Job 40:1-42:17, 2 Corinthians 5:11-21, Psalms 45:1-17, Proverbs 22:14
Today is the 1st day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy and a privilege to be here with you today just like it is every day, but it’s always nice on these brand-new beginnings. And here we are, throwing ourselves into a brand-new month. Today is the 244th day of the year which means it’s the 244th time that we’ve been able to get together like this and do what we do, take the next step forward together and that next step forward will lead us back into the book of Job. And as we begin this month, we will conclude the book of Job today. And just reminding us, Job’s been looking for God, trying to figure out where he could find an audience with God to plead his case. And God showed up yesterday and had unanswerable questions for Job. And God will continue to speak in today’s reading as we conclude the book of Job. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. Job 40, 41, and 42 today.
Commentary:
Okay, so we…we concluded the book of Job today and let’s remember that Job had an entire case prepared to present to God. He had a significant amount of questions to ask God. He had worked through some of those questions with his friends, but they had no answers and he…he didn’t want their human wisdom because he knew what they were going to say. He wanted God to answer him. And then God showed up and started asking really big God sized questions and Job then realized he didn’t actually have anything to say after all. And, so, when God is like, “okay, buddy. You got questions and you’re spewing them out? Then let’s play the game of questions.” And God asks questions that Job cannot answer while God reveals just how involved he is in all of the different aspects of the world. And in many ways this is what the text is leading us toward. There are always going to be questions. There are always bigger questions. There will always be things that we do not understand but when we come into the presence of God all of our pride and arrogance and all of the questions and all of the stuff that we’re going to say, it like…it’s just…it’s gone. There’s nothing to say which is what Job said. He said I had only heard about you before, but now I see you and I don’t have anything to say…like I put my hand over my mouth and shut up. So, it’s interesting because it leaves us with some questions. Like when we find ourselves in a time or season of suffering do we need God to fix it or do we need God? Do we need the answers that we may or may not understand or do we need God? What the book of Job…Job leads us to conclude is that there is way more going on than we ever understand. We get very very self…self-absorbed, especially if we’re in trial, we’re in pain of some sort, we’re suffering in some sort of way, it becomes our obsession. It might even become our dark idol. It’s the only thing we’re giving our energy to. It’s the only thing we’re giving our life to, this pain-and-suffering and the questions that ensue and swirl around it. And, so, when we invite God into that we certainly invite Him into it, but the idea is that He would fix it. What if He’s not gonna fix it? What if there’s more going on than we understand? What if all of our questions would only lead to bigger questions that we could never answer? What Job discovers is that he wanted God and he wanted a conversation but when he got into the presence of God he didn’t need that conversation anymore. And that’s hard. It’s really really hard to have that kind of perspective when suffering is upon us, but it’s not likely that we suffer the way Job suffered. And we watched the way that the story went. He…he met with tragedy. He met with morning and terrible suffering in his soul and body. He had questions. He talked to people, right? He got counseling. He was told all kinds of stuff he processed it all, but he still was in pursuit of God because, at least intuitively, he knew that the only person that could answer, the only person that could explain, the only person that held anything that he didn’t already know would be God. And, so, he sought God but then in God’s presence he realized he had only been operating on a working assumption. All of them had only been operating in a working assumption, like a theological framework about who God is and what God does. But in God’s presence, what Job and his friends thought they knew…well…all the conventional wisdom as it turned out, was incorrect. So, the thing for us to contemplate is Job’s response once he’s in God’s presence.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit we invite You into that. We’ve had all kinds of attitudes. You have seen and heard them all. You have listened to us flail around before You in Your presence all by ourselves. You’ve heard us talking about the things we’ve been suffering. We’ve acted like Job before. We’ve gotten all the counsel. We’ve listened all the answers. We’ve even dispensed the answers. We’ve been on both sides of the equation. And the book of Job, ancient as it is, is showing us that this rationale, this kind of way of doing things has been going on thousands and thousands and thousands of years and so we’re simply enmeshed in what we’ve always been doing is humanity, asking these questions. And we seek wisdom, and we seek answers but so often when we are faced with something that doesn’t have an adequate answer, at least to our liking, we start blaming, we start accusing. And it was the accuser. And the accuser in the story of Job is Satan. We have no desire whatsoever to be playing that role. Forgive us. There’s more going on than we know, and it is difficult for us to not have understanding and yet at that very point is where our faith begins. So, come Holy Spirit because we need Your comfort. We need Your guidance. We need Your direction. We need Your clarity. We need You. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hello DAB family this is Anne from Arizona, and it is August the 27th. I am so encouraged to hear Gigi call in and talk about how she’s come to the realization that God brought her through these things, through Lyme disease, through all these things that she was going through and that He’s a good good father. Be encouraged. As Psalm 95 says oh come let us sing to the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come into His presence with Thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise for the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods. God is a good good father. God is great. God is worthy of our praise. He’s worthy of our trust. Be encouraged that God is good and that God sees you and hears you. I’m so encouraged, and it gives me so much hope just to hear those words of encouragement from Gigi. Be…
Hi Daily Audio Bible family I wanted to call in for two things today. One is to say thank you to Sparky. I’ve just listened to the Aug 27th podcast and just loved hearing Sparky’s encouragement of how God has changed his life, brought transformation, brought him to be doing a master’s degree when that was something that was just so seems so impossible in the past and how He’s brought new life and New Hope. Thank you for sharing that Sparky it really encouraged me, touched my heart and I just think you’ve got a really powerful story there of God’s goodness. So, bless you and I pray God’s blessing on your studies and God’s blessing on your marriage. And second thing I wanted to ask for is your prayers everyone as I am heading back to England. I’ve lived in the US for six years and really loved it. Over the past twelve months though I've…I’ve sensed God’s prompting to move back and so I am. So, next week I’m relocating back to England and as you can imagine there's…there’s always lots to do. There’s places to live and jobs to find church communities to become part of. So, we’d love your prayers for…for all of that process and for me to no God’s peace and God’s provision on the journey. And I’m excited that I’m going to continue to be part of the Daily Audio Bible family. So, I’ll be listening, I’ll be praying, and you’ll sometimes hear from me as well. But I’ll become Ben the Brit from Brighton instead of end the Brit…
Hi everyone, it’s Shana your sister from South Dakota. I just wanted to call and offer some encouragement to the dad from Duluth. You see, I was an IV drug addict, alcoholic, pothead, smoker relationship addict among other things, a liar, a cheat, a thief. I really ran my parents through the wringer for over a decade with my behaviors and being in and out of jail. And my mom even had all the jails within a certain distance of our hometown on speed dial. I’ve been in prison. I…with my last child didn’t tone down my partying and my using. Thank God he’s a healthy boy. He’s now almost 10 years old. But the Lord can heal. He can take away that compulsion to use and I know that without a doubt in my life today and I know it’s because of the prayers that came from those that loved me. I’m in school working on my bachelors in counseling. I have one year left. I have a pretty good GPA. I am married now. Crazy! I have relationships with all my children. And I was even given the gift of my parents before they passed away in this last year, some time with them seeing me living right. You and your daughter are in my prayers. It will be done. I believe that. Bye everybody.
Good hot day to you all. I was just listening to the August 27th version of the DAB, and I just wanted to give some shout outs. This is People on the Water from Indiana. First GG from gville my heart is jumping with joy. You said…you talked about the account found in the gospel where the paraplegic was brought by what was it three friends into Jesus so that he could be healed. It was the faith of the friends that brought the healing, that brought healing to the friend. And it was through Jesus that all of that happened. And honestly just your child, your baby, that’s your baby. I am so grateful that you see it that way. And the beautiful words that you’d spoken over us, it just sounded like poetry to me and that was just really encouraging. Dana from South Carolina, you’re a first-time caller and you’re praying for someone who is praying for someone. Like that’s just awesome and I’m just lifting up that prayer for that Lady who is in pain and for the lady who lost her son that God walks us through this. And then Mandy from Georgia just talking about how God uses our history, how God uses our history in order to deal with us in our future. I mean God uses our history. God uses our __ in our past to express love in unique and fun ways. And then Sarah from London finishes, “there is nothing too big for our God.” And I’m going to leave that with you. I love you all. And thank you for all that you are doing. In Jesus’ name I pray, and I ask. Amen.
Hey family this is Eyes of a Dove here. I just wanted to jump on and record a quick thank you message to all my friends on the DAB Facebook. The last 24 hours has been the most intense experience as a parent and coparent I think Billy and I have ever dealt with. Izzy went to youth group last night. She was in her mother’s custody and instead of attending youth group with my three children she grabbed another young girl who struggles with transgender stuff and the two of them hung out in Snoqualmie all over the town. But Izzy never came home to her mom. So, I queued in her mom that Izzy was missing, and we were unable to locate Izzy until this morning at 8:30 AM. We had the church leadership and pastor staff, we had the police officers and ourselves, all of us scouring the woods and all over the town. And in the morning, she contacted us with a real prideful condescending kind of irritation with us and when she finally made it home, she concocted quite a few lies that it was everyone else’s fault that no one was at the church to get her. It was her only option, and it wasn’t. So, any who…just asking you guys if you see this message, I’m sure it’s already happened but we’re heading over to the biological mom’s home. Just pray that I stay peaceful, and I button my mouth and allow those parents to do their parenting and help me to be a prayer intercessor for those two parents as they mitigate their rebellious daughter. And Father I ask that you would enter into Izzy’s heart father that she would come to know you and set aside the things of the world that trouble her and give her anxiety and cause her to be selfish Lord and help her to understand other people’s feelings and to make right and healthy choices. Thank you, friends for supporting us.