The Goodness of God.

Introduction:

Have you ever heard someone say to you or have you yourself wondered if God is really good? You will find this on top of people’s minds when they are going through trials, hardships, a crisis like an unforeseen death or relational troubles. Maybe when finances take a turn for the worse and a job is lost or an unexpected bill comes in that just does not seem fair. This is when a person can wonder whether God really loves them. Another area that can lead one to doubt that God is good is when someone has been abused by their earthly father and they struggle to make the connection that a heavenly Father is any different than their earthly father. No matter how hard they try to please God, trouble continues to stalk them like a wolf hunting its prey.

When our understanding of God is limited because we have not personally plumbed the depths of Scripture with thirsty hearts, or we have not been taught faithfully the whole counsel of God, or we are new to the faith and are babes in Christ, we can have a very shallow view of God. If we cherry pick verses that appeal to us that God is only love, we will miss out that God is also holy. If our view when reading the OT is that God is always angry and pouring out wrath we will miss seeing the glorious steadfast love, mercy and patience he has towards his people.

As we consider this closing message on the book of Job, if we didn’t have these closing verses, we could be left with the thoughts that God afflicted Job with evil that he didn’t deserve and when he finally talked to Job, he interrogated him mercilessly to humiliate Job for ever questioning his Creator. Thus, we need a comprehensive understanding of God as given to us in Scripture. We will never know all there is about God, but we are graced by our loving Father to know enough about him which lifts up our eyes to his majesty and holiness, leading us to a deeper worship of the Almighty.

So for today as we look at (42:7-17) we want to examine the steadfast love of God in how he restores the three friends, how he restores Job and how he restores us.

Point #1 - The Restoration of the Three Friends.

As we covered a few weeks ago, God has corrected Job’s vision of God. He had a low view of God in that his self righteousness and pride had resulted from his pain and suffering. He had demanded that God was unjust for this and wanted a hearing to plead his case. Upon God answering Job out of the whirlwind, he grilled him with asking over 70 questions about creation and how powerful it is. In not being able to answer these questions or be able to control creation he is humbled by God, he repents in dust and ashes for his foolish behaviour.

Now God turns to the three friends who abused their friend and spoke wrongly about God’s character. You will notice, that again it is the LORD, Yahweh who speaks to these friends. They sinned greatly but they were still in a covenant relationship with him.

7 “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. 8 Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.”

As parents, do you ever get angry with your children when they disobey or act inappropriately? Just because you get angry does not mean you disown them. This is the same with God our Father. Job was disciplined by God for his unruly behaviour. Now the three friends had also angered God because they spoke about God what was not right. They did a character assassination piece on him saying things about him that just were not true.

He tells Eliphaz who most likely was the oldest and represented the friends to take 7 bulls and 7 rams take them to Job and offer your sacrifice. My servant Job will pray for you and I will accept his prayer on behalf of the friends.

In (9) the three friends do as instructed and the LORD accepted Job’s prayer. The three friends were restored now in right relationship with God.

Point #2 - The Restoration of Job.

The LORD in (10) then restores the fortunes that were lost during his trials. He in fact gave him twice as much as he had before. Now one thing that I do not want us to skip over is what has just occurred. In this verse, the LORD restored Job “when” he had prayed for his friends. The three friends had hurt Job deeply. They criticized him and spoke very harsh words. I think if we were to be honest, that if our friends talked to us this way, we would have kicked them to the curb.

But here we can see that there is a condition that the fortunes would only be restored when he restored the relationship with the three friends. Job was extend mercy and forgiveness to his friends just like he himself had received mercy and forgiveness from the LORD for his arrogant self righteousness.

Whoa! Does not Jesus say something very similar to this in ? Where Peter asks how many times he is to forgive his brother when he sins against him? Jesus replies seventy times seven. So like he gossips and then asks for forgiveness, you forgive. Later that day he gossips again about you to which he apologizes and asks forgiveness, you are to do this again and again and again. Why? Because this is the gospel. Jesus used a parable to illustrate the point by having a king wanting to settle accounts. So he calls in those who owed him money one by one. A servant who owed him like what was equivalent to like 8 billion dollars plead for mercy to which the king had pity on him and wiped out the debt. This servant then saw someone who owed him like $20,000 and when that servant pled for mercy he had no pity but threw him in jail till it could be paid back. This news got to the king and then called back this man and said “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” The king then threw that wicked servant in jail until it could be paid back. Jesus then said that his heavenly Father will do the same to any who refuse to forgive their brother.

Job had been forgiven a great debt for his outrageous statements and demands. He was now to likewise do that with his friends. He forgave them and offered a standard offering to atone for sin and prayed for them to which God forgave them.

Then God restored family and friends to him, they feasted and had sympathy for Job. They comforted him for all the disaster that the LORD had brought upon him, and they each gave him money and a ring of gold. More than likely to get life going again.

In (12) over the course of time the LORD blessed his latter days more than the beginning. Double the animals and also restored 7 sons and 3 daughters. To which these daughters were more beautiful than any in the land. He gave them equal share in his inheritance and he lived a very full life seeing four generations of children.

