The Lord's Rebuke

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

Reading Job 42 and the End of the Book

Let's read our passage together, Job chapter 42. We're going to read from verse 7 to verse 17. Job 42, verse 7. After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, I am angry with you and your two friends because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.

So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly.

You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Nehmehatite did what the Lord told them and the Lord accepted Job's prayer. After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before.

All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought upon him and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.

The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first. He had 14 ,000 sheep, 6 ,000 camels, 1 ,000 yoke of oxen, and 1 ,000 donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemima, the second Kezia, and the third Karen-Hepoch.

Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job's daughters and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers. After this, Job lived 140 years. He saw his children and their children to the fourth generation and so he died old and full of years.

What the Book of Job Teaches Us

And that's the end of the book of Job. We've been going through this book at my church for the last few months. And as we know, it's a book that is full of questions, sometimes full of unanswered questions.

But it's also a book that teaches us a lot of very important things. It doesn't teach us or give us the answer to everything that we would like to know, but it does teach us a lot of very important things.

For example, it teaches us that the righteous are not exempt from suffering, also that suffering is not always a direct punishment from God, also that God sets a protective hedge around those who belong to him, also that Satan, if allowed by God, can sometimes impact the behaviors of people, can make fire come down from the sky, can impact the weather and kill people and even make people sick.

The book also teaches us that human reasoning doesn't always bring comfort, also that God is compassionate and merciful, that wrongs are often made right even in this life, that we should also be careful about making blanket statements that don't allow for exceptions, also that Satan is not omnipresent, omnipotent, nor omniscient, like he doesn't know the future, he doesn't know the hearts of people, like he predicted that Job was going to curse God and Job didn't.

And the book teaches us all kinds of other important things like that. This book is probably the oldest book of the Bible, and yet, just like it is the case with everything else that we find in the Bible, it's a book that is relevant and needed.

And like I said, it teaches us a lot of things. One of the big things that it teaches us is that we can often be wrong, and we can often be wrong in thinking that we are right, and sometimes in thinking that God is sometimes wrong and that he is against us.

So yeah, we can often be wrong in these two ways, in thinking that we are right, and secondly, in thinking that God is sometimes wrong and that he is against us, when in reality he is not against us. And yeah, that's what I want to focus on the most this afternoon, on the fact that we can often be wrong, just like Satan thought that he was right, and he was actually wrong, and God was right.

We too can often be wrong. That's just the reality, and we're often wrong in thinking that we are right. Of course, we're not always wrong, but we sure can often be wrong, just like Job's three friends were wrong, and they find that out from God himself in our passage.

And you have to wonder what it was exactly that they were wrong about. I don't know the answer to all of that, but we sure know that they first of all were wrong about Job, but they also were wrong about God.

That's what God tells them in our passage. And I think that it's important to remember that they were wrong about Job and about God with good intentions, it seems. And it's important to remember that.

Wrong About Job and the Danger of Judging Hearts

Let's focus a little bit on the first item. First of all, they were wrong about Job, and I think that they were a little surprised to find that out because when you read the book and you read their comments, you cannot not see that they spoke with great conviction, and yet they were in the ditch, big time in the ditch, so wrong.

They accused Job of all kinds of sins. Job, of course, was a sinner just like us. The proof is that he also died at the end of his life. But at the same time, even though he was a sinner, I think we could say that Job was actually a good man.

He was a man who wanted to do what was right, and his three friends got it so wrong. In chapter 4, verse 1 to verse 5, the one who probably was the oldest of the three says to Job, you were pretty good at giving advice or encouraging others, but now that you're the one who's suffering, you get discouraged.

And I think that he probably thought that because of that, Job was actually a hypocrite. In chapter 4, verse 6 to verse 21, he starts to suggest that Job was guilty of wrongdoing. In verse 17 of that same chapter, he seems to suggest that Job actually believed that he was more righteous than God.

I don't think Job believed that. In chapter 22, he accuses Job of wrongdoing. He says to Job in verse 5, is not your wickedness great? Are not your sins endless? Zophar, the second one, says to Job in chapter 11, verse 6, that God had forgiven some of Job's sins, which at first seems to be a nice thing to say to someone, like God forgave your sins, but in that context, it wasn't.

Job's three friends were wrong about him, and a lot of other people actually were wrong about Job. A lot of people thought that he was a secret sinner, but Job wasn't. He wasn't in the business of trying to sin as much as possible every day, just like some people seem to be doing.

So yeah, a lot of people thought that Job was a secret sinner because why would he be sick? That's the way they thought back then, apparently. Job in chapter 17, verse 6, says that he was now a byword to everyone, and that people would spit on him.

That's crazy. Think about it. He lost his 10 kids and everything else in one day, and he's totally desperate, and some people would walk by and spit on him. That's crazy. A lot of people all of a sudden had decided that he was a bad man, and they had no way to prove it.

Do we sometimes judge people like that? Do we think that we qualify for when it comes to judging the hearts of people or the thoughts or the secret intentions or the secret lives of people? Are we sometimes like that?

Well, we shouldn't. It's a foolish thing to do. In fact, it's actually a dangerous thing to do, to judge others like that. And I'm not talking here about the actions. If someone steals something and you say to him, that was wrong, you're judging a situation, but that's fine because you saw what happened.

You have proofs, and you're not passing a judgment on the heart of the person. You're just saying, this was wrong. But to think that we qualify to judge the hearts of people is completely foolish, and like I said, it's dangerous because in doing that, you may perhaps end up condemning those whom God has accepted, and it makes God angry when we do that.

And yet, Job's three friends probably thought that they had spoken wonderfully well. James, in James 4, verses 11 and 12,.

Says,.

It says, We can see from James 2, verse 8, that the law in the book of James has to do with the royal law, the law of Christ. And as we know, Jesus, in Matthew 7, verse 1, said, Do not judge. The disciples at the beginning knew the teachings of Christ, even though not everything had been written.

They knew the teachings of Christ. They knew that Jesus said, Do not judge. But they were just like us. They were human beings, and sometimes they would judge. And so James says, if you do that, you're actually sitting in judgment on the law, on what Jesus said.

So it's almost like if you would say to Jesus, You're wrong. I'm right. I do qualify to judge the hearts of people, and I'm going to do it. And so James says, But you, who are you to judge your neighbor?

He's basically saying, Just shut up. Don't do it. You're not God. There is only one God. He's not you. He's not me. There is only one God. So we're to judge nothing before the time, because that belongs to God.

And I know that it's difficult not to judge, and we all fall into that trap, but it's bad. It's really bad. Don't do it. And so Job's three friends had to be rebuked. And when you think about it, perhaps them being rebuked might have been what actually triggered the return of Job's other neighbors towards Job at the end.

Like the neighbors and the family members who all of a sudden had decided that Job was a wicked man took note of the fact that the three dudes were rebuked, and then they returned to Job. And we should also do that.

Whenever someone is rebuked, we should take note and also apply the rebuke to ourselves. Matthew Henry says that we prove to others we should thus take as admonition and instruction to us. We're often wrong, and we're often wrong in thinking that we're right about others, and Job's three friends were wrong about Job.

And the New Testament teaches us that the book of Job, not just the book of Job, but everything that we find in the Old Testament was written for our instruction. And so something we can get from the book of Job is that we shouldn't judge the way those three guys judged.

Wrong About God, Grace, and Salvation by Faith

It was written for our instruction. They were wrong about Job, and as I've mentioned already, they were also wrong about God. God says to Eliphaz in verse 7, He says, I'm angry with you and your two friends because you have not spoken of me what is right.

God was angry. And the Lord's sacrifice show how great God considered their sin. God says to them, just take like a whole bunch of animals and go sacrifice them, but that shows that their sin was very serious.

But once again, you have to wonder what it was exactly that they said about God that was wrong. Well, we already saw that they were wrong about Job, but it's kind of interesting that they were actually wrong about Job because of the fact that they were, first of all, wrong about God's ways of dealing with people.

It looks like they had allowed some kind of a cultural false teaching to find its way into their minds, a cultural false teaching which said that if you're good, then God has no choice but to bless you.

And if you're bad, then he has no choice but to curse you. Whoever suffers, they believe, is cursed by God because he is bad. And there was no room for exceptions. And so they thought, well, Job is suffering.

It means Job is a wicked man. He's a secret sinner. And there was no room for flexibility. And that's really what they thought. You read throughout the book and you cannot miss that point. They were fully convinced about that.

You know, we can see here a little bit of the domino effect. Like you allow one false teaching to enter your brain, and then after that you make all kinds of other mistakes. The first teaching that they allowed that was false to enter their brains was to think that, okay, if you suffer, it's because you're bad.

And then they just said, okay, Job is bad. So that's the way it goes with false teachings. It always creates more and more mistakes in the future. Now, we should also, I think, realize that the book of Job, at the same time, doesn't deny the fact that, generally speaking, if you choose to do what is right, things will go well with you in your life.

And generally speaking, if you choose wickedness, well, you will suffer the consequences. But that doesn't mean, though, that all of those who suffer, suffer because God is punishing them or because they chose wickedness.

Sometimes God is doing something else. And as we know, that was the case with Job. Someone wrote that since God had a high purpose for Job's suffering, the three friends made themselves enemies of God by not recognizing God's intent.

Someone else wrote that they limited God's ability to use suffering for some other purposes, and as a result, cruelly indicted innocent Job. And someone else also wrote that the three friends wronged God by making prosperity the mark of those who were faithful and affliction a certainty of God's wrath.

Today, as we know, there are some Christians in some charismatic churches that will say to you that if you're sick and you don't get healed, it's because you just don't have enough faith. In a sense, you're a bad Christian.

They don't say it that way, but it kind of sounds like it. In some other churches, they will say that if you're faithful, and sometimes what they mean by that is that if you give a lot of money to the pastor, you will for sure be blessed financially.

In India, in the areas where they believe in karma, they'll say that if you suffer, it's because your previous life was bad, and that you should just accept your suffering and not seek deliverance. Now, think about all of the abuses that can come out from such false teachings.

I would say that just like Job was spat upon, maybe some of those people who suffered in India also get to be spat upon. I don't know. I don't know. And who knows if maybe the culturally false accepted teaching that we find in the book of Job might have been the preliminary drafting of the India karma heresy.

I don't know. Maybe it made its way into India. It wasn't too far from there anyways, but I don't know. But that's what Job's three friends believed, and I think that they probably were also a little self-righteous.

Why do I say that? Well, I say that because of the fact that they were not the ones who were suffering. Job was suffering. And given what they believed, I think that we can probably assume that they probably thought that they were good men, good people, because they were not suffering, and it matched their false theology.

And I think that they also probably believed that they were actually going to heaven because of their good deeds. It doesn't look like their faith was placed in God's grace. It actually looks like their faith was placed in their good deeds more than in God's grace, which he gives on the basis of a blood sacrifice and on the basis of a prayer.

Job believed in God's grace given on that basis. But I'm not sure his three friends did, but Job did, because we see him at the beginning of the book offering burnt offerings for his children, and he prayed for them.

So Job believed that, but I don't think his three friends did. In fact, there are some big differences between Job and his three friends that we can notice throughout the book, differences in how they related to God.

For example, first, we can see in chapter 1 that Job believed in the importance of burnt offerings, like I just said. But we don't see that all over the book. We don't see that about his three friends.

Secondly, Job in chapters 1 and 2 is called God's servant, two times in chapters 1 and 2 and four times in our passage. But nowhere in the book do we see that being said about his three friends. And thirdly, we can also see throughout the book that Job's three friends always spoke of God in the third person.

They would say things like, he will do this or he will do that. Whereas Job, on the other hand, often spoke to God directly, personally, which would suggest that Job actually probably had a personal relationship with God from the very beginning.

Job felt a moral duty to speak honestly before God. The three friends thought that they knew God, but it looks like they only knew a few things about God. And as we know, there's a big difference between knowing a person and knowing certain things about a person.

I know about Donald Trump, but I don't know him personally. But Job knew God personally. He had a personal relationship with God. Obviously, that doesn't mean that he knew everything about God, but it sure looks like even though Job had been confused, and we can understand why he was so confused, Job believed at least that God's grace was given on the basis of a blood sacrifice and of a prayer.

And as we know, that's what we have in Jesus. But Job's three friends, I don't think, believed that. And so God, in our passage, says to Eliphaz in verses 7 and 8,.

He says,.

So those three guys thought that they were good people. They wanted to take God's defense. They believed that they were good and that based on their good deeds, qualified for God's blessings. But God, in our passage, actually has a little surprise for them.

The surprise was that they were actually not good and that based on their folly, not their good deeds, but their folly, they actually qualified for a spanking, not for God's blessing, unless, of course, they would approach God with a blood sacrifice and have the servant of the Lord, who had been despised by them, pray for them.

And that is God's way, which they did not know. But I hope that we all know God's way, which is revealed to us all over the Bible. For example, Paul, in Romans 3, verses 21 to 25, says that now a righteousness from God, and that is God's method of bringing man into right relation to himself.

So salvation, now a righteousness from God, apart from law, so apart from trying to obey God's law, so you can get saved, not necessarily by trying to obey God's law, that's what it says here. A righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known to which the law and the prophets, the writings of the Old Testament testify.

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified, which means declared just or sinless, freely by His grace, which is an undeserved gift, through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did this to demonstrate His justice at the present time so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

There is a lot of stuff in these few verses, but look, in Galatians 2, verse 21, perhaps a verse that is a little easier to understand, Paul says, I do not set aside the grace of God for if righteousness or salvation could be gained through the law or through trying to obey God's law, which is actually impossible, then Christ died for nothing.

So what Paul is basically telling us in this verse is that we need a Savior, is that if we could get to heaven just by trying to be good people, then Jesus died for nothing. We don't need a Savior, but what he's telling us is that we need a Savior.

In Galatians 3, verse 10, he says, All who, and all includes you, if you think that you can get to heaven by trying to be a good person, well, that includes you. All who rely on observing the law are under a curse.

So if you think that you can get to heaven by trying to be a good person, and I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to do what is right, of course you should, but if you think that that will qualify you for heaven, then this verse here says that you are actually under a curse.

For it is written, Cursed is everyone, that includes you, everyone who does not continue, that's about nonstop, to do everything, everything written in the book of the law. So that's pretty clear. You know, we sometimes say that there is only one way to heaven, but we're actually wrong because there are actually two ways to heaven.

One way is impossible, and the other way has been made possible by Jesus. But there are two ways. I mean, you know, if you're perfect, you're good to go. You're going to go to heaven. But if you're not perfect, you're not going to heaven.

That's what this verse says. And so, yeah, there is only one way to heaven.

It's Jesus.

Paul, in Ephesians 2, verses 8 to 10, says to the Christians in Ephesus, he says, It is by grace you have been saved, past tense. So those people were saved already. It's by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves.

It is the gift of God. Salvation is God's gift. Not by works. It's not by works so that no one can boast, for we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

So we're not saved by works, but we're saved to do good works. Yeah, if you believe that you can qualify for heaven by trying your best, then believing that will actually keep you from seeking salvation in the one and only Savior that there is, and that is Jesus, and that is God's way.

And it doesn't look like Job's three friends knew God's way. And as we know, it is a fact that most people in this world today don't know God's way. But Job knew. He did not know him as much as we know him, but he knew God's way.

And that's what I believe can actually explain chapter 19, verses 25 to 27, where Job says, I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. So Job was fully convinced of the fact that he needed a Redeemer.

He knew he was a sinner. His friends accused him of things like, they said, you're saying that you're not a sinner. But Job never, he didn't say he was not a sinner. He just told them that he didn't know why he was suffering.

But Job knew he was a sinner and that he needed a Redeemer. He was convinced of that. And then in verse 26, he says, and after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. He even believed in the resurrection.

Where did he get that from? And then in verse 27, he says, I myself will see him with my own eyes. I and not another. How my heart yearns within me. He was looking forward to it. Job had a lot of questions.

But yeah, Job knew God's way. And that can also be what can explain why he could find the strength to forgive his three annoying friends and actually end up praying for them the way he prayed for his children.

Job, Christ, and the Problem of Good Intentions

Now, I wouldn't say that Job in our passage is a type of Christ, because the Holy Spirit doesn't confirm that anywhere in the scriptures. But he sure acts in this passage in a parallel manner with Christ.

With Christ who forgave me after I despised him for 16 long years and who saved me and who keeps me saved by praying for me every second of the day. Jesus has been nice to me, just like Job has been nice to his three friends who despised him, who were wrong about him and about God's way.

And all of that mixed with good intentions. And I don't have too much to say about their good intentions, except that good intentions will actually take you to the wrong place if you take the wrong road.

And that's really what happened to Job's three friends. They took the wrong and easy road, which in their case had to do with the idea of not questioning their culture. And they ended up so wrong. There are a few things that can mess up our thoughts.

Culture is one of them. But there are other things. For example, the fact that our brains don't work the right way due to the fact that we were born with a sinful nature that has affected all of our bodies.

Our brains don't work properly. They malfunction. And that's why sometimes our thoughts are off. When we think about the effect of sin, this is just a parenthesis, but it's an interesting one. When we think of the effect of sin, we think that, okay, sin has affected my health, my body.

I hurt. I get weak. As we get older, we get more fragile. And sometimes it's funny, but it seems like we think that it's only from here down. And some people seem to be so sincerely convinced that they are never wrong, as if sin did not affect their brains.

But all of our brains malfunction. We're all sick in the head.

All of us.

No one here is right all of the time. Do we realize that? We need to realize that. My wife knows that about me. I'm not always right. But it's important to think about that. But we willingly forget that our brains have also been affected by sin.

Culture is another thing that can sometimes mess up with our thoughts. And that's what happened to Job's three friends. They were wrong about God's way. They were wrong about Job as a result, and were wrong with good intentions.

They were just men. Like the best of men is just a man at best, right? The last thing that I want to focus on is that we can be wrong in thinking that God is sometimes wrong, or that God is against us.

God Is Not Against Us and Does Not Make Mistakes

Why am I saying that? Well, it's because the context of the passage that we read in Job is the book of Job. And when you read the book of Job, you can see that Job got to a point where he fully was convinced of the fact that God was making a mistake and that God was against him.

But God wasn't. But look, if you look at chapter 7, verse 20 in Job,.

He says,.

If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O watcher of men? Why have you made me your target? So Job was convinced that God was against him. In chapter 9, verse 14, he says, How then can I dispute with him, meaning God?

How can I find words to argue with him? You know, when you want to argue with someone, usually it's because you believe the person is wrong. And so Job was wrong in thinking that God was wrong and that God was against him.

God was not against him. Now, why would God say to Eliphaz that Job spoke what was right? Because, I mean, when you read throughout the book, you can see that Job said all kinds of things that were wrong.

So why would God say that Job spoke what was right? I think that that's a good question. And I think that the answer to that is that even though Job said a lot of things that were wrong, Job at the end actually repented.

And I believe that that is what God refers to when he says that Job spoke what was right. But until Job got to that point of repentance, Job was wrong in thinking that God was wrong. He was wrong because God doesn't make mistakes.

I know that it's easy to say, but think about it. How can the maker of all things make mistakes? Don't we see God's infinite wisdom in his creation? It's just too amazing. It's impossible that a God like that would make mistakes.

I make mistakes. We all make mistakes. But that God would make mistakes. It's impossible. He doesn't. God also, as we know, reveals himself in the Bible as a perfect God. And so how can a perfect God make mistakes?

And yet, yes, it's true. It's hard to understand because this world is such a mess. It's crazy. I've got a cool story here for you. Maybe not a story, but anyway, it's just something to say about some painter in Montreal that I heard of.

I don't know him, don't know his name, never saw his work. But apparently, there is a painter in Montreal who paints on the side of buildings. And the way he does it is extremely messy. Apparently, he grabs the paint with his hands and he throws it at the walls.

And if you're driving by and you see that guy, you're going to think, what kind of a crazy clown is that? But apparently, he's really good. At the end, it always turns into a beautiful scenery or a face or something.

He's really good. And he knows what he's doing, even though it's messy. And that also applies to God. God knows what he is doing. He has a plan. He had a plan and was not making a mistake with Job. He used the greatest man among the people of the East to teach that suffering is not always a punishment and wealth is not always the proof of God's approval.

God also used Job to show Satan that even a human being can have a better attitude than an angel.

That's interesting.

God also used the story of Job to teach us that he is not against us. And that's what God actually proves to Job at the end of the book by blessing him again. You know, sometimes we just have to be patient and wait for the answers.

But we're not very patient. We're kind of like the guy who prays for patience, and he says to God, he says, God, I need patience, and I need it right now. Right? We're kind of like that. But we need to be patient, just like Job.

Now, why am I saying that Job was patient? Well, you know, he was impatient in many ways, but in a way, he was patient. He did not end up cursing God. And so he was patient. Sorry. The book of Job reminds us and teaches us about so many important things.

It teaches us about patience. It also reminds us that we can be wrong and think that we're right. It reminds us that we can be wrong about others. It's also a section of the Bible, among many others, that teaches us not to judge without proofs.

It was written for our instruction. It teaches us about the importance to question the teachings of our culture. It teaches us that we can be wrong about God and his way of salvation, and at the same time be fully convinced that we got it.

It teaches us God's way of salvation. It also highlights the fact that Job forgave his three friends, so it teaches us something about forgiveness. It reminds us that we can be wrong with good intentions, and it reminds us that God doesn't make mistakes and that God is not against us.

And, you know, God wanted Job to get that. When God comes to Job towards the end and asks Job all kinds of questions, if you guys remember from the book of Job, I think that God was basically saying to Job, Do you really think I make mistakes?

Like, consider all of those animals that I created. Do you really think I make mistakes? God doesn't make mistakes, and God wanted Job to understand that. So, yeah, the book of Job teaches us a lot of things.

Job's Perseverance and the Lord's Compassion

When I prepared for this, I was a little surprised to realize that there is actually only one verse in the New Testament that talks about Job. Only one verse. It's James chapter 5, verse 11, and it focuses on the last two things that I've just mentioned, on the idea of patience and also on the idea that God is merciful.

The last two things that I read, not the last two things that I said because I went on a sidetrack, but anyways, the last two things that I read had to do with the fact that Job was patient and God is good.

That's what James chapter 5, verse 11 teaches. I'll read it to you.

It says,.

As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. And that's probably what God wants us to remember the most about the book of Job.

Patience and keep in mind that God is good, even if you don't see it in your life, you have to keep that in mind.

Let's pray.

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