The book of Job answers one of the most common and important questions: Why do the righteous suffer? Thankfully, God places high priority on answering this question by giving 42 chapters of Scripture to walk us through both the questions and the answers regarding suffering. The book of Job also explains what we ought to learn about suffering. Job teaches us that we ought not to be presumptuous as we counsel our friends who are suffering. It is clear that through Job’s suffering, God was doing something very different than what Job’s friends thought. 

Okay, are you ready? Let's go. Lord, again we praise you for the majesty of your word, the depth of it, and for this book of Job that takes us into the deepest recesses of your motivations and exposes man's ignorance of his own situation and the situations of others. Lord, that you would use this time now to help us to understand our ways and your ways regarding suffering. Amen.

Job, Job, what a fantastic, majestic, complex, beautiful, unparalleled testimony. The focus of Job is to answer the question that everybody asks, why do the righteous suffer? Or even broader, why does anybody suffer? If God is a loving God, then why is there suffering in this world? And so the focus of this book is what Job and his friends learn about suffering.

And God places quite a priority on answering this question. I think we should be grateful for that. While almost everyone in the world asks this question, I think that we should remember that God has devoted 42 chapters in his Holy Word to explain the answer to the question. It matters to God that human beings understand why there is suffering. God doesn't turn a blind eye at all toward the question.

So Job possessed everything that most people desire to possess. He was godly, he was wealthy. Job was compassionate, he was wise, he was confident, he was generous, he was pure, he was influential, he was happy. He had a large family that seemed to be living in harmony. He was a godly shepherd of his children, he was diligently and regularly involved in their lives, bringing spiritual counsel, dealing with their sins.

It was his greatest fear that they would fall into sin. When we pick him up here, his children are grown, they have their own household, so he's somewhat advanced in age, although we don't really know how old he is. But even though he's at the peak of his productivity and his glory, overnight everything is destroyed. It begins with his family and his assets evaporate. His health that he enjoyed all his life long is completely eroded and he finds himself on an ash heap in excruciating pain and not even able to hardly think straight about it.

Although he does have a lot to say about it. And why did it all happen? It all happened as a result of a conversation that God had with the devil over Job's faith. Satan was out to prove Job's faith was fake, that Job only loved God because of his wealth because he had the shining stars upon him and everything was going well The devil wanted to belittle God At the end of the day it was the devil that's belittled And so his trials settle in and we find this dialogue. Now, he has three over-simplistic, presumptuous, and even harsh counselors.

And they're obviously well informed about the things of God. They've been instructed in important categories of theology. Their names are Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar and Elihu. Now Elihu is the wisest of them all, we'll get to that later. And finally God counsels all of them and he clears up the matter, he separates the wheat from the chaff in all of their counsel.

And it's very clear what God is saying. He brings them all to a sense of closure about this question. So what we find here in Job is a display of how the godly sometimes suffer and why. Job tells us how the godly suffer. Ecclesiastes shows us how the worldly can sometimes prosper because it happens both ways.

Now the book brings us to a number of reasons for suffering and I'm gonna list six of them for you right here because when you read the book when you read these 42 chapters you'll encounter all these different reasons for suffering. God first of all causes suffering in our lives to humble us. You'll see that in chapter 22 verse 29. Also it's helpful to compare this with Deuteronomy 8 verse 2. Number 2 He causes us to suffer in order to test us.

And you can read about that in chapter 2 verse 3 and Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 2. The third reason for suffering is that we would rearrange our priorities and you can read about that in chapter 42 verses 5 and 6 in Deuteronomy 8 3. Number 4 he does so to discipline us you can See that in chapter 5 verse 17 and in Deuteronomy 8 verse 5. At number 5, He causes us to suffer to prepare us for future blessings. Chapter 42 verse 10 and Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 7.

These can be found in a book called Talk Through the Bible and they're a faithful testimony of what you learn from the book of Job. And then finally I just want to add one and that is that God may bring you into a time of suffering so that the devil would be belittled and slandered to say to him that God is good and to demonstrate that his disciples really do believe that he is good and this is what happens here. God is proving himself to be genuinely loved by a man and that man and his affliction would declare the glory of God regardless of a man's earthly state. And here God is demonstrating that a man's heavenly state can be secured while at the same time he suffers loss in this world. And this is the message the devil hates.

He does not want to tell his unholy angels that God is good and that there are people in the world that really love him. They love him from the heart whether they have a lot or whether they have a little. People like the Apostle Paul who said I've learned to get along with abundance and with deprivation. It doesn't matter to me. God matters to me.

So that's the message there. So let's talk about the authorship of Job. The book doesn't state the identity of the author. Many different authors have been suggested. You have them listed in your outline My sense is that it's either job or Moses possibly Elihu are the most likely candidates, but we're not really sure Thirdly the time of writing in the geographical location is interesting.

I think we need to acknowledge that New Testament writers absolutely declare that Job was a historical person. This is not a myth by any stretch of the imagination from the perspective of the New Testament writers. In James 5-11, it's clear that Job was a historical person. In Ezekiel chapter 14 verse 14 and in verse 20 Job is spoken of as a historical figure right along side of Daniel and Noah. In Romans 11 35 there's a quotation of Job 41 11 and in 1st Corinthians 3 19 there's a quotation of Job 5 13.

So the New Testament writers absolutely do believe that Job lived and these things played out as they are represented in the book. These events took place around 2000 BC, sometime in the patriarchal period. You may recognize the year 2000 BC is the time of Abraham. So he most likely lived I think either just before Abraham or he may have been a contemporary of Abraham. But this is one of the earliest books of the Bible and one of the difficulties in establishing the timeframe of this book is that there are no other references to kings or wars or other historical events So it's hard to locate in time.

You know, we've been going through the prophets, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, you can peg the date and on many of the events to the day. And sometimes to the hour because of the various kings that were ruling and the various historical events that are corroborated in a number of other places. But we don't have any of that in Job. Here's one time marker that we have. Job lived 140 years after the events of this book took place.

So he has lots of children, they've gotten married, and then after that he suffered, and then after that the rest of his life was carried on. Now during this period he may have lived as long as 200 years if he was on the earlier side of the patriarchal period before Abraham. Abraham lived 175 years indicating that He either lived right during the time of Abraham or just a little bit before. But there are no references to the Exodus, no references to the Mosaic law, no references to the temple. So when you read it, you just won't see these other old covenant references that the patriarchs and then later on Moses speak of and then bear witness of.

He was a priest in his home very much like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph were. I mean there was no temple worship there was no tabernacle around It was being done by families and this is what worship was focused on before the tabernacle. The geographical location is the land of Uz. It's Edom. It's southeast of the Dead Sea.

It's in the modern region of northern Arabia. Uz is next to Midian where Moses fled Pharaoh and lived there for 40 years. Jethro, Moses' father, was a priest of Midian. Let's talk about Job the man. His name means persecuted one, possibly repentant one.

It's a little difficult to absolutely pinpoint the meaning of his name, but it could mean a man of enmity or a man who is contrary, literally a man who is different, a man of antithesis, a godly man in the midst of a hostile culture. And the first two chapters give remarkable language about Job's life and character. We'll get to that in just a few minutes. Now there are a number of key verses that are critical. Chapter 13 verse 15, chapter 37 verses 23 and 24 are helpful.

Key chapters chapter 1 and chapter 42, the first and the last, give you a great sense of this book. Now it's really important that you understand how the book of Job is structured because if you don't understand that you're just going to be lost in this morass of back and forth and hither and yawn. And as you can see this outline in front of you, in the first two chapters the issues are laid out. And then most of the book of Job consists of debates between Job and his friends and there are three cycles of debate okay the three friends say what they're going to say Job responds the three friends say what they're gonna say Job responds okay That happens three times in the book. So it'll help you to keep your wits about you too.

Maybe just look at this outline and you can see how the dialogue works. And then after these three cycles of dialogue take place, then Job offers his final defense from chapter 27 to chapter 31 verse 40. And then a young man enters the scene, Elihu, and he has quite a bit to say. He speaks from chapter 32 to 37 verse 24. And then finally God speaks.

And in the very last chapter everything comes together. Everybody revents. Everybody listens to God and stops listening to themselves because they don't really understand what God's doing, which is the norm For people who are going through suffering and the people who watch other people go through suffering So this book is really designed to clear the cobwebs out of our heads about the problems we're having and Also the problems that other people have and all the commentary we want to make about it. Okay, now I want to tell you about Job's friends. I'm going to give them kind of a personality perspective profile, okay?

Eliphaz. Eliphaz is a considerate theologian. He uses experience as His evaluation tool. This is the voice of philosophy His whole philosophy is if you sin you will suffer because only the wicked Suffer that's his message only the wicked suffer His message is that God punishes the wicked, he blesses the good, and if anybody gets blessed, it's God, and if anybody's having trouble, it's the devil. Okay, have you ever heard that before?

I've heard it many times. Then there's Bill Dadd. Bill Dadd is an argumentative historian whose analysis is guided by tradition, his own background, and He brings the voice of history and his own experience. His message is this, you must be sinning, please tell us. And his advice is the wicked always suffer.

His concept of God is that he is an immovable lawgiver and judge, absolutely inflexible. And if you step out of line he'll whack you upside the head. And then you have Zophar the third friend. He's a dogmatic moralist Whose moral judgments are from his own personal assumptions. He's rude and he's very blunt He's the voice of orthodoxy and his messages you're sending his concept of God is that God is merciless and These are Job's three friends Here's what you'll find You'll find all of them saying a number of things that you know are true because you can connect many of the things that they say with explicit propositions in Scripture.

But everything that they say is mixed. And that's the problem. This is what can make Job so confusing because you're not sure who's right about what. And that's why it's very important to receive the various testimonies that they give, but you've got to wait to the end before you absolutely judge them. And everything they say has to be judged by scripture and scripture alone.

You'll find that it's easy to quote some of Job's friends on different matters. And you'll find some very famous statements that people like to make that Job's friends utter. And they are true, but everything that they say is not true and then you have a lie who he's a young theologian he speaks last he's not involved in these cycles you know he doesn't insert himself until after the three cycles are completed. And he's a young theologian. He seems to rely on the Word of God and logic.

His message is that God purifies and teaches us all through suffering. And this is why we must humble ourselves in the midst of suffering, so that we can see what God is working in our lives. And his understanding is that God disciplines his sons, and he's a teacher of those he disciplines. And Elihu doesn't leave anyone not guilty. He corrects everyone.

And then finally, after that, God sets the complete record straight. Let's talk about Christ in Job. I'm just gonna give you two examples I've got several of them listed here in your outline. You know, one of the most prominent and well-known statements in the book of Job is when he declares, I know that my Redeemer lives. I know that my Redeemer lives.

There he is on the ash heap in the midst of his suffering and pain. His friends have rejected him and this one thing he knows, he believes in a Redeemer and he uses language that he longs for a mediator. He's longing for Christ. And I'll just identify, read a little bit out of chapter 19, beginning of verse 23 and going to verse 27. He says, Oh, that my words were written.

Oh, that they were inscribed in a book, that they were engraved on a rock with an iron pin and lead forever. For I know that my Redeemer lives and he shall stand at last on the earth. And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God." He believed in a redeemer, he believed in a resurrection, He believed that he would see God. This was his picture of Christ. He says, verse 27, "'Whom I shall see for myself, "'and my eyes shall behold and not another, "'how my heart yearns within me.'" He's yearning for heaven.

He's yearning to see his savior, his redeemer. He says, I know my redeemer lives. And then in chapter nine, verse 28, he uses language that indicates his longing for Christ. He says, I'm afraid of all my sufferings. I know that you will not hold me innocent.

I am condemned. Why then do I labor in vain? And notice this language in verse 30. If I wash myself with snow water and cleanse my hands with soap. Yet you will plunge me into the pit and my own clothes will abhor me.

For he is not a man as I am, that I may answer him and that we should go to court together." Notice what he's saying here. He's speaking of his impurity and he's saying, there's nothing I can do to cleanse myself. If I cleanse myself with snow, water, and soap, I would still be thrown into the pit forever. And then he speaks of a man in court in verse 32. He is not a man as I am that I may answer him and that we should go to court together.

He recognizes a day of judgment And there's an advocate, there's a mediator, there's someone in court with him, there's an attorney in court who is going to either throw the switch to his destruction or through his eternal life. And so he says this, nor is there any mediator between us who may lay his hand on us both let him take his rod away from me and do not dread and do not let dread of him terrify me then I would speak and not fear him but it is not so with me he's longing for a mediator He's longing for an advocate an attorney to be with him in court He's longing for heaven. He's longing for Christ well, what we learn here is that Job's faith rests on a personal Redeemer and it brings up the whole doctrine of redemption. How in redemption, someone is bought out of slavery with a price and then set free. Job believed that and he believed that his eyes would see his redeemer.

He believed that there would be a resurrection. He believed that his sins would be washed like no human cleansing could ever perform on him. And he says, I know, I know. So Job had a sense of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not as clearly as you do, and I do, but he believed in the shadows.

That would prove to be true when he would finally go to heaven. Well, let's walk through the book here and particularly in this outline. We've already reviewed some of the outline, but let's begin in the first section in chapters one and two. The location of the testimony in these chapters is heaven and earth. You have Satan and you have God the Father and you have Job.

