Job's Response, Part 2

So let's bow for word of prayer, then we'll begin our time together in the Word. Father, thank you for today, all the things you teach us, all the things you do. Thank you, Lord, for a new year, an opportunity to study the Word of the Lord, a chance, Lord, to take the middle of the week and look at what you have for us.

Lord, there is so much in the Scriptures that we do not know. There is so much that we do know and have yet to apply. And our prayer, Father, is that as we learn tonight, that we would grow and that we'd come to understand those things that make us like you. Our prayer, Lord, is that you would teach us about yourself so we could really come to grips with the greatness of our God. We love you and thank you for this time. In Jesus' name, amen. So if you've got your Bible, Job 9 and Job 10. Tonight, we're going to truly bless your soul.

And as you bless your soul, we're going to blow your mind. We're going to help you understand some things in Scripture that will really set your heart ablaze. And so tonight, as we look to begin once again our study of the book of Job, we've gone through 10 different sermons already. We have 20 more to go to take us all the way to the end of the book of Job. We really want to bless you as you begin to understand our God. You see, Job is going to answer his second counselor.

Remember, Eliphaz was the first. Bildad was the second. And Bildad blew his wad last time in chapter 8. Well, in chapter 9, Job is going to respond. And how he responds is very unique. He's going to respond to Bildad, and then he's going to respond to the Lord. He's going to interact with Bildad on a one-on-one level, and then he's going to respond to the Lord. So chapter 9 is about his conversation with Bildad, and chapter 10 is about his conversation with the Lord. Okay, so there's a manward response and a Godward response.

And within that comes some realization about Job and who he is. Now, in the conversation that he has with Bildad and Eliphaz, they really don't shed any light about God that Job doesn't already know, right? It doesn't mean that Job knows everything, but they're not going to give him some new theological truth that he doesn't already know. The problem is that as they share these truths, they are unable to be able to bring consolation to Job. In other words, they don't address Job from a personal, emotional point of view.

In other words, they're not going to help Job understand God in light of his suffering, except for the fact they're going to just tell him over and over again, you are suffering the way you are because you're wicked, because you're a sinner, because you rebelled against God. The problem with that is that Job hasn't done that. And Job has searched his heart. It doesn't mean that Job doesn't know he's a sinner. He knows he's a sinner. He's been very clear about that. But for the life of him, he can't think of anything that is so wicked that he has done that would cause God to unleash His fury upon him, that he might be in a situation that he's in.

And as Job responds and talks about God, he pretty much is spot on in his response. The only issue with Job is that he tends to look at God through the lens of affliction instead of the lens of revelation.

He sees God through his suffering, but he doesn't see God necessarily in a way that the Scriptures speak of him. And that's because he doesn't have the Scriptures. He doesn't have a Bible. The knowledge he has, he's spot on about God. But like most of us, we theologically and doctrinally can be sound, but when our life is turned upside down, and there's so much upheaval, disaster, and tragedy, we tend to look at God through the lens of pain, through the lens of affliction.

And you can't look at God that way. You have to look at Him as He is portrayed and presented to us in the Scriptures.

So what Job does is he's going to respond to Bildad. He's going to talk to him about the greatness of God. That's how he begins. Because he realizes that God is so great. And as he recognizes and realizes the greatness of God, he also understands that he really, truly grapples with all that's happened in his life and God. In other words, if he hasn't sinned and he hasn't rebelled against God, he's trying to reconcile the fact that he is going through this great tragedy. Now remember, it's very easy to look at God through the lens of pain when you are experiencing what Job was experiencing.

And one of the unique things about this is that none of us knows how long Job was in this situation. We know that he was in it for seven days because his friends would come and sit with him for seven days. So we know that length of time. But we don't know how long after that the conversations went on. Was it a few more days? Was it a few more weeks? Was it a few more months? We just don't know. The Bible is not clear. So we can only speculate. It's taken us 30 weeks. It will take us 30 weeks to get through the entire book of Job as we study it together.

Was Job in the pain that he was for 30 weeks? All that time? We just don't know. But you can never forget the amount of pain he's in because it's easy for us to understand why he speaks the way he does because his whole life is in shambles. He's lost everything. His wife is not there to comfort him. And the pain that he's going through is so severe that he can't even sleep at night. So everything is keeping him awake. And there's never a moment of the day where he doesn't have and experience absolute pain.

You must remember that. None of us can relate to that. So you always got to keep that in mind as you read the book of Job and as you begin to understand the things that he says. So let's look at chapter 9, verse number 1.

We'll go through the text together. We'll point out some things to you, help you understand what is happening. Job 9, verse number 1, the text reads this way. Then Job answered, In truth, I know that this is so. In other words, he says to Bealdad, I know doctrinally and theologically the things you're saying to me. I know the truth that you tried to convey. But then he says this, But how can a man be in the right before God? That's the great ultimate question. How can a man be right before God? So the question comes, is Job asking this question from the standpoint of justification or from the standpoint of vindication?

We know that Job is an upright, God-fearing man. How do we know that? Job 1, Job 2. So we know that about Job. We know that he is right with God because God even says that Job is an upright man. And we also know that in Job's conversation, please remember this, in Job's conversation, God never criticizes the things that Job says. In fact, remember Job 42, verse number 7, it says, It came about after the Lord had spoken these words to Job that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends because you have not spoken to me what is right as my servant Job has.

So God is quick to criticize the language and the way that the friends of Job have spoken to him about God. But God does not criticize the way Job speaks to them about God. That's very important to remember as you read the narrative. Remember, Job is a poetic book, so it's written in a poetic form. And so when he speaks to Bildad, he says, Look, in truth, I understand what you're saying. I get that. And I'm right with you when it comes to your theology. But the question I'm asking is, How could a man be vindicated before his God?

Now the question is, which is always a question, about man getting right with God. How can a man be right before God? Well, we know that man is justified by faith, Romans 5.1. It's through the blood of Christ, Romans 5.9, 1 John 1, verse number 7. So a man can be justified, declared righteous before God because of his faith and belief in God. But I'm not sure Job's asking that question. I think Job's asking the question, How could a man ever be right with God, be vindicated before God? If I'm really God-fearing, if I'm really upright, if I'm really the greatest man on the face of the planet, which God has said, but he didn't know God said that.

We know He said that. How is it I can get right with my God? And then he says this, If one wishes to dispute with Him, he could not answer Him once in a thousand times. You can't dispute with God. Why? Verse 4, Wise in heart and mighty in strength, who has defied Him without harm? Answer, no one. He is so prudent and so powerful because He's all-wise and has all the strength. He has everything. How can you really argue with God? He's the wisest one ever. And He has all the power to do whatever He wants to do.

So He says, It is God who removes the mountains. They know not how when He overturns them in His anger. In other words, verse 6, Who shakes the earth out of its place and its pillars tremble? Who can do that? God. In other words, when there's an earthquake, who does that? God. God's in charge of all that. He says, Who commands the sun not to shine and sets a seal upon the stars? Who alone stretches out the heavens and tramples down the waves of the sea? Who does all that? Well, only God can. He says, Who makes the bear, Orion, and Pleiades and the chambers of the south?

Who makes the stars and the constellations? He says, Who does great things unfathomable and wondrous works without number? That is the summation of Job. That's the key verse in Job. That verse unlocks the mystery and will unveil the meaning of all that's happening in Job's life. That one verse. He says something very similar in Job 5, verse number 9. But this one verse is the cornerstone of the book of Job because everything that's mysterious about God will be unlocked when you understand how unfathomable His greatness.

Everything about the meaning of what's happening to Job is all summed up by the fact that His wondrous works are without number. Now Job states that. It's a remarkable statement because everything about that means that Job has to humbly submit himself to the incomprehensibility of God Himself. And that's what makes it so difficult. Because you and I can read this and we would say, Yep, God is great. In fact, we can read verses like Psalm 95, verse number 3. For the Lord is a great God, a great king above all gods.

We would say amen to that. Psalm 96, verse number 4. We understand that. Psalm 145, verse number 3. Psalm 150, verse number 2. according to His excellent greatness. God's greatness is excellent. His deeds are mighty. Now we can say that and we can articulate that, but the problem is applying that to my situation and understanding the turmoil that I'm going through, realizing that God is doing a wondrous work and in that wondrous work, He is unfathomably mighty and great. So let me illustrate that for you.

Job speaks of the greatness of God in terms of His power, in terms of His presence, and in terms of His purposes. He speaks of the greatness of God in terms of His power, articulating that God is invincible. He speaks to us about God and His greatness when it comes to His presence because He reiterates that God is invisible. And then He speaks to God as it applies to the greatness of His purposes, helping us to realize that God is incomprehensible. So He speaks of how God is invincible, invisible, incomprehensible, and all that sums up the greatness of His God.

He goes on to say these words, Were He to pass by me, verse 11, I would not see Him. Were He to move past me, I would not perceive Him. In other words, He's invisible. And then verse 12, Were He to snatch away, who could restrain Him? And who could say to Him, What are you doing? Why? He's incomprehensible. Remember back in Daniel chapter 4 when Nebuchadnezzar said these words about the God Most High. He says, He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, What have you done?

In other words, who can say to God, What have you done? But yet so many times when we go through adversity, some kind of affliction, some kind of turmoil, some kind of separation, something that rocks our world, we want to be able to inform God as to what He's doing and how we should do things our way. But you see, God's incomprehensible. And His greatness is invincible. And we can say that and we can preach about that and we can write about that, but to live that, that's the hard thing. So let me illustrate it for you, okay?

Let me illustrate it for you through a passage of Scripture that you might know or you might not know.

We're going to take you from the book of Job to a king. His name is King David. And David is known for sins that he has committed. Six times in the Bible he says, I have sinned greatly. Okay? I have sinned greatly. But there are two times he sinned greatly, greatly. Okay? One was with Bathsheba. All of us know the story of David and Bathsheba. And of course he would confess that he had sinned greatly against his God. But there's another time toward the end of his ministry that might not seem as big as that one, but it was.

And that's when he numbered his military. For there he said, I have sinned greatly. But note, on those two occasions, God's invincibility, God's invisibility, God's incomprehensibleness is seen in ways that David would never understand. But David would echo the fact that God's a great God. Those works are wonderful works. All you got to do is read the Psalms. But the way God works in David's life is very unique. That with those two great sins, what did God do? God gave him or birthed a son and built a temple.

Solomon was born out of his relationship with Bathsheba after he married her. And Solomon was the one who built the temple in that David. Why? Because God would show us how all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purposes. That doesn't mean that we can just go out and sin and case or all, whatever happens is going to happen and everything's going to be okay. Because David paid grave consequences for his sin. So you have Job who's going through a trial that's not a, as you, if you're with us in the month of November, is not a correctional discipline, right?

Nor is it a preventional discipline. Job's not. Job's is an instructional discipline. David's was a correctional discipline as well as instructional, but both of them were conformational, conforming Job to the image of God, conforming David to the image of God. Job did not sin. David sinned greatly. Job would speak of the power and greatness of God. So too would David. But Job had a hard time digesting his greatness because there was nothing he could point to that would say, why would God treat me this way or allow this to happen?

David would understand why things happened the way they did. So let's look, first of all, at 2 Samuel 24, verse number 1.

Okay, one verse. Now again, the anger of the Lord burned against Israel. You need to understand that. God's anger burned against Israel. Why did God's anger burn against Israel? Why? Because they were ungrateful for their king, David. And they rebelled against his kingship. And God was angry. When God appoints a leader and the people rebel against that leader, God's incensed. And God was angry. So read on. And it, the anger of the Lord, incited David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah.

Very important. God was angry with Israel. So God now, through his anger, incited David to number Israel. So, you go over to the book of 1 Chronicles 21. And these are the words that are written. Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel. Now, wait a minute. I thought Samuel, in 2 Samuel, it said that God incited David to number Israel. But when you read 1 Chronicles 21, it says that Satan incited David to number Israel. Which is right? Answer, yes. Both are right. God was angry with Israel.

God was going to do something to Israel. And God, and maybe there was a conversation in heaven like there was with Job. And Satan came to present himself before the throne of God. And God said to Satan, have you considered my servant David? We don't know that. Baba didn't tell us that. But maybe he did. But it was Satan who tempted David to number Israel. God tempts no man because there's no evil in God, James 1.13. So God tempts no man to sin. But how was God going to deal with Israel? He would give permission to Satan to tempt David to number his army.

Now, what's so big a deal about that? Why is that such a bad thing? Well, you need to know that in 1 Chronicles 20, the last three of Goliath's four brothers are killed. Remember, when David went to kill Goliath, he took five smooth stones. Why? Because Goliath had four brothers. David doesn't miss. He's a marksman. He knows he's going to kill Goliath with one stone. That's all he needs. But he brings five because Goliath has four brothers. So, in 2 Samuel 21, brother number one, brother number two, Sapph is killed.

In 1 Chronicles 20, verse number four, Sapphi is killed. Lami, in verse number five, is killed. And in verse number six, the guy with 24 fingers and toes. We don't know his name. He's got six fingers on each hand, six toes on each hand. We don't know his name. But those are his last three brothers. So, all the brothers now of Goliath are dead. And maybe David is getting a little full of himself. Maybe he thinks things are pretty good because he's doing his own thing. So, he is tempted by Satan to number his military.

And because God didn't tell him to do that, that would be a sin against God. And we know that as we read through the story here in a minute. But what Satan was getting David to do was to trust in his human forces instead of his heavenly father. If he could get David to trust the fact that it was him, David, who won the victory and not God, David would act on his own. So, Satan would tempt him. And we know it's wrong because Joab says in verse number six was abhorred that he would count the military.

The Bible says, the census was taken, there were 1,100,000 men who drew the sword. In Israel, in the Judah, 470,000. So, you have 1.5 million soldiers in your military. But Joab wasn't sensed that David would do this. Verse seven, 1 Chronicles 21, God was displeased with this thing, so he struck Israel. David said to God, I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing, but now please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly. Now, David had an opportunity to repent because when he went to Joab the first time, Joab warned him, this is not the right thing to do.

It took nine and a half months to count everybody. David had nine and a half months to repent. He didn't. Remember, he had nine months to repent after Bathsheba was pregnant, and he didn't until Nathan confronted him, right? So, he had a long time to repent. He just didn't. But God was greatly displeased, and he struck Israel. The Bible says in verse number nine, The Lord spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying, Go and speak to David, saying, Thus says the Lord, I offer you three things.

Choose for yourself one of them, which I will do to you. So God came to David and said to him, Thus says the Lord, Take for yourself either three years of famine or three months to be swept away before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtake you, or else three days of the sword of the Lord, even pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel. Three years, three months, three days. The choice is yours. Here are the consequences. Three years of famine, three months of defeat by your foes, or three days of pestilence from the Lord.

Well, the Bible tells us what he chose. He said, Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me. And David said to Gad, I am in great distress. Please let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are very great.

But do not let me fall into the hand of man. So David knows he's got consequences for his sin. So he says, Let me fall into the hand of God who is merciful.

Verse 14, So the Lord sent pestilence on Israel. Seventy thousand men of Israel fell. Seventy thousand in less than three days because God will stay in the hand of the angel. Seventy thousand. Some would say those seventy thousand were the ones who started with Absalom and rebellion against God. The Bible doesn't say that. Just speculation. No one really knows. But 70,000 men lost their lives because David fell prey to temptation and numbered his military. And God was very displeased. But remember, why didn't David die and why did 70,000 men die?

Well, that's because of 2 Samuel 24. God was incensed and angry with Israel because the rebellion against him, because the rebellion against King David, because they were ungrateful for what King David had done. And God was angry. So God was going to deal with them. And he does. So it says, And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. But as he was about to destroy it, the Lord saw and was sorry over the calamity and said to the destroying angel, It is enough. Now relax your hand. And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite.

Are you ready? You gotta get this. You wanna know about the greatness of God and the wonders works of God? Remember the city of David was owned by the Jebusites. They owned it. It was an impregnable fortress. Until David conquered the Jebusite city. At that time, it was called Salem. It would soon be called Jerusalem. And David had set up his kingdom there. That 30 acre plot of land called the hill of Ophel, called the city of David. But the text tells us that standing by the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite, was this angel.

So the threshing floor, if you look at the city of David, it's called the hill of Ophel or the hill of ascent because it ascends up to a greater hill.

And on that hill was the angel standing over the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite. Evidently, Ornan had decided to submit to King David after his city was taken and David would allow him to live. So, hold on to your hats. Then David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between the earth and heaven with his drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the Jebus covered with sackcloth fell on their faces. David said to God, Is it not I who commended to count the people?

Indeed, I am the one who has sinned and done very wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? O Lord, my God, please let your hand be against me and my father's household, but not against your people that they should be plagued. Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. So David went up at the word of Gad which he spoke in the name of the Lord. Now Ornan turned back and saw the angel and his four sons were with him hid themselves and Ornan was threshing wheat.

As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David and went out from the threshing floor and prostrated himself up before David with his face to the ground. Then David said to Ornan, give me the site of this threshing floor that I may build on it an altar to the Lord for the full price you shall give it to me that the plague may be restrained from the people. Ornan said to David, take it for yourself and let my Lord the King do what is good in his sight. See, I will give the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for wood and the wheat for the grain offering.

I will give it all. Ornan says, I'm just going to give you everything. You're the king. Whatever you want, I'm just going to give you. But King David said to Ornan, no, but I will surely buy it for the full price for I will not take what is yours for the Lord or offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing. So David gave Ornan 600 shekels of gold by weight for the site. Then David built an altar to the Lord there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings and he called to the Lord and he answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.

The Lord commanded the angel and he put his sword back in its sheath. At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite, he offered sacrifice there. So you say, what's the big deal? Well, that's very easy. All you have to understand is the land of Israel. David sees this angel over the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite and God says, you got to go up there and you got to get that place.

So David does. I'm going to purchase this place. Why is this important? Because 1 Chronicles 21 is the title deed to Mount Moriah. 1 Chronicles 21 tells us who owns the most expensive piece of real estate in the world. Israel does. David purchased it. So when you look at Jerusalem today and you see the Dome of the Rock there on top of Mount Moriah, it's built over what is commonly called the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite.

If you go into the Dome of the Rock, which I have done back in the year 2000, there is this huge rock. It's a huge, large rock. It's a threshing floor completely flat on top. And the Dome of the Rock is built over that. Problem is, in Arabic it says, God has no son. But that's not true. He does. Because the Muslim world wants you to believe that there never was a temple on the Temple Mount because nothing of Israel is there. That's not true. David purchased that threshing floor. David purchased the whole mountain.

Why is that important? A thousand years earlier there was a man named Abraham who took his son Isaac to a place called Moriah. And there he was to offer his only son, his beloved son, on Mount Moriah. But God said that he would spare his son and he would provide a substitute for his son. The great doctrine of substitutionary atonement happened where? On Mount Moriah, the place that David himself, a thousand years later, would purchase. And there the offering was consumed. The fire came down. It would be there where Solomon would build the temple in Jerusalem because David and his great sin and Israel's sin would be forgiven because now man is going to have access to God, access to forgiveness through the temple and through the sacrificial system that God would set up.

All that to say is that everything that happened with David, with his story from the birth of Solomon to the building of the temple with Solomon, both began with David's great sin. But God in his greatness is greater than all of our sin. And because he is so great, he overcomes all those consequences and all that hardship and all that pain to bring about a greater glory for his good. And so when you talk about the greatness of God, David is repenting because of his sin, knowing that he has displeased the Lord and wants to have mercy for his fellow man, his fellow Israelites.

And God is orchestrating all the events that will cause us even today to know who owns Mount Moriah, that there was a temple on Mount Moriah, it was built by King Solomon, and therefore we know that Israel has a right to that land. All because God, who is mighty and excellent in his greatness, his works, they're wondrous. They go way beyond any sin that we ever commit. I say that to you by way of illustration because it speaks to you about the incomprehensiveness of God. He's incomparable because he's so hard to understand.

His greatness is unsearchable. You need to remember this when you go through your hardships, when you go through your pain, God is doing something. He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ, Philippians 1, 6. God is doing something great. Whether your tragedy is there because of your sin, whether your tragedy is there because you haven't sinned, it's just something that God has brought into your life. God is doing a great and mighty work because our God is great.

His mercy is great. God is doing something. Don't think that God has abandoned you, forsaken you, or left you all alone to fend for yourself. That's not the case. God goes way beyond all of that to show you, I'm in charge. I've got it all under control. He's telling Job, even though he hasn't spoken to Job, he's going to wait to do it at the right time. How long was it from the time he had all these conversations? None of us knows. But God was going to speak to Job and reveal himself to Job so Job would see God as he really is, not through his affliction, but through divine revelation.

You see, you and me, we have divine revelation. There's no reason for us not to understand the things that happen to us. There's no reason for us not to be able to explain to our unbelieving friends, let me tell you what God is doing.

Let me show you who God is. Let me explain to you that God is doing a great and mighty work because he wants to draw you to himself, that you understand the mercy and the grace and the forgiveness of God.

God is doing all this. And so through the book of Job, you have all the answers you need to talk to your unbelieving friends because everyone of them asks the question, why are bad things happening to me? Why are things so bad? Why is my world falling apart? Where is God when I need him? Why doesn't God hear me when I cry? All the questions that Job asks are answered in the book of Job. To know the book is to be able to explain to those who go through tragedy, difficulty, persecution, affliction, and move them through to a place of maturity as they begin to understand God's suffering amidst man's suffering.

Having said that, go back with me to the book of Job. It's really not a story about David, but although I did talk about David. In verse number 13 of chapter 9, Job says, If this God will not turn back his anger beneath him, crouch to helpers of Rahab, which like Leviathan was a sea monster, how then can I answer him and choose my words before him? For though I were right I could not answer, I would have to implore the mercy of my judge. If I called and he answered me, I could not believe that he was listening to my voice.

God is so great. He is so incomprehensible. I can't believe that if I called on him he would even listen.

I mean, after all, he hasn't answered yet, right? So, why does he have even time for me? For though I were right I could not answer, he says. I'm sorry, verse 17. For he bruises me with tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause. He will not allow me to get my breath, but saturates me with bitterness. If it is a matter of power, behold, he is a strong one. If it's a matter of justice, who can summon him? He goes on to speak and he goes on to talk about the fact that, you know, the only thing I can do is cheer up, wash up, look up, and never give up.

He says in verse number 27, Though I say I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my sad countenance and be cheerful. You know what? I'm going to muster up enough strength just to be cheerful even though my countenance doesn't look that way. I'm afraid of all my pains. I know that you will not acquit me. I am accounted wicked. Why then should I toil in vain? If I should wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye, yet you would plunge me into the pit and my own clothes would abhor me.

For he is not a man as I am that I may answer him that we may go to court together. There is no umpire between us. Who may lay his hand upon us both? There's no arbitrator. There's no mediator. Oh, but there's one coming. Job just doesn't know him yet. But there is a mediator coming. Oh, if there was an arbitrator. If there was someone who could arbitrate my cause between me and my God and the answer to the Scriptures is yes, there is. There's a high priest who can sympathize with your weaknesses.

There's the God-man who is tempted at all points like we are yet without sin. There's one mediator between God and man. It's the man Christ Jesus. Job just has not met him yet. But the world has the opportunity to meet him. Why? Because that's who he is. The Lord knew we would need a mediator. We have an advocate in glory. It's the Lord himself. If you go down to chapter 10 because my time is fleeting. Job asks four questions. He asks question number one in verses 1 to 3 of chapter 10.

Why do you contend with me, God? He says it very clearly. I love my own life. I will give full vent to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will say to God, do not condemn me. Let me know why you contend with me.

It is right for you indeed to oppress, to reject the labor of your hands, and to look favorably on the schemes of the wicked. Have you eyes of flesh? Or do you see me as a man sees? Not only, Lord, the question is why do you contend with me? But do you even see me? Are your days as the days of a mortal? Or your years as a man's years? That you should seek for my guilt and search after my sin? According to your knowledge, I am indeed not guilty, yet there is no deliverance from your hand. Lord, if I'm not guilty, how come you haven't delivered me?

Do you even see my affliction? Do you even see my pain? You've asked that question, right? You have friends that have asked that question. Lord, do you not see my pain? Do you not see my isolation? Do you not see where I'm at, my rejection? Lord, don't you see what I'm going through? Of course he does. But Job says, if you see, why don't you just deliver me? So he says, do you not see me? Why do you contend with me? Why did you even create me, he says? Your hands fashioned and made me altogether.

And would you destroy me? You made me this way. And now you afflict me. Are you going to destroy me? Verse 11, clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sins. You have granted me life and loving kindness. And your care has preserved my spirit. Yet these things you have concealed in your heart. I know that this is within you. I know this. And he says, at the very end, why don't you just kill me? Verse 18, why then have you brought me out of the womb? Would that I had died and no eye had seen.

I should have been as though I had not been born. Carried from womb to tomb. This is the heart of a man who cries out to God and says, Lord, why? What's going on? Don't you see? This is the heart of a believing man who is upright, God-fearing, right? Blameless. The greatest man on the face of the earth who takes his cares to his God because he has nowhere else to go. Now, having said that, you need to understand that God is at work. Job would like to think God's at work, but he wished he was working in a way that he would kill him, see him, deliver him.

But God was at work. You ever get to the point in your life where you wonder and scratch your head, is God really at work? What is God doing? Remember the story of the feeding of the 5,000? The only miracle in the Bible recorded in all four Gospels? And why is that? Because it's the most important miracle that Jesus ever did. You say, well, how do you know that? Well, because it's recorded in all four Gospels. But there's something there that's very important for you to understand. In John's Gospel, the sixth chapter, Jesus lifted up his eyes, seeing the large crowd, was coming to him, chapter 6, verse 5, said to Philip, Philip, where are we to buy bread that these may eat?

Great question. He didn't say, where are you going to buy bread? He says, where are we going to buy bread? In other words, God includes himself in the dilemma because he wants to be a part of the solution to the dilemma. Thus, he was saying to test Philip, for he himself knew what he was intending to do. That little phrase, for he himself knew what he was intending to do, should be marked and highlighted and printed on your forehead because God always knows what he intends to do. You don't, but he does.

They have no idea where they're going to feed 5,000, which is literally 25,000 people because he only counted the men in those days, not the women and the children. They have no idea. They were going to begin to count their pennies instead of trust in the power of the living God. It's like when you have to have surgery, right? And you have no money. And God says, what are we going to do?

I don't know. I don't have no pennies. Ah, but you forgot about the power of God. See? You tend to forget about those things. It's so easy to do. You see, God is getting the disciples to learn to trust him for daily provisions. That's why when the feeding was done, there were 12 baskets filled because of the sufficiency of God to take care of his own. Now, why is this so important? Because of what happens next. For if you don't trust God amidst your daily, for your daily provisions, you cannot and will not trust him amidst your difficult situations.

The very next scene, God immediately gets them to get into a boat and go to the other side of the lake. Well, he goes up into a mountain to pray. And as he's praying, a great storm comes upon the boat and men were fearful for their lives. It wasn't that God went up to the mountain to pray and all of a sudden a storm came and God says, oh my, my guys are out there.

What am I going to do? He planned the storm. He planned the difficult situation. For he himself knew what he was about to do. So you know the story. In the midst of this storm, as the men are straining at the oars, Christ begins to walk to them on the water. Remember that story? Of course you do. The Bible says, when they saw him walking on the sea, this is Mark's account in Mark chapter six, they supposed that it was a ghost.

Why? Because as far as they knew, Jesus was on a mountain praying. As far as they knew, they had been sent out to go to the other side of the lake. As far as they knew, Jesus was nowhere around. They didn't expect Jesus to show up. And that was their problem. Many times readers don't expect Jesus to show up. But you remember, we have a high priest who is our advocate, who is praying for us night and day. So while he's in heaven praying, it doesn't mean he's absent amidst our difficult situation. So he comes walking to them on the water.

They supposed that he's a ghost and cried out. For they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke with them and said to them, take courage in his eye, do not be afraid. Then he got into the boat with them. The wind stopped. They were utterly astonished. Why? Because they didn't expect Jesus to show up. Not because the wind stopped, it did. They were astonished because they didn't expect Jesus to be there. Listen carefully. For they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

Do you see why the miracle, the feeding of the 5,000 is so important? If you can't trust God for your daily provisions, you will never trust him amidst your difficult situations. You just won't. Because he himself knew what he was about to do. Do you know that when you go through your pain and you go through your situation, God knows exactly what he's doing. He is never caught off guard. He is never bewildered, befuddled, anxious, concerned about what's gonna happen with you because he knows what he intends to do.

You have just to learn to trust him because of the greatness of his power. The greatness of his purposes and plans. The greatness of his person. Because as Job made it very, very clear, this God does great things, so great they are unfathomable. You can't search them. You'll never understand them. And wondrous works without number. In other words, you can't even begin to count all the things that God does that are so wonderful. You see that? That's why it's so important to understand the book of Job because God is doing a great work.

Job didn't see it yet. He doesn't understand it. His friends can't help him. That's why you're here. See, you're not like Eliphaz and Zophar and Bildad. See, you can help your friends through their difficulties. You can show them that the Lord is intending to do something great and marvelous and fabulous. You can talk to them about the greatness of God and share with them stories of Job and his pain and affliction because he certainly had not sinned as to why things were so bad. David, he brought bad things upon himself because he did sin.

But God was still doing great and wonderful works throughout his life in spite of his sin. And God would use all those bad things to bring about greater things because he had to birth the next king, Solomon, who would build the temple on a place that was purchased by David after he had sinned against God that he might receive the forgiveness of God. And all those who would come after him would have a place where they would be able to offer sacrifices to their God to atone for their sins. So the book of Job speaks so readily to our situations.

And my prayer for you and me is not only that God bless our soul, but as he does, just blow our mind as to his greatness.