Learning From the Trials of Job

I think we're all familiar with the scripture in the Bible that says, not many mighty, not many noble, not many great, not many intellectual, may not use all of those exact words, are called today. Why hasn't God called many mighty and noble today? Why doesn't God call the greats of the world? Why is God calling people who do not have a huge impact on the world realm? You may look at us. How many people do we normally impact on a daily basis or monthly, yearly with our character and who we are? Most of us go through life. We work. Yes, we come in contact with people, but we're not the Bill Gates of the world. We're not the Oprah Winfrey. We're not the individuals who have a great deal of influence and power and prestige. Well, there's a book in the Bible that helps to explain how God works with His elect.

And I don't think most of us have actually ever stopped to think about that this book was written for us, and the trial that God allowed the individual in this book to go through was there for us. I'm talking about the book of Job and the sufferings that Job went through.

We find that Job was quite a character, and he was a very capable person. In the past, we've tried to come up with all kinds of theories about who Job was, where he came from. We even thought he may have been a kiosk in Egypt. We wrote articles about that years ago, but I think there's probably a little more plausible explanation than that. We know that a catastrophe happened to Job, and that when that happened to him, he could not understand why. The big question, why is this happening to me? Have we ever had a trial or a difficulty or a problem, and we just could not understand why? Why has this happened to me? We all go through the suffering of Job from time to time. Why does God allow this to happen to me, to my family? Why do we suffer? Why does God allow humans to suffer? And you find that Job complained loudly when he went through his trial. It wasn't just a matter of going through the trial, but he complained. His three friends, if you'll remember, accused him of many evils. They said he was a sinner above all, because only sinners suffer. The righteous don't. His friends told Job that Job had it all wrong.

They accused him of sinning and not obeying God. And when it's all said and done, Job's outlook was mainly correct what he said, and his friends were wrong. We know in the story, along came another friend, Eli Hugh, who said, look, all of you have it wrong, and he gave them a better analysis of what was going on. And finally, God spoke to Job. And Job had a different attitude when it was all said and done. And Job's attitude, in the end, is the attitude that you and I should have.

And it's an attitude that we want to take a look at as we go through the sermon today.

I think the book of Job is a book that we need to review occasionally.

Job is a type of why we suffer. What he went through is clearly an example for us.

He's an example for all humanity to help to explain why people do suffer.

Now, the question comes up, why does God allow those who are the closest to Him, His children, His sons, His daughters, those who have been handpicked by Him, why does He allow us to suffer? It would seem to make more sense that those that God is called and working with, that God would protect us from some of that. Why does He allow His children and His family to go through severe trials and tests? We find that Job represents all believers and the struggle that all believers have in coping with the hardships of life, the difficulties of life, while maintaining our trust and our confidence in God, no matter what comes our way. Now, having said that, let's go back to Matthew chapter 24. Matthew the 24th chapter, begin to read in verse 3. Matthew chapter 24, we will begin to read here in verse 3. Now, Christ was asked by His disciples about events that are unfolding in front of us right now. He says, as He said on the Mount of Bali, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, Tell us, when will these things be? What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And so Jesus answered and said to them, Take heed that no one deceived you, for many will come into my name, saying, I am the Christ and will deceive many.

So Christ said, First thing you need to look out for is religious deception.

And you find that almost immediately after the start of the New Testament church, there were false prophets and false leaders who rose up. And you find they began to talk about Christ, but to lead people off in a different direction. Then in verse 6, He said, You'll hear wars and rumors of war. See, you're not troubled. All these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. So don't worry about that. The end isn't here. For nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and pestilence and earthquakes in various places. All these are only the beginning of sorrows. See, this isn't the end. This is the beginning of sorrows. So Christ said at the end, and as you begin to approach the end time, there will be troubles. There will be wars. There will be difficulties. There'll be big problems. These are only the very beginning of difficulties. Then, He says, notice, they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated of all nations for my namesake, and then many will be offended and will betray one another and will hate one another, and many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.

Now, again, the question, why is it that the very people who are trying to do the best, who are trying to obey God, who are striving to serve Him, to faithfully please Him in every aspect of our lives, why is it that we will be the ones subject to hatred, to persecution, to tribulation, to lies, to deceptions, to hatred? We know today in this country, especially, that religion as a whole is looked down upon. That people will look at anyone who stands up and says, I believe in such and such and has convictions about what constitutes a family, what constitutes marriage, what is wrong when it comes to abortion, or any of these things, were looked upon as fanatics, looked upon as extremists, pickets. And yet, the Bible says that the time is going to come when we will be looked down upon and we will be hated, and we'll go into tribulation. And in verse 12, And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end, the same shall be saved. And so you'll find people will get used to what's wrong, and the love of many will just sort of wax cold. People will get used to the society and the age that they live in. Now let's turn back to Revelation chapter 3. Well, I want to read these because I think these tie in with what we're going to be talking about in the book of Job.

Beginning in verse 18, I read this in the sermon last week, but it doesn't hurt to read the same Scripture twice. Revelation 3.18, I want you to notice, And in chapter 18, we find, I counsel, God is telling the laity sins here, To buy from me gold refined in the fire, That ye may be rich, and why garments that ye may be clothed, And that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, And anoint your eyes with eyesahd That ye may see. And as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, Therefore be zealous and repent. Jesus is talking to the church. This is a revelation to the church at the end time. God says that some in the end are going to have to buy gold. Gold, again, as I mentioned last week, is a symbol of value. A value that is lasting and enduring. It's talking about the character that we are to develop. The character that God wants us to develop is compared to gold. You might remember in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, it mentions about six building materials. Gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay, stubble. It talks about those going through the fire and being refined. Wood, hay, and stubble are burned up and they are submitted to the fire. Gold, silver, and precious stones are not. They become purified. The impurities are eliminated. So you find here, not only is it gold, but gold refined in the fire. It is purified. So it shows that at the end time, many of God's people will go through suffering and difficulties. That truly converted people do and will be faced with problems. Truly converted people have difficulties and tests and trials that they go through. And God is trying to get us ready for the end time. There is going to be a reward at the end time. We know the resurrection is ahead of us, the second coming of Jesus Christ. But before we get there, there are going to be a number of trials that we will have to go through. What is God's objective for us going through trials and tests? Well, with that as a background, let's ask the question, who was Job? Do you know who Job was? And why is he singled out by God as an individual who was blameless? Where did he live? And who were his friends? And what qualified them to say anything? There are critics of the Bible that claim that Job was a fictitious person and that his story was concocted, written by some Jewish scholar somewhere, a writer, to illustrate a lesson that it didn't really happen. And yet in James 5, verse 11, the book of James 5, verse 11, we find this written, You have heard of the perseverance of Job, and you've seen the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. So the New Testament cites Job as a literal person, a real person, that you've heard of his perseverance, his endurance. Let's go back to the book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel chapter 14. And here you find the prophet also wrote about Job. I think it's interesting, here in verse 14, notice what Ezekiel wrote about Job, Job 14. Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness, says the Lord. And the same thing in verse 20, Noah, Daniel, and Job. So Job is compared right up there with Noah and Daniel, as being a man who is righteous.

So from God's perspective, he was a righteous man. Now let's notice in the book of Job, if you'll turn back to the book of Job, chapter 1. Job chapter 1 in verse 1. We read this about Job.

He was the land of us. Have you ever stopped to look at and to figure out where the land of us was? Well, the short summary is it was in Arabia, a part of war, part of Jordan, to the Sinai Peninsula. It was an area where the Midnights lived. In Genesis chapter 10 in verses 20 through 23, it lists us as a son of Shem's son, Erech, the father of the ancient Armenians and Syrians. That's in Genesis chapter 10 verses 22 through 23. There is another us mentioned back in Genesis 22 verses 20 through 22. He's called here, Hus, H-U-Z, which is essentially the same name as us. He was the firstborn of Abraham's brother, Nahor. Remember, Abraham had a brother named Nahor. So, here you find two individuals who have the name of us, and one is from Shem, the other Abraham's family. The book of Lamentations, and actually I'd like to turn over to this particular scripture. In Lamentations chapter 4, you'll find beginning here in verse 21, it says, Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of us. The cup shall also pass over to you. So, the area where Edom was at this time is referred to as the land of us. The expositor dictionary of the Bible says this. It seems that us might have been the name of a region east of Palestine, including the Edomites and the adjacent tribes. So, apparently Job lived somewhere east of Palestine at this time. The Bible indicates that he was, notice in verse 3, if you come back to the book of Job, verse 3, he was the greatest of all the people of the east. And so, you'll find he lived east of Palestine, and he was considered the greatest. Now, does the Bible give us any clues as to who Job was and when he lived? Well, you'll find that Job, apparently, lived during the period at the very end of what we would call the patriarchs. Now, who were the patriarchs? Well, you have Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Somewhere at the end of the time where Jacob and Esau lived, and until Israel, under Moses, came on the scene. You'll find that he offered sacrifices to God, and yet when God chose Israel and they became his people, the Levites offered up the sacrifices, and the average person could no longer offer up sacrifices. And yet, Job understood about sacrifices, and he had some knowledge, obviously, concerning God. Another clue as to who Job was are his friends. Let's go over here to chapter 2 of the book of Job in verse 11. You'll notice he had three friends. It says, when Job's three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place. Eliphaz the Temani, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Nemethite, for they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him and to comfort him. So they were going to comfort Job at this time.

Now, his three friends descended from Esau and Katora. They come from Esau and Katora. You'll notice Eliphaz the Temani. Let's go back to Genesis 36. Notice what it says here. Talking about verse 1, the genealogy of Esau, who is Edom. It says, now Edom bore Eliphaz to Esau.

And then in verse 11, the sons of Eliphaz were Timon. Timon was apparently his oldest son. And then verse 15, these were the chiefs of the sons of Esau. So these were heads of tribes of Esau, the sons of Eliphaz, the first-born son of Esau, were chief Timon. So apparently, Eliphaz the Temani was an Edomite. Very clearly, he is identified with Esau.

In fact, back in the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah makes a statement. Is wisdom no more than Timon? That's in Jeremiah 49 verse 7. At one time, apparently, the tribe of Timon was a very wise tribe. This is where people would go to counsel, ask for advice. And apparently, that wisdom, that counsel, had disappeared for them. This would be part of the area that we would call Turkey today, the southern part of Turkey, down into what was known later on as Asia Minor. Now, who was Bildad the Shuhite? Outside of being the shortest man in the Bible. People look at him being Shuhite. But who was Bildad the Shuhite? Well, in Genesis 25, going back again to the book of Genesis, verse 1.

Notice, Abraham took him a wife, and her name was Keturah. And she bore him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbach, and Shua. Now, the Shuhites apparently were descendants, the commentaries say, from Shua, a son of Abraham by his last wife, Keturah.

So these people, in other words, the descendants of Keturah, were related to Abraham. And you'll notice here, that after she had born Abraham, these children, notice what he did. Abraham gave gifts to the sons of the concubine, which Abraham had, and while he was still living, he sent them eastward, away from Isaac his son, to the country of the east. And what does it say about Job? Job was the greatest man in the east. So these people were sent away. Now, why did Abraham do that? Well, he knew that Isaac was going to inherit everything that he had, that he was the son of inheritance.

And so he didn't want to dispute, and fighting, and all of this going on. So he gave them their inheritance, and sent them away ahead of time, so that there would not be any problem. So Job was the greatest of the people of the east. And so the peoples you find that Job mingled with, were the descendants of Esau, and the descendants of Keturah. And so you have a family relationship here. Job was probably a descendant from one of these individuals. The Bible just doesn't really say. Now, Eliphaz's identity as a Temanite dates the story of Job to at least a few generations after Jacob and Esau, most likely when the Israelites were in Egypt.

So the Israelites are down in Egypt, and Job lives. Now, there's another major character in the story here, and that is Eli-Hugh. Remember, Eli-Hugh was a young man who later on came along and said, look, let me tell you what's really going on here.

And, you know, he corrected the three friends, and Job. Who was Eli-Hugh? Well, he is described as being the son of Rachel the Buzzite. Okay, Genesis 22, verse 20. You wonder, why are all of these genealogies in the Bible? Well, they're there for a purpose. Because sometimes you can go back and check, and you're amazed at some of the information that you find.

Here in chapter 22, beginning in verse 20, we read now, came to pass after these sayings that was told, Abraham, saying, indeed, Milka also was born children to your brother Nahor, Huz, his firstborn, and Buzz, his brother. So here are the descendants. The Buzzites are the descendants of Buzz. The Huzites would be the descendants of Huz. So we have Buzz and Huz. You know, two good names here in the Old Testament. So what we find, Buzz was the brother of Huz, and both were the sons of Abraham's brother Nahor. So again, we got a family affair going here.

Probably Job was a descendant of Abraham in some way, coming through Abraham. All of this helps to substantiate the conclusion that the book of Job was among Abraham's non-Israelite descendants, related family a few generations after Jacob and Esau, and probably while the Israelites were in Egypt. And at least it gives you a time period. And let's go back to the book of Job, because there's another clue here in the book of Job, when you focus on it.

It says, there was a man in the land of Buzz whose name was Job. And that man was lameless, and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. Now verse 8, The LORD said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth? So is nobody like him on the earth?

If he had been alive during Abraham's day, he couldn't say that, because there would have been Abraham. If he was alive during Isaac's day, he couldn't say that, because there would have been Isaac. He couldn't say it when Jacob was alive. So it had to be a period of time, an interim period, when Jacob and Esau were alive, and then between the time of Moses coming along.

There is a period of time there. Now, this would be what we would call the only blameless time. There were others later on who came along who obeyed God. There was Moses, there was Aaron, there was Joshua. These were righteous men of God who served God. Prior to that, you had the patriarchs. As far as Old Testament writers among the Jews, as well as New Testament, tradition says that Moses wrote the book of Job.

Moses could have met Job, or he could have met people who knew Job. Either way, Job lived somewhere in the area where the Midianites lived. There are two separate occasions that Moses dwelt or had contact with the Midianites. Remember, he fled out of Egypt after he had killed the Egyptian, went down where? To Medium. He lived there, and he married a woman, who was, her dad was the priest of the Midianites at that time. So, Jewish tradition credits Moses, and it's certainly possible that he might have even known Job and talked to him while he was there in that area, or at least had the story repeated to him.

And with the information that is given, it's almost like it's a first-hand story that was passed on to him. Now, with all of that in mind, we're going to get down to trials here. Let's go back and read one other scripture in the New Testament to give us some context of what's coming ahead. In chapter 12 of the book of Revelation, in verse 9, we find that at the very time in the end, Revelation 12 and verse 9, the Satan the Devil rises up, tries to kick God off his throne again. He's cast back down, and he and his angels are cast out.

And when that happens, notice in verse 13, when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. And when that persecution intensifies, then you find God protects, as we covered last week, as part of the church, and they go to a place of safety. Some are not protected, and they're left behind, and they have to go into the tribulation. So there's coming a time, brethren, facing us in the near future, when the Church of God is going to be faced with a lot of persecution.

Now, when you look at the story of Job, you find that Job felt persecuted, or felt like he was going through a trial, unfairly. Will people at the end time? Will we? That's the question we, you, I, have to answer. If we are persecuted, or if a member of our family were to be martyred, would we quit? Would we give up? Would we think that we're being treated unfairly? And yet, you find a true servant of God, apparently, which Job was, that he felt that he was being treated unfairly.

The time will come when anyone who keeps the commandments of God will be looked down upon, and will be ridiculed and made fun of. And what you find happened to Job, as we realize, is that Job lost everything. His ten children were killed. His camels were taken from him. His donkeys, his sheep, everything that he had, his wealth was stripped from him. And God left his wife there. And his wife was not an encouragement to him.

She told him, curse God and die. And he lost everything. What was Job's big problem? If you could summarize it in one sentence. What would you say Job's big problem was? I think in the past we'd say, well, he was self-righteous, but that's not necessarily a problem.

Job's problem was he could not see what God was doing. He couldn't see God. Now, he knew God allowed the trial, or had brought the trial on him, but he could not see what was going on and why this was happening. At the end time, does not God tell the lay of his sins, anoint your eyes so that you can see? See what? Well, see where they need to change.

See where they need to repent. People have difficulty sometimes seeing why trials come. Why do they happen? And sometimes we can become very upset. Today there's a philosophy that circulates around, and it's certainly very prominent in the religions of this world.

Years ago, I used to hear this even in God's church, and we're not careful. We can fall to this. That is, if things go well with you, then God's with you. So if you're not having a lot of trouble, then you must be doing what's right because God's with you. But if things are not going well with you, then God's after you. God's punishing you. And you must be doing something drastically wrong. This could be summarized by what is commonly known as the health and wealth gospel. The health and wealth gospel that you find so many ministers today teach is that you just obey God. You do what God says, and He will bless you, and there won't be any ripples in your life. And if you have problems and you're not obeying God, so therefore you're bringing all of this on yourself. Well, here you have a situation where Job knew that he was not doing what he was being accused of by his friends, as we'll see. Rather than do true Christians, converted Christians, those who've dedicated their lives to God, serve God, or obey God, they're tithing faithfully, they're serving, they're helping, they do everything that they possibly know that they can do, and still have problems, still go through tests and trials? Well, sure we do. Every one of us has gone through those type of things. Why does God allow Satan to do some of these things at times? What is God doing? What is God working out? Job had to repent, but what he had to repent of was not seeing God's purpose, of not realizing that God was working something out in his life. He didn't know what was going on. Job felt persecuted, felt hated. He was being falsely accused. And at the end time, God's people, just like Job, are going to be falsely accused. We will be accused of doing things that we're not doing, whereas we know what we do do. We all know that we're not perfect. And there are a lot of things. There are a lot of times when things are going well with us, that we know that we're not obeying 100%. We know that we still do things wrong, and yet we're not going through a terrible trial. Then there are times that we go through trials and we think, well, I thought I had it all together. And we're still going through a trial. I believe there's a relationship between what Job went through and what the church will have to go through at the end time, and some of the trials and tests. With Job, Satan had permission to persecute him. And yet, you'll find that Job remained faithful to his values. He did not give up and start sinning. He continued to do what he thought. He just didn't understand. So let's come back to the story of Job again. Job 1, verse 1, we find that there was a man in the land of us whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and shunned evil. He had seven sons, three daughters were born to him. His possessions were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yokeboxen, 500 female donkeys, very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East. He was the wealthiest one alive. He was your Bill Gates of that generation.

He had a lot of money at that time. So he was a great tribal sheep. He was looked upon. Now, for his sons would go and feast in their house, each on his appointed day, apparently on his birthday. They would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. In verse 5, we all know the story, at the end of the feast scene, Job would offer up sacrifices. He said, perhaps my children have sinned. So he was concerned that they might have done something wrong, maybe drank too much, curse God in their hearts. And so Job did this on a regular basis. He understood about offering up sacrifices. And he did this because he was concerned. He was a diligent man. He practiced what he believed. Now, along comes Satan, verse 6. There was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. The Lord said to Satan, from where do you come? He said, oh, I've just been walking up and down on the earth, and going to and fro. And the Lord said to Satan. Now, God could have said anything to Satan. I mean, he could have said, look at that beautiful river over there. Do you see the sunset the other night? I mean, he could have asked him anything. But the one person on earth who was obeying him, who was blameless, who was doing what was right, he points out to Satan. The Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant, Joel? So he is a servant of God. He was obeying God. That there's none like him in the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil.

Now, I want you to notice Satan's logic. It was very simple. The only reason anybody serves you God is because you bless them. That's why they're serving you. Satan answered the Lord and said, does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side?

You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions, have increased in the land. Now stretch out your hand, touch all he has, he'll surely curse you. So he said he's only in it for what he can get. And that's what Satan would say about all of us. That would be the accusation.

The only reason they're obeying you is because of what they get from you. And so God says, okay, you go ahead. You can take away the blessings and see if he'll still obey me. So he did. He took away all of the blessings. And notice, after he's been stripped, his family is dead. Every possession is taken from him, verse 22, and all this. Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong. He didn't accuse God of anything. So disaster came upon him. His problem was he couldn't understand it, and he thought maybe God wasn't dealing with him fairly.

Now his three friends show up, verse 11. We read this. Life as a teamanite build that shoe-hide, and Zophar, the name of the fight. We don't know who Zophar was. They came to mourn with him and to comfort him. Sometimes we think we are comforting somebody, and we don't really comfort them at all. And in this case, they didn't. And when they raised their eyes from afar, they did not recognize him. He had boils from his feet to his top of his head. They couldn't even recognize him. They lifted up their voices and wept, and each one tore his robe, sprinkled dust on their heads and towards heaven. And they sat down with him on the ground seven days, seven nights. No one spoke a word.

Can you imagine just sitting there looking at him seven days, seven nights? And they saw that his grief was very great. Now that's a lot of grieving, seven days, seven nights, and he's going through a lot of pain.

Now, finally, Job breaks the silence.

And Job breaks the silence by asking a simple question. Why is God allowing me to remain alive? I would rather be dead. But here I am, I'm having to suffer through this trial. I don't get it, is what he said. Why doesn't God allow me to die? Now, I don't think Job has suicidal thoughts. He's not saying he's going to kill himself. He just wonders, you know, I've suffered so much it would be better for me to die. Have we ever looked on an individual in God's church who maybe was dying of cancer or some other thing and wondered, well, why is God allowing them to continue to live? Why are they continuing to suffer? Same question that Job asked. But let's notice here in verse 1. After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job spoke and said, May the day perish on which I was born.

And a male child is conceived. And he goes on and on. Verse 11, Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb? So he wondered, you know, why didn't I just die to have to go through life and then finally end up this way?

Well, Job went through this partially for our sakes. And when I say for our sakes, hopefully we don't have to go through what Job went through, not to the degree that he did. That we are to read, study, and learn. And we are to learn from what he went through.

Why is God, Job's saying, letting me live? And sometimes we wonder, why does God allow us to live? Now, his three friends came along after Job poured out all of this. And they came along and they said, Well, let me tell you why this is all happening to you. This is happening to you because you're sinning. That's why.

You're breaking God's law. Does God ever curse somebody who's righteous and who's obeying him and who's doing what is right? Let's notice in chapter 4, in verse 7, here's Eliphaz, and he begins to speak.

You notice the title here says, Eliphaz, Job has sinned.

Verse 7, remember now whoever perished being innocent.

So if you were innocent, you wouldn't be perishing. You wouldn't be going through this. Or where were the upright ever cut off?

Even as I have seen those who plow iniquity and so trouble reap the same.

You have trouble? You're plowing iniquity. You've brought on yourself all of this.

By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his anger they are consumed.

And then in Su's chapter after chapter, one friend accusing him, Job coming back and defending himself, they said, well, you must be mistreating the poor. You must be mistreating the widow. You're neglecting this. You're neglecting that. You're not obeying. And Job kept saying, I'm not doing that. I'm obeying God. I don't mistreat the widow. I don't mistreat the poor. And on and on. They had the health and wealth mentality.

Their approach was wrong. Their approach towards Job was wrong. They argued with him.

They knew that God would forgive you if you sinned, but they missed the point of what God was trying to do with Job.

See, they could only see one facet of human suffering. And that is, yes, we do when we sin. There are penalties that we incur, but they thought every time something bad happened to an individual, it had to be because of what that person was doing.

Job did not understand what God was trying to do either. Neither one of them understood what God was trying to do. And Job tried to explain, but he could never come up with it. Let's notice in chapter 10, what Job says. He asked the question that all of us would ask if we go through a severe trial. Why? Why is this happening to me? My soul loaves my life, verse 1, chapter 10. And I will give free course to my complaint, and I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. So here he had become bitter, resentful.

I will say to God, do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me. Tell me. What is it I'm doing wrong? Show me. Does it seem good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands and smile on the counsel of the wicked?

Do you have eyes of flesh, or do you see as a man sees? Are your days like the days of a mortal man? Are your years like the days of a mighty man, that you should seek for my iniquity and search out my sin? Although you know that I am not wicked, there's no one who can deliver from your hands. And so, he contends with God. He says, I've looked, I've searched myself, there's nothing that I'm doing wrong. And so, therefore, he began to become bitter, frustrated, and hostile towards God. And, brethren, over the years, I have noticed that there are times when people will go through a long-standing trial and test. And, if they're not very careful, they can begin to become bitter and resentful against God. Job's feeling was, show me what is happening. And, again, people want to know why. And he thought that God was dealing with him unfairly. Now, let's go back to Job 35. We come to Eli-Hew.

Job 35. Eli-Hew was a younger man. He was standing by. He hadn't said anything up to this point. His three friends were older than him. They were all chiefs, apparently, tribal chiefs. Here was Job. He's the greatest of them all.

And here's Eli-Hew. And he hears all of their charges against Job. He hears Job defending himself. And he begins, then, to take on Job and his three friends. Notice what he says here.

I'm in the book of Psalms. No wonder that doesn't look right.

Chapter 35 here, the book of Job, says, Moreover Eli-Hew answered and said, Do you think this is right? Do you say my righteousness is more than God's?

So he put his finger immediately on part of Job's problem. Job thought, and this is a problem we can have, that because he did what was right. Let's put it today. We come to church. We tithe. We pray. We study. We try to help. We try to serve. We try to give. We go to the feast, whatever it might be. We look at all of the things that we do. And we think, if we have a trial, that I'm righteous. This is what Job said. I take care of the poor. I take care of the widows. I offer up sacrifices. I've done all of these things. Therefore, why is God doing this to me? This was his approach. So Elihu said, you say my righteousness is more than God's. He didn't fully understand why, but he knew that Job was not correct. For you say, what advantage will it be to you? What profit shall I have more if I had sinned? So notice what he's saying here.

Not only was he saying he was more righteous than God, but he was beginning to look at the profit of serving God now. What advantage? He could say, I could sin and have to go through all these problems. What advantage is it to obey? And sometimes we can look around in the world and society, and we can see how the wicked prosper, how the evils have good jobs, nice homes, nice cars, and good bank accounts. And here we are, the servants of God, striving to obey God, and we have problems. We just barely get by. Why? This is where Job, he says, what advantage is it to you? What profit shall I have more than if I had sinned? I will answer you and your companions with you. Then a lie you began to give them a different perspective. He said, look, you're talking about things you don't know about. And he began to tell them they needed to look to God, look at how great God was, look at God's power and creation, and get their minds off of themselves.

You see, here was the perspective that Job and his friends had. Same perspective sometimes that we can have. We look at the short term and God looks at the long term. We look at things in the short term, when I say short term, what's going on right now, what's happening to me now. God looks at the long term. When I say long term, God is looking at eternity. He's looking at your character, my character, and where we're going to be for eternity. Job did not have to repent of what his friends had condemned him of doing. He wasn't doing what his friends said. He was not sinning in the manner that they had articulated about him. But he did not understand why God was allowing this or if God was doing it himself. Then you come over to chapter 38 and finally God speaks up. I want you to notice sometimes God will allow us to go for a while before he will intervene and begin to reveal to us why. And here in verse 1, the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man and I will question you and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Okay, Job, you're asking all these questions of me, but where were you when the earth was created? And you understand its measurements. Do you know what the foundations, verse 6, were fastened on, or who laid the cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together? And God then begins to humble Job and begins to put him in his place. God began to demonstrate to Job and to his friends the limitation of human understanding, if we just rely on our own understanding. Finally, Job came to see clearly where his mistake was. In chapter 42, in verse 1, Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do everything and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you. You ask, Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I buttered what I did not understand. Things too wonderful for me which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak. He said, I will question you and you shall answer me. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, and now my eye sees you. Now I see, now I understand. He said, Now I know you. Therefore I abhor myself, or despise myself, and repent, and dust, and ashes. He realized who was he to question God, to complain, to become bitter, to become resentful, to shake his fist in God's face. In verse 5, he says, I get it. He didn't have to repent of the sins that he was being accused of by his friends, but he did have to repent of the way he was thinking, of his outlook, of his approach. And in verse 7, so was that after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz, the Temanite, My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. See, God didn't condemn him for what he said, but the three friends he did. And he told them, look, you're going to have to repent, you're going to have to offer up a sacrifice, and you're going to have to come to my friend Job, my servant Job, and say, pray for me. And so, this is exactly what they did. In verse 8, now therefore take yourselves seven bulls, seven rams, go to my servant Job, offer up for yourself a burnt offering, and my servant Job shall pray for you, and I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.

So, God was very indignant with them. He was displeased with them. They had to acknowledge their fault, their wrong advice that they'd given to Job. Job wasn't portrayed by God as being evil. God said, God's own word, a blameless man, an upright, one who shuns evil and does good. That was God's evaluation of Job. Would that all of us would have the same type of an evaluation. But there was an aspect about God that he didn't understand, and that is how God is dealing with mankind, to develop his character within us, so that we can be in the kingdom. And God was concerned with him in the long run.

So, basically what Job did, as he went through this trial, he began to stop looking at God in the long run, or the future. And for us, sometimes it's easy to forget about God when we're going through a trial, and begin to concentrate on the physical, the pain, the suffering. Although I would have to say this, that the majority of the members of God's Church that I've seen over the years who've gone through some very severe trials have been amazing to me. That they have exhibited a quiet confidence in God, a trust in God, and that they were looking forward to the resurrection, and that they were going to await that, no matter what they had to go through in this life. Well, brethren, that's an attitude that God is looking for in us. God wants us to never forget our purpose in life, what he's doing with us, that he's developing his character, his righteousness within us. And we don't go to God telling him how righteous we are, because any righteousness we have comes from him, through his Spirit, by his power. So we have to look to the purpose of life. Why are we here? And God's Word is the final authority. You see, we have one advantage that Job didn't have. Job didn't have this book. He didn't have one Word of this book written to go to, to read, to think about, to ask God to help him to understand. You and I have 66 of them in here, in this Bible, to read, and to study, and to go over to show us God's plan, his purpose, and what he is working out. You find, you go back here to Job 42, verse 10. Job 42, verse 10. The Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends. So notice we have to pray for our friends, for those who, what did Christ say? For those who abuse you, despisefully use you. We are to pray for our enemies. So he prayed for his friends. They weren't his enemies. They were his friends. They were just misled. They didn't understand. Indeed, the Lord gave Job twice as much as before. In verse 12, the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning.

Verse 16, after this, Job lived a 140 years, saw his children and grandchildren for four generations, and he died old and full of days. And God blessed him. God restored to him his great power, prestige, influence, and he was blessed to live to a ripe old age.

Now Job, the lesson of Job, is that God restored and blessed him, and he lived his life out, and God allowed him to be blessed. When you and I, brethren, finish our trials, it's not a matter that God's going to promise to let us live another 140 years. What God is promising us is to live forever, eternal life. The end result of our trials, of our tests, is eternal life. That's what's waiting for us. So when we finish our trials, when we go through the tests, the trials, the difficulties that we have to, what is waiting for us is the resurrection, immortality, and eternal life. So let's never take our eyes off of that, brethren, and let's remember the book of Job, that it was written for us, especially those who live at the end time.