 So here we are. We're in the book of Job. We're in chapter 3. We would welcome you who are online and pray that the Lord will bless you through this study. And so here we go. Let me give to you the first two verses of Job chapter 3, verses 1 and 2. Then I'm going to give you some introduction and reminders and we'll move into our study. Job chapter 3, beginning at verse, reading verses 1, reading verses 1 and 2 in chapter 3. After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth, and Job spoke and said, and I'll leave it there because we'll see what he said in just a moment. But I want to start with the fact that Job opened his mouth, and what he did is he cursed the day of his birth. Now as we've seen when we went through chapters 1 and 2 here in the book of Job, when God was speaking concerning this man, Job, God described him in a certain way. God said that he was blameless, that he's upright, that he fears God, and that he hates evil. And so what has happened is Satan, the accuser of the brethren, has challenged Job and challenged his righteousness. You see, as we've gone through chapters 1 and 2, we've seen that it's Satan's contention, that Job may be faithful to God and all of that, but he's really a mercenary. He does that because it's profitable to him. Satan was speaking to God and he said, you put a hedge about him. You have blessed the work of his hand. So why shouldn't he fear you? He said, does he fear you for nothing? So Satan went on to say, take all of his wealth and he'll curse you to your face. So with that, God gave permission to sift Job and everything he had was taken, including his 10 children. So this attack on Job and his family did not cause Job to curse God. Instead of cursing him, Job blessed God and Job remained faithful. Remember in chapter 1, verses 21 and 22, how he said, I came from my mother's womb. Naked shall I return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong. And so instead of cursing God, we see that Job actually blessed him. He remained faithful to him. Well, shortly thereafter Satan once again appeared before the throne of God and God reminded Satan of the faithfulness of Job. And once again, which is the way Satan is, he attacked Job. You see, up to this point only Job's possessions and his family had been touched. But Job himself has not been touched. He's had no direct pain, no affliction. And Satan says, the reason is, is because you have put a hedge about him. And so in verse 4 of chapter 2, so Satan answered the Lord and said, skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand. Now touch his bone in his flesh and he will surely curse you to your face. And so skin for skin. In other words, if he becomes terribly and painfully diseased, he will curse you to your face. Just touch him. You took his possessions, that's one thing. Now take his health. And so as we've seen, Job was struck with a terrible disease and he was reduced to sitting on a pile of ashes, scraping his sores with broken pieces of pottery. He was on what is called an ash heap. And the custom of mourners was to be seated in that way. And he's going through something that is unbearable. And he's at the point of breaking. But God knew the faith and strength that Job had, even when Job himself didn't. A man was shopping in a grocery store. His young son followed closely behind him, carrying a large basket. And the father loaded the basket with one thing after another until another customer began to feel sorry for the boy. And she said, that's pretty heavy load for a young fellow like you, isn't it? Well, the boy turned to the woman and he said, oh, don't worry, my dad knows how much I can carry. And God knows how much you can carry too. God knew how much Job could carry. And even though Job was being loaded down, God knew his strength and God knew where his faith really was. Well, as this is taken place, Job's wife was filled with grief. And remember, in despair, she unwittingly became the voice of the enemy. And her counsel to Job was for him to simply give up the fight. She told him to resign himself to dying. In Job chapter two, verse nine, she said, do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die. And we saw his reprimand. It was gentle. He basically was saying, baby, your counsel to me is really beneath you. He said in chapter two, verse 10, should we only accept what we think is good from God and not adversity? Job knew that even what seemed evil, if allowed by God, was a blessing in disguise. And through all of this, he did not sin with his lips. He wasn't rash in his accusations. He didn't blame God for his pain. And so last time we were together when we were closing chapter two, Job's friends arrived. And they had come to mourn with him. They had come to comfort him. He was so disfigured that they didn't even recognize him when they were short distance away. And when they came upon him, we read how they just, they sat with him quietly in stunned silence. And they did that for a week. And as we'll see, Job's situation was going to be a lesson that they also needed to learn. Because as we're going to go into chapters three and four, the debate is going to begin. And they're about to open a debate with a man for a week. They were quiet, but now they're going to go on the offense with him because they feel that he has sinned and done something to bring this on themselves. And so not only Job is going to learn things from this, but his friends are going to learn too. As somebody said, many of the trials Christians endure are in education in the art of sympathy. And as I closed last time with you, I was sharing with you that sometimes the best comfort you guys can give to somebody who's hurting, sometimes the best comfort you can give is just to be with them, to