Few questions cause people to wrestle more the the issue of suffering, and Christians are no different. It can be challenging to reconcile what we see around us. Believers are not exempt from deep pain. What does The Bible say about this in this portion of Job? If you need encourage to wait upon the hope of the Lord, this episode is for you.

Today's Scripture: Job 22-27

Scripture Referenced:

Hebrews 11:6

Genesis 6: 5-6

John 16:33

Job 22:3, 21-30

Job 23:10

Job 27:3-6

Welcome back to The Dwelling

Place from Entrusted Ministries.

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I'm Stephanie Cock, and

this is not about a routine.

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It's about a relationship with the Lord of

the universe that longs to dwell with you.

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Today we see job's, friends with

their final round of accusations.

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Go ahead, give a cheer.

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It's fascinating that their

argument never really goes

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beyond a couple basic premises.

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In logic, we call this syllogism,

and just because it has a fancy

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name doesn't mean that it's true.

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It's when you have two premises that

must equal a conclusion and job's,

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friends return with his basic idea,

the wicked sufferer job is suffering,

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therefore job must be wicked.

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Or to phrase it another way,

God punishes, wickedness.

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Job is being punished,

therefore job must be wicked.

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It's elementary logic

and it's not accurate.

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And even though they keep saying,

God is almighty and unsearchable.

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They keep thinking that they

can understand him in his ways.

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We've already seen that suffering

can be allowed by God and even

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ordained by him, and that the enemy

can take part in our suffering.

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But it's evident to me throughout this

book of the Bible that suffering also

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comes from the hand of other sinners.

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His friends were never commissioned

in the process to make him suffer,

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but at the end of the book, they

will be rebuked by the Lord.

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And that tells me God did not

give them this assignment.

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We never see him.

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Tell them, will you also test my

servant job in chapter 22, PHA

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with his third and final speech.

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begins listing off ridiculous

lies about the sins.

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Job has committed.

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He went from praising job's character

at the beginning to all of a sudden

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attributing egregious evil to him.

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But let me read to you the end

of his speech from chapter 22,

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Agree with God and be at peace.

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Thereby good will come to you.

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Receive instruction from his mouth

and lay up words in your heart.

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If you return to the Almighty,

you will be built up.

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If you remove injustice far from your

tense, if you lay gold in the dust

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and gold of Ur among the stones of the

torrent bed, then the Almighty will

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be your gold and your precious silver.

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For then you will delight

yourself in the almighty.

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And lift up your face to God,

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you will make your prayer to him and he

will hear you and you will pay your vows.

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You will decide on a matter and it will be

established for you, and light will shine

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on your ways for when they are humbled.

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You say it is because of pride,

but he saves the lowly he delivers

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even the one who is not innocent.

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Wow.

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It's one of those times again

where beautiful truth comes from.

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One of job's Friends, it sounds like

a passage coming out of Proverbs.

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One of my commentary says, you

could make a sermon just off

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of this, but you know what?

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It's not applicable to job's situation.

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It's the right words, but

the wrong application.

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Today we see another well-known verse

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he knows the way that I take when he

has tried me, I shall come out as gold

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scholars have different perspectives.

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On this verse, is Job saying that he

trusts that God will help him be steadfast

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through this trial, or is he so committed

to his innocence that he's saying he'll

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be found in the right after he's tried?

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Let me read a little bit more in context

and you can decide what you think.

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But he knows the way that I

take when he has tried me.

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I shall come out as gold.

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My foot has held fast to his steps.

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I have kept his way and

have not turned aside.

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I have not departed from

the commandment of his lips.

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I have treasured the words of his

mouth more than my portion of food.

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But he is unchangeable and who can turn

him back, what he desires that he does

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for he will complete what he appoints for

me and many such things are in his mind.

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Therefore, I am terrified at his presence

when I consider I am in dread of him.

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God has made my heart faint.

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The Almighty has terrified me.

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Chapter 24 contains a list of

wickedness and job declares.

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When I look around, I don't see that

wickedness gets punished right away.

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Chapter 25 is only six verses,

which is kind of nice to zip

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through this last accusation.

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A side note, if you've seen the name

Rahab come up several times and you've

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thought, is this the Rahab from Jericho?

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I thought this was

happening before Abraham.

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It's not that Rahab, it's actually

referring to a creature from mythology.

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I.

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After Job talks about the

sovereignty and power of God.

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He says in chapter 26, he stretches

out the north over the void

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and hangs the earth on nothing.

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This is one of those scientifically

accurate facts that wasn't proven

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until thousands of years later, and

there are several of those in the Book

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of Job in our last chapter for today,

chapter 27, job Resolutely states.

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As long as my breath is in me and the

spirit of God is in my nostrils, my lips

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will not speak falsehood and my tongue

will not utter deceit far be it from me.

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To say that you are right till I die.

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I will not put away my integrity from me.

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I hold fast, my righteousness

and will not let it go.

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My heart does not reproach

me for any of my days.

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Remember in the beginning of the

book when Job's wife said, will you

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still hold fast to your integrity?

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Even now, job's answer

is a resounding yes.

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Us.

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I see several important themes

in Job, and I wanna mention four

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of them from today's reading.

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First of all, as I said, suffering can

come at the hands of other sinners,

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and we shouldn't attribute them to

the hand of God, even if we know

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that he can use it for our good.

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Why do I think this is

important for moms to know?

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Because when our kids are harmed or

wronged, if we attribute all of the

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suffering caused by the sin of others

to the sovereignty of God, we're

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giving them a wrong view of the Lord.

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Let's say they're bullied at school and

they come home and in an effort to comfort

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them, you point them to the fact that

the Lord will use all of this for good.

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That's so true,

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but we can teach them to love our

enemy as Jesus told us, and to

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pray for those who persecute us.

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But we would be remiss if we

would attribute all of the evil

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of the world to God's sovereignty.

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Secondly.

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Although God is mighty, he is

also near and intimately aware

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of all we do and he does care.

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Chapter 22 verse three made me angry

to read when Ella said, is it any

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pleasure to the Almighty if you are

in the right or is it gain to him

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if you make your ways blameless us?

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I believe God cares when we honor

him, especially when it's out of the

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depth of understanding His goodness.

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Before the flood.

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In Genesis six, we learned that God

was deeply grieved by the condition

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of man, and that every intention of

their hearts, was evil all the time.

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It seems that when our intentions

are good and pure, then that

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would bless the heart of God.

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And I believe this is

confirmed in Hebrews 11, six.

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I've mentioned it before, but

I think it's worth repeating.

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It says, without faith, it

is impossible to please God.

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For whoever would draw near to him,

must believe that he exists and

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that he rewards those who seek him.

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And that's exactly what you're doing.

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You're drawing near not just

checking boxes off of a checklist,

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but we need to be careful because the

book of Job reminds us this reward

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doesn't always come quickly as Jesus

told us in John 6 33, in this world

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you will have troubles, but take

heart, I have overcome the world.

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If you believe that everything will

be quickly handled as job's friends

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wrongly did, you'll be deeply

disappointed and you might even

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set your children up for failure.

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Our character can be solidified

when we're patient in trials.

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third A major question in the book

of Job biz, will job serve God

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even if he gets nothing in return?

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And I wanna ask that of you today.

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Will you serve God even if you get

nothing more in return from him,

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what if the days that you do read his

word seem to be the hardest in your home?

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What if the more you pray, the more

your kids rise up in disobedience?

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Will you serve God because he's worthy?

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Years ago, I was at a mom's gathering

and a couple of us were sharing

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how we felt personally called to

honor this Sabbath in our homes.

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One mom said, sometimes I look

at my to-do list and I think it's

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impossible for me to set aside time

for God, but every time I do, I see

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him bless it, and I'm so thankful.

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I honored him with my time.

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To which I said, I hate to be a downer,

but that's not always my experience.

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Often when I've tried to obey God

with the Sabbath, the next day I will

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be absolutely slammed and I think,

God, I was trying to honor you.

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Why aren't you blessing me?

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And I felt him impress upon my heart.

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Would you take it back?

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Did you give it to me?

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Just so I would Bless you.

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Remember how I told you that we need

to balance key ideas in the Bible?

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The reality that we see all over

scripture is that there are blessings

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of obedience, but we have to make sure

that we don't obey just for the blessing.

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Welcome back to this over and over, but in

our society of instant gratification, it's

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becoming even more contrary to our nature.

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And lastly.

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As job's friends accuse

him of all sorts of sin.

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Much of it applies to job neglecting

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marginalized people.

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Scripture tells us that our walk with God

should impact our treatment of others.

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You can't press into the Lord and

pursue holiness without it spilling

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out over to his creation, and that

doesn't just apply to our families.

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We should pray to have eyes to see and be

looking for opportunities to bless others.

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Let me pray.

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Heavenly Father, we come before you

humbled at the task before us of

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parenting, often while we're still

wrestling knowing that you are wise

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and that your ways are above our ways.

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But sometimes it's hard to

reconcile with the fallenness of

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this earth all while we're doing

laundry and applying band-aids.

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ask for a supernatural gift of

patience in our hearts that we would

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be able to endure well for eternity.

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I pray today for the moms struggling with

discouragement, anxiety, or depression.

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They wanna model that you do transform,

yet they're feeling guilty because they're

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struggling to walk with hope and joy.

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Thank you for the example we

have in Job that you don't

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expect us to do this perfectly.

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I pray you would help us to not

teach our kids an empty Sunday

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school gospel that promises when

we obey everything will go well.

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But I also pray that our life and

our demeanor would prove that the

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joy of your presence is worth it.

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In Jesus' name we pray.

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Amen.