Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Job's Faith: Why So Strong?

This is a continuation of yesterday's post regarding Job, and why bad things happen to the child of God.

Job's Faith, Why So Strong

Job 2, Job 13:15, Job 19:21-26


Job was a spiritual man, a family man, a burdened man for his family, but the book of Job teaches us that there is another  unseen world, a spirit world.  A prime plane of God and angels which Satan has access to.  What happens in that spirit world affects what happens in the physical world, the two are not separate but intertwined and they affect one another.  In this spiritual world Satan gets permission from God to unleash misery and trouble upon Job's life and Job suffered terribly.  Job reacted in sadness but he worshipped God even in this terrible tragedy. Job 1:20-22 "Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, and said Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly."   He confesses that the LORD has a right to take away that which he has given, and he was going to love God anyway, even if God did not bless him.   The teaching is this, Job's faith overcame the troubles and woes that he was going through in his life because Job's faith was in God himself.  It was not dependant upon material blessings so therefore the material blessings could all be removed but Job's faith in God remained untouched.  Job did very well.  He lost his wealth, he lost all his children but he still kept his faith, but it wasn't over yet.




The unseen world:  Chp 2:1-6  Satan goes back to God's throne again and presents himself with the other angels and a conversation again takes place between God and Satan, and God again points out that Job is righteous and that there is none like him in the whole world, and ".......still he holdeth fast his integrity although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause."  God plainly says that Job's affliction was without cause, no reason for it.  And now Satan says V4-5 "And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.  But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face."  The audacity of Satan.  He says that if God gave him permission to touch his health, every man would give everything he has to hold on to his health, and he says that if Job's health is taken Job will curse God to his face.  Satan does not believe that Job's faith is in God.  Satan believes that every man has his price.  That there is a way and a means by which each one of God's people could be driven to curse God to his face and deny the faith.  That is what Satan believes.  He believes that another test of Job's faith will prove Job's faith to be false.  So God says to Satan V6 "..Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life."  So far and no further.  So Satan goes out from the presence of God and Job's misery increases even more.  There is a second salvo of affliction V7-8  "So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.  And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes."

 
Was it boils or something else?  One of the symptoms was aching bones, 30:17 "My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest." There were wart like eruptions,7:5 "My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome." anorexia,19:20 "My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth."  depression,7:16  "I loath it; I would not live always: let me alone; for my days are vanity." weeping, 16:16 "My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;"  sleeplessness 7:4 "When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day." and then nightmares when he did sleep.  7:14 "Then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions:"   and he looked pretty awful.  That is a lot of symptoms, something is seriously wrong.  And Job was left sitting in the ashes and scraping himself with a broken piece of pottery from the boils and blisters.  Satan's tactics when he comes to the godly is that he attacks them personally.  He is persistent and unmerciful.  And Satan uses friends and family against the person because there is no depths to what Satan will stoop to, to hurt a child of God.  Satan's thinking is health and life are valued more than God to people.  Possessions and family are valued more than God.  Satan thinks there is always something in a godly person that people will put before God and he tries to find that one thing.   

 
The unseen spirit world literally affected the physical world.


Job's discouragements:  2:9-10 "Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.  But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh.  What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?  In all this did not Job sin with his lips."  Job had a wife and she was a discouragement.  Augustine called Job's wife the devil's advocate.  Calvin calls wife in his commentary the tool of Satan.  Satan spared her at the beginning in order to use her against Job.  But Peter was also used by Satan "get thee behind me Satan"  Even really godly people can temporarily be used by Satan.  But Job's wife was also the mother of Job's 10 dead children and that would have greatly affected her.  She would have felt the loss terribly.  One of the hardest things you will ever do is lose a child or nurse a child through a serious illness.    But the fact is that Job's wife is a breaking point in all this suffering and she urges Job to curse God and die.  She is meant to be his greatest strength, his greatest helper but Job's wife becomes his weakness and his hindrance.  But she was not his only discouragement. 


Job had three friends who came as comforters to talk to him Chp 4-31.  They came to try and help him but what they said to Job was this:  "Job, you have  brought it upon yourself. Although you seem to be righteous there must be some secret sin that is hidden in your life that has caused all this".  That is basically what they said.  You have sinned and God is punishing you.  Their theology has much truth in it because we know from the bible that God does discipline his people when they sin.  But in Job's case his three friends were absolutely wrong because they were applying their theology to Job but they had no proof whatsoever that he had sinned.  They were just looking at him and his life from the outside and they were seeing all his suffering and assuming that he had sinned and was being punished.  And that is always wrong to assume.  If we see someone suffering we cannot say that God is punishing that person for sin.  But if we see someone sinning we can say that God will chastise.  Job's friends were assuming that secret sin was the cause and they were wrong because God says they were wrong.  2:3 ".....still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause."  Job hadn't done anything wrong.  Sin was not the cause of Job's affliction.  The only cause was Satan.  Satan had requested liberty to test Job's faith to try and break it. 


Some will say that if a person is suffering he doesn't have enough faith.  It is not God's will that all Christians be in perfect health, that is not true.  Naming it and claiming it has nothing to do with it.   Sometimes bad things happen.  Christians don't live in a bubble.  Something bad might happen and a lack of faith had nothing to do with it.  Many Christians in the new testament were sick.  The prosperity gospel is nonsense and there is no truth in it.  Job teaches it that sometimes God's people suffer and it is nothing to do with secret sin or lack of faith.  


Job's reaction:  His reactions are glorious  V10 "But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh.  What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?  In all this did not Job sin with his lips."     What is Job doing?  he is accepting.  Even though he doesn't understand why it's happening, he accepts it.  What if Christians were never sick or never poor what would that be like?  People would see this and think, maybe I will become a Christian but it would be for the wrong reason.  It is foolish to think that only good things happen to Christians.  What about Job's faith? Does he curse God like Satan says he would? No, even after he has lost everything, after he had been accused wrongly by his friends, he cries through it all Chp 13:15 "Thou he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him. "   Even if he kills me, I will trust him.  How can that kind of faith be defeated.  It can't be.  Job is a tower of strength.  and how did he get that faith?  Chp 19:21-27 "Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.  Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh? Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.  Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me." Job knew that his redeemer lived, he knew that his redeemer would come to earth someday, he knew that because of that redeemer, even though his body would die, yet he knew that in his flesh he was going to stand before God.  He believed in a redeemer, he believed that death was not the end, he believed in  the resurrection of the body.  It is only when people come to see and really believe in their heart that physical life is just the beginning and death is not the end, it is only then that we can really face suffering with faith like Job.  Job's faith is strong because he had his eyes on eternity.  Job's strong faith defeated Satan completely. 


 Why do you think that Job suffered? why is this book in the bible?  Because God wanted people to see what real faith in him can endure. We are meant to look at Job and see what he endured.  

Job was crushed and he gave off a beautiful fragrance of his faith. Will you trust God?
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The above notes were made by myself from the sermon by Paul Dowling of Whiteabbey Congregational (Reformed) at Sermon Audio.

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=62208164268

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