We turn again to the book of
Job this morning and we considered before the calamity that came
upon Job as we read of in the first two chapters of how Job,
this man that was perfect and upright, one that feared God
and eschewed evil, this man with many possessions, How God said
unto Satan when Satan approached him, Hast thou considered my
servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect
and an upright man, one that feareth God and is sheweth evil?
But Satan answered the Lord and said, Doth Job fear God for naught? Hast thou not made an hedge about
him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every
side? has blessed the work of his hands and his substance is
increased in the land but put forth thine hand now and touch
all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face and the
lord said unto satan behold all that he hath is in thy power
only upon himself put not forth thine hand so satan went forth
from the presence of the lord and we read on in chapter one
of how Disaster comes upon Job's family of how his children and
his sons are all destroyed and of how all of his wealth is taken
from him. We read his remarkable reaction
to this. that he arose, rent his mantle,
and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
and said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall
I return thither. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath
taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
In all this Job said not, nor charged God foolishly. And then
in chapter 2 we read of how Satan comes again. Again there was
a day when the sons of god came to present themselves before
the lord and satan came also among them to present himself
before the lord and the lord said unto satan from whence comest
thou and satan answered the lord and said from going to and fro
in the earth and from walking up and down in it and the lord
said unto satan Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is
none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that
feareth God and is sheweth evil? And still he holdeth fast his
integrity, although thou movest me against him to destroy him
without cause. And Satan answered the Lord and
said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give
for his life. but put forth thine hand now
and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy
face.' And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine
hand, but save his life. So Satan went forth from the
presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the
sole of his foot under his crown. And he took him a potsherd to
scrape himself withal, and he sat down among the ashes. Then
said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. But he said
unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh.
What, shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we
not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with
his lips. Now when Job's three friends
heard of all this evil that was come upon him, They came, every
one from his own place. Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad
the Shuhite, and Zophar the Nehemiphite. For they had made an appointment
together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. And when
they lifted up their eyes afar off and knew him not, they lifted
up their voice and wept. And they rent every one his mantle
and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. So they
sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights and
none speak a word unto him for they saw that his grief was very
great. They sat down with him upon the
ground seven days and seven nights and none speak a word unto him
for they saw that his grief was very great. We see in this chapter how Job's
sufferings are greatly increased. Having lost everything Having
lost all his wealth, having lost all his cattle, sheep, having
lost his children, Satan comes again and says, oh well, skin
for skin, yea all that a man hath will he give for his life.
Job retains his integrity because he's still healthy. But put forth
thine hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will
curse thee to thy face. For the Lord delivers Job into
Satan's hand. And Satan afflicts Job with sore
boils from the sole of his foot under his crown. And yet Job maintains his integrity. Shall we receive good at the
hand of God and shall we not receive evil? In all this did
not Job sin with his lips. We cannot imagine the depth of
Job's sufferings here. The anguish he's in, the pain,
the torment, the greatness of this trial. But God gives him
the faith to trust in the midst of this sorrow. And then at the end of this chapter
we read of Job's three friends of whom we shall hear much more
from in the course of this book. Three so-called friends who come
supposedly to comfort Job. But then as we read later in
the book, their reasoning and their discourse and their arguments
are forever accusing Job, are forever finding fault with him,
are forever saying, this that has come upon thee Job, where
you are with nothing, the pitiful state you're in, it's all your
fault Job. You've done some sin, you've
done some great wrong, you've not trusted God, you've not believed
him as you should, you've not walked as you should, it's all
your fault Job, it must be. And what pitiful comfort their
words are to him. Their words come as just further
arrows, further darts that pierce him. Here he is in suffering
wanting comfort and all they can do is accuse him. But here at the end of chapter
1 we hear these men at their wisest. When they sit down with him upon
the ground for seven days and seven nights none spake a word unto him. Thereafter in chapter 3 Job speaks
and they reply. But here for seven days and seven
nights hearing this silence as they sit down with him upon the
ground seeing that his grief was very great They sit in silence and here
in this silence we see these men at their wisest. They held their tongue and they
beheld. They looked on as the Lord's
servant suffered silently. many ways this one verse is a
hugely significant part of this book. One verse which to many might
seem an insignificant pause as we go from the events of the
first two chapters into the discourses that follow but really this is
a vital pause. between what poured down upon
the Lord's servant, the great tragedy and calamity
which came upon him, the suffering that came upon him and the words
which follow on in the book that try to make sense of everything
that happened. Here in a silent seven days seven
nights we have a glimpse into the heart of the matter, into
the depths of Job's sufferings, into their meaning and unto what
they truly point. They sat down with him upon the
ground seven days and seven nights and none spake a word unto him
For they saw that his grief was very great. There was silence. Seven days and seven nights. Now what are these seven days
and seven nights? And why did they sit there in
silence with him for so long? Well in the scriptures we read
of seven days in a number of places. Seven being the number of perfection. Here we see a perfect work. A work of God wrought upon Job
to perfection. A work which was creative in
its consequences, which sets forth for Job and
for all God's saints that read of him, a wonderful picture of the gospel,
a wonderful glimpse into the sufferings of the servant of
God, the Lord Jesus Christ. a glance into the silence of
his sufferings upon the cross. Here we see how the Lord showed
Job his son through Job's own sufferings. How the Lord increased
Job's faith and set his gaze upon Christ his Redeemer. and
how the Lord would point us to the one that suffered for our
sins. In Genesis we read the account
of how God created the heaven and the earth in those seven days. The six
days in which he spake and created all things and the seventh day
in which he rested. And in these seven days and seven
nights of silence as Job suffered, God wrought a great creative
work in him and for him and for us in bringing his sufferings
to perfection. to point us unto the Saviour. We read elsewhere in the scriptures
of how seven days were a period of mourning a perfect period of mourning
so these three friends sat and mourned for their friend Job
for that perfect time when Joseph was laid in the grave
at the end of Genesis when he died and was buried. We read
in Genesis 50 10 that they came to the freshened floor of Etad
which is beyond Jordan and there they mourned with a great and
very sore lamentation and he made a mourning for his father
seven days. They remembered They mourned
their loss. And here, Job's friends mourn
for all he's lost. In Exodus, we read of the Feast
of Unleavened Bread, which lasted for seven days.
7 days shall ye eat unleavened
bread. Even the first day ye shall put
away leaven out of your houses. For whosoever eateth leavened
bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall
be cut off from Israel. They held this feast of unleavened
bread. A picture of the suffering of
their Saviour. A picture of a sinless unleavened
Savior who would go to the cross for
his people and bear the sins of his people in order that he
should take those sins away. Unleavened. Unleavened bread. Christ who
knew no sin was made sin that we might be made the righteousness
of god in him that feast that the children of israel remembered
for seven days pointed them to the cross and to the savior they sat down with him upon the
ground seven days and seven nights and none spake a word under him
For they saw that his grief was very great. And then in Joshua we read a
wonderful picture of what happened at Jericho. Of the destruction of Jericho.
A picture, again, of Christ at the cross and the victory of
the gospel. In Hebrews 11, the writer makes reference to
Jericho. By faith, the walls of Jericho
fell down. After that, they were compassed
about seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab perished
not with them that believed not when she had received the spies
with peace. By faith. In Joshua we read of this encircling of
Jericho. Now Jericho was straightly shut
up, because of the children of Israel. None went out and none
came in. So the Lord said unto Joshua,
See I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof,
and the mighty men of valor. And ye shall compass the city,
all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt
thou do six days. And seven priests shall bear
before the ark seven trumpets of ram's horns and the seventh
day ye shall compass the city seven times and the priests shall
blow with the trumpets and it shall come to pass that when
they shall make a long blast with the ram's horn and when
ye hear the sound of the trumpet all the people shall shout with
a great shout and the wall of the city shall fall down flat
and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him. This picture in Joshua set forth the people of God encircling
this city. Six times they marched round
silently and those in the city would have
looked out and seen them quietly marching round wondering what
they were about. And then on the seventh day they
compassed the city seven times victoriously the priests blew
the trumpets of ram's horns the seven trumpets of ram's horns
they blew the sound of the gospel they declared the victory of
Christ in the gospel they blew the trumpet to say it is finished
it is accomplished and the walls of the city fell down flat and
the people entered it took the city in entirety. And this victory of the gospel
is exactly what God does for his people today. We may sit
as a city with high walls and the sound of the gospel may be
kept out we may have these walls these defenses that we've built
up and we will not hear We will not believe. So great are the
walls of our hearts. So strong and mighty are they. So confident are we in our own
wisdom and our own ways and our own desires. We don't need God. We don't need Christ. We don't
need his gospel. And there we sit in the midst
of our city with our walls standing high. But should God come our
way, and encircle us and bring the gospel our way
he will circle us six times in silence and in the seventh time
he will blow the horns of the gospel victoriously and the walls
will fall down flat and his voice will enter in the dead in the
graves as we are by nature shall hear the voice of the Son of
God and live. Oh what a glorious seven days
those were at Jericho. And how these seven days of Job's
suffering remind us of them. God wrought a perfect work of
salvation. What Job suffered for seven days
and seven nights here in silence was but a picture of what God
wrought in his son upon the cross in the darkness. They sat down with him upon the
ground seven days and seven nights and none spake a word unto him. These friends came, they lifted
up their eyes afar off and saw Job and knew him not. He was so covered in boils, his
visage was so marred They did not recognize him. This was not
the Job of old. This was not the Job they once
knew. He was disfigured. He was covered from head to toe. They did not recognize him. Oh the sorrow that had come down
upon him and so moved are they that they rent their clothes
and they cover their heads with dust and they sit down upon the
ground in silence they're speechless they're so moved at what's come
upon him they cannot but speak they just sat down and looked Isaiah writes of Christ. Who
have believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant
and as a root out of a dry ground he have no form nor comeliness
and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire
him He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from
him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep,
have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.
He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before
her shearers is done, so he opened if not his mouth. He was taken
from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the
land of the living. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken, and he made his grave with the wicked and
with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence, neither
was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed.
He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hands. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied, for by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. O Christ, as he suffered, was
a man of sorrows. despised and rejected of men
and we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and
we esteemed him not. Here these friends of Job see
Job in much the same way that God's people would come to see
Christ suffering in their place. cast out, rejected of all, cut
off from the land of the living, oppressed, afflicted, stricken, smitten of God, no
beauty that we should desire him. Oh the depths he suffered to
deliver his people from their sins. Well, these three friends
sat down. Sat down in silence with Job
as he suffered, just as they would sit down at the cross when
Christ hung in the place of his people. As we read in Matthew 27, They
gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall, and when he had tasted
thereof he would not drink. And they crucified him, and parted
his garments, casting lots. That it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by the prophet, they parted my garments among them,
and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down,
they watched him there. and set up over his head his
accusation written, this is Jesus the King of the Jews. Sitting down they watched him
there. They looked on in silence and saw the Saviour, the Son
of God hanging on a cross hanging by pierced hands and pierced
feet, brutally dropped into the ground upon a stake. They saw him wretched, beaten,
bruised. They saw the stripes on his back. They saw the blood. They saw
the disfigured face. They saw the blood on his head
from the crown of thorns that the soldiers had put on him in
mockery and scorn. Then the light of the sun was
taken away and darkness was upon the face of the earth for three
hours. And as Christ hung, bearing the
sins of his people, bearing their reproach, bearing their sorrow,
bearing their guilt, bearing their shame as he was made sin
in their place, As he drunk the cup of God's wrath to the dregs,
as God poured down His fury against sin, against the sins of His
people, upon His own Son. As God suffered in Christ, as
the Son suffered upon the cross, enduring the outpouring of God's
wrath to the very end, the people sat down. As God brought you, like those
at the cross, like these three friends of Job, to sit down where
Christ is. To sit down where he is made
known. To sit down where you hear the
gospel. To sit down and look by faith
upon him as he suffered. Has God given you faith to look
upon him and to see him bearing your sins? Did he suffer there
for you? he was wounded for our transgressions
he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace
was upon him and with his stripes we are healed as he caused you to sit down
there in the darkness in the silence
in the seven days and seven nights as it were God given you to see
Christ suffering for you. They sat down with him upon the
ground seven days and seven nights and none spake a word unto him
for they saw that his grief was very great. Oh to be brought to sit down
not with Job he's just the picture but to sit down with God's servant,
Jesus Christ, God's Son, and behold. Behold my Son. Behold the Lamb of God. There were times when Christ
was upon this earth when poor, wretched, weak sinners The needy
were brought to sit down with him. 5,000 were brought to sit down upon
grass. 5,000 hungry, needy sinners sat
down with Christ and he fed them. Has God caused you to sit down
at the cross and to feed on the Lamb of God? to be given his
blood to drink and his body the bread of life to eat. Has God
given you the water of life and the bread of life? Has he caused
you to be silent and to hear his Son? Or are we full of our
own words our own wisdom our own opinion still racing around
doing our own thing full of ourself full of striving to get to heaven
as it were by our own wisdom or as God touched our mouths
and silenced us and set the gaze of faith upon Christ they sat
down and none spake a word Yes, there was silence. At the cross
there was darkness over the face of the earth for three hours.
Silence. Darkness. What happened in those
hours, we cannot comprehend. But God wrought the salvation
of all his people throughout all time in that silence. At Jericho it was circled daily
in silence as God brought his perfect work of deliverance of
salvation to its conclusion and then at the end with Christ when
he cried out with a loud voice, it is finished. So at Jericho
they blew the ram's horns, they blew the trumpet of the gospel
and shouted out in victory, it is finished. It owed nothing to man. They sat down as it were and
We sat down and beheld the Saviour upon the cross, we do nothing. And God gives us faith to see
and to hear Christ cry, it is finished. It is finished. as God brought you there. We go on to read in this book
of how Job opens his mouth and of how his friends answer him
and of how in the end the Lord speaks and silences the wisdom
of men and brings to naught the wisdom of men and sets all glory
upon his son alone. For we see that today, don't
we? The silence of the cross has
passed. The accomplishments of the cross
are over in time. And we live in a day where men
live and there's an increase of religion in the 2,000 years
since. and how many there are who will
look back upon the cross and look back upon Christ and they
will discuss and they will discern and they will deliver their discourses. they like these free men will
look upon the suffering of Job as it were and the suffering
of Christ and they will say it's because of this and because of
that and it means this and it means that and you must do this
and you must do that and how the wisdom of man in religion
looks at these things and how foolish it all is How blind it
all is by nature. How blind we are until God brings
us to an end of ourselves and puts our wisdom in the grave
and brings it to nothing. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it
is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Have not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews
require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach
Christ crucified. Unto the Jews a stumbling block,
and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and
the weakness of God is stronger than men. Oh are you racing round
in your own wisdom, disputing, arguing, full of your own thoughts,
has God brought you to silence, to sit down by his suffering
servant? Has he closed your mouth? And
as you look upon that which outwardly the world discards as foolishness,
as weakness, when you look upon Job in his suffering, in his
weakness, When you look upon Christ upon the cross, in his
weakness, has God given you the faith to see in the silence,
to see in those three hours, to see in the seven nights and
seven days, that what men see as weak was the power of God. the power of God in the gospel
when Christ died he accomplished the work of salvation when Christ
died he wrought a great victory when he died he shouted out as
it were at the blast of seven rams trumpets it is finished
It is finished. Oh may God give us grace, give
us faith to sit silently at the cross, to sit silently with his
servant and to look by faith upon him and see our salvation
accomplished. they sat down with him upon the
ground seven days and seven nights and none spake a word unto him
for they saw that his grief was very great. Amen.