Job Chapter 29-30:ALL

Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee, Weekend Edition. Pastor David McGee is internationally recognized for his unique conversational verse-by-verse and chapter-by-chapter teaching through the Word of God. We have hundreds of his teachings through the many books of the Bible and encourage you to visit crossthebridge.com to study the scriptures along with Pastor David. But right now, open your Bible to the Old Testament Book of Job and follow along for today's teaching. Pastor David has been teaching practical lessons from the life of Job.

We are finding out that what needed to be learned back then still needs to be learned today. I think you'll find that to be true today and tomorrow as we take a closer look at chapters 29 and 30. Now, here's Pastor David. Chapter 29. And so we're continuing our verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter study of Job. Now, we're kind of joining Job in the middle of a speech here, and it's his longest speech, maybe the longest speech in the Bible. Job speaks from chapter 26 all the way to 31, and so we're jumping in the middle of that. Now, what we'll do is read through here and make a few comments along the way, but then kind of take a look back so when we finish the reading, we're not done, so don't turn it off. Mentally, you can still be there and yet turn it off.

Don't do that. So chapter 29 of Job, verse 1, it says, Job further continues his discourse and said, One interesting thing for Job to say, quick review, because we saw and heard something that Job did not see in here, and that is those two meetings between Hasatan, or the Satan, the accuser, and God. So Job wasn't privy to that. But we know through reading this book that the accuser, the enemy, came to God and said, I want to test Job. And God says, well, you can do a lot of things, but you can't touch him. He comes back a second time, and he says, well, you can touch him, but you cannot take his life. Now, that may confuse us a little bit, but we need to be real clear on who is doing what to Job, because here Job is making, as in the days when God watched over me, the only reason Job is alive here is because God protected him and is still protecting him.

So that's kind of the irony just popping right off, and we can look down and say, oh, Job, you're so silly. You didn't know that God was protecting you. Well, it usually doesn't help our spiritual growth to figure out what somebody else is supposed to be doing. Do you realize that you won't know until you get to heaven? If you know Jesus, when you get to heaven, then you will see all that you were protected from, and I think every one of us will be amazed. We'll see traffic jams that kept us from accidents.

We'll see dinners or lunches that went too long, and because of that, we missed a collision with a drunk driver. And now think about that. We live in a fallen world that is, to some degree, subject to the enemy. When the enemy came and tempted Jesus, he said, if you bow down before me, I'll give you everything. Jesus didn't say, wait, you can't do that.

That's not yours to give. It wouldn't have been a valid temptation if the enemy didn't have it to give. So it was a valid temptation. So the enemy is, as the New Testament suggests, he's in control of the firmament here, the earth, prince of the power of the air, prince of this world, he's called. And we see in Job that there's some sort of meeting place that the accuser comes to try to get permission from God to do certain things. Now, some of this falls into the Hebrew scriptures of the old covenant, and some of it is eternal truth.

But here's the life lesson. God protects us from more than we will ever realize. God protects us from more than we will ever realize. In the book of Job, Job's speaking now, so we're clear, he has all these attacks.

The enemy comes after him, takes the lives of his kids, wipes his businesses and his crops out, and then afflicts him with boils, so much that it seems that he was taking pieces of pottery and just scraping his skin to get relief from the pressure of these boils. And then we have Job's comforters come to him and say, man, God is doing this to you because of that. He's doing it to you because of this. And he's, you know, I know what God's doing.

He's judging you because of this, and God did that to you because of that. Interesting, because we know that God was not at the core of the attack. We read that in the first few chapters, that the enemy was. So these people that came to Job, we call them friends.

Not really, huh? And we actually, if you've read the entire book, in the end, God rebukes Job's friends. They're not acting like friends. In life, you'll have acquaintances, and then you'll come to a test or a trial, and the relationship will be tested. And at that point, what it's founded on becomes essential.

Not where they met, how they met, when they met, but what's the core. If it's not the love of God and the grace of God, there's going to be problems. And I know sometimes when we're serving the Lord, people, I'm with you, man.

