Job's Repentance and Restoration Job 42

Transcription

1 Blake Gillen Grace Bible Church November 16, 2016 Job's Repentance and Restoration Job 42 I like to try and read a devotion in the morning that is called Wisdom for the heart. The writer is a pastor named Stephen Davey who is a pastor at Colonial Baptist Church in Cary, North Carolina. The devotion this morning was on James 4:7-8 and it was titled Come a Little Closer, "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." In the devotion Pastor Davey writes something about Satan that I haven't thought about much but I believe it is true, "James wants us to know that when we are battling against the devil, we are battling against a person, not just some power. The name devil literally means accuser, which reveals one of Satan s chief weapons against believers. Read the Book of Job and you ll discover just how far Satan will go in his attempt to both accuse us before God and accuse God before us." How does Satan operate? His name means accuser and he accuses in two directions - Satan accuses us before God and Satan accuses God before us. It's the second pat of Satan's accusations that I haven't thought much about. Satan s accusations aren't one way accusations. He doesn't just accuse believes before God. Satan also accuses God before men. Who asked the first question in the Bible? Satan asked the first question in the Bible. Satan deceived Adam and Eve because He put thoughts into their minds about God that weren't true. Adam and Eve sinned because they let Satan accuse God and they didn't take every thought captive to make them obedient to what they knew to be true. JOB'S REPENTANCE AND RESTORATION!1

2 It's sad but I hear professing Christians falling for Satan's lies all the time. People fall into Satan's lap when they allow their experiences to lead to accusations about who God is. If God is then why? In the midst of trials Satan tempts us to think wrong about God. You need your Christian thinking cap on at all times but especially when life is hard. One of the ways we are tempted to think wrong about God is when we think that trials are not a part of God's good, pleasing and perfect will for our lives. Remember God disciplines the children He loves and chastens every son He receives. What happened to Job happens to God's people all the time. Do God's people have children that die? Do God's people lose their possessions? Do God's people lose their health? We do. Maybe not in two days, like Job, but those kinds of things happen to godly people all over the world every day. Job's life in some ways is the normal Christian life. To some degree we should all expect what happened to Job to happen to us at some point in our lives. Tonight I just want to remind you that there are some incredible blessings that flow into our lives through whatever trials God brings our way. I want us to finish Job by considering three blessings that flowed from Job's trial. As a result of Job's trials Job: 1. Knew God's Power Better - Job 42:1-6 42:1 Then Job answered the Lord and said, 2 I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. 3 Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 4 Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me. 5 I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; 6 Therefore I retract, JOB'S REPENTANCE AND RESTORATION!2

3 And I repent in dust and ashes. Job 42:1-6 is Job's confession. What's the first word in Job 42:1? Then follows 4 chapters of 70 questions where the Lord puts Job in his place. Remember Job began questioning God the longer his trial dragged on. He wanted his day in court with God to plead his case. In Job God puts Job on trial. God was very patient with Job and in the end He put Job on trial. During the trial the Lord reminds Job that there is an infinite distance between the creator God and the creature made by God. There are some things about God's sovereignty Job didn't fully understand. Job got a much better understanding of God's control over both the visible world and the invisible world as a result of his trial. Trials have a way of humbling the true believer. Job's did. Trials have treasures. Pain has prizes. Did Job learn some important things about God through his trial? What did he learn? He came to a more complete view of God's sovereign power over all that He has made. Job 42:2 is a verse you and I need to memorize, "I know that You can do all things and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted." Trials fill in our incomplete views of God when we approach them with a teachable, humble spirit. Abraham Kuyper once said: "He is your friend who pushes you near to God." Trials are friends because they drive us to greater dependence on the Lord. Charles Spurgeon went through many trials over the course of his life and ministry. He struggled with many physical ailments and many people from within his own denomination did not agree with his views on Scripture. Yet, this is how he learned to view his hardships for Christ, "I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me against the Rock of Ages." At the end of his trial Job knew God's Power better. He also: 2. Knew God's Forgiveness Better - Job 42:7-9 JOB'S REPENTANCE AND RESTORATION!3

