Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - God is God, You Are Not | The Writings | Job 2

Starting point is 00:00:00 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. If you had to use one word to describe what's at the heart of the Christian story, what word would you pick? What word best describes the story of the Bible? If you're like me, you might say something like love or grace or forgiveness, maybe mercy or peace or joy or power. But if you told me to list off 100 words to describe the Bible story, I'm not sure I would have ever used the word that Tim Keller does. This is what he says. Suffering is at the heart of the Christian

Starting point is 00:00:39 story. Although it's surprising, I think Keller is on to something. The Israelites were enslaved in Egypt. David had to run from Saul. The early Christians were persecuted by Rome. The Bible contains story after story of people encountering various kinds of suffering. But no story is quite as famous as Job's. Job is an entire book of the Bible devoted to the topic of suffering and how humans should respond to it. And in Job chapter two, we find there are two ways to respond to suffering in our lives, the wise way and the foolish way. But before we get to the action in Job 2, let's have a quick refresher from Jeff's episode on Job 1 last Friday. In Scene 1, or you might think of it as Chapter 1, we meet Job. Job is a righteous man with a big family, big pockets,

Starting point is 00:01:24 and a big estate. The author literally tells us that Job was the greatest man among everyone in the East. Now, Job is to the East what Michael Jordan was to Chicago. Job is to the east what Kanye is to, well, Kanye. Job is to the east what you thought you were in middle school. So that's Job. He's the big man on campus. But then in the middle of the story about Job, the author cuts to scene too. In the second scene, we ascend to the divine counsel of God. And as God sits on his throne, we meet a new character, the Satan. In Hebrew, the word Satan means the out of adversary or the opposer. So Satan is not so much a name as it is a title. And in Job, the Satan is one of the many angels in God's divine counsel who report to him. And as you would expect, the opposer

Starting point is 00:02:12 ends up opposing. God says Job is very righteous and a great man. And Satan says, well, yeah, but that's only because you've given him a big family, big pockets, and a big estate. If all those things were taken away from him, Satan says, he'd curse you. So God says, okay, fine, take all that away from Job, and let's see if he curses me. So Satan, with God's permission, makes Job a man with no family, empty pockets, and no estate. But unfortunately for Satan, after three great tragedies, Job does not curse God. Instead, he bows down to God and worships. And that brings us to Job 2. In Job 2, we're brought back to the divine council, where God continues to talk about Job to Satan. This is what God says in the third verse. Then the Lord said to Satan, have you

Starting point is 00:02:59 considered my servant, Job, there is no one on earth like him. He is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil, and he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason. So let's pause there for a second. In these verses, God says that Job, by being loyal and obedient to God, even in his suffering, has maintained his integrity. In other words, Job has acted wisely. According to God, it is wise for Job to trust in him. even when his life falls apart, even when tragedies occur, and it seems like there's no good reason for it. And there really was no good reason for it. Did you catch what God said in verse three? He still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.

Starting point is 00:03:46 God agrees that there's no reason for Job's suffering, and yet the author paints Job's response of worship as wise. Why? Well, because Job understands a simple but revolutionary truth. God is God, and Job isn't. And God is God and you aren't. This simple truth is the foundation of all wisdom. It's the beginning of humility. You're not in control of your life. You don't determine what's right and wrong. You don't know what's best, but God does. Do you believe that God is God and that you're not God? Do you trust His wisdom? You might be tempted to believe that if you were God over the universe, you would know exactly how things should run, or at least how your life should be run. You'd be a good God, right? Well, anytime I start to believe those lies, I have to remind myself, would I really be that good of a God?

Starting point is 00:04:34 Because if I'm being honest, I'm not even that good of a person. Job wisely understood that he did not have God's perspective. He didn't have God's authority. He did not get to decide what should and shouldn't happen, but God did. And Job recognized that his life was in God's hands, whether he liked it or not. This, God says, is wisdom. This is a righteous man. But to Satan is not yet convinced of Job's right.

