“Persevering till the End”
(A Study on the life of Job)
October Series: NEVER GIVE UP
October 17, 2010
By: Rev. Rey T. Bechayda
Job 2:9-10
Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!" 10 But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
NASU
Introduction:
Today’s message is about a very famous man in the Old Testament “Job”. When we talk about perseverance no one comes close to his experience. His story is one of my favorite stories in the bible because it portrays how God is very protective and proud of righteous people. In fact, the whole story speaks about how a righteous man can persevere even if he goes through terrible experience in life.
You might be going through severe test of life right now… Hold on and see how God will encourage you to persevere till the end.
For you to have a better understanding of the life of Job, We’ve divided our study in three different sections…
The first section is about his…
I. Good Beginning (1:1-5)
The starting point of Job’s story is very peaceful… everything was perfect!
Verses 1-5 tells us that he is a…
A. Righteous Man
Job 1:1 “In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil”. NIV
He was a very good man, eminently pious, and better than his neighbors: He was perfect and upright. This is intended to show us, not only what reputation he had among men (that he was generally taken for an honest man), but what was really his character.
B. Relaxed Family Man
Job 1:2, 4-5 “He had seven sons and three daughters, His sons used to take turns holding feasts in their homes, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, "Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." This was Job’s regular custom”. NIV
Relaxed in a sense that he is happy with his own family. It is also safe to assume that he has encountered no major problem with his sons and daughters.
He had a numerous family. It was an instance of his prosperity that his house was filled with children, which are a heritage of the Lord, and his reward, Ps 127:3. He had seven sons and three daughters, v. 2. Children must be looked upon as blessings, for so they are, especially to good people that will give them good instructions, and set them good examples, and put up good prayers for them.
C. Rich Man
Job 1:3 “and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East”. NIV
He was a man who prospered greatly in this world, and made a considerable figure in his country. He was prosperous and yet pious. Though it is hard and rare, it is not impossible, for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. With God even this is possible, and by his grace the temptations of worldly wealth are not insuperable. He was pious, and his piety was a friend to his prosperity; for godliness has the promise of the life that now is.
The second section focuses on his…
II. Grievous Test (1:6-2:13)
Suddenly, an unexpected and a terrible test of life came…
Three different test of life:
A. The Property Test
vv.13-17
13 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, 15 and the Sabeans attacked and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!" 16 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, "The fire of God fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!" 17 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, "The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!" NIV
They took from him all that he had, and made a full end of his enjoyments.
He had 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 she-asses, and a competent number of servants to attend them; and all these he lost at once, (v. 14,15). He had 7000 sheep, and shepherds that kept them; and all those he lost at the same time by lightning, (v. 16). He had 3000 camels, and servants tending them; and he lost them all at the same time by the Chaldeans.
B. The Posterity Test
vv. 18-19
While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, "Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 19 when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!" NIV
His dearest and most valuable possessions were his ten children. They were killed and buried in the ruins of the house in which they were feasting, and all the servants that waited on them. This was the greatest of Job’s losses, and which could not but go nearest him; and therefore the devil reserved it for the last, that, if the other provocations failed, this might make him curse God.
C. The Physical Test
Job 2:7-8
“So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. 8 Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes”. NIV
The disease with which Job was seized was very grievous: Satan smote him with boils, sore boils, all over him, from head to foot, with an evil inflammation (so some render it), an erysipelas, perhaps, in a higher degree.
What a condition was Job then in, that had boils all over him, and no part free, and those as of raging a heat as the devil could make them, and, as it were, set on fire of hell! The small-pox is a very grievous and painful disease, and would be much more terrible than it is but that we know the extremity of it ordinarily lasts but a few days; how grievous then was the disease of Job, who was smitten all over with sore boils or grievous ulcers, which made him sick at heart, put him to exquisite torture, and so spread themselves over him that he could lie down no way for any ease.
The third section talks about his…
III. Great End (42:10-17)
We have heard of the patience of Job (James 5:11) and have seen the end of the Lord, that is, what end the Lord, at length, put to his troubles.
A while ago we have seen Job’s patience under his troubles, as an example; here, at the ending part, for our encouragement to follow that example, we have the happy issue of his troubles and the prosperous condition to which he was restored after them, which confirms us in counting those happy which endure.
A. Prosperity Restored
Job 42:10, 12
“After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys”. NIV
His estate strangely increased. The Lord comforted him now according to the days wherein he had afflicted him, and blessed his latter end more than his beginning.
The last days of a good man sometimes prove his best days, his last works his best works, his last comforts his best comforts; for his path, like that of the morning-light, shines more and more to the perfect day.
Of a wicked man it is said, His last state is worse than his first (Luke 11:26), but of the upright man, His end is peace; and sometimes the nearer it is the clearer are the views of it. In respect of outward prosperity God is pleased sometimes to make the latter end of a good man’s life more comfortable than the former part of it has been, and strangely to outdo the expectations of his afflicted people, who thought they should never live to see better days, that we may not despair even in the depths of adversity. We know not what good times we may yet be reserved for in our latter end.
B. Posterity Restored
Job 42:13-15
“And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. 15 Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers”. NIV
His family was built up again, and he had great comfort in his children, v. 13-15. God repaired even that breach in process of time, either by the same wife, or, she being dead, by another.
The number of his children was the same as before, seven sons and three daughters. Some give this reason why they were not doubled as his cattle were, because his children that were dead were not lost, but gone before to a better world.
C. Physically Restored
Job 42:16-17
“After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so he died, old and full of years”. NIV
His life was long. What age he was when his troubles came we are nowhere told, but here we are told he lived 140 years, whence some conjecture that he was 70 when he was in his troubles, and that so his age was doubled, as his other possessions.
He lived to have much of the comfort of this life, for he saw his posterity to the fourth generation, v. 16. Though his children were not doubled to him, yet in his children’s children (and those are the crown of old men) they were more than doubled.
He lived till he was satisfied, for he died full of days.
Conclusion:
Job was able to persevere in all the test of his life…
Whatever you are going through right now, remember this; the God whom Job worship and served is the same God whom we are worshipping right now. So if you are experiencing testing in life… just persevere and claim His promise in Heb. 13:5 “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." ESV
Closing Illustration:
Show the video clip: John Stephen Akhwari Story (1968 Mexico Olympics)
Closing Prayer:
