A Look at the Life of Job (...This Episode Won't Win Me Any New Friends) - Episode #172

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~ Today in the Every Book A Promise Series we are looking at the Old Testament book of Job.

~ From the NLT, verse 1 of chapter 1 says: “There once was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless - a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. (Oh how my prayer for myself, for my husband, my children, grand babies, and the whole of Jesus’ Church is that this verse would be true of us, by the power of the Holy Spirit. That would be a beautiful way of seeing Matthew 6:33 lived out in real time). 

~ verses 6-12 of Job chapter 1: One day the members of the heavenly court came to present themselves before the LORD, and the Accuser (note that Accuser is capitalized, this is one of Satan’s actual names…not just an adjective to describe him, but who he is, his name is the Accuser)...and the Accuser, Satan, came with them. “Where have you come from?” the LORD asked Satan. Satan answered the LORD, “I have been patrolling the earth, watching everything that’s going on.” Then the LORD asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless - a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.” Satan replied to the LORD, “Yes, but Job has good reason to fear God. You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything he does. Look how rich he is! But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” “All right, you may test him,” The LORD said to Satan. “Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically.” So Satan left the LORD’s presence.

~ And now we will jump down to verses 21 and 22 of Job chapter 1: well I will actually start in verse 20: Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship. He said, “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The LORD gave me what I had, and the LORD has taken it away. Praise the name of the LORD!” In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God.

~ This is quite a response for a man who, in one day, a SINGLE solitary day, think sunrise to sunset getting this kind of news, his children had all died, all of them, and his livestock and farmland and property, all of it, the vastness of his life’s work, gone. This is unfathomable grief, a moment we see in a life that is pure pain. And Job’s response? Pure worship of the LORD God Almighty in the face of pure pain.

~ As the book of Job progresses, we find Job’s friends coming to him first to sit next to him in silence for seven days, and Job began to have physical affliction at the hands of Satan in addition to all else he had lost, so he was in a ditch in every sense. Life in the ditch is hard. Have you been there? Are you there today? Life in a ditch in every single part of your life all at the same time, that’s where Job found himself. Of no fault of his own. He was blameless, as it says in verse one of Job chapter one. And the Accuser gained access to his life, to do anything but slay him. Revelation talks of a day when men will wish for death but it won’t come, they will continue to live when they so much want to die instead. There are times, seasons, when living, continuing to keep on living for Jesus seems to be the hardest thing, that dying would be preferred. Are you in such a season? Oh I feel you. I grieve with you. I have prayed for those of you in those seasons, prayed as I worked on this episode. This is a show that feels heavy, it bears some weight and I’ve been feeling the weight of it the last week or so. Job paints a picture, a reality, that seems to be so contrary to who God is and how He does things, doesn’t it? And Job’s friends started out so well, caring enough to sit in silence with him in his deep grief. But then, they couldn’t keep quiet any longer. They did not hold their tongues and out came some things that seem like they are totally true. Job must be a deep, dark, secret sinner or this never would have happened to him. My husband recently said this: Job’s friends knew about God, His character and so on, but they didn’t really know Job or Job’s heart. God looks at the heart, it says in 1 Samuel, while man looks on the outward appearance. That’s not just about clothes and hair and style and the drip. It’s about all that we cannot see, all that God can fully see. And when God says, “Accuser, have you considered my servant?” There is no mistake in that. Pain? Certainly. Being misunderstood and maligned by dear friends? Like, the ones you thought got you, your ride or die, doesn’t get you and is gonna leave you to die while they accuse you on their ride outta your life? This is pain on pain on pain. Some of you are in this right now. Look, we are in the last days. Many don’t believe that to be true - and that’s okay, because Jesus said and Paul said that one of the signs of the times of the last days would be that many who profess to believe would not know what time it is on the Kingdom calendar, even though every single bit of it is playing out play by play exactly as He said it would. So those that don’t think it’s the last days, I’d challenge them to really read what the New Testament says about end times and see if maybe they might be among those who don’t believe but think they are full on believers…this is not going to make some folks happy. Cages will be rattled. It’s alright though, because it isn’t me coming up with nonsense. When I see something on the news that aligns perfectly with Bible end times prophecy, I didn’t invent the prophecy nor make that certain news story to happen. I just saw it and filtered it through the Word of God. And we all need to do that. If we’re not longing for His appearing, we probably are loving the world too much and the book of 1 John ought to be in our Bible reading the very day, the moment, we realize we be loving the world and our little old lives in this ratty old world too much. If you doubt it’s the end times, will you read first John and pray before you read it, asking the Lord to show you any part of yourself that is loving the world - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life? And if that seems like, Nah, I don’t have those issues, read it in the NLT because it says it like this: chapter 2, verses 15 through 17: Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. (Do you love what the world offers you? Then you do not have the love of the Father in you and you won’t be able to see what time it really is, the set up is all in place, just think about the last week alone what’s happened in the world, the things in the middle east, the ten kings enthroned in what was the Roman empire, things are moving along tick tick tick…but when we love the world, we cannot see what’s happening clearly. We are blinded. We’ve got spiritual cataracts. Craving things, pride in achievements, possessions. Not from the Father. Take pause and read 1 John chapter 2 and pray. The time for getting serious and stop playing  patty cake with the world is now, today. Don’t miss this moment!)

