Sunday
Morning Bible Study
June 15, 2003
Introduction
As we’ve been journeying on Wednesday nights through the book of Job, we’ve
been working through a series of studies about trials. Yet we haven’t actually spent too much time
in the book Job itself. My intent this
morning is to give Job himself a chance to speak to you this morning. As Job was trying to deal with the loss of
his children, his wealth, and his health, all his friends could do was suggest
that perhaps Job must have some secret sin that caused all these problems. And so the arguments continue.
:1-5 Miserable comforters
:2 I have heard many such things: miserable
comforters are ye all.
Job has taken a lot of grief from these friends who supposedly came to
comfort him. Instead, they’ve done
nothing but verbally beat him up.
With friends like these, who needs enemies?
Illustration
Chirpy
A newspaper in San Diego printed
the story of a woman who had a little canary whom she affectionately named
Chirpy. The little bird brought all kinds of song and beauty into their home.
One day while vacuuming, she thought, “My, the bottom of Chirpy’s cage is dirty. I’ll just vacuum the bottom of his
cage:’ While she was vacuuming, the phone rang. So when she reached over for
the phone, she lifted up the vacuum cleaner and it sucked in Chirpy, all the
way down the tube, down to the little bag. Of course, she opened the vacuum
cleaner and cut the bag open and there was Chirpy inside trying to survive. She
breathed a sigh of relief. But she thought, “Oh, he’s so dirty.” So she put him
under a faucet and ran water all over him. And then when she finished with him
under the faucet, where he was about to drown, she dried him with a blow dryer.
A newspaper reporter asked, “Well, what’s he like now?” She replied, “Well, he
doesn’t sing very much anymore:”
-Max Lucado, In the Eye of the Storm
I think Job wasn’t feeling like doing much singing.
:5 But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and
the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.
strengthen – ‘amats – to be strong, alert, courageous, brave, bold,
solid, hard
asswage – chasak – to withhold, hold back, keep in
check; comforting words can dull the edge of grief, keeping it under control[1]
Lesson
Actually helping others
Job tells his friends what he would do if he were in their shoes.
Exhortation – our words should
bring hope to others. They should stir up courage and strength in those we
speak to.
Comfort – our words should act
as a dam for the flood of grief the other person is feeling.
Sometimes the way we treat others is based on a misconception.
Job’s friends treated him harshly because they had this idea that he must
be hiding some sort of secret sin that has caused all of his troubles.
Illustration
Sharing Cookies
A woman was in between flights at an airport. She had about an hour and a
half wait and decided that she would spend the time looking over the newspaper.
She had a little twinge of hunger, so she dropped by the lounge and picked up a
small package of cookies and sat down at a table to look over her paper.
While she was reading, she began to detect a small rustling sound, almost
like cellophane being crinkled and torn. She looked over the top of the
newsprint and, to her amazement, a well-dressed man, sitting at the same table,
a total stranger to her, was opening her cookies and
helping himself.
Flabbergasted, she didn’t want to make a scene, and so she just kept the
paper up in front of her face and reached around and deliberately took the
package of cookies and slid them toward her and took out one and began to eat
it.
About a minute passed and, to her amazement, she heard more crinkling of
the cellophane. She looked around the paper and the man, not looking at her,
was simply eating another of her cookies.
Before she could reach over (by now they were at the bottom of the stack),
he looked at the last cookie and broke it in two and with a frown slid it
across to her side. He finished his half cookie, picked up his briefcase, and
made his way down the terminal.
She was fuming as she munched on her last half of cookie. Then she heard
the call for her flight and began to make her way to the gate where she would
get on the plane. She needed her ticket, and so she opened her purse and, to
her shock, she saw her package of unopened cookies still in her purse.
Somewhere in that same airport was a man still shaking his head, wondering
how this strange lady had the nerve to eat part of his cookies!
- James Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited
How do you want people to treat you?
Jesus said,
(Mat 7:12
KJV) Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
We ought to think about treating others the way we would want to be
treated.
:6-17 Surrounded by wicked people
Job complains that it seems like God is attacking him and surrounding Job
with wicked, hurtful people – these friends.
(Job 16:6-17 KJV) Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased? {7} But
now he (God) hath made me weary: thou (God) hast
made desolate all my company. {8} And thou (God) hast filled me
with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face. (I’m skin and bones, and
that makes everyone think God is against me) {9} He (God) teareth
me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me. {10} They have gaped upon me
with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have
gathered themselves together against me. {11} God hath
delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
{12} I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my
neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark. (a target on
my back) {13} His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth
out my gall upon the ground. {14} He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he
runneth upon me like a giant. {15} I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and
defiled my horn in the dust. {16} My face is foul with weeping, and on my
eyelids is the shadow of death; {17} Not for any injustice in mine hands: also
my prayer is pure.
How would you feel if you were Job’s friends, listening to Job talk this
way about God? Would you get angry at
Job? Would you want to defend God? Job’s friends got into trouble with Job and
with God because they got angry.
One verse in particular stands out in this section:
(Job 16:10
KJV) They have gaped
upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully;
they have gathered themselves together against me.
There are some other Old Testament prophetic passages that use very similar
language to look forward to Jesus Christ:
(Psa 22:13 KJV) They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a
ravening and a roaring lion.
(Isa 50:6 KJV) I gave my back to the smiters,
and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame
and spitting.
Lesson
Jesus really understands
Job has no sense of this, living around 2000 BC.
Yet Jesus would experience the very same thing as He hung on a cross.
Job really was not being “beaten up” by God. He was being beaten up by Satan.
Yet Jesus would experience God
turning His back on Jesus.
(Mat 27:46 KJV)
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli,
Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me?
I believe that Jesus was crying this out because the Father had to turn His
back on the Son as our sins were being heaped upon Jesus.
But I also believe Jesus was sending a message. He words came from the first line of Psalm
22, that prophetic Psalm of David that described the agony of the cross 1000
years before it happened.
(Psa 22:1 KJV) My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
I believe Jesus was telling us to check out the Scriptures
and find that everything that was happening was foretold.
When you struggle through your dark times and you wonder if anyone could
ever really understand what you’re going through, I have to tell you that Jesus
understands.
(Heb 2:16-18 NLT) We all know that Jesus came to help the
descendants of Abraham, not to help the angels. {17} Therefore, it was
necessary for Jesus to be in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters,
so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. He then
could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. {18} Since
he himself has gone through suffering and temptation, he is able to help us
when we are being tempted.
:18-22 Struggling to trust God
:18 O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my
cry have no place.
(Job 16:18
NLT) "O earth, do not conceal my
blood. Let it cry out on my behalf.
Job is comparing himself to a person who has been wrongfully executed. The Bible hints that the blood of a person
who has been wrongfully killed will cry out to God for vengeance (Gen. 4:10)
:19 my witness is in heaven, and my record is on
high.
Even though Job has complained that God has been attacking him, Job knows
that God knows that Job is innocent.
:20 My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out
tears unto God.
Lesson
Only God is left
Job is learning a valuable but difficult lesson.
There are going to be times when all the people that you have learned to
count on won’t be there for you.
Paul experienced this towards the end of his life, as he faced his final
trial and eventual execution:
(2 Tim 4:16-17 KJV) At my first answer no man stood with me, but
all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. {17}
Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the
preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was
delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
Joseph experienced this as well.
He was sold as a slave into Egypt
by his brothers.
(Gen 39:1-4 KJV) And
Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an
officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands
of the Ishmeelites, which had brought him down
thither. {2} And the LORD was with
Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master
the Egyptian. {3} And his master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the
LORD made all that he did to prosper in his hand. {4} And Joseph found grace in
his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand.
When Potiphar’s wife began to make passes at
Joseph, he refused her, and as a result she came up with false accusations
against Joseph and Joseph found himself in prison.
(Gen 39:20-23 KJV) And Joseph's master took him, and put him into
the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the
prison. {21} But the LORD was with
Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the
keeper of the prison. {22} And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's
hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there,
he was the doer of it. {23} The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing
that was under his hand; because the LORD was with him, and that which he did,
the LORD made it to prosper.
While in prison, two of Pharaoh’s servants are thrown into prison with
Joseph and Joseph interprets their dreams for them. Joseph hoped that this
would have led to his release …
(Gen 40:23 KJV) Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.
Several years go by and Joseph is forgotten in prison. But the day comes
when Pharaoh has some disturbing dreams, and the butler remembers Joseph, and
his day finally comes when he interprets Pharaoh’s dreams and ends up becoming
the second most powerful man in all of Egypt.
The day comes when a famine strikes the whole world, and Joseph’s whole
family comes to Egypt.
There were some tense moments as the brothers came to find out that Joseph was
still alive. And yet after everyone was settled in Egypt,
we find Joseph having an interesting view of his life:
(Gen 50:19-21 KJV) And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in
the place of God? {20} But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God
meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people
alive. {21} Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish
you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.
Joseph wasn’t bitter at his brothers who had caused such
trouble to him. He had a perspective on things, a notion that God had actually
used all the circumstances of his life and worked them out to the good.
I wonder if part of the process of arrive at this
conclusion was having gone through those times of loneliness, when it seemed
that everyone had forsaken him or forgotten about him.
All he was left with was God. And God never left him.
Illustration
Howard Rutledge, a United States Air Force pilot, was shot
down over North Vietnam
during the early stages of the war. He spent several miserable years in the
hands of his captors before being released at the war's conclusion. In his book
In the Presence of Mine Enemies, he
reflects upon the resources from which he drew in those arduous days when life
seemed so intolerable:
During those longer periods of enforced reflection it
became so much easier to separate the important from the trivial, the
worthwhile from the waste. For example, in the past, I usually worked or played
hard on Sundays and had no time for church. For years Phyllis (his wife) had
encouraged me to join the family at church. She never nagged or scolded -- she just
kept hoping. But I was too busy, too preoccupied, to spend one or two short
hours a week thinking about the really important things.
Now the sights and sounds and smells of death were all
around me. My hunger for spiritual food soon out-did my hunger for a steak. Now
I wanted to know about that part of me that will never die. Now I wanted to
talk about God and Christ and the church. But in Heartbreak (the name POWs gave
their prison camp) solitary confinement, there was no pastor, no Sunday School
teacher, no Bible, no hymnbook, no community of believers to guide and sustain
me. I had completely neglected the spiritual dimension of my life. It took
prison to show me how empty life is without God.
-- Howard Rutledge
and Phyllis Rutledge with Mel White and Lyla White,
In the Presence of Mine Enemies
In a way, if our trials strip away everything from us and only Jesus is
left, maybe that’s really the best place to be in.
(Phil
3:7-9 KJV) But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for
Christ. {8} Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of
all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, {9} And be found
in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
“You’ll never know the Lord is all you need, until the Lord is all you
have.”
- Corrie
Ten Boom
:22 …I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
Job is expecting to die soon. He has
no hope.
:21 O that
one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!
Job wishes that there was someone who could put in a good word for him with
God.
plead – yakach – (Hiphil) to
decide, judge; to show to be right, prove; to convict. Job is using legal language here, the
language of the courtroom.
neighbour – ben – son, grandson,
child, member of a group; many translations have “friend” here.
Job is asking that someone would plead for
him.
Lesson
Jesus will plead for you.
He is the one who can plead with God (vs. 21).
Job wishes that he had a good “defense attorney” to plead his case before
God.
We don’t do to well when we try and defend ourselves. They say that the man who chooses to defend
himself has a fool for an attorney.
Illustration
In Oklahoma City, Dennis Newton
was on trial for the armed robbery of a convenience store in a district court
this week when he fired his lawyer. Assistant district attorney Larry Jones
said Newton, 47, was doing a Fair job of defending himself until the store
manager testified that Newton as the robber. Newton
jumped up, accused the woman of lying and then said, “I should have blown your
[expletive] head off.” he defendant paused, then
quickly added, “-if I’d been the one that was there.” The jury took 20 minutes
to convict Newton and recommended a
30 year sentence.
We don’t have to defend ourselves. Jesus
is our advocate, our “defense attorney”.
(1 John 2:1-2 KJV) My
little children, these things write I unto you, that
ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous: {2} And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for
ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Jonathan and David
When David found that King Saul suddenly developed a hatred for David and
was trying to kill him, Saul’s son and David’s friend, Jonathan, acted as a
friend and tried to represent David before the king (1Sam. 19-20). The first time, Jonathan was able to persuade
Saul of David’s innocence, but the second time, Saul turned on Jonathan.
Illustration
Some of you may have been following the Laci
Peterson case. The husband, Scott, was arrested on April 19 and charged with
the murder of his wife and unborn son. It’s a horrible, tragic case.
Initially, we’ve all concluded that Scott Peterson was guilty of killing
his wife and unborn son. I found an
editorial on MSNBC dated April 21 which talked about Scott already being
convicted in the court of public opinion, and stating all the reasons why he
was guilty.
On May 2, a new defense attorney, Mark Geragos,
was hired by Scott Peterson. And since
that point, things haven’t been such a sure thing anymore. Mr. Geragos is
apparently a very sharp attorney and has worked hard to turn things
around. I found an article dated May 27
stating that Scott Peterson’s family is actually beginning to think that after
the preliminary hearing in July, that Scott will be
released temporarily from jail.
Whether or not you think that Scott is guilty, he is now a man with an
advocate. He has someone working hard to defend him.
Some people don’t have too high of an opinion for defense attorneys. But if you’re in trouble, guilty or not
guilty, you are going to want a good one.
Do you need an advocate in heaven?
As an advocate, Jesus, doesn’t bend any rules or do anything inappropriate.
But He will plead for you before the Father. And the Father will listen to Him.
If you ask Him to help you, He will.
He won’t tell the Father you’re not guilty if you are guilty. But if you are His client, and you’re guilty,
He will tell the Father that the price has already been paid in your case. Jesus
Himself has paid the price for us.