Of course, everyone knows the “subject” of the Book of Job!

Right?

It’s about “suffering!”

Especially the suffering of a good man, one who had done no (major) wrong!

The Book has often been nicknamed: the Saga of the “Innocent Sufferer.”

And Job’s 42 chapters do indeed say a whole lot about suffering.

BUT … I suggest this morning that Job is not fundamentally about the issue of suffering!

Rather, and I feel confident in this assertion, it’s about FAITH!

Faith in God.

Maybe one could say “faith in God while suffering” … but still FAITH!

I say that for several reasons.

One is that the issue of the reality of Job’s faith arose before any calamities ever came his way.

In Job 1:1, for example. “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.”  Here “fearing God” is the Old Testament way of saying Job had faith. Faith accompanied by works, really. Job believed!

Then later in chapter 1 (specifically verse 8), faith again is discussed. This time by God Himself, in reference to Job. The Lord there asked: “Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?” Clearly, no doubt, faith is again the focus!

Job … “perfect” … toward God.

And “upright” … toward man.

The results of FAITH in God and His Messiah, the coming Lord Jesus!

The “suffering” part of the Book comes later.

As a “test” to Job’s already existing faith.

And subsequently (through the entire Book) no matter the trauma that comes … Job’s faith (and resultant faithfulness) are the delight of God’s Eye!

And by Book’s end, the man whom God loved to call “My servant” has grown immensely in that character quality we still call … “faith.”

Two times in chapters 1 and 2 Job is dubbed “My Servant,” by the Lord obviously.

But four times in chapter 42 he is so called, “My Servant.” 

I sometimes say Job’s faith grew twofold through the Book, as the plot developed.

May I say this to you. It looks like God was more concerned in developing and strengthening Job’s FAITH than in providing for Job’s comfort!

God want us faithful … more than He wants us happy!

Plus, “hard times” in life can contribute to one’s faith being developed, augmented.

Like Job said, of God: “When He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”  (Job 23:10)

Though not yet written when Job agonized on his ash heap … Simon Peter’s words would have been so very applicable. “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: that the trial of your FAITH, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, YET BELIEVING, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” 1st Peter 1:6-8, faith!

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Hey everyone, tomorrow is the day …

Pray for the Class, please.

(“Click” the poster and it will enlarge for better clarity.)

 

 

There is so much I do not know about the Book of Job.

I am almost overwhelmed by its scope.

And among the most puzzling verses in the whole Corpus are these words of Job: “Then Job answered the LORD, and said, Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.” Job 40:3-5

Then: “Wherefore I (Job) abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:6

What had Job done so wrong?

He clearly was a righteous man.

Here’s God’s testimony concerning Job, given to the Devil nonetheless! “And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?” Job 1:8

Wow!

Next puzzling to me is God’s initial response to the (suffering) agonizing Job: “Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?” Job 38:1-2

Had Job been talking about things “beyond” his purview? Somehow he had spoken “words without knowledge!” The Almighty just declared that to be a fact!

This too, a little later God asked Job: “Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said, Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.” Job 40:1-2

What’s happening here?

The verb “contendeth” is “riyb,” translated these ways in the King James Bible; “plead” (27 times), “strive” (13 times), “contend” (13 times), “chide” (6 times), and “debate” (2 times). It is the ancient Hebrew word for a “lawsuit!” Has Job been suing God, seeking an “answer” to his dilemma?

And (perhaps more significantly) the verb “reproveth” is “yakach,” translated “rebuke” 12 times! And “correct” 3 times! But get this, “chasten” 2 times. Then in Job’s favor, “reason” 2 times.

God sure has Job in training, at least here. Apparently one never gets to the place of not needing a little further “correction” from God above!

By the way, I just checked a Hebrew concordance and have noticed the times Job uses “riyb” (the lawsuit verb) in reference to God.

Like here: “If he (a man) will contend (“riyb” = plead, strive, chide, debate) with Him (God), he (that man) cannot answer Him (God) one of a thousand.” You will “lose” 999 times out of every 1,000 attempts! The verse is Job 9:3.

And in Job 10:2 the Patriarch clearly feels that God is “suing” him, in some court of law! Maybe that’s sort of what the Lord and the Satan were doing. “I (Job) will say unto God, Do not condemn me; Shew me wherefore Thou contendest (“riyb” = plead, strive, chide, debate) with me.”

Again in Job 31:35 our little Hero (Job) calls God his “Adversary!” He thinks God is “against” him. In a lawsuit! “Oh that one would hear me! Behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary (“riyb”) had written a book.”

There is legal language all the way though the Book of Job, I am learning!

Yet I have found this, in Job chapter 23. Job groaning in misery: “Oh that I knew where I might find him (God)! That I might come even to His seat! I would order my cause before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments.” Job 23:3-4, where “arguments” comes close to a confrontation. It (“tokechah”) means “rebuke” 7 times in the Bible!

Job really believes that if he could confront God … he might win the argument! The argument that God had treated him wrongly! Job NOT knowing about the battle ensuing between God and Satan … a contention over Job himself!

Further in the same Chapter, at God’s Throne (seat) where Job would like to appear: “There the righteous might dispute with Him; so should I be delivered for ever from my Judge.” Job 23:7

If I could “dispute” with God … “yakach” … translated “rebuke” 12 times in the Bible … HERE JOB MAY HAVE GONE TOO FAR! This may be why God asks so blatantly: “Shall he (Job in view) that contendeth (“riyb”) with the Almighty instruct Him? He that reproveth (“yakach”) God, let him answer it.” Job 40:2, already quoted above.

Job crossed no (major) lines of sin or rebellion. And he certainly never “cursed” God (like the Devil said he would do).  But he (in his sea of extreme suffering) did use some pretty strong language in the “What in the world is God going to me” area!

For this he stands corrected, after God comes out of that whirlwind!

That’s why we read the words: “Wherefore I (Job) abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 40:6

Wow!

What a Book!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

The Lord willing, more tomorrow.

 

 

I was preaching the Book of Job last night, in a Revival Meeting. During the course of the Sermon, a verse by verse exposition of chapter 3, we came to verse 25. There Job confesses: “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.”

Wow!

This verse, being poetic (all of Job chapter 3 is a “poem”), is written as a parallelism.

Two equal (or nearly so) lines are clearly observable.

“For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me,

And that which I was afraid of is come unto me.”

The verb “feared” in the top line “matches” the words “was afraid” in the bottom line.

The pronoun “thing” in line “A” also corresponds to the pronoun “that” in line “B.”

And the verbs about “coming” (though different in Hebrew) are translated the same in English, intensifying the parallel appearance.

Yes, this is “classic” Hebrew poetry, just divinely inspired (being the infallible Word of God)!

BUT … what is it Job has feared?

Something that now has actually happened to him?

Most commentaries do not even venture a guess!

But I think I might know the answer!

A sensitive Pastor last night after the Service asked me a question about verse 25. It’s the only question I had, after having tried to preach all the Chapter.

Something here (in verse 25) is a “magnet” to many of God’s children.

Let’s hear Job again on this matter. “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.”

Is it the loss of his herds, his 7,000 sheep for example?

I do not think so. That fact never surfaces in the whole Book of Job, anyway.

Or even the deaths of his 10 children! He had previously (and habitually) prepared carefully for their spiritual welfare. See Job 1:5.

I believe the source of Job’s panic was “broken communion” with God, with his God!

During the “contest” with Satan about Job’s “faith” (or lack thereof) … God as it were “withdrew” from Job’s side! At least to this extent, God NEVER explained to Job the WHY of all his suffering! Job was not “privy” to the reasons for the series of calamities (trauma after trauma) he had recently experienced!

Job was that spiritual!

That dedicated!

That holy!

He feared losing intimacy with God!

Later, in Job 29, the Patriarch comments that God had once been his Confidant! He actually longed for those old times … back “when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle.” (Job 29:4) “When the Almighty was yet with me,” he continued!

The noun “secret” means “assembly” (used this way 5 times in the Old Testament) and “counsel” (6 times) and is even translated “inward” (but only 1 time).

That’s what (Who) Job misses most!

That’s why Job laments as he did (Job 23:3) so dramatically: “Oh that I knew where I might find Him (God)! That I might come even to His Seat!”

That’s what Job feared most in his life.

And that’s the very thing that happened.

Temporarily!

Jesus lost that intimacy, that fellowship too. As He died on the cross for our sins. Matthew 27:46 tells us. “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 fear that the shallow level of Christianity found today (in too many places) would not “worry” folks that much! That there would be little frustration about not living in constant communion with God! Not as long as the “blessings” kept coming anyway!

Then again, sadly, we have few folks like Job left as well.

Hungry for God!

“Bothered” if contact with God is lost!

Astounding!

Friend, where do you stand in your relationship with Him?

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

One time Job is saying of God: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” Job 13:15

Then again he will lament: “For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.” Job 6:4

In other words, God is using Job for “target practice!” As in Job 7:20 … “O thou Preserver of men, why hast Thou set me as a mark (target) against Thee?”

In 13:15 … Job on a “mountain top.”

Yet in 6:4 and 7:20 … Job in a “valley.”

It’s the same with Jeremiah, great Old Testament Prophet.

A “good” day: “Thy words (Lord) were found, and I did eat them; and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by Thy Name, O LORD God of hosts.” Jeremiah 15:16

A “bad” one: “Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? Wilt Thou (Lord) be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?” Jeremiah 15:18, only three verses later!

In 15:16 Jeremiah loves God’s Word and considers his identity to be “in the Lord.”

But by 15:18 Jeremiah is calling God unfaithful!

Yes, “ups” and “downs!”

Even Paul!

Philippians 1:21 … “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Jesus, Paul’s Everything!

But in Romans 7:14 … “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” Did he say “carnal?” Or Paul’s wail: “O wretched man that I am!” Romans 7:24, after having been saved for several decades!

Even him, the greatest Apostle ever, “two natures” abiding within his bosom.

But let’s get back to the man Job.

Job 2:10 reports, after a number of traumatic catastrophes … “In all this did not Job sin with his lips.”

Yet in Job 40:4, in God’s Presence: “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer Thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.” He now feels he has talked too much! “Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.” Job 40:4

I am not saying Job ever “cursed” God, like Satan predicted he would.

In fact, Job did NOT do such!

I am saying that Job (like Jeremiah and like Paul and like you and like me) was human! He had his “ups” and “downs” in life.

Does this help?

Joseph Parker, an old British Preacher, used to say: “No man is as bad as his worst day. And no  man is as good as his best day!”

Yes, “ups” and “downs.”

Oh, now let me tell you of One Who never had a “weak” day, spiritually.

One Who could truly testify: “The Father hath not left me alone; for I do ALWAYS those things that please Him.” John 8:29.

One Who constantly was, and still (eternally) is … supremely FAITHFUL!  Read here: “Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, Who was FAITHFUL to Him (God the Father) that appointed Him.” Hebrews 3:1-2

His Name is JESUS, the Son of God.

How’s your week been?

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Job is mentioned in the New Testament, of course. But (surprisingly) only once by name. And here is that occurrence: “Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” James 5:11

The “patience” of Job.

But I’ve read again and again where commentators reel at the fact Job seemed to lack “patience” (they say) so many times in the Book.

Yet I know the Bible is never wrong!

I’ll take Scripture over the so called scholars any day.

James himself (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God) said that Job was a man of patience!

Yet he (Job) did at times seem to be “exasperated.” Who would not have been, under those trying circumstances? For example: “Then Job answered and said, 2 Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning. 3 Oh that I knew where I might find Him (God)! that I might come even to His Seat! 4 I would order my cause before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments. 5 I would know the words which He would answer me, and understand what He would say unto me. 6 Will He plead against me with his great power? No; but He would put strength in me. 7 There the righteous might dispute with Him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge. 8 Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him: 9 On the left hand, where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him: He hideth Himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him.” Job 23:1-9, Where is God?

So … why is this good man so well known for his “patience?”

This calls for some word study. Back at James 5:11, today’s basic Text. “Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”

Here the verb “endure” and the noun “patience” are virtually identical, from the very same “root,” the same “stem” in Greek. Here’s how to spell the verb, “hupomeno.” Here’s how to spell the noun, “hupomone.”

James is pronouncing a “blessing” on Christians who “endure” great hardship … and steadfastly continue in their faith! Then he immediately cites Job as a paragon of such faith!

Of such “endurance!”

Was Job always ultra “meek” in the Book that bears his name?

Not necessarily, having passionately spoken for 18 solid chapters! (Nearly half of the Book’s 42 chapters!)

BUT JOB DID ENDURE … HOLDING ON TO A GOD HE OFTEN COULD NOT FIND … ALL THE WAY THROUGH HIS ELONGATED ORDEAL! HE NEVER CURSED GOD, LIKE THE DEVIL SAID HE WOULD DO!

The word “hupomone” in Greek means “to remain” (that’s “meno”) “underneath” (that’s “hupo”) some load, some burden, some “pressing” circumstance!

And Job did that superbly!

He is one of the most enduring Bible characters … until Jesus!

Here’s an example of Job’s holy “tenacity:” Job 13:15 … “Though he (God) slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” Wow!

Standing up … under the load … and continuing to walk the way Christ has led.

“Hupomone!”

James 5:11, one more time. “Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”

Yes, Job died happy!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell