Let's turn today to the book of Job.
Job in chapter 1.
The book of Job is dealing with the
problem of suffering and there are
a number of things that we can learn
in this book.
It gives us an insight into certain things
which are not found almost anywhere else in
the New Testament or even in the Old
Testament or New Testament.
And that is as to what is actually
happening in the heavenly realm when one of
God's children is suffering on earth.
Now Job himself did not know that.
He did not know what was going on
up in the heavens.
If he had known it, he would have
been greatly comforted and strengthened in the midst
of his suffering.
But now this has been revealed to us.
So we are in a much better position
than Job.
Because here we are given a glimpse of
what happened in the heavenlies and Job probably
knew that at the end of all the
suffering, after he had come through and been
blessed by God, he may have discovered all
this and shared it with whoever wrote the
book.
So we can understand why Job complained so
much.
We must not find comfort in Job's complaints
and say that we also can do the
same thing because we have been given a
revelation.
To whom more is given, more is required.
Much less was given to Job.
The other thing is that Job lived even
before Abraham, as far as we know.
And he was one of the earliest men
of God that we can think of.
After Enoch and Noah, between Noah and Abraham
was Job.
It's possible that Job could even have had
fellowship with Noah's son, Shem.
He lived in that period of time.
And if this book was written, nobody knows
exactly when this book was written.
We know that Genesis was written by Moses
1,500 years before Christ, approximately.
But if it was written in Job's lifetime
or soon after his death, then this book
is the first book of the Bible written
even before Genesis.
It comes in the middle of the Bible
because the poetical books, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes,
Song of Solomon, are all put together.
But otherwise, I think it's the first book
in the Bible.
Because I can't imagine that all these details
were written hundreds and hundreds of years after
Job died.
There's so much detail here, even concerning what
his wife told him in private, that it's
almost certain that it was written towards the
end of Job's life by somebody else.
And if this is the first book of
the Bible, it's very interesting that when God
decided to write scripture, the very first book
that he wrote was the story of a
godly man.
Because that's what God is always looking for.
He looked for a godly man in the
time of Enoch, in the time of Noah,
in the time of Job.
And the delight that God found in a
godly man is the theme of the very
first inspired book of scripture.
And that's something for us to think about.
See, God knew that there would be 66
books.
But when he wrote the first one, he
wrote something that was uppermost in his heart,
as he looked into the future.
A godly man, a godly woman.
Ultimately, God deals with individuals.
Though we say we are one body in
Christ and we are part of the Church,
it's true God works through the body and
he has given gifts to different members of
the body.
But we have seen in the history of
Christendom also that in order to build that
body, God very often uses one man.
Think of the Apostle Paul.
What tremendous loss there would have been to
the Church if that man had not been
the man he was.
Even in his time, the Lord used others
and used the body of Christ, but that
man made so much difference that when he
left the scene in Ephesus, he says, things
are going to go pretty badly.
So I want each of you to think
of that.
That God requires individual men and women who
are going to be faithful to him.
And so much depends on the faithfulness of
the individual.
The other thing we learn here is that
when a man is a godly man, God
allows him to become the target of Satan's
attacks.
This is what is written in the first
book of the Bible, that a godly man
will be the target of Satan's attacks.
And throughout history we have seen that.
And if you're going to be a godly
man, you're going to be the target of
Satan's attacks.
And the other thing we see in the
very first book of the Bible is that
a godly man's family is the target of
Satan's attacks.
His children are the targets of Satan's attacks.
That is why I say, don't criticize when
you see trials and sufferings in the family
of a godly man, because he is probably
more a target of Satan's attacks than you
are, because you're half-hearted.
His children are greater targets of Satan's attacks
than your children, because you're half-hearted.
Job lost his children.
They all died.
Another thing we learn in the very first
book of the Bible is that a godly
man may have a very difficult wife, who
is a real problem to him.
Don't think that if a man is godly,
his wife has to be godly.
No, not true.
John Wesley had a terrible wife, who used
to pull the hairs from his face.
But the more evil the wife is, the
more the godly man stands out as godly.
It's like the stars shine when there's darkness
around.
It's something like that.
The other thing we see here is that
a godly man will be misunderstood by other
religious people of his generation.
This is all in the first book of
the Bible.
You see that there were four people who
preached to Job, and none of them could
understand what God's purpose was in dealing with
Job.
They criticized him, they found fault with him.
And that is what we learn, that a
truly godly man will be misunderstood by almost
every religious person.
