Job Final

Then it's on Joe Biden. I got to do this before I get in trouble Yeah, let me settle down Boys go back to let's go back to the champion

Oh My goodness Then job answered the

Lord and said I know you could do everything and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you

You asked who is this who hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what

I do not understand things too wonderful for me, which I do not know listen Please and let me speak

You said I will question you and you will answer me and I've heard of you by the hearing of the ear but now my eyes see you therefore

I appall myself and repent in dust and ashes And so it was after the

Lord had spoken these words to Job that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends for you have not spoken of me

What is right as my servant Job has? Now therefore take for yourselves

Seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering and my servant

Job Shall pray for you and I will accept him Lest I deal with you according to your folly because you have not spoken of me

What was right and my servant Job has? So Eliphaz the

Temanite, Bildad the Shuite, and Zophar the Naamanite Went and did as the Lord commanded them for the

Lord had accepted Job and the Lord Restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends

Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before And all his brothers all his sisters and all those who had been his acquaintance

Before came to him and ate food with him in his house And they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversity that the

Lord has brought upon him Each one gave him a piece of silver and a ring of gold Now the

Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning for he had fourteen thousand sheep

Six thousand camels a thousand yoke of oxen and one thousand female donkeys He also had 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 kareen hapuch and all the land were

Uh were found no women as beautiful as the daughters of job

And their father gave him an inheritance among their brothers After this job lived 140 years and he saw children and grandchildren for four generations

And job died and was full of days Jackie could you close that door?

Would you mind? Thank you. It might sound so loud. Yeah, it'll muffle a little bit So it's interesting how this uh summary is brought

Out and and there are some things that I think we could consider. Um Um, as I said his great question is now answered it's interesting to me and and let me just Point this out how

Was god angry? because of the words that His friend spoke to job

That's not what it says and it's interesting how it says it right because god was angry because they had not spoken of god in the right way and it wasn't necessarily the

The thing although they targeted job with those words It wasn't necessarily that but was rather the fact

That that his three friends and I and I think this is a lesson for us his three friends assumed that they understood

What the providence of god was doing and that's where I think many times we can go off the tracks

In other words, we see situations whether it's in our own life or in other people's lives And and it's hard not to make an assumption and that assumption sometimes is um based on solely externals as it was with his friends because they saw job situation and they

In their mind they were quick to react and they said your situation is because you've sinned And and as we we've looked at and talked about a number of great afflictions

Are not always a result of great sin And um some of god's greatest servants

Have been afflicted in the greatest of ways and certainly you could think of the apostle paul how he was

Um, and that's why I think in part he had to defend himself so often even as we've been talking about in second corinthians that that paul was accused of not really being an apostle because how could an apostle possibly be um, you know left shipwrecked and thrown in prison and be beaten and all those things and so people made makes the made these assumptions and That's one of the issues god is angry with his friends

Because they have incorrectly spoke about him And I think that's a good

Object lesson for us that we be careful When we speak for god um

Many times we speak about things for ourselves and and we need to be careful with that But in reality

If we're going to be those who speak about god and his truth, we really need to be careful

Remember, that's why it says Let every man be what? Slow to read slow to speak and what quick to hear and again, um, even as you think about it in in the

Outworking of whether you're a teacher or a preacher or whatever way You have a ministry that you really need to be careful about what you're saying because again god doesn't just Say, oh well

Uh, oops, they made it. They just they're bad But god holds us in account for what we do now in this final chapter

I've noticed how job's attitude seems to have Um drastically changed.

Let me just read the first seven verses well first six verses because I think this

Let me go back to um Go back to chapter 40 real quick.

Like I said, we're going to finish this morning Look at chapter 40. This is the after the first time that god calls job into question and says moreover the lord

Answered job and said shall one who contends with the almighty correct him

And he who rebukes god let him answer it now look at the response to job

In verse three job answered the lord and said behold i'm vile. What shall

I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth once I have spoken, but I will not answer yay twice, but I will proceed no further now

I take that to be an act of if you will a confession on job's part that he has

Spoken incorrectly that he's spoken at a turn that he has in a sense Miscalculated what god has been doing in his life

But when you get to chapter 42 now and we read these first six verses to me

There seems to be a much deeper And much more sincere confession on job's part

So look at chapter 42 verse one job this time. He answered the lord and said

I know You can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you

You asked who is this who hides counsel without knowledge and I have Uttered what I do not understand things too wonderful for me

Which I do not know listen and please let me speak You said I will question you and you shall answer me

And he says this in verse five. I've heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes cease therefore

I Abhor myself and I repent in dust and ashes and there seems to be a level to me

Of sincerity on the part of job, and I think that's partly why God In that sense questioned him twice and said stand up.

Do you remember? Um the account of peter when he denied the lord, right?

And and you remember the the in the first part of it He had actually come to the point of cursing about god after he was questioned by the girl and Aren't you a galilean and you were with him and all that?

But it wasn't really too far later on in peter's life that I think

He truly understood although he did leave and go and he he was weeping and he was sorrowful

But I do think there's times in our lives where things um Things are not truly settled until a later point in other words, there are things in our life where we

Might have initial sorrow And we might even have initial repentance but At times later on in our lives things come back in a much deeper.

We regret Much more and I think it's after we grow and and we

This there's a time lapse maybe I could say it that way and that you and I need to try to um

Act in a way that is truly Submissive to god and I do see this in job and his words seem much humbler more more um

Less complaining Now, I know none of you complain But I do

Um, and if I said I didn't then not only would I be a complainer i'd be a liar But we all complain we all mutter and utter things in our own mind in our own heart

About our situation about somebody else's situation and why does this and why does that and go on and on and on?

and God has finally brought job to I think a much deeper relationship and I don't know about you, but a deeper relationship with the lord

Is worth a thousand tribulations Because if you think about it, um, what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world loses his own soul?

and and I think at times we consider The lives of those that we love and that we care about and Honestly our prayer would be lord, whatever it takes to get them to a right place with you, isn't that worth much more than just Um, you know lord have give them a prosperous life

A prosperous life is great and i'm not opposed to it. I mean i'm I'm, i'm one that could say

I would like to have a prosperous life But a prosperous life only if it comes with the knowledge of the lord, right?

Because again just like the fool who built his bonds and um

You know you fool tonight your soul will be required of you And i'll bring it up and even as my

My son got into an accident last week and and the first thing was uh, are you okay and and It really was the mercy of god because if you saw how his car was totaled

I mean At 75 miles he blew a tire went right over the ditch. The embankment was deep.

He flipped over. He's on his roof He's sliding down. He hits the trees and he said to us he said

The first thing I saw when I woke up was the red cross in front of the baptist hospital on dunn avenue because he was

Right there And he walked into the hospital Actually, but the fact that he only had muscular issues and no bones broken and Again all these things that come upon us friends.

Um, they come for a purpose and We don't always know the purpose Um, but that doesn't mean that there isn't a purpose

So as as god has worked with joe over this time and by the way, I don't know how long this all took

I've never been able to figure out how long joe suffered But I know it wasn't a week or a short period of time

It was an extended period of time and it's interesting if you look at the the last verse, uh, verse 16 in chapter 42

He lived 140 years in sorrows. This is after it's all done. He lived 140 years saw his children and his grandchildren for four generations

So not only did god bring him through the fire and test him but when god finished with him, he allowed him

I mean By the way, I think this is a time stamp for when this book was written if you think about it

That this was written I think in the early patriarch or the late patriarch time zone

Because again, it's not normal To live 140 years after and we don't know how old he was when he started this this gig right, so he could be 200 years old and um again,

I think that takes us back to when it was written because if some are right that he was a descendant of perhaps neho or or or somewhere along the line in the

The um the ancestors of um Or the ones that followed abraham that that's the time zone in which this book was written

And there are things that are missing in the book that um Would really help us understand that he understood a whole lot about Uh, what was going to take place?

But nevertheless, he lived 140 years He saw his children and grandchildren for four generations

And so if you think about it some say a generation is 30 years some say a generation is 40 years um, but nevertheless he died and um

And then it says he died in an old and full of full of days And by the way, in case you don't know mary mccray

Went home to be with the lord saturday night So, um just we need to pray for No, it wasn't

I think it was saturday morning sister Yeah Yeah, it was it was either

Side, I believe it was it was saturday morning um, so we need to pray for karen and darlene her daughters is um, you know

Although I think how old was mary mary had to be what? Oh, she was right. Yeah, definitely, baby

Did you Yeah, she's she was 91 92 somewhere and she wasn't uh, a spring chicken, you know

I'll always remember her because of what she told me that she was called in high school sample size because she was so small

And she was she was a little nut but she was uh, she wasn't feisty little thing and she loved the lord there was no doubt about Yeah Yeah, I bet she dealt with that she told me she dealt with that in school and everything and But you know what?

She has her reward now, right? No more issues Her fullness of days have ended nevertheless going back to what we read um

So god knew from the beginning Remember what

I said that god had said have you considered my servant job and god called him an upright and just man god knew

What he was doing with job and that god was going to bring job and that's this

The great thing about job. Remember i've said that to us a number of times job is never mentioned in the in hebrews 11

Which is the great chapter of faith? But job is mentioned in james as an example of what?

patience Endurance long suffering and so you and I have to think about it.

Um the We have to be able to press on and realize that one day someday

We'll get our reward And that all that comes in between our birth and our death

If we're a child of god, is god working in us? number one for his glory

And number two to prepare us if you think about it The things that we go through in this life prepare us to be with the lord

And until god is done in that preparation We're about as invincible as anything or anyone

Again, again, we're immortal Until god is done with us. And so, um interesting that he allowed job all these years to um to live upon the earth and I'm just making random comments, but just to tie things together look at verse 15.

Um well verse 13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters.

How many sons and daughters did he have at the beginning? Seven sons and three daughters

So so this dude had 20 kids at least And here's the thing.

I don't know if this is from the same wife There's no real clear indication because you remember what

The first wife had said right She said curse god and die She and and then he said you speak like a fool

And then there's only one other time and I believe it's in chapter 37 where it says My breath is an offense to my own wife

But nowhere in the book. Do we get a detailed understanding of the status of his marriage?

And so I don't know and I don't want to speculate whether this was um The same wife or if this is a second wife or what the situation is, but I do know this because it's there god not only

Restored to him what he lost But if you consider it

Although he gives them the same amount of kids um that he had

In verse 12, it says the lord blessed the latter days of job more Than his beginning and he had fourteen thousand sheep in Beginning he had seven thousand

Six thousand camels in the beginning. He had three thousand One thousand yoke of oxen in the beginning at five hundred and a thousand female donkeys and god doubled everything now

And I think we talked about this just a little bit last week Does this prove what his friends had said?

Because if you remember what his friends have said, they said if you will turn and repent god will bless you

And that was the great issue with with the friends saying You've been evil.

Therefore in that sense god's judgment's coming. You need to repent and if you repent God will restore what you've lost.

Is that is this a vindication of his friend's speech? I think not.

I I don't was god under obligation to restore these things to job No And the reality is god's not under obligation to restore anything to any of us

Right god does whatever he pleases to do in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and None could stay his hand and none could say what are you doing?

And so when you think about it I would think that even his friends

Would misunderstand the fact that god had blessed him but what also was extremely interesting and Just look at it, um

In verse 7 of the chapter 42 and so it was that after the lord had spoken these words to job basically god deals with job first Then he said

To eliphaz the temanite my wrath is against you is aroused against you and your two friends for you not spoken of me

What is right as my servant? Remember I asked you last week if you thought this was was this an audible session?

Did did others did did? Eliphaz actually hear the voice of god that says my anger is aroused against you.

I don't know I do think there must have been some manifestation because if you remember even in the beginning when god

Appears it says god came out of the whirlwind and usually when there was a whirlwind It was a display whether it was the the shekinah glory crowd or whatever it was

But I don't know if god Said this to them audibly or not. Nevertheless He communicated in such a way to eliphaz who was

Basically the spokesman for the three so -called friends That god wasn't pleased with them and Verse eight is again

Pivotal pivotal in our understanding. This is was god's instruction to the friends

Now therefore take for your soul or take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant job

And offer up for yourselves a burnt offering and my servant job shall pray for you god required them

To go to job and this had to been um, I believe this had been extremely humiliating to them that They thought that they had the upper hand

And they come to find out that. Um God's not been pleased with anything that they said

And they spoke a lot of truth didn't they sure they did they spoke about the creations and and the

Outworkings of god and the providence of god and the heart of man and they said a lot of things that were true

But god was not pleased with them. And to me that even is an indication that we not only have to speak the truth

But I think we need to be really concerned about how we think about the truth. In other words, do we just um

Do we just spit out the word of god and just With a heart that doesn't

That isn't equal to the words that we speak. And so as god he sends them to His servant job and it's interesting that he calls job his servant

And you know what if you think about it everyone and everything is god's servant

And We we realize that and you can take this and you can Open it up further and further.

I mean You can go to something like romans 9 where where even that is brought up where it says

That god in that sense he used pharaoh For what? Why did god raise up pharaoh?

Remember remember what it says in romans? It says even for this Purpose i've raised you up that I make my make my power and my wrath shown so god uses everyone and everything

And in the providence of god, and and I don't I don't even know how we could begin to understand.

