All Scripture: The Book of Job

Message Transcript

Let us turn now to the word of God as it is found in the book of Job. The book of Job, and we shall read the first two chapters together. Job chapter 1, there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job.

And that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was 7,000 sheep and 3,000 camels and 500 yoke of oxen and 500 she asses and a very great household.

So that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east. And his sons went and feasted in their houses. Every one his day and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.

And it was so when the days of their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job? But there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil.

Then Satan answered the Lord and said, doth Job fear God for naught? Hast not thou made an hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, behold, all that he hath is in thy power.

Only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house.

And there came a messenger unto Job and said, the oxen were ploughing and the asses feeding beside them. And the Sabians fell upon them and took them away. Yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword and I only am escaped alone to tell them.

While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, the fire of God is fallen from heaven and have burned up the sheep from the servants and consumed them. I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, the Chaldeans made out three bands and fell upon the camels and have carried them away.

Yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, my sons and my daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. And behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness and smoked the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young men and they are dead and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

Then Job arose, rent his mantle, 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. Again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord and the Lord said unto Satan, from whence comest thou? And Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil and still he holdeth fast to his integrity although thou moveth me against him to destroy him without cause.

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 thy hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, for behold, he is in thine hand, but save his life. 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 patcher to scrape himself withal and he sat down among the ashes.

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, but 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. Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. And when they lifted up their eyes afar off and knew him not, they lifted up their voice and wept and they rent every one his mantle and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.

So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights and none spake a word unto him, for they saw that his grief was very great. And may the Lord bless to us and grant us each one an understanding of holy scripture. Now on account of a little paternity leave over these last weeks, I'm very thankful to our local brethren who have covered in the pulpit during this time.

But on account of that, it is a fortnight since we were last making our examination of the scriptures in which we are seeking to come through the whole of the Bible in a relatively short order and see those lessons, those teachings, those doctrines which appear when we seek to take the word of God from a wider angle, so to speak, and to view it in the round. And you may recall that in our last study, we concluded the Pentateuch coming to the book of Deuteronomy. Now, of course, if we were to continue in a historical and chronological order, we might go straight on into the book of Joshua.

For of course, after the death of Moses, the Hebrews were to be led the last part of their journey by Joshua, who succeeded him. And we considered the great spiritual significance how that Moses, the great lawgiver, could bring the people to the very borders of the promised land and could show the entirety of it to them, but could not cause them to enter in. This must and could only be done by Joshua, the Old Testament name, of course, being equivalent to that of Jesus, who shall save his people from his sins, for it is only by the work of the Savior and through grace that his chosen people may enter in.

And so even that vital doctrine is taught by the histories of the Old Testament. But I should like us to take a break from the historical narrative of the Pentateuch and going on into Joshua, in order to consider this morning the book of Job. And there is a reason for looking at this particular book at this particular time, because it is of note that this book here in our Bibles, more often found amongst the books of wisdom, as they are sometimes called, the books which Solomon was inspired to document.

Whilst it occurs here, adjacent to those books in the ordering of the Scriptures, chronologically, it belongs to a much earlier time. And there are many evidences from this book itself to show it to be contemporary with the days of the patriarchs. And if we had considered it in a strictly chronological order, we might even have inserted it into the midst of the book of Genesis and the days of such characters as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Now, we might ask, well, what evidence or proof is there of this? Because amongst modern commentators and higher critics of the Scriptures and so on, the general opinion is that it is a book of much later authorship, the majority of them, as with so many of the books of the Bible, put them after the exile of the Jews, much nearer to the A.D. era, and would suggest it is simply a fabrication. It is historical fiction, so to speak. It is a modern author writing as though it were the old days.

But we do not go along with such spurious interpretations as this. We accept Scripture at face value and believe it to be the Word of God, not a dissimulation, not a fabrication, but the truth of God. And we receive it in that vein and in that spirit.

So let me highlight to you briefly some of the evidences within this book to indicate its antiquity and the fact that Job and his companions belong to the same era as the likes of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And perhaps one of the most plain evidences of this is in chapter 42 of the book of Job, where in its concluding verses, we are told, after this lived Job 140 years and saw his sons and his sons' sons even for generations. So Job died being old and full of days.

Now, this lifespan of Job, 140 years, occurs after the earlier part of his life in which he had already been a father 10 times. And so we might put him perhaps at 50 years old already at that stage. And if we compare his longevity to that of the patriarchs of old, starting, of course, in that pre-flood era, when multiple centuries passed in the lifetimes of individuals, and then seeing how they rapidly scaled down after the flood and the great climactic changes upon the planet.

We see that this lifespan is not dissimilar from that of Abraham, 175, or of Isaac, 180, or of Jacob, 147. And so from his age, we might place him at that particular period of history when human longevity was still of that order. Now also, Job makes reference to certain historical events, or seems to, or other of his companions do.

And so here in chapter 22 of the book of Job, at verse 13, we read this. Speaking of the judgments of God, how does God know? Can he judge through the dark cloud? Thick clouds are a covering to him that he seeth not and he walketh in the circuit of heaven. Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden, which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood.

And so here we learn that Job and his companions were acquainted with the flood. And when the supernatural judgments of God fell upon that pre-flood, that antediluvian generation of wicked men and women, and this was in their minds, and that was in their knowledge. Now there is also another suggestion, this perhaps a little more tenuous in chapter 18 and verse 15, where again, speaking of God's judgments upon the wicked, Bildad the Shuhite says this.

It shall dwell in his tabernacle because it is none of his brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation. And this very peculiar or specific form of judgment is of course that which is mentioned in relation to the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah. And so perhaps it is the case that Job and his companions lived after that period and knew something of the judgment of God upon Sodom and Gomorrah.

You will also notice that Job's wealth, his status, let it be said, in society, his prosperity is being measured not in financial terms, not in respect of houses particularly, but of cattle. And just in a similar way as we read of Abraham or Lot or Jacob and Esau, so in the case of Job, his status is being reckoned in terms of oxen and asses and camels and sheep and so forth in that opening chapter, which again suggests him to have lived at a period of time when this was a measure of a man's success or social standing. We also observe Job making sacrifices and this is very telling indeed.

Job is described as offering sacrifices or sacrificial beasts on account of sin or as a safeguard against sin or as a remediation for sin on account of himself and his family here in the opening chapter. Now, of course, after Sinai and the institution of the law, the making of sacrifices became uniquely the prerogative of the priesthood in the tabernacle courts and afterward the temple and for individuals thereafter to be making their own independent sacrifices was inevitably a sign of heathen worship or a false worship or of a transgression of God's laws, but in the patriarchal period before Sinai, before the tabernacle, the making of such sacrifices was commonplace and again, this evidence seems to place Job as contemporary with them. But perhaps even more telling are the things that are not mentioned in the book of Job for there is no mention of the tabernacle, no mention of the temple, no mention whatsoever of the Hebrews, of the people of the Jews.

There is no description of their land, Canaan or by any of its other names. These are entirely absent from the book of Job. Now, surely, surely, if some Jewish writer of fiction as we are taught or suggested wrote this book at a much later period, it would have inevitably crept in to their description.

They would almost not have been able to help making some reference to the people of the Jews or some inadvertent slip to the Levitical systems and to the worship of the temple and so on. But there is not one iota of it to be found here in the book of Job for the simple reason, my friends, that those things did not then exist. They were not then in being because this book of Job is of great antiquity.

And so it might be asked, well, who committed it to writing? Who documented it in the form which has ultimately been transmitted to us in the scriptures? Now, once again, it is one of those cases that is almost impossible to tell because the author does not identify himself to us. Could Job himself have written it down? Well, maybe he could, but you will notice that he is always described in the third person throughout the book and not once. Is there any accidental use of the first person in relation to Job? Whereas in such books as the book of Acts, for example, which we know to have been penned by the apostle Luke, on certain occasions when he himself was involved, he reverts to first person pronouns, but not so in the book of Job.

Also, there is nothing in the book that would have been uniquely known to Job and to him only, requiring him to be the author. The details about him might well have been documented by someone who knew him or knew the facts of his life. And so perhaps one of his companions, perhaps Elihu, the fourth of the companions to appear upon the scene, may have been the earthly penman.

Others have suggested because of its age and its era that maybe Moses was used of God to transcribe this book as with those of the Pentateuch. And some have suggested that since Job evidently belonged to more eastern lands than those which the Hebrews ever dwelt in, that maybe Moses came to hear of Job and his history during that 40 year period when he worked as a shepherd in the Sinai Peninsula on the borders of Eden and Midian and so on. All of these are speculative.

Suffice it to say that God caused that this remarkable history, and history it is, is documented for us here in the Word of God. And it is full of doctrine. It is full of meaning.

It is full of teaching relevant to ourselves. Indeed, we might go so far as to say that the depth of the theology in the book of Job, the magnitude and breadth of its teachings and the subjects which it covers is unrivaled by almost any other Old Testament book before perhaps we come to the later prophets themselves. It is rich with vital biblical doctrine and truth concerning God and the works of God.

Some of which we shall look at in a little more detail in a moment. But bearing that in mind, the depth and breadth of truth which is here in this book of Job, one of the marvels of it is the location or locations in which it seems to have occurred and the venues from which its principal characters come. Now, if you have read the book before, you will know that there are five principal players, if we may so call them, in this narrative.

One is Job himself. And concerning Job, all we are told is that he was from the land of Uz. Now, there is much debate amongst archaeologists, historians and so forth as to where this place may have been, where it may refer to.

There can be very little certainty upon this point. But let me point out to you briefly from Genesis 10 verse 23, we are told of the descent of the various nations from the sons of Noah. And here we are told that the children of Aram were Oz and Hal and Githa and Mash.

And so it could be that this character, this descendant from the sons of Shem was the originator of this town. For towns named after their founders, lands named after their original dwellers, was not uncommon. The land of Oz also gets one very brief mention in the book of the Lamentations, where in Lamentations 4 in verse 21, the land of Oz is briefly referred to.

So it was a real place and it seems to have been a place of great antiquity, but removed from the borders of Canaan away to the east in the regions occupied by the Arameans and their descendants. So Job from the land of Oz is the principal character in the narrative. But then we read of three of his companions who hearing of the devastation and the catastrophe, the succession of catastrophes which had befallen him, they came and went out of their way, traveled some distance, it seems, made an appointment, as the Scriptures tell us, to come to see Job.

And when they saw him, he was so mightily affected by his personal disasters and his physical malady that he was unrecognizable to them. And they were so shocked, we are told, that for the first seven days they said nothing to him whatsoever, but they rent their clothes as he had and cast dust upon their heads as he had and sat in the same dust heap as he was that they might be with him there and share in his sorrows. Now, whilst his three companions often get something of a bad report and are somewhat condemned or criticized for their words, let us note this, that when all Job's other companions and even his own wife seemed to be turned his enemy, that these three men wanted to be where Job was and shared in his griefs and mourned with him in this very profound way.

And they are to be commended for that. And we will equally see that their words and their responses to Job's comments are also full of spiritual truth and of references to God and the works of God. They were evidently themselves believing men, author.

And they were, the eldest of them, this we know, was Eliphaz the Temanite. He is described as an elder or an older man. He is given the first opportunity to reply to Job in each of their exchanges.

And he came from the land of Teman. And we can read of this in various places in scripture. Also, it was a real location, again, away to the east of Canaan and belonging, as it appears, to the descendants of Esau, the Edomites.

And so in Genesis chapter 36, we are told that one of Esau's sons had the name Eliphaz. These are the names of Esau's sons. Eliphaz, the son of Adar, the wife of Esau.

Reuel, the son of Bashamath, the wife of Esau. And the sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gazam, and Kenaz. And so these were evidently names common amongst the Edomites, very likely to have lent themselves to place names also, from which Eliphaz of Job's day appears to have come.

And there are references to Teman elsewhere in the scriptures. Let me just bring one to your notice here in Jeremiah 49 verse 7, concerning Edom. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, is wisdom no more in Teman? Is counsel perished from the prudent? Is their wisdom vanished? So it seems that this venue was associated with individuals who had some academic or philosophical ability.

It was perhaps a place where people sought out for wisdom. Or for information. So there is Eliphaz the Temanite.

Secondly, there is Bildad the Shuhite. Bildad the Shuhite. And again, the origins of that place name may likely come from another of Abraham's descendants.

Genesis 25, Abraham took a wife. Her name was Keturah. And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Midan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.

And it is that name that gives itself to the land from which Bildad or the tribe from which Bildad was himself descended. And you may, at your leisure, look at other references to these characters in or these place names in 1 Chronicles 1. Verses 32, 36, 45, and 53. And I'll read them now.

The third then of Job's companions is Zophar the Naamathite. And this is perhaps the most enigmatic of all. We cannot rightly from the scriptures determine the tribe or the place from which he may have come.

