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We'll continue our studies on the fear of God. We did the first part last week. Today, we'll look into the book of Job. The title of the sermon is “Beholding the God of Job, Learning to Fear God.” Horatio Spafford, he wrote a hymn called “It Is Well With My Soul,” and after losing his business in the Chicago fire, and then all four of his daughters, when their ship sank crossing the Atlantic, he wrote this hymn while crossing the very waters where their children died.
“It is well with my soul.” That's not a man who feared God for blessing. That's a man whose fear of God survived the total loss of blessing. Right? If God took away the things Spafford had, would our hymn still be, “It is well with my soul”?
I think we need to ask this question sincerely, or it would be silence or worse, accusation. Sooner or later every one of us stands where Job stood, not exactly with the same losses, but some tragedy, some tragedy will hit us because we live in a fallen world, stripped of the props that made our faith feel safe, forced to decide who God really is when he stops giving and starts taking all that we loved.
Would our song be, “It is well with our soul”? Last week we saw our tendency to compartmentalize God. I will honor God in this area. I will live as I like in this area. But scripture teaches us that God is the Lord of all life or whole life.
And we should properly, consistently obey our God, worship him, fear him, love, trust and hope in him at all times. And all sin is sin against our God. This morning we turn to the book of Job not mainly to answer why do the righteous suffer, though the book touches on that, but we will look at the book of Job to ask a deeper question. Who is the God of Job? Who is our God and what does it mean to rightly.
You should understand that why Job lived in a particular way, why his responses were different from a common man when such a huge tragedy struck him. He was not a superman. He is a man like us. Did Job fear God only because God had blessed him?
Satan's accusation sets the terms for the whole book and for as well as we read it. Please turn your Bibles to Job chapter 1 and we'll read verses 9 till 10. Job chapter 1 verses 9 and 10 says, “Does Job fear God for nothing?”
“Have you not made a fence around him?” Then he says, “You have blessed the work of his hands.” Satan's quest was to make Job's faith a business transaction and that if the blessings stop so would the worship as well. And that accusation is not really about Job, but what do we do when tragedy hits? When tragedy hits our lives, a failing marriage, the loss of a child, a lost job or a poor health, consistent sickness.
Is our faith transactional? Do we shake our fist at God when life falls apart? Job feared God, we read in this book, not just once, but three times. Firstly, in verse 1, the narrator says that Job feared God. In verse 8, God says it to Satan that Job feared him. And in chapter 2, verse 3, God repeats it after Job's suffering begins.
Job's response to tragedy flowed directly from what he understood God to be. We'll trace this on two levels. How Job perceived God during his suffering, the fuller revelation of God he received after it, or at some point of his suffering and what that means for us and who now have the whole counsel of Scripture.
Tragedy came to Job not as a punishment for some sin. It was not a disciplinary action on Job, but it was an opportunity for God to be glorified through this suffering of Job. In a single day, Job lost his property, his oxen, his donkeys to the Sabeans, his sheep to fire from the skies, and the camels to the Chaldeans, and all of his ten children to a collapsing house.
In a single day, he lost everything. And then with God's permission, Satan struck Job's own body with painful sores from head to the foot. We read that in chapter 2 verses 7 and 8. Job later describes this suffering. Worm-eaten, blackened skin, failing eyesight, bones that burn and ache through sleepless nights, crying out for help with no comfort. We read that in chapter 7, chapter 16, chapter 30. He describes his suffering.
This was not a discipline for sin. God himself calls Job blameless and upright in chapter 1. His suffering had nothing to do with his wrongdoing, but yet he suffers miserably than the wicked of his time. And through it all, Job did not sin against God. But his wife urged him in chapter 2 that, “Are you still holding on to your integrity?” And she asked her husband to curse God and die.
Unknowingly echoing Satan's own words. But Job processed his grief, his losses, and his pain in light of who God truly is. And that made all the difference. That made all the difference. Dear brothers and sisters, tragedy will hit you. It may not be at this scale of Job's but in some way, some way, we'll be hurt in some way.
How do we respond? How we respond shows how much of understanding of God we have and how much of that understanding of God governs our lives and that shows whether we truly fear God or not. So what was Job's understanding of God?
Number one, we'll see who is God, a holistic portrayal from the book of Job. The book of Job offers us more than just systematic theology. It presents to us a heartfelt, personal vision of God that when seen as a whole, is truly rich and inspiring.
Firstly, we see that God hates sin. He's holy. He hates sin. Chapter 1, verse 1. “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job, and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.” And verse 5. “When the days of feasting had completed their cycle, Job would send word to them and consecrate them, getting up early in the morning and offering offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, ‘Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.’ Job did so continually.”
See Job's heart was not, he was not doing these things so that calamity will strike them if they didn't honor God. Job was sincerely honoring God so that God will be honored all throughout their lives. Even the children would properly really honor God because he is worthy of all glory and honor. He didn't pray for them so that they will be saved from all calamity. That was not the heart of Job's prayers. His heart was that God should be rightly honored, worshiped, feared because he deserves the glory. That was the heart of Job and Job was conscious of what God loves and what he hates.
He turned away from evil consistently. Job consistently lived with an understanding that God is holy and he hates sin and is worthy of all glory and honor. That's the number one thing that we see. Secondly, God's sovereignty. After Job lost his livestock, servants and children, he declared in chapter 1 verse 21, “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.”
For example, a shepherd doesn't ask the sheep's permission before shearing it, right? Or moving it to a new pasture. Needed cutting away the diseased wool with a knife close to the skin. It doesn't ask the sheep's permission. The sheep doesn't understand the wisdom of the shepherd's hand. It only feels like, it only feels the blade or the cold new field.
Job's confession in chapter 1 and verse 21 is a sheep trusting shepherd's hand even while feeling the cut. That's the difference between resignation here in chapter 1 verse 21. “Nothing I can do,” or and also the worship, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.” He simply trusts God wholeheartedly. Now first the Sabeans attacked his livestock. Then the whirlwind attacked his children. Then Satan inflicted a strange sickness.
Notice that Job doesn't blame any of these. He doesn't blame the Sabeans. He doesn't blame the anyone else or his living conditions. He doesn't blame anyone for these for or for the tragedy and the pain. He doesn't blame God either. He doesn't say, “Why me, God?” He doesn't say, “Why my family, God? Haven't I served you all this while? Wasn't I faithful to you? Didn't I offer offerings to you daily?” He doesn't say these things. The events nevertheless were troublesome, were painful. They shattered everything. His entire world fell apart.
His response was so profound. He said, “The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job understood that life, whether good or evil that we face is about the glory of God. Is about the glory of God.
The London Baptist Confession says, “God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass.” He has ordained whatsoever comes to pass. Job's theology of providence was at play here. His theology was not mere head knowledge. Like I said last week, we are most of the time swollen with information while our hearts still lie rotten with corruption. Unlike us, Job let his theology govern his life.
What is God's providence? God's providence means God doesn't and step back, he actively sustains, works through, and directs everything that happens all the time for his purposes. And he also uses the evil to accomplish his greater purposes. The Heidelberg Catechism's famous line captures the point. “Nothing happens in this in God's universe by chance, but everything comes to us from his fatherly hand,” which includes rain, drought, health, sickness, wealth, poverty, and even death.
But when it comes to evil and sin, we must understand that God is not the author of it, but he allows it only to accomplish his greater purposes. But the bigger idea here is that God is on the throne, and yet, and at the end he makes it all beautiful. He's good, and even the evil that he allows will accomplish his greater good purposes for his own glory. So a believer should set his heart on God's glory, not on his comfort. Know this, that God will allow discomfort into your lives.
Then what theology will be at play in your life? That's the reason our life should be saturated with the theology, with word, with God of the Bible, right? We should be ready to be put out for the purposes of God's glory. Our hearts should be set on this greater agenda that God glorifies his name.
Derek Thomas said Job acknowledged that everything he had was a gift of God. His family, wealth and good health. So to demand these things, health, family, good health, as a right or as our right is out of order. To thank him for these blessings when we possess them is the right thing to do. But to complain when they are missing is not the right thing to do.
This shows that Job was not consumed by his possessions. He depended on God as the provider. God gives, God takes away. His existence called him to lifelong devotion, commitment, loyalty, and gratitude. Today you have good health. Today you have your family. Today you have wealth or a good job. Tomorrow you may not have them. That is how life is. But what will be your responses? What will be your responses?
How will you respond? Shows what kind of theology you have. What kind of an understanding you have. How you respond to life circumstances. How you respond to people shows what is your understanding of God and how much you fear God. Okay. So fearing God, as we have seen last week, is to obey all of his word. Because though you don't understand, though you don't understand that this response is right or wrong, but you understand that this will honor God.
Because this is what God calls us to do. Thirdly, we see that in the book of Job, Job’s theology of God is that he understood God to be incomprehensibly wise. Towards chapter 2 we see that Job’s three friends arrived to meet him and when they saw him from a distance, his friends when they saw him they were really broken and from a distance they wept. They wept seriously. They put upon themselves ashes and they wept for his friend. They were seriously heartbroken.
Job trusted his friends probably and he poured out his heart to them. Like many times we do, right? We pour out to someone when we are hurt. In chapter 3, Job verbalizes his pain, his fears and anxiety and we see there he’s depressed, he’s anguished in his soul. But from chapter 4 we see that his three friends misunderstands Job.
And their idea of God, or understanding of God, is also wrong. They believed in something called a retribution theology. That every suffering, it can be contributed to some kind of sin. So from chapter 4, his friends speak beginning with Eliphaz. All three of his friends believe that Job was suffering as a result of his sin. They believe that this was some kind of special kind of suffering for a special kind of sin that he had committed.
Job replies in chapter 6, in verse 2. He says in poetic terms that his friends harshly criticized him. Then in chapter 8, another friend, Bildad, says that Job should repent. But what for? They do not say. They say you should repent. It hurts, right, when people judge you, criticize you, they don’t understand you. But they keep aggravating his grief.
Do you have friends who do not understand you but judge you? Who are always cynical? They silently rejoice when you are falling. Instead of helping you, they aggravate your pain. Know that you are not alone, but don’t hate such friends. Job didn’t hate his friends.
They’re humans and they’re blind to your pain. They’re blind to the reality. Don’t hate. Job responds in chapter 9. Now he’s cynical about himself and feeling unworthy of God’s kindness and he cannot take his case. He doesn’t have strength and courage to take his case in the presence of God. He recognizes his insignificance and doesn’t matter his strength to bring his case before God. Job doesn’t argue with God or curse him but he emphasizes God’s and power in chapter 9 and verse 4.
Job speaks about God’s incomprehensibility. Chapter 9 verse 10 he says, in midst of all these things, he says, “Who does great things, unfathomable and wondrous works without number?” While his friends were accusing him they were cynical of him and he’s in extreme pain, his—yes, he says that, whoa, who does great things, in other words God does great things and they are unfathomable and there’s wonders and his works are wonders without number. These words are he is uttering in midst of pain, deep agonizing pain, hurt.
His theology is governing his life, his actions, his words. He’s speaking right things because his heart is filled with the glorious knowledge of God. Job has never given a full explanation of his trial. Probably Job was never aware of the other council in the heavens with God and Satan. That conversation, he may have never come to understand that but he submits to God in all humility.
Calvin says, “God is just for irrespective of how he treats men and we must keep our mouth shut and not murmur against him because we can gain nothing by it.” No human, no matter how intelligent legion they are, can never comprehend God’s wise counsel and dealings. And next in chapter 9 verse 11, Job believes that God is invisible. He says in verse 11, “Were he to pass by me, I would not see him; were he to move past me, I would not perceive him.”
He believes that God is everywhere. He believes that God is present but he could not see him and that is a consistent testimony of the scriptures. Man cannot see God and still be alive. No one has ever seen God except the one who is in the bosom of the Father, Jesus alone, because he alone has a capacity to see God because he himself is God. And next in Job chapter 9 verse 13, the first part, we see there that God is irresistible and unaccountable, where he say it says that, where, “Were he to snatch away, who could restrain him?” Who could restrain him? No one can resist God.
No one can resist God. In chapter 9 verse 13, “God will not turn back his anger; beneath him crouched the helpers of Rahab.” Rahab is a sea creature. If God has determined to show his anger, who can resist him? No one can question him. “What are you doing, God?” No one can question him. How could someone as small as Job possibly influence someone so strong and mighty as God? Job knows that he is punished not for any of his sins. And at the same time, he knows that God is so huge, so great that he cannot question him.
And then sixthly, we see that God is a righteous judge. Chapter 9 verse 32 and 33 says that, “For he is not a man as I am that I may answer him, that we may go to court together. There is no umpire between us who may lay his hand upon us both.”
Why doesn’t Job bring his case before God? He doesn’t lament in the presence of the Lord. And all that is left to Job is the courtroom. But how can he even speak to God? The answer lies in the mediator. Job cannot fathom God’s justice here. He believes that his logic is insufficient to comprehend and make sense of his situation.
But he knows that God is just in all of this. Job feels distant from God, overwhelmed by God’s majesty and his justice, pain and making contact with God seems impossible. But his answer is in a mediator. Only a mediator of equal standing can bridge the gap. He knows his God so well that he understands that he has no standing to question God. He needs mercy, but someone, a mediator, should speak on his behalf.
longs for a mediator, an empire who could stand between his is creaturely no limit limitations and God's infinite holiness. We find the answer in first Timothy chapter 2 verse 5 there is one God and there is one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus. Job's unanswered longing is a signpost pointing forward to the gospel.
Seventhly, Job’s understanding of God is that God is the transcendent creator who rules over everything. Job and his three friends Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar had a long discussion. It was a long conversation. Job’s three friends only condemned Job. Job went on a cycle of justifying his integrity. If we read chapters 27 and 31 we understand that even Job at times was more concerned about his integrity than God’s glory. But sometime later another friend enters the discussion. His name is Elihu. Job chapter 32. If you turn your Bibles to Job chapter 32, verses 1, 2 and 3, Elihu says, then
these, you know, it talks about Elihu, “then these three men stopped answering Job because he was righteous in his own eyes. But the anger of Elihu, the son of Barachel, the Buzite of the family of Ram, burned against Job, his anger burned because he justified himself before God. And his anger burned against his three friends because they had found no answer yet they condemned Job.” Elihu, Job’s friend, gets angry at Job because he’s justified his integrity than glorifying God’s justice. Look at chapter 35 verse 2. It says, Elihu says, “Do you think this is in accordance with justice? Do you
say My righteousness is more than God’s.” Elihu extols God’s greatness. Job 36 verse 22 and 23 says, “Behold, God is exalted in power, in his power, who is a teacher like him, who has appointed his way, and who has said, ‘You have done wrong.’”
What Elihu said about God is true. And it’s also true about what he said about Job and his three friends. Towards the end, God condemns the understanding of Job’s three friends, but he doesn’t condemn Elihu. Elihu’s speech, he didn’t preach, but his speech, his conversation with Job, Elihu’s speech matches with God’s own declarations in chapters 38 to 41. Elihu offers a God-centered perspective on human suffering. It does not examine life’s problems from a human vantage point, but emphasizes God and His greatness. That is how we need to look at all of the problems. After Elihu’s speech, the Lord speaks to Job in chapters 38–41.
He poses question after question to see if Job has an answer. These were intended to assist Job in comprehending his role as a creature rather than as a creator. For instance, turn your Bibles to Job chapter 38 and read verse 4. Job chapter 38, verse 4. God questions, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have an understanding.”
Tell me if you can grasp it. Verse 12. “Have you ever in your life commanded the morning and caused the dawn to know its place?” Verse 16. “Have you entered into the springs of the sea or walked into the recesses of the deep?” Verse 22. “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail?” Verse 28. “Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew?” Verse 33. “Do you know the ordinances of the heavens, or fix their rule over the earth?” Verse 34. “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds so that an abundance of water will cover you?”
Verse 41. “Who prepares for the raven its nourishment when its young cry to God and wander about without food?” God asks questions after questions in verses, 30 chapters 38 till 41, and Job has no answer. His wisdom cannot comprehend it. So the point is that we cannot comprehend the reason for all our sufferings, why we suffer, but we must know rightly that there is a God and he orders all things for his own glory.
And he places his people even in troubled times to glorify his great name. In unfavorable times also to glorify his great name. In this chapter God walks through Job through the storehouses of snow, through the courses of the stars, and also you go, you read through this chapter, as you understand, he’ll talks about, he’ll talk about the wild goat giving birth, the ostrich and the war horse, behemoth, and the effect is deliberate. If Job cannot govern a bird or master a beast, how could he possibly sit in judgment on the governor of the universe?
God’s speeches here do not answer the problem of suffering intellectually or logically — Job cannot make sense of his suffering still — but they answer it by revealing who God is, ultimately the Creator. Job is silenced not by logic or argument but by the sheer weight of the Creator’s glory.
And after this series of questions from God, Job sees God clearly, even more clearly in Job chapter 42 verses 5 and 6, the passage that we read this morning. He says, “I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.”
Which means that he really has now the grasp of who God is truly, and therefore “I retract and I repent in dust and ashes.” For what is he repenting? For some kind of sin? Yes, maybe his self-righteousness. He is repenting for not having the right and not responding to life according to that understanding.
He’s repenting of that. That he did not glorify God well. Right? And how many times should we repent? How much should we repent for not responding to life circumstances in a proper way, according to the understanding of God. Job repents here for not having a proper understanding of God and not responding to his life circumstances according to that knowledge.
God speaks. He addresses Job, engages him in dialogue, in dialogue, and astonishingly at the end of the book commends Job’s understanding of God over his friends’ false understanding, and he personally restores him. God is transcendent, we cannot understand him, we cannot comprehend fully, but he is near to his people.
Transcendence and nearness are not competitors in the book of Job. They are held together. God is both utterly holy, sovereign, yet graciously steps down, meets his people, makes covenant with his people, reveals himself. In what ways did Job fear God? Secondly, the narrator’s verdict is that Job feared God. It’s not sentimental, it is clearly displayed throughout the book in at least few ways. Number one, Job feared God in prosperity, not only in adversity. Job feared God in prosperity. Many times we are humble when tragedy hits us. We begin to pray that when our lives begin to shake, right? But Job isn’t like us. Look at Job chapter 1, verses
4 to 5. “When the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all, for Job said, ‘It may be that my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.’”
Job feared God, honored God, glorified God in prosperity. Job's fear of God was a consistent part of his life before facing calamity, not just a result of crisis. He didn't approach God with this mentality: “If I don't pray, something bad will happen, something evil will happen. I'll pray so that we will be safe.” He didn't do that. His approach towards life was not that. He feared God. He thought, he believed that God is worthy of all glory and honor even in midst of his prosperity. He lived to please God. He handled his prosperity well. He ended his prosperity well in the light of God's glory. We will see that shortly. Secondly, Job feared God by worshiping him when he was a wreck.
Job chapter 1 verse 20, “Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshipped.” When, even after tragedy hit him, he worshipped God. He didn't pray directly, but he worshipped God. Upon hearing of the loss of his oxen, donkey, sheep, camel, servants, and his children in a single day, Job's first response, an act, is not accusation or prayer but an act of worship. Thirdly, Job feared God by refusing to sin with his lips and by refusing false comfort. Look at Job chapter 1 verse 22, “In all of this, in all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.”
He did not sin. He did not sin. Job's fear. Job also uttered words so carefully because he feared God. He knew that he cannot be careless in his words even when tragedy hit him. Job's fear of God kept a guard on his mouth, even under his wife's counsel to curse God and die. Job's fear of God did not require him to pretend. He did not feel something about God in his heart and said something else. Across the dialogues in chapters 3 to 31, Job laments bitterly, refuses his friends a very simplistic retribution theology which claimed his suffering must be proof of some hidden sin. For Job, fearing God meant honestly expressing his grief and doubts before him rather than resorting to blasphemy or empty, God-dishonoring words.
Ultimately it is Job's sincere honesty neat theological explanations that God affirms as right in Job 42 verse 7. Fourthly, Job feared God by submitting when God finally spoke. Then Job answered to the Lord and said, “I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” We read that in Job 42. “I had heard that by the hearing of ear, but now my eyes see you, therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” When confronted with the sheer greatness of God, Job does not receive an explanation for his suffering.
He never learns of the conversation in the heavenly realms, in the heavenly courts, which is recorded in chapters 1–2, and what he receives instead is a vision of the greatness of God. And that vision was so overwhelming that his questions are silenced, not because they were illegitimate questions, but because they are swallowed up in something greater, that is a greatness of God. The fear of the Lord is rightly ordering a soul before its maker. A fear of God is ordering our lives according to the knowledge of God. That is repentance.
But not primarily repentance for hidden sin. It is repentance for having spoken of matters too wonderful for him or presuming to indict God. Point five. Job feared God by interceding for others rather than nursing bitterness. Look at chapter 42. And verse 10, “and the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends.”
The ultimate evidence of Job's fear of God is that instead of gloating over his friends who had wounded him with false counsel and plagued him with cynical and judgmental words. You know, brothers and sisters, we know that, well, words hurt harder than anything else. Because they remain for a longer period of time.
The things that we do with our mouths will hurt people more bitterly. And in the book of Job, the conversation of these three friends takes lots of space. The amount of words that they spoke to Job consistently for days. Genuine fear of God always manifests as love towards others. Even those who fail to treat and comfort as well. This is so Christ-like, brothers and sisters.
The great Creator at one point in history stepped down into this world. Christ Jesus, he took upon himself with human nature and was born of a virgin, lived a holy life. He never sinned. He was truly man and truly God, but he went to the cross as our Messiah, and all the sins we have committed against God, all the sins that we have committed against God, were laid on our Lord Jesus Christ. God should rightly punish us for our sins, but he— We punish Jesus on our behalf. He suffered, Lord Jesus suffered under God's holy wrath and shed his blood for the atonement of our sins.
He died and he rose again from the dead victorious over sin, the enemy and the death. He is now ascended to the heavens, seated at the right hand of the majesty as the eternal God and eternal man, our high priest. He is appointed as our mediator. Not only did he mediate for us on the cross, but he now also mediates as a high priest, saving sinners, atoning for us, aiding in our sanctification through his indwelling Spirit and building his church. He no longer condemns us but leads us into repentance. That is the work of a mediator. And as
A people whose sins are being mediated by a merciful high priest. We should be like Christ and mediate for the sins of others, as sins of those also who sin against us persistently. We should pray for them and bring them to the cross first, so that God will accomplish his purposes. We should stop making our lives all about us and our hearts. We need to see the bigger picture. Brothers and sisters, we need to see the bigger picture. And the bigger picture is this, that God is building a beautiful church for His glory out of a messier people who are being redeemed by
the mercies of a merciful God through the finished work of a Christ, of a Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The church is filled with messier people. We should not be lost in this mess, but have a bigger picture of God building a beautiful church through His mercies. To act according to His word, not according to the promptings of a flesh, but according to His word, by the leadership of the Holy Spirit. We need to be governed and be led by the Spirit, so that we will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. The desires of the flesh is to hurt each other. The desires of the flesh is to be bitter, be arrogant, to avoid, to gossip, to slander.
Those are the works of the flesh. And when we walk in the Spirit, in line with His Word, we will not fulfill the desires of the flesh, but we will contribute to the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, He is building a beautiful temple, beautiful church.
And yes, we will all, by the mercies of Christ and the work of the Spirit, the work of the triune God, the church will be holy and blameless. It’s a mystery. How can that be? How can that be? That’s a mystery of the work of the cross, that the greatness of the work of the cross — only God can accomplish that. And God will accomplish it by sanctifying us. God wanted Job to mediate or to pray for his friends who hurt him. Job’s life, his losses, and his pain were never about him. It was about God demonstrating his own glory.
When Job forgave his friends and prayed for them, he was demonstrating God’s glory. He was demonstrating God’s glory. He was not making much about himself. “Oh, they hurt me. Oh, they said these words against me. Oh, how can I tolerate this?” No, he was not making much about himself. He acted according to the word, and when he did that, he was demonstrating not his glory but the glory of God who deserves all glory and honor. Dear brothers, sisters, we will honor our God who redeemed us when we live and act according to His word.