How does god do all this? Just think about it Yeah, he didn't cut him off Yeah, he could have certainly cut them off Because it says that god was angry with him, right?

Yeah, he wasn't happy with these guys if they do these things Then I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly

Yeah, and is it interesting that he says I will accept job's prayer He doesn't say

I will accept your prayer He says I will accept job's prayer. So what what does that?

Help us understand that in this sense Job had to act as the priest on behalf of the three friends

He's the one that has to approach god because he's the righteous one And god has vindicated him.

And so he says to the friends Your prayer and i'm i'm saying it that your your prayers are not going to get it

You need job's prayers and so he does act as a priest if they didn't go some sort of humility and all that Oh, yeah

Yeah, i'm i'm sure their heads were hanging. Yeah, I don't think that they could have uh thought anything else at this point other than the fact that um in that sense they have done harm to job and now god is

In that way vindicating job and god's telling them that um

You got this all wrong boys and you need to go to job and Um, and it's interesting how they

He says I will accept him in verse eight lest I deal with you according to your folly so again job has to be the intercessor

Of the three friends And in that sense I can say that I believe that job is a picture of christ

Because who makes intercession for us? Have we not all sinned have we not all

Committed folly and if it wasn't for the lord, jesus christ who makes intercession for us

Remember in john 17 I pray for them I pray not for the world, but for the ones that you've given me if it wasn't for the intercession of christ

Where would we be? We have no inherent, right? We have no inherent integrity or righteousness to approach god.

So we need Someone in between right and so certainly job to me in Some ways is a type of the lord.

Jesus in that he himself Has to make intercession because god will only accept job's prayer

Just like god will only accept his son's Righteousness because we have no righteousness, right?

We have nothing Like the hymn nothing in my hands. I bring simply to the cross

I cling right nothing in and of myself worthy of god looking at me and so Basically If you think about it everyone apart from christ is what under the wrath of god

And if if and it's no different to me than what was in egypt

On that night of the passover What was it that saved them from the wrath of god?

Was it simply because they were jewish? Think about it I say no

What saved them was the blood? That was sprinkled on the doorposts.

That was the only thing because were they not guilty? Sure, they were they were sinners and they were the the blood

Allowed the angel of death to pass over them So in that sense, that's a picture right of the work of christ that he is the one

And it's his blood that keeps us From having the wrath of god poured down on us

And so that's why when you think about it when we talk to people about If you will christianity the essence of christianity is the person and work of christ

And that without him there is there is nothing that we have. What are we going to claim? Remember that's even jesus

Um Said that in matthew He says many are going to come to me in that day and say lord lord Haven't I done this and haven't

I done that and I can even cast out demons and i've done many wonderful works. And what was the response?

Depart from me. I never knew you so again God points us to joe god points his friends to joe and God points us through joe to christ

Also interesting i'm gonna get a few minutes left Is that god never really deals with elihu think about that?

And I think there's a reason why or at least partial reason for us that we can glean from Is that elihu did not take the same road that the three friends did?

The three friends were absolutely certain joe bussin and you getting what you deserve

Elihu took a different road and he actually Promoted the glory of god and he actually treated joe with more um care

Because remember what he had said to joe joe Listen to me. I'm trying to help you.

I'm acting as an intercessor, which ultimately of course No one could be the intercessor but christ, but nevertheless god never charges elihu would folly

And so again to me it helps me understand I'm never going to do everything perfectly right agree.

None of us are but The closer we come to truth

The better it is not only for us, but for those who hear us And that's why truth is so important You know people have that thought, you know,

I don't really need doctrine. I need experience And my answer to that is baloney Right because god has not given us a spirit of fear, but what power love and a sound mind

I was I was reading romans the other day and I was reading romans 10 where paul says How he cares for his countrymen the jews being a jew and he says

I Declared you they have a zeal But not according to knowledge

And so when you think about that and I look up that word zeal because I didn't know what the original word meant

And he really meant they were they were hot with desire And and you know what?

That's another thing being um Being zealous for the lord is great

But we need to be zealous with knowledge Right again, that's the whole problem with this experience movement that's out there

Doesn't matter whether it's attached to knowledge. It just matters whether I experience it, right? The problem with that is experience most of the time comes from feeling.

Yeah, absolutely, right, you know, I mean Emotions emotions and heart and all that and you know what the bible says about Following your heart.

