Job Chapter 8:1-22

Welcome to Cross the Bridge Podcast. Job chapter 8 verse 1, and I'll read through it and then we'll do a little bit of review here. It says, Now that's in the New King James.

Let's go back and read the same passage in the New Living Translation. It says, You started with little, you will end with much. Let's review a little bit, but before we do, let me remind you about some powerful tools that we're using around here, simply called the Seven Secrets for Spiritual Success. And these are seven kind of dashboard-like instruments, if you will, to let you know if everything's okay spiritually. And so, you can take this list and jot it down in your Bible. Let me encourage you to write it in back, these seven items. And if you find yourself struggling, look at these seven items. You know, am I in prayer?

Am I in the Word? How are my relationships? And tonight, you know, in the teachings, there's always this emergence of one or two stronger. And so tonight, in looking at this chapter, probably the things that emerge are fellowship and family, and that is to say relationships, and then also worship, fellowship and family relationships. It's very interesting, of all the things that we are taught in the school system, we're not really taught about relationships and how to communicate. It's something we need to kind of learn on our own. And if we grew up in a home where there was good communication, then we are more likely to be a good communicator.

But if we grew up in a home where the communication was poor, then we're tempted to follow suit. Now the blood of Christ breaks all that, okay? You could have grown up in the worst, absolute worst home, and you didn't.

I know you didn't because I did, so no, I'm kidding. And you could still be the best dad and the best mom in the world because of the power of Jesus. Amen? Yeah, I mean, praise God. That can be undone.

That can be undone if you grew up in a messed up family. Let's review just a little bit here about Job. Many of us are familiar with the story. Even though it's about halfway through the Old Testament, it's still one of the oldest books of the Bible. And looking at Job or teaching Job or studying Job, we think that when God said, hey, Satan, have you considered Job? Almost as if Job was safely hidden behind some rock and then God just, man, he just declared open seas and said, hey, why don't you get him? But notice, and it's so important because the English translation from the Hebrew that we are familiar with is, have you considered my servant Job? Now it's a little unfortunate because if you simply, and forget the translation for a moment, if you simply read the passage, you see that Satan describes Job before God said, have you considered?

Why is that important? Because maybe a closer translation would be, are you still considering my servant Job? Are you still looking at my servant Job?

That really changes the tone of that discussion. And again, notice that the enemy was up there in a spiritual plane and what's he doing? He's accusing Job. Oh, Job is dead.

He's dead, man. And if he had a problem, oh, he would just ta-da-da. That's what the enemy does night and day. He makes accusation against you and I at the throne under such relentless accusations. And you ever have, you know, somebody's like ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka.

Nobody here, but at the last church I pastor, man, there was no, but you now have to say ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka, just on and on and on. In that arena, we need somebody for us. We need a counselor. We need somebody that's on our side, don't we? We got somebody. Jesus is right there, day and night, answering every accusation he makes by saying, oh, no, no, no. They're kind of a good person and they're trying real hard.

Is that what he said? Oh, no, no. You devil, you can't mess with this man. This one's a Baptist. You can't mess with no Baptist. Oh, no, no. Pentecostals.

You definitely can't mess with no Pentecostal now. They're doing pretty good. Is that what he says? No, no, no, no. Does he say, hey, they've mostly been done pretty well.

They've kept seven out of the 10 commandments in the last few days. No. Well, he goes to the bridge.

You can't mess with. That's it. That's it.

But no, no. He says, that one's mine. That's my son.

That's my daughter. And as such, enemy, they are innocent. Now, what we can look forward to is that at some point in the future is he will be silenced. But again, as we've talked about before, who are we more like? Loving and kind like Jesus or accusing like the enemy? So the enemy is wanting to make a play against Job. And then Job chapter 1 verse 13 continues and says, now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their older brother's house. And the messenger came to Job and said, the oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them when the Sabeans raided them and took them away. Indeed, they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword and I alone have escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another also came and said, the fire God felt from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them. And I alone have escaped to tell you why he was still speaking. Another also came and said, the Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels, took them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword and I alone have escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another also came and said, your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house. And suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house and it fell on the young people and they are dead.

And I alone have escaped to tell you. Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head and fell to the ground and worshipped. What an amazing response. You know, you expect to see different things there, but to see that he fell to the ground and worshipped doesn't say he sat down and asked, why God? It doesn't say that he immediately started asking other people if they understood what was going on. He fell to the ground and worshipped. And he said, naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall I return there. The Lord gave and the Lord is taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this, Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong. Wow.

He fell to the ground and worshipped. What is your reaction when things happen? What do you do? What do you say? You know, we think sometimes that in those moments we do things that are uncharacteristic of us. That's what we would like to think. But the reality is, sometimes in those tough moments, we see who we really are. As it's been said, Christians are like tea bags.

You don't really know about them until they're in hot water. How do you react when things go wrong? When you hit your finger with a hammer, do you fall to the ground and worship?

What about when you get bad news? You don't get that promotion or that raise. Do you fall to the ground and worship? Now let's understand, Job didn't all of a sudden in that moment decide, I'm going to worship God. No, it was consistent with his life.

How did he do that? How did Job worship at such a time? Because Job had a lifestyle of worship. He had a lifestyle of worship. And worship is not something that we do just on Thursday nights or Sunday morning. Worship is honoring God, recognizing his place, his lordship. After hearing all those things, crops gone, the servants gone, the animals gone, his children gone, and he falls to the ground and worships.

Why? Well, you don't know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you got. You don't know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you got. And then you realize that Jesus is enough, more than enough. You know, I've gone through things, not like Job described here, but gone through different things. And there's always this, oh man, if this happens, that's going to be so bad. And then when it happens, it's not that bad, something you can recover from. So we need to get out of the mentality of thinking worship is a few songs we sing.

So here's the life lesson. Worship is a lifestyle, not only an event or activity. Worship is a lifestyle, not only an event or activity. Well, I mean, worship is that thing we do at the beginning of the service. That is worship. What we do on Sunday morning, that is worship. And yet worship is so much more, isn't it?

So looking at Job chapter 8, verse 1, let's read that again. And then Bill Dadd, the shoe height. Some of these names are just fun to say, aren't they? Bill Dadd, the shoe height. That's a name you don't hear much, don't you? Bill Dadd. Oh, Bill Dadd McGee.

He's a shoe height, you know. So he says, verse 2, how long will you speak these things and the words of your mouth be like a strong wind? In the New Living Translation, verse 2, he says, how long will you go on like this? You sound like a blustering wind. Now, let's understand the timing of all this. Job is going through all this stuff. And if you remember, there's a verse.

You don't need to turn there. I'll get it for you. But I still haven't heard of a teacher who saw what we did in Job chapter 2, verse 13. And part of that is because of the Jewish roots of Christianity that we talk about here and we teach about and we focus on. 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 to receive a short encouraging text from us each day.

That's 94253. And now back to the teaching. It's an interesting time when denominational churches are separating themselves from Israel that Netanyahu didn't have an appointment with the president. You may feel a lot of different things about that, but I tell you what, if the world doubted that some of our government and political leaders were supportive and are supportive of Israel, if those folks doubted our support of Israel, they saw a very strong picture of our support for Israel because of our looking at the Jewish roots of Christianity and me bringing to you some of these concepts like the Shiva, the sitting Shiva, that's when there's a death. First of all, the body has to be in the ground within 24 hours. Now there's some challenges there because there's some folks in New York City that have burial plots in Jerusalem. So they try to get the body from New York City to Jerusalem within 24 hours. And then seven days after the burial, there's what they call Shiva or frequently referred to as sitting Shiva. And that's seven days that there's mourning. And there's not an expectation of conversation. As a matter of fact, there's an expectation of silence that the person who is grieving will not be called upon for conversation. It's really beautiful.

I mean, there's certain elements to it that I think we would do well to pick up. They cover mirrors, usually with black cloth, so that women won't worry about their makeup. So they just cover the mirror. Isn't that cool? That's awesome. In case you think that's a great idea, don't do that in your car.

Do not cover up the mirrors in your car. But we saw that at that sitting Shiva, we picked it up in Job 2 verse 13. It says, so they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights and no one spoke a word to him for they saw that his grief was very great. And again, seven days and seven nights for that sitting Shiva. So you guys know that. That makes me feel good because our main goal is for you guys to be the best loved and best fed sheep in the world. Amen. Praise God.

Absolutely. And the Bible refers to us as sheep. I didn't call them that.

But I want you to be the best loved and the best fed to know the word of God. And so knowing that you guys know about the whole sitting Shiva thing, and that's why they weren't talking. It's cool. So they were silent for seven days. And if you could imagine some of the pent up things that evidently these three guys were wanting to say. And here in chapter 8, and again, I want to encourage you, it might be a good thing, go ahead and read the whole book of Job, and then come back and read up to chapter 8. We may start in two chapters.

We'll see. This Bildad, this is the first time he's spoken. Again, he's one of these three friends of Job.

And I do think they are his friends. They just make some mistakes. And we really need to think about why is the book of Job in the Bible. And not only why is it in there, but man, if you look at it, it's forty-one, forty-two chapters, thirty-eight pages, all about one guy and the trouble he has. What are we supposed to be learning from Job? Well, I'll tell you, I think we often miss this one of what we're supposed to be getting from here. It's just amazing to me that with all that Job has been through, and he starts talking and sharing, which is, you know, guys typically aren't real verbal. A guy comes in from work and, hey, honey, how was your day? Fine. Well, good, let's talk about how your day went. And the guy's like, we just did.

I said, fine. But Job, in this instance, man, he's pouring out his heart. And, you know, in these last chapters, we see some of these things, and we don't know if it was the same day or broken up by a few days, but think about it. He lost all of his help. He lost all of the crops. He lost all of his animals.

He lost his kids. And he starts talking. And then this bill dad is like, nah, you talk too much. Wow. So part of what we're supposed to be understanding from this book is how to be a friend and how not to be a friend. Amen? How to deal with issues, how to respond to things. And let me promise you, every single one of us has things we can learn in this book, in this particular book of Job.

He says, you know, Job, you're talking so much. And certainly we want to be careful about talking excessively, talking out of term. The Bible warns us about that Proverbs 10 19 says, in the multitude of words, there wanteth not sin, but he that refraineth his lips is wise. That's from the King James.

It kind of has that little poetic thing going on. But then the new King James says, in the multitude of words, sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise. New Living Translation says, too much talk leads to sin. Be sensible and keep your mouth shut. Kind of directed to the point and it can be an interesting verse to quote at times when somebody's talking, keep your mouth shut.

What? I was just quoting scripture, man. Proverbs 10 19, keep your mouth shut.

The complete Jewish Bible in that verse says, when words are many, sin is not lacking, so he who controls his speech is wise. What is Job about or what should we learn from the book of Job? There's a lot of different answers to that, but a couple of ones that we can ponder tonight are how we react to events. That's something we can be learning, to be reacting more positively, more glorifying to the Lord. How we treat our friends during events when they're going through things. How we communicate to each other. These are things that we can each learn from the book of Job and each of us needs to learn. Each of us can improve our relationships.

Now, if you improve one friend or one person, you improve a certain section of your life, but if you improve the way that you communicate, you change every relationship you have. The Bible wants to help you do that. Bill Ladd starts out going, you know, Job, you're just yakking, yakking, yakking, yakking, yakking. I just don't understand that comment. I mean, just imagining all that Job was going through. In addition, we didn't mention that in the attack, he was given boils, which are like big zits.

They were so bad, he would take a piece of pottery, the Bible says, and scrape his skin. In that environment, all that he'd been through, I'd like to think if he started talking, that we would listen, that you and I would let him talk. Now, chances are pretty good we're not going to meet Job around here tonight or tomorrow or anything. If you know Jesus, you're going to see him one day, but you'll see somebody that's going through something and there's a time to listen, not say anything. There's a time to talk and time to listen. I think it's awesome. Some of what the Lord is doing, everything the Lord is doing is awesome. I think it's awesome seeing how God is mending the nets and drawing us together, solidifying those relationships. And that is so important.

Why? Because we're in a spiritual battle, like we've spoken about before. The enemy is after the youth of this nation. He is wanting them to join ISIS.

Like I shared Sunday, there are ISIS investigations in 49 states. Now, when we're talking to one another, let's, you and I, let's continue to improve and not sit back on our laurels and go, hey, hey, the other guy, he's the one that needs the work. That other lady, man, boy, she's got issues. Oh, I caught somebody. So they said, oh man, you know, that lady is such a gossip. And I said, how do you know?

Is it made diligent? And you repeated it and she's the gossip. And as we're thinking about communications and relationships, let's put it in context of something Jesus said, the golden rule. The life lesson here is in all communication, talking, listening, social media, texting, email, et cetera, we should treat others the way we want to be treated. In all communication, we should treat others the way we want to be treated. In all communication, we should tweet others the way we want to be tweeted. Amen.

Let's go. So next time you get ready to say something behind somebody's back, stop and remember how painful it was when you found somebody was talking about you and treat the other person the way you want to be treated. Verse four, and there's a lot of meat in the beginning, so we're, even though we're moving slowly here, we're on track. If your sins have sinned against them, he has cast them away for their transgression. Now, let's establish first, was this true? Maybe it was.

I mean, there was an issue with the kids. We see that and the Scriptures tell us that. In the first chapter, Job chapter 1 verse 4 says, and his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day, and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. I got to tell you, when you go back into the Hebrew and some of these feasting and drinking, it means, you know, drinking, drinking like a kegger sort of thing. It doesn't say that in the Hebrew, kegger, and if you're asking what is a kegger, God bless you, man.

Not anything you need to worry about now. It was sort of a party thing to it, and so that's why Job was concerned. He says, so it was, in verse five, 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.

So the tone of the conversation suggests that they were partying for days on end, and that Job would pray for them, and he was concerned for them, which is a good thing. I mean, how many parents in here know you cannot directly control your children? Anybody? I mean, yeah.

You know, some of you that have infants under two, you don't know what I'm talking about yet. You will. You will. You've been listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge, Weekend Edition. Tune in again tomorrow afternoon as Pastor David continues teaching on most stations. If you're not able to make it to your home church this Sunday, why not join us for our live stream at 10 a.m. Eastern Time or on Thursday nights at 7 p.m. Eastern Time? Just visit crossthebridge.com and click on our live stream link. There you will experience a live service from David's home church, The Bridge in North Carolina. Again, that website is crossthebridge.com.

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, click on the donate button and support this program with your regular gifts. And tune in to 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.