Job’s faith comes out even stronger in the next chapter which you can read about here
I am fortunate to speak with you in reasonably good health this Monday evening with my heart centered in the Lord.
I am grateful and thankful for the opportunity and for you.
I am certainly more fortunate than Job in his times of affliction. And so are you. Let’s consider all of Job’s afflictions again.
Job’s afflictions: Sabean raid,stole oxen and donkeys,
Fire from the sky,burned sheep and servants
Chaldean raid,stole camels,killed servants
Mighty wind,collapsed house,killed all ten children
Severe boils,covered body from head to foot
Intense psychological grief,tore robes,shaved head,sat in ashes
Scorn from his wife,urged him to curse God and die
Judgment from friends,accused him of hidden sins
Insomnia and nightmares,terrifying dreams,lack of restPhysical decay,bad breath,peeling skin,extreme weight loss
Now I have a question – which of us could survive any of the above with our faith in God, in Jesus, with our relationship
with the Holy Spirit intact let alone any combination of 2 or 3 of those afflictions let alone all of them without
turning into a festering pool of protoplasm in the gutter owning nothing but our own groans?
This is what is meant by the faith of Job. He survived the worst lashing that Satan could provide and even worse and
stayed faithful saying such as “”Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him.”, his stunningly prophetic messianic proclamation
“I know that my Redeemer lives…” and “But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.”
I say unto thee my brethren we can do much worse than to start the day being reminded of the faith of Job
The assignment today is to dig in to Job chapters 10-12 and so let us begin.
Job having been lashed plenty by Satan and by his accuser friends finally rebukes the friends who came to comfort and
did only that which Satan does well – accuse.
1-2 I have heard words like that before; the comfort you give is only torment. Are you going to keep on talking forever?
If you were in my place and I in yours, I could say everything you are saying. I could shake my head wisely and drown you with a flood of words.
and he is absolutely right. Let us keep in mind that prayer to God is always 1000% better than our own judgements and advisements.
Job then assesses his own situation before the Lord:
You have worn me out, God; you have let my family be killed.You have seized me; you are my enemy. (by which he means that
God is afflicting him and he does not know why). I am skin and bones, and people take that as proof of my guilt
In anger God tears me limb from limb; he glares at me with hate. People sneer at me; they crowd around me and slap my face.
God has handed me over to evil people.
I was living in peace, but… he goes on and then he says “but I am not guilty of any violence, and my prayer to God is sincere.
(again in Messianic implications Job says) There is someone in heaven to stand up for me and take my side.
even more so:
While Bildad is accusing Job of being a godless rebel, Job is actually exercising a faith so radical that it lays the foundation for future Messianic theology.
“Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high… my eyes pour out tears to God on behalf of a man he pleads with God as one pleads for a friend.”
This is about as dark as Job gets as he continues to lament his afflictions:
I will call the grave my father, and the worms that eat me I will call my mother and my sisters.
and he expresses that he feels condemned saying “Hope will not go with me when I go down to the world of the dead.
and at that point his friends chime in telling him to shut up lol
18 1-2 Job, can’t people like you ever be quiet? If you stopped to listen, we could talk to you.
You are only hurting yourself with your anger. Will the earth be deserted because you are angry? Will God move mountains to satisfy you?
and then equating Job with the wicked they speak of the fate of the wicked while themselves being uncompassionate and accusatory and wicked
The light of the wicked will still be put out; its flame will never burn again.
All around them terror is waiting; it follows them at every step.
They used to be rich, but now they go hungry; disaster stands and waits at their side.
A deadly disease spreads over their bodies and causes their arms and legs to rot.
They are torn from the tents where they lived secure, and are dragged off to face King Death.
Their fame is ended at home and abroad; no one remembers them any more. (which is interesting that there was worldwide fame to be had
at this time in history, remember that Job was one of the very first works of literature written hundreds of years before Genesis)
They will be driven out of the land of the living, driven from light into darkness. They have no descendants, no survivors.
From east to west, all who hear of their fate shudder and tremble with fear. That is the fate of evil people,the fate of those who care nothing for God.
Because Job refuses to confess to sins he didn’t commit, Bildad simply categorizes him as someone who “cares nothing for God.”
Just remember that in spite of the secular prayer from the Stephen Foster song – Hard Times Come Again No More, Jesus said that in the world we will have troubles
but when you know that you love God and that God is seeing you through and people accuse you otherwise – the stench they smell is coming from them and the darkness they
perceive is in their own captive hearts.
1. CORROBORATING THE AFFLICTIONS (The “Worst Lashing”)
- Psalm 34:19 (KJV) – “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.”
- Habakkuk 3:17–18 (KJV) – “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” (Mirrors Job’s stance despite total material loss.)
- Psalm 38:5–7 (KJV) – “My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.”
- Isaiah 53:3–4 (KJV) – “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief… Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows…” (Messianic parallel to Job’s suffering.)
- Psalm 6:6 (KJV) – “I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.”
- Psalm 88:15–16 (KJV) – “I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.”
- Psalm 22:6–7 (KJV) – “But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head…”
- Psalm 69:20 (KJV) – “Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.”
- Proverbs 17:9 (KJV) – “He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.” (Contrasts Job’s friends who repeated accusations rather than covering/comforting.)
2. CORROBORATING JOB’S FAITH & MESIANIC PROCLAMATIONS
- Daniel 3:17–18 (KJV) – “…our God whom we serve is able to deliver us… But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods…” (Same radical faith regardless of outcome.)
- Habakkuk 3:17–18 (KJV) – (See above – rejoicing in God despite total loss.)
- Isaiah 59:20 (KJV) – “And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord.”
- Romans 8:34 (KJV) – “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” (Corroborates Job’s “Advocate on high.”)
- 1 John 2:1 (KJV) – “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
- Hebrews 7:25 (KJV) – “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”
- 1 Peter 1:6–7 (KJV) – “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth… might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”
- Zechariah 13:9 (KJV) – “And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them…”
3. CORROBORATING THE FAILURE OF FRIENDS & FALSE ACCUSERS
- Proverbs 25:20 (KJV) – “As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart.” (Directly correlates to Job 16:2 – “miserable comforters are ye all.”)
- James 2:13 (KJV) – “For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.”
- Matthew 7:1–2 (KJV) – “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged…”
- 2 Corinthians 2:15–16 (KJV) – “For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?”
- Application: As you noted, the “stench” the friends smelled was their own uncompassionate hearts. To the proud accuser, the humility of the sufferer smells like death/wickedness. To God, it is the fragrance of faith.
- Psalm 109:2–4 (KJV) – “For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause. For my love they are my adversaries…”
4. CORROBORATING THE THEOLOGICAL POINT: PRAYER > JUDGMENT
- Philippians 4:6–7 (KJV) – “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
- Jeremiah 29:12–13 (KJV) – “Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”
- James 5:16 (KJV) – “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (Contrast this with Bildad’s “pray if you are pure” accusation.)