4 Job 42:7-9 7 It came about after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has. 8 Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves, and My servant Job will pray for you. For I will accept him so that I may not do with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has. 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job. Remember most of Job is a debate between Job and Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. It's a heated debate as Job's friends accuse him of committing a sin that led to his suffering. Some commentators believe that the reason God's wrath was kindled against those three guys was more than just what they said about God. It wasn't just their incorrect theology that suffering is always the result of personal sin. It was also their lack of compassion toward Job. Christopher Ash, "The friends have a theological scheme, a very tidy system, well swept, well defined and entirely satisfying to them. But they have no relationship with the God of their formulas. There is no wonder, no awe, no longing, no yearning and no prayer to meet and speak with and hear and see the God of their formulas. No, they are content with the rules they have invented." Job wasn't satisfied with a system. Job is different. He wants to know God personally. Job's heart longed for God and that was the reason the Lord says Job spoke right about Him. Look what the Lord does - His anger burns against Eliphaz, and Bolded and Zophar. How his God's anger appeased? Only through a sacrifice. Sin against the Lord God always comes with a price. The wages of sin is death. That's the way it's always been since sin entered the world in Genesis 3. For God's wrath to be removed God tells Job to offer a sacrifice and to pray for those guys. JOB'S REPENTANCE AND RESTORATION!4

5 There is another reason I think the Lord required Job to offer a sacrifice for their sin and to pray for them. What particular sin are you prone to when you're walking through a trial and you get some advice that's not helpful according to the need of the moment? Job got a lot of advice that was not helpful according to the need of the moment and he probably struggled with bitterness toward those guys. The text doesn't say but I wonder if God made Job offer a sacrifice for their sin and prayed for them in order to break up the root of bitterness in Job's heart? Was that a potential sin Job would have struggled with - in his time of need his three friends made things worse. Ephesians 4:30-32, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." Is forgiveness a vital part of the Christian life? I remember a pastor saying if you don't give forgiveness you don't got forgiveness. Forgiven people must work at becoming forgiving people. God helped Job with that and He helps us with that as well. If someone has sinned against you or not offered you the help you needed in a trial remember your forgiveness and extend forgiveness. At the end of Job's trial he knew God's power better and he knew God's forgiveness better and finally Job: 3. Knew God's Goodness Better - Job 42: The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold. 11 Then all his brothers and all his sisters and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they consoled him and JOB'S REPENTANCE AND RESTORATION!5

6 comforted him for all the adversities that the Lord had brought on him. And each one gave him one piece of money, and each a ring of gold. 12 The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He had seven sons and three daughters. 14 He named the first Jemimah, and the second Keziah, and the third Kerenhappuch. 15 In all the land no women were found so fair as Job s daughters; and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers. 16 After this, Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons and his grandsons, four generations. 17 And Job died, an old man and full of days. The joy of Job's restoration is displayed in the names he gives his three daughters. Jemimah means day light, Keziah means sweet smelling, and Keren-Happuch describes a beautiful color ladies used to paint their eyelids. Notice Job didn't name any of his daughters Mara. Do you see the name Mara in Job 42:14? There's some pancake syrup in there but no Mara. Why am I brining Mara into this? Remember Naomi in the book of Ruth. During a time of famine Naomi lost her husband and her two sons. They all died. She had no one to take care of her. She had no husband to provide for her needs in middle age and no sons to provide for her needs in her old age. She was in a tough spot. When she arrives back in Bethlehem she tells people, "Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, bur the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the LORD has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me." The name Mara literally means bitter. Naomi was bitter over what happened to her family. But God was not finished with Naomi. Her daughter in law, Ruth, marries Boaz and after they have their first son, the people in the city remind Noami in Ruth 4:14-15, "Blessed is the Lord who has not left you without a redeemer today, and may his name become famous in Israel. May he also be to you a restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is JOB'S REPENTANCE AND RESTORATION!6

7 better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him." In the end Naomi was blessed with seven step sons who would care for her in her old age and ultimately one of here step sons was named Obed who was the father of Jesse who was the father of David. So, Boaz and Ruth were the great grandparents of David through whom came the Messiah. This is what we need to remember in trials - The story of our lives is still being written. What do they say in sports? It's not over until it's over. If you are going through a major trial God is not through with you yet. He is still able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond what we ask or think as His love is poured out in our lives through the ministry of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 3:20). As long as God as on the throne don't lose hope. Romans 15:13, "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Tonight we have the privilege of hearing a testimony from someone who has learned and is learning all of these three blessings of adversity. I've invited Richard Miller to come and share his testimony with us as we finish up our time together. I know you'll be encouraged as Richard explains how God saved him and what the Lord has been teaching him. JOB'S REPENTANCE AND RESTORATION!7

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