Consider Job

Greetings to you in the most high and holy name of the Lord Jesus Christ, from the very center of the Buddhist stronghold nation, Japan. I am missionary Richard Yerbe, and today, along with me, I want you to please consider the man named Job. An entire 42 chapters long Old Testament book, bearing his name, makes him most worthy of our earnest consideration.

His name is spelled the same as our present-day word Job, J-O-B, but it's pronounced Job. Listen now to Almighty God introduce Job to us in the very first verse of the first chapter of the book of Job in the Old Testament. There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil.

Almighty Lord Jehovah God Himself calls Job a man who is perfect and upright, one who fears God and eschews evil. Fearing God and detesting and shunning evil are likely the two main characteristics that make a person perfect and upright in the sight of our holy, righteous Creator God. You please pray with me now, if you will.

My Lord and my God in Heaven, please make the remainder of my life on earth a life that is perfect and upright in Thy sight. Please help me to always fear Thee and to eschew evil. I also pray this for all other Christian believers presently on earth.

Amen. Nothing exactly like this is said about any other believer in the Bible. Throughout the Bible we can find record of God calling only a scant few men perfect, and Job is one of those men.

Job is one of the greatest spiritual giants that has ever walked the face of this earth. Therefore we would do well to learn all we can from him and to strive to be like him. Join me in prayer again.

Lord God in Heaven, please send Thy Holy Spirit ever so powerfully upon me now for the purpose of teaching me all the glorious things that Thou wouldest have me to know about this man Job. Amen. Now listen to verses 6-8 of Job chapter 1. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.

And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and askeweth evil? End of that reading. God in Heaven is so proud of His servant Job that He just grabs the old devil by his chain and calls Job to the devil's attention, praising Job ever so highly.

I wish my Savior could take such pride in me that He would want to brag on me like that before the devil and his crowd. I would like to be one who would cause my precious Lord God to take the devil by the collar and say to him, Satan, have you considered my servant Richard? He's perfect and upright. He fears God and askews evil.

Therefore I am so proud to call him my son. I hunger and thirst to be like that, and if I could find out what made Job like that, I would try to apply it to my life to make me like Job. And I do not believe that Job had any inside secret with God that you and I cannot get in on.

Any present-day Christian believer can be just as great as Job was, and in this present-day wicked and perverse, immoral, beast-like generation of self-worshippers, how we need some believers who will be like Job, stand against evil and fight it with fiery, godless zeal, standing against the devil and his crowd in such a way that God would be just as proud of them as he was of Job. Would you aspire to be like that? Let's pray again. Lord God, please send thy Holy Spirit to convict me of just how far I am from being perfect and upright before thee.

Convict me strongly of how willingly I have settled for a lukewarm, Laodicean, Carolist Christian life, so desirous to live for self and for the pleasures of this world, having lost much of my desire to glorify thee with my life. Convict me of how greatly displeasing it is to you that I do not have a burning desire to be perfect and upright in thy sight, but rather have been satisfied to be an indifferent and worthless servant to thee, my Creator. Convict me, my Lord, grant me genuine remorse over this, my sin.

Grant me a repentant heart. By thy Spirit change my cold, indifferent heart into one that wholly aspires to be perfect and upright, so that thou canst delight in bragging on me before the enemy, just as thou delighted in bragging on thy servant Job. Grant this, Lord, I pray.

Also, please instill in all Christian believers on earth a desire to be like Job. Amen. God said to Satan, As thou considered my servant Job.

It wasn't the devil that started the ball rolling that got Job into all that misery and loss that he suffered. It didn't start by the devil complaining to God about Job. It started by God picking on the devil about Job.

As thou considered my servant Job. Likely that was the last thing the devil wanted to do, consider Job. Job's holy, righteous life was such a thorn in the devil's flesh that the devil didn't want to think about Job at all.

He wished he could forget about this saint's existence, but God would not let him. God was so proud of Job that he just could not keep quiet about him to his adversary, the devil. God had to glory over Job before the devil.

Oh, to be like Job, Lord, I want to be like Job. And if I could find out what made Job such a great giant of a saint, I would try to apply that to my life. If I could find out what his priorities were, I would make them my priorities.

What was important to Job, by God's grace, I would make that important in my life. What was not important to Job, I would not make important to me. And I think there is a verse here in this book of Job that tells what his priorities were and reveals his secret of spiritual success, showing us just what he actually did that made God in heaven so proud of him.

Just as God asked Satan if he had considered Job, I want you and I to now consider Job in a serious spiritual Bible study, like we have possibly never considered him before, all the while calling upon God to help us also to be like this giant of a believer. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank Thee for giving me Thy eternal word, the Holy Bible, to guide my life.

I want to live in complete obedience to Thy holy word. Thank Thee for giving us this perfect and upright example of Job in Thy Bible. Now as I listen to this study about Job, please grant me Thy wisdom to enable me to learn everything I should from it.

Teach me, Lord, I pray, how to be perfect and upright like Thy servant Job. Amen. Luckily, you well know the story of Job.

Read in chapter 1 how that God allowed this rich man to lose all of his many possessions, his oxen, sheep, camels, and even his ten children. What is Job's reaction to this sudden disaster? Reading now verses 20 through 22 of chapter 1. Then Job arose and rent, that means tore, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, hallelujah. And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.

The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

Amen. Oh, what glorious joy that Job gives to his Creator by such a confession. Oh, how I burn with desire to be like him.

How about you? Let's pray. Lord God in heaven, please create within me the spiritual fortitude to always bless Thy high and holy name, no matter what terrible adversities come my way. Amen.

Job's wonderfully victorious confession makes God even more proud of this perfect servant. Thus God simply rattles Satan's chain again. In chapter 2, reading verse 3, the Lord speaking, Has thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and askeweth evil, and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movest me against him, to destroy him without cause.

Look at him, Satan, God is saying. Even though you moved me against this man to destroy him without a cause, still all he can do is to fall down on the ground and worship me, saying, Blessed be the name of the Lord. Get a good look at that, Satan.

He is not that a rare sight to behold. I am making you consider him. I am forcing you to consider Job, you old devil.

I refuse to let you not consider him. I am so proud of him that there is no way I will allow you to ignore him as you so desire to do. And I pray, Lord, help me to be like Job.

Oh, how delighted God is when he has such a treasure as Job to boast of to anyone and everyone, especially to the enemy and those in the enemy's camp. Would you pray this? Lord God, please help Brother Richard to be like Job. Please stir up my heart also with burning desire to be perfect and upright before thee.

Show me how greatly that glorifies thee and how soundly it defeats thy enemy and the devil. Please help me to be perfect and upright and thereby of great use to thee in this severe spiritual battle that is raging. Make me into a mature, perfect, and upright soldier in thy great army.

Grant this, Lord, I beg of thee. I pray this for all other Christian believers also. Amen.

You might be thinking by now, that's an awful lot of praying and I'm getting tired of it. Well, I like that New Testament verse that says, pray without ceasing. By God's grace, I try to do so.

I'll go on with the sermon now. Oh, what painful agony that must bring upon the devil. God forces Satan to again consider Job still perfect and upright, even though he has lost his many possessions and all ten children.

How Satan detests looking on such a sight that glorifies God so much. So he calls for an even more severe attack on this saint. Well, he wouldn't serve you if you would afflict him in his body.

I'll read that in chapter two, verses four and five. And Satan answered the Lord and said, skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth thine hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.

Now I read verse six. And the Lord said unto Satan, behold, he is in thine hand, but save his life. God didn't even bat an eye about turning this prized possession of his over to the devil for Job to be afflicted in the worst ways possible.

Job's creator and savior quickly put Job in the devil's hand for him to do anything with Job that he desired to do except for to kill him. Now listen to verses seven and eight. So, so went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.

And he took him a pot sherd to scrape himself withal, and he sat down among the ashes. Look at Job there, sitting on that ash heap, scraping himself with a pot sherd, trying to relieve the misery of those boils covering his entire body. All his possessions gone overnight, all ten children taken instantly, health gone, afflicted with physical misery.

So this great man of wealth has been reduced to a stinking, festering mass of rotten flesh, sitting in ashes, all because he loved God more than any other person did. Now what a reward that is for being the best believer on earth, for zealously being obedient to God. Something similar to this could possibly happen to you, simply because you are loving God with all your heart and zealously striving to be completely obedient to him and completely sold out to him in every area of your life.

So if and when disaster strikes you, it is a good thing for you to do a spiritual checkup, looking for any sin or anything wrong in your relationship with God, while calling upon the Holy Ghost to reveal any and all sin of yours unto you. And after carefully searching your life, then do seriously consider what Job encountered and consider that the adversary coming your way may possibly be for similar reasons that this harsh adversity came upon Job. Let's pray.

Lord God, each time adversity comes my way, please give me thy wisdom to be able to discern the reason for it. Help me to know if it is because of my sins and failures, or if it is because thou art glorying over my life before thine adversary the devil. Please fortify me to always stand firm for my creator God throughout all adversity.

Amen. I'm going to read the ninth verse of Job chapter two. Then said his wife unto him, does thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die.

That's the end of that reading. I'll put it in my words. Honey, why don't you just curse God and die? Just look at what misery God has heaped upon you in return for all your upright living, your worship, love, adoration, service, labor, and praise that you have lavished upon him all these years.

Just look at how God has treated you for being perfect and upright. God must hate you to treat you like this. Go ahead, Job, while there is still breath in you and you still have a chance in this life to get back at God.

Just curse God this face. Tell him in no uncertain terms what you think of him treating you this way. Go ahead and do it now while you have a chance.

Curse God and die, Job. All ten of his children taken away from him and the only remaining loved one, apparently, is his God-given helpmate who should be comforting and encouraging her husband. But rather, she rebukes him and urges him to turn his back on God and to curse his maker.

What a severe test Job is put to here. And what an inspiration to us all to see how well he stands the test. Reading the tenth verse of chapter two.

But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What, shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips. That's the end of that reading.

Not one word will Job utter against his creator God. Oh, how he ever so greatly glorified God. Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.

Thus, Job says later on. He declares this in chapter 13, verse 15. Thus, God is most proud of Job.

Though God may kill him, still Job will do nothing but praise and worship him. Always clinging to God in absolute, unwavering faith and trust. Being perfect and upright before God means never, ever finding fault in him or with him for any reason at all.

So, if you want to be perfect and upright in God's sight, then you must get this matter settled at the start that you would never find fault with God. Of course, God is perfect and upright. He never does any wrong.

By all means, believe that now and always believe that about God. And please dare not to ever find fault with him. May each and everything proceeding from your body, soul, and spirit always greatly glorify God, who is perfect in all his ways.

Glory to God. Back about the year 2000 or so, a stranger to me, Miss Hiroko, about 40 years old, I guess, stopped as she walked past me doing street evangelism. She struck up a conversation and sounded as if she might be a Christian believer.

So, I soon asked her if she was. Her answer was a shocker. I trusted in Christ, but my life didn't become blessed, so I no longer trust in him.

My, my, how great she be! The only true blessedness for the human soul is found in Christ, mainly because it is eternal blessedness, salvation unto a home in heaven. I gave Miss Hiroko my phone number. I know not if she had previously confessed to anyone else that she ceased trusting in Christ because her life didn't become blessed upon doing so.

But now, upon confessing that to me, her life soon became filled with time and again. She called me, sobbing on the phone about her unbearable problem. After some time, I received a handwritten letter from her saying that suicide is the only solution that she can see.

I prayed hard for her soul. She lived far from me. I wasn't able to be around her in person.

And later on, all word and communication from Miss Hiroko to me ceased coming to me. I know not what happened, but I know that I want the purpose in my heart that though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. I won't to ever confess that.

I want to confess with my dying breath that the Lord Jesus Christ is my all in all. And though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. You please pray along with me right now.

Almighty God, by thy great power, please help me to now settle it in my heart that I will never find any fault in thee. Help me to never consider doing so. Convince me that thou art totally holy and perfect, and that none of the many creatures that thou hast created will ever have any reason for fault in thee, or murmuring and complaining against thee.

Give me courage to say along with Job, though thou slayest me, yet will I still trust in thee. Also, please help Brother Richard to be perfect and upright in this matter. May he never be tempted to find fault with thee, no matter what trials and troubles come his way on the foreign mission field.

Help us all, Lord, I only pray. Amen. I am preaching this from Japan.

Today, daily, I held forth the word of life to a good number of people out in public. May God, the Holy Spirit, come upon them, work strongly and powerfully in their souls. May the true light shine into their darkened hearts and give them some light.

I would appreciate you interceding in prayer for them. Oh, God has given me a love and a burden for them. I desire to see many of them saved.

My time is up for today, and Lord willing, next time I hope to continue talking to you about Job. God bless you richly in every way, and keep you, make his face to shine upon you gloriously.