Many Questions, Few Answers

[0:00] Today we are starting a new book of the Bible. We're going to look at the book of Job. It is not, as we said last week, it's not Job. This isn't the book of the Bible that tells us about our faith and work.

[0:11] This is the book of Job. And it is a shockingly bewildering account of a good and honest man and how he suffers unbelievably.

[0:24] And he suffers for a reason that he doesn't know or understand. And even those of us that have the Bible and get to see behind the scenes, even we struggle with it to understand it.

[0:35] And we're going to look at it for the next seven weeks. Now, the book of Job is part of a genre or the section of our Bibles known as the wisdom literature. So it's not part of the history. It's not primarily narrative.

[0:49] It doesn't involve the nation of Israel and how God's salvation history through them or the covenant people of God. Really, it's the wisdom literature like Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.

[1:04] And one of the things that wisdom literature is concerned about is who God is rather than what God has done and how we get to live wisely in light of who he is.

[1:17] And so, while most of the Bible has to do with the people of God as a community, the wisdom books really push us individually. They say, what about you? If you were in Job's shoes, how would you respond?

[1:29] And they call us, they question us. But one of the things that's interesting about the wisdom literature is you'd think that a section of the Bible called the wisdom literature would have all the answers to life's big questions.

[1:42] And actually, they very seldom do. One of the things that the wisdom literature does is it actually asks us the questions that we should be asking but very seldom ask. And they kind of provoke us and they prod us by asking these really big and challenging questions.

[1:58] For instance, last year we looked at Ecclesiastes. What is the meaning of life? Where can we find hope and purpose? And Job is going to do similarly. Secondly, the wisdom literature helps us find wisdom by asking us these questions that are going to bring us face to face with who God is.

[2:17] They're going to challenge us with who is our understanding of God. Now, at first, the book of Job seems to be about suffering. And in some ways it is. And we're going to see an incredible amount of suffering by this really good man.

[2:30] But actually, the book of Job is much more than just about suffering. What it's really about, it's actually about the limits of our understanding. It asks us the question, what will we do when our understanding of God and who He is and how He ought to run the world makes no sense to us?

[2:50] When our understanding of who God is and whether God is really sovereign is turned on its head, how will we respond? Will we throw our hands in the air and say, that's it, I'm done?

[3:02] Or will we come and trust Him? Will we trust Him? And so what the book of Job wants us to do is to step back and to see that our knowledge and our understanding of the world and how it works and how we think God ought to run the world is tremendously limited.

[3:22] And when our questions aren't answered and when the world seems completely disorientated and storm-tossed and when God's ways of dealing with the world seem nonsensical, unfair, even unjust, will we walk away or will we trust Him?

[3:39] That's what the book of Job is going to ask us. And so let's listen as we, Angelina comes and reads to us, Job chapter 1 and most of Job chapter 2. So let's listen to the reading of God's word this morning.

[3:59] Reading from Job chapter 1 and 2. Starting in verse 1 we read, There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.

[4:18] There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen and 500 female donkeys and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.

[4:41] 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.

[4:51] And when the days of feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them. And he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all.

[5:08] For Job said, It may be that my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus Job did continually. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.

[5:27] The Lord said to Satan, From where have you come? Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it.

[5:39] And 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 who fears God and turns away from evil?

[5:53] Then Satan answered the Lord and said, Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side?

[6:06] You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has and he will curse you to your face.

[6:21] And the Lord said to Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.

[6:33] So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house and there came a messenger to Job and said, The oxen were plowing, the donkeys feeding beside them and the Sabians fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword and I alone have escaped to tell you.

[7:04] While he was still yet speaking, there came another and said, The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them and I alone have escaped to tell you.

[7:18] While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword and I alone have escaped to tell you.

[7:33] While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young people and they are dead and I alone have escaped to tell you.

[8:04] Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshipped. And he said, Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return.

[8:19] The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

[8:36] Again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord.

[8:46] And the Lord said to Satan, From where have you come? Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it.

[8:59] And 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 who fears God and turns away from evil?

[9:13] He still hoses fast his integrity although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason. Then Satan answered the Lord and said, Skin for skin, all that a man has he will give for his life.

[9:31] But, stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse you to your face. And the Lord said to Satan, Behold, he is in your hand.

[9:48] Only spare his life. So Satan went from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his feet to the crown of his head.

[10:04] And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes. Then his wife said to him, Do you still hope fast your integrity?

[10:19] Curse God and die. But he said to her, You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God and shall we not receive evil?

[10:34] in all this Job did not sin with his lips. This is the word of God. Angelina, thank you for reading us this long passage.

[10:49] Let's pray together as we come with us. Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, your word is so challenging, God. It confronts us, it challenges us, it sometimes offends us.

[11:03] But God, we know it's true, we know it's good because it comes from you and you are true and you are good. And so God, I pray, won't you help us to understand your word? Won't you open the eyes of our hearts to see you in your word?

[11:16] God, bring us to your throne room this morning, God. Help us to see you afresh. God, won't you both challenge us and comfort us from your word and help us to trust you, I pray.

[11:30] God, this morning we also want to just pray for our friends Gary and Kathy as Gary's in hospital and just going through his tremendous trial. Won't you again draw near to them? Won't you by your Holy Spirit really draw near to them today, God?

[11:43] Won't you bring healing to Gary's body in the hospital bed as they're in Beijing this morning and as they come back to Hong Kong tonight? Father, we pray for your protection just on the transition back to Hong Kong and we pray for the doctors to have profound wisdom.

[11:57] God, we pray above all for your healing hand to be involved in Gary this weekend and the next few weeks as he recovers from his fainting episode this week.

[12:11] Lord, we bring our friends before your throne of grace this morning and ask in your mercy won't you heal them? In your great name we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay, well, if you've got your Bible or your bulletin, keep it open.

[12:25] We're going to be looking at this passage, Job chapter 1 and 2. Now, Job 1 starts off telling us really how amazing Job is.

[12:37] I mean, that's the point of the first few verses, right? It says, there's this man in the land of Uz and his name was Job and he was blameless and he was upright and he feared God and he turned away from evil and he was super rich and had all sorts of amazing, life was really wonderful for him and it says, verse 3, he was the greatest man of all the people of the east.

[13:00] And the narrator is not just trying to give us background information, he's not just painting the scene, he's making a point here and he's saying, Job was a really, really good man, a really righteous man.

[13:14] In fact, a more righteous, more good man you could, you would struggle to find. He says he's blameless, which doesn't mean sinless perfection. Later on, Job repents of his sin and he says, listen, I've sinned in my youth but what it means is he's genuinely authentic.

[13:32] His inside life and his outside life, his public life and his private life are completely aligned. He's not one thing in public and another thing in private.

[13:43] It says he's upright in his dealings with people, fair and honest, just, transparent. He's one who fears God. He relates to God out of reverence and humility.

[13:55] In verse 5, we read that he offers sacrifices on behalf of his children in case his children might possibly have sinned in their hearts. He's someone who loves what God loves and hates what God hates.

[14:08] We're told he's someone who turned away from evil. Whatever is even smells of anything unlike God, he wants nothing to do with it. And in verse 8, we see that God says the same thing about Job.

[14:21] He is blameless and upright, fears God and turns away from evil. In chapter 2, God says the same thing about him a second time. And so three times we read, here is this amazing, amazing man.

[14:33] And the narrator's point is in Job, we have someone who is truly righteous, truly God-fearing, truly honorable and honest. He's walked with God and he's reaped the blessings.

[14:46] He's abundantly prosperous. He's blessed. He is prosperous and successful. He's described as the greatest of all the people of the East. And the narrator wants us to have no doubt that a more upright, godly, religious, devout, wonderful man you will never find.

[15:07] Christopher Ash writes, here is a good man who's become a great man, a pious man who's become a prosperous man. It's a picture of the world as the world ought to be, a world where the righteous lead and are prosperous, where prosperity, gospel of health, wealth, and happiness seems to be true.

[15:28] Job is faithful and everything is good and wonderful and very short-lived because the picture doesn't last very long.

[15:40] Five verses of Disneyland and 41 and a half chapters of hell because verse 6 everything seems to go wrong and it goes wrong for anybody who takes Job seriously.

