Sermon Transcript — April 29, 2006
One of the themes that God's people are reminded of every year at the Feast of Tabernacles is the theme of learning to fear the Eternal our God. I don't think it's just once a year that that's an appropriate thing for us to have our minds on: To learn to properly fear God in the way that Jesus Christ even feared His Father, in a right way and loving way, and with great respect and certainly setting the example for all of us, is a constant theme and that will be an aspect of the sermon today. An aspect of this healthy and good fear of God, that maybe we have not considered, and I want to talk about today, is the prospect, the potential, that any of us could ever come to the place where we disagree with God. We disagree with the way God does things and even in that sense become an enemy of God!
Now that is a thing that would cause the blood to run cold if we think about it, but we are going to have cold blood today because I want us to think about it. An enemy of God. Well what a terrible set of shoes to be walking in. What a terrible place to be. To be actually an enemy of God. Does that potential exists within us? The enemy of God or the critic of God or the opponent of the good and holy God whom we claim, don't we, to revere and to serve and to obey.
Surely, we would say, that could never be true of me. Maybe somebody out there in the dark distant edges, five or six standard deviations away from the church in the human population. Maybe somebody way out yonder could be an enemy of God. But me? Is that even possible? I think most of us would initially think: I can never become and enemy of God. I love God. After all we are aware, aren't we, it is one of the chief things that the Bible teaches, in fact, Christ called the first commandment, that we are to love the Eternal our God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength and our understanding. And surely that is at the forefront of our conscience.
Conscience is we, you know, live the Christian life and even though we through human weaknesses, and we all have them, even though we do still sin and fall short, we have just gone through the Passover season when we were reminded, of course, that we do that and we need to be unleavened and we need to have our sins forgiven, but even though we do that through weakness of inattention, perhaps laziness, we do love Him and we would never even come close to becoming an enemy of God. I think that is the typical reaction we would have when faced with that statement.
Well, a long time ago, many, many millennia ago, another individual whose life story is recorded for us in the Bible, and we are going spend a lot of time today, he was faced with this same question, and we can learn from the inspired account of his life. So, I want to consider with you today, the book of Job, in this regard.
I believe that it is true that the book of Job has many lessons for God's people. I think every preacher likes to take their crack at the book of Job. It is so rich. It is so deep in meaning. There are so many spiritual truths and realities. I think there are so many levels of understanding that we can talk about in the book of Job. So I do not pretend to stand up here today and say I have the answer, the key, to the book of Job, but I do want to give you my best shot at it. You know we talk about giving my Sunday punch. I give you my Sabbath punch at the book of Job. As I say I don't claim that it is the only way to understand it but I think it is a way of understanding it.
I probably have said this here before, so bare with me if I am repeating myself, but back in high school I remember in our literature class that well, not only did we read the book of Job, but we also talked about other literature like the book: Moby Dick. A classic American novel by Herman Melville and the statement has been made that you can read that novel on many levels: The simple story; the swash buckling tale of this man out there in the ocean trying to catch that large whale for killing. But then there are other allegorical layers upon layers that those who have really studied that great novel say that you can come to understanding at many different layers by reading that novel. Well, I believe that if that is true of that book it certainly is true of the book of Job.
So, again delimiting what I am going to try and do with you today, I believe that this is one lesson that we can learn from the book of Job and it is a priceless, and it is a timeless lesson for God's people in all eras. Let's begin at the beginning, Job 1:1, and if we can, try to read it as if it's the first time. Many of us have marked Bibles. Maybe a sermon or an article that we have studied in times past might have this thing: bleeding blue or red ink or whatever we used to mark our Bibles, but pretend with me, that it is the first time and let's read it afresh.
Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.
verse 2 – And seven sons and three daughters were born to him.
verse 3 – Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels…
Let's just stop and think for a minute how wealthy this man must have been if, some of you would know far better than I would, the current price on the hoof of a sheep is, or of a camel. You have to say several hundred dollars per head, wouldn't you, of some of these animals and to take that times thousands? I mean, this man was a multiple millionaire in terms of a currency economy like we have; had a big ranch.
verse 3 - ….five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, …many servants. A very great, wealthy, prosperous man, … so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.
Now humanly speaking, I want to ask this question: How could you improve on that three verse description of a man? If I gave you a blank check and I say: O.K. we are going to have a summery of your life in the Bible and we are going to put your name instead of Job's; you fill in the blanks. How would you like the account of your life summarized succinctly? Could you improve, could you ask for more? There was a man in land of Cincinnati, whose name was Tom; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. I don't think I can improve on that. Maybe if you gave it enough thought you could come up with something better than that but it is right up there at the top of what we would wish to have said of ourselves, especially in the Bible. This isn't just a human evaluation of Job, or fill in the blank, your name, but this is God's evaluation. This is in the Bible.
