The Faith of Job

Praise Reports:

• Mary was able to attend church this week!
• Ken's eye is doing really well, and he is now able to drive.
• Paul and Ruby's friend Bill, from Oregon, was able to visit and will be here till Thanksgiving.

Prayer Requests:

•  There is still a tiny amount of fungus in Ken's eye, and the stitches will most likely be a long time in coming out. Keep praying him through this.
• Pray safety for Vanessa as she goes on vacation.
• Constantly remember Roy, Julie, Rebecca, Brenna, and Gabriel as they go through a very hard time.
• Pray for Sandra, that Christ would touch her heart and she would be freed from the addiction of alcohol.
• Remember Markus. 

Sermon Notes:

“Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its people and their animals, even if these three men—Noah, Daniel^[a] and Job—were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign LORD.

-Ezekiel 14:13-14

Noah, Daniel and Job are obviously three men who are very near the heart of God. Let's look at Job, the man of faith and prayer.

Job 42:7

God says that Job has spoken the truth about Him. This bears some looking into. What does Job say about God, and himself?

In chapters 1-2 we see the history of Job's success and subsequent adversity. In chapter 3 his three "friends" come to visit and mourn with him, and Job wishes that he had never been born. In chapters 4-5 Eliphaz decides to give Job all of the answers, failing miserably. Then Job says something shocking in 6:3, "Oh that my grief were actually weighed and laid in the balances together with my calamity...Therefore my words have been rash (or impetuous)."

Job was rash? Yet in Job 2:10 it says "In all this, Job did not sin in what he said."  Job wasn't out of line here. Grief is not sin, we despair of life and still have faith.  When we see someone speaking rashly, or even despairing of life, we tend to be like Eliphaz and utter useless platitudes. But Job says that his grief and calamity should be weighed as the cause of his despair. The words of a desperate person need to be heard, not judged.

Note to self: If someone I know is speaking rashly, I need to put on the brakes and weigh their grief.

6:10 We can keep our consciences clear in regard to keeping our faith in God's Word, even when in the depths of despair.

6:14 Do you have the tendency to be a friend to a fellow Christian until they turn their back on the faith? This verse says that it is right to stay with those people through thick and thin, for that is when they need it most. Proverbs 17:17, "A friend loves at all times."

6:21 Job says that his friends "see something dreadful and are afraid." They were trusting only in their own righteousness to save them from a fate like Job's. When they saw Job, the "perfect" man, fail, they had to find some fault in him to save themselves. We, on the other hand, have nothing fear, because our faith is in Christ's righteousness alone.