Job 40:1-42:17, 2 Corinthians 5:11-21, Psalms 45:1-17, Proverbs 22:14
Today is the 1st day of the month of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you as we greet the 9th month of the year. I literally never get to this point in the year where I’m not like, what, how did we get here? It just feels so recent that we came into the new year. But here we are, and this is the 9th month, so we’ve been at this for a while every day now. I suppose if we look at this in terms of like having a baby. If that all began on the first we would be on the home stretch. So, day by day step-by-step has brought us here. And as we move into this brand-new month, we will be bringing to a close the book that we are in in the Old Testament, the book of Job. We will conclude the book of Job today and then move into this month further, by beginning a new book tomorrow. In the book of Job…well…we kinda…we kinda understand the lay of the land. We’ve been reading this the last several days. We know Job has had a lot of tragedy. He’s had unspeakable tragedy to be specific. And he’s been very discouraged and depressed and mourning as one could imagine. His friends have come to comfort him. That’s turned into a big argument over whether or not Job’s claims of innocence could possibly be true. Job fights with his friends but what he wants isn’t to argue with his friends. He wants to find God and present his case. And, so, in yesterday’s reading God shows up and asks a bunch of unanswerable questions. And, so, as we approach the conclusion of the book of Job, Job finally gets to present his case, like he finally has an audience with God and now we can say what he needs to say. And, so, let’s dive in and find out what Job has to say. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Job 40, 41, and 42.
Commentary:
Okay. So, as we begin this brand-new shiny sparkly month, we have also concluded the book of Job, and we learned what happened to Job and then we got into the bulk of the book which is conversations back and forth between Job and his friend. And what they’re arguing about is what God is like. And they shared all that they thought that they knew about what God was like. And Job shared all that he knew about what he thought God was like. And then they were like, no He’s not like that. He’s like this. And they argue it back and forth. Job eventually becomes exasperated. He doesn’t want their wisdom. He knows their wisdom. At least that’s how he feels. He feels like he knows what they know. And they’re like regurgitating things he already knows but they’re not really telling them some…something that he doesn’t know and…and…and he’s frustrated because what he wants is to present his case before God directly and hear from God directly what he did wrong. And then God comes and God has plenty of questions of His own. “Brace yourself like a man”, He tells Job, and He asks unanswerable questions. So, Job had a case prepared. He knew what he would say, and how he would frame what he was saying before the Almighty God. And then he got his chance to say what he needed to say, and the conversation is totally different than what we were expecting. To hear Job tell it to his friends he’s got this whole thing prepared, but then he gets the audience with God, and those things don’t seem to need to be said anymore because Job puts his hand over his mouth. He says, “I had only heard about you before, but now I’m seeing you and I don’t have anything to say. I’m going to put my hand over my mouth and keep my mouth closed.” Here’s the interesting thing about that though. While Job is going through everything, suffering, agonizing, arguing, insulting, being insulted, as he’s going through all of this stuff with his friends, he’s certain about what he wants to say to God. He’s telling his friends what he wants to say to God, then he gets into the presence of God and all of that becomes unnecessary. And as we’ve said before, like it’s very unlikely that any of us have had a season of suffering that looks like Job’s, but everybody faces hardship. Everybody has times of suffering, and everybody has questions. And so often when we’re in a disrupted state and we’re facing hardship we’re crying out to God with the expectation that it…it just needs to all go away. What if it doesn’t? What if there’s more going on than we even fathom? It’s interesting how we are as people because we expect a quick fix. In fact, our entire culture has indoctrinated us that we deserve a quick fix, or we can buy a quick fix. But what happens to us if we don’t get what we want, we don’t get the quick fix? Usually, we start to wonder about God. Is He really good? Can He really be trusted? And we realize we’re on the verge of making a judgment about what God is like similar to Job and his friends. But God isn’t like a human little buddy. God is like a friend, but God is the most-high. There is no one, there is no being at all, anywhere, known or unknown higher than the Creator of it all, the most-high God. And if we find ourselves kind of kicking and screaming like a toddler not getting its way and we’re questioning all kinds of things about what God is like and who we is then we’re making judgments and assumptions about a being that is so beyond us that we…if we’ve scratched the surface it’s barely. Like it…it’s going to take forever. And thankfully we have forever. But like we’re just getting started and we think we know so much. And we do, but at the same time there’s so much more to know. When we are in a position, we’re making assumptions or judgments against God we don’t know what we’re talking about. And if we were in God’s presence with those very very same accusations or judgments, we probably very likely would be clapping our hands over our mouths and saying, I’m not gonna say anything else. I’ve said too much already. But how would we learn more? How would we get more context? It would be like any relationship, right? We would spend time in one another’s presence. What Job found is that in the presence of God questions didn’t matter and that is a lesson each of us can experience. As for our assumptions and subtle judgments against God’s goodness or his heart toward us, that’s not something that we really ought to be doing because that’s making an accusation. And there is an accuser in the story of Job, the Satan who as the Scriptures tell us is the accuser of the brethren. Do we want to be the accuser of God? Which is not to say that God can’t handle us pouring out our hearts to Him. And it’s not that He can’t handle a question. a little question like, why? Then we have to start thinking, am I my just after answers here or am I after God? Job thought he had an awful lot to unpack before the Lord to prove himself right. In the presence of God none of it mattered. And, so, when we find ourselves in times of hardship if we enter into the presence of God, we may discover there is a vastly bigger story than we were aware of. And walking with God in His presence is the only safe place to be.
