Coping With Discouragement Series

Lessons learned from Job #3

Coping with discouragement

Job Chapter three

Introduction-

For the last two weeks, we have looked at Job and what happened to him.

We saw that he was attacked by losing possessions, wealth, his family, and while he was trying to get a grip on what was happening, we see he was physically attacked to his body with boils that covered him from head to toe.

He was a mess if anyone was a mess.

He believed God had done these things to him yet in chapter one and chapter two, they end by saying that in all this, Job did not sin or think that God had done him wrong.

His wife had tried to get him to curse God so that he would die and get relief of his pain.

Chapter two ends with 3of Job friends coming on scene to bring him comfort and advice.

Summary for this morning- Only God can get to the root of discouragement and depression.

He alone answers the hard questions, sometimes, even the ones we don’t know to ask.

He can use other people to help and to be our comfort when we are hurting.

Prayer-

Job 3:1-26

That is one hurting man.

That is a heart that is broken and laid wide open before God.

This sounds like a man that is yelling at God, crying out to God, one in need of someone to comfort him.

One who is looking for love and someone to step into his life.

Someone to show him that their life matters.

2:11-13

“When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Teminate, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and meet together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.”

Let that sit in a moment- Those were some good friends. To stay there for seven full days with him because they saw how great the need was.

They met together and that was what they decided. To get with him and say nothing for seven days.

He was so disheveled that they did not recognize him. He was physically un-kept and must have been that worn out it changed his facial features. He had been crying, starving, throat horse probably from yelling at God, yet he had nothing to say to them.

They were there but in Job mind, I don’t think he cared.

They grieved for their friend. They had a plan and that plan was to let him know that they cared by showing up.

Sometimes showing up can be the best thing you can do and talking is optional- Amen. Sometimes we just need a warm body that says they care.

Most scholars believe that Job is in monolog instead of dialog. Job is almost talking to himself. Telling himself what is going on in his life. I know his three friends could of heard him, God was certainly listening, but he just exploded with emotions.

He is not the same confident man of faith that we saw in chapter one as this was unraveling in his life.

He is no longer the one who keeps his feelings to himself.

Here, we see Job focusing on the past, and desiring that his life never had a beginning.

Wish he was never born

Wish he had died at birth

Wish he would die right now

That is a man with some issues that needs to be dealt with.

Illustration-

The only survivor of a ship wreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. He eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions. One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut was in flames, the smoke rolling up the sky. It was just more than he could take. He was stunned with grief and anger. “God, how could you do this to me!” the next day he woke to the sound of a ship coming to rescue him. Astonished by his sudden change of luck he asked, how did you know I was here? The crew member answered, we saw your smoke signal.”

In our times of despair, we do not see the good in anything and it is hard to focus.