Job - The Yowler of Uz

When you look at the book of Job, I call him the Yala of Uz. And he was in the land of Uz and there was a few places in the Bible called Uz. But he was a person who you would argue or could argue was the second greatest sufferer in the Bible, certainly the greatest sufferer of the Old Testament. Jesus Christ was the greatest sufferer in the Bible. He didn't go through everything that Job went physically, but through physically, but he was in the place of sin and faced God's wrath for that sin. And so Job was the second greatest sufferer in the Bible. And it would be impossible for me in a sermon this morning to bring everything that there is to say about Job. Some people have 40 sermons about Job. Some people have 50 sermons about Job. Some people have several. I'd love to bring a whole series on Job to bring the little that God has shown me concerning this book. But when it comes to the book of Job, this has to be a crash course because you're dealing with a very deep topic. You're dealing with something that is sometimes hard to be understood. And yet there are so many wonderful, simple truths from the book of Job that can help us as Christians when we go through any sort of suffering in the Bible. I don't know if you know, there was quite a few Jobs in the Bible. One of them was found in Genesis 46, verse 13, who was the grandson of Jacob. The son of Isachar, one of the 12 sons of Jacob, had a son called Job, and there was another Job. But there's only one of prominence in the Bible, and that is the second greatest sufferer, whose name was Job, found in the book of Job. And when we look at this man called Job, there's a lot of similarities between him and Jesus Christ. In the New Testament, we see that we are to be partakers of the suffering of Christ. We as Christians are not going to have this easy life, which some people preach. When you get saved, from that moment onwards, you will have all the money you need, you'll have the houses you need, you'll have the food you need, you'll have everything else you need. It comes in different degrees. Some people say you'll have a Ferrari, that's the prosperity movement. Some people say that you always will have the clothes that you need and a house over your head and food to eat. And both of these are lies, because we know that Paul said many times he faced hunger, many times him and others faced nakedness and was uncertain of the place that he would dwell in. God does not even promise us as Christians that we will always have the clothes we need to wear and that we will always have the food we need to eat. And there are those who have starved following Jesus Christ and died. But when we think of the sufferers of being partakers of the suffering of Jesus Christ, many people think of people after Jesus Christ. And they don't realize that many people in the Old Testament in many ways were partakers beforehand of the coming suffering of Jesus Christ. And the only reason they were saved or could get to heaven was because of Jesus. And I'd like to look at a few things as we go through this sermon this morning. Firstly, Job in 3 verse 24, I call him the yowler of Uz, in the land of Uz there was a man called Job and Job means hated or persecuted and yowler means that's a long, loud, mournful cry. And this man Job, we read in Job 3 verse 24, for my sighing cometh before I eat and my roarings are poured out like the waters. Job had roarings, which basically was a loud rumbling or moan in his pain. Now, Jesus Christ quoted when he was hanging on the cross from a person, David in Psalm 22 verse 1, where he said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And the person that Jesus Christ quoted from said these words after saying, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me? And for the words of my roaring, the same as Job said. Job and Jesus were the only two people that we read of in the entire scripture that were spat upon in hate. We have the possibility of being spat upon written in Leviticus 15 verse 8, the Numbers 12 verse 14. We have it as a command, as a punishment with no examples in the Bible, but commanded in Deuteronomy 25 verse 9. We have a person who was healed when Jesus took his spittle and put it in the eyes of a person. But we only have two people in scripture who were spat upon in hatred, and that was Jesus Christ and Job. We read in Job 30 verse 10, they abhor me, they flee far from me and they spare not to spit on my face. And then of Jesus Christ, we read in Mark 14 verse 65, and some began to spittle him and to cover his face and to buffet him and to say unto him, prophesy. And the servants did strike him with the palms of their hand. We actually find in the New Testament that Jesus Christ was not spat upon once, but that he was spat upon twice. We find this in two of the gospels. Once they spat upon him and beat up his face with their hands, and the second time with a reed after spitting on him. In fact, this was so important to Jesus Christ that when Jesus prophesied, when Jesus stood before his disciples and he told them, I'm going to die, I'm going to be crucified, one of the few things that he mentioned is they're going to spit upon me and then I'm going to die. He mentioned this more than once. And as I said, there are two people in the Bible who in this sense were partakers of the suffering of Jesus Christ. It was Jesus and it was Job. 2 Corinthians 1 verse 7 talks of us being partakers of his suffering. But what was Job like? What was Job like before he suffered? The Bible says that he was a perfect man. We read this in Job 1 verse 1, a man in the land of Uz, a perfect and upright man who feared God and eschewed evil. And God repeats this in his discourse with Satan a couple of times. And the Lord said unto Satan, Job 1 verse 8, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in all the earth, a perfect and upright man, an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil. Now, we're living in the days where people are so against work salvation, which I'm also against, by the way. Jesus Christ saves you for free by grace. But they're so against the term work salvation that they believe that even to be against sin is work salvation. It's legalism. The Bible says in Psalm 97 verse 10, Ye that love the Lord hate evil. And it says in the New Testament, Let love be without dissimilation. Abhor that which is evil. Love that which is good. That's what the Old Testament says. That was the New Testament said. In fact, Jesus Christ was lifted up because of his righteousness and hatred of evil. We find in certain verses in scripture and his obedience. But in Job 2 verse 3, we find in the second time that God speaks to Satan about his servant Job after he had faced one wave of suffering, that God says he is one that feareth God and escheweth evil. And yet he still holds on to his integrity. That's beautiful. Although thou movest me against him to destroy him without cause, God said it was not because of sin that Job was punished or Job went through the suffering. You know, there are people, theologians, preachers, lots of them, young people, old people across the world, and I don't know where they get their doctrine, but they actually say that Job was a proud man at the beginning of the book and that he was punished for his sin. I wonder, where do they, what part, I mean, how do they get that? They're worse than Job's friends, but they say it and some of them say it kind of later, but we'll come to that a little later in the sermon. We find that Job, before he suffered, was a man that feared God and eschewed evil. We find that he was a man who understood sacrifice. This is very important. Job did not look to his righteousness based upon his own works. Job looked to his righteousness based on redeeming work. It says in Job 1, verse 5, for his children that he basically made a habit of sacrificing in case they sinned, getting them together and doing a sacrifice, looking forward to the perfect sacrifice that was coming. Some people actually say that he was proud because he only did it for his children. But we know that later in the book, Job said that I know that my redeemer lives. And he knew, he knew that he needed someone to purchase his redemption. He retained his integrity. And as I say, some people later in the book especially say, because he actually argued that he was right with God in spite of his suffering, that he was a sinner and that he was self-righteous. He admitted that he had sinned in his life. He did not claim, Job did not claim to be a person who had never sinned. We find in Job 13, verse 26, that he referred back to the sins of his youth. We find in Job 32, verse 33, that he did not hide his sin in his bosom, alike Adam. Now, why is this important? This is extremely important for every single Christian to understand when Satan attacks you when you're going through hard times, that you have a righteousness in Jesus Christ that you do not have to be ashamed of because of your suffering. Satan will come and he will make you want to feel bad about yourself. And it's going to lead to things, I'm going to show later, that could lead you down totally wrong paths as a Christian. There are people out there who believe and they go to the Old Testament and there's a verse in the Old Testament which says that your heart is deceitful above all things. How many of you have heard that before? What's in the Bible? Praise the Lord. It's a wonderful verse for backsliders. But anyway, because they were backsliding at the point that I was speaking about them, but there are people who will say that as Christians, right from the moment that we are born again, right till our death, and there are many great preachers who even say this, that your heart is deceitful above all things. And I find this a little strange because, for instance, people will come to me and they'll say to me sometimes on the chat, sometimes in an email, sometimes to my face, many times people come up to me and they say, Roy, sometimes people who are involved in pornography and evil stuff, they'll come up to me and they say, you Roy, oh, you're angry with me. And at that moment, some of them ask it at the moment when I'm bubbling with joy. It's just the wrong moment to say that. I say, how do you know that? I say, well, I know. And Roy, you have to understand that your heart, they use these words. So many times your heart is deceitful above all things. And because your heart is deceitful above all things, my dear friend, Roy, you wouldn't know that you're angry with me. So someone from the outside has to tell you, I don't know if you've ever met people like this. There are a lot of people who come and use that verse and say, you wouldn't know. There's a blind spot in your life. And of course we have blind spots sometimes that people have to point out. But that's a total misuse of scripture. I tell many of these people, I ask them a simple question. How does your deceitful heart know what my deceitful heart is thinking? You see, there are other verses in the Bible. If you go to Ezekiel 36, verse 26, it says a new heart also will I give you. I'll take out the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. God's going to write his law upon our heart. Now, what on earth happened to that deceitful heart? When God takes your old heart and throws it away and gives you a new one, where is the deceitful heart? How can you serve God out of a pure heart if you've still got your old deceitful heart? I've met so many preachers, sometimes preachers of 40 years. If I ever say to them anything good, they say, oh, brother, brother, don't say anything good about me because there's none good, no, not one. And I say, brother, the Bible says, let another man praise thee, praise not thyself. In the Old Testament. And number two, you shouldn't be looking for praise, but God says through Paul in Romans. You're full of goodness. So the same person who said, I am the chief of sinners, said you are full of goodness. Full means absolutely prop full. It's like a jar that's bursting over. You're full of goodness. Because none of your own goodness because of Jesus. You know, there's nothing that we have to boast of, nothing that we've done in life, no church that we built, no tract that we wrote, no amount of souls that we brought to Christ that we can boast in for ourselves. We, the Bible says, we boast in God all the day long. And as Christians, we do not have to feel bad about ourselves as Christians because our righteousness is Jesus and we can feel good about that. And we are full of goodness, not our goodness, Jesus Christ. And when we go through a hard time, Satan will come and he will attack our integrity before God and make us feel less than we should be. In Christ, our identity. By the way, it's Romans 15, verse 14, if any of you want to be like the church of Berea and just check that it does say you're full of goodness in the Bible. Our identity is Jesus Christ and we have an accuser, accuser of the brethren, Revelation 12, verse 10, we read of the accuser of our brethren, he's cast down at the stage in Revelation, which accused them before God day and night. Satan accuses us before God, Satan accuses us to our hearts. A lot of argument about when that stops. We won't get into that today. Joe, before he's suffering, was a man who feared God and eschewed evil, a man who retained his integrity afterwards, a man who understood redemption and looked to his redeemer, a man who had a large family. He had seven sons and he had three daughters and he was an extremely rich person and God called him perfect. Now, rich people can be perfect. Can you believe that? Obviously, I'm not perfect because I'm not rich. He had a thousand sheep for every son and he had a thousand cattle for every daughter. Now, if you do math, that is 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 oxen, 500 she asses, and he was called the greatest of all the men of the East in Job 1, verse 3. But Job understood something before suffering. He understood that this was a gift. He understood that how much effort he put into creating his business and farming and other areas, that everything that he had in life was a gift because when this was taken away from him, he said, naked came unto my mother's womb and naked shall I return here. Job 1, verse 21, the Lord gave and the Lord had taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. The Lord gave. He didn't say it later on in the book. Straight when God took it, he said the Lord gave. He understood this. This is something that you find right through Scripture. If you want to study it up, one of the best Psalms to go to in the Bible, Psalm 104, where you see that in spite of our effort, it's a gift of God, whatever we have. Man goes to labor, the lion, the lion seeketh his prey. No matter how much effort is put into that and there's other, right through Scripture, you'll find amazing verses, which I'm not going to go into this morning, showing that everything, even that which takes days and days and years and years of our labor, then we receive something for it. It was still a gift of God. He understood everything was a gift before his suffering. He said in Job 31, verse 27, my mouth, basically he says, he said, if my mouth had kissed my hand, saying he did not allow this to happen. What does it mean when Job said my mouth did not, from the whole verse, kiss his hand? It means he never went like this. Wow, you did that business. Wow, you got this for yourself. Well done, well done, well done. That's how the picture of what the Hebrew is trying to say to us. Job understood that God gave and therefore Job gave himself. In Job 29, verse 12, 16, 25, and 16, we see that he delivered the poor that cried. This is before he went through suffering. He was the father to the poor. He searched out the cause of people he didn't even know about to look for people that he could help. He wept for him that was in trouble. He was grieved over the plight of the poor and he did not withheld the poor from their desire or allow the widow to fail. Job was a man that feared God. Job was the man that understood the righteousness and need of sacrifice, the righteousness that is in God. Job understood that everything that he had was given to him of God and Job understood that the poor and the rich were made by the same person. And he says this in Job 31, verse 15, did not he that made me in the womb make him, talking of the poor. And did not one fashion us in the womb? Some things that America has in their little writings from years back, it's in the Bible, by the way. Proverbs 22, verse 2, the rich and poor meet together, the Lord is the maker of them all. That's why Job gave. He looked at everything that he had in life and didn't say, look, I'm an amazing businessman and everybody else is lazy and I'm food stamps and using the system. And the reason I'm rich is me and my hard work. He said God gave it. God made them. Of course, God talks against laziness too. Now, the last thing I'd like to mention before we go over to Job's suffering is that Job, before he went through suffering, had a longing and he had a fear. He didn't just fear God, by the way, we'll come to that, he feared something else. Job had a longing and this longing is what many of us have that gets somewhere in life. He longed to die in his nest. He says this in Job 29, verse 18, Then I said, I shall die in my nest and I shall multiply my days as the sand. Here's Job looking back to when he had riches, camels, asses, so many servants, so many different things. And he longed that one day he would die in his little nest. You know, old people and young people say, I've got this little nest for when I die, you know, or when I get old. And I'm going to live off that and I'm working towards this day when I can retire in this little bit of comfort that the Lord has allowed in my life, or some of them think they have allowed in their life. But this doesn't always happen. We find in Deuteronomy 32, verse 11, very clearly that, As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them and beareth them on her wings. This picture is so beautiful of where an eagle stirs up the nest of the young that it loves. So what you've got here is you've got an eagle and everything the eagle does seems to indicate to this little eaglet, or whatever you want to call it in America, that this mother loves me. Oh man, there's nice little, between the thorns and the nest, basically was made up of these sticks and so on, these lovely feathers. Oh, it's comfortable. And she brings the most amazing little worms and stuff. It's wonderful. She feeds me. This mother loves me. But then suddenly one day, it seems mommy doesn't love me anymore because mommy takes the feathers out from beneath me. And I get all this prickly feeling. And why doesn't she love me? She's stirring up the nest. Life seems to indicate that the one who loved me does not love me anymore. And at that moment, you do not realize that this eagle is trying to teach me to fly. And so often, when God starts to take things out of our life, we do not realize that God does not love us because life is not as easy. But he's trying to teach us something. And so even though Job longed to die in his nest, this did not happen. We find that Job had a longing to die in his nest, but he also had a fear. Not only a fear of God, but Job 3 verse 25, we read these words, for the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me. Now, I've heard many preachers, more than other things that I've mentioned that many preachers preach, generally through much of the church, who say that the only fear that's allowed that is not sin is the fear of God, which you find right through scripture. And they say if you have any other fear, then that's sinful because the Bible says in Revelation that the fearful and unbelieving will be thrown in the pool of fire. So if you ever have a fear, then you're sinning. Entire denominations in America, some of them believe that it's sin to have any fear other than the fear of God. You know, when just after his first wave or two waves of suffering, Job looked back and said, what I have greatly feared has come upon me, which is not just the fear of God, he was looking back to fears in a time that God looked upon him and said, you're perfect. God looked at a perfect man who had fears. Samuel feared, David feared, Gideon feared, Paul feared, Job feared, Mary was troubled, Jesus after saying, let not your heart be troubled, was troubled. There's a little difference in that, but we won't go into it today. Let me tell you something, there's a fear in Revelation that has no faith. There's a fear that blames God, and that fearful person will be thrown into the pool of fire. But there is normal fears in life where we still cling to God's word and who God is, and you're not sinning. Paul feared that the congregations that he'd been to, when he came back to them, that he'd have lost everything. He said so. It wasn't just a fear of God, it was a fear that I'll lose my ministry. Most people when they sit down with preachers, no, I fear that my church, you know, that it's not, don't worry, leave it in God's hand. And don't fear because fear is sin. And I'm like, but Paul feared. We should trust God, but we should fear enough to do something about it. That's what the Bible says. Now we come to this person who had longings, who had fears, who feared God and feared that everything would be taken away from him. We come to his suffering. And of course all of you I believe would know that there was a discussion in heaven that Job was not told about, between Satan and God. And God talked and almost boasted about his servant Job. The pastor considered my servant Job. There's none like him in all the earth. A man that feareth God and escheweth evil. Perfect and upright man. And Satan said, doth God Job serve thee or fear thee for naught? And then Job in the first place said basically, take everything that he has and he's going to curse you. And in the second place he said, touch his body and he'll curse you. And so we have two waves. Two waves. Now I don't know about you, I have never been through what Job has been through. In the Bible we find many sufferers. We find sufferers and yet there's something in life that encourages them. Sometimes they will suffer in one area of life and there's still people to encourage them. Job had nothing outside of God to encourage him. Job did not have people to encourage him like Isaiah encouraged Hezekiah who encouraged the people of God. Job had very little. Even Paul at times was an encouragement to the brethren and there were people who Titus who came and encouraged Paul. But sometimes in life when you go through suffering of any shape, form or size that is hurtful in your emotions and in your life, then it feels like different waves come and hit you. I don't know if you've ever almost drowned. It's one of my hobbies. I go out in the sea in South Africa and I swim and then you've got these big waves and eventually I come to the point where, this is not always, but it has happened to me a few times where I basically cannot get back to shore and I cannot because of the current that is pulling me out and there's these waves that come. So the one wave hits you and you can't breathe. And then you get breath. Oh, it's wonderful, but there's another wave coming. And that's what often happens is you get suffering in waves. Job had this. He had one wave and he must have thought, well, it can't get worse than this. It can't get worse than this and bang, there was more. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick. The first wave is he lost his wealth and his children. And the second wave is he lost his health. He lost his children, his wealth, his health, his respect. People used to come to Job and they used to say to Job, I want to listen to what you say. I respect you. And they used to sit and keep quiet while he spoke. And then when he went through suffering, they didn't care about him. They wouldn't come and listen to him because he was a sufferer. He had nothing to say. He was not respected anymore. And he could not perceive God. Job 23 verse 8, it says that Job could not perceive God. That means he could not even feel God. So many people think that people in prison for 10, 20, 30 years for Christ, that they always have this amazing peace. It passes understanding according to Philippians. John Bunyan, when he was in prison, said he felt like his heart was torn apart. He felt like the muscles were being torn from his bones. He did not feel amazing peace coming out of him all the time to remind him that God loved him. Neither did Job. The same person who said in Philippians, rejoice with them that rejoice, said in Romans, weep with them that weep. He said rejoice in the Lord always. And Job, when he lost his children, when he lost his wealth, when he lost his health, when he lost his respect, when he could not perceive God, Job was emotional. I have met so many judges, so many friends of Job, that when people go through hard times, they judge people for getting emotional. It's the culture of what's right and what's wrong. He wasn't the only one who got emotional. Joseph in the Old Testament and many others, David, Elijah, you name it, got very emotional. We know that when Joseph was thrown into the pit and sold as a slave, that chapters later in Genesis 42 verse 21, his brothers remembering back to this talk to the anguish of his soul when he besought us. And we would not hear. Joseph's brothers said that he was not in amazing peace that passes understanding. He's saying, oh, praise the Lord as you throw me into the pit. Praise the Lord as you send me away to be a slave. He was in anguish. And he was not a sinner because of it. Believe it or not. I don't like crybabies, but I'll tell you, getting emotional is not sin. And then before we carry on, there's just one little thing I'd like you to remember. And that one little thing is that not only were there natural disasters that came against Job, but there were people. We have in Job 1 verse 14 and 15 and Job 1 verse 17, the Sabaeans and the Chaldeans. And that is very, very important to understand something that comes later in Job's arguments and what God says later. God not only sent things that were obviously God. He sent some people into his life. When Job suffered, when he had boils from the tip of his head to his toes and he sat with a pot shirt trying to scrape himself, sitting there, there were people around him. Later his friends came, but there were still people there. And one of them, there were his wife, for instance. Some of his servants were left. We read of them later. But in Job 2 verse 9, we read that his wife says to him exactly what Satan said he would do, encourages him to do that. Does thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. And I agree with many preachers that you cannot blame Job's wife for emotions. But what I would like to add to that is that even if we cannot blame a woman who perhaps was going off her head because she'd lost her children, lost so much in life, you cannot say that it wasn't hard for Job. He has a man who's suffering and his wife, though you don't blame her, says to him, why does thou retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. He had no support from his wife. And that did not make him a sinner. In Job 19 verse 17, the longing of his heart came out. He said, my breath is strange to my wife, though I treated her for the children's sake of mine own body. Job longed for his wife to be near to him. Longed for his wife to encourage him. Longed for her to be close to him. And her breath was far away. And he said to her, listen, you had my children. They were seven boys and there were three little girls. And we went through the birth process and we brought up these children and we had fun together. And you were the mother of my children. And she refused to come close to him in spite of that plea that we find in Job. In Psalm 55, we see that one of the hardest things anybody can face in life, worse than armies coming against you is when someone you love turns against you. In fact, the Bible says, horrors overwhelmed me because someone that I loved and went up to the house of God turned against me. I wonder if people realize how little encouragement Job had in his life. Even little children were not an encouragement to him. When I was, many years back, I remember when I was feeling down about certain things, when everybody turned against me, I still had little children. I used to go to little children and little children used to look up to me and smile when the adults and older people were against me. In history with many of the godly revivalists, they will say of times when so much in life was against them, little children used to encourage them, if you read in church history. One of R.A. Torrey's friends said he was going to leave Moody's Bible Institute. He felt like it was the end, too much was against him. And then he saw his little children, Torrey's children, and he was encouraged and he decided not to leave and God went on to use him in a mighty way. But Job did not have children to encourage him. The Bible says in Job 1 verse 14, sorry, not 11, I think, verse 14, it says, I hope I got the right reference there. Yea, young children despise me, I arose and they spake against me. Job 19, sorry, verse 14. Then in Job 19 we also read, I called to my servants and he gave me no answer. I entreated them with my mouth. Little children despised him. His servants would not come. His wife refused to come close to him and basically told him to curse God and die. And in this time of suffering where he had no support, he had three longings to escape what he was facing emotionally. And these three longings, number one was death. He longed to die. I don't know, I've met Christians who for 30 years, 40 years, 50 years have preached and there comes times in their life where they long for God to take their life. Job 6 verse 8, O that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing that I long for, even that it would please God to destroy me and that he would cut loose his hand and cut me off. Now Job was not the only person in the Bible who longed for God to kill him. Elijah longed in 1 Kings 19 verse 4 for God to kill him. Jonah 4 verse 3, Moses in Numbers 11 verse 13 to 15. And if you go through history you'll find that there were many people who longed to die who were godly and we look up to and quote in sermons. Hudson Taylor even considered taking his own life. But Job understood something. He understood in Job 7 verse 1 and 14 verse 14 that there is two appointed times. The one is the appointed time that we have on earth when God chooses that we do not live anymore. And the other appointed time is the appointed time that we sleep before he raises us up at the resurrection of the dead. And I've met people who said I was on the point of suicide. I was about to kill myself and then I suddenly realized that it's not in my hands. I can ask God to kill me, yes, but it's his choice when I die. I don't have the right to take that into my hands. It would be sin. And that saved their life. Job longed to die to get away from his suffering. Another thing that Job longed for to get away from his suffering was sleep. Most of us, even if we suffer in an intense way and have many things against us, at least when we go to our bed, sometimes we toss and turn and whatever, but there will be times when we fall asleep, even if it's for an hour. And we'll be sleeping and we'll be away from what we're suffering in this world. Job didn't have that luxury. The Bible says in Job 7 verse 3, In other words, Job could not even go to sleep to get away from the suffering that he was going through. It was his evil dreams that came upon him. And the third thing he longed for, not only death, not only sleep to be able to comfort himself, just for a little, he longed for his friends to keep quiet. Job 7 verse 19 and 20, And then he says these amazing words in Job 10 verse 20, Job longed for death, Job longed for sleep, and Job longed for his friends to keep quiet. When you look at this, if you just think to yourself about the worst things that you've been through in life, probably you had, apart from death, probably had some of these things. You could sleep a little. You had some friend that you could look to. Little children didn't despise you. This was the suffering of Job. But I'd like you to take note of something. I once preached on Job at one church, and this guy came up to me that I respect for many years, and he said, Roy, I always understood the beginning of Job, and I understood a little bit of the end of Job, but the middle part where they talked to each other was a long conversation. I didn't quite understand it, but what many people don't understand is in that conversation we have the accusations of Satan through Job's friends that you will face when you go through hard times. The accusations that you and almost every godly person that ever lived will face, and the answers we find in this discourse. So when you go through hard times one day, whether it's an area of your family, whether it's an area of your wealth, whether it's an area of your health, or anything else, you can learn from the book of Job what Satan is going to say to you, and you can learn the answers to what Satan is going to say to you. And it's going to help you immensely. It's helped me endlessly, and many other people when they go through hard times, much less than Job. His friends came to him, these three friends, they kept quiet for a long time, and then they opened their mouth, which was a big problem, but these friends came to him and they backed up what they said by a few things. They backed up what they said by their age. They said in Job 15 verse 10, "...with us are both the grey-headed and very aged men, much older than thy father." So what we're saying is the truth because we're older and we know what we're saying. I've met people who've said to me since I became a Christian, keep quiet, I'm older than you, I know more. Perhaps they're right, except about the old age. I always say, don't go play golf, but if you play golf and you've got a... I don't, except once in a while, and I tried it with one of my family members, it was terrifying, but I won't go into that. But when I was at school and you hear golf ball, one thing is practice does not play perfect. Practice just makes what you're doing wrong more into you. Old age does not mean that you're right. Most of the people who turned against God, it was in their old age. The Bible makes you right, nothing else, including the parts on humility. But not only did