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The Harvester Podcast is brought to you by the Florida School of Preaching. Listen weekly to take a dive into biblical topics and thoughtful studies on things that matter to our eternal souls.
Welcome to the Harvester Podcast.
We are glad that you have chosen to join
us today,
and we look forward to wrapping up this
what we have been calling a bumper sode.
That is a bunch of episodes in between
seasons.
And so I am one of the hosts, Brian
Kenyon,
and with me today is
Stevhen Ford.
Alright, and Forest is usually with us,
but as we have been mentioning,
especially during these bumper-sodes,
we are very, very busy this time of year,
so it's hard to get all three of us
together.
But I am thankful that we have two of us
here,
and we look forward to beginning our next
season,
and that is minoring in the majors,
in which we will give some lessons from
the major prophets to go along with
the season before these bumper-sodes,
which was majoring in the minors,
lessons from the minor prophets.
And so
We're gonna wrap up the book of Job today,
and it's a very intriguing book,
very interesting book, very encouraging
book,
and a book that really shows us about
life.
You know, tells us about life and the
struggles that many people go through,
even even people who are righteous.
And of course, Job does not have the
information that we are privy
to in chapters one and two of the book,
where Satan challenges God about Job's
faith.
And as we've been saying all along,
God is in control and he allows Satan
number one to destroy everything that Job
has,
including his children. And his wife even
indicates turning against him.
And then Job passes that test,
and then Satan challenges God again,
and God allows Satan to take the health
away from Job.
And we see this throughout the book.
but Job still endures, and so we have seen
the
Job's cursing the day of his birth in
chapter three,
and then in chapters four through
twenty-seven,
there's that three-round dialogue between
the friends of Job,
Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, and Job
answers each of them,
and that goes for three rounds.
And then we have chapter 28 is a hymn to
wisdom,
and it serves as a pretty good go-between
between the three ~ dialogues
and then the three monologues,
and those three monologues are.
Job's oath of innocence, ~ the Elihu
speeches,
and then the Lord speech speaks to Job.
And so last bump or so we did look at the
Lord speaking to Job,
and ends in chapter 42, verse 6,
where actually verses 5 and 6,
where Job says, I have heard of you by the
hearing of the ears,
but now I see you, and therefore I abore
myself and repent in dust and ashes.
And so what Job longed for throughout the
dialogues anyway,
and and even in his oath of innocence,
was that he could meet God to to explain
to God how he's righteous,
how he doesn't deserve this, but yet on
the other hand,
Job realizes that that's kind of
far-fetched,
no one can go before God, etc.
And then God speaks to him from the
whirlwind.
Could you imagine the surprise of that?
Absolutely no, I cannot. ~ I have read
this,
studied this, taught this, preached this,
and this is one of those occasions.
This one and as Elijah runs away,
there's these, cataclysmic events that
take place.
These are ones that's just difficult to
kind of conceptualize in your mind what
this
must have been like for Job, just a feeble
man like you and I haven't gone through
everything that he went through those
first thirty-seven chapters.
Screaming out for God. Where is God?
Looking for justice. What's going on?
Why is God not answering me? And then all
of a sudden you get to see
I wouldn't even say the fullness,
but you get to see an overwhelming
presence that's physical.
you can see it, feel it, hear it,
you know, all this stuff has to be so
intimidating to Job.
Yeah. Kind of like the children of Israel
standing there.
at the foot of the mountain as it's
thundering and it's lightning and
all this kind of stuff as God is
presenting himself to to Moses.
It just has to be awe-inspired.
And then the internal awe of it too,
by just the questions that God asks,
and Job is I mean, I can just imagine
like,
Wow, I never thought of that. Wow,
I never thought of that. Wow. I never
thought of that.
And then Job responds, of course,
by closing his mouth, not no further
speech to God.
And then, as we just read, he repented in
dust and ashes.
And so now we get to see
the restoration of Job's wealth and such.
And so, and you know, a lot of times
people they know about the first
two chapters of Job, and then they know
about the the last chapter.
Right. And so here's maybe some familiar
grounds,
but notice first of all, Job is commended
and his three friends
are restored in verses seven through nine.
