Please turn in your Bibles this evening to the book of Job chapter 1 as we continue our study through the Word of God and we begin this fascinating book.  Now keep in mind that as we begin this book of Job we are moving into another division of the Old Testament Scriptures. Remember that in the Pentateuch or the books of the Law they covered Genesis through Deuteronomy. After that came the Historical books which were Joshua through Esther, which we have just completed. Then comes the Poetical books; Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. After the Poetical books we come to the Major Prophets, Isaiah through Daniel. And the Old Testament closes with the Minor Prophets, Hosea through Malachi. And with these 39 books there is one continuous story, the love of God for sinful man and how God came to redeem sinful man. It began with the message given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and it closes with the final announcement by Malachi of the coming of Christ.

Now understand that these books of poetry are not like our English poetry. They don’t rhyme. Hebrew Poetry comes in two forms - contrasting thoughts and parallel thoughts. An example of contrasting thoughts is seen in Psalm 31:17, which says, “For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, But the LORD upholds the righteous.” In this you see the contrasting thoughts of the wicked versus the righteous.

An example of parallel thoughts is seen in Psalm 100:5, which says, “For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.” In this you see one thought building upon another thought, His goodness, mercy and truth.

What is interesting to me is that the meaning of Job’s name seems to be “persecuted” which really fits what transpires in this book, for the endurance of Job through all this persecution is amazing for any of us to handle. You see, when you look at the things that Job endures, you see his faith lived out in his life. He practiced what he believed.

Many people, as they read this book, miss the God-centered message because they are trying to answer the man-centered problems. Why do the righteous suffer is never really answered in this book. And that is what many are looking for today, the answers to why they are going through these difficult things in life. And many will spend their entire lives trying to figure it out. Many will go to therapy to try to figure it out. Many will blame others for why they are going through difficult things in life.

And for Job, he spends some 35 chapters trying to figure out the how’s and why’s of God and what is interesting is that God never answers the how’s and why’s. You see, what God does do is God shows Job that knowing the answers to life’s problems is not as important as knowing and understanding the awesomeness of God and how wise He is. It is when we can take that and apply that to our life we can trust God in whatever happens to us. That is what God is showing Job and I believe it is what He is showing us.

Man, with our finite minds, keeps trying to understand the ways of an infinite God, and it can’t be done, we only come to the wrong conclusions. God said in Isaiah 55:8-9, “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ says the LORD. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.’” Can you imagine if we knew all that God knows, what kind of God would He be? One writer rightly put it this way when he said, “If God was small enough to figure out, then He would not be big enough to worship!” God is telling us that we need to know Him and the more we know Him the more we will be able to trust Him. It is hard to trust a person that you don’t know. But as you get to know them you can trust them and we can know God through His Word, that is where our faith comes from and as we grow we will learn to trust Him more and more!

You see, God is so beyond us that there are certain things we won’t be able to understand this side of eternity. The book of Job, however, does give us insights and inspiration that stir my heart and enlighten my thoughts in a way that is helpful and practical concerning what we should do in times of trouble and days of despair. This book is here for a reason, the Holy Spirit has given it to us so that we can learn and grow as we read it and apply it to our lives. That is my prayer as we go through this book, that even during the most difficult times in our lives, we can trust in the Lord even though we might not understand why this is happening to us!

Listen to what Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary had to say regarding the book of Job. They wrote,

At one time or another, almost everyone has felt like Job. While going through trials and times of suffering, we are often overwhelmed by self-pity. We want an explanation for why God allows trials to happen to us. The Book of Job records the troubling questions, the terrifying doubts, and the very real anguish of a sufferer. The Book of Job can help us in the time when we are surrounded with troubles by giving us a glimpse of God’s perspective on our suffering.

-  Radmacher, Earl D.; Allen, Ronald Barclay; House, H. Wayne: Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary, Job

            With that as our background, let’s begin reading in Job chapter 1, starting in verse 1 and see what the Lord has for us as we study through His Word this evening.

VERSE 1a-b

            As this book opens up we are told that Job lived in the land of Uz, not Oz! Now we are not sure exactly where this place called Uz is located; some have said it is in the Syrian Desert. I am not exactly sure on that one. You see, I think the Bible does give us a very interesting possibility. In Lamentations 4:21 we read, “Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, You who dwell in the land of Uz! . . .” This seems to imply that the area of Uz was established before the Edomites came to dwell there. This area is located southeast of the Dead Sea.

