One Year Bible, August 21

JOB 1:1 - 3:26                                                                                                                     
GOD DID THIS TO JOB:  Job was a REAL PERSON. Job's Name means, "hated, persecuted, calamitous, afflicted, adversity." (That should have told him something!)  Job actually lived another 140 years beyond these dramatic events. It probably took place before Abraham, and over a period of a few months to a year, about 1800 BC.   Job is one of the greatest Christians that ever lived. He had no Bible, no Holy Spirit, no pastor or church, no Temple or altar, and yet he stood up under tremendous opposition from Satan and accusations from his "friends" without caving in.  Job did not read chapters 1, 2 or 42 and had no knowledge of the deal that God had made concerning him.  God called him "perfect and upright" (1:8; 2:3)   Job was probably a desert Caliph or Sultan of great wealth and power, and was known as "the greatest of all the sons of the east." (1:3)

SUFFERING OF THE GODLY:  How do we reconcile suffering of the godly with the justice and love of God?  Especially when Job was INNOCENT of wrongdoing!  James 5:11 says we are to examine the PATIENCE of Job - not just his faith or his questions about "why". "Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job."

OVERWHELMED BY TROUBLE:  Job lost his fortune, family, and his health.  He was abandoned by relatives, accused by friends, afflicted by Satan.  He didn't understand WHY, or what he had done to deserve this!  WE KNOW that God is proving to the devil that Job's faith and integrity are genuine.  His three "friends": ELEPHAZ, BILDAD, ZOPHAR "comforted" him by calling him a hypocrite and telling him that he was being punished by God because of hidden sin. Then ELIHU tried to convince him that this was chastisement sent to purify Job.   While there is some truth in what everyone said, it wasn't true about JOB! Job 2:3 says that God had NO CAUSE against Job!

THE TRUTH ABOUT JOB:  God pointed Job out to Satan.  We know that Satan NO LONGER HAS ACCESS to God or to heaven (the abode of the Throne of God) (Luk 10:18).(1:8)  The best explanation we have for what happened to Job is this:

"To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:" (Eph 3:10-11)

Job's suffering was designed as a TRIAL in which Job could prove himself in opposition to Satan.  God declared Job to be in the right and restored his prosperity and happiness with a DOUBLE PORTION.  Job was tested and triumphed.  Christian character can be maintained in adverse circumstances.

REASONS FOR SUFFERING:  Satan is somewhere behind pain and suffering.  All sin leads to death (chaos, darkness, suffering).  Suffering purifies (refining, sifting), reveals character and exposes areas of weakness that need to be dealt with.  Suffering is providentially allowed to bring God glory (martyrs, eg.)   Apostle Paul said, "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death..." (Phil 3:10)   And in Hebrews 5:8-9 it says of Jesus, "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;"   Through the crucifixion of the SELF, we can manifest the nature and character of Jesus to the cosmos.  The Book of Job reveals deeper lessons of the just suffering for the unjust, of patience and endurance as we finish our course, and the total inadequacy of the natural mind in trying to understand how God is dealing with us. There is a mysterious relationship between suffering and God's unfolding plans.  Man looks for "cause and effect", but God has His purposes. God does not have to explain Himself to us!

SATAN'S INSULT:  Job 2:4 states that Satan believers that we will do anything and pay anything to save ourselves.  That man is totally self-defensive and into preserving SELF.  Yet, Rev 12:11 says, "And they overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death."   Added to this, Job's own wife told him to "curse God and die".  And in all this, "Job did not sin with his lips."  But he did say, "I can't relax. I can't rest. I can't get settled down."

RESPONSE:   There is way more here than I can comment on.  I am trying to hit the highlights. (or are these lowlights?)  I have been through some painful things that I STILL can't figure out.  It is spiritually immature to always look for "cause and effect", instead of PURPOSE.   Something that I have learned through trials is that GOD IS FAITHFUL.  I thank God that we have a Bible, a reliable Church, pastors, the Holy Spirit, fellow-believers, and on and on.  We have no excuse for letting go of our faith.

1 CORINTHIANS 14:1-17                                                                                                  
THE ADVANTAGES OF SPEAKING IN TONGUES (in private): (1) We speak "mysteries" understood by God, directly to God (Rom 8:26 Sometimes we don't know what to pray because we have a "prayer infirmity".)  (2) We edify ourselves when we pray in tongues - build ourselves up (Jude 20).  (3) I am praying with my spirit, and so I won't pray selfishly.

PROPHESYING: (1) Anyone can do it - and should desire it.  (2) Unless you are a recognized church elder, (giving direction or correction) your prophesy MUST "comfort, strengthen or encourage."   (3) Outsiders and anyone else can understand prophecy. (4) It is spiritually immature to "show off" in a public message in tongues without an interpretation. (I am NOT talking about praying or singing "in the spirit" collectively.)

RESPONSE:   The people listed as thinking "tongues" are weird are "unbelievers or unlearned" (ignorant). The original language, Greek, word for "unlearned" is "idiotes".  Guess what word we get from that!  So, I used to tell people (when I got into arguments about it), that the ONLY people who think "tongues" are weird are unbelievers and idiots!  Of course, now I am much more tolerant - and even invite questions, because I have been guilty of some weird behavior.

THE REAL POINT IS:  It is spiritually immature to show off in church, just because we can.  It alienates people.

PSALM 37:12-29                                                                                                                  
WHY DO THE WICKED PROSPER & THE RIGHTEOUS PERISH? The wicked's prosperity is short-lived and has within itself the seeds of self-destruction.  We can say with the Apostle Paul:

"We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." (2 Cor 4:8-10)

We are never "cast down" - This word means "to pitch over like a sheep on its back." (with NO hope of recovery!)  If a sheep gets "cast down" - upside-down, it can't right itself, and becomes prey to wolves. Though we FALL, we won't get "cast down" and fall prey to our enemies. 

PROVERBS 21:25-26                                                                                                        
My mother used to say, "Wish in one hand and spit in the other, and then see which one fills up the quickest."   If you are lazy, you'll never have anything!  That's just a fact!  But the righteous: believers can give without diminishing themselves. That's a fact, too!

RESPONSE:   In a fight, as long as we are still standing, we can win.  If we quit or give up, we'll lose for sure!  I am talking about our war with the flesh.  The war with our own misery and pain because our thinking is messed up.  This Psalm was NOT written by a man full of self-pity. He knew that the principle of "death and resurrection"  a fact of the believer's life.   We share in the "dying of Jesus Christ" (the old man) so that "the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." TA-DAAAAAA!