Sermon Tone Analysis

*Job: A Story of Suffering and Sovereignty*

*Job 1:1-22*

*Keith Crosby*

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*Opening Illustration: *Have you every put together a mosaic?

*1mo•sa•ic* \mō-ˈzā-ik\ n

[ME /musycke,/ fr.

ML /musaicum,/ alter. of LL /musivum,/ fr.

L /museum, musaeum/] 15c

*1*           *: *a surface decoration made by inlaying small pieces of variously colored material to form pictures or patterns /also/ *: *the process of making it

*2*           *: *a picture or design made in mosaic

*6*           *: *a composite map made of photographs taken by an aircraft or spacecraft

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*A mosaic is like a puzzle.*

It’s made up of all these little parts that fit into a greater whole that provides a larger picture.

*When I was a child my parents gave me a mosaic kit.*

All these little flecks of stone which seem to bear no relation to one another but when you put it all together the picture made sense.

*As Christians, we all play a part in God’s plan to redeem the lost.*

That’s why we exist.

*We are small parts of a greater whole.*

Sometimes the things that happen to us don’t quite make sense to us at the time.

*That’s the way it is with suffering, sometimes.*

Because we are not God we don’t understand all the little pieces of our lives and suffering and where they all fit into the larger picture.

*But from the Divine plan we know that all things work together for good to those who love God to those who are called according to His purpose*.

This is true for Job and us---although there is no guarantee in this life that we will fully understand all that went on in a given situation.

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*As we begin our study of the book of Job we will come to understand this better which may help us, if we listen, to deal with our sufferings in the here and now.*

This indeed is a timely book for many.

*We are, after all, in a period of financial upheaval, trial and tribulation.*

Many people have lost their nest eggs and are perhaps asking, “Why?”

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*I’m certain that there’s at least one person who is having a difficult time that is unrelated to the present global financial crisis.*

Perhaps your life is not going the way you wish.

*Perhaps your relationships are not what you had hoped*.

Perhaps your health is a wreck.

*Perhaps you are tempted to shout at God, “Why God, why?”* Perhaps you are angry or displeased with God because you believe that the hardships you suffer are undeserved or unjust.

*Or, perhaps you’re just a believer in need of a little comfort.*

One of the things that the book of Job might serve to help us do is to maintain perspective.

*We often think that our trials are unique, that our hardships are unparalleled---or unlike anyone else’s.*

The book of Job shows, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:13, that whatever your trial, hardship, or difficulty is, it’s not unique and that God is with you in the trial enabling you, as you depend upon Him, to bear up under it.

*God never, ever gives us more than we can handle*.

Job shows us that we are never alone, never without assistance and God is always timely in His intervenItion---never late, never early---but right there when we truly, really need Him.

*If you are suffering, then Job is the book for you.*

If you are inclined to be embittered toward God, or hopeless, in your suffering and hardship, then Job is the book for you.

*If you are inclined to be angry in your suffering, then Job is the book for you.*

Job is an amazing book about an amazing God that gives us the larger picture and the proper lens through which to view our world, our suffering and our situation.

*Let me give you some additional information on the book of Job.*

 

*Author.*

The author is unknown to us.

*We know that Job is not the author because we know that Job never knew or understood all that what going on around Him.*

He simply trusted God.

 

*Some speculate that Moses was the author*.

We can’t know.

*What we do know is that the author, the human author that is, is a wise, educated, and astute man whose knowledge of nature and surrounding cultures speaks to his breadth of knowledge.

*Given the writer’s familiarity with the flood and Adam and Eve (prior to the writing of Genesis) is appears that the writer lived as a contemporary of the Patriarchs (i.e.

Abraham).

*He writes in a poetic living style that is quite beautiful.

*The vocabulary and grammatical structures of Job are almost unique to Job.

 

*The human author  never names himself in this book although some believe the writer is Job, himself.*

Ultimately, regardless of what human instrument was used, we know the writer to be the Holy Spirit, moving this person to write in his own unique style and vocabulary.

*Date:* 1000 B.C. or thereabouts.

*Liberal commentators are all over the board*.

Who cares what they think.

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*Organization~/ Outline.

*The most simple outline is as follows.

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*I.                    **The Dilemma** *(Job 1:1-2:13).[2]*

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*The Dilemma is the ramifications of the scene in heaven played out in Job’s suffering here on earth.*

Job is a righteous man, whose integrity is challenged by Satan.

God allows Satan to test Job’s faith.

*The dilemma for some is how or why God pursues this direction.*

The dilemma is also the question of whether Job is faithful because his life is one that knew~/knows only blessing or will such an extreme test break his faith?

Is all this, as it were, worth the risk?

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*II.

**The Debate (*3:1-37:24*)*

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*What follows Job’s trials is a series of debates between Job and his friends.

His friends came initially to comfort him but, in effect, turn on him as they come to believe he is overly confident in his own righteousness.*

Indeed, the question is eventually asked, “is anyone righteous before the Almighty?

(Keith’s paraphrase)?”

Job is described as a blameless man by the sacred writ.

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*Job at times clings to his righteousness and his faith (“though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him”) and at other times in the depths of great suffering and seeming despair curses the day of his birth.*

He also insists on a court date with God so that Job can exonerate himself before God and his own friends, who have turned on him.

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*III.

**The Deliverance (*38:1-42:17*).*

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*God intervenes and confronts Job in his own self-confidence*.

Job gets the court date he wants but refuses to testify on his own, or in his own, behalf.

God asks Job to consider a number of questions and Job says that he, Job, repents in dust and ashes.

*The Lord also rebukes Job’s friends for their harsh criticism of Job.*

The Lord restores Job, formerly a prominent chief of the East to Job’s previous position and then some.

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*Job 42:10** **The LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the LORD increased all that Job had twofold.*

11 Then all his brothers and all his sisters and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversities that the LORD had brought on him.

And each one gave him one piece of money, and each a ring of gold.

12 The LORD blessed the latter /days /of Job more than his beginning; and he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys.

13 He had seven sons and three daughters.

14 He named the first Jemimah, and the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch.

15 In all the land no women were found so fair as Job's daughters; and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers.

16 *After this, Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons and his grandsons, four generations.

17 And Job died, an old man and full of days.*

/(For greater detail, you could consult a commentary or the MacArthur Study Bible)/

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*Purpose: *Job was written to teach us a number of lessons (hope and comfort being chief).*

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*Commentators all agree as does any thoughtful reader that the purpose of this book cannot be reduced to a single statement of purpose.

*It is a multifaceted gem filled with teaching and wisdom.

*The umbrella theme is about God and human suffering.*

But there are side bars about man’s need to be in total trust and submission to his Creator, understanding God’s character and that there are larger battles going on, of which we only get the occasional glimpse.

*The book of Job serves to remind us that man’s knowledge of divine actions and purposes is limited (Deut.