Heaven and earth are joined here and the devil has been roaming about the earth. There was a man in the land of Oz, verse one, whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright and one who feared God and shunned evil. And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. Also, his possessions were 7, 000 sheep, 3, 000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and a very large household. So that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.

Well, how about that for an introduction? He's a remarkable man. As we read this language, we learn he's doing business across a broad spectrum, and he's dealing with all kinds of different assets and resources that have different functions. He was probably involved in international trade with the kinds of vehicles that he had, the camels and things like that. He had a trucking line going on in the ancient Near East.

And then we learn about his family in verse 4. And his sons would go and feast in their houses each on his appointed day and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and Drink with them now. This is a birthday party by the way verse 4 as far as I can tell this is a Blessed gathering of a family for a birthday. They're celebrating one another's lives and it's happening on their appointed day. It was a day of their birth most likely.

This seems to be a happy family. It seems to be a family that relates to one another. You know nobody's staying away and mad in this family. Everybody's coming together and they stream to one another's houses each on their appointed day and it's the time of feasting when they get together verse 5 so it was when the days of feasting had run their course that Job would send and sanctify them and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings 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 Job did regularly." Job was interceding for his children. He was praying for all of his children and he regularly brought them before the Lord. He was pointing his children to the Lord. Remember, They have their own households now. It's an interesting and a helpful pattern for fathers who have grown children.

What's their role? Job provides a beautiful role model for fathers who have children who've left the home. And So he is interceding for them. Why? He knows the vulnerability of his children, sin.

He knows that no one is above, turning from God, And it's his absolute greatest concern. So what you see with Job is you see this irregularity, this diligence in his discipleship of his family. You see the joy, You see the feasting that's going on. It's a picture of family life. It's worthy to be repeated.

And then the dark clouds roll in in verse six. This is the first attack of Satan. Notice there are two attacks. There's this attack in verse six to the end of the chapter and then the second attack takes place in chapter 2 and We learn here of the attack and the reasons now verse 6 now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. And Satan also came among them.

And the Lord said to Satan, from where do you come? So Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it. He's a vagabond. He's like Cain. He's a vagabond.

And verse 8, we read, then the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there's none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil." I don't know what you think when you read that, but The Lord God is taunting and belittling Satan. Have you seen my servant, Joe? He's jabbing the devil and making it very clear that there are people in this world who hate the devil and they love God. I think the Lord is smiling when he's speaking to Satan about this And then Satan answers the Lord in verse 9 and says, does Job fear God for nothing? So now the devil is going to boast in front of God.

Have you not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side. In other words, well, of course he loves you. You know, you've been protecting him his whole life. Look at him. Nothing has come and swept any of his wealth or his reputation or his glory away.

His family is wonderful. He's the richest man. Well, of course. Of course he loves you. Anybody would.

And then he says, you have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. But now stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse you to your face." And the Lord said to Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your hand. All that he has is in your power. Only do not lay a hand on his person. So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

The Lord says, let's run a test. Let's see why Job appears to love me. Is it because of his riches or is it because he loves me? So God enters into this time of testing. Then Job's family and servants are destroyed beginning in verse 13.

The Sabeans come and raid and they kill his servants and it's just a terrible bloody scene and one servant comes and reports and then another servant comes and reports that fire fell from heaven and burned up all of his sheep and consumed the sheep and his servants. And then again in verse 17, he was still speaking and another comes and says the Chaldeans formed three bands and raided the camels and took them away and killed the servants with the edge of the sword and while he was still speaking another one came and said Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking, and they're now dead because a great wind came and blew down the house they were in. So one servant after another, bam, bam, bam. And then in verse 20, we observe Job's response. And what does he do?

Then Job arose, tore his robe and shaved his head and he fell to the ground and worshipped and he said naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return there the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away blessed be the name of the Lord in all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong." So in this chapter we learn that Job has lost all of his earthly possessions and he was struck with a blow seemingly on the same day and everything that was near and dear to him was destroyed and Job worships God. Job was the kind of person who believed God in such a way that he could say, Lord, thank you for what you've given. Thank you for what you've withheld from me. And thank you for what you have taken away. This was Job's disposition.

And here's the question for us. Is our faith so in God that all these things are small? The things that we've been given and the things that have been taken away and the things that have been withheld from us, are these things small in comparison to the knowledge of God and his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ? Or are we devastated when something is taken away? And are we only happy when God gives us something that is a great blessing?