they back what they said by their old age, they backed what they said by their dreams. One of them at least had a dream and he said basically, I've talked of visions in the night, of trembling, a spirit passed before my face. I could not discern the form there. You know how many people go to other people when suffering and otherwise and say, the Holy Spirit told me I had a vision. This verse came out of nowhere. And now they're an authority in your life. That's what Job's friends did. And they also used their riches because they were not as rich as Job was before that, but they certainly weren't like Job. They were doing pretty well compared to him. And this is how it works. I don't know if you've noticed in America, if you, and I've seen this many times, if you are doing very well, people will, in that area of life, they will respect you. They'll even go and ask your advice. I wonder where the rich man would have been if he'd asked Lazarus the beggar's advice. But he wasn't worthy of advice. The culture of America is while you're doing, and the whole world and history, is that while you're doing well in your business and in your life, people will come to you, respect you, and ask you advice. But when things go badly, they don't respect you and they don't ask you advice. It's human nature. So they came with their old age, with their visions and their riches, and they were an authority in the life of this man sitting with boils all over his body, his children gone, his wife despising him, his servants would not come, little children despised him, and they looked at him, and they were an authority to talk in his life. And so came the accusations of Satan. Now Satan has already used the woman that we don't blame to tell him to curse God and die. And now Satan uses these so-called friends, and the first accusation that comes out clearly and right through the book is that, Job, you have sinned. The suffering proves that you have sin in your life. There's no way that someone could suffer like this, and there isn't something that's terrifyingly wrong with your life. Job 4 verse 7, remember, I pray thee, whoever perished being innocent, where were the righteous cut off? Tell me of one man, Job, that really lived for God, who is going through what you're going through. There must be sin in your life. We don't know what it is, but there must be sin in your life. Job 22 verse 23, If thou return to the Almighty, then thou shalt be built up. All you've got to do, Job, look, look at these boils on your body, look at the anguish you're going through, look at all the people against you, all you've got to do is confess your sins, and you'll be lifted up. It's so simple, Job, why don't you do it? You're the reason that you're sitting here in your hospital. Satan comes when you go through hard times, many hard times, bigger hard times, very big hard times, and he says there must be some sin in your life. And he starts off often by not telling you the sin. And there's a reason why Satan does that, and I've seen it in so many Christians' lives. When you go through hard times, and your feelings are not showing God's love, and your circumstances are not showing God's love, and people are not showing God's love, and you start to think, well, there must be a sin, and Satan comes and says, yes, there's a sin, let me tell you, it's you eating chocolates, or you have a desire to get married one day. You laugh. That's what thousands, hundreds of thousands of people across the world have gone through as Christians. I know people who had the joy of the Lord for years, and they were soul winners, and then they went through hard times, and then they thought Satan was telling them, you've done something wrong, there's some sin in your life, and they said, I wonder what it is. Maybe it's because I don't eat too many sweets. Okay, let's not eat any more sweets. And then they started to take their warm clothes off and go up the mountain, high upwards, cold, and sit there shivering in the cold to prove to God that they loved Him and would deny themselves. Later, God set them free and made them wonderful evangelists again after ten years of suffering. I've met many people like that. So many little things in their life. The Church of Galatians, oh yeah, we need to be perfected by the law or laws. When you feel like the righteousness of Jesus Christ is not enough to make you good, it's not enough to grow spiritually, it's not enough for everything that you need, according to Peter, to add to your faith, virtue, and knowledge, and everything to become a Christian, and the Christian that God wants you to be as you grow, and you think there's something missing from Christ, there's something in me that's wrong, then you might just go into the Galatian church and start to get a whole lot of laws to make yourself perfect. Or you might just go into the Corinthian church and think, well, the thing that I'm missing is some experience. So many people do that. When they go through suffering, and they feel that something is missing from my life, Jesus isn't good enough. First, Satan comes and he whispers to your heart when you're suffering, there's some sin, I won't tell you what it is, but there's sin in your life, and there must be for you because you're suffering. Secondly, Satan says, God cannot trust you. What did Satan say to God about Job? God said, look at this guy. He fears me. He obeys me. He's perfect. He's upright. And Satan says, that God, that's Job. Fear thee for not. You can't trust Job. Give him suffering, and you'll see that you can't trust him. You know, when you suffer sometimes, it's because God is trusting you with suffering. And God said, it's going to say at the end, well done, my good and faithful servant. He's going to say, you were faithful. I trusted you with something, and you did what you had to do with that. But in Job 4, verse 18 and 19, and Job 15, verse 15, we find Eliphaz, I don't know if you pronounced that correctly in American, he said, behold, he put no trust in his servants, and his angels to charge with folly. How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay. So Satan comes and he says, God doesn't even trust the angels. How much less do you trust you? Don't think God trusts you. There was a man in South Africa. He had a $17 million business. He smoked a lot too. He had money to smoke. But at the end of the day, this man, I went to see him one day, and he looked at me and he said, you know why you suffer so much? As far as financially goes. I said, why? He said, because God can't trust you. The reason I got so much money, and he meant it, because God can trust me. Now that's ridiculous. But you know how that spirit is in the heart of so many people. They might not say it. I'm doing well because God can trust me. That guy's suffering because God cannot trust him. And Satan comes to suffer. And they suffer with their children or their family. Or they suffer in their finances or their health or their wealth. And Satan says, God cannot trust you. And then Satan comes and he says, not only have you got sin in your life, not only can God not trust you, but I'll tell you a little more. God doesn't, you don't know God. You find this in Job 18 verse 21. This is the place of him that knoweth not God. You've got sin in your life, Job. God does not trust you. And you don't know God. You know how many revivalists and missionaries from history came to a point when they were in suffering and they penned it down. I wonder if I know God. I'm not talking about people who were in this stage before salvation where they're wondering how to be saved. I'm talking about people who went through suffering and they started to doubt what once they were certain of. John the Baptist. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. And then when he was in jail he said, Art thou the one? Or seek we another? He wasn't so certain anymore that he'd found the Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah. Satan comes and he says when you're suffering you've got sin in your life. He says God does not trust you. He says there might be a possibility God does not even know you. And then he starts to directly accuse you of specific things. In Job 22 verse 6, 7 and 9 Eliphaz came with lies to Job and said to him direct accusations which he had no proof for for thou hast taken a pledge from my brother for naught and stripped the naked of their clothing. Thou hast given water to the weary to drink and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry. Thou hast sent widows away empty and the arms of the fatherless has been broken. Therefore because of all the snares around about thee and sudden fear troubleth you. In the same chapter he said thou sayest how doth God know can he judge through the dark cloud. You've done these things and you've said stuff which he never said. Jesus was accused of doing things which he never did. Jesus was accused of not only not knowing God but being a devil. We are to be partakers of the sufferings of Christ. Now Job was even accused of speaking too much. I like that because I speak too much. Job 11 verse 2 The multitude of words must be answered. Then we find throughout the book that Job answers these lies. Job answers these lies. He says though he slay me yet will I trust him. Job 13 verse 15 And concerning the fact that I'm suffering down here it doesn't mean I'm wicked. It's not the end. In Job 19 verse 25 we find that Job has what every single one of us has to have going through suffering and that is a resurrection hope. Job understood that my Redeemer lives. It was the closest in the whole Bible in the Old Testament to what Paul said in 2 Timothy 1 verse 12 I know that my Redeemer lives and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though my skin in this world after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see the Lord I shall see God. And what Job was saying is I'm going to die one day this body is going to be that suffering right now it's going to be eaten up with worms but even if that happens one day I'm going to rise up and in my flesh I'm going to have a new body. A resurrection hope. This short life with all its suffering is not the end. There's something coming Job explained. And we find that Paul said the same. For I know whom I believe and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Jesus said I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth on me though he were dead yet shall he live. And the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15 verses 42, 51 and 52 it says basically that there's coming a day when we're going to be changed. We shall all not all sleep but we shall all be changed the Bible says in a moment in a twinkling of the eye of an eye at the last trump for the trump shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible. And we shall all be changed. Job said he was waiting for his change. Looking to this day. This is not the end. 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 18 says wherefore comfort one another with these words. God commands in the New Testament that Christians who are going through a hard time should comfort each other with two things it actually mentions. One is that Jesus Christ is going to return and it also says that the dead are going to be raised. These are the words that we as Christians should be comforting one another through hard times. It's what the Bible says and it's exactly what Job understood. Not only did Job understand that there was going to come a day where the dead would be raised and we would receive new bodies basically we would be changed. He understood that there was such a thing as ultimate justice. And Job mentioned unlike what his friends said Job said that the wicked there are many wicked people out there who are going through a wonderful time. There are many wicked people who are prosperous. Some of them get punished down here but many of them don't. Many of them have loads of money and loads of pleasure and loads of happiness and they die that way after many years. But Job said the answer to that my friends in 21 verse 30 that the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction. They shall be brought forth to the day of wrath. There are three Psalms which deals with this mostly and they are Psalm 37 Psalm 73 and to a lesser degree Psalm 94. And Psalm 37 verse 9 and 13 says for evil doers shall be cut off the Lord shall laugh at them for he seeth that his day is coming. In all these Psalms in Psalm 73 where it says then understood I their end when he went to the sanctuary there's this there's this thing in the heart of the people who are writing these Psalms saying but why are these people that are so wicked and so against God why are they prospering why do they have money why do they have health why do they have all these good things going for them if they're not following God. And so he would go to the sanctuary in Psalm 73 and he would understand suddenly though that there's coming a day where they will be punished. Ultimate justice. You see if Hitler if there was no God and Hitler could just commit suicide to get away from all of the torture that he put people through there's no justice. But because there's a judgment day he is not escaping so easily. The people that enjoy their life down here that do not follow God after they die there will be justice. That's what Job said to his friends. Job understood that there is a resurrection hope this is not the end. Job understood that for those who do not follow God this is also not the end they might have a wonderful life but when they die they're going to face God on the judgment day. And Job understood in Job 23 verse 10 that love refines. When he hath tried me I shall come forth as gold. Job said. One of the most beautiful things you have to realize is that some people go through the fires because of their sin. Some because of their stupidity. But some things go through the fire because it's precious. Gold goes through the fire because the person putting it through the fire wants it to be more pure. It's because of the preciousness of gold that it's put through the fire. And many saints are put through the fires by God because he wants to bring them forth as gold on the other side. And then Job gave a specific defense in Job 30 verse 25 and 31 and 17 to 21 where he said no it's not true that I've taken from the poor. He answers directly their accusations and he said I gave to the poor. And some people say because he actually defended himself he was sinful. You know that Paul defended himself for specific accusations against him. I've heard many preachers say because Jesus was as a lamb to the slaughter who opened not his mouth. Therefore if anybody says that you are an adulterer if anybody says that you have stolen stuff if anybody says that you are everything that they decide is wrong in your life according to the Bible that they do not have anything and information about sorry evidence for then you are not allowed to tell them they're wrong. Because Jesus went to the cross and he didn't open up his mouth. Jesus did open his mouth by the way but we won't get into that right now. He said of Jesus in Isaiah 53 there was no violence found in him. Of Jesus he took a whip and whipped people in the temple. And there are Jews that have stood in front of me and said this can't be talking about Jesus because it says there was no violence found in him and Jesus had violence. I said who is it? They said it's Israel. I said well boy Israel has a lot of violence. And he's talking about righteous unrighteous violence. Wicked people being violent. God is allowed to be violent. Take out a whip and whip people. So they reject God. Paul defended himself like I said in a number of occasions with specific arguments. There's nothing wrong in picking up the phone if people have wrong information about you and you know people love God and they just got the wrong information. Pick up the phone phone them and say I think you got the wrong information. They might reject it but just give them the right information. Don't think that you're sinning because you correct incorrect information. What is wrong is to take vengeance on them with the information that you have. It's not wrong to just correct the facts if you can. Many old people have ruined their ministries because they never just corrected the facts. Now we come towards the end of the book there was a guy called Elihu and I'd like to say something Elihu is interesting. If you read different or listen to sermons of different people on the book of Job famous preachers today and revivalists through the last 100 years 200 years and people before when they write on the book of Job there is a major difference in opinions when it comes to whether Elihu was God before God or whether he was an evil person or whether he was something in between. And I've heard many amazing preachers say that he was everything he said was perfect. Now I personally don't believe that. And I'm not going to argue about it I'm just going to state a few verses before we get to God because that is really exciting by the way at the end of the book. I'd just like to state a few verses and some thoughts and if you disagree with me that's absolutely fine. Elihu although he said some amazing things which even Spurgeon quoted like God is perfect in knowledge. Elihu seemed to say things very similar to his friends at times too. In Job 36 verse 11 he said if the wicked people will obey God if they obey and serve him they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasure. Elihu seems to say exactly what his friends said unless I don't understand English and he basically says if you follow God and you obey God your entire life will be filled with prosperity. That doesn't sound like God before God to me personally. He said in Job 35 verse 14 to 16 that God had smote Job visited Job in anger. What you're going through is God's anger. That's not what we read from the beginning of the book. But now because it is not so he had visited in his anger. He says in Job 35 verse 16 that he multiplied words without knowledge. This is the young guy who is not part of the first three friends that spoke to Job. Now this is the nearest you'll get to what God says at the end of the book. The words he multiplied words without knowledge. We'll come back to that later because God says the same similar dark earth counsel without knowledge. But in the previous chapter in Job 34 verse 35 and 36 we read way more than God says later on. He said, Job has spoken without knowledge and his words were without wisdom. He multiplied his words against God. This is totally different to what God says. God does not say that Job's words were without wisdom. God confirms it we'll find later. God does not say that Job spoke against God many words. But we find that Job spoke many wise words about God. Speaking about the resurrection hope. Speaking about ultimate justice. Speaking about coming forth as gold from the fire. Then we find a false accusation in Job 34 verse 8, 9 35 verse 2 and 3 because Job Elihu says sorry he says, which goeth in company with workers of iniquity and with wicked men for he saith this is talking of Job for he saith the prophet of the man nothing that he should delight himself with God. Thinkest thou this to be right that thou sayest my righteousness is more than God's. And then he says in verse 3 for thou saidst what advantage will it be unto thee and what shall our prophet I have if I be cleansed from my sin. Now I went right to the book of Job to find where Job said that. And when Elihu said you said this Job actually said it of wicked men. Job said this of wicked men. We find this in Job 21 verse 13 to 15 Job says of wicked men they spend their days in wealth and the moment they go down to the grave therefore they say unto God depart from me I don't need you God I've got riches the wicked men said. And then the wicked men say in verse 15 what is the almighty that we should serve him and what prophet shall we have if we pray unto him. The wicked men say it not Job. And yet Elihu that preachers lift up as God before God Elihu said to him you said it. How do they miss this? And then he said something I find so hard speaking of the man's words without wisdom. My desire says Elihu who said he was angry with Job at the beginning. My desire is that Job should be tried to the end. He longed for Job to have more suffering. Is that God before God? And yet great preachers say that Elihu was God before God. He's adding rebellion to his sin. So we come to the end of the book God's answer. I like God's answer. Now Elihu said a lot of good stuff too by the way but he said some ridiculous stuff if it's the English language is true. He totally changed the English language and said something opposite. Job 38 verse 1 and 2 and then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and in verse 2 he said who is this that darkeneth councils and he used these words not words without wisdom but words without knowledge. Now when God says that Job said words without knowledge he was not saying that when Job said this ultimate justice that it was unwise or not true. He was not saying that when Job said I'll come forth as gold from the fire that it was stupid. He was not saying that Job was being sinful or terrifying when he said that there is a resurrection hope. But the problem with Job is the problem with every single one of us no matter how close we come to God we do not have perfect knowledge. And Job did in his frustration towards the end of his discourse he did to his three friends say things that were presumptuous. They were not necessarily sinful but they were presumptuous and unwise. In the sense that Job would say basically if I knew where God was I would come before him and I would demand an answer. I would be like a prince before him I'd tell him about all the good things I've done I'd basically say to God God why did you do this? And he would give me an answer because I deserve it. In Job 42 verse 7 though God says these words to Job's friends. God turned to the three friends and he said you have not spoken of me the thing that is right as my servant Job has. When God says that Job spoke words without knowledge he was not saying that Job was not speaking right of God when he talked of a resurrection hope and ultimate justice and that God knew what he was doing was all powerful and gave all things and to men that God owns all things. Job spoke right of God but he did not understand perfectly the greatness of God and how small he was. Even though he had some understanding of God he was limited and God wanted to teach him this first with a rebuke and then with an encouragement. And so God speaks to Job and interestingly God repeats a lot of what Job said so God agreed with Job by the way after saying that his words were without knowledge. It's like me saying I know about cars but I've never driven one. You don't fully understand the greatness of what you're talking about Job. Job 41 verse 11 He said Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine. That's something that Job in a smaller way explained. We find in Job 38 verse 41 that God says in 39 verse 5 and 6 it talks of how he provides for the raven his food. Who looses the bands of the wild ass whose house I've made in the wilderness. God talks of how he owns everything in creation. God talks of how he sustains everything in creation. Every little bird out there I'm feeding. Yes Job you fed a few poor people. Yes you went and sought for a mother that was in need of stuff. But Job I'm feeding everybody across the entire world. Every little fish that eats some slime. Every little tadpole whatever it eats. Every little bird every little raven I'm feeding. Job. And it almost seems like God is rebuking him and punishing him and being a little bit like a bully some people would say but it's in great love that God speaks to the sufferer who he loves. And he wants to show him something very simple. He talks about the unicorn. He talks about things that are way more powerful than you. Job listen you cannot capture a uniform. You cannot tame it. You cannot ride it. It's way too powerful for you to control and yet Job even though it's so powerful you would not trust it to bring home your seed. You cannot trust it because of its power. Something that's more powerful than you you can't trust. And I do all those things. Not only do I feed the whole world not only do I own the whole world because I created not only do I sustain the whole world God says to him but even things that have wisdom it's because I gave it to them. I gave the ostrich no wisdom I withheld wisdom from it. I gave the hawk wisdom and the eagle wisdom and I tell it what to do to do amazing things on high like making a nest. Job I'm going to tell you something God says. If you want to save yourself if you think you can save yourself if you think you have the right to come before me and demand stuff let me just tell you something. Job 40 verse 12 and 14 if you can do this you can save yourself Job. Look on everyone that is proud and bring him low. Then will I confess unto thee that thine own right hand can save thee. Job if you can look on proud people your friends would not even be brought low before you but if you can bring look on proud people across the whole world and you can bring them low then you can save yourself. There's only one person in scripture we ever read that can do that. That's God. Every knee will bow to God one day. Now people look at this and they say well God and it goes on he talks about the Leviathan and different things like that. God seems to be rebuking the person that he allowed to go through this suffering. God is not answering his questions. For instance why did I go through suffering? Nowhere in the end does God actually explain to him why he went through suffering. He doesn't say Job at the beginning of the book which hasn't been written yet that you long for all these things to be written in a book. You said that I had a discussion with Satan and when I had this discussion with Satan we decided or I decided that I'm going to allow him to have his way and you are going to be tested and tried. And I had a purpose for it. He didn't say anything like that. All that God answered Job with was this himself. And in one sense that's a rebuke but in another sense that's a great encouragement. When God says he was in control of the whole world he was saying to Job Job if I can control this whole world you can trust me through the fires. And Job looked at this and he said Job 40 verse 4 Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth and there are preachers who stand up and say there Job admitted that he was a great sinner. The word vile there does not mean sinful it means insignificant it means small it means trifling it means when Job said I'm going to stand before God as a prince and demand basically that he give me answers I'm actually not this big prince I'm this little person I'm vile. And he actually said the words God you can do whatever you want. And in Psalms it repeats that in Psalm 135 verse 6 Whatever the Lord pleased that he did in heaven and earth and the sea and all the deep places Job 42 verse 2 I know that thou canst do anything. Now I'd like to say something it's a little hard for people to grasp sometimes but it's very simple. You'll find it in the life of David when God answered Job with himself yes it was a rebuke Job you're very very small and I'm very very big but when he answered him with himself that was the greatest encouragement that God could ever give Job. When you look at the life of David David was at Ziklag and he we read the words he encouraged himself in the Lord. That does not mean that David sat there and he said I am so encouraged in the fact that there's somebody bigger than me out there. To understand what it meant that David many times encouraged himself in the Lord you have to go to the Psalms and study them and you'll see at different times in his life in Psalm 3 Absalom Absalom was basically rebutting against him at different Psalms in the Bible you'll see he was going through different things. David would feel terrified he would feel fearful he would feel like he didn't know which way to turn he would feel like he said that life was overwhelming him that it was too much for him to face he was emotional and then he would turn to encourage himself in the Lord and you have to learn this like David did and he would take specific attributes of who God is not what life around him was trying to encourage him because many times there was nothing in life to encourage him and he'd look when all men forsook him and they wanted to stone him even his best friends would say and he would encourage himself in the Lord he would look to some aspect of who God was my God my God why has thou forsaken me and then a little later three verses later he said but but thou are holy and he turned to the mercy of God and he turned to the sovereignty of God and said but this God you are sovereign you are all powerful you can handle this and right through the Psalms David would turn from himself and his circumstances and the feelings inside his heart and he turned to an aspect an attribute of who God was and he would encourage himself in the Lord and the answer God gave to Job was himself look at me Job said I am vile therefore I will not answer thee Job had said in Job 31 verse 37 like I said I would declare unto him if he was just in front of me I would declare unto him the number of my steps as a prince would I go near unto him but when he meets God he says I am vile I will not answer thee and God says these words not that Job had no wisdom not that Job had sinned all the way through but he said in Job 42 verse 7 my wrath is kindled against thee and thy two friends Philephas the demonite and his friends for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right as my servant Job hath Job talked of a resurrection hope it was wisdom when Job talked about being brought forth as gold from the fire it was wisdom when Job talked of ultimate justice in spite of people in this life who are not following God following sin it was wisdom it was the thing that was right he spoke of God and I end off with two things Job is a picture of Christ not a perfect picture of Christ he was born a sinner only Jesus is Jesus but both of them were the most righteous men on earth at their time both of them lost their wealth Jesus went from the wealth of heaven down to be a poor person and on the cross he had absolutely nothing one by choice and one who was taken away from him both of them lost their health one by sickness and the other by crucifixion both of them had spit in their face only two examples of which we have in scripture both of them in a sense were one figuratively and the other literally were raised from the dead the death of utter sickness and despair and the other was on the cross and both of them were mediators both of them rose up from what they went through to pray for others who had done them wrong Jesus Christ ever lived in the seed Hebrews says and Job prayed for his friends with boils on his body he prayed for his friends and then God turned the captivity of Job but then we find something so interesting three little things God confirms the three arguments of Job at the very end of the book number one he confirms the resurrection hope of Job because he gives Job double the amount of sheep double the amount of camels double the amount of oxen and double the amount of she-asses but he only gives him the same amount of children because his first children were not lost there would be a resurrection day when they would all be together again God first of all confirms the resurrection hope of Job secondly God confirms ultimate justice remember I said at the beginning of the book remember and it's very important that the Chaldeans and the Sabians stole the camels and the she-asses I think from Job why is this important? I have recently in churches in America heard people stand up when other people stole stuff from this person and whatever in South Africa every single house in our street has been stolen from in this last year the house that I stay on they have beaten up missionaries and they cut off people's heads it's quite common for people to steal stuff and kill people but at the end of the day what you hear a lot of people praying when people steal from them is God get that person I want God please I'm asking you that the police will catch that person and after the police catches that person that I will get all the stuff that was stolen from me back and in the Bible you have some examples of that you have in Ziglag David got his stuff back and more and of course with Lot Abraham and his confederacy with the Amorites went and got a lot back that was taken away from Lot including Lot himself but in the ultimate justice there are people who right through life they might take stuff from you and they're never going to give it back and that's why I find that prayer a little strange have you noticed something God did not go to the Chaldeans capture them bring them back with the Sabians and give Job back he confirmed ultimate justice by giving him double his riches through other people he confirmed the resurrection hope by only having the same amount of children as he had before because the other children would be resurrected one day he confirmed ultimate justice by not bringing the people who did Job wrong and giving Job back his riches but rather giving it from the people who came his old friends that came around him each gave something to him and he confirmed that love refines and makes him more like Christ by asking Job to pray for his friends every argument of Job God confirmed at the end of the book one by one like a list that God is absolutely amazing the God who allows trials while still in control is in control in spite of what people say when Paul at the end of my sermon when Paul when Jesus stood before Pilate Pilate insinuated to him I have the power to kill you for you to be alive or die this day and Jesus answered him and said you have no power unless it's given you from God you might feel like people have power in your life when they do you wrong let me tell you something I like to sing with tears sometimes when people try to do me wrong and very bad wrong sometimes try to destroy me in my ministry I like to sing that old children's song God is still on the throne God is still on the throne and he will remember his own the darkness oppressors and sinners distressors he'll never forget his own God is still on the throne God is still on the throne God is still on the throne God is still on the throne God is still on the throne God