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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/frank-sona/job/
Turn with me, please, to the book of Job, the first chapter of the book of Job. We've been hearing about the importance of the Word of God this morning, and one of the verses that was quoted by my brother Joel as he ended his message was that, "...Yea, they that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.".
That has always been true. This world and all the systems in it and the God of this world are all aligned against anyone or any company living a godly life. But one of the things that is absolutely essential in addition to the Word of God is the cultivation of using that Word of a personal relationship, a closeness, an intimacy with the God of the Word.
Not reading the Bible simply for knowledge sake, not reading it in an academic way, but in an intelligent, personal way that will be used so that I can know God in a greater way. So that whatever will happen, whatever will come into my life, whatever roadblocks, whatever bulldozers, whatever sledgehammers that may come, in any degree, I will be able by the grace of God to withstand.
We're going to read about such a man, Job. And I want to go down this passage and I want to look at the first and second and then just a portion of the second and then go to the last chapter as I close my message.
Verse 1. There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That is the land of Uz, not the land of Oz. There's nothing mythical, there's nothing legendary about this man. This was a real man in a real place.
Some commentators would suggest that the book of Job, which is one of the books called a book of wisdom books, there are poetry books and so on, but this is one of the wisdom books. It is giving us wisdom, much like Ecclesiastes and Proverbs.
And some would suggest that this is a mythical, legendary character. That's not the case. Ezekiel tells us, these three men, though these three men, chapter 14, verse 14, and he names not only Job, but he names Noah and then Daniel.
So he sandwiches this man Job in between two real men. There is no reason then to believe at all that while two men are real, one man is not. And as well, James refers to him. You've heard of the patience, the endurance of Job.
So he is a real man. Why I am emphasizing that is because of this. He had far less resources than we do. He did not have the word of God. Likely the book of Job is perhaps the first book in the Bible written, 1500 B .C. or so.
Job, when you read the book of Job, and it is a book that for some reason, I think, when I was younger, I have tended to ignore. Maybe you do that. But when you get older, you read it more and you appreciate it more.
Because here is a man who went through difficulties. And the older we get, the greater the difficulties we are going to get. That's not to say that young people don't go through difficulties. You do. But it's just a human condition that the more experiences we gain and garner, especially living godly lives, the more persecution, the more opposition we will encounter.
So we read about this man who was in the land of Uz. Now let me just, I'm going to go down and just make some comments on this to help us to put this in context. The land of Uz was a large area, a large territory in northern Arabia.
It was southeast of the Dead Sea. We know from this book of Job that it had walls and it had gates. So it had an operational defense system. It was a mighty land. It was a land where people would come to, second sons would make their fortunes.
People would go, political refugees would come. This is from history I'm actually quoting from. And it would be a land where, well, it was a land where one man lived. One man whose name is Job. One man who singled out.
It was a land of romance, of sorcery, of wisdom. It had everything going for it. Because it had this man whose name was Job who lived for God. Let me just say this. Wherever you are, make the land that you live in better by being a godly Christian.
Make the land that you live in, make the home that you live in, make the assembly that you are in, make it a land independent of all that there might be in the periphery which is temporal. That there will be an impact and an influence that will be made that can have eternal results.
By being a committed godly Christian. A believer. That was the kind of man Job was. And it says here, his name is Job. And the meaning of the name is, if you have a Newberry Bible, it says that his name actually means persecuted.
However, looking at the etymology of that name, that might not be the case. And going back deeper, some have suggested that the actual meaning of his name is whose father is. There's a question. Who is really his father?
He's a man that appears on the scene. We know virtually nothing about him. We don't know what tribe he is from. We don't know what background he has. We do know he has ten children. So very possibly his last name could have been Wobatney.
We don't know. But this man is someone who stands out on the scene. And he is singled out as someone who is one that we can identify with. And so let's read now. It says, that man was perfect. That doesn't mean he was sinless.
It just literally, the idea here is he was complete. He had all the boxes checked. He was a man that lived for God. He was upright. He was straight in that sense. And so as we read about this man, we read a little more.
He feared God. Keep that in mind. Four times in the first two chapters, the writer, whoever he is, is going to tell us that this is a man that feared God. You know what that means? It doesn't mean that we're afraid of God.
It doesn't mean that there isn't, I know we've used the expression, a reverential fear, an awe. That is true. But the expression often really tells us about an individual who gives God the first place.
