Sunday
Morning Bible Study
August 10, 2003
Job 42 Job is Restored
We’ve seen Job go through the most difficult time that anyone had ever gone
through. He lost all his possessions, his
children all died, and he became deathly ill.
His friends showed up to comfort him.
Perhaps they thought that they would end Job’s suffering with their
words of wisdom. Yet instead of helping
Job, they only made things worse as they accused Job of all sorts of hidden
sins.
Finally God showed up and spoke.
Instead of answering Job’s questions about why he was going through such
difficulty, God simply reminded Job about how incredibly powerful and wise God
was. And now it’s time for the trial to
be over.
:2 I know that thou canst do every thing
Job realizes that he needs to stop complaining and yield to God’s
sovereignty.
:3-4 Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge?
Earlier, God had asked these questions to Job (38:2-3), and now Job repeats
the questions and is saying that he has been way out of line.
:5 …now mine eye seeth thee.
Job is no longer a person who has just heard about God. Now he knows God.
Lesson
Knowing God
God doesn’t just want you to know about Him. He wants you to know Him.
Suppose I was George W. Bush’s best friend and I told you that I wanted to
introduce you to the president. I
wouldn’t just give you newspaper articles to read about Mr. Bush, I’d take you
to him and introduce you to him face to face.
Some of you may still think that just learning about Jesus is what
Christianity is all about. It’s not.
Christianity is not just about doing “religious” stuff. It is not about a list of “do’s and
don’ts”. Christianity is about knowing
God. It’s about knowing God through His
Son Jesus Christ.
The Bible says that our sins have kept us from knowing God, and that Jesus’
death on the cross paid the penalty for our sins so that we can now come to
know God. Jesus said,
(Rev 3:20 KJV) Behold, I
stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I
will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
God wants you to know Him. Some of
you may need to take the very first step today of opening your heart to Jesus.
Lesson
Knowing God better through trials
God never answered the questions that Job was asking, those “why”
questions. Job didn’t need answers, he needed more of God. He found more of God through the tough times
he experienced.
We get to know God better through the humility that comes in our trials.
There is a built in humiliation that comes with trials. It’s not the coolest thing in the world to
have the world watch as your life falls apart.
Some people allow their hearts to grow harder through tough times, but in
Job’s life, his pride fell apart and he humbled himself.
God draws near to hearts that are humble.
(1 Pet 5:5c KJV)
for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
Last night, the band Kutless sang a song called, “Take my pride away”. That’s
what trials do. Part of what Job
complained about was how he found himself ridiculed by people who ought to
respect him (Job 30). Humiliation.
We get to know God better through the process of suffering itself.
(Phil 3:7-10 KJV) But what things were gain to me, those I
counted loss for Christ. {8} Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have
suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win
Christ, {9} And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith: {10} That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection,
and the fellowship of his sufferings,
being made conformable unto his death;
Paul didn’t want anything to keep him from knowing Jesus
more closely. He found that part of
knowing the Lord better involved the “fellowship of his sufferings”. Jesus is close to those who are going through
trials. We find we know Him better when
we endure suffering. Jesus suffered and
when we learn how to endure suffering, we’re beginning to understand the heart
of Jesus.
Illustration
Gordon MacDonald in his book “The
Life God Blesses,” tells about a Chinese pastor who spoke at a conference
in England. This pastor had spent
eighteen years in prison for his faith.
He recalled for the audience his prison experience: “My friends wonder what kind of work I did in
the labor camp to keep me physically healthy.
I answered them that life in the labor camp was very, very hard. The authorities in the camp put me to
emptying the human waste cesspool. Most
of the prisoners were afraid to approach the cesspool, but the authorities were
aware of my background—I was well-educated, from a well-to-do family—and
especially because they were atheists and they knew I was Christian
leader. So they enjoyed putting me to
work in the human waste cesspool. But
they did not know in those years how I enjoyed working there. It was more than two meters in depth and two
meters in length, filled with human waste collected from the entire camp. Once it was full, the human waste was kept
until it was ripe and then dug out and sent to the field as fertilizer. Because the pit was so deep, I could not
reach the bottom to empty it, so I had to walk into the disease-ridden mass and
scoop out the successive layers of human waste, all the time breathing the
strong stench. The guards and all the prisoners
kept a long way off because of the stench.
So why did I enjoy working in the cesspool? I enjoyed the solitude. In the labor camp all the prisoners normally
were under strict surveillance and no one could be alone. But when I worked in the cesspool, I could be
alone and could pray to our Lord as loudly as I needed. I could recite the Scriptures including all
the Psalms I still remembered and no one was close enough to protest. That’s the reason I enjoyed working in the
cesspool. Also, I could sing loudly the
hymns I still remembered. In those days
one of my most favorite was ‘In the Garden.’ Before I was arrested this was my
favorite hymn, but at that time I did not realize the real meaning of this hymn. When I worked in the cesspool, I knew and
discovered a wonderful fellowship with our Lord. Again and again I sang this hymn and felt our
Lord’s presence with me. ‘I come to the
garden alone/While the dew is still on the roses; And the voice I hear falling on my ear, The
Son of God discloses. And he walks with
me, and he talks with me, And he tells me I am his own, And the joy we share as
we tarry there None other has ever known.’
“Again and again as I sang this hymn in the cesspool, I experienced the
Lord’s presence. He never left me or
forsook me. And so I survived and the
cesspool became my private garden.”
Most of us haven’t been through difficulties like that, but we do find
ourselves in our own little cesspools.
This brother learned to love his cesspool. It’s where he found himself getting closer to
the Lord. We know Him better through
trials.
:6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
Keep in mind that God considered Job a righteous man. Job isn’t admitting to the kinds of sins that
his friends had been accusing him of. But Job is realizing that he has had
problems in other areas of his life. I
believe that Job is repenting from pride.
I believe Job is repenting from his questioning of God’s judgment.
:10 the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed
God restores all that Job has lost, and even doubles it.
Lesson
Praying for your “comforters”
This is a key step for Job that turns things around in his life.
Pray for the people that bug you.
Don’t pray for God to wipe them out. Pray for them the way that you would
want them to pray for you. Jesus said,
(Mat 5:44 KJV) Love your
enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for
them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
This may not be the magic bullet that ends your trial, but I have a feeling
that your trial won’t be truly over until you learn to pray for your enemies.
Lesson
How to end my trial
Be careful about looking for a formula to have your trial be over. Be careful of thinking, “Well if I just do
this one thing, then everything will magically be changed!”
Job’s trial was over when God said it was over. Don’t forget that we had to endure those 35
chapters of arguments with Job’s friends.
If you set your hopes on finding the magic formula to end trials, you are
going to be disappointed.
(Prov 13:12 KJV) Hope
deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of
life.
Lesson
God will restore
God promised Israel:
(Joel 2:25 KJV) And I will
restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten
He promised to pay them back for all years of trials.
God will give us back much more than we’ve lost.
(Mark 10:29-30 KJV) And
Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left
house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or
lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, {30} But he shall receive an hundredfold
now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children,
and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
Sometimes the restoration happens in this life. Sometimes it will happen in heaven.
God will restore
(2 Cor 4:16-18 KJV) For which cause we faint not; but though our
outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. {17} For our
light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory; {18} While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are
seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Sometimes the “payback” is through internal things, when
the “inward man” is renewed.
Sometimes the “payback” is going to be in the eternal
weight of glory that we’ll experience when we get to heaven.
Whether it’s now or later, God ALWAYS gives us more than we’ve given up.
:11 Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters …
Where were these people earlier? It seems that the gifts these folks bring
form the basis for the restoration of Job’s fortune.
:12 for he had fourteen thousand sheep …
This is exactly twice as much as he had before (Job 1:3).
:13 He had also seven sons and three daughters.
He had lost seven sons and three daughters when the disasters struck him
(Job 1:2,18-19).
Why didn’t Job have twenty more children?
Because he still has the other ten, they are just in heaven. Now he has twice as many children.
:14 Jemima …Kezia … Kerenhappuch.
Jemima – Y@miymah – “day
by day”, or, “handsome as the day”, or, “dove”; after she became an aunt, she
became known as a great cook and was particularly famous for her pancakes J
Kezia – Q@tsiy‘ah – she
was named for a cinnamon-like spice, “cassia”
Kerenhappuch – Qeren Hap-puwk –
“horn of antimony”, or, “flask of color”. Antimony is a substance that was used
by the ancients like makeup similar to mascara.
:16 After this lived Job an hundred and forty years
It’s safe to say Job must have lived to be somewhere around 200 years old.
:17 So Job died, being old and full of days.
You see similar phrases being used to describe the death of others:
It’s used of Abraham, who lived to be 175 years old (Gen. 25:8). It’s used of his son Isaac (Gen. 35:29) who
died at the age of 180. It’s also used
of King David (1Chr. 29:28) who lived to be about 70 years old.
This phrase doesn’t as much mean length of life as much as it does quality
of life and fulfilled purposes in life.
Lesson
Live a full life
Moses wrote,
(Psa 90:10-12 KJV) The days of our years are threescore years
and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their
strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. {11} Who
knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
{12} So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Moses is telling us that we only have so long to live on earth. Some have suggested that this “seventy” or
“eighty” year thing might indicate that there are things we can do to keep from
shortening our life span. If a person
has “strength”, they might keep from shortening their lifespan. Some have suggested that we can see this in
modern medicine where we are learning about things to better our health, like
exercising, watching our weight, cholesterol, and so on. But the question comes, “why bother?”
When it comes to length of life, I’ve seen people fall into various
categories.
1. There are people who don’t know the Lord – and they’re absolutely
terrified of dying. They should be. Some respond by watching their health, others
quit trying and throw caution to the wind.
2. There are Christians who ought to know better, and they are terrified of
dying and they too are careful about their health, but only because they’re
afraid of dying.
3. There are Christians who have come to understand the truth that death
for the believer is sweet. “Precious in
the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Ps. 116:15). To be absent from our body is to be present
with the Lord (2Cor. 5:8). But sometimes
when the pressures and hurts of this life overwhelm us, we can find ourselves
looking a little too much for death. We
can find ourselves saying, “I can hardly wait until I die”. I’m not sure this is where the Lord wants us
to be.
4. There’s another attitude. There is a reason why the Lord has left us on
this side of heaven after having come to know Him.
He has a work for us to do. A great deal of that work involves bringing
people into the kingdom of God. The work
isn’t finished yet.
Illustration
Have you ever been involved in something where you had a
hard time tearing yourself away from the task even though you were starting to
run late for your next appointment?
Some kids (and their dads) have such a great time playing
video games that it’s hard to get them to break away and come to the dinner
table.
I have a wife that works so hard and is constantly trying
to squeeze more and more things into each minute that sometimes she may be a
few minutes late to an appointment. But
in being late she’s accomplished five times more things than I did in the same
period of time.
I wonder if we ought to think about having that same kind
of attitude towards life. I wonder if
rather than wishing we were in heaven, we might have the attitude of, “Lord
would you mind if I was a little late coming home so I could do a few more
things down here?” We’re only going to
get one shot of doing things on earth for the Lord, we might as well go for as
much as we can.
Paul had this kind of attitude:
(Phil 1:23-25 NLT) I'm torn between two desires: Sometimes I
want to live, and sometimes I long to go and be with Christ. That would be far
better for me, {24} but it is better for you that I live. {25} I am convinced
of this, so I will continue with you so that you will grow and experience the
joy of your faith.
I think we ought to consider making a push at getting that
extra ten years on life by taking care of our health, not because we’re afraid
to die and not because we want to spend a few extra years lying on the beach in
Tahiti.
I want to say with Paul that I’ve “finished my race”. I want to hear Jesus say to me, “Well done,
good and faithful servant”.
If I have to be a little late in going to heaven to do it,
it will be well worth it.