Evening, if you would open your
Bibles to the book of Job, start maybe in chapter 2. So I think if we look at today,
when you look at what most people did this morning, they say, you
know, it's Easter morning, and a lot of people who probably
don't attend church decide to show up and come somewhere. And
I think it's fair to say that we live in a day of fair weather
beliefism, that when it's convenient to believe, when God's convenient
to have in your life, people do it. And when it's not convenient,
well, they have other things that are important to them. As
long as everything's fine in my life and how things are with
respect to me, then I'm fine with God. But let things not
go okay. Let things go where you have
an experience of loss. You have a loss of a loved one.
Somebody gets sick and you pray for them and they don't get better.
You have strife in your home. constant conflict, you have trouble
in your job, business is failing, you're praying, you're asking
for help and it seems that you have no answer. Does God not
hear me? These thoughts go through our
heads. Now how do we feel about God when these things happen?
It doesn't take long for most folks to complain. They start
saying things like, I just don't understand what God is doing.
Does He not see what's going on? You hear them, you watch
the news, you see, I mean, horrible things that have happened here
lately. These kids getting shot in their schools and things like
that going on that you don't even, we don't even think about
each day. And then these things invade our space and we see,
my goodness, what just happened? And they say, God wasn't here. He wasn't there when that happened.
He can't be in this." And then let them find out what you believe.
And they say, your God allowed this to happen? You believe that
He's in control of all things, good and bad, and He allowed
this to happen? That's the God that you believe
in? And this is to presume that had He been watching, it wouldn't
have happened at all, that He wasn't watching. This never would
have happened. So his decrees are now in question. God is under our microscope and
we're saying, I wouldn't do things this way. But yet your God chose
to do them that way. This is right where we find Job.
So we're going to look at some events in this man's life. He
experienced more loss and trial than probably anybody in here.
And we don't even know what all he went through to the extent
of it other than what we read, but we can know this, he had
a lot to say. And so I want to look at tonight
what he had to say and also what were God's response to him. So
if we look at this to kind of get some perspective of what's
happened with Job, In Job chapter 2 and verse 10,
you know at this time his family has been killed, his goods have
been either taken, burned up, or lost, and now his health is
lost, so he's lost all these things. And so in this it says
in 2 verse 10, I'm in chapter 3. Well, I missed where I'm at here.
I can't find where I've got the verse, but he says, in all this,
did Job not sin with his lips? 210, okay, maybe I'm, I flipped
two pages. Yes, then he said unto her, thanks,
Matt. Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. This
is his wife. What, shall we receive good at
the hand of God and not receive evil? In all this, did Job not
sin with his lips? I think this language is particular
here, that they let us know he didn't sin with his lips. He
didn't say anything about his heart. So, this lets us know
where Job is coming from here. Now, if you look down in chapter
3 and verse 1, after this, after considering all these things
and not sinning with his lips, Job opened his mouth. That was
his first problem. and he cursed the day he was
born. And then go down to verse 20. Wise light given to him,
wise light and life given to him that is in misery, speaking
of himself, and life unto the bitter in soul, which long for
death. All I want to do is to die, but
it doesn't come, and dig for it more than hid treasures. So
he's saying, why doesn't this come? And then in verse 23, why
is light given to man whose way is hid and whom God hath hedged
in? He's saying, all I want to do
is to die. You did this. Why do you keep
allowing me to live on and go through this? Why are you allowing
this? Turn over to chapter six. In verse 8 and 9, he says, "'Oh,
that I might have my request, and that God would grant me the
thing that I longed for, even that it would please God to destroy
me, that He would let loose His hand and to cut me off.'" Down
to verse 22. "'Did I say unto God, bring to
me or give me a reward of your substance?' or deliver me from
the enemy's hand, or redeem me from the hand of the mighty.
Teach me, and I'll hold my tongue, I'll be quiet, and cause me to
understand wherein I've erred." So you see what he's saying here.
He said, did I ask something from you? Did I ask you to do
something for me that you brought all this on me now? Did I ask
an ear? So he's blaming God and saying,
what did I do to deserve all this? Maybe if I had asked for
those things, yeah, I would feel like I deserved something wrong.
But he's saying, what did I do to deserve all this? Chapter
7, verse 1. Is not there an appointed time
to man upon the earth? Are not his days like the days
of a hireling? As a servant earnestly desires
the shadow, he wants relief from his efforts and his labors. And
as the hireling looking for the reward of his work, so am I made
to possess months of vanity. And wearisome nights are appointed
to me. When I lie down, I say, when
shall I rise? And the night be gone. And I'm
full of tossings to and fro until the dawn of the morning. Why
have you built me up for nothing is what he's saying. You've built
me up as a straw man just to knock me down. Why have you done
this to me? And in verse 9, as the cloud
is consumed and vanishes away, so it's here for a moment, gone
tomorrow, so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no
more. He shall return no more to his house. Neither shall his
place know him any more. I will disappear and be gone.
Therefore, and here's his problem, I will not refrain my mouth,
and I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain
in the bitterness of my soul. Am I a sea or a whale that thou
settest watch over me? Can you imagine this? He's asking
the Lord here. He's saying, am I worth really
your time to look on and to gaze upon me to continue this, what's
been going on with me, that you won't stop? That's what he's
saying. And in verse 13, when I say my
bed shall comfort me, I can lay down and get some relief. My
couch shall ease my complaint. Then thou scarest me with dreams
and terrifies me through visions, so that my soul chooses strangling
and death rather than life. He's saying, I'm looking for
some relief to lay down on my bed, just to get some relief
from what's going on. And then what you do is you send
dreams to scare me. And all I want to do is be strangled
to death and die. So that my soul, in verse 15,
chooses strangling and death rather than my life. I loathe
it, I hate it. I would not live always. Let
me alone for my days are vanity. What is man that thou shouldest
magnify him, and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him, and
that thou shouldest visit him every morning and try him every
moment? How long will thou not depart
from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle? I
have sinned. And what shall I do unto thee,
O thou preserver of men? Why hast thou set me as a mark
against thee, so that I am a burden to myself? And why dost thou
not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? For
now shall I sleep in the dust, and thou shalt seek me in the
morning, and I shall not be." So you can see in his response
to God here, he's very angry. He is very angry that he's alive.
And he's saying, why are you taking the time to look at me?
Why keep me alive? And I find this language interesting.
O thou preserver of men. He's mocking God. He's saying,
this is a game to you. Why are you keeping me alive
through this? And in chapter nine, verse two. I know it so
of a truth. How should man be just with God? If he will contend with him,
he can't answer him one of a thousand. He's wise in heart and mighty
in strength. And who hath hardened himself
against him in prosperity, saying, I'm just, but you don't accept
me. I can argue against you, but
you're not going to accept what I have to say. You're stronger
than me. In verse 22 now, chapter nine. This is one thing, therefore
I said it. He destroyeth the perfect and
the wicked." Now he's got some strong words here. He's calling
God unjust. He's saying, whether I'm good
or bad, you punish me. Verse, read on. If the scourge
slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent.
The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the
faces of the judges thereof. If not, where and who is he?
Now my days are swifter than a post. They flee away and they
see no good. They're passed away as swift
ships and as the eagle that hasteneth to the prey. If I say, I will
forget my complaint. I will leave off my heaviness
and comfort myself. I am afraid of all my sorrows.
I know that thou will not hold me innocent. If I be wicked,
then why labor I in vain? If I wash myself with snow water
and make my hands never so clean, Yet thou shalt plunge me in the
ditch, and my own clothes shall abhor me." So what does Job think
about himself here? Job thinks that he's clean. He's
saying, if I wash my hands ever so clean, what are you going
to do with me? You're going to throw me right
down in the mire. He believed himself to be righteous. He believed
himself to be unjustly punished, and he believed God was wrong
in what he did in punishing him and bringing things on him. He
believed God was powerful but unjust and silent to his cries. Have we ever been brought here?
Well, Job was. Is God still to be worshiped
if he does nothing for you and passes you by? What about your wife? What about
your spouse? What about your children? Now
I don't want this. There's nothing that I want more
than to be saved, than for my wife and children to know the
gospel and to be saved. But He's still God if He does.
I don't want that. But He's still God and He's to
be worshipped and bowed to. I ask him to save my wife, to
save my children, but give me the grace to bear whatever you
bring in my path. I don't know what's best for
me." And neither did Job here. You see, although Job didn't
sin with his lips, in chapter 1 you'll read of him offering
prayers for his children in the event that they might have sinned.
So he's trying to cover all his bases. He thinks that he's got
it all covered. But in reality here, Job didn't
know the Lord. He had some knowledge of who
He was. He knew a lot of things about Him. But in terms of his
experience in this life, he didn't know Him. All right, now let's
go over to chapter 40. This is where we're going to
spend the rest of our time. So Job has some miserable comforters
that give him a lot of really bad advice. They all believe
themselves to be righteous and are basically saying, you know,
Job, if you didn't do anything wrong, none of this stuff would
have happened. That's pretty much the sum of everything they
said in the next 21 chapters and him complaining the whole
way through. So in Job chapter 40, At this
point, the Lord has been answering him, and basically Job has been
silent and listened to what the Lord says. So let's look at a
few things that the Lord said to him here and see what his
response was. In chapter 40, I'm sorry, in
verse 1 and 2, moreover the Lord answered Job and said, shall
he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? He that reproveth
God, let him answer it." And what this says is, he that contendeth,
that word means fault finder. So the he that is a fault finder
with God, with the Almighty, shall he correct him? Are you
going to correct God because he didn't have things go the
way you wanted? Are we going to hold him guilty
because things are not personally the way I want it in my life
at this moment? That's where Job was, and that's
what the Lord is saying to him. What will you say, Job? Will
you find fault with God? Will you correct him that wronged
you? Will you tell him what he ought to have done? That's perhaps
what Job should have done. Well, what do you have to say
to this God, Job, the one who's on the throne, the one whose
decrees are done and in whom hand you are, the Almighty? In
verses 4 and 5, he says, behold, after God spoke to him, I'm vile. What shall I answer thee? I will
lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will
not answer. Yay twice, but I will proceed
no further." He's saying, I have some understanding in seeing
who you are at this point, and I hate myself. I'm vile. What am I going to answer? He's
saying, I'm vile. I will lay my hand upon my mouth,
and I've spoken not once but twice." He spoke a whole lot
more than that, Job, but he's saying, I'm going to put my hand
on my mouth now. This is the only response to one who's seen
God. When we see Him in His holiness,
the only response is we have some idea of who we are. you
don't really have any idea of how sinful and how corrupt you
are until you see who He is, because really all we have to
compare against is one another, and most of the time we can always
find somebody that we're not as bad as them, so you always
make out, but when we're compared to holiness, to perfection, to
He whose ways are truth and whose eyes see only light, Oh, we wind
up in the dust. We wind up as we're corrupt.
He said, behold, I'm vile. I'm ashamed. Every motive, every
thought that I have is corrupt. This is a product of our evil
nature. You see, we talked a little bit about Cain and Abel this
morning. They came by works. because they were fallen from
their Father. They were fallen from their Father
and they were estranged from God. So all the children of men,
that's everybody in here, we're all sinners. And that's all we
can do because that's the nature that we've been left with after
our spiritual nature died in Adam. And so all our thoughts,
even the best intentions, they're corrupt and they're impure before
God. It's a product of our evil nature, and I'm ashamed. When I see him, I think that's
the one feeling. Once you have an understanding
of the joy that we have in Christ, I think the believer also feels
something of his shame because you have some idea of how bad
you really are, and what's worse It's been that way all along.
How many years went by? How many years have I continued
year after year where I didn't know the Lord and it's been that
way all along? And he saw me. His eyes were
upon me and I had no regard for it. So I think that's part of
our shame, our walk and our path in this life, that he knew how
bad it was and we didn't, we didn't have any idea. So I'm
ashamed of that. So what does the Lord say to
him? Then answered the Lord unto Job out of the whirlwind, and
said, Gird up thy loins now like a man, and I will demand of thee,
and declare thou unto me, saying, Not good enough, Job. You had
a lot to say before, now what do you have to say now? And verse
8, Without dissenal my judgment Will thou condemn me that thou
might be made righteous? He's saying, are you gonna make
void my judgment? You're gonna tell me that me
being God, you found a better way to do this than me? You're
gonna make me unjust because you don't like your plight in
this life? We all know the answer here, believer and unbeliever,
yet look at what men say, because we know the answer is no, we're
not going to make, you know, void, you know, God's judgment,
but look at what people say. Men condemn God for His holiness.
First thing you find out when you find out God's holy and He
demands perfection and only perfection, the first thing you say is, well,
nobody can do that. What does that have to do with
anything? These are His ways, and He says holiness is what
He's going to accept, and men say, that's too harsh. Nobody
can do that. Nobody can be perfect all the
time. Men condemn God for His predestinating work in saving
a sinner. They say, that's not fair. Why
would He pass by some and save others when, as we said this
morning, it's how could He save anybody at all? They condemn
Him for His predestinating work when in reality that's the only
way we can be saved. Men condemn God when they hear
the Son say, no man cometh unto the Father but by Me. Christ
is an offense. I don't want to come by Him.
Why do I have to come by Him? We try to find other ways. We
put Him outside knocking at the door. We do things to slight
His character and steal His glory. Men don't want to come by Christ.
Men condemn God that they can't believe because they're spiritually
dead. They say, that's not fair. That's not right. Man has a free
will. I can choose to believe if I
want to. This is men condemning God for His judgments. Men condemn
God when they deny that they're utterly corrupt by nature. They
say things like, I know what's in my heart, when this stands
in light of scriptures that say the heart's desperately wicked,
and who could know it? So these things stand completely
in light of scripture that says otherwise, but yet men condemn
God for this. Can the Ethiopian change his
skin? or the leopard changes spots, then you who are accustomed
to doing evil also do good. So we're not going to be able
to change. We are the way we are, and these
are God's decrees. So what we're saying here is
when we're condemning God for His judgments is, I don't like
what God says, and I want to do it another way. I know a better
way. Let's pick up in verse 9. This
is the Lord speaking to Job again. Hast thou an arm like God? Canst
thou thunder with a voice like him? Anytime we read about the
arm of the Lord, that's speaking of His power. That's speaking
of His infinite reach that has no boundaries. His power, what
is His power? How is His power demonstrated?
His power is demonstrated in being able to raise the dead,
to give spiritual life to those who are dead. That's what we're
doing right here in the preaching of the gospel. We're hoping,
we're praying, we're asking for the Holy Spirit to be here with
us, to bless the Word, to prepare our hearts, to quicken us, to
give us life. This is His power. His power
has given us eyes to see God in His Word, to see where our
hope is in Christ. I can remember growing up hearing
our pastor tell us that, you know, I don't see how somebody
can read chapter upon chapter upon chapter of the Bible. He
said, there's so much in it. He said, you miss Christ. Christ
is in every verse. We might not always see Him.
Hadn't that been your experience? You read something and you don't
see something in it and years later you read it again and you're
like, bam, it just jumps out at you. The gospel's in there.
That's Him giving you eyes to see, Him and His Word. His power
to break our stony hearts. You see, the easy thing for us
to do is to be like Job here. We find fault with God. We clench
our fist, we say, I'm not gonna have that, and why isn't he listening
to me? Don't you hear my cry? No, he
breaks our stony heart and causes us to bow and say things like
Job did, though he slay me, yet I'll trust him. It may take me
down, but I'm gonna follow him nonetheless. All right, let's
pick up in verse 10. The Lord says, deck thyself now
with majesty and with excellency and array thyself with glory
and beauty. So array thyself here, this means
to put on. So he's saying, all right, Job,
you think you're somebody, you think you have a better way,
put on majesty, put on excellency, put on glory, beautify yourself. To be able to put something on
necessitates that you have it in the first place. And this
is what God is saying to Job here, you've got no glory. Put
it on if you have it. Show me. Show me your excellency. Show me your wisdom. Show me
these things that you purport to say you have. He doesn't have
any of those things. So the Lord's saying, put them
on. but that also lets us see the other side of that, how glorious
the Lord Jesus Christ is, because He can put those things on. and
we entreat him to do so. Lord, glorify yourself. Glorify
yourself to the salvation of a sinner. Show me that I'm nothing. Cause me to come to you as a
beggar. He's glorified in that, and we rejoice in that. It takes
a regenerate heart. It takes someone who's been saved
and sees him to be able to glory in the exaltation of another. Because really, if we're honest,
we're just about exalting ourselves. And anything we do, it's in some
way to make ourselves look or feel better about ourselves,
but not with Him. The believer can look to Him
and say, He gets all the glory. I don't want any of it. We have
no greater friend. He saved us, so it's to His honor
and His glory to put on excellency and majesty. All right, let's
read on. In verse 11 he says, cast abroad
the rage of thy wrath, and behold everyone that is proud, and abase
him. Look upon everyone that is proud,
and bring him low, and tread down the wicked in their place.
So what this is speaking of is the fear of God. This is speaking
the fear of God and His judgments and His ability to pass sentence
upon men. He's saying, all right, Job,
you're so great. You have all the answers. Pass judgment upon
men. Can you hold people to a standard
that you can't keep yourself? God can. We can't. But He's challenging
Job here saying, are you going to bind him who's proud because
you're not proud yourself? So he's challenging Job in these
things that he can't do. So what shall he say unto him?
What doest thou? Is this going to be his question
to him? No. Job has nothing to say at this
point. You remember the story of the
fiery furnace? King Nebuchadnezzar, he heated
the furnace up and he made people bow down to the idol and the
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedgo, they wouldn't bow down to it.
They said, look, God may save us or He may not, but He delivers
from this, but we're not going to bow either way. So He heated
up the furnace, and they were thrown in, and then King Nebuchadnezzar
was made to see that there was a fourth one walking around in
the fire with them. He had been able to see the Lord
Jesus Christ in a pre-manifestation in the flesh. And this had a
very strong impact upon him. It changed him. And so it said,
Nebuchadnezzar, he saw who the God of the Bible was, and he
made the decree, if any people, nation, or language say anything
against this God, he said, they're going to be cut into pieces.
and their house is going to be made a dunghill because there's
no other God that can deliver after this sword. To be able
to deliver from that sort of judgment, that sort of power,
you have to be a greater power yourself. And what he's telling
Job here, you don't even have the power to bind these people
and to cast them into judgment. You're more weak than they are,
so why are you even saying these things? All right. Verse 13. Hide them in the dust, together,
and bind their fecuses in secret. This is letting us know that
He has the keys to death and to hell. If the Lord, there's
one day that men will be bound. When we are made to stand before
the judgment of the throne, men will be bound and cast into hell. And He's saying, He's letting
us know that He has the power over death and hell. And he's
telling Job here in verse 13, he said, why don't you do this
if you can? He can't. And then finally, in verse 14,
and this is kind of where I'm zeroing in at the end, then will
I confess unto you after you can do all these things we just
read about. After you can show us your strength,
your wisdom and judgment, do you have power to do these things?
Put on glory, put on majesty, bind others under the wrath and
judgment of God. When you can do these things,
verse 14, then I'll confess unto you that your own right hand
can save you. See, you can do all these things,
Job, but if any part of salvation is in your hands, You can't save
yourself, Job. You can't do one thing, and yet
you're sitting in judgment on God of things you don't like.
But when you can do all these things, then I'll confess unto
you, your own right hand can save you. You can be saved by
what you can do. You can spare yourself from the judgment, Job,
when you can do all these things. If any part of salvation is in
yours or my hands, whether it be the power or ability to believe,
I can't do that. I know that in my own experience.
I've tried. I can't believe. He has to quicken
me every day because there's some days I feel that I have
communion with the Lord. I feel that I'm His child and
I'm one of His, and then there's other days I feel dead. I feel
nothing. He has to give us the power to
believe, the power to look to Him. He has to…so if salvation
is in the power, ability to believe, what about the things we do or
don't do? Name one thing that you've truly vowed, I'm not going
to do that again. How long did it really take?
Not long, I think, if we're honest. If you didn't do it physically,
you did it in your heart. So there's nothing that we can be
kept from. We have no control over ourselves, and this is the
state of what it is to be a sinner. You have no ability to stop it. Man drinks iniquity like the
water. Every breath that I have is wickedness, because it's what
I do, because it's what I am. The good works that I do, God
can be pleased with. I don't have any power in this. He has to enable me to do this.
Kind of like we read this morning, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, that he hath foreordained that we should walk in these
things. Anything that God can look upon me and say, that was
good, He did it in me. I can't glory in that. So no
part, I can have no part or hand in my own salvation. And that's
what the Lord was saying to Job. He said, you can do all these
things. I'll confess. You can save yourself. You can
have a hand in choosing to believe. You can have a hand in choosing
to do something or to not do something to gain my favor. But
you can't do any of these things. If you will, turn with me over
to John chapter 14. Verse 23, and Jesus answered
and said unto him, if a man loves me, he will keep my words, and
my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make
our abode with him. So to love him, first of all,
I have to know who he is. You can't love someone, you can't
believe in a Christ that's unrevealed any more than you can come back
from a place that you've never been. So I have to know Him to
love Him, and so what He's telling here is, what is a mark for loving
Him? He says, He'll keep my words.
So what does that mean? Turn over to John chapter 15
and verse 14. You are my friends if you do
whatsoever I command you. Henceforth, I call you not servants,
for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I have called
you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father, I
have made known unto you. Your friends, again, we come
back to this. So we read before, he says, he that loves me, he'll
keep my commandments. And here he says, you're my friends
if you do whatsoever I command you. What does he command us? Look back in John chapter 6 and verse 28. Then said unto him,
What shall we do that we might work the works of God? What is
the commandment that you will give? Jesus answered and said
unto them, This is the work of God, that you believe on him
whom he hath sent. Believing on Him is not just
believing that He existed. Believing on Him is seeing that
He's all. He's all in my salvation. He's the only means by which
I can be saved. Seeing Him is everything. Anything
God requires, He must provide it. This is believing in the
commandment that He gave us. Seeing that I can be made perfect
before the law because of what He did. I don't have to stand
in what I did and what I didn't do anymore. That's coming by
the way of Cain. Believing on Him is having a
faith that's unfailing. How's that been in your experience?
Not good. That's why we believe in the
faith of Christ. He's my faith before God. He's
kept me. You see, the new man, Christ
in me, that's been regenerated in me, that's been birthed in
me, that's the one that has faith before God. You see, we're two
people. There's two armies at war inside
these bodies we have if we've had Christ revealed unto us.
Sometimes we see most of the old man, the old army. He, most
of the time, is the one that wins. And yet, every now and
then, I think we get a glimpse of the new man. The new man's
the one that believes. As Paul said, I mentioned this
morning, Paul said, the things that I would do, I don't even
know how to do them. He's like, the will exists in
me, but how to perform it? He said, I don't know. So these
two things were pulling at each other. We're believing on Him
to be pure in every way before God's discerning eye. And really
that's what it's about. And this is what God was confronting
Job with. He's saying, look, you think
you're righteous and you think that I'm doing you wrong because
things didn't go your way. And so God reveals to him part
of the character and power of who he is and saying, I do all
these things. I hold men in judgment because
I'm perfect. I say I can save someone because
it's my will to do so. Can you do any of these things,
Job? The answer is no. So He's showing us that we're
nothing and we have no power. Our lives are tied to Him, and
whatever His lot is, that's what my lot is, if we're in Christ. Those who are in Christ, they
say, we're gonna go down with the ship. If the ship goes down,
I'm going down with the ship. Wherever His lot is, that's my
lot. And so I want to be with Him
wherever He is. If that means trial for me, then
that means trial for me. If that means good days for me,
that's good days for me. But either way, I don't have
a backup plan. I don't have something I can
pull to and put some interest in these other places. I'm all
in Him. And so wherever He is, that's
where I'm at. I pray that God would give us the grace to look
to Him in the good times. Those are the times that's easier.
But also in the bad times where we don't find fault. And the
danger in what I just said is often the trials are what cause
us to run to Him. The danger is when things are
not trialsome. When we're in everything's well.
I'm healthy. I've got everything I need. This
is when we forgot to get God. And I believe this is why He
keeps putting us in these trials over and over and over. You wonder
why these things happen? It's to refine your faith. He
said we were refined in the furnace of affliction. We were refined
as the refiner's gold and silver. It's got to be heated over and
over and over to burn out all those impurities. Those of you
that have been through great trial, the faith and the experience
that you're given and being brought through that are something you
would trade for nothing. because you see God's been with
you the whole way, but we have to wait until He shows Himself
and reveals Himself to us. We're to reject anything that
honors the creature and to trust Him to deliver us safe to God.
This is what Job found out. He said, you know, I'd heard
of you by the hearing of the year because that's where he
was when we began all this. He knew all these facts. He asked
for forgiveness for his children just in case, believed himself
to be righteous. He knew a lot of stuff up here,
but it took the Lord casting him down, taking everything away
before he could say, I've heard of you from the hearing of the
year, but now my eye sees you and I repent in dust and ashes.