Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Friday May 22, 2015
How Job glorified God by waiting on Him even thought He seemed to be silent.
God will keep things secret from us so that we will search for Him because He seems to be silent with interpretations at times, which is one of things that Daniel had to learn.
Job also learned a principle that He wants to teach us concerning waiting upon the Lord while we keep silent and wait for the divine timing of God.
Satan had actually been cross-examining Job and while he is doing so, God was completely silent....which means that He does not interrupt the cross examination of Satan on God's people.
Job teaches us that there are times when God must remain silent and when we have to handle our own problems with the doctrine resident in our own soul if we truly desires to glorify God in the midst of the angelic conflict.
In vs 4, notice that Satan literally said, "A human would do anything to save his life but what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away his health?
"All right. Go ahead‑‑you can do what you like with him but you can't kill him, if you do, God said in effect "I'll kill you"!
In verse 8, they itched and oozed so badly that he took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself, then went and sat on a trash heap, among the ashes.
"Are you still holding on to your precious integrity, are you? Curse God and be done with it!"
We love to accept the good days from God‑‑why not also the bad things?"
This was Job not only experiencing all kinds of human suffering but also the silence of God.
Daniel actually went through something similar when he received all those visions and prophecies and God was silent as far as revealing
to him what many of them meant.
One of the reasons why Job could handle the silence of God is because he knew that all of these disasters that came to him did not come because of any personal sin or divine discipline.
Prin-There comes a time in the life of every believer when he must go it alone.
Issue = Can you take the doctrine in your own soul and apply it to your situation?
Job needs to realize that the silence of God demands that he utilizes the inventory of his own doctrine resident in his own soul.....that's when believers become great or really grace-oriented winner believers.
Do you realize that we live in the dispensation of the silence of God.
God does not speak personally and audibly like He did in other generations.
The silence of God is the greatest compliment to the doctrine resident in the soul.
The silence of God is God saying, "You are My friend and I know that you trust Me, so watch what I do while you are silent."
EXO 14:14, "The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent."
God speaks through His word and the highest compliment ever given to the Royal Family is the silence of God as the believer uses the greatest power in the world, Bible doctrine.
There are times when we feel like being silent toward God but there are also times when He is silent toward us.
When that test comes remember that it is a compliment....you have learned the doctrine it's just a matter of its proper application.
Silence is a part of human friendship but even more it is a part of divine friendship and therefore our fellowship with God and occupation with the person of Christ.
There are times when all the doors in your life being closed, reveal the silence of God and then you must make your own decisions and go it alone, as it were.
LUK 14:27, "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple."
Even in the human realm there are times when the best thing we can do for our friends is to let them alone and go through what they are going through alone.
Silence is a supreme test of trust and friendship.
One of the greatest blessings in marriage is when a man can come home from a hard day at work and be silent without having to explain the reason why for the next five hours.
Our fellowship with God and occupation with the person of Christ will have times of silence, so if we are driven to silence, we don't have to be apprehensive or hesitant.
PSA 62:1, My soul waits in silence for God only; From Him is my deliverance.
It is much easier to work for God than to wait for God.
God wants to talk to you of His own secrets concerning the meaning of your life, your personal sense of destiny, the way He would have you go.
Has it ever occurred to you that God is often disappointed that we are so busy doing things for Him, that we don't have time to talk to Him?
Goal = we may enter into the secrets of God, and be the friend of God; yet, if God's friends never visit Him, never talk to Him, even though they are busy being occupied in His work, they are robbing Him.
ECC 10:17 Blessed are you, O land, whose king is of nobility and whose princes eat at the appropriate time‑‑ for strength, and not for drunkenness.
Vs 17, if we were to study this book of Ecclesiastes we would see that the foolish king ate in the morning, in fact, he ate all day.
The wise king and the wise rulers do things at the appropriate time.
A letter from a woman can be more powerful, at times, then 450 men or prophets who have to be dealt with!
She would have sent an assassin with a dagger instead of a servant with a message.
Jezebel’s objective was simply to frighten Elijah into running out on the revival, which was threatening her pagan religion.
In order for us to understand that the distance from the palace at Jezreel to Beer-sheba was over one hundred miles, the Bible clearly specifies that this Beer-sheba belonged to Judah.
Elijah’s life had become so important to him that he drove himself beyond normal endurance until he considered himself to be safe from his enemies.
Instead of realizing that no one was pursuing him and that as long as he was alive, the Lord still had a purpose for him, this great spiritual giant became a carnal weakling moping under the juniper tree, totally discouraged.
Prin: The inevitable outcome of focusing our eyes on things or people is that we eventually get our eyes on self.
If you wish you were dead, why not fulfill the desire of your wishes?
When people say such things like "I hate myself," they don't really mean it because if they hated themselves, they would be glad that they hate themselves!
Some of things that people say are simply a contradiction because if you really did hate yourself, you would be happy that you do not have love for the one you despise or hate!
That's the natural or worldly viewpoint of the natural man who cannot understand the things of God, 1CO 2:14
He had his eyes on himself and had fallen into the trap of self-pity; he believed he had failed in every possible way.
It is a soul kink to feel sorry for self, and it is one of the worst expressions of carnality.
Sooner or later it happens to all members of the human race — “sitting under the juniper tree” = the tree of self-pity!
He had neither earned nor deserved the right to have food or any other blessing; but because of God's perfect character, God, in His grace always provides.
Vs 5, - it was the Lord Jesus Christ, the Angel of Jehovah. who came to Elijah because the Lord Jesus Christ always comes to us in our hour of difficulty and trial.
“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness” (ISA 41:10).
Prin: God’s provision is always the best — in fact, it is perfect!
Where DO YOU “DWELL”?
"lun" = to move into some spot with the idea of spending the night and then staying a long time.
The great spiritual giant who had just killed 450 prophets of Baal, had allowed himself to be reduced to a heap of gloom and depression.
The Lord had broken the silence, to teach Elijah a lesson of spirituality.
The key point in his answer is the personal pronoun, “I.”
Because the Lord is omniscient, He knew billions of years ago that Elijah was “jealous,” or literally, “zealous for the Lord.” He also knew that the children of Israel had been out of line.
Notice the emphasis: it is “I, I, I and my.” Poor, carnal Elijah, with his eyes on himself!
Yet because the Lord is very gracious, He was not willing to put one of his well-trained servants on the shelf.
KJ's translation - 1KI 19:12, And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
The wind and the earthquake were a great manifestation of nature: they represented the power of human ability and naturalistic phenomena.
"The LORD was not in the wind … the LORD was not in the earthquake.” God does not operate through the energy of the flesh, through human power; God operates through divine power!
The fire was a terrifying representation of natural, human power, but “the LORD was not in the fire.”