And so it was after the Lord had spoken
these words to Job that the Lord said
to Eliphaz the Temanite
My wrath is aroused against you and your
two friends,
for you have not spoken of me what is
right as my servant Job has.
Now therefore take for yourselves seven
bulls and seven rams,
go to my servant Job and offer up for
yourselves a burnt offering,
and my servant Job shall pray for you,
for I will accept him, lest I deal with
you according to your folly.
Because you have not spoken of me what is
right,
as my servant Job has. And so in verse
nine,
so Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the
Shuhite,
and Zophar the Namathite went and did as
the Lord commanded them,
for the Lord had accepted Job.
And so the three friends, and to their
credit,
they do follow what God says. ~ Again,
these these four men, Job and his three
friends,
they were, you know, powerhouse wise men.
of the day and ~ and their wisdom shows
that they did do what the Lord
had said because they wanted to be right
with God.
Mm. Yeah, they ~ they questioned Job and
and like Job,
it was like, you know, they they kind of
wrestled and grappled with each other,
but then when God speaks, it's like,
Well, we're all gonna just be quiet and
accept it and ~ again to their credit,
they didn't, you know, debate God on it
and anything.
It's like once God speaks, that's the
final word,
period.
Yep. And then we have in verses ten
through seventeen,
God blesses and restores Job. And so verse
ten or well,
yeah, verse ten. And the Lord restored
Job's losses when he prayed for his
friends.
Indeed the Lord ja the Lord gave Job twice
as much as he had before.
Then all his brothers, all his sisters,
and all those who had been his
acquaintances before came to him and
ate food with him in his house,
and they consoled him.
And comforted him for all the adversity
that the Lord had brought upon him.
Each one gave him a piece of silver,
and each a ring of gold. And so now and of
course it could be you could say,
same old, same old that when he's going
through all this struggling and stuff,
his friends, his family, they they keep
their distance from him,
they abore him to a certain extent,
but now they're all coming back to him and
they're bringing him gifts and such.
And then verse twelve we have this
statement Now the Lord blessed the latter
days
of Job more than the beginning,
for he had fourteen thousand sheep,
six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of
oxen,
and one thousand female donkeys.
He also had seven sons and three
daughters,
and he called the name of the first
Jemimah,
and the name of the second Kiziah,
and the name of the third Karen Hapuch,
or Hapuch or Hapuk.
And in all the land there were found no
women so beautiful as the daughters of
Job,
and their father gave them an inheritance
among their brothers.
And it's very interesting that all the
stuff was doubled except the children.
The children were the same, but yet he
does give the names of the daughters,
which was very unusual for that culture.
And ~ he did talk about the land the women
were so beautiful and such.
And then verse 16, after this,
Job lived 140 years and saw his children
and grandchildren
for four generations. So Job died old and
full of days.
And all those things were blessings,
especially in that culture. And I know at
one point in Job,
and we discussed this last episode,
that, you know, one of the things he
feared is to die,
but yet his innocence go unresolved.
And so he wanted it to be engraven in
stone and et cetera,
et cetera, because that was a fear and
that was a a a true concern
in that culture that if you died being
thought of as a scoundrel,
then that would curse your whole family
for e for eternity.
And so these verses here not only show
that God doubled what he had,
but it also showed that he was,
you know, f so far as an earthly life,
he lived four generations, he saw his
grandchildren.
And he was blessed beyond measure.
Yeah, the sometimes ~ well in times past
I've heard this passage taught
or preached in a nearly health and wealth
sort of a thing.
~ you know, if God's gonna give you double
if you just hold on tight,
you know, and that kind of a thing.
And ~ while it is great to read Job's end,
the story is not about receiving double.
The the the the blessing is not receiving
double.
The blessing is ~
Kind of a healing of the relationships
with Job,
~ with his peers, with his family,
and with God. Yes. there's kind of a
restoration or healing
of all those relationships. And and even
with the children,
~ it says that he had seven sons and three
daughters.
So you look at, everything got double,
but he didn't get the double children.
you know, poor Job. Well, in in a I guess
in a biblical sense,
the children aren't lost. You know,
I'm thinking about David and 2 Samuel.
He says, My children can't, my child can't
come to me,
I will go to my child.
And so the souls of those children still
exist.
And so when he gets seven more children,
~ seven so sons rather and three
daughters,
the ten more children, ~ that is double.
And so those souls are doubled,
so he will have those children again.
~
Yeah.
Job one five he does offer sacrifice for
them,
lest they sin and curse God in their
hearts.
So
And ~ just la one last thing, just think
about this,
you know, you we verse eleven is is really
an awesome verse,
God bless Job. he was just so richly
blessed materially.
but again it's just not about the the
getting double.
It it's about trusting God. I'm thinking
about Hebrews eleven six.
that God is a rewarder of those that
diligently seek him.
Even though Job was frustrated,
he was still seeking answers from God.
And it never was a thing like,
you know what, that's fine. Where's Baal?
I'm gonna go worship him. Where's Molech?
I'm gonna go worship him. It was a thing
of I'm frustrated,
I'm curious, I'm angry maybe, but I'm
still gonna stay with God.
and he was rewarded and the reward in this
instance was
physical but also spiritual. But for the
believer in God,
the physical is not the true reward.
You know, it's always the spiritual and
the restoration and healing
of the relationship we can have with God.
Yep, that's the ultimate reward.
And of course you see also that God is
always good too.
Before the tragedy, through the tragedy,
and now afterwards, God is still the same
God.
Same love and everything. All right,
so Job, he's mentioned well, a couple of
places after the book,
obviously, mentioned twice in the book of
Ezekiel,
chapter fourteen, verse fourteen and
twenty.
And and what Ezekiel is doing there,
he is showing how wicked the people are
that Ezekiel is preaching to
the captives by the river Kibar,
but he makes this statement, even if there
even if these three men,
Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it,
they would deliver only themselves by
their righteousness,
says the Lord. And he repeats that in
Ezekiel 1420,
even though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in
it,
as I live, saith the Lord.
They would deliver neither son nor
daughter,
they would deliver only themselves by
their righteousness.
So it does go to show that Job was a
historical character,
right along with Noah and Daniel,
and it goes to show that he was righteous,
and but it also shows the complete
wickedness of the people
to whom Ezekiel prophesied that even if
those men were there,
they would have rejected them and their
what they taught,
and thus they would have they would not
have been saved.
All right, and then then the
Second time, which actually third time,
but these two are kind of the same
context,
but is in James 5.11. And that's really a
verse we want to really focus in
on as we learn from Job.
And of course in that verse, James five
eleven,
indeed we count them blessed who endure,
who have heard of the pr you have heard of
the perseverance of Job and seen
the end intended by the Lord.
That the Lord is very compassionate and
full of mercy.
Yeah, that's that's a great passage.
And I love that both Ezekiel and James
highlight
Job ~ as a kind of a beacon,
a pillar of of you know goodness,
perseverance in James and righteousness
and in both of those I think
is it's not just that these were good
guys.
There are lots of good people that we can
read about in the scripture.
We could turn to and say, hey man,
this was an exemplary person. This was a z
exemplary person.
But the three that you find the context in
Ezekiel,
and then now James mentioned,
it seems that they kind of stand out
because their circumstances were
so just devastating. I mean, Ezekiel's in
this national crisis.
The people are just out of control.
Daniel, he's carried away into captivity.
Everything's
bad, he's got every opportunity to go
ahead and sin.
He's far away from home, got a new name,
new identity, and then Noah, literally the
entire world is given in sin.
And here you have these three kind of
lights in in the middle of all that kind
of stuff.
It's like, yeah, and you mentioned the
entire world and there's a sense
in which the entire world's against
Daniel,
against Noah, and against Job and the
things that they endured.
You know, the pressure on them due to
their circumstances.
So that's a good point.
Yeah, I I couldn't imagine. ~ you know,
we we would all want our names to be
remembered.
