Job and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day – Part 1
Job 1:1-22 (1-12)
August 16, 2015
My mom brought a movie home for our family to watch a few months ago called “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”
It was a story about a Jr. High age boy who always managed to be on the wrong side of circumstance. And on one day his family was allowed to share in his misfortune and things just continued to go wrong.
But you and I know that Alexander had nothing on Job.
If there was ever a “Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”
Then Job most certainly had it.
In fact, Job had two of them.
Scratch that, Job had several of them.
Even in a Bible illiterate world people know what “Job” represents.
JOB SUFFERED
James 5:7-11 “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door. As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.”
James there sought to sum up Job’s life in a couple of sentences
With the main objective being to get you to follow his example.
• He wanted you to show the patience of Job.
• He wanted you to be content in your suffering.
• He wanted you to have faith that God will make it all right.
These were all themes that James learned from studying the book of Job.
We’ve called the study, “The Woeful World of Uz”
“There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job;”
And the story goes downhill from there.
Everyone knows the book of Job is about suffering.
What you may not realize is that the book of Job also absolutely squashes one of the most trendy and popular “false doctrines” on the circuit today.
What false doctrine am I referring to?
The one commonly called “The Posperity Gospel”
It is that train of thought that basically states that
It is the will of God for every believer to be “healthy, wealthy, and happy”
Some of the proof texts used for this doctrine include:
Psalms 1 “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.”
Jeremiah 17:5-8 “Thus says the LORD, “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from the LORD. “For he will be like a bush in the desert And will not see when prosperity comes, But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, A land of salt without inhabitant. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD. “For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit.”
And with verses like those the prosperity gospel folks
Will do a little mathematics where “C-B=A” and they will say:
“If you obey and trust God then your life will be filled with blessing and prosperity, health and healing, and every good thing. But if you disobey or fail to trust God, then your life will be filled with disaster and destruction, cursing, bitterness, sickness, and poverty.”
That is the prosperity gospel in a nutshell.
God blesses the righteous and God afflicts the unrighteous.
Now, on one hand it is a tricky gospel to expose,
Because after all, God is good.
Following God is worth it.
• There are times when God does financially bless.
• There are times when God does supernaturally heal.
• There are times when God does “prosper” His people.
And quite honestly none of us even really want to refute that.
We actually love that God does good things for His children.
Beyond that, who among us really wants to go to war at that point?
• Wants to stand up and tell the poor, “God won’t bless your finances!”
• Who wants to visit a hospital and say, “God won’t heal your disease!”
• Who wants to visit the hopeless and say, “God won’t lift your head with joy!”
Obviously none of us want to fight the battle on that field.
And the result has been (even since the days of Job)
The continued spread of the prosperity gospel.
Now as you can imagine,
There are two groups of people who cling to the prosperity gospel.
1) Those who are prosperous
2) Those who want to be
BUT BE CAREFUL BEFORE YOU DRINK THE COOL-AID
See, the prosperity gospel is in reality a hoax.
Oh sure, on the day God provides, on the day God heals, on the day God mercifully fills your day with good things…
On that day the prosperity gospel jumps to center stage
And takes full credit for all that occurred.
But there is also a day when the prosperity gospel sits noticeably silent.
That is the day when tragedy strikes.
That is the day when suffering occurs.
On the day when life falls apart, you’ll go looking for this prosperity gospel, only to find out it didn’t show up.
It won’t visit the hospital to help you.
It won’t visit the funeral home to comfort you.
It won’t visit the bank to bail you out.
When the going gets tough the prosperity gospel will hit the road.
However, what it will do is get on Facebook and try to save face.
The prosperity gospel was built on a premise that
The righteous are blessed and the wicked suffer, and in order to save face,
Guess what the prosperity gospel will do with your suffering?
You guessed it…it will pin every bit of it on you.
“What did you do?”
“Why didn’t you just trust God?”
“You must have blown it somewhere!”
Because, after all, God wouldn’t have done this to a righteous person.
To put it plainly, the prosperity gospel
Has no answer for the suffering of the righteous.
And that is regrettable since all throughout Scripture
The righteous suffered.
• Read about the prophets
• Read about the apostles
• Read about Jesus
• Even take those two men with the “Midas Touch” (Joseph and Daniel)
Both imprisoned, Both exiled, Both in slavery, Both in danger
But the prosperity gospel has no answer for suffering like that.