If you don't want to be misunderstood by
other people, don't be godly.
It says, those who live godly in Christ
Jesus will be persecuted.
And a godly man does not find his
comfort from the religious people around him.
A truly godly man is very often a
lonely man, because nobody can understand him.
1 Corinthians 2, 14 or 15 says that
a spiritual man cannot be discerned by other
people who are not spiritual.
And since there are very few spiritual people,
even in the church, a godly man finds
his life very lonely.
And his actions are misunderstood, his words are
misunderstood, even by others who know the scriptures
and know a lot of facts about God.
Religious people are not people who know God,
they are people who know facts about God
and facts about God's word.
Most believers fall into that category.
But in the midst of these, there are
a few believers who know God, and that's
the type of person you should be.
And if you're a person who knows God,
you will be misunderstood by people who know
about God.
If you're a person who knows God, you
will be misunderstood by people who just know
the Bible.
They may even think that you're carnal.
If they thought that Jesus was the devil,
the prince of devils, can you imagine?
And those who are religious people who read
the Bible, who thought that Jesus was the
prince of devils.
So how do you expect people who read
the Bible to know your godliness, if they
couldn't recognize Jesus?
And I want to tell you, there were
two groups of people in Jesus' time, the
Pharisees and the Sadducees.
The Pharisees were the evangelicals and the fundamentalists,
and the Sadducees were the liberals.
And do you know who fought with Jesus
more?
The evangelicals and the fundamentalists of his time.
And that's how it will be with a
godly man today.
It won't be the liberals who criticize him
and misunderstand him, it will be the evangelicals
and the fundamentalists, because they know about the
Bible, they know the doctrines, they don't know
God.
They don't know God's ways, they have just
studied the book.
Their knowledge is intellectual, not spiritual.
This is what we see in the very
first book of the Bible.
Why did God put this book as the
first book of inspired scripture?
To teach him, to teach us some of
his principles.
We learn from the very first book of
the Bible, Job.
The first written book, that a godly man
will suffer.
His pathway is a pathway of suffering.
Suffering in his family, suffering in his body
perhaps, suffering from misunderstanding, and that's what makes
him a very lonely person.
But God does not forsake him.
All this is part of his education.
God is a God of tremendous compassion.
James quotes Job as one of those examples
of patience.
James says in James chapter 5 and verse
11, we count those blessed who endured.
You have heard of the endurance of Job
and have seen the outcome or the end
of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is
full of compassion and merciful and ultimately the
testimony of a godly man will be, the
Lord is full of compassion and merciful and
ultimately the testimony of a godly man will
be, the Lord is full of compassion and
merciful and ultimately the testimony of a godly
man will be, the Lord is full of
compassion and merciful and ultimately the testimony of
a godly man will be, the Lord is
full of compassion and merciful and ultimately the
testimony of a godly man will be, the
Lord is full of compassion and merciful and
ultimately the testimony of a godly man will
be, the Lord is full of compassion and
merciful and ultimately the testimony of a godly
man will be, the Lord is full of
compassion and merciful and ultimately the testimony of
a godly man will be, the Lord is
full of compassion and merciful and the testimony
of a godly man will be, the Lord
is full of compassion and merciful and ultimately
the testimony of a godly man will be,
the Lord is full of compassion and merciful
and ultimately the testimony of a godly man
will be, the Lord is full of compassion
and merciful and ultimately the testimony of a
godly man will be, the Lord is full
of compassion and merciful and ultimately the testimony
of a godly man will be, the Lord
is full of compassion and merciful and ultimately
the testimony of a godly man will be,
the Lord is full of compassion and merciful
and ultimately the testimony of a godly man
will be, the Lord is full of compassion
and merciful and ultimately the testimony of a
godly man will be, the Lord is full
of compassion and merciful and ultimately the testimony
of a godly man will be, the Lord
is full of compassion and merciful and ultimately
the testimony of a godly man will be,
the Lord is full of compassion and merciful
and ultimately the testimony of a godly man
will be, the Lord is full of compassion
and merciful and ultimately the being closely watched
by God, the angels, Satan and all in
the heavenlies.
The first book of the Bible, Job, teaches
us that Satan moves around the earth, Peter
says, seeking whom he may devour and that
he knows the condition of every person.
God asked Satan, have you seen my servant
Job?
Satan said, I know all about him.
The other thing that I see in the
very first book of the Bible is this,
that God pointed out Job to Satan.
