Our Minds and our Hardships

We are going to read again in the Old Testament, this time in the book of Job, in chapter 29. Now, just a couple of things as you're turning to that. One is to express my thanks, first of all, to the Assembly here for the invitation to come and have these meetings.

Secondly, to their willingness to work around my schedule. They have been very, very kind and gracious in that way to kind of arrange the times to fit my needs. And so I do appreciate that.

And then there are many here who have come from a distance. And I want to tell you, I wouldn't go that far to hear me. So I appreciate that some have come so far to both be with other young people.

And I think that's great. I don't, for a moment, minimize the value of that, getting together with other young Christians. Do it.

Keep at it. But also to come to hear the Word of God. So we do appreciate that and recognize that.

Now, before we read, I have a difficult task. And that is, there was a question submitted, and it was enlarged upon after my last meeting. Kind of, you'll understand why I say that.

Had to do with responsibility relative to size of families and whether there was anything in Scripture that would express the mind of God. And then what was added to it was, what about in cases where there has been what's called postpartum depression, where women have suffered severe depression after giving birth, and some of the difficulties associated with that. So let me just answer the question in a general, broad way.

It will not meet everyone's approval. And so if your exercise and your conviction is otherwise, please do not think I am trying to push something. But basically, as I said last night, knowledge brings responsibility.

And as I become aware of actions and their consequences, then I become responsible for the actions. You can only choose one of two things. You can only choose your actions or you choose your consequences.

You can't have it both ways. Choose actions, they have immediate consequences. Want a consequence, you've got to choose the action that fits it.

So we are responsible. If a family together in the presence of God recognizes either for health reasons or for financial reasons or for the benefit of the family that they are unable to care for more children, then I think appropriate, responsible action should be taken to limit the size of a family when that's the case. Now, if an individual's exercise is that they will receive as many children as God wishes to give, then that's a different story.

But to know that it would be harmful to someone's health or a problem to have more children and to just continue without any means of controlling the size of a family is, to me, acting irresponsibly. Now, I know that is not going to be everyone's view on things, but that is mine, and I just leave it there for you to understand that I do not see anything that is contrary to Scripture in limiting the size of a family if there are reasons that a couple feel in the presence of God are justified. So now, with that having been said, I've got a half hour after this meeting.

If you disagree and want to clobber me, you can find me alone and give me your view of it. So I'm not running totally. Job 29, together, Moreover, Job continued his parable and said, O that I were as in months past, as in days when God preserved me, when his candle shined upon my head, when by his light I walked through darkness, as I was in days of my youth when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle, when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me, when I washed my steps with butter and the rock poured me out rivers of oil, when I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street, the young men saw me and hid themselves, the age arose and stood up, princes refrained talking and laid their hand on their mouth, the nobles held their peace and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth, when the ear heard me then it blessed me, and when the eye saw me it gave witness to me, because I delivered the poor that cried and the fatherless and him that had none to help him, the blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy, I put on righteousness and it clothed me, my judgment was as a robe and a diadem, I was eyes to the blind, feet was I to the lame, I was a father to the poor, and the cause which I knew not I searched out, I break the jaws of the wicked and pluck the spoil out of his teeth, then I said, here is what he was thinking and what he said, then I said, I shall die in my nest, I shall multiply my days as the sand, my root was spread out by the waters and the dew lay all night upon my branch, my glory was fresh in me and my bow was renewed in my hand, unto me men gave ear and waited and kept silence at my counsel, after my words they spake not again and my speech dropped upon them, they waited for me as for the rain and opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain, if I laughed on them they believed it not, in the light of my countenance they cast not down, I chose out their way and sat chief and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforted the mourners, but now, look down the chapter verse 9, and now I am their song, look down the chapter further still at verse number 16, and now my soul is poured out, look down the chapter verse number 24, how be it or and now he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, turn finally to the last chapter, chapter 42, and look at verse number 10, and well maybe we know, we'll go back to verse number 9, so Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Nemethite went and did according as the Lord commanded them, the Lord also accepted Job, and the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before, then came there unto him all his brethren and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before and did eat bread with him in his house, and they bemoaned him and comforted him over all the evil the Lord had brought upon him, every man also gave him a piece of money, everyone an earring of gold, so the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning, for he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels, and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 she-asses, he had also seven sons and three daughters, and he called the name of the first Jemima, the name of the second Keziah, the name of the third Kerenhapak, and all the land there were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job, and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren, after this Job lived 140 years and saw his sons and his sonsons, even four generations, so Job died, being old and full of days.

Now we have every confidence that God will bless the reading of his word to all who are with us. If we were in an English class, we could look at these chapters which comprise the final complaint of Job, chapter 28 and 29 and so on, 30, 31, and we would see in it tremendous prose, just a tremendous piece of literary work, imagery and metaphors and language which is sublime and tremendous in its eloquence, but it's not an English class. If this were a philosophy class, we would grapple with the philosophic themes that he brings up and deals with in these chapters of right and wrong and of all that is surrounding the circumstances in which he was in.

Were this merely a theological discussion, we would discuss some theological issues raised here in these chapters, but it's none of that. We are simply simple believers looking together at lessons to be gleaned from the life of one of God's choicest of saints and all that he went through. We have labeled this the thought of minds and hardship or the reversals of life.

Job was a man that knew reversals. He was a man that knew great grief and a man that knew great affliction. How do we as believers deal with reversals? How do we deal with hardship? How do we deal with situations which are trials and situations which are genuinely tests of our faith? I think we can learn lessons from Job and hopefully gain strength from the lessons we learn from the life of this man.

The Book of Job can be lovely themes to be traced in it. We could certainly look at the majesty of the sovereign if we were to go through the Book of Job and consider something of the greatness of God. Those chapters that we would come to if we kept reading where the animal kingdom and the celestial world is brought into view and something of the majesty of the sovereign and his control over those things is reviewed.

We would certainly think that one of the leading themes of Job is the mystery of suffering and certainly it is what is going to occupy us here to a large extent. But Job also gives us some unusual things. It gives us movements in the spirit world, doesn't it? When you think of what occurs in chapter 1 and chapter 2, we learn about movements in the spirit world, that unseen world that is beyond the realm of our eyes but yet is very real.

Satan moving in the presence of God and calling Job into question. So we would see movements in the spirit world. There is a very, very valuable thing that we can learn from Job as well and it is the ministry of sympathy.

There were three men that came to give sympathy to Job and in the end God says, you need a sacrifice for your sin. That's a sobering thing. Men who came with good intentions, men who came to give sympathy and yet in the end what they did was iniquity.

And God says, the thing you have spoken of me is not right as my servant Job has. So we learn the ministry of sympathy must be done carefully and wisely because we learn that from these men. And of course there is the maturing of a saint, the development of this man for God and his eventual recovery and his eventual blessing at the end.

Now having said all of that, what we are going to look at today then is the making of this saint, the maturing of a sufferer, if you will, a man who was in the school of God. And again, as I said earlier, there are young believers here and just as God in his mercy when he first delivered Israel from Egypt, he did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines lest they see war. God mercifully preserves or keeps from young believers many times many of the trials, many of the difficulties that are part of the Christian life.

Now some do know those. I don't want to make it sound like young Christians are exempt. Some do know but for the most part what we are looking at are trials and difficulties that come sometimes later in life.

And what is, I might as well tell you, what's scary to me is that Abraham's greatest trial was left for the end of his life. He had a lot of trials. He had a lot of things he had to give up.

But the greatest trial Abraham had was the last one. So God prepares for trials. So let us look then together at what we have in chapter 29 of Job and see what lessons we can learn.

I want you to think of the excellency of this man's life. We are not looking at someone who needed really to be tuned up. You know, someone who really was a big hypocrite, someone who really wasn't living life for God.

I want you to think of the excellency of his life. He tells us about the approval of God upon his life. We read it in chapter 29.

The preserving hand of God, he tells us in verse 2. When God preserved me, everywhere I went, God preserved me. I knew the preserving hand of God in my life. He knew the presence of God.

He tells us there in verse 4. He says, the secret of God was upon my tabernacle. What that literally means is his friendship. His friendship was upon my home.

Can you think of anything sweeter? Can you think of anything more lovely than to be able to look back and say, God's friendship was upon my home. God was our friend. It was so real.

This is not a man that was living in a make-believe world. This was reality for him. God's friendship was on his home.

And he tells us as well, not just of a preserving hand and a presence, but of a prosperity. He was the King Midas of the old times. Everything he did turned to blessing.

Everything he turned his hand to, God prospered it. He tells us here, the Almighty was yet with me. I washed my steps with butter.

The rocks poured out rivers of oil. Everything seemed to prosper that he did. And he wasn't taking credit.

He wasn't like the rich farmer of Luke 12, sitting back and saying, look what I have done. He was a man that was giving God credit for it all. And he recognized God's approval.

He appreciated God's blessing. The excellency of his life. The approval of God.

But he also had the admiration of men, didn't he? When you get down to this chapter. He speaks about respect from every age and recognition from every rank. The young, the old, the average person in the print.

Everyone recognized Job. Everyone realized, here is a man of sterling character. Here is a man whom God has blessed and God has owned.

He looked back upon his life. The approval of God. The admiration of men.

He tells us here about the appreciation that all had. The attributes of a noble life. Look at them for just a moment.

When you come down there to verse number 12. He speaks about the sympathy he had for the weak. And the solace for those who were weeping.

And the succor for those who were weary. And the support for those who were wronged. And the struggle against those who were wicked.

You want to talk about a life of virtue? I mean, here was not a self-centered, me, mine, my family, and that's it. No, no, no. Here is a man that is concerned for others.

He wasn't boasting here. This is not a... In fact, if we had time, we could go back and see where his friends say the very same thing about him. In the days past, you comforted those who were in sorrow.

Now it's come upon you and you can't take it. In days past, you were there for those who had need. And now you have need and you're finding it hard to take.

Everyone admitted. That was the caliber of the life of this man, Job. If there was a weeping heart, he was there.

If there was someone that had need, the first hand knocking on the door was Job. If there was someone who was being wronged, the one that stood up for him and defended him and went to his case, it was Job. So he wasn't a man that was just self-centered and preoccupied and selfish.

Here was a man that had the attributes of a noble life and he had the appreciation of everyone through whom he walked, with whom he moved. When we come to the end of the chapter, we see also the authority he wielded in this life. We see there that his counsel was final.

When he spoke, men stopped talking. Job's words are final. And when he came into a room, his countenance was esteemed.

And when men wanted to know something, his company was prized. He sat like king among an army. Now, just get a picture here of this man.

Get a flavor for the character of this life. Of what he was like. Here was a man that was head and shoulders above everyone else.

What I learned is a very sobering lesson. The lesson is that sometimes it is the very best of saints who suffer. I think it was C.S. Lewis who said, It does not surprise me that the best of saints are put through trials.

What surprises me is that sometimes the rest aren't. The best of saints have sometimes had to know the greatest of trials. Here is a man then, the greatest man in the East.

And now we're going to hear what was his expectation. Look at verse number 19 and 20. I want you to look at the expectation of his lips.

Then I said, this is what he, as he thought of life, as he was looking forward to the future, as he was planning how life would unroll for him, and how the script would end. He said, Then I said, I shall die in my nest. He says, I shall die in my nest and multiply my days as the sand.

My root spread out by the waters and the dew lay all night upon my branch. My glory fresh in me and my bow renewed in my hand. Now, the language is poetic.

And of course, maybe some of the similes or analogies are maybe a little bit foreign to us. So you'll just allow me just to put it in everyday terms. Security.

Security. I shall die in my nest. That's what we all want.

Whether you're looking at your 401k, whether you're looking at your pension, your retirement, whether you're looking at your job, security. He looked forward to security. Just life, comfortable and stable and predictable and nothing changing.

He wanted security. I shall die in my nest full of days. Longevity.

Longevity. He was looking forward to a long life. I shall multiply my days as the sand.

He was looking forward to a long life. So security and longevity. Prosperity.

We see that in verse 19. My root spread out by the waters. Just to prosper and to keep enjoying all the good things God has given me.

Verse 20, nobility. My glory was fresh in me. And then you'll see as well, vitality.

He speaks there about the dew laying all night upon his branch. You know, not drying up and becoming a weak old man. And not infirm and limited in his abilities.

But here was a man that was looking forward to security, and to prosperity, and to longevity, and to vitality, and to nobility. That is what he expected life to bring him. We all have our expectations.

Now there's nothing wrong with having goals. Please don't leave thinking I am against having goals and planning for retirement and planning how you're going to spend your retirement and planning this and that. Nothing wrong with goals.

Some people say that if you have all those things done, God can't somehow come in and use you. You've got to have something for God to interrupt. If you don't have anything going, God can't interrupt it.

Some people just are free floating, and it seems like they never get anywhere. So there's nothing wrong with goals. Just recognize when God interrupts that it's God interrupting.

Many times I have learned more is accomplished in the interruptions than in my plans. But that's another story. But here was a man with plans and goals and expectations.

What it comes down to is this. What kind of God do you and I have? Now let's be honest. Most of us would like God to simply sign on the dotted line here.

Just agree with my plans and make sure they get carried out. Just put your rubber stamp, please. I've thought it all out, and I've prayed about it, and this seems to be the way I would be the most useful and the way I would be the happiest and the way the assembly would be blessed the most.

Just rubber stamp my plans. And when God says, excuse me, I'm just going to turn the page a minute. I'm going to start writing my own script.

You know what most of us do? Where's God? What happened to God? Yeah, come on, be honest. That's the first thing that comes to our minds. Where is God? You know, I thought it was going to work out this way.

I thought it would all go that way. Why has God let me down? Our conception of God is just someone who agrees with us. Our conception of God is just someone who confirms our own wishes.

And the moment our wishes are thwarted, we begin asking, where is God? And somehow we think God has let us down. Somehow we think God has disappointed us or that somehow God didn't know what was going on. What's your conception of God like? What's mine like? How big is your God? We could take time to read that psalm that is so instructive where David says to himself, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him who is the health of my strength and my countenance.

In that psalm, David, in Psalm 42, David refers in verse number 8. He says, My prayer shall be unto the God of my life. The God of my life. So that He is the God who is in absolute control of my life.

So whether it's a breakup with a boy or girl, you prayed about it, you thought it was the mind of God, it seemed like it was the right thing to do and you took the first steps and then before you know it, it's over. Why? Why? Where's God? With the reversals of life. Maybe it's raising a family and you've prayed over them and you've wept over them and probably like most of us, you sat by a crib and raised your heart to God and said that if they're not going to get saved, take them now.

If they're not going to get saved, take them now. Don't let them grow into rebellious, hardened sinners and yet they haven't turned out well. Maybe it's a spouse and they've gone their own way.

Maybe it's health. I don't know how often. It's overwhelming.

Maybe it's just the volume of people I see at that age. I don't know how often I have seen people healthy as can be up to the day of retirement, worked hard all their lives, saved, looking forward to retirement. Retirement comes and within a year, they're gone.

Not what they expected. Spouses together looking forward to... I know what you think of them, call them the golden years or not, but looking forward to those years together and they've worked all their lives and saved for this and it comes and before they can grasp it, it's gone. Not what they expected.

It's not running according to script. Someone who has enjoyed good health. As life goes on, suddenly the vitality and the usefulness and the abilities begin to diminish.

Health limits them in what they can do. Maybe not necessarily age. You can come at a younger age than some would be happy with.

And life just throws them a reversal. Just wasn't the way they thought. Job was on cruise control.

He just pushed the little cruise control button. Going to cruise for the rest of my life. Got it made.

You know, over the humps of raising your children, over the humps of business, everything was good there, over the humps of his place and his role in society, everything was in place. Some of us are there. You've got no new mountains to climb and no new worlds to conquer and all the rest.

When you reach your 50s, you realize I'm not going to be president. I've got to give up that hope. It's not going to happen.

And I'm not going to be a billionaire. That's not going to happen. And life is pretty well set.

So he was on cruise control. Look what he says in chapter 30. Look at his words.

Verse 1, but now. Verse 9, and now. Verse 16, and now.

Verse 24, how be it or and now. Suddenly, suddenly, life comes to a screeching, not only a halt, but a reversal. He went from overdrive to reverse in a matter of seconds.

I want you to think of the calamities. Loss of farm, loss of family, loss of fortune, loss of face as well, because everybody now was sitting back like these three friends thinking, boy, we thought Joe was straight up and down. But you know, there must have been something secret.

Must have been something about Joe we didn't know. Must have been some secret sins or something that was going on behind the scenes that we didn't know. And so he's lost face as well.

He's lost everything. His family, his fortune, his flocks, his farm, his face. Everything has been lost.

And he's faced now with all of this. Verse 1 tells us of the abuse that he's enduring. But now they that are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to even put among my dogs, now they are abusing me.

And then he says in verse 8, the scorn that he was getting from others. Now, these people, their children were fools and children of base men. Now I'm their song.

And then he tells us in verse 16 about the affliction he was knowing. And in verse 24, about the anguish he was going through. The calamity of his tragedies.

No light thing. No mean thing. No simple thing.

Life suddenly went into reverse. And that's why I've said that a way of looking at this is going from cruise control to damage control. Everything suddenly is... Life is falling apart.

Life is suddenly crumbling in his hands and he feels like everything is running past him. Now I don't want to be dramatic and I don't want to exaggerate. But to every individual soul there is the reality of life's reversals.

Life's changes. Life's trials. It may not be as great as Job's.

None of us will ever know what Job endured. We will never experience the same. But the loss of a spouse? It's a tremendous loss.

Just when you were hoping that these last 20 years that God would give you would be years free of all the worries and anxieties of the pressures of work and the problems of work and financial worries and woes. Suddenly as you're ready to step out on that bright tomorrow, spouse is taken away. Or illness comes.

Or maybe you've been working all your life and your company invested your pension plan and it's not unheard of. It's gone. No more pension.

No more money. Retire at 60? Forget it. Probably have to work until 70 now.

And all of life's reversals. Children that you raised and children that seem to be going on well. And suddenly the call comes and there's a marital problem or there's a difficulty and before you know it a family is rent apart You know the scenarios.

There are parents who have gone through tremendous grief. Parents who have known heartache and tears and sorrows that we can never measure. In every home and every heart trials will come.

How do we handle the trials? Here was a man and as he looked at it the calamity of his trial. But it was compounded by the callousness of his friends. He seemed indifferent to it.

He not only had to endure the worst that Satan could hurl at him but he had to endure the worst that men could hurl at him as well. The callousness of his foes, of his friends rather. All they did is heap ridicule and anguish and accusation against him.

We see as well the confusion of all he thought he knew. I thought that God would act this way. I thought that if I did this that God would do this.

I thought this was the way life was supposed to be that if you put God first if you try to honor God God would just put his rubber stamp on all my plans and all would be well. Well someone says doesn't it say in 1 Samuel them that honor me I will honor. Absolutely.

And isn't it true? Absolutely. The difficulty comes we have defined what it means to be honored by God. We've defined it.

And so if a sister says no to five unsaved fellows that want to date her she defines honor as well then God is definitely going to give me a Christian husband. That's not God's definition of honor. Or a man refuses a promotion and a job and a tremendous salary because he wants to stay by God's assembly and there have been men to their credit who have done it.

Then we would define honor as well then you're going to get promoted where you work and everything is going to be wonderful your pay will go up and everything will be fine. See that's our definition of God honoring a man. Don't tell God how to run his universe.

Don't tell God how to honor people. That's what we do. And when it doesn't happen we begin to wonder I thought that God was supposed to work this way.

And our concept of God is thrown into an absolute state of confusion. I thought God did things this way. No.

That's not how God necessarily does them. That's what you thought. That's what Job had to learn.

That God doesn't run according to my rules. God doesn't run according to my concepts. God is far greater than my concepts.

God does honor. God does bless. God does recompense.

God does vindicate but He does it in His own time His own way His own manner. So never feel as though you have a contract with God. You know that you've done your part and now God will do His.

That as long as you have done this then God is going to definitely reverse that. No. God doesn't sign contracts.

We can never learn this early we can never obligate God to do what we want. We can never obligate Him. God is sovereign.

Whatever He does He does on the basis of grace. We deserve nothing. Absolutely nothing.

He only moves on the basis of grace. And Job was thrown into a confusion and all of these chapters are all dealing with Job grappling with the concept of God and a God who has reversed his life. Until he comes to the end and he says I've heard of thee with the hearing of the ear.

I thought I knew what God was like but now mine eyes sees thee and I just repent. I change my mind about what I thought of God. I have learned what God is like.

But mine eyes see it thee. I repent and I pour myself in dust. The confusion of all he thought he knew.

Of course it hardly needs to be said that the cancellation of all his hopes his security was shaken. His prosperity had all been stolen. Gone.

Overnight. Overnight everything was taken from this man. What about his nobility? Stripped from him.

Men looked at him and laughed. What about his vitality and longevity? Sapped from him. Just sapped away.

Everything is gone. Everything is taken. The experience of his loss.

I am not minimizing loss. I am not trying to say that enduring loss and enduring trial is easy for any one of us. And I'm not saying that Job somehow failed.

Far be it from me to cast any doubt upon the character of this man. I don't know if any of us ever would have stood. Job stood.

Despite all of his confusion. Despite all of his uncertainty. Despite all of his anguish.

He stood in the trial. Because God says of him that he stood. You have not spoken to me the thing that is right as has my servant Job.

And in the end Satan could not touch this man because he stood. So we have seen the excellency of his life. We have looked at the expectation of his lips.

The loss. The experience of his loss. But I want to turn to the end of the Lord.

Of course that comes doesn't it from what James says. You have seen the end of the Lord. You've heard of the patience of Job.

You've seen the end of the Lord. That the Lord is very pitiful. Of tender mercies.

So let's look for a moment at the end of the Lord and see what happens at the end of Job's life. I want you to look first of all at verse number 9. The Lord accepted the face of Job. What's that? The Lord accepted the face of Job.

Nobility restored. Nobility restored. It had been stripped from him in the trial.

Men looked at him and no longer did Job mean anything to them. Before they used to rise when he walked into the room. Before they used to quiet themselves when he was amongst them.

Before his counsel was final. Men recognized here is a noble man. And when trials came, his nobility was stripped away.

Men scorned him. Men abused him. Men laughed at him.

Men ridiculed him. But now it says God accepted the face of Job. God restored his nobility.

Look at verse 10. God turned the captivity. You know what that word means literally? If you look it up? God turned the misery.

Lovely. God realized what Job was going through. God realized what a miserable experience this was for Job.

God turned the misery of Job when he prayed for his friends. Lovely to think of that. So there was vitality restored.

Here was a man who could pray for others. Strength to bring others into fellowship with God. Strength to see others restored to God.

God brings him back vitality. Look at verse 10. The Lord turned the captivity of Job and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before for it is now prosperity restored.

One by one they had been taken away. One by one they had been removed. One by one they had been peeled away from this man Job.

Nobility, vitality and health, prosperity financially. Look at verse 12. Four expressions that we have.

The Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. Security restored. But in what did Job's security reside? Was it just now that he had flocks and he had herds and he had camels and he had she-asses? Is that where Job's real security now lay? We don't have time to look at it, but let me just suggest to you that Job's security lay in what he had learned of God.

First of all, he learned about a majestic God. A God who was majestic above everything else. He had been reminded of the creation.

God told him about his creation. God told him about his counsels. God told him about his control.

As you go through those chapters that we have not taken time to read between chapter 31 and chapter 40. And God was revealing to Job how majestic he was. Job learned there is a God who is majestic above everything.

Job learned as well that God was also moral. God does not afflict capriciously or needlessly or willfully. He learned that there is a God who is absolutely just and righteous.

He is a moral God. But he learned as well that God was a merciful God. What is going to keep you and me in days of trial? What is it that is going to be a tremendous ballast to us when the winds of affliction, when suddenly your little vehicle driving on cruise control hits a bump in the road? When suddenly you go from cruise control to damage control? What's going to keep us? It's not going to be the flocks and herds.

It's not going to be the size of the home or the farm or the fortune. It's going to be what we know of God. That God is majestic.

A God who is sovereign over everything. Things are not out of control. A God who is absolutely moral and just.

That He only does what is right. A God who is full of mercy. You have heard of the patience of Job.

You have seen the end of the Lord. You have heard that the Lord is very pitiful. Full of tender mercies.

Those words in James are in the plural. It's hard to measure them. It's not just that He has mercy.

Mercies and pities. Some might say, wasn't it that Job learned all about what happened and Job understood? No. Job never learned what happened, at least in the book of Job.

God never explained to Job. Job, I have to explain to you why all this happened. You see, Satan came and he appeared before me and he wanted to put me to the test.

He wanted to put you to the test. And so I let him do this. No.

God offers no explanations. If you find comfort in thinking that when you get home to heaven, God is going to explain to you the whys and wherefores of the trials of life, then that's fine. Let that comfort you.

But I think one look at Him will be the answer to every problem of life. There will be no problems. The problem is with us.

The difficulty was with us. One look at Him will answer every problem. We won't look for answers because we'll have Him.

He will be the ultimate answer. A God who is majestic. A God who is moral.

A God who is merciful. That's the kind of God Job had. And I want to tell you that's the kind of God we have.

But I just want to show you one other thing about this God. How... I don't know what else to say, but just how tender and how kind He is. That even amidst all that we're looking at in chapter 40, He has a deeper lesson to teach Job.

We read together there in verse number 10. The Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. So when you come to verse number 20, instead of having 7,000 sheep, in the end, he gets 14,000.

And instead of having 3,000 camels, now he's got 6,000. And instead of 500 oxen and 500 she-asses, he now has 1,000. But... he doesn't have 14 sons and 6 daughters.

He only has 7 sons and 3 daughters. But I thought the Lord gave Job twice as much. So that's where God is so kind.

God was telling Job, Job, when this little life comes to an end, you will have 14 sons and 6 daughters. Because the others are with me. And I've given you these now.

Asses, camels, sheep, they're gone. You'll never get them back again. But those sons and daughters are still living.

They're with me. So when the final tally is made up, when the final summation is done, God did give him twice as much. For all eternity, he'll have twice as much.

The man that went through the trial. How tender. How gracious of God, even here in this, to convey to Job in this way.

Job, yeah, you prayed for those sons and daughters. You longed for them. You grieved over them.

Job, they're taken care of. They're with me. And when the others are taken from earth, and when earth's little tale is done, you will have twice as much in the end.

Lovely to think of how kind and tender and merciful God is in all of his ways with us. What a God we have. Oh, that our souls, our minds, could be filled with a deeper appreciation of the kind of God we have.

I am going to stop because of time. There's a whole other line that you can look at for yourself here. And it is, ways in which Job was like the Lord Jesus.

He became their song, didn't he? He became their derision. You can go down it and look at the education that he received, the fellowship of his sufferings amidst his trial. But the great thing is what he learned of God in the darkness.

Learn to take God into the darkest day. Hold on to God in the greatest of trials. Remember when there seems to be perplexity, when there seems to be contradiction, it is always with us and never with Him.

It is always our thinking, our concepts, our minds that are somehow out of line with God's. He is always majestic. He is always moral.

He is always merciful. This God is our God, even over death. May the Lord bless His Word and bless His people.

Shall we pray?