But let us not forget the fourth companion who appears upon the scene in chapter 23 of the book of Job. Sorry, chapter 32 of the book of Job, which is Elihu. And he is simply described as the son of Barakel the Buzite of the kindred of Ram.

And he, we may thus trace from another of these lines of descent, from the descendants of Noah and so on. He appears last of all. And of all these characters, seems to have the truest and most accurate view of the situation that had befallen Job as we shall shortly see.

But let us pause there for a moment and consider this combination of facts. We have in this book of Job profound truth concerning God and the works of God, concerning sin and atonement for sin and the work of redemption and of angels and of the person of Satan and of life after death and of resurrection and so on. And it is coming from the lips of Arameans, Midianites, characters from these distant lands that would ever afterward be associated with idolatry and heathen worship and removal from the word of God and the people of God and the truth of God.

And yet at this period of history, these characters were steeped in truth and had this profound and spiritual understanding of God and were, for want of a better word, believers in their death. And this, it does us well to register my friends. Indeed, it would have done many of the generations of the Jews well to register and to note because whilst in after generations they became so obsessed with the notion of biological pedigree and of a descent by blood through various generations of their own families, they became very prejudiced against anything that they referred to as Gentile and anyone and everybody beyond the pale of the Jewish nation.

But here is evidence from the very earliest of times that the purposes of God were always more widespread than that, were always global, were always universal, were always a matter not of the will of man, not of physical blood, but of the will of God and of his grace. You remember how we saw from Stephen's sermon, God called Abraham while he was yet in Mesopotamia. That timely reminder to the proud Sanhedrin that their great originator, their great or almost a mythical ancestor in their view, Abraham, began his life as a Babylonian, as a Chaldean from Mesopotamia of all places.

God called him. He was not a Jew. He was not descended from Jacob or the tribes of Israel.

He predated all of that. So did Job, so did Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar and Elijah, but they did not predate the grace of God. They did not predate God's purposes to save whomsoever he will and to reveal himself unto whomsoever he will.

Oh my friends, let us never be taught by the proponents of covenant theology and those who falsely speak of a restoration of Judaism and so forth. Let us never for a moment imagine that we as Christian believers are in some sort of second class at some sort of disadvantage. No indeed my friends, God's purposes have ever been unto his own chosen people, whether they be an Abraham, an Isaac, a Jacob, whether they be a Noah, whether they be an Abel or a Job or Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, Elihu and so on.

These persons from their remote and distant places were saved by the grace of God and through faith in his name even as we, even as we. And so here is one of the glorious messages of hope, one of the wondrous doctrines shining forth simply out of the historical and geographical facts of the book of Job that these characters from these most unlikely places, Arameans, Midianites, Edomites if we may so call them, had a saving knowledge of God and a profound and deep understanding of his works and ways. But from this point, let us move on to consider a little more of the content of this book.

Now it has these 42 chapters and the text of it can perhaps seem quite dense and quite difficult to manage and digest. But let us take an overview of it and understand its format that it appears less intimidating to us. And so in the first two chapters of the book, we have the simple narrative.

We have the history that we have read. The facts concerning Job in his original prosperity. The facts concerning this succession of catastrophes that came upon him first as related to his possessions and to his cattle and his flocks and herds and then to his physical health as he is smitten with these sore boils.

And if we think that Job was unnecessarily worrying about a mere skin disease, bear in mind my friends that these were something far worse than this that caused him to think that he was sure to die. And other of the descriptions in this book show that they horribly disfigured him and that both he and his companions thought them to be a sure harbinger of death. So we might better think of them as buboes as in the bubonic plague or as tumors perhaps.

And they were also causing him great pain and distress throughout the duration of this narrative. So we have these practical details concerning him. But of course there is also there a vital parenthesis in verses six to 12 of chapter one and again in verses one to seven of chapter two where we are given a glimpse with the benefit of spiritual hindsight into the divine council chambers of God if we may so call it.

And we learn from the very outset of the book what Job and his companions only came to know at the very end of the book. And so almost we ought to read the book of Job omitting those two portions that we might face this situation and this succession of catastrophes with the same want of understanding as Job and his companions had. Because bear in mind that here was a man who according to the revelation and the knowledge given to him had believed God and had served God all his life.

And when God himself describes him in such glowing terms as he does in these opening chapters we should not take this to be exaggeration. We should not take it to be a false magnification of the facts. This is God's divine assessment of Job.

And it is a justified description because Job is a saved man. He is one upon whom God's grace rests thus expunging his sins and his wickedness and making him righteous in the sight of God. A righteousness which you will note not even Satan himself can refute.

He might seek to undermine it. He might seek to criticize it. He might seek to accuse it as being a false or in somehow some sense unassured or not guaranteed.

But he cannot deny God's description of this man. And we see also that his accusations likewise fail. But let us reserve that thought for a moment.

But for all the godliness of this man Job he is faced with such a succession of tragedies and disasters that the immediate conclusion of anyone be they a believer in God or indeed be they a follower of false or heathen religions must inevitably conclude that Job has done something very wrong indeed. That something has gone terribly wrong in Job's life. That he must be guilty of some immense sin to have suddenly been visited with such a succession of disasters as these.

There must be, think all and sundry, some connection between these disasters in the life of Job and his behavior and conduct. Now these three companions Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar for all that they were godly men for all that they were believing men also subscribed to this way of thinking. And they seek to express it in more God-honoring terms and in a more spiritual way.

But they are also of this conclusion. They say look Job however else we try to interpret or understand these disasters surely from what we know of God and of his goodness and of his promises to those who keep his word surely the only conclusion here is that there must be something in your life there must be something that you have done there must be some error or sin or iniquity which you have committed that has precipitated these things. And what you really need to do Job is to acknowledge this and to repent of it because under those circumstances you may expect the mercy of God.

Now of course we know that at one level what they are saying is true and it is doctrine to which we would also subscribe. We know that God does send judgments upon wickedness and it may please him to do that in this life and in practical ways and at a temporal level. It is within the purposes of God and within the prerogative of God to do so.

And we also know the importance of repentance and we know that God has promised to be merciful to them who come unto him in confession and in contrition. And so this is true. But Job of course whilst racking his brains and his memory for anything in his own life that might have precipitated or warranted this succession of catastrophes takes a different view and brings various other arguments to bear.

And in some cases he points out that God's administration is not always to visit good upon the good and evil upon the evil. And there are numerous historical cases that prove the opposite when the wicked seem to prosper and the godly seem to suffer. And of course this is also true.

And what Job says in those statements is also valid. But then Job goes on to say but given that he himself has been godly and now so much catastrophe has been visited upon him he thinks that there must be some miscarriage in the purposes of God. There must be some error or flaw in the judgments of God that these things should come about.

And in that part of his response Job is profoundly wrong. Because whilst it says at the end of chapter one and the end of chapter two that in all this did not Job sin with his lips nor charge God foolishly we have to admit as we read on in later chapters that in some of the responses Job gave he did charge God foolishly. And his conclusion that there must be something gone wrong in the purposes of God or in God's divine administration of his affairs Job was in error.

Now listening to all these exchanges was Elihu. And to summarize these intervening chapters chapters 3 to 30 of sorry 31 of the book of Job there is a repeated exchange between Job and his companions. Three rounds of three we may so call it Job Eliphaz, Job Bildad, Job Zophar.

Same again Job Eliphaz, Job Bildad, Job Zophar and then the third round of exchanges Job Eliphaz, Job Bildad, Job and then Zophar does not get his third opportunity to respond because at this point Elihu cuts in. Zophar simply cannot bring a third response to Job he is at a loss for words at this stage the arguments have gone round and around and neither side is convincing the other at which point chapter 32 Elihu comes in and these words very neatly summarize the content of those preceding cycles of exchanges and argument. So these three men ceased to answer Job because he was righteous in his own eyes then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel the Bozite of the kindred of Ram against Job was his wrath kindled because he justified himself rather than God also against his three friends was his wrath kindled because they had found no answer and yet had condemned Job.

So that is where we have got to after these three rounds of exchanges Job has justified himself rather than God Job has come ultimately to the point of rather than saying God must be right therefore I must be wrong Job is saying I know I am not wrong so therefore God must be wrong and in that Job was sadly wide of the mark but equally Job's three friends are to be censured because they are still sticking by their view that Job's personal circumstances are the result of some profound sin or misdeed in his life and they are standing by it and condemning Job for some sin even though they have not been able to identify it and they have not been able to point their fingers at anything amiss in Job's life and Elihu finds this all very frustrating that after listening to these older men speak at such length and it has to be said in profoundly spiritual terms that they have come to this deadlock to this impasse and thus Elihu expressing his frustration in chapter 32 begins to give his answer in chapter 33 and onwards and he speaks in the most accurate terms of all it has to be said and hits nearer the truth than any of these other perhaps older or more experienced men he says behold chapter 33 verse 6 I am according to thy wish in God's stead Job had said I wish God would just tell me what is going on and Elihu says well I'm going to try and do that for you the spirit of God have made me the breath of the almighty have given me life I'm going to try and stand in God's place says Elihu and vindicate God and justify God surely thou has spoken in mine hearing he says I have heard the voice of thy words saying I am clean without transgression I am innocent neither is there iniquity in me behold he findeth occasion against me he counteth me for his enemy he putteth my feet in the stocks he marketh all my paths behold says Elihu in this thou art not just I will answer thee that God is greater than man why dost thou strive against him for he giveth not account of any of his matters for God speaketh once yea twice yet man perceiveth it not Elihu is saying you Job are convinced that God is doing wrong you three companions are convinced that Job is doing wrong and that God has sent these things to punish him in a direct manner but you're all missing the point God is sovereign God may do as he pleases God may cause the wicked to prosper God may cause the godly to suffer and why do you think that you would always be able to tell the reason what makes you think that you are in a position to say you would be able to trace it out and work it out and say why God is doing what God is doing and have a reason for it and an explanation for it on every occasion God is greater than man his ways higher than our ways his thoughts higher than our thoughts he does not have to give an explanation to anybody he does not have to give an account to anybody or describe why he does what he does he says there are certain fundamental principles with God concerning his grace concerning his mercy to the repentant and so on but in his administration of the practical details of our lives God may do as it pleases him and this is the sense of what Elihu is saying in his exchange which goes on into chapter 36 and we are of course doing him something of an injustice by condensing it so far but he effectively says that God is sovereign and maybe God is doing these things for a reason that none of you have imagined or thought of and maybe God is sending these things as a test as a test to you Job to see how you will respond under them even as a test to you his companions to see how you will interpret and respond to these situations now what is interesting is that as Elihu goes on in chapter 36 he speaks of God's administration of the weather and he speaks of God's power as you see verse 36 coming into its conclusion he make it small the drops of water they pour down rain according to the vapor thereof which the clouds do drop and distill upon man abundantly also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds or the noise of his tabernacle and so he goes on to speak of God's administration of the weather and he says think of that God is in control of the weather and you can't explain it you can't show cause and effect in every turn of the weather you can't say whether God is right in sending sun upon one person on one occasion rain upon another person on another occasion who are you to say whether they deserve the sun or deserve the rain or should have had the one rather than the other or had it at a different time and it seems to be that even as Elihu is saying these things and referencing this aspect of God's sovereignty that the weather begins to change and around Job and his companions who remember have been sat outdoors this whole time a storm begins to build up and it goes on increasing Elihu is almost giving us a narrative of it in chapter 37 and he finds in every new development of this storm around them some new facet of God's sovereignty to describe until verse 38 out of the midst of this developing storm this whirlwind God answers for himself and after all these exchanges nine by Job and various others from each of his companions three from Eliphaz three from Bildab two from Zophar and one from Elihu God himself comes upon the scene and from chapter 38 and onwards to the end of chapter 41 God gives his own response interjected twice by Job making very repentant answers to God as God gives this description of his own dealings but what is interesting is this God does not say Job here is a reason why these events have happened to you this is why I have done what I have done instead God does it in a different way he brings to the attention of Job and his companions what might be described as a menagerie of animals and he goes on to describe various creatures and time will not allow us to mention the entire list of the animals that are listed here by God but you might at your leisure want to look through and see just how many there are to some a very extensive description is given and to others nothing more than perhaps a passing reference in a single verse and God describes his sovereignty his administration over the animal kingdom how that he causes particular beasts to behave in a particular way to be suited to a particular habitat to have certain strengths or in certain cases great seeming weaknesses or follies about themselves and that these things come about to these beasts which are not moral creatures they are not sensible themselves of God they are not cognizant of him or his dealings but they are subject to his sovereignty in their lives to his movement of them in different directions in different behaviors in spite of themselves and this they ultimately accept and in this manner they live subject entirely to the sovereignty of God and as it might be said passive in his