How do you improve on that? Isn't that about the best evaluation of a man regarding his relationship with this world and with God in fact, that we can imagine?
verse 4 – And his sons would go and feast in their houses.., talking about his family …each on his appointed day…, we take that to mean: on their birthday…and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
verse 5 – So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them.., or bless them,…and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, "It may be…" he doesn't even know that it did happen.
He's saying: against the possibility that in their partying one of my children has sinned and cursed God in their hearts, I am going to rise up early in the morning and offer a sacrifice, an atoning, intercessory sacrifice and prayer for God for my kids, and this, it said, Job did regularly. This was not just a one time event. Now doesn't Job's stature grow with every passing verse?
What character! What a spiritual man! It seems like a selfless man. I mean, against the possibility that one of his kids have sinned, he offers up special prayers and makes a sacrificial offering to God on their behalf, not even on his own behalf, but on his kids behalf. It seems that Job habitually did the right thing and this is just so honorable and this is just so pure, it seems. Well, we read on.
verse 6 – Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord.., and of all things Satan was right there. This was up in the third heaven. A meeting was called; apparently the top angels assembling, having been called to this meeting by God Himself, and even Satan, the evil one, is called, and it says:
verse 7 – And the Lord said to Satan, "From where do you come?" So Satan answered the Lord and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it."
Well, we read about this roaring lion who walks to and through, prowls; to and through on the earth seeking whom he may devour, so that's consistent with what we read in the New Testament; the Old Testament. Satan is the enemy of God. Satan is the enemy of man. Now the title of the sermon again is: The enemy of God in the book of Job. Shall I quit? Have we already found the answer? He is an enemy of God. He is the primal enemy. No, I am not ready to quit yet.
Have we considered, - well, verse 8 is probably, when we first read it, the most shocking or one of the most shocking verses in the Bible. We are not intellectually or emotionally, most of us, prepared for verse 8 when we read it the first time. It is counter intuitive. You know sometimes we allow ourselves to say: Well, if I were God. If you were God, would you have done this? Would you have pointed Job out to this hateful enemy and basically stick him on him, if he was your beloved servant? God goes to the trouble to say: "Wait a minute Satan, I know you have been out doing your thing but I want to point your attention over here to Job. Have you considered him?"
verse 8 -….."Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him …it kind of reverts back to verse 1. Here is the rest of the description, from God's own lips. How do you improve on this? God says: there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?"
So we know that testimony of verse 1 was Godly testimony because we hear virtually the same thing in verse 8 coming out of God's lips. Shocking! Why would God do this? Why wouldn't He hide Job from Satan's mercies, from his attention? Now he points him out and says: "What about him?"
verse 9 – So Satan answered the Lord and said, "Does Job fear God for nothing?
It is quite apparent that Job served God but Satan denies that a thinking person, or at least that Job, would love God, serve God, unless there was a pay-off in this life. That in essence is what Satan is saying. Sinicism to the hundredth degree: Pure, evil, sinicism.
"There is nobody who would love You and serve You God, unless You had hedged them about with the good life; unless You were protecting them. He loves You for what he can get out of it in this life". I believe is the essence of what Satan is saying. Was Job just buttering God up because God was giving Job such a good life? Now verses 2-3 tell what a good life he had: richest man in all the east. So does a person love God, obey God, unless there is a pay-off, a pleasant pay-off in this life? Satan says: "Absolutely not", and he challenges God.
verse 10 – Have You not made a hedge around him around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
"Why wouldn't he serve You or appear to? Now look, all You have to do is take some of those goodies away. Stretch out Your hand, touch all that he has, I'll guarantee You, he will curse You to the face, just like I do. I don't love You, he doesn't love You anymore than I do, nobody down there does, because You are not lovable. I hate You." I mean, that is in effect what Satan and the demons say. Take the goodies away and they will be just like us. And again we are not prepared for this, the first time you read it, but instead of saying: Forget that. End of discussion. God says: "You're on. You got him".
verse 12 – And the Lord said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person." So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
Verse 12, where God's says in response to Satan's challenge: "You're on", is the pivotal verse I believe, in the book of Job. At least it is the pivotal verse in the way we're going to look at the book of Job. It's the pivotal verse. Depending on how we understand the dynamic that's working in verse 12, our understanding will go to the left or the right or up and down. On this verse hinges our understanding of the book.
I put it this way: Was God engineering this whole series of events with an end-result in mind, or was, on the other hand, God just reacting to the initiative, to the challenge of Satan? Had God predetermined what was going to happen and He was engineering this thing and was dangling Satan without Satan even knowing it, like a marionette on a string, God pulling the punches; God motivating; God engineering; or God reacting and Satan engineering? I believe it's the former, not the latter. I believe that God, the Master Potter, was working on His spiritual creation in Job, and I believe God engineered and had predetermined before we get to verse 12, in fact, before we've gotten to verse1, I believe God had predetermined to do something to perfect the spiritual creation known as Job, and I believe it is a template of how God works with all the first fruits.
I believe that God sets about to create something in Job that was not previously there. And that creation is the purpose for the book, for the trial that we read about. I do not believe that this involved a specific, unrecognized sin in Job's life, however. That's what his friends thought so I am choosing my words carefully. I do not think it involved a specific, unrecognized sin, even the sin of self righteousness the way sometimes we have referred to it. I don't believe it is that. I do not believe it was merely self righteousness in the way we described it; thinking that he was better than God. I don't think Job thought he was better than God in the sense that we sometimes say that, or that he didn't need God. I think he felt that he needed God.
Instead I believe that it was something, this thing that was lacking that God sets out to create as part of His perfecting creation as the Master Potter, Job being the clay, I think it was something more subtle and yet something very important in God's judgment and in my opinion, nobody is going to enter the Kingdom of God unless this same thing is created in their lives. That is why I believe this is the template for how God works with the first fruits.
Now I am not going to give away in a specific sentence what I think that thing is quite yet, because I don't want to loose you. So, we are going to get there but we are going to get there circuitously. I will say that again. I do not think that we understand verse 12 as God reacting to Satan's initiative, or Him having to think about this: O.K. you're on. I think it instead, is Satan, without even knowing it, is reacting to God's initiative. God had something in mind from the beginning before you even get to verse 1, certainly before we even get to verse 12. God's the Master Potter. God is in charge. God is the initiator, God is engineering the whole thing, I believe.
I want to go to a series of verse now outside the book of Job - we are definitely going to come back, that depicts the dynamic at work that I believe is happening, starting in verse 12, at least to our eyes.
I want to go to a series of verses that show God is the Master Potter and He is still the Creator. He didn't quit creating on the 6th day of creation week in Genesis 1. God is the Creator. It is not that God was the Creator; it is that God is the Creator. God creates, that's what he does. He is the Creator.
And in fact, the creation God is involved in now is the far greater creation than sun, moon, star, rivers, mountains, animals, man, woman, as great as that is. What He is doing now ongoing, six thousand years, is a greater creation by far, a greater creation process.
Isaiah 64:8 But now, O Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.
There is the imagery. It is so beautiful, it is so clear a child can understand it. Humankind, conscious living people are clay. They are an unfinished product. God looks at the lump of clay but in His mind He sees a beautiful vase or another piece of beautiful ceramic. So, the clay isn't a finished product and God is working the clay. Romans 9 actually quotes that, in Paul's letter to the Romans.
Here is this marvelous passage in Romans 9 where Paul is evaluating for what it is, the effrontery, the arrogance, the pride of any human being who would challenge God in God's wisdom and God's doings and God's created process. He says that makes as much sense as clay, inner dumb dirt, challenging the skilled potter. Why are you doing it that way? Why are you forming me in that way? Why are you putting me into that shape? It makes no sense at that level, nor does it at the human level dealing with out spiritual Creator. So He says:
Romans 9:18 Therefore He has mercy on whom he wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
verse 19 – You will say to me then, .. speaking generally to proud human nature. Well then, you argue and say: .."Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?
Now that makes perfect sense to a human, linear thinking, carnal mind, but Paul doesn't even answer the question. He basically tells the questioner to shut up. That requires us to step over into another realm of thinking. That was a rational question, wasn't it? If God sets somebody over here and hardens them, why does He find fault with them? That's the way you and I think but Paul says: "Why are you challenging what God does?" Like I said: we have to step into another realm to not even be offended by Paul when he says: "Who are you? Who are you to reply against God given that God is doing it this way? Who do you think you are, human being, that you would then come back and say: 'yes but', that doesn't make sense, or why are you doing it that way?" Paul says: "Who are you to reply against God? "
verse 20 - …Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?"
verse 21 – Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
Now we can read on in this passage:
verse 22 – What if God, wanting to show His wrath …. In other words God has a purpose in what He does but the point is: who is any human being to say: "God there is a better way to do it? You are doing it the wrong way", even temporarily if you're the clay that He is making into a vessel of wrath. Paul says: That person doesn't even really in the long term have a right to challenge God in that respect. That is pretty hard to swallow for us humans with human reasoning, isn't it? That doesn't seem right? Paul thinks it is perfectly right.
verse 22 -What if God wanting to show his wrath and to make His power known …God has a purpose in what He does, whether it makes sense to a human being or not, is a purpose, …endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath that were prepared for destruction.
