Somebody Loves You

Raul Ries: Satan will come in with doubt and you'll have people that will come in with all kinds of negative things against you. But you don't have to really believe them. What we need in our lives and Job needed is the peace of God. And if you have the peace of God, how can you get bummed when you really have the peace of God and you know God is in this and God is going to take me through this.

I am falling, I am falling. I am falling in love. I am falling in love. I am falling in love. I am falling in love with you.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. Today's lesson continues our series in the book of Job and we're glad you're with us. As Raul considers Job's response to excruciating loss, you'll be encouraged to hold fast to God in your trials.

The Lord sees you in your suffering and he isn't deterred by your hurt, confusion, or even anger. You can honestly share your feelings, looking to him for strength and a renewal of your faith. We'll begin today in Job chapter two. Here is Raul Ries.

Raul Ries: Job is really tested to the ultimate extreme where in one day he has four tragedies. And now all of these children are gone. All of these flocks are gone. He's bankrupt. And there he is standing. It says in verse 20, and then Job got up, tore his robe, shaved his head, fell on the ground to worship.

And then he said, "Naked I came in my mother's womb, naked I shall return there. The Lord giveth, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." In all this, Job did not once sin nor charge God with wrong. Imagine that. Never, never charge God wrong in one thing. "Naked I came, naked I leave. The Lord giveth, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord Jehovah God."

You would think, wow, what else can happen? Well, chapter two. Again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said to Satan, "Satan, from where have you come?" It's not that God is ignorant. He knows what's going on, but he wants him to answer, keeping him accountable.

So Satan answered the Lord and said to him, "From going to and fro through the earth and from walking back and forth on it." And then the Lord said to Satan, "Have you ever considered my servant Job?" That word considered is a military term used of a general standing on top of a hill looking down on the enemy and planning and strategizing how I can take my enemy on. How I can get to them. That's what the word is here. Have you ever considered or strategized on my servant Job?

Notice that there is none like him on the earth. A blameless, upright man. Thirdly, one who fears God. And four, one who hates evil. And still he holds fast to his integrity in all that you incited me against him to destroy him without cause. You know what I see here? I counsel a lot of people and one of the things that I always wonder about is when people backslide.

Why would a person backslide after something happens to them as a Christian? Do you think that it's going to be better without God? I don't think so. I mean, it's kind of stupid if you think about that. Oh, you know what God, I'm mad at you so I'm going to go back to the world and do what I used to do. Go ahead. Go ahead, try it again. See what happens.

You can't succeed. You can't prosper. Believe it or not, you're going down the tubes fast. And yet people do it all the time. And yet it says here that Job stayed blameless, upright, fearing God and hating evil. Losing his children, losing his camels, losing all of these flocks and everything that he owned except for he and his wife. And yet he never cursed God.

There will be a time where you and I will be tested. And yet because we don't lose our confidence in the Lord and we call upon the name of the Lord, the Bible says the Lord sustains us. Yes, God has to try us. He has to try your faith to really see what kind of a foundation you have. He wants to know if you're really real or not, just as gold is tested.

It's real important. I believe Job believed that with all his heart because watch this. This is amazing. Verse four says, "And so Satan answered the Lord and said, 'Skin for skin. Yes, and all that a man has he will give for his life.'" Notice that. Satan tells God that the reason Job hasn't cursed him is because God puts limitations on him.

You draw the line. You protect him too much. That's why he loves you. You know what's amazing is that God has promised us that he will give us strength to bear our temptations when we go through them. The Bible says that in 1 Corinthians chapter 10:13. No temptation has overtaken you that is common to man, but God makes the way of escape for you in every temptation so you don't get messed up.

We lose heart. We get unbelief. We get discouraged. And so here is Satan again speaking out against Job. "Notice this: but stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will surely curse you to your face." I'll tell you what, God, you took his children, he's doing good. You took all his money, he's doing fine. But I'll tell you what, no man can stand it when you get them themselves.

You hit him completely and fully. Physically get him and he'll curse you to your face. Really? I mean, think about that. What does God do? And the Lord said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand." I'm glad that's not a period. It's a comma. "Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life." I love that.

What do you mean? God's in control of my life, not Satan. Satan can't touch me unless it's by permission. Get that in your brain. When you go through a sickness, when you go through an accident, whatever it is, either God's chastening you or he's allowing it to make you stronger and a better person in your life. Because he wants to use your life. That's why he does it.

It’s not that he hates you or is picking on you. And Satan, when he heard that, this is so amazing because we are protected by God. Man was created with a free will to choose. Verse seven, "And so Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head."

Can you imagine boils? That hurts. But imagine boils on top of your head to your whole body all the way down to your heels where you can't stand and if you sit down it still hurts. If you lie down it hurts and there's no way you can bear it at all. Verse eight, "And he took for himself a piece of pottery with which he scraped himself from he sat in the midst of the ashes."

He was itching so much he was scratching all over the place. And then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Do you still believe in God? Do you still love God?" I mean, what kind of a wife is that? "Why don't you curse God and die, Job?" Imagine that. But here is poor Job and here his wife. And what's the first thing that the enemy does? He puts doubt in our minds.

Doubt in our minds. But Job answers. Notice this verse 10, and he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and shall we not accept adversity?" In all this, Job did not sin with his lips. I mean, just because we're Christians, should we not suffer? No, Christians do go through stuff like everybody else.

Like everybody else. We get headaches, we get stomach aches, chickenpox, everything. And yet here Job understands. Notice that here Job was righteous. In all these things he submitted to God and what did he do? He silenced Satan. Silenced Satan. Oh man, I love that. What could Satan say? "Shoot, you know, I can't believe Job. What is it going to take?"

Now watch this. Here it is, verse 11. "And now when Job's three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place. Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, Zophar the Naamathite. For they had made an appointment together to come and to mourn with him and to comfort him."

I mean, people hear that you're sick, they come to the hospital, they visit you. They come to your home, they visit you. You go, oh how nice, you know they love me. Verse 12. Now watch their reaction here of Job's friends. "And when they came, they raised their eyes from afar off and they did not recognize Job. They lifted up their voices and they started weeping and each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven."

Notice that because of the condition Job was in. And so they sat down with Job on the ground for seven days and seven nights. No one spoke a word to him for they saw that his grief was very great. Wow. Can you imagine being in the presence of someone you can't say nothing? What can you really say to them when they're hurting so much?

They started out very well sitting with him, having compassion on him. But later on what's going to happen is they start giving their own philosophy, ungodly philosophy why Job is sick. And really you don't need people's opinions. You want to make sure you got God's opinion because it can really throw you into a hole.

Some people that listen to Job's friends when they're sick like that, they can put you in a deep depression if you believe what they're saying to you. Surely you want people that come to you and they're going to give you a biblical scripture to build you up, not to tear you down or not to put doubt in your mind and your heart.

Verse 13. As they're sitting down weeping. And so they sat down with him on the ground seven days and they were all in grief. And then chapter three begins here. Now this section covers now the actual cycles and speeches between Job and his friends, the meaning of his friends, including Elihu, all the way to chapters 3 through 37:24. That's all his friends' speeches.

Chapter 3 verse 1, check this out. And after this, they weren't saying one word for seven days, Job opened his mouth and what did he say? He cursed the day of his birth. He didn't curse God. He said, "I wish I would have never been born. I wish I would have never been born." Job was in deep pain and despair to the point that he said, "Lord, why was I born for this day?"

Verse 2, Job spoke and he said, "May the day perish on which I was born and the night in which was said, 'A male, a boy was conceived.'" You know how when you're having a baby and say, "It's a girl, it's a boy." He says, "I wish they would have never said it's a boy," the day of my birth. Notice that.

He was saying, "I wish I could have done away with the calendar when he was born." He says, "I wish they would have never kept the date when I was born." But in reality it cannot be done. Why? Because he was there appointed according to the will of God. We have to trust God. We have to recognize that God is in control of my life. Yes, when we're weak, when we're sick, we can say a lot of things that we don't really mean because we're emotionally saying them.

But we should never ever curse the Lord because God is there for us at any time. Satan will come in with doubt and you'll have people that will come in with all kinds of negative things against you. But you don't have to really believe them. What we need in our lives and Job needed is the peace of God. And if you have the peace of God, how can you get bummed when you really have the peace of God and you know God is in this and God is going to take me through this?

But here is Job again. This is the beginning. Verse 3, "May the day perish on which I was born and the night in which it was said a male child was conceived." And then he says, "May that day be darkness." The darkness here is actually used five times in this chapter as used darkness, deep shadow, blackness, and thick darkness.

"May God above not seek it nor the light shine upon it." Notice that it refers to that darkness he was feeling. "May darkness," verse 5, "and the shadow of death claim it. May a cloud settle on it, may the blackness of the day terrify it. As for that night, may darkness seize it. May it not rejoice among the days of the year, may it not come into the number of the months." Notice Job having a hard time. Now he's just being honest with God.

Then he says in verse seven, notice he continues to personify the night. "Oh, may the night be barren or stony, may no joyful shout come into it." Notice that. That is he's talking about his mother would have never bore him. That's how he's feeling. Why was I born? Why did my mother bear me? "May those curse it who curse the day, those who are ready to curse Leviathan," a sea monster that he's talking about here.

Mythologically they were always talking about Leviathan, this monster with seven heads. But at the time when Noah and all these things were going on because the book of Job goes back to the book of Genesis way back there, we find the name of Job, one of the oldest books in the Bible. And then check this out, verse nine, "May the stars," speaking of Venus and Mercury, "of its morning be dark, may it look for light but have none and not see the dawning of the day."

His suffering wish. Verse 10, "Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother's womb nor hide sorrow from my eyes." Speaking again of his birth. Notice that. Since he was conceived and born, why couldn't he have died at birth? Why do I have to go through this misery? Ever feel like that? You're with Job.

He felt the same way, he's human. He's having a hard time understanding. And it is hard to understand why good people suffer when there's all kinds of evil people that I say, "Lord, get them good." And yet when I look at someone that is righteous, "Lord, why them? Why not this person over here?" They deserve it, Lord.

But God knows. God's in control. He's building character. Verse 11, "Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?" And check this out, "Why did the knees receive me or why the breast that I should nurse?" Notice I need to live for God. Why? Because of his purposes. Because there is a day of judgment coming and we need to remind ourselves of this.

If God allowed me to come into this world and he allowed my mother and father to have me, then God has a purpose for my life and it's a purpose for everybody. The problem is people don't align themselves with the purposes of God. They want to do their own thing. That's where we get ourselves in trouble. Anytime you move away from God, you're going to be in big trouble.

But as long as you're seeking him and pursuing after him and staying humble before him, he will lead you, guide you. When you get sick, he will heal you, he'll protect you, he'll watch over you. Yes, and there'll be times when you'll be so bummed out that you'll even doubt God. But God is there. God is there. He said, "I will never leave you and I will never forsake you."

That's a promise of Jesus and we need to tell people that. We need to give them the word of God, not our words, God's word so they can be comforted. Verse 13, "For now I would have lain still and been quiet. I would have been asleep, then I would have been at rest." Notice that. He says if death at birth would have been so much better, but yet God didn't allow it.

I would have been gone. And yet this is where people, they take the doctrine here in verse 13, believe it or not, of soul sleep. That when a person dies you take the body, you bury it, but their soul stays asleep in the grave until Jesus comes again and then you'll be awakened. There's no such thing.

It's only found in the book of Job and the Psalms. Jesus said, "Today you'll be with me in paradise" to the thief on the cross. The moment you die, you're in the presence of the Lord. If you're not a Christian, you're in the presence of Satan in hell in the middle of the earth. That's what the Bible teaches.

Nobody goes to sleep. When you die, you die. The body's an empty shell. The spirit departs to be with the Lord or to go to hell. So here again, verse 14, "With kings, counselors of the earth who build ruins for themselves or with the leaders who had gold who fill their houses with silver," literally saying "I wish I would have never come into this world. Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child? Like infants who saw no light?"

"There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary are at rest." Job is crying out of distress for losing his family. And yet notice we cannot make doctrine out of this. Job is speaking out of the frustration of grief. They don't mean what they're saying. But they say it in pain. Notice that.

And yet he says again in verse 18, "There the prisoners rest together, they do not hear the voice of the oppressor. The small and great are there," speaking of death still all the way through, "and the servant is free from his master." Notice that. "Why is light given to him who is in misery and life to the bitter of the soul? Who long for death but it does not come and search for it more than hidden treasures."

Literally you're saying I welcome death more than gold. You can take me now Lord, I want to die. "Who rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they find the grave." Notice that. I wish I could die. "Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden?" Notice in whom God has hedged in. And my sighs for my sighing comes before I eat and my groaning pours out like water. Notice that I can't even eat, Lord. I'm in such pain.

Guest (Male): If you're going through an extremely difficult season right now, you might be shutting down emotionally or even closing yourself off to God. If that's the case, it's our prayer that Job's experience will assure you that you can safely engage with the Lord in your suffering. You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries.

If you'd like to get a complete unedited version of today's teaching, we'll be happy to send it to you for a donation of five dollars or more. Just call us at 800-634-9165 and mention today's teaching from Job chapters two through five. To further build your confidence in God's loving faithfulness, we'd like to offer you Raul's nine-part series titled "When Trials Come."

It's available on CD or USB. Each lesson illuminates more of what it looks like to walk through the fire with hope and trust in a good and mighty God. To purchase Raul's nine-lesson series titled "When Trials Come," visit somebodylovesyou.com or call 800-634-9165.

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Every tax-deductible gift equips us to keep sharing the truth of God's mighty word. Next time on Somebody Loves You Radio, we'll return to the pages of the word of God to dive deeper into ways that we can serve him and love him with all of our hearts.

I am falling, I am falling. I am falling in love. I am falling in love. I am falling in love. I am falling in love with you.

Guest (Male): This program is sponsored by Somebody Loves You Radio in Diamond Bar, California.