Years ago now, Dr. George Campbell Morgan of London wrote a Book about Job. He entitled it “The Answers of Jesus to Job.” This great Preacher actually searched the whole Book of Job, gleaning various question the Patriarch asked, then allowed Jesus (in the New Testament) to answer those queries! This is an interesting little volume, to say the least.

But basically Job’s questions can be summed up into one longing. He wanted to know WHY! Why was he suffering? Why had his so-called “friends” attacked him so viciously? Why would God not respond to his pleas?

Job wrestled with this question all the way through his famous ordeal.

WHY?

WHY?

WHY?

But (wonderful news) God came to Job in the final scene of the drama, of the history.

And God spoke to the sufferer (Job) for the better part of five chapters!

But … God never answered the WHY question!

He did not even attempt to do so, looks like to me!

The Lord just revealed to Job (more than ever before in all Job’s life) … the very Might and Majesty and Wisdom and Glory of God!  

Yes, God showed Himself to Job!

And instead of answering Job’s questions, God asked Job questions, lots of them!

Wow!

Here’s what I’m saying.

God ignored the WHY questions His servant asked.

And instead emphasized the WHO aspect of Job’s experience.

As in, WHO is running the universe!

WHO created all the wildlife!

A great God WHO will (some day) conquer all rebellion, all evil!

See it?

God gently shifts Job from asking WHY … and nudges Him into asking WHO!

WHO?

WHO?

WHO?

Oh, that we could spend the rest of lives admiring the WHO of God Almighty … not becoming more and more frustrated about the WHY of God’s individual acts!

And then, the Book of Job ends.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Job as a Book of Scripture is largely composed of “speeches.”

Orations, both in the form of dialogues and soliloquies.

And I’ve noticed a general trend in them, too.

Job’s 3 “friends” (who in reality become his “enemies,” his “critics”) each participate in the speeches. And Job responds passionately to each set of “their charges.”

They appear in the Book in the following frequency, the speeches:

Job

Eliphaz

Job

Bildad

Job

Zophar

Job

Eliphaz again

Job

Bildad again

Job

Zophar again

Job

Eliphaz for a third and final time

Job

Bildad for a third and final time

Job

No Zophar this time, silence!

Job

Then ultimately, God Himself!

(I do not include Elihu’s long rant, his “venting” is not specifically mentioned by God later in the Book. As far as I am concerned Elihu is a young little “smart-aleck.”)

Now here’s the pattern, seems to me.

The three so-called friends’ speeches get shorter and shorter (overall).

In fact their three “cycles” of speeches break down at the end. Remember there is no Bildad when his third turn comes! As if those three “know-it-alls” have become frustrated.

And Job’s “speeches” get longer and longer!

The point?

The lesson?

JOB WINS!

His “logic” at its very heart, prevails!

God rebukes Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar!

And God commends Job!

Here’s what I mean. “And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.” Job 42:7-8

Wow!

“My servant Job!”

What glorious words to hear!

Comparable to: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Matthew 25:21

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

By the way, Job’s first lament (speech) back in chapter 3 is much shorter than his final speech (nearly autobiography) in chapters 26-31. He definitely says more and more as the Book develops!

 

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