Eight Lessons from the book of Job

Let's read from Job chapter 1. We're in Job chapter 1. Now, I'm not going to take very long. My wife said, never say that because you always go over time if you do. But I'll make it a point to sit down in good time.

Job chapter 1. We read the story, I'm sure we know. And I'm just following with a little discussion I had with Brother Jeff at lunchtime, so it's stimulated my mind toward this remarkable, very remarkable man in the Old Testament. I think that the study of the book of Job is very, very profitable.

It helped us understand many different things in life. It's 10 till, I'm going to be down by a quarter after at the most, I promise. Chapter 1 and verse 6. Now, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan, the adversary, came also among them.

And the Lord said unto Satan, whence comest thou? And then Satan answered, the Lord said, from going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him? That's a remarkable statement. None like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil.

Now, we'll skip over verses I'm sure that are well known to you. Chapter 2 and verse 1. Again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said unto Satan, from whence thou comest thou? And Satan answered, the Lord had said, from going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it.

And the Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job, that there was none like him in the earth? I love that expression. None like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil. And still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movest to be against him, to destroy him without cause.

Now, just a few verses at the end of the book. Chapter 42. Chapter 42 of Job and verse 7. And it was so that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said unto Eliphaz the demon, my wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two friends, for ye have not spoken of me, the thing that is right, and my servant Job hath.

Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks 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 for him I will accept, lest I deal with you after following that you have not spoken of me, the thing which is right, like my servant Job. And that's all we'll read.

I'll let you fill in the gaps of this third 42 page, 42 chapter book. It won't take the time to read it all. I'd like to bring before you eight simple but very important lessons, I believe, from the book of Job.

None of us know what lies ahead in our experience. Job never expected what happened to him. He was not prepared for it.

He was not prepared mentally. He was really not prepared spiritually. He had never encountered anything like this.

This was contrary to Job's reasoning. And yet it happened. And Job didn't understand why.

And the remarkable thing is at the end of the book, the Lord never explains why. And so there are things that we can learn in the intervening chapters if you take the time to study them. And they're very valuable to us because we learn very important lessons from them.

I hope you and I never have to pass through any kind of experience like Job did. But I hope that we end up in the final stage of it and he could still say like he says in chapter 42, again and again and again, my servant Job. Job was a remarkable man.

He was not only a very rich man. He was a rich man in every sense of the word. He had possessions.

He was the greatest man of the East. But I like to think that he wasn't dependent on his possessions. He was a godly man.

The word doesn't say that rich men are sinful. It doesn't say that this man pursued riches. The word of God doesn't tell us that.

He was a rich man, but he was a godly man. He was trusting the Lord and his confidence was in God and that's what disturbed him. I believe that the deeper shall we say below the surface of the of the page, Job's deep concern was that he had lost the sense of the presence of God.

In this time of trial, he felt that God was at a distance and he didn't know why and he was seeking to understand. I sometimes wonder how oftentimes you and I might be far away from God, out of touch with God, not enjoying fellowship with God, not interacting, not hearing his voice and it doesn't disturb us. I hope that's not the case because the most important thing in terms of our life spiritually is to hear God's voice and know his presence.

But I know time is getting away from me, but I could get bogged down just in that. I think he was an admirable man. You know there's some men that from a natural point of view, men like you and me, we criticize them in the bible.

You know men, we criticize Jacob, don't we? Well he was he was worthy of criticism, I'll admit that. But I want to tell you this, God never criticized Jacob. He never found fault with Jacob and he never found fault with Job.

Just remember that's what God thinks, it really makes all the difference, not what man think. But eight things that I want you to notice and I'll do do it very quickly. 15 minutes, that's two minutes each.

The first thing I want you to notice in this chapter, in this book, is that we learned something about God's sovereignty. God's sovereignty. It wasn't Satan that initiated this time of trial.

It wasn't that he was the one who was in charge. The Lord allowed it. In fact, the Lord had a reason for doing so.

The entire event was initiated by God and was entirely under his control. And Satan could only go so far. He only allowed Satan to bring calamities in the life of Job because Satan could not touch him or his possessions without God's permission.

We get all the times worried about things, don't we? Now it's a natural sense, I mean I do the same, I'm no different. We get all, what's the word, shall I say uptight? Maybe all upset in different ways. So we think about things that can happen or the things that might happen and the things that are going to happen.

Just remember this, there's a God in control over everything. Absolutely sovereign. And I don't believe anything happens to a believer without God allowing it.

Our times are in thy hand is the word that the psalmist said. And we sing oftentimes, Father, we wish them there. And so we learn from this book, the sovereignty of God and allowing things to take place in a believer's life.

And sometimes we don't understand why. And dear brother and sister, we don't always need to understand why. We just leave it with the Lord and trust him to make it according to his will.

So the sovereignty of God is the first thing I just suggest to you and you can take your time to study it in the book as well as in the word of God. The second thing is that we learn something of God's omniscience and God's omnipotence in this book. You notice the emphasis in the book, especially these first two chapters where we're read that God knew everything about Job.

He knew, first of all, he says, there's not a man like him in all the earth. What a commendation. Wouldn't you love to have that? There's no person like that brother in that whole community, in that little town or that city.

There's no one comparing with him. He's unique. He stands out in a different way.

That's what we ought to aim for. The Lord says, there's not a man like him in all the earth. A great man like he was.

He says, not only is not a person to compare with him, but he's a perfect man. The word perfect doesn't mean he was sinless. The word perfect means that he was mature.

He was united in his desires. He was a man who was complete. He was a mature man.

He was spiritually devoted. He was occupied with the things of God as a primary object. Everything revolved around that.

You find in the first chapter, especially that he went and he offered burnt sacrifices for his family. He was functioning as a priest in his family, which is the responsibility of every father, every parent. And so he was perfect, mature.

He was upright in his life. He was righteous in his dealings with others. He had a reputation for righteousness.

And in his walk before men, there was nothing that they found fault with. The third thing it says is he was a man who feared God. He had a genuine reverence for God.

He was continually living in the consciousness, I have a responsibility to the God. I must maintain that in the rest of my life. I hope I'm speaking loud enough, Al.

You hear me? Can you hear me all right, brother? You told me at lunchtime I didn't speak loud enough. I'll try and turn up the amplifier a little bit. But then the fourth thing it says, he was a man that eschewed evil.

Now you put all those things together. That's the definition of a Christian character. That's what ought to mark us.

A unique person, a complete person. One that has reverence for God, righteousness in life, and steering away and avoiding evil. Those things all go together.

That's the kind of life to aim for. And you'll never regret it when you come to the end. If you make that your aim.

The one thing I notice about Job that I think is outstanding above all others, is that the Lord knew Job well enough to know that he could use Job to prove Satan was wrong. Satan says to the Lord, Job, he only serves thee because of what he gets. He's only a worshiper of God because you blessed him.

He's only doing things because of material possessions. The Lord says, I'm going to show you're wrong because Job doesn't serve me for that reason. I wonder when I ask, when I read that, I should say, when I read that, I ask myself, could the Lord do that with me? Could the Lord use you to prove the devil is wrong in his accusations? That's a challenge to each one of us.

And Elihu at the end, his speech emphasizes God's power, that he had the perfect right to control all, and he does do that. And of course, in the trial that Job was experiencing, he ended up criticizing the Lord. He never would have done it otherwise, I don't believe.

The third thing about Job is that it shows the devil's unchanging hatred for believers. He has a, he's a roaring lion, the Word of God says, and Peter going about seeking whom he may devour. He's the accuser of the brethren, we read in Revelation.

He's non-stop, unending, no change. He hates you, and he hates me. And he'll do anything, he'll use any method, he is not limited in how he goes about it.

He doesn't have to use righteous means because he's very unrighteous. He may use enticements, he may use deceptions, he may use corruption, he may use all kinds of devices, but he's going to do everything he can to show his hatred for everybody that belongs to Christ. And we're living in his world tonight, today.

We're living in a world scene that is dominated by the God of his age. But thank God there's one who is in you and me that's greater than he that's in the world. And so we question Job's motives, and he brought the most severe experiences into his life.

He had no compassion whatsoever. He didn't care what happened to Job. He affected his property, his source of income, his family, ultimately his own health and his body.

And in his cruelty and his hatred, there was always one person that was left alive to bring the bad news. He's an evil foe. Don't trust the devil.

Don't put into confidence anything that connects with him. He has an unchanging hatred for believers. The fourth thing about this book is that we learn that God permits Satan to exercise his power for evil.

God can control the elements of nature and the physical well-being of every individual. And one thing we should always learn is this, that we should never speak lightly of the devil. He's a powerful foe.

He's very powerful, he's malicious, he's devious, he's malignant, he's wise, he's this old serpent. You know, the world has a caricature of the devil, you know, the one in a red suit with a forked tail and all the rest of it. That's intended to minimize the severity of the devil's activities.

The devil is real. He's a genuine evil foe, absolutely unchangeably and opposed to God and everything that is connected with God and his people. But God permits him to act in his present day.

And what seemed to be acts of God in the trial of Job in the very beginning, and some were acts of men, but he was the one that was really behind it. He would use the elements of nature as well as other men to bring about the extremity of Job's conditions. He'll do anything he can.

What seems so favorable and what seems so beautiful and attractive may be simply the veneer that is over the poison and the evil that he wants to do. Don't ever turn in, don't ever yield to anything that has the taint of evil or is not according to God's will and God's, for God's glory. The fifth thing I'll say about the book of Job is we learned that the suffering of believers isn't always due to sin.

I hope you never think about a believer that's suffering and your mind almost immediately goes to thought, well perhaps they've sinned. That can happen if you and I experience that. We might think back to our lives and perhaps it's legitimate in a certain way.

We should ask ourselves maybe it is a matter of discipline, but not always, not always. I spoke to a sister one time, she and her husband had had an accident. They were faithful in the assembly, they were seeking to be exercised to be used of God and they had had this severe accident and she said I don't understand why it happened.

She says we're always, we try to be pleasing to the Lord and do his will and honor him. I wasn't smart about, smart enough at that time to give her the proper response I don't think, but I should have said that suffering and disasters and accidents are not always. They may be for a trial for a reason that God allows and he might develop us and might teach us things through it and cause us to grow more in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

So we find in Hebrews chapter 12 that the discipline and trial and difficulties of life can be a means, in fact it is a means by which it gives us assurance that we're genuine children. It's a father that disciplines his children. I never told my children that I do this, that doing this, well I was given a little punishment, that it hurts me more than it does you.

I thought that really wasn't right. It would hurt me more than them that I wasn't good enough. But I used to tell them this, I wouldn't do this if you were the neighbor's child.

I do this for your good because you're my child. I don't want the best for you. And so we have that the Lord uses events like this, they're not for the suffering of sin and the sad thing about his friends that you and I ought to learn from them is that when we go to visit somebody that's suffering or in sickness don't assume, don't assume something that wasn't even true.

They assumed he was suffering because he was such a wicked sinful man. You've turned away the hungry from your door, you've abused the orphans, you've showed a lack of regard for the widows and you've done all these different things, you've robbed the poor. Man this was, he he was a terrible man if you listen to these friends.

But they were assuming something they had no basis whatsoever in fact. And so you find that that's a mistake. They condemned him but they couldn't convince him because he knew that they were wrong and they were wrong.

He wasn't suffering for sin. But the sixth thing I'll say because I want to watch that time, but the sixth thing is that God uses these difficult events to discipline his children. I've said something about that already but the father does work to train his children.

You know precious gold is that which goes to the fire to refine it. If it weren't gold it wouldn't be refined, it wouldn't be worth bothering with. But the fact that the people of God are like gold, Peter says, though it be tried with fire your faith, he says, though it be tried with fire I'll be founded of praise and honor and glory at the appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Dear child of God, you and I are worth refining. And the Lord has been working on me for 81 years, not quite perhaps, I was not saved till I was 10 years old. But it's a constant process and he has a great goal in mind.

He wants to make us more and more and more conformed to his son. That's the standard of perfection. It will not reach his side of the glory.

And so God allows these difficult events in order to discipline us, refine us from the defects that he sees. And I'll say that Job had one major fault, one major fault that had to be dealt with and that was self-righteousness. He was proud of himself, he was proud of his righteousness, he was self-assured.

And God revealed through this trial that there was no one truly righteous except God himself. He showed him how unrighteous by his actions, his reactions. The fourth, the seventh thing is that God in these events, he tries the strong points of our life that he might test them to prove that they are real.

You say what were the strong points of Job's life? Well in Ezekiel chapter 4, his righteousness is identified by God. He's linked with Noah and Daniel. He says except this nation, their righteousness would exceed the righteousness of Job and Daniel and Noah.

He said I would not turn away my anger from them. And God was going to test his righteousness. And in James chapter 5, we find that he had another strong point and that was his endurance in trial.

And the word of God is using him as an example to believers of how they should endure in trial. He said you've heard of the patience or the endurance of Job. The Lord is long-suffering.

And so that we learn that there's a time when God is testing what we might think are strong points, whatever it might be. And it revealed his true character as a result. And he emerged as a greater, Job was a better man at the end than he was at the beginning.

He was a good man at the beginning. I wonder what God would have said after the end because he was a far better man as is always the case when you've gone through trial. The last thing I'll say about Job is, in this book is, it shows me how one ought to act or respond to those who are believers who are suffering.

We have the example in James chapter 5, don't we, where the writer there takes up this example. He says it's the example of the elders. They came and he prayed for them.

Pray with them. Don't condemn them. Don't criticize them.

Only the Lord and only they know what they're passing through. Pray for them. Pray with them.

And then they would anoint them with the oil which is a medicinal quality in that day. And so we shouldn't attack the character of a sufferer. We shouldn't assume their sin.

And I would say also be careful about quoting the scripture because sometimes we can misapply it. Believers that are suffering, those that are sick, those that are enduring trial, they just need our encouragement and our sympathy. You need to know that there are believers that are praying for them.

So there are many few, many lessons that one can learn from this important book. And most of them apply to our lives and they can be very helpful to us. And I could say with all my heart that I love the book of Job and I think it's very profitable.

I'd like to encourage you to take the time to study it for yourself. Just meditate upon it. Here I'm back to that again, the subject of meditation.

Just spend time thinking about Job and what God did in his life. It will be for a blessing and a help because your name may be Job one day and you may be experiencing the same thing in a different character, the same thing and perhaps for the same purpose. May God help us in our day.