[15:55] From verse 6 onwards and the rest of the scripture that Angela read to us, there are two narratives that are going to happen in parallel, one in heaven and one on earth and these two narratives are deeply troubling and challenging and Job is somehow caught in the middle of them and so let's look at what happens here.

[16:16] Verse 6, one day God is having a meeting with his angels here called the sons of God, kind of like God's heavenly counsel in the spiritual realm and there's this character called the Satan that somehow appears and arrives and I picture that he's off in the distance somehow, I don't think he is part of God's heavenly counsel but he's in the spiritual realm and God is meeting with his heavenly counsel and he calls off to Satan and says, Satan by the way just come and talk to us for a minute, what have you been up to?

[16:48] And the Satan says, oh you know, I've been going to and fro of the earth, walking up and down and doing my business and what is his business? Well his business is to tempt and to taunt those who want to follow God and remain faithful and trust him, to tempt them away from trusting God and following him to living lives of self-dependence, self-sufficiency, ultimately lives of destruction.

[17:16] And we know from the rest of scripture that Satan does this in various ways, sometimes division and conflict in the church, sometimes through lies and accusations that he'll put in our mind, sometimes through suffering and sickness, sometimes through bitterness and resentment and hardness of heart, sometimes actually he'll do it through prosperity and blessing and pride, but Satan uses various mechanisms to tempt and taunt those that want to trust God and follow him away from trusting the Lord towards trusting themselves.

[17:49] And so, God starts this conversation and he says, well, Satan, this is your job to draw people away from trusting me. Have you considered my servant Job? And it looks like you're not doing a very good job because here's my servant Job and he's pretty blameless, pretty upright, pretty faithful.

[18:08] He loves what I love and he hates what I hate. Have you seen Job? It doesn't look like you're doing a very good job. And Satan replies, look what he says, does Job fear you for nothing?

[18:22] In other words, does he trust you for no reward? You've put a hedge around him. You've blessed him. You've protected him. You've made sure that nothing wrong can happen to him.

[18:34] Take that hedge of protection away. Withdraw your hand. Let him suffer for a bit. Let him go through hardship and you will see he will curse you to your face.

[18:45] Satan says, Job doesn't love you. He doesn't serve you because he really honors you or treasures you. He serves you because you serve him.

[18:58] And as long as you serve him, he will keep on serving you. Satan says, as long as you're good to him, he will be good to you. But Job doesn't actually love you. He just loves, he's just using you.

[19:12] This is why he's devoted. He doesn't love you. He loves the things that you give him. He doesn't truly treasure you. No, he loves the treasures that come his way because he serves you.

[19:24] Job doesn't really honor you or think you are worthy of worship. No, he is faithful because faithfulness gets him certain results. And so Satan says, remove your blessings from his life.

[19:38] Let him suffer and come to difficulty. Pain and heartache will come his way and he will curse you to your face. Now friends, it's a profound question that the Satan asks, right?

[19:52] It's a question that we need to ask ourselves. Friends, do we truly love God or do we simply love the benefits that come our way from serving him? Do we truly treasure him or do we treasure him simply because we think that doing so will allow him to bless us, cause him to bless us?

[20:14] Friends, do we adore God or do we simply use him? Satan says that Job is someone who simply uses God for the good things that God will give him and bless him.

[20:27] And so God amazingly gives Satan permission to test, to tent, and to taunt Satan and to allow hardship to come his way. Now, before we continue, a couple of things to think about here.

[20:42] This raises all sorts of questions, right? Especially about this character, the Satan. I mean, who is this guy and what's going on with this? Well, there's a lot here that's not particularly clear.

[20:53] Whether he's the same character as the rest of the Bible calls the Satan or not, we're not sure. I think he is. But here are a couple of things to think about. One thing, it's clear that Satan is certainly not as smart as we generally think he is.

[21:08] We tend to think of the Satan as this omniscient, all-knowing, powerful being. But look, there's actually a whole lot that he doesn't know. He doesn't know what's going on inside Job's heart.

[21:19] He says, this is what's going on inside Job's heart. And he's completely wrong. He doesn't know the future. He says, listen, if you do this, this is what's going to happen.

[21:31] Just like you said in Genesis chapter 3. And yet he's completely wrong. So Satan is certainly not as smart as we sometimes think he is. He doesn't know what's going on with Job and he doesn't know the future.

[21:44] But also, he's not as powerful as we tend to think he is. Satan is on a chain. God gives him certain latitude. God allows him to inflict injury on Job.

[21:55] But notice, he can affect Job's circumstances if God allows, but he cannot touch Job's heart. He is not the master of Job's destiny.

[22:07] He is not the captain of his fate. Friends, Satan can test us, he can tempt us, he can taunt us, he can lie to us, but he cannot make you do anything.

[22:18] He has no power over your heart, over your decisions. He does not control your life. And the reason is because thirdly, Satan is not equal to God.

[22:29] Friends, the spiritual realm of the Bible is not yin and yang, of two cosmic beings battling it out for the good of the world. There is a God and he is sovereign and he rules the world.

[22:42] And there is a created being, a fallen angel called the Satan. And yes, he is a rival to God in sense that he wants to bring down his kingdom and draw people away from, but God has no equals.

[22:57] He has no rivals. Satan is a fallen created being who will one day be consigned to an eternity in the lake of fire which is always burning but never consuming.

[23:09] And so friends, do not fear the Satan. Do not be anxious or worried about him. He is not in control of your life. Submit to God. Surrender to God. He is the only one who is all powerful.

[23:22] Satan does not own you. He does not control you. He is not all-knowing. He is not all-powerful. He is not God's equal. And so what happens is God says to Satan, okay, Job is in your hands to a limited extent.

[23:37] You can cause difficulty, pain, and suffering to come his way but do not touch him. And what happens next is maybe apart from Good Friday, one of the most dreadful days in the history of the world.

[23:51] First, the Sabians, this dreadful nation from the north, come and attack Job's, his oxen, his donkeys, his wealth, his portfolio of animals is wiped out.

[24:06] While he's hearing the report of this, a fire falls from heaven, possibly lightning, and wipes out a second part of his portfolio. His sheepfold and all his servants are killed.

[24:18] While he's hearing the report of this, his manager is busy giving him the bad news, another messenger comes in and says, this other part of your portfolio, your thousands of camels are all killed and so are your servants at the hands of the Chaldeans.

[24:34] And just when Job thinks things couldn't get any possibly worse, the final servant comes in and says, natural disaster is struck and all your children have been killed and all your servants and I alone am left.

[24:53] And friends, suddenly everything that is precious to Job and everything that makes Job a great man and everything makes his life worthwhile and worth living in one miserable and disastrous day is taken from him.

[25:12] It all comes crashing down. It's like the music in the playground in Disney Park suddenly comes to a screeching halt. The rides come to a grinding halt or the laughter and the joy fade out in the background and Job goes from looking at this happy scene to staring into the abyss of darkness and hell itself.

[25:36] And the point that the writer of Job wants to make is that the end of Job chapter 1 couldn't possibly be more different from its beginning. In the beginning we have this blessed and prosperous and happy and wonderful man and at the end we have a man who is marked with shame and disgrace and despised.

[25:58] And the point is why is this? Is it because Job is secretly in his heart a wicked man? Is it that he is reaping what he has sown? No, the point is just the opposite.

[26:11] It's not because he's a bad man it's because he's such a righteous man. If Job was somehow harboring some evil or darkness in his life the whole story wouldn't make sense.

[26:23] It's precisely because he's such a good man because he's so God-fearing and righteous that the story makes sense. That Satan can allow this to happen. Job's suffering is simply beyond comprehension.

[26:38] And so look at verse 20. Job hears the report of this and it says Job rose and tore his robe perhaps symbolizing the tearing that is taking place in his heart.

[26:49] He shaves his head as a sign of mourning and an identification with the dead and he falls on the ground. And so friends let me ask you have you ever gone through a dark night of the soul where everything that was precious and good was taken from you?

[27:12] Friends have you ever found yourselves so crushed and compressed by the weight of pain and agony and desperation having nowhere to turn and nothing to hold on to that it seems like the insides were going to burst.

[27:28] Friends maybe you've had to bury a child. It's not the way it should happen. Children should bury their parents. Friends maybe you've watched a loved one being eaten alive by cancer until you eventually had to say goodbye.

[27:47] Friends have you been unfairly accused sidelined ridiculed have your name tarnished dragged through the mud your reputation your career destroyed unfairly unjustly and how did we respond?

[28:04] How do we respond? This is the question that Job is asking us. When we are unrighteously and unfairly and unjustly brought to our knees how will we respond?

[28:17] Well I must confess that I have not experienced many of those things not to the level that many of you have this morning but let's look at how Job responds.

[28:27] Look at verse 20. Job arose and he tore his robe he shaved his head he fell down onto the ground and he worshipped.

[28:38] he worshipped. Friends how few of us find worship to be our first reaction even at the best of times.

[28:51] Many of us struggle to worship even when it's all laid out for us and all we have to do is just arrive. And here is a man who is staring in the face a multitude of losses and bereavements who's been utterly stripped of everything that's precious to him and is walking through loss after loss after loss and his first response is to lift his eyes God would and somehow whether out of instinct or discipline or maybe just sheer desperation he falls on his knees and he worships.

[29:24] And when it says he worships I don't think that means he belts out a worship song. I think it means that he somehow finds the strength to out of the words of his mouth and out of his mind if not yet his heart to say God you are God and you are worthy of adoration and reverence.

[29:46] It's shockingly provocative and challenging and C.S. Lewis I don't have the exact quote to paraphrase him in his book The Screwtape Letters says there is nothing so dangerous to the cause of Satan as when a person no longer desiring but still attending to do God's will looks round upon a universe in which every trace of God seems to have vanished and asks why he has been utterly forsaken and yet still trusts and obeys.

[30:18] Friends one of the things that the Bible tells us is that if you live long enough you will suffer tremendously and every one of us will go through some kind of dark night of the soul we are looking around the universe upon us it will seem as if every trace of God has vanished where God is silent and the world seems amuck with injustice and pain and heartache and God will seem either not to care or not to be able to do anything about it and in those moments the question that Job asks us is how will we respond how will we respond Job arose and tore his robe shaved his hair fell to his knees and worshipped verse 21 he says naked I came from my mother's womb naked I shall return the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away blessed means praise blessed be the name of the Lord in all this Job did not sin or charge

[31:19] God with wrong it's an unbelievable conclusion to the most shocking story except it's not the conclusion it's only half way and the book of Job is going to keep on shocking us for another 41 chapters it's going to be an emotional rollercoaster of the next seven weeks and so Job chapter 2 starts off the same way we are back in heaven and God is meeting with his council of angels at some point God sees Satan and he says Satan come over here and talk to us for a second he says have you considered my servant Job that upright and blameless man who trusts God and honors him he still holds to his integrity though you incited me against him to destroy him without reason Satan you father of lies says God your cynical ignorance has found you out you thought you knew Job you thought you could turn him against me you thought his devotion depended on his circumstances but you were wrong for you are always wrong

[32:23] Satan and even after you did that even after I allowed you to nearly destroy him still he worships so the Satan goes again he says oh that's because you haven't really allowed me to touch him you only allowed me to touch him on a surface level skin for skin which is a shocking statement as if that didn't penetrate deeply allow me to really hurt him and then you'll see he'll curse you to your face and Christopher Ash points out that if we were writing the book of Job or if we were God we would have said that's enough enough is enough the man has suffered more than anyone else in one day he has suffered tremendously no more Satan be banished but we're not God and that's the point and one of the things we're going to learn again and again in the book of Job is that we are not God and God does not act like us and so God agrees to allow Satan to strike Job once again more intensely and more intimately than before and so verse 7 of chapter 2

[33:26] Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head a total and intimate suffering all of Job's personhood is invaded with this suffering and verse 8 Job goes out in the rubbish heap of the city he takes a piece of broken pottery scrapes himself and he sits in the ashes and as if Job hasn't suffered enough now the person closest to him his wife turns to him and says curse God and die curse God and die but in all this Job did not sin friends what do we do with Job chapter one and two well one of the things as I said earlier the book of Job doesn't actually give us many answers and even when he gets right to the end God does not answer many of

