The Meaning of Life part II
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 7 viewsNotes
Transcript
Pray
Give Dr. Elwell credit
Summarize last sermon.
God is sovereign.
The main theme of the book of Job is God correcting a false testimony of the devil regarding Job.
God judges the character of our heart.
He looks at our heart to assess our true person.
Turn to Job 38
Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said: “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.
We did discuss these verses last time.
In these verses God is preparing to correct both Job and Elihu.
In chapters leading up to these verses Job was lamenting his condition.
Job’s friend, Elihu misjudges Job accusing Job of being arrogant.
These verses record when God interjects in the conversation and corrects both of them.
God tells Job to Brace himself.
Prepare to make a defense for your case.
Answer the questions if you can.
Then god begins to deliver a series of questions spanning the course of a few chapters.
We are not going to look at all of the verses, we are going to summarize.
Verses 4-7:
Where were you when God laid the foundation of the earth?
Where were you when I determined its measurements?
Verses 8-11:
God asks Job who enclosed the sea?
and who prescribed the limits of the sky?
Verses 12-15:
Who commands the morning or causes dawn to know its place?
Verses 16-18:
Have you walked the recesses of the deep or have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Verses 19-21:
Have you given light or darkness a territory?
Verses 22-24:
Have you seen the storehouses of snow and of hail?
Verses 25-27:
Who has created the path of the rain of the thunderbolt?
Verses 28-30:
Who has the power to freeze water?
Verses 31-33:
Have you bound the chains of the Pleiades or loosed the cords of Orion?
Have you set the course of the stars?
Pause just for a moment to look at these verses.
God is questioning Job as to who has the power to plot the course of the stars.
And something thing I want to point out.
To the credit of the Jewish people, they painstakingly preserved the Scriptures.
We can be assured that the text says exactly what it said when it was written.
They counted the characters per line.
Not changed over time.
God days in verse Job 38:31
“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades? Can you loosen Orion’s belt?
What is the Pleiades?
Pleiades star cluster in the constellation Taurus.
Could Job have known about the Pleiades?
No, you cannot see the star cluster without the help of a telescope.
The Pleiades was not discovered until the year 1610 by Galileo.
How could Job know, God told him.
And I am sure that Job had no idea.
The Pleiades is interesting.
It is a cluster os stars.
Remember God asked Job if he was able to bind the chains of the Pleiades.
What does this mean?
Well, the Pleiades is a cluster of stars that are close enough together that they are gravitationally bound.
What does this mean, They are bound or stuck together.
Most importantly, they are bound to one another by mutual gravitational attraction. Isabel Lewis of the United States Naval Observatory (quoted by Phillip L. Knox in Wonder Worlds) said, “Astronomers have identified 250 stars as actual members of this group, all sharing in a common motion and drifting through space in the same direction.” Lewis said they are “journeying onward together through the immensity of space.” Dr. Robert J. Trumpler (quoted in the same book) said, “Over 25,000 individual measures of the Pleiades stars are now available, and their study led to the important discovery that the whole cluster is moving in a southeasterly direction. The Pleiades stars may thus be compared to a swarm of birds, flying together to a distant goal. This leaves no doubt that the Pleiades are not a temporary or accidental agglomeration of stars, but a system in which the stars are bound together by a close kinship.” From our perspective on Earth, the Pleiades will not change in appearance; these stars are marching together in formation toward the same destination, bound in unison, just as God described them.
How would Job have known this? He couldn’t
God asked this question of Job and Job would have had no idea what the question even meant.
To me this is amazing.
It speaks to the sovereignty, power and authority of God.
No one could have ever imagine to even make this up.
God contrasts the Pleiades with the constellation Orion.
Orion on the other hand is made up of non-gravitationally bound stars.
Verses 34-38:
Can you tip the water jars of heaven or bring forth lightening?
This brings us to verses 39-41.
Remember we started by talking about the meaning of life.
I am going to tell you what the meaning of life is:
“Do you hunt the prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of the lions when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in a thicket? Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?
This is the meaning of life.
You may be thinking, what is this guy talking about?
I stated that I got inspiration for this message from Dr. Elwell.
He did not go into all of the detail leading up to these verses.
His message was focused on verses 39-41.
And when he initially taught that these verses allude to the meaning of life, I was kind of like, WHAT?
Let me explain. Dr. Elwell makes this connection.
Turn back to Genesis 25
The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.) Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.” “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?” But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.
We talked about these verses a few weeks ago.
Esau returned and was famished.
His stomach was empty.
He was so hungry that he declared he would die if he did not get something to eat.
He was desperate for nourishment.
In his desperation, Esau sold his birthright.
He gave up the blessing from his father.
He chose to be filled with food.
He chose a temporal solution to alleviate his problem.
Not only did he sell his birthright for food, for something that provided temporary relief,
He went on to despise his birthright.
So what does this all mean?
How does this teach on the meaning of life?
Remind you of Job 38:39-41
“Do you hunt the prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of the lions when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in a thicket? Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?
Are you able to satisfy the hunger of the lions?
Are you able to provide nourishment for the young ravens as they cry out?
Obviously the answer from Job is no.
Job is not able to satisfy hunger in these instances.
Only God can fill.
Only God can nourish.
As Dr. Elwell explains, this is the meaning of life.
To be filled.
To be nourished.
To be provided for when we cry out.
Only God can fill.
Only God can nourish.
Only God can provide nourishment that fills us eternally.
The meaning of life is to be filled.
To be filled with the things of God.
Talk about how we are to be filled, we will also talk more about this next week.
Then we will conclude by returning to Esau.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Back to Esau.
Esau stated that he was famished.
If he did not eat, he would die.
In other words if his belly is not full, then he is dead.
A full stomach equals life.
The Physical Picture of what we have been talking about is this:
Having a full belly is to be full of life. AN empty belly is to be full of death or emptiness.
The Spiritual Picture is this:
We must seek fullness in the Spirit through the provision of God.
When we are filled by Gos spiritually, we are full of life. If we reject this infilling of God spiritually, we choose to embrace emptiness or death.
The meaning of life then is to be filled by the mercy of God as He pours out His Spirit upon those who choose to accept His provision. In faith, we can choose to be filled with nourishment that is eternal. Jesus is the bread of life and the Living water that will never perish.
Here is the warning:
This is what we are to learn form the analogy of Esau selling his birthright.
This warning is essential to understand for your spiritual health as well as the health of the church.
What was Esau willing to do to satisfy his physical hunger?
Because Esau was not filled, he gave up this promise.
He gave up this blessing.
Not only did Esau give up his birthright, he despised his birthright because he chose to be filled another way.
What is the danger for the people of God if we are not being filled? Or in other words, what could happen if we allow ourselves to go hungry, spiritually?
Our love for God could grow cold.
We could end up despising our birthright.
We could seek to be filled by the cravings of the flesh.