The Integrity of Job

11/5/2011 9:02:48 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  The integrity of Job

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                          Reference:  Job 13

                Message of the verses:  “1 ¶  "Behold, my eye has seen all this, My ear has heard and understood it. 2  "What you know I also know; I am not inferior to you. 3  "But I would speak to the Almighty, And I desire to argue with God. 4  "But you smear with lies; You are all worthless physicians. 5  "O that you would be completely silent, And that it would become your wisdom! 6  "Please hear my argument And listen to the contentions of my lips. 7  "Will you speak what is unjust for God, And speak what is deceitful for Him? 8  "Will you show partiality for Him? Will you contend for God? 9  "Will it be well when He examines you? Or will you deceive Him as one deceives a man? 10  "He will surely reprove you If you secretly show partiality. 11  "Will not His majesty terrify you, And the dread of Him fall on you? 12  "Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, Your defenses are defenses of clay.

    “13 ¶  "Be silent before me so that I may speak; Then let come on me what may. 14  "Why should I take my flesh in my teeth And put my life in my hands? 15  "Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him. 16  "This also will be my salvation, For a godless man may not come before His presence. 17  "Listen carefully to my speech, And let my declaration fill your ears. 18  "Behold now, I have prepared my case; I know that I will be vindicated. 19  "Who will contend with me? For then I would be silent and die. 20  "Only two things do not do to me, Then I will not hide from Your face: 21  Remove Your hand from me, And let not the dread of You terrify me. 22  "Then call, and I will answer; Or let me speak, then reply to me.

  “23 ¶  "How many are my iniquities and sins? Make known to me my rebellion and my sin. 24  "Why do You hide Your face And consider me Your enemy? 25  "Will You cause a driven leaf to tremble? Or will You pursue the dry chaff? 26  "For You write bitter things against me And make me to inherit the iniquities of my youth. 27  "You put my feet in the stocks And watch all my paths; You set a limit for the soles of my feet, 28  While I am decaying like a rotten thing, Like a garment that is moth-eaten.”

                In this thirteenth chapter of Job Dr. Wiersbe points out three things in his introduction to this second sub-point under his main point “Job’s three affirmations.”  In verses one through twelve Job expresses his disappointment to his three friends.  In verses thirteen through seventeen he expresses his declaration of faith in the Lord, and in the remaining verses his desire that God come to him so that he can get the issue settled once and for all.  We will look at these in more detail one at a time.

                Disappointment (Job 13:1-12):  I would suppose that if one looks at Job’s three friends, one could say that they were trying to be counselors to Job; however they were not doing a good job at all to put it mildly.  Job was a man in great pain, both physically and also emotionally, and he did not need these men to give him their rigid view of God and he tells them as much.  In verse twelve Job tells them that their advice to him was like “proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay.”  “What the three friends thought were profound statements of truth were only warmed over ashes from ancient fires, clay pots that would fall apart.”  Dr. Wiersbe goes on to say that “A good counselor needs much more than a good memory.  He or she also needs wisdom to know how to apply the truth to the needs of people today.”  Job’s friends failed in this and would soon find this out from the Lord.  In the book of Romans chapter fourteen and verses one through thirteen you find some wonderful advice from the pen of Paul on how to deal with people who are of weaker faith.

                Declaration (Job 13:13-17):  In the beginning of his commentary on this section Dr. Wiersbe writes “This is one of the greatest declarations of faith found anywhere in Scripture, but it must be understood in its context.  Job is saying, ‘I will take my case directly to God and prove my integrity.  I know I am taking my life in my hands in approaching God, because He is able to slay me.  But if He doesn’t slay me, it is proof that I am not the hypocrite you say I am.’ “Job was so sure of his integrity that he would go and tell God of it.  When we think of Exodus thirty-three and Moses wanting to see God, that too took courage.  Again I go back to the passage in Isaiah six when Isaiah was transported to the throne room of God and even though he was a believer when he got there he said, “"Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”  What Job wanted to do took great courage.

                Desire (Job 13:18-28):  The words we find in this section are addressed to God for Job has “prepared his case” (verse 18 NIV) and Job is sure that he will win. 

We see in this section two desires that Job has: That God would remove His chastening hand and give Job relief, and that God would come to Job in such a way that H would not frighten him.  Again we see Job inviting God to court like we saw in an earlier chapter.  It is important to remember that Job has no idea that there is a contest between God and Satan, and how Job responds to this contest will prove who the winner.  I must say that God would not have put Job in this position if He thought that he would not stand up to all that was going against him.

Job had a desire to meet with God even though he knew that he was not an important man, for Job describes himself as an enemy of God, a weak leaf in the wind, a piece of chaff that is worthless, a rotten piece of wood, or a moth-eaten garment.

I would like to interject something that I heard from a sermon that I listened to between 1:00AM and 2:00PM this morning because I could not sleep.  The sermon was about the fall of Satan, but in the beginning John MacArthur spent some time looking at both Adam and also Job.  In the case of Adam’s sin he blamed God for giving him the woman, yet God did not answer him because, as MacArthur said that Adam had crossed the line thinking that God was the one behind evil.  Now when we look at the case of Job when God comes to speak to him He does not answer to Job why he was going through what he was going through.  God is sovereign and does not have to answer to man, yet God does tell us some things, and we should be thankful for the things that He tells us.  One of my favorite verse in the Bible is Deuteronomy 29:29 and I go to it when I do not understand something from the Scriptures, something like the sovereignty of God.  “’The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.’”  I believe what Moses is saying is that God is God and He does not have to tell us everything, but what He does tell us we had better listen to.  We will see this later on in the study of Job.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I want to talk about two verses that are on my heart this morning.  Romans 10:17 is a verse that many people use to wittiness to others that are in need of saving faith.  I believe that God gives those who believe in His provision of salvation the gift of faith that they might accept this precious gift.  However there is found in this something for those walk with the Lord and want their faith increased.  “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  In his book “How to Obtain Fulness of Power in Christian Life and Service” R. A. Torrey writes the following after quoting this verse, “You can never get faith by merely praying; you can never get it by any effort of the will; you can never get it by trying to pump it up in any way.  Fait is the product of a certain cause, and the cause in the Word of God.  It is so, for example, with saving faith.  Simply give him something definite from God’s Word upon which he can rest.  The Philippian jailor asked: ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’  (Acts 16:30) and Paul answered: ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house.’  But Paul did not stop there.  Read the 32^nd verse: ‘And they spake unto him the Word of the Lord and to all that were in his house.’  They did not merely tell the Philippian jailor to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and then leave him there floundering in the dark without giving him something to believe, or something for his faith to rest upon.  They gave that which God has ordained to produce faith.” 

This points out to me why I have a desire to continue to study the Bible, for by doing so it will increase my faith.  Of course there are other reasons, like bringing glory to God, along with helping others grow in their faith or leading people to the Lord, but all of this surely takes faith, and the verse says that faith comes by hearing the Word of God.

 One of the verses that I have a desire to claim to increase my faith is 1Jo 4:18  “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.”  (KJV)  Not having fear of circumstances is part of being content, knowing that God is sovereign and in control of all things in my life should not cause me to fear.  As I look at the book of Job I do not see Job fearing what has happened to him, he surely did not understand why things were happening to him, but he does not seem to fear over these things.  This is one of the areas that I desire to be like Job.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.    1John 4:18.

2.    Romans 12:1-2.

3.    Philippians 4:11b.

4.    Ephesians 6:10-18.

5.    Proverbs 3:5-6.

6.    Psalms 139:23-24.

11/5/2011 10:29:35 AM