Well, this is such a remarkable statement there in verses 20 through 22. And we learn here that Job didn't sin and he did not charge God with wrong. He loved God. He did not believe there was a wrongheaded thing in God at all. And then in chapter 2, the second attack comes and the same scene repeats itself there's a day when the sons of God come to present themselves Satan comes and the same dialogue takes place and the Lord again presents Job as someone who loves him now I recognize all this has happened there's got to be another level you know it didn't work Satan's plan was completely foiled he was proven to be an idiot he did not have any idea what was really going on and the genuineness of Job's heart now he knows but he's not satisfied.

And so Satan says, skin for skin, all that a man has he will give for his life, but stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will surely curse you to your face." So what Satan is saying is, okay, so he lost all of his riches. No big deal. We haven't really gotten down to what will really push him over the edge. How about if you let me wreck his body? Because he's like every other human being, he just wants to pamper his body.

He lost all his relationships, but he still has himself. He still has all the wisdom and power that got him where he was he can bounce right back. You know He can go build bigger barns. He's that kind of a guy so The Lord says to Satan behold he is in your hand But spare his life so Satan strikes job It's recorded in verses 7 through 10. So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his feet to the crown of his head and he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he was in the midst of the ashes.

So Job's body dissolves into pain and then his wife speaks his wife said to him do you still hold fast to your integrity curse God and die And then Job is a kind of minister. He's a man of wisdom. He's used to ministering to his family. And now he's married to a woman who's really lost her faith in God and has turned bitter. But Job isn't bitter so he said to her in verse 10, you speak as one of the foolish women speaks.

Shall we indeed accept good from God and shall we not accept adversity? In all this Job did not sin with his lips. So he turns her to God. He believes in God and he's ministering to his wife. He's trying to pull her out of the pit that she's fallen into.

And after this, Job's friends arrive. Now in verses 11 through 13, you see that they were true friends. Now when Job's three friends heard of all his adversity, verse 11, that had come upon him, each one came from his own place. Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. Now notice these three men all come from different locations.

And it's quite possible because of Job's reputation and his reach as a businessman and his involvement in international trade, he had developed a significant network of friends. And so three of them came and they came to mourn with him and to comfort him. That was the purpose. They loved him. They were his friends.

And they had motives in order to be a blessing to their friend. And so when they arrive, they see the depth of not only his despair, but the whole condition of his body. And they're so stunned that they just sit there in awestruck silence. And for seven days they don't say anything. They just sit there and mourn with their friend.

What a remarkable thing that would be for any of us to take place. We read, so they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights and no one spoke a word to him for they saw that his grief was very great so there they are three friends and a man and they sit on the ground for seven days imagine that and in chapter three Job opens his mouth and this is Job's first speech and he's in desperation. He wishes he'd never been born. He cursed the day of his birth, it says in verse 1. He said, may the day perish on which I was born and the night in which it was said a male child is conceived.

He just would rather be dead than to be living at this point. Verse 25 brings us to one of the truly tender and heartbreaking points of this first speech. For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me and what I dreaded has happened to me. I am not at ease nor am I quiet. I have no rest for trouble comes." He says that the thing that he greatly feared came upon him.

And whenever I read that I think what's the thing that I fear the most? And the things that you fear really show you're your idols. And I would just encourage you to ask that same question. And particularly as your eyes fall upon these words in verse 25 and 26, ask yourself what is the thing that I fear? What is the thing that I dread the most that may happen to me.

Write those things down and you'll gain greater insight into your own motivations, your own values, who you really are. But this trial brought Job to that very point to where he recognized his own fears. And it's a very important thing for us to recognize the things that give us fear. Because Those are the things that show us our frailties. Those are the things that show us our points of weakness.

Those are the things that could take us down. And so we should identify them and we should very carefully and systematically repent of them and look for them in our lives. So then we begin the first cycle of the three cycles of speeches. Eliphaz goes first in chapter 4 verse 1 and he speaks all the way to verse 7 in chapter 5. Now remember Eliphaz is a considerate theologian and he uses his experience.

He judges everybody on his own experience. Now as we speak just briefly about these various counselors, I want you to think about your own life and the way that you counsel other people or the way that you think about other people and their problems. You know I happen to be someone who's been in lots of counseling sessions And when I read the book of Job, I feel a sharp rebuke because it's so humbling to think about how wrong you can be and how presumptuous and how your whole perspective is really derived from your own self, your own experience. And as a result of that, of your blindness and your lack of perception about yourself, you often think things that you shouldn't and you often say things that you shouldn't in counseling with people. And you might even have attitudes toward people that you shouldn't because your experience is different than theirs.

