JOB

Trusting in Tribulations

Job 23:8–12 KJV 1900

Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; And backward, but I cannot perceive him: On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: He hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: But he knoweth the way that I take: When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot hath held his steps, His way have I kept, and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

Introduction

The Word of God states that rain falls on both the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45). In our heads we know this to be true and normal. In our hearts may be a different expectation. We tend to think that if we are doing what is right, everything will go right, or at least should go right. Although this thought is certainly appealing, it is not a Bible truth. Because of our false expectations, we sometimes question God unjustly. God does not promise things will always go well, but He does promise His unfailing grace through the trials.

Alfred Edersheim wrote: "We cannot understand the meaning of many trials; God does not explain them. To explain a trial would be to destroy its object, which is that of calling forth simple faith and implicit obedience."

In all of Scripture, there is no one who was more tested and tried than Job.

J. Sitlow Baxter said, "The theme of [Job] is blessing through suffering."

James 5:11 b (KJV 1900)

“...Ye have heard of the patience of Job...”

Without a doubt, there is much we can learn from the life of this great man.

Testimony

One man said "One ought to live his life in such a way that the pastor can tell the truth at the funeral." Another said, ('Live your life in such a way that your family would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip."

A.W. Tozer said that we may be known by the following: "1) What we want most. 2) What we think about most. 3) How we use our money. 4) What we do with our leisure time. 5) The company we enjoy. 6) Who and what we admire. 7) What we laugh at."

In Job chapter 1, we see what God said about Job.

PERFECT AND UPRIGHT

Job 1:1 KJV 1900

There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.

"perfect" and "upright" are synonymous in this passage. Job was literally living a life that was based on upright decisions—decisions that were not simply upright before the world, but were upright before God.

Henry Heinz, born in 1844, to German immigrants in Pittsburg, PA, helped support his family as a teenager by growing and selling vegetables in the family garden. After graduating from college and getting married, he started a business selling horse radish. In 1875, a national financial collapse drove the young company into bankruptcy. Despite the legal freedom bankruptcy gave him, Heinz regarded each of the company’s outstanding debts as a moral obligation and personally paid back every penny.

Heinz went on to found the H.J. Heinz Company with its 57 varieties and became a leading American businessman. A devout Christian, he was known for the generous treatment of his employees and his generosity to Christian causes. Throughout his life Heinz conducted his business and personal dealings with the same integrity that led him to pay back hundreds of thousands of thousands of dollars he technically did not owe. He began his will with these words: “I desire to set forth at the very beginning of this will as the most important item in it a confession of my faith in Jesus Christ as my Saviour.”

Proverbs 22:1 KJV 1900

A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, And loving favour rather than silver and gold.

We talked about this before but be young people of integrity. Not just before man, but with God. Job was a man who did right. The most powerful thing about the recording of Job's life of righteousness was that this testimony was given him by God Himself.

FEARED GOD

Job 1:1 KJV 1900

There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.

Throughout the Scriptures, the concept of fearing God deals with respecting God and His position. Job certainly had a holy respect for God. He understood and clearly stated throughout this book that God was the creator of the universe, that He had all power and that God could be trusted. God wants His creation to fear Him and to respect Him for who He is and for what He can do. Job did this, and God was pleased.

ESCHEWED EVIL

Finally, the Lord tells us that Job was a man who hated evil. God's plan for the believer is to love righteousness and flee from evil. The world wants us to toy with evil and to laugh at evil, but God wants us to hate it. (Asa’s interaction with the people while passing out tracts ).

Psalm 97:10 KJV 1900

Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: He preserveth the souls of his saints; He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.

Hebrews 1:9 KJV 1900

Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

God tells us that although we are in the world, we are not to be of the world.

Trials

Trials reveal the depth of a person's character and love. The story of the Willis family is a beautiful illustration of a family coming through the most extraordinary of trials yet finding peace and sufficiency in God.

Pastor Duane Scott Willis and his wife Janet dearly loved the nine children God had given them. But at mid-morning on November 8, 1994, a fiery auto explosion on 1-94 in Milwaukee claimed the lives of their six youngest. Within hours, the freak accident had made national and international headlines. From behind guarded hospital doors came good news concerning Scott and Janet: their physical recovery from first and second degree burns would be complete. However, the most astonishing recovery became apparent as Scott and Janet displayed their emotional and spiritual stability. Milwaukee, the nation, and even the world looked on in amazement as eight days later the bereaved couple explained to the media how they could make it through such a sudden and horrific tragedy. The following statements are from that news conference.

Our God—Our Praise

"Psalm 34 says, 'I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. O taste and see that the LORD is good.' Janet and I want to praise and thank God. There is no question in our minds that God is good, and we praise Him in all things. God is a great God."

Our Trial—The Accident "As far as the accident is concerned, I was looking at the road and was alert. Our little baby was behind us; Ben was behind us on the other side. In the back were the other four children; they were all buckled in. I saw the object (a metal brace, 6"x 30", 30 lbs.). I thought it was one of those blocks that maybe came off a flatbed truck. The car in front of me swerved, and I knew I couldn't miss hitting the object. I thought if I took it on the tire I might roll the car. It was a split-second decision.

"When we hit the object, the rear gas tank exploded, taking the car out of control. I was able to grip the wheel and take the car out of the slide. When we were sliding and the flames were coming around the seat, it was a shock—a surprise—like, (What is this?' It was just roaring flames coming up on both sides. I was yelling to get out of the car. Janet and I had to consciously put our hands into the flames to unbuckle the seat belts and reach for the door handles.

"Janet fell out the door while the car was still moving. Benny was in the midst of the burning; his clothes were mostly burned off by the time he got out. The five youngest children, who had been asleep, died instantly. No sound was heard by Janet or me as we struggled to get out of the van. An unknown man took his shirt off his back to soak Benny's wounds, and another beat out the burning clothes on Janet's back. Benny died in intensive care around midnight."

Our Children—Our Pain

"We believe children are a heritage of the Lord. We thank God for six precious children: four rascally boys, a sweet girl, so much like her mother, and a little baby just beginning to smile and grow. We understood that they were given of the Lord, and we understood they weren't ours. They were His, and we were stewards of those children. And so God took them back. He is the Giver and Taker of life. We must tell you that we hurt and sorrow as parents would for their children. The depth of pain is indescribable. The Bible expresses our feelings that we sorrow, but not as those without hope."

Our Confidence—God's Word "What gives us our firm foundation for our hope is the Bible. The truth of God's Word assures us that Ben, Joe, Sam, Hank, Elizabeth, and Peter are in Heaven with Jesus Christ. We know, based upon the Word of God, where they are. Our strength rests in the Word of God. The Bible is sure and gives us confidence. Everything God promises is true."

Satan was permitted by God to put Job through trials in three different areas: financial trials, family trials, and physical trials.

FINANCIAL TRIALS

Job 1:13–17 KJV 1900

And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house: And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them: And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

The first area where Satan attacked Job was in his finances. There was a time when Job had "want of nothing." He was very possibly the richest man in the world. In one day, it was all gone: Between the fire, the Sabeans, and the Chaldeans, Job found his financial wealth completely destroyed. This was not enough to cause Job to stop loving and serving His God. But the story goes on:

FAMILY TRIALS

Job 1:18–19 KJV 1900

While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house: And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

The second attack on Job came through the loss of his family. It is incomprehensible to think of a tornado hitting a home and killing all of one's children, yet this is what happened to Job. Still, through this great trial, he remained faithful. Job knew that his faithfulness to God could not depend on the wellbeing of others. He knew he personally was responsible to serve God. And Job maintained his faith. But Satan wasn't through yet.

PHYSICAL TRIALS

Job 2:7–10 KJV 1900

So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes. Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die. But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

After devastating Job's finances and his family, Satan moved to take Job's health. The pain of the boils and ultimately the rejection of his wife must have been unbelievably difficult. However, God gives us a statement that is a testimony to Job's life and a challenge to every Christian today: "In all this did not Job sin with his lips."

Triumph

It is not unusual to see what appears as tragedy to those around us turn into triumph through the power of our great God. God uses trials and tribulations to shape us, as a sculptor uses a hammer and chisel to shape the stone, or as a potter uses kneading and pressure and heat to make bowls and vases. True quality does not come quickly, easily, or cheaply. Things that are truly valuable often require much time and work for their production. Examples are hand-crafted watches, hand-made shoes, or the work that goes into Steinway pianos.

Followers of Jesus Christ are also being "handcrafted." We are pressed and formed and shaped to make us more like Him. We are polished, sometimes in the rubbing of affliction, until we "glow." We are tested in the laboratory of everyday human experience. The process is not always pleasant, but we can persevere with hope, knowing that our lives will increasingly reflect the beauty of holiness to the eternal praise of God. THINK ABOUT IT. Is God bending, shaping, or polishing me right now? What's my attitude: Am I thanking and praising God, or am I complaining about the process?

ENLIGHTENMENT

Job 42:1–6 KJV 1900

Then Job answered the Lord, and said, I know that thou canst do every thing, And that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel Without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: But now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent In dust and ashes.

Job was "enlightened," which means that he learned from the trials he endured. One of the saddest things that can happen is for someone to endure trials without gaining knowledge from them. God's Word says that one of the ways that we can gain wisdom is through the reproofs of life.

Proverbs 6:23 KJV 1900

For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; And reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

We must ensure that we, like Job, will seek enlightenment from our trials. God allows trials for a reason, and a wise man will learn from the reproofs of life.

ENRICHMENT

Job 42:12–13 KJV 1900

So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. He had also seven sons and three daughters.

God's ways are so much better than man's ways. When the story of the trials of Job was finally completed, we discover that in the end God gave him ten more children and that God "blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning." Job remained faithful and lived to see God's vindication and blessing. We can be assured of the fact that we too can receive enrichment from the Lord when we remain faithful to Him.

Conclusion

Job was a man who endured tremendous trials, and yet through them all he remained faithful to his God. It is interesting to note that Christians today seem ready to walk away from their faith if someone merely mocks them at work. Job was not this type of man. He had a wonderful testimony as he endured his trials, which ultimately led him to reaching a triumph and great blessing of the Lord. The life of Job is a challenge to every believer today to live in a holy and God-pleasing manner no matter what trials may come.