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[0:00] It's good to see you this evening. Trust that everyone has had a good day. We're in the book of Job, Job chapter 2.! Job chapter 2 is where we will be at this evening.

[0:15] We're in Job chapter 2. We will get through the second chapter, which will really set us up for Wednesday night to get into some difficult portions of the book of Job because the first two chapters are the prelude, kind of introducing the book to us.

[0:37] The last chapter is the postlude, kind of bringing everything to a conclusion. But the portion in between is that great poetic writing. You know it as the questions and the response of everything that's going on between Job and his friends.

[0:51] But in its writing, it is considered one of the greatest poetic books in history. And so we don't get it in our original language here.

[1:02] We don't get the beauty of it for reading it in English. But it's also very difficult to interpret at times. So yeah, we'll look into that after tonight.

[1:13] So we will be Job 2 tonight. We'll finish that up. And we will make our way as the Lord leads us. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the day.

[1:25] We thank you for the opportunity. And we praise you that we get the opportunity to gather together. And we pray that you continue to speak to us from your word. We praise you for the truth that it contains.

[1:38] So Father, as we look at it, Lord, help us to learn not just the truth, but Lord, the application of that truth. Help us to grow closer to you through our understanding.

[1:50] Lord, also help us to live well in light of the truth that it teaches us. And help us to live for your glory and honor. We ask it all in Christ's name.

[2:02] Amen. Job 1 introduces for us the men of Job. And then it kind of begins the trial, if you will. We have this scene in heaven starting in verse 6, the first chapter.

[2:15] The scene when there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan was there as well. Job 1 details for us the great loss of Job economically, financially, socially.

[2:30] He loses everything possession-wise. He loses all of his animals, all of his livestock, all of his children. He loses all those things. For the judgment of the adversary, which would be Satan, was that Job was a man of faithfulness because God had blessed him and enriched him.

[2:48] And since God's favor had rested upon him, it was easy for Job to be faithful. It was easy for Job to remain as a man of integrity for his life was guarded by the blessings of the Lord.

[3:04] When we get into the second chapter, the test is going to step up. It is really going to be the testing of the limits of his faith.

[3:16] And it is the testing of the limits of his faith that begins here in the second chapter. And it will continue throughout the remainder of the book as doubt is cast upon his integrity and of his person and even of his motives.

[3:32] He will really suffer the ridicule of his friends, the judgment of those who sat before him. Those younger than him would try to speak words of wisdom to teach him matters.

[3:45] He himself will go into a time of despair, a time of darkness, a time of doubt, longing for his own death, despising the day of his own birth. And it will not be until the Lord opens his mouth.

[3:59] And as we say, Job, were you there? And he realizes that all the doubts, all of the uncertainties are erased at the very word of God. But the testing of the limits of his faith really begin here in chapter two.

[4:15] It says, 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. The Lord said to Satan, Where have you come from?

[4:29] Then Satan answered the Lord and said, From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it. The Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.

[4:45] And he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to ruin him without cause. Satan answered the Lord and said, Skin for skin.

[4:57] Yes, all that a man has, he will give for his life. However, put forth your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face. So the Lord said to Satan, Behold, he is in your power.

[5:10] Only spare his life. Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a potsherd to scrape himself while he was sitting among the ashes.

[5:25] Then his wife said to him, Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die. But he said to her, You speak as one of the foolish women speaks.

[5:36] Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity? In all this, Job did not sin with his lips. Now when Job's three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, they came each one from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Namathite.

[5:57] And they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and comfort him. While they lifted up their eyes at a distance and did not recognize him, they raised their voices and wept.

[6:11] And each of them tore his robe and they threw dust over their heads toward the sky. Then they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights with no one speaking a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great.

[6:28] It is the testing of the limit of his faith that we find in Job 2. It is again one of those scenes of heaven which is given to us by way of revelation.

[6:44] I have been even assured more and more as I studied the book of Job in the historical reliability of it. One of the testimonies that it gives us is the fact that we know the name of his three friends and we know where they are from.

[7:00] We can probably trace these friends and we can see some common acquaintances with some descendants of Abraham. We can see some commonality there during the patriarchal time.

[7:12] Though we do not know the time in which the book was written, we can very closely associate it with the time of Abraham and his near descendants. It is a time when there are no priests, there are no temple, there is no temple, there is no tabernacle, there is no sacrificial worship that has been prescribed by the law, although the sacrificial worship had begun all the way back in the garden where God skinned the animal and sacrificed the animal and clothed Adam and Eve.

[7:43] We see beginning then with their departure from the garden that the sacrificial system is maintained for we see it with Cain and Abel, Abel sacrificed, and it was accepted by the Lord.

[7:56] And we see the testimony of Scripture that there are the remnant, the people that are walking in faithfulness and integrity. Job Shines Forth is one of the books that reminds us that even in those, what we call them, civilization formation periods, the time after Genesis 11 when Babylon and everything is dispersed and the people are going everywhere and there's Genesis 12 and there seems to be confusion and uncertainty and man is living however they long.

[8:25] Job reminds us that even during that time, there were individuals that were walking in faithfulness. We do not know the name of all of them, but one we do know is Job himself.

[8:39] God called Abram from the land of the earth, the Chaldeans, but he ascribes to Job a testimony that is never ascribed to Abram.

[8:50] Job is declared to be a man of blamelessness or completeness, a man of integrity. Abram is never declared to be those things.

[9:02] I often wonder why God did not choose Job to make a nation out of him, but rather he used Job to be an illustration and a demonstration to all of us how to handle suffering and he chose one with such imperfections as Abram, later to become Abraham, whose family was in such dysfunction and he lied not once but twice concerning his own wife and that is the one that God chose to make a nation out of.

[9:27] For one whose integrity is upheld by the court of heaven twice in the first two chapters is a demonstration of how to handle suffering and the one who fails in the courtrooms on earth and lies is a display to us of God's patience and grace and redemption.

[9:47] It's astounding, isn't it, the ones that God uses? But yet it is the testing of the limits of his faith that we are made aware of that Job's three friends are not and we see that it comes rather rapidly in this chapter.

[10:06] In the chapter, we see the escalation of the attack. I'm sorry. There you go, Mr. Number one, the escalation of the attack. She's got on to me because I didn't tell her my points last time.

[10:17] We see that the attack against Job is raised to another level. But before we see it being escalated, we are reminded again that there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord.

[10:32] There was a day, a day of appointment. We don't know if we're just going to be honest. We don't know how much time transpires between the losing of all of his physical earthly possessions and the second day.

[10:48] Some, and I think rightfully so, have commented that it must have at least been some sufficient amount of time. It would have been enough time for Job's three friends living in various regions around that territory to communicate with one another and they weren't pulling the phones out of their pockets and calling one another to communicate with one another to reconcile their plans to plan a place of meeting and then to meet.

[11:16] That would have taken at least some time. That has led some Bible scholars to assume that possibly up to a year has transpired from the time that Job had lost all of his possessions until now we have that there was a day.

[11:31] And now there's a further revelation in this text that if we're not careful we will miss it. It tells us in verse 6 of the first chapter that there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan was there as well.

[11:46] Here in the opening verses of the second chapter it tells us and there was a day again when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan was there to present himself.

[11:58] And it is the little phrase himself. Now this is a further revelation when we read scripture one thing that we notice is the longer we read into it one of the distinctives of Baptist doctrine and I don't think it has to necessarily be Baptist but it is one of the distinctives the Baptists have always said yes we affirm that.

[12:18] One of the things that clear just if we just want to call it a simple reading of scripture shows us is the more we read the Bible that is the further we get into it the more God opens up.

[12:31] He's just peeling back layers and so what is given to us in obscurity in the first pages of Genesis is presented with such clarity in the final pages of Revelation.

[12:46] And it is just being opened up layer by layer. Even in particular books we see the same thing. Here we see even though we've only went just a few verses that there is a day when the sons of God present themselves before the Lord and Satan is there too.

[13:02] Now if we were to read that in its simplicity what we would assume is just as all of you are before me and I am before you that we are in a corporate setting. And if we were to read it that way then here are all these angelic beings and Satan is there among them and he is there too.

[13:18] When we get into the second chapter now I may be splitting hairs here but I think it matters because the word himself the present himself also is there is it is not that Satan is lost among the multitude of the angelic beings is that on that day it is not just a corporate accountability it is individual accountability that Satan himself would stand before the Lord too.

[13:45] Now I appreciate that because it is not as if our adversary is lost among all the angelic beings some good some fallen some doing the bidding and declarations of the Lord God Almighty others walking in rebellion and disobedience and in the midst of them we have kind of the wheat and tares if you will the mixed multitude standing before God no what is affirmed for us here is the adversary of man stands himself before the Lord God Almighty he is not lost but rather he is singled out and it is on that day where again the Lord asks him where have you been and Satan answers from roaming about on the earth and going here and there it is again this declaration that Satan is limited and he goes to and fro seeking whom he may devour again God brings up Job have you set your heart upon my servant Job some translations as the New American Standard says have you considered my servant Job the implication is in your heart are you considering again my servant Job and we know that Satan is for he says well sure yes and God and notice the affirmation of heaven

[14:56] God again declares that Job is blameless fearing God holding to his integrity even though he has lost all in the midst of suffering in the midst of pain in the midst of misery upon the earth possibly lasting for an extended period up to a year Job is walking in uncertainty but the testimony of God in heaven is that here is a man of completeness here is a man of integrity Job has no idea what's going on but it is comforting to know that though we may be unaware though we may be walking in a cloud of confusion God is clear in his interpretation of our actions and our attitudes and Satan gives that response skin for skin a man would give up anything for his life and here is the testimony that will or not the raising up of the attack the escalation that will test his faith to the limit so you've removed his physical blessings but what about his flesh a man will give up anything if you would just touch his skin touch his bones

[16:09] Satan the adversary says he will curse you to your face and God gives him permission and we see the attack escalated in the reality that boils we're not 100% certain what they are go from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet and they are so horrendous he takes a piece of broken pottery and he scrapes them to alleviate the itching and the pain and the misery and if that is not enough in the middle of that his wife his helpmate says why don't you just curse God and die because now she is the two have become one part of his bone and part of his flesh and so the attack gets personal really quick it starts hitting home physically and it starts hitting home literally and the enemy is at work and what is going on is we're trying the limits of his faith and we ask ourselves how far does faith carry an individual

[17:28] God in his omniscience knows we do not Job is very unaware God understands he knows the outcome he sees the end from the very beginning he is not constrained nor confined by time in history and he knows how it will end but yet Job does not and up to this point until we have read the end of it we do not but we know the attack has been escalated the next thing that we notice in our text is the preservation of his integrity for Job remains true he says then his wife said to him do you still hold fast your integrity curse God and die but he said to her you speak as one of the foolish women speaks now be confident Job did not mean this statement to be one of ridicule or to be demeaning to his wife and we know that because we are told in the text that he has not sinned by his lips so he wasn't being belittling he was just declaring the statement that the words coming out of her mouth was spoken with uncertainty and one who did not have full knowledge of the goodness and greatness of the Lord

[18:58] God and so he preserves his integrity first by guarding his counsel he says you're speaking of one who is not aware of the ways of heaven and he therefore does not take the advice of his wife it's amazing when we read the original text the original text says to bless God and die at least the oldest manuscripts we have here and so we have to really challenge ourselves because this shows us just the weight of her statement it was more than likely intended to be to curse God and die but the scribes that were transcribing the original by the way there were three copies of the book of Job found among the Dead Sea Scrolls it is the oldest attested canonized book of the

[19:59] Old Testament from the Hebrew historical setting to the Christian historical setting there has never been a time in which the canon canonization of scripture and the validity of the book of Job has ever been questioned historically no one has ever questioned its reliability of being in a text and therefore it is so old it has been copied so many times and by the time it was being copied by the scribes of the Hebrew descent because this is a Gentile individual possibly written by a Gentile author we have no idea but by the time it is being written the thought of cursing God was so horrendous so beside themselves that they substituted the word to bless instead of to curse because they could not wrap their mind around someone cursing

[21:09] God it was so offensive so they said well let's use the word to bless but they used it in such a manner that in the original language it carries a weight of not really blessing but turning that blessing around into a curse and so the literal reading is to curse God and die and that is that offense that Job hears and he preserves his integrity by saying that is spoken in foolishness without wisdom and even in ignorance and then he makes the statement a statement that is just as applicable today as it ever has been and one that ensures that he will preserve his integrity moving forward and the statement is this shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity it is a proper understanding of the Lord God Almighty that helped him to preserve the integrity which he possessed it is the reality that all things come from