            Now, in regards to the timeframe of this book, the book of Job is thought to be the oldest book of the Bible, written around the time of Abraham, around 2000 B. C. The book of Genesis, which takes us back to the creation of the heavens and earth, was not written until around 1500 B. C. by Moses. Thus, the first 11 chapters of Genesis pre-date the story of Job, but they were not written down in a book form until the time of Moses. That would make Job a contemporary with Abraham, around that period of time, around 300 years or so after the flood.

Job’s connection with God seems to be independent of any other Old Testament character. He definitely seems to have lived before the time of Moses and the people of Israel; perhaps even before Abraham. Some believe that the Jobab mentioned in Genesis 10:29 is Job, which would put him in the era between Noah and Abraham, as I have said.

            Now think about this for a minute. This is the oldest book in the Bible and maybe the oldest written account of man’s relationship with the true and living God and the focus is something we might not think is that important, but it was even back then just as it is today. It is the question we still ask to this day: “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

            The reality is, there are none good, no not one. And, as I have said, we may never know why a child dies, why a loved one gets cancer, why the accident takes away a father and-so-on. And we may not like it, but we need to learn to trust the Lord because, as I have said, you can spend a lifetime trying to figure it out and in the end, you are no closer. Instead of wasting that time, seek the Lord, trust in Him and allow Him to work in you and through you as He will do with Job!

            And think about this. The book of Job is not primarily about one man’s pain and suffering, even though it does talk about it. It is not about issues related to finances, social problems, or even medical problems even though it speaks of them. The focus is really about theology, it is about God, who He is and how we relate to Him through various situations we face in this life. What the Holy Spirit does here is cause us to look at our own lives and examine them.

You see, God does not always act the way we think He should or more correctly, the way we want Him to and that is what Job was dealing with and it is an issue that we must deal with! And as we will see, through the experiences of Job, we will learn how to deal with the situations we face and have a correct perspective of who our God is and truly how much He loves us!

            Now some have a hard time dating the book of Job to around 2,000 B. C. but there are some very good reasons why it is placed there. The reasons for placing Job around this period of time, the time of Abraham, are as follows:

A. Long life

Job lived another 140 years after the events of this book according to Job 42:16, and that would have made him around 200 years old at his death. After the flood we see man’s life-span decreases. Terah, Abraham’s father was 205. Abraham was 175. Isaac 180. Jacob 147. So Job fits in very nicely around the time of Abraham.

B. No Law

Another reason we date it around 2,000 B. C. is there is no mention of the Ten Commandments or any of the Mosaic Laws, which would therefore pre-date the time of Moses. Yes we see Divine Laws that God gave to man before Moses, for in Genesis 26:5 we read, “because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” So Job fits in very nicely around the time of Abraham, before the Law was instituted.

C. Sacrifices

Before the Mosaic Law the patriarchal head of each family would offer sacrifices, just as Job did in verse 5. In Genesis 22:13 we read, “Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.” So again, this fits in very nicely around the time of Abraham, before the Tabernacle was constructed and thus, before the Temple was built.

D. Wealth

One more point here and that is their wealth. They listed their wealth in terms of livestock and not money, as was the practice during the time of Abraham. (Genesis 12:16). So once again Job fits in nicely around the time of Abraham.

VERSE 1c-d

            God is giving us some insight into the character of Job so that as we read this story, we won’t misinterpret what was going to happen to him. He was blameless, a morally upright person, not perfect, but a good man who loved God. He feared God or had a correct perspective of God, that He was holy and righteous. Thus, when Job transgressed what God had said, he brought the appropriate sacrifices to deal with his sin. And because he had a correct perspective of who God is, he “shunned evil” or in the Hebrew it literally says that he “turned away from evil.” You see, that is the only way to deal with it, for if you entertain evil, you will get burned!

            Let me share with you a few Scriptures to show you what I mean. We are told in Proverbs 3:7, “Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil.” Also, in Proverbs 14:16, “A wise man fears and departs from evil, But a fool rages and is self-confident.” And in Proverbs 9:10 we are told, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” And lastly, in Proverbs 1:7 we are told, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

            What we have read in Proverbs we see manifested in the life of Job and it is a great lesson for us. You see, Job feared God and shunned evil and that was an indication that he had a right relationship with God. And, having a right relationship with God motivated him to turn away from evil. When our relationship with God is right, that vertical axis, then the way we live out our faith will be right, the horizontal axis. It is when that vertical axis with God is off that our life is messed up; it is off kilter you might say!

VERSES 2-3

            Job was a very wealthy man who was blessed with 10 children. You might say that his quiver was full! And he was also very wealthy and keep in mind that it was not the size of his bank account that made him wealthy, but the number of animals he had, for they were worth more than money. The sheep were used for clothing and food. The camels were used for transportation; they were the work horses of the desert. The oxen and cattle were used for food, plowing, and milk. And the donkeys for transportation, probably for short distances while the camels were used for cross country. He was your Donald Trump you might say of his day!

VERSE 4

            As I read this I get the idea that Job’s children liked to party, maybe all their wealth went to their heads. Now some say that these were just special parties, like a birthday party, but I tend to lean towards the idea that they were just parties that they enjoyed throwing for each other. And with the wine flowing at these parties and maybe clouding some of their actions who knows what was going on. I realize that not everyone will agree with me on this but as we will see as we get to verse 5 that in the midst of all the partying that is going on, there was some fear in the heart of Job and it is out of that we see Job react to what his children are doing. Look at verse 5.

VERSE 5

            Remember what we have learned so far about this man named Job, he was a man who feared God, had a correct perspective of who God is. Now, it seems his children did not have that same fear of God; they did not have a correct perspective of God and who He is and thus, during some of their parties they may have taken the name of the Lord a little too lightly.

You see, when it says that they may have, “cursed God in their hearts” it literally means, “Blessed, but in an evil sense.” By their actions they were dishonoring God. So Job intercedes for his children, getting up early and offering 10 sacrifices, one for each child. Imagine all that was involved and yet we find it difficult to get up and pray for our children!

            Do we take the name of God too lightly today? I think so! God is a holy God and that is how He is to be honored. He is not some equal with us that we are just taking along with us for the ride. He is the creator of heaven and earth and we are part of His creation. Have a proper perspective of who God is, for if you do, you will turn from evil just as Job did. As Psalm 29:2 says, “Give unto the LORD the glory due to His name; Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.”

            Now let’s make some personal application here. Do we pray for our children, our family, and our friends? Do we intercede for them? Yes, it takes time but how important are they to you? Meyer put it like this, “What a beautiful example is furnished by Job to Christian parents! When your girls are going among strangers, and your boys into the great ways of the world, and you are unable to impose your will upon them, as in the days of childhood, you can yet pray for them, casting over them the shield of intercession, with strong cryings and tears. They are beyond your reach; but by faith you can move the arm of God on their behalf.” Don’t give up on your children, your family, your friends, bring them to the Lord in prayer, intercede on their behalf!

            Now, as we are going to see, there is an epic war that is about to take place here in the book of Job. But, no city is attacked. No city is besieged. No city is conquered. There are no battles that are won or lost out in the fields. There are no oceans that are sailed upon or nations founded. The battle, as we will see, takes place on an ash heap, a garbage dump, outside the village. And this is not an outward battle, but it is a battle of the inner heart, a struggle to make sense of some of the deepest emotions, the biggest questions of life. And it is how we deal with that war inside of us that is then manifested in our outward actions, how we live out our faith. Thus, this epic war that Job is about to face, we all will encounter in life!

            Now that God has given us some insight into the man Job, the scene is going to shift from an earthly perspective to a heavenly perspective.

VERSE 6

            So now we have this heavenly scene, something Job is totally unaware of what is going on and we only get insight here of what is taking place in heaven. Now this phrase, “sons of God” or BENE ELOHIM in Hebrew, and it has and still causes great controversy on what is meant by it. To me, it is very easy when you let the Bible speak for itself. In Job chapter 38 God is asking Job if he was around when the foundations of the earth were laid, for he tells Job, “When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?” Job 38:7. Angels were created before God created the heavens and the earth, and thus, they were the ones that shouted for joy when the earth was created. So the “sons of God” speak of angels and not of man.

            Now we are also told that Satan came with them. I should not have to tell you this but Satan is not equal with God, he is a created being! And tragically, to his delight, we elevate him to that position! He is not the opposite of God because he is not equal with God and we will see that played out here by what he must do before he can do anything upon this earth! And also, Satan and these other fallen angels have access to God until they are thrown out of heaven in the book of Revelation. We are told, “And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Revelation 12:7-9.

