The Prepper Broadcasting Network - The Strange Truth- Hope a lesson from the book of Job.

Episode Date: February 16, 2024

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Thank you for watching! Hi and welcome to another episode of The Strange Truth. I'm your host Carl B. And hopefully everybody's had a good week. It's been a busy one for me here in New York State. It's been cold, really cold. You know, tonight's going to be really cold. But the cold air has come back with a vengeance. This one will be short, but I wanted to make a podcast about hope.

And of course, I'm going to approach this from the Christian point of view. But there's just so many things going on with not only the people, you know, the hosts here at PBN, but, you know, in my own life, in, you know, and just, you know, world, you know, just around us in the world at large, there's just so many things, so many negative things that are happening. And sometimes we have to take a step back and, and, and reorient ourselves. And I just want to, you know, just say that we should, there's a lot of things to be hopeful for. And one of the great things is that, you know, if you're a Christian, you know, our hope is in our Redeemer, right?

Our hope is in Jesus. Our hope is pretty much, you know, our rewards after we pass from this life. And he is our rock. That belief is the bedrock of who we are. It is the comfort in any storm in our lives. And it gives us the strength to endure. So, I'm going to, you know, talk about some lessons from the book of Job and, you know, and this is about resilience and persistence and hope. So, you know, I just wanted to do something a little differently tonight

okay so before i get started with that let's um let's hear hear some you know hear from some of our sponsors and then we'll we'll jump right into uh you know exploring you know hope right with the book of job all right are you prepared to be the family doctor in a disaster or emergency this is the intrepid commander and i'm holding the prepper's medical handbook by william w forgie md in this great book you'll learn how to prepare for medical care off the grid you'll learn about assessment and stabilization. You'll even deal with things like bioterrorism response, radiation, and how to build the off-grid medical kit at home. Look, 2020 taught us a lot about the limitations of our medical infrastructure in America. Get the Prepper's Medical Handbook today at Amazon.com. Again,

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You know, and, you know, if you hear what you like, you can always pass, you know, you can pass our podcast around. You know, there might be someone in your life that you know will need, you know, there might be someone in your life that you know will need, you know, our, we offer a unique thing here on PBN.

And the more people who know about us, I think, the better, right? So pass us around. Let folks know we're here. Okay, so we're going to discuss Job and why understanding this book is so important to a Christian's well-being, spiritual well-being. It refreshes us reading Job. It refreshes the spirit. It refreshes the mind. And there are times when, especially when we're going through stuff, whether it be sickness or loss of a job or something really difficult in our life, when we explore this book,

there's a lot of comfort to be taken from it. And that's what I want this podcast to be. It's about comfort. It's about hope. It's about love. It's about resilience. So what do you know about Job really? Okay. So I'm going to fill you in a little bit about who he was. And then, you know, I'll talk about why I believe that, you know, Job's story is one about, in the end, right, it's really one about hope, okay? So I'm taking this from wol.jw.org, and it says, Jehovah's Word is Alive, highlights from the book of Job, okay? And this is what they say about Job, who he was. It says, there is no one like him in the earth, a man blameless and upright, fearing God and turning aside from the bad. Job 1 verse 8. This must be

the period between the lives of two outstanding servants of Jehovah, Jacob's sons Joseph and the prophet Moses. Moses, who is thought to have written the book of Job, probably learned about Job when he spent 40 years in Midian, which is near the land of Uz. Moses could have heard about Job's final years when the Israelites were near Uz towards the end of their 40-year sojourn in the wilderness. Job's experience is so beautifully set out in written form that the account is considered to be a literary masterpiece. More than that, though, it answers such questions as, why do good people suffer? Why does Jehovah permit wickedness to exist? Can imperfect humans maintain their integrity to God? As a part of the inspired word of God, the message of the book of Job is alive and exerts power even today.

Hebrews 4, verse 12. Okay, so that's just a little bit of background about Job, right? It's always nice to, you know, learn stuff about, you know, the Bible, right? The things you can learn, it's just, you know, there is no real limit. It's limitless, right? The Bible is a limitless source of learning and information. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about Job and about hope. There are so many lessons that we can take from the book of Job.

One major lesson is that if we look at Job's life, the timeline of his life, it does mirror the Christian's life, especially in our modern times today, modern days. know, modern days. One, you know, Job was a true follower and believer in God, okay? In a time when most people were not, right? You know, there are a lot of people professing to be Christians today, and are they truly, really, truly Christians or not? There are a lot of non-believers in the world today and that is increasing in our world today. And that mirrors, you know, Job's life as well. Two, everything was going well for Job, right? Everything was going well for him. You could see that his life was blessed. He had a great family. He had wealth. He was comfortable, just like many of us today are. He was a devout man who was very, very comfortable with his life at the time. But the story shows us that all our earthly circumstances are subject to providence, subject to chance, fortune. It shows that throughout life, circumstances change, as did his life when he lost all his family and his wealth. So circumstances changed in Job's life.

And that happens to all of us. No one's life is the same today, tomorrow, you know, forever. There's highs and there's lows in everyone's life. Let's see. He lost everything. He lost all his family and his wealth. The only thing that was unshakable, that was a constant through all of this, was his belief and surrender to God. Reading Job is not only about resilience, patience.

It's about hope. Reading Job is not only about resilience, patience, right? It's about hope, okay? Let's continue to look at his life. So he lost everything, wealth, social standing, family, health. Losing your health is a big deal. I mean, he was afflicted, right, with boils and stuff like that. It got so bad that he became, where it appears that he became basically homeless and began living on the outskirts, the outside of the, you know, of the town. Everything that could happen to a man

happened to Job. The only thing, well, eventually he died, but everything, you know, every circumstance pretty much that could happen to someone happened to him. He had worked, gotten rich, had a nice life and family, then lost it all. Pretty much in the course of a day, he lost everything in the course of a day. he and found himself in the pit of despair after he lost everything you know his life he found himself you know pretty desolate have you ever been uh there yourself uh some listeners hearing my uh my voice right now, right, are there. Some people hear my voice are in Job's shoes right now, whether it be the loss of a job or, you know, loss of health

or something that's important to them. You know, some of you, right, probably listen to this, have lost everything or what they believe is everything, right? What they believe is really important. It would seem that everyone and even God has abandoned them, right? I think that, you know, I don't know if Job really thought that God had abandoned him, but I think that, you know, I don't know if Job really thought that God had abandoned him, but I think that, you know, he really thought that maybe, you know, he was not in a favored position, right, with God at that point. But remember that God already knew, right, the end from the beginning, and he knew that Job was a righteous man.

So when Satan asked to test him, God consented. All his troubles and all his responses were a test, you know, and that's what our troubles are. They are a test. Job passed, right? He passed the test. Okay. And we can too. Okay.

right he passed the test okay and we can too okay um as a matter of fact the more honest and fair and god-fearing you are right there is a really good chance that you will get tested very very very very vigorously when you lose all your money you, you lose a job that's important to you, a marriage, friendships, health. Remember that that is a time to pray. That is a time to sing and praise God. Like Peter, when he was thrown into prison, he sang and praised God. Right. When they threw him into prison, he sang and praised God. God. And even when he and John got beaten by the Sanhedrin, they were happy and were praising, right, God, that they were so favored to be beaten, right, and scourged for God. So, when

the time of trial comes, do not despair. That's the time to praise God. That's the time to praise god that's the time to read your bible that's the time to become a real scholar because in that is your hope right understanding that this pilgrimage through life will have its ups and downs like job right uh the one life raft we have is god and we need to hold fast to him not be like job's wife who uh cursed god and you she basically said, and she told Job to curse God and die, right? Job, of course, ignored that bad advice. And we notice that at the end of the book, he gets his health and his wealth back, but there is no mention at all, right, of her ever again, right?

Just like Lot's wife when she looked back, okay? You know, Job was steadfast in his belief and we must be the same as well. When we are down, we have, you know, we will have, you know, well-intentioned folks, right, that will come to us with advice, okay? Just like, you know, Job's friends, right? You know, they came to him advice. They're well-intentioned, right? Just like Job's friends, sometimes they will want us to admit to things which they believe are true. Of course, they have no real knowledge of, you know, truth or the errors of their advice, knowledge of, you know, truth or the errors of their advice. But they give it anyway.

We have to be like Job and be steadfast and not to give up our integrity or our, you know, our truth and go along with the crowd. It's really easy to go along with the crowd. It's really easy to say, okay, the life that we're living, something has been wrong with it. And to give that up, give up our integrity to go along with the crowd, because to go along with the crowd is way easier than to maintain our integrity. And Job had to do that. He had to maintain his integrity. Job did not try to extricate himself from the problem, right? He left it all up to God. At any time, he could have said, you know, there is an easier way to go. We in our modern world will face similar tests, and we are facing those tests right now.

We should pray. We should seek a closer relationship with God. Remember that Solomon had asked for wisdom. David asked for communion. David asked for a relationship with God. Who is considered the greater, Solomon or David? David, of course, right? Because he asked for communion with God. Although David fell at certain times during his life, he was able to recover, right?

His, you know, recover himself and have that relationship with God. Okay. And we will fall at certain times in our lives. You know, just because we're Christians and just because we're believers, we're not perfect. Okay. And we will fall and bad things will happen to us, but we, through that relationship that we should be, you know, having with our maker, you know, from that relationship will come our strength, right? From that relationship comes our strength. We must be like David, right?

And are in our need and ask for that communion and that understanding with God. In the end, Job was restored to a place of honor. He got his health and his wealth back, his rewards for being steadfast. And this mirrors our lives, too, our own pilgrimage through this world and through this life. As we know, we will one day be rewarded if we endure. You see, the Christian knows that if he endures, then he will be rewarded. That is the believer's story. That is our story. No matter how dire his situation, right, he always has hope. We always have hope. As Christians, we always do. And when things look hopeless, understand that anywhere you can put your hand on a Bible, there is proof and confirmation

of our hope. As Christians, our worldview is much larger than the folks who don't believe. as Christians, our worldview is much larger than the folks who don't believe. We have a much larger worldview. We believe in the supernatural. We believe in different realms. We believe that there are different forces at work in our world. We believe that this is not all there is, that there is another journey that we're going to be on and that there's going to be other things that are coming that most folks who don't believe, they don't have that hope. They don't have that

worldview. And in that worldview is our hope. We know that this is true. As we have the document of God's promise in our hands, if you have a Bible in your hand, then that's the document of that promise, that this is true. The Bible is God's promise. The Bible tells us and proves that God's redemptive plan is in motion. From man's fall to God's promise of a Redeemer to Eve, through Abraham,

Moses, David, John the Baptist, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, we have an ironclad covenant that is in effect today. We know that that promise in the end is our hope. And we must give thanks, read our Bible, listen to God's word, right? And in the time of troubles is when we should be immersing ourselves in the word, in our hope, Jesus. Because Jesus is the word jesus every pretty much every page of the bible is about jesus every story is about him um it's it's just a wonderful thing to understand that and you know people call themselves christians and and everything else but you you But one of the things we must understand is that our real faith is in a person, right? It's not in a sect. It's in a person. This is a person of Jesus. That's where our hope is, our faith is, right? He is the way, the truth, the life, only in him, right? Only in him.

The way, the truth, the life. Only in Him. Right? Only in Him. And He is our truth. And if you believe in Him, okay, then, you know, you will be an overcomer. You will overcome anything. Right? Even when you're sick.

Even when you're in pain. Even when you're facing some of the most difficult moments right in your life your belief in jesus will see you through all of that it's remarkable the strength he gives to the one to us the people who believe right he is our only way jesus is our only way and and that is, in a sense, the story of Job. His life mirrors the Christian's life. Okay? The ups and downs. You know, the real lesson in Job's life is that we have to remain.

We have to remain faithful. And if we do, then at the end of it all, we have our rewards. And yes, in Job, bad things do happen to good people. And there are times when it seems that there are certain injustices in the world, but since we have a bigger worldview, we understand that no deed goes unpunished because this life is not the end. And it's really amazing too because when it really does appear that some people go through life and they never get punished for all the bad things that they do, that is not the case. Because we become our sins if we don't repent. So the person who is a thief and a robber, right, ends up dying a thief and a

robber. It's always amazing how it all works out. It's a scary thing too when you think about it. Okay? God's justice. All right? So in these times, you know, I would encourage you to study the book of Job. You know, this whole thing was suggested by Chin Gibson, right? You know, and because I just threw out this suggestion, you know, in the back channels of PBN. I was like, OK, you know, there's just so many things going on with some of our hosts, with different people. Right. You know, in my own life, you know, like there's so many really difficult circumstances that we're all dealing with. And I'm thinking to myself, I could be talking about China. I could be talking about Joe Biden. I could be talking about all these other things.

But there are bigger things at work than all of that. And we shouldn't lose sight of that. And I just want to say that we should all understand, in our darkest hour, there is hope. You know, when you pick your Bible up, that's a covenant of hope. Every book in the Bible, right,

is a covenant of hope. All right. So, hopefully, you know, when you're listening to this, you got something out of that. As I said, I highly encourage you to go read the book of Job. It's a great lesson in resilience. But one of the really great things that I got out of the book, and that's why I'm remarking now today, tonight, right, on it, is that my biggest takeaway after reading the book of Job was hope.

Because, you know, and he said, too, he said, and I'll read this here. He said, I know my Redeemer lives, that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes. I and not another. How my heart yearns within me. It is so beautiful, isn't it? Poetry, the book of Job. Okay, and that is our hope.

So if you're feeling, you know, if you're suffering from some kind of sickness right now, if you're feeling down because you lost a job or you lost a friend or you lost a position or you're dealing with some addiction or you're dealing with some really difficult thing in your life right now. If you're hearing this and you're in prison or you're someplace where you're in your darkest moment, just remember that your Redeemer lives. And as long as you believe in Him, you know, you have hope. Just like the thief on the cross. In his dying minutes, he asked Jesus, right, for forgiveness. And it was granted to him.

In your darkest hour, there is always hope. Okay? All right. So this is where I'm going to leave it. All right. I'm going to, you know, I'm going to leave it here for now. Next week, I'm back to, you know, all the other things, you know, unpleasant things that occur in the world. If you got something out of this podcast, please pass this podcast around. Let people know about the Prepper Broadcasting Network. Feel free to scroll through the Spreaker player.

And if you see something you like, listen, pass it around. Okay, become a member of PBN. All right. And just enjoy your weekend. Go relax. Read your Bible and pray. Okay.

Pray for this country. Pray for, pray for us all. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and deliver us from evil. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen. Have a good weekend, folks. Good night. guitar solo Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Thank you. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh