The Book of Job, Pt. 1 — A ‘Christian Growth’ Message

Transcript

Job is a famous man in the Old Testament who loses everything, his property, his children, his reputation and his health, every earthly treasure. For some of us, it’s hard to really care much.

But if your looks were drastically taken away. Or you lost all your children. Or your property or your reputation.

And it all came at once, we feel something of this tremendous loss and Job himself feels like a dartboard.

If you ask people what is the book of Job all about, they will inevitably say it’s about suffering.

If you then ask them, is there an explanation for the suffering, the answer comes back no.

So on the surface, it seems to many people to be quite a frustrating book.

I want to say as carefully and as clearly as I can to you that the book is not all about suffering, as we will see.

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And at the end of the book, Job kneels down and he says that God is wonderful. So he is not frustrated, but he is full of admiration for God.

And I think we could be as well if we read the book carefully together. It’s really a book about God, and if you’re hoping for a series of three which will focus on your troubles and do this with a good deal of emotion – you may be pleasantly surprised by something better.

The wonder of the book of Job

There’s a good case for a real historical Job. The land of Uz, which we’re introduced to in verse one, is a real land. Job is mentioned in the Old Testament and the New Testament, along with other historical people. But the book is set out like a play, so we could study it if we wanted to in 10 minutes.

Or 1 sermon, or 3 or 100, there are basically two scenes in the book on Earth and in Heaven, there are 4 acts.

And there’s an interval.

What I want to do is to summarise the whole book quickly in a few minutes. Then I want to tell you what is the key to the book, and the key to the book is in the 1st 10 verses. So that’s why this particular talk is called The Key is in the door.

The key is in the door

And then I want to finally draw some real lessons or conclusions. So first of all, let’s think about the message or the story or the history, or the events of the book of Job. It begins verse one, chapter one, in the Land of Uz, which is outside the promised land. We meet a man called Job in verse one, who’s outstanding.

He’s blameless and upright, this means he’s godly, not perfect.

He fears God and he shuns evil, that’s the definition in the wisdom literature of wise.

He has pretty well a perfect number of children and flocks, so everything looks sort of neat and perfect.

And he’s deeply committed to the salvation of his children. That’s his top priority for his children, is that their souls would be safe.

So we’re told 3 times in the 1st 2 chapters that Job is outstanding.

We’re told in verse one by the writer, and then we’re told twice by the Lord himself. In verse 8 of chapter 1 and in verse 6, I think of chapter 2. So Job is being presented to us as the greatest man in the east.

And since the sign of blessing in the Old Testament is outward, I hope you know that, that when you read your Old Testament, outward blessing is the mark of being blessed in the Old Testament. Inward is very much the mark in the New Testament. That’s why those people who read the blessings of the Old Testament and assume that it should be the blessings of the New Testament and not grasping the chronology of the Bible. Job is blessed outwardly.

And he is God’s servant, chapter 1 verse 8, chapter 2, verse 3, he is God’s servant.

And there is no one like him.

Now this is very important for us to get this at the beginning because his godliness or his uniqueness tells us that he’s able to face a unique test. He’s a unique man, able to face a unique test. And we’re meant to hold onto the fact all the way through the book of what we’re told in these early verses, which is that God loves him.

That God owns him, that God blesses him, that God cares for him, that God is not punishing him.

Job of course feels that God is attacking him, but God is never attacking him. Job is his servant from start to finish.

The other thing is that we mustn’t read our own troubles into the book of Job and say what happened to Job is happening to me. No, Job owns everything that you could own. Then he loses everything that you could possibly lose.

And that’s why his situation is described as unique.

Now we very quickly move in verse 6 to scene 2, that is, we’re taken up into heaven, we’re taken up into God’s heavenly headquarters, a place where Job never gets to go, we get to go, but he never gets to go, and we see and hear things which Job never gets to see or hear.

We read in verse 6 that the angels present themselves to God and if you look at the little footnote at the bottom of your Bibles, you’ll see that literally it’s the sons of God presenting themselves to God, but this is obviously heavenly beings, we might say God’s offspring in heaven, they’re superhuman and angels is a pretty good translation. And Satan is there, why is Satan there?

Well, he’s there because God is summoning the good and the bad in front of him, as God does.

And the devil has got a role to play in God’s purposes. The commentary which I’ve found tremendously helpful, and you may like to read it, buy it and read it for yourself, is by Christopher Ash. And if you get Christopher Ash’s commentary on Job, he works through the whole book.

