Simple Faith

Guest (Male): As we study Job here on the Sunday edition of Simple Faith, you might be wondering why a loving God would allow Job to go through all of these terrible things. Here’s Pastor Bill Henry.

Bill Henry: So again, why did the Lord allow this? I think this is a question we all probably ask. Why did You allow Satan to do that? I bet all of us here have asked in our lifetimes, "Lord, why are You allowing this to happen? Why did You allow that to happen?"

Most times, we’re never going to know the why, but we do know—remember what we talked about last week too—never trade, this is what my old pastor used to say, never trade what you don’t know about God for what you do know about God.

Guest (Male): Many Christians begin their walk with Jesus Christ with a mistaken impression. Now that I’m saved, there’s going to be no more problems in my life. Obviously, such is not the case, but every hardship we endure is an opportunity to grow.

This is Simple Faith and we’ll be joined by Pastor Bill Henry in just a few moments. We’re about to enter into Chapter 2 of Job. This is a story of suffering, bad advice, and ultimately triumph. Job was a man of faith and a man we can all model our lives after. He didn’t let the calamities that befell him get in between him and God. With more on the life of Job, here’s Pastor Bill Henry.

Bill Henry: So you’ll remember in Chapter 1 that Satan was given permission by God basically to go after Job, try to get him to stumble, because the Lord had been bragging. "Have you seen my servant Job? None more righteous in all the earth." Satan said, "Oh, well, You have a hedge about him and he’s protected. But if You take that hedge away and let me go at him, boy, he’ll surely curse You."

Back in Job 1:8, we read, "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?'" And yet then in verse 12, the Lord gave Satan permission. "All right, you may test him." The Lord said to Satan, "Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but do not harm him physically."

So Job went on to lose his oxen and his donkeys to thieves, and they also killed many of his servants. Then fire fell from heaven and burned up all of his sheep and the shepherds that were overseeing them. Then more thieves came and stole his camels and killed more of his servants. Then a mighty wind came and knocked the house over while all his kids were meeting together to celebrate, and they were all killed.

So Satan came hard after Job. Just to put it in numbers again, he lost 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 1,000 oxen, 500 donkeys, and many servants. Above that again, his 10 kids were all killed. But what was his reaction? We looked at it last week in verses 20 through 22.

It says, "Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head, and he fell on the ground and worshiped. And said, 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.' In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong."

That brings us here into Chapter 2, verse 1. It starts, "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. 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.'"

Once again, we see that Satan still has access to God. I also notice that this is an exception. Notice all the sons of God, the angels, came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came. This is an exception noted even here within our text.

"So hey, what you been up to?" "Well, I've been going to and fro about the earth." In verse 3 again, the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on all the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason."

Basically, the Lord puts forth Job as a blameless and upright man. Notice he doesn't say perfect. It doesn't mean he's without sin, but he was very pleasing to the Lord. So the Lord goes on again to point this out to Satan. "Even after you had me test him, allowed you to test him, he still held onto his integrity." It’s interesting how the Lord points out that Satan wanted to destroy Job for no reason.

Remember that this is who Satan is. He hates God. He hates all human beings who have been made in the image of God and simply wants us all dead, destroyed, without reason. It’s interesting because a lot of people today, I think especially a lot of Christians, we don’t like to look as we look at the darkness that is within a lot of people.

Let’s even use this fellow who tried to kill the president this last weekend again. The hatred and some of the things that were said within his manifesto or whatever, you just see the darkness as he buys into the lies and the wickedness. To be honest with you, it can be hard to comprehend. But we must not turn away from it. We must not turn a blind eye to this wickedness.

First and foremost, these people need Jesus Christ, amen? Amen. They need to come to repentance and new life in Jesus. But remember, there is wickedness in the world. Spiritual warfare is real. The Bible even says that in the last days, these spiritual things will be happening more and more, just like it was in the days of Noah.

In 1 Peter, we read this about Satan again in chapter 5, verses 8 and 9: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith." I think one of the main lessons that the book of Job presents for the Christian today is for us to realize that spiritual warfare is real, but also that nothing comes to us except through God first.

In Ephesians 6:10, we read this: "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit."

We need to remember that spiritual warfare is real. A lot of times Satan will come and he’s trying to tear us down. It’s always those weird times. Like what do you guys, I got in a fight with my wife. What was it over? Well, she wanted frozen peas or corn and I wanted canned corn or whatever. It’s like the silliest things. "What do you mean you guys were all, man, it was a big drag-out knock-down fight, argument."

That's spiritual warfare. Yes, our flesh comes into it obviously, but remember spiritual warfare is real even within the ministry, within the church today. "I don’t feel like going to church today." How many tonight stayed home because of spiritual warfare, not even realizing it? "I’m just so tired." Ever notice that? And then you stay home, next thing you know, you’re up until 11:00, 12:00, 1:00.

"I feel all of a sudden refreshed," even though we didn’t go to church or I didn’t pray or I didn’t do these spiritual things, because it’s a spiritual oppression. We need to remember this and remember 1 John 4:4: "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." So we need not fear, but we need to understand and know where we stand in all of this.

Once again, we see that Satan must gain permission from the Lord before even to take further action against Job. Notice in verse 4: "Then Satan answered the Lord and said, 'Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out Your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse You to Your face.'"

So skin for skin. Basically, when you go hunting, I learned this when I was a kid. My dad would take us hunting and one of the first things you do when you get an animal to eat is you dress them. They call it dress down. You skin them. Especially back in these times and even today, people pay money for skins, animal skins. So skin for skin, you would trade with them. You could wear them, you could turn them into clothing or whatever.

Basically, Satan then is saying that Job would trade the skins of all of his children. He didn’t care about them, it’s just more about his own flesh. "Don’t touch my skin, don’t touch my life." That’s what Satan is accusing him of, although I don’t believe that to be true. These are all lies that the accuser of the brethren continues to spew forth. Remember he’s the father of lies.

Notice here in verse 5, "But stretch out Your hand, touch his bone and his flesh, he will curse You to Your face." And the Lord said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life." In other words, "Okay, you can go ahead and touch his life. You can touch his skin, but you can't take his life." So the Lord hands Job once again over to Satan to test and to try.

Once again, as we saw back in Chapter 1, we are not told why the Lord allows this. Thus, we’re not supposed to know. It’s interesting a lot of times we’ll try to guess. "Why what about this or what about this? What about the Nephilim? What about this?" We have what God wants us to know right here in His word. We don’t have to guess. We don’t have to try to come up with more. God gives us what we need to know and be careful with that.

Especially in these days, I see so many going beyond the Word of God and simply ignoring it. Look and I were talking about this before the prayer meeting tonight, how so many are coming out with all these different theological terms and deep things. Somebody played a video of some guy going off on all these things. "God couldn’t have demanded expiation for our sins. He would be that mean to be a bloodthirsty God."

He goes on for like five minutes. I listened to it and I just said, "Please turn it off, turn it off." But not once did he mention a scripture. Another fellow writes a book about what you should be doing. Again, where’s the scripture? Usually when there is scripture, it’s taken out of context, it’s twisted. So be careful is what I’m trying to say.

Again, why did the Lord allow this? I think this is a question we all probably ask. Why did You allow Satan to do that? I bet any of us here have asked in our lifetime, "Lord, why are You allowing this to happen? Why did You allow that to happen?" Most times, we’re never going to know the why, but we do know—remember what we talked about last week too—never trade what you don’t know about God for what you do know about God.

I don’t know why God allows this with Job. I don’t know why God allowed this to happen in your life or will allow that to happen or this in our lives. But we do know 1 John 4:8, that God is love. We do know that God is holy. We do know that God is perfect and sinless, Hebrews 4:15. We know that God is good.

We know that God is working all things together for good, for our good and for His glory, and according to His perfect will. We know all these things. We may not understand, but we’re not called to understand. We’re called to trust and have faith. I remember too, I love Jeremiah 29:11. This is specifically for the people of Israel, but we’ve been grafted into this promise.

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." So remember, we may never know the whys, but we know God our Father which is in heaven and His great love. May we rest and trust in Him and His goodness.

Look at verse 7: "So 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." Oh, that’s not too bad. All the things that Job could have done, just blow some sores. What’s the big deal? It’s a huge deal. It’s interesting because loathsome sores is the same words that are used in Exodus 9:8-10.

Let me read that to you: "So the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 'Take for yourselves handfuls of ashes from the furnace, and let Moses scatter it toward the heavens in the sight of Pharaoh. And it will become fine dust in all the land of Egypt, and it will cause boils that break out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.'

Then they took ashes from the furnace and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses scattered them toward heaven. And they caused boils that break out in sores on man and beast." I’ve seen some people like to watch those Dr. Pimple Popper videos. It’s the grossest thing I’ve ever seen in the world. But this would be beyond.

Notice and remember Job had shaved his head. He was in mourning. So from head to foot. Some commentators think this might have been a form of smallpox, or others think elephantiasis. We just don’t know. Either way, they were loathsome, they were sore. Loathsome in the Hebrew is 'ra', meaning bad, wicked, calamity, evil. Today we might say wicked, gross, gnarly, disgusting.

It’s interesting. One commentator basically said that similar illnesses today cause the following outcomes. Again, we see all the different things that Job’s illness cost him throughout the book of Job. Now, a lot of us have never really thought about this, but check out all the things that these sores all over his body were called.

Job 2:7, inflamed ulcerous ulcers. They were itching in verse 8. In verses 17 and 12, degenerative changes in facial skin. In Chapter 3:24, we’re told that he had a loss of appetite. He had depression in 3:24-25. He had a loss of strength in Chapter 6:11. Worms were in the boils in Chapter 7:5. 7:5 also says there were running sores.

It caused difficulty in his breathing, Chapter 9:18. There was darkness under his eyes, 16:16. Foul breath. So probably were in his mouth as well. That was in Chapter 19:17. A loss of weight, Chapter 19:20 and Chapter 33:21. Continual pain, Chapter 30:17. It caused restlessness, blackened skin, peeling skin, fever. This is no fun.

It was so bad, look at verse 8 in our text: "And he took a piece of pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes." So it was so bad he just started scraping. The picture is just disgusting, and it’s meant to be. Notice he’s scraping his sores. Notice we’re told here though that he sat in ashes, basically another sign of his grief.

He was sitting in ashes. Daniel 9:3 says this: "Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking Him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes." So here he is. He’s mourning. Some say he was from the broken pottery and from that he’s in the ashes. Some say he might have gone to the trash dump of the city, outside the city, and is sitting in the smoldering ashes and just scraping himself.

I don’t know how I would feel. I can’t even imagine how I would feel if I were Job. I get a bad night's sleep sometimes like, "Lord, what are You doing?" We can get so full of ourselves. I don’t know if I would have been depressed, feeling forsaken, sad, hurting, all of the above, maybe angry. I don’t know.

But we have to say something tonight. At least he had his wife to stand beside him, point him to the Lord, to encourage him, and to help hold him up. Why is everybody laughing? You’ve read ahead, haven’t you? You cheaters. Look at verse 9. Here we go. "Then his wife said to him, 'Do you still hold fast your integrity?' Wait a minute, what? 'Curse God and die!'"

Curse God and die. Wait a minute. That’s not encouragement. I like how the New Living translated it. It says, "Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die." To give Job’s wife, it’s interesting we’re not told her name, but to give Job’s wife just a little bit of credit, we must remember that she too had lost all 10 of her children. I couldn’t imagine how devastating.

She too had lost all these things with her husband: the servants, the animals, the transportation, the food. So she spoke basically to her husband, we’re imagining, out of hurt and doubt, anger, bitterness, all these things. She turned that anger towards her husband, like every good wife should do. Amen?

Instead she should have been at his side praying for him, seeking the Lord, wanting to encourage him and being encouraged by him. Yet she instead chose to say, "Dude, just forget about your living righteously before the Lord. Curse Him and die." That’s basically notice how she goes after his living righteously before the Lord, making fun of him, attacking him. "Oh, you’re so righteous! Just forget about that righteousness and stuff. Obviously, it’s not paying off."

You see, sadly a lot of us today, we believe that when we live righteous lives, there’s a whole movement today, the Word Faith movement, the positive confession, what they call it today, manifesting movement today. There’s big churches in our area that teach this false doctrine. Marilyn Hickey just died a couple days ago. False teacher, heretic. I pray she came to repentance before she died.

But she used to teach things like that you had to speak God, basically that God spoke Jesus into existence throughout the years through the prophets, and that’s what they were literally doing, speaking Jesus into existence. So you too can speak these things into existence in your life: health and wealth, and you either have Mercedes faith or you have Rolls Royce faith or you have a Volkswagen faith.

So it’s just this whole wicked thing, basically coming back to the thing that if you live righteous enough and you have enough faith on your own, that God basically is now your genie in a bottle. We have to be careful of falling into this. We may not get into the Word Faith part of it, but when things happen in our lives, and all of us here have probably had things happen in our lives, and either we did get angry with God or we had the temptation to, and if you haven’t been there yet in your life, Lord tarries, you will.

Guest (Male): This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill from his series in the book of Job. It’s our sincere hope and prayer that you’ve been blessed by the words you heard from Pastor Bill today.

And if you’d like to share today’s message with someone, it’s available at our website to either watch or listen, and you can even download an audio MP3 version. We have a large number of Pastor Bill’s messages archived, and you can find them all at simplefaith.org. That’s simplefaith.org. Click the media tab and if you’d like to contact us, just click the contact tab on our website.

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Here at Simple Faith Calvary Chapel, we have two services on Sunday morning at 9:00 and 10:45, and a great time of studying God’s word Wednesday night at 7:00 PM. We’d love to have you come visit us, and make sure you say hi to Pastor Bill and let him know you listened to Simple Faith. For more information and directions, go to simplefaith.org.

And you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks for joining us today. Be sure to join us next time as our series in Job continues here on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry. And be sure to join us for the Saturday edition of Simple Faith and our series in 1 Thessalonians. This program is brought to you by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington.