This was taught at Christian Life Church in 1996.
Tonight I'm going to tell you about the Love of God, I'm going to tell it from a passage you may or may not find familiar, but it is one that shows it well. It is the story of a man who loved and trusted God and how God moved in his behalf. Some people have described the book of Job as a book of a man's troubles, but I see it as God's plan of redemption. No matter where we are, what we have done, God is here with us to protect, bless and love us, if we will only come to Him in the time of need.
In the book of Job the scripture says man's days are few and full of trouble, (Job 14:1) and there have been extensive theologies written, based on just this passage. Like any theology based on a single scripteure taken out of context, they aren't worth much. But King David said, "I was young and now I am old, but I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." (Psalm 37:25) Who is right? Both scriptures, but we must put them both in perspective. Man's days are few and full of trouble, but the scripture is also plain, "be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (John 16:33) and he went on to say, "greater things will you do because I go to the father." (John 14:12) We are not down trodden, we are the head and not the tail.
If you have two markers for your bible, I'd like you to put one just before Psalms 1, and one at Job Chapter 1. We've just marked the beginning and end of the book of Job. In my bible it's 44 pages of a total of about 1600, about 3 percent of it, a seemingly insignificant passage of the scripture. There are names like Bilbad and Zopher that appear nowhere else in the Bible, and Eliphaz and Elihu each appear only in two other books and are probably not the same men. Job appears in Genisis and Ezekiel but quite frankly I doubt it is the same man. The man described in the book of Job appears only in James and is referred to as "patient." But as a scholar of the Bible I must say that if God put the story there, he had a reason. God cautions us about any idle word, do you think He would act so imprudently? (Matthew 12:36) What is an idle word but one that has no value. Think of all of the trees that were cut down to make the paper for the millions of copies of the Book of Job. Think of all of the gallons of ink, all of the saved time. And forty four pages less to carry around. God had a reason, a plan for the book of Job. We're going to look for it tonight and even if we don't find it, we will see a good picture of a loving God in the process.
The book of Job begins with the description of the man. It continues with his fear, his time of testing, his recognition of God, his forgiveness of his friends and his final victory. It is a story of God's love, it is a story of God's forgiveness, of God's concern for His people. But the essence of the book is a Good and Perfect God, who loves and cares for His own. And it shows a real and awful devil, who would steal, kill and destroy. (Acts 10:38) And it shows a God that desires to bring healing and deliverance to His people.
If we want God's best we should look at those who have seen His best in their lives and look at how they lived to have that happen. Hebrews 6:12 says follow those who through faith and patience inherit the promise. And Job is one that inherited that promise, although he went through a time of testing to see it. Although he is not mentioned, I believe he is one of the cloud of witnesses that we should encourage us to remain faithful. (Hebrews 12)
Let's look at the man. In Job 1:1 through 5 we see a man, God calls him blameless and upright, one who feared God and shunned evil. This is restated by God when he proudly displays Job to the Devil in Job 1:8 and Job 2:3. God tells the devil, "have you not seen my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth." He was rich, he had eleven thousand animals, I would guess that $500 each would be a low estimate, camels more, sheep less, that would make his wealth at $5.5 million dollars today. Not bad. And that is for the animals, not anything else he had. A perfect and upright man that was wealthy, now that will upset some theologies.
His children were grown, the seven sons had homes of their own, they would take turns holding feasts invite their three sisters to party with them. If you look at verse five, the feasts look like they lasted more than a day. Now that is some partying. When the feasts were over Job would have his children purified. Job cared about his kids. He would get up in morning and sacrifice an offering for each of them, he wanted to be sure his children had a relationship with God. Verse 5 says this was Job's regular custom. With the nature of a Father that God has, don't you see why he smiled down on his son Job?
It looks like a perfect picture, doesn't it? Let's go to Job 1:6. Satan enters the picture. He says to God, "Touch you with all he has and he will curse you to your face." He makes accusations against Job and he asks for the right to take Job's family and possessions from him, to prove that Job's reason for serving God was only because of what Job got out of the relationship. Even as today, Satan is the accuser of the brethern. He comes in to accuse, to tear down, to set brother against brother, and in general reek havoc in the Body of Christ. And we sometimes help him do it. In a seemingly strange move, God gives him permission, but with the restriction that he cannot touch Job to afflict him.
The scripture says that Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. To do evil even Satan must go out of His presence. David said in Psalm 91:1-2 "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty. I will say of the Lord he is my refuge and my fortress, my God in him will I trust." And he goes on to describe the protection that is there. "A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at my right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee." (Psalms 91:7)
We generally don't have the marauding tribes and those enemies who seek our lives daily like David, but there are many dangers we face. Can I put that in 1996'ese? A thousand can get AIDS, ten thousand can get cancer, but these are not for you. Cars can crash, planes can fall out of the sky, but this is not for you. Now don't you dare tell me, "when its your time to go." That isn't scriptural, I don't believe it and the Psalms 116:15 says, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." About 20 years ago I heard someone teach that as God thought the death of the saints was dear to him, he would take them home early, misusing the word precious, to explain the death of a young person. Look at the same word in Psalm 72:14 - "He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight." And in I Samuel 26:21 King Saul says, "because you have considered my life precious." What does precious mean in this context? Costly. Expensive. Valuable. And it is the same word in the Hebrew. And that is what you are to the kingdom. Valuable. Expensive. Costly. You have been trained, equipped and can do the work of the ministry. Sure we're all at different levels and we have different skills. But armies have people that are trained to do different things and at different levels of skills and they consider them all valuable. You wouldn't send a navigator to dispose of bombs. And you wouldn't send a new recruit on a really tough mission. You'd send an experienced man or woman, and the less experienced would be sent on less difficult missions or sent along on a difficult with someone better trained to mentor them. Because each man is valuable. When the B-52 bombers were first built they were 8 million dollars, but if one crashed with the crew it was a 16 million dollars because it cost as much as the plane to train those 8 men. They try to protect those men. You think God wants you to die, just to bring you home a few years earlier? You forget, God does not measure time, but eternity. What benefit is there in bringing you home a couple of years sooner? And how much has God invested in you? How many hours one on one of the pastor's time, the elder's time, the home group leaders time, that Godly friend's time, your parent's time has been invested? I'll pick a low figure. Take that time and multiply it by $15 an hour. See how much God has invested in you. You think he wants to see you die early, or fall away or get discouraged and not do the work you were trained for? Come on, get real, think about this, God has got to be smarter than the U. S. Army. Why do many sleep, that is die prematurely? Because they do not discern the Lord's body. (I Corinthians 11:29) Because they were disobedient in fear. Because they don't see the value in their brothers and sisters in the Lord.
But you will say, what caused this, did Job fear? Look at Job 3:25, "What I have feared has come upon me, what I dreaded has happened to me." Job is condemned out of his own mouth.
Fear opened the door for Satan. And Satan was lurking at the door, waiting for an opportunity to come in. Genesis 4:7 says, "Sin lieth at the door." You think someone can't live with a Godly spouse and be led of the devil? Job's wife said, "..Dost thou retain thine integrity, curse God and die?" (Job 2:9) Where do you think Job's wife came up with that? You think she was smart enough to think that up on her own? Look back at Job 1:11 and 2:5. Satan told God, do this and Job will curse you to your face. Do you believe this is a fluke, or do you believe in the ability of Satan to use people to spread his message?
Then came a time of testing. And there are twenty eight chapters of dialog between Job and his three friends. If you read them carefully you might conclude that if this was what Job had for friends, he had no need to make enemies. These men reviled him, told him alternately it was his fault and that God wasn't just. Eliphaz in chapter 4 chides Job for instructing many and now being discouraged himself. In Verse 7 he states, "Who being innocent has ever perished." Zophar continues this line in Job 11:6 when he says, "God has even forgotten some of your sin." He manages to malign both God and Job in one statement, obliquely blaming God of not forgiving all of Job's sin or Job for having so much that God just forgot some. Eliphaz also comes in the place of Satan to accuse Job of being guilty of some sin. Bilbad in Chapter 25 asks if one can be righteous before God. In fact he degrades man in this chapter. And there is more, but we'll not take the time, if you like, read these chapters, but sort out what is really religious sounding and what is truth.
Job 2:11 says that in all this Job did not sin with his lips. Even in his dispair Job held to what God was to him. And this does not change in the remainder of the book. Job's faith at times wavered, but it never failed.
There is forgiveness in the Book of Job. Job pours out his complaint to God in several chapters and then God is faithful to His word, He gives words of correction and encouragement to Elihu for Job. He is firm with Job, but he speaks the truth of God. And Elihu is a man we should study because we later see him in several lights. He is a true friend. He points out Job's failings, true, but he speaks rightly of God. He speaks the truth in love. He gives Job the truth when the man needs to hear it. He does not pull back because he may be rejected in what he knows is truth. But before he begins his dialog he sets the stage. In Job 32:4 we see that he has sat on the sidelines and watched quietly because the others were older. He shows humility, respect, love. He gave them time to say what they would, then he spoke. In verse 6 he tells them age should speak but he is seeing their statements as wrong. (Read verses 6-22) What he is saying is that they being older should be telling the truth. Then in Chapter 33 he begins to tell Job about God. And in 34:12 he says, "it is unthinkable that God would do wrong, that the Almighty would pervert justice."
And in the Job 36 and 37 we see the wisdom of God come forth from Elihu with things that were not understood by Science at the time the book was written, not amazing to me, but certainly profound. The water cycle was not well understood at that time, but Elihu describes it profoundly. When Elihu is finished God speaks directly. I believe Elihu has prepared Job's heart to receive directly from God.
God asks Job some questions and in them shows that He is truly God.
And when Job gets hold of the truth, he runs with it. Look at chapter 42. Job says to God, "I know that thou canst do everything." Let me go on, think of what Job is saying. (read verses 1-6)
God goes to Job's three friends. (read verse 7-8) He starts out, "My wrath is kindled against you." He continues by telling him to take the sacrifice to Job and have him pray for them. Suppose you had just offended your brother or sister and God came and said, "Go have him pray for you, I'll accept his prayer, not yours." Wouldn't that humble you? Wouldn't that vindicate the one you hurt? But read the next line, "For him will I accept." and it gets worse, "Lest I deal with you in your folly." When these guys get to Job they have to be about ready to ask Job for forgiveness. We don't know exactly what happens but we do know that Job is faithful. First there is forgiveness, God sends the miserable comforters to Job to pray for them. How would you like to have your destiny in the hands of a man that you have maligned? But Job proves his righteousness, he prays for them and offers the sacrifice.
But let's look at the scene. We sometimes think we are wronged and God doesn't care and even if we think He cares we don't think He doesn't care how much being wronged hurt us. But in the Book of Job we see a picture of vindication, that God vindicates Job. The devil has accused him, his friends have accused him, and they have talked against Job and God. But God says, "Him will accept."
And God turns his captivity. He returns to Job twice that which had been taken. And Job dies seeing four generations, and being full of days. The reviling of his friends, the attacks of the devil, they are history.
This is my redeemer, this is the God I serve.
If you have not come to know this person, Jesus, and his loving Father, God, drop me a line, I'll try to help you walk the path to know Him.
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