And so this is Eliphaz. Now during our time together I'm just going to briefly walk us through the first cycle of these discussions, and then we'll go to the other sections. We'll take each speaker in the first cycle, and then we'll skip all the other cycles. They're just too much. And then we'll go to Job's final defense, and then we'll go to Elihu's speech, and then we'll go to God's speech.

So that's where we're headed in the minutes that remain. So Eliphaz answers and he speaks of Job's life. He says, surely you've instructed many. You've strengthened weak hands. Your words have upheld him who is stumbling and you've strengthened the feeble knees.

And then he says, he actually accuses Job of duplicity. Like you've told everybody else what to do and he says, and now you're weary? Now you get sick and now it touches you and you're troubled? How come? You're a hypocrite.

You've been telling everybody else to seek the Lord and now you can't even do it yourself. So that's the disposition. And He brings his experience as the foundation of his wisdom. Look at verse seven, you can see an example of this. Remember now, whoever perished being innocent, or where were the upright ever cut off?

Even as I have seen, yes I have seen, I'm the source of all wisdom. I can see into all these situations because I have such experience. I have seen those who plow iniquity and sow trouble, heaped the same by the blast of God they perish. So he exalts his own experience in his counsel. It's so dangerous to do that.

He says in verse 12, now a word was secretly brought to me and my ear received a whisper from it. So he's claiming all this insight. Hey, be careful. Be careful when you think you have so much insight into somebody else's problems. And you know what?

And I hate to say this. You may be counseled by people and actually led astray because they think they have such insight and somehow so do you. They may not be right and that's the trouble. He says I received disquieting thoughts and visions from in the night and fear came upon me and it made my bones shake I have all this experience with this and he continues to speak you know through chapter 5 and then we come to Job's reply in chapter 6 and you see Job with a real spirit of contrition in his reply to Eliphaz and he says in verse 3 therefore my words have been rash for the arrows of the Almighty are within me my spirit drinks in their poison he really is being humbled I mean this is sort of the first of the barrage of his friends criticism. He appeals to Eliphaz in verse 14, To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

My brothers have dealt deceitfully like a brook, like the streams of the brooks that pass away." So Job is feeling the heat from his friends. You know they're kind of kicking him while he's down. And Maybe you've done that, you know, maybe you have a harsh and judgmental spirit and it's easy for you to kick somebody while they're down That's what Job's friends were doing. Job replied, he continues his reply and he speaks of his hardship and his trouble and verse 6 in chapter 7 he says my days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and are spent without hope and he speaks that about his life is just nothing but a mere breath he says I loathe my life in verse 16. And then Bildad speaks.

This is in chapter 8 verse 1 to the end. Now Bildad, if you remember, he's the argumentative historian whose analysis is guided by his tradition. The well-worn thoughts of his tradition and the way that he and probably his family have always thought about everything. That's his perspective. Everybody has a family perspective.

You know what I'm talking about? Families have certain cultures in the way that they interpret things. You know, I found that families have in many ways completely different ways of interpreting things that I do. His perspective is you must be sinning. You know my whole historical analysis has proven this.

And then he actually he rebukes Job. He says the words of your mouth are like a strong wind." He says, if you were upright none of this would be happening. So he's presumptuous. And then Job responds to Bildad. And look at what Job says in verse 2, truly I know it is so, but how can a man be righteous before God?

So he does receive the things that they say to a degree. But as you'll find as you read through this, Job does kick back on some of their reasonings. And then Job continues his response in chapter 10 and then Zophar gives his first speech in chapter 11 1 through 20. Now remember who's Zofar. He's the dogmatic moralist whose compass for judgment is his own personal assumptions.

Okay. He's the wise man. He's got this all figured out. And you know what? He's really rude about it.

Okay? He's so full of himself, you know, and this drives his dogmatism and his moralism and Zofar says this, should not the multitude of words be answered? And should a man full of talk be vindicated? And the answer is, absolutely not. We're not going to let you get away with this, Job.

You're empty talk. You're playing yourself out as being so pure and so clean, but you're not. And so he belittles Job in that sense Job responds to Zophar in chapter 12 all the way to chapter 14 verse 22 and then this is one of the classic lines in the whole book of Job. You have to laugh, I guess. He says to Zophar, no doubt you are the people and wisdom will die with you.

But I have understanding as well as you and I'm not inferior to you. Indeed, who does not know such things as these? I am one mocked by his friends." So Job is responding to this whole thing and he ends up this chapter 12 was speaking of the depths of the wisdom of God and how no one can really understand the wisdom of God. And then Job continues on to answer Zophar in chapter 13. And then he says this, 13 verse 4, but you forgers of lies.