According to His word. Yes, the words of people hurt us. The circumstances hurt us. Our losses hurt us. Everything is troublesome. But we have a mediator. We have the cross. Who upon the throne, who looks after us, he provides for us even in times of calamity. There are other reasons. In chapter 31, Job feared God, and that is the reason he shunned evil. In chapter 31 he lists out his way of life. He made a covenant, verse one, he made a covenant with the eyes not to lust after the woman. Brother, sister, have you covenanted with your eyes to not look at woman or a man with lust? Do you see them as objects of sex? Don’t be led by this Bollywood, Hollywood or the movies. We need to be governed by the word, not
by the popular opinion. Have you repented of the times that you have lusted after other person? Did you grieve before God and plead for His mercy? And he says, he did not give an opportunity, verse 13, to be enticed by a woman. Sorry, verse 9. To be enticed by a woman. Were you careful? Are you careful? The way you live. Do you try to flirt with other women, other men?
Silently in your heart Trying to grab their attention If you have done that do you repent of that? Do you repent of that? Verse 13, he did not despise his servants He treated his servants well He treated them as humans made in the image of God. He honored them. He did not despise them He treated them well verse 16 and 7 he was generous toward the poor widows and orphans see that's how he was he was using his prosperity well in giving sharing he was not spending upon himself in verse 19 he clothed those who were not who are without clothing
Again, he used his prosperity well because he feared God. He did not put his confidence in wealth, 24 and 25. He did not seek disaster of his enemies. Look at verse 31. So in 29 it says, “I have rejoiced, if I have rejoiced at the ruin of him who hated me, or exalted when evil took over him.” This is a poetic way of saying, did he do that? No, he’s saying that he didn’t do that. He did not hate his enemies. He did not exalt when evil overtook them. Sometimes the people whom we hate or hurt us, there’s something evil struck them.
We silently rejoice, right? We say God has did something. It should have happened like this, but now it happened. He didn’t rejoice like that. Verse 30, “I have not let my mouth sin by asking for his life with a curse.” He was a man of hospitality. Verse 32, he opened his doors to the strangers.
That’s how we live. I request you go back home to read chapter 31. It’s beautiful. Then why should we fear God? We should fear God and there are reasons that Job pressures upon us. I want to reiterate them before closing because he is sovereign over everything including our suffering. If the Lord gives and the Lord takes away and nothing in our lives is chance. To fear God is to hold wealth, health, family, reputation with open hands before the one who owns them absolutely. We can lose them, brothers and sisters, anything we can lose. And we can trust in God’s providence, he
will care for his people. Job, even in his adversity, he didn’t know what his future would look like. But God restored him. Number two, because his wisdom and ways exceed our capacity to judge them. Judge him or judge them. No, we are not owed an explanation for every providence. Why it happened?
Why it happened? Why did I lose my dear one? Why this sickness now? Why this suffering? Right? We owe no explanation. The fear of the Lord is to turn away from evil and sin in, even when calamity hits us. We need to keep turning away from evil even when calamity hits us. That’s how we fear God. Fourthly, finally, we have the mediator. Job cried out for an umpire who could lay his hand on us both. We are not left with Job’s unanswered longing.
In Jesus Christ, the true God, the true man, the mediator has come and through him, all alone, sinners may approach the fearsome holiness of God and be welcomed rather than consumed by holy wrath of God. Therefore the fear of the Lord for the believer is not meant to lead to be led into terror but to—it is meant to lead us to a reverent, grateful love and obedience towards a father whose severity and kindness are both real and who has not spared his own son so that our fear might be filial, that we may treat him like a father, not servile. Job teaches us that the fear of God is not one doctrine among many to be filed away in our memory.
It is a posture of our entire life. It is a posture the whole of true theology should produce in us. We have not truly understood the sovereignty, wisdom, justice and the holiness of God until they have driven us like Job to worship even in calamity, to honest lament rather than false piety. And finally, to repentant, awestruck, silenced before the God who speaks out of the whirlwind and who in these last days has spoken to us by Son.
Let us then examine our hearts. Do we fear God only when it is convenient? Only everything is prosperous? And when tragedy hits, we forget as if we deserve the prosperity. Or like Job in the years of blessing, as well as in the years of loss, his attitude towards God didn’t change. His perspective on God didn’t change.
Do we allow the greatness of who God truly is revealed fully in Christ and His Word to shape a fear that is neither servile terror nor casual familiarity, but the reverent trembling worshiping love of a creature who has seen, however dimly, the glory of His Maker in His holy word through the mediation of our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That is the fear of the Lord and that is the fear of the Lord and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. May God give us grace.