We go back to the book and character of Job. This man has much to show us regarding grace through trial.
Job 1: Job's Character and Wealth
1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
2 There were born to him seven sons and three daughters.
3 He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.
4 His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
5 And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, "It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts." Thus Job did continually.
Satan Allowed to Test Job
6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.
7 The LORD said to Satan, "From where have you come?" Satan answered the LORD and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it."
8 And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?"
9 Then Satan answered the LORD and said, "Does Job fear God for no reason?
10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face."
12 And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand." So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
Satan Takes Job's Property and Children
13 Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house,
14 and there came a messenger to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them,
15 and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you."
16 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, "The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you."
17 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, "The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you."
18 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, "Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house,
19 and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you."
20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.
21 And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."
Job 2: Satan Attacks Job's Health
1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD.
2 And the LORD said to Satan, "From where have you come?" Satan answered the LORD and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it."
3 And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason."
4 Then Satan answered the LORD and said, "Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life.
5 But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face."
6 And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life."
7 So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.
8 And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.
9 Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die."
10 But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Job's Three Friends
11 Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.
12 And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven.
13 And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great..
Job 3: Job Laments His Birth
1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
2 And Job said:
3 "Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, 'A man is conceived.'
4 Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it.
5 Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
6 That night---let thick darkness seize it! Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.
7 Behold, let that night be barren; let no joyful cry enter it.
8 Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.
9 Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light, but have none, nor see the eyelids of the morning,
10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes.
11 "Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire?
12 Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
13 For then I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
14 with kings and counselors of the earth who rebuilt ruins for themselves,
15 or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.
16 Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child, as infants who never see the light?
17 There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest.
18 There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
19 The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his master.
20 "Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul,
21 who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
22 who rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they find the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
24 For my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water.
25 For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.
26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes."
Things to think about…
1. Dead in a day! The suffering that we read about in Job 1 is not a fairy tale. This man in history went through this horror. Job didn’t need to believe in the ‘Prosperity Gospel’. He was living a life of blessing under the Lord with ten kids and great wealth. Nothing in this life is a guarantee for the Christian – not wealth, health, or many blessed relationships. But it is wonderful when the Lord allows them to occur. Job’s testimony that “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” Job 1:21 is only true when seen with a heart of faith that acknowledges God’s right to rule in all situations.
2. Satan was created by God as a ‘son of God’, Job 1:6 and he was created ‘good’ on the first day of creation. Jesus said he saw Satan fall ‘like lightning’ in sin and rebellion to the earth. Satan is the “Prince of the air”, Eph 2:2 and is still the ruler over this present age roaming to and fro throughout the earth. Look at the dialogue between Satan and God, Job 1:6-12. God seems to be taunting Satan with the character of Job. Why does the Lord do this do you think? God is in sovereign control, evil can go only so far and no further without the Lord’s decree.
3. Four messages and four disasters, Job 1:13-22. The last of them was the most cruel, a wind from the Lord came and killed all Job’s children. Look at Job’s response, vs 21. He is a mighty man of God. I would be lost and beside myself at this point. Take all that I have, but not my family. May God have mercy. Years ago in our church there was a lady, Bronwyn, who testified to losing family members (more than two or three) and had gone through an experience similar to Job, possibly worse because it was over a lifetime and not over in a day. She has spent a few years in the Lord’s presence, pain and sin free. Praise God for grace that conquers in the face of such suffering. She is now living in presence of the Lord where joy and life lasts for eternity.
4. ‘Skin for skin’ was the devil’s taunt, Job 2:4. This same person mentioned above, like Job, was afflicted with ill health. Job had boils for a season, but dear Bronwyn had terminal cancer four times, the last bout eventually took her life. Yet she had testified that she didn’t blame God, because through the suffering it had brought her closer to God. Why is it the case that some are drawn nearer through suffering, but others, like Pharaoh, are hardened. May God pour out His grace on us whatever the season that we are drawn closer to the Lord.
5. ‘Curse God and die’ was the response from Job’s wife, Job 2:9. As if the burden wasn’t enough for Job. But I feel for his wife, she had lost her ten precious children. Job’s response back to her is correct, but how many of us are with Job’s wife and would struggle to take Job’s counsel to heart. It is only when we experience suffering that we can truly know for sure.
6. Enter Job’s three ‘friends’, Job 2:11-13. This initial response was the most appropriate and most helpful of all their counsel. They simply sat with Job and said nothing for seven days and nights. Where there is severe grief and loss, no words are able to comfort or heal. Just being there and weeping with those who weep is enough…’they saw that his suffering was very great’, Job 2:13.
7. After seven days of silence, Job finally speaks and lets out the anguish in his heart Job 3:1. When there has been unimaginable grief, the heart must be free to express whatever is in there in a verbal sense. The only case where this was not to happen was when Ezekiel was called not to grieve over the loss of his wife. The only difference being that the Lord gave Ezekiel a heads ups and said his wife would die. Job had no such knowledge of the grief which would come upon him. We must allow people to express their grief and just listen.
8. Job in 3:3-26 in a nutshell says it is better not to have known life at all, than to have known it and lost all. This is not true of course, but this is a man who is who is in the depths of grief, loss, and depression. We often hear of people who are so burdened by depression that they take their own lives. Always a tragedy for those who are left to pick up the pieces. As we go through Job we eventually come to the answer – our Redeemer lives, Job 19. Let’s pray that all those who are in the depths of despair can be given enough light to see the One who was described as a man of sorrows, well acquainted with grief.
9. Sometimes I am struck by fear. I agree with Job, 3:25, 26. I am worried that “The thing I feared has come upon me”. For some this is more than a fear, but a reality. Think of those poor souls in Northern Iraq and Africa years ago, who lost their lives because they do not follow the ISIS version of Islam. Perfect love casts out fear. The only way we can know this perfect love is to continually have it shown to us – through the Word of God with the blessing of His Spirit.
Vision statement for CBC
CBC’s Vision :- To be a growing biblical church community, significantly influencing our city and beyond, through intentional outreach, fulfilling our mission.
Join us on Wednesday nights as we study practical ways to apply God’s word.
Prayer Points
1. Please pray for Steve Hawkins and Glenys Zawada – Both are recovering well.
2. The conflicts in Israel and Ukraine. Praise for the peace of Jesus to reign.
3. Mathys has a prayer time at church on Monday afternoons. He would be happy for you to join him and to send prayer requests.
4. That those who are new to the church are encouraged and settle in well into the church.
5. That we be bold in our witnessing for Christ. Pray for a heart to see those around you to be saved. Pray for the blessing over the new pastoral care and hosting program.
6. Pray for our Carols program, Sun 17th Dec. Pray for the names and people that we will be inviting.
7. Growth, conversions, joy in the Word and Spirit to remain and increase.
Praise Points
1. Praise God for the improved health of Steve Hawkins. He looked great on Sunday.
2. Praise God for our Kidz@church program this year. Thankyou to Rosie and all the leaders.
3. Praise God for new folk, pray they can settle into the church.
4. Continue to be blessed in our Wed mid-week meeting.
5. Good ministry after the service. Continue to pray for this blessing to increase.
6. Joy, peace and grace we see at CBC. Thankyou Lord
Announcements
1. Mid week topical teaching every Wednesday night – 6:30pm at church.
2. Carols starting in the afternoon from 4pm Sunday 17th Dec.
3. Church bank details bsb:- 704 913 and Acc number:- 4000 4388 1
4. Tune in again this week on our YouTube page. Subscribe to the CBC channel Chuwar Baptist YouTube channel.
Catechism questions for December...
Q. 15. Who wrote the Bible? A. Holy men who were taught by the Holy Spirit.
