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 am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today we are launching ourselves into the ninth month of the year. That is how far we have traveled together. Today is the 244th day of the year and the territory that we have been working our way through in the Old Testament has been the book of Job. And Job is coming into this new month with us but not for long. We will conclude the book of Job today. And, so let’s dive in. Job chapters 40 through 42.
Commentary:
Okay, so we concluded the book of Job today, a very famous book about suffering and we’ve gone through the whole thing and…and…and we…we watched Job’s story. We know Job’s story. We know the tragedy. And then we spent the book listening to Job and…and we listened to a lot of Job’s questions, a lot of things that he wanted to know, and we heard Job tell us everything that he did know. And then we also heard Job’s friends tell everything that they thought that they knew about God and for that matter all that they thought that they knew about Job. But then in the end Job got what he wanted, which was to…an audience, to be in the presence of God, speaking to God. And it was Job’s intention that he had all these questions that he would present before God and that God would then answer for Himself back to Job, but instead God shows up with questions of His own and He asks those questions, and it becomes pretty clear, we’re talking about a different level. Like the kinds of questions that we have about why am I suffering, why is this pain, why was I betrayed, why did I lose that person, why did this happen to me? Our questions are about our pain. God comes in with these cosmic questions revealing there is so much more going on than we know and very quickly Job realizes he didn’t know what he was talking about at all. And all those arguments, all of those defenses, all of those questions, all of the things that he’s been saying out loud to his friends, things that he wants to say to God, he gets in God’s presence and those things don’t need to be said or asked anymore. When we suffer, we cry out to God and the expectation is that He will bring relief, that He will simply make it go away. And He does sometimes. But what if He doesn’t? What if there is more going on? What if this is escorting us to the next place? We have to wonder. Does God…does God enjoy looking down upon the earth and watching suffering? Is that like…He created people to suffer? Is that what’s going on here? Or is the truth that the difficult seasons that we face in our lives, difficult as they may be, become the bedrock foundation of our character. But we don’t like to endure. And when we have to endure and it’s painful endurance and there’s suffering or hardship involved or obstacles or opposition or intimidation involved then we wonder why. Why me? Why this is happening to me and when we’re not getting the answers that we’re looking for after the same fashion that Job was looking for his answers, we become frustrated. It’s just that we begin to subtly judge God. We wonder if He can be actually trusted. And that’s a really weird place, to be the judge of God. That is a really weird place because that makes us the voice of the accuser. And that’s an important piece to look at because there is a character in this story that is the accuser. And that is not the position that we want to take in our lives. In the end, Job had a final thing to say to God. “I had only heard about you before but now I have seen you with my own eyes, and I take back everything I said. I sit in dust and ashes to show how sorry I am.” That is quite a different place then where Job began. And the change, the difference was the presence of God. So, Job has taken us as it is intended to into the deeper parts of the pain-and-suffering of…of humanity, looking for answers because we do. And does it give us all these nice tidy little answers for why all the things happen in our lives that we face? It does not. We got to hear the best of human wisdom and then God shows up with questions, not answers. And despite this, Job gets his answers. He gets what he wanted, and he realizes what he wanted wasn’t answers, what he wanted was God. And maybe if we contemplate that and arrive at the same kind of conclusions Job came to we will find a safe place in our stormy seasons. And may we find like Job, that in God’s presence things are true wonderful for us to comprehend.
Prayer:
Father, we invite you into that. We’d like a book in this Bible that had a list of all of the answers to all of the pertinent questions of life with footnotes and all kinds of explanations, especially in the area of hardship and difficulty, especially in the area of…of physical or mental anguish. We’d love all that knowledge, and that knowledge may not help us a single bit. What we are learning is that, whether in joy or in suffering, the place that we long to be is in your presence. Job completely reinterpreted everything in your presence. And, so, we come to you for comfort, for protection, for direction, for leadership, and for a safe place for our hearts to be. And we ask that you lead us into all truth. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com, that is home. That’s where you can find out what’s happening. And the Daily Audio Bible app is probably an even better…better version of home. And you can download that free from the app store that is associated with your phone or your tablet or whatever. Just search for Daily Audio Bible and should be able to find it and go from there.
Check out the different sections like the Community section. This is where the Prayer Wall is and that is always available to we who are here in this community around the Global Campfire. And that is a comfort as things happen that we weren’t anticipating that we didn’t see. And it’s hard to go through all that stuff alone. Sometimes it’s good to reach out and have brothers and sisters walk along side of us. And it’s also good to come back and rejoice. It’s good to give God glory. It’s good to share the good news and the good stories of how God has been faithful to us and that can be done at the Prayer Wall as well. So, check that out.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, well, first of all, thank you. We couldn’t possibly do this at all if we weren’t in this together. And, so, thank you. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.
And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can hit the Hotline button in the app. That’s little red button up at the top or there are a number of numbers you can call depending on where you are in the world or if you’re feeling really adventurous you can call any of them from anywhere. In the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number. In the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to dial.
And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you not be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise: Coming soon…