providential hands God does not need to give a direct answer to Job this object lesson this living parable as it may be called is sufficient to show Job the error of his ways to show to Job and to his companions that God is sovereign that God may do as he pleases that God may direct the weather the lives and behaviors of animals and birds and fish and so on according to the good pleasure of his will and our lesson to learn is to be submissive in his hands even as we would be submissive to his administration of the weather even as we must be or even as beasts must be submissive to God's directing of their ways and their life cycles and so on this is the profound lesson which is here for Job and his companions to learn about themselves and still more about God and Job learns it chapter 42 Job answers the Lord the second of his confessions and says I know that thou canst do everything we might almost say I know that thou canst do anything God may act as he wills and that no thought can be withholden from thee who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge therefore have I uttered that I understood not things too wonderful for me which I knew not here I beseech thee and I will speak I will demand of thee and declare thou unto me I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes it was so that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite my wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two friends for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right as my servant Job hath then they are instructed to make sacrifices for themselves and they will be accepted and they too will be forgiven even as Job is forgiven and the Lord turned the captivity of Job verse 10 when he prayed for his friends and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before and we read of all the blessings and the restoration of Job which happened thereafter now this in very rapid terms is the content of this remarkable book of Job which well warrants and deserves its place in scripture and provides to us such an insight into God's dealings completely removed from any notions of the Jews of old or of that nation through which God revealed so much of his truth and let me point out to you that this book also is quoted and referenced in later scriptures also and so the reality of Job's existence and the fact of this book and its place in the scriptures is well attested here in Ezekiel chapter 14 which again bear in mind is before the exile though these three men Noah Daniel and Job were in it they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness saith the Lord God so Ezekiel at the commencement of the Jewish exile was well acquainted with the account of Job and likewise in the New Testament scriptures let me give you two examples of the book of Job here being quoted so in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 19 for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God for it is written he taketh the wise in their own craftiness this is a quotation from Job 5 verse 13 and again in the Hebrew epistle Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 5 ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as children my son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him this references both of us in the Proverbs but also Job 5 verse 17 but still more profoundly here in the book of James the epistle of James chapter 5 we have the apostle saying this take my brethren the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering affliction and of patience behold we count them happy which endure ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy it is a remarkable thing my friends that the life of Job was more than 140 years long we have estimated that perhaps it might have been 180 190 years long but the most significant part of it lasted perhaps a little less than two weeks there was this succession of disasters which came all in a day there is a week of his companions sitting with him and saying nothing and then there is the length of time which it took for their exchanges to be heard and yet that brief period was the defining moment in the life of Job and we might almost have said that it was the worst possible time it was a disaster by any measure or description it was a catastrophe upon catastrophe and yet for Job it was the most significant the most momentous the most important time of all the worst bit was the best bit the darkest passage was that most attended and most blessed with the presence of God what a thought what a thought is there and Job for all the errors he may have made in his own assessment of the situation and the words he may rashly speak is still described as having endured it with patience and has been afterward recognized for his patient endurance of it particularly in maintaining his spiritual integrity in spite of all that met him in the purposes of God but says James still more important than Job's behavior is the work of God how is God to be seen in the life of Job as a arbitrary God as a vindictive God as a contrary God no my friends the Lord is seen as very pitiful and of tender mercy ye have seen the end of the Lord God brought these things upon Job for his good God caused these things to occur that we might have the book of Job to read to this very day God caused these things to happen that he might do Job great good in the 140 years of the rest of his life and the most superlative good in these two weeks of suffering and hardship in which God was most evidently revealed and directly manifested to him and his companions because my friends Job beheld God in that dark valley Job met God there at that lowest point of all and Job's faith was confirmed and his knowledge of the dealings of God were confirmed by this seemingly greatest trial and worst of afflictions such that in the midst of these Job was made himself an example of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus and let me encourage you to read chapters 16 and 17 of Job particularly to hear them as though from the lips of Christ rather than Job himself and then hear again this glorious testimony that Job makes in the midst of it all when he says 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 well my friends may God so teach us from this book of Job to see him in all his works to see God in his every providential act and in all his sovereign dealings be they blessings or trials be they pleasures or adversities and grant us each one to see him ultimately in glory as we ask it for his namesake including hymn number 744 speaks of the right attitude in those dark passages of life and in the inexplicable purposes of God when we cannot see our way let us trust and still obey he who bids us forward go cannot fail the way to show for him 744 and now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all