Morning everyone. Welcome, again, to Sabbath school study hour. A very warm welcome to our friends on our extended - or part of our extended Sabbath school class and also those here at the Granite Bay church - a very warm welcome to you and those visiting. We're glad you've chosen to study with us today. We have a brand-new quarter beginning dealing with the book of job and we're going to be looking at lesson #1, which is actually entitled, the end - kind of an interesting title for the first lesson, but we're going to be looking at the book of job and learning some important lessons from this story.
But before we get to our lesson, we'd like to let those watching online - we'd like to let you know about a free offer that we have. It is a book entitled the Amazing Facts book of Bible answers and this is our free offer today. The number to call is 866-788-3966 and you can ask for offer #785. That number, again, is -788-3966 - ask for offer #785 and we'll be happy to send it to those in North America. Before we get to our study though, we'd like to begin by lifting our voices in praise.
We'd like to ask our song leaders to come and join us and they'll lead us in praise. Thank you, Pastor Ross, and it is wonderful to be here to sing songs with you like we do every week. We're ready to sing. We've been warming up our voices and I know you at home are as well, so pull out your hymnals, if you have them, and join with us on our first song, which is #423 - glorious things of thee are spoken - and we will do the first, second, and fourth stanzas - #423. Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our God; he whose word cannot be broken formed thee for his own abode; on the rock of ages founded, what can shake thy sure repose? With salvation's wall surrounded, thou mayest smile at all thy foes.
See the streams of living waters springing from eternal love, well supply thy sons and daughters, and all fear and want remove; who can faint when such a river ever flows their thirst to assuage? Grace, which, like the Lord, the giver, never fails from age to age. Savior, if of Zion's city i, through grace, a member am, let the world deride or pity, I will glory in thy name; fading is the worlding's pleasure, all his boasted pomp and show; solid joys and lasting treasure none but Zion's children know. This song, the fourth stanza, is my favorite one. If you were paying attention to those words, the last two lines - 'fading is the worldling's pleasure, all his boasted pomp and show; solid joys and lasting treasure none but Zion's children know.' That is the truth. You can think you have everything - you can think you have a nice car, a nice house, money in the bank - everything that you need, but if Jesus is not the most important thing, that fades and that is not eternal pleasure - not eternal happiness, because it will not take you to the streets of gold.
So put your treasure - put your heart where your treasure is - put it in heaven and you will have the best life, guaranteed. Our next song - sweet by and by. I know this is a favorite for many of you - #428 - we will do all three stanzas - #428. There's a land that is fairer than day, and by faith we can see it afar; for The Father waits over the way, to prepare us a dwelling place there. In the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore; in the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore.
We shall sing on that beautiful shore the melodious songs of the blest, and our spirits shall sorrow no more, not a sigh for the blessing of rest. In the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore; in the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore. To our bountiful father above, we will offer a tribute of praise, for the glorious gift of his love, and the blessings that hallow our days. In the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore; in the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore. Thank you so much for joining with us.
And, at this time, Pastor Ross is going to have our opening prayer. Let us bow our heads for prayer. Dear Father in Heaven, once again, what a privilege to be able to gather together to study Your Word. And, as we look at this great old testament book - the book of job - as we see your hand in dealing with those who are trusting in you and, yet, how their faith can grow through difficult circumstances, we pray that our faith might be strengthened as we see your goodness in how you love us. So be with us this morning for we ask this in Jesus' Name, amen.
Our lesson today will be brought to us by Pastor Doug. Thank you, Pastor Ross. Morning everyone. Morning. Welcome to Sabbath school at Granite Bay and our Sabbath School Study Hour and we're glad that you're here.
I want to welcome any visitors that may be here along the way. And we're beginning a new quarter's study in the book of job. And, hopefully, you have one of these - if you don't, I hope that you can visit your neighborhood adventist church - I think you can even go online and you can go to the - the world church has a Sabbath school website where you can download the lesson and study along with us. I think Pastor Ross already mentioned we have, sort of, a premium gift. If you just call in and ask, we have a book called Amazing Facts of - from - amazing Bible answers - and it's dealing with a lot of difficult questions in the Bible.
Ask for offer #785 and call 866-788-3966 - it's real easy - -study-more - will be an acronym that will get you and - ask for offer #785 - we'll send that to you. Now, the lesson today - you might be thinking, 'well, this is our first lesson in our study on the book of job.' It's called the end because they're actually starting with the last chapter of the book. Now, I've got a couple of theories - I haven't talked to the author of the lesson about this, but I think one theory that they may be doing that is because the book of job is one of the heaviest books in the Bible. You've got incredible suffering - calamity that comes on this man. It really gets you to begin to challenge the justice of God and why these things happen.
And, sometimes, when you go to the end of the book and you find out that it ends well, it makes it easier as you're going into the suffering, because you know how it ends. And so, you know, that's my theory - one reason they're doing it this way. And our first section in the book is happily ever after because we're going to be dealing with those verses. But, you know, I thought it'd be a good idea, since we're getting ready to spend 13 weeks dealing with the book of job, to do a little introduction in the book of job. I looked ahead in the lesson and I thought, 'well, this is some stuff that I think would be helpful now.
First of all, this book falls among the books of poetry in the Bible. By the way, in the septuagint, it's placed differently than you find it in your book - in the regular canon of Scripture - it's placed in the septuagint between Psalms and Proverbs. Martin luther regarded the book of job as the most magnificent and sublime of any of the books of the Scripture - and he was quite a scholar. It is an incredible book. It has 42 chapters - we're going to look at chapter 42 today - ,070 verses - 10,102 words.
Who was job? He is not a person of fiction or fable. Job is figured as a real historical character in the Bible. If you look, for instance, in the book of Ezekiel 14:14 - if you look in Ezekiel 14:14 it says, "though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness..." Ezekiel refers to job as a real person. If you go to the new testament and you read from the book of James it says, 'and you've heard about the sufferings of job'. The new testament authors viewed job as a real historical character.
And so, if we believe Jesus and if we believe the apostles, and if we believe the old testament prophets, they all looked upon job as a real person. He's a man who really lived. When did he live? Now this is an interesting study. Job is probably the oldest book in the Bible. It was not written by job, it was probably written by Moses.
One reason the scholars say that is they look at the style of the writing of the author of job and there are a lot of similarities in language and culture of the time and the authorship of Moses. So it's very possible that one of the first books that Moses wrote when he was in the land of midian was about job. The place of job - now, when you start studying - we've got a later chapter that's going to talk about job's three friends. You remember eliphaz and bildad and - the friends of job, when you look at them - for instance, if you look in your Bible in Genesis chapter 36:15, it says, "...The Sons of eliphaz, the firstborn of esau, in the land of edom;" now, eliphaz was one of the friends of job. And it says, 'from the land of edom'.
Well, when Moses was in midian, edom was the deserts to the north of him. So he was very well acquainted with what was going on in that country and this story had reached him. And, further, you can also read in the book of Genesis chapter - same chapter - it's going through the genealogy of esau and it says, "and bela died, and jobab The Son of zerah of bozrah reigned in his stead." Job is called one of the greatest of the people of the east and some have wondered and - you know, my name is douglas - a lot of people call me 'doug'. And, even in Bible times, you could have a person named 'jobab' and they'd call him 'job' - it's an economy of syllables. And, when you look in the Hebrew, there are similar characters that are used and it could be the same person.
It says he lived in the same territory, he lived during the same time, and he was a king of the land, and that job says that he was - the book of job says job was the greatest man of the east and so it could be jobab and job are the same person - very much the same time. Probably were living between 1600 and 1700 bc - this would be during the time of Joseph, when he was living in Egypt. Of course, Joseph lived 110 years, and so it would be - just to give you the time range, it's before the Exodus. So it tells us, also, that eliphaz was one of The Sons of esau. And then, when you look at the other friends of job, they all lived during that same time range, they lived in the area around petra, the arabian desert - northern part - north of midian, and it wasn't like it is today.
I don't know if you've heard about - they found some amazing petroglyphs in the sahara desert and there are some drawings in the rock of giraffes, and rhinoceros, and alligators. And it portrays, in these numerous petroglyphs, a country that was a savannah, that had water and crocodiles and rivers. And you go to the sahara now and there's nothing but sand. So something has happened. The climate of the world has changed.
I think everyone agrees with that. And the land of the northern arabia, that is so dry now, used to be a lot more mild and there were farms and there were sheep - you look at what job had - and there were a lot of cattle. That means that there was a lot of pasture land back then. He had thousands of animals. And so, that tells us something about the time when he lived.