And it’s very edifying. So Christopher Ash says the devil is like the opposition in God’s government, that is, he’s got a place in the parliament. God, of course, has no fellowship with the devil, but he governs the devil, and the devil serves God’s purposes. And one of the devil’s purposes is to ask questions or to sift people to work out whether they’re real.

In other words, the devil is almost like the fire that God uses to sift a person and work out what’s there. And this is so that God’s glory can be established. Well, I want you to look at the question which Job asks in chapter 1, verse 9 and 10. The Lord has just pointed Job out and said, you see what a great man he is, a faithful man.

And Job says, verse 9, does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a hedge around him in his household and everything he has, you’ve blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land, but stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face. In other words, this is Satan’s question. Stay with me.

Is Job a fake? That’s what the devil is asking. Sure he’s pious, sure he’s religious, but look at the benefits he’s getting. He’s playing a game with you, God. You God are pouring down the benefits of him, for him, and that’s of course why he’s playing the game. Do you think he’s really pious? Do you think you’re really being honoured, God? Now this is a hostile question, but it’s a proper question.

This is the question that the devil is asking, is Job putting in religious coins into a coke machine, and God is coughing up the cans of blessing. That’s the question that the devil is asking, and it needs to be asked, and it needs to be answered to affirm God’s glory.

Again, Christopher Ash says the glory of God is more important than you or my or Job’s comfort. Satan has a ministry, the ministry of insisting that the genuineness of a believer be tested and proved genuine.

It is a hostile and malicious ministry, but a necessary ministry for the glory of God. So God gives permission for the test to be tried. The removal of all blessing to see if Job’s faith will disappear, and Job loses everything in one day.

It’s a terrible series of calamities. Notice incidentally that God sets the boundaries for what the devil can do.

The Lord says you can take away the blessings, but you can’t take his life.

Later, God says you can afflict him with sickness, you can’t take his life. God sets the boundaries. The devil remains as Luther said, God’s devil.

So as I say, Job loses his flocks, his property, his 10 children, his response, however, is not to curse God. His response in verse 21 is very admirable, he says, and this is famously wonderful, naked I came from my mother’s womb, naked I will depart. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away, May the name of the Lord be praised. So, Satan’s wrong. In the book. We’ve settled the question. Take away the blessings, says Satan, he’ll curse you.

OK, take away the blessings and he praises God, he doesn’t curse Him. And in a way, that could be the end of the story, but the devil returns in chapter 2, verses 1 to 6, to the headquarters of heaven. God points out to him that Job has remained a faithful believer, and so Satan cuts deeper. Verse 4. He says, make it personal, make it physical. Put the suffering inside him.

Now I don’t know if you find this as embarrassing as I do, because I think I’m capable of hardening my heart, so I’m watching things on television, which are really terrible.

But stub my toe or cut my finger or get a cold. And suddenly it all becomes unbearable.

And Satan is really clever here. He’s saying to God, make it personal, make it physical, then he will curse you. And so God gives permission for Satan to afflict Job, not to kill Job.

And Job suffers dreadfully. He suffers so dreadfully that when his friends turn up not long after his suffering begins, he is unrecognisable. But Job still honours God. In chapter 3, which we didn’t get to, he begins to complain, but he doesn’t curse God. The three friends come to join him. They try to get him to repent because they think that he’s suffering because of sin.

And we’ll see next week a little bit of the things they say, and what’s helpful and not what’s not helpful. And then a fourth man enters the debate a little further down the track, and he seeks to honour God. His great desire is to honour God. And then the Lord speaks to Job and Job gets down on his knees and he confesses he’s been foolish in his speech, and he bows down with a whole new confidence in God.

And God restores everything which he’d lost. And that’s the story of Job. That’s the book. Now, the second thing I want to talk to you about the key to the book, and I hope that this might be helpful to you. A lot of people can’t get away from the idea that the book of Job is all about suffering. It’s like those pictures from the 1980s, you know, those 3D pictures that you would look at and all you see is a mess.

But if you’ve got some certain gift or stigmata or something, something wrong with your eyes, then you’re able to see some three dimensional picture inside. And so it is with the Book of Job. It looks on the surface with a superficial look as if it’s just about suffering. But if you look more carefully, you’ll see that it’s not. And the best way to work out that it’s not is to ask this question. Think very carefully. What is the worst event in the book of Job?

Of everything that I’ve just told you, what is the worst event? Is it that he loses all of his children? Is it that he loses his health? Is it that he loses his reputation? Is it that he loses his strong confidence in God? Is it that he gets lonely, is it that he loses his community respect? Is it his careless words against God?

What’s the worst event in the book of Job? And the answer, this is strong meat, but you’ll have to chew and swallow this. The worst event in the book is chapter 1 verse 9, where Satan accuses Job of being a fake.

And, and I say this reverently, if Job is a fake, God is being fooled, and if God is being fooled, it is possible that Satan is accusing God of being a fool.

Satan, you see, is implying that Job is a clever businessman, and God is kind of like his customer. Job’s faith is cunning, skillful, natural. It’s got nothing to do with grace and the work of God. He’s he’s like a politician who’s learned the advantage of putting Christian onto the CV so that the believing section, the Christian believers will be voting.

And the serious flip side of this is that therefore God does not deserve glory. He’s not being honoured for who he is, he’s being used for what he can provide. Job is therefore not praising God for himself, but he’s praising God because it pays well. This is a serious charge.

It needs a serious answer.

What the devil is basically saying is that you, God, are not worthy to receive glory, honour and power, but you’re very functional, you’re the Santa of the cosmos.

Again, I’m quoting from Christopher Ash, God does not need to be glorified to make up some deficiency in his ego, but because the universe is on the train tracks of truth when he is glorified. If the universe does not credit God with glory, it’s derailed, askew, erroneous, misshapen and corrupt. And of course he should be glorified because everything wonderful is traceable to him.

So the process of removing Job’s blessings is to answer the big question.

Is his faith a human invention?

Not a divine work of God, or is it a work of God?

Is God worthy of honour?

Whatever conditions come.

Or do we stop honouring him if the conditions change?

If you don’t think this is relevant, think how many people have given up on God when they didn’t get an answer to their prayer. Think how many people have given up on God when they didn’t get the spouse they wanted. Think how many people have given up on God when they didn’t get the ‘…’ that they asked for.

Therefore friends, we know why Job suffers.

Of course Job doesn’t know and he’s never told in this world, but we know why he suffers, and it’s because we’ve been up to God’s headquarters.

And we’ve seen what’s taken place. So here is a unique man called Job, about to take a unique or face a unique test in order to answer a unique question, how good that the Bible raises this. Haven’t we all read a verse like, Proverbs 11? The righteous man is rescued from trouble. It comes on the wicked instead. What a nice, neat proverb. Be good, everything will go well.

Be bad, everything will go wrong, and we look at the world and we say it’s not like that.

There are so many good people for whom things go wrong and there are so many bad people for whom things go well.

Now it is true in general.

That living a godly life is helpful. Living an ungodly life can be dangerous.

And the wisdom books in the Old Testament deal with the need to take a wise path, which brings much blessing from God.

But the Bible also has a book called Job that says not so fast, not so neat.

Of course there are conventional proverbs, be good, get blessing, be bad, get trouble. But there’s also unconventional books, and Job is one and Ecclesiastes is another. How wonderful that God has built them into our Bibles.

Conventional wisdom says, you know, Job is a godly man, God’s gonna bless him. Of course if he veers off track, God will correct him and bring him back, but Job has not veered off track, he’s been very godly. Why has a truckload of trouble come on top of him?

We know he’s not been perfect, but why is he receiving such a disproportional amount of trouble? And the book says, the book of Job says, there is neat wisdom, but it’s not always neat in this world. And God’s goodness continues in the neat and the not so neat.

And God’s power continues in the neat and the not so neat, and God’s wisdom continues in the neat and the not so neat, and God’s sovereignty continues in the neat and the not so neat.

And He does preserve His people.

And He should be glorified. We heard a little earlier that we’re going to think about, Pilgrim’s Progress as a theme for our home house party. And if you’ve ever read Pilgrim’s Progress, there is one, a wonderful incident where Pilgrim, who’s travelling from the city of destruction to the city of heaven, and he comes to a house which is owned by a man called Interpreter. And Interpreter is a, a sort of a very skillful man who basically uses pictures or stories to teach things.

And Pilgrim gets welcomed into the house, and interpreter takes him into the main living room and there is a huge fire in the fireplace, and a man is standing near the fireplace throwing buckets of water onto the fire.

And Pilgrim says, how come the fire is not going out? An interpreter takes him round the back of the fire, and there, oil is being piped in the back of the fire.

