Speaker 1 0:01

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today. Job chapter 2, and today's title is God Believes in you More Than you Do. God Believes in you More Than you Do. We're going to get into all that in just a moment, but before we do that, make sure you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and to the podcast. Make sure you're leaving us comments. You're engaging with us. We really want to develop a community of people where we're going through God's word together, and also make sure you go into the Bible breakdown discussion on Facebook. The more we dig, the more we find, and especially in a conversation like this, going through the book of Job, as we are talking through the idea of trusting God's wisdom in suffering man. What a wonderful opportunity to ask hard questions and to trust God with those hard answers, and I think that's so awesome that we get the chance to do that together and so kind of catch you up If you're just now joining us as you're opening up your Bible to Job chapter two.

Speaker 1 0:57

In Job chapter one, the Bible talked about this guy named Job, who just man, he's awesome, he had a great family, god had blessed him with wealth and he was very interested and concerned about the spiritual health of his family and everything was great. Well, one day the devil said to God the only reason why he's like that is because you're blessing him. I guarantee you you stop blessing him. Ah, he won't have nothing to do with you. And so God said I trust Job. How about this? Watch what Job can do? Go ahead. And so the devil went and destroyed everything he had, because God trusted Job, that he was trustworthy, that he wasn't going to turn away. Well, now we have chapter two and the devil. He's going to double down and watch how much trust God has in Job. And I'm going to tell you something I don't know if I want God to have this much trust in me or not. I'm just going to be honest with you. I'm like God, I don't know right. So here we go Job.

Speaker 1 1:50

Chapter two, verse one, says this One day, when the members of the heavenly court came again to present themselves before the Lord, the accuser, satan, came with them. Where have you been coming from? The Lord, asked Satan. Satan answered the Lord, I have been patrolling the earth watching everything that goes on. Then the Lord asked Satan have you noticed my servant, job. He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless, a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil, and he has maintained his integrity even though you urged me to harm him without cause. Then Satan replied to the Lord All right, do with him as you please, the Lord said to Satan, but spare his life.

Speaker 1 2:45

So Satan left the Lord's presence and struck Job with terrible boils from head to foot. Job scraped his skin with a piece of broken pottery as he sat among the ashes. His wife said to him are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die. Job replied listen to this. You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad In all of this? Job said nothing wrong. Now pause.

Speaker 1 3:15

I had heard someone say one time you know well, you know he killed, you know the devil killed all of Job's family but left his wife. We can tell now. You can tell why he left her because she is a villain. I don't know if that's true. I think more on the other side, she just sees her husband just grappling with all of this and she's like look, put yourself out of your misery, which is horrible, right, but she hates to see him suffer. And he's like wait a minute, we don't mind celebrating God when everything's going well. Well, I mean, should we not also celebrate God when things go bad? That seems kind of unfair, doesn't it? Wow, this is pretty powerful stuff. Let's keep going.

Speaker 1 3:56

Verse 11, when three of Job's friends heard of the tragedy he had suffered, they got together and traveled from their homes to comfort and console him. Well, you better want to remember that one. All right, their names were Eliphaz the Temanite, bildan the Shuhite and Zophar the Namathite. When they saw Job from a distance, they scarcely recognized him Wailing loudly. They tore their robes and threw dust into the air over their heads to show their grief. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and nights. No one said a word to Job, for they saw that his suffering was too great for words.

Speaker 1 4:33

So there's a few takeaways from this, and then we'll pray together. Number one is I love how God has more faith in Job than Job probably had in himself, and he even told the devil no, I trust Job. Job is not going to do what you think, but spare his life. That reminds us that, once again, the devil cannot do anything to us that's outside of the control of God. So never think that anything you're going through God can't do something about. God is in complete control and he knows what he's doing.

Speaker 1 5:05

Second thing is, I love the idea of what Job said. Why is it that we don't mind celebrating God, but then, when God asks us to go through something difficult, now God's not being fair. That seems more unfair of us. It sounds a little bit more like a spoiled child who only wants good but never wants anything bad. That's a hard thing to say, but it's very true that shouldn't we trust God no matter what? Because the God who loves us is the same God who sometimes allows us to go through things we wouldn't want. But if he's the same God either way, then our trust for him shouldn't change. That's hard to do, but it's still true.

Speaker 1 5:46

And then, lastly, we're going to get into over the next several chapters how much we just really do not like Eliphaz, bildad and Zophar. I mean, they are just. They got a lot of negative things. But one of the things I love, which is a great lesson for all of us, is maybe, as we're reading this, maybe you're in a season right now where you don't have these questions. Things are going well. You don't really have to wonder and worry and process why do bad things happen to good people?

Speaker 1 6:13

But maybe there's someone you know. They're going through a sickness, their children are going through something, they've lost their job, they've lost a family member. It's endless. How do you comfort them? Well, I love. What happened was when they heard that their friend Joe was hurting, they went to them. Can I tell you, in the technology world we live in, it's great to send a text message, it's great to do a phone call, but you know, what helps so many people is when you go to them, when you go see them. And even if they say, well, I'd really rather be alone right now, okay, well, if you're sure, but I really want to see you. There's something about being in the same room with someone when they're struggling, if you can. And so I want to encourage you that if you know someone who's sincerely struggling, if you have the kind of relationship, do what you can to go be with them.

Supporting Those in Pain

Speaker 1 7:02

The second thing is is don't feel like you've got to have the right words. Notice how it said that they just sat with Joe and didn't even say anything, just sat there. And it's amazing what that does, just being with someone. It reminds me of when I lost my mother a couple years ago now. I had a friend of mine who called me and because of distance we couldn't be in the same room together and we're just kind of talking and just kind of he's let me process things out loud and after a while I realized I had been doing all the talking and he hadn't said anything and I said dude, you still there? He said of course I am man, just let's keep going. And then after a while I kind of talked myself out a little bit and I just sat there and there was just something so healing about having someone else there that we couldn't be in the same room together, but just knowing someone else was there, it was amazing what it did.

Speaker 1 7:55

And so I want to encourage you if you know someone who's hurting or going through a difficult time, don't feel like you have to have the right words. Sometimes the best thing you can do is just cry with them. It's amazing what God can do if you will do that. So if you're someone who's going through something, god believes in you more than you believe in yourself. If you know someone who's going through something, god may have positioned you in their life so that you can be with them. Don't try to be the hero. Be the friend who sticks beside them and watch what God will do.

Speaker 1 8:28

Let's pray together, god, thank you so much for today. Thank you, lord, for the book of Job that helps us grapple with these difficult topics. I pray as we grapple with them together. I believe, god, you can open our eyes to see, all around us, people who are hurting and are struggling, and now we see that you've given us the opportunity to make a difference in their life, not by having all the answers, but by pointing to the one who does, being with people. I praise you. Open our eyes to see the hurting people around us. You'll give us the courage to take the next step of being with them. Today, in Jesus' name, we pray Amen, amen. Well, what do we do and what do we say when we go through hard times? Job said in Job 121, I came naked from my mother's womb and I will be naked when I leave. The Lord gave me what I had and the Lord has taken it away. Praise the name of the Lord. It's all His and I trust Him with everything. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Job, chapter 3.