Somebody Loves You

Raul Ries: Parents, what do your children think about you because they live with you 24/7? Are they able to see that you're blameless, upright or have integrity, and one that truly fears God and you truly hate everything and anything that has to do with evil? If you do that, your children will love you and respect you and they'll honor you.

Announcer: Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. It is so good to have you with us today for Raul's launch of a new verse-by-verse series in the book of Job. Known for his resolute faith in the face of unimaginable suffering, Job will inspire you to hold fast to the Lord in every single trial. As you continue to follow along today, we believe that you'll find that when God allows hardship to overtake your life, you can still fully trust in His sovereignty, His goodness, and ultimately, His perfect plan. Here's Raul Ries with today's study.

Raul Ries: Tonight as we start the book of Job, if you have your Bibles turn there, to the book of Job right before the book of Psalms. And what's really cool about that is that as you come now into the Old Testament and you come to the book of Job, we really call this now the poetical books. Why? Because there's five major poetical books that we're going into. That is the book of Job, the Psalms, the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. These are called the poetical books.

And the reason they're called that is because a lot of times when you think of poetry in English, it's not the same. Poetry in English always rhymes; in the Hebrew, it doesn't really actually rhyme by words, but it actually is by thoughts when you look at Hebrew poetry. And what's really beautiful about the book of Job is that I think that we are going to learn so much about why do good people suffer. Why do good people suffer?

When I was back in West Covina and getting ready to move over here, and when we were buying and purchasing this building and this property. And I got very, very sick. I've never been sick in my life. I was walking around with Pastor Chuck Smith and Greg Laurie around this building here because we were going to purchase it. And I think we already had purchased it. And what happened is that we were walking showing them around the whole building and I had a sideache real bad and I went to the hospital, they told me it was my appendix, so they need to take it out. So I went into the hospital, they took my appendix out.

And when I woke up the next morning, my mom, my dad, my brother, my sister, and my wife and my children were all there and they were actually crying. And the reason is because they told them that they found leukemia in my blood cells and that I was going to die.

And it was really pretty hard to see my children, to see my wife, to see my mom and dad. I called Pastor Chuck Smith and I called Greg Laurie and Greg prayed for me and then Pastor Chuck prayed for me and the Lord healed me. In three days I was healed. The doctor couldn't believe it. And things just went on, we got over here, purchased the building, God began to bless.

And then about 17 years later from that, if you remember, I got pretty sick. But it was a different sickness. We were getting ready to do a documentary on *The Quiet Hope*, the first one, and this one is *Taking the Hill*. It was to do with not only Vietnam but also Iraq kids and Afghanistan kids. Those that were having post-traumatic tension concerning war, we wanted to minister to them.

And so as the Lord opened the door for this film and the Lord provided for this film, someone called me and said, "I just want you to know that by you doing this film, Satan is really going to come against you." I said, "Satan's always against me, what else can he do to me?" And then a few days later as I was leaving here one Wednesday night, it was very clear here but by my house there was clouds over the mountains, it was very dark, and it was kind of drizzly. And when I got up to my house, I opened the door to my car and all of a sudden I find myself in another world. I was back in Vietnam. I've never had any flashbacks in my life after coming back from Vietnam.

And all of a sudden I call my wife on the phone because I was running down the street in my front yard in my neighborhood thinking that the VC were trying to kill me. And I call my wife and I said, "Sharon, you need to get up here because this is real serious, I don't know what's going on." So she knew something was up, so she came up. When she came up, she found me in my office on the floor weeping before the Lord because I did not know what was wrong.

And I had not only bad smells, I was flashing back, I had fear. I've never had fear in my life. And all of a sudden if I would hear choppers and I started closing my windows, my doors, locking it up, I couldn't sleep upstairs, I had to sleep downstairs on the couch, and I had to call my wife to come down and hold my hand—that's not like me, you know? She had to hold my hand the whole night. It was weird.

And I thought, well, maybe the next day I'll be okay, you know? So the next day I would have this sensation from my belly button, it would come up this way to my throat like acid reflux, but it wouldn't stop here and it would go to my brain, and it would hit my brain. And I couldn't preach. I called Pastor Chuck and I called they said I can't preach. I can't teach, I can't study. And if you remember, I was out for a whole month.

And those four days that I was real ill and sick and having flashbacks and going back into the war. It was really a time where Satan came in like an enemy and tried to really, really destroy my life like never before. And as my wife would minister to me and my brother-in-law, my sister-in-law came over, they were worshiping, singing, I'll sit there just with my eyes closed, and I would just cry. I just would just weep. I couldn't hold myself.

And then after four days, I called Pastor Chuck and it was a Sunday morning that I couldn't preach and I was going down the street with my wife and I was listening to Pastor Chuck speaking on the third service. And he was really ministering to my heart. And I went into this parking lot, I parked my car with my wife, and after Chuck finished I called him up and he picked up the phone and he talked to me and he prayed with me, and the Lord touched me that day. And I went into the doctor and they did all kinds of physical things to check me out, what about my mind, they took x-rays of my brain and all kinds of things.

And I remember sitting there in the doctor's office while the doctor and my wife were there examining me and I had a relapse. It was weird, a relapse. And the doctor was a Christian and he prayed with me. And it was just they wanted me to take all this medicines, which man, I hate medicines, so I just took it one night and I stayed up for 36 hours. I couldn't sleep. And I said, man, I'm not taking no medicines, I'm just going to trust the Lord.

And this went on for a whole month and finally the Lord just had touched my life completely and healed me. I went to Vietnam, came back from Vietnam, we did the documentary and everything else and it's just been amazing how the Lord speaks to our hearts. But through this whole thing, I was thinking of the book of Job, the things that I had to go through in my life so that I could minister to the other Vietnam guys that had been in Vietnam, that have had a lot of problems. I had some dreams but I never had any flashbacks.

And when I had these flashbacks, they were so horrible of the war. I got to meet the guys from my platoon after 35 years—Pete Ciccatelli, Pete Silva. He lost both of his legs in Vietnam and I carried his legs into the chopper when he lost them. And we had gone through a lot of things. Out of our whole platoon, we were the only ones kind of left alive, there's the guys wounded or killed. And we were all wounded, all of us were wounded. I was wounded twice and they were wounded once or twice.

And so when they came, they went to Washington with us to the Wall and we filmed the documentary and then they came here to the chapel that Sunday morning when we did *Taking the Hill*. And they were filming. And it was just an incredible day where the Lord just really touched my friends from Vietnam and they've never been the same. I get emails all the time and how God touches and God healed us. And we don't even know the effect that it's going to take place in the life of so many hundreds and thousands of Vietnam and guys that have been to Afghanistan, the way it's really wounded their consciences and what they've going through today. We're praying that this will really touch their lives.

And yet I learned one thing as I began to read the book of Job: that the things that I've been through just in the last year not only have drawn me closer to the Lord, but it's given me more compassion for other people because of what I had to go through, understanding what people go through. Especially when people come to you in weakness and they come to you sick. And if you've never really been sick, you really can't minister to people, and that's what I couldn't do. I had never been sick and I wasn't compassionate.

But it's so neat how God has a way of taking us and allowing Satan to tempt us. Because that's what we're going to learn in the book of Job: that Satan works for God and God allows Satan to come and tempt His people so that God can bring us where He wants us to be. In suffering, in things like losing your children in an accident, and then you maybe getting cancer or boils from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet where you can't sit down and you can't stand and you can't lie down.

And then you have some friends that come along and they start telling you that the reason you're like that is because you got sin in your life. You don't need comforters like that. And then your wife tells you, "Why don't you just die, Job?" Pretty heavy stuff. That's the book of Job. You're going to see yourself in the book of Job.

Announcer: You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. It's our privilege to equip you with biblical direction and timely inspiration for your spiritual journey. Visit somebodylovesyou.com for great resources, including an in-depth study of Job's life titled *When Trials Come*. Now back to more with Raul Ries.

Raul Ries: And I would pray that if you're sick or you're going through something, or maybe you're not, get set, get prepared. Because God uses illness, God uses sicknesses to make us grow and to stretch us. And the question that always comes up that people are constantly asking: Why do good people suffer? Why not? Why not? Why shouldn't we? Are we better than Jesus that suffered? And Job that suffered, went through great pain in his own personal life?

And so as we look at this great story tonight of a man suffering silently, patiently in the night. This will be a story of a man yelling at God everything that he has, a man that wants an answer now—not tomorrow, not next week. God, tell me now, why am I going through this? His name is Job. And he was an amazing person. He had just one quick question for the Creator, Jesus Christ, God of creation and sustainer of the universe. Only one question, and that question is: why do good people suffer?

And yet this is the same question a mother or a father may ask, watching their little son or little daughter get crushed beneath the wheel of a school bus. Think about that. Why me? That's my son. That's my daughter. Or the question of an aging grandfather asking the question: why do I have cancer? Why not that person down the street that I know that is an alcoholic and he's a rapist and he's just really bad and mean? Why not give it to him? Why me? I go to church, I read my Bible, I pay my tithe, I help people all the time.

And yet this question has been asked forever and ever and ever around the world. Why me? Why not them? For Job, self-perceived wise men answer the question, but they answer it wrong. His good friends came to him and they answer totally wrong. Then Job, and for us, God answers the question as He begins to rebuke Job. Later on, we'll see in the story. It's not really a complete answer as we will see later on, but God will answer Job in the things that he's facing.

So now as we begin to look at this whole thing concerning Job, in chapter 1 let's begin by looking at Job and his family in the land of Uz. Chapter 1, beginning with verse 1. He says, "There was a man in the land of Uz." The land of Uz, we really do not know where that is. Some commentaries have said where it was at, but nobody really knows, so we'll leave it there. Whose name was Job—and his name means hated in Hebrew, or persecuted.

"And that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and hated evil." Notice here we are introduced in the first chapter of Job, literally to a man's character and what he really was as a man of God. You would the least person that you would think that would ever, ever would be tried by God. You would think, man, that guy is so good that God will never, ever do anything to him but God will bless and protect him. Job had it all.

I mean, look at his character. He's a man that is blameless, one that's upright or has integrity, one who fears God and hates evil. That word to "fear God" here, it means to respect who God is and what God says and what God does in the Hebrew. Here is a person that is blameless, he loves his neighbors, he is a very hard-working man, loves his children—seven children that he has—loves his wife. And you would think this is the perfect model for our neighborhood would be Mr. and Mrs. Job to have and to look upon.

But I think it's really important that we understand that here God is showing the foundation for Job's character. The fact is that he fears God and he hates evil. Do you fear God and do you hate evil? Or do you love evil? When you're watching television and you see something that is evil, does it thrill you or do you change the channel, or does it grieve you? The Bible says that God wants us to hate evil, not to take pleasure in evil.

Real important: the things that we hear, the things that we watch, the things that we do, what takes pleasure in our lives—is it good or is it evil? Here Job, his character speaks for itself that he is a man that is totally blameless before the world, he has integrity, and he's one that really fears God and he hates everything and anything that is evil. Oswald Chambers said that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else. And that's so true. If you don't have the fear of God in your life, then you are a candidate for Satan to come after you and to destroy your life.

But when you fear God in the things that you're going to say, the things that you're going to watch, things that you're going to hear, and your conduct in your own personal life—fearing God so that you keep your witness. You don't blow your witness. So that when people look at you they don't say, "Oh, they're hypocrites, don't talk to them, they're hypocrites." What your neighbors think about you? What do your teachers think about you? Parents, what do your children think about you? Because they live with you 24/7. How do they see you?

Are they able to see that you're blameless, upright or have integrity, and one that truly fears God and you truly hate everything and anything that has to do with evil? If you do that, your children will love you and respect you and they'll honor you. That's what the Bible teaches. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Real important.

Because look what he says secondly here in verse 2. Job's family is introduced here. And Job had seven sons and three daughters that were born unto him, and he wasn't Mexican either. He was Hebrew. Verse 3: "And also his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East." The Howard Hughes of the East. Imagine, he had everything.

These camels were very valuable because they gave this beautiful delicious milk in the East that was actually wanted by everyone. He made a lot of money through this. But a person that has everything, you don't need anything, anything. You got all the money, all the materialism you ever wanted, he had it all—all material positions. And he was doing good. He was cruising along.

And what's really cool here is that Job is acknowledging that the Lord has given him all his wealth, all his wealth. And that his wealth not only is his, but he generously gives to other people without grudgingly giving to anybody. That's the type of person Job is. He's a very giving person. He doesn't afford to himself everything. So we see not only his character, but we see here his riches that he possesses. Verse 4: "And his sons would go and feast in their houses each on his own appointed day, and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them." So they take turns going from house to house and they would actually have their little parties between their whole family. A very tight family, very tight family that loved each other.

And I love this because this is real important. How many fathers we have in here? Raise your hands. And grandfathers, raise your—good, I'm glad you're here tonight. Check this out, verse 5: "So it was when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would get up early in the morning to offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all, for Job said, 'It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.' Thus Job did this regularly," every day. Job had a devotional life with God for his family.

You guys listen carefully: fathers, brothers in the Lord, if you're a male, we are responsible spiritually for our families, to pray for them.

Announcer: As we've heard today, when we experience suffering, it's natural to either question God's goodness or wonder whether we've somehow brought the hardship upon ourselves. You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. Today's teaching from Job chapter 1 can be yours in its unedited form for a donation of five dollars or more. To get your copy, just call us at 800-634-9165.

To equip you with more assurance of God's love in all of life's valleys, we'd like to tell you about an insightful series titled *When Trials Come*. It's available on CD and USB. As you explore more of the Lord's work in Job's life, you'll find confidence to fully entrust yourself to your Heavenly Father. God is always lovingly sovereign over your life and He has a plan for any suffering that He allows.

Visit somebodylovesyou.com or call 800-634-9165 to order Raul's series titled *When Trials Come*. We'll send you this nine-part study on CD for twenty-three dollars or on flash drive for just thirteen dollars. That's 800-634-9165. You can also write to us at Somebody Loves You Radio, PO Box 4440, Diamond Bar, California, 91765.

Be sure and download our Somebody Loves You app for instant access to digital Bible studies, live-streamed Bible teachings, and much more. To subscribe to Raul's uplifting daily devotional emails, visit somebodylovesyou.com. And of course, you'll find additional biblical insight on the Somebody Loves You Worldwide YouTube channel, which is home of Raul's Straight Talk program streaming every Tuesday at 10 a.m. West Coast time.

Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries is completely listener-supported and we are thankful for your partnership. Join us next time as we continue this series in the book of Job with a challenge to make sure our commitment to the Lord is genuine so that when hardships come our way, we can find strength, hope, and peace in our personal relationship with Him.