God – My Enemy | Dr. David Jeremiah | Job 15-17

Message Description:

Christians often say, “God is in control.” It can be more of a reminder to ourselves than a declaration to others. Has anyone accused you of using the reminder as a crutch? If someone doesn’t know God, they can’t understand His control in our lives. Even people who know God can find themselves wondering if God is really there.

• Have you been angry at God?
• Dr. Jeremiah’s message – “God – My Enemy”
• Next Time on Turning Point – “Where Is God When I Need Him?”

How many of you have ever been angry at God?
Let me ask that again and remember you’re in church, right?
How many of you have ever been angry at God? Yeah.
Well, I wanna, I wanna take that for a moment and talk about it because I know some people here today are kind of angry at God.
Little wonder is it that many of the great believers of the Bible have also been great arguers with God.
Do you remember Jacob in the Old Testament who actually came to blows with the angel of the Lord who was nothing other than the Son of God, the pre incarnate son of God.
Jacob had a fight, he fought with him all night. Remember? And what about Peter?
Do you remember when Peter in acts 10 answered a divine command three times with these words?
Surely not Lord, those not the words you should answer the Almighty with. But Peter did.
He argued with God clearly, anger at God can sometimes be a sign of spiritual growth.
It can mean that we are outgrowing a concept of God that is no longer adequate for us.
It could even be said that our anger is directed, not necessarily at the living God himself, but at our own idolatrous concepts of God, who sometimes we paint in our little pictures as a God who has to always make things right for us and good for us and happy for us while we ourselves may not understand this.
Nevertheless, our anger functions to move us closer to God.
As he really is, religious, phonies will go to almost any lengths to hide the fact that their relationship with God is not real or satisfying.
But men and women, there are times when the Lord is actually honored and glorified by our anger at him in ways that he may not by an attitude of un ruffled trust be glorified.
Is it better to express your emotional anger at God or to piously put a spin on a relationship that doesn’t even exist?
How many of you know, you can’t get angry at somebody you don’t love.
You can’t get angry at somebody you don’t care about.
Why do we get angry at God because we love God and we know he loves us.
And when it doesn’t look like he’s taking care of the interests of our life, it’s easy to get angry.
But here’s the good news. There couldn’t be any anger if there weren’t any love to start with.
And when you get angry at God, you’re just saying God, I don’t understand and I wish I could understand it because I don’t understand.
I’m angry. Few years back, Pepper Rogers who was then the head football coach at UCLA was going through a terrible losing season.
The media was attacking him.
The alumni of the school were calling for his resignation and his friends were becoming more and more scarce by the day, nothing seemed to be going his way week after week, he was handed setbacks and defeats and he didn’t even think that his wife was encouraging him enough.
He told her my dog is my best friend, but a man needs at least two friends.
She said, well, you better go buy another dog.
Then job could certainly relate to this, couldn’t he?
Both of his friends and his wife have turned on him becoming his worst critics.
And as job’s losses accumulate, he sinks deeper and deeper into despair.
But it was the harsh treatment of his friends that most devastated him.
An anonymous wit once described a theologian as a blind man in a dark room, searching for a black cat that isn’t there and finding it.
But a true theologian works in the light of God’s revelation and humbly accepts the truth no matter what the cost.
So, Job’s three friends were not true theologians, they only saw one side of the issue, the side, they wanted to see the side that measured up to their philosophy of life.
In his second address to Job Elis reiterates the same philosophy only more vigorously and less compassionately, in essence, he says the wicked are punished, the righteous are blessed.
Therefore, since job is suffering, job must be wicked.
I don’t know if you’ve ever watched this, but if you watch carefully, you will sometimes see a politician or a preacher increase his volume when he has a weak point.
Have you ever noticed that in my days of growing up? They didn’t just increase their volume.
They pounded on the pulpit and screamed. This is surely the case with EFA.
Build a and so far as job stubbornly maintains his integrity, they with equal stubbornness, maintain their argument.
But here’s the difference that we’re discovering as we move through this book. For Job.
The argument is developing him inwardly in his inward struggle. He is developing strength.
His three friends are simply becoming less and less tolerant with every word they speak.
So in the 15th chapter of Job, we see once again the criticisms of Job, the criticisms that come from a the first speaker as you remember was the most civil, the first time around, at least he began his speech with some kind words but not this time.
Here in the opening lines of the second debate, he drops all show of courtesy and simply attacks job and he levels at him five criticisms that we will cover quickly as we read through this chapter.
He tells Job five things that he thinks job needs to take note of five things that are wrong with job, isn’t it great to have somebody come along and tell you everything that’s wrong with you, don’t you just love people like that and they see things nobody else has ever seen and if they are wrong, you just assume they wouldn’t tell you.
Right. Certainly. Job must have felt that way.
First of all, EFA says, job, your words are empty, your words are empty.
Then EFA, the team and I answered and said to Job, should a wise man answer with empty knowledge and fill himself with the East Wind?
Should he reason with unprofitable talk or by speeches with which he can do no good.
Eli is employing one of the oldest strategies in debate.
If you can’t win the argument, attack your opponent, he tells Job that his words are empty and foolish.
Literally nothing but a bunch of hot air.
And as you hear the words of you can’t help but wonder where has he been?
Has he listened as we have to the high and lofty speeches that have come from job’s mouth?
Has he heard the profound and beautiful meditations in the previous three chapters?
Has he heard all of the precious thoughts on righteousness and forgiveness? Yes.
Some of it was mixed with jobs crying out to God.
But if he had listened, he would have even heard insights into the hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
But you see when your mind is already made up you don’t even listen to what others say.
Eliz was determined that he would convict Job on the terms which he himself had set up and he wasn’t listening to what job was saying.
He said job. Your words are empty.
And then he said, and not only that, but your ways are evil. Verses four through six. Yeah.
You cast off fear, job and restrain prayer before God for your iniquity teaches your mouth and you choose the tongue of the crafty, your own mouth.
Conte you job not I yes, your own lips testify against you.
And you want to wonder where have you been?
He saw Job’s statements as the result of an evil heart.
He believed that the irreverent words Job had spoken in his last speech, revealed job’s in word corruption.
So he used it once again to indict his so called friend. He said job.
Your words are empty and your ways are evil.
And here’s an interesting one he says, and your wisdom is elementary verses 7 to 13. He says, job.
Were you the first man ever born or were you made before the hills?
Have you ever heard anybody say he’s older than the hills?
I don’t know if this is where this came from. Have you heard the Council of God?
Do you limit wisdom to yourself? Job? What do you know that? We don’t know?
What do you understand that is not in us?
Both the gray haired and the aged are among us, much older than your father are the considerations of God, too small for you job.
And the word spoken gently with you. Why does your heart carry you away?
And what do your eyes wink at that?
You turn your spirit against God and let such words go out of your mouth.
Now, this is one of the great put downs of all time, especially if you happen to be a young person.
When I was a young pastor, I used to get this all the time.
People would come up and pat you on the head. Call you Sonny.
Have you ever had anybody do that to you, Sonny? You’re gonna be all right.
When you get older, you get a little maturity. What is saying to job is job.
You’re not old enough to know anything he says, we know people that are older than your father.
That’s where all the wisdom is. You don’t have any wisdom.
What a tragedy it is for us to always equate wisdom with antiquity does not necessarily bear up if you study the scripture.
In fact, let me give you one of the favorite passages of every student in, in attendance here today.
Are you ready for this? This is every student’s favorite passage. It’s Psalm 119 versus 99 100.
I have more understanding than all my teachers for your testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the ancients. Because I keep your precepts. You see where it comes to God.
Knowledge is not necessarily how old you are. It’s about how obedient you are.
Knowledge and wisdom comes from doing what God tells you to do and discovering that what He knows is right.
Do you remember when Paul was writing to young Timothy?
And he said to Timothy, Timothy don’t let any man despise your youth. But you be an example.
I remember as a young preacher, how I hung on to those words. I didn’t expect everybody to think.
I knew what I was saying, but I knew they couldn’t deny what I was doing.
And when I went out to visit and I was winning people to Christ and folks were coming to the Lord in our church, they couldn’t say anything about that.
Timothy was getting good instruction from Paul.
He was saying, Timothy don’t necessarily base your situation on your experience, not even on your words, but be an example to the believer.
So once again, Eliz is speaking words that don’t have any foundation.
He’s saying job, your wisdom isn’t any good because you’re too young to know anything. Your wisdom is elementary.
And then he adds this one, he says, your wickedness is evident. Verses 14 through 16.
He says, what is man that he could be pure and who is he?
Who is born of a woman that he should be righteous.
If God doesn’t put any trust in his angels literally. And the heavens are not pure in his sight.
How much less man who is abominable and filthy and drinks iniquity like water job.
God didn’t even trust his angels and even the heavens are not pure in God’s sight.
So what makes you think that you are pure when according to you drink iniquity like water?
Finally, he says, not only are your words empty and your ways evil and your wisdom, elementary and your wickedness evident.
But here’s the final nail he says, and therefore your wretchedness is earned what you’re going through, you deserve notice.
Verses 17 through 35 give me the privilege.
If you will to read this from the message, the words are up on the screen, but it’s just a wonderful paraphrase of this section.
So listen carefully to these words.
Those who live by their own rules job, not gods can expect nothing but trouble and the longer they live, the worse it gets.
Oh man, every little sound terrifies them just when they think they haven’t made disaster strikes, they despair of things ever getting better.
They’re on the list of people for whom things always turn out worse.
They live in constant terror, always with their backs up against the wall.
Always ever at odds with God, always on the defensive.
They’ll never get ahead, never amount to a hill of beans.
And then at death don’t think they’ll escape that either. The Godless are fruitless. A barren crew.
A life built on bribes goes up in smoke. They have sex with sin and give birth to evil.
Their lives are wombs for breeding deceit. In other words, job you are guilty.
Your suffering is because of your evil. That’s the message, not only of elephants, but of all of his friends.
They can’t get past the fact that while it is true, that suffering is ultimately the result of sin.
If you trace it back to the Garden of Eden, all personal suffering is not the result of particular sin.
That’s the damage they’re doing to this man.
They’re saying that the pain in his life, the suffering in his life is due to something awful that he is doing in his heart and not letting anybody know.
That’s the indictment against him. Those are the criticisms of job. Sound familiar. Yeah.
According to EFA, if everybody believed as job did that God does not always punish the wicked and reward the righteous.
Then according to EFA, people wouldn’t have any motive for believing God. But this is the devil’s theology.
You see, if people serve God only for what they can get out of it, then they are not serving God at all.
They’re serving themselves by making God their servant, their religion is only a pious system for promoting selfishness and not for glorifying God.
It’s the same old blame the victim theology.
If you will, if you’re suffering, you must be sinning it was wrong in Job’s Day and it’s wrong in our day.
Don’t let me get you off the hook too quickly.
If you’re sinning and you’re suffering, there’s probably a relationship between the two, but just because you’re suffering doesn’t mean you’re sinning.
Suffering comes to Godly people, to righteous people, to people who are walking in fellowship with the Lord as job was a man of integrity who shunned evil and who believed in God.
Now, right about here in this book.
If you’re like me, you’re thinking man, these speeches are sounding awful familiar.
Seems like every time one of them opens their mouth, they’re reading off the same script.
And if you’re not careful, you can grow weary of this.
Except it’s part of the plan of the book.
The inspired writer of the book of Job had a purpose in mind.
He intends to expose for us the hollowness of the popular faith of that day, that was inadequate for them and is inadequate for us.
Now, if it sounds flat and unconvincing, when Eli Bill that and so far are saying the same thing over and over again, it hasn’t improved much with the centuries, has it?
It sounds flat to us today as well.
Is success a reward for piety and failure, the inevitable result of impiety.
Do we worship God for the trinkets that fall from his hand or for the sake of God alone.
William Tindall was 1/16 century Bible scholar with a passion for making the scriptures available to the English speaking masses.
In fact, he translated the whole Bible out of the Hebrew and the Greek into the common language of the English people.
Unfortunately, because the church of England did not approve of Tyndall’s translation, King Henry the eight banned it.
And in 15 24 William Tyndall had to flee to Belgium to avoid being arrested.
In 15 35 William Tindall met a young student by the name of Henry Phillips.
Young Phillips said he wanted to know everything he could about Bible translation.
So the two men became very close friends.
One evening, Tindall and Phillips went out to have dinner at a inn down the street as they reached the door of the inn.
Phillips stepped back and let Tyndall enter as he stepped through the doorway, two men seized him, agents of the king of England.
Only then did William Tyndale know that for two years, his friend, Henry Phillips was in the constant act of betraying him to his enemies.
If you know the story of the Bible, you know that William Tindall spent 16 months in prison.
And on October 6th, 15, 36 he was executed. You know what his last words were.
His last words were Lord open the king of England’s eyes.
And do you know that three years after his death? The Lord answered his prayer.
King Henry the eighth dropped his opposition to Bible translation for the Masses and The Great English Bible was published based almost entirely on Tindall’s translations from Hebrew and Greek.
What job is teaching us men and women is that sometimes God can even work through the betrayal of a friend before this book is closed.
You will see how God used even EFA Bill, Dad Zoar and all to bring about his purposes in job’s life.
I don’t know that there’s anything that hurts worse than to be betrayed by a friend.
Somebody that you trusted somebody you believed in somebody you thought was on your side.
You don’t get through life without having that experience at least once.
And it hurts about, about as bad as anything can hurt, but even that is under the sovereign control of almighty God.
So here we have the criticisms against job five of them.
And now in chapter 16 and 17, after seeing the criticisms of job, we’re going to hear the complaints of job and job is going to talk about a little bit.
He’s gonna cry out against God and he’s going to speak his own heart. And what this is all about.
It’s really important is it’s how a person feels when they’re going through. What job is going through.
This is about the emotions of this man. We’ve heard his speeches, we’ve listened to his intellect.
But you know what? Sometimes we have to remember that Joel was flesh and blood. He’s like you and me.
He was a man that had emotions and his emotions were being trashed through this process.
He begins the first part of the 16th chapter by telling us how frustrated he is.
He’s very frustrated job answered and said, I’ve heard many such things, miserable comforters.
Are you all go job?
Shall words of wind have an end or what provokes you that you answer?
Job says, why do you keep talking? I could also speak as you do.
If your soul were in my soul’s place, I would heap up words against you and shake my head at you.
But I would strengthen you with my mouth and the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief.
He says I could do what you do to me.
But if you were in my place and I were in your place, I wouldn’t do that.
I would comfort you and relieve your grief. In other words, why aren’t you doing that? To me?
These words drip with sarcasm, anger and pain.
And they come from a man who’s been tortured and tried like nobody we’ve ever heard about in our whole life.
There’s no one who’s ever suffered like job. Did God set the standard so high?
And the suffering is so incredible that no one who is suffering can ever say no one has ever been through.
What I’ve been through. Job was job experienced it all.
You know, the story, job complains that often.
He has heard many such things from his comforters.
But in his present situation, these platitudes only serve to increase his sorrow.
And so he calls his friends miserable comforters.
Now, I don’t know if you know what an oxymoron is, but this qualifies the more words they speak to comfort, the more pain they inflict with a biting rhetorical question.
Job charges Eliz with uttering windy words, eloquent speech devoid of any content.
He is directly countering what Eliz said about him back at the beginning of the 15th chapter.
And then finally, job says to he says what irritates you so much that you feel like you gotta keep coming back with all the stuff you’re laying on me.
What is it with? You can’t you just leave this alone?
Job is frustrated and then he feels forsaken once again in job.
Uh 16 verses six and I’m reading from the message once more so you can look up on the screen.
Here are Job’s words of feeling forsaken when I, when I speak.
