sermonette: Thoughts on Job
Austin Del Castillo
Given 13-Jun-26; Sermon #1880s; 17 minutes
Description: (show)
The Book of Job presents both clear lessons and profound questions about suffering, righteousness, and spiritual growth. While God highly commended Job's integrity and blessed him with wealth, family, and honor, He nevertheless permitted an extraordinary trial to refine his character, much as believers today are tested for their ultimate good. Job's righteousness, though genuine, may have rested more on exceptional personal discipline than on a full understanding of God and His purpose. Through the challenges posed by Elihu and God's powerful revelation from the whirlwind, Job came to recognize the vast gulf between human understanding and divine wisdom, learning that no one can call God to account. The discussion also considers the troubling spiritual condition of Job's family, suggesting that Job may have stood largely alone in his devotion to God. Finally, the remarkable restoration that followed his repentance and intercession for others highlights God's faithfulness, mercy, and desire to transform His servants through trial. As Proverbs 25:2 reminds us, some matters are intentionally concealed by God, inviting thoughtful study and deeper reflection on His Word.
I think it's just part of my personality, but sometimes I let something that I feel needs explanation. Go on for long periods of time. I think I do that because I realize that whatever it is that it can wait, it's not salvational. So, what I'll be talking about today, I feel falls into that category. But I also hope it adds to our understanding of God's word in helping us grow just a bit more, if at all possible. I'll be making some comments on the book of Job that maybe you've wondered about yourself. There are things in that book that are pretty straightforward. For example, it's clear that God is impressed with Job's degree of righteousness. We know that God has greatly blessed him with riches, respect in his community, and a family that is well provided for. We see, however, that God feels that Job needs to go through a very significant trial to help him grow. This is pretty much the same with us today. God allows us to go through trials that we would rather not experience, but it's all intended for our growth. We can see that in I Corinthians 10 and verse 13 where God tells us that He will not allow us to go through a trial that we can't bear and He will make a way of escape for us, a very familiar scripture to most of us. We're also quite familiar with James 1 and verse 2. Which tells us to count our trials as a source of joy. I can honestly say that after almost 50 years in God's church, I have not achieved that level of spiritual maturity. I do not count trials as joy, ever. But I have to admit that I have indeed grown from having experienced them. Hopefully, that's a given for all of us. I will say that I hope God never puts me through what he allowed Job to suffer. What was the reason for that? One question that has occurred to me in recent years is, was Job actually converted? We probably think it's pretty obvious that he was. We just need to look at how God was so impressed with him in the first chapter of the book. I've heard more than one minister over the years say that Job's problems. Was self-righteousness. Um, I think a lot of us think of being self-righteous as some kind of ego trip that we are somehow better than others around us. It's pretty obvious to me that Job knew God's word. He was familiar with scripture. We can see that in Job 31 and verse 1. Uh, if we can go ahead and turn there, that's Job 31 and verse 1. where we read. I have made a covenant with my eyes. Why then should I look upon a young woman? What I think would help us understand Job's attitude better is that Is what we may normally think of self-righteousness is not what we are looking for here. Job was depending on his own will to obey God. Job had the will to obey God's laws perhaps like someone like Saul or who later became Paul. Some people have the exceptional will to do whatever they set their minds to do. Just now, I'm thinking of people who climb Mount Everest, for example. That's over 29,000 ft above sea level. That's pretty much the altitude at which passenger planes normally fly. Who does that? Well, people like Joe. Me, not so much. I used to climb really thin poles in a high wind with just gaps and a leather pair of leather gloves that helped me get up the pole until I got to about 16 ft off the ground when I was a technician for AT&T. That was high enough for me. Thank you. This is why I suspect. That as much as God was impressed with Job, he was not converted, not yet. That's what God saw. I had to show him by the end of the book. That's when God chose to show him what he was missing. That's, that was when Job actually saw God. That reminds me of John W Reitenbaugh's message titled, Do you see God? It's not really whether we see his appearance, it's It's more a way that we understand his purpose for us and the rest of humanity. We come to understand God's vision for all of us. So, what strikes me as a very possible situation is that Job was a strong-minded individual who could bring himself to obey God's word as the letter of the law demands. It took his horrendous trial to be brought to, for him to be brought to realize that he did not really understand who God really was and his plan for mankind. He's brought to begin to understand the first by this first by a young man named Elihu. Who enters the conversation, the discussion with Job and his three friends because he sees that these aged men haven't been able in all their talking to represent God's thinking and sense of justice. It's like this young man was telling them that they did not understand God's doings. Finally, God Himself joins the discussion out of the whirlwind in chapter 38 of the book. His mere presence would humble any man to want to, well, disappear. What God makes clear to Job and to the rest of us, I might add, is that God is so great, powerful, and intelligent. That no flesh or power can ever make him account for himself. He does what he pleases, and aren't we so blessed that what he does, he does for our eventual good. He offered up his own son to have his life taken in terrible torture and crucifixion so that we little beings can have our lives spared from the certain death that was hanging over us. I, for one, am absolutely certain that I do not understand all that God is and all that God does. Not as long as I'm this, in this certainly earthly flesh. I know that every converted one of us feels the same. We need to keep remembering that we should never ask God to give account of Himself to us. When we accepted this baptism, we knew we were putting our lives at risk. Let me read a reminder of this in the book of Matthew, the 10th chapter. Matthew the 10th chapter. In verse 37. Where we read Jesus speaking, He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. And he who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. I am very mindful right now of brethren who are suffering in pain or even near death if they aren't healed. I'm inclined to think that these brethren often think of scriptures like this, like this very one I just read. I keep thinking of what I am supposed to learn in this as a member of God's church. Is it possible that our God wants us to know how much we care for for those who are suffering? Uh, do we really care for them? Are we allowing Ourselves to take the position that God is not really healing these days. I've personally come to know certain brethren in recent months who are indeed suffering greatly. Guess what? For the most part, it is me who comes away from interactions greatly encouraged. These are members of our spirit, members of our spiritual family. We need to care what they are going through, about what they are going through. We are all flesh and blood right now. And because that any one of us, because of that, is subject to sickness or injury. Or find ourselves without a job. Or find ourselves subject to active persecution. I was greatly saddened when I realized that my friend Kim Myers had developed leukemia. We would have long conversations on the phone. We, he even invited me up to his place in Oregon. We were going to grow our friendship. I appreciated how honest and frank he was. I miss him. The point I'm trying to make is that our Father and Jesus Christ are doing what is best for each one of us. They know that we need to be trained or tried in order for us to truly grow. We must never call them into account. God is not there to hurt us. I think it's pretty clear that Job was converted and received God's Holy Spirit after that encounter with God. He needed to be humbled in order to get there, however. And we all know, so do we. Hopefully, none of us need to go through what he did, but we have to go through trials. It's a bit like having to prune a tree in order to have it produce even more and better fruits. Finally, I've wondered about Job's wife and children. I do not get a positive feeling about them. Please turn to Job 1st chapter and verse number 5. Job 1 and verse 5. Where it says So it was when the days of feasting had run their course that Job would send and sanctify 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 sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus Job did regularly. Maybe it's just me, but this scripture does not paint a pretty picture of Job's children. They seem to be partying a lot of the time, probably at birthday occasions for each. I also get the impression from verse 4, they, that they might have had their houses given to them. Bottom line, They come across as spoiled rich kids getting everything they want and having the habit of cursing God. Which brings me to their mother. Please turn over to Job 2 and verse 9, 2nd chapter of Job. 2, that's Job 2 and verse 9. Then said his wife unto him. Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die. Now we need to remember that this woman, this is a woman who just lost all her children in a disaster that destroyed the house in which they were having a good time. But she finds it fitting to advise her husband to curse God and die. This is right after Satan had struck Job with painful boils all over his body. Job tells her that she's speaking as a foolish woman. What's going on here? It seems to me that we are forced to kind of read between the lines. We have a bunch of spoiled kids who party a lot of the time and are inclined to curse God. We also have their mother who thinks that God deserves to be cursed. She probably used words. that the Bible doesn't write down, that we might hear from drunken sailors in a bar. It seems to me, it seemed to me that Job was the only one in that family who actually wanted to worship God. Everybody else was busy spending dad's money and partying. His wife probably enjoyed her status at parties, but had little respect for her husband. So what happened after God saved him from the hand of Satan and ended the trial God allowed him to experience? Let's turn to Job 42 and verse 10. Job 4210. This is after well, I'll just read it, and the Lord turned to the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. Also, the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Uh, verse 13, he, we, he had also 7 sons and 3 daughters, which is the same configuration he had before all the trouble started. And in verse 14, and he called the name of the first Jemima, the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Karen Hapuch. Uh, OK, that's that's a mouthful. And of course, if we read in Job 42:15. In all the land there were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job, and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren. What happened that Job now had the fairest daughters in the land. Among the 1st 3 daughters, nothing is mentioned about their beauty in particular. However, it seems quite likely to me. Um, when God restored Job, his cursing wife was replaced by another woman who was truly beautiful, and their genetics now produced these three most beautiful daughters. That's just my take. In closing, I'll say the things that I've said today aren't necessarily right in every instance. But I do think that God has given us minds to think things out as we grow in grace and knowledge of His creation. End of his work. I'll end with this final scripture in Proverbs 25:2. That um you can turn to if you'd like, I'll just read it. It says it is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.
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Sermon Topics
The Gospel
