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“I Will Wait For My Change” • 2.28.21 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service
Intro.
- The book of Job began with what we are calling the "Prologue." It is a devastating portrait of a godly man who loses his business and of his adult children in a single day.
- Not long after that, his health fails and his dignity is lost, as this wealthy man ends up sitting in the city dump. All of this occurred because of a challenge from Satan, not for a cause in Job.
- Chapter 4 takes us from the "Prologue" to the "Dialogue" portion of Job, which will consist of three rounds between the 4 friends.
- Each friend will seek to convince Job of his secret sin and Job will respond. After each verbal assault, Job will do something that his friends never do. He will turn to address God.
- We are entering into the text at this very moment. Job has offered his rebuttal to his third friend Zophar. At Job 13:20, Job turns his attention toward God and brings Round 1 to a close. V.20.
Text
• Job 13:20-23 : "Only two things do not do to me, then I will not hide myself from You: Withdraw Your hand far from me, and let not the dread of You make me afraid. Then call, and I will answer; Or let me speak, then You respond to me." : At this point in the conversation, it feels as though Job is wearing down.
- He's tired of accusation and suspicion. He simply wants resolve and is seeking to lay out terms for conflict resolution. Job approaches the Lord with two requests.
- If God will agree NOT to do these things, then Job thinks that he will be able to face Him. Recall that Job has been seeking to meet with God on legal terms.
- He has already spoken of a need for a mediator, but in light of the fact that one wasn't immediately forthcoming, Job has to ask God to assist him.
- First, he asks that God not to withdraw His hand far from him. To understand this, remember that Job has considered God's hand to be the actual means of punishment.
- Job is asking that God would suspend the actions of his heavy hand. He is asking for a "cease fire." But, he recognizes his need of Him. "Do not withdraw Your hand far from me."
- "Suspend your offensive, but keep your hand near enough to sustain me in our negotiations!" It's an uncomfortable request to be sure, especially in Job's presently troubled mind.
- He has come to believe, based upon his friend's poor theology, his pain and the Lord's silence, that God is his enemy and that His hand has been against him!
- Nothing could be further from the truth, but Job doesn't feel this! He's speaking like a child that wants his Father to be there, but not be so harsh. That leads to his second request!
- "Let not the dread of you make me afraid." "Stop frightening me with your terrors!" (NIV)
- Job wanted to speak with God without fear. Once he was no longer afraid, he wishes to dialogue with Him. Calling upon God, to this point, hasn't worked.
- God would have to call him and then he would answer and they would talk together, going back and forth. Verse 24.
• Job 13:24-28 : "How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin. Why do You hide Your face, and regard me as Your enemy? Will You frighten a leaf driven to and fro? And will You pursue dry stubble? For You write bitter things against me, and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth. You put my feet in the stocks, and watch closely all my paths. You set a limit for the soles of my feet. Man decays like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten." : Job is not necessarily admitting that he has sinned, but is wondering how his past sins have built up to cause this current distance between he and God.
- He wants to hear from the Lord, for Him to make His case and show His face! Job has concluded that the Lord's silence is indicative of His being an enemy!
- Our minds rarely account for another conclusion when pain enters into our lives. When a conclusion is not provided, we will reach for the most negative one!
- Job wrongly assumes that there is a sin that he missed. Where had he gone wrong? Had he been rebellious, stepping over obvious lines of spiritual demarcation or had he just missed the mark?
- Job is ruminating upon a possible cause and has been unable to find one, which has left him in this vulnerable state. He views himself as a leaf detached from a tree or a tumbleweed.
- Can you imagine two more worthless or powerless entities than a leaf or tumbleweed? Detached from their life source, they blow with the wind and are carried around helplessly for miles!
- Why would God pick on such a meaningless, insignificant person. He is unworthy of this kind of attention! Why would God frighten or pursue him?
- He imagines God constantly recording accusations against him. "He must be digging deep into my past. Did he look into times when I was a youth!?" The word refers to one's childhood!
- If there was something amiss in his walk with the Lord, it may have happened then! Was God making him pay for a sin he forgot to atone for? Of course, we know better!
- God wasn't writing "bitter" things about him. God was actually bragging about this man! The OTHER guy is into accusation! That's Satan's job!
- Job neither knows anything about that, nor does he feel any of God's pleasure! In the silence, he imagines a powerful and vengeful God who is seething with anger!
- All he is now is a prisoner, tied up and guarded closely, on a short leash, on death row!
- He will decay like a piece of trash that he's been sitting near or an old piece of clothing. He will simply decay until the day when he is thoroughly unrecognizable dust!
- It will take several chapters, but none of Job's words here will turn out to be correct. What we imagine in our pain, rarely becomes our reality. It is only "sure" in unresolved moments. Chapter 14.
• Job 14:1-6 : "Man who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower and fades away; He flees like a shadow and does not continue. And do You open Your eyes on such a one, and bring me to judgment with Yourself? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one! Since his days are determined, the number of his months is with You; You have appointed his limits, so that he cannot pass. Look away from him that he may rest, till like a hired man he finishes his day." : Job continues his anthropological assessment. "What is man that you frighten and pursue him?" He's insignificant.
- If you were to reduce mankind to one sentence, you could hardly do better than Job 14:1! All of mankind shares a common entry into the world.
- Those that are fortunate enough to be born, enter into this world via their Mother. Against the span of historical time, we are only given a few days to live!
- Bildad has just admitted this when he told Job that these old men were only born yesterday! (Job 8:9) As we age, we realize that the Bible speaks the truth of our "vapor trails!"
- Of the days that we live, each of us are given a full complement of trouble. The word speaks of "commotion" or "turmoil." The idea is that our days can easily become turbulent and rocky.
- One day we are the "Kings" or "Queens" of our world. The next, we are struggling to live!
- For as strong as we think we are, our days can bring with them a healthy host of difficulty. Moses will later pen a similar comment.
• Psalm 90:10 : "The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away." : Not the most cheerful verse, but that is inspired truth! Job sees human life as a flower that flourishes only to eventually wither away.
- Our presence on this planet registers a shadow, but is then gone as quickly as it emerges. This is what Job is. Fleeting. Transitory.
- It's shocking to him that God would single him out among the millions of other fleeting shadows! Why him? Why would God bring him into court? What is the point?
- Job knows that in his flesh, in the eyes of God, that he is an unclean thing. He is stained.
- Why then would God work against him. His judgments against him will not change his essential nature. Aside from being insignificant and fleeting, humankind cannot be reformed!
- He is unclean with the burden of sin! There isn't anyone on earth with the power to make clean what is fundamentally unclean!
- Job knows that man is inherently sinful, with a condition that doesn't have a remedy! Men won't live long enough to see an effective change. His days are determined by God.
- You and I will live the exact number of days that God has determined for us to live. We will not live a second longer or be gone a moment sooner!
- God alone knows the number of our days and how they will end! In His eyes, our lives are just seconds of time! Go ahead and work out. Be disciplined in diet. Wear full body masks!
- You will not extend your life for one single moment and if you decide to neglect your health, don't worry: The Lord knew you would do that as well!
- As Americans, we are not fans of limitations, but Job speaks truthfully here. God sets our limits and to transcend them is not in our power.
- All of this falls under the category of "sovereignty." Our biggest problems in life stem from a failure to recognize this vital doctrine.
- God's rule over our lives is complete, from our conception to our final breath. He has chosen our path, endowed us with gifts and He has ordered our steps.
- He decided when we would be born, what sex would best glorify His Image in us, where we would live, who we will have an impact upon and when we will join Him in eternity.
- Feel free to fight this. Claim your autonomy and relish your supposed "free will." You are chosen and free and you will freely choose what He has chosen for you!
- I know that this topic frustrates you. It is frustrating to Job in this moment, as he is a prisoner of time, captured in a body that is screaming in pain, surrounded by a pack of wolves for friends!
- He just wishes that the Lord would fix His gaze elsewhere and let him live out what sad life is before him. He just wants to be like that day laborer who is putting his day behind him! Verse 7.
• Job 14:7-12 : "For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its tender shoots will not cease. Though its root may grow old in the earth, and its stump may die in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and bring forth branches like a plant. But man dies and is laid away; Indeed he breathes his last and where is he? As water disappears from the sea, and a river becomes parched and dries up, so man lies down and does not rise. Till the heavens are no more, they will not awake nor be roused from their sleep." - What hope is there for a man? He's insignificant, transitory and sinful! He is born and from the day of his birth is headed toward his death! Even a tree is better off than he is!
- When it is cut down, it's not mortally wounded. Unless it is professionally uprooted, that tree will recover and it's branches will continually grow out from it.
- Even at a great age, just a little water brings it back to life! Remember that Job is basing much of his argument upon what he can see.
- A tree can make it's way back from seeming death, but that can't be said of a human being!
- A human being dies and is buried. When you and I breathe our last, we will go the way of all the Earth. Nobody on Earth will see us again. Nobody will know absolutely where we have gone.
- The dead, to the eyes of the living, are like a lake or river that has evaporated. Heaven and earth will pass away before they are awakened!
- Again, before you espouse a doctrine of soul sleep, keep in mind that Job is not commenting here upon what happens after death. His knowledge has proven to be quite limited.
- His point is that there is no coming back from death for a human being. A tree can make a comeback. A human being cannot. That is Job's overriding point. Verse 13.
• Job 14:13-17 : "Oh, that You would hide me in the grave, that You would conceal me until Your wrath is past, that You would appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, till my change comes. You shall call, and I will answer You; You shall desire the work of Your hands. For now You number my steps, but do not watch over my sin. My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and You cover my iniquity." :
- Job can only wish for the Lord to set him aside in the grave. Any form of escape is attractive.
- Our brother, without knowing any better, assumes that what has happened to him has happened as a result of God's wrath. If he were in the grave, the storm would just pass over him.
- The pain and suffering that are a part of our human existence is rarely caused by the expenditure of God's wrath! Yes, there are fiery consequences attached to sinful actions.
- When you are sexually active with anyone outside of the bonds of a marriage, there are consequences that will follow.
- When you live a life of thievery, inevitably you will be caught and your freedom will be stolen from you! This is why God warns us away from sin. It is devastating to human life!
- But even while you may look at consequential actions as a form of wrath, at best it is a passive form. Having just finished Revelation, I pray that we have a more informed view of wrath!
- Our suffering is not an expenditure of wrath, but the experience of a fallen planet!
- Job is not experiencing God's wrath, though, we cannot dismiss that he feels as if this were the case. He wishes to be excused from this time of suffering until God appoints him a hearing.
- Job asks poignantly, "Can a dead man live again?" With little scriptural light, our brother ponders a question that all men should consider. What if this life isn't all that there is?
- Job posed this same thought earlier in verse 10. "Man dies and is laid away; Indeed he breathes his last and where is he?" What if death isn't the end, but the beginning?
- Do the dead truly cease to exist? When we look at Job's next phrase, we'll see that he believes in life after death. In fact, I've yet to meet a person who doesn't truly believe this!
- I have conducted an untold number of funerals for people in varying states of holiness at the time of their death.
- Whether the person is a committed Christian or a blaspemous heathen, the comfort that is dispensed by those that love them is the same: "They are in a better place now!"
- People say that a belief in God is irrational and refuse to bow their knees to Him when things are going good. When circumstances change, you will hear each of them say, "Prayers up!"
- Every human, whether they choose to acknowledge it or not, believes in a transcendant God and an eternal life! Solomon will write that God has put "eternity in men's hearts!" (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
- Job recognizes this as he considers his life. "All the days of my hard service, I will wait till my change comes!" The words "hard service" carry a notion of involuntary wartime activity.
- For a follower of the Lord, life isn't a vacation or a pleasure cruise. It's a daily battle between two entities that are perpetually at war over the control of our soul!
- If the doctrine of sovereignty is struggled against, this doctrine of sanctification is right next to it. The enemy hopes that the hard service will tire you out and cause you to fall.
- God uses it to prepare you for greater service and to produce greater yields of faith toward Him. With every new battle, there is a greater capacity to enjoy heaven. That will be our "change!"
- The NIV and ESV employ the word "renewal." The original language refers to a change in raiment. Job wants to take off his military clothing and put on his civilian clothes!
- When that happens, everything will be better. God will call and Job will answer without fear.
- He will look forward
to seeing Job, to watching over his steps, but not his sin! When we are
"changed," we won't have the burden of sin attached to us!
- That new "now" related to our change will change everything between us and the Lord!
- At that time, all of Job's sin will be sealed up, locked away in a bundle and sewn up! What a wonderful portrait of what our life will be with the Lord when our redemption is full!
- Today, our redemption is guaranteed. On that day, it will be experienced in full measure!
- What a great day that will be when we have put off the clothes of our struggle and put on the immortality that has been designed for us!
- Paul will later tell the Corinthians that we will put off our incorruption in exchange for the incorruptible! It will be sown in dishonor, raised in glory! (I Corinthians 15:42-44)
- What a great day it will be when our struggle gives way to peace and safety! Our relationship with the Lord will not be interrupted by our own sin. It will be permanently sealed and out of sight!
- Job's words lift us out into the stratosphere. One might even think that he will make it out of the chapter on a chipper note. NAH! He plummets right back to the earth. Verse 18.
• Job 14:18-22 : "But as a mountain falls and crumbles away, and as a rock is moved from its place; As water wears away stones, and as torrents wash away the soil of the earth; So You destroy the hope of man. You prevail forever against him, and he passes on; You change his countenance and send him away. His sons come to honor, and he does not know it; They are brought low, and he does not perceive it. But his flesh will be in pain over it, and his soul will mourn over it.'" : There are inevitable natural occurrences that impress Job. Mountains that fall and crumble away. Large rocks that are removed from their place. Erosion of the stone and landslides.
- All of the hope in heaven cannot erase the experience of this Earth in the mind of the person who is suffering now!
- Whether it's the long term erosion of a mountain or the quick torrent, the end is the same: One hundred percent of the people who live, unless the rapture happens, will die!
- Job only considers God as the crushing and unrelenting power that deals with men!
- He causes them to fall before Him and he just keeps on moving without them knowing it! A man is taken from a bright countenance to a dreary gaze when God is through with him!
- Job is describing what happens to a man at his death. His change of countenance is the lifeless face that lays in the casket!
- He dies before he can know what will become of his family. I like the NLT's rendering of the final verses of this chapter.
• Job 14:21,22 (NLT) : "They never know if their children grow up in honor or sink to insignificance. They suffer painfully; their life is full of trouble.'" : Job might be able to ascend the clouds for a moment, but his pain brings him right back down to the dumps!
Conclusion
- As for you and I, Job rightly represents our case as humans. We are
frail, insignificant and transitory beings, stained to our core with an
uncleanness that we have no ability to address.
- Left to our own, we are nothing but frightened leaves, tumbleweeds rolling aimlessly through the corridors of our existence. Thank God for His Son, our Savior Jesus!
- Jesus has introduced us to an entirely different reality and furnished us with the answers to the questions that Job registered all those years ago!
- "Who can bring clean out of the unclean?" "What happens to man when he breathes his last?" "Can a man die and live again?" The Apostle Paul makes this statement to Timothy.
• II Timothy 1:8-10 : "Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." : We praise the Lord who can clean the man that will come to Him!
- We honor the Lord who has conquered death and has introduced us to a beautiful life that will never end for those that believe the gospel! With Job, we simply await our change!
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