He said, I don’t feel any better if I say nothing that doesn’t help either. I feel worn down God.
You have wasted me totally me and my family.
You shriveled me like a dried prune showing the world that you’re against me.
My gaunt face, stares back at me from the mirror. A must witness to your treatment of me.
Your anger, tears at me, God, your teeth rip me to shreds, your eyes, burn holes in me.
Here’s the title of my message. God, my enemy job considers God his enemy.
That’s where he has come under the barrage of attacks and suffering.
He said, people take one look at me and gasp contemptuous.
They slap me around and gang up against me and God just stands there and lets them do it.
Let’s wicked people do what they want with me.
I was contentedly minding my business when God beat me up, he grabbed me by the neck and threw me around.
He set me up as a target. Then rounded up archers to shoot at me mercilessly.
They shot me full of arrows. Bitter bile poured from my gut to the ground.
He burst in on me onslaught after onslaught charging me like a mad bull.
I sewed myself up a shroud and wore it like a shirt. I lay face down in the dirt.
Now my face is blotched, red from weeping.
Look at the dark shadows under my eyes, even though I’ve never heard a soul and my prayers are sincere job has had it.
He is angry. Now, here’s an issue. He’s angry at God.
How many of you have ever been angry at God?
Let me ask that again and remember you’re in church. All right.
How many of you have ever been angry at God? Yeah.
Well, I wanna, I wanna take that for a moment and talk about it because I know some people here today are kind of angry at God.
Little wonder is it that many of the great believers of the Bible have also been great arguers with God.
Do you remember Jacob in the Old Testament who actually came to blows with the angel of the Lord who was nothing other than the Son of God, the pre incarnate son of God.
Jacob had a fight, he fought with him all night. Remember? And what about Peter?
Do you remember when Peter in acts 10 answered a divine command three times with these words, surely not Lord post, not the word you should answer the Almighty with.
But Peter did. He argued with God clearly, anger at God can sometimes be a sign of spiritual growth.
It can mean that we are outgrowing a concept of God that is no longer adequate for us.
It could even be said that our anger is directed not necessarily at the living God himself, but at our own idolatrous concepts of God who sometimes we paint in our little pictures as a God who has to always make things right for us and good for us and happy for us while we ourselves may not understand this.
Nevertheless, our anger functions to move us closer to God as he really is.
Religious, phonies will go to almost any lengths to hide the fact that their relationship with God is not real or satisfying.
But men and women, there are times when the Lord is actually honored and glorified by our anger at him in ways that he may not by an attitude of un ruffled trust be glorified.
Is it better to express your emotional anger at God or to piously put a spin on a relationship that doesn’t even exist?
How many of, you know, you can’t get angry at somebody you don’t love, you can’t get angry at somebody you don’t care about.
Why do we get angry at God because we love God and we know He loves us.
And when it doesn’t look like he’s taking care of the interests of our life, it’s easy to get angry.
But here’s the good news. There couldn’t be any anger if there weren’t any love to start with.
And when you get angry at God, you’re just saying God, I don’t understand and I wish I could understand it because I don’t understand.
I’m angry. Somebody said in the courts of heaven, there’s a place for the primal scream.
I believe that’s true.
And if you read the Psalms, did you ever see David get angry with God?
God, how long are you gonna wait?
So I just want to give us all a little permission to be angry.
Now, you don’t wanna live angry with God, but it’s all right to visit there on occasion.
You don’t want to move in.
But if you visit God out of anger, it’s not necessarily sinful.
It’s simply the result of your own human emotions as we’re talking about jobs, emotions crying out to a God who you don’t understand.
Remember folks, the problem here is we know what’s going on, but job doesn’t, job still doesn’t know the arrangement between Satan and God.
We were introduced to it very carefully and we’re all a part of the flow of information between God and Satan.
Job still doesn’t know why.
One day completely out of the blue, the bottom drops out, bringing tornadoes and fires and destruction and multiple deaths.
Finally, ill health with such force that he’s totally incapacitated.
Not once does God give him one single clue of explanation?
Remember all of his adult life job had walked intimately with God.
He has been obedient and submissive and now this and no wonder He’s distressed.
But you see, we see this picture because we read the first two chapters and we know that this is all something God is doing to demonstrate what happens when integrity meets adversity.
Job is God’s example of the fact that a man can utterly be overwhelmed with suffering and still be faithful to God.
He feels frustrated and forsaken and forgotten verses 18 to 22 of the 16th chapter.
He says, oh, earth, do not cover my blood, let my cry have no resting place. Surely.
Even now my witness is in heaven and my evidence is on high.
My friends scorn me, my eyes, pour our tears out to God.
All that one might plead for a man with God is a man pleads with his neighbor.
Once again, job is revisiting that cry, trying to figure out how he can get through this.
And remember, uh a few chapters ago, we heard him crying out for a mediator. You remember that?
Oh, that there would be a mediator between God and man.
And we talked about that verse in Timothy where Paul wrote to Timothy and he said for there’s one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
Jesus was the answer to job in that cry.
But watch carefully here because here job is not crying for a mediator.
He’s crying out for an advocate. Do you know what an advocate is?
An advocate is a lawyer, a mediator is a person who brings two parties together and tries to get some common ground between them.
But an advocate is a person who goes into court and represents you against everybody.
Job has graduated from wanting a mediator. He wants an advocate.
Now he wants a lawyer up in heaven.
He wants somebody to go into God and tell God, would you please do something about job?
And would you please let everybody know that job isn’t evil?
Like they’re all saying, God, I need somebody up in heaven to plead my case because I’m not getting anywhere with these guys.
And once again, I look at the Book of Job through New Testament Eyes and you know what I see job you do have an advocate in heaven because this is what my Bible says.
My Bible says, my little Children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin.
And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the father, the very word job used Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he himself is our satisfaction for our sins and not for ours only but for the whole world.
Not only is he the advocate for us when we sin.
But Hebrews 2 17 and 18 says, therefore, in all things, Jesus had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
Now watch this for, in that he himself has suffered being tested.
He’s able to aid those who are tested job. Let me tell you about my lawyer.
He stands before God in your place and there’s not anything you have faced that he hasn’t already faced job.
He’s a good lawyer. He has experience. He knows what you’ve been through and then add this scripture.
Hebrews 4 14 and 15 seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens.
Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin in other words, job.
Maybe you couldn’t understand it back then, but we see it now because we have the New Testament revelation almighty God has given us the advocate that we need.
He’s given us the high priest that we need.
He’s perfect, just perfect for us because whatever it is we’ve experienced, he has experienced it all yet without sin.
So when you feel like job all frustrated, when you feel forsaken and you wonder, does anybody even care?
You can go to your advocate in heaven and know he cares and he represents you before the father.
That’s why we pray in Jesus name. Amen.
So job feels frustrated, forsaken, forgotten and frankly, at this particular point, he’s, he’s burned out.
His emotions are shot and he feels finished. Have you ever felt finished? It’s over, it’s done.
Just get it over with Lord. I’d like to have this thing done.
Well, I’m just gonna read from the message again from the 17th chapter and you follow along.
He says my spirit is broken. My days are used up my grave dug and waiting.
See how these mockers close in on me. How long do I have to put up with their insolence? God.
You made me the talk of the town. People spit in my face.
I can hardly see from crying so much. I’m nothing but skin and bones.
Decent people can’t believe what they’re seeing. The good hearted wake up and insist I’ve given up on God.
But principle people hold tight. Keep a firm grip on life.
Sure that they’re clean, pure hands will get stronger and stronger. Maybe you’d like to start over all of you.
He’s speaking now to his friends. Would you like to start over? Let’s start over. Let’s try this all again.
The bunch of you so far I haven’t come across one scrap of wisdom in anything that you’ve said.
And then he goes on and he says, he says my life is about over all my plans are smashed.
All my hopes are snuffed out. My hope that night would turn into day.
My hope that dawn was about to break if all I have to look forward to is a home in the graveyard.
If my only hope for comfort is a well built coffin.
If family reunion means going six ft under, do you call that hope?
Who on earth could find any hope in that job?
Says no, if hope and I are to be buried together, I suppose you’ll have to come to the double funeral job is finished.
He’s totally worn out. How many of you know, that fatigue has a lot to do with what happens at times like this.
I’ve said over the years, a little statement.
I don’t know who, who ever said this the first time, but it goes like this, your soul and your body live so close together, they catch each other’s diseases.
Did you know that so that when you’re tired, when you’re worn out, when you’re just overwhelmed and job has been through a lot and he’s in a very tough place.
This may be the bottom of everything for job right here in this place.
I don’t like to leave him there, but I have to, but I don’t wanna leave us there.
So I wanna tell you a story before I finish.
Philip Yancey is one of my favorite writers. He’s written a book called Disappointment with God.
And in this book, he tells this story which to me is just like the perfect story for us to wrap everything we’ve talked about around today.
In this sermon, he said once a friend of mine was swimming in a large lake at dusk and as he was paddling at a leisure pace, about 100 yards offshore, a freak evening fog rolled in across the water.
Suddenly he could see nothing, no horizon, no landmarks, no objects or not even any lights on the shore.
Because the fog diffused all the light.
He could not even make out the direction of the setting sun for 30 minutes.
He splashed around in panic. He would start off in one direction, lose confidence and turn 90 degrees to the right or left, made no difference which way he turned.
He could feel his heart racing uncontrollably.
He would stop and float, trying to conserve energy, force himself to breathe slower.
Then he would blindly strike out again. At last, he heard a faint voice calling from shore.
He pointed his body toward the sound and followed it to safety.
And Philip Yancey said something like that sensation of utter loss must have settled in on job as he sat in the rubble and tried to comprehend what had happened to him.
He too had lost all of his landmarks, all points of orientation. Where should he turn God?
The one who could guide him through the fog, stayed silent.
The whole point of the wager back in the first two chapters was to keep job in the dark.
If God had delivered an inspiring pep talk, do this for me.
Job, then job ennobled would have suffered gladly.
But Satan had challenged whether job’s faith could survive with no outside help or no explanation.
And when God accepted those terms, the fog rolled in around job, God ultimately won the wager.
Of course, though Joe lashed out with a stream of bitter complaints and though he despaired of life and longed for death, still, he defiantly refused to give up on God though he slay me yet.
I will hope in Him. He said job believed when there was no reason to believe.
He believed in the midst of the fog and you could read job’s story said Yancey and puzzle over the wager and then breathe a sigh of relief.
Phew God settle that problem after proving his point so decisively, surely he will return to his preferred style of communicating clearly to his followers, you could think that unless you’ve read the rest of the Bible in the end, he said, I hate to say this because it’s a hard truth and what I don’t want to acknowledge, but job stands out as merely the most extreme example of what appears to be a universal law of faith.
The kind of faith, God values seems to develop best when everything fuzzes over, when God stays silent and when the fog rolls in and anyone who’s ever been lost in the fog knows what I’m talking about.
But here’s the good news, just stay quiet and trust.
And if you listen, you will hear the sounds from the shore and you’ll know which way to go.
Hallelujah. Thank you for joining us today on turning point.
If you have never taken the step to believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can do that today.
If you will allow us, Dr Jeremiah would like to send you two resources that will help you.
The first is a booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point, which will help you as you begin your relationship with Christ.
And the second is our monthly devotional magazine turning points to give you encouragement and inspiration throughout the year.
These resources are yours completely free when you contact Turning point today.
Next time on turning point, I treasured these words.
He said more than my necessary food if I didn’t have these words, I wouldn’t be able to make it.
Ladies and gentlemen, that’s why I preach this book because it’s the only thing I can offer you whatever trial you’re going through whatever difficulty you’re facing.
I promise you that in this book, God has an answer for you. He has some encouragement for you.
These words are more necessary for you than your food. Join Dr Jeremiah.
Next time for his message, where is God when I need him here on turning point?