Now I believe this war takes place in the middle of the 7-year Tribulation Period. In Daniel 12:1 we are told, “At that time Michael shall stand up, The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; And there shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation, Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, Every one who is found written in the book.”  Thus, the Great Tribulation now begins or the last 3½ years before the Lord returns! But until that time, Satan and his demons still have access to heaven, to come before the Lord!

            Why do I make such a big deal about this being angelic beings? Because that is what it is saying and many don’t have a problem with them being angels and fallen angels here but when we come to Genesis chapter 6, that is where many have a hard time.

In Genesis chapter 6 we read of angels, sons of God, the ones who co-habitated with women and produced the Nephilim or the fallen ones. Many have such a hard time with this that they say that these were the ungodly men marrying godly women and producing this strange offspring. Now as strange as some kids may seem, that is not what the Scriptures say. You don’t produce some demonic being by having a godly father or mother produce this demonic child with an ungodly father or mother.

What we see here is that Satan was trying to destroy the human race by infecting it, thus the Messiah could not be born, but it says of Noah that he was perfect or not infected by this plot by Satan. So he and his family were the only ones saved through the flood. Jude 6 tells us, “And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day.” These are the fallen angels, those who sided with Satan, and the ones that tried to co-habitat with women, he placed in chains for the Day of Judgment. The rest of the fallen angels, we call demons, and they are not locked up, but free to do the work of Satan.

VERSE 7

            Let me make some important points here regarding this being known as Satan. First of all Satan is not the king of Hell, in fact he is called the prince of the power of the air in Ephesians 2:2. He is also called the ruler of this world in John 14:30. Hell is a place for punishment and is not a kingdom as many believe. And the thing that blows many away is that Satan still has access to the throne of God, the presence of God. That will continue until the 3½ year period of the 7 year Tribulation Period as we have seen.

Also, and we have touched on this, we need to understand that Satan is not God, he is not equal with God. Satan, called Lucifer when he was created by God, is not omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient as God is. And even when he is cast into the Lake of Fire, he is not king, but is tormented like everyone else for eternity. Thus, Satan uses his demonic forces to be his hands, his eyes, his feet, and his ears, to carry out his work, to kill destroy the lives of people!

            What I want you to notice here is that Satan says that he is going back and forth, to and fro over the whole earth. What that tells me is that Satan is very restless. But why is he so restless? Because he is trying to see who he can destroy, what lives he can ruin. As I Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” May we be alert, may we be wise, may we walk circumspectly because the days are evil and Satan is moving about to seek whom he may devour!

VERSE 8

            If I was aware of this going on I would be like, “Lord, have Satan consider Steve. I’m good here. And Steve, he is a great guy. Consider your servant Steve!” And I think Steve would say just the opposite! I think that is why we don’t see in the heavenly sphere regarding this issue. None of us would want these attacks from Satan! And what I find interesting here is that God points out to Satan this man Job and his goodness. The word, “considered” is a military term that is used of a general who is studying a city before he attacks it so that he can develop a strategy to destroy it. So God is asking Satan if he has found any weakness in this man Job by which he may gain control or cause him to stumble. And the implication by God is that Satan could find nothing to cause Job to stumble.

            Now does that mean that Job was prefect? Absolutely not and we talked about this already. I like the way that Mason looks at this as he wrote, “It means that no matter how horrible his offenses may have been, all the charges against him have been dropped. Absolutely no blame attaches to him, because the very one he offended has exonerated him.” God sees us as perfect also even though we know in these bodies of flesh we are not but the blood of Christ has cleansed us from all our sins!

            Is there any room to doubt that Job was blameless? Again Mason tells us, “If at any point in the ensuing struggle we are tempted to question the integrity of Job’s faith (as his friends do, relentlessly), it will not really be Job we are questioning, but the Lord.” You see, God has forgiven us and that is what we need to understand, our sins have been wiped clean from our lives as God looks at us!

