Job provides profound insights into some of life’s biggest questions, particularly addressing how we got here, what went wrong, and whether there is life after death. We'll explore these foundational queries, examining the significance of God as our Creator and the implications of the Fall introduced in Genesis. Job’s story not only sheds light on the nature of suffering and the existence of evil but also reassures us of the hope of resurrection and eternal life. Throughout the discussion, we’ll explore how our perceptions of these questions influence our behavior and understanding of life's purpose. Join me as we unravel these important themes and discover how they can guide us in our personal journeys.

Takeaways:

• The podcast emphasizes that understanding the Bible is crucial for a personal relationship with God and our salvation.
• Job provides profound answers to the big questions in life, such as our origin, purpose, and the nature of suffering.
• Satan's role in the Bible is significant, showing both his limitations and his influence over human affairs, especially through temptation.
• The concept of life after death is essential in the podcast, highlighting Job's belief in resurrection and hope in eternal existence.

Links referenced in this episode:

• www.bible805.com

Welcome to the Bible 805 podcast.

God wants us to know him and the Bible is one of the ways he's communicated everything we need for our salvation and a closer, more personal walk with him now and forever.

In this podcast, which comes out every Wednesday with supporting materials published by Friday each week on www.bible805.com I take sometimes difficult sounding Bible topics and them easy to understand and apply. At least that's what my students tell me.

See for yourself as we get started on our topic today, which is this is part two of our series Answers to the Big Questions of Genesis and Job.

In this lesson and the next one, we're primarily going to be looking at how Job answers our big questions of life, along with supporting materials from Genesis in review, what are the big foundational questions of life that I'm referring to? Number one how do we get here? Number two what went wrong? And our sub question here is who is Satan and what power does he have?

Three Is there life after death? Number four what about people who've never heard of Jesus? Number five why do innocent people suffer?

And number six how can we help those who are suffering? We're going to cover the first three in this lesson and then the next three in the following lesson.

Now, it's really important that we answer these questions because though we may not consciously think of them, the answers to them, how we answer in our minds and hearts undergirds much of our behavior. And sadly for most people, this is really unthinking and it can have disastrous results if we don't think it through.

For example, in response to the first question, how did we get here?

If we don't believe we have a loving Creator who made us with a plan and purpose, we'll spend our lives either frantically working to be all we think we want to be, often to find out that what we worked so hard for wasn't worth it.

As someone said, I worked so hard to climb the ladder to what I thought was success in life, only to find out when I reached the top it was propped against the wrong wall. Job will help us find the right wall, the right purpose to work for. And so let's get started first of all as an overview of Job.

The book opens with describing Job as God's ideal man. Satan appears before God and challenges God that Job only serves him because God blesses him.

To see if this is true, God allows Satan to harm Job and he loses wealth, family, and finally his health. Three friends and a fourth later come to comfort Job, but Instead of comfort, they accuse, repeat false beliefs about God.

Just generally really unpleasant. Job consistently defends himself and demands a defense. Hearing before God, God responds and shows his power.

Now it's important to note that God never answers Job's questions. But Job repents and he is restored. Along the way we find answers to our questions, starting with number one. How do we get here?

Now this question is answered both in Genesis and Job. In the beginning, God is how Genesis starts and Genesis continues with a record of God's creation of all things.

God as creator is confirmed in Job when God confronts him and begins by establishing who he goes. God is on the basis of creation. When he says, where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell me if you know so much, do you know how its dimensions were determined? And who did the surveying? What supports its foundations?

And who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? This reality that God created us is the foundation for all his claims on us.

And it is the answer to our questions for meaning and fulfillment in life. The rest of the Bible affirms God's creation as in Psalm 100, verse 3, where it says, he made us.

For you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being. There is no such thing as a self made man or woman. Humanity is not the result of time plus chance.

Now not being self made is really a good thing because we know so little about the future past, what's really going on in the events and people around us, how much our actions will affect others, and so much more. But God knows what is best for us. He sees all the problems, the roadblocks, the consequences.

He not only keeps us ultimately safe and only sends trials for a purpose, but he designed our lives for meaning and purpose.

We sometimes trivialize the description of the Bible as the owner's manual and for the best functioning of life, we tell people to read the directions. But it's so true. We won't know God's assurances if we don't know what the Bible says. C.S. Lewis put it this way.

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. Question number two, what went wrong? Genesis tells us part of that story. Job expands it.

In Genesis 3, an antagonist enters the story. Satan first introduced as the serpent, God gave humanity only one negative command. He said, don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

But the antagonist Satan created doubt about God's goodness and offered an alternative to trusting God. He offered the people wisdom rather than relationship. Genesis tells us Adam and Eve chose the alternative and we call their response the Fall.

In the storyline of the Bible, the Fall is the conflict that initiates all the following actions of the Bible. Everything changes with this event. Immediately after the Fall, God promises a Savior.

And though we don't know the entire story at this time, the actions of that promised Savior would reverse Paradise Lost with Paradise regained. But that's a long time from now. As we start the story, let's look more closely at the antagonist at Satan so we can understand his tactics better.

Because unfortunately, he's part of many Bible stories and of our stories. Other scriptures help us understand Satan more fully.

The book of Isaiah tells us that Satan was the highest of created beings, an angel who once held a place of honor before God. But he rebelled and was removed from his place. Now here is a brief description of what happened.

This is from Isaiah 14 where it says, how art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations? For thou hast said, in thine heart, I will ascend to the heavens.

I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

I will be like the most High. We don't know all the details, but from the little we've been told, his pride was extraordinary.

And which is why whenever anyone seeks to put themselves above others in things large and small, it's never of God, but it's an imitation of Satan. Other scriptures help us understand Satan a little more fully. Read Ezekiel 28 when you have time for more pictures of his fall and about him.

But again, there is an emphasis on pride. Power, grasping for what was not his filled him. God did not allow that. And again, it caused his fall.

We wish we knew more about this extraordinary backstory. What we do know is clothed in symbolic language, and there's much we do not understand yet. God has told us all we need to know.

Satan's past does not concern us as much as what he is doing now.

The book of Job gives us important insight into his current actions and limitations, though we don't want to be afraid of him or thinking about him too Much we need to keep in mind that we have an active enemy as we read through the Bible and in our daily lives. What Job shows us about Satan. Satan has access to God. He is allowed to initiate natural disasters, personal tragedies, crime and death and sickness.

All of these things he did to Job. Nowhere though in the Bible are we given specifics about his ability to do them or how he does what he does.

However, we do know that when and if they happen, they are all under God's control and limitations.

Not only do we see God's control and limits on Satan's power in Job, but also in the New Testament when Jesus says stills the storm with his words in Matthew 8 more about how Satan's power is limited. Clearly, in Job, Satan is subordinate to God. There is no dualism in the Bible. God and Satan are not two equal powers engaged in a cosmic battle.

In Job one, Satan appears before God in an obvious place of submission. God questions him, limits him. Again, we we see this as a foundational lesson in Job. Satan is God's creation. He is not eternal. He is not all powerful.

He is not all knowing. He cannot read your thoughts, though he can plant thoughts in your mind. He does not know the future for certain. He is also not omnipresent.

He can't be everywhere at one time, though he has legions of demonic powers.

Satan's subordination is an assurance that is also repeated in the New Testament, where in First John we're told you were of God, little children and have overcome them. Satan in his influence. Because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

The Lord Jesus Christ who is in every believer, the Holy Spirit who indwells every believer they are, are far more powerful, greater than any little thing that Satan can do. Although it might not seem little at the time, but in the overall eternal view of our life and the power of God, it really is little.

But though he's though it might be little, though it's limited, Satan can still cause a lot of trouble. But he's not at all original in his strategies. What he used to tempt Adam and Eve, he continues to use.

Now that simple statement in Genesis 3:1 did God really say Satan Continues to use that again and again and again.

Satan always begins with questioning if God really said something and then progresses to suggesting an alternative that sounds good, but that is ultimately destructive. To stand up against that, you need to know what God's word truly says, what he wants you to do.

If you can't remember, you don't know or you haven't studied very much, you're going to believe the enemy. It is only through God's word that you'll know for certain what God wants.

Because our world, our culture, our values today seem so pleasing in many ways, as the fruit did to Eve. But they are ultimately destructive. Additionally, what we see about Satan in Job. Satan is restless.

He wanders the earth and he's an accuser of God's people. He was then, he is now. The Lord said to Satan, satan, where have you been coming from? This is in Job 1:7.

Satan answered the Lord from roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it. In the New Testament we see this hasn't changed. In 1st Peter 5 it says, Be careful. Watch out for attacks from Satan, your great enemy.

He prowls around like a hungry roaring lion, looking for some victim to tear apart. In that wandering, he accuses God's people. In Job 8, when God pointed out the blameless life of Job, Satan responded. Does Job fear God for nothing?

Satan will attempt to twist every good thing in our lives and the lives of others into something evil. That chatter in your head, constantly telling you what a mess you are, is seldom from God. God's voice of conviction gives you a way to do better.

Satan simply pounds you. Don't listen to him when accusations happen. Evaluate your life in light of God's word.

Confess your sin if necessary, and press ahead, assured of God's love and forgiveness. Now Satan not only tempts us to beat up on ourselves, he wants us to do the same to others. This is why slander, gossip.

Thinking evil of our brothers and sisters, of anyone, is so wrong. We're listening to Satan. We're doing Satan's work. We never know what's truly going on in another's life.

Grant them the grace you receive from God and that you want for yourself. Don't gossip, grant grace, don't accuse someone, pray. Don't do Satan's work in the lives of others. Whenever a trial comes now, take time to consider.

There's often more going on that we're not aware of. We're reminded in Ephesians 6. For we're not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against persons without bodies.

The evil rulers of the unseen world, those mighty satanic beings and great evil princes of darkness who rule this world and against huge numbers of wicked spirits in the spirit world. What happens to Job? That he was the object of this divine and satanic attention is not presented as a one time event.

You never know what God might be doing how your life might be on display or involved in a trial for others. Ask for discernment, but don't be overly paranoid.

There was no way that the Nazis were going to recover from that. But for the weeks until the liberation of Paris, the resistance fighters in the city had to hang on in the face of bitter, deadly struggles. C.S.

Lewis describes our situation in this way very similar where he says, enemy occupied territory. That's what this world is.

Christianity is a story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage. Don't be a collaborator going along with the powers currently in charge.

It goes well for collaborators when a war is raging, but the war will be over. And Satan's interference with our world, though it's significant, it won't last forever.

Jesus rose from the dead, defeating Satan, and Satan's interference with God's people will also come to an end when Satan will be thrown in the lake of fire. The accusing chatter in our minds will cease the interference in our lives, and the world will be over.

As his cry of victory in Revelation reminds us, now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah for the accuser of our brethren, who accuses them before our God day and night has been hurled down. Hopeful words, but who will be around to see them? Which leads to question number three. Is there life after death?

The answer is incredibly important to understand because, as the Apostle Paul told us, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. Of the many big questions of life, Job answers the question of is there?

Life after death is definitely the most important because it literally pulls all else that happens to us in a proper perspective. If there's no life after death, no salvation from the punishment of death, there's no point in the rest of the Bible.

But there is salvation from death. There is a Savior who conquered death, and the effects of his victory reaches back to the earliest days of humanity.

Our God is an eternal God, and He did not create throwaway creatures. He made us to walk with him forever. Job affirms his truth. Job provides an early and definitive answer to this question where in job 14, 14 and 15.

He affirms the physical, bodily resurrection. I'll read it to you.

Then we'll take a closer look at the Hebrew words that are key to understanding this passage and assure us of physical life after death. Where here's what Job says. If someone dies, will they live again? All the days of my hard service, I will wait for my renewal.

Now, this word, the word renewal is the Hebrew word khalifa. It means a change of garments, a renewal. And then Job says again, I will wait for my renewal to come. You will call and I will answer you.

You will long for the creature your hands have made. This word khalifa is so similar to the apostle Paul talking about taking about his earthly tent. Here it's a change of garments, Paul.

It was an earthly tent being exchanged for a heavenly one. Job prefigures the same idea.

As I read this for verse, I know Job says that my redeemer lives and then in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes, I and not another.

How my heart yearns within me.

Now, what is interesting in this verse is let's go back where he says, my skin, that's the Hebrew word ore, and it means tangible, physical skin, the body, the life. He says after that is destroyed. Then he goes on to say, yet in my flesh it's the Hebrew word basar. It's another word for skin, flesh, body.

He's basically saying the physical skin in this life and physical flesh in the next. They're different words with the same meaning both in this life, the next.

Job fully expected and believed he would see God with physical eyes in a physical body after his mortal death. Resurrection to the Christian is tangible, solid, a renewal into what we were created to experience.

Even early in his struggles, Job knew this as the passage we have just discussed show. Job knew that his earthly pain was not all there was to his story.

There are sadly many, including some in the church and some who teach the Bible that I've heard say in the Old Testament there's no clear belief of life after death. But that's just not true, as this passage in Job, the earliest book in the Bible and many others show.

I also have a revised and complete lesson on this topic. Is there Life After Death?

On the www.bible805.com website, where I go through additional Old Testament passages that affirm the truth of life after death, plus a shorter lesson that critiques those who deny it.

One more hopeful reminder, as one writer said, if we truly believe in the promised joy of a fulfilling, meaningful eternity spent with those we love and a God who loves us, even the most horrible experiences of life will seem like one night spent in a bad hotel. You might be in that horrid bad hotel now, but be assured that as the Book of Job shows us and the rest of the Bible affirms, joy will come.

Perhaps not in this life, but it will come and it will last forever. What's Next? I pray that what we've covered today are comforting truths to those who know Jesus.

Yet often answers to some of these questions bring up others that we're going to go into in the next lesson. And these questions are, what about people who've never heard of Jesus? Why do innocent people suffer? And how can we help people who are suffering?

Join me as I help you lay a solid foundation for your life as the big questions covered in this lesson and the next will come up again and again in our lives and those we care about. The Bible has answers, and that's what these lessons assure us of. And until our next lesson, be encouraged with these final words from Job.

And again cue the musing from the Messiah where he says, I know my Redeemer lives and that in the end he will stand on the earth, and after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. That's all for now.

Please check out the Show Notes, a complete downloadable transcript, graph expansion and related materials at www.bible805.com until next time, I'm Yvonne Pryn, your fellow pilgrim, writer and teacher for Jesus, and I'd like to close with this benediction.

May you know the invitation of God to move from confusion to clarity, from wandering to rest, from loneliness to knowing you are loved, from turmoil to peace, from wherever you are in your spiritual journey to a growing knowledge of God's Word and in your personal relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.