Starting point is 00:04:59 righteousness. Instead, he has one more trick up his sleeve. This is how Satan replies in verses four and five. Skin for skin, Satan replied, a man will give all he has for his own life. But now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face. Satan here is going off a hunch, and his hunch is that deep down, under all Job's seemingly wise and righteous actions is a selfish heart. To Satan, the first three tragedies were just a warm-up. really want to see if Job is a righteous man, he says, we need to afflict Job with pain. This will be the true indicator. Does Job love and obey God because of who God is, or does he love and obey God for what God gives him? How would you answer that question? Do you ever

Starting point is 00:05:45 find yourself disappointed or even angry when God doesn't give you what you want? Is your relationship with God dependent on the circumstances of your life? Are there things in your life, maybe even good things that gain your attention and obedience more than God. If so, you might love what God can give you more than God himself. You might love the gifts instead of the giver. When that happens, we're not following the God of the universe. Instead, we're following a make-believe cosmic gumball machine that we believe will give us what we want. And unfortunately, that's not the God of the Bible. That's not the God who can save us. So how does Job respond? Well, after hearing Satan's offered, God agrees to let Satan test Job again. We pick up in verse 7. So Satan went out from the

Starting point is 00:06:28 presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the souls of his feet to the crown of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes. While there's no consensus on the actual skin infection that Job had, most scholars agree that these sores must have been extremely painful. Job is in a state of maximum suffering. He's lost his family, his money, his estate, and now his health and comfort. He's got nothing left. How could things possibly get any worse than they already are? Well, I've got three words for you. A marital spat. Here in verses 9 and 10, we hear a short argument between Job and his wife. Job's wife speaks first, and to the author, she represents a foolish response to suffering. Here's verse 9. His wife said to him,

Starting point is 00:07:14 are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die. Remember what God? said earlier about Job that he had maintained his integrity, well, now his wife is using that as an accusation against him. And while it might be easy to dunk on Job's wife, I can't help but empathize with her a bit. She's lost everything too. Her family, her money, her estate, and now her own husband is suffering. She's got a front row seat to it. She knows that Job is righteous and doesn't deserve all this bad stuff that's happened to him. So to her, it makes sense to curse God. But what the author of Job wants to show us is that Job's wife has chosen the path of Satan. She has chosen to reject God's authority. She has decided that death is better than life

Starting point is 00:07:58 with God. See, Job's wife loved what God could give her, but once he took the blessings away from her, her loyalty changed. Now, maintaining integrity, which God calls good, Job's wife sees as stupid. She now sees God's wisdom as foolish. Job, on the other hand, has a completely different response. Here's him in verse 10. Job replied, you are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God and not trouble? Now, husbands, if you're listening, I wouldn't say you are talking like a foolish woman to your wife. That's not the best way to start a conversation with her or really anyone for that matter. But desperate times call for desperate measures, I suppose. So Job here asks an uncomfortable question that we all need to answer at some point. Shall we accept good from God and

Starting point is 00:08:46 not trouble. To the author of Job, this is true wisdom. Why? Because Job decides that even when it doesn't make sense, he's going to trust God knows what's best for him. Job trusts God more than his circumstances. Job trusts God more than himself. Job trusts God's bigger story. He trusts God's perspective on his life. Now, while Job may seem cold or indifferent in his response to his wife, Let me assure you that we will see the emotional side of Job and the rest of this book. There are 40 chapters to go, and the author explores all of Job's emotions and thoughts about his suffering. But first we have to recognize that all of it will be based on a simple trust that God is God and he isn't. See, instead of cursing God, Job wrestles with God, and there's a big difference between cursing and wrestling.

Starting point is 00:09:36 Cursing God writes God off. It's founded on distrusting God. It decides to try and God. It decides to reject God and ignore him. Wrestling with God is different. Wrestling with God is engaging with God. It's founded on trust in God. And as we'll see in the rest of Job's story, wrestling with God is bringing all your emotions, all your thoughts and feelings before a God that you believe is in control of your life and wants the best for you. Cursing God is foolishness, but wrestling with God is wise. See, Job was right to trust that God had a bigger story in mind because one day as a part of God's story, God would become a man, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. The God who allowed Job's suffering would encounter suffering himself for the sake of his people. God is not

Starting point is 00:10:23 distant from Job's suffering or your suffering. He has suffered himself. He suffered on the cross. And through his suffering, he has promised to wipe every tear from our eyes. Though we, like Job, walk through suffering in our lives today, we can trust that in Christ, God is working all things together for the good of those who love him. So today, in the middle of your suffering, trust in Jesus, because He is God and you aren't.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - God is God, You Are Not | The Writings | Job 2

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