Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Encountering God | The Writings | Job 42

Episode Date: June 17, 2024

Do you want to have an encounter with God? How would it make you feel? Peaceful? Soothed? Safe? In today's episode, Keith teaches on Job 42, explaining why Job's encounter with God completely changed his life. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Job 42

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Do you want to encounter God? Maybe you think that's an easy question. I mean, of course you do. You're listening to 10-minute Bible talks. Of course you'd love to meet with God.

How do you know when you've met with Him? Some people say that they meet God when they pray and read their Bible. And I think what they mean by that is they experience grace and peace in their heart. or some people say they meet with God on Sunday morning in the worship service, and I think they mean that they left with goosebumps, overwhelmed with God's power and love. When most Christians talk about encountering God, they say he makes them feel safe, secure, and soothed. Those are really good things. God wants Christians to experience comfort, grace, and peace. But you can't help but notice that when the Bible tells stories of people encountering God, it's anything but

safe and soothing. Seeing God's glory would have killed Moses, so God only let him see his backside. Isaiah had a vision of God and immediately fell to his knees and pleaded for forgiveness. When Peter saw Jesus and who he really was, he fell at his feet and said, I am unworthy to be in your presence. In the book of Revelation, John falls down as a dead man in the presence of God. You see, in the Bible, when people meet with God, they leave feeling power. powerless, fearful, and amazed. If you've been following along with us during the past few episodes, you know that we've been looking at the story of Job in the Old Testament. And today, we're going to cover the last chapter of the book, Job 42. In this chapter, we'll get to see how Job responds

after having his own encounter with God. But before we get to it, I want to quickly go through what's happened in the story so far. But this time, I want to do something a little bit different. I want us to think about the story from Job's perspective. Remember, in chapters 1 and 2, we got a sneak peek into God's divine counsel of angelic beings. It's there we saw the conversation between Satan and God about Job. It's there we see how happy God was with Job. He called him a blameless and righteous man. It's there that we saw that God allowed Satan to test Job.

But it's important for us to remember that Job didn't know any of that had happened. Job didn't get the sneak peek that we did. Job didn't get to know what God was doing behind the scenes. All Job knew is that one day he had everything, a big family, a big estate, a healthy body, and lots of money, and the next day it was all gone. To us, what happens to Job is a story that we read about in our Bible, but to him it was his life, and it didn't end there.

After God let Satan take everything away from Job, Job has a long, long, long conversation with his friends, and in that conversation, Job's friends who also couldn't see behind the scenes into what God was doing. Those friends assumed that God took everything away from Job because he had sinned. They assumed that because Job was suffering, it meant that he did something wrong and he deserved to suffer. Job, however, doesn't think that's true. So Job and his friends argue and argue and argue for 35 long chapters.

Job loses everything in his life for no reason, and he gets no explanation from God, and then is told by his friends that he deserved it. At this point, as a reader of Job's story, we expect some sort of clarity or resolution, but Job didn't get that luxury. He just had to wait. I'm sure that Job would have loved to have heard from God. If you had asked him, he would have loved to have gotten an answer as to why he was suffering to get some sort of clarity on why all this evil was occurring.

He wanted an explanation from God. And don't you find that you could identify with him? When you suffer or when your friends suffer, don't you ask for an explanation? Like God, I just want to know why. I just want a reason why this is happening to me. Well, in chapter 38, Job finally gets his answer. Kind of. In chapter 38, God speaks to Job in the midst of a whirlwind, but his answer is not what Job was expecting. God doesn't tell Job why he let his suffering occur. He doesn't let him in behind the scenes of his plan and what he's doing in the world. He doesn't give Job a perfect laid-out response or reasoning for everything that's happened. Instead, God reminds Job who he is. is. In chapters 38 to 41, God reminds Job that he is the one who created the universe. He is the God outside of time. He is the God who sees all things and knows all things and has a plan for all

things. And after God is done speaking, Job responds to him in chapter 42, verses 1 to 6. Here's what Job says to God. I know that you can do all things. No purpose of yours can be thwarted. You asked, who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge? Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. You said, listen now, and I will speak. I will question you, and you shall answer me. My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.

I think the story of Job can be summed up by what he says in verse 5. Here it is one more time. ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. You see, before his suffering, Job had heard a lot about God. He had heard that God was the creator of all things. He had heard of God's power and his might. He had heard of God's justice and righteousness. But when his suffering came, he began to question what he heard. Was it all really true? He began to ask questions. Like, is God really good? Does he really love me? Is he really in control? For Job, it took extreme suffering to have an encounter with God. But when it came, it trumped any reason, any logic, or any

explanation. We have to remember that Job never got an answer to his questions. Instead, he got something far, far better. He saw God. And when he saw God, it terrified him. You see, before his encounter with God, Job was standing his ground, pointing his finger at God and asking why. but after God spoke, Job fell to his face and repented. Before his encounter with God, Job thought he knew everything. But after God spoke, Job realized there were things that were too wonderful for him to understand. Before his encounter with God, Job had heard of God's glory, but now Job has seen it. See, most of us never get an answer on why we are suffering.

We don't get an explanation for why there's evil in the world. sure, God does tell all of us that sin and suffering are part of his bigger plan, and we're told that he's at work right now in our life through the suffering he has brought to us. He works it out for our good and for his glory. We also know that God brought suffering into Paul's life to help him to rely less on himself and more on God. So I think we can assume that one thing God wants to do in our life is teach us God reliance instead of self-reliance. But even though God gives us some general promises to hold on to, we never get a personal explanation for the personal suffering we've experienced in our life. Now, if Job were here today, if he could talk to us, I think he would tell us

that's okay. I think he would tell us that there's something better than an answer. Job ultimately trusted that God knew what was best. Job trusted that his suffering had a purpose. Job trusted that God had a plan, a good plan. And as people who live on the other side of the cross, we get to see how that plan turned out. Like Job, we still don't have a reason that explains why God lets evil happen. Instead, God gives us himself. Yes, God gives us himself, suffering on a cross. God doesn't give us an answer. He gives us a person. If God gave us an answer, we'd argue with it. We'd pick it apart. An answer would seem cold and distant and unsatisfying. Instead, God gives us Jesus, who understands our suffering because he experienced suffering.

He experienced injustice and pain. Jesus is the perfect Job. He is the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. But he is also the perfect God who spoke to Job, the one who holds all things together. When Jesus suffered, he didn't curse his father in heaven. Instead, he suffered silently and took the wrath that we deserve. In Jesus, we have our answer, and it's far greater than any reason that God could give us. The Jesus who died at our place is the Jesus who rose three days later. The Jesus who drank the cup of wrath is the Jesus who is raised by the power of the spirit. The Jesus who is slain by death is the Jesus who defeated the grave. This is the Jesus who promises us a resurrection like his.

This is the Jesus who will wipe away every tear. This is the Jesus who will make all things new again. In Jesus, the book of Job finds its fulfillment. In Jesus, we can walk through our suffering with hope. In Jesus, we know that our suffering does not get the last word. So today, live, knowing that your suffering has a purpose. It has been answered once and for all in the death. and resurrection of Jesus. We patiently wait for Him, our one true hope. Amen.