Who gives God the place of primacy. The place of ultimate respect. That God means everything to him. And so he feared God. And not only did he turn to God in his relationship with him, but he turned away from what was evil and wrong.
So there are those two actions of this man. And it says, and there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. Ten children. His substance also was 7 ,000 sheep, 3 ,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 she-asses, and a very great household.
So that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east. So we look at this man. We see a number of things. Let me just pause for a moment. It says in terms of his standing and the setting here of the book.
It tells us he had a large family. So he was blessed that way. He was somewhat of a farmer. Because he had these oxen and she-asses and so on. And then it tells us also of sheep. And then it's financially, he was very great.
He was the greatest. He was the greatest. So when it comes to in terms of food, he had present all he needed. Between the sheep there was food and there was clothing. For the terms of the camels, he had unlimited transportation.
Living in a situation like this, he would have everything that would meet his need there. So he was not bound in terms of geographical resistance and location. In terms of oxen, he had those that would plow.
So that there was productivity assured for the land for the future. He had every box checked. All of this, as we are introduced in these first four verses, are setting up the stage for the tragedy that's going to happen.
This is the point of the writer. Now one of the things too, he had a great reputation. He was known in the area as well. In fact, when that word in the Hebrew says he was the greatest of all men in the area, the Hebrew word carries the thought of not only that he is older, so he is a man of age and experience, possibly going by the end of the book, he might have been about 60 years of age.
We know from the book at the end in chapter 42, he lived to be about, I would say, 200 -210 years. Which is a good old age for these men of this age. Also the Hebrew word in greatest suggests not only that he was older, but the word actually has the etymology of the thought of loudness.
So his reputation was known in the area. The name of Job sounded forth, a man that had a relationship with God. He was known. Now as far as his serving, let's go a little further. Verse 4, And his sons went and feasted in their houses.
So obviously they had their own houses. Every one his day. And sent and called for their three sisters to eat and drink with him. So I would suggest that the three sisters lived at home with their father.
They were the darling of his eyes. Then it says, and to eat and drink with him. Verse 5,. And it was so when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them. He has a proactive-ish interest in their lives as their father.
And I hope every father here does. Have not just a very specific and proactive interest in your children's lives, but in the same way and direction that Job did. Let's see what that direction was. It says that he sent and he sanctified them.
How did he do this? He rose up early in the morning. And he offered up burnt offerings. Now that's all that existed at this time. This was before the law. This was the primary and only offering of the time.
Sin offerings, trespass offerings, peace offerings, and so on, really didn't exist at this time. The burnt offering seemed to fulfill all of those categories at that time. The word literally means an ascending offering, ola, in the Hebrew, that which goes up.
And so Job is doing this in terms of his own family. Why? It says here, well, we'll read that. It says he rose up early and offered burnt offerings. And according to the number of them all for Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.
Thus did Job continually. Now let me stop there for a moment. So in terms of his serving, in terms of how he lived his life, he had a deep concern for the spiritual welfare of his family. Parents. I know as parents we generally have a concern for the welfare and the well-being of our children.
But specifically, what is that direction in your lives? Where is that going? Is it a spiritually based concern? Are there parents here today, and I'm digressing, I'm going down a little segue here, but it's in the passage.
So I'm not going out of the context. As parents, mothers, do you want your daughters to be godly women for the Lord, for God? Or are you wanting them to be someone that will be seen by the world and accepted by the world, not distinctive from it, not really representing God and the distinctiveness of his world and testimony for him, but someone that you are making and moving in accordance with the things of this world?
How they dress, how they talk, how they look, how they walk, how they act. Mothers, is that what you want? And believe me, I would feel much more comfortable if there were a mother up here saying that to you women, but that can't happen.
Fathers, what about your sons? Job's burning desire in his heart, and it is ironic, isn't it, because Job's burning desire is that they might not curse God in their heart, and yet Satan is going to turn around shortly, and he is going to bring that before God and say the very thing about Job.
He will curse you to your face! In contrast to what Job's fear was for his own children, that they would curse God in their hearts. The Hebrew actually means this. Job was concerned that they would speak lightly of God.
That's the meaning. Job was concerned that his children would speak lightly of God. There is a lot of lightness about God. A lot of casualness about God. How are our children going to be taught otherwise if we don't teach them as parents the weight, the significance, the reality, the holiness, the reverence, the seriousness of God?
Jesting, joking, making fun, poking, lightness. Job said, that is not what I want. I want my children to be the best for God. And so he had this on his heart. Now at this point, the narrative turns a little bit, and when we go into verse 6 now, what is happening?
We get a rare, rare glimpse of something that does not happen in our Bibles. The writer is pulling back the curtain, and he is not only allowing us a glimpse into the unseen world, but as far as Job is concerned, now get this, because this is where I want to go with this.
As far as Job is concerned, it is not only the unseen world, it is the unknown world. There are things we don't see, but we know because God has told us. But Job has neither privilege. He does not see, and in fact to the very end of the book, he does not even know why this is happening to him.
But the emphasis on this book, and this is where I want to go, is this. No matter what happened, he trusted God. He had confidence in God. Not only in the reliability of his God, but the goodness of his God.
There are people that are reliable, and they are reliably bad. You can always count on them for not showing up. Sounds paradoxical, doesn't it? You can always count on them for not coming through. But not here.
Not here. Job trusts God, no matter what happens. So he pulls back the curtain. Verse 6. Now there was a day when the sons of God, now these would be the angels, the sons of God are referred to that, both in this book and Job later on, the sons of God shouted for joy in the creation, going back to Genesis 6 again, the sons of God, a referential term to the angels and so on, and that is consistent in here.
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. Now please, when you study your Bible, notice the titles of God. You'll notice back in verse 1, it said Job feared God.
Notice here it says there was a day that when they came, they presented themselves before Jehovah, before the Lord. Now this is before the law was given. But there is still an aspect of that name that is different in its aspect than the name God.
God is the God of creation. The name God. Lord or Jehovah has to do with relationship with His people. Relationship with beings. And so here now it says there came this day. We don't know what this day was, but we do know one thing.
This is a secret council. There is secrecy here that the world knows nothing about. Perhaps it was an angelic meeting where the angels who are given their missions and responsibilities, they go back and forth in the presence of God.
This is not the throne of God. We need to be clear on that. This is the presence of the Lord, but it is not the throne of God. And I will prove that to you in a moment. Satan was cast out of heaven. The Lord Jesus says, I beheld Satan in the rebellion when Lucifer said, I will be like the Most High God.
And he shook his fist at God. He was the covering cherub. He was the highest, most intelligent created being. He sinned against God. I will be like the Most High. And God cast him out. And the Lord Jesus said, I saw that.
And his tail swept away a third of the stars, taking a third of the angelic host with him. From that moment, Satan was barred from the throne of God. But he could come into the presence of God as the accuser of the brethren.
That is his present desire. To accuse us. That is what he is going to do here. And so it says, as he comes, it says, then it says, verse, he came before the Lord and Satan came also among them. Now as we look at this, there's going to be two meetings.
There's going to be the meeting here in chapter 1. And there's going to be another meeting in chapter 2, verse 1. Just drop your eye there very quickly. Again, there was a day when the sons of God came.
So that's a second meeting now. And in between these two meetings, now we're going to notice what happens. And I want you to notice something else. The term here, Satan, the adversary, the one who is against us, has a definite article before it.
When it is called the Satan, and the word actually has not only the thought of the adversary, but one who opposes at law. He is going to come, and he is going to seek to use, this is a paradox, the liar is going to seek to use legitimate things against us.
And he's going to point the finger. And he's trying to point the finger at every one of us. And it says that in this day, while the angels came, Satan came also among them. This was not by invitation.
This was by way of intrusion. He is not welcome there. And so he comes. And there's a reason why the writer gives us this meeting, and explains to us, and unfolds to us, the somewhat public aspect of this meeting.
The first reason is, that he wants to characterize Job as innocent. Job has done nothing wrong. The second reason is, that he doesn't want to characterize God as evil, or demonic. And I say that reverently.
There is no evil. There is nothing in the purpose of God here, that wishes ill will for Job. In fact, it is very significant, that Satan, in seeking to bring Job down, is actually used, as an instrument by God, to bring more glory to God.
What this book is showing us, ultimately, is the sovereignty of God. And that sovereignty that is seen, wedded, melded with the actual goodness of God. That God is good. I want you to get, we say that, but do we know that?
Especially when we go through trials. Because there can be, the possibility, that in our minds, not only through the flesh, but through satanic opposition and attack, that we can become entertaining. Not convinced, but entertaining the thoughts, that God is not good.
We can actually get mad at God. Can I say that? You ever been there? I have. That's what this book is for. This book is not some parading before us, some paper saint. It's telling us of a real man, who had all the boxes checked, and then all of a sudden, wham, out of nowhere, comes this horrific storm of opposition.
Let's go down further. And he trusts God in it. Let's, verse 7. And the Lord said unto thee, Satan, thee adversary, whence comest thou? It almost reminds us of Genesis 3, doesn't it? Adam, where are you?
Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it, why did God ask Satan where he was? He knew where he was. Why did he ask him that?
You know why? Because he knew exactly where Satan was, and you know where Satan was? You can tell from his next answer. It says this. And the Lord said unto Satan, have you considered my servant Job? Now the Hebrew, the English reads as if it's one part.
The Hebrew suggests it's two parts. So let's read it like that. And the Lord said unto Satan, have you set your heart on my servant Job? That's the meaning. When he said, where have you been, Satan? He's basically saying, I know where you've been.
You've had your eye on Job. Have you set your heart on my servant Job? Then the next statement is this. There is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil.
Then Satan answered the Lord and said, Doth Job fear God for naught? Hast not thou made a hedge about him and about his house and about all that he has on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
But put forth thine hand. Notice what Satan is trying to do. Satan is trying to do two things at once. He is trying to misalign the character and reputation of God, number one. He's saying, you put forth your hand.
He says, I'll just sit back and watch. You do this. You put forth your hand. You punish Job. You pummel Job. Notice what happens now. He says, verse 11, But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse thee to thy face.
The Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only upon himself put not forth your hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. Let me stop there for a moment. Let me notice just two things.
Number one, he says here, when we talk about this, he says, have you considered, have you set your heart on? Listen, there is coming a day in every one of our lives when Satan will set his heart on us.
Ephesians 6 tells us that. The evil day. Specific moments in our lives when Satan attacks. Are you ready? Your knowledge, your appreciation, your reliability, your dependence on the Word of God, and wedded with that, the reliability and faith in the God who is good that you trust.
That is what we need at times like that. If Job did not have that, I would not be speaking about Job today. You would not be reading about Job. And we would wonder, where are any of us in light of that?
And so he says, interestingly, the end of verse 11, he says, you do this to him and he will curse you to your face. Again, the Hebrew is helpful here. It actually says, and see if he will not bless you then.
You see, you have to understand there is a little bit of play on the words here. Because the word bless and the word curse in the Hebrew are the same word. That is interesting. So Satan could be saying to God, he will curse you to your face.
Or he could be saying, if you do this, he will not bless you anymore. You know what Satan was saying to God is this, you have bought his worship. That is what you have done. You have made it in such a place for this man, what else is he going to do?
He has everything. But take away those things and see what happens. And not only, either he will curse you to your face, or what is even worse, maybe, in terms of the seeming legitimacy of things, and this is where we need to be careful of, is this, he will not bless you.
He will not speak well of you anymore. You know, there is even a danger of that. Just not speaking well of God. God is just some entity. God is there. But he is not really real to us. He is not really personal.
He is not the God that we depend on. He is not the God that we trust in. And so we move down a little bit further. Notice God also says to him, my servant Job. Have you set your heart on my servant Job?
What is very significant, ten times, ten times in our Old Testament, we have that expression. God singularly, specifically says of individuals, my servant. Begins with Abraham, my servant. Goes to Moses, my servant Moses is dead, he tells Joshua.
Interestingly, Joshua is not called that. Speaks of Caleb, my servant. The man most often associated with that term in our Bible is, of course, you know, David. My servant David. The nation of Israel is called, my servant.
A man named Eliakim, the man who had the key to the treasury, he is referred to as, my servant. Nebuchadnezzar was actually referred to as, my servant. Zerubbabel was considered, my servant. And, of course, the most blessed one.
My servant, the Lord Jesus. The branch. My servant. Job joins the illustrious ranks of individuals that have had the notoriety to be called, my servant. Now, keeping that in mind, Satan is going to say, he will curse you to your face.
A little later on, we're going to read, if you have any familiarity with the book, Job's wife is going to say, you should curse him to his face. So Satan is saying, he will. Job's wife is saying, you should.