He didn't point out all the people on
earth.
There were many others who knew about him,
like all these other four preachers who thought
they were very holy people, but he didn't
point them out.
God doesn't point out everybody to Satan, but
certain individuals here and there on the face
of the earth, he points out to Satan
and says, have you seen that man?
When Satan accuses people to God, the Bible
says in Revelation 12 that Satan is an
accuser.
He's always accusing people.
Lord, see those people over there?
They say they are your children.
See how they behave.
See how they fight with one another.
See how they yell at each other at
home.
See those people, unrighteous with money.
See those people, they say they are serving
God.
You know that they are serving money.
They are only interested in that.
And you know God is a righteous God.
He has to admit, yeah, that's true.
But in the midst of all this, what
tremendous delight God finds when he finds one
man who is upright.
It doesn't have to be ten thousand, one.
One woman who is not like this, whom
Satan cannot accuse.
Jesus said, the prince of the world comes
and he finds nothing in me.
Why did Jesus say that?
John 14 verse 30, the prince of the
world comes and he has nothing in me.
And that's why the father could say, this
is my beloved son in whom I am
well pleased.
He was so delighted in his son because
there was one person he could point out
to Satan, see, see how he's walking.
And today it says in 1 John 2,
6, he who says he abides in Christ
must walk as Jesus walked.
My brothers and sisters, it doesn't matter one
bit what your fellow believers think about you.
It matters a lot what God thinks about
you.
It matters a lot whether God can point
you out to Satan and say in the
midst of all this compromising carnal Christianity that
God can say, okay, Satan, I agree.
There's all a lot of this compromise and
carnality among a lot of people who call
my children.
But have you seen that man in that
town who lives in that street?
Have you seen that woman who lives in
that town in that street?
She is different.
He is different.
And Satan's mouth is shut.
Are you one of those who can shut
Satan's mouth because God can point you out
to Satan?
I tell you that's the greatest longing of
my heart.
I'm not bothered if all the 6 billion
people in the world turn around and call
me a heretic, a false prophet, a deceiver,
gone astray or even an evil man.
Let them call me a gluttonous man and
a drunkard and a winebibber and an adulterer
and a thief and everything they like.
If God will say to Satan, have you
seen that man?
That's enough for me.
I hope it is enough for you.
Because in the final analysis when we stand
before the Lord, all the opinions of these
6 billion people will be thrown in the
garbage bin.
And only God's opinion of you will matter.
That's so important.
And if, as I believe, this is the
first written inspired scripture, what are the very
first words of inspired scripture?
Very first words.
There was a man, Job 1.1. There
was a man who lived in the land
of Uz, whose name was Job.
So that you don't confuse him with some
other Job who's living in some other town.
It's this particular person who lived in this
particular street, in this particular town.
There was a man who was blameless, upright,
fearing God, turning away from evil.
Those are the very first words of inspired
scripture.
There was a man who was blameless, upright,
who feared God and turned away from evil.
Can you see something of the heart of
God there?
Can you see something of the heart of
God when he wrote that first sentence of
inspired scripture?
I hope you can.
And I hope it challenges your heart as
it has challenged mine.
Lord, this is what you're looking for, even
today.
More than 4,000 years after that was
written, this is what he's looking for even
today.
A man who is blameless and upright, who
fears God and turns away from evil.
A woman who is blameless and upright, who
fears God and turns away from evil.
Not just a person who's got a lot
of knowledge.
Remember, Job did not have a Bible.
He did not have any Bible knowledge because
there was no Bible.
There was not even one sentence of inspired
scripture written in his time because he was
the first.
Perhaps Moses at least had this book.
But Job had nothing.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
He had no fellowship.
There were no godly believers around.
He had no meetings he could go to.
Nobody to encourage him.
Even the so-called preachers only came and
discouraged him even more.
And in spite of all this, he stood
upright.
The other thing that I learned in the
first book of scripture is that the pathway
of suffering and misunderstanding by other people is
the pathway to perfection, is the pathway of
blessing.
Because it says at the end of the
book of Job, God blessed him double of
what he had in the beginning.
So, that is something that we can think
of.
There are a number of other things that
I want to mention as we go along.
Let me just mention one more thing.
In the very first book of the Bible,
you have at least three prosperity preachers who
preached that if God blesses you, you will
be prosperous.
If God blesses you, you will be healthy.
This health and wealth gospel is there in
the book of Job.
And it was preached by people who did
not know God.
Please remember that.
Job lost his health and lost his wealth
and he was in the perfect will of
God.
And those preachers who preached health and wealth
were completely out of the will of God.
God said, I'm angry with all of you.
Get Job to pray for you, otherwise I'll
punish you.
Please keep that in mind all your life.
There's a lot of deception and counterfeit in
the world today.
And the first book of the Bible is
enough to set all that straight, if you
read it with understanding.
Now, I just want to go into a
little detail now.
Well, let me mention one more thing that
even in the Old Testament, you know, sometimes
when you read of a man who suffered
so much that he lost all his property
and ten children in one day, you can
begin to think, maybe this is a parable.
Clever people have a lot of problems like
that.
But let me tell you what God said
about Job about more than a thousand years
after he lived.
We know what God said about Job in
Job chapter one.
But let me tell you not what James
said, but what God said about Job more
than a thousand years after he lived.
And that's in Ezekiel chapter fourteen and verse
fourteen.
When God talks about three of the most
righteous men that he can think of in
the history of humanity up to Ezekiel's time.
And Ezekiel lived about maybe six hundred years
before Christ.
So that's nearly fourteen hundred years after Job.
Fourteen hundred years after Job, God tells Ezekiel
who God thinks are the three most righteous
people that ever lived.
Verse fourteen, Noah, Daniel and Job.
Ezekiel fourteen fourteen.
And he again repeats it so that there's
no doubt in anybody's mind.
Verse twenty, Noah, Daniel and Job.
He recognizes them as righteous people.
Daniel was living at that time.
It's quite amazing that God would speak of
a man who's living.
And Noah, whatever his Noah's son Ham thought
about his drunkenness, God had a different opinion.
And Job, whatever those preachers of his generation
thought about him, God had a different opinion.
And I want to tell you, it does
not matter what all of evangelical Christianity thinks
about you.
It's what God thinks about you that matters.
Everybody can praise you to the skies.
And God may think nothing of you.
Everybody may tear you down to pieces.
And God may think you're the greatest man
of your generation.
Very few are spiritual to have discernment to
recognize a man's worth in our time.
So don't get discouraged if you find people
don't understand the way you are going.
I've had to battle with this almost all
my life.
And if you really follow the Lord, you
may find that people won't understand the way
you're going.
But if God is giving you grace, then
he recognizes that you're humble.
Humility is something only God can recognize.
Now we go to Job chapter one and
we read here, I want to point out
something here, first of all, concerning his concern.
First of all, let me mention here about
his concern for his children.
A godly man has concern to bring up
his children in godly ways.
That is mentioned in the very first book
of inspired scripture.
A man who has no concern to bring
up his children in godly ways cannot be
a godly man.
I don't care what else he is.
Can you walk with God and bring up
children?
Do you know the Bible says in one
sentence, Genesis five, it says, Enoch walked with
God and had sons and daughters.
It's one sentence.
You walk with God and have sons and
daughters?
Sure.
Job walked with God and he had seven
sons and three daughters and he was very
concerned that they should not fall away from
God.
Here is the proof.
Verse four, chapter one, verse four, his sons
used to go and hold a feast in
the house of each one in his day.
That means on his birthday, everybody's birthday, they
would have a feast.
They were grown up because each had their
own house.
Job was an older man now.
His children all had their own houses and
they would invite their sisters to come and
eat and drink with them.
Perhaps the three daughters lived with Job, but
the seven sons all had their own houses.
And it came about, they celebrated their birthdays
for a number of days of feasting and
Job would send for them.
He said, my sons and daughters come here.
Okay, now your feasting is over.
Come here.
And he would consecrate them.
I don't know what he did, but this
is probably what is described later.
This is how he consecrated them.
He would rise up early in the morning.
A godly man rises up early in the
morning.
It's all there in scripture.
The very first pages of inspired scripture.
And he offers offerings to God early in
the morning.
Not only for himself, for his children.
He prays.
He prays for his family.
Early in the morning he prays for his
family.
And he calls his children and consecrates them.
What was the reason?
The reason was, Job felt, perhaps my children
have sinned in their hearts.
Did you notice that verse five?
He is concerned about sin in the heart.
A godly man is concerned about sin in
the heart.
This is all way back before any bible
was written.
Any unconscious, unconscious sin.
None of all this psychology and all these
things were there.
It was just Job and God.
And he understood.
Perhaps there is sin in my children's hearts.
Perhaps, maybe unconsciously they, without being aware, they
said something which dishonored God.