[34:28] Job's questions and that's deeply provocative and challenging it's offensive it's gut wrenching it's confrontational so what are we meant to do with it well I think coming back to what I said in the beginning the book of Job asks us this question when God and his ways seem deeply unjust unfair and make no sense when God allows severe hardship to come our way and it seems that God leaves us and is abandoned us what will we do will we shake our fists at the heavens and walk away will we accuse God or will we somehow turn our eyes heaven would and say God I do not understand I do not know why you are doing the things you do but one thing I know is you are God and I am not and I will let you be God and so what are we to do with this well

[35:29] Job asks us one question and that is the question how will we respond when God's ways seem unjust friends when we read God's word and it offends us and it challenges us when God's ways go against how you feel what must be right with the world will you curse God and die will you shake your fist at God and walk out or will you somehow resolve out of desperation better still out of faith to will you find it in your heart to trust him to worship him to obey him will you let God be God the question that Job asks us but maybe you're thinking Kevin you've got to be out of your mind right after all we've read this morning how on earth why would I ever trust God and that's a good question and the

[36:51] God hasn't left us in the dark in fact he's given us his Bible he's given us his word so that though we may not have the answer to every question one thing we do know is that God is in heaven and he is God and we can hold on to him remember Isaiah 55 I think it is it says my ways are infinitely higher than your ways my thoughts are we would have been left in the dark but he tells us that not because he's going to give us every answer he tells us that so that when it feels like we are walking in the dark we can hold on to him and we can say God I do not understand your ways I do not understand your thoughts but one thing I know is that you are God and I am not and we can hold on to him and so friends when God's ways are traveling and challenging and difficulty the reason that we have the Bible is so that deconstruction and doubt and walking away from

[37:56] God is not the only option left to us God doesn't give us the Bible just to entertain us or to scold us for not being as good as Job but calls us to trust in God like Job did and to trust in the God that Job did trust in and so friends as we read this book of Job it's going to be challenging but let's cry out to God to give us the faith to trust him as Job did Job didn't have a Bible and he didn't know about the conversation in heaven but we do and so let's trust him secondly Job didn't know about the gospel and he didn't know about Jesus but we do and so let's trust him now the cross of Jesus Christ is not the primarily point of the book of Job but it's impossible to read the book of Job without seeing in it the shadows of the truly innocent man who truly suffered friends the entire

[38:59] Bible revolves around the one righteous man the one innocent man who was infinitely more innocent than Job and yet suffered innocently more than Job ever suffered and friends Jesus sacrificial suffering on the cross makes no sense to us and to many in the world for those of us who are Christians who have come to love and trust Jesus and see him for who he is the suffering servant Jesus the Lord it gives us such hope and such confidence but for most of the world a naked suffering servant hanging on a cross as a savior is utterly scandalous and ridiculous it makes no sense at all just like the story of Job and yet for those of us who have come to be saved by it is our hope it is our sure foundation it is an anchor for the soul it is a rock upon which we can build our lives Christ the sure and steady anchor while the tempest rages on

[40:05] Christ the sure and steady anchor through the floods of doubt and unbelief Christ the sure and steady anchor as we face the waves of death friends Job didn't know about the suffering servant but we do Job didn't know that Jesus would die and rise again and promise that he would come again but we do and when the storms of life seem unbearable and when life has more questions than answers and when we have nothing to hold on to let us hold on to Jesus who went into the depth of hell itself on our behalf for us and came out the other side and let's hold on to him and so dear friends Job poses the question when life hits rock bottom and God seems silent how will we respond will we turn our backs and figure out life on our own or will we somehow find it in our hearts to turn to him to trust him to obey him even to worship let's pray

[41:18] Father God Job chapter 1 and 2 leaves us this morning with many questions it leaves our hearts wondering but God it's not the end of the story God I know that many of us here this morning may feel like Job in the storms of life when the tempest rages on God I pray by your spirit won't you draw near to us and lift our eyes and see Christ our sure and steady anchor father when we are tempted to give up on you and to take the reins of our life and to be our own God lord won't you draw near to us and help us to turn our eyes God and to trust you father I pray by your spirit won't you draw us near to yourself and help us

[42:20] God won't you give us faith like Job won't you cause us God in the storm to look to you and God by your spirit we pray won't you comfort us and won't you give us hope won't you cause us to trust to obey to worship in your name we pray amen