I please God to bless us together
this evening as we meditate in his word. Let's turn to the book
of Job chapter 19 and we'll read verse 20. The book of Job chapter
19 and reading verse 20. My bone cleaveth to my skin and
to my flesh and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth." We have in the book of Job a
very clear testimony of some of the difficulties that he had
to face after having been wonderfully blessed when he was younger with
his family and then Satan was allowed to come into his life
and to tempt him exceedingly and was told though not to touch
his soul. And therefore we have some indication
of the extent that that went to. We should not think that
Satan therefore sat still and didn't actually do anything.
Clearly he went as far as he could in order to bring Job to
a condition and a situation where he turned wholly and completely
against God. But we're thankful we have such
an account in the Word of God to realize that although he was
greatly tempted and and misunderstood by his three friends, not so
much by Lai Hu, but by his three friends, and what he had to endure,
and how he answered, and how we see that sometimes those answers
emanated from his flesh and not from his spirit. And we realize
therefore that there was this great battle that he was entrenched
with. But we're thankful to know and
to believe and to have the evidence that Satan did not succeed in
that which he hoped he might do. But the Almighty God indeed
kept Job and preserved him and brought him out into wonderful
liberty and blessing in his latter end. Well, such accounts I'm
sure are encouraging for the people of God. We may not indeed
had to enter into such dire situations that Job was called to. But nonetheless,
there will be those times in our lives when the devil would
endeavour to shake us out of our religion, if it is possible. And he will bring us into conditions
which perhaps cause us, or he wants to cause us to question
the whole life of God in our souls. Well, surely it's for
that reason, knowing that the devil is still the same today,
a powerful enemy, and the Lord in his gracious love and providence
to us has given us such accounts, like Job and also like Jeremiah
and like David and like Paul, to encourage us in the pathway
that we are walking today. And we should not therefore think,
well, my way is really most extraordinary and I'm sure other people haven't
been as tempted or find it as difficult as I do. Well, what
a good thing it is that we have these testimonies and the word
of God to correct us and to show us that there have been those
who have had to go much further than we ever shall be. Thankful
though for the evidence then, record in the word of God for
these things. Now this verse which I read is
a very difficult verse really, I don't pretend to understand
the depth of it, but we just have the evidence that this verse
is really towards the end of his statement that he speaks
after hearing his three friends and the last statement from Bildad,
the Shuhite, and he gives this statement about his condition,
and just before he turns, as it were, to view the greatness
of God, he comes to this condition, and as we look at it, it gives
us the impression that he's really at the end of all things, naturally. He's obviously really affected
in his body, bone cleaves to his skin and his flesh. He's
obviously very emaciated. We know that he had all those
boils over him and everything else. He was in a very poor condition
in his body. And he comes and says then, and
I'm escaped with the skin in my teeth. Well, we don't know
what that actually means. But the impression quite clearly
is, he just about escaped. from the claws of the devil. And it was just as close as this,
the skin of my teeth. We don't have skin on our teeth,
so we don't know actually precisely what he's meant. But it's obviously
a clear indication that he was very near that time where he
was tempted to perhaps throw everything overboard and to give
up. Now, the Lord does sometimes
bring us into conditions where we are tempted greatly. And we
should be thankful that Job is not the only person. As I mentioned,
Jeremiah, and we'll turn to it in a moment, in the Lamentations,
we have a very, very similar testimony and experience of a
man of God. But the great wonder is that
these men were not left. They were not forsaken. And that
is true today. God's people are not left, they
are not forsaken. They may be greatly tried, they
may be greatly tempted, but you see it is to show forth the great
grace of God, and the mercy of God, and the love of God, and
the favour of God. And so Job comes on in his speech,
and he says, Therefore have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O
ye my friends, for the hand of God hath touched me. It's very
clear, you see, the Lord had allowed Satan to touch him very
deeply. But then he says, Why do you
persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh? You see, the flesh is one thing,
But to then go further and try and turn our mind is of course
a further situation. But having come there, he then
makes a wonderful and amazing statement. To think that here
we have a very vivid picture of Job in his great need and
yet we see God gives him wonderful faith to look beyond these difficult
times, these difficult afflictions, this great opposition, he gives
him living faith to look way beyond all the difficulties that
he's faced with and he wants the things that he's going to
say to be recorded and he makes mention of it in this way when
he says, oh that my words were now written, oh that they were
printed in a book They were graven with an iron pen and laid in
the rock forever. He didn't want them to be lost
sight of. He wanted them to be recorded. Well, bless God, for
us today, they are recorded. And we still have them before
us, many, many years after this was written. We don't know, of
course, exactly when Job did live. We know he lived after
the flood, but we don't know anything more than that. And
then he comes and he gives us this wonderful statement. And
it's so good to realize the positiveness that the Spirit enables Job to
bring to us. As he says, for I know that my
Redeemer liveth. He looks beyond his situation. He looks beyond the current situation
in the world. He looks right beyond that to
the time when the Lord Jesus, indeed, who was living then,
would indeed come. He says, I know that my Redeemer
liveth. What a wonderful statement that
is, to think that he had that faith, to believe that the Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, was indeed alive at that time, the eternal
son of God, alive in Job's day. We know, of course, from other
scriptural words that he was indeed always alive. Indeed, he was the one that created
the heavens and the earth, and he was with his father in eternity
past. Well, Job just really confirms
that. He tells us, for I know, he knew
because of the blessed work of the Spirit
in his heart, confirming these truths. And that's the blessing
for us today, when the Holy Spirit comes and applies his word into
our hearts so that we know the word of God is true. And we can
recognize why it is that Job is able to speak so positively. For I know that my Redeemer liveth. and that he shall stand the latter
day upon the earth. He knew they would come as that
great and glorious Redeemer. Well, it's good, isn't it, to
see such words spoken here as we might think perhaps in prophecy
so many, many years before the Savior did come and stand upon
the earth. And We can take that, of course,
in two ways, because the Lord, of course, will soon return again
in all his glory and come and stand upon the earth. And so the God's servant goes
on and tells us, and though after my skin, worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh shall I see God. What a favour it is, isn't it,
to be able to look far beyond our little life here below, and
to recognise the day will come when by the grace of the Saviour,
we, in our flesh, the great day of the resurrection, when our
souls are reunited to our body, in my flesh, shall I see God. And remember here, poor old Job
was in that state of a poor body, a body which was in a really
bad state. And yet, you see, we can believe
he looked forward to that day when he would have that renewed
body. He's able to say, whom I shall see for myself and mine
eyes shall behold, and not another. You see, by God's grace, we should
all we are amongst his people, be blessed with seeing the Lord
with our eyes. We shall behold him, and not
another. We shall stand there in that
eternal state in glory and behold this wonderful Lamb of God that
taketh away the sin of the world, this great and glorious Saviour
that died to atone for our sins, this wonderful God who gave himself
as a ransom to redeem our souls. He says, though my reins be consumed
within me. Yes, he realized that he was
going to, his body would die, but his soul, you see, would
live forever. And it would be that wonderful
time when there would be that uniting again. Well, we have
then this little testimony here of God's servant Joven, quite
clearly recorded so that you and I might be encouraged in
our lives today. And then just for a moment, turning
to the Lamentations where God's servant, Jeremiah, when we think
of these two men, Job and Jeremiah, they were very gracious men.
They're wonderfully blessed of God. But it didn't mean to say,
favored as they were, they wouldn't have to enter into the most severe
trials and the most severe difficulties. We have Job, we have the picture
of what he had to endure. And of course, we know that Jeremiah,
he was a faithful ambassador. He spoke the word of God, which
he had been commanded to do. He didn't back down. And for
that he was cast into the low dungeon and if it hadn't been
for a king to come and recover him, he would no doubt have died
in that place. But nonetheless, the Lord was
with him. But in the third chapter of the
Lamentations, again we have a description, and perhaps a description of
his natural, again linked with his spiritual, again very similar
to that which is Job's. Sometimes we suffer more in a
physical way and sometimes more, as it were, in a mental way.
Not something which is evident outwardly, but it may be evident
inwardly. There may be a great suffering
and great affliction. And Jeremiah tells us here, I
am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath, he has
led me and brought me into darkness, but not into light." You see,
Job was brought into this place. The devil was allowed to bring
him into that place. And Jeremiah was brought into
this place. He was brought into darkness
and not into light. And Jeremiah's conclusion was,
similar of course to Job's conclusion, that God had turned against him.
And Jeremiah says, surely against me is he turned. He turned his
hand against me all the day. Not just for a short time. Again, like Job. Job wasn't just
for a few minutes or a few hours. It was days and days and weeks
and weeks. And so here is Jeremiah telling
us, surely against me as he turned, he turned his hand against me
all the day. My flesh and my skin hath he
made old, he hath broken my bones. It would appear there was that
physical trial and physical opposition again. And he says, he's building
against me. No doubt Jeremiah thought perhaps
something we thought, you know, why is this? Why is this? It brings us to think of the
case of Jacob. He's another great man of God,
but brought down to that position to confess and to say, all these
things are against me. seeing one thing after another.