[22:14] God and all things mean all things that is those that are perceived of as good and those things which are seen as adverse it is the acceptance of both the good and the bad flowing from the courtroom of heaven and knowing that God has a purpose for both the pleasant and the miserable and he preserves his integrity not by looking at his circumstances not by listening to the counsel of the world the counsel of the world is something that we will speak the bulk of the book we will see through the bulk of the book as the world gives counsel and much of that counsel admittedly sounds very very good much of that counsel if we're honest we would have underlined in our Bible yes that makes sense but in the end God says these people are completely wrong but the counsel runs in the face of the declaration that we ought to accept both good and adversity from God now that's a standing of understanding that

[23:24] God is on the throne and we dare not accept the good gifts if we're not willing to accept the adversity that may come later and it is in this statement that it is told us that in all of this Job did not sin with his lips rather he preserved his integrity and he remained true through it all so we see the escalation of the attack and the preservation of his integrity and here's the third and final one and it's the consternation of others I'm going to define that word for you because some say why in the world are we using the word consternation it's an old word it's a word rich and full of meaning Noah Webster not Miriam Webster Noah Webster from the 1800s the original

[24:25] Webster defined consternation as the amazement wonder surprise or horror that incapacitates a person from accomplishing a task it is to be so horrified so amazed so in wonder that you are incapacitated to do anything else it is that dumbstruck look when you see something and you're frozen and you don't know what to do and it is a fitting word for one of the trials that tests the faith of Job for those around him were full of consternation his wife was to be his greatest helpmate she was the one who was to walk beside him and encourage him we are not amazed at her statement for she too had just lost all of her children she too had just lost all of her livelihood she too was unaware of any of the events going on in heaven but rather than walking beside her husband in misery and walking beside him in mourning the moment he gets sick she makes the statement why don't you just curse God and die and the reason is is that she is so horrified so amazed at the events that are transpiring she is now incapable of being any aid she just can't she is at that point no benefit to the faith of

[26:09] Job and then we are introduced to the three friends of Job we meet Eliphaz Bildad and Zophar now before we cast judgment upon them for we know what they're going to say later we have read the book look at the good intentions which they have when they hear of the misfortune of Job and of the trials what they have heard of is the fact that in one day he lost all of his livestock and his children and one day everything he had was gone and they heard this and these are good friends for in hearing this they get with one another and they make an agreement to meet and it tells us that they wanted to meet together at an appointed time so that they could come to sympathize with him and comfort him the word of God tells us that upon hearing of the tragedy that had befallen upon him they wanted to sympathize and comfort they wanted to be of some help they were not coming for judgment originally they were coming to be a help but then notice what the text tells us but when they were some distance away looking up and seeing

[27:24] Job now covered in boils from head to foot sitting on a pile of ashes having raw skin exposed it will tell us later on in the text that his skin is rotting away there's mucus oozing out of it he will be parched and he is scraping his body with a broken shard of pottery and seeing him at a distance they are so horrified he is unrecognizable they had heard about his loss they probably did not know about his physical ailments those who were coming to sympathize and to aid now are so astounded so overwhelmed so moved with horror they can't even recognize their friend and they throw ashes upon themselves and here is the answer for why so many people say this story can't be true because who in the world would ever sit in silence for seven days and seven nights surely this is a metaphor or a grand parable here is the answer the horror of what they were witnessing before them had so struck them that they were incapacitated to be of any aid whatsoever and they were silent seven days and seven nights it's consternation now that's important the reason that's important is because sometimes the greatest trials that come upon the people of God also isolate them from the people of God and it is in the midst of that isolation where everything around us is falling apart and the people so near to us are filled with such consternation that they don't know what to say they don't know what to do they don't know how to speak they don't know how to help so all they can do is be present and be silent it is then that the enemy begins to whisper in the ear it is then that the test of our faith is brought to its limit for nobody knows what to say as a matter of fact it's Job who speaks first for what can they say they are so horrified by what is before them and at times we find ourselves in that type of trial where we desperately need someone to sympathize with us and to help us and to walk beside us but they are so stricken by the misery and the pain that the individual is enduring they can't do anything but sit there and the feeling of isolation can be overwhelming the feeling of isolation gives an opportunity for Satan to speak why do these friends give the counsel they do well they had seven days to think about it and they were thinking about it according to the world standards they weren't thinking about it as one who sympathizes in weakness

[30:36] I read a quote this morning I think it was by G.K. Chesterton who said that no man can lead another out of the desert unless he's been there first that is until we've walked through those darkest places we cannot lead anyone else out of it Job is alone here no one can sympathize with what he's going through not yet but what we have in Job is an individual who really walked through it who has the heart cry of every one of us in all of our suffering in all of our pain in all of our uncertainty though it may not ever reach by the grace of God the scale of Job's sufferings but even if it does there's one who's been in the desert before us and his heart cry was I wish that there was an umpire who would put their hand upon me and put their hand upon the almighty and stand in the gap we know him his name is

[31:52] Jesus he is one that in the midst of that desert region would cry out and say though he slay me I know that I will see my redeemer in the land of the living with my own eyes it is one who can lead us out with hope and certainty that though it may not end as we would like for it to end in the land of the living that is a profession of the resurrection long before there was the observation of the Passover it was that there will be a day when this is not the last word in the land of the living with my own eyes I will see my redeemer it is the hope of the redeemer that we find his faith is being tested to the limit and those around him have nothing to offer and it will be multiple pages before heaven finally answers but God has a word for the desert that he's in and God has provided a guide for all those who wander into that desert after him

[32:58] I don't think it's any wonder what this is the oldest book in scripture because ever since there has been a people of God there have been those who have desperately needed a word from God at a time of pain the book of Job is that word at times we may be those friends who can only sit in silence for we do not know what to say we do not know how to answer let me caution you do not answer with the opinions or the understandings of the world be certain to answer with the word of God this past week I preached a funeral of an individual I did not know I got asked Miss Lynn actually called and asked me if I would preach the funeral on behalf of the funeral home

[33:59] I did some of you here know knew the individual I never met him we had multiple common acquaintances there were people there that I knew but I had never met him I knew that he had went to church when he was a kid I knew he had nothing to do with church as he grew older I knew nothing about his salvation though what I have found in times of loss everyone likes to think that everybody is there I'm not there to judge that you hear testimony after testimony of people who well I know he was because and the affirmation is always because of something someone did and it is that moment that I begin to say well I'm not going to say anything it is not my point so the question that I wrestle with as I do that it's different on an individual I've never met and they were a strong believer and people would tell me oh they love the Lord that's easy but when you're asked to preach a funeral that you've never met that had no pastor was never in church you have no idea what do you do well you don't cast judgment for that's not your job you don't go by the world's standards for that's not your opportunity so what I did the same thing that you ought to do in those moments is you stand up and say

[35:29] I don't know much but this is what the word of God says and then leave it at that because anything beyond that is the world's opinions and it's not for us to opinionate it's up to us to declare so we stand in those at times speechless because people around us are hurting by the way I'm not one of those believers that when you have a hurting multitude in front of you at a funeral that's the time to beat them over the head with the gospel that's not the opportunity but it is the opportunity to declare the truth of the word in a loving way if possible it's not you don't preach anyone into heaven you just declare what God has said and thankfully the word of God has a word for that may we be those who say

[36:39]  God when I don't know what to say may I just repeat what you have already said to those around me let's pray father we thank you for this day we praise you for your faithfulness and we praise you for the testimony of the book of Job it is difficult to wrap our minds around the extent of his suffering and the pain and misery he must have walked through but father in your grace and in your mercy you set him forward as an example of one who endures not in perfection but in completeness his weaknesses will be strengthened by your word his shortcomings will be met by your grace father he stands as one that points us not to his own life or his own living but points to one who alone can intercede for us so lord as we seek to walk beside those who are suffering or as we enter into moments of suffering and trials and temptations of our own may we be those who walk with a preserved integrity not because of our own worthiness but because of your worthiness may we be those who say you are god at all times we praise you for this day we praise you for your word we ask that you would lead us now as we leave this place that we would be ambassadors for the lord jesus christ wherever you have put us and it's in your name we ask all these things amen so that