AND THAT IS WHY I HATE WITH THE UTMOST HATRED
THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL
The fall out of the prosperity gospel
Is that it leaves the righteous confused, feeling abandoned by God,
And if pushed to the end, it will cause them ultimately to lose the faith.
It discourages, it confuses, it condemns the righteous
At the very moment when what they really need is
Encouragement, enlightenment, and assurance.
I HATE IT.
But let me tell you another fact about the prosperity gospel:
YOU BELIEVE IT
(probably not all of it, and probably not to the extent of the false prophets on TV)
But I’m almost positive that seeds of it
Have been allowed to grow in your heart.
Let me give you a test to see:
(If you can answer yes to any of these questions, then to some extent you have believed it too)
1) Have you ever seen another person suffer and wondered what they did wrong?
2) Have you ever suffered and wondered what you did wrong?
3) Have you ever gone to God in the midst of your pain and petitioned Him relentlessly to find out why He is angry at you?
4) Have you ever been blessed by God and attributed it to justice?
5) Have you ever experienced God’s favor and then told someone else what to do in order to gain it too?
6) Have you ever been angry at God because you felt you didn’t deserve your suffering?
All of those are seeds of the prosperity gospel.
It is the belief that when I do right, God treats me good
And when I do wrong, God treats me bad.
Now, let me tell you why it is a slippery and tricky doctrine.
Because it works a lot of the time.
WHY?
Well because God’s commands are meant to protect you from harm.
When He says “Thou Shalt Not” it is a command to protect you
From something that will harm you.
Think about the garden. There was only one command, “Don’t eat from that tree”. God wasn’t trying to ruin Adam’s life, He was trying to protect it.
God’s commands are for our good.
And therefore when you break His command
It often comes with negative consequences.
And when you obey God’s commands it often comes with positive results.
But don’t let those results flip you into the prosperity gospel.
If you do, it will wreck your faith.
There are many tragedies and points of suffering in this life
That occur with absolutely no fault to be applied to the victim.
Our world is fallen and sinful and corrupt and cursed.
And now sickness and death and pain are a reality,
But not all of it is linked to your choices.
SOMETIMES OUR SUFFERING IS FOR A DIVINE REASON
Now I know this is confusing…and you’re not alone.
John 9:1-2 “As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?”
Do you hear the prosperity gospel there?
Do you see the confusion in trying to find the root cause of tragedy?
It’s hard to nail down.
Jesus’ answer was shocking:
John 9:3 “Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
It had absolutely nothing to do with their sin,
But everything to do with the sovereign plan of God.
Jesus just exploded the prosperity gospel in the minds of the disciples.
Now, I’m sorry for the lengthy introduction,
I just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page here,
Because now I want to take you into “The Woeful World of Uz”
And help explode the prosperity gospel in your life.
Through this study I hope to achieve 4 things:
1) I want to crush the prosperity gospel
2) I want to teach you how to minister to those who grieve
3) I want to encourage you to see your suffering biblically that you may be encouraged.
4) I want to help you understand the sovereignty of God so that you may worship Him even more.
So let’s begin to look at
“Job and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”
There are 4 main points to be seen in this chapter.
#1 THE CHARACTER OF JOB
Job 1:1-5
I cannot stress enough how important these first two chapters are.
You are allowed to see in these first two chapters
What you never get to see in your own suffering.
In fact, you get to see what Job never got to see.
Many times tragedy strikes and we want to know why.
We let our minds race with all the potential explanations.
Can I shock you here a little?
No one in the book of Job ever even got close
To the real reason for Job’s suffering.
In all their wisdom and all their theology, no one had a clue.
The point was not that they “understand” Job’s suffering,
But that they trust God in the middle of it.
However, in this one instance God does allow us
To move from the physical world into the spiritual world
And actually see the cause of all this suffering.
AND IT HELPS US SEE THE FLAW IN THE THEOLOGY OF JOB’S FRIENDS
And the first thing you must understand before you study this book is THE CHARACTER OF JOB
Now, there are 4 things the writer wants you to see about Job.
1) HIS PIETY (1)
“There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.”
Did you catch the facts about Job?
“blameless”
“upright”
“fearing God”
“turning away from evil”
Job always did what was right.
• He didn’t give in to temptation
• He didn’t do the things that displeased God
• He always loved, feared, and served God
You find out later in this book that He was also HIGHLY RESPECTED
Job 29:7-8, 21-25 “When I went out to the gate of the city, When I took my seat in the square, The young men saw me and hid themselves, And the old men arose and stood…”To me they listened and waited, And kept silent for my counsel. “After my words they did not speak again, And my speech dropped on them. “They waited for me as for the rain, And opened their mouth as for the spring rain. “I smiled on them when they did not believe, And the light of my face they did not cast down. “I chose a way for them and sat as chief, And dwelt as a king among the troops, As one who comforted the mourners.”
He was also GOOD TO THE POOR
Job 29:14-17 “I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; My justice was like a robe and a turban. “I was eyes to the blind And feet to the lame. “I was a father to the needy, And I investigated the case which I did not know. “I broke the jaws of the wicked And snatched the prey from his teeth.”
JOB WAS A RIGHTEOUS MAN
(Most of the time we give Old Testament saints too much credit in regard to their piety – see Abraham and David – they weren’t nearly as good as we assume.)
BUT JOB WAS
If I had to rank every Old Testament character from good to bad,
Job would be at the top of my list.
You see His Piety
2) HIS PROSPERITY (2-3)
“Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. His possessions also were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants; and that man was the greatest of all the men of the east.”
Let’s just say that Job was doing well for himself.
And this actually makes his piety even more impressive.
We have learned from the world that very few people
Are able to maintain piety in the midst of prosperity.
Jesus Himself said, “it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle)
But Job was one of those rare few
Who maintained his piety in the midst of his prosperity.
His Piety, His Prosperity
3) HIS PATERNITY (4-5a)
“His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. When the days of feasting had completed their cycle, Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, “Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.”
Now that is a father with a proper perspective!
What mattered most to Job about his children?
• It sure wasn’t their comfort
• It sure wasn’t their riches
• Job was concerned about their spiritual state!
Job was a father who interceded for his children.
I promise you dads, you can learn a lot about being a godly father
Just from looking at Job.
His Piety, His Prosperity, His Paternity
4) HIS PERSEVERANCE (5b)
“Thus Job did continually”
He wasn’t a flash in the pan.
Job was a faithful man and father.
He was consistent, he was faithful, he loved God
And raised his kids to love God too.
Why do you need to know that?
NO ONE DESERVED TO SUFFER LESS THAN JOB
If suffering is handed out based upon righteous or wicked deeds,
Then Job would have suffered less than any other human alive.
Now I am not going to say that Job was without sin, he wasn’t
We just saw that Job understood the necessity of atonement.
But I promise you none of you would want to be compared with Job
In the righteousness department.
If the prosperity gospel is true then Job will never suffer a day in his life.
The Character of Job
#2 THE CONSPIRACY OF SATAN
Job 1:6-12
Here is that view into the spiritual world
That we ordinarily are not afforded.
And there is no reason to assume that Job ever knew this in his life.
That means that the man who suffered the most and deserved it the least, never got an explanation for it on earth.
So maybe the quest for understanding is the wrong quest.
LET’S LOOK AT SATAN’S CONSPIRACY
(6) “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.”
Here we learn that Satan does still have access to God.
Here we find that he has to answer to God.
Revelation teaches us that he accuses us before God continually.
Revelation 12:10 “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.”
And that is what is happening here.
Satan is called to appear before God and give an account of his activity.
(Please notice who is sovereign and in control here)
And we see God’s interrogation:
(7) “The LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.”
God’s question to Satan is clear:
“What have you been doing?”
Please don’t assume that this means that God didn’t know what Satan was up to. God is omniscient. Trust me, He knew what Satan was doing.
God here is instead about to point out Satan’s shortcomings.
Satan responds truthfully:
“From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.”
Peter told us:
1 Peter 5:8 “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
Jesus told us:
John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy…”
Well apparently that is what Satan was doing back in the day of Job too.
He was surveying the earth looking for prey.
He was hunting.
And then comes the shocker.
(8) “The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.”
God knew what Satan had been up to,
And God knew Satan had been unsuccessful in his attempts on Job.
God was merely pointing out Satan’s failures as a hunter.
• Regardless of the traps
• Regardless of the pursuits
• Regardless of the hunts
• Regardless of the attempts
• Satan had been utterly unsuccessful on Job.
And we know that because Job remained “blameless and upright…fearing God and turning away from evil.”
Satan had not been able to handle Job,
And God sort of rubbed it in a little here.
SO DO YOU SEE WHERE THIS ALL STARTED?
The events about to take place
Had nothing to do with some mistake Job made.
These events were all about a challenge
Presented from God to the devil.
Well Satan arises to defend himself
And his defense comes in the form of an accusation against Job.
(9) “Then Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing?”
That is what we call an accusation.
Did you catch it?
“Oh sure God, he worships You, but only because you’ve made his life full of roses and bunny rabbits. He wouldn’t worship if you weren’t his sugar daddy.”
Now, we can’t dwell long here,
But I do think that is a reality everyone in here should personally address.
WHY DO I WORSHIP GOD?
• Do I only worship because I expect to get good from God?
• Do I only worship because I have thus far received good from God?
• Or do I worship simply because God deserves worship?
I’m simply asking if your worship is linked to your circumstances
Or if your worship is linked to the magnificence of God.
Jeremiah 10:6-7 “There is none like You, O LORD; You are great, and great is Your name in might. Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? Indeed it is Your due! For among all the wise men of the nations And in all their kingdoms, There is none like You.”
That is why you worship…because God deserves it,
Not because it will benefit you in any way.
Satan just told God that the only reason Job worships
Is because it has thus far been good for Job to be a worshiper.
However, if you make being a worshiper costly instead of beneficial,
Then Job will stop worshiping.
(10-11) “Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. “But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.”
God, “You’ve put “a hedge about him”
“hedge” there translates SUK
It means “to fence up”
When we went to Zimbabwe the first time and camped out in the bush,
We camped next to a fence made of thorns and briars,
Which was meant to keep the wild animals out.
God had made a fence like that around Job to keep this lion out.
And trust me, Satan had checked.
Did you catch the inventory Satan gave?
“You made a hedge about him”
“and his house”
“and all that he has”
“on every side”
Satan had circled Satan a number of times with no success.
Satan had tried, but God had protected him
And now Satan’s accusation is brutally clear.
“But put forth your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.”
Notice exactly what is happening.
Satan isn’t asking permission for him to afflict Job.
Satan is asking God to do it.
God, you’ve done nothing but good to him, no wonder he loves You.
But if you’d do something harsh to him, he’d turn on you in an instant.
And “curse You to Your face”
ARE THE STAKES CLEAR ENOUGH?
Satan is saying that the only reason anyone worships God
Is because God buys their loyalty with His goodness.
You can sense centuries of frustration from Satan here can’t you?
It’s like he just knows he could win
If God would quit being so “good” to everyone.
SO…God is now out to prove that
His children love Him for who He is, not what He does.
Aside from exposing the prosperity gospel here,
We are also putting the doctrine of ETERNAL SECURITY to the test.
Satan is out to prove that
He can make one of God’s children turn against God.
Now, in all the times you have suffered
Have you ever considered that it might be the result of one of Satan’s accusations and that God is doing something to prove him wrong?
Well it was in Job’s case.
So let’s see God’s answer:
(12) “Then the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.” So Satan departed from the presence of the LORD.”
God said “Yes”.
God placed Job in Satan’s hand with only one restriction
(there are always restrictions)
God promises not to let us be tempted beyond what we are able to withstand.
Satan wasn’t allowed to kill him, but everything else was fair game.
Now, we are out of time, but YOU MUST SEE this one reality right now.
THE SUFFERING OF JOB WAS UP TO THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
So many today want to credit God for all our prosperity
And the devil for all our adversity.
But God is sovereign in it all.
Exodus 4:11 “The LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?”
I promise you, that if you try to attribute all your suffering
As something that God did not allow,
Then you have just stated that in this incident Satan beat God,
Since he did something God did not want.
And if you dethrone God I can assure you that you won’t like it.
• God never left the throne in all the suffering of Job.
• God never left the throne in all the suffering of His Son.
• God never left the throne in all your suffering.
And if you are having trouble swallowing that right now
(it’s just too hard to fathom that God would allow such horrendous suffering)
You can go ahead this week and fast forward to chapters 38-41
Where God reminds Job of this very reality.
There God will unequivocally remind Job that He is sovereign,
Always on the throne, and in absolute control of all things.
Job’s suffering was the result of God’s sovereignty.
Now, you may not like that.
You may think that unfair.
You may think that undeserved
But I’m going to tell you from the outset,
You will never find peace in with your circumstances
Or hope in your darkness if you don’t cross this bridge.
Do not alienate the One who has the plan in the midst of your pain.
God has an awesome plan for Job,
And if you need to read the end to see that it is going to end well,
Then go ahead and do that.
But please know this is God’s plan.
And so is your pain.
• God has a plan
• He is in control
• He causes all things to work together for good to them who love Him.
I wish we could go on tonight, but you are starting to see the big picture.
Job didn’t deserve suffering, but God has agreed to bring it.
Don’t quit on me now, keep coming back and see what we can learn.
