Somebody Loves You

Raul Ries: I don't care what you're facing here tonight, what you're going through tonight. The Lord loves you, he cares for you, he's compassionate, he's caring, he's loving.

And it's a time in your life, a season in your lifetime that you're going through these things and we're all going to face things in our lives and it's only to make you a better person and to get closer to the heart of God if you allow God to work in your life, like Job.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. Thanks for joining us as Raul continues our series in the book of Job with a word of comfort.

You know, suffering is a universal part of this life and it's natural to sometimes wonder why God allows it. It's also easy to feel overwhelmed by confusion, fear, and sadness in adversity. Stay with us to see that you won't always have answers to the why of your suffering, but you can always rest in God's plan, trusting his goodness. Let's join Raul Ries in the book of Job, chapter 16.

Raul Ries: Job is facing some great difficulties in his life. I don't know what you're facing here tonight and at the same time you may be thinking, well, why is God allowing me to go through these things if I'm a Christian? Well, the Bible tells us that not only Christians but non-believers suffer. We all suffer. And why do we suffer? Because of our first parents Adam and Eve, because of the actual fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Sin is the issue.

And yet you might feel sometimes when you suffer that God is not really on the throne, that he's not listening to you because of what you might be facing tonight. And I can tell you that when I went through my valley, I mean, I'm a pretty cheerful person, I never get sick, but this past year when I went through that valley, it was really a valley where I started flashing back and going back to Vietnam and having the smells and having the fears and feeling kind of weird as this acid would come up through my throat and hit my brain.

And right in front of the physicians as they were checking me out, it happened and they were kind of blown away by the whole thing. That Satan tried to bring fear to my life. I'm not a fearful person, to the point where I had to sleep with my wife holding my hand like a little child from the fear that I had, locking my windows, locking my doors, very paranoid. And then the Lord coming in and touching me and healing me.

And then at the same time, Satan always tries to bring fear to our hearts. Imagine how Job must have felt in his own personal life once Satan was allowed as we studied, that God allowed Satan to go ahead and first of all attack his family and his wealth, his bank account. And then as he lost all his money, and then he lost his family, his children, and then God once again allowed him to be physically tempted, where boils from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet, where he could not stand, he could not sit, he could not lie down, and he was in desperate pain.

And then his wife said, "Why don't you go ahead, Job, and curse God?" But know one thing, that God will never tempt you far and beyond what you cannot bear. With every temptation, what does he do? He brings us through if we're true children of God. True children of God.

And yet this evening, we continue with Job's story, and we're going to see now Job's response to Eliphaz. Eliphaz, one of his friends. His three friends came and when they saw his physical condition, remember, they sat down and they wept and they cried for three days. They could not believe what Job looked like and what he was facing. Job becomes a type of Christ in the Old Testament. A type of Christ.

Because I don't think that anyone has ever had to go through what Job had to go through, only Job and Jesus. It was horrible when you read the whole story. Horrible what Job had to go through. And maybe here tonight you've gone through some horrible things in your life and Satan not only is trying to mock you and put fear into your heart, but surely we can be assured tonight that if God is for me, then who can be against me?

And maybe tonight you're here and you are actually going through some pretty heavy things in your life. I want you to know that you don't have to worry, that Jesus is with you. Yes, we're going to go through the fire, but he's with us in the fire, no matter what we have to do.

Because now in chapters 16 and 17, we see Eliphaz's second speech. And in chapter 18, Bildad, the other friend, gives his second speech. And in chapter 19, Job gives his response to them and finally in chapter 20, Zophar's second speech comes to pass as he begins to speak.

So now we begin in chapter 16, Job's reply now to his friends. "You guys are miserable comforters." Imagine what he says to them. Why does he say that? Because when they came, instead of comforting him, they were condemning him. You ever have people like that in your life that always are condemning you? There are people like that. People that have nothing good to say at any time. All they can do is demean and put down. We call that verbal abuse.

It's really important that we understand that if we are truly Christians and living in such a time as this, where everything in the world is changing rapidly, there's instability in all the governments of the world, even in the United States of America. That we understand that God not only is moving his timetable and there are going to be great tragedies coming and happening in the future, not for the church, but for the non-believer as the Lord approaches his coming.

And right now, as long as we live here, yes, we're going to be tried, we're going to be sick, we're going to be down and we're going to be bummed out, but the Bible says we need to look up. Why? Because our redemption draweth nigh. And so Job, in listening to his friends, not comforting Job but putting down Job, now Job answers Eliphaz.

And what's amazing here is that Job finds himself totally forsaken by men. You ever feel like that, like you're all alone? And yet we as the church, we as God's bride, we as Christians need to understand that if Jesus was 100% man, 100% God, and he had to go through hell on this earth, then what makes us better than him? We can't. We have to by grace receive whatever comes in my life because I know that God is with me and I know that God is for me.

Nothing shall separate me from Jesus Christ. Nothing, Paul said. Not height, not power, nothing. So listen to Job now what he says beginning with chapter 16. He rejects Eliphaz's analysis of the situation and fights back now by calling his critics miserable comforters.

Then Job answered and said, "I have heard many such things. Miserable comforters are you all." He's had it with them. That's it. You guys, if you can keep your mouth closed, thank God, but don't talk to me anymore. He says, "Shall words of wind have an end or what provokes you to your answer?" He said this: "Shall empty words have an end or what provokes you to your answer?

I, Job, also could speak as you do. I could get back to you. I could say a lot of things about you if your soul were in my soul's place. I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you." It's like when you're sick you think of people who come and criticize and you say, "Wait till you're down, I'm going to come and harass you."

Verse 5: "But I would strengthen you with my mouth and the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief. Though I speak, my grief is not relieved. And if I remain silent, how am I at ease? But now God has worn me out. You have made desolate all my company." Isn't that something? He's so bummed out that he says God has worn me out. He begins to look down on God and yet God is in control.

When he talks about my company, that's of all his children that God took away from him. Remember God allowed his kids to be killed and he was stripped of everything. Verse 8: "You have shriveled me up and it is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me and bears witness to my face." Notice that. His body was wearing out, physically he was wearing out.

He says, "He tears me in his wrath and hates me. He gnashes at me with his teeth. My adversary sharpens his gaze on me." He's talking about his friends. Where are my friends? They're my enemies. I can't believe that they have no comforting words for me, but it's a put down all the time.

God has delivered me to the ungodly. God has allowed this and turned me over to the hands of the wicked. "I was at ease but he has shattered me. He also has taken me by the neck and shaken me to pieces. He has set me up for his target." Notice that. He's saying God has done this to me. Job is down, really down in a pit.

And then he said his archers surround me, he pierces my heart and does not pity, he pours out my gall to the ground, that bitterness. God really doesn't care about me. You ever feel like that? Like God, where are you when I really need you? And you start getting bummed.

And then the devil comes in and starts saying, "Yeah, you know what? God doesn't love you. He doesn't care for you. Look where he put you. Look what you're going through. Curse God. You shouldn't even pray to God anymore. Why go to church? Why read your Bible? Why pray?"

Verse 14: "He breaks me with wound upon wound. He runs at me like a warrior." Literally, here he's saying God has made me a floormat for everybody to step on. You ever feel like that, like everybody's stepping on you, cleaning themselves on you? Job was bummed out, he was out and down.

Verse 15: "I have sewn sackcloth over my skin and laid my head in the dust." That is, he's running with sores. Imagine having sores and they're running sores and they itch and they burn. His body's covered with them. "My face is flushed from weeping." All he can do is just cry. "And my eyelids is the shadow of death." Really, I'm close to death. I think I'm going to die.

Job is really down deep in a pit. "Although no violence is in my hands." Notice that. Literally, I do not know why this is happening to me. He says, "And my prayer is pure. O earth, do not cover my blood and let my cry have no resting place." Notice the language he uses here. He says, "Surely even now my witness is in heaven and my evidence is on high." That is, he has been accused of misreading his friends.

And yet he says God knows the truth. Job says, "But where is God?" God keeps the record. Verse 19: "Surely even now my witness is in heaven and my evidence is on high. My friends scorn me. My eyes pour out tears to God. God, where are you?" You ever feel like that?

He says, "Oh that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleads for his neighbor." He literally is saying, "Why don't you pray for me instead of accusing me, my friends? If you're really my friends, pray for me, quit accusing me." Today we have the Holy Spirit. Christ is an advocate. We can go to him if we're in need. But imagine how Job must have felt all alone and these guys kept pressing him and accusing him and putting down everything he said.

And Job has had it with them. He's done. Verse 22 says, "For when a few years are finished I shall go the way of no return." He says, "Maybe pretty soon I'm going to die and get out of this place." Chapter 17 now, Job continues. He says, "My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished, the grave is ready for me." Literally, I'm ready to die. I'm ready to depart. I've had it. "Are not mockers with me?" In reference to who? His friends.

And does not my eye dwell on their provocation? The friends were condemning Job instead of helping Job. Surely we need comforters, not rebukers when you're sick, when you're down and out. You need people that are going to love you and are going to help you.

Verse 3 says, "Now put down a pledge for me with yourself. Who is he who will shake my hands with me?" Literally, who will make an agreement with me? "For you have hidden their hearts," that's speaking of his friends, "from understanding. Therefore you will not exalt them. He who speaks flatteringly to his friends, even the eyes of his children will fail. But he has made me a byword of the people and I have become one in whose face men spit."

Wow. Think about that for a moment, how he felt in the place where, "Hey, why don't you just spit on my face? Because there was no love behind it, there was no compassion." He says in verse 7: "My eyes also grown dim because of sorrow and all my members are like a shadow. Upright men are astonished at this and at the innocent stirs himself up against the hypocrite.

Yet the righteous will hold to his way and he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger. But please come back again and of you," he says, "come back again all of you, for I shall not find wise man among you," speaking of his friends. "There's not one wise person among you.

My days are passed. My purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart. They change the night into day. The light is near," they say in the face of darkness. "And if I wait for the grave as my house, if I make my bed in the darkness." Notice that. He's in total despair now, speaking of the grave when he would die. He felt like dying, he did not want to exist anymore. Maybe you're here tonight and you feel like Job. You don't want to live anymore. Just hang on. I don't care what you're facing here tonight, what you're going through tonight. The Lord loves you, he cares for you, he's compassionate, he's caring, he's loving.

And it's a time in your life, a season in your lifetime that you're going through these things and we're all going to face things in our lives and it's only to make you a better person and to get closer to the heart of God if you allow God to work in your life, like Job. Job can't see chapters 38 and 39 and 40, 41, and 42 yet. We can. We got the whole word of God now. He can't see it. He's writing history for us. He's writing his story.

And maybe today like Job you're writing your story, you can't see to the end of your death when you're going to die. But God right now is working in your life, step by step, day by day, month by month, year by year, to produce something good in you. So then when you get to heaven you'll be hugely, greatly blessed by the Lord.

So here is Job again, verse 14: "If I say to corruption, 'You are my father,' where then is my hope? As for my hope, who can see it? Who can see it? Will they go down to the gates of hell, Sheol, the grave? Shall we have rest together in the dust?" Job is really in a low place in his life. I mean he is bummed.

And then all of a sudden as he comes to the lowest part of his life, here comes the other friend now, Bildad, his second speech in chapter 18. Notice he gives him a series of proverbs here. And then Bildad, the Shuhite, answered and said, "How long till you put an end to your words? Gain understanding and afterwards we will speak." Can you imagine? I would have got up and punched that guy immediately.

Can you imagine that? I mean he's just crying out to God and he says these guys are not my friends. They keep putting me down, they don't have any comforting words, they don't really care about me. And here comes the other one now: "How long till you put an end to words? Gain understanding and afterwards we will speak." He says, "Why are you counted as a beast, as an animal, and regarded as stupid in your sight?" Imagine that.

He says, "You who tear yourself in anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you or shall the rock be removed from its place? The light of the wicked," speaking of Job. "Job, you're wicked." He doesn't really know what Job is going through internally in his mind and his heart and his body physically, and yet he's condemning Job. Condemning Job.

"The light is dark in the tent and his lamp beside him is put out." Notice that is literally, "Job, you are condemning yourself with your own words." Notice that. Verse 8: "For he is cast into a net by his own feet and he walks into a snare." Literally, "Job, you have been caught like a fish on a net. You've been caught just like a fish on a net. Job, you walked into a trap." Can you believe that? He didn't have to hear that. Imagine that.

"The net takes him by the heel." He starts explaining to him. "And a snare lays a hold of him. A noose is hidden for him on the ground and a trap for him is on the road." You're walking along and all of a sudden, boom, the trap takes you up. Job, you don't have discernment.

Terrors frighten him on every side and drive him to his feet. His strength is starved and destruction is ready at his side. It devours patches of his skin, the firstborn of death devours his limbs. He is uprooted from the shelter of his tent and they parade him before the king of terrors. And they dwell in his tent who are none of him. Brimstone is scattered on his dwelling. I mean who needs friends like him?

His roots are dried up below and his branch withers above, literally again notice, the memory of him perishes from the earth and he has no name among the renowned. That is, people will forget about him. "Job, let me tell you something, you're going to die and people won't even know who you are." Wrong. Because we're reading about Job. You see? He's not comforting, he's putting down.

He is driven from the light into darkness and chased out of the world. He has neither son nor posterity among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings. Notice that he lost all his children. But God, he can't see, remember I told you he can't see chapters 38, 39 to 42. God is going to bless Job more than the first time. But Job can't see it.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. Don't forget we're here to equip you with guidance and hope from God's word. Visit somebodylovesyou.com for a wealth of resources, and be sure and join Raul for straight talk on the Somebody Loves You Worldwide YouTube channel every Tuesday at 10:00 AM West Coast time. Now back to more with Raul Ries.

Raul Ries: Job's response to his friends' accusations continues in chapter 19. They've really touched his heart and mind. Now Job answered and said, "How long will you torment my soul and break me in pieces with words? These ten times you have reproached me. You are not ashamed that you have wronged me.

And if indeed I have erred, my error remains with me." He says, "If indeed you exalt yourselves against me and plead my disgrace against me, know then that God has wronged me." Notice Job's heart now. He's speaking against God. "And surrounded me with his net." He's picking up the terminology of his friends.

"If I cry out 'Help,' I'm not heard." He's talking about his prayers to God. "I cry aloud but there is no justice. He has fenced up my way so that I cannot pass. And he has set darkness in my paths. He has stripped me of my glory and taken the crown from my head." All that he had, he says God has taken from me. "He breaks me down on every side and I am gone. My hope he has uprooted like a tree."

Verse 11: "He has also kindled his wrath against me and he counts me as one of his enemies." Notice Job's mind now. "His troops come together and build up their road against me. They encamp all around my tent. He has removed my brothers far from me." His friends, his family, everyone's gone. "And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me."

He's alone in his pain. "My relatives have failed and my close friends have forgotten me. Those who dwell in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger. I am an alien in their sight. I call my servant but he gives no answer. I beg him with my mouth." He was a great leader of the people and now even his servants won't listen to him. "My breath is offensive to my wife." He's a sick person. Boils all over his body. Can you imagine the smell?

"And I am repulsive to the children of my own body. Even young children despise me. I arise and they speak against me. All my close friends abhor me and those whom I love have turned against me. My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth."

Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends. Job's broken now. "For the hand of God has struck me. Why do you persecute me as God does? Why do you do this? If you're my friends, help me. And are not satisfied with my flesh. Oh, that my words were written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!" Well, Job, your words were written and they were inscribed in a book.

"That they were engraved with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives." Notice that he says this in verse 25. He goes from being in a pit, crying, being in despair, saying God has turned against him, to this wonderful message in verse 25.

"For I know that my Redeemer lives and he shall stand at last on the earth. And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God." Job in his despair had this wonderful message and light from God. "Whom I shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!"

He says, "If you should say, 'How shall we persecute him?' and 'The root of the matter is found in me,' be afraid of the sword for yourselves, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment." He warns his friends, "Watch out, there is a judgment coming upon you."

Chapter 20 now, Zophar's second speech. Zophar, remember, he was the guy who was the legalist. He's very strong. Zophar the Naamathite answered and said, "Therefore my anxious thoughts make me answer because of the turmoil within me. I have heard the rebuke that reproaches me and the spirit of my understanding causes me to answer." He gets in there and starts speaking to Job now.

"Do you not know this of old, since man was placed on earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short and the joy of the hypocrite is only for a moment?" He's saying Job, you're a hypocrite and your joy was short. "Though his haughtiness mounts up to the heavens and his head reaches to the clouds, yet he will perish forever like his own refuse." Refuse, that is dung. Can you imagine saying that to a person? You're like dung.

"Those who have seen him will say, 'Where is he?' He will fly away like a dream and not be found. Yes, he will be chased away like a vision of the night. The eye that saw him will see him no more, nor will his place behold him anymore."

He says, "His children will seek the favor of the poor and his hands will restore his wealth. His bones are full of youthful vigor but they will lie down with him in the dust. Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he hides it under his tongue, though he spares it and does not forsake it, but still keeps it in his mouth, yet his food in his stomach turns sour. It becomes cobra venom within him. He swallows down riches and vomits them up again.

God casts them out of his belly. He will suck the poison of cobras, the viper's tongue will slay him." He's just saying all this against Job. Verse 20: "Because he knows no quietness in his heart, he will not save anything he desires. Nothing is left for him to eat. Therefore his well-being will not last.

In his self-sufficiency he will be in distress. Every hand of misery will come against him." He's just laying it on Job. Poor Job. "When he is about to fill his stomach, God will cast on him the fury of his wrath and will rain it on him while he is eating." That is, he doesn't want Job to even enjoy a simple meal. "He will flee from the iron weapon, a bronze bow will pierce him through. It is drawn and comes out of the body, yes, the glittering point comes out of his gall. Terrors come upon him."

Verse 26: "Total darkness is reserved for his treasures. An unfanned fire will consume him. It will go ill with him who is left in his tent. The heavens will reveal his iniquity and the earth will rise up against him. The increase of his house will depart and his goods will flow away in the day of his wrath. This is the portion from God for a wicked man and the heritage appointed to him by God." This is what God does to a wicked person like you, Job.

Can you imagine these guys? Instead of helping him and lifting him up, they're laying it on. And we see the story continue next week as Job responds and he's going to respond in chapters 21, 22, 23, and 24. These guys, imagine, after they finished their speeches Job is still going for it. He's not done yet. God is for him and God is going to bring him through.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. If you'd like to hear today's lesson in its complete form, we'll be happy to send a copy to you for a donation of $5 or more. Just call us at 800-634-9165 and mention today's teaching from Job chapters 16 through 20.

Whether you're facing adversity yourself or looking to support someone else in their suffering, we'd like to offer you Raul's nine-lesson study titled When Trials Come. It's available on either CD or thumb drive. As you continue to explore Job's deeply painful experiences, you'll learn more about the intimate relationship with God that he forged in the fires of affliction. You'll also discover the rich blessings that come from trusting the Lord in your hardship, pressing in to spend time with him rather than turning your back on him in frustration.

To order Raul's nine-lesson series When Trials Come, visit somebodylovesyou.com or call 800-634-9165. We'll send you the CD set for $23 or the flash drive for just $13. That's 800-634-9165. Or write to Somebody Loves You Radio, PO Box 4040, Diamond Bar, California 91765.

Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries is entirely listener supported. We're so grateful for the tax-deductible gifts that enable us to keep sharing the good news of the gospel. We hope you'll join us again for the next Somebody Loves You Radio, as Raul guides us back into God's word for more truths that will save, comfort, and transform us into Christ's image.