You know Job's getting a little bit testy now. You forgers of lies, you are all worthless physicians. Oh that you would be silent. He's just He's just saying, you guys are miserable friends, you're miserable physicians, There's no help in what you're telling me. You know, maybe your parents have counseled you on something and you maybe say something like this.

You're just tempted to strike back. Or maybe a pastor, or maybe your employer has sat you down and you just think, you're a miserable physician. You're not helping me at all. I don't need this, right? So Job is kind of in that place right now and then Job continues to answer in chapter 14 And so this ends the first cycle.

Remember there are three cycles of three iterations and Job's responses. So we're gonna skip the next two and let's jet down to chapter 27 Because in chapter 27 we find Job's final defense. In his final defense he declares his innocence. And he says in verse three, as long as my breath is in me and the breath of God in my nostrils, My lips will not speak wickedness. And he says, far be it for me that I should say that you are right.

Till I die, I will not be put away. I will not put away my integrity from me. My righteousness I will hold fast, and I will not let go. See, Job's friends have been saying, Job, you've been sinning. You know, tell us, confess it, repent, please do that and everything will be well.

And Job says, I don't know, I don't know, I can't see it. And so he makes a defense here. And then go to chapter 32 where we pick up Elihu's speech, which is quite a long speech here. And My perspective is that Elihu is speaking truthfully. But before we go to Elihu, let's just make a couple of statements about this argument that's been raging with Job and his friends.

There's a lot of personal presumption and emotion in Job's friends. His friends presume to understand why the events on earth take place. Their experience, their analysis, their personal history, their tradition, their personal assumptions, their premonitions, that's what's governing them. And they really had embraced a simplistic view of suffering. I think that's critical to understand.

If you don't understand these cycles of three, To point to the fact that they had a very simplistic view of suffering, then you've really missed a lot of what the book of Job is designed to teach you. Because they believe that there's a one-to-one relationship to suffering in which God always punishes men for their wickedness temporally. And they have just adopted a very simplistic and in many ways self-serving and highly personal way of evaluating all these things. They're not acknowledging that God might be showing the powers and the principalities, the glories of salvation, and how sinners really do adore God from the heart, that they actually love him, that they trust him, that they have real faith, and God is testing a man and he's belittling the forces of darkness. They don't understand that at all.

So Elihu speaks, he's a younger theologian, he seems to rely on the Word of God. His message is far more balanced and more highly nuanced. And his message is that God purifies through suffering. He teaches men and women things, and so we should humble ourselves in the midst of all of our suffering. That's his basic message.

His understanding is the same understanding that you get from the New Testament of the God who disciplines every son whom he loves. That's his perspective. You know, his speech seems to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. He claims that it was and he actually declares that God by his Holy Spirit has revealed these things to him. And it seems to be so to me.

And so he speaks to all of the various parties who've been involved in this big debate and so he finishes his speech and then God speaks in chapter 38 and of course this is the most significant part of the entire testimony because God sets the record straight completely. And let's look at chapter 38 verse 1. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this who darkens counsel by words of knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man. I will question you and you shall answer me.

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding." Now, after this, this whole chapter is so remarkable about creation. And God turns to his creation and he speaks of his wisdom in creating the stars and the heavens and the earth and the mountains and the rivers and all the animals and he's naming all these animals. He's declaring his wisdom and he speaks of how he provides for everything. Verse 41 in chapter 38, who provides food for the raven when its young ones cry to God and wander about for lack of food?

The ravens crying out to God, did you know that? Well, you just learned that. You're gonna learn a lot about animals. As a grandfather, I like to talk about animals to my grandchildren. But Job chapter 38 and 39 are so remarkable.

And he talks about all these animals. 39, he talks about the wild mountain goats, and he talks about how animals give birth and take care of their young he's describing all these intricate details of creation you know in these chapters he speaks about Eagles and all kinds of animals And then in chapter 40 verse 3 and 4, Job repents. After God gives a speech, Job is completely undone. He says, behold, I am vile, verse 4 in chapter 40. What shall I answer you?

I lay my hand over my mouth. So Job changes his tune. Now I love this chapter 40 because he speaks of the behemoth, you know, this land monster, the behemoth. And it's such a remarkable description. It's a dinosaur.

Chapter 41 verses 1 and going on he speaks of Leviathan and this sea monster you know behemoth is the land dinosaur and Leviathan is the sea going dinosaur. So he just continues to talk about his glory in creation. When you read this just consider the glory and the beauty that's there. Don't miss it in your life. Don't just live your whole life in front of a computer screen and under a roof.

Go outside and look. I know just this last week's you know so many people were out looking at all these shooting stars as there is this remarkable display in the heavens of the glory of God with shooting stars you know hundred thousands of them and so don't just shut yourself up in these buildings and air-conditioned rooms looking at your computers go and look at God Because God is directing Job to him. And then there's this final deliverance of Job and his friends in chapter 42, verses seven through 17. Then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do everything and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you. He said, I uttered what I did not understand.

Things are too wonderful for me and I repent. I abhor myself for the things that I said. So Job is also brought to his knees and then the Lord speaks to Job's friends and he commands them to go sacrifice for their sins. He's really hard on Job's friends. Why?

Job spoke a lot more truth than his friends did. And so they have to repent. Finally, the story ends and Job's losses are all restored. He gets a new family. His wealth is restored far and above what he had before.

Verse 12, Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And then he begins to recount and it says Job died old and full of days. He lived 140 years old and God had given him a remarkable increase far and above what he had before. So there it is. Now I'm going to give you some lessons, lessons out of Job.

The book of Job unfolds many of the mysteries of the providence of God and the life of a godly man. The question is answered, why did the godly suffer? And it's something that you should continue to cleave to. And when you have people who want to know, you can tell them about the book of Job. Because 42 chapters are dedicated to answering that question.

Okay. The first lesson. God humbles the proud. He humbles those who exalt their own wisdom and their experience and their background and their perceptions. He humbles them.

So be humble before God. Don't over exalt your judgments and perceptions. Secondly, Job was an object lesson to the devil and all of his angels. God was proving himself to be good and that there are people on the earth that love him with their whole heart and if they lose everything they will not curse God. Three, God makes all things to work together for good for those who love Him and are the called according to His purpose.

God sets everything straight in His own time. Number four, God is equally loving when He sends affliction as when He sends abundance. And let me add this, He is equally wise and merciful and compassionate when He sends affliction as He is when He sends abundance. God is wise in everything that He does and everything that happens is what he does. Number five, emotions will not help you process your calamity.

I think this is a really an important fact here. When calamity strikes we often let our emotions take the lead, But it's only the truth of God can successfully lead your emotions through a time of calamity. But we so exalt our own personal perception that we let our emotions run the train of our lives, rather than the truth of God, the didactic, clear truth of God. And what you find with Job is that he turns to God. He does not allow his impressions, his discernment, his history, his background guide him.

He goes to God and he declares what is true about God and you find that in the first two chapters. Look at how Job responds. He doesn't respond out of his circumstances or emotions. He responds out of sound doctrine. One of the most important things you can do to deal with the calamities that are ahead, and there are calamities ahead, is to know sound doctrine, to know God, so that your emotions don't trump the truth about God.

God is sovereign. Nothing can stay his hand. And if that doctrine doesn't rule your mind, your emotions will run roughshod over you and take you to places that you'll hate to go. So emotions don't help us go through calamity. The Word of God is designed to take us through.

And then sixth, be careful in your judgments of others. Be cautious in your counsels. Don't be too hard on your brothers or your sisters when you think you know why something has happened to them and what they should do about it. It is so easy to be rash in our judgments to shoot off our mouths and we may end up like Job's friends and Job himself as we might regret the freeness of our speech. We said more than we should have.

Our judgments were really out of our own emotions and our own background, our own perspective, our own self-serving spirit. It does no one good. And we may find that God will rebuke us for the perceptions and the counsels that we've had. You know, Paul said, I'd rather speak five words with understanding than 10, 000 at a foreign time. 1 Corinthians 14, 19 is where he said that, and he's really speaking of how important it is that The word of God is the central matter for the leadership of the souls of men.

Because we're just not very insightful. Well, when Job was confronted with tragedy, he made a declaration of what he knew about God. He knew that God was sovereign and he embraced that doctrine. Phil Johnson, a pastor on the West Coast, said this about Job, he passed the trial because he was a sound theologian. And this is why both men and women ought to be sound theologians.

Because it is men and women who are subjected to trials and tribulations and sufferings. You men, Seek sound doctrine. Fill your mind up with the knowledge of God. You women, be theologians. Don't leave that to the men.

Please don't leave that to the men. He passed the final trial because he was a sound theologian. And I think that is true. He said the Lord is given and the Lord is taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

That was his perspective and that was the perspective that we ought to have lead all of our emotions and not the other way around.