Phil. 3:15 There is just these series of scriptures I want to use to frame the point that God is the ongoing Master Potter, the Spiritual Creator, and there isn't a good tract record of challenging Him. It doesn't work. Now it's perfectly O.K. to say: "I don't understand it", but it is not perfectly O.K. to say: "God, you are wrong". That is the difference. There are lots of things that God does that I am sure we don't understand, but that attitude of challenging God in the way He does things, is the thing we all need to avoid.
Phil. 3:15 Therefore let us …now Paul is speaking to the Church ….as many as are mature, so we've already got the context of who he is talking to. These are mature Christians. These aren't babes in Christ, these aren't new ones, these are experienced veterans who have already come a long way in their character development, their Christian journey. …as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.
So a person can be mature spiritually, and still has some blind spots, or still has some things that are not right about them, some rough edges, and God says: "In time I'll perfect that in you, till I have put you in the kiln, you know, and put the glaze on and fired it up. I am still working", and so maybe we can take the analogy like this: God has been working with this clay. For a long time with the Potter has been working with this clay and to an untrained layman's eye, that might look pretty good. Instead of a lump of clay, now it is a beautiful shape of a vase and to an untrained eye well, it looks pretty good. That is ready to go right into the oven but to the expert potter's discriminating eye there is still some things that need to be perfected. He says: "I'll take care of that. In time I'll take care of that. I'll see to it that that is smoothed out or that is shaped just a little more perfectly."
verse 15 -If then anything else.., I mean that is a very encouraging promising there. …If then anything else you are otherwise minded, God will reveal even this to you… and He will work on it, as long as we are willing to be worked with.
Earlier in this same book in chapter 2:13; this is a memory verse for many years for many people.
Phil. 2:13 for it is God who works in you ….See the creation process is going on between the ears …it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
Now lest anybody put on the code of pride about how good they are, the question God says is: "Who even puts the desire to obey in your heart? I did." It is God who works in you both to will, both to desire. All this comes from God, even the desire that we have, it is not our native desire. It is not our carnal mind at work: I love God, I want to serve God. He even has to put that in us. He's the first and last, the Potter, the Creator.
Galatians 4:19, and now he switches the metaphor here a little bit from clay to child birth. Now I think the same, similar idea is there.
Gal. 4:19 My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you,
And for many years we have been taught the analogy of the gestation period from a single cell joining with another single cell, so tiny you can't see it, to a full term baby. It takes time, and it looks more and more like its human parents, the longer that fetus is in the mother's womb. It takes time, it is not all done at once. …until Christ is formed in you". So what is being formed? What is the Potter forming? Christ-like character. That's the master creation of the Master Potter. Christ-like character, and it takes time. It is process.
2 Corinthians 5:17 This process is really the process of the New Covenant. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
It can also be: are becoming new, or are new. It is a process. It's a switch from baptism until either death or the seventh trumpet. It is a growth process: Christ being formed in the person. Old things – bad. New things – good. It is a process.
A couple more in this section and then we will go back to the book of Job here, in just a minute. Back to the book of Philippians 1:6. So Philippians has three of these references to this creating process. Paul in his opening comments to the book to the Church in Philippi, in chapter 1:6, he says: "Look, we can be confident of this very thing." As I said earlier, this is an encouraging reality to focus our minds on.
Philippians 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
The potter doesn't throw away the clay when it is half-done and go on to some new challenge. He finishes that one until it is perfect, as long as the clay is willing to be worked with, and it does last until the day of Jesus Christ. This is an ongoing process.
Ephesians 4:21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus;
verse 22 – that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
Now it is the old man that arrogantly challenges God's doings. He says: "That doesn't make sense to me therefore I think there is a better way". That is the old man.
verse 23 – and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
verse 24 – and that you put on the new man…, now again …who was created (who is created). You'll find various translations simply because the Greek allows all the tenses. This is an ongoing process. If it wasn't, was created, on one time event, some translations say: is created; is being created.
verse 24 – and that you put on the new man which was created, (is created) according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
So there is this ongoing spiritual creation, Christ-like character, and God doesn't give up. We see God depicted in various scriptures, I've given you six, seven, of them here, as a spiritual Creator, creating the ultimate workmanship in all of the universe which is perfect Christ-like character in His children.
Alright, now back to the book of Job. I think we have framed it the way I want to frame it here. You've got a Creator, a Spiritual Potter, and there was something, not a specific sin, but I say a lack, there was a lack in Job. Maybe you like this phrase: The handle wasn't on there yet. Now it's perfect as far as it goes, it will hold fluid or sand or whatever you are going to put in this vase, or flowers. It will hold it but there is not a handle. It is incomplete. And I think when we come to Job 1:1 God is in mind there needs to a handle there. There needs to be an important part that is not there.
So we go to chapter 2. Of course, you know the story of what happened after God said: "You're on", Satan went and took away everything. All the cattle and the sheep and the donkeys and the, …Why do you need three-thousand camels? That's something I never understood. What does one do with three-thousand camels? I thought about that until I couldn't think about it any more, so you help me after church. What does one do with three-thousand camels?
But anyway, all that got taken away. Satan pulls the strings; all these forces come and take way all of Job's wealth. But he wasn't permitted to touch Job's body, his being. Well, that is round two. So here we go:
Job 2:1 Again there was a day …another meeting is called…the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.
verse 2 – And the Lord said to Satan, "From where do you come?" Satan answered the Lord and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it."
And again, now we are prepared for it, but again, what about Job? He mentioned Job. What about him? Have you done all you can to destroy him?
verse 3 - … "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity,…He didn't curse you when you took away all his goodies. You said he would. Now who is pulling the strings here? Who is engineering this whole thing? I say it is God. … although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause."
verse 4 – So Satan answered the Lord and said, … Well you still haven't got the point. I said take away all the goodies. One of the goodies in life is health. Lack of pain. Take that away from him. "Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.
He'll serve you; he'll pretend; he'll curse your name; if he wants the goodie of good health, but you put that on him, he'll curse your name.
verse 5 - But stretch out Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse You to Your face!"
And amazingly enough, God says: "You're on again".
verse 6 – And the Lord said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life."
You can do anything except kill him. Well, was that a favor? By the time Satan got through putting all these health problems on Job he probably would have preferred death to the life he was living.
verse 7 – So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. Unimaginable.
verse 8 – And he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes.
verse 9 – Then his wife said to him, Do you still hold fast to your integrity? …Now that was all he needed. That's all he needed about now, but linearly, humanly, she might have had a point. She didn't have the spirit of God and she wasn't in tune with what is says in Romans 9. It is O.K. to say I don't understand this God, but it is not O.K. to say: God, you're wrong. And that is implied in what she is saying.
Job 2:10 – But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
And then the three friends come. I am going to skip over a large portion of this because I know most of you know the story quite well. I am just going to point out certain key parts of it. The trial in chapter 2 gets worse than it was in chapter 1, but still Job did not sin by God's own testimony. It didn't end there yet either, so God apparently wasn't through creating something within Job. The handle still hadn't been formed. It was a perfect vase as far as it goes. There was no cursing; maybe there is a missing handle. What was it?
Job 3:1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
verse 2 – May the day perish on which I was born, and the night in which it was said, 'A male child is conceived.'
He is suffering, there is no end in sight, and then the friends start saying: "Well Job, look. You are a sinner; you need to fess up; you need to admit what you have done; you need to admit what you have thought and then God who is good will take this away. God did not bring this on you, Job, except because of a sin in your life."
I would rephrase that: God only brought this on because it was so important that Job be complete. There is a difference. Well, God is patient; He has this all recorded; He lets them talk and they're flapping their gums for several chapters. He lets Job and his three friends cast about a while in search of understanding of what is going on getting nowhere really, just a lot of verbiage. Much of what is said here I think is undoubtedly true but I think it is undoubtedly irrelevant to the real question, the real issue at hand. I don't say everything that these men said was untrue; I think they are guilty not of being untrue so much as they are being irrelevant to what was really the issue.
So that starts the first round of speeches there in chapter 3. In chapter 4 Eliphaz – maybe you have a Bible like I do that has chapter headings. The chapter heading 4: Eliphaz said to Job: "You have sinned." So this goes on for a while and as I pointed out earlier some of the things that are said are actually true. Let's go to chapter 5:13. I don't want to be dismissive of everything that came out of all these three friends' mouths because some of it is quoted in the New Testament as true. Look at chapter 5:13. Now who is this speaking again? I guess it is still Eliphaz.
Job 5:13 He catches the wise in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the cunning comes quickly upon them.
This is quoted in 1 Corinthians 3:19. So I think it validates that it is a true statement but I believe it is irrelevant to what Job needed to hear.
In Job 4, interestingly enough, we have a passage there in chapter 4:12-19 which appear to be a demon inspired dream, that Eliphaz had before he came to see Job and he recounts. I believe most commentators. - And it seems to make sense, this is not a Godly inspired dream but a demon inspired dream and those words found their way into the advice that he was giving to Job.
Job 4:12 Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it.
verse 13 – In disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
verse 14 – Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.
verse 15 – Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair on my body stood up.
verse 16 – It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence; then I heard a voice saying:
verse 17 – 'Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?
verse 18 – If He puts not trust in His servants, if He charges His angels with error,
verse 19 – How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before a moth?
The appearance here is of this voice talking about how cruel and harsh God is. That's not something we have to stake our salvation on, but that appears, and a number of commentators have made that point, but as I say, they just cast about. They say a lot of things but it wasn't really that helpful to Job.
Job 6-7 Job comes back in self defense. He basically says: "Don't' tell me I am wrong, in fact I am better than you". That's how I would categorize Job 6-7. "Quit telling me what you think I have done wrong. I haven't done anything wrong and in fact I have a better track record than you."
There is a sense in which you can say: O.K. Job is self-righteous, I'll concede the point but I don't even think that is the problem. I don't think that is the fundamental problem. I think he probably did have a better track record than they. What is my source for that? Chapter 1:1. God said there was no man like Job. I think in the things that you can see with your eyes as far as acts and words, I think Job is probably right in chapter 6-7 saying I serve God better than you do. Now we might say that is arrogant. I think it may or may not be. It may just be a statement of fact and God seems to back him up as to how righteous he was.
Let's get to the point. At the start of the book, as we are introduced to the saying of Job: prosperous; pious, clearly pious; conscientious; here is my question: What would Job's response be to anyone who would come up to him and dare to say the following: You with me? Chapter 1. Before we even come – what if somebody walked up to Job and said the following things? "Job, you, you could become an enemy of God. You could become critical of the way God does things. You could become critical of God's judgments. In fact, you could become critical of the way God runs the universe. You are a being capable of coming to the point of accusing God of being unfair, unjust, not properly running the universe and if so, you could become His enemy, His adversary, just like Satan."
Now if somebody had walked up to Job in chapter 1 and said those things, here is what I think Job's response would have been. I think he would have said - he would have been incredulous, he would have been dogmatic and forceful in saying: "No way absolutely no way. It is impossible that I could ever become critical and even an enemy of God. That capacity does not lie within me. There is nothing that could ever happen that would cause me to doubt God's goodness. I am incapable of that."
Well, I don't want to go to chapter 1, I want to go to chapters 32-34 and in the midst of this trial, I want us to look at some of the things that Job was brought to say.
Job 32:1 So these three men ceased answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.
verse 2 – Then the wrath of Elihu, the son of Barechel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was aroused against Job; his wrath was aroused because he justified himself rather than God.
In the heat of this moment, something began to emerge from Job that I think Job initially thought was impossible: That he was not a being capable of saying some of the things that came out of his own lips. Job 33:9. This is something Job had said:
Job 33:9 I am pure, without transgression; I am innocent, and there is no iniquity in me.
verse 10 – Yet God…, insert editorially … (unfairly) finds occasions against me, He counts me as His enemy;
Well if I am saying you are my enemy, aren't I you're enemy? Job was brought through a painful process of seeing that a potential lay within him that I think he was blind to and I think that this is important that everybody sees that potential so they can make a conscious, cold, light of day decision never to give vent to that capacity.
Job 34:9 Again, quoting Job: 'It profits a man nothing that he should delight in God'.
Here I have done all this for God; He is unfair; look at how He was rewarded me. Let's go back to chapter 9. These are words that came out of Job's mouth. I don't think he thought he was capable of saying these things. Earlier, I think he had a blind spot. It is not a specific sin, it is a lack of self awareness, and it could be a very dangerous self-awareness. Job 9:22 – well, in verse 21.
Job 9:21 He says: "I am blameless, yet I do not know myself; I despise my life.
verse 22 – It is all one thing; therefore I say, 'He destroys the blameless and the wicked.'
Focusing on the immediacy of his trial, he judges God as unjust; not making a distinction between those who serve Him and those who don't. Who would want to serve a God who makes no distinction between those, in the long term, who serve Him and don't, and Job is accusing that of God because he is caught up in the moment, in the immediacy of his trial. He is judging God as unworthy, as unjust. He destroys the blameless and the wicked.
Job 40: God has appeared now to Job in a whirlwind and has revealed Himself to Job and more importantly, He has revealed Job to Job, in this process that you just cannot describe in pure words other than to say: It is a spiritual "A-ha" moment. It is a spiritual "A-ha". I am a being capable of judging God. I am a being capable of becoming bitter against God; I am a being capable of becoming God's enemy. That I believe brethren is what this repentance is all about.
Job 40:1 Moreover the Lord answered Job, and said:
verse 2 – "Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it."
What was the missing handle? What was the missing part in this otherwise apparently perfect, beautiful creation? Self awareness. Awareness that he, like every other person, has got to make a conscious choice, never to become God's enemy. Never to follow the path of Satan and the angels who followed Satan; never to turn against God in hostility. To not understand, fine, Paul said His ways are inscrutable. But to argue; to question His goodness; that's a capacity we all have to see within ourselves. It is nothing more deep I think than the other memory verse back in Deuteronomy where God even said to Israel: "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing." You've got to choose.
A person has to choose to never allow their mind to go down that path. When they find themselves saying, "I don't understand it and I don't like it", they've got to then say: "God is good, and in time I will see the goodness of God in what He is doing." That is a choice. That's a choice. In this life we are to become people like Christ who made that choice in the garden of Gethsemane: I don't want to do it; I wish there were another way to do it; is there a way out? But when the answer came, "no", resistance ended. What kind of a Father are you to let me…..No. Thy will be done. That's the missing handle.
But that isn't there unless a person sees that the potential is to go the other way and that potential within himself, to accuse God and become bitter against God, that is self awareness, I think, was lacking in chapter 1 and I think God says that's got to be created here, even at the cost of this extraordinary trial. We come to chapter 42:5. Job has had his "A-ha" moment.
Job 42:5 "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,… and the God I thought I understood, that is the one who I served perfectly 1, read the language. But now my eye sees You… and You are so great and I see myself, too.
verse 6 – Therefore I abhor myself…, not what I did, but what I am. What am I? I am a being capable of becoming an enemy of this great God. That potential I abhor and I am making a conscious choice now to never give vent to that line of thinking again. I think the handle is on at that point. I think the creation is pretty well complete. ..I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."
The reason it is so maddening to read the book of Job is because we never find out what the specific sin is and I think that's because it isn't there. We are looking for something that isn't there. It is incompleteness, that is the issue, and now he is far more complete. Didn't we read in Philippians: If in any other thing you are lacking, you lack a handle, you lack this, and God will create that. He will see to it that that is created in you. How long? How patient is He? Until the day of Jesus Christ, it says.
Job saw God and he abhorred himself. What did he finally come to see that he had not seen before? He saw himself because he now had experienced it. He had experienced a being capable of becoming convinced that God was not good; was not equitable; was not properly running the universe; was not worthy of this love and worship. He saw himself as a being capable, with the potential, of becoming a questioning, doubting adversary of God.
When God revealed himself more fully to Job and when Job realized that he was capable of turning against against God, Job abhorred that potential within himself. He stared it straight in the face. It became so clear to him that God is totally sovereign and totally good, and that he had the potential of becoming God's adversary He made a conscious choice to never, ever again yield to that that potential within himself. He hated it. Job had come to know and see God for what God is, and Job, for what Job was. He was repulsed by that potential.
Knowing God and glorying in God and loving God, not tolerating Him, not begrudgingly obeying Him because He is stronger, but loving Him. That's the spiritual creation. That's the Christ-like character that God is going to create in all of the first fruits.
Jeremiah 9:23 Thus says the Lord: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; Or the man who owned seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels, and those things; or the person who has enough human character to get up and make a sacrifice on the chance that his kids have sinned.
verse 24 - But let him who glories, glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord. Now the Lord is a term that means: The great One. The goal to come to see God as great and powerful is part of it. Well, what kind of a Lord? A loving, an eternal one of …loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the Lord.
The person who has come to terms with these questions and says: "I know that God is good and I will never become his enemy, in spite of what He allows me to go through". That person is glorying in the only thing that God says we are permitted to glory in.
Ecclesiastes 5:1-2. I say it is the only thing, but that is enough; that is plenty; that is everything. Everything that is lasting and that will lead to a happy eternal life, that is what that is.
Ecclesiastes 5:1 Walk prudently when you go to the house of God; and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools.., well, that must be constantly talking, especially in the concept of this sermon, of talking about how unfair God is. That is the sacrifice of fools. Talking in terms of, "Well, I will only love God if I understand Him". God says, "Well, sometimes you just have to except on faith that I know what I am doing. And what kind of a God am I? You acknowledge I am running the Universe. What kind of God am I? I am a God of loving kindness", saying: "I am a good God".
In our worse nightmares we can envision a situation in which Satan was running the universe. Now we would sort of have to obey him, because he is stronger. He obviously is a great, powerful being, and we would do it out …what would you say? Out of fear that he would crush us. Maybe when we can do enough to please an evil god that he will leave us alone but that is now what we are dealing with. We are dealing with a good God and so not only do we fear to disobey Him because of the consequences, we fear to disobey Him because we love Him and we see how worthy of our love He is. That's Christ-like character. That's the perfect finished product.
verse 2 – Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; Therefore let your words be few.
All of the human creation, not just the first fruits, but before the whole process is over, all of the human creation will have to come to the most fundamental choice of all. Will I ever allow myself as a free moral agent, to make the choice to doubt the goodness of God? Will I ever allow myself, because it is a choice, to choose to doubt the goodness of God? Will I live by faith in God's goodness even when in the short run, like Job's trial, his pain, his loss, my eyes, my reasoning, my body, my experience starts leading me in the direction of doubting God's goodness and becoming His enemy, rejecting His way, his timetable for dispensing blessings and understanding? Will I, in short, live by sight or will I live by faith in God's goodness?
A couple scriptures and we ought to wrap this up here.
The person who says:"I could never do x" is the person who doesn't understand his potential. That I think was the situation with Job. Now to acknowledge that we could do x, is actually liberating because we know at least we know a road that we never want to go down. If we don't know there is a road there, we might walk accidentally back into it. If we know there is a road there that we don't want to go down, we will avoid it. We will make a conscious choice to avoid it.
Psalm 34:8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is …powerful, no,… taste and see that the Lord is good;
That could kind of be a summary verse of the whole lesson of the book of Job. Come to see that God is good and you are going to trust in that goodness. Being convinced of God's goodness and His love, while suffering in this life, is the creation that God is making. Being convinced of God's goodness, tasting it, and loving Him even while we sometimes must suffer many of the afflictions of the righteous. You know the memory verses. It is through much tribulation we enter into the Kingdom of God.
Being convinced of God's goodness makes possible the future eternity of God being all in all. That is the Kingdom of God, where there will be never again be even a chance that the children of God will rebel against Him or challenge Him, because in this life that character has been produced to never do that, and then you have a prescription for a happy, co-operative, wonderful, peaceful eternity, the Kingdom of God filling the entire universe.
Now to wrap this up, I want to make one final point and this makes my respect – I don't know the exact word I want here – the respect for Job even greater, because you and I have one advantage over Job: If this all boils down to being amply convinced of God's goodness, not of His power, that isn't the issue. The demons know God is more powerful that they are, but being convinced of God's goodness. Through the process of the Master Potter working with Job, Job had his "A-ha" moment and he made his conscious choice in the story.
You and I have an advantage: that is the clincher of this whole thing. You and I have lived after the clinching argument for all eternity of God's goodness and love, and that is the incarnation of God in the flesh; in the flesh of Jesus Christ. What kind of a God is it that leaves perfection and eternity and comes down and lives in the flesh, and then allows His human creation to reject Him, temporarily, kill Him, unmercifully? What kind of a God does that? A God of goodness and a God of love. We look back on the suffering, the sacrifice of Christ and we kind of say in one sense, "Well, Job, God is good." Job didn't have that, so God created the "A-ha" moment and that self-awareness and all those things we talked about in him, before Christ's sacrifice.
But surely those of us who live in the year 2006, looking back on what God did: for God was so powerful that He gave His only begotten Son? Again the memory verse tells us: For God so loved the world. He is so good. What more could the Creator do to show His love and goodness for His creation in what He did? Now that is truly unimaginable. That is love to the thousandth, billionth power. What more could He have done? He gave up everything; came down; lived a humbling life as a human being and died the way He did. Can you say: "God, if you only do this I will be convinced of your goodness and love?" He has done all that we could imagine that God could do.
The real final answer as to the goodness of God, that is to the unilateral (it came from one direction; one half from us and half from God), the unilateral unreciprocated, at least initially, unreciprocated goodness of God, is the incarnation and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
So we can wrap it up by saying this: Who can become an enemy of God? Any free moral agent of God's creation is capable of that, by virtue of being a free moral agent. But encouraging to us: any free moral agent can also see that potential within themselves, and then make a conscious, willful choice never to reach that conclusion. I think the entire record of the Bible is that God honors such a choice and He backs it up by giving the gift of faith and trust as a fruit of the Holy Spirit , then the ultimate creation God can make, which is Christ-like character, is produced, and then God in His children truly will live happily ever after.