Sometimes that might seem to be like that in our lives. One
thing seems to go on top of another. And our conclusion is, all these
things are against me. But they were wrong. Jacob was
wrong. He made a wrong statement. He made a wrong assessment of
the position. These things were not against
him. They were all working for good. They were all working for good
in Jeremiah's case. They were all working for good
in Job's case. So if in measure, we find opposition
and strange things happening, and perhaps think, well, all
these things are against me, we should not forget what the
Apostle Paul said when he said, and we know. And the Apostle
Paul had much against him, didn't he? He said, and we know that
all things work together for good to those who love God and
to those who are the called according to his purpose. So let us not
view ourselves and think, well, these things are just all against
me. It may appear they're all against
us, but what a blessing if they're working for our spiritual, and
in which case, our eternal good. What it means is the Lord hasn't
left us to wander on aimlessly in this poor old sinful world.
You see, Job had a very comfortable lifestyle, didn't he? But you
see, the Lord very quickly changed that and caused him then to come
right down low and caused him to have his confidence be outside
of things of time He then looked forward to those eternal realities. And so Jeremiah here tells us,
he hath builded against me, encompassed me with gall and travail. He
hath set me in dark places as they that be dead of old. He
hath hedged me about that I cannot get out. He hath made my chain
heavy. Exactly the same, isn't it? As
Job said, Job said his way was hedged about. Sometimes we might
think it's hedged about, and no, darling, we are hedged about.
And it's a good thing, isn't it? The Lord knows how and He
knows why we need to be hedged about. And Jeremiah complained. He said, I cannot get out. It's
made my chain heavy. Sometimes, you see, God gives
us, as it were, heavy chains so that we can't do what we wanted
to do. But no one knows what kind of
chains they are in our lives. It's a pretty broad statement,
isn't it? Because a chain can take very many positions. It can be our health, it can
be our mind, it can be our families, it can be our friends, Many things
can come into our lives which produce a heavy chain. Well, Jeremiah complained. Jeremiah said, he had hedged
me about, I cannot get out. He has made my chain heavy. And then he comes and tells us,
and this is of course is very trying. When I cry and shout,
he shutteth out my prayer. See when prayer seems to come
back at us, when we don't seem to be able to achieve that wonderful
blessing of access at the throne of grace, when prayer is hard
work, then you see it's not easy to press on. But remember we
have a God who waits to be gracious, and a God who does not deal with
us as our sins deserve. We sometimes think, well, of
course, that's come upon me because of my sin. Well, don't forget,
the Word of God tells us He doesn't deal with us as our sins deserve. Because if He did, we wouldn't
be here. And so, Jeremiah says, He enclosed
my ways with hewn stone It's made my paths crooked. And of
course, hewn stone means that it's pretty close together and
there's no possibility of making a way of escape. The Lord does
sometimes enclose our ways. They're closed up. We can't escape. We may think we want to. Yes,
it might look very nice outside. The grass may look greener in
another field. But you see, the Lord deals with us and he shuts
us in. And here was Jeremiah shut in,
just like Job. You see, Job was shut in that
position. And he tells us, he has enclosed my ways with hewn
stone. He has made my paths crooked. He was unto me as a bear, lying
in wait, and as a lion in secret places. We love to have a nice
straight path, don't we? Everything set out before us,
everything nice and plain sailing. Oh, God says, no. This is the
way you're gonna be led about. Not in the way that you expect,
but it's for your eternal good and for my honor and for my glory. He hath made my paths crooked,
He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret
places." You see, we don't sometimes recognize that there are these
enemies lying in wait to pounce on us. And we journey on, as
we think nice and smoothly, and forget that there's this bear
and lion waiting to pounce upon us. And so he tells us, he hath
turned aside my ways and pulled me in pieces, he hath made me
desolate. Job was alone, wasn't he? Jeremiah
was alone. Most people have to walk the
darkest paths alone. And the reason for that is to
make us dependent upon our God. to make us cry unto our God,
to pass by or other help. And he says, he has bent his
bow and sent me as a mark for the arrow. He has caused the
arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. That means enter
into his heart. I was a derision to all my people
and their song all the day. He filled me with bitterness.
He hath made me drunken with wormwood. He hath also broken
my teeth with gravel stones. He hath covered me with ashes.
And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace. I forgot prosperity." Well, it's
a dismal scene, isn't it, really, that Jeremiah paints. And quite
clearly he is expressing those things which he was caused to
enter into and pass through. And he brought out the other
side. And these things are recorded
in God's word for our encouragement today, for the church of God
down through the ages. We thank that we have such a
position as this. But you see, the wonderful thing
is just like Job, the Lord came and the Lord blessed him, the
Lord favored him and he brought him up. David says, he brought
me up, also, out of a horrible pit, out of the Maori plain,
set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And what
a benefit that experience was to David. How good it was, how
it stood him in good stand, and how he was able to put it down
in those words for our encouragement today. There are those pits which
we sink into, Perhaps holes that we dug for ourselves, and we
can't get ourselves out. David had to experience it, didn't
he? He brought me up also. And it's a wonderful thing, isn't
it? God doesn't leave us in the pit we deserve, don't we? Sometimes
we're left there because we've been relying on our own understanding. How foolish. But how easily we're
left to our own understanding. Well, here was this godly man
telling us, he said, my strength and my hope is perished from
the Lord. Apparently about to give up,
just like Job. Well then, we read, remembering
my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall, my
soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me." What a
favour to be humbled before God, to realise that the Lord takes
us in hand and deals with our soul, in love to our soul, not
in a way that we would anticipate, not in a way that we liked, but
it was the right way. Remember, He led them forth by
the right way, that they should go to a city of habitation. Not the wrong way. And the Lord
does lead his people in the right way. And then he says, this I
recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. He didn't give up. Therefore have I hope. Mercy, if we have hope in God. Yes, not hope in ourselves, Hope
in God. Hope in my God. Again, the psalmist
sets before us this great and glorious truth when he wrote
the 42nd Psalm and he says, Why art thou cast down, O my soul,
and why art thou disquieted within me? What's he to do? Hope thou in God. hope thou in
God, and then with gracious anticipation, for I shall yet praise him who
is the health of my counsellors and my God." So even in the darkest
scenes, the darkest straits, to be blessed with that God-given
hope in God. And so Jeremiah comes and says,
it is the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed Well, that's
true, isn't it? You know, if we look into our
hearts, the Lord shows us, reveals to us, something of the evil
in our hearts. And it's really only as the Spirit
of God shows us and opens our eyes to see what's in our hearts,
we will recognize the great truth of these words. It is in the
Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Why is it? It's because his compassions
fail not. How gracious is our God. He doesn't
deal with us as our sins deserve. His compassions fail not. And Jeremiah is able to make
this wonderful statement. They are new every morning. Whether
we know it or not, whether we realize it or not, they are.
They're new every morning. What is new? His mercies. We're
not cut off as a cumbra of the ground. We're not sent to eternal
hell. It's of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed. Because his compassions fail
not, they are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. And
then what a change there is. What a change there is, there
was a change, wasn't there? In Job's life, what a change there
is. In Jeremiah's, what a change there was in David's. Bless God,
it's a change in your life and my life, when we're able to come
and say, nevertheless. What does he say here? The Lord
is my portion. Not the world, not the things
of the flesh, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. Sometimes, you see, God deals
with us to reveal the evil of our hearts and to cause us to
mourn over our sin. And after thee, after the Saviour,
the Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Remember here, you see,
he's speaking here about the soul, just the same as David
did in that 42nd Psalm. Why art thou cast out, O my soul? It's the soul that we're concerned
about. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore will
I hope in Him. Well, it's a favour to have our
hope in our God. Don't look anywhere else. Don't
look for relief from other people. Don't look for help from other
people. And I will, I hope in Him. God is our refuge and strength. very present help in trouble
what a mercy that is and then Jeremiah continues to tell us
the Lord is good unto them that wait for him my soul wait now
only upon God and so the Lord is good unto
such as Again, going back to the 40th Psalm, where David said,
I waited patiently for the Lord. The Lord tells us, your time
is always, but my time is not yet. We want things now, don't
we? God has said, your time is always,
my time is not yet. And why? Because God's time is
a perfect time. God knows the end from the beginning.
He knows the end of your life. We anticipate tomorrow. God knows
the end. Therefore will I hope in Him. The Lord is good unto them that
wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. You see, we are
to wait and we are to seek. Faced with this difficult situation,
faced with this life that we have found to be trying and difficult
and don't seem to get any relief? Well, we're told here by this
man, Jeremiah, who'd walked this path. He knew what he was talking
about. It wasn't hypothetical. And the
things of God are not hypothetical. There is an end. There is a purpose. There is a reason. The Lord is
good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh
him. It is good that a man should
both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. These are wonderful words, aren't
they, of instruction for us. To realize that here we have
two godly men who will really a similar path, but had their
confidence in their God. And that sure is what you and
I need today. And you know, there was that
wonderful occasion, wasn't there? It was King Hezekiah. And King
Hezekiah, he had to endure a time of sickness, didn't he? And he
had, we might say, a wonderfully good and easy life so far, but
the Lord saw fit to afflict him, and in that affliction he was
very sick. But the Lord graciously healed
him, and the Lord graciously came and blessed him. And what
did Hezekiah then say? He said, O Lord, by these things
men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit, the
life of my soul, so that they'll recover me and make me to live. He tells us, Behold, for peace
I had great bitterness, but thou hast in love to my soul delivered
it from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins
behind thy back. Well, that was a wonderful blessing,
and that was a wonderful favour, and a wonderful experience. But
it's good that we have recorded a statement like this, by these
things men live. And you know, when we look into
our spiritual life, we realise that if it wasn't for the good
hand of God upon us, we would not be found lively or living
spiritually, we would find we would so easily become taken
up with carnal things and worldly things and our soul would be
at ease. Well, Jeremiah was sick unto
death, but the Lord had mercy upon him. The Lord heard his
cry. The Lord brought him out of it
added to his life as we know 15 years and favored him in this
way so that he was able to testify that in all these things is the
life of my spirit so will thou recover me and make me to live. Well may you and I be concerned
about our spiritual life Sometimes, therefore, the Lord causes us
to be brought into situations no doubt not as severe as Job
or Jeremiah, but nonetheless we have some little introduction
to what he's speaking of and we can understand and perhaps
the blessing is that we find these characters in the Word
of God as companions because we can walk with them. But, you
see, There is the negative, but there is the positive. And you
and I don't want to be left in the negative side. We want to
be moved to the positive side. And the positive side is, just
like Job says, having made this statement, my bone cleaveth to
my skin and to my flesh and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth,
virtually nothing left and then he's able to come and to point
us to this great truth and may our eyes be lifted up to the
Lord Jesus even tonight to be able to say with that humble
confidence because we realize his hand has been upon us for
good not for evil for good and it's brought us to that position
so that by his grace We know that his hand's been upon us
for good. And because his hand's been on
us for good, we believe there is a God in heaven. We believe
there is a God who looks upon us, who's merciful to us. We
believe there is a God who loved us so much that he gave his life
for us to atone for all our sins. He shared his most precious,
and valuable blood that we might be redeemed, redeemed with a
precious blood of God, this wonderful Redeemer. And he said, I know
that my Redeemer liveth, Job lived before the Lord Jesus came
on this earth. But my friends, can we not say
the same today? By the grace of God, I know that my Redeemer liveth, the
risen Savior, Yes, the Saviour in this day, He hadn't yet come.
He lived, but now He's come. He's alive forevermore. I know
that my Redeemer liveth. That one who has redeemed my
soul. Job looked for that redemption. He realised his condition. He
knew he needed a Redeemer, and his eyes were up to the heavens,
to the Lord Himself. I know that my Redeemer liveth,
and he shall stand the latter day upon the earth. And though
after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I
see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold,
and not another." What a wonderful view Jeremiah had of the resurrection,
to realize the day would come when his body would be resurrected
and he would be raised incorruptible and undefiled into that wonderful
place of glory, there to behold his savior, his redeemer, that
one in whom he trusted. Well, may you and I be blessed
with living faith to look beyond the things of this poor world,
look to that great and glorious time when by his grace we shall
be with Christ, which is far better. Well, to be able to come
and say, with that humble confidence, like Job, and it's good to have
a humble confidence, to be able to say from our heart, the devil
will say, you can't say that, when you can tell the devil is
a liar, because you have the evidence of the life of God,
in your soul because of the way the Lord has dealt with you in
love to your soul like he did with Jeremiah and therefore have
that humble confidence that you also will be able to stand and
say for I know that my redeemer liveth and that he shall stand
at the latter day upon the earth and after my skin worms destroy
this body yet in my flesh I see God whom I shall see for myself
and mine eye shall behold, and not another. Amen.