And it says, in all this Job said not. But let me just go a little bit further, because I want to magnify, the writer wants to magnify the conditions of what's happening. Now we're going to go, it says, and Satan, went, the end of verse 12, so Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.
God says, go, you can go. Is this obedience on the part of Satan? No, absolutely not. It's opportunity. What I want you to see from that is this, even Satan, with all that he can do, is held in check, by the sovereignty of God.
We must realize that. That if we are living in the tenor of his will, in obedience to his word, in seeking to live out, in faithfulness to God, and things happen, what is the old expression? When bad things happen to good people.
We can rest in the fact, that God is good. God is in control. No matter what happens. And Satan goes out. It says here, verse 13,. And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house.
And there came a messenger. Now notice. Satan leaves. The day is idyllic. The sun is shining. They're enjoying their own company. Obviously this was a close-knit family. Brothers and sisters together.
It would seem that they got together for each of their birthdays. There was a love of their father. They have no idea what is going to happen. They have no idea of the storm that is about to break upon them.
And out of nowhere. It says this, verse 14,. And there came a messenger unto Job and said,. The oxen were plowing and the asses feeding beside them and the Sabians fell upon them. Notice the first thing that's taken out.
The oxen. I want you to notice what things are taken and what things are killed. It's very significant. I want you to also notice that when it comes to these messengers that come, they come from the north, the south, the east, and the west.
Job feels at this moment that all of heaven and earth is moved against him. He has nowhere to turn except to God. Notice it says,. The oxen. That takes away future productivity. There's no future now.
The oxen are gone. Who's going to plow? Who's going to provide fields that will be able to be planted? It says,. And the Sabians fell upon them. The Sabians were from the south. And it says,. And they took them away.
Yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword. And I, only I, am escaped alone to tell you. Verse 16,. While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said,. The fire of God, likely lightning, the fire of God is fallen from heaven and hath burned up the sheep.
The sheep are killed. Oxen were taken. Sheep were killed. The devil doesn't want the sheep around. The devil doesn't ever want sheep around. It says,. And the servants and consumed them. And I, only I, am escaped alone to tell them.
And now, with rapid fire succession, one writer has said that Job's, that these messengers did not come as single spies, but almost with the weight of a battalion. And it comes upon Job, while one is speaking, he's just, in a breathless way, he's giving his message, and another one comes along.
And he says,. While he was yet speaking, verse 17,. There came also another and said,. The Chaldeans made out three bands and fell upon the camels and carried them away. Yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword.
And I, only I, am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said,. Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's home. And behold, there came a great wind, likely a tornado, or perhaps a heavy, a heavy-induced Chiraco.
A great wind came from the wilderness, smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men. And they are dead. And I, only I, am escaped alone to tell thee. Then Job arose and ran his mantle, shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground.
All these things that Job is doing right now, they are not knee-jerk reactions. I want to impress upon all of us. They are not an emotional response. They are weighted. They are measured. They are according to custom.
Job is thinking these things out. This is a reaction to a man who is trusting God. He is not falling apart. We have a tendency to do that. We have a tendency to rely on ourselves. What am I going to do now?
What am I... Instead of... Stop! What is God allowing? What is God doing? And so it says here, he shaved his head, fell down upon the ground, and worshipped. He worshipped. The idea means to prostrate, fall down before God.
And he said, naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Notice three times here, he uses the personal name, the Lord. He does not use the generic term, God.
He says, the Lord, three times, the Lord, it says here, the Lord gave, the Lord take away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Almost an opposite of the Hebrew benediction of number six. That blessing. The Lord bless thee and keep thee.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee. This is an exact opposite of what the Hebrew wanted. And Job has lost everything. Property is one thing. But children?
There are some of you here that have lost children. It is unnatural. My sister died at Christmas time this year. And I watched my mom. What a heartbreak. One child. Job lost ten. Job lost all of them.
In one day. This is the event of one day. Verse 13 tells us that. A day. How long does the book of Job last? I'm not sure. I don't think it lasted that long. I don't think it went on for years. I would likely suggest to you maybe months.
A month or two. How could you hold up against such horrific trial? But look what Job says. And he worshipped. Chapter 2. And again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord.
And Satan, the Satan, came also among them to present himself before the Lord. Same response. Verse 3. The Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth?
A perfect and an upright man. One that feareth God and escheweth evil. And an additional characteristic of this man. He has come through with stars. And God adds now to the list of commendation of this servant Job.
