The wise captain of a ship looked into the dark night and saw lights in the distance. Immediately he told his signalman to send a message: "Alter your course 10 degrees south."
Promptly a message returned: "Alter your course 10 degrees north."
The captain was angered his command was ignored. So, he sent a second message: "Alter your course 10 degrees south, I am a captain."
Soon a message returned: "Alter your course 10 degrees north. I am seaman third class Jones."
Immediately the captain sent a third message, knowing the fear it would evoke: "Alter your course 10 degrees south; I am a battleship."
Then the reply came: "Alter your course 10 degrees north; I am a lighthouse."
So much for wisdom; the captain’s wisdom is of little value in this exchange. The wisest man on his ship, he was still no match for his adversary; an immovable object he had no part in establishing. No amount of wisdom would change his circumstances. If he didn’t acknowledge his error and adjust his course, his ship would be destroyed and his life changed forever.
I. INTRODUCTION
A. We learned a few weeks ago that chapter 28 is the literary center of the book of Job. In the study of Hebrew literature, the primary theme is located in the center of the literary pattern.
1. A review of ch.28 reveals that the central theme of the book of Job is not suffering; nor “why do bad things happen to good people”. It has nothing to do with suffering at all.
2. The story of Job is a story of WISDOM. God’s wisdom. The best summary I can give you on the Book of Job is that God’s wisdom is not our wisdom. When we accept this, we see the poem in a new light?as a look at God’s wisdom, and our need to trust him in all things.
B. You remember that last week Job made a final plea to God; to take his place as prosecutor and accuser, to examine Job’s life. He promises to stand like a prince to hear God’s indictment if he finds any sin in him.
1. Today, in the final installment in this series, Job gets what he wants; He meets God face to face—a theophany (an appearance of God).
2. Here’s the rub: Job wants to question God concerning his circumstances. He hopes to defend himself before his “accuser”. Instead, God questions him; BOY DOES HE QUESTION HIM! (70 questions about Job’s command of God’s creation)
[Wisdom is granted; not learned. God wants us to use it to trust Him unconditionally. Let’s study their exchange a bit, as God accepts Job’s challenge, and Job gets his day in court.]
II. JOB’S DAY IN COURT
A. GOD ACCEPTS JOB’S CHALLENGE (38:1-41:34). These chapters may give you the idea that God is angry with Job. I don’t believe he is, He simply does what Job asks him to do; to respond to his claim of holiness and wisdom...
1. What God does
a. He puts Job in his place: “where were you when I ?”
b. He asks Job questions that no human could answer
c. He demonstrates His ultimate wisdom to Job through his creation
2. What God does not do
a. He does not explain himself, or the cause of Job’s suffering
b. He does not review the results of Job’s self examination
c. He does not meet Job as an equal; He remains the sovereign God
3. His challenge to Job (40:1-2)
a. “Will the one who contends…correct?
b. Let him who accuses God answer Him!
B. JOB RESPONDS (40:3-5)
1. “I am unworthy…how can I reply?
a. Job is not repentant; HE IS MERELY REMORSEFUL.
b. He is called on the carpet; He stands with his mouth hanging open as God pummels him with a battery of questions?an “in your face” experience.
[This is perhaps the most important lesson for us in this first of two discourses. Remorse does not bring about life change?only repentance. God now continues. . .]
C. GOD CONTINUES (40:6-41:34)
1. This discourse is much more authoritative; God challenges Job and his authority among the creatures of his creation.
2. Job is broken, humbled and ready to repent of his sinful attitude. Note that his friends wanted him to repent of sin, but never considered this one.
D. JOB REPENTS (42:1-6)
1. “You can do all things…”
2. “No plan of yours can be thwarted…”
3. “I spoke of things I didn’t understand…”
4. “I have now seen you; despise myself and repent...”
[GAME, SET & MATCH: “CHECK PLEASE…” I think we’re finished here; Job’s words ring loudly in our ears: “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you; therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes (42:5-6 NIV). From here God turns his attention to Job’s friends. . .]
III. RESTORATION (42:7-17)
A. God addresses three of Job’s friends
1. Says nothing to Elihu?no reason. It’s also interesting that God appears just as Elihu is declaring that God should not appear to Job (not a coincidence).
2. God uses the words “My servant Job” four times in this passage, showing that he has restored Job’s relationship to what it was before, DUE TO HIS REPENTANCE. Job repented for his judgmental attitude; his friends did not.
B. Job’s prosperity returns after praying for his friends. He ends up with twice what he had before!
[Wisdom is granted; not learned. God wants us to use it?to trust Him unconditionally.]
IV. LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF JOB: Four views of suffering
A. Satan’s view: People believe in God only when they are prospering and not suffering. This is wrong.
B. The view of Job’s three friends: Suffering is God’s judgment for sin. This is not always true.
C. Elihu’s view: Suffering is God’s way to teach, discipline, and refine?a sometimes true but incomplete explanation.
D. God’s view: Suffering causes us to trust God for who he is, not what he does.
C.S. Lewis believed that suffering was a way for believers to learn to know God most magnificently. In his Letters to Malcom, he stated it this way:
We, or at least I, shall not be able to adore God on the highest occasions if we have learned no habit of doing so on the lowest. At best, our faith and reason will tell us that He is adorable, but we shall not have found Him so, not have "tasted and seen." Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun, which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are “patches of God-light” in the woods of our experience.
When Life turns bad, do you see the tragedy? Or do you, because of the depth of your relationship with God, see “patches of God-light”?
