God Challenges Job Continued

Hi everyone and welcome back to Church of the Bible. It is a pleasure to be here today to see everyone who is here and we have a few who are traveling, so we will pray safe travels for them. But I am glad to be here, glad to be continuing through the Book of Joke with you guys today. But before we begin, some announcements, there will be no church and cedar this Friday. Those involved already know why we've got some people traveling and not here, so we're going to just hold off until they get back.

On Wednesday we will have Bible study at 06:30 P.m. Mountain time in Zoom where we are right now. We'll be going through Exodus chapter 27 this week. So if you're able to go ahead and read ahead then you'll be prepared for that discussion. And then I think that's really everything announcement wise.

So with that said, let's pray, let's go worship the Lord. And then if you have your Bibles with you, turn in them with me to Job chapter 40. Father, we praise you and thank you today for this beautiful day though. We thank you for everything that you have done and Lord I thank you right now that the sun is up an hour later in my sky, Lord, thank you for that. Lord, I pray as we turn now and as we're thinking about some of the people missing who are traveling, lord, I pray that you will provide for them to travel in safety, Lord.

Protect them from the weather that's going on. Protect them from other people on the road. Protect them from tiredness. Just get those who are traveling to and from where they're going safely and will thank you for that. Father, what do you also remove from our minds at this time?

Distractions and cares of the world as we turn our mind to you and our hearts to you. And would you let us hear from you today through your Word? In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wrench like me I was lost, but now I'm found was blind, but now I see it was grace that's hard my heart to feel and grace my fears reinsing how? Precious death race appears yeah, I first believe my chains are gone I've been dead free like God my favourite his mercy rains unending love amazing grace the Lord has promised unto me his word and my hope secured my I've been safe free I got my savior has rest of me and like a love you mercy on any love a basin for you my shapes are gone I've been plenty free but God my favor has written on me it's like a blood his mercy race running it amazing the earth shall soon dissolve like snow the sun for bear to shine but God who called me here blow will be forever mine will be forever mine you are forever mine bring your tide and bring your shame bring your gift and bring your faith don't you know that's not your name? You will always be much more to me and every day I wrestle with the voices that keep telling me I'm not right but that's all right because I hear a voice and he calls me redeemed when I say I'll never be enough. And greater is the one living inside of me than he who is living in the world. In the world.

And greater is the one living inside of me than he who is living in the world.

Bring your doubt, bring your fear, bring your hurt, bring your tears. There'll be no condemnation here. You are holy, righteous, and redeemed. And every time I fall, there'll be those who will call me on this day. Well that's okay, because I hear a voice and he call me redeem when I say I'll never be in love.

And greater is the one living inside of me than he who is living in the world. You know, you. Know because I hear a voice and he call me redeem when I say I never be a nerve and greater is the one living inside of me there's a place where mercy rays it never dies there's a place where streams of grace flow deep and wide for all the love I've ever found comes like a flood comes flowing down at the cross that we cross I surrender my life I'm in all of you I'm in all of you where you never ran red and my sin washed white I always feel heart has peace with God and forgiveness with all the love I've ever found comes like a love comes flowing down at the cross and the cross of the wind of my life. I'm in all of you. I'm in all of you where your love ran red in my feet washed white.

I love you. I love I always feel all right. If you have your Bibles with you, please turning them with me to Job, chapter 40. And as you're turning there, we'll be going through chapters 41, 40 and 41 today. Next week we will finish the book of Job with chapter 42 ending this series.

And as we get ready to start today, this will be the last time that God speaks in the book. We're going to in major long speeches.

We're going to receive closure on some of the questions we've been asking all the way from the beginning, as well as not just closure, but we will see next week that Job, he is given back many fold what he lost in a way. So when we started the series several months ago, we started with the questions why does God allow suffering? Why do tragic things happen? Why do bad things happen to me, to people I love? Why do bad things happen to innocent children?

Why do bad things happen to people who are undeserving of it. And we ask these questions through the lens of Job, which the Bible described as a righteous man, so righteous there is none like him and all the earth who went through these terrible, terrible things.

As I come into the end of this, as I was reading and pondering what I wanted, what God wanted me to convey, I was thinking back to ten months ago in May, may of 22. We had a couple there. There were many tragedies happening at the time. One such tragedy is we lost our first child, which is what put me on the path of Job. But there was a school shooting in Texas, and someone I know called me in May and he asked me why God would allow something like that to happen.

Why would God let those kids be shot up in school and murdered?

And I don't have any better answer now than I did back then, which initially was, I don't know, because we can be philosophical all we want and we can tell people whatever they want to hear to make them feel better. But the answer really boils down to there's an element to free agency that humans have that God gives us. He allows us to choose to do good or do evil. But there's a bigger question why? Why does God allow stuff that evil to happen?

Well, God is going to answer the question today in the text that we read, but he's not going to answer it with reason, with logic. He's not going to answer it. This is why I allow it to happen. But he's going to answer it through allowing us to induce the reason, through what he says. So with that said, let's quickly recap last week's message.

We did chapters 38 and 39 last week, where God finally appears after all of the long and eloquent speeches between Jobs and his friends. And he responds to god responds to Job first and foremost, out of the storm. Remember, there's a storm going on and Job is in a storm in his life. And through that storm, God appeared, which taught us two things. The first thing we learned through that is God is in control of all things.

Though this storm wrecked Job's homes, the lightning from the storm killed his servants, all the turmoil in his life, it seems chaotic that God came out of it, signified to us that God was in control of all things, even that storm. But second, it was revealed that God does not appear to us in the way we expect Him or want him. Remember, Job envisioned this encounter with God in a courtroom setting. Instead, God surprised him with his appearance here. But also remember that God charged Job last week to answer him, and he rebuked him by saying, who are you to rebuke me?

Remember, Job has been rebuking God throughout this entire thing. He's been saying that God is unfair or god is limited in power or God holy righteous. God shouldn't allow these things to happen. He's been rebuke in him. And God charged Job and told him that he was not in a position to do that.

And he does so by throwing a bunch of questions to Job. And these questions all fall into three main lines of reasoning. First, Job's knowledge and his limit to comprehension. Remember, God says, where were you, Job, when I laid the foundations of the world? Where were you when the morning stars sang with glory?

Where were you when I did all of these things?

The point of God's questioning here was to demonstrate that Job's knowledge, his understanding of the universe, of the world, the way God does stuff, is very limited. And we had established that even if God answered some of these questions, we could not understand the answer. We just couldn't comprehend it. Number two was do you understand how I rule the creation? And he did this by questioning Job's ability to control the weather.

Can you control where it rains and snows? Can you control where the grass grows? Can you cause anything to happen? And third was to demonstrate his care, his providence for the creation. And he did that through showing the birds of the air and the beast of the field how he cares for them in many in various different ways which highlighted the distinction between us and animals that we are created in God's image.

And with that realization, Job also has to realize, as do we, that we are special to God. We are special. We are made in his image. And if he cares for the creatures of the world which were not made in his image, how much more would he care for us? However, at no point in last week's sermon does God directly answer Job's question of why he never does that.

He never answers with reason and logic. And we ended and summarized last week with the realization that faith does not come from facts, from knowledge, from being able to answer and reason stuff. But it comes through allowing what we know to be well enough and allowing the mysteries beyond our comprehension to remain mysteries and trust in God. Ultimately, the answer to Jobs question or the question he should be asking, is not why, but who Job is seeking out. He's looking for answers.

And the answer the question he's asking is Why? Why am I going through this?

Job's questions have brought light to the underlying issue of the entire book. His problem is not what has happened to him. Job's problem is not his loss of wealth, his loss of family, his illness, his servants being struck down. That's not his problem. His problem is what has happened to him, right?

He lost what he has lost. He has lost perspective. He has lost purpose as he's lost everything around him. He has now found himself questioning and doubting what is my purpose in life?

And as we begin to look at all tragedy that shakes us to the core and truly puts us into depressive funks, it always boils down to purpose. We have either lost purpose, we doubt God's purpose. We doubt if God is even in control of everything going on around us. Right? If God is there, why is all this happening?

It seems chaotic, out of control. We doubt whether or not he cares for us anymore. We doubt whether or not he has purpose or use for us, or if we actually know what his purpose and use for us is in life. And we search for the answers to those things with the question Why? But Job, his question here shows that he's lacking two things.

First, God's understanding and perspective. As we saw last week, we don't see things the way God sees them. We don't have his understanding and knowledge, but we're also not in a position with the wisdom to form the right perspective in our chaos. And second, two is the right question. Again, not why, but who, and reciting facts, reasoning with logic cannot answer this.

For us, the problem comes down to a position of trust which is developed through personal relationships with God. With that said, let's read the first five verses of the chapter. Job, chapter 40. Yahweh answered Job and said, shall a fault finder, contend, or should die? Anyone who argues with God must answer it.

So Job answered Yahweh and said look, I am insignificant. What shall I answer? You are they my hand on my mouth? Once I have spoken, and I will not answer even twice, but I will not proceed. If you recall, in the early chapters of the book, job had these well thought out speeches, eloquent speeches, accusations against God, questions he was going to ask, answers he would demand.

And God challenges Job as he did at the start. Right? Shall fault finder contend with God? If you're going to argue with me, you must answer. And instead of spewing out his accusations or these long and eloquent speeches, job is silent.

In fact, he is brought to confession. Verse four. In the lad that we got up here, Job says I am insignificant. Not an understatement. We're all insignificant.

However, let's dig deeper at the Hebrew word here. Job says I am vile. Job confesses to be in a sinner before I am a sinner. I'm vile, I'm insignificant. Therefore, what answer shall I give job?

He's opened up his mind and come to an understanding that he has no understanding. He does not know what God has done, how God has done it, and why God does it. But he does know I am vile.

So what shall I answer you? What can I say in my defense? Nothing. He says, once I have spoken, but I'll not answer. I'll proceed no further.

The accuser Job, the one who is going to demand from God, the one who has silenced his friends, he's finally debated with them and argued them into silence has now been silenced by God.

This shows I know a lot of people I've talked with people who the reason they can't believe in God or refuse to believe in God is because God has done stuff they don't understand. And I've said this before, but do you know what the number one issue people have with God is? The great flood. The great flood. How could a holy God, how could a just God, how could a loving God wipe out all of humanity?

That's immoral, they say. But we lack understanding. And so because we view, or humanity sometimes views God as immoral, as a monstrous murderer, and they accuse God, they choose to reject Him. And they will find out, as did Job, that they will be silenced. Job got his day before the judge.

He got his day before the judge, before he died. And every one of us will get our day before the judge. Not in the same way that Job did. I think it would be cool to talk with God the way Job did here. Maybe scary, but we will all get our day with Him.

And we will all be silenced. No matter what we think of God, no matter what defense we have prepared for our actions or why we couldn't follow Him, we will stand before Him. And what shall we answer Him? We will be silent. As is job.

God continues to challenge Job again. Here. Let's look at verses six through nine. God says, yahweh answered Job from the storm, and he said, prepare yourself for a difficult task like a man. By the way, that's the same statement, how God opened up last week.

Prepare yourself for a difficult task like a man and I will question you, and you shall declare to me indeed, would you annoy my justice? Would you condemn me so that you might be righteous? Or do you have an arm like God? And can you thunder with a voice like his? God is once again challenging Job, as he did last week.

He said, prepare yourself. I will question you, and you shall answer. And he says, Where were you when I laid the foundations of the world today? He says, you will answer. Would you annull my justice?

Let's translate this. Do you question or refute my wisdom? Are you who has no understanding, no comprehension, no wisdom? Are you questioning my wisdom? Says God.

Do you condemn the way I do justice?

He says, do you doubt my power? But do you have an arm like God? And can you thunder with a voice like his? Do you think you're more powerful than me? God says to Job, do you refuse to listen to my voice?

These are all questions that as we begin to question in our life, why am I going through this? Why is God allowing this? How could God allow this? Or as we begin to even question the concept of God because of what we are going through, we must ask ourselves, do we refute his wisdom? Are we wise enough to do what he has done?

Do we have the understanding he has? Will we condemn his justice and the way he rules? Are we as powerful as he is? I've got an illustration here from another pastor, David McKenna. He gave this illustration, and I believe that it is helpful in understanding exactly what it is that God is saying.

And this illustration revolves around critical incident. There are incidents that require people to act immediately and make decisions that no one, except for the person in that position can make and no one outside of that position can understand. Let me read this illustration to you. In management circles, the critical incident has been identified as the factor that distinguishes between effective and ineffective executives. Any job has routine matters that almost anyone can handle.

Executives earn their money, however, when they must make crucial decisions that determine the destiny of their people and their organization. Such decisions arise out of critical incidents for which there is no company policy or standard practice.

What President Harry Truman said about this the President says if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. And he is referring to critical incidents that the President of the United States is called to make. Critical incidents in the careers of American presidents include Truman's firing of General Douglas MacArthur, dyd. Eisenhower's priority for the space program, john F. Kennedy's blockade of Cuba, nyndon B.

Johnson's bombing of Han Oi, richard Nixon's failure to destroy the tapes, jimmy Carter's attempt to free Iranian hostages, and George W. Bush's attack on Iraq after September 11 in 2001. These are all issues where a decision had to be made, and no matter what decision was made, they could be condemned. These are all issues that the decision had to be made with the information they had, with their experience, with their counsel. And there is no one else who could have made those decisions.

And it's easy for any of us to sit and criticize any of those presidents on any of those actions. However, our understanding of the situation is not the same that they had. And even though through history and documentation there may be more, we know now if you were in the same scenarios as these presidents, would you have done the same things that they did? What God is going to give Job a chance to imagine for a moment if he would. God is going to ask Job to switch places with Him, as it were, for Job to play God, for Job to get to be the person to decide policy, and he is going to have Him determine three major things.

Number one, will Job crush the wicked? We'll see that in verses eight to 14. Number two, will God create the useless or get rid of the useless? Or Job in verses 15 to 24? And will Job control the wicked?

In chapter 41? Let's go through these hypothetical scenarios with God, and God is going to use real life examples of things that he has done to see what Job would do. Verses eight through 14, let's begin. Yahweh answered Job in the storm, and he said, prepare yourself for a difficult task. We're still on verse six, Shawnee to nine.

He says, Adorn yourself with pride and dignity and clothe yourself a splendor. Pour out the overflowing of your anger and look at the proud and humble them. Look at all the proud. Humble them and tread down the wicked where they stand. Hide them in the dust together, bind their faces in the grave, and I will praise you that your own right hand can save you.

Ouch.

Will you annoy my justice? And he says, Adorn yourself with pride and dignity, clothe yourself with splendor. Trade places with me for a minute, put yourself where I am. And then he says, look at the proud, humble them, tread down the wicked where they stand, will you, if you're in the position of God, wipe out all the wicked? Surely if I could wipe out all the wicked, my suffering would be a lot less, right?

No one to anger me and frustrate me because there's no one wicked and sinful, no one to steal from me, no one to rape or murder those I love, no one to hit my car because they were speeding and going too fast. My suffering will decrease if I wipe out the wicked. If God were to make me God for a day, there's a movie about that. Bruce Almighty, right? Yeah.

And heaven almighty. There's movies about that. If God were to make me God for a day, would I wipe out the wicked? Would I tread them down where they stand and hide their dust together and bind their faces in the grave? Could you do that?

Think for a moment about if you were God, right? Job is complaining about the inconsistency of God. He has put God into this box and he is in this box. He has put God in God. Either has to be unfair, show him favor to pick him favorites.

Well, I like this person better than this person, so no matter what they do, I won't punish them, but I don't like this person. No matter what they do, I will. Or in Job's framework, God has to be limited in his power and he is complaining about this thing.

And strict justice, right? Strict, swift justice. The moment any one of you sin would strike you down, if God were to pound the wicked into the ground and hide their dust with it, the moment any one of us had sinned, we would be done for that is what strict justice declares. That is the justice that Job thinks God ought to enact. That is the justice that Elitha has built out and so far believed in right this prosperity gospel if you do bad, you will be struck down, and if you do good, you will be rewarded.

And so God says to Job, I'm giving you the power. I'm giving you that ability right now. Will you do this? And God says to him, if you do, if you would pound the wicked into the ground and tread them down and hide their dust at the god says, I will praise you that your own right hand can save you.

Now, as we consider whether or not that's what we would do, as Job considers whether or not that's what he would do to Job not already declare to God in this chapter, I am vile. What shall I answer to you? Job has declared that he is a sinner. He has declared that he has broken the law. And now, if Job were to drive the wicked into the ground, what would he have to do with himself?

Job has come to a realization that in the framework he has placed God within, he should already be dead.

In a framework, in a cash register type theological system, each one of us should be dead, for there is no one righteous. No, not one. According to the Bible, we have all sin and fallen short of the glory of God.

And if God were to execute swift judgment, what would be missing?

The grace of God. If God were to execute swift judgment, there would be no room for his grace. There would be no personage of Jesus Christ who died upon the cross to save us, because we would be dead before we could be saved.

And so God, where justice rules, has allowed a situation where wickedness can exist so that he could save us. And why does he do this? For genuine love. Because he loves us. And so he has allowed judgment on wickedness.

God will judge wickedness, whether it's through Jesus Christ or he judges us personally on Judgment Day. But in his love, he has allowed it to exist for a time that we could be saved. Look at Romans 323 through 26 with me, paul tells us here as soon as we get it up in Romans three. Start. In verse 23 he says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God be and justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ, whom God made publicly available as the mercy seat through faith in his blood for a demonstration of his righteousness because of the passing over of previously committed sins in the forbearance of God for the demonstration of his righteousness in the present time, so that he should be just and the one who justifies the person by faith in Jesus.

It says here that God practiced forbearance God postponed judgment. And it says in here something interesting that he would be just. And the one who justifies. God can do this because he is just. Because he will still judge wickedness.

He will still judge sin and he will get rid of it. He will punish it, but also allows Him to justify the person who has faith in Christ. Why does God allow bad things to happen? Why doesn't he just stop all of it and remove all wickedness right now? Because you and me and everyone else would also be removed.

Because he could not save us if he did that. And because those who we love, those who we hope will one day be reached by the acts of God and turn their hearts over to Him, that they would not perish and we would see them in the Kingdom of Heaven that they too could be saved. He allows it to happen because it would be worse for Him to stop it all right now. He allows it to happen because he loves us. Now we have seen the consequence of having the power to play God and use that power to punish the wicked.

And what any time we use power to force righteousness, what happens?

Evil prevails every single time. Look at the great crusades. Did they not start out as some holy mission to get rid of wickedness and evil? And in the act of removing those whom they had deemed wicked, did they not commit much greater acts of evil than that which they sought to punish?

In the pursuit of removing evil, they became more evil than those whom they sought to get rid of.

Did Jesus not rebuke Peter for brandishing the sword when he cut off the guard's ear?

Job has understood that if he were to exercise immediate judgment upon the wicked, he too would die.

All of us would. So what appears to be injustice, what we perceive as God letting evil stuff happen. And if he were God, how can he do that? What we perceive as an injustice is in reality, patience. So that you and I and everyone else who would accept him could be redeemed.

Patience number two. God says, would you create the useless? Let's read our next verses here, not chapters picking up in verse 15 where we left off. Going through verse 24, he says I will praise you that your own right hand can save you. Look, behemoth which I have made just as I made you.

It eats grass like the ox. Look. Its strength is in its loins, its power in the muscles of its stomach. It keeps its tail straight like a cedar. The sinews of its thighs are tightly wound.

Its bones are tubes of copper, its limbs like rods of iron. It is the first of God's actions. The one who made him furnishes it with the sword. Yes. The mountains you will produce for it and all wild animals play there under the lotus tree.

It. Lies in the hiding place of the reeds and in the marsh. The lotus trees cover it with their shade. The waddies polar trees surround it. Look at the river as turbulent.

It is not frightened, it is confident, even though the Jordan rushes against its mouth. Can anyone take it by its eyes? Can he pierce its nose with a snare?

There are a couple of theories about what this behemoth is.

I believe God is talking about dinosaurs, right as we read the description here of what this thing is, it sounds like a long neck. I'm not going to get proper with the scientific because I don't know it, but it sounds like the long neck. Others have believed it's a hippopotamus. In any case, what God describes to us is an animal that eats grass like an ox. But it's not an ox.

He has strength in his hips and his stomach in his thighs. Yet this animal is useless for work. In fact, the animal described seemingly has zero purpose on planet Earth. It does nothing in the ecosystem. It does nothing in nature.

All it does is eat grass and lay under the tree and be shaded and relaxed, blissfully unaware of anything going on around it. It just trust in God to provide.

Why would God create an animal with no use? Why would he create anything with no use that he's got to provide for, that he's got to take care of? As we look at this animal that is useless, god tells us a couple of things about it. First, in verse 15, he says about the behemoth I have made it with you just as I made you. The same God that made us made the useless animal.

It also says it's the first of God's actions, the one who made him furnishes it with his sword.

This animal is a special object of God's care. God has furnished it with its sword. God has given it the grass to eat, has given it shade.

Something to understand first and foremost, then, if a useless, ugly beast can be an object of God's care, