TEEN TREE 
OF LIFE
Are You Having A Jōb Moment?
Part 5
March 3, 2019
Before you begin, ask yourself a very important question: Do you believe that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins? If you answered yes, you will need to be sure that you are filled with The Holy Spirit. How do you do this? You name your sins to God The Father in His Son’s Name. This is called rebound. As a Christian, you must rebound any time you sin. This is taught in 1JOHN 1:9: If we confess our sins [directly to God], He [God] is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, if you have never believed that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins, all you have to do is say to yourself that you believe in Him and you are saved! The Bible verse which teaches us this is ACTS 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”
Last week we looked at Job’s three friends named Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. Let’s begin with the last of the three friends – Zophar. He is a reversionistic believer. Reversionism is an act of reversing or turning in the opposite way. A reversionistic believer like Zophar, is turning away from God.
As believers in the Church-Age, we were designed to execute God’s Pre-Designed Plans for our lives; but in reversionism, we turn the other way and start to act like we did before we were saved. We become believers thinking human viewpoint. We begin to sin just like we did before we believed in Jesus Christ as Our Lord and Savior. Any Christian who habitually revolts against God’s Plan is in reversionism, spiritual decadence brought on by perpetual carnality and rejection or neglect of Bible doctrine. In reversionism, sin becomes a way of life. Yet, God in His Grace always provides the way of recovery. And what is the recovery? If you said “rebound,” you win! Rebound is the first Problem-Solving-Device (tool). Instead of retreating in reversionism, advance and reach the objective: the super-grace life!
In JOB 21:7 (New International Version Bible), Job is talking to Zophar: “Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?” In other words, Job is asking, “Why are you still standing in front of me Zophar! Why does God allow you to live?” The answer to that question is found in MAT 5:45 (The Message Bible): He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. Job’s friend Zophar is a very wealthy and prosperous man, even though he is very arrogant. All he wants is to achieve more and his is extremely competitive. This is why Zophar is gloating over what he sees Job going through. We know Job is being honored by God in Evidence Testing. But imagine what it was like for Job to be going through such horrible suffering only to have one of his best friends rejoice in his troubles! Job was met with arrogance when Zophar should have been treating him with Unconditional Love – Problem-Solving-Device (tool) # 8. Unconditional love is taught in JOH 13:34-35 (The Message Bible): “Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”
Job’s three friends stayed with him for seven days and seven nights. Seven is God’s Perfect Number. And FINALLY on the eighth day, when his three friends had finally shut up, Job spoke: “I’m ridiculed by my friends: ‘So that’s the man who had conversations with God!’ Ridiculed without mercy: ‘Look at the man who never did wrong!’ It’s easy for the well-to-do to point their fingers in blame, for the well-fixed to pour scorn on the strugglers. Crooks reside safely in high-security houses, insolent blasphemers live in luxury; they’ve bought and paid for a god who’ll protect them.” (JOB 12:4-6 The Message Bible) Notice the last sentence of this verse: the word god is not capitalized. That pretty much sums it up about these three friends.
In JOB 13:1-5 (The Message Bible), Job summarizes his feelings toward his friends: “Yes, I’ve seen all this with my own eyes, heard and understood it with my very own ears. Everything you know, I know, so I’m not taking a backseat to any of you. I’m taking my case straight to God Almighty; I’ve had it with you—I’m going directly to God. You graffiti my life with lies. You’re a bunch of pompous quacks! I wish you’d shut your mouths—silence is your only claim to wisdom.”
It’s important for us, at this point, to note that Job had an amazing prayer life – just as we, as believers, should. In the Church-Age, our directives as to how to pray are very simple: 1. Acknowledge your sins to God so that you are cleansed from “all unrighteousness;” 2. Pray to God The Father in His Son’s Name. Job was sincere when he prayed, which is taught in JOB 16:15-17 (The Message Bible): “I sewed myself a shroud and wore it like a shirt; I lay facedown in the dirt. Now my face is blotched red from weeping; look at the dark shadows under my eyes, Even though I’ve never hurt a soul and my prayers are sincere!”
But Job’s friends are offended by what he says in JOB 13:1-5 – as anyone would be. They think his questions are devious and lack respect for God and they use many analogies and metaphors to stress their ongoing point that nothing good comes of wickedness. Job maintains his confidence in spite of these criticisms, responding that even if he had done evil, it’s his own personal problem – and not theirs! He believes that there is a “Friend” in heaven who will vouch for his innocence: “O Earth, don’t cover up the wrong done to me! Don’t muffle my cry! There must be Someone in heaven who knows the truth about me, in highest heaven, some Attorney who can clear my name—My Champion, my Friend, while I’m weeping my eyes out before God. I appeal to the One who represents mortals before God as a neighbor stands up for a neighbor. “Only a few years are left before I set out on the road of no return.” (JOB16:18-22 The Message Bible) And as we learned last week, there certainly is!!
Job and his friends go back and forth for a long, long time throughout the Book of Job. At one point, Job declares: “If only my words were written in a book—better yet, chiseled in stone! Still, I know that God lives—the One who gives me back my life—and eventually he’ll take his stand on earth. And I’ll see him—even though I get skinned alive!—see God myself, with my very own eyes. Oh, how I long for that day!” (JOB 19:23-27 The Message Bible) Job’s words were written in a book, weren’t they? And remember that The Holy Spirit inspired the Book of Job to be written first!
Now, do you remember parts 1 and 2 of this series when we learned about the courtroom and how Job was actually being used as a witness in the Angelic Conflict with Our Lord and Savior as Judge and Satan as attorney or counselor? Well look at this: God then confronted Job directly: “Now what do you have to say for yourself? Are you going to haul me, the Mighty One, into court and press charges?” (JOB 40:1-2 The Message Bible)
God cares greatly for mankind; there is NO doubt. Let’s look at the Words Jesus Christ spoke to His disciples more than 1,500 years after Job lived. LUKE 12 starts like this: Under these circumstances [the scribes and Pharisees were being very hostile and plotting against Him], after so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another… Can you imagine what this was like? Thousands of people so crowded together to hear Jesus Christ that they were stepping on each other’s feet?? And this is one of the things He taught them: “Think about those crows flying over there: do they plant and harvest crops? Do they own silos or barns? Look at them fly. It looks like God is taking pretty good care of them, doesn’t it? Remember that you are more precious to God than birds!” (LUK 12:24 The Voice Bible). How could you doubt how much he cares for us? Well, Job did: Job answered God: “I’m convinced: You can do anything and everything. Nothing and no one can upset your plans. You asked, ‘Who is this muddying the water, ignorantly confusing the issue, second-guessing my purposes?’ I admit it. I was the one. I babbled on about things far beyond me, made small talk about wonders way over my head. You told me, ‘Listen, and let me do the talking. Let me ask the questions. You give the answers.’ I admit I once lived by rumors of you; now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears! I’m sorry—forgive me. I’ll never do that again, I promise! I’ll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor. After God had finished addressing Job, he turned to Eliphaz the Temanite and said, “I’ve had it with you and your two friends. I’m fed up! You haven’t been honest either with me or about me—not the way my friend Job has. So here’s what you must do. Take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my friend Job. Sacrifice a burnt offering on your own behalf. My friend Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer. He will ask me not to treat you as you deserve for talking nonsense about me, and for not being honest with me, as he has.” They did it. Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite did what God commanded. And God accepted Job’s prayer. (JOB 42:1-9 The Message Bible) Take note of what God says to Job: “not the way my friend Job has…” God called Job His friend! God is our Friend as we learned last week! But how do you become friends with anyone? You get to know him or her. How do we as Christians get to know God The Father, God The Son and God The Holy Spirit? The answer is – by studying Bible doctrine. It is the only way!!!
JOB 42:1-9 should remind us to be careful when we question what God is doing with other believers. If our family, friends, teachers or coworkers are mean to us when we’re having “a Job moment” – our only choice is to face them head on with God’s Grace and by applying His Word which is resident in our right lobe! We have to guard against reacting with our emotions and saying what Job said in JOB16:2-5 (The Message Bible): “I’ve had all I can take of your talk. What a bunch of miserable comforters! Is there no end to your windbag speeches? What’s your problem that you go on and on like this? If you were in my shoes, I could talk just like you. I could put together a terrific harangue and really let you have it. But I’d never do that. I’d console and comfort, make things better, not worse!”
{to be continued}