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Job 2 - (Part 1) Why Won't God Keep Good People from Suffering? · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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Speaker 1: Life Audio. You are listening to The Bible Explained with
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Speaker 1: Jen Koukl, a P40 Ministries podcast. Howdy there, faithful listeners,
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Speaker 1: and welcome to The Bible Explained podcast on this lovely,
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Speaker 1: lovely morning. Hope you all are doing well. In fact,
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Speaker 1: I hope you all are doing better than I am.
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Speaker 1: I don't know, ever since like two years ago, it
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Speaker 1: feels like every few months or so, I come down
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Speaker 1: with something. And again, I have a sore throat. I've
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Speaker 1: got a headache, feels like a cold is coming on.
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Speaker 1: And I just don't know what's going on. And actually,
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Speaker 1: my Fitbit, which I wear every single day, told me
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Speaker 1: I was getting sick. Because I guess my blood oxygen
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Speaker 1: level is higher than normal, which apparently means that I'm
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Speaker 1: trying to fight something right now. So I actually have
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Speaker 1: evidence this time that I'm getting sick. Sometimes I feel
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Speaker 1: like I get sick so often that people don't believe me.
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Speaker 1: I have evidence this time. Maybe I'll share it to
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Speaker 1: you guys. But as long as I am well enough
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Speaker 1: to talk, I will be doing the Bible Explained podcast episodes.
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Speaker 1: So today we're in Job chapter two, and I'm anxious
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Speaker 1: to get into this chapter because we're going to talk
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Speaker 1: about why God allows righteous people to suffer. Hard topic,
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Speaker 1: one that we've been kind of talking about a lot.
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Speaker 1: both in 1 Peter and also in Job. And today
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Speaker 1: we'll take another look at this blaring question. But before
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Speaker 1: we do, I'm going to play one sponsored ad for
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Speaker 1: you guys, and we'll get into it right after that. Okay,
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Speaker 1: we're going to read the entirety of Job 2 today,
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Speaker 1: the whole chapter. Grab your Bibles out of the version
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Speaker 1: that you prefer. I'll be reading, as always, from the WEB.
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Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and give reference to God's word as
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Speaker 1: we read Job 2, 1 through 13 together. Again on
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Speaker 1: the day when God's sons came to present themselves before Yahweh,
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Speaker 1: Satan also came among them to present himself before Yahweh.
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Speaker 1: Yahweh said to Satan, Where have you come from? Satan
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Speaker 1: answered Yahweh and said, From going back and forth in
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Speaker 1: the earth and from walking up and down in it.
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Speaker 1: Yahweh said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job?
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Speaker 1: For there is no one like him in the earth,
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Speaker 1: a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God
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Speaker 1: and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity,
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Speaker 1: although you incited me against him to ruin him without cause.
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Speaker 1: Satan answered Yahweh and said, skin for skin. Yes, all
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Speaker 1: that a man has, he will give for his life.
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Speaker 1: But stretch out your own hand now and touch his
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Speaker 1: bone and his flesh, and he will renounce you to
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Speaker 1: your face. Yahweh said to Satan, behold, he is in
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Speaker 1: your hand. Only spare his life. So Satan went out
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Speaker 1: from the presence of Yahweh and struck Job with painful
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Speaker 1: sores from the sole of his foot to his head.
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Speaker 1: He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with,
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Speaker 1: and he sat among the ashes. Then his wife said
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Speaker 1: to him, Do you still maintain your integrity? Renounce God
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Speaker 1: and die. But he said to her, You speak as
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Speaker 1: one of the foolish women would speak. What, shall we
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Speaker 1: receive good at the hand of God, and shall we
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Speaker 1: not receive evil? In all this, Job didn't sin with
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Speaker 1: his lips. Now when Job's three friends heard of all
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Speaker 1: of this evil that had come on him, they each
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Speaker 1: came from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuite,
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Speaker 1: and Zophar the Namathite. And they made an appointment together
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Speaker 1: to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him.
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Speaker 1: When they lifted up their eyes from a distance and
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Speaker 1: didn't recognize him, they raised their voices and wept. And
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Speaker 1: they each tore his robe and sprinkled dust on their
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Speaker 1: heads toward the sky. So they sat down with him
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Speaker 1: on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no
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Speaker 1: one spoke a word to him, for they saw that
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Speaker 1: his grief was very great. Job has just suffered some
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Speaker 1: massive calamities. Satan came and attacked Job's family and his
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Speaker 1: sheep and his possessions and basically everything he had. He
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Speaker 1: used various means. He used a whirlwind. He used the
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Speaker 1: armies of the Sabians and the Chaldeans to come up
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Speaker 1: against Job to completely ruin him all in one day.
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Speaker 1: And the reason Satan did this was because he was
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Speaker 1: trying to be more like God. He was making a
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Speaker 1: wager with God saying, God, you don't know your own servant.
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Speaker 1: I know him better than you do. And I accuse you, God,
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Speaker 1: of only blessing Job so that you can gain worship
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Speaker 1: for yourself. And God, knowing the genuine faith of his
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Speaker 1: servant Job, gives Satan permission to test and tempt Job
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Speaker 1: so that Satan is not proven correct. And it turns
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Speaker 1: out that Satan was proven incorrect because at the end
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Speaker 1: of the last chapter, after Job heard that his children
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Speaker 1: had died and his possessions were taken from him and
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Speaker 1: all of these armies were coming up against him, He
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Speaker 1: fell down on his knees. He tore his clothes in
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Speaker 1: mourning and he shaved his head and he worshiped God.
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Speaker 1: And he says, God, for some reason, you've taken all
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Speaker 1: of the blessings away from me. And so naked, I
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Speaker 1: came out of my mother's womb. I came into this
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Speaker 1: world with nothing and I will leave this world with
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Speaker 1: nothing because that is what you desire for me. So
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Speaker 1: Satan did not win. and his doctrines were proven incorrect. Basically,
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Speaker 1: his doctrine about the prosperity gospel, that people only worship
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Speaker 1: God for the things that they can receive, and that
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Speaker 1: God is so desiring of worship that he gives people
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Speaker 1: nice things so that they will worship him. Satan's doctrines
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Speaker 1: came to nothing because Job still worshiped God, though everything,
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Speaker 1: even his own family, was taken from him. So now
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Speaker 1: we jump into Job chapter 2. And Satan obviously is
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Speaker 1: not going to let this go. He doesn't want to lose.
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Speaker 1: We talked about who Satan was all last week and
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Speaker 1: on Monday as well, about how Satan is so prideful
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Speaker 1: that he desired to become exactly like God, if not
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Speaker 1: above God. He wanted to be the most high, no
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Speaker 1: matter what it took. So he was not going to
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Speaker 1: let this go. He wants to prove himself correct over God,
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Speaker 1: no matter what it takes. And obviously for Satan, he
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Speaker 1: doesn't care about Job's life anyway. So now in Job
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Speaker 1: chapter 2, he is coming before God once again with
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Speaker 1: another wager. It says in verse 1, So essentially, this
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Speaker 1: is the same story as chapter 1, where There's some
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Speaker 1: sort of council meeting happening in the throne room of God.
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Speaker 1: And Satan at this point in time was allowed in
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Speaker 1: that council meeting. Whether or not he still is, I
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Speaker 1: don't know. If I were to give my two cents,
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Speaker 1: I'd say he's not allowed in God's throne room anymore.
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Speaker 1: But I don't know whether that's the case or not. However,
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Speaker 1: Satan is there. He comes to this meeting because he's
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Speaker 1: not done messing with Job's life. So God calls Satan out.
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Speaker 1: And he's like, where have you been? And Satan says, oh,
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Speaker 1: you know, God doing the thing that I do best,
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Speaker 1: walking up and down the earth, prowling around like a
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Speaker 1: roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. He didn't actually say that.
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Speaker 1: That's a quote, I believe, from Peter. But that's essentially
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Speaker 1: what Satan does is he prowls about the earth seeking
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Speaker 1: for somebody to devour. And right now, Satan's sight is
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Speaker 1: on Job. So God says to Satan, hey, Satan, remember
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Speaker 1: my servant Job? There is no one like him in
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Speaker 1: the earth, verse three, a blameless and an upright man,
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Speaker 1: one who fears God and turns away from evil. And
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Speaker 1: he still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against
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Speaker 1: him to ruin him without cause. Now, I think it's
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Speaker 1: really interesting there that God takes the credit for what
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Speaker 1: Satan has done, because ultimately God truly is in control
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Speaker 1: of everything. And even though it is very clear in Job,
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Speaker 1: that it was Satan causing the destruction to Job, God
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Speaker 1: is ultimately in control and God permissed it. So God
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Speaker 1: does take credit for what has happened to Job. And
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Speaker 1: this might be absolutely perplexing to a lot of people
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Speaker 1: reading this passage because why would God take credit for
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Speaker 1: doing something evil to Job? In fact, Job mentions that
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Speaker 1: in verse 10. He says to his wife, Shall we
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Speaker 1: receive the good at the hand of God and shall
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Speaker 1: we not receive evil? And there are other verses that
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Speaker 1: say that God does cause evil to happen to people.