And that really is the message of Job. If you just got the picture of the fire, the bucket and the oil, you’ve got the message of Job. That’s really what the book of Job is all about. When the book finishes, of course, we’ll see that Job’s faith is a work of God. And we’ll also see that God is infinitely greater than we ever thought. So here’s another major sentence. Suffering is not the big issue of the book, it’s the way to answer the big issue of the book.

Suffering is the football field on which the issue is going to be played. The question of the book of Job is not why does Job suffer, that’s his question. That’s not the question of the book. That’s Job’s question. He’s in the dark. The question in the book of Job is who will sustain us and who deserves glory? And the book will answer that.

I remember going to visit a guy in prison soon after he’d arrived, and we were sitting as a little group around him. And he said, I just can’t stop asking the question, why? Why am I here? Why am I here? Why am I here? And one of the people in the group said, Change your question. You’re not going to be told why. Your question has to be now, how will you honour Christ? That’s your question. Since you are here, how will you honour Christ? No point sitting around saying why, why, why.

We may never be told. So we need to change the question in the book of Job from why, which is the little question of Job, to who?

Which is the big question. The charge in chapter 1 verse 9 is only going to be answered by the tests that come.

And if you think it’s a tough test, it is a tough test, but at the end of the book, Job kneels down and says, you’re wonderful. You’re wonderful, you’re wonderful. Well, the three friends arrive in chapter 2, verse, is it 11 and following? And they say nothing for a whole week. I used to think that was pretty impressive, but um I realise now that um speech is vital to relationship. Speech is vital to comfort.

Speech is vital to hope. These men give Job nothing. Then in chapter 3, he wishes that he’d never been born. He curses his birth. He doesn’t curse God. He curses his birth. And he asks a very interesting question in chapter 3, verse 20. Why does God keep people going who don’t want to keep going? Why does God keep giving light and life to people who would like to go into the dark and death?

It’s a very contemporary question, isn’t it? Especially in a day where euthanasia is such a big and pressing issue. The answer in the book of Job is that if you looked at God in the Bible, and you recognised how sovereignly able he was in the smallest and the biggest details of the universe, and you realised what loving attention he paid to those details, you’d be trusting Him. You wouldn’t be taking His job to yourself. Well, that’s um really the message of the book and the key to the book, and I want to finish now with some what I hope will be important conclusions, and I have really a couple of important conclusions.

I do hope you’ll read ahead for next week, if you possibly can, read 4 to 28. If you’re not reading anything in your quiet time, set yourself 2 or 3 chapters a morning of 4 to 28, then when you come next week, you’ll see a little bit of what we’re going to look at.

Here are some important conclusions. First of all, this book provides very comforting answers. Think of the principle behind Satan’s question, is Job playing a game? Is that not a bad question?

Do you ever ask yourself the question whether you’re just playing a religious game, pulling levers, hoping goodies will come? Is our faith a human construct? Human invention?

Have we invented God and the whole religious system? It’s gotta be a question that crosses thinking people every now and again. And in a book called A Short History of Stupid, the writer says the primary purpose of religion, and he’s against religion, is to give self-obsessed humans the illusion that their lives might have some higher meaning than being a mere accident of physics in an otherwise indifferent cosmos.

In other words, religion is a game, says the author. This is a very widespread view today. However, my friends, it’s very hard to come to the opinion that faith in Christ,

Is a game, when you look at the God who’s presented in the Bible, and you realise that we could not have invented Him if our life depended on it. The Bible puts us in the dock with the greatness of God. We don’t get to put Him in the dock, we might put Him in the dock if we don’t open the Bible. But as soon as you open the Bible, who is capable in this world of inventing the person of Jesus Christ? They’ve got to be messianic to invent the person of Jesus Christ.

A more sinister question.

Is Job keeping God on site? Is he rushing around doing duties, holding back the storm of God’s anger?

There are many people in church who live fear-based Christianity.

That’s really how they operate.

Well, look at the answer in the book of Job. We discover in the book of Job that God is committed to Job, full stop. His grace has turned Job into a servant. Nothing is going to change that from the start to the finish. Exactly the same issue in the New Testament. Look at the gospel in the New Testament. It says, while we were sinners, Christ loved us and died for us.

