Job-like Season
“If my misery could be weighed and my troubles be put on the scales,
3 they would outweigh all the sands of the sea.” Job 6:2-3
Intro: In a village called Uz on the east side of Canaan…, there was a child born named Job.
Directly east of Canaan was the land of Edom…, which is the area of modern-day north Arabia
The Edomites were relatives to the Israelites.
The Edomites were descendants of Jacob’s brother Esau
Even though the Edomites were regarded as brothers…, of the Israelites.
The Edomites, hold the distinction of being the earliest enemy of the Israelites.
From the earliest time of Hebrew history in the Bronze Age
until the Kingdom of Judah was destroyed by the Babylonian Empire in the sixth century BC.
The hatred and bitterness between the Edomites and the Israelites were deep and mutual.
However, the Edomites and the Israelites had more in common than not
and the true reason for their fighting against each other
had to do more with land than with politics or religion.
You might have thought that Job was an Israelite
But Job was really an Edomites
This is very important because Job would not have been following the Sacrificial Law
Job would NOT have been taking his lambs to offer…., to the high priests as the Jews did
But Job would have instead been offering sacrifices himself
In a direct faith
Just like Noah…, Abraham…, and Moses
Job had a direct faith
Learn this lesson:
1. It is very important to choose the right God to worship.
Baal and Asherah and several other gods were worshipped by the Edomites.
But Job chose the right God…, the one true God
When most everyone else around him were worshipping false idols.
Job chapter 1 tells us that Job worship YHWH
If you don’t know what YHWH stands for…,
it is the four letters that were used to write the Hebrew name that was given to Moses on the mountain
as the divine name of the LORD God
The name of the LORD was so divine
The name of the LORD was so holy that writers wrote the name of the LORD as YHWH
Which were at the time not pronounced
but later began to be pronounced as Yahweh, Adonai, Jehovah
So, while the Edomites worshipped the Baal and Asherah
Job worshiped YHWH the LORD Gods
The bible says in Job chapter 1:1-5 that Job kept his life blameless.
He repented of his own sins and even offered sacrifices for his children. (Job 1:1-5)
There is a book written by Tim Keller, titled Counterfeit Gods
And he lists idols that are in our modern time:
An idol is anything more important to you than God,
anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God,
and anything that you seek to give you what only God can give.
So, what is a false god?
What is idolatry?
An idol is something that we have placed above God.
Anything that is more important to us than God is an idol.
Idolatry is alive and well today.
2. Identity is a modern day idol
Our identity might be one the biggest idols worshiped today.
We have largely abandoned who we are in Christ and placed our identity in other things.
The world is possessed with social media following,
position in politics
Social theology
One’s own abilities/skills, or the achievements
many have their identity wrapped up in the wrong thing.
It’s clear to see that people today have placed their identity in the world
as more important than their identity with God
When your identity is in the things of this world
Then you will constantly be trying to measure up to others
When you try to measure up and keep up with others that becomes a harsh master.
But when our identity is secured in God,
Even while we will still fall short, God’s love will never fail us.
For many people this subtle form of idolatry has placed more value on who they are, and what they want
rather than who God is.
The days of Job were no different
There were many gods to choose from to worship
But there was only one YHWH
It is very important to choose the right God to worship.
3. Worship God even in your hard times.
Job didn’t stop crying out to the Lord…, EVER.
His life became wretched…, miserable…, to the point of being unbearable and he still trusted God.
Job said, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away but he is to be worshipped.” Wow!
In fact, his first response after weeping over his children’s deaths
was to fall down before the LORD and worship God even in his sorrow. (Job 1:20)
May God stir our hearts so that even in the face of great loss
our response is truly that of worship.
It might surprise you to learn that the book of Job is the first written book of the Bible.
Genesis is the first book in the Bible,
but it is NOT the earliest book written.
The book of Job is.
That means the first written book of the Bible
Was about how God is helping us to deal with,
and how to live with
the struggles and overwhelming circumstances…, we sometimes face in life…,
Job was a real man,
a real person in history.
Some liberal scholars say, "Job, wasn't real.
He's just a metaphor of what life is like when you have trouble".
I believe Job was real.
I don’t believe Job was a metaphor.
Because this book is about pain and suffering
My pain is not a metaphor
My suffering is real.
My pain and my suffering are not just figures of speech.
Your struggles are not symbolic.
Life is not a work of fiction.
His book reflects things that happen to a godly man of moral character.
Let me tell you about this man right from the Scripture.
Let me tell you about his faith.
In Chapter 2 God called him, “blameless—a man of complete integrity.
He fears God and stays away from evil. And he has maintained his integrity”
There are two words that are used in the Hebrew
The words “perfect and escheweth” ---S Chew eth
Perfect: ????????? ?????? ????? ????????? ??????
complete, morally innocent, he has been made whole
Escheweth ---S Chew eth : ??????
To shun, He deliberately avoids sin
He has integrity,
He is without hypocrisy
He is without duplicity
This is what God said about Job.
You can't have a higher witness than the Lord God himself.
4. Don’t abandon your integrity.
Even Job’s wife told him to curse God and die.
But he sat and waited for God to redeem his life.
He trusted God’s goodness in the face of all that was not good. (Job 2:9-10)
Your faith in God is your alone.
You determine your response.
Job is a prime example of this.
If anyone could have claimed that he was a victim
and used his life’s circumstances as a reason to be less a man of integrity, it was Job.
And yet he stood firm because his hope was in God.
The question is: Are with like Job?
In the face of all the accusations against him and God's silence
Job maintained his faith.
He didn't change.
He was who he had always been.
When Job spoke God’s name, he spoke it with reverence,
The Bible talks a lot about value of “fearing God”
This is not “you need to be scared of me.”
This is having a respectful attitude,
This type of attitude is being lost more and more in our culture today.
Let me tell you about Job’s family,
There were seven sons and three daughters born to Job.
And his sons would go and feast in their houses,
each on his appointed day,
and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat with them.
So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course,
that Job would rise early in the morning
and offer 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.' And thus Job did regularly".
Now, watch what's going on here.
Job's family was truly a sign of God's blessing upon him,
and from what we can learn he had a really good family.
The Bible says they met frequently to celebrate their birthdays.
And the girls were included in the party, now that's a big deal in the Old Testament.
That wasn't true in most households in those days.
But in Job's family, if you were a daughter, you were treated just like you were a son.
The Bible says that when they would come to these birthday parties,
at the end of each of the festivals and celebrations Job would go apart,
and he would offer a special sacrificial offering for each one of his children.
And the Bible says that Job did this as a proactive measure.
He didn't know that they had done anything wrong,
but it says in the Scripture he did it because they might do something wrong and not be aware of it,
and he wanted to get out in front of that with a worship and sacrifice to Almighty God.
Job was not only blessed with a great family he was also blessed with wealth.
He was rich.
Listen to this. "he possessed seven thousand sheep,
three thousand camels,
five hundred yoke of oxen,
five hundred female donkeys,
and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East".
Now, in the days of Job…, wealth wasn't calculated in dollars and cents,
wealth was calculated in terms of land and animals and servants.
Job had all three in abundance.
Job belonged to the elite group of wealthy people the Bible tells us about,
which included Abraham and Solomon and Job.
He was, according to the Scripture, the wealthiest, greatest man on the earth during his time.
And he had his wealth.
His wealth didn't have him.
What a difference that is.
Job didn’t let his wealth control him.
Listen to what the Bible says about Job in the 31st chapter of this book.
He said, "If I have made gold my hope, or said to fine gold, 'You are my confidence';
if I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gained much;
this would be an (sin)".
Whenever we have anything that overwhelms us, or controls us
we just need to remember whatever we have is from God,
and we need to give him the praise and honor and glory for it all.
And that's what Job did.
So, Job has family,
Job has wealth
And Job has friends
In Job 2:11, "Now when Job's three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him,
each one came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite.
For they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him, and to comfort him".
I won't go any further with that right now, except to say that from chapter 3 to chapter 37
you will find the dialogue between Job and his friends.
Now, I've often thought that the best part of their friendship is when they first came to Job
and they sat for a few days and didn't say anything.
We might call that the ministry of presence. (Just being there with someone)
Once they started talking, it went downhill from there.
How many of you know that when somebody is suffering
sometimes the best thing you can do is just go sit with them?
It's really hard to know what to say.
Whatever you do…, don't say, "I know what you're going through," 'cause you don't know.
At one point Job says, “I have heard all this before.
What miserable comforters you are!” Job 16:2
Job’s friends were supposed to be comforting him.
But instead, they began to “sermonize” and criticize Job.
5. Just because your friends say they care about you can’t assume their wisdom is godly.
Sometimes, even when we love God,
we just can’t see a situation with eternal perspective.
That means that even Christians friends can sometimes give crummy advice,
even when we don’t think that’s what it is. (Job 16:2)
Job had some solid friends, but they just couldn’t see God’s hand in Job’s situation
and they obviously missed God’s heart for Job, too.
So, Job had some friends and they began to give Job counsel,
And one after one these friends said, "Job, there's something so wrong in your life
God is punishing you.
You are suffering a special punishment from God.
they said, "Job, you need to confess the terrible evil that has brought upon yourself in all this trouble. What awful thing have you done?
Why is God punishing you"?
Job was tempted to let this be stronghold against him.
Job could have let this keep him down and discouraged
But Job chose not to listen to the wrong voices
Instead, Job kept trusting God even when everyone else was telling him to give up.
Job’s own wife said to him, Job, why don’t you just curse God and die.
This caused Job even more suffering and sorrow
Others don’t have to believe in you for you to live up to God’s will
Have you ever felt like the trouble you were having was a punishment from God?
That when you're going through hard times it's a punishment from God.
If you have then you know what it like to be going thru a Job-like season.
In 1912, four Catholic sisters left Bremerhaven, Germany,
Not knowing exactly where they were going or where they were to end up.
Only knowing that they were called of God to do mission work
They spent some time with numerous setbacks and delays
It seemed like one trouble after another, one setback after another
It seemed like a season of one problem after another was set against them.
The biggest of which came when they booked passage on a boat to New York
There was an issue with one of the sisters’ travel documents preventing her from boarding the ship
And so all four decided to delay their travels and stay together
They were able to book passage for the next day and set sail on another ship.
They later sailed past the wreckage and carnage, of the RMS Titanic
that they had so much trouble and failed to be able to board the day before.
Finally arriving in America, they were scheduled to travel by train to upstate New York,
to study English with the Sisters of St. Francis.
But, once again, they faced difficulties, and hardships
One problem after another
and they were delayed at the last moment and did not make it to the train station on time.
Only to find out that the train on which they had been booked
crashed, killing or injuring many of the passengers.
These Catholic nuns had gone thru a Job-like season
The sisters finally arrived in Richwood, West Virginia, in August of 1912,
a mountain community of about 3,000 people at the time.
There they opened a school and a hospital.
Their success grew and in 1920 they open another hospital in Buckhannon, West Virginia
The Pallottine Catholic sisters arrived in Huntington in 1924.
And on Nov. 7, they admitted the first patient to St. Mary’s hospital in Huntington.
Not all delays or problems or setbacks end as good as that of the Catholic sisters.
But God is always at work.
God is always with us when we go through difficult and tragic time of brokenness and loss.
6. When you doubt everything around you, don’t doubt God.
No matter how confused you are
or how overwhelmed life is making you,
God is not confused or unable.
No, He is GOD. (Job 12:13)
I got permission from Jason Caudill to share with you the journey of he and his wife Lisa
When Jason and Lisa got married, they so wanted to have children and raise a family.
But had five unsuccessful attempts.
I can only imagine such sorrow and grief.
Later in life Jason and Lisa were able to adopt five children and raised them as their own.
More recently Jason and his family faced a Job-like Season
Within six days Jason lost two uncles in death.
Jason who did not have a close relationship with his father
Said, that one of the uncles was more a father to him that he had ever known.
In that same six day period Jason and Lisa lost a three year old grandchild
Then a wind storm caused significant damage to Jasons house
when trees fell on his house and roof and destroyed the back deck
Then his daughter had to have emergency brain surgery twice.
Jason said, God saw him through it.
We need to have a church doors open no matter what the name is over the door
For all those who are lost and hurting.
The devil is trying to destroy every home…, every family…, every son and daughter,
Every Christian is under attack whether you know it or not!!!
7. God has drawn boundaries around our lives.
Perhaps the most comforting part of Job
is the emphasis on God’s power.
He told the enemy exactly how far he could go, and that was that.
If God has let something come against you…, KNOW THIS
God has also set the boundary around my life,
I know He has sufficient grace to pour over me to survive. (Job 1:12)
It says in Job 42:10: "And the Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends".
That sounds wonderful but that really doesn’t bring any consolation for all the other loses.
How would you feel if you had just lost child
And someone said, well you can have another one.
That’s no comfort
That would just make me angry.
Job said, "Oh, if I could only go back to those days before all this happened,
when I was in the very sweet spot of my life".
Before his troubles,
Job felt as if God's lamp shone on his life.
Even in dark times the light of God's presence brightened his life,
and he had access to the friendly counsel of God.
in chapter 19. This is another amazing statement. Job said, "I know that my Redeemer lives".
Who taught the sun where to stand in the morning?
And who told the ocean, you can only come this far?
… Well, I know my Redeemer lives
All of creation testifies
This life within me cries
I know my Redeemer lives, yeah
… The very same God that spins things in orbit
Runs to the weary, the worn and the weak
And the same gentle hands that hold me when I'm broken
They conquered death to bring me victory
Watch this.
"I know that my Redeemer lives, and he shall stand at last on the earth;
and after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
that in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me"!
This is Job.
God did something in Job's heart.
The truth of the redemption of the soul,
Even though Jesus had not come yet in the time of Job’s life
the person of the Redeemer,
and the resurrection of the body,
and the second coming of Christ, and the promise of everlasting life was given to Job.
Is this incredible or what?
In the Old Testament,
in the earliest book written, here's the whole story of redemption through Jesus Christ.
"Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. And I know that my Redeemer lives".
One of the things I've learned after all these years of serving God and being a pastor
is that God never gets tired of telling his children that he loves them.
Psalm 56:8 “You keep track of all my sorrows.
You have collected all my tears in your bottle.
You have recorded each one in your book.
He never gets tired of sending them His care and love,
We live in a world which has many overwhelming situations, overwhelming places.
A lot of people today are overwhelmed, overwhelmed with problems.
If you're overwhelmed here today
I have some good news for you.
Job is somebody who was truly overwhelmed.
Yet, he was not defeated.
Like Job, sometimes we just have to hold on,
hold on to the rope of God's goodness,
hold on to the rope of his grace,
hold on to the promises of his Word,
and know that God is to be trusted.
Like Job, sometimes we just have to hold on,
we can trust him with the things we don't understand that happen to us on our way there, amen?
All of us have been in what is considered to be a “Job-like season” at some time or another.
A Job-like Season is when you were stretched in ways you could have never imagined
and one blow after another just seems to keep on coming.
There have been many times in my life where I literally looked up to the heaven
and asked, “Lord what are you doing?”
I have been on my knees in prayer,
waving my hands in the air,
and asking God to make it all just go away and show me mercy.
James 1:12 says “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test,
that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”
Even if we have no idea of what’s going on around us, we can trust that God will keep His promises.
Even when we cannot see any relief in sight
While there were no words of comfort for Job
Over the things that he went thru
Job never cursed God
And Job’s suffering did come to an end
And there were good days afterward.
Consider God's servant Job…, YOU are also being “Considered” in a Job-like season
You too will come thru the suffering
Your days of suffering will ease
And will come to an end
And there will be good days ahead.
Whatever trial, struggle, bad thing, brokenness, you are going thru is not permanent
You are just in a Job-like Season.
And seasons pass