~ Job 40, verses 1-5: Then the LORD said to Job, “Do you still want to argue with the Almighty? You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?” Then Job replied to the LORD, “I am nothing - how could I ever find the answers? I will cover my mouth with my hand. I have said too much already. I have nothing more to say.”

~That is how a righteous person responds when God speaks. Hand over mouth. Confess that I don’t know anything. I’m the clay, He is the potter, and I need to be silent and stop clapping back. Even what does not seem like backtalk to us, it likely is clapping back at God in light of His holiness, I mean Job was blameless said God and Job was acting like God’s critic, said God. Clap hands over mouths instead of clapping back with words. Sometimes we need to just shut it, be in awe of His holiness, and simply be still.

~How far removed from this stance is our modern church? The age of grace has in many ways left us bratty, blind to God’s holiness, welcoming all sorts of filth into our hearts and minds and homes and families that ought not to be. Denying His word by what we say, what’s in the pulpits, what’s on our screens, what’s in our minds, the words we speak. God is holy. How did His church come to forget this truth?

~Job 42:1-2: Then Job replied to the LORD: “I know that You can do anything, and no one can stop You.” Oh we need to remember this! Here’s a promise we need to stand on. God can do anything and no one can stop Him. This is a promise, this is truth, and we need to be humble before our God, the One who can do anything and cannot be stopped by anyone. Verses 5-8: I had only heard about You before, but now I have seen You with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance. - After the LORD had finished speaking to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken accurately about Me, as My servant Job has. So take seven bulls and seven rams and go to My servant job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer on your behalf. I will not treat you as you deserve, for you have not spoken accurately about Me, as My servant Job has.” Okay, this is about to get real. Did you hear that? You have not spoken accurately about Me, says God. You have not spoken accurately about Me. And punishment was deserved, well earned, for this not speaking accurately about God. As a podcaster who speaks about God, this hits home. Deeply. This is beyond serious, for me, and it needs to be taken seriously by every single person who writes, posts, blogs, podcasts, speaks to groups, online speakers, YouTube, TikTok, small group leaders, and every pastor in every pulpit. We have got to stop joking around about holy things. If you joke about the blood of Jesus, what are you doing??? Read the final chapter of Job and ask yourself, what am I doing??? Take back everything you’ve said, and sit in dust and show your repentance. God is holy. None of that stuff is fitting for a minister of the Gospel of peace. If I just stepped on your toes, good! You needed it, then! Did it smart? Did you feel that? Did it offend you? Then you needed to feel it, to wince, to be offended! Now what will you do about it? I don’t speak with platitudes, and so be offended at me all day long. Who cares? What does that even matter? But don’t be offended by the Word of God. And stop making jokes, which is mocking, which means making a mockery of things that are holy. There is a holy fire purge coming into the Church that is God’s Church, in case you haven’t noticed. The thing known as the great falling away, it’s happening, in case you haven’t noticed. Let God do His cleansing work in His church, and repent where you need to. And we all need to, every one of us, the one who claims he has no sin is deceiving himself and the truth is not in him that’s 1 John 1:8. There isn't enough time left to keep goofing off. God will have a pure bride, and the bride is His church. Judgment begins with the house of the Lord, and that's 1 Peter 4:17. Are your seeing it happening? Feeling the heat of His judgment? It’s time to repent, as Job did, and as Job’s friends had to do in order to avoid the treatment they deserved, verse 8 of Job 42 says. Do you take God and His word seriously enough to do what it says? If not, why not? If not now, when? Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand. Your lampstand can be taken away, as is described in Revelation. We are not in the age of grace and thus exempt from being a people who strive to be holy, even as our Lord is holy. Yield to the Holy Spirit instead of grieving Him. A fear of a holy God demands it. Today is the day, now is the time, so please, do what the Bible says, don’t just read it but do what it says, as the book of James instructs us. This is the day to get our houses in order, because time’s almost up and we will all meet our holy, righteous Judge very soon. Let’s be ready, because our redemption draweth nigh.