God Finally Speaks

TITLE: GOD FINALLY SPEAKS

SCRIPTURE: JOB 38

(This is not an original sermon, it was gleaned from various ministers and redeveloped on some portions, it is designed that you can use all of the manuscript or move around to fit your particular style)

If you could be transported back in time by the spirit of God to any moment in redemptive history, what would you like to go back and see? Where would you like to go? So many options.

• Love to be there when God created the universe and see it all unfolding step by step. To see the beautiful GARDEN OF EDEN, to see the beauty of that pristine and perfect world. What would it be like just to be there?

• Or when NOAH got off the arc after the flood, and he offered up the sacrifice, that pleasing aroma to God, and then that rainbow came in the skies and that sense of the beauty, the freshness of a world cleansed from wickedness and sin, a fresh start

• Maybe when ABRAHAM was about to sacrifice his son, ISAAC, and the Angel of the Lord stopped him and a voice from heaven, from the Angel of the Lord said, “NOW I KNOW THAT YOU FEAR GOD”

There are so many options, but for me this morning, at least, I would love to be there when God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind. To just stand there and hear the voice of God. Because I have a feeling that in the end, that's the message of the book of Job.

• That if God would be with us in our suffering

• If he would talk to us

• If he would speak to us

• If He would walk with us through the water and through the fire, we could make it through anything

• If God would be with us and would be for us, we could endure any of the afflictions He would choose to bring into our lives

We are familiar with the Book of Job and his tremendous sufferings and his three friends that come in an effort to comfort him and provide such unwise and hurtful counsel. Matter of fact Job would eventually say to his friends in JOB 16:2 “I HAVE HEARD MANY SUCH THINGS: MISERABLE COMFORTERS ARE YE ALL.” For 37 Chapters we hear what Job was going through, the counsel he would receive, and God does not answer at all. Job is now fed up with his wife and his friends and begins to defend and declare his righteousness in the midst of all his pain and suffering…and God is still silent.

Silent treatment – a horrible weapon, in relationships. Silence is golden. True - but not when it is used as a weapon. Some of you grew up in homes where there may not have been outright arguments - but there was painful silence. Maybe you do it yourself. It happens in families; it happens in churches

• “I’ll teach her a lesson - I will ignore her. Won’t say a thing”. “I’ll show him!”

• Not a word is spoken

• It can go on for days … years even

• It’s a weapon - and if sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me” - if we recognize what a lie that old retort is

• Well silence can hurt too

At this point in the Book of Job - it seems more and more as though that’s what God is doing. Using silence as a weapon. But all of that changes in CHAPTER 38 VS. 1. This is the first time, in the entire book of Job, that God speaks to his suffering servant. Let that sink in for a moment –

• Job goes from being the hero of the world of his day

• Successful businessman

• Wealthiest man around

• The rare individual who combines business success with integrity and great character

• A man whose humble, sincere, zealous devotion to God in daily worship - set an example for everyone to follow

Job goes from that to grieving father –

• Who has lost all 10 of his children in one horrific tragedy

• Mourning in poverty, on the very same day that his economic empire vanished into thin air

• He is left Penniless - Homeless - Hopeless

• And to top it off - that wretched day is followed up by another day where he is stricken with painful boils and rotting flesh,

• See the man of God, sitting - on the outside of town, in the garbage dump, on a pile of trash, scraping his wounds with broken shards of cups and bowls

The reason for the riches to rags story is because of a test that God had allowed Satan to conduct, based on a conversation between God and the very being who, in the entire universe - hates God and everything He loves, more than any other. God and Satan talk it out. Satan comes up with the challenge -- “I can destroy job’s faith.” God says, “GO AHEAD AND TRY - I WILL LET YOU GO AFTER HIM, UP TO THIS POINT - THIS LIMIT.”