Oh God, please forgive my children.
It was not their going and committing adultery
or doing something on the outside.
It was sin in their heart.
Look at the sensitiveness of this man.
The sensitivity, rather, of this man to sin.
That's why the bible says he was a
blameless and upright man.
What did all those other preachers know about
this type of life?
A godly man has become, becomes a godly
man because he's got a life in secret.
He shuts the door and in secret behind
that door he's got dealings with God which
other people know nothing about.
That's what makes a man a godly man.
Job shut the door and he had dealings
with God.
He was concerned about his family, those whom
he had responsibility for.
He was concerned about them.
He did a lot of other good things.
You can read in chapter 31.
Cared for the poor, helped the blind and
cared for the widows and the orphans.
A lot of things.
But primarily he cared for his family.
He was concerned, he prayed for his family
and brought up his children in a good
way.
And this is not something that he did
once in a while when he felt like
it or when he got a stirring sermon.
He never heard sermons in any case.
It says in the last part of verse
5, thus Job did continually.
Continually.
Now a lot of people seek God when
they are in trouble.
That is common.
But Job was not in any trouble here
when he offered these offerings.
A godly man offers things to God when
there is no trouble, when everything is going
smoothly.
Not when there is trouble but when things
are going well.
That's the time he gets along with God
and offers his thanksgiving and his praise and
confesses his sin and consecrates his children.
And he did it continually.
Nobody can become a godly man who does
not have steadfast principles in his life that
he practices continually.
Are you surprised that Satan made such a
man a target?
Sure.
Satan does not want such people on the
face of the earth.
He did not want them 4000 years ago
and he does not want such people on
the face of the earth today.
And that is why he will do everything
in his power to discourage you.
He got a wife to trouble Job.
He got preachers to trouble Job.
But it did not make a difference.
What a man, what an example.
If you can be a man or a
woman like that, that you are not disturbed
by what people say or even your family
members say.
Because you live in humility and brokenness before
God's face.
Think that God can make you a witness
in the heavenlies against Satan.
Long for that, my brother, sister.
Please, please, I beg of you, be free
from seeking the honor of men.
You will never be a servant of God
in your life if you seek the honor
of one man on the face of the
earth.
Galatians 1.10, if I seek to please
men, I can never be the servant of
Christ.
The surest way with all your Bible knowledge
never to become a servant of Christ is
by seeking to please even one man.
Live before God.
And now we read of a time when
the created angels were called sons of God.
It is an expression used, verse 6, of
direct creations of God.
Sons of God means direct creations of God.
See all of us were not born as
a direct creation of God like Adam was.
Adam was called a son of God.
We were born through our parents.
But when we are born again, then that
is a direct creation of God.
And again we are called sons of God.
So sons of God is an expression.
It doesn't mean God's children.
It means direct creation of God here.
And it's speaking about the angels who do
not multiply or have sex.
And Satan also came among them.
He was also a direct creation of God.
And the Lord said to Satan, where are
you coming from?
Of course the Lord knew.
He was written there for our instruction.
And Satan said, from roaming about on the
earth and walking around on it.
Satan is a world traveler.
Do you want to be a world traveler?
They call it the jet set.
On a plane here, going here, going there,
going to every country here and there.
Satan did it four thousand years ago.
Jesus never traveled like him.
Jesus traveled only in Palestine.
He stayed where God wanted him to be.
Don't think it's great to be a world
traveler.
If God calls you to do that, that's
fine.
But be satisfied with the will of God.
Don't think that those who travel the world
are the most blessed.
Jesus didn't.
I just mention that because a lot of
people can get wrong ideas in today's Christendom.
So Satan travels around the world and roams
about, watching, observing.
He's got all his demons and his entire
structure, organized structure of people examining everybody's lives
and reporting to Satan.
Satan knows about everybody in the world.
And the Lord said to Satan, have you
considered my servant Job?
See, there's where we find the Lord pointing
out Job to Satan and saying, there's a
man whom you roamed around the earth.
Did you see this man in Uz?
Perfect, blameless and upright man, fearing God and
turning away from evil.
In the very first book of scripture, we
see God commending his servant.
In the very first paragraph, what a challenge.
If God can say that about you to
Satan.
God, forget all the honor you get on
the earth, all the approval of men, all
the appreciation of men, all the things that
make you appear so qualified and great and
important, forget it.
What does God say about you to Satan?
When God picks out your name and says,
Satan, have you seen this man or this
woman in that place?
