Job's Long Response

All right, let's bow in a word of prayer together Father, thank you for today Thank you, Lord, for all that you've done You are such a great God, and we are so pleased to be able to be called the children of God And we thank you, Lord, for the things you teach us and how you operate in and through our lives Our prayer, Father, is that you continue to instruct us and teach us in the way that we should go Lord, we've been learning from what you have done in the life of Job, and there is so much more yet to learn And all of us need to grow in our understanding of you and how we live for you

And we just pray that the things we learn tonight would help us move that direction In Jesus' name, amen Job chapter 12 In fact, Job 12, 13, and 14 this evening, 75 verses, Job's longest response And we're gonna learn a lot about the man tonight as we have learned in previous weeks You see, sometimes we forget this, but crisis reveals character It always does Crisis doesn't develop character, it reveals the true man And so you're able to see the real man, Job It's like your life You know, it's easy for us to sit back and things are okay and trust the Lord

But when crisis happens, when tragedy strikes, when affliction comes, then the real you shines forth That's who you really are And so we're able to see Job, his true colors, his true character That's what makes him so unique Because amidst all the things that happen to him that are horrendous, we're able to see a man who trusts God and believes in God and never reneges on his faith Because his true character, his true colors come shining through And my prayer for you and for me is that that's the way it'd be in our lives

And none of us, and I pray this would always be the case, but would never have to experience all the things Job's experienced But when he would lose things, his family, when he would lose his health, and on top of all the criticism he faced, he never turned his back on the Lord, but the trueness of the man would shine forth Because he was truly an upright man, a God-fearing man, a man who turned away from evil, a man who truly loved his God

So my prayer for you and me as we study this book, no matter what the conflict that comes in our lives, it could be a relational conflict, it could be a work conflict, it could be a family conflict, or whatever adversity strikes your life, the real you will rise up and shine bright for the glory of God's kingdom Because that's the real you shining through It's like when you're with your wife at home, or you're with your husband, and there's an uproar, okay? That conflict tells you a lot about you

Now you're gonna say it's gonna tell you a lot about your spouse, but really it's a lot about you, and how you respond to those kinds of issues And so you wanna make sure that you're in the word, you're on your knees, you're growing in righteousness, so that when those times come, as Job was, he was the kind of man, remember I told you last week, and early on, Job one and two set the tone for the rest of the book

And because Job's character was righteous, because his life was God-fearing, when everything happened to him, he was able to trust his God all the more, because that's what crisis does It drives you to your knees It drives a believer to his God And that's what it did for Job So when you come to chapter 12, 13, and 14, you have to admire Job Because in his case, amidst all of the conflict, he didn't cave, nor did he crumble In fact, the stronger the rebuke, the stronger the resistance, the harsher the condemnation, the stricter the resilience on Job's part

And so here's a man who, having lost everything, is facing criticism, and he's done nothing wrong And yet, he faces it day in and day out And as he's doing that, he becomes stronger against the criticism So this is good for you and me, right? Because every one of us faces criticism People who wanna condemn us for our stand here or our stand there, or condemn us for Christianity, or condemn us because of what our convictions are And you learn from Job that no matter what the criticism is, you're able to stand And that's exactly what Job does So in 75 verses, he's gonna answer Zophar

He's also gonna answer Eliphaz and Bildad, because he's gonna use the plural you And so he's gonna answer all three men in his response, which is a good thing, because they all need to hear what he has to say So remember now, we understand Job one and two We understand what God's doing in the heavens We understand the sovereignty of God We understand that God has allowed Satan to do all this in his life The three friends don't know that Job doesn't know that So we have the benefit Job doesn't have the benefit of knowing that We're able to understand it

So remember, it's easy, as you study the book of Job, to get lost in the conflict, in the conversation, in the crisis, and forget that God is in control of all that's happening It's like when you go through a difficult period, right? You tend not to remember that God is still on the throne God never steps off the throne He's still in charge And so it's easy for us, as we're reading through the book of Job, to forget that God's sovereignty rules in and through man's suffering

So you always need to keep that in mind as you read the book of Job, because it's so easy to get lost in all that's happening And so as we look at this speech, we're gonna see three things, one in chapter 12, one in chapter 13, and one in chapter 14 In Job chapter 12, you're gonna see Job's emphasis on the character of God In chapter 13, you're gonna see Job's explanation of his commitment to God And in chapter 14, you're going to see Job expound on the condition of man and its hopelessness and his hopefulness, okay? So just basically three points through three chapters

As always, we'll just read through the text, explain some things to you, stop at certain locations, and emphasize some things so you can begin to grasp all that's happening So Job's gonna respond to Zophar and his three friends It begins in chapter 12, verse number one Then Job responded, "'Truly then, you are the people, "'and with you, wisdom will die.'" In other words, you guys are everything With you, all the wisdom is spoken And when you guys die, I guess evidently there'll be no more wisdom, because you have it all. A little bit of sarcasm on Job's part Now remember, he's in pain

The pus is still oozing from his sores The flies are still gathering all around him But yet he finds time to be just a little sarcastic as he responds to Zophar and his friends Evidently, you guys are the wisest of the wise And you guys hold all the wisdom And when you guys finally die, guess what? No more wisdom, it's all gonna be gone He says, "'But I have intelligence as well as you. "'I am not inferior to you.'" See, they saw themselves as superior

And Job says, "'I'm not inferior to you.'" In fact, in chapter 13, verse two, he says, again, "'What you know, I also know. "'I am not inferior to you.'" You see, it's easy to have feelings of inferiority when people condemn you and criticize you As if you're a lesser person, but you're not You're still made in the image of God like they are And you're able to know the things that they know And Job was going to let them downplay his character and see him as inferior because he wasn't

So he says, "'And who does not know such things as these?' In other words, listen, the things you're telling me, everybody knows Do you guys think that nobody else knows these things? I know them And on top of that, you guys haven't added anything to my life. I know what you know You haven't brought comfort to my pain You haven't brought consolation to my distress

You've only accentuated it." So he says, in verse number four, "'I am a joke to my friends. "'The one who called on God and he answered him, "'the just and blameless man is a joke.'" He says, "'You've mocked me. "'You look at me as a joke, "'but I'm the just and blameless guy.'" He's not saying that egotistically Remember, the Lord said this about him Now, he doesn't know that God has already said this about Job, right? That he was blameless, God-fearing, upright, turning away from evil

But Job is just expressing the reality of his life. "'You call me a joke, but I'm just and blameless. "'You make fun of me "'because you think I've done this gross sin "'and I'm being punished because of it, "'and you treat me as if I'm nothing. "'That's just not the case.'" So he says, in verse number five, "'He who is at ease holds calamity and contempt "'as prepared for those whose feet slip, "'the tents of the destroyers prosper, "'and those who provoke God are secure, "'whom God brings into their power.'" In other words, you think that no one else knows this, but let me tell you something

There are people who condemn God There are people who provoke God, and guess what? They live at ease There's no pain in their life There are people who sin against God, and they're okay There's no problem, because you're telling me that because I have problems, I'm a sinner But wait a minute, there are a lot of people who are sinners who have no problems So how do you reconcile that? It's the same thing the psalmist said in Psalm 73

Verse number one, where he said, "'Surely God is good to Israel, "'to those who are pure in heart.' "'But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling, "'my stepset almost slipped, "'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 bodies 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 their mouth against the heavens, "'and their tongue parades through the earth.'" The psalmist is saying, you know, I don't understand this

God is supposed to be good to Israel, and yet I'm an Israelite, and things are bad But all the wicked seem to prosper tremendously Everything's good for them So he says in verse number 16, when I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight And then he says, "'Until I came to the sanctuary of God, "'then I perceived their end.'" Ah, what a statement. I was troubled by what I saw. I was troubled as to why the wicked man would prosper, why those who would speak against God seem to live life at ease, with no problems

And as an Israelite, as one that God's supposed to be good to, there's all kinds of problems in my life So as I pondered this, when I came to the sanctuary, I realized and perceived their end Surely you set them in slippery places, you cast them down to destruction How they are destroyed in a moment They are at least swept away by sudden terrors You see, he had to get perspective He didn't have it So where did he go? In modern day vernacular, he went to church He went to church to gain perspective, to hear the word of the Lord, to understand what's going on

So he has perspective on the unbeliever and realizing where he's going to end up See, we forget that when you come and gather together in the sanctuary of the Lord, with the people of God, and the word of God is preached, and you hear the word of God, what happens? You begin to understand what God's doing We begin to understand that God's at work And therefore, we can begin to perceive the end of those that we think are getting off scot-free But he realized their eternal destiny That's why he would close by saying that the nearness of God is my good God is near to me

What else do I need? And Job, he just wants to tell his friends because they are adamant that Job is a wicked man That's why he's suffering And they keep pounding the same theme And they're relentless with the same theme And Job's like, guys, look, I am not inferior to you guys. I'm a just and blameless man, but you treat me as if I'm a joke But have you forgotten that there are people that live with contempt toward God, and they prosper, and they live a life at ease? They're not suffering, and they're wicked So he goes on and says these words, verse number seven

But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you, and the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you Let the fish of the sea declare to you who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this, and whose hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind What an indictment He says, do you know that even the fish, the beasts, the birds understand as best they can that they're in the hand of God? He gives them breath They live because of him Every man lives and breathes because of him

He's talking about God's sovereign control He's accentuating the character of God as it relates to man and everything on the earth, even the animals They're all under God's control, under God's sovereign design He feeds them They breathe because of him Everything happens because of them Does not the ear test words, or the palate taste its food? Of course it does Wisdom is with the aged man, with long life is understanding In other words, guys, listen, wisdom comes with age You guys aren't that old And with that comes understanding So it's an indictment against what they're saying

But this is this, verse 13 With him though, with God, are wisdom and might To him belong counsel and understanding, verse 16 With him are strength and sound wisdom He's gonna speak of the character of God He's gonna speak of the power and wisdom of God, that God is sovereign, that he controls everything Job has a great perspective on God He has a better perspective on God than we do And we got great theology books We have a many multitude of books we can read We have the Bible But Job has a sound theology Listen to what he says Behold, he tears down, and it cannot be rebuilt

He says, you know what? There are men who build houses and cities, but if God tears it down, it can't be rebuilt Think of Sodom and Gomorrah Man built Sodom and Gomorrah, but when God tore it down, it's never been rebuilt, because God's in charge He imprisons a man, and there can be no release That could be speaking of hell He says, behold, he restrains the waters, and they dry up, and he sends them out, and they inundate the earth The flood, the flood comes, because God says, come, rain erupts from the deep, and it covers the earth What he wants is to go away and recede

This is exactly what he says With him, our strength and sound wisdom The misled and the misleader belong to him Isn't that great? Do you know the deceiver belongs to God? The crafty person, the one who manipulates you, belongs to God They are all a part of God's plan, some way, somehow, to work in your life God's in charge He says he makes counselors walk barefoot He makes fools of judges He loosens the bond of kings, and binds their loins with a girdle He makes priests walk barefoot, and overthrows the secure ones

He deprives the trusted ones of speech, and takes away the discernment of the elders He pours contempt on nobles, and loosens the belt of the strong He reveals mysteries from the darkness, and brings the deep darkness into light He makes the nations great, then destroys them He enlarges the nations, then leaves them away You know, when God raises up a nation, think of the Assyrian nation God raised them up, boom, they're gone Think of the great Egyptian nation God raised them up, boom, they're gone

God can raise them up whenever he wants to raise them up, tear them down whenever he wants to tear them down, because he's in charge No one tells him what to do No one can manipulate him He controls everything So he says these words He deprives of intelligence the chiefs of the earth's people He makes them wander in a pathless waste

Remember Nebuchadnezzar? Wise king, right? And God took his kingdom from him, and made him wander in the wilderness for seven years, until he realized who God was, and that God was the one who ruled the earth, and ruled the universe, and everything was subject to him, because God can do that They grow up in darkness with no light, and he makes them stagger like a drunken man Wow Job has great understanding He understands God, that God does all this, whether it's people who are kings or priests, whether it's cities, whether it's nations, whether it's nature, God's in charge of everything

He rules it all So in Job's emphasis, he accentuates the character of God And then in chapter 13, he's going to explain his commitment to God Look what it says Behold, my eye has seen all this My ear has heard and understood it Now think about this for a minute Think about that He says, behold, my eye has seen all this My ear has heard and understood it Contrast that with Job 42, verse number five After God speaks, and what does he say? Oh, I have heard of you with the hearing of my ear, but now my eyes have seen you He says, my eyes have seen all this

In fact, he even understands it, but his eyes need to see God And so he's gonna say that, remember, not when God gives Job an explanation as to what's going on, because God never gives Job an explanation He says that after God gives Job a revelation of himself Same thing is true back in the book of Exodus Remember Moses? You know this Show me your glory. I need to see your glory Just show me who you are And God says, I can't let you see my glory. I'll have to kill you You're gonna die So I'll hide you in the cleft of the rock

So it says in verse five of chapter 34, the Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed The Lord, the Lord God, compassion, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin Yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visioning the iniquity of the fathers, on the children, and on the grandchildren, to the third and fourth generations

Moses, verse eight, made haste to bow low toward the earth and what? Worship Not because of what he saw, but because of what God said, God proclaimed He couldn't see God and live, right? So what God said about his character revealed to Moses who God is The revelation caused him to bow down and worship That's what the revelation of God does That's why we preach the word and teach you what the scriptures say, because when we preach the word, the revelation of God caused you to take note, bow down, and worship him

So when God reveals himself to Job and asks Job a series of questions, tons of questions, and answers those questions, Job will say, oh, I've heard of you, but now I've seen you You can only see God through the word of God, through the lens of scripture, through the revelation of God John 14, the Lord says that if you keep my commandments, I will manifest myself to you Blessed are those who are pure in heart, for they shall see God You see God through a pure heart You see God because you understand the revelation of God, because this is the word of God

And that word, our God became flesh and dwelt among us So important So Job says, behold, my eye has seen all this My ear has heard and understood it What you know, I also know. I am not inferior to you, but I would speak to the almighty and I desire to argue with God, but you smear with lies You are all worthless physicians He calls them physicians Why? Because in all reality, what's gonna bring healing to Job? The truth, the reality of his God But because they're incapable or unwilling to set aside their partial beliefs about what God is doing, they can't bring healing to his life

So he calls them worthless physicians Oh, that you would be completely silent and it would become your wisdom If you guys just remain quiet, not said anything, you would exude a lot more wisdom than once you opened your mouth Because once you opened your mouth, there was no wisdom that came forth He says this, will you speak what is unjust for God? Will you speak what is deceitful for him? Will you show partiality for him? Will you contend for God? Will it be well when he examines you or will you deceive him as one deceives a man? He will surely reprove you if you secretly show partiality

He does He does rebuke them He does reprove them At the end, God reproves all of them, but not Job He speaks well of Job And then it says, will not his majesty terrify you and the dread of him fall on you? In other words, you guys have no humility Do you really fear God? Does the dread of God, does the fear of God fall upon you? He condemns them because they operate with no humility Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes Your defenses are defenses of clay You say nothing and your words are worthless So then comes verse number 13

And in verse number 13, you have the greatest declaration of faith in scripture In verses 13 down to verse number 17, mark it down This becomes man's greatest declaration of faith Be silent before me so that I may speak Then let come on me what may He says, look, just need to be quiet and let me speak to God And whatever God does with me, let it be What an attitude God, do whatever you want, whatever you wanna do Now, God's gonna do whatever he wants whether you ask him that or not, right? But to acquiesce to that and say, Lord, just do whatever you wanna do

Doesn't make any difference. I'm gonna come, I'm gonna speak to you And I know it's a dangerous place to be, but as I commune with you, Lord, do whatever you want And then listen to this He says, why should I take my flesh and my teeth and put my life in my hands? What a perspective What a perspective He is telling us that he knows that God is way beyond him And that if he goes to God, he's taking his life in his hands If he speaks to God, he's in danger of losing his life He understands that, but he has a great perspective on God He lives in the fear of God That's why he's a God-fearing man

See, he's a God-fearing man because he truly fears God. I love these people today Well, you know, the fear of God is just having a holy reverence for God No, it's not Who says that? The fear of God actually is living in the fear of God That's why Paul said, knowing the terror of the Lord, I persuade men. I am scared to death of God's terror, so much so that I'm gonna persuade men To live in the fear of God actually means to fear the true and living God Isaiah 8, verse number 13 says this It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy, and he shall be your fear, he shall be your dread

Wow, really, seriously? Then it says this Then he shall become a sanctuary Then it will become a hiding place Then it'll become a secure place If God is your fear and God is your dread, you'll find peace and safety in him because the God you fear is your protector The God you fear is your shield The God you fear is the one who watches over you That's why the Bible says, to this man will I look, to him who's broken and of a contrite heart, and what? Who shakes uncontrollably under the authority of my word Now you think about that

How many people sit in the pew week after week, hear a sermon, and it means nothing to them? They don't shake Everybody in the room should shake uncontrollably under the authority of God's word When God speaks, it's all authoritative When God speaks, it means everything That's why Moses would say, these words are not futile words, these words are not empty words, they really are your life These are the words of God We go to our Bible and we read a few passages here and a few verses here, and it really doesn't mean that much We just kind of read it

Instead of looking at this as the word of God, that I am to shake uncontrollably under its authority When you come to church, you should weep for what you've heard You should cry for what you've heard And realize, man, I have fallen so far short of the glory of God God says, this is the guy I look to This is the guy I admire The one who's broken of the contrite heart and trembles in my word See, the point is, if your heart's not broken and contrite, you don't care what God says You don't care what he says

But if your heart's broken because of your sin, you live a life of contrition, right? When God speaks, you tremble because you know you deserve death You don't deserve to live But God in his grace and mercy lets you live He saves you He lifts you up He makes you one of his children And that should just cause us to live in the fear of the true and living God So back to the book of Job, Job chapter 13 He says these words, verse 15, though he slay me, I will hope in him That one statement right there is man's greatest declaration of faith There's a realization of sovereignty

There's a recognition of dependency When you truly realize that God is sovereign, overall, you have to depend upon him The reason we live such independent lives, the reason we get up in the morning, we don't pray, the reason we don't pray without ceasing, the reason we don't spend time in the word, memorizing the word, the reason we don't spend time sharing our faith, just going through life on easy street is because we really haven't recognized God's sovereignty so that we learn to live in dependency upon him Job says, though he slay me, I will hope in him. I'll trust in him

If he wants to kill me, he can kill me It's a total relinquishment on Job's part because no matter what he does, nothing is gonna change my hope in him, nothing. I mean, after all, what more can he do? I have nothing left, right? My health is down the tubes My job, gone My home, gone My kids, gone Only thing left to take, my wife If he wants her, hey, you know what? He can take her, right? She's no help to me now anyway She's not encouraging me She's not rubbing my back She's not doing anything But he says, look, it's okay Though he slay me, I'm gonna hope in him because he only hoped in God

He didn't hope in anything else Didn't hope in his friends Didn't hope in his job Didn't trust in anything or anyone else other than God That's the way our lives are to be, see? This is the greatest declaration of faith in Scripture So read on It says, nevertheless, I will argue my ways before him This also will be my salvation or my deliverance for a godless man may not come before his presence He knows that In other words, I can come before his presence because I am a God-fearing man But a godless man, he can't But I can Wow, what a statement So he says, listen carefully to my speech

Let my declaration fill your ears Behold, now I have prepared my case. I know that I will be vindicated Who will contend with me? Who will plead with me? For then I will be silent and die Is there anybody to plead for me? Anybody stand in the gap and mediate for me? No, there's no one there And if I remain silent, I'll perish In other words, I need to communicate with God. I need to talk to God. I need to argue with God. I need to go to him You see, what Job does is show us that, look, no matter what's going on, go to God Just go to God Cry out to God That's what Job does

And so he says, listen, if I don't do this, I perish In other words, Christ said it this way, Luke 18, verse number one Men are always to pray and not to faint If you pray, you won't faint If you're fainting, it's because you're not praying You see, so Job says, if I don't do this, I'll perish. I need to commune with my God Verse 20, only two things do not do to me Then I will not hide from your face Remove your hand from me and let not the dread of you terrify me Because you see, he's afraid He's afraid to approach God because it's a terrifying thing

Now remember, he doesn't understand the covenant, doesn't understand the New Testament, doesn't understand, you know, the veil being torn down He doesn't have that stuff like you and I do So he says these words, then call and I will answer or let me speak, then reply to me This is faith This is faith Lord, if you call, I'll answer You just say something, I'll answer If not, let me speak and then you reply See, he just longs to commune with his God How many are my iniquities and my sins? Make known to me my rebellion and my sins What a statement

Lord, how many times have I sinned? What have I done? Make them known to me What about my rebellion? Tell me about it When was the last time you cried out to God and said, Lord, tell me my sins? I wanna confess them to you, but I might not know what they all are Tell me what they are. I wanna confess them. I wanna, I want my life to be exposed to you, Lord Now, your life is exposed, but Job wants to know what they are because he wants to deal with them Now remember, Job one, he offered up sacrifices on a regular basis

So he thinks that all of his sins have been atoned for, that they've been covered because he's offered up sacrifices But just in case he hasn't, he wants to know what they are So he says, why do you hide your face and consider me your enemy? Will you cause a driven leaf to tremble or will you pursue the dry chaff for you write bitter things against me and make me to inherit the iniquities of my youth? Am I suffering because of some sin I've committed when I was younger? You put my feet in stocks and watch all my paths

You set a limit for the soles of my feet while I'm decaying like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten Are these all the consequences of my sin? That I can't move, I can't go anywhere, like my feet are in stocks? Lord, what's going on? Here's a man who just cries out to God You see, that's what the psalmist does all throughout the book of the Psalms See, we've lost that today because we're so quick to cry out to others and not to God And God wants us to cry out to Him, to trust Him and to believe in Him That's what He wants It's no wonder God just loves Job, man

No wonder God says, this is the greatest man on the planet There ain't nobody greater than Job He just wants me He wants to understand me It's no wonder he got such praise from God So you come to chapter 14, and this is where Job expounds on the condition of man And he gives us a true picture of man who is hopeless But Job has hope Listen to this Man who is born of a woman is short-lived and full of trouble, amen? Amen, right? Man born of a woman, that's every one of us here today, right? Is short-lived, not gonna live very long Let me break it to you

You might live to be 90, okay? You're living on borrowed time if you live to be 90 because you're promised three score in seven years, three score in 10, which is 70 years, right? So if you're above 70, you're living on borrowed time Tom, that's you, buddy Living on borrowed time, right? But praise be to God So I don't know how long you're gonna live, but man, short-lived, born of trouble Born of trouble And Job knows that very well Like a flower, he comes forth and withers He also flees like a shadow and does not remain You also open your eyes on him and bring him into judgment with yourself

Who can make the clean out of the unclean? No one Man, his life is so brief He speaks of the brevity of life And then he emphasizes the fact that in that life, nobody can make himself clean Even Job knows man can't save himself Job knows he can't cleanse himself Nobody can be clean before God Good man can't do that because he's filled with sin So verse five, since his days are determined, the number of his months is with you And this limit you have set so that he cannot pass What a statement His days are determined You put limits on his life Nobody in the room lives any longer than God ordains

Change your eating habits Take all your diet pills Take all your health additives Whatever you gotta do, take whatever you want You're not gonna live one day longer than God has already determined your life because all your days are numbered, some one day before there's even yet one of them, right? Now, you don't wanna live in pain So if you live without pain, that's a good thing, right? But you're all gonna live as long as God has ordained you to live Job knows this Job knows he's gonna die on time He knows he's not gonna die early He's not gonna die late He's gonna die on time

Everybody dies on time No matter how you die, hurricane, tornado, fire, shot, hit by a car, you all die on time There's no accidents Why? He says it His days are determined The number of his months is with you and his limits you have set so they cannot pass Can't live beyond his limits Wow Turn your gaze from him that he may rest until he fulfills his day like a hired man For there's hope for a tree when it's cut down and it will sprout again and its shoots will not fail

Though its roots grow old in the ground and its stump dies in the dry soil and at the scent of water, it will flourish and put forth sprigs like a plant In other words, trees, you cut them down Guess what? Give them a little bit of water They're gonna sprout back up again They're gonna grow again But man, verse 10, dies and lies prostrate Man expires where he is In other words, man has to rise up again The finality of death is going to come As water evaporates from the sea and a river becomes parched and dried up, so a man lies down and does not rise into the heavens or no longer

He will not awake nor be aroused out of sleep He emphasizes the brevity of life and the finality of death Why? Now remember, Job lives in the patriarchal time The whole theology of the resurrection comes progressively throughout time, which manifests itself primarily in the New Testament with the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord, right? So Job is gonna ask the question in just a moment, if a man dies, will he live again? That's the ultimate question, right? Nothing else really matters If a man dies, does he live? If he lives, where does he live? That's the question

Job knows to ask the right question So he says, oh, that you would hide me in Sheol, the place of the dead Sheol's not hell, Sheol is the place of the dead That you would conceal me until your wrath returns to you Lord, when I die, conceal me till your wrath passes That you would set a limit for me and remember me Who said that? Thief on the cross Remember me when you come into your kingdom The thief who hung with Christ on the cross He knew that the guy hanging next to him was a king He had a kingdom

Not because it said Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews above Christ, but he knew he was a king and he had a kingdom And he also believed in a resurrection So he said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom In other words, Lord, when we're dead, because we're both gonna die, we're hanging here, we're both gonna die So when we both die, would you please remember me when you come into your kingdom? The Lord said, today you shall be with me in paradise Job says, Lord, hide me, protect me Set a limit for me in that place of the dead And then Lord, remember me And listen to what he says

If a man dies, will he live again? That's the question All the days of my struggle, I will wait until my change comes What change? Until you resurrect me Job understood whatever he could about a resurrection, but not nearly as much as you and me He knew that there was life after death He just didn't know that much about it, because he didn't have what we have So he says, you will call and I will answer you You will long for the work of your hands In other words, he knows God is gonna take him home You will long for me, because I am the work of your hands. I was created in your image

You put me together And you will call me and I will answer You will call me and I will come, because you're gonna take the work of your hands into your presence Job knows that, see? So he says, for now, you remember my steps You do not observe my sin My transgression is sealed up in a bag and you wrap up my iniquity He talks about how the hell of sins are covered He talks about how the sins are all wrapped up, and that God will remember him He says, but the falling mountain crumbles away and the rock moves from its place Water wears away stones Its torrents wash away the dust of the earth

In other words, death's coming It's either gonna come rapidly or gradually, but it's going to come And he says this You forever overpower him and he departs You change his appearance and send him away You know, God's changing our appearance, right? Every day, we're getting older As we get older, guess what? We get more wrinkles, right? Our skin becomes more scaly We begin to shrink because our bones condense God's changing our appearance With age comes the change of our, none of us look like we did when we were 15 and 20 and 25 and 30 Why? Because we're getting older

As you get older, you get weaker, you get crinklier, if that's a word, or wrinklier All kinds of issues come, right? And then he says this His sons achieve honor, he doesn't know it Why? He's dead He says, are they becoming insignificant? But he can't see it, he can't perceive it But his body pains him and he mourns only for himself That's hopeless as a man Because man without God has nothing Job articulates for us not only the brevity of life and not only the finality of death, but Job articulates for us the certainty of a resurrection

He articulates for us the iniquity of man and he articulates for us the beauty of hope Job lived in hope If you look at chapter 13 and you just wanna camp out, or should it be chapter 12, and just camp out on one verse, you camp out on verse 10 In whose hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind Just camp out on that verse Then go to chapter 13 and camp out, though he slay me, yet I will hope in him Then you go to chapter 14 and you camp out on this verse

If a man dies, will he live again? Just a question every one of us needs to ask, right? If a man dies, will he live again? The answer is yes Christ says, because I live John 14, 19, you too will live John Levy says on the resurrection and the life There is a resurrection that's going to come for all men And here's Job trying to articulate all that he knows about God And he doesn't know near the things that you and I know Can't even come close to it He can't begin to articulate a theology of life, death, and resurrection He understands life, he understands the brevity of life

He understands death, but the resurrection, he wants God to remember him And when you call, I'll come But he just doesn't know all the details surrounding it It's no wonder God loves himself It's no wonder God admires himself It's no wonder God says this is the greatest God on the planet. I mean, there's no one articulating these things but Job And here are his three friends all wrapped around him And they're listening to Job speak But it's making no impact on their lives Why? Because they're arrogant They're not humble Not God-fearing men

They're just sitting there looking for the next opportunity to speak They just gotta say the next word They gotta get the next word out This is just to tell Job how wrong he is And then they articulate what they know, but really what they don't know But Job, when he responds, he responds and articulates true hope and belief in a God, his God, that he truly fears And this should be the life that you and I live This should be us We know that our hope is rooted in God

He's the God of hope, right? Peter Romans 15 tells us in Romans 15, verse number 13, now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so you will abound in hope Isn't that great? Hope is always rooted in God That's why Job had hope, because his whole life was rooted in who God is But not only is hope rooted in God, hope is only received by grace The Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse number 16, now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace It's only by God's grace that we have hope

And hope rooted in God and received by grace was ratified in the resurrection Christ says, because I live, you'll live One day, everybody in the graves will hear my voice and they will all rise, all rise So a man says, if a man dies, will he live again? The answer, absolutely The question is, where will you live? And that hope is always reinforced by the scriptures Psalm 119 tells us, thy word has given me hope You can't expect to have hope if you don't spend time in the word of God Yeah, hope's received by grace Yes, it's rooted in God It's ratified by the resurrection

But hope is always reinforced by the scripture And hope, hope is reaffirmed by the Spirit of God Back to Romans 15, 13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing Say, you will abound in hope How? By the power of the Holy Spirit The Spirit of God reaffirms that hope in us So we go through life and we know that one day we're gonna die Because our life is short And when a man dies, will he live again? Yes, we know that Why? Because of the resurrection of Christ Because of God who is called the living God

And the living God has given us a living word according to Peter's epistle And that living word tells us about a living hope We don't have a dead hope Hope's not dead, hope's alive It's a living hope because we serve a living God who gives us a living word So we believe in life Because our God is the God of life, who lives triumphantly So we trust him and believe in him And we can say as Job, he can do whatever he wants Though he slays me, I will hope in him Let me pray with you Father, thank you, Lord, for today The opportunity we have to trust you and believe in you Thank you for Job

He opens the door to so many questions that could be unanswered, but he answers them Because Lord, he really believes in his God and knows his God And our prayer, Father, is that we would be a people who live in the light of that hope Maybe we'd be able to say as Job, Lord, you can do whatever you want If you wanna kill us, kill us But we're still gonna hope in you, trust in you, believe in you, follow you, because you're all that matters That was Job, the greatest man on the planet Help us, Lord, to follow in his footsteps We pray in Jesus' name, amen.