cry with them and to allow them to go through what they're going through instead of having answers for all of their problems and answering questions for them that they didn't ask you. And so Job has been suffering and he's been doing so for some time. You see, when we get to chapter seven, verse three, it's going to point out that Job will say, I've been allotted months of futility. Where some nights have been appointed to me. So this isn't something that took place for just a week. This has taken place for some time. And so Job has sat in silence with his friends for a week. And after a week, Job is the first to speak. Verse one, chapter three, after this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. When it says Job opened his mouth, that's not simply spontaneous speaking. It is actually the result of deep thought. And Job, in other words, has been holding his feelings in. But now you're having an opportunity to see what he's been thinking about. You're going to have an opportunity to see what has been formed in his heart. The psalmist in Psalm 39 said in verses two and three, I was mute with silence. I held my peace even from good. And my sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me while I was musing the fire burned. Then spake I with my tongue. So Job is one of these guys who has been silently stewing. He hasn't said anything. But now he begins to speak. And what does he say? Verse three, well, verse two, Job spoke and said, May the day perish on which I was born and the night in which it was said a male child is conceived. May that day be darkness. May God above not seek it. Nor the light shine upon it. May darkness and the shadow of death claim it. May a cloud settle on it. May the blackness of the day terrify it. As for the night, may darkness seize it. May it not rejoice among the days of the year. May it not come into the number of the months. Oh, may that night be barren. May no joyful shout come into it. May those curse it who curse the day. Those who are ready to arouse Leviathan. May the stars of its morning be dark. May it look for light, but have none, and not see the dawning of the day. Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide sorrow from my eyes. Sounds like he's bummed out, doesn't it? Notice how he begins. He begins by cursing the day of his birth. That's what he's doing. He's speaking concerning his birth day, the day of his birth. Now, there are other instances in Scripture when people say similar things. For example, in Jeremiah chapter 20 verses 14 through 18, it says, Cursed be the day I was born. May the day my mother bore me not be blessed. Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, A child is born to you, a son. May that man be like the towns the Lord overthrew without pity. May he hear wailing in the morning, a battle cry at noon. For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever. Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to the end of my days in shame? So as words reveal something, they reveal deep despair. He wishes, as he just said, he wishes he'd never been born. His physical pain has produced in him mental pain. His mind is also being assaulted. Satan's plan was for Job to be so filled with despair that he ends up cursing God. And Job begins what would be called a song of sorrow, a lamentation. It's a time that he's going to be expressing his mourning, the sorrow of his heart. He wishes he had never existed, or at least that he would have died upon birth. And so he begins to speak about that. And you just saw that he said, May that day not even be remembered. Now, notice verse eight. I'll say something quickly about this. Verse eight is interesting because it makes mention of something called Leviathan, Leviathan. Now, the word Leviathan, I'm going to show you a few things and you're going to want to remember this because we'll go through this and see this more than once. But Leviathan is a word that is used in different ways. That word Leviathan, it can also be used. And in this context, my commentators that I use seem to indicate that this is the context here. In this verse here, in verse eight, Leviathan would be used as a word that is used for those who mourn. In this context, Job would be speaking of people who are what we would call professional mourners. And in the nation of Israel, I don't know if they still do to this day, but in the nation of Israel, in the time of Christ and in various periods, they actually had professional mourners. They would hire them and they would come and they would make a great lamentation over the death of some important person. And the more important that person was, the more mourners they would have. You see an indication of this on one occasion in the ministry of Christ where Jesus walked in and this little girl had died and there were people there mourning and making lamentation. And Jesus said, she's not dead. She's just sleeping. You remember that portion of Scripture. And it says that those who were crying laughed him to scorn. And when you're reading your scriptures, that helps you to understand these were professional mourners. These were not people who really cared. These were people who had been paid to come and cry. And so professional mourners are part of the history of Israel. And this Leviathan, it seems to be an illusion to that because of the way it is spoken here. Job wished that these mourners would be hired to mourn the day that he was born. So in contrast to joyful shouts, he would prefer having professional mourners. One of the commentators said that this would speak of those during that day who would call up powerful monsters. They were in their culture, they were like magicians. And they would curse the night. And this is what he was basically using as an illusion that there were people who could curse the night, the night that I was born. And so that's how he's using this in this particular case here. Now, just to give you a little more information, you'll see this later. In other places, Leviathan is used to speak of a monster. Some say it's a crocodile, others say it may be a sea monster. It's called a dragon, it's called the serpent. It's also, as mentioned, a crocodile. You'll see it in Job 41, verse one, where it says, Can you pull in Leviathan with a fish hook or tie down his tongue with a rope? The Psalmist in Psalm 74, verse 14 says, It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan, gave him his food to the creatures of the desert. Or Psalm 104, 26, there the ships go to and fro and the Leviathan, which you formed a frolic there. And then Isaiah 27, 1, in that day, the Lord will punish with his sword, his fierce, great and powerful sword, Leviathan, the gliding serpent, Leviathan, the coiling serpent. He will slay the monster of the sea. In this particular context, it speaks concerning professional mourners and how that he would prefer that they would mourn the day of his birth rather than rejoice. And so he says in verse 10, It didn't shut up the doors of my mother's womb nor hide sorrow from my eyes. Verse 11, Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb? Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast that I should nurse? For now, I would have lain still and been quiet. I would have been asleep. Then I would have been at rest with kings and counselors of the earth who built ruins for themselves, or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like infants who never saw light? There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. There the prisoners rest together. They do not hear the voice of the oppressor. The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his master. Why didn't I perish? Notice he says, Why didn't I die at birth? Why didn't I not perish when I came out of the womb? I wish I would have died instantly. When it says, Why did the knees receive me? He's basically saying, Why didn't the midwife just let me fall to the ground when I was born and let me die? Or why didn't they let me just starve to death instead of nursing me and keeping me alive? You see, if my mother would have allowed me to die, this pain would not be upon me now. In verse 16, he says, Why was I not hidden as a stillborn child? That's interesting because one commentator said, This is speaking of a way, you might find this interesting. This is speaking of being aborted. When the term removed from sight is used, it's another way of saying, Why was I not aborted in my mother's womb? There's a philosopher who said, Not to be born is best of all. Once born, next best, it is by far to go back there from whence one came as speedily as possible. It's good not to be born, but it's also good to die quickly is what he was saying. And Solomon said something similar in Ecclesiastes. He has said in chapter 4 verses 1 through 3, he says, Again, I looked and saw the oppression that was taking place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed. They have no comforter. Power was on the side of their oppressors. They have no comforter. And I declared that the dead who are already dead are happier than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been born, who has not yet seen the evil that is done under the sun. Job is saying, Man, I wish I would never been born, but had I been born, I wish I'd have died. I wish I'd have been aborted. I wish that the nurse would have dropped me on the floor and killed me. I wish my mother wouldn't have fed me. I wish this had happened. All of this would be better than what I'm going through now. If I were dead, I'd be at rest. But I'm not dead. And I'm going through nothing but pain. And he's pouring out his lamentation in front of his friends. Then he says in verse 20, Why is light given to him who's in misery and life to the bitter of soul who long for death, but it doesn't come. Search for it more than hidden treasures who rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave. Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden and whom God has hedged in? For my sign comes before I eat and my groanings pour out like water. Why? Why is the light of life given to people who live a life that's filled with pain and sorrow? In verse 22, he says, Who's only relief and joy comes when they die. Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? He says. Why is a man brought into the world who doesn't see God protecting him? So at this point, Job is feeling that he's been hedged in. He's unable to flee to safety and joy. He feels like he's just boxed in and there's no relief whatsoever. I feel hedged in and nothing's going to help me. I'm groaning. I'm crying. I'm in such pain. And he's trying to make that very clear to his friends. In verse 25, he says, And notice this verse, The thing I greatly feared has come upon me. And what I dreaded has happened to me. I'm not at ease. Nor am I quiet. I have no rest for trouble comes. The kind of suffering I'm enduring is my worst nightmare. I've had the worst kind of pain. And I can't even imagine anything worse than this. Now, here's the thing I want you to think about with me for a moment. In verse 25, he says, The thing I greatly feared has come upon me. Think for a moment. And I'll show you something I find interesting. Think for a moment. What do you might be the thing that you really have as a secret? I hope this never happens to me. I'm not asking you to shout it out or anything, but everybody has a secret thing, something within you that you say, I hope this never happens to me. Well, Job makes it very clear. He says, The thing I greatly feared has come upon me. The thing that I was most concerned about has come upon me. What is that thing? We know that when you look at chapter one, verse five, we know that Job offered sacrifices for his children in case they sinned and cursed God in their hearts. We know that in Job 928, he said, I'm afraid of all my sufferings. I know that you will not hold me innocent. And we see in Job 3123, I dreaded destruction from God. And for fear of his splendor, I could not do such things. I'm afraid of all my sufferings. I dreaded destruction from God. This is the thing I feared the most. And it has come upon me. I have no relief. There's nothing I can do. I cannot be brought to comfort in all of my pain. I forgot. I have forgotten everything except for one thing. I'm in pain. And so he's saying to never have been born would have been a blessing. But here's something for you to think about before we move into the next chapter, to be never born would have been a blessing, but he's forgetting something. He's forgetting that his birth and his life have brought joy to many others. The fact is by wishing he'd never been born, he's actually being selfish. One of the things to remember guys, and there are those who go through this, and I don't know how to say this because I'm trying to say it from my heart to yours. And I haven't thought of a way to say this to you. So here it goes. Let's see what I can do. I don't know if you realize that you're a blessing to people. Some of you don't. Some of you don't realize what your life means to somebody else. Some of you don't realize that you're important. And I'm not trying to build you up in a weird way, but it's just true that you think that your life didn't account for anything, that you did nothing that really mattered, that you've lived X amount of years and not achieved anything, not achieved any of the things you wanted to achieve. And you might even be thinking you've had a wasted life, but that's not true because every one of us in this room who loves the Lord and has been serving him has had an impact on other people. And there are people right now who thank God for you, for your influence, for your example, for your ministry, for your prayers, for your love, for your goodness to them, for your friendship. I don't know if you realize this. You're not alone. Sometimes when we're sick and sometimes when things are going not in the way we'd like them to, we begin to think my life has been a waste. Nobody cares. Nobody cares about me. If I weren't on this, if I weren't on the face of the earth, nobody even missed me. Nobody would come to my funeral. Nobody would say good things at it. I don't matter. That's not true. That's not true. Job was saying I wish I had never been born, but there are so many people that Job influenced and affected. There were so many people that he blessed. He was a righteous man. People looked at him in that way. He was a generous man. He cared for others. He was well known for his goodness. And yet here he is saying I wish I'd never been born, but that's a very selfish thing. Why? Because he was a blessing to so many people. Don't let the enemy get in your head and tell you you don't matter because you do, because you do matter, because your love for other people and your kindness to other people, your prayers for other people, your presence with other people, all of that matters. But when we're going through something that's very difficult, when we're going through pain, when we're going through sorrow, when we're going through suffering, our mind is taken off of others and it's put only on us. And that's what's happening here with Job. He's so hurt. He's so broken. There he is on this ash heap. There he is with a broken piece of pottery and he's scraping the pustules out of his skin. He's in such pain and you'll see what's taking place in a little while as we go through this book together. But he's going through misery and he's saying I just wish I would have died. I can't take this anymore. I'm not at ease, nor am I quiet. I have no rest. Trouble comes. He's poured his heart out. His pain is understandable. But he's been reduced to despair. He's opened his heart. He thought about these things deeply. Now how did his friends respond? We're going to see how they responded. They responded without any understanding and they responded without any compassion. As a matter of fact, we're going to see that we're going to see that they believe that Job deserves whatever he's going through. And so, Alaphaz, chapter 4, verse 1, Alaphaz the Temmonite answered and said, If one attempts a word with you, will you become weary? But who can withhold himself from speaking? Surely you've instructed many and you have strengthened weak hands. Your words have upheld him who was stumbling and you've strengthened the feeble needs. But now it comes upon you and you're weary. It touches you and you're troubled. Is not your reverence, your confidence, and the integrity of your ways, your hope? Isn't that kind? He begins by ripping on him. What he's saying in a nutshell, these six verses can be reduced to. What's the matter with you? Can't you take it? Notice in verse 6 when he says, Is not your reverence, your confidence, and the integrity of your ways, your hope? Listen, we see that you fear God. We see that you have confidence and uprightness and I hope that that's been real. I hope that hasn't been some kind of show because the moment you go through something hard, you're folding and you're complaining. Now if you're upright, as upright as you profess to be, why are you crumbling now? You profess to be righteous. If you are, why are you hurting? You've preached to others about holding fast to God. Why aren't you doing it? All that you've told them has proven itself to be worthless if you can't apply it. Now remember, Satan desired to prove that Job was a hypocrite and his friends have concluded that he is one because of how he's acting. Matthew Henry, one of the commentators says, men make few allowances for those who have taught others. What that simply means is if somebody has preached something, they'd better live that because if they don't live their own words and people do not tolerate that, they get upset at the person who doesn't practice what they're preaching and that's what's taking place here and that's how allophaz is beginning. Listen, if you're really sincere in your faith in all, then you should be reacting differently than you are. Hold fast to your integrity and all of that. Well, verse 7, remember now, whoever perished, be an innocent. Or where were the upright ever cut off? Even as I have seen, those who plow iniquity and so trouble reap the same, by the blast of God they perish and by the breath of his anger they're consumed, the roaring of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions are broken, the old lion perishes for lack of prey and the cubs of the lioness are scattered. And so he may be saying here that Job is sinful and he's simply reaping what he's sown, but he also may be implying that since he is innocent, then God will rescue you, won't he? And that would be giving him some hope. But it would really seem that allophaz is saying only evil people suffer, you're suffering because you're evil. Now that kind of reasoning, by the way, is still applied today. There are those who teach that if you have unconfessed sin, then you're going to reap what you've sowed and there's no grace for you. Obviously in the case of Job, that's not true. The righteous suffer just as much as any other human beings do. Keep this in mind, believers are not exempt from life. The difference is that our lives are built on firmer foundations. We experience suffering, but we endure because our strength is given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember how that the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking of a wise man who built his life on a rock and then he contrasted that with the fool who built his on sinking sand? And Jesus spoke and he said that the rain descended and the floods came and that the wind blew on both of the houses. And he said one fell, but the other remained. And he said the other remained because it was founded on the rock. And so the house that falls falls because it was it was built on sand. In Matthew 7 26 he said everyone who hears these saints of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. Well, Job had built his life on the foundation of faith in God, but Alaphaz is rebuking him and calling him a hypocrite. When he speaks in verses 9 to 11 and speaks of the blast of God by the blast of God they perish, by the breath of his anger they're consumed. He's saying that God has done this because he's angry at Job. God is all powerful, he's saying to him. And when he's displeased even powerful lions are helpless before him. And now he gets very spiritual. Verse 12, Now a word was secretly brought to me, my ear received a whisper of it in disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night when deep sleep falls on men. Fear came upon me and trembling which made all my bones shake. Then a spirit passed before my face, the hair of my body stood up. It stood still. But I could not discern its appearance, a form was before my eyes. There was silence. Then I heard a voice saying, Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his maker? If he puts no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust who are crushed before a mouth. So what he does is he gets very spiritual. He appeals to what he would call a mystical experience, a revelation. And he's saying something like, I have a word from the Lord for you. God has revealed to me something in a vision. And what he's revealed to me, Job, is you're in sin. He says in verse 12, a word was secretly brought to me and my ear received a whisper of it. This is something that was privately and secretly revealed to me. I received just a whisper of it because God knows so much. He's so filled with all knowledge. He just gave a little to me. And so he said in verse 13, he had disquieting thoughts from the visions. Now these thoughts troubled me. When I slept, I had night terrors. Fear came upon me, completely terrified me. And so he's speaking concerning in a fear he's experiencing. And then in verse 15, a spirit passed before my face and the hair of my body stood still. This experience should awaken people who casually speak of spiritual experiences. If this literally happened, then the fear he's experiencing at this revelation should teach us that you don't take these things casually because he says in verse 16, it stood still, but I couldn't discern its appearance. There's a form before my eyes. I was quiet. I was waiting to see what was going to happen. I wanted to hear what might be said. And then it spoke to me. And here's what it says, Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his maker? Can a weak and frail man be more righteous and just than God? Job, are you accusing God of being unjust in allowing these things to come upon you? You need to remember you're fallen. You are subject to disease and trouble. Why are you so upset? You're presumptuously accusing God of being unjust because you're in pain. You're a mortal man. Even though you're great and even though you have power and even though you're mighty, do you think that you are more righteous than God? In Isaiah 29, 16, it says, You turn things upside down as if the potter were thought to be like the clay. Shall what is formed say to him who formed it? He did not make me. Can the pot say of the potter he knows nothing? Job, who are you to complain against God? I had a professor who, when I was in Bible college, left an impression on me by the way he said something. He said, Man has a puny fist. And sometimes we shake that puny fist in the face of God. And that's true. When we get upset at God and we accuse God and we get hurt with God and we're angry at God, and people do get angry at God and disappointed. I was speaking to somebody recently who was sharing with me their disappointment in the Lord. And I said, I fully understand what you're saying because I've had my term times of disappointment too. I think it's all possible to be disappointed in how the Lord is working. And I said, but one of the things you're going to discover as you proceed through this time of trial and pain and tears that you're going through is that God is working through it and he's in the midst of it. He never leaves you and he doesn't forsake you. And he brings you to the end that he desires you to be in. Right now, in the middle of these things, and Job doesn't see this, in the middle of the things, you're learning the lessons that you ask God to teach you. And many times in the caldron of affliction, we learn the depth of the love and compassion of God and the saving grace of God. We start seeing these things. And who's going to wake up in the morning and say, God, put me through, quote unquote, hell today. Put me through hell because I really, no, nobody wakes up that way. I don't. Maybe you do. Maybe you wake up and say, meet me up today. I'm looking forward to it. I don't. I don't. I say, Lord, be with me. Lord bless me. That's how I pray. And I ask the Lord, please do so. There's nothing wrong with that. But what happens when you go through pain? What happens when you go through disappointment? What happens when you go through sorrow? What happens when God turns out to be different than you thought he was? What happens? One of the lessons the Lord gave to me that I've never forgotten, and it's a lesson I was sharing with somebody just recently, was this. John the Baptist, when he was in prison, he had preached a message against Herod and the woman he had taken from his brother. And he said, it's not lawful for you to be with your brother's wife. And for that, he was placed in prison. And he knew that his time was short. And you read the story, it's found in Matthew 11. And you read the story concerning that. And there's John, and he sends some of his men to go speak to Jesus. And this is what they say to Jesus. They say, are you the coming one? Or should we look for another? Or should we look for another? And I was mentioning to you that the word Messiah, the Messiah, the anointed one of God, the Christos in Greek, the word Messiah is not the only word that describes the one who's to come. One of the ways they referred to the Messiah was that he was the coming one. And that's why when John sent them, they asked, are you the coming one? Because the coming one was another way of saying, are you Messiah? Now, why, why did they have questions about Jesus? Why did they wonder whether he was the Messiah? We remember that in the ministry of John that Jesus had come to John and received baptism, that the Holy Spirit descended like a dove, remained on him. John said, I came to reveal the one who's Messiah to Israel. And he who sent me said the one whom the Spirit descends and remains on, this is he. Later on in his ministry, he says, behold the Lamb of God, who take away the sin of the world. He pointed his men to follow after Jesus, but now he's in jail, and he's awaiting the removal of his head from his body. And so he sends these men to speak to Jesus to ask him, am I losing my head for the right person? Are you the coming one? Or should we look for another? And remember how Jesus said, go back and tell John, you know, the blind received their sight, the lepers are cleansed, the lame are walking, and he shares concerning the works that he's performing that, that validate his call. And this is the thing I was sharing with this person and I'll share right now. And then Jesus said, and blessed is the one who is not offended because of me. Blessed is the one who is not stumbled because of me. What are you talking about? We have a tendency of creating God in our own image. We have a tendency of saying, my God wouldn't do that. A man like Job could very easily be saying, I've done great things for people. I've been a blessing to the orphans. I've cared for the poor. I've taken care of the widows. I've helped them. I've given them jobs. I've given them work. I've put my life out. Even when my kids, when my kids would have their birthday parties, I would offer God sacrifice in case they may have sinned and cursed God in their heart. And Job has been a righteous man. And as we saw, when God was introducing Job, reminding Satan of one whom he was aware of, he said, he's a righteous man. He hates evil. This is a good man. There's nobody else like him on the face of the earth. That was God's confession concerning Job. But Job is going through pain. And guess what happens, guys? And this is what we're going to see in the book of Job, by the way, that sometimes within us, there may be a very subtle place somewhere in us that simply thinks this shouldn't happen to somebody like me. In my case, it would have been, I've tried so hard to be of any one in me to be. I've done things, changed. Why? Why? And many years ago, when I was, nobody's a Job other than Job. But when I was going through my stretching in my own young Christian life, when I was trying to learn what the ways of the Lord really are, Matthew 11 stood out, blessed is the man who was not offended because of me. And I remember just meditating on that and looking to see what he meant. I didn't want to misinterpret that. And John, John, you had an idea of what Messiah was to be, but I can't be what you think I'm supposed to be. I can only be who I really am. And as it works in the ways of the Lord, shall we not receive good from the Lord from his hand and not adversity also, Job, etc. earlier? God is sovereign. God has the ability to bring into my life anything that he knows is best for me because whatever he brings into my life, even as serious as this is, is going to produce fruit that I've prayed for. I was sharing with someone recently. I said, you know, you prayed to be a righteous person. And this is the road to righteousness. What you're going through is purging you so that the result is what you asked for. You just don't realize it right now. It's, you know, God, make me, make me holy. He doesn't just unscrew the top of your head and drop holy in and then screw it back on. He brings you through the trial. He brings you through the fire. He brings you through things. He actually leads you into them and then he leads you out of them. You don't stay there, but you come out fully proven and refined. In the case of Job, he's learning some lessons that he wants to learn. These are things he's going through. And as this is taking place, he's being reprimanded by Alaphaz. Alaphaz is making presumptuous remarks, by the way, to him. But there are things that Job is learning through these things. So when Alaphaz says in verse 18, he puts no trust in his servants. If he charges his angels with air, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust and who are crushed before a moth. He's simply saying that when he puts no trust in angels, he also doesn't put his trust in the mightiest of human beings. Angels and human beings are not great like he is. They're not powerful like he is. They're not glorious as he is. Men are weak and are prone to sin, is what he's saying. They're imperfect. They're filled with sin and they're frail. That's what he means when he says even a moth destroys them. He's simply speaking concerning how frail human beings are. He says in verse 20, they're broken in pieces from morning till evening. They perish forever with no one regarding. Does not their own excellence go away? They die even without wisdom. They go through a slow and continual deterioration. The Psalmist in Psalm 103 verse 14 said he himself knows our frame. He is mindful that we are but dust. He says they perish forever with no one regarding. It's like what it says in 1 Peter 124, all flesh is like grass, at all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls off. In verse 21, does not their own excellence go away? They die even without wisdom. Their moral accomplishments, their nobility, their riches, power, their wisdom, it all eventually fades. In the end, they're only human. They simply die even like fools. Ecclesiastes 2.16 says there's no more remembrance of the wise than the fool forever since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come. And how does a wise man die as a fool? They never have perfect wisdom, Job. Neither do you. And if you were truly wise, you would not so boldly question what God is doing. Human beings have a tendency of questioning God. Have you ever questioned God? I have. The funny thing is, is my cell phone is never never rung with God on the other end of the line saying, listen, I'm kind of troubled. Can you give me advice? But some of us think we can advise the Lord. Some of us think we can tell him what to do and how he should do it. You know, Lord, I've got a great plan. If you only were to ask me, I could tell you how to work this thing out. Well, Alaphaz is saying, listen, you're just a human being, Job, and you're going through things and more than likely brought him upon yourself. And here you are blaming God for the things you're going through. And he's saying, you need to remember that you're simply a human being and you're coming against the God of the universe with your complaints. And so he speaks concerning man's excellence. He says they die without wisdom. The fool and the wise men both simply die. Now, this is kind of a, this isn't the conclusion. He continues into chapter five and keeps his cheery kind of counsel going next time we're together, we'll be looking at that. But this you can see is the line of reasoning that they're taking. They're basically simply going to be saying, Job, whatever it is you're going through, you've done something evil and that's why it's happening. But we already know that that's not why it's happening. But the end of what he goes through James tells us is going to be good. God is going to bring him through it. And if you're going through something right now and you love the Lord and you're wondering why learn the lesson from Job, whatever the end is going to be, it's going to be what you prayed God would make it to be. It's going to be that your prayer is being answered just not in the way that you wanted to. Sometimes, like I said, sometimes we just want instant when the Lord says it's a process. Sometimes it takes time, but at the end, the fruit of it is exactly what we wanted. And I can tell you, as a man who's been walking with the Lord now for a long time, I can tell you by experience as well as the word that that's true. What you think you're going through right now that will never end, it will end. What you think it's going to be forever is not forever. It's for a season. And when you come out of that season, you're going to look back and after a while we'll even forget most of it because you're going to be going into a new season. That's even worse, but it's going to be good at the end. And God has his way. Don't lose hope. Don't lose hope.