The Book of Job
SERMONS ON SUFFERING
JOB OUTLINEDShock and Sorrow (Job Responds)Struggle (Job and Friends wRestle)Surrender (God Revealed through Elihu)Sanctification (God Reveals Himself)Service (God Reverses Job’s life)
2 EXPLANATIONS FOR SUFFERING
1. To demonstrate God’s victory over Satan
2. To refine faith
REFINE AND HEAL
Not an executioner’s whip….
But a surgeon’s scalpel!
37:2 “Listen to the roar….rumbling of His mouth”
ELIHU: A GATHERING STORM
38:1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm…
GOD SPEAKS
GOD SPEAKS1. 4 chapters2. Job is asked 56 questions.(80 % of questions are statements
in disguise.)
GOD SPEAKS1. Names 24 environmental
phenomena
2. Names 12 animals
lion raven mt. goat
deer donkey ostrich
stork horse hawk
Eagle _____ _______
storms planet angels morning
dawn light springs expanse
snow hail lightening wind
rain desert dew ice
stars rivers clouds sea
lakes grass frost seasons
ENVIRONMENT ANIMALS38:1-38 38:39 – 40:24
GOD SPEAKSGod of power
“More than meets the eye.”
JOB IS GETTING IT
40:4-5 “I am unworthy- how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer –twice, but I will say no more.”
JOB IS GETTING ITa finite creature who has no wisdom to run this world and is utterly ignorant of 99.999% of its processes has no business instructing his Maker and Ruler how to run the world or even condemning God for the way he runs it.
GOD SPEAKSGod of Justice:
[Job, can you] “Look at every proud man and bring him low…” (40:11)
GOD SPEAKS: TWO MORE ANIMALS
behemoth (beast par exellence)leviathan (large marine creature)
DINOSAURS IN THE BIBLE?
Behemoth and Leviathan
Figurative or……?
JOB’S CONFESSION
42:2-6 “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted… surely I spoke of things I did not understand…
JOB’S CONFESSION
My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.
JOB’S CONFESSION
Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”
GOD’S ABSOLUTION“my eyes have seen you”19:25 ff. “my redeemer lives…I myself will see him with my own eyes…”
WHAT GOD DOESN’T SAY:
A word about Job’s suffering
A word about Job’s righteousness
A word about Job’s losses
WHAT GOD DOES SAYThis is so much bigger and more complex than you can possibly imagine
It all happens for a reason, MY reason… though YOU might not get it all
I am involved in it all, I am involved in your life
WHAT GOD DOES SAY
All this I do out of LOVE.
I am your REDEEMER, you cannot save yourself