God won't tell a lie.
What does he say?
Very important.
There's no one like him on the earth.
He was the only man on earth who
was so outstanding.
God compared him with others.
You think God doesn't compare his children with
each other?
Here it is.
There is no one like him on the
earth.
How could God say that?
He compared Job with the others and said,
this man is different.
He compares you with other believers and says,
this man is different.
And it's not because of knowledge, it's because
of character.
He doesn't say he's a clever man, he
doesn't say he's a rich man.
He was a very rich man.
But God doesn't mention one word about his
wealth to Satan because God's not impressed by
wealth.
Whether you're wealthy or poor makes no difference.
And lest you think that you have to
be poor in order to be spiritual, the
very first person in scripture mentioned in the
first book of the Bible was a very
rich man and he was spiritual too.
And that's what provoked the jealousy of so
many other people who couldn't bear to see
somebody who was rich and spiritual.
They would have thought if he's poor and
spiritual, okay.
See, I mention that because some people have
the idea that you have to be poor
in order to be spiritual.
That's up to God.
Paul was very, very poor.
So was Peter.
But Job was very rich.
That's up to God as to what he
does, how he deals with that.
All I'm saying is it makes no difference.
It's like saying, do you have to have
a white skin to be spiritual?
Or do you have to have a black
skin to be spiritual?
And you say skin doesn't matter.
I say money doesn't matter either.
It's exactly the same.
Whether you earn twenty thousand rupees a month
or whether you earn thousand rupees a month.
That's got nothing to do with spirituality.
Spirituality is character.
And that's what we see here.
A blameless and upright man fearing God and
turn away evil.
And Satan accuses even the most godly man
on the earth.
Satan accused Jesus.
Satan accuses Job.
And do you think Satan will not accuse
you?
He certainly will.
And do you think Satan does not have
agents to accuse you?
He's got plenty of them.
These three friends of Job were accusing him
all the time.
Even the fourth one, Elihu, accused him.
And so we see accusation is characteristic of
Satan and all his agents.
And a godly man faces all types of
accusations.
But he's not affected by them.
Those who have discernment like God will be
able to see this is a blameless and
an upright man.
One who fears God and turns away from
evil.
The fear of God, reverence for God is
mentioned so much in the very first book
of inspired scripture.
Reverence for God.
That is so important.
And we see here that there is a
difference, I just want to mention in passing,
between the way God works and the way
Satan works.
Satan is roaming to and fro.
There's a haste about his activity and movement.
God works slowly.
And Satan says, you have made a hedge
around him, verse 10, and his house and
all that he has in every side and
you have blessed the work of his hands
and his possessions.
Now from what he says we learn three
things.
God has put a hedge around a godly
man's life, around his family, and around his
finances and his property.
There are three hedges around the lives of
all godly people.
Around his personal life, around his family, around
his bank account and his property as well.
Satan recognized that.
Satan could see in the spiritual realm, we
cannot see those hedges.
But Satan could see it.
He's a spirit and he could see this.
I cannot get through because he tried to
get through to Job and he found hedge
after hedge after hedge.
He couldn't get at his property, he couldn't
get at his family, he couldn't get at
him.
It's true.
And that's a great comfort to me to
know that if I live a godly life,
there are three hedges around me.
And none of those hedges will be opened
except without God's permission.
The Lord told Peter, Satan has asked for
permission to sift you.
And here we find in the book of
Job, Satan had to ask God for permission
to get through.
Those hedges.
And God gave it to him one by
one.
He didn't give it all together and he
said, you can only do so much.
For example, he told later on, you cannot
touch Job's life.
You can trouble attack his body, but you
cannot kill him.
And Satan couldn't kill him.
Satan would have liked to kill Job, but
he couldn't.
He could only give him boils.
But he gave, Satan gave, God gave permission
first of all and said, okay, hedge one
and hedge two are open.
Who was inside hedge one?
What was inside hedge one?
All his property.
Satan destroyed all of it.
He came down from millions to zero in
one day.
What was inside the second hedge?
His children and his wife.
God said, go inside, do what you like.
He killed all his children.
Why didn't he kill his wife?
Because he felt I can use her.
It's better to keep her alive.
It's true.
If she's dead, she's no use.
If she's alive, she'll keep on nagging him
and nagging him and nagging him and troubling
him.
When you see a nagging wife, you know
why Satan has kept her alive.
Yeah, it's true.
Some people are more useful alive than dead
to the devil.
That's why he knows whose lives to take
and whose lives not to take.
I want to say here that he could
not do it without God's permission.
Okay.
The Lord said to Satan, all that he
has is in your power, but don't put
forth your hand, verse 12, on him.
Now, there are a number of things that
we can learn about Satan also from the
very first book of inspired scripture.
First of all, he can only be in
one place at one time.
God is everywhere, but Satan, if he is
in this place, he cannot be in that
place because he's a created being.
He's got demons, plenty of demons roaming around
the earth, but Satan himself as a being,
if he's up there talking to God, he
can't be down here.
If he's down here in one place, he
cannot be in another place.
That's one thing.
And second thing we see in the book
of Job is that Satan cannot see the
future.
I mean, if he saw the future, he
would know that what is ultimately going to
happen to Job.
He's going to be far more blessed.
Why should I bless him more?
Let me just leave him alone.
At least let him only get half a
blessing.
If he knew what was going to be
the ultimate end of Calvary, that he himself
would be defeated.
Do you think he would have urged people
to crucify Christ?
He cannot see the future.
If he knew that this gallows, Haman himself
will hang on it.
Do you think he would have made Haman
create, construct those gallows?
He doesn't know one bit about even tomorrow.
But supposing you're planning something evil, the devil
knows that.
I mean, not your thoughts.
That's the other thing I want to say.
Satan cannot read your thoughts.
He can only see what you're doing on
the outside.
All he could say was Job was on
the outside.
And he said, I guess that he's doing
it with the wrong motives.
But it was not wrong motives.
He couldn't see Job's thoughts.
If he could see Job's thoughts, he would
have seen that Job was not living for
property and money and all those things.
He really loved God.
He could not see people's thoughts.
And the other thing we learn here is
that he needs God's permission in order to
attack his children.
As I said, he has to get God's
permission and he has to report to God.
That's a great comfort for me to know
that.
This man whom, this spirit whom I'm battling,
he doesn't know anything about my thoughts.
He doesn't know anything about my future.
And he has to ultimately go and report
to God.
And he's under God's control.
That's what I see.
And that takes away all my fear of
him.
It's a great comfort to know that in
the first book of Scripture.
That he cannot touch you without God's permission.
Now I want you to see how Job
reacted to all this.
He heard that everything was lost.
One after the other servants came and said
everything is gone.
And Job arose, verse 20, and tore his
robe, shaved his head, fell to the ground
and worshiped.
In the very first chapter of the very
first page of inspired written Scripture, I see
that a man of God is a worshiper.
More than Bible teaching and more than evangelism.
To be a man of God, you must
be a worshiper.
And you must be a worshiper when you
have lost everything.
And you must be a worshiper when you
have everything.
Be a worshiper.
Jesus said, God is a spirit and those
who worship him must worship him in spirit
and truth.
And the father seeks for people who will
worship him.
And worshiping him is giving him everything.
And Job said, I came from my mother's
womb naked.
And I shall return there naked.
He's probably referring to mother earth from which
he came naked and he returns down there
to the dust naked.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken
away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Through all this Job did not sin nor
did he blame God.
He accepted.
He had no example before him to follow.
We have so many examples.
I tell you, when I compare myself with
Job, I hang my head in shame.
And I say, Lord, this is amazing what
this man, he had no example, no example
of Jesus, no Holy Spirit, no Scripture, no
brothers and nothing in front of him, just
him and God.
And if he could come to such a
life, why can't I come to such a
life?
I certainly can.
That's the challenge that comes to me from
the first chapter of Job.
And we read here that in chapter 2,
the devil was very unhappy because Job did
not react the way he thought he would
react.
And so, the Lord asks him, where have
you come from?
And again, he's been roaming around on the
earth.
He's always roaming around.
And again, the Lord says, have you considered
my servant Job?
He still holds fastest integrity.
Chapter 2, verse 3, even though you incited
me against him to ruin him without any
reason.
And then Satan says, yeah, that's because he
loves his own life so much.
He doesn't care for his property, he doesn't
care for his children, but he really loves
himself.
Everything that a man has, he will give
for his own life.
He knows the selfishness of man.
And it is true what he said there.
Almost all men are selfish.
They think of themselves.
Ultimately, in a time of pressure, a man
thinks of himself.
And Satan was saying, Job is no different.
But now touch his body and then let
me see whether he still will stand true
to you.
And so Job, the Lord said, okay, go
ahead.
Only you can't take away his life.
And Satan went out and smote Job with
sore boils from the sole of his foot
to the crown of his head.
Imagine getting boils from the crown of your
head to the sole of your feet.
Can you think of that?
From the crown of your head to the
sole of your feet.
Boils, boils, boils, boils, boils.
Some terrible skin disease erupting in boils.
People think it was leprosy because we read
that Job went outside the town.
He couldn't live in his house anymore.
He went outside in the town and sat
on a dung heap there.
And among the ashes, in verse 8, he
was scratching himself the whole day.
And there came his wife, nagging him, do
you still hold fast to your integrity?
Curse this wretched God of yours and commit
suicide.
That's what she was telling him.
Curse God and die means how can Job
die?
There is only one way, commit suicide.
Commit suicide.
There in the beginning of scripture, you find
Satan tempting people to commit suicide through their
loved ones.
Adam was tempted through Eve.
Job was tempted through Eve.
Think of that.
The first two books of scripture, you find
a man being tempted through his wife.
Satan came through Eve and Satan came through
Mrs. Job.
Yeah, Satan uses our loved ones to tempt
us.
It was Peter who told Jesus, don't go
to the cross.
It wasn't the Pharisees, it was Peter.
Satan can come through our loved ones.
But he said to her, and I wish
we had more husbands like this, who would
not listen to their wives.
You speak as a foolish woman speaks.
Shall we accept good from the hand of
God and not accept adversity?
He says, you think that I must only
accept good?
You know, I heard this saying that when
some calamity hits you, you should never ask
this question, why does this happen to me?
If you don't ask the same question, when
some blessing hits you, when some blessing comes
to your life, do you ever say, oh,
why does this happen to me?
So many others are not blessed.
We usually don't ask that question when blessing
comes.
We usually ask that question when some adversity
comes.
He said in this, he did not sin.
Now, when Job's three friends heard of this
adversity, verse 11, they came each one from
his own place, verse 11 to 11, Eliphaz,
the Timanite, Bildad, Zophar, and they made an
appointment and they came to sympathize with him
and comfort him.
I don't really believe they came to sympathize
with him.
As you read later on the way they
speak, there was no sympathy there at all.
There was criticism, accusation.
You are a sinner, Job.
All three of them accused him.
They were in fellowship with the devil.
And I'll tell you what I feel they
were, why they came.
These were people who were jealous of Job.
Jealous because he was a godly man and
a rich man and everything was going well
for him and for his family.
And a lot of believers are jealous of
a godly man and his ministry and his
influence and they are waiting for some calamity
to hit him.
It's not just the devil who waits for
calamity to hit a godly man.
There are believers who are waiting for some
calamity to hit a godly man.
You search your own heart and see if
it's not true.
And when that calamity hits this godly man,
they are secretly happy.
Aren't you sometimes?
And then they pretend on the outside, oh
Job, we are so sorry, just like you
go and pretend when you hear about some
calamity and go to that brother's house and
say we are so sorry to hear and
actually you are secretly delighted.
That happens.
This is so true to human nature.
Pretending to sympathize but deep down delighted that
at last this fellow has learned something.
God has hit him.
And they lifted up their eyes.
They did not recognize him.
They wept.
They are pretty good actors.
They tore their robes.
They threw dust over their heads.
You really think these people are sorry.
And they sat down with him and they
didn't say anything for seven days or seven
nights.
You know that's part of the suffering of
godly people that they are, the others are
jealous of them.
They suffer from the devil.
Sometimes they suffer from their wives.
They suffer physically.
They suffer financially perhaps in the trials God
takes them through.
And they suffer from the jealousy of sometimes
even their co-workers.
I've seen this in Christian work.
People are jealous of another man's ministry.
They long that something bad will happen so
that that man's ministry goes down.
They are jealous of God blessing a man's
work.
When there's an anointing upon a man's ministry
or his work and the work spreads and
God is using a man to spread his
word or to save souls or to build
churches or to reach many many places for
Christ.
There is jealousy even among those who claim
to be his friends.
And the only way to expose their jealousy
is to allow something to happen to this
man.
God allows something to happen to godly men
to expose the wickedness and jealousy of other
people.
I have seen it many times in my
life.
Be warned.
We'll stop there and continue in our next
session in the book of Job.
Let's bow before God and pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the example
of this wonderful man who lived four thousand
years ago and knew you so well.
An example to us after all these thousands
of years.
Help us to take his example seriously we
pray.
In Jesus name.