December 4, 2016
Scripture:
Scripture:
Scripture:
Hymn 355 - Safe in Christ, the weakest child
Prayer
Last time I spoke we looked at the upright man, and we saw that the Lord called Job upright. Today, let’s look at the life of Job.
Job 1:1-3. Job was a perfect, upright man, and he had a lot of possessions and animals. He also tried to honour and fear God, and keep away from evil. However, something happened…
Vv.6-12. God and Satan had a very interesting conversation about Job. The Lord said, “Have you seen my servant Job, and how upright he is?” Satan replied, “He only honours you because you’ve blessed him. If you hurt him, he would curse you.” So God told Satan, “Ok, you can do anything you like to everything he owns.”
Vv.13-19. Satan quickly destroyed everything that Job owned. When bad things and trials happen to us, it doesn’t necessarily mean that God is punishing us. God does things and allows things that we don’t understand. One time the disciples were out on the lake in a boat, but even though Jesus told them to go a storm still came up.
Vv.20-22. Satan was wrong. He thought that if he took all of Job’s possessions, then Job would curse God. However, Job realized that he had brought nothing into the world, and that he would take nothing out of it. God had given him everything that he owned, and it was God who took it all away. Everything belongs to God anyway.
Then God gave Satan permission to hurt Job’s body, but not to kill him. Job 2:7. So Satan struck Job with boils—like open sores—from head to toe. That would be very painful. Verses 8-9. What we’ll see now is that Job’s wife and “friends” told him that God was punishing him. His wife even told him to curse God and die. Verse 10. However, even though Job was suffering, he knew that we receive both good and bad from God. He truly saw God as ruling over everything. God may use bad things to bless us, and it’s our job to receive that, and honour the Lord even in hard times.
Verse 11. Here we see Job’s friends. Let’s look at what they had to say. In Job 4:7-8 Eliphaz the Temanite accused Job of doing something bad, saying, “You reap what you sow.” If we sow wickedness, we get wickedness.
Next, in Job 8:20, Bildad the Shuhite also attacked Job and said that, “If you were perfect, Job, God wouldn’t do this to you; because he doesn’t cast away a perfect man, and he doesn’t help evil doers.”
Finally, in Job 11:4-6, Zofar the Naamathite reproved Job, as well. Poor Job couldn’t get any consolation. However, he was upright, and knew that God was over everything. In Job 13:15 he said that even if God killed him, he would still trust in Him. That’s like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They were going to trust God, even if He didn’t save them from the fiery furnace. Even if he died, Job was going to trust God. We can trust God, too.
Job 19:25-26. Job also believed in the resurrection, so he knew that even if he died that he would see God. He held on to his trust, and didn’t give in.
In Job 38:1, God began to speak to Job, and in Job 42:7 He told Job’s friends that, “You haven’t spoken right things, like Job has.” He showed that Job was perfect in how he lived, and after the difficulties were over He gave him a new family, and twice as many animals and possessions as he had had before.
So even though he went through trials and suffering, Job knew that God was over all, and that He can use suffering for our blessing. We can trust the Lord.
Colossians 3:22-25, 4:1-6
Darby translates “servants” as “bondmen.” We don’t have bondmen anymore, but the principles are still the same. It is interesting to watch the behaviour of different employees. It usually isn’t in our job description that we are working for the Lord, but that’s what we are to do. Sometimes that gets hard; especially when you have a difficult master.
It is surprising how many employees can be industrious what the head man is walking through. We should be making an effort to meet the requirements of our job. We should be honourable and upright in it.
Our work is a heart thing. We may be working for someone else, but we may have a different motive. We are to work with singleness of heart, fearing God. It has been interesting to see that in three of these relationships they are said to be “as it is fit in the Lord,” “well pleasing unto the Lord,” and now here “fearing God.”
We all have a job whether we go out to work, or remain at home. All jobs are to be done unto the Lord. You can tell the difference between someone who is doing their work heartily, and one who is just going through the motions. There are others who are just out to get rich, but everything is to be done for the Lord. We might not get much of a reward here, but the rest of the payment will come later. A man was giving a demonstration of how long one’s life is. He had a long rope that you couldn’t see the end of, but a very small portion of it was coloured red. Pointed to it he said, “That is how long your life is compared with the rest of time”. What we do now effects what happens later. How are we living? Have we honoured, glorified, pleased, and done the will of God? If so the end reward will be that we will be blessed beyond imagination. The consequences of our life are all played out in a day that will never end. The richest man in the dale will be richer than the lord of the manor because he planted bulbs for the Lord.
The first verse of chapter four should probably be with chapter three. Masters are to be just and equal with their servants. In slavery, slaves didn’t get any of that. If you have someone working for you, you must pay attention to this. There have been people who have hurt because this relationship has not been respected. But these are God’s business principles. The One we serve has the ability to reward that will last for all eternity.
Hymn 381 - I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold
Prayer