Yeah, you know the heart is deceitful, right? And so when you think about that again There are so many things in the book of job if you think about it, which was written millennium ago

That we can actually glean from Now not every single word and not every single we can't fully understand

This situation, but there are things that we can extract out of it, but I do think experience has a place, right?

Oh sure it does. Yeah, sure it did. Everybody has an experience what they experienced Coming to the knowledge of god.

Yeah, you know but totally based on experience and getting your

I don't even know the right word for it is Basing your understanding basing your life basing

What your assurance is never going to come from from emotion. You're right, right from experience our

Assurance comes from the settled truth of the word of god that when jesus said it is finished

It was finished Yeah, and and again not dry doctrine but a doctrine

That Is practical In our lives and that's why you think if you think about I know i'm off track, but i'm finishing up.

So, um If you think about the epistles in particular paul's epistles

And if you think about how they're set up they're framed In galatians ephesians philippians colossians the thessalonians or almost all those and even in some of the other ones

What always is coming for what always comes first doctrine matter of fact even in the book of romans paul takes 11 chapters

And then he lays out doctrine doctrinal truth doctrinal truth and then in romans 12

Paul says therefore I beseech you brethren by the mercies of god. He then turns to the practice.

So Knowledge is is necessary For there to be right practice and again

The in in ephesians the first couple of chapters of doctrine doctrine doctrine, especially in ephesians, right?

It's the sovereignty god and his predestination and then in in chapter four

Of ephesians says therefore brethren That I beseech you to walk worthy

Of the call and then he goes on into all those situations, right? And then he deals with kids and anger and marriage and Same thing in the other epistles.

So doctrine will always precede or doctrine should precede practice and so nevertheless um,

I think that's even the way this is set up only in a very uh, brief way, so We only got a few minutes left

I wonder what joe uh reflected on again in these I mean 140 years 140 years.

I don't care if their bodies were Stronger apparently his body was stronger than then than normal to have 10 kids after uh

Think about abraham abraham. It said that abraham was past And sarah was past age of having children and yet um

Old joe, I mean he in That situation he's still popping him out.

Um I don't I know I know that doesn't sound right on mother's day But Um, he didn't pop him out anyway, so But you get my you get my drift even though it's not a good drift

So god accepts joe's prayer and god prays our joe prays for them and I do believe that that was the very thing that um

That Caused god's anger to to be Nothing else delayed because I don't know the state of the three friends to you

I don't know if these three friends were believers It doesn't really give us clear you might say well they spoke so much truth

But listen, a lot of people speak a lot of truth that don't know the lord Because it's not about It's not about knowing about the lord

It's knowing the lord right and that was the very thing that god was bringing out in joe he persevered again

I don't know about you. But if you think about all the things that joe suffered is is his his loss of His wealth his loss of his health his loss of his wife his loss of his children his loss of his integrity in the world his loss of of being esteemed a a a great person,

I mean He he took a deep dive And yet at the end

God rewarded him and in a way that um It allowed him to prosper and have those, um things that he lost restored and And I guess

I'll end it this way God is not obligated to Give us an easy life right

But god and i'll say it this way god is obligated through christ to keep us

Until that day And he does god is faithful. That's what it says in philippians.

God is faithful who began this good work in you and will what? Complete it until the day of christ.

And so you and I um has the The saying goes some by the fire

Some by the flood Some through great trial, but what all through the blood?

and so, um We'll leave that as a summary. I've enjoyed having time together to uh to look at this and um, so next week we'll go in there with the

Dr. Kalia and um Jump into daniel and then um

Revelation I will say this It's gonna be crowded in that room so, um

You come late. You might be standing Um And I and one more time be careful those microphones are all lit up up there hanging from the ceiling

Thank you for your studies good good i've enjoyed i've enjoyed doing it I Hope we can uh at some time.

I think after revelation we'll consider Adding a different study so we have some options, but if I know brother mike

It's going to be a while before he finishes daniel and a while before he finishes

Revelation and i'm sure revelation is going to be real interesting Yeah, yeah, so okay, let's just close with a word of prayer and we're done

Father thank you for our time together lord. Um I thank you that you're the great god over heaven and earth and lord that you do it all

And that we simply need to trust you no matter what in our lives whether it be um good times in our mind or bad times or hard times or happy times

Lord one day someday. Uh, we'll see you as you are and we will we will enjoy forever

Through the finished work of christ now be with us this morning be with The mothers that are here be with those who have not a mother

Now lord and and there are those that are suffering lord because of this situation and that situation in their lives