What does he say? And he has integrity. He has integrity. Still he holds fast his integrity. Although you moved me against him to destroy him without cause. This trial came upon him without cause. You have moved me against him without cause.
But God is saying I'm sovereign. I'll allow this. Satan then issues two proverbs. Skin for skin. Verse 4. All that a man has will he give for his life. Those are actually two proverbs. What they're basically saying is that we are willing to substitute anything of similar or better value to preserve our own lives.
Even if it means our loved ones. That's what Satan is actually saying. He is so cruel. And God is so kind. Satan is the one that instigated this. Remember that. God allowed it. But Satan instigated it.
You know what the amazing thing is? That Satan is saying this. That he will do this. He will give up even his loved ones. You know what the ironic thing is? Job had no choice. Job didn't even have a choice in this.
And he's blaming Job. How far will this cruel wicked creature go? There are no limits. Unless God sets them. And God did set them. And he said, okay, you can't take his life. Let's go to the end of the book.
Because my time is gone really. Let's go to the last chapter. Chapter 42. Because I want you to see, as Paul Harvey says, the rest of the story. Now we needed chapters 1 and 2 to comprehend the spiritual dimensions in this trial.
That's important that we understand that. We've seen Job's setting, the stand. We've seen Job's suffering. Now I want you to notice Job's shining and Job's support here. Job never understands. He never gets to know.
God never tells him why this all happened. Chapter 42, verse 1. Then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that thou canst do everything. You know what that's an admission of? You are sovereign. You are God.
Ultimately, what that is going to do is preserve us in the trials that God is sovereign. He is omnipotent. And you know exactly what you're getting when you deal with God. You do not know what you're dealing with when you deal with the world, what you're going to get, or when you have dealings with things that you shouldn't be.
Because there is no neutral ground. There are no rules according to Satan. Remember that, young people. When you mingle with the world, there is no Switzerland. There's no neutral ground that you can kind of just stop and say, okay, you know what?
I'm safe here. No. With God, you do. You know. God operates within His own parameters. His own word. He does not violate His word. Satan has no word. Satan has no parameters. Other than the boundaries that he is allowed to move in by the sovereignty of God.
Then he says this, I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understood not.
I said things I shouldn't have said. I thought things I shouldn't have thought. Verse 5, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. You know what he's saying? I see it.
You know what that means? He has insight. Insight. I see it. I couldn't see it before. And you know what he saw? Two things. He saw himself. And he says, I don't deserve anything. If I got what I deserved, I came out naked.
I had nothing. I was absolutely and utterly dependent upon others. I couldn't do a thing. I couldn't have a thing. I couldn't grasp a thing. Everything I got was from God. And if I lose everything, and everything is taken away, so be it.
I had nothing to start with. But he says, I learned this, that there's a sinful nature in me. But he says, then I learned something else. That God is ultimately good and sovereign. And he says, I see it now.
Verse 6, Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. Job had three friends. Just to give you a little bit of a scenario that we didn't get into. Three friends. Great friends. You would not want friends like this.
Okay? They came to him, and they were, you know, you might as well, I don't know, you might as well toss a grenade at your friend. And that's what they were doing. They said, let us get together. Let us go to Job.
Let us console him. Let us comfort him. And then they start blaming him. What did you do, Job? There had to be something. There's something that you did. And not only are they, now they're tossing against him blame.
They're questioning his beliefs. They're adding additional burdens. They are of no help. His wife now, let me just say one thing and back up for a moment. His wife says, curse God and die. And I know we've always looked at her in a negative way.
And Job does say, you're one of the foolish women. And that is, in the Hebrew, that word for foolish is perhaps the strongest word you can get for fool. He's being very critical of her. He's actually, he's correcting her.
He says, you are thinking wrong. And that is the only time in the book that this woman, his wife, appears until the very end, when we read that Job has 10 more children. Same wife. It would seem to me that she listened to Job.
I would like to think good of people. And very possibly, I wouldn't be dogmatic, but she listened to Job's counsel. And she too repented. The point here that I want to make is this. What Job went through and came out of with flying colors was not only used to give Job insight into God and his character and appreciation for God and produced worship in Job's life.
But it was the means of restoring his three friends. Because let's see what happens here. Verse 7. And it was so that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two friends.
For you have not spoken of Me, the thing that is right, as My servant Job has. Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks, seven rams, and go to My servant Job and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering.
And My servant Job shall pray for you. For him will I accept, lest I deal with you after your folly. They're almost thinking, we have seen what happened to Job. We don't want this to happen to us. We will do whatever you say.
We will acknowledge Job was right. And then it says, In that you have not spoken of Me, the thing which is right, like My servant Job. So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, Zophar the Namathite, went and did according to the Lord as the Lord commanded.
And the Lord accepted Job. And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when He prayed for His friends. Wow. He prayed. This is the turning point. It seems that when He prayed for them, then they were restored too.
Do you see what's happening at the end of this book? Do you see the good that's coming out of it? Because there's even more to come. Turn the captivity of Job when He prayed for His friends. Also the Lord gave Job twice as much as He had before.
Then came there unto Him and all His brethren and all His sisters and all that had been His acquaintance before and did eat bread with Him in His house. I guess the legitimate question we could ask is this.
Why didn't they come to war? You know, sometimes people don't know what to say. They don't know what to do. His friends just sat with Job. Job actually in the beginning of the book goes and he abhors himself.
He goes and sits in the place of dust and ashes. Seven days. Seven days, he goes outside the city, sits down on a heap of ashes, and his friends sit there with him for a week and they say nothing. But then they start saying things.
And the wrong things. He gets twice as much. The Lord blessed him. Gave him ten more children. Verse 13. Let's go to verse 13. More animals and so on. Verse 13. He had also seven sons and three daughters and He called the name of the first Jemima and the name of the second Keziah and the name of the third Kerenhapok.
And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren. And then we have Job's life. It's interesting. The names of the daughters are given.
One would have to tell us about flight. The other would tell us about fragrance. And the third one would tell us about fashion. We have one daughter who is named as a dove. Think of flight. The lightness.
The skies. Keziah we think of Cassia. It's the cinnamon. It's the fragrance. The sweetness. The fragrance. And the third one, we might not want to look at this name, but the name literally means the blackness of like rouge makeup that would be put on the woman's eyes for fashion.
They are presenting in these three women the blessedness of His family. Now you say, ten? But didn't it say that God gave Job twice as much? And He had the same wife. How do we get twice as much if we have the same amount of children?
Wouldn't He have had twenty children? Well don't forget, ten are already in heaven. He's got ten more now. That makes twenty. And there's a fragrance here. There's a wonder here. Support. Let me just end with two things here.
Job's wife, perhaps she said it out of care for him. Curse God and die. Looking at him now, as now Satan put his finger on Job's life, he's actually sitting in a place where he's covered with boils. I don't know if you've ever had a boil.
I mean, some of us get a mosquito bite and we're dying. Job had boils all over his body. When he was sitting in this place with ashes, it would likely be a place too where old pottery was thrown. There were shards.
He would pick up one and he was scraping to try to get some relief. The pus was oozing. The man is suffering. And perhaps his wife said to him, listen, why are you holding on? Let go. Die. What kind of wife would you be to your husband if he was going through that?
I want to speak to wives just for a moment. Dear wives, what do you tell your husband? How do you encourage him to stay the course? How do you support your man spiritually? How do you discourage him spiritually?
Do you encourage him? Wonderful thing. Wonderful thing to have a wife who does that. Who supports you. Who encourages you. Who stands by you. Who does not tear you down. Who does not take you down. But who makes you and gives you the strength to stand for God.
We need, us men need essentially women like that in our lives. If we do not have that, it is extremely difficult to live for God. Especially when you live with that person. And vice versa. Wives, or let me say this, young sisters, what kind of a husband do you want?
What kind of a man do you want to be your husband? Do you want a man like Job? Do you want a godly man? Or do you want a man simply that you can have fun with, you can do your own things, you can go your own way, and you know what, you will have the house you want, you will have the life you want.
Or do you want a life that will count for God? Because ultimately that's where this book brings us to. He was able to restore his friends. He was able to encourage and correct his wife in a right way.
And in the end, they all lived more than happily ever after. Even though they suffered so much. May God help us. I'm sorry I took a little bit more time than I wanted to, but it is essential that we get to the book, like our brother has told us, others have told us, and cultivate a relationship with our God on a personal level so that what happens when the opposition, when Satan comes, when the world comes, when even there are things within our own flesh, we will be able to recognize, realize, and have the resources and dependability on our God who is good and his word that is true.