Did Job deserve this blessing? If he did, then it would not be a blessing but a wage that he had earned by the fires of affliction. But that is not the case. Just as his suffering was not due to sin, these gifts were not given as compensation for the trials. The LORD restored relationships and fortune to Job out of his loving kindness and goodness. He simply wanted to give him a gift out of love.

Now one thing we need to be careful when we look at Job’s restored wealth. The book of Job is part of wisdom literature. This means that this is not a guarantee that when we suffer God will also restore and abundantly bless the rest of our life. Much like Proverbs is wisdom, that if you apply this to your life things will generally be better for you in this life. An example of this is from

[6] Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. Wisdom literature is guidelines not guarantees. For many children have been raised by godly parents and they have walked away from God.

[6] Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

So in the same way we cannot say that after our hardships that the rest of life will be better. It could but it is not a sure thing.

even when he is old he will not depart from it. (ESV)

Point #3 - The Restoration for Sinners.

The goodness of God is clearly displayed for us in the face of Jesus Christ. As rebel sinners, we hated God because our sinful nature is in bondage to Satan. By the loving kindness and abundant riches of his mercy he chose to save us from the punishment that we deserved. God is holy and just.

Lies, cheating, lust and covetousness are just a few of the ways that we disobey God’s perfect law. God’s justice for this sinful behaviour is eternal wrath in hell. The debt due to God is perfect punishment where there will be constant weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The only way that a guilty person can be freed from this condemnation is to believe in God’s one and only Son Jesus. God is truly good, kind, loving and merciful by making a way for us to be restored to the right relationship with our Father. This is to repent of sin, turning from it in now seeing it for what it really is and trusting in Jesus as our Saviour who died in our place on the cross.

Notice if you will that God sets the standard by which the three friends are reconciled to him in (8). 7 bulls and 7 rams, go to my servant Job, offer up your burnt offering, my servant will pray and intercede for you, I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. God determines the parameters for how to be restored. Man does not determine these but God himself.

I point this out because man in his sinful state thinks that God’s way of salvation through Jesus Christ alone is too restrictive so he invents methods and ways such as good works to justify himself before God. That somehow through paying for sin by other methods we can appease God’s justice like as if he can be bought off like he was one of us. We see this done by the Roman Catholics in praying for the dead in purgatory and paying for the mass that a soul can be freed in order to go to heaven.

Man says that it is unfair that there in not many ways to God. Shame on us. We should shout from the rooftops in exuberant praise to the Almighty that he has made even one way. We deserve judgement for our sin but God says in that he will wash away our sin and forgive, he will remove our stoney heart and give us a heart of flesh, Yahweh will put his Spirit in us so that we will have new desires and want to obey the LORD. It is God who saves us from what we deserve by giving us the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. The LORD is very good to us beloved!

Through Jesus alone we are now the children of the living God, forgiven, cleansed from all unrighteousness. Blessed with every spiritual blessing! in our very being we have newness of life and are restored for the glory of his holy name! God does this because he alone is God. If the LORD has touched your spirit this morning, and you know without a shadow of doubt that you are guilty of high treason before God, look to Him and plead with him for forgiveness of your sins. Trust fully in Jesus as your Saviour and believe. God promises freedom from the condemnation. The guilt is removed from you and now you will enjoy the blessing of a truly good heavenly Father.

So my brothers and sisters, is God good to you? Have you wondered if God has forgotten you? Has the thought crossed your mind that a particular sin that keeps tripping you up has caused God to forever turn his face from you? Have you felt as if your spiritual life is empty and dead? Let us soak deeply in the warmth of God’s promises that he gives to us through his word. Let us remember what Jesus has done for us in saving us from what we deserve. Let us fall on our face in real worship that we have been loved from before the foundation of the world. Let us cry out to God to help us to see that we really are dependant on him. Let us praise God that his love endures forever. Let us put away how earthly desires and seek the Lord with all our heart soul and mind. Let us draw near to God our Father and he will draw near to us. Let us live in the reality that is before us. God first loved us, now we love one another.

Application:

(Use this to close last point) Much like how as a child who has disobeyed his parents humbly apologized and asked for forgiveness and that relationship that was once strained is now in good standing. The father embraces the child and forgives because he loves the child dearly. The last thing he wants is for there to be division. The good father is to give his wife and children this beautiful picture of our Heavenly Father so that they better understand God. A righteous anger is balanced with a steadfast love.

From our text there is a few things I wish to highlight.

Forgive. Jesus paid the price for our sin, he forgave a great debt that we could never pay. Therefore, let us be mindful that we forgive one another even if the same person sins against us many times. Why? Because we as God’s children daily sin against God even now. We have experienced the greatest of mercy so also have mercy for one another.

Conclusion:

As I had mentioned in my introductory sermon, this book is best seen as a way to prepare us for when we will have trials. It is meant to give a fuller understanding that God is with us in the valley of the shadow of death as well as on the mountain. It is best understood that we can trust God through our pain and suffering. If we don’t have a solid foundation of these truths, our faith can be decimated when the storms of life come. I don’t want any of us to go through that. Rather, by having our feet firmly planted on the Rock of Ages, we may endure broken windows, shattered siding and wounds of the fight but the footings will remain so as to be built upon by the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.