Enter Eliphaz

Let's bow in a moment of prayer Father, thank you for tonight, the opportunity you give us once again to look into the word of God There is no greater joy in all the earth to be able to study the truth of the gospel, to understand who you are and what you've done is so great And to be able to look at the Old Testament and study men and women who were committed to you and following you Lord, what a joy to see their faith, their commitment, their strength, especially a man like Joe who went through so many losses and heartaches and pain And yet, Lord, you did a great work in his life

There's so much for us to learn We have just barely scratched the surface on this man's life So many chapters yet to cover and yet Lord, we're grateful for what you've taught us so far And tonight, Lord, once again, we ask that you'd open our eyes, our hearts, our minds, to be able to understand and see the things that are important for us to grasp Things that will drive us closer to you, things that will enable us to live for you in your glory every single day And that Lord, when we face difficulties, hardship, pain, disaster, we would know how to respond in a way that puts you on display

That's what Job did And Lord, we wanna learn from him so that we can put you on display every moment of every day of our lives So teach us, Lord, we pray in your name Amen Got your Bible, Job chapter four and Job chapter five We're gonna cover two chapters tonight as we begin to understand Eliphaz and how he begins to counsel Job Now, all of us in our lives are in need of godly counsel There are times in our lives where we need to receive godly advice on what to do, on where to go It might be because we wanna get married And so we have premarital counseling

And I've always said that people don't need premarital counseling, they need post-marital counseling Because after they get married, they realize all the things that they didn't know about the other person, right? And so post-marital counseling is always good to go through as well, to be able to understand how to handle conflict, how to handle relational issues, how to handle the in-laws, all those kinds of things All of us are in need of godly counsel We have children, need wisdom on how to raise those children And we need people to guide us through those things

All of us are in need of great godly counsel And the word of God is the standard by which we give and receive counsel In fact, the Psalmist said these words in Psalm 119, verse number 24, your testimonies also are my delight, they are my counselors In other words, the testimonies of God, the statutes of God, the law of God, truly is the ultimate counselor There are things that God has said God is the ultimate counselor himself Isaiah 9.6, his name shall be called Wonderful, his name shall be called Counselor So he is the chief counselor

And so the words that he has given to us give us wisdom on how to get through life And so the Psalmist says that God's testimonies are so great that they are his counselors Bible also says in verse number 105, Psalm 119, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path In other words, God's word is going to guide us It's a lamp to my feet, a guide to my path It's gonna take me through life's difficulties, life's trials, life's daily challenges, but it's God's word that does that And then over in Psalm 119, verse number 130, the unfolding of your words give light

It gives understanding to the simple In other words, when God's word is opened, when God's word is unfolded, when God's word is studied, it gives me light It shows me which way to go, right? So if we're going to give godly counsel, it's going to come because of what God's word actually does say In fact, the Bible gives us a whole book on godly counsel It's called the book of Proverbs And the book of Proverbs is all about counseling people through difficult situations

No greater book to study with your young people than to help them understand the book of Proverbs, because in it is all kinds of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge In there, the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 25, verse number 11, like apples of gold and studdings of silver is the word spoken in right circumstances Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear And then over in Proverbs 27, verse number 17, it says, as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another

And then over in Proverbs chapter 19, verse number 20, listen to counsel and accept discipline that you may be wise the rest of your days Accept counsel, listen to discipline, that you might be wise the rest of your days The book of Proverbs is filled with verses like that So we know that God's word is the ultimate counselor And godly counsel will always move you into and through and around all that God's word says And so one of the worst things we can receive is bad counsel, right? Bad counsel destroys many people's lives And bad counsel usually comes in two arenas

One, because I wanna talk to you about my experiences, okay? And somehow my experiences relate to you Or my perceptions, things I perceive happening, but in reality, they are not happening That's bad counsel So enter Eliphaz Eliphaz is a man who counsels based on his experience and his perceptions And that is always bad counsel It doesn't mean that everything Eliphaz says is bad No, no, that's what makes bad counseling so bad There are some good things sprinkled all around it, which makes you think it's really, really good But in all reality, it's bad counsel

So enter Eliphaz into the life of Job It has been seven days of silence Job and his friends, or Eliphaz and his two friends came to sit with Job It tells us in chapter two, that when they saw Job, they wept What would cause them to weep when they saw him? The Bible tells us they didn't recognize him They didn't recognize him as their friend His face and body was so full of sores, he was unrecognizable to them They began to weep But the Bible says they came to sympathize with him and they came to comfort him But ironically, none of that happened

In fact, as soon as they begin to open their mouths, comfort ends and criticism begins Hard to imagine, and yet that's true And so we're going to learn a lot about what to say to people in pain and what not to say to people in pain Those who suffer, how to give them godly counsel How to even receive that godly counsel Eliphaz is a Timonite He's from Timon Timon was a place of wisdom

How do we know that? The Bible tells us in the book of Jeremiah, chapter 49, verse number seven, thus says the Lord of hosts, is there no longer any wisdom in Timon? Has good counsel been lost to the prudent? Has their wisdom decayed? Eliphaz, probably the oldest of the three men, they were all older than Job was And so as the oldest, he would speak first And so he begins to address Job And as he does, he is going to talk to a man who was completely discouraged, totally depleted, in despair beyond anything we could imagine

And because of the seven days of silence, having heard Job speak as he did last week in Job chapter three, he believes now it's time for him to speak And so he does So we're gonna take you through chapters four and five this evening, and then help you understand some principles when it comes to counseling other people going through disaster, okay? So here we go Chapter four, verse number one It begins by his praise of Job This is how he begins He's going to praise Job

It says, then Eliphaz, the Timonite, answered, if one ventures a word with you, will you become impatient? But who can refrain from speaking? Stop right there for a second He says, you know what? Silence is not accomplishing anything here We're not moving along in the process We've been sitting here for seven days Nothing's happening Nothing's changing So somebody needs to speak up Someone needs to say something So I guess it's gonna be me, because I'm the oldest, and I'm gonna lead the way So I'm going to speak Behold, you have admonished many, and you have strengthened weak hands

Your words have helped the tottering to stand, and you have strengthened feeble knees What an accomplishment He praises Job He praises him based on the things he's accomplished He has helped others He has comforted other people We can read about it over in Job, excuse me, Job chapter 29, when it says, I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the orphan who had no helper Verse 13 of chapter 29 The blessing of one ready to perish came upon me, and I made the widow's heart sing for joy

Verse 15, I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I investigated the case which I did not know In other words, Job is giving testimony as to the things that he had done for other people Well, they knew this They understood this So he's praising Job for the things that he's done in the lives of other people He's been a comforter to others He's been eyes to the blind He's been the feet to the lame In other words, he's helped people who could not help themselves He's a great man And so Eliphaz is going to praise him based on that Now think about this

These are three friends of Job, right? Job had helped many, many people, but only three of his friends show up to comfort him Nobody else does And for seven days, no one else comes, just these three individuals Elihu, he'll come later on down the road, and he too will speak, and we'll see where Job answers each person's comments, except for Elihu's Why? Because God interrupts Elihu and says, that's enough For God had heard enough, and God then was gonna speak But that's down the road We'll get to that point sometime in 2023, Lord willing, that's where we're going

But the bottom line is very simple, that, think about this, only three of his friends showed up Did he have more friends? I would assume so If he helped everybody like he says he did, and was that kind of person, and Eliphaz would be a testimony to that fact Eliphaz praises him Job, you've done all these things But that praise soon turns to criticism, in verse number five But, ah, there goes the but When you inject the but into the conversation, everything changes direction, right? But now it has come to you, and you are impatient It touches you, and you are dismayed

Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope? Ah, Job You have cheered others You have helped others You have been an encouragement to others But you know what? You really are a hypocrite, because you can't encourage yourself You can't have any cheer in your own life If the fear of God and your uprightness of living was a reality, because those are the things that cheer you, you would think, as it says in Luke 4, 23, physician, heal thyself But you've yet to do that So you can give others advice, but you can't take your own advice

In other words, he looks at Job as hypocritical The advice he's given to others, he can't accept for himself The advice he gives to others is no good for him In the mind of Eliphaz So he moves from praising him to proclaiming to him why he's suffering Now listen carefully Verse seven Remember now, whoever perished being innocent, or where were the upright destroyed? According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble, harvest it So let me tell you what I've seen, Job. I've seen this, that the righteous prosper and the wicked suffer

You have sown the seeds of wickedness, and now you are suffering Now this becomes a theme through every individual's conversation with Job, because they really believe that he is suffering because of some great sin in his life That's the only conclusion they could come to And so everything would revolve around that whole phraseology So he tells them, listen, whoever perished being innocent, answer, nobody But that's not true My friends, that's just not true He goes on to say, by the breath of God, they perish, and by the blast of his anger, they come to an end

In other words, he's talking about how the unrighteous person suffers greatly, the righteous person, though, he doesn't But you see, that's just not true Because you see, wicked people sometimes never suffer in this life The law of the harvest, Galatians 6, verse number seven, be not deceived, God is not mocked Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap We understand that, right? But sometimes the law of the harvest does not take effect in wicked people's lives until they're dead For instance, how about Psalm 73? Well, the psalmist says these words

Verse number three, for I was envious of the arrogant as I saw the prosperity of the wicked For there are no pains in their death, and their body is fat They are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like mankind Therefore, pride is their necklace The garment of violence covers them Their eye bulges from fatness The imaginations of their heart run riot They mock and wickedly speak of oppression They speak from on high They have set forth their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue parades through the earth The psalmist has questions

Why is it that the wicked prosper so much? And so, what Eliphaz is saying is not true But he believes that the righteous prosper and the wicked are the ones who suffer But the Bible says in Psalm 34, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all It's what you read through this proclamation by Eliphaz He says, verse nine, by the breath of God, they perish, and by the blast of his anger, they come to an end The roaring of the lion and the voice of the fierce lion and the teeth of the young lions are broken

The lion perishes for lack of prey, and the whelps of the lioness are scattered In other words, he's saying, look, what you're experiencing is the wrath of God He has blown his wrath upon you The storm has come upon you and your family Why? Because you're wicked, Job You're sinful There's something about your life that's not true And it could be the fact that you're just a hypocrite, Job, that you say one thing to those in need, but you can't live it out yourself That's what Eliphaz is saying to him

So you move from his praise of Job to his proclamation to Job as to why he is suffering to number three, his proof to Job as to how he knows this Says in verse 12, now word was brought to me stealthily, and my ear received a whisper of it Amid the squiding thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, dread came upon me and trembling, and made all my bones shake Then a spirit passed by my face, the hair of my flesh bristled up It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes There was silence Then I heard a voice

Can mankind be just before God? Can a man be pure before his maker? He puts no trust even in his servants, and against his angels he charges error How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth Between morning and evening, they are broken in pieces Unobserved, they perish forever Is not their tent cord plucked up within them? They die, yet without wisdom He has a vision in the night He's a dream Now, some would say that this was a dream given to him by God. I don't believe that. I don't think it is. I'm gonna tell you why

Simply because nowhere in that dream was thus saith the Lord, or the Lord God of Israel has said There is no authority behind the words When God would speak in the Old Testament, and the prophets would use what God said, they would say thus saith the Lord The Lord God has spoken to me, and given to me this So they would speak with authority because God gave him that authority That's nowhere found it He sees the spirit, and the spirit causes him to tremble and to shake His bones began to shake

Well, remember that when in the New Testament, when you read about the angels showing up to Zacharias, Mary, the shepherds, right? Joseph, they were all afraid And what did the angels say? Be not afraid Don't be afraid There was no encouraging word from this quote spirit that said, do not be afraid And after all, when angels would show up, they would show up in the form of a man Think of it this way When in the book of Genesis with Abraham, when he had his three visitors, the pre-incarnate Christ plus two other angels, they were in the form of a man

When you begin to realize this, and in the angel that sat on the tomb was in the form of a man So that form is not given There is no affirmation of the fact that you should not fear because this is coming from the Lord None of that's there This is just a vision that he has, a dream that he has, and translates it into some vision from God to prove to Job that he has some kind of authority You remember, Job was the greatest man in the East That was the testimony in chapter one And everybody knew how great Job was

Well, now I have a chance to instruct the greatest man in the East about something that touches me So I'm going to do that And so he relies upon this vision He relies upon this dream He relies upon his experience to be able to inform Job as to why things are the way they are in his life But none of that was from the Lord So you come to chapter five In chapter five, he begins to plead with Job In verses one to seven, he pleads with him because there is no help from the human realm and no help from the heavenly realm He says, call now

Is there anyone who will answer you? And to which of the holy ones will you turn? The anger slays the foolish man and jealousy kills the simple. I have seen the foolish taking root and I cursed his abode immediately His sons are far from safety They are even oppressed in the gate and there is no deliverer His harvest, the hungry devour and take it to a place of thorns And the schemer is eager for their wealth for affliction does not come from the dust nor does trouble sprout from the ground for man is born for trouble as sparks fly upward He says, look Job, there's no help

There's no help in the human realm There's no help in the heavenly realm And what he does is use illustrations that dig at Job He uses the illustration of the wicked man who loses his seed because of his wickedness Job lost all of his children He talks about how the schemer comes during harvest time and steals the crop. A lot like the Sabians and the Chaldeans did in chapter one and stealing away from him So he is indicting Job by not naming Job personally but using illustrations that will come at Job and get him to feel guilty because of his wickedness because of a sin

Eliphaz is not a godly counselor He's not a good man He wants to prove something He says, affliction does not come from the dust nor does trouble sprout from the ground In other words, affliction doesn't come by chance, Job This doesn't sprout from the ground, no No, seeds have to be sown for affliction to come And we quote Job five or seven all the time For man is born into trouble, sparks fly upward, right? We quote it all the time But the context is specific The context is specific to Job And he is born under trouble, why? Because he has sown the seeds of wickedness

And just as when you stir up the embers of a fire and all the sparks fly upward, sure enough, Job, you have trouble because you have sown the seeds of wickedness This is Eliphaz's counsel This is how he sympathizes and comforts Job Now Job could respond He could say something He doesn't interrupt Eliphaz He lets him speak because he's a kind man He will speak, we'll see that next week We'll see how he responds in chapter six and chapter seven to what Eliphaz has to say And he will respond to Eliphaz and he will respond to God in chapter six and chapter seven But right now he says nothing

And so what he's trying to do is plead with Job You're a wicked man, things have got to change And so in verses eight to 16, he begins to preach to Job Look what it says But as for me, I would see God and I would place my cause before God Look, this is what I would do, Job. I would seek God

How does he know Job's not seeking God? What would ever give him the idea that Job was not a man after God's own heart? What would ever give him the idea that Job was not sitting there in silence, praying to his God, communing with his God? How does he know that Job is not seeking after the God that he loves and adores? How does he know that? You see, if it was me, Job, I'd seek after God Evidently, I don't see you seeking after him So therefore, this is a problem for you And why you're not seeking God is because of some sin in your life. I would get that thing right

So he begins to criticize Job as if he would seek God if he lost all that Job lost and experienced the pain that Job experienced Who does great and unsearchable things? Wonders without number He gives rain on the earth, sends water on the fields so that he sets on high those who are lowly and those who mourn are lifted to safety Through his preaching to Job, he insinuates that Job is not seeking God And then he begins to inform Job as to who God is God is great, God is good, and God is full of grace That's who God is

And then he says, he frustrates the plotting of the shrewd so that their hands cannot attain success He captures the wise by their own shrewdness and the advice of the cunning is quickly thwarted So he begins to instruct Job By day, they meet with darkness and grope at noon as in the night, but he saves from the sword of their mouth and the poor from the hand of the mighty So the helpless has hope and unrighteousness must shut its mouth He insinuates that Job is unrighteous and that he is absolutely hopeless The reason is because he has sown the seeds of wickedness

Now he has reaped the consequences of his wickedness He's lost everything Now, remember, this guy is sitting there in excruciating pain Listen to all this He's the first guy that speaks Sometimes it's good just to sit there and say nothing and just to silently pray for Job They don't do that They were looking for the avenue to speak and once Job spoke, they seized the opportunity to share what they believed was his problem They went to him with a perception, thinking they knew what the problem was without ever hearing the heart of Job in chapter three So they could not respond effectively

So it ends with what he presents to Job He presents to Job the fact that he was being chastised by God Verse 17 is the only verse in the book of Job quoted in the New Testament, only verse Here it is Behold, how happy is the man whom God reproves, so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty He is telling Job, you are being disciplined by God God is chastising you, Job So, verse 18, he inflicts pain and gives relief He wounds and his hands also heal

Listen, if you recognize that God's chastising you because of some secret sin, some heinous sin that you've committed, some wickedness that you're engaged in, if you would just admit that, his hands will heal you and you'll get relief from all of your pain From six troubles, he will deliver you Even in seven, evil will not touch you In other words, if you do this, Job, these are the benefits In famine, he will redeem you from death and in war, from the power of the sword You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue and you will not be afraid of violence when it comes

You will laugh at violence and famine and you will not be afraid of wild beasts, for you will be in league with the stones of the field and the beasts of the field will be at peace with you You will know that your tent is secure for you will visit your abode and fear no loss You will know also that your descendants will be many and your offspring as the grass of the earth You will come to the grave in full vigor like the stacking of grain in its season Behold this, we have investigated it and so it is Hear it and know for yourself Job, this is what we've seen We've investigated this

This is our conclusion You're being chastised by the Almighty himself And if you would just give yourself over to the Almighty and repent of your sin, all these blessings will come your way You know, protect you and watch over you This is our conclusion, Job This is what we've come to Really, that's it? That's all you could come up with? But that's all they came up with Now, Job in his humility is going to answer Eliphaz But that's not till next week

So let me tell you or explain to you some principles that will guide you when you help other people during their times of anxiety, distress, and difficulty Eliphaz, along with Zophar and Bildad, Elihu, show us very clearly what not to say, what not to do So let me share with you just three principles that will help you this evening Counsel should never be based on my experience but always on exposition Counsel should never be based on my vision but on God's virtues That's point number one My experiences really fall short

When I'm trying to help someone else, they don't really care about my experience But if I'm dependent upon what God said to me in a dream or a vision, this was his experience His whole proof is based on what he believes he saw in a dream And there's so much in scripture that's against that You ever heard people say, you know, the Lord told me this? Always say, no, he didn't Well, the Lord spoke to me No, he didn't He didn't do that

What makes you so special that God's gonna speak to you and not to me or to somebody else? What has put you as a part of the try you nature of God that he's gonna commune with you and tell me what he says? When the Bible has very clearly that God in the last of these days, Hebrews 1, verses one to three, has spoken to us in his son God's word is final God's word speaks It's not what I think I saw when I was asleep, but what I know God said while I was awake is what matters And God speaks to us through his word So listen to this The Bible says, look at Jeremiah

Remember, Israel is about to go into Babylonian captivity Right in the cusp of, right before they go in, Jeremiah prophesies right before Israel goes into captivity Verse 25 of Jeremiah 23 God says, I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in my name, saying, I had a dream. I had a dream How long is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsely, even these prophets of the deception of their own heart who intend to make my people forget my name by their dreams, which they relate to one another, just as their fathers forgot my name because of Baal

The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has my word speak my word in truth It is not my word like a fire, declares the Lord, like a hammer that shatters a rock False prophets said, we had a dream We had a dream And it wasn't about captivity It was about prosperity We had a dream God told us in a dream, in a vision Goes on to say these words, Jeremiah chapter 29, verse number eight

For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you and do not listen to the dreams which they dream, for they prophesy falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them, declares the Lord Because he was gonna send them into captivity He says in verse number four, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon It's I who have done this But the false prophets will say, no, no, no, no God didn't do that No, no, God's not that way

How do you know that? Because he spoke to me in a dream Isaiah chapter eight, Isaiah says these words He says, verse 20, to the law and to the testimony If they do not speak according to this word, is because they have no light in them If they don't speak according to the law and the testimony that I have given, they have no light in them That's why Peter said in second Peter chapter one, that we have a more sure prophetic word

More sure than what? Remember he gives a testimony about how he was on the Mount of Transfiguration and he heard the voice, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased And he was there Peter, James, and John, they were all on the Mount of Transfiguration They heard the voice come down out of heaven He wanted to build three tabernacles One for Moses, one for Elijah, one for Jesus He said, but we have a more sure prophetic word We have something more sure than my experience Because you see my experience, okay, cannot be verified But God's word can be verified

It's verifiable. I can say I had an experience, I had a vision, I had a dream Who can verify that? God just spoke to me But God speaks to us through his word That's why this is the counseling mechanism This is biblical counseling at its best by taking the word of God which his testimonies are our counselors and speaking this truth because his word is like a hammer that shatters the soul His word is like a fire that purifies the soul So it does So Peter would say we have a more sure prophetic word

He goes on to talk about how holy men of God were moved by the spirit of God as they began to hear the word of God and interpret the word of God How God spoke to us through holy men of God You see, whenever you counsel someone, you must always remember that what you say is not nearly important as what God says So you must use the word of God in your counseling to move them towards maturity in Christ We'll see the point number two Point number one simply is this Counsel should not be based on the experience of a vision but on the exposition of God's virtues Point number two

Counsel should not be based on my perception of your situation or your condition but on the revelation of Scripture Should not be based on my observation or my perception of your situation but based on the revelation of Scripture So important Why do people suffer? Why do people go through hard times? Why is there disaster? Why is it people face such horrendous difficulties? How do you answer those questions? You can only answer them through Scripture, not through your experience

So you have to go to the word of God to show them what God is doing because you don't necessarily know what God's doing in their life but you wanna show them what God has said and then they have to be able to look at their life and say, okay, this is what's happening For instance, what has God allowed disaster to happen to your life? Like a David Joe, right? Well, sometimes God does that to judge us How do we know that? Genesis 6 with the flood We understand it? Genesis 18, Sodom and Gomorrah

Did He not judge man's sin in Genesis 6 with the worldwide flood and with the destruction of fire coming down with Sodom and Gomorrah? Yes So sometimes we suffer adverse circumstances Sometimes we suffer tragedy because God is judging sin Sometimes, not always Sometimes God does what He does just simply because He wants to teach us something Man born blind, John chapter nine Remember that? Who sinned? This man or his parents? Because the belief was, as it was in Job's day, he's blind because he sinned Why else would he be blind? Why? And the Lord says, nobody sinned

Has nothing to do with his parents or himself He was born blind so that the works of God would be accomplished on this day So everyone would know that Jesus was the Messiah So He would use the travesty in one man's life to teach the religious establishment that Jesus was the Messiah And everybody else around the pool of Siloam where He would go and wash and be able to see again Sometimes God allows disaster and suffering and heartache and pain to judge sin Sometimes He does it to teach us Sometimes He does it to show us how helpless we are Think about that Psalm 107 Psalm 107 says these words

Verse number 25 For He spoke and raised up a stormy wind which lifted up the waves of the sea They rose up to the heavens They went down to the depths Their soul melted away in their misery They reeled and staggered like a drunken man and were at their wit's end Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and He brought them out of their distresses Do you know that sometimes God allows us to go through horrendous circumstances to show us how helpless we are? Maybe that's what God is doing in your life or your friend's life To show them they are helpless without God

They need to cry unto the Lord Maybe because God is judging some sin in their life. I don't know that Maybe God is just helping them realize who He is so He wants to teach them about who He is Sometimes He does it just to warn us of impending judgment

Remember Luke chapter 13 about the Tower of Siloam that fell over 18 people and they all died? They had questions, well how did this happen? Why did this happen? Or those who, Galileans who were going to worship the Lord and as they went into worship that Caesar went in and mixed their blood with their sacrifices and slaughtered them as they were worshiping God God forbid Why did God allow that? What did Christ say? You better repent or you will likewise perish He was warning them of impending judgment God allows disaster God allows heartache and pain and suffering and affliction

Why? Because He wants to warn you about impending judgment that comes your way It's coming Are you ready? If you don't repent, you're not ready This is why you use the Word of God to help people understand where they're at When you go on and you go through the Scriptures, you begin to realize that sometimes God just wants to display His glory He wants to put His glory on display Romans 11, 33 to 36 Now everything is from Him, through Him, to Him To God be the glory forever. 1 Peter 1, verses three to six It's all about the glory of God

Sometimes God allows suffering and hardship and disaster because He wants to be put on display in your life and everybody else's life around you You gotta think of those things Sometimes, according to Ecclesiastes 3, verse number 14, He does what He does so that man will learn to fear Him Fear Him Sometimes He disciplines us that we might grow in our likeness to Him and to mature us That's why it's so important to look at the revelation of Scripture and see what God says to help people understand where they're at and what's going on in their lives You don't always know based on what you see

Eliphaz did. I have seen this This is my conclusion This is what we have investigated This is our conclusion, Job You're a wicked man You've sinned You're being chastised by God But we know He wasn't How do we know that? Job 1 and Job 2 We know this But this is the conclusion that He comes up with It's not that there are a variety of other reasons why Job was going through what he's going through It's just that you're a wicked man and you're reaping the consequences of your sin God's chastising you because of your disobedience

Therefore, you're helpless and hopeless until you repent, get things right Job knew that he was a sinner Job knew that there was sin in his life But he also knew that he didn't commit some great heinous sin that would cause his God to chastise him and discipline him He had no idea what was going on He didn't He had no answer But yet, in all this, Job did not sin with his lips So number three Number one, counsel should not be based on the experience of a vision, but on the exhortation or exposition of virtues

Number two, counsel should not be based on my observation or perception of someone's situation, but on the revelation of Scripture itself And number three, the problem that people face is not their suffering primarily, but God's sovereignty over their suffering, which you need to draw them toward God's sovereignty over their suffering

We know the words of Ecclesiastes 7, verse number 13, consider the work of God, who was able to straighten what he has bent in the day of prosperity to be happy, but in the day of adversity, consider God made the one as well as the other, so that man will not discover anything that will be after him God has made the day of adversity God has made the day of prosperity So when prosperity comes, be happy And you are But in the day of adversity, consider God made that day

And what is God gonna teach you in that day? What was God teaching Job? You've heard of the endurance of Job, the patience of Job, how he bore up under all that pressure. I think that part of Job's endurance was being able to bear up under his miserable counselors for as long as he did, because he was able to do that

But the fact of the matter is, is that people need to be able to see God's sovereign control over their lives in every situation, whether it's Isaiah 46, whether it's Ecclesiastes chapter three, whether it's the psalmist of Psalm 119, that God himself is in complete control of everything The counsel of the Lord shall stand That God rules over all And the book of Job was all about God's sovereignty in the suffering of man

How does God rule over all these things? It was Esther Fields who said these words. "'Things don't just happen to us who love God. "'They're planned by his own dear hand. "'Then molded and shaped in time by his clock, "'things don't just happen, they're planned.' "'We don't just guess on the issues of life. "'We Christians just rest in the Lord. "'We are directed by a sovereign will "'in the light of his holy word.' "'We who love Jesus are walking by faith, "'not seeing one step that's ahead, "'not doubting one moment what our lot might be, "'but looking to Jesus instead. "'We praise our dear Savior for loving us so, "'for planning each care of our life, "'then giving us faith to trust him for all, "'the blessings as well as the strife. "'Things don't just happen to us who love God, "'to us who have taken our stand. "'No matter the lot, the course or the price, "'things don't just happen, they're planned.'" And when you counsel people, the one thing they must come to grips with is the fact that your God is a sovereign God who rules over all

He creates a day of diversity as well as a day of prosperity In so doing, he wants to teach you something Maybe it's to discipline you Maybe it's to perfect you Maybe it's to cause you to produce more and more fruit, as John 15 says, when the whole illustration is used of the vine dresser with the vine, how he prunes the vines Maybe it's just to teach you more about himself Maybe to show you how helpless you are Who knows? No one's the same There's manifold grace for manifold trials

As they come in different shapes and sizes, God is in the process of moving us toward maturity in him as he did Job And so with Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar, men who came to sympathize and to comfort Job, unfortunately, they were unable to do that And for the next several chapters, we will see more and more how they were unable to do that And yet Job's response to each of them is remarkable How he responds to their criticism How he responds to their judgment upon his life How he responds to their arrogance How he responds to how they demean him all while still in pain

That's what makes it so remarkable It's not that he's feeling better, getting juiced up and pain meds are kicking in and everything is going well and I can now listen to you without pain No, that's not the point, not at all All this happens to him amidst the most difficult time of his life It's not like his wife is sitting there saying, you know, honey, it's okay, babe, it's all right. I'm with you all the way here, sweetheart Oh no, she's nowhere to be found She's not gonna be in the city dump She's not in the ash heap Job's alone, he's rejected, he's isolated

Except for three miserable comforters that come around him and drive him further into his misery Because that's what they are Yet his response is remarkable Why? Because he's a God-fearing man He's an upright man He's a blameless man and he turns away from evil That's why Doesn't diminish his pain It doesn't diminish his despair It doesn't deplete his agony It's all right there in front of him He's feeling it every moment of every day for the entire time of the conversation he has with his men Until one day, God turns it all around One day And not on this day

And next week, you'll see how he responds to Eliphaz And it's quite remarkable Let's pray Father, we thank you for tonight Chance to be in your word Truly, Lord, you are a great God Help us, Lord, to be men and women who truly want to counsel others in pain in a way that will honor you Lord, every one of us knows someone in pain Every one of us knows people who go through devastating situations and circumstances And our being there can be such a benefit to them if they're used by you for your purposes Help us to see how it is we do that in a way that honors your name

May we be truly comforters of souls that are in distress May we lead them in the path of righteousness May your word so permeate our lives that we can lead them through the truth of your word We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.