I w I was just in Washington, DC over the
summer,
and it was great to go to those different
monuments,
Jefferson Monument, ~ the Washington
Monument,
and or Jefferson Memorial, Washington
Monument.
And then in the Lincoln Memorial,
I was standing there talking with my
stepdad,
my wife, and and I was thinking like how
amazing it is for a person like Lincoln
to be remembered. ~ but if you would ask
Lincoln
Like, hey, would you want to go back
through that?
I mean, you'll get a huge monument.
I'm sure he'd say, Man, absolutely not.
He was the right guy for the right job at
the right time.
But to go through that, and that is why
he's remembered that here's
a person who didn't choose it.
It was just thrust upon him and he stood
fast.
And here's a guy in Job. Job, like you
mentioned,
he didn't he wasn't privy to the
conversation.
He didn't get a vote in the conversation.
He didn't get a say so. He just had to
deal with it.
And everything was unbeknownst to him.
But then on the other side of it,
when we get through to chapter 42,
here's this guy that went through
something that's,
you know, almost incalculable for us to,
you know, even consider going through.
But he made it. And so now in in these
periods of time where people
are going through crisis with Ezekiel,
people are going through crisis,
the suffering Christians with James,
of all the people they can name,
they turn back to Job.
And said this is what it looks like to
stay faithful,
maybe be curious, maybe be upset,
maybe be whatever, but to stay faithful to
God.
Yeah, wow. It's a good point. That'd make
a good sermon one day.
Points
Yeah, I think that might be
right there. But yeah, so when we look at
what James has to say,
f number one, he pronounces a blessing on
those like
Job who persevere even to the end.
And of course in the book of James right
here,
James five, actually seven through eleven,
that whole section right there is dealing
with patience.
You know, he gives the example of the
farmer,
~ of those who wait for the Lord's coming,
of the prophets, etcetera.
And then he gets to Job. But there's a
blessing when it comes to persevering.
And ~ you know, that word blessed or happy
sometimes some translations might have.
It's you know, from a word that means to
consider fortunate or happy,
and as a verb it occurs one other time in
Luke one verse forty eight,
but the noun is found several times,
a few in the book of James, chapter one,
verse twelve, for example.
And in verse twenty five as well in James.
And blessed is you know, blessed,
indeed we count them blessed who persevere
who who endure.
Yeah, you've heard the perseverance of Job
and so yeah,
that blessing is pronounced upon those
that endure.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's a that's a great
section.
As he says in 10, ~ take, for example,
these prophets that have spoken the name
of the Lord for example,
for an example of suffering affliction and
patience or endurance.
So think about these people who have
suffered immensely,
and they did so with endurance,
and faithful to God. They bore the
pressure of their certain circumstances,
and then says, Look, we count those people
happy or blessed that endure.
And then of all the prophets.
I mean, you could go down the list of
those who stood up for God.
You know, we mentioned Elijah,
we cited Ezekiel. you go to Jeremiah,
~ you can go to any of them that spoke up
for God.
And of all those prophets, again,
you've got Job, who is mentioned for being
steadfast ~ in all that he did.
And again, when James is writing,
again is thinking, like, well,
what's this book about in the first place?
And he's writing to the
Twelve tribes that are scattered abroad,
these individuals who are likely scattered
from the persecution that's coming
to Christians. And so here are these
people who are being encouraged
to stay faithful to God. And in those
first few verses of chapter one,
he says, Look, count it all joy.
But then he says, Look, man, here's an
example to look to.
Here's a real life example of a believer
who went through,
you know, all kinds of terrible hardship,
but he stayed faithful to God.
I mean, I can't imagine what it must have
been like to read this letter
for the first time and then maybe get that
Boost of morale to you know what,
Job could do it, I can do it.
Yeah, and that's the thing, because he's
he's just like us,
I mean, so far as his human nature is
concerned,
different circumstances, but the same
temptations,
the same thoughts, same feelings,
all that kind of stuff that we would go
through.
And so, you know, so happy or blessed is
the one that does endure,
and which tells us that the one who
doesn't endure will not be blessed.
And so there is not a blessing in giving
up.
And so Job is a prime example of
perseverance,
of persevering.
And we he did you know, he did that
throughout the book.
We see that. he did not curse God and die
like his wife suggested he should do.
He did not leave God or, you know,
some today might quit the church when
adversity comes upon them.
And he also h in the end, he humbled
himself and accepted God's rule,
accepted God's authority, and thus he was
very submissive to God.
There's something else that I think about,
~ just what you were talking about,
Job's response kind of to God.
I want to just kind of briefly throw in
God's response to Job and not just
in what's written, but how do we observe
what is written?
So what I mean to say is God allows and
affords
man the opportunity to come to him even in
frustration,
which is something I I love about in
scriptures.
God does not say we have to
kind of grovel before him and only say
nice things.
Like, you know, y you think about Jonah.
Jonah comes to God and or God approaches
Jonah and he kind of goes off,
you know, I didn't want to do this.
You made me do this. And in the text,
God didn't rebuke him for having his
frustrations.
Job f is very,
very frustrated and he, you know,
cites all these reasons. And there's
various others in the scriptures who
in the Psalms, David and others at times
who are curious and they're frustrated
and they're, you know, angry or whatever
the case,
sad. And it seems that God allows for that
man to come to him,
whether in prayer or otherwise have we
seen in the scriptures to come to
him in our frustrations, in our fears,
in our insecurities, whatever those may
be,
but it seems the only time that there is a
~ frustration on God's part with
man is that when we doubt his holiness or
his sovereignty or his care for us.
Like, you know, Jesus in the ship,
don't you care that we perish.
And it's not that they were afraid.
It's that, you don't you think I don't
care about if you die,
you know? And it it's a comfort for me as
a believer to know that I can come
to God if I'm upset. Yeah. If I'm
frustrated.
That's a good point, because that
sometimes Jesus will say,
ye of little faith. Mm-hmm. And every time
he says that,
it's to people who should know better.
Yeah. Who should, you know. And so like
you said,
it's not the fear so much as it is the
distrust in God when they
of all people should trust God the most
'cause they've been with him
for three years and all that kind of
thing.
And so ~ that's definitely a factor in
here.
All right, so so Job was blessed ~ because
he persevered
But also in James five eleven,
~ that the Lord is very ~ or seen the end
of the Lord,
that statement, and I'm reading from the
New King James,
you have heard the perseverance of Job and
have seen the end,
and the word intended is in italics
intended by the Lord.
And that word end is telios, which means
the completion of it,
and that you have seen the end of the
Lord,
that He is very merciful, but but God is
is good,
He is good. He is very merciful,
pitiful.
very compassionate, the new King James
would say.
And ~ it comes from a word that means that
has many plus affection
attached to it. You know, he is he's much
affectionate,
if you will, very kind, very pitiful,
very sympathetic.
Yes, good work.
And ~ and so he he he knows, he
understands and and and it's kinda like
again
I mean, we we have a much greater
advantage than Job did in looking
at a situation because we have God's
revelation,
especially chapters one and two,
that Job did not have. And that tells us a
whole lot about God,
about Job, about the devil, just
information that Job did not have,
but we have, and so we see that throughout
the whole thing that God is always good.
He hasn't changed ~ from before the the
events happened to Job,
through the events and after the events.
God never changes. I like that he's ~ he
is pityful,
full of pity for mankind. And it's ~ I I
love that God reveals himself in that way.
You think about how the Hebrews writer
talks about we don't have a high priest
that
can't be touched by the feelings of our
infirmities.
I studied ~ mythology in college.
had took had I don't know why I took that
course.
But anyway, I took that course and some of
the the so-called gods that
are worshipped in various cultures.
They do seem at times, some of them,
not all of them, but some of them are
aloof to man's feelings.
Why are these people crying or why are
these people feeling this way?
And or they are just like the gods are
like stoic.
They just have responses. But the God of
heaven is not like that.
The God of Heaven does have a quote heart
or a seat of emotion.
He does have ~ compassion and he does ~
have mercy on us and he does understand
our frustrations and all those sorts of
things,
and so it makes
the believers feel heard. is one of the
most frustrating things I think that
people
experience is feeling not heard.
you know, whether in in any kind of
relationship,
a marriage, whether kids with parents,
parents with kids, or you know,
employee, employer. I just want my my
voice to be heard and understood.
And when we talk to God, he hears us,
he understands us, he can relate to us,
especially so since Jesus came and
literally walked in our footsteps.
So that we don't have an excuse to go to
God and say,
Well, you don't know what it's like.
Well, he does know what it's like because
Jesus endured all of that.
Yeah, I've taken leadership classes when I
became an elder and even before that,
and that's one of the things they talk
about as a leader,
you don't have to do everything people say
that you're over,
but you at least they need to listen.
Right. And a lot of times and I think
that's the case with Job too.
Just just listening and so even though
when God finally spoke to the whirlwind,
the questions God asked Job were nothing
what Job expected.
But just the very fact that God responded
to him was enough for Job to know that
God hadn't given up, that God was there.
In fact, I I would say that Job even came
to realize God was there the whole time.
Even though the question seemingly had
nothing to do with Job's suffering
or Job's challenge to meet God in court or
whatever,
but just the fact that God responded was
enough to let Job to comfort Job to know
That everything was gonna be all right.
And that he had heard like you mentioned,
that he had heard ~ the whole time.
~ though the response came later,
but he had been there to hear all of the
arguments from all the people
the entire time.
Yeah, and and of course I always wonder,
you know, how much time was between the
speeches or anything like that.
We read it, it's all back to back to back
to back.
But it was indeed some suffering.
All right, and so you know, James again,
five eleven, we count them blessed to
endure like Job.
You have heard the perseverance of Job and
seen the end intended by the Lord,
and then thirdly that the Lord is very
compassionate and merciful.
And so God
Had a plan all along. Satan challenged
that plan.
God, through Job, proved Satan wrong,
among other things. But then also the Lord
is very compassionate
and full of mercy or merciful,
tender mercy. And so these words are very
comforting.
And so, you know, the end intended by the
Lord,
the outcome of the Lord, blesses Job.
And blesses us because of what we see in
Job.
This is in my opinion, I think Job in
terms of just literary works,
you know, we we believe the Bible's
inspired.
We believe it's directly breathed from
God,
it's it's inerrant, it i all those things.
But just as a literary work, I think Job
is probably one of
the greatest written works in the world
ever,
because it answers I won't say it answers,
it speaks to
so many human problems. It speaks to so
many human emotions.
It speaks to so many human circumstances.
and one of the takeaways because as there
are many,
many, many takeaways from the book of Job,
but one of the takeaways is for us to
trust God,
period, full stop. And is you and I don't
know the whole story.
Like we don't even know the whole story in
our own personal lives,
let alone the whole story
for our family, for our community,
for the world. And that's why Job when
he's asking these questions,
it's like God zooms way, way, way,
way out. It's like do you know about
what's happening under the sea?
Do you know what happens it was going on
with these constellations with
all these different animals? And it's
like,
well wait God, I was asking about my life,
but God's like, look, Job, you can't even
see the big picture.
And so with God, it's like my job is not
to ask God why things happen
the way they happen, though he does afford
us that opportunity,
it seems, but the job is
Trust God. You know, my life's upside
down.
I know. I know. Trust God. And it's like
that's just the the main takeaway,
at least in my estimation. As I read
through Job,
there's a lot of different questions that
are asked.
There's a lot of different things you can
~ apply and all that kind of thing.
But like w okay, what is the main point of
Job?
Trust God, in in my estimation.
Yeah,
that's right. Trust God and and you're
talking about the just and I've
I just mentioned this to the students the
other day.
We were talking about the minor prophets.
But you know, if you just take for a
moment,
just take away for a moment that this is
inspired of God and all
the deep things about it we can learn,
and you just look at the structure of the
this book and Job included,
it's like you say, it's there's second to
none.
I mean the second is just distant,
distant second. Mm-hmm. Because,
you know, in the newer translations they
have
most of Job is poetry. They have the out
in poetry,
which is the parallelism and all that
stuff going on.
So you have that going on, then you have
what it deals with,
and you have the just the s the balance of
the whole book,
the cycles of speeches, the you know,
God speaking and all that. It's just an
amazing book.
But again, just like if we were to
summarize the book of Revelation as
victory,
~ the book of Job is just trust,
trust in God, because we don't we don't
know the whole picture.
And we see that throughout, even though we
think we do
And the thing about like the friends,
you know, when they're trying to figure it
out,
they say a lot of things true about God
and about human nature.
Right. Right. But it didn't apply to Job.
Yeah. And Job said a lot of things too,
but didn't apply to the situation
directly.
But they were confident in what they
thought and what they said,
but they were still not not not right.
that was one of the things that I noted
and I've really kind of came
to appreciate about Job just as a work is
that when you look at
the series of speeches, that his friends
most of the stuff that they
say is spot on. You say amen to in a
vacuum.
yeah, that's true, that's true.
Yeah. However, they're misapplied
statements.
You know, so they're they're talking about
God's justice and
judgment and you know, life and evil and
sin and all those sorts of things,
we're Yeah, yeah, yeah, but that that
doesn't apply here.
And of course you and I can sit back and
and look at it like,
hey, these guys are off. But to them,
partly because of what it seems their
worldview may be,
partly because of how they seem to
understand God,
and but it all fits, but it's just not
applied correctly.
we talked about that earlier about this
what's sometimes called retribution
theology
and all four of them believed it.
but now it's tested and the test doesn't
pass just on the surface because
you know Job knew he hasn't sinned to the
point he deserved that much punishment.
But the three friends in their mind knew
he did because God never does that unless
you have sinned. And if you just stub your
toe then you sinned a little,
but if you're going through what Job went
through,
man, you got some serious stuff to repent
of,
at least in their minds. Mm-hmm.
But yet we know that they were wrong,
and God mentioned that and acknowledged
that,
but yet God forgave them through Job as he
mediated for them through those
sacrifices. And so Job is a great book
that teaches us great,
great things, and the main thing is just
trust in God.
Trust in God.
Yeah, that's it. Is all those all those
forty-two chapters is all just
a reminder that God is always faithful.
He's always faithful. And we don't always
see the whole picture.
no matter how much you learn, and Job had
a great measure of wisdom and insight.
He really did. But we are so limited.
No matter how smart we get, how old we
get,
how much wisdom we apply, we're just
limited.
Even if we were to understand fully
everything that's in the Bible,
we still
are limited. And so it is the idea is
just,
man, I I just I've got to trust God.
There's times if I've I've kind of made
statements to my girls.
Sometimes they'll ask us about,
why can't we do this? Or what about this?
And what about that? And, you know,
kind of when I've had enough as the
parent,
I'm like, hey, you know, you guys are
asking go do this kind of stuff.
Do do you make the mortgage payments?
Do you understand how this works?
And so I'll ask some questions that I know
they don't have the answers
to in an effort to kind of
let them know, hey, your job is not to ask
why mommy and daddy aren't doing these
things. It's just to trust that we have
your best interest in mind.
We're gonna take care of you. Just sit
back and do your part and we'll do our
part.
Yeah. Kinda reminds me of ~ Job.
From a lesser to a greater, that's true.
~ if parents know more than their children
about limited things,
then sure enough, God knows more,
way more than we do about greater things.
All right, so we hope that these lessons,
these bumper sods have helped us and
helped you ~ appreciate God more,
appreciate Job more, and appreciate the
struggles we go through and
the fact that God
has not abandoned us, he has not ditched
us,
even though we may suffer some very
serious things in life.
All right, Stephen, anything else to add
to this as we close out?
~ no, I think ~ I think that kind of sums
it up.
I think we ~ kinda covered all the bases.
All right, we look forward to beginning
our next season very soon,
season number six, and again it will be
minoring in the majors,
and we will follow season five,
which was a majoring in the minors,
where we talked about the minor prophets.
So here we'll talk about lessons from the
major prophets,
and we look forward to your being with us
at that time.
We appreciate your feedback and see you
next time.