us not take these things lightly. Just as we would shake our head to the tantruming child,

Lord, if we are in this place today, let us quicken our hearts, Lord. Let your spirit lead us back in a way that revives our worship and our relationship with you,

Lord. God, I would ask that you, if we are in seasons of little faith,

Lord, let this be a short season. Just as the season for Job is a season of mourning and grief,

Lord, let our season be that of joy with you, Lord. God, protect your own as we know that you will and that you do, that there's nothing that separates us from you,

God. And I thank you for this so much, Lord. God, we thank you, and we say this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our mediator and our intercessor.

Amen. Brothers and sisters, please stand as we sing our final song for this day.