SPIRITUAL
DIARY
Date: 11-13-03
My
Worship Time Focus: The Patience of Job
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: James 5:11
1. Message of the verse: “11 Behold, we count those blessed who
endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of
the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.” (NASB)
“11 We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. Job is an
example of a man who endured patiently. From his experience we see how the
Lord’s plan finally ended in good, for he is full of tenderness and
mercy.” (NLT)
A.
Blessings
Through Endurance. James says here in
verse 11 that “we consider blessed those who have
persevered.” This tells us that
in order for us to receive God’s blessings we will go through trials and we
will endure through them.
B.
God’s
Balance for our lives. In
order for us to be able to get close to the Lord, to be lifted up into the
heavens as this young man prayed, we may have to receive a thorn in the flesh
like Paul did so that God will balance privileges with responsibilities,
blessings with burdens, or else we could become spoiled children of God.
C.
Blessings
come after endurance. This
is what James cites in verse 11 and he uses the example of Job to prove it.
D.
The
outline of the book of Job.
1.
Job’s
distress: Chapters 1-3.
2.
Job’s
defense: Chapters 4-31.
3.
Jobs
deliverance: Chapters 38-42 (Dr. Wiersbe does not include chapters 32-37
in the outline he gives.
E.
The
innocence of Job. Job
did not know the drama that was going on in heaven between God and Satan that
affected Job and his trial. Job
maintained his innocence to his friends and even to his wife as this trial was
going on in his life. It is also
important to remember that Job never maintained that he was perfect. Job was correct in stating that he was
innocence, and God told his friends this at the end of the book. Job 42:7 “After the
LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, ‘I am angry
with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right,
as my servant Job has.’”
F.
The
things against Job and the silence of God as Job went through this trial. There were
circumstances against him, for he lost all of his wealth, and his health. He lost his children, and his wife turned
against him along with his three friends, and then another man too. It seemed that God was silent throughout his
trial until the end, and I am sure that this bothered Job.
G.
Throughout
this Job endured the trial. He
did not forsake his faith as evidenced in Job 13:15, “Though
he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his
face.” Job did not understand all
that God was doing in this trial, but he did have confidence of God’s
perfection, and this is why he wished to argue with Him.
H.
Wrong
interpretation of God’s Word by Israel and others which is proved by the book
of Job and by Jesus’ teaching. In
the law of God, from the book of Deuteronomy, God told Israel if you do this or
that I will bless you, but if you do not do this or that I will bring cursed
upon you. Now out of this came some
wrong thinking that taught that if you are wealthy God is showing His blessings
upon you and if you are poor He is showing His curses upon you. Jesus spoke about this in Matthew 19:23-26
and surprised His disciples when He spoke about how hard it was for the rich to
enter the kingdom of God. The book of
Job also shows that this teaching was wrong, for Job who was a righteous man
certainly suffered, for God did not find evil in Him that would cause Him to
judge Job. “Job
teaches us that God has higher purposes in suffering than the punishing of
sin. Job’s experience paved the way for
Jesus, the perfect Son of God who suffered, not for His own sins, but for the
sins of the world.” (From “Be
Mature”)
I.
The
end purpose of the Lord in Job’s trial. Dr. Wiersbe states the answer to this is, “To reveal Himself as full of pity and tender mercy.”
There are other
results of this trial too, and it is good to remember that God never wastes
pain on any of His children. Job knew
God better after this trial, and testifies to that in Job 42:1-6. “Then Job replied to
the LORD: ‘I know that you can do all
things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.
You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to
know. "You said, ‘Listen now, and I
will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have
seen you. Therefore I despise myself and
repent in dust and ashes.’”
J.
“Why.” The question is why
did God allow Job go through all of this in the first place if God is so
merciful? For one thing God was surely
glorified through Job’s trial, and Job was surely purified through it too. Deu. 29:29 can give us some more insight into
this, “There are secret things that belong to the LORD
our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our descendants forever, so
that we may obey these words of the law.” God does not tell us all
things, nor is He obligated to do so. We
only have to see how He answered Job, and what He said to Him to understand
this truth. Read Job 38 as to how God
answered Job’s questions.
K.
Application
to James’ readers and to us too. We
may not understand all the things that come into our lives, and we too could
have trials come our way because Satan is involved with them, but remember God
limits Satan’s activities in our life as seen from the book of Job. “When you find
yourself in the fire, remember that God keeps His gracious hand on the
thermostat!” Job 23:10 tell us
that. “But he
knows where I am going. And when he has tested me like gold in a fire, he will
pronounce me innocent.”
L. Satan has a
purpose for our trials too! This truth has really made an impression on
my life. James 1:4 says this, “And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be
perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” We can see by this verse that God wants us to
be perfected by our trials through endurance or patience, but Satan wants us to
grow impatient through our trials. Dr.
Wiersbe cites some examples of saints now having patience when they went
through trials. Moses missed out on
going into the promise land because he was impatient, and Abraham ended up with
Ishmael. Peter almost killed a man when
he was impatient. “When Satan attacks us, it is easy for us to get
impatient and run ahead of God and lose God’s blessing as a result.” (“Be Mature”)
M.
Paul answers why we are to be patient.
The answer is grace for the Lord said to Paul, “My
grace is sufficient for thee!”
Strongs gives this as part of the meaning of the word grace, “2) good will, loving-kindness,
favour
2a) of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his
holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases
them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise
of the Christian virtues.” Grace
increases the believer in Christian faith and it is faith that the believer
needs when he is going through one of these fiery trials that is similar to
what Paul was describing in 2Corthians 12:7-9.
His answer to this is the answer that all believers should answer with
and that is that the grace of God is sufficient for all trials, because God
will never give us a trial or temptation that we cannot handle, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to
man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye
are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may
be able to bear it.” It seems to
me that the way we bear it is through grace, and through faith in God that He
will only do this for our good even though it may not seem so at the time. Satan will try and make us impatient so that
we miss the blessing that God has for us in this trial. IN trials we need to go to the throne of God
to find grace to help in our time of need, and to be reminded that God has a
gracious purpose in all of the suffering and trials that we go through and as
Romans 8:28 tells the believer that God causes all things to word together for
our good and it will also work together for the glory of God.
N. The
exhortation of verse 12. “Above all, my
brothers, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your
"Yes" be yes, and your "No", no, or you will be
condemned.” As Dr. Wiersbe says only
those who have gone through any kind of trials will understand why James put
this exhortation here. This verse
reminds me of a time when I was drafted into the Army in July of 1966. As a young unbeliever who was frightened
about going into the Army in the middle of the Vietnam war I promised God that
if he could some how get me released from the Army that I would never swear
anymore. Well He did but I did not, that
is until January 26th, 1974 when God saved me and took away a filthy
mouth from me that I could not do on my own.
The moral of the story and of this verse is that when we are in trials
that we, as believers, are not to make rash vows to the Lord, but rather we are
to, by faith, trust the Lord to work it out for our good and His glory.
O. James
gives us examples from Jesus teaching.
As stated before James must have been listening to Jesus even before he
was a believer, for we can see that this teaching can be seen by Jesus in the
Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5:34-37.
“But I say, don’t make any vows! If you say, ‘By
heaven!’ it is a sacred vow because heaven is God’s throne. And if you say, ‘By the earth!’ it is a
sacred vow because the earth is his footstool. And don’t swear, ‘By Jerusalem!’
for Jerusalem is the city of the great King.
Don’t even swear, ‘By my head!’ for you can’t turn one hair white or
black. Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’
or ‘No, I won’t.’ Your word is enough. To strengthen your promise with a vow
shows that something is wrong.” Jesus
is saying in verse 37 that when you say something then you do not need to add a
lot of words to it so others will be sure to believe what you are saying.
P. Dr. Wiersbe
gives us another purpose as to why we suffer. “On of the
purposes of suffering is the building of character. Certainly Job was a better man for having
gone through the furnace. (James
explained this process to us in 1:2-12.)
If words are a test of character, then oaths would indicate that there
is yet work to be done. When Peter
poured out those oaths in the courtyard he was giving evidence that his
character was still in need of a transformation. For the final part of
this lesson read the last two paragraphs on PG. 163.
2. Spiritual meaning for my life today: I believe that the thing that stuck out most
to me from this lesson is the part where Dr. Wiersbe said that it is Satan’s
desire for me to become impatient when I go through trials, and as I think back
on that it is surely true.
The Word of God was refreshing to me as I read and studied
it this morning and it was also convicting and a challenge to my heart.
My
Steps of Faith Today: To
trust the Lord as I go see Dr. Rice this morning and to fill me with His Spirit
so that as I lead the Bible study this afternoon that He will be the One
speaking through me and that He will accomplish what He wants to with His Word.
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