Sunday Morning Service (Job 2)

Job 2              

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“Job In Ashes” •  1.10.21  •  Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service

Intro.

- Our journey into the book of Job began with a whirlwind of events that left each of us breathless. In a single day, within an hour, Job lost all of his businesses and all ten of his children.

- Satan had challenged God and made the accusation that men only bless the Lord because of what He gives to them. When Job would not curse God, Satan was firmly rebuked.

- In spite of all that happened to him, Job didn't curse God, sin or charge the Lord with wrong. He passed the test, but at a significant cost. He is left with what seems to be a shadow of a life.

- Whatever he does have left is merely a reminder of all that he has lost! In the mind of Satan, Job still has something to lose.

- Let's continue our examination in chapter 2 and take note of "Satan's Response." Verse 1.

Text

• Job 2:1-3 : "Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said to Satan, 'From where do you come?' Satan answered the Lord and said, 'From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.' Then the Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause.'" : While Job's life is still in a smoldering ruin, another heavenly meeting takes place.

- The preliminaries, from verse 1 through the first half of verse 2, are virtually identical to what we observed in the first encounter between the Lord and Satan.

- There is again the marking of a day and the gathering of these "spiritual" beings. Satan "came also among them." In the first meeting, Satan was simply there. This time, there is intent!

- As with the first encounter, the Lord inquires of his whereabouts and Satan offers the exact same half truth. This is when the Lord repeats His challenge regarding Job.

- The Lord initiates this again, knowing that this is the topic that brought Satan into His presence. Satan won't let it go and the Lord is just as confident in His work within Job.

- Not only has Job proven that he is what the Lord's Word and the Lord said about him, but there is more. "And still he holds fast to his integrity!" What a statement!

- Even now, after he has suffered so much loss. Even here, in the midst of grief and confusion. Even as he doesn't know what is coming, Job still holds fast to his integrity!

- The phrase "hold fast" is somewhat remote to our ears, as it's not a commonly used phrase.

- The NLT and NIV use the vanilla word "maintain." The CSB translates it "retains." The NET comes closest. "He holds firmly."

- The Hebrew word comes from a primitive root which means to "fasten." When a person used this figuratively, it spoke of a person who was obstinant.

- This is a stubborn, strong, steely, determined resolve toward integrity. He has a ninja grip on what he had been before the Lord. He refused to let his heart slip from it's loyalty.

- There is much to say about living a godly life. When our circumstances are favorable, it's not difficult to choose godliness. The rubber meets the road when our circumstances turn.

- In survival mode, it is normal to ditch that which requires greater mental energy and discipline. I've observed this phenomenon repeatedly in the ministry and sadly, in my own life.

- God's strength in Job is such that during his darkest hours, his greatest energy is expended toward what he had been focusing on for years! Everything was related to his integrity before God!

- He built his business with an eye toward pleasing the Lord. He conducted his family life in this manner, with an eye toward the glory and honor of God.

- He had absorbed a loss of everything, but if he were to lose his integrity, his "wholeness" toward God, he could never be built again! This was Job's foundation!

- Against his own instincts and against his own emotions, Job made a decision to hang on, to fasten himself to his integrity, with all that he had left!

- I stated last week that God would never let His person fail. He will strengthen us during times of testing to remain loyal, but let us remember that we must fasten ourselves to Him as well!

- Many balk at the seeming contradiction, but the truth is that God will work and we will work!

- This was Job's response in the face of God moving against Job to destroy him without there being a single deserving reason in Job's actions or attitude to warrant provocation.

- Once again, the author reports from God's lips that Job did nothing to deserve this treatment!

- That is vital information for us to keep in the back of our mind! Soon, that unknown testimony from heaven will be furiously contradicted on Earth. Verse 4.

• Job 2:4-6 : "So Satan answered the Lord and said, 'Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse You to Your face!' And the Lord said to Satan, 'Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life.'" : The fact that Satan actually answers the Lord is astounding. The fact that he dares to contradict him points to insanity!

- Satan is the ultimate delusional maniac and his response is downright psychopathic. He has no thought of accepting defeat, nor any concern for the carnage he initiates!

- He is undeterred in his resolve. He won't be satisfied until Job is thoroughly and finally destroyed. This is his intent toward you and I. If you are down, look for him to seek to put you out!

- This is consumes Satan's perverse mind and when it came to Job, he thinks he's figured it out. I've always thought of Satan's voice as that of a demented serpent: "Skin for skin!"

- If that doesn't give you chills, I'm not sure what will! In Satan's demented mind, he doesn't think he's lost. He simply believes that he employed the wrong strategy!

- Can you see Satan working this out in his mind? Pay close attention: "It wasn't his wealth that he was tied to. It was his HEALTH!" "Does Job fear God for nothing?"

- God's blessings had been material, but they had also been physical as well. Job had not been touched in his body. "That must be the benefit that he fears God for!" The NLT shines here.

• Job 2:4 : (NLT) "Satan replied to the Lord, 'Skin for skin! A man will give up everything he has to save his life." : I don't mean to harp on a single theological bent, but the "Prosperity Doctrine" as it's fallaciously called, is famously known as the "Health and Wealth" gospel!

- It is about as close to the Devil's Doctrine as one can get. I wouldn't want to endorse it!

- At the same time, understand Satan's perspective. His argument is that Job is actually WORSE than he suspected. He could suffer the loss of everything.

- His business and family were obviously NOT that important to him. In Satan's mind, Job serves God on account of his good health! He assumes that Job is an extreme narcissist!

- Job's faith will surely crumble if God were to allow him to have access to his body! Job would definitely curse God to His face!

- Before you mock Satan, who hasn't left their integrity to save their skin? Later in history, Abraham will lie about his wife to save his skin after receiving God's promise to him! (Genesis 12:10)

- After impregnating another man's wife, King David will get a man drunk and then send him out with his own death sentence in order to save his skin! (II Samuel 11:1-17)

- Peter, on the night when his Master is being wrongfully accused before the Sanhedrin, will lie about his knowledge of Jesus before a little girl to save his skin! (Luke 22:61)

- Satan knows Mankind very well. With this, the Lord opens a new hole in the fence and Satan is allowed to go as far as possible without taking Job's life. He'll get his money's worth! Verse 7.

• Job 2:7,8 : "So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes." : Satan didn't waste a moment. He went out from the presence of the Lord and went right to work! He already knew what he wanted to do. He just needed God's permission to do it!

- Job, already in mourning and in mental anguish, awakens to a physical condition that is unbearable to consider, much less experience.

- The language indicates that Satan stuck Job repeatedly. Like a soldier with a whip, Satan leveled a scourge upon Job's entire body, resulting in a body covered with painful boils.

- The word refers to "burning." These boils are burning, inflammed skin eruptions that  continuously manifested throughout the course of his body, over every sensitive nerve center.

- A boil occurs when a staph bacteria enters an area through a cut and infects a hair follicle. The infected area initially takes on a red hue.

- Soon, the skin looks as though a zit has gone out of control. The pressure that builds underneath the skin adds to the irritation and burning sensation, issuing in profound pain.

- When there are multiple hair follicles infected, the combination is called a "carbuncle" and the affect in pain level increases exponentially!

- There is no quick treatment and even today, there are few medicines available, should one experience a single boil located on a single part of one's body.

- One waits out a boil, carefully applying a warm compress over the area. What would you do when your entire body is screaming in pain? Where would you start!? That is where Job is right now!

- He is covered in oozing, infected boils, from the top of his head, all the way down to the bottom of his feet!

- The pain that was emanating from his body pulsated well beyond his threshold. In misery, Job grabs a piece of broken pottery that was laying out in the ash heap.

- Some believe that Job is sitting in the city dump, where the ancients believed few bacteria could survive because of the constant burning. He may believe that this is the best area for him to be.

- On the other hand, he may be anticipating his own death! The picture is of a man that has accepted that his life is ruined and that he can fall no further.

- We have seen "Satan's Response." Let's have a look now at "His Wife's Rebuke." Verse 9.

• Job 2:9,10 : "Then his wife said to him, 'Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!' But he said to her, 'You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?' In all this Job did not sin with his lips." : For the first time in this book, we are introduced to Job's wife. Her name isn't disclosed and she only has a single, regrettable line.

- Before we examine this, keep a few thoughts in the forefront of your mind regarding our sister. You are meeting her for a single moment on one of her most difficult days.

- Often, the joke among preachers is that the enemy wiped out Job's entire family, but left him  with it's most grievous member! Conference attendees have a great laugh, but consider Satan's logic.

- This is a woman who has lost ten adult children. She has watched her husband lose everything. Her identity and security have been ripped out from under her.

- To make matters continually worse, her husband and partner is in a helpless and seemingly hopeless position without a remedy in sight.

- In her mind, it seems that Job is on his way toward his own demise. It's just a matter of time!

- Additionally, she is in perfect physical health. She is devastated but otherwise healthy, which usually adds to the pain of loss, the remorse of having survived.

- She cannnot alleviate the pain or help ease his suffering in any real way. Her frustration mounts as Job won't even complain, lose his temper or in any way, match her emotional intensity.

- I've discovered that this is quite a help to people who are in these kind of straights. If someone is as frustrated, angry or bothered as I am, I'm relieved to see them "coping" well!

- We worry though when we can't read the emotional palette. We're concerned when we aren't sure how our loved one is handling things. Job's silence has moved his wife toward this collapse.

- There isn't blame to go around here, but as we suffer, it's helpful to give some indication of what we are experiencing, if only to alleviate our loved one's mental pressures.

- If you have ever been as emotionally raw as Job's wife though, you'll know that she regrets ever opening her mouth on this occasion. She looks at Job and asks a telling question.

- "Do you still hold fast to your integrity?" In her pain, her words betray that she has put hers aside! I'm going to suggest that this was a temporary lapse, but there are many that have followed.

- Those that have loosely connected themselves to God use pain and suffering as an excuse to bid "farewell" to their "feelgood" God! Those that God connects to Himself never will!

- Amazingly, she looks Job in the eye and tells him to curse God and die! Certainly, we are sure that she had shared Job's faith. He would not have married her otherwise.

- It is interesting though that while she is in this state of discouragement and confusion, the content of her speech mirrors the very wish of Satan himself!

- You and I will rarely ever regret the things that we did NOT say in the midst of our anger or confusion. It is true that when we are in those states of mind, it is better that we remain silent.

- Until we can process our emotions through the lens of scripture and solid counsel, it's best to not to offer our half processed opinions. It's best not to allow Satan to have a voice through our own!

- I'm reminded of David's men, who counseled David to take his revenge against Saul in the desert of Ziph. (I Kings 26:1-11) A more famous example is found in Peter's words to Jesus.

- The Lord had begun to tell His disciples about His need to go to Jerusalem, to be turned over and crucified. Peter did not approve of this message and rebuked the Lord.

- Jesus looked past Peter and recognized Satan's intent through His disciple's voice! (Matthew 16:23) Let us learn the lesson: We want to choose our words carefully!

- Despite being in pain, to Job's credit, he doesn't yell at her, but he is direct and firm in his conviction. "You speak as a foolish woman speaks!"

- He is not calling into question her intelligence. The "fool" is one that has said in their heart that there is no God! (Psalm 14:1) Her reasoning resembles the sound of a godless woman.

- It would be wise to listen to Job's heart here. Memorize this verse. Take it to heart. "Shall we accept good from God and shall we not accept adversity?"

- Job has said this positively in the previous chapter. "The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away." This is the opposite way of considering this.

- God is God. He gives good, but also allows adversity, evil, calamity, to befall us. While we live on planet earth it will be an inevitability!

- How can we accept the one and not accept the other, knowing that it is God that has allowed it? We wonder why it is that God has allowed it!

- Suffering here reminds us not to become too attached to this world. Suffering purifies us and focuses our attention on spiritual realities.

- Think of your spiritual focus at the beginning of the pandemic. Think of the full churches right after 9/11. God allows this evil because our human race has chosen to sow to it!

- That is what the "Fall of Mankind" is all about. This is why Jesus had to come and absorb in His own person, the guilt and evil of mankind, to redeem us and set our hearts on heaven's course!

- In all of "this," Job's pain, suffering, loss and his lack of companionship, Job didn't sin with his lips! He didn't curse God. He didn't blaspheme.

- But that doesn't mean that he isn't hurting or that he isn't confused. We'll see a lot more of that as we enter into the next section of the book.

- We have seen "Satan's Response," "His Wife's Rebuke" and finally, we'll note "His Friend's Resolve." Verse 11.

• Job 2:11-13 : "Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. For they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him, and to comfort him. And when they raised their eyes from afar, and did not recognize him, they lifted their voices and wept; and each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven. So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great." : News of Job's calamities have reached the ears of his friends. We don't know how far they have traveled to get to him, but each came from their own homes. What we know of them is limited.

- Eliphaz, if this is the same man, is Esau's son according to Genesis 36:4 and his son is Teman. Eliphaz fathered the Amalekite nation through his own Father's concubine. (Genesis 36:12)

- Scholars believe Bildad the Shuhite to be Abraham's grandson through Keturah's son Shuah. (Genesis 25:2) He is the shortest man in the Bible!

- When we get to Zophar the Naamathite, there isn't a concensus concerning his country or origin, so we just say, "Zophar, Zogood!"

- Zophar's name came to mean "sparrow" because the word refers to the chirping or twittering of a bird. Bildad's name refers to contention and is closely related to "striving."

- Eliphaz' name is the most noble of the three: "My God is fine gold!" We'll learn later that these men are older than Job. Despite what we will come to think of them, they begin well!

- These three agreed to come to meet with Job together. With all that had happened, it seems feasible that they would have been overwhelmed to meet Job alone.

- "There will be strength in numbers." They will console him together there in his presence. They sought to be present with him at this desperate moment of crisis.

- When they arrived they intended to mourn with and comfort their friend. If we were to end this book with that sentiment, I think we would have been impressed with Job's friends.

- They have come to enter into his grief, to experience the highs and lows with him. They are planning to be there to let him know that he isn't alone.

- I remember talking with a friend who often suffers from seizures. She noted that one of the worst parts of suffering was the unwillingness of people to come and simply sit by her side.

- When people are in pain, it will feel ackward and one will sense a feeling of helplessness. The person in pain may not even be able to acknowledge you.

- But there is an incredible relief in simple company. These men had the right idea. They would mourn and comfort him. They would ease his mind and stand alongside of him.

- They had the right idea but they were not prepared for what they saw. As they made their approach, the Job that they knew, wasn't anywhere to be found.

- They did not recognize this creature. When they realized that it was their friend, they could not hold back their sadness. It seems that they needed Job's comfort!

- All they could do was sit in silence with Job and all of their plans and words went by the wayside, as the four friends sat in shocked silence for a full week.

- I've heard recently that this was the custom of the men of the East. When a person suffered, those that came to mourn with them were bound to be silent until the mourning one broke the silence.

- I'd suggest that this is wise counsel: Don't come prepared to talk. Be prepared to listen!

- For seven days, these affluent men who had traveled some distance, sat silently, humbly with Job at the city dump. Job's grief wouldn't even allow him to thank them.

Conclusion
- We must leave Job here in silence, a man that by the world's standards, has lost everything. He is sitting in the ashes of a burned out life, but he is clinging to an integrity before God.

- He does so because Satan will not ever give up. He will keep coming at you. He will keep trying to dislodge you from your hold on God.

- He'll even move upon your closest companions to encourage you toward his wicked goal.

- If that is what we are reduced to, let Job's example speak to you. His wholeness before God is worthy of building upon and the God that he serves is an expert at making beauty from ashes.