I'll be here by your side forever, and I'm committed, I'm dedicated. And then you hit some test or trial, and they're not there. Now, you're tempted in that moment to think, what's wrong with me? Or what's wrong with the church?

Or what's wrong with the pastor? Let's use a military analogy. If you're in the military, and somebody goes AWOL, runs off, desserts, do you immediately wonder what the captain did?

Or do you realize there was something in the person that went AWOL? Because you're tempted in that moment to think, oh, I lost a friend. No, you didn't.

No, you didn't. You don't lose friends, ever. From the beginning of this ministry till now, I have not lost one single friend in ministry. I found out who my real friends are, is what has happened.

And that's the life lesson. You don't ever lose friends. You just find out who your real friends are. You don't ever lose friends. You just find out who your real friends are.

So that's important. Yeah, it's painful sometimes. But it's better to know and find out than to get in some sort of critical situation where you're depending on that person, and then they let you down. It's like leaning on a sharp stick. It's okay as long as you don't put weight on it.

The moment you put weight on that relationship, you begin to get hurt, and you'll figure out, well, this person's not really my friend. Verse 3, when his lamp shone upon my head and when by his light I walked in darkness, just as I was in the days of my problem, when the friendly counsel of God was over my tent, when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were around me, when my steps were bathed with cream and the rock poured out rivers of oil for me, when I went out to the gate by the city, when I took my seat in the open square and the young men saw me and hid and the aged arose and stood, the princes refrained from talking and put their hand on their mouth, the voice of nobles was hushed and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth, when the ear heard, then it blessed me, and when the eye saw, then it approved me, because I delivered the poor who cried out, the fatherless and the one who had no helper. They had accused Job of not caring about the poor. Did he care about the poor? Absolutely. It sounds like he did quite a lot for the poor. Yeah, but somebody accused him.

You can accuse anybody of anything at any time. It takes no basis in truth. Verse 13, the blessing of a perishing man came upon me and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness and it clothed me. My justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind and I was feet to the lame.

I was a father to the poor and I searched out the case that I did not know. I broke the fangs of the wicked and plucked the victim from his teeth. And then I said, I shall die in my nest and multiply my days as the sand. My root is spread out to the waters and the dew lies all night on my branch.

My glory is fresh within me and my bow is renewed in my hand. Verse 21, men listened to me and waited and kept silence for my counsel. After my words, they did not speak again and my speech settled on them as dew. They waited for me as for the rain and they opened their mouth wide as for the spring rain. If I mocked at them, they did not believe it. In the light of my countenance, they did not cast down. I chose the way for them and sat as chief. So I dwelt as a king in the army, as one who comforts mourners.

One who comforts mourners. So Job is recalling good days and good times, which is a good thing to do. The Bible encourages us to think about good things and pure things and true things and to fix our thoughts on those things. We live in a time where you can watch the news and begin to think about the future and begin to be unsure and get unsteady and then get fearful. And fear is not from God.

It's not from God. Before we jump into chapter 30, speaking about fear, there are several verses that we need to throw in the mix here of our discussion that were way back. In Job chapter 3, verse 25, when all these things happened, Job makes some interesting statements. He says this, For the thing which I greatly feared has come upon me, and that which I was afraid of has come unto me. Now, that's the King James, the New Living Translation says, What I always feared has happened to me, and what I dreaded has come true.

So let's review a couple of the things that we know. We know the enemy was going to attack Job. And before the enemy attacked Job, he did surveillance work, it sounds like.

By the way, we think about the enemy and it's like, Where's the enemy? Oh, he's in hell. No, he's not.

No, no. That's not what the Bible says. He will one day be in hell. He's not there now.

Where is he? Walking to and fro, seeking whom he may devour. That's what the Bible says. Now, we need to understand Paris is a great example. During World War II, the Nazis actually controlled a lot of Europe.

Paris. They owned it. I mean, the leaders were there in the town, going to the theaters, and they felt safe because, I mean, the front lines were far from there. But there were pockets of resistance, of people that were saving Jewish people from going to concentration camps.

And there were people that were being spies for the Allies. That describes our situation because this is a fallen world. When we're burned into this world, we're not burned into God's side. John Chapter 8, Jesus was speaking to really religious people who had done a lot of good things, but they didn't know Jesus.

So they had not been adopted, according to John Chapter 1, Verse 12. It says, as many as believe in Jesus, they receive the right to become children of God. So I know we like to think, well, we're all just children of God.

Let's hold hands and sing kumbaya. But that's not the way the world is structured. So there's these fallen folks that Jesus said were the children of the enemy. And we were children of the enemy until we got saved. And not only were we forgiven, but we changed kingdoms. We were in the kingdom of dark. Now we're in the kingdom of light. There's a lot of our friends and family that are still part of the kingdom of dark. We are protected from the enemy. He does not have free access like the first few chapters of Job here because of the blood of Jesus. To the unbeliever, however, who's rejecting Jesus and rejecting the blood of Jesus, there's no protection there unless we pray for protection for them.

And even then, that's not the same as becoming a child of God. 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. So the exact things that Job feared came to pass. You have to wonder, did Job somehow tear down the hedge of protection with his fear? We don't know.

We're not told. I think we need to be careful about going to doctrinal extremes from the book of Job. What I mean by that is all sicknesses of God or all sicknesses completely of the devil.

I believe it's over here, way over here on the scale. So let's be careful about jumping to doctrinal conclusions. But when Job says the exact things I was afraid of happened, we've got to give that some credence, if you will. Because when we think about that, God says so many times, do not fear, do not fear, do not fear, do not fear, don't fear, do not fear, don't lose heart, don't lose heart, don't lose heart, don't fear, don't fear, don't fear. So to fear is to disobey God and to sin. Now, the common causes of sin and fear are not trust in God, a fear of lack, a fear of not knowing something.

Oh my goodness, that last one's huge. We've talked before, remember spirit, soul, body. You are a spirit, you have a soul, you live in a body. Your body or your flesh can get you into all kinds of trouble. Your spirit is regenerated, reborn with God. Your body is slowly beginning the process of following God.

But our flesh is still there. That war is still going on between good and evil. You can walk past two people that are talking about somebody and you not know them, but all of a sudden you're like, what, who, what happened, what happened, come on, tell me what happened, come on, I know I don't know them, but tell me what happened anyway. There is something broken in each of us that wants to know everything and there's actually a fear in us of not knowing something.

When somebody does something, oh, what did they know that I don't know? Be careful, because when you're in fear, it's the enemy. Man can move you like a pawn, because when we say we're fearful, we're not trusting God.

Again, what do we know about fear? Well, we know that it's not from God. Fear is not from God. How do we know that? The Bible tells us that.

It's very plain spoken about that. 2 Timothy 1 verse 7, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, it's interesting it's called a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind. So that's what God has given you, power, love and sound mind. Now, a New Living Translation says, for God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline. Our self-control is mentioned as the fruits of the spirit or a fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5. The Amplified, 2 Timothy 1.7, for God did not give us a spirit of timidity, of cowardice, of craving, of cringing and fawning fear, but he has given us a spirit of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control.

I mean, there's a reason they call it the Amplified. But those are a lot of great descriptive words. And there's other verses. If you're struggling with fear, fear of not knowing something or fear of people, maybe a couple of scriptures for you to memorize. Hebrews 13, 6.

So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?

What can man do to me? Well, I'm afraid something might happen with ISIS. Well, if we're being honest, chances are pretty good something's going to happen. We don't know what's going to involve you and here.

That's assuming an awful lot. And so you're worried about something that will probably never happen to you. And that's about 99% of the stuff we worry about never happens to us. 1 John 4.8 says, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment.

But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. Again, we're dealing with all sorts of dynamics here, spiritual dynamics according to the word of God. In Job, he ends up getting blessed beyond where he started. And he's in a better place.

Why? Because he no longer has that great fear about this thing happening like he did in the beginning. That's been dealt with. And God blesses him beyond where he started out.

And that's what happens every time. The worst thing that ever happened on the planet Earth, somehow God took it and made it the best thing that ever happened on this planet. I'm talking about the crucifixion. All these imps and demons and whatnot, they're all, let's kill the Son of God.

This is going to be great. Fell right into the trap, not knowing and understanding what God's laws are. Instead of counting the ten and counting Jesus out, it's more like a countdown. Amen.

And after three days, rumble, rumble, stone rolls away, and all the spirits are like, uh-oh. Here's what the Bible says. 1 Corinthians 2.8, which none of the rulers of this age knew, for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 1 Corinthians 7 and 8. No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God, his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began. But the rulers of this world have not understood it.

If they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. Now, just like the crucifixion plan was somewhat hidden, your life plan is somewhat hidden. You don't know it. I don't know it. God knows it.

He's not telling. So go with what you know and follow the scriptures. Now, let's get back to chapter 30, verse 1. But now they mock at me, men younger than us.

So Job's going to say where this is now. They used to really like me, respect me, etc. But now they mock at me, men younger than I, whose fathers I disdained to put with the dogs of my flock.

These guys that are mocking him, he wouldn't even let their fathers mess with his dogs, which were unclean. Indeed, what profit is the strength of their hands to me? Their vigor has perished. They are gaunt from wanton famine, fleeing late to the wilderness, desolate in waste, who pluck mallow by the bushes and broom tree roots for their food.

This is the food of the very, very poor. They were driven out from among men. They shouted at them, Is that a thief? They had to live in the clefts of the valleys or the rocks or in caves or holes of the earth and the rocks. Among the bushes they braid.

Under the nettles they nestled. They were sons of fools. Yes, sons of vile men.

They were scourged from the land. And now I am their taunting song. Yes, I am their byword. They abhor me. They keep far from me. They do not hesitate to spit in my face because he's loosed my bowstring and afflicted me. They have cut off restraint before me.

At my right hand the rabble rises. They push away my feet. And they raise against me their ways of destruction. They break up my path. They promote my calamity. They have no helper. They come as broad breakers.

Under the ruinous storm they roll along. So all these people who thought well of Joe before think really poorly of him now. But the real question is, does that tell us anything about Joe? No, other than that he had a lot and now he doesn't.

It doesn't reveal anything about the people. Yeah, they respected him just because he had money. He's the same guy, same person.

Maybe even a little bit smarter, less, definitely poorer for the moment. But they treat him bad when Joe hasn't really changed. It's just what he has. So what do we know? They were treating him good for what?

For what they could get. Gang, you need to realize that at certain times the crowd is wrong. The majority goes along with stuff and we as Christians have to say, no, not with that gang, not with that gang, not with that majority.

I don't care how many buildings you light up and how many colors, I still won't agree with that. Crowds of the Israelites kept wanting to go back to Egypt. Let's go back to Egypt. Oh, it's so good in Egypt.

Where they killed the babies and you were slaves? Yeah, we love that. Let's go back. Being unpopular is not a bad thing. As a matter of fact, Jesus said, woe unto you if all people speak well of you. Just saying, I don't know if you have that problem. I don't have that problem, but if you have that problem, you know. But we need to realize, again, we're in a fallen world.

So when you go on something that's worldly or of this world, like Facebook and stuff like that, you're going to see a lot of pain, a lot of hatred, a lot of unforgiveness, bitterness. That's not who we are. Don't adopt that. Don't mimic that.

Don't mirror that. Here's a big Bible study tip. People shouted, Hosanna, blessed be the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Five days later, some of those same people now cried, crucify him. When Jesus went into Jerusalem, oh, Hosanna, blessed be the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

The high priest and people go through and pay some of the folks and crucify him, crucify him. That's the way it goes sometimes. That's the way some people are, to flip like that in a few days. And understand, you know, if somebody starts telling you exactly what you should be doing and how you should be doing it, be careful. They're not where you are. And there's principles that we can all share with each other that come from the Bible. But I hesitate when somebody who has never been a senior pastor, never been a pastor, never even been in ministry, never even served the Lord starts telling me what I should be doing and how I should be doing my role. They're of the world. They're not another pastor helping me see things clearly. Here's a life lesson.

When someone you know quits or gives up in the middle of a test or a trial that doesn't reveal anything about you or your friendship or your relationship or your church or your pastor, it reveals the person as a quitter. 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.

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