It tells something about the people and the places - his name - the name job means 'one persecuted'. It signifies 'sorrowful' or 'he that weeps'. Now, we don't know if that - if he was named that because that was going to happen, or if the name came to mean that because it's such an ancient name. For instance, when I say the name 'Ruth', what does the name 'Ruth' mean? Ruth means 'compassion'. But, you know, they're not really sure if the name Ruth means compassion because that moabite woman was compassionate and so the name came - the meaning of the name came after the person or if it meant that before.
And when a person is Ruthless - what are you saying when a person is Ruthless? They're without compassion, right? But they're still not sure - did the name have that meaning when Ruth's mother named her, or did the name - meaning of the name - come from her character later? It's such an ancient name, they don't know. Same thing with the name of job. It's connected with one struck, one persecuted, one weeping - well, is that what it meant then or did the Hebrew word take on that because of what he went through? And so I told you roughly where the land of uz was. It says - Genesis chapter 10, verse 22 - it says, "the children of shem; elam, and asshur, and arphaxad, and lud, and aram. And the children of aram; uz, and hul, and gether, and mash.
" Uz migrated to that territory of edom there. Let me give you one more verse to sort of prove that: Lamentations - written by Jeremiah - Lamentations 4:21, "rejoice and be glad, o daughter of edom, that dwellest in the land of uz;" - edom/uz - esau's descendants - you can really zero in with a lot of Scripture, so we know - we don't know the exact place of his town, but we know the area where this all transpired. It was north of Moses - the story came to Moses - it was an inspired story. He wrote it down, probably even before the book of Genesis was written. Can't prove that but it seems like it from the style and the times.
Alright, now, getting to our first section: happily ever after. Go with me, in the book of job, to the last chapter - last chapter - I've told Karen her name is in the Bible and this is where you find it. Job 42 - and we're going to start with verse 10 - job 42:10 - and it says, "and the Lord restored job's losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the Lord gave job twice as much as he had before. Then all his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been his acquaintances before, came to him and ate food with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversity that the Lord had brought upon him.
Each one gave him a piece of silver and each a ring of gold. Now the Lord blessed the latter days of job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters." - That's what he had to start with. This is a second batch - and it says, "he had seven sons and three daughters and he called the name of the first [these are his daughters] jemimah, the name of the second keziah, and the name of the third keren-happuch." That's as close as I get to Karen in the Bible. And I tell people the name doug is in the Bible too, did you know that? It says, 'Isaac dug the wells of his father Abraham.
' (Laughter) so, yeah, it's a Bible name - just spelled a little different - but we both have Bible names. And so, it tells us that after this he - further more, it says, "in all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of job;" - it's interesting, it doesn't say that about his sons - "and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. After this job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. So job died, old and full of days." So that sounds like it's happily ever after. You know, he suffered for several weeks - less than a couple of months when you read about how quickly the plagues came upon him and his suffering - his friends watched him suffer for seven days.
The bulk of job's life was greatly blessed. There was a terrible time of suffering in the middle of it. And the sufferings of job we'll learn - also tell us something about the sufferings of Jesus. He, in some ways, is a type of Christ. So it sounds like a happy ending.
Except it says he died. So, is it a happy ending when you die? Well, if you're going to die, as far as it can go in this life - whenever you read those fairy tales and it says, 'happily ever after' - it doesn't mean they didn't die, it means they lived a happy life. Are there other places where you find that in the Bible? Let me give you a few verses. Someone's going to read for me, in just a moment, Genesis 35:29 - hafdis, you have that? Okay. I'm going to read Genesis :8, "then Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people.
" How old was Abraham when he died? 175. Who lived longer, Abraham or Isaac? Isaac outlived his father. Isaac lived 180. I've got a theory: Abraham had several wives, Isaac only had one. (Laughter) I can't prove that but you can't prove I'm wrong.
You know, they've proven that married people live longer. They did a study. Married people live longer than single people. Now, I'm not saying this to make the single ones feel bad or run out and hurry up and get married, I just - they - they're - they say there's some health benefit. It could be, they say, because you've got someone kind of keeping an eye on you, and also for the relationship - maybe there's more endorphins released, I don't know, but that's a study I've seen in more than one place.
Go ahead, hafdis, read your passage for us. "So Isaac breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people being old and full of days." Thank you. Now, you notice when we read about Abraham it says, 'old and full of years' and here is says 'old and full of days'. Have you ever heard, in the Bible, that sometimes a day represents a year? I bet you've never had them show you these two verses. But here you've got a day and a year - it's basically saying Abraham was full of years - had many years.
And his years were full. And then it says 'many days' - it means long life - many years. You've heard the expression 'bucket list' - bucket list - you know what that means? And it - you know where it comes from? Comes from a crude expression that when you die they say 'kick the bucket'. How many of you have heard that phrase before? You kick the bucket? What do you want to do with your life - what are some big goals? What are some places you want to go? What are some feats you want to accomplish before you kick the bucket? Before you die? And those things they call your 'bucket list' and people will have things like 'I want to climb mount everest' 'I want to parachute' 'I want to hang glide' 'I want to swim with killer whales' 'I want to' - a few weeks ago I told you I was in the big island of Hawaii and we went to see the lava flow and I said, 'I didn't know that was on my bucket list, but I made up my mind it was, so that was fun to just sit there and see the lava coming out of the ground and pouring into the ocean. It was kind of neat.
And so, have you made a list? Some people just think there's a lot of interesting things I want to do, but you don't have a particular list. But what good is a bucket list if you die and you don't have eternal life? I mean, think about it: wouldn't the first thing on your bucket list be 'I want to have Christ in my heart and have eternal life'? If you don't have that, what good is it to climb mount everest? I mean, before I am forever lost, I want to see lava run in the ocean. Big deal. I mean, if you can go to heaven, what on earth can compare with the glories you'll see there? So anything a person might have on their earthly bucket list is silly if you don't have the most important thing - living forever, going to other worlds - I mean, can you think of anything more outstanding than being able to live forever and go through the infinite creation of God? I mean, how puny would it be? I'd like to meet the queen of england - that's on my bucket list. Or 'i'd like to get the signature from this movie star'.
Man, in heaven, you'll be able to talk to David and have Jonah tell you his first-hand story. I mean, just think about the people you can meet there. So - but they had - they lived full lives - full of days. And job, he lived a full life. But the Bible - job's life ended - you would say it was a happy ending.
David died in home. You know, you always think, 'you died in your home surrounded by family.' That's considered a good ending. David, the Bible says, was full of days, but Isaac lived 180 years, David lived 70. How come it said David died in a good old age? By the way, you find that in 1 Chronicles 29:28 - so he died in a good old age full of days, riches, honor. And Solomon, his son, reigned in his place.
It wasn't the length, it was the experience. Think about Isaac. Tell me the most exciting thing that happened to Isaac. Nearly dying - having that near-death experience on the mountain with his father. Okay, what else? The angel in the middle of the night - he wrestled with the angel.
That's not Isaac, that's Jacob. You're right. Tell me about the other exciting thing that Isaac did. He dug the wells. I told you he dug the wells of Abraham.
He saw his bride being brought to him. He saw his bride, yep. He had a good - it says he loved his wife - that's good. Years. You've got those two high points.
Now talk about the life of David - 70 years. Who had more adventure in 70 years? David. You think about what David did - 'let's see, I killed the giant, I fought the philistines, I fought the ammorites, I fought the edomites' - you know, you just think about it - built the temple - I mean, David had so many adventures in his life. When you look at just the interesting - 'ran for my life from king Saul, had the chance to kill king Saul twice and I didn't do it.' You just look at David's life and it's just - it's full of adventure. So being full of days doesn't just mean you live a long life; it means you live a full life and - but not all of the good people in the Bible had what we would normally call a happy ending.
You might have an unhappy ending in this life, but a happy ending eternally. Which would you prefer? Aren't there martyrs who were tortured to death? Does that mean God didn't love them? It might seem like an unhappy earthly ending, but they're going to have an eternal happy ending. Now, you know, if I had my dRuthers, I want to have both endings happy. Am I alone? Anyone else out there? I mean, I'd rather not die from torture and I also want eternal life. But the Bible tells us there's some of both.
For example, how did abel die? Was abel good? The Bible says, 'now cain talked with abel his brother. It came to pass when in the field cain rose up against his brother and killed him.' Abel was murdered. How did josiah die? Was josiah a good king? One of the best - Godly king - expect to see him in heaven. He went out to battle. The Bible says the archers shot josiah.
He said, 'take me away for I am severely wounded. His servants took him out of that chariot, put him in another chariot - they brought him to Jerusalem and he died. He was close to the Lord. He was 38-years-old. He died young.
That doesn't sound like a happy ending. But does that mean God doesn't love you? Sometimes God takes people away to save them from seeing the terrible things that are going to happen. And the Kingdom really went downhill after josiah and God spared him from that. So sometimes we question why God does things a certain way. That wasn't really a very happy ending, but it doesn't mean he didn't love him.
Someone's going to read for a minute Matthew 14:10 and 11 - okay. Uriah - uriah the hittite - good man or bad man? Good man. Will he be in heaven? Believe so. But he died - let me read it to you - 2 Samuel 11:17, "then the men of the city came out and fought with joab. And some of the people of the servants of David fell; and uriah the hittite died also.
" It says they shot from the wall. Uriah was sent on a suicide mission. He didn't only die in battle, it was something of a murder because David told joab to put uriah in a place where he would be certain to be killed. So he died a victim of betrayal and - in a bloody battle - good man. Eli, how did he end? Was eli - will eli be in heaven? He was a total failure as a father - except in the way he raised Samuel.
The only bright spot in eli's life, really, was the way he raised Samuel. But he was a prophet. Remember, he's the one who told hannah, 'you're going to have a son.' I think he loved the Lord but he was just - he couldn't stand up to his kids and they just did whatever they wanted to do and he would not rebuke them. But when the time came, because of his bad leadership, the Lord just withdrew from Israel. They were defeated in battle.
A messenger came from the battlefield and said, 'your sons are slain. Israel is defeated.' And then he gave some other bad news. And this is 1 Samuel 4:18, "then it happened, when he made mention of the ark of God," - that the ark was captured - "that eli fell off the seat backward by the side of the gate; and his neck was broken and he died, for the man was old and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years." He may have been a good man - not a happy ending. Alright, next one: John the baptist.
"So he sent and had John beheaded in prison. And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother." Well, I tell you right now, that's not on my bucket list. (Laughter) it's not how I want to go - alone in a dungeon for - we don't know - months probably. And then to just come and unceremoniously be beheaded and have your head separated and displayed at a party. John the baptist - good man/bad man? Very good man.
A good prophet or, as Jesus says, the greatest of the prophets? The greatest. Why would God let the greatest of the prophets die like that? Just because you suffer in this life does not mean that God does not love you. Job is a man God looks down from heaven he says, 'he's a perfect and upright man.' But job suffered. You might have - now, this is going to happen also later in the book of job - because a person dies in bed surrounded by family peacefully, does that mean that they're saved? No. Is that right? Does God send good and evil to everybody? Sometimes a person might be a good parent and have a good family and have a good job and have a good doctor and they die quietly at home and they've rejected the Lord.
And God just showed 'em mercy because they don't have a very good prospect in the future. And so, how your life ends in this world is not a measurement of eternity. Now, I'm not wanting to be morbid, it's in the lesson. I'm just trying to teach it. There're some happy endings and there're some sad endings, but that doesn't determine your eternity.
You all look so serious and I don't blame you. I'm talking about all these sad endings. Alright, one more is mentioned in the lesson. Stephen - good man or bad man? Good man. Talking about, of course, the Spirit-filled deacon, stephen, becoming a preacher.
Acts 7:58, "and they cast him out of the city and stoned him." - He was falsely accused - "and the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they stoned stephen as he was calling on God and saying, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, 'Lord, do not charge them with this sin.'" Notice he doesn't say, 'Lord, save me from this execution'? He sort of resigned himself to that. My last prayer might have been, 'Lord, stop the rocks in midair.' But instead he's praying about them. He's not praying for himself. 'Save me' - he says, 'forgive them of this sin.
' "And when he had said this, he fell asleep." Christians don't really die, they go to sleep. He died, but they call it sleep. And, so, here the Bible says that sometimes there are unhappy endings, but it doesn't mean that these are people that God didn't love. How did Jesus die? It wasn't pretty and he died for our sins. There's a battle between good and evil and, if there's any thing we've learned as we study the book of job, it's that.
The book of job is asking questions about why? Why do bad things happen to good people and why do good things happen to bad people? Why do good people end suddenly, early, violently? Why do bad people live long lives? How many of you have known somebody that was ornery that just seemed to live forever. I just told you about the mercy of God. God's given them all as much time as - who - what king was the longest reigning king of judah? Manasseh. Manasseh. Who was the worst king of judah? Manasseh.
Why would God let the worst king live the longest - or reign the longest? Because the Lord is longsuffering. Did manasseh repent in the end? Amen. He did. Good thing God waited, huh? And so we don't know. Sometimes God is patient with these people and he's longsuffering, not willing that any should perish.
Alright, in the next section it talks about partial restoration. Now, the book of job tells us that job, his life ends well. He's surrounded by his family. He's playing with his children and his grandchildren - his great-grandchildren on his knee. He's surrounded by prosperity.
He's living in peace. And it sounds good, but that's really - it talks about the restoration. The book of job talks about how this man lost everything - lost his health, lost his friends, lost his family, lost everything - and everything is restored at the end - family's restored, wealth is restored, health is restored, peace is restored. But is that the complete restoration, or is it a partial restoration? If you end your life healthy, wealthy, surrounded by family - many generations - and you die lost, is that all the restoration you want, or don't you want the full restoration? So what's the full restoration? It talks about when everything is made new again. By the way, job 42:10, I want to read the verse from job, "and the Lord restored job's losses when he prayed for his friends.
" It's interesting that when he prayed for his friends - praying for others - God turned his captivity. Just before stephen died he was praying for others, wasn't he? And it says he went to sleep. the Lord appeared in heaven, above stephen, when he was being stoned. He prayed for his friends and the Lord gave job twice as much as he had before. Now, if you're saved, do you get twice as much in heaven, or is it much more than that? Let me give you a verse.
The Bible says the disciples asked Jesus, 'Lord, we've left everything and followed you. What will we have?' And what did God say? 'No man has forsaken houses or lands' - I'm paraphrasing - 'husbands or wives, children, friends for my sake and the Gospel's except he will have a hundredfold more in this life and eternal life in the world to come.' So job got twice as much. How much is God offering the redeemed? He says you get a hundred times more in this life with persecution, but if you get that much more in this life, what do you get in eternal life? Paul says, 'I have estimated that the sufferings of this life are not even worthy to be compared to what God has in store for those that love him. So it's not like you get a 50 percent or double in the next life, it's infinitely more than double because the eye has not seen, the ear has not heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those that love him. You can't figure it.
You can't calculate it in multiples of 'do I get twice as much in heaven as I have now?' Think about those poor pharaohs that got buried in the pyramids and they loaded down the pyramids thinking, 'what will I have in the next life?' They tried to make sure they'd have ample provisions for their journey. And how disappointed they're going to be to wake up and find that all of it is musty, dusty, and rusty. They don't get any of it - if you don't have Jesus. But if you have Jesus, it's not like God doubles your bank account, you get infinitely more, amen. Amen.
Alright, so let's talk about some of that complete restoration. Now someone's going to read for me 1 Corinthians 13:12 - that'll be you. Okay. I'm going to read first Romans :18 and 19, "for I consider" - and I just read this to you - "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of The Sons of God.
" And you can read in 1 Corinthians 4:5, "therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one's praise will come from God." Judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes. Sometimes we can't figure out, 'why do the wicked seem to prosper and the righteous seem to suffer?' It will all be clear when the Lord comes. In the meantime, just be faithful. Go ahead, read for us that next verse.
In 1 Corinthians 13:12 the Bible reads, "for now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known." Very good. Thank you. It tells us about now we don't know. It says 'now we see in a mirror dimly' - some of you read the King James 'through a glass darkly'.
The mirrors were rough. They weren't clear and sharp like they are now. You kind of got kind of a warped, distorted look in a mirror back then and - but 'now we know in part, then I'll know as I am known.' People wonder, 'when we get to heaven are we going to know each other?' This is one of the verses, 'then I'll know as I am known.' Hebrews 11:24, "by faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called The Son of pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin," - why? - "Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward." What reward was Moses looking for? The one in this life or the one to come? To come. Which one is worth more? To come. What profit is it if you gain the whole world and you lose your soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? And, you know, if we're storing our treasure down here, where your heart is, that's where your treasure will be.
The Bible says you need to be looking ahead. That's - this is - any restoration you have - any vindication in this life, it's not it. I heard a preacher preach a good sermon one time and he said, 'this is not it. This is not it. After Jesus comes, that's it.
' That's the one that really matters. So that's the eternal restoration. And then, one more on that theme, in 1 John 3:2, it says, "beloved, now we are the children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." You know, we - we don't know what it's like to have glorified bodies. Moses knows. Elijah knows.
Enoch knows. There are some others that were resurrected at the resurrection of Christ, but most of us don't know. We can imagine, but the Bible says you can't fully imagine because can you imagine what it's like to have a glorified eternal body without aches and pains? Imagine having a body like adam that felt the vitality from eating from the Tree of Life. That's the one that really matters. So, final kingdom, 1 Corinthians , verse 11, "now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
" The book of job talks about this colossal battle between good and evil. You've got the devil on one side saying, 'job only serves you because of what you give him.' You've got God saying, 'he loves me.' And so the devil says, 'prove it. Take everything away. Afflict him with suffering. He'll curse you to your face.
And so, the devil throws down the gauntlet. The whole world - angels are watching what's happening. Job is finally vindicated at the end. We're going to the end of the book. You know that he comes out blessed.
I hope I don't ruin the story for you. Now the question is: did job ever find out why he suffered the way he did? Does the book of job ever tell us, 'God said, 'alright job, let me tell you, you were wondering why did you go through everything you went through. Let me tell you what was going on. See, if I pull back the veil, there was the devil and this is what happened.' How many of you think job finally got the back story behind his sufferings? Well, let me give you something to think about. Who wrote the book of job? Moses.
Did Moses know what was going on behind the scenes? He did. Moses was a prophet. God revealed to Moses why did job go through his sufferings. Was job a prophet? Are the words of job Scripture? Yes. I think that after his sufferings - I can't prove it but I think God somehow revealed to job and gave him answers even - job, of course'll have answers in heaven, but I think that job had some idea that this was all a supernatural drama and all of heaven was watching.
Jesus said, 'whoever therefore denies me before men, I'll deny him before my Father in Heaven. Whoever confesses me before men I'll confess before my father in heaven.' In other words, the angels and The Father are watching what's happening here on earth. By the way, it does say, 'before the angels and my father in heaven.' They're watching what's happening. Your life is a spectacle, Paul says. We are living on a stage where unfallen beings are watching what's happening here.
When we succeed - do angels rejoice when someone's saved? Why? Because they're watching what's happening here. Do angels weep when we are overcome? Is there crying in heaven? Does it say in Revelation that John saw nobody could open the book and he wept much in heaven? So, yeah, I think there's sadness. God'll ultimately wipe away all tears from your eyes, but there is joy and there is sadness in heaven. And so they're seeing what's going on. I think - I think job eventually knew that his life was a spectacle.
Paul tells us the whole experience of the children of Israel was for our admonition. I'm so glad job went through what he went through successfully - because I look at it and I gain encouragement, right? Amen. These things are written for our encouragement. You can read in Daniel chapter 2 - someone's going to read for me Daniel 7:18 - you'll have that, John. Daniel chapter 2, verse 44, "and in the days of these Kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms.
" In other words, we know now that all the battle between good and evil here, it's not going to last. The battle that's going to last - or the Kingdom that's going to last is God's kingdom. That next verse bears that out. Go ahead, read that please. Daniel 7:18, "but the saints of the most high shall receive the Kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.
" If you were to summarize the book of Daniel, the book of Daniel is talking about which king and which kingdom wins. The book of Daniel talks about all these kingdoms and you've got the brass and the gold and the silver and you've got the goat and the ram and you've got the lion and the bear and you've got all these - little horn, the big horn - you've got all these kingdoms and they're all battling and at the end of every prophecy it basically says, 'here's the prophecies of the earthly kingdoms. They're all going to be blown away like chaff. God's kingdom will reign forever.' The end of the story of Nebuchadnezzar: 'is this not the great Babylon I have built?' He turns into a raving lunatic. But at the end he says, 'I guess I'm not king.
God is king and his kingdom is the one that will last forever. And so, through all of this story, it's really ultimately telling you God's kingdom is going to last. Our kingdom down here, don't set up your kingdom down here because - seek first what? the Kingdom. the Kingdom of God. That's the one that's going to last and the book of job bears that out.
Matthew 5:5, "blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." The final ones who win are the people like job who are the meek of the earth. And Luke 23:42, "then he said to Jesus, 'Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.'" One of the greatest testimonies came from the man that was, ostensibly, on the right of Jesus when he died. He turns to Jesus and he says, 'Lord,' - did Jesus look like a Lord? He says, 'remember me when you come into your kingdom.' He is turning to Jesus, the one who looks the most unlikely to save anybody, he turns to him and says, 'Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.' One of the most powerful testimonies that Christ was a king came from a thief dying, who looked to Jesus - now, you know one reason he may have said that, there was a sign above Christ's head. What did it say? King of the jews. This is the King of the jews.
And it was meant to be mockery and, if nothing else, the jews got upset. They said to pilate, 'don't say 'king of the jews' as a fact, say he said he was the King of the jews.' And that's when pilate finally decided to stand up and say, 'what I've written I've written. I'm not going to change it.' Because Jesus was the King and that thief saw that and he looked upon Jesus as the ultimate king. He's the one who has a kingdom he can offer. When you pray the Lord's prayer, how does that end? 'For thine is' - the Kingdom.
So there's a battle between kingdoms, and in the end the devil would like to think this is his kingdom. The devil said to Jesus, 'bow down and worship me and all these kingdoms I'll give you.' Jesus said, 'no, I'm going to get them - I'll get it all my way. I don't want your kingdoms. I want my kingdom.' So the whole thing is about a battle between which kingdom is going to really last. What is going to be the final kingdom? 'Yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
' Matthew 6:13. And in the final section here in our first lesson on job - let's read job 14:14 and 15. It says, "if a man dies, shall he live again?" - Some people have said, 'well, you know, the old testament writers didn't know much about the resurrection.' I respectfully disagree. I think they did. It says in Ezekiel that if a wicked man turns from his wickedness, he will live.
What did he mean he'll live? We all live this life. He's talking about he'll live the life that doesn't end, right? And you can read in job, it says, "and if a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, till my change comes. You shall call, and I will answer you; you shall desire the work of your hands." And so, what really matters is the resurrection that lasts. If you live a long life down here and you don't have eternal life, what profit is it? Solomon asks that question - Ecclesiastes 6, verse 3, "if a man begets a hundred children" - job had children and children's children and children's children's children - and Solomon says, "if a man begets a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many," - it says his life was full of days - "but his soul is not satisfied with goodness, or indeed he has no burial, I say that a stillborn" - or a miscarried - "child is better than he." If a man has a lot of children and he lives a long time but he doesn't know the goodness of God, what good is it? It's like job said, 'it would be better if I were not born.' Job even uses the same language. And I think Solomon is quoting job when job says, 'I wish I had been like a stillborn child.
' So you've got the resurrection here. John 11:25, "Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection'" - he's talking to Martha - "'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?'" By the way, he's not just asking Martha that.
Jesus, today, is asking you that. Amen. Do you believe he is the resurrection and the life? And whoever lives and believes in him - living in him - believing in him - it's not just believing, it's living in him - will never die. Now what would you like to have? Would you like to end the way job ended? Lots of kids, long life, surrounded by friends, lots of possessions - he who dies with the most toys wins. You ever heard that? I remember reading about a guy who was driving down the road.
He had his, you know, extra large diesel-powered rv. Got the satellite dish on the top and the air conditioner and he's got the bicycles strapped to the back and he's pulling a trailer with all these motorized vehicles and toys and he's got a bumper sticker 'he who dies with the most toys wins'. I saw another one: 'we're spending our children's inheritance'. But what profit is it if you gain all that and you lose your soul? That's what Jesus asks. Job talks about the resurrection - chapter 13:15, "though he slay me, yet will I trust him.
Even so, I will defend my own ways before him." He believes in him. Though he believes in me he will never die. And then Hebrews 11 - this is our last verse - Hebrews 11:17, "by faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, 'in Isaac your seed shall be called,' concluding [believing] that God was able to raise him up." Now when did Abraham live, old testament/new testament? Old testament. Did Abraham believe that God was able to raise up his only begotten son? Amen. Did they believe in the resurrection in the old testament? I say that - I emphasize that because I meet Bible scholars every now and then that say in the old testament they didn't believe in a resurrection.
I say, 'no, that's not what I read. I think they did.' What good was life back then otherwise? Abraham even believed that God was able to raise up Isaac from the dead. And notice that: Jesus said, 'if you believe in me, you'll be raised up.' Abraham believed in God and God raised up his son. Figuratively is the term that is used. So, in our first book - our first study in job, we're talking about the end, but we're letting you know that he has a good ending.
He has a good ending in that God blesses him in the world and he has a good ending in that he is going to be blessed with eternal life. I want both good endings. How about you? Amen. I want to remind those who may have joined us, we have a free offer and it's called the Amazing Facts book of Bible answers - answers to difficult Bible questions - and we'll send this to you free. Just ask for offer #785 - it's 866-788-3966 - that's -study-more - and we'll send it to you for free.
Then read it and pass it along. God bless you. We trust that you've enjoyed our study together. Again, we're beginning the book of job. You can get this online or go visit your neighborhood adventist church, worship with them, and you can study the lesson with them as well.
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