Sermon Tone Analysis

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.