Looking for Jesus in Job

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. Glad you're here watching the channel or listening.

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YouTube channel, No Compromise Radio. You can also write me, mike, at nocompromiseradio .com.

And don't forget the new book is out, King, How the Sovereignty of God Changes Everything, found at Amazon.

So that's exciting. Working on a couple other things. My wife and I this summer worked a little bit on a parenting book, but I've got a long way to go as a parent and as an author.

And as a parenting author. Always reminded me when I was back in seminary, I had friends who hadn't been a pastor.

We were just in seminary and they were like, I'm gonna write a book on parenting. You know, they got three kids under five years old,

I think. Don't you think they probably should grow up a little bit and like test run a little bit before you write a book on parenting?

Today, I want to talk about how to read your Bible. I did that last show.

The Bible, by the way, is a big book, 66 books in the Bible. According to one site, there are 1 ,189 chapters in the

Bible, 31 ,103 verses, and 807 ,361 words.

How do you get your mind wrapped around all those verses and words? We must get our mind around those because this is important.

Sin is real, death is real, hell is real. God's holiness is real. Life and death hang in the balance.

And we're to know the answer. How do we read the

Bible? And so today we're going to look at the book of Job as a template to help us see what's coming next in the

Bible. How to telegraph to you a pass.

In basketball, you don't want to telegraph a pass because the opponents might steal it. So you look over there and pass there.

Telegraphing is I'm looking at you and I'm passing you the ball. And so today I want to telegraph a pass by looking at the book of Job as a kind of a decoder for the rest of the

Bible, reading the Bible through the lens of Job, understanding the

Bible through the questions found in the book of Job. Job is the first book written and so the first book written, shouldn't that help us understand the other books of the

Bible? There's something called foreshadowing.

I'm trying to tell you I'm going to telegraph a pass, but instead there's something technically called foreshadowing and it's a device that people use in literature.

It's a literary device where the author tells you upfront, here's a few little hints of what to look for later on.

Here's a few little nuggets of truth that if you know these, you'll understand the rest of the book in a better way.

Quote, foreshadowing is often used in the early stages of a novel or at the start of a chapter as it can subtly create tension and set reader's expectations regarding how the story will unfold.

For instance, a mystery novel might use foreshadowing in an early chapter by mentioning something that seems inconsequential but is actually a clue.

Oh, she's Agatha Christie is dropping clues early on so that I might later go, oh,

I saw that before. Drawing attention to those things.

One other internet source said, mastering the art of foreshadow can benefit your writing by creating layers.

It's almost like you're telling the story to the reader in waves, eventually revealing to them the whole island they've been searching for.

So that's exactly what we're gonna do with the book of Job. Three questions that will help you understand the rest of the

Bible as you read it. Job's the first book written and don't you think there would be things in the book of Job that would help you understand the rest of the

Bible? And I think the answer is yes. I first heard about this idea from my son,

Luke, who is going to college and his professor, Admiral Chow, was working through this and Luke showed me and I thought, well, that's exactly right.

His professor's right. And so I'll just take that information and then abendrothize it, right?

I'm not claiming anything new or original or anything else, but I'll just take it and nocoize it.

Nocoize it? Nocompromise it? Compromise it? Nocoize it.

Now, before I get to those questions, what to look for in the Bible, just a little background on Job.

I mean, I have to say some things about Job before I just get into the text. So many wonderful things said about the book of Job.

Victor Hugo, Job is perhaps the greatest masterpiece of the human mind. Wow. He also said, if all literature was to be destroyed and it was left for me to retain only one work, it would be

Job. Tennyson said, the greatest poem, whether ancient or of modern literature, is the book of Job.

Daniel Webster, the book of Job, taken as a mere work of literary genius, is one of the most wonderful productions of any age or any language.

Luther said it was magnificent and sublime like no other book of scripture. Thomas Carlyle, call this book one of the greatest things ever written.

Kind of makes me want to read it. Go back and read it. How about you? Another thing is

I want to say about Job is that it's in the wisdom section. There's narratives, there's poetry.

Some say it's poetical. Some say it's a wisdom genre. There is lawsuit in the book of Job, lawsuit language.

There's lament, there's dialogue. And it's maybe its own genre, putting all those together.

And then lastly, let me just tell you that the timing of Job, some think that he lived in patriarchal times because there's no mention about exodus, no mention about law of Moses.

Some people think during the patriarchal times where the father of the household would be the priest, he'd be the leader of the family in that religious regard.

And that's exactly what happens in the book of Job. And that Job is probably in the patriarchal period because he lived to be 140 years old.

So in our day and age, 70 or 80, similar to Abraham at 175 years or Isaac, 180.

So he probably lived in those times. So we come to the book of Job and we understand chapters one and chapter two, what's going on,

Satan, the flock, the children, does Job sin? What does he do?

And now we start looking for questions in the book of Job because in suffering, you ask the right questions.

You read chapter one and two and you're gonna go, you know what? That is a massive suffering. And by the way, when you suffer, you're not thinking about sports, not thinking about five -star meals.

I remember when I was in the hospital, I thought I was gonna die of COVID, 16 days in isolation. And I didn't really care about politics.

I didn't really care about sports. I didn't really care about much of anything.

You're suffering, you're asking different questions. Does God know? Does God care?

Is God alive? Is heaven real? Was Jesus real? You ask those kinds of questions.

And so Job is in the crucible of suffering. That's in chapters one and two. And now he asks the right question.

When you're suffering, you ask the right questions. And so question number one that I want you to think about as you read the rest of the

Bible is found in Job 7. Does God forgive sin?

Right, so Job's suffering. I wonder if God cares. By the way, if God forgives sin, he would care.

Job 7, verse seven. Remember that my life is a breath. My eye will never again see good.

The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more. While your eyes are on me, I shall be gone. As the cloud fades and vanishes, as he who goes down to Sheol does not come up, he returns no more to his house, nor does his place know him any more.

In the midst of that, I need hope. In the midst of that, I need comfort. Job 7, 20. If I sin, what do

I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark? Why have

I become a burden for you? Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity?

By the way, God, if you really did care, wouldn't you pardon me? And the word there, pardon, is similar to the word for Passover.

I know there'd be real comfort if you'd forgive me.

By the way, this is a hint. This is foreshadowing. This is a clue. You read the rest of the

Bible and you need to come to grips with the fact, does God forgive sin?

Is God a forgiving God? So Job puts it right up front. You need to be looking for the

God who forgives sin because that will show you if a God, if the

God of the Bible really cares in the midst of suffering. And you can go ahead and trace forgiveness in the

Bible. Can you not? You can trace, does God forgive David for killing

Uriah, for adultery with Bathsheba? You can ask the question, does

God forgive sin? You start asking yourself the question, well, how can

God forgive sin if he's holy? And the answer is through substitution. Does God forgive sin?

Yes, Adam and Eve sin. God kills the animals and says they die in their place.

Then all of a sudden you think of Passover. The animal dies in place of the family. You think of the

Day of Atonement. The animal dies in place of Israel. And then you finally get to the Lord Jesus where Jesus, the

God -man, of course, on the cross dies for sinners by substitution.

So does the question pop up? Is there forgiveness? Yes, and it pops up early in the book of Job.

So you'll be thinking the rest of the time I read the Bible, I should be looking for the one who forgives.

Question number two, is there a mediator? I'm looking for forgiveness and now I'm looking for a mediator.

I would know God would care for me if he'd forgive sins. I would know God would care for me if there'd be a mediator.

After all, there's God and there's me and I need an advocate. I need a mediator.

I need a go -between. I need an umpire. I need somebody between us. And that's found in the book of Job.

Job 9, wow, this is amazing. I shall be condemned. Why do

I then labor in vain? If I wash myself with snow and cleanse myself with liar, excuse me, with lie, yet you plunge me into a pit and my own clothes will abhor me.

For he is not a man as I am that I might answer him that we should come together in a trial. Though there is no arbiter between us who might lay his hand on both of us.

Okay, what's he saying? I need someone that would take his hand and put it on God as it were, and then put it on me.

So he could be an umpire, a referee. I'm sinful, he's holy, and I need to be reconciled to this

God. Who could put his hand on God except God himself? Who could put his hand on man except man himself?

Who could be the God man? Oh, I see. Job early on, the first book written, maybe the most wonderful book written, says, you know what?

Look for forgiveness. God is a forgiving God. Look for a mediator, an umpire, an arbiter, as the

ESV says, because he can bring people together, right? A mediator says,

I will mediate. I will be the one who binds back. Does God care?

I need a God who cares. I need a God who provides a mediator.

And of course, when you think about the incarnation, you think about a God who cares and who is a mediator, who can say,

I can put my hand on God as it were, and my hand on us as it were.

An umpire, a referee. What if there was no one? What if you're suffering by yourself?

What if no one cares? What if there's no mediator, arbiter, or nothing? It's like, oh, there is a

God who cares. There is a God who is a good shepherd. If you think about John chapter nine, that man born blind, is there anybody in his life who cares?

His parents should care, they don't. I mean, can you imagine a dad that doesn't care, a mom that doesn't care?

I mean, that's beyond the pale. Religious leaders, well, at least you can go to the clergy. Mom doesn't care, dad doesn't care, but the clergy would.

No, they don't care either. Nobody cares about that man, John chapter nine. And sometimes we forget that John chapter 10 follows

John chapter nine, and John chapter 10 is a passage about a shepherd who cares.

A good shepherd who cares. A good shepherd that lays down his life for people like that man born blind, he cares.

And you think, oh, Job says, I can't stand before you

God on my own. I can't defend myself. I can't initiate good favor from you.

I need someone to help me. I need some mediator. And so when you read the book of Job, the first thing you find out is, you know what?

I need to look for someone who can forgive sins. Does God forgive sins? Look for the God who forgives sins in Christ Jesus.

Secondly, Job asked the question, I need a mediator. I need a helper. I need somebody to come alongside. I mean,

I don't know if you've ever had gone to court. You need a lawyer. You need someone helping you.

I gave testimony one time and I didn't have a lawyer. I was told I would have a lawyer when I got there, and I didn't have a lawyer.

And I stupidly talked anyway. It wasn't even, I wasn't the one in trouble. I was just some kind of witness, but I'm thinking,

I need help. I need to look to a lawyer and say, should I answer this question?

What are they after? How do I say things? I mean, it was nerve wracking. I, like Job, know that I sin.

I, like Job, know that I need relief of that sin and to be forgiven. But that forgiveness is not just found out there somewhere.

It's found at a mediator, looking for a mediator who forgives sins. Sound familiar?

Sounds like Jesus. I'm to be looking in the Bible, whether I'm in first Kings and Proverbs, wherever I might be.

Is there a God who forgives sins? And is there a God who forgives sins through a mediator?

Truly God, truly man. And of course, as you begin to think, the

Trinity helps us understand this very issue. Is there a God who cares? Is there a

God who provides a mediator? And there's one mediator between man and God, the man,

Christ Jesus. Last question here on No Compromise Radio today. Reading the book of Job, thinking about foreshadowing, asking yourself the question, why are all these questions found in Job?

Is there a God who forgives? Is there a mediator? Last question, is there a resurrection?

Is there a resurrection? And I can just remember Luke being excited about this. We're in the car. I actually think we were on I -5 going north up to Santa Cruz.

And we were listening to Bob Marley, I think, or Peter Tosh or some reggae. And he's like, dad, dad, dad, can

I turn the radio down? Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Dad, dad, I gotta tell you what I've been learning in school in my class on Job.

And he goes through here foreshadowing. And is there a God who forgives sins? I know he'd care if he did.

Is there a God who forgives sin through a mediator? I would know he would care. And I would know how to study the rest of the scripture, forgiving

God with a mediator. And then lastly, a forgiving God who's a mediator via the resurrection of the dead.

Okay, I said, I'm all in. I'm not turning Peter Tosh back on the radio. Is there a resurrection?

Job 14, 13. Oh, that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be passed, that you would appoint me a set time and remember me.

If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service, I would wait till my renewal should come.

Is there an afterlife? What about me being sinful and then being in God's presence afterwards?

Job 14, 15. You would call and I would answer you. You would long for the work of your hands, for then you would number my steps.

You would not keep watch over my sin. My transgression would be sealed up in a bag and you would cover my iniquity.

But the mountain falls and crumbles away and the rock is removed from its place. The waters wear away the stones, the torrents wash away the soil of the earth.

So you destroy the hope of man. You prevail forever against him and he passes, you change your countenance and send him away.

His sons come to honor and he does not know it. They're brought low and he perceives it not. He feels only the pain of his own body for he mourns only for himself.

I'm gonna need to be purified. I'm gonna need to be resurrected. I need my sin dealt with.

God, you're so holy. I mean, isn't death a separator? Isn't death the ugly thing?

Isn't death final? What can make death lose its sting? What can reverse death?

If God could deal with death, wow, I could trust him. I know he would care.

Even in the midst of my suffering now. Job 19, for I know that my redeemer lives and at the last he will stand upon the earth.

Listen, and after my skin has thus been destroyed, yet in my flesh, I shall see

God, whom I shall see for myself and I shall behold and not another, my heart faints within me.

I am going to see God. I am going to be resurrected. I know there's a

God who forgives sins, through a mediator via the resurrection. How should you read your

Bible? Looking for a forgiving God, looking for a God who provides a mediator, his son, looking for a

God that has victory over the resurrection, victory over death via the resurrection.

Sounds like I should read the Bible looking for Jesus. That's what that sounds like. I should be reading the

Bible looking for Jesus. The resurrection. Have you thought about this question before? How many people were raised from the dead in the

Bible? I mean, it's just automatic for us. Oh yeah, resurrection. How many people were raised from the dead in the

Bible? A hundred? Zero? Here's what I found. The widow of Zarephath, 1

Kings 17, resurrection. The Shumanites woman's son, 2 Kings 4, resurrection.

The man raised out of Elisha's grave, 2 Kings 13, the resurrection. So that's

Old Testament. I'm reading the Bible. When those things happen, God can make the dead alive.

The widow of Nain's son, Luke 7, where Jesus raises him from the dead.

Jairus' daughter, Luke 8, Jesus raises her from the dead.

Lazarus of Bethany, Jesus raises him from the dead. And then a lot of saints that died when

Jesus died and was raised, it says in Matthew 27, some of these saints got up out of the grave.

But all this pointing to the ultimate resurrection, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ, who then is the first fruit of all of us in terms of the resurrection.

See 1 Corinthians 15. So now let's boil it all down and just have a quick review because after all,

I am a public schooly, public school educated pastor. I just need it simple.

Grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, just make it simple. When you suffer, things become very clear and you ask the right questions.

And in the book of Job, Job suffers a lot. And he asked the right questions.

Questions that are in the book of Job, the first book of the Bible that make me say, what do

I look for in the rest of the Bible with this idea of foreshadowing? I look for a God who cares because He forgives sin.

I look for a God who cares because He forgives sins through a mediator. I look for a

God who cares because He forgives sins through a mediator via the resurrection from the dead.

That's how I read the Bible. Does God care? Well, He forgives sins.

All right, now make it personal. You, Christian, are forgiven. All your sins are forgiven.

How about that? Mario, did you know all your sins are forgiven? Paid in full. I think that means

God cares. God has provided a mediator, Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, who took on flesh and dwelled among us.

I mean, can you imagine Philippians chapter two language, the condescending love of Jesus and humility?

Does God care? The incarnation should answer that. And finally, does

God care through the forgiveness of sins through a mediator via the resurrection? We are going to be resurrected one day, new bodies, because Jesus Christ has conquered death.

I'm 65 years old now, been through a lot of things. I think I have four lives left. If cats have nine lives and I have nine, five are gone.

I got four left, aortic aneurysm, all this other stuff. I'm thinking, how long do you make it?

You can just fall over dead at any time. Then what? Can you imagine if there's no hope beyond the grave?

If this is it, what a life, what a sad life. But we know there's life beyond the grave.

When our friends die into glory, they go. When you read your

Bible, look for a God who forgives through a mediator via the resurrection.

To make it simple, when you read your Bible, read your Bible looking for Jesus. Actually, Jesus said that in John 5 and in Luke 24, that the

Old Testament points to the Lord Jesus. God has provided a mediator for you.

And if you're not a believer today, you just can trust in that risen savior, the Lord Jesus who died for sinners like you.

God doesn't just resurrect Jesus, but he resurrects us. Death is swallowed up in victory.

Oh, death, where's your victory? Oh, death, where's your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And knowing that, now we can respond with grace.

We respond to grace out of gratitude and we can work. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and movable, always abounding in the work of the

Lord, knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain.

How about reading Job this week? This is my assignment for you, to read the book of Job.

42 chapters, asking the right questions, seeing Job suffer and when you suffer, you can ask the right questions as well.

When you need answers, you turn to the Bible and you began to ask yourself the question, does

God care? Let me give you this quote. But instead of becoming forlorn regarding the inability to give your congregation complete answers to the questions raised by the book of Job, dear pastor, you can instead rejoice in this reality because the absence of answers leads us directly to Jesus.

You see the questions raised by Job regarding the mystery of evil and the cause of human suffering only find their answer in the cross of Christ.

The cross gives human suffering its meaning and significance. It also provides hope for a new world where suffering shall cease.

The answers to the questions raised by the book of Job are answered in the question of Christ on the cross.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? In reality, it is in the silence of the book of Job and its lack of answers that the book most powerfully speaks of Jesus.

Interesting. And then the book of Job ends with Job saying, I know you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I uttered and I didn't understand things too wonderful for me, which

I did not know. Hear God and I will speak. I will question you and you will make it known to me.

I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.

How do you read your Bible? Looking for forgiveness via mediator by the resurrection.