Prayer and Worship Study 2

Why do we have the book of Job??

To see that suffering comes to all, the “good” and the “bad”.

To see that God is way bigger than we are, we have no clue.

To see that God, even though we don’t understand evil, suffering, justice, death, is good, personal, loving, and sovereign, He always does only whats necessary, not the way we would want or determine necessary.

Job 38

Job 38:1–3 ESV

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.

New Living Translation Chapter 38

The LORD Challenges Job

Then the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind:

2 “Who is this that questions my wisdom

with such ignorant words?

3 Brace yourself like a man,

because I have some questions for you,

and you must answer them.

the whirlwind represents a theophany, an appearance of God in a visible form.

this is an encounter with God, an awesome and awfully frightening encounter.

Who is this that speaks as if they know, and yet they know nothing, who questions My wisdom with such ignorance??

What would we do if when we barked and griped at God, he showed up?? And told us to get ready, dress for action?

V’s 4-41 are God helping Job to realize just how enormous, powerful, wise, etc. God is and how small, weak, ignorant, etc. Job is.

Also, helping Job to realize he is not the center of the universe, God is doing something much greater than just Job, and yet, God takes the time to reveal Himself to Job.

Massive and yet personal, relational, intimate.

Have we ever taken the time to meditate on all the things God lists in V’s 4-41, or chapter 39?

Let’s look at 40:1-5 real quick.

God proceeds to go on the rest of 40:6-24 and in chapter 41

Now lets look at 42:1-6

A proper understanding of God gives us a proper understanding of ourselves and a proper perspective on life.

What’s interesting about the book of Job is that the whole time 1) Job wants a trial, He wants to stand before God and defend his case.

He feels he’s been unjustly found guilty and (2) he wants an explanation and (3) he wants to be vindicated.

Remember, the O.T. belief is if you are blessed by God, and clearly Job was, he must be righteous. If you are cursed, which is how this looks, then he must be sinful and unrighteous.

Job is entitled to defend his own integrity, which doesn’t go well for most of us, but this does not mean he has the right to discredit God’s justice, He is just, maybe just now how we’d like justice, Jesus died for the “godly” and the ungodly.

Remember, no one suffered more unjustly than Jesus, and He did it for us.

We want mercy when we’ve screwed up, and want justice when someone else has screwed up. Can’t have it both ways.

What is at question here is God’s way of dealing with evil, even its existence, but also its “unfair” way of affecting “good” people.

If God were to crush evil, and He’d have to crush all evil, then no one survives. Therefore, He must let it run its course, affecting both the good and bad, until He confronts and destroys evil once and for all.

God does vindicate him, but gives no explanation as to why all this happened.

God’s ways are higher than our ways,

Isaiah 55:9 ESV

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

If God is good, which He is, if He is in control, which He is, if He is wise, which He is, then we can trust Him, that what is happening is necessary, and if it weren’t necessary than God would have done or allowed something else.

Keller quote, “If you have a God who is big enough and powerful enough to be mad at because He’s not stopping the suffering, then you at the same moment have a God big enough and powerful enough to have reasons for it that you couldn’t possibly conceive of.

Job is thereby satisfied that God is a personal God who is intimately involved in creation. Job is not a random accident, what happened to him is not random, God is just and justice happened or will happen, time will tell.

In times of great distress, a reason why is not the best answer, rather knowing God is present, intimately involved, and caring speaks volumes.

These verses help us to see how huge God is, how small we are, how great and vast is all of God’s creation that He rules over and how we are not the center of it all.

The bigger He gets, the smaller we realize we are.

Psalm 8:1-9

New Living Translation Psalm 8

1 O LORD, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!

Your glory is higher than the heavens.

2 You have taught children and infants

to tell of your strength,

silencing your enemies

and all who oppose you.

3 When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—

the moon and the stars you set in place—

4 what are mere mortals that you should think about them,

human beings that you should care for them?

5 Yet you made them only a little lower than God

and crowned them with glory and honor.

6 You gave them charge of everything you made,

putting all things under their authority—

7 the flocks and the herds

and all the wild animals,

8 the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea,

and everything that swims the ocean currents.

9 O LORD, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!

Why does Adonai’s majestic name fill the earth?

Why is His glory higher than the heavens?

From the cradle to the stars, the name of God resounds with majesty and His glory shines above the heavens.

Not only does His handiwork evoke awe, but how He has established the greatness of man is also astonishing.

Look at 2-8 and imagine David’s emotion as he pens this

Try to say this to God, as if it were you writing it and speaking directly to God.

Exodus 34:6-8

Exodus 34:6–8 ESV

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.

New Living Translation Chapter 34

6 The LORD passed in front of Moses, calling out,

“Yahweh! The LORD!

The God of compassion and mercy!

I am slow to anger

and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.

7 I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations.

I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin.

But I do not excuse the guilty.

I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren;

the entire family is affected—

even children in the third and fourth generations.”

8 Moses immediately threw himself to the ground and worshiped.

Chapter 32 The story here is this; Moses was with God up on Mount Sinaii and was slow in coming down, according to the people.

God is giving Moses the Law and at the same time the people have easily persuaded Aaron, Moses brother and the appointed priest, to make them gods for them to worship, to credit with all the wonderful deeds of God and to go before them. This is very pagan, very common, very Egypt.

So he does, and God then tells Moses to go down to the people (V7) stop them from doing this evil and that He may be alone because He’s hot with anger and is going to wipe them off the face of the earth, and build a new nation from Moses.

32:11, Moses pleads with God on behalf of the people, intercedes for them, and the Lord relented.

Later, in chapter 33, Moses meets with God and God informs him that an angel will take them to the promised land, not Him.

Let’s look at 33:12-17, Moses has found favor in God’s sight, how? God knows him by name, what does this mean? He has seen Moses character on display

Look at 33:18-23, what a request!! And the Lord agrees, to a degree. Amazing, He asks, He seeks, He knocks, and he gets.

Which takes us to our passage

So who is our God, what is His name and character? Why is it hallowed or revered, holy, unique, set apart, etc.

Pray and praise God for who He is, His character and how that has affected us.

Matthew 1:21-23

Matthew 1:21–23 ESV

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

New Living Translation Chapter 1

21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

22 All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:

23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child!

She will give birth to a son,

and they will call him Immanuel,

which means ‘God is with us.’

Yehoshua, which means God is salvation

Emmanuel, God is with us

God is with us and He came to save us, to bring salvation.

Praise God for who He is, and why He became man.

Philippians 2:9-11

Philippians 2:9–11 ESV

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

New Living Translation Chapter 2

9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor

and gave him the name above all other names,

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11 and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Look at what God has done, and what will happen

This all brings glory to God.