Job Chapter 10:1-22

Welcome to Cross the Bridge But right now, open your Bible to the Old Testament Book of Job and follow along for today's teaching. In this series of special weekend edition programs, Pastor David has been teaching practical lessons from the life of Job. The Book of Job is one of the oldest books in the Bible. We are finding out that what needed to be learned back then still needs to be learned by us today, as we continue studying chapter 9.

And now, here's Pastor David. Let's look at Job chapter 10. Now, there is no J in the Hebrew alphabet, so there is no Book of Job in the Hebrew Bible. What you have is the Book of Yob, so Y-O-B instead of J-O-B, Book of Yob. I think that's more fun to say than Job or Job, because so many people wonder, is it Job? Is it Job?

No, it's Yob, actually. Now, Job, obviously, is in a bad place. But even so, there's a couple things in this chapter that show us that he is holding on to hope.

He is. If we look into the New Living Translation, we can gain some insights here. Verse 1 in the New Living Translation says, I am disgusted with my life. Let me complain freely.

My bitter soul must complain. One of the things about the Book of Job is that it's recording conversations back and forth and back and forth. And such a large percentage of it is Job's friends lacking compassion, lacking grace, lacking love. We're not told to love when we feel like, as a matter of fact, agape love is unconditional love. And so, if you're walking in agape love, there's going to be times when you don't feel like loving, but you do it anyway. I mean, it's safe to say that Jesus didn't feel like going to Jerusalem.

He probably didn't feel like carrying that cross, but he did it. Sometimes there's, well, yeah, I just have to vent. People say that, or I just have to say how I feel.

Well, no, you don't. If you're in a bad place, one of the worst things you can do is talk, because you're listening to yourself. It's not the solution. And so, here's the life lesson. And I tell you what, hold in Job chapter 10, let's go to Galatians 5 verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. How do we express those things with what we say so often?

So, here's the life lesson. If you feel angry, jealous, hostile, quarrelsome, divisive, then don't talk. Send emails, Facebook posts, tweets, text, or other forms of communication until you feel love, and joy, and peace, and kindness, and faithful, and gentle, and the Spirit is leading again. Amen? I mean, that's just, it makes sense. If you're feeling hostile and bitter, don't express that. Verse two, I will say to God, do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me. Does it seem good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands and smile on the counsel of the wicked?

What do you gain by oppressing me? Why do you reject me, the work of your own hand, while smiling on the schemes of the wicked? You know, while we're pointing out what's solid and not solid, if you look at that, God has created us. And if you have rejected Jesus and are still rejecting Jesus, you know, it's an accurate statement to say that God is rejecting you. Is that the state of Job's relationship with God? Was God smiling on the schemes of the wicked? No, no. Was God rejecting Job?

No, actually the very opposite. It's interesting, Job feels that God is oppressing me. He feels that God despises him. I hate to bother what he feels with the facts. And friend, sometimes you feel something.

Now you absolutely feel it, but the feeling is not an accurate one. That's why we've got to be very, very careful with feelings and we subject our feelings to the word of God. Let's look at verse four. Do you have eyes of flesh?

He's talking to God. Or do you see as man sees? No. Are your days like the days of a mortal man? Are your years like the days of a mighty man that you should seek for my iniquity and search out my sin? Although you know that I am not wicked and there is no one who can deliver from your hand. Your hands have made me and fashioned me an intricate unity, yet you would destroy me. So Job makes this in verse eight, he makes this incredible statement to God.

Your hands made me, you fashioned me an intricate unity, yet you would destroy me. Job feels like God wants to destroy him. Is that what God wants to do? No. Do you think Job felt like God wanted to destroy him?

Yeah, I can see it. Let's remember Job had been through a lot. It's interesting that he says God wanted to destroy him because here's the life lesson. God had forbidden the enemy to destroy Job. God had forbidden him to destroy Job. Not only is God not destroying Job, God is forbidding the enemy from destroying Job. So this is in Job chapter one, verse 12. And the Lord said to Satan, behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not lay a hand on his person.

So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. So was God completely destroying Job? No. Did it feel like it to Job? Probably. But was it actually happening?

No. Don't trust your feelings. It's interesting that people are beginning to more and more abandon the theory of evolution or they're adopting different catalyst. Scientists who completely rejected creationism are now believing in a theory that includes an alien race seeding the earth with an egg or seed or something. And the reason they're doing this is because they've got a few challenges that you just can't overcome with the theory of evolution of a progressive being. One of the huge challenges is DNA. It's complete. It's intact.

It's amazing. One gram of DNA can store 700 terabytes of data. That's 14,050 gigabyte Blu-ray disc in a droplet of DNA that would fit on the tip of your pinky. To store the same kind of data on hard drives, the densest storage medium in use today, you would need 233 three terabyte drives weighing a total of 151 kilos.

A kilo is 2.2 pounds. You're looking at DNA that is beyond human explanation. There is too much information in there. We can't explain it away. God created us. God made the heavens and the earth. God did that and he said it was good.

God then created us and said it's very good. Amen. Praise God, man. Let's go to verse 9. Remember, I pray, that you have made me like clay and will you turn me into dust again? Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese and clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews? You've granted me life and favor and your care has preserved my spirit.

It's been bad. It's been dark and then weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning. In the New Living Translation, this verse says, you gave me life and showed me your unfailing love. My life was preserved by your care. Verse 12 is just a ray of light on a dark day.

You have granted me life and favor. God has given us in his word what we need to have for life and peace. It says that in the Bible. The Bible will help us to move towards that God-given image, that restoration, that healing towards that. And far too often, I guess we just miss it.

Here's an example. First Corinthians, chapter 2, verse 9 says, this is what the scriptures mean when they say, no eye is seen, no ear is heard, and no mind is imagined, and what God has prepared for those who loved him. Now, I've heard people use that verse, refer that verse, quote that verse.

I've heard pastors teach and preach on that verse and then just stop. I've heard pastors use that verse in funerals and just stop and say, see, we don't know. We can't tell.

Who knows? No eye is seen. No ear is heard. It just wouldn't last very long in a verse by verse church.

Let me show you why. First Corinthians, chapter 2, verse 9. Many of us have heard verse 9, less have heard verse 10. But as it's written, eye is not seen, nor ear heard, nor is entered in the heart of the man, the things which God has prepared for those who love him. But God has revealed them to us.

Amen. Through his Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. God is revealing these things to you. He's revealing them to me. Do we deserve it?

No. We're like babes, but he reveals these incredible things to us. He reveals how much he loves us, how intricate of a creation we are, how we have his favor, his grace. In the New Living Translation, those verses say, this is what the Scriptures mean when they say, no eye is seen, no ear is heard, no mind is imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him. But verse 10, but it was to us that God revealed those things by his Spirit, for his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God's deep secrets. That's in the next verse. So here's a Bible study tip.

If you're taking notes, let me encourage you to jot this down. To get the clear meaning of a Scripture, use your 20-20 vision. Read 20 verses before, 20 verses after, and you'll have 20-20 vision. In other words, when somebody uses a verse and they say, oh, it means this, don't just take that for granted. Read the 20 verses before, read that verse, read the 20 verses after, and you'll know what that verse means. If somebody tried to tell you, see, this verse is saying we don't know anything about this. You would read the 20 verses before, 20 verses after, you say, no, it says that it's been taught to us by the Spirit. Amen. In verse 13, and these things you've hidden in your heart.

I know that this was with you. If I sin, then you mark me, and will not equip me of my iniquity. If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I cannot lift my head. I'm full of disgrace.

See my misery. If my head is exalted, you hunt me like a fierce lion. And again, you show yourself awesome against me.

So close, but so far. God is awesome, but He's not against Joe. He's not against you. If you've accepted Jesus as your Savior, He is not against you.

We've already read. He goes off the track. Here's the interesting thing, because Job's feeling all this emotional pain. He says, it would have been better if I would not have been born. He says that because he was feeling a lot of emotional pain at that moment. As I was praying and reading today, here's one other thing the Holy Spirit impressed upon me. Here's the life lesson. The book of Job has given hope and encouragement to countless billions of people over time to lose all that so that Job could avoid his personal pain would be selfish.

Job was saying, I am in such emotional pain. It would have been better that I would have not been born. But then, millions and probably through time, billions of people would not have been ministered to through this book.

We would not have had the story of Job, which incidentally is not only in the Bible, but pops up in all sorts of extra biblical text and other manuscripts and Egyptian manuscripts and even in Asian manuscripts going back all the way to 2000 BC. We've had the story of Job. And now, you know, I don't know if you're reading along with me or you've gone ahead and read the book. I'm going to risk a spoiler alert here.

You can put your fingers in your ears. But in the end, it goes well for Job. OK, he's restored even beyond. And so it ends with a good thing. And Job says, oh, but there was a season when I was in pain. So I would have just rather not blessed millions and millions and millions of people.

It's a selfish thing to say. And Pastor David will be back in less than one minute as he continues teaching in the book of Job. A great way to start out each day is with a practical email devotional every morning from Pastor David. Visit CrossTheBridge.com to start receiving yours for free. If you have a cell phone, you can also text the word ENCOURAGE to 94253.

That's 94253 to receive a short, encouraging text from us each day. And now back to the teaching. In the truest sense of the word, a pastor doesn't choose to be a pastor. He's chosen because sooner or later there's those times, there's those moments when man calling him would not be enough. So we have to know who has called us and know that we're called to sacrifice. We're called to endure some pain. But one of the things that happens when we're in pain and one of the things that happens when we're in fear as well is our mind doesn't work the same and you are not able to think clearly. They've studied extensively in the financial markets of if somebody is fearful, their decision-making ability goes way down.

Their perception, their perception of themselves, people around them, etc, etc. So again, when you're fearful, your perception of who you are in the Lord gets more difficult to hold on to. Now one of the things that's not in this chapter and we need to remind ourselves of because we're talking about Job, we're talking about Job's friend, we're talking about God, and we're listening to Job talk about God, describe God, but Job's in a bad place right now describing God. So in trying to look at who God is, let's hear from somebody that's in a better place, if you will, and that would be the disciple John who talks about love extensively in 1 John, 2 John, 3 John. In 1 John, chapter 4, verse 7 and 8, he says, "'Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.'" And then 1 John 4 16, "'And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and not in him.'" Now you say, well, it's in the New Testament. Yeah, it's in the New Testament. You know, we talked about the law first mentioned before, and that is the first time a word occurs in Scripture, it's of greater importance or significance. What's interesting about the word love is the first place it appears in the Bible is Genesis 22, Abraham and Isaac, that Abraham loved Isaac. It speaks and reminds us of John 3 16, "'For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God didn't send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.'"

We could get really lopsided, especially reading this chapter tonight, other than verse 12, which again, he got a, you know, a ray of light there, because Joe, he's feeling forsaken. Is he? No. Have you ever felt forsaken? Maybe. Were you? No.

I have. Did God forsake me? No. Did it feel like it? Yeah. So then my feelings were lying to me.

Yes. And if you ever feel like God has forsaken you, your feelings are lying to you. You realize your feelings can lie to you. Everybody realize that?

Okay. You remember when you were in high school and you just absolutely knew that the person you were dating was the one? No, probably 2% of you were right, but the other 90%, even though they felt it and they knew it was true, it was wrong. So your feelings are lying to you. So Joe felt forsaken, but he wasn't. Maybe you have felt forsaken, but you haven't been.

And here's the sad spiritual irony of that. Don't quit feeling like that. Please don't feel like that ever, ever again. I'm going to tell you something right now.

Please listen. And this will help you from ever feeling like God has forsaken you ever again. Matthew 27, verse 45.

This is now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, that is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? See, Joe felt like that. He was wrong.

When you feel like that, you're wrong. When Jesus felt like that, he was right. And he was forsaken.

So you never would be. Don't feel forsaken because you toss his sacrifice aside when you do that. He did that not only so you could be free so that you could sense and feel that you were free. Had Joe been forsaken by God? No. Did you feel like it? Yes. Had Jesus been forsaken by God? Yes.

And he felt like it. What does it feel to be forsaken by God? You know what? If you're saved, you will never know. If you are not saved, you will know.

That's why we spend so much time and energy and effort telling people. Because if you don't know Jesus, you won't be forsaken by God, but he'll pull his hand back from you. And the main thing that makes hell hell is God won't be there in the sense of his presence, the way he'll be in heaven.

And you remove the presence of God. Gang, you know what? Looking at this chapter today, I even went back to chapter nine going, Joe, give me something, man.

You're just really freaking out here. And again, sort of understandable. You know, I wonder what would have happened if Joe would have had friends that wouldn't have kept bashing him and they would have encouraged him, what that would have been like, what this book could have read like. People need encouragement. They need godly biblical encouragement. Last Sunday was Pentecost. We had the picture of the two loaves of bread, priests waving the bread. And there's a picture there of the leaven and the unleaven coming together, the Gentile and the Jewish coming together. And I was sitting there reading chapter 10 and saying, Job, you know, we've got the ray of sunshine here in verse 12. And then as I was looking over the chapter nine and it's in your Bible and maybe you've got one of those Bibles where it has prophecies and they have a little star or they have some little mark. There's nothing in chapter nine, is there?

No. But you know what? Here's what's interesting. Job chapter nine verse eight says, He alone spreads out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. Or in the New Living Translation, Job chapter nine verse eight says, He alone has spread out the heavens and marches on the waves of the sea. Who walked on the water?

Jesus. Look at verse nine. He made the bear, Orion and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south. It's talking about stars and constellations.

Who created the stars and the sky? Jesus did. Look at verse 10. He does great things past finding out, yes, wonders without number. In the New Living Translation it says, He does great things to marvelous to understand. He performs countless miracles.

Who did so many miracles that you couldn't count on? Jesus. There in those three verses, Job is actually pointing towards the Messiah, the Redeemer.

He had a 2,000 years BC, possibly. There was already looking towards the Messiah. In Job chapter 19 verse 21, he says this. He says, Have pity on me.

Have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me. Now, here's the interesting thing. We're going to come back to this later.

Not tonight, but later on. Job chapter 19 verse 23 says, O that my words were written, O that they were inscribed in a book. Job in this book writes down, Oh, I wish somebody would write down these words and read them.

They've been recorded for millions of people. Job chapter 19 verse 23, 24, it gets even better, O that my words are written, O that they were inscribed in a book, that they were engraved on a rock with an iron pin and lead forever. That the words would last forever. They have, Job, they have. And then the next verse, Job 19, 25, in his pain, in his agony, Job declares, For I know that my Redeemer lives and he shall stand at last on the earth. Job chapter 9, last verse, verse 33, Nor is there any mediator between us who may lay his hand on us both. That's the pain. Job is saying, there's no mediator, God.

There's nobody between us. I was so grieved watching the travel program. And they had a little place where different Marys were that I think there were five or six of them. It's a South American city. And they would take the Mary and carry her through town. And people would say, we look upon her and we pray to her so that God will not be mad with us. Mary's human. Some of them believe that Mary was born without sin.

Where do they get that? Not from the Bible. We do have a mediator, but it's not Mary. Do you hear Job's pain? There's not a mediator. I don't have somebody.

And yet he says, my Redeemer lives. So he's seeing, but he doesn't have. I want you to close your eyes here. I want you to close your eyes in Greensboro. Close your eyes on the eye campus.

If you're driving, listen to the smartphone. Don't close your eyes. But for a moment, close your eyes and imagine you're in this place where you know the Redeemer's coming, but he's not here. That your sins are being added every time you commit them. It's one more to the list. All the sins of your youth on the list. All your public sins.

All your secret sins on the list. No eraser. No Redeemer yet. You know one's coming. You believe one's coming, but he's not here yet. Imagine being there.

Or maybe it's not so far off. Maybe you simply just need to remember of what it was like before you asked God to forgive you. First Timothy 2 5 says, for there is only one God and only one mediator who can reconcile God and humanity. The man Christ Jesus.

He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time. And we can either be our own high priest, or we can let Jesus be our high priest. Sometimes even when we make him high priest, we grab it back don't we?

So maybe you've grabbed control back. Maybe you had him be your high priest, but then you started trying to earn it and churn it. Let him be your high priest. If you want to ask God to forgive you for fresh mercy or fresh grace, come on right now. You've been listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge Weekend Edition.

Tune in again next Saturday afternoon at 4 30 Eastern and 1 30 Pacific time as Pastor David continues teaching lessons from the life of Job on most radio stations. Friends, God loves you and wants you to experience his peace, forgiveness and life. The Bible says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. How do you receive this gift of everlasting life from God? First, acknowledge you're a sinner in need of forgiveness. Believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and died for you on the cross, taking your sin upon himself to provide forgiveness for you.

Then ask for him to enter your heart in life, turning away from your sins, that is your own selfish desires, and then open your heart to follow God's plan for your life. You can start your new life by praying something like this from your heart. Dear Jesus, I believe that you died for me, that I could be forgiven.

I believe you are resurrected, that I could have a new life. Lord, I have done wrong things and I am sorry. Please forgive me for all of those things and please give me the power to live for you the rest of my life. In Jesus name, amen. My friend, if you prayed that prayer today for the first time or are coming back to God after wandering away, please let us know. Email PastorDavid at CrossTheBridge.com and share your good news. That's a great first step to growing in your new faith. We'd love to email you back some more ways to continue in this wonderful adventure of faith. Remember that you are not alone and you are loved. Also, don't forget to visit CrossTheBridge.com to discover more resources provided at no charge to help you learn more about the Bible. If you'd like to help us share God's word with others, please click on the donate button and support this program with your regular gifts and tune into Cross The Bridge weekend editions each Saturday and Sunday on this station or on the CrossTheBridge.com website. God bless you and have a great day.