            So what can we glean from this verse. Think about this. The enemy will study your life, looking for any weakness so that he can wipe you out. And he will be patient and wait for an opportune time to strike. In knowing that, many Christians are looking for demons under every rock and behind every door, afraid to go into any room without first casting out the demons. What a waste of time. We are children of God, and thus our eyes should be focused upon God and not the enemy. He will strengthen us and help us to walk so that we will not stumble. Don’t make it easy for the enemy to win, be aware of what you are doing! And if you give all that attention to the Devil, he has won. You see, he wants the attention, he wants to be like God and by drawing all that attention to him you are giving him what he wants. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you and the Devil will flee!

VERSES 9-11

            Notice what the accuser of the brethren, Satan, is saying here. He is saying that the only reason Job loves God is because God is blessing him. You see, Satan has studied Job, and he thinks he knows why Job is doing what he is doing, because of the material blessings that God has given to him. And I truly believe that the implication here is that Satan has tried to get at Job and failed and the reason he failed is because God keeps blessing Job. Once those blessings are removed, so will Job’s worship of God be removed! Now some do respond to God in this way. Only when things are going well, when they are blessed will they serve the Lord otherwise they will curse Him! How sad that truly is and how wrong it is!

You see, Satan rightly recognizes the weakness in our human nature of loving material possessions, and thus, if those were removed, then Satan feels he can win. Not only is he coming against Job, but all of us who are children of God. He is saying that the only reason we serve God is because He pays well. The second indictment he makes is against God. He is saying that God is buying our love by giving us many blessings in our life. He was coming not only against the church, but against the character of God!

            May we not forget that the Lord has Satan totally under control, that he can’t do anything without first coming to the Lord! There was hedge of protection around Job, the will of God you might say, and that makes sense to me because the Bible tells us that God is our Shield, God is our Protector and He will not allow us to be tempted beyond that which we are able to bear and with the temptations that come our way from Satan, the Lord will provide a way of escape. (I Corinthians 10:13).  God has His sovereign plan, His sovereign purpose in all that happens to us and we can rest in that knowing that nothing happens to us without His knowledge and approval. Satan will tempt us God will test us. Satan will try to push us away from God with his temptations.  God will draw us close to Him with the trials He brings in our lives! Satan wants to destroy our faith while God wants our faith to grow!

            In John 10:10 Jesus said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” God wants us to have abundant life and Satan wants to rip us off and steal our life away, to kill us and destroy us!  Maybe you heard about this story of the panda bear.

A panda walked into a restaurant, sat down, and ate breakfast. When he was finished, he stood up, shot the waitress, and walked out. The owner of the restaurant ran after him, yelling, “What in the world are you doing?”

“I’m a panda,” the panda yelled. “Look it up in the dictionary.”

So the owner of the restaurant did just that. He looked up “panda” and read “Panda: noun, mammal. Eats shoots and leaves.

Who is Satan? Look it up in the Word. He’s the accuser of the brethren. He comes to steal, kill and destroy! That’s what he does. That’s his defining characteristic.

VERSE 12

            Satan could do nothing unless God allowed it, thus, that hedge of protection that was around Job is really God’s will for his life. God is in control, and that is something we must never forget, no matter how difficult the situation is. If you forget that, your perspective of God and Satan are going to become distorted.

            Why does God allow this? We don’t always know the exact reason, but He does have an ultimate purpose and will use these difficult times in our life to help us to grow closer to God and He will be teaching us lessons of faith, but if you are not listening, you won’t learn!

            The thing we need to remember is that God does allow these things; He does permit Satan to take away from us those things that we may lean on and lean heavily on and it may not necessarily be bad, but God is going to remove them. And what happens when these things are taken away? What happens when we loose, in a sense, our security blanket? We are helpless, we are lost, we are wondering what in the world is going on? And we cry out to God and God will comfort our hearts, He will give us His peace through these storms of life but many times we have to go through the storm to get to the other side of the trial!

            God is going to allow Satan to take away the possessions you might say, of Job but not to touch his body, at least not yet. For Job, he knows none of this but this trial and this temptation is coming his way. How will he respond to it? Let’s read on and see, but first we will see what he looses and it is very great. And then we will look at how he responds to these loses. And keep in mind that we are moving from the heavenly scene now and into the earthly scene, back to the land of Uz!

VERSES 13-16

            All of a sudden, in one day, all these tragedies begin to fall upon Job’s household. I find verse 16 very interesting because the servant says that, “the fire of God fell from heaven . . .” Yes God allowed it, but Satan was behind it. The world likes to blame God for what Satan is doing. A great example of this is seen with insurance companies, they call some of these tragedies “Acts of God” when in reality they should be called “Acts of Satan.” So we see here the livestock of Job destroyed and many of his servants that were out in the field and it is not over yet!

VERSES 17-19

            Talk about your bad day! In just one day, in a rapid fire chain of events, Job lost all his wealth, all his material possessions, and now all of his children. Can you imagine how you would feel if this happened to you? Serving God all your life and then all this comes upon you, it just doesn’t seem fair. It just doesn’t seem right! How can God allow this to happen? Because God is working in Job a far greater thing than all these possessions of the world could do for him!

            I thought this was to be against Job and yet, we see his servants and even his children killed, why is that? First of all we need to remember that what happened to them happens to all of us, we will die, we will go back to the dust of the earth. Secondly, yes, it does seem to happen sooner than we would like but death is an equal opportunity destroyer and the death rate is still one per person! And we are looking at this as tragic in light of this life and not in the light of eternity.

Remember what Abraham said in Genesis 18:25, “Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” May we never lose sight of the fact that the Judge of all the earth is a righteous Judge and thus, even though we may not understand it, He knows what He is doing!

            Think about what happened to Job in one day! In one day Job plummeted from the pinnacle of prosperity to the pit of poverty. He must have felt that all heaven and earth had turned against him. The four rapid disasters that struck him came alternately from earth and heaven. First was the raiding of his livestock and servants; then from heaven, the fire of God; then again from earth, the loss of his camels and servants; and then the climactic blow again from heaven, a great wind that demolished his house and killed his children. How is Job going to respond to all this that has happened to him? How would you respond to all this? I think we can learn a lot about Job and the maturity he had in the Lord, how he trusted in the Lord. Not perfect but at this point he will be looking at things from a heavenly perspective.

VERSES 20-22

            After hearing all this, Job begins to mourn, and who wouldn’t? But then he begins to worship God. When things are going well it is easy to worship God, but what would happen if you lost everything, could you still worship Him? Job did! Psalm 95:6-7 says “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand. . . .” Notice that there is no terms to worship God because He is God, that is the only reason we need to worship Him, or should need. You see, worship takes our eyes off of self, off our situation and places them on the Lord, and He is the only one that can truly help us. As we rest in Him His peace fills our hearts and our lives as we go through the storms of life and we will go through them, many of them. Don’t lose the perspective, worship the Lord and see the salvation He will bring to the situation!

            Now, as you worship the Lord you will develop the right perspective of things, and then it becomes even easier to worship the Lord! Job realized that all his material possessions, his wealth, and even his children, were on loan to him from God, for they are His. So when they are taken away, even though he is broken over it, he realizes he can’t take them with him. Job did not understand why this happened but he knew his God and thus, as we have read, he did not bring a foolish charge against God for what transpired. It is as Clarke wrote, “In this Satan was utterly disappointed; he found a man who loved his God more than his earthly portion. . . . He had been so often successful in this kind of temptation, that he made no doubt that he should succeed again.”

You may remember this story as all the relatives were standing outside the bedroom door of the patriarch of a very wealthy family. They were waiting for the old man to die and for the family lawyer to come out. When he came, he announced to them all that the father had died. Immediately one of the more greedy ones asked, “How much did he leave?” And the lawyer replied, “He left it all. He didn’t take anything with him.” Like it or not, you can’t take it with you but you can send it on ahead, you can send those treasures that you have done for the Lord in this life.

            Now for those who feel it is their right to have all these things, when they are taken away, they are going to be angry and bitter towards God. They are not ours to keep, but we are God’s stewards, watching over that which He has entrusted to us.

            A great example of how we are to respond when things are falling apart around us, when the storms of life are raging down upon us is the story of Paul and Silas as they were in prison for sharing their faith. In Acts 16:25-34 we are told as they were in stocks, in this cold, damp, miserable prison, “But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, ‘Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.’ Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ So they said, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.”

Now I don’t know about you, but I am not always singing when I go through tough times. What happens to me at times is I get down, frustrated, but Paul and Silas are praying and singing to the Lord, probably singing some of the Psalms.  And guess what, there were people listening intently to what they were praying and what they were singing, the other prisoners!  They could not believe someone could be in this prison and still sing unto God, and thus, when you are going through tough times be careful, you don’t know who is listening and watching you!

            I like what Tertullian said regarding this situation and really for all of us, “Even in their pain, God was not far from Paul and Silas.  The legs feel nothing in the stocks when the heart is in heaven.”  Perspective is important as we go through these difficult times for it is out of a correct perspective that we can pray to the Lord and praise the Lord.  It is as Stott said, “Instead of cursing men, they blessed God.”  May that be our heart as we go through difficult times!

            As they were praying and singing unto the Lord an earthquake shook the ground and their chains fell off their feet and the prison doors were opened for all to escape, not just Paul and Silas.  Thus, as the jailer slept through the prayers and the singing unto God he was now awakened as the ground he stood on began to shake.  As he looked he thought all the prisoners had escaped since all the doors were open and he couldn’t see anyone, so he is ready to kill himself. Why? Because if you let a prisoner escape you would have to carry out their sentence, and this jailer thinks all his prisoners were gone, thus, he is going to end his life, thinking this is a better way to go. He has no hope, at least in anything that he could do regarding this situation.

            And this is amazing to me. First of all this could have been the man who beat Paul and Silas, and yet look at the love and grace they extend to this jailer.  Secondly, not only were Paul and Silas still in the prison, but so where the rest of the prisoners, they did not escape, even though they could have easily done so!  That tells me that the words and actions of Paul and Silas affected their lives and I believe they were all gathered around Paul and Silas wanting to hear about this Jesus who can forgive sins. 

Thus, this jailer looks in and he sees all this, and he too wants to know what he needs to do to be saved. When people look at your life, your faith, do they desire to have what you have? They should. Our lives should be like a magnet drawing people to Jesus, for that is what we see here with Paul and Silas! Thus, they told this jailer that he must believe on Jesus, and the Greek word for “believe” is PISTIS which speaks of trusting, relying upon and clinging to Jesus!

            They were saved because they trusted in the Lord, they trusted in Jesus! Also, look at the transformation of this man who beat Paul and Silas but now he is cleaning their wounds that he inflicted upon them and he is feeding them!  The love of God touched his heart and is now manifested in his actions.  And look at the joy; he went from suicide to salvation, despair to devotion, hopelessness to Hallelujah!  That is what God can do, even in a situation that may seem hopeless, may seem unfair, look at the good that came from this! I wonder what would have happened if they were murmuring and complaining about being in prison unfairly, which they were? I don’t think we would have seen the same results. You see, the worship of God brought them joy in a difficult situation and that joy was received by others as they came to Christ, even the jailer and his family!

            As we look at verse 22 here we see Job follow adversity with adoration, woe with worship. He did not give in to bitterness or blame God for what transpired in his life. Some today will charge God foolishly, calling Him unrighteous, and thus, calling God a sinner. WRONG! Some Christian counselors tell their patients that you have to get rid of that anger by punching pillows or something along those lines. Others say that if you are mad at God, tell Him you’re mad at Him, He’s big enough to take it! WRONG AGAIN!

If that is the way we respond when things are difficult in our life, we are calling God unrighteous, but He is not. Just because you don’t understand what is going on, never forget that God is righteous, or you will lose the proper perspective of God in the situation you are in. You will think that God does not love you when He loves you more than you will ever know and has what is best for your life. And if you think about it, we deserve Hell and He has given us heaven through His Son, Jesus Christ. He truly does love us!

            And think about this for a minute. When bad things happen many try to hurt God by rebelling against Him. They do all kinds of evil, all kinds of sin, thinking they are hurting God, but they are only hurting themselves. Get the right perspective of God as Isaiah did in Isaiah 6:1-5. We read, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: 'Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!' And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: ‘Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts.’” When you truly see the Lord and understand who He is and you look at yourself and understand who you are, then you are in the right place. Then you can fall upon the grace and mercy of God and just rest in Him because He is just, He is perfect we are not!

            As we close this evening we have seen that Job passes the first test. He lost everything and yet he is still worshipping God, and thus, Satan was wrong. He did not lash out at God and accuse God wrongly. It was not the material blessings that caused Job to worship God. But don’t think that he is going to give up, for he is not, as we shall see. Satan does not give up and next time we will see the next assault he will bring against Job. And as I close let me leave you with this. Job understood this, and he did not lose his faith. He is still holding on to God. “In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.” May we have that same perspective as we are going through the storms of life!