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Speaker 1: So how can a good and loving and just God
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Speaker 1: cause evil to happen to somebody? Put a pin in that.
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Speaker 1: And once we get to Job's response to his wife,
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Speaker 1: we'll talk more about that in a second. But just
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Speaker 1: remember that God takes credit for what happens here to Job.
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Speaker 1: And so Satan answers God and he's like, oh yeah, yeah,
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Speaker 1: I've seen your servant Job, but he says, skin for skin. Yes,
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Speaker 1: all that a man has, he will give for his life.
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Speaker 1: So now Satan is accusing Job of something else right here.
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Speaker 1: When he says skin for skin, he is saying that
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Speaker 1: Job is is willing to sacrifice his own children and
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Speaker 1: his flocks and his goats and his camels and everything
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Speaker 1: else that he owned to save his own life. And
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Speaker 1: that's the only reason he still worships God is because
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Speaker 1: he is scared for his own life. So Job is
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Speaker 1: going to sacrifice all the things that he has in
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Speaker 1: life in order to save his own skin. So Satan
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Speaker 1: couldn't just accuse Job anymore of the prosperity gospel because
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Speaker 1: that was proven false. Job proved Satan false because Job
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Speaker 1: fell down on his knees and worshiped a god. in
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Speaker 1: spite of all the calamity that happened to him. So
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Speaker 1: now Satan has to accuse Job of something different, essentially
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Speaker 1: caring so much about his own life that he is
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Speaker 1: willing to sacrifice his children and everybody else in his
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Speaker 1: life in order to save himself. That is a really
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Speaker 1: nasty accusation. against a man who truly did nothing wrong
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Speaker 1: and did not cause any of that calamity in his
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Speaker 1: own life. In fact, that is a disgusting thing for
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Speaker 1: Satan to say about Job. So Satan truly is the accuser.
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Speaker 1: I mean, that is what the word itself means, Satan.
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Speaker 1: He is the accuser. He is going to lie and
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Speaker 1: accuse people of all sorts of evil. because Satan wants
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Speaker 1: his own way. He's a selfish and prideful and disgusting liar.
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Speaker 1: That is who Satan is, okay? And he desires worshipers
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Speaker 1: more than anything else in the world. That is what
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Speaker 1: he wants. So when he doesn't win, he needs to
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Speaker 1: accuse Job of something new. And here's what God says,
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Speaker 1: because again, I believe personally, God was sticking up for
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Speaker 1: Job's faith and for who Job was as a person saying, Satan,
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Speaker 1: you are wrong. Job does not just worship me because
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Speaker 1: I bless him with good things. He worships me because
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Speaker 1: he is an upright man. And right now, when all
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Speaker 1: of this calamity has happened to him, he still is
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Speaker 1: worshiping me. And it's not because he wants to save
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Speaker 1: his own life. So Satan, I give you permission to
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Speaker 1: take away Job's health, but you may not kill him.
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Speaker 1: So Satan, of course, does this immediately. It says in
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Speaker 1: verse 7 that Satan went out from the presence of
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Speaker 1: Yahweh and struck Job with painful sores from the sole
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Speaker 1: of his foot to his head. And it says in
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Speaker 1: verse 8 that he took for himself a potsherd to
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Speaker 1: scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes. Now,
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Speaker 1: this was a common way to show mourning, was to
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Speaker 1: cover yourself in ashes and dust and make yourself look
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Speaker 1: really disheveled because you are in such a deep distress.
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Speaker 1: So Job most likely goes out to his city center
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Speaker 1: where they would burn all of the trash in the city.
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Speaker 1: And he sat there in mourning among those ashes and
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Speaker 1: scraped himself with some of the trash that he found,
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Speaker 1: essentially the pot shirt that he found. Now, why was
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Speaker 1: he scraping himself with it? Probably because the blisters that
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Speaker 1: had broken out all over his body were so painful
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Speaker 1: that he needed something to kind of scratch himself with.
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Speaker 1: I don't think that he was doing this as like
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Speaker 1: a way to cut himself. That's not what scripture says.
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Speaker 1: It says that he was scraping himself with the potsherd,
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Speaker 1: not cutting himself with it. So I think it's just
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Speaker 1: the nature of whatever disease he had covering his skin.
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Speaker 1: It probably honestly was giving him some relief to scrape
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Speaker 1: himself with the little potsherd that he found sitting there.
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Speaker 1: And so he's sitting among the ashes just in mourning.
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Speaker 1: And his wife comes out to visit him. And man,
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Speaker 1: if she's not speaking from the influence of Satan right here,
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Speaker 1: because she says to him, do you still maintain your integrity?
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Speaker 1: Renounce God and die. I can't even imagine saying something
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Speaker 1: like that to my husband. Now, granted, I don't have
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Speaker 1: any kids. And if all of my kids were taken
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Speaker 1: from me, maybe I would. do something so foolish as
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Speaker 1: to say that to my husband in extreme mourning. But still,
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Speaker 1: I mean, I truly do believe that Job's wife right
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Speaker 1: here was speaking on behalf of Satan, in a sense.
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Speaker 1: Not that she was necessarily possessed by Satan, but we
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Speaker 1: do know that Satan can influence us to do and
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Speaker 1: say certain things. There's a verse in the New Testament
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Speaker 1: that says that our battle is not against flesh and blood,
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Speaker 1: but against the principalities and the powers of darkness, essentially.
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Speaker 1: There is some sort of spiritual darkness that covers the
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Speaker 1: earth that we cannot see, but we can feel it.
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Speaker 1: I believe that we can't see it, but it's there
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Speaker 1: and we are fighting against it actively. Or sometimes we
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Speaker 1: can give into whatever that spiritual darkness is asking us
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Speaker 1: to say. And I believe that Job's wife in her
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Speaker 1: own form of mourning and misery is said exactly what
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Speaker 1: Satan wanted her to say. Because what did Satan say
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Speaker 1: to God about Job? He said that Job would renounce
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Speaker 1: God to his face, that he would curse God. And
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Speaker 1: that is what Job's wife is urging Job to do.
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Speaker 1: She's like, just curse God already and die. And here's
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Speaker 1: the thing, you know, I'm sure that whatever was covering Job,
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Speaker 1: like whatever sickness he had was probably really, really bad.
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Speaker 1: And it could have looked like to both Job and
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Speaker 1: his wife that he was about to die. In fact,
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Speaker 1: Job kind of says some of that later on in
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Speaker 1: the book. For example, in Job 30, 16 through 17,
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Speaker 1: he says, my soul is poured out within me. Days
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Speaker 1: of affliction have taken hold of me. In the night season,
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Speaker 1: my bones are pierced in me and the pains that
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Speaker 1: gnaw me take no rest. And in the same chapter,
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Speaker 1: Job 30, verse 30, he says, my skin grows black
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Speaker 1: and peels from me. And my bones are burned with heat.
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Speaker 1: And also in Job 7, 3 through 5, he says,
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Speaker 1: I am made to possess months of misery. Weary some
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Speaker 1: nights are appointed to me. And when I lie down,
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Speaker 1: I say, when will I arise? And the night be gone.
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Speaker 1: I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.
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Speaker 1: My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust.
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Speaker 1: My skin closes up and breaks out afresh. So he
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Speaker 1: has some sort of serious skin issue. Whatever it is,
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Speaker 1: this is bad. And everything has been suggested. If you
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Speaker 1: look up what Job might have had, there's actually a
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Speaker 1: disease that somebody named after Job. It's a very, very
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Speaker 1: rare disease. I think there's only like, I don't know,
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Speaker 1: 30 people in the world that have it or something
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Speaker 1: like that. But it's a very rare disease named after
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Speaker 1: what Job has right here. But whatever it is, Job
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Speaker 1: is suffering. And he probably feels like he is going
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Speaker 1: to die. But what he doesn't understand is that he's
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Speaker 1: not going to die. Because God specifically told Satan, you
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Speaker 1: may not kill Job. You can take his health from him,
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Speaker 1: but she ain't going to kill him. And Job doesn't
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Speaker 1: know that. Neither does his wife, by the way, because
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Speaker 1: she's like, curse God and die. So she assumes that
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Speaker 1: her husband is dying already. But here's how Job responds
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Speaker 1: to his wife. He's actually shockingly... I would say nice
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Speaker 1: to her in spite of this situation. He says to her,
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Speaker 1: you speak as one of the foolish women would speak.
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Speaker 1: So he doesn't outright call her foolish. Notice right there.
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Speaker 1: He says you are speaking like the foolish women. The
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Speaker 1: foolish women acting as if God does not exist. And
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Speaker 1: he says to her, what? Shall we receive good at
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Speaker 1: the hand of God and shall we not receive evil?
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Speaker 1: Now that is where I'd like to get into the
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Speaker 1: evil that God is taking credit for in Job's life.
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Speaker 1: There are verses in scripture that do say that God
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Speaker 1: causes evil. And to the English speaker, that probably makes
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Speaker 1: very little sense because we will often say even to
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Speaker 1: each other that God can do no evil. But yet
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Speaker 1: in scripture, it actually does say that God does evil
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Speaker 1: to certain people. Because we're not understanding that in the
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Speaker 1: Hebrew language, there's two types of evil. The first type
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Speaker 1: of evil is the immoral and unethical evil. And the
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Speaker 1: second type of evil just means calamity or destruction. And
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Speaker 1: in scripture, whenever it says that God does evil to somebody,
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Speaker 1: it's never the immoral or unethical form of evil. It's
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Speaker 1: always the destruction. And somebody going through destruction is not
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Speaker 1: always immoral or unethical. I mean, even countries understand this
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Speaker 1: by putting a law in place that punishes criminals. And
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Speaker 1: unless you're really radicalized, most people would say, yeah, that
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Speaker 1: makes sense. Somebody who does something criminal should be punished
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Speaker 1: for the criminal thing that they do. And even in
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Speaker 1: the case of somebody who isn't necessarily sinning, for example,
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Speaker 1: Jesus's disciples. They had to go through discipline, which is
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Speaker 1: what disciple means. Though they didn't commit any kind of
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Speaker 1: sin themselves, they were still being discipled or disciplined, and
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Speaker 1: discipline is not always easy, toward a better good. So
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Speaker 1: destruction in and of itself is not always an immoral
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Speaker 1: or bad thing. So whenever we see God causing evil
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Speaker 1: to somebody in the Bible, it is never the immoral
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Speaker 1: or unethical form of evil. But you might be like, well, Jen,
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Speaker 1: if he's causing suffering to a man who doesn't deserve
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Speaker 1: the suffering, then is that not immoral and unethical? So
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Speaker 1: how can you say that God was correct in allowing
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Speaker 1: Job to go through this stuff? Well, here's something that
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Speaker 1: I want all of you guys to kind of ponder
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Speaker 1: as we go through the book of Job. Job is blameless,
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Speaker 1: which means he did not have any glaring sins. But
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Speaker 1: just because you're blameless does not mean you are sinless.
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Speaker 1: Blamelessness does not mean sinlessness. Even David called himself blameless
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Speaker 1: on several occasions. And we know that David was not
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Speaker 1: a blameless man, right? Going through his life, he committed adultery.
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Speaker 1: He killed somebody. He caused a lot of issues to
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Speaker 1: his own family. He didn't discipline his sons. He did
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Speaker 1: a lot of bad stuff, actually. And he would call
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Speaker 1: himself blameless on occasion because there was no glaring sins
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Speaker 1: in his life. So even though Job is blameless, that
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Speaker 1: does not mean he is sinless. In fact, if you
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Speaker 1: keep on reading in verse 10, It says right here
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Speaker 1: that in all of this, Job didn't sin with his lips.
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Speaker 1: Now that's interesting because in the last chapter, right after
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Speaker 1: Job lost his children and all of his possessions, it
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Speaker 1: says that Job did not sin in any of this
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Speaker 1: or accuse God of wrongdoing. But now in Job chapter two,
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Speaker 1: after everything has been taken from him, even his health now,
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Speaker 1: it says specifically that Job didn't sin with his lips.
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Speaker 1: The fact that scripture has to qualify it, I believe
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Speaker 1: means that Yes, even though Job wasn't saying anything sinful,
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Speaker 1: there is something going on in Job's heart that we
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Speaker 1: cannot see, which proves my original point of Job not
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Speaker 1: being a sinless individual. Here's what Romans 5, 12 says. Therefore,
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Speaker 1: just as sin came into the world through one man
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Speaker 1: and death through sin, and so death spread to all
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Speaker 1: men because all sinned. In the next chapter over, Romans 6,
21:06
Speaker 1: verse 23, it says, for the wages of sin is death,
21:09
Speaker 1: But the free gift of God is eternal life in
21:12
Speaker 1: Christ Jesus, our Lord. So everybody has sinned and sin
21:16
Speaker 1: causes death. Us human beings took what was perfect, which
21:22
Speaker 1: was God's creation, and corrupted it so much that we
21:26
Speaker 1: actually caused death and destruction and spiritual death and destruction
21:31
Speaker 1: in the world. And because every single person on earth
21:33
Speaker 1: has contributed to that collective sin, you and I included,
21:38
Speaker 1: Job included, That means that all of us have to
21:41
Speaker 1: deal with the consequences of that corruption. In fact, it's
21:45
Speaker 1: only just that we do. Because say that certain people,
21:49
Speaker 1: like God just protected them fully from calamity and suffering.
21:54
Speaker 1: Is that really fair? I don't believe it is. Everybody
21:58
Speaker 1: must experience the consequences of our sin here on earth.
22:03
Speaker 1: And anything that God gives us to shield us and
22:06
Speaker 1: protect us from the consequences of that sin is a
22:10
Speaker 1: mercy from him. There is only one sinless individual who
22:15
Speaker 1: does not deserve the consequences of sin. And that is
22:19
Speaker 1: Jesus himself. And yet he experienced the consequences of sin
22:24
Speaker 1: more than you and I ever will in our entire lives,
22:28
Speaker 1: because Jesus took that sin on himself and gave us
22:33
Speaker 1: eternal life instead. That is what Isaiah 53 says. This
22:37
Speaker 1: is prophecy about Jesus. Let's read verses one through six.
22:42
Speaker 1: It says, who has believed our message? To whom has
22:45
Speaker 1: Yahweh's arm been revealed? For he grew up before him
22:48
Speaker 1: as a tender plant and as a root out of
22:50
Speaker 1: dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. And
22:53
Speaker 1: when we see him, there is no beauty that we
22:55
Speaker 1: should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men,
22:59
Speaker 1: a man of suffering, acquainted with disease. He was despised
23:03
Speaker 1: as one whom men hid their face and we didn't
23:06
Speaker 1: respect him. Surely he has borne our sickness and carried
23:10
Speaker 1: our suffering, and yet we considered him plagued, struck by
23:14
Speaker 1: God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions.
23:18
Speaker 1: He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought
23:22
Speaker 1: our peace was on him, and by his wounds we
23:25
Speaker 1: are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone
23:29
Speaker 1: has turned to his own way, and Yahweh has laid
23:32
Speaker 1: on him the iniquity of us all. You and I,
23:37
Speaker 1: And Job and all of the other human beings mentioned
23:40
Speaker 1: in scripture were these collective sheep that laid their sins
23:45
Speaker 1: on the one sinless individual who did not deserve any
23:49
Speaker 1: of the punishment that he took on our behalf. And
23:52
Speaker 1: he took that suffering so that you and I do
23:55
Speaker 1: not have to suffer. So Job, I believe in a
23:59
Speaker 1: lot of ways is a picture of Jesus, though Job
24:02
Speaker 1: did things far less perfect than Jesus did. He's still
24:07
Speaker 1: a picture of Jesus in many ways. But my whole
24:11
Speaker 1: point with that spiel is that every single person, whether
24:14
Speaker 1: you're righteous or not, deserves the suffering that sin causes.
24:20
Speaker 1: We all deserve it. There's only one that didn't deserve it.
24:23
Speaker 1: And yet he suffered more than all of us. You know,
24:26
Speaker 1: when we experience suffering here on earth, it's the consequences
24:29
Speaker 1: of our own sin. It's the consequences of the death
24:32
Speaker 1: that we brought into this world because It's the consequences
24:34
Speaker 1: of listening to Satan back in the Garden of Eden.
24:37
Speaker 1: But Jesus, on the other hand, a sinless individual who
24:40
Speaker 1: did not contribute to the sins of the world, he
24:43
Speaker 1: is the only one that did not deserve the suffering
24:45
Speaker 1: that he went through. So looking at it in that light,
24:50
Speaker 1: is it really unjust for us to go through problems
24:53
Speaker 1: on earth? Do we really think that we can, as Christians,
24:57
Speaker 1: just sort of skate by and not experience the the
25:00
Speaker 1: consequences that sin in general has caused. We cannot think
25:05
Speaker 1: that way as Christians. Even David in Psalm 34 and
25:12
Speaker 1: 19 said this, On earth, we go through afflictions because
25:19
Speaker 1: in a sense we cause them. And it's a mercy
25:21
Speaker 1: for God to deliver us out of them at all
25:24
Speaker 1: when we sinned against him from the beginning. When he
25:26
Speaker 1: told us from the beginning, hey, if you don't eat
25:28
Speaker 1: from that tree, You're not going to go through all
25:31
Speaker 1: of this misery. And even though we disobeyed what God said,
25:35
Speaker 1: he still delivers us out of every single affliction that
25:38
Speaker 1: we find ourselves in. So the idea is that, is
25:41
Speaker 1: it really just for God to take all suffering away
25:45
Speaker 1: from us sinners just because we worship him? God is
25:49
Speaker 1: a just God, even if we don't like it sometimes.
25:53
Speaker 1: So going back to Job, he kind of understood this himself.
25:56
Speaker 1: He said, shall we receive the good at the hand
25:59
Speaker 1: of God and shall we not receive evil? So in
26:03
Speaker 1: other words, should we only take the good things that
26:05
Speaker 1: God gives us and reject him the second we have
26:08
Speaker 1: to deal with the consequences of the sin nature? You know,
26:11
Speaker 1: God was right about Job. He was certainly the most
26:14
Speaker 1: upright man in the earth because what other person who
26:18
Speaker 1: is going through the problems that Job is experiencing would
26:22
Speaker 1: say that about God and about personal suffering? Probably pretty
26:28
Speaker 1: much nobody. We would be more like Job's wife in
26:33
Speaker 1: our grief, sinning against God and saying things that we
26:36
Speaker 1: should not say. But Job was different than that. And
26:40
Speaker 1: he understood suffering, I think, a little bit better than
26:43
Speaker 1: most people do. But the good news for Job is
26:47
Speaker 1: that suffering is a cause for great joy. Now we're
26:51
Speaker 1: going to go through the rest of Job's story and
26:53
Speaker 1: see that, you know, Job was not joyful. He was
26:56
Speaker 1: not glorying in his miseries, obviously. Even Jesus himself was not,
27:02
Speaker 1: you know, skipping his way to the cross. He was
27:05
Speaker 1: in the garden crying and, you know, sweating drops of
27:09
Speaker 1: blood because of the stress of what he was about
27:12
Speaker 1: to do. But our suffering is an opportunity for great joy.
27:17
Speaker 1: Here's what 1 Peter 5.10 says, After you have suffered
27:20
Speaker 1: a little while, the God of all grace, who has
27:22
Speaker 1: called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen,
27:27
Speaker 1: and establish you. Romans 8.18 says, For I consider that
27:31
Speaker 1: the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing
27:34
Speaker 1: with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
27:37
Speaker 1: James 1.2-4 says, Count it all joy, my brothers, when
27:41
Speaker 1: you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that
27:44
Speaker 1: the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, And let steadfastness
27:47
Speaker 1: have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete,
27:51
Speaker 1: lacking in nothing. And in that same book, James 5.11 says,
27:55
Speaker 1: And that is something we never think about with Job's story,
27:58
Speaker 1: that God was compassionate and merciful toward Job. What an
28:00
Speaker 1: interesting and novel idea. Because a lot of us like
28:17
Speaker 1: to look at the story of Job and say, wow,
28:19
Speaker 1: this guy deserved nothing. He was basically Jesus. He was sinless.
28:23
Speaker 1: And how horrible God was to send all of this
28:26
Speaker 1: calamity on Job. And yet James is saying right here
28:29
Speaker 1: that through Job's story, God is shown to be compassionate
28:34
Speaker 1: and merciful. Because all of the blessings that God ever
28:38
Speaker 1: gave Job were things that none of us ever deserve.
28:45
Speaker 1: God is compassionate. And he is merciful. And we're going
28:48
Speaker 1: to see more of this story come alive in the
28:52
Speaker 1: next few chapters. But to finish out for today, let's
28:54
Speaker 1: go back to Job chapter two and read verses 11
28:57
Speaker 1: through 13. It says, now when Job's three friends heard
29:01
Speaker 1: of all of this evil that had come on him,
29:03
Speaker 1: they each came from his own place. Eliphaz the Temanite,
29:06
Speaker 1: Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Namathite. And they made
29:10
Speaker 1: an appointment together to come and sympathize with him and
29:12
Speaker 1: to comfort him. So Job's three friends heard of all
29:15
Speaker 1: the calamities that happened to Job, and they decided to
29:17
Speaker 1: travel from their various cities to come and meet Job.
29:18
Speaker 1: And there's only one person So Job's three friends heard
29:32
Speaker 1: of all the calamities that happened to Job, and they
29:34
Speaker 1: decided to travel from their various cities to come and
29:37
Speaker 1: meet Job. And there's only one person of these three
29:40
Speaker 1: friends that comes from a city that we know about historically,
29:45
Speaker 1: which is Eliphaz the Temanite. Teman, the city Teman, is
29:49
Speaker 1: actually mentioned in Jeremiah 49, verse 7. It's an Edomite
29:54
Speaker 1: city known for its wisdom. It says, Is wisdom no
30:00
Speaker 1: more in Teman? Has counsel perished from the prudent and
30:04
Speaker 1: has their wisdom vanished? And Eliphaz, who is an Edomite
30:08
Speaker 1: coming from the city of Teman, could have been one
30:11
Speaker 1: of those wise men also. And again, I think this
30:14
Speaker 1: is even more evidence that Job was an Edomite himself,
30:17
Speaker 1: possibly again, the Edomite king, for a wise man potentially
30:22
Speaker 1: from an Edomite city of Teman to come and visit
30:25
Speaker 1: Job as well as these other three individuals. but it's
30:30
Speaker 1: very likely that news traveled slowly to these three friends because,
30:34
Speaker 1: you know, this was back before the age of cell
30:36
Speaker 1: phones and people didn't really know, um, what was happening
30:39
Speaker 1: the second it happened. And Job kind of does say
30:42
Speaker 1: that months went by before his friends came and visited him.
30:45
Speaker 1: Because again, going back to Job seven, we already read
30:47
Speaker 1: this passage today, but, uh, Here it is again, verses
30:51
Speaker 1: three through five. Job says, I am made to possess
30:54
Speaker 1: months of misery. Weary some nights are appointed to me.
30:57
Speaker 1: And when I lie down, I say, when will I
30:59
Speaker 1: arise and the night be gone? I toss and turn
31:02
Speaker 1: until the dawning of the day. My flesh is clothed
31:04
Speaker 1: with worms and clods of dust and my skin closes
31:06
Speaker 1: up and breaks out afresh. So Job basically said right
31:10
Speaker 1: there that months had gone by in this suffering that
31:14
Speaker 1: he is experiencing. So we're gonna find out How do
31:18
Speaker 1: Job's three friends comfort him throughout all of this? They
31:21
Speaker 1: have a pretty good start right here because they shut
31:24
Speaker 1: their mouths. And not to give too many spoilers away,
31:28
Speaker 1: but that was the most comforting that they're going to
31:30
Speaker 1: do in the entire book of Job. They probably should
31:33
Speaker 1: have kept their mouths shut. So we'll talk about all
31:37
Speaker 1: of that in the next coming chapters in Job. But
31:41
Speaker 1: as you guys know, before I close out episodes of
31:43
Speaker 1: The Bible Explained... I always play the last sponsored ad
31:47
Speaker 1: for you guys. So after this ad plays, I'll say
31:50
Speaker 1: goodbye to all of you and close out this episode. Alrighty,
31:55
Speaker 1: faithful listeners, I will see all of you hopefully tomorrow
31:58
Speaker 1: as we discuss 1 Peter chapter 4, the end of it.
32:02
Speaker 1: And guess what? We're going to be talking about basically
32:05
Speaker 1: the same thing tomorrow that we talked about today, which
32:10
Speaker 1: is why do righteous people go through suffering? And Peter
32:13
Speaker 1: has his own take on it. And this is something
32:16
Speaker 1: I never thought about before or realized before until I
32:19
Speaker 1: read 1 Peter chapter 4, basically today. I was today's
32:24
Speaker 1: years old when I discovered Peter's argument as to why
32:29
Speaker 1: righteous people have to suffer. So we will talk about
32:32
Speaker 1: all of that tomorrow. And I just absolutely love how
32:35
Speaker 1: scripture always connects with itself because, man, I'd say the
32:39
Speaker 1: book of 1 Peter and Job really go hand in
32:42
Speaker 1: hand in a lot of ways. So it's been fun
32:45
Speaker 1: going back and forth between the two books. Faithful listeners,
32:48
Speaker 1: I'll see you guys tomorrow, 6 a.m. or whenever you
32:51
Speaker 1: choose to wake up and listen for another episode from
32:53
Speaker 1: 1 Peter. Happy listening and God bless. I just want
33:03
Speaker 1: to take a second to thank the team at Life
33:05
Speaker 1: Audio for their partnership with me on the Bible Explained podcast.
33:08
Speaker 1: In fact, if you go to lifeaudio.com, you'll find dozens
33:11
Speaker 1: of other faith-centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows
33:14
Speaker 1: about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.