Then the gospel goes on to say there is no condemnation, not now or ever, for those who are in Christ Jesus, and therefore God is not going to attack us with judgement, because that’s all fallen on Christ. Nothing is going to separate us from Him. And a really heartfelt question gets answered in the book of Job and that is, could the circumstances of my life, cause me one day to disown God.

What if I get to the point where I am in an illness which is so painful, I decide to turn my back on Christ? Is it possible, you see, this is the really hard, heartfelt question. Is it possible that my faith could die? Well, look at the answer in the book of Job. He unstoppably keeps relating to God.

Sometimes it’s honourable, sometimes it’s dishonourable, that he keeps relating to God. Why does he keep relating to God? Because God pumps the oil in the back of his life. Same in the New Testament, He who began a good work in you will keep it going till the last day where you see Him face to face. All things will be worked by God for good for those who love him and are called according to His purpose.

So this book answers some very, very special questions, and the last thing to say is that Christ brings massive change into the world. First of all, he establishes the security of the believer. OK, if you think your security is based on your performance, go back to the gospel. Christ establishes the security – no separation for the believer. Job, of course, feels separated.

He’s mistaken

It’s not separated. Jesus at Calvary feels separated, because in a very real sense he is separated.

His fellowship with the father is broken.

He is separated, why is he separated?

So that the believer will never be separated.

Jesus brings massive, massive change and security in his life and death. And then Jesus changes the devil. We’re told in the New Testament that when Jesus came, lived and died and rose, he disarmed the devil. He took away his weapons. Colossians 2:14. He destroys his power, Hebrews 2:14.

And Revelation 12 says that he was hurled down to the earth. Christopher Ash says, and this is, I think, absolutely fascinating, that this means that because of the cross, the devil has no more access to the Father in heaven. He has no more accusation to bring to the Father in heaven. He accuses us like a toothless lion, he roars at us, but God doesn’t listen to him because Christ has died.

And the last thing to say on this of Jesus changing everything is that He establishes forever that the place of suffering has got a place in God’s purposes. We don’t want to cheaply say to people, oh, you’ve been in a tsunami, well Jesus died on the cross, you know. That would be a cheap sentence.

But we do want to say that because the Son of God suffered globally and eternally, that is highly significant.

And proof that God uses suffering for global and eternal purposes. And because God’s son suffered, suffering has an unmistakable place in God’s loving, wise, powerful purposes. It just does.

It doesn’t cancel His love, it doesn’t cancel His wisdom, it doesn’t cancel His sovereignty, it has a place in his purposes. Many years ago when I was a new believer and I fell from conversion almost straight into the pit of unbelief. Somebody gave me a book in which there was a sermon which said this.

I want to talk to you about the dark night of the soul through which almost everyone at some time passes. I’m not talking about the great and devastating trials that occasionally strike, failure of business, loss of health, a shattered romance, the onset of pain, the breakup of a home.

The desolation of bereavement.

I’m thinking of the dark night of the soul, which is the eclipse of faith, the withering of enthusiasm, the wretched feeling of meaninglessness, emptiness, futility. I’m talking about what goes on in your soul and in mine. Have you never found yourself, for example, questioning the very basis of your faith?

Have you never days when the attempt to pray seems forced and fruitless? Are there not days when life gets you down, the wear and tear take their toll, and the hallelujahs of the saints are irritating. The ordinances of religion are irksome, the means of grace is weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable, and you feel like crying, I don’t believe this scheme of things makes sense. I beg and beseech you not to lose heart in that darkness, for I want you to remember that all the saints without exception have had that experience.

The brightest and the best of the suns of the morning have been there before you.

And with one unanimous voice they bear witness the thick darkness where God was. Do not lose heart in a dark hour, for the God who himself went through the darkest hour of all to redeem the world is quite certainly there.

And every congregation has people in it now who would never have been there today if they had not proved this true beyond the shadow of a doubt, the thick darkness and God. Well, Job discovers this to be true, as we’ll see in the next two Sundays, but all the blessings are provided by Jesus.

Let’s bow our heads and pray.

Our Father, we thank you for putting into your scriptures this wonderful book.

We thank you for the way it wrestles with questions which occur to many of us.

And we thank you for your faithfulness to Job from start to finish, and that you preserved his faith and are worthy of his honour, and ours as well.

We especially thank you for one who we trust and follow, who has been through much worse than Job.

And has emerged in resurrection.

To bring to us security.

And safety.

And plenty.

We pray that you would enable us by your grace to keep giving you glory in the way we trust and obey, and we ask it in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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