Prayer:
Father, we love You. We love You and we worship You. You are glorious. You are vastly beyond description and yet You have called us Your children. Forgive us when we have hearts of accusation and judgments toward You because we don’t understand. May we learn to come into Your presence humbly and quietly and simply receive Your comfort knowing that You are the most-high God. You know what’s going on when we don’t, which is an awful lot of the time. In Your presence everything is different. And, so, Holy Spirit, help us to become aware of Your presence all around us all the time. We pray this in the name of Jesus. 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:
Good morning family this is Bridget from New York City. It is Saturday August 27th and I…I’m sorry Sunday August 28 and I just listened to Saturday’s message, August 27th and I heard the prayer request from Nathan. Nathan, thank you. The phone call that you got to be able to call out, you know, you chose to call DAB and I just think that’s just beautiful. You know, you’re call reminded me of when my husband was incarcerated for five years, and I was out in the world, and I was pretty much nuts. And I believe with all my heart that his prayers while he was in prison are what kept me and my kids. So, I just wanna give it back and encourage you, God is a God of reconciliation, and you keep pressing in and you keep praying. And Lord I just lift up Nathan’s father to You Lord God. Your word says that God You are the healer, You are the restorer God, and You already restored that relationship so how hard would it be for You to restore the other relationships he’s asking about Father? And I just ask You that by Your Holy Spirit Lord You would touch his children’s mother God, that You would save her if she does not know You, if she does know You God that You would bring her conviction Father, that his children and him would be restored Father God, that he would be able to see them and hug them Lord God and be able to have relationship even if it’s a paper relationship Father God, even if it’s a once a year visit God, that You would make away for this family to reconcile in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is John Opara recording from South Sudan. This call is for Margo and her husband originally from Australia but serving in Liberia. Margo first of all let me thank you and your husband for your sacrifice serving in my continent, Africa. And we share in your grief. This is really that tragedy and we recognize that. It is not from God. Most people do not know that our problem in Africa is not political, it is not racism, it’s not colonialization, it is not everything that people think today it is. It is simply that we are by nature religious people and in the process we expose, most people in Africa, we tend to expose ourselves to spiritual darkness in our quest to reach to God and this has been the endemic problem in Africa. So, I know that the God that we serve will help us to know Him and to serve Him alone. May God bless you, may God console and comfort you and your husband at this time in Jesus’ name Amen.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Immaculate Margaret. I’m calling out in New Orleans. I was just listening to the August 3rd podcast and Kingdom Seeker Daniel called and he let us know that he and Lady of Victory had been having issues with their marriage since the passing of their son which is normal. And it has been going on for at least four months. And I know he has got on this podcast and prayed consistently for couples. And I just thought it was so beautiful what the Lord did for him. He told us that he and his wife had been reunited and I just think that’s so beautiful, and it was…it…it brought a little tear to my eye ‘cause I was like that man prayed for his wife and she came home. And I pray that she stays home and knows that home is where the heart is. I’m praying for all parents that’s put there grieving lost children, anyone that’s out there grieving a loved one. I know that’s hard. There’s no words that I could actually give there but I’m praying for you. And God thank You so much for Your continuous protection over us and our families. Thank you DAB family for always being there praying. You guys are amazing. You are a true testament that prayer changes everything. So, I love you all and I pray that you continue to pray for me and my life. I just gotta get over these financial blocks. I’m praying for my family, for my children. They’re 15, two girls. Just…I love you guys and I thank you guys for the good family support. You have a great day.
Good morning family this is Bridget from New York City and I just wanted to thank barky. Barky you mentioned a story about pastor, you know, who was saying that I guess 'cause of your tattoos or whatever behavior, that you would be going to hell. And, you know, I had a similar experience where I ran from God because I was told I had to do X Y and Z. And I just couldn’t even see how I would be able to do that given the situation I was in at that time. I was with my husband who was my boyfriend and we had two kids and they were like you have to leave him and, you know, and be by yourself and seek God. And I was just like, whoa, if that’s the kind of God that we serve then I don’t want any part of it. And thanks…thanks be to God who brought me back and gave me a whole another church. And I just want to encourage you that, you know, people turn us away from God, not God. We may not like what God tells us sometimes when we’re praying and fasting, and the Holy Spirit may give us an impression to do something that we are not comfortable with. But it’s different when it comes from God and it’s a conviction versus condemnation from another human being. And I’m with you. I love the book of Job. I feel like the book of Job has taken my faith to such another level and I’m thankful for it. And I just wanna, you know, piggyback on what you said and thank you for sharing. And remember that here we are actually a family. May God bless you. Bye.
Good morning DAB family. Hey Brian, thank you for your definition of scoffers. Wowsies! Sometimes we just need to hold our tongues and walk away and yield to the Holy Spirit and remember that people are more important than arguments. And, yeah, and we should just pray for them and the situation in our own heart and ask for, you know, wisdom. So, that was really great. I loved that. And happy birthday to you, Daniel, Kingdom Seeker Daniel. Oh gosh what a great birthday present. What a…gosh…it just makes everything makes sense, why you’ve been praying for all the marriages. And we’ve been praying along with you brother. And O gosh your prayers have been so powerful and now I know why. And, so, we lift you and LOV up and Lord God we just pray Father that…we thank you God for this good work that you’ve done in them Lord. And Lord God we pray that you continue to do the work Lord. We bless you God before answering Daniels prayer beloved wife Lord and we just pray that you bless them in every way Lord God as they continue walking a road of grief 'cause that takes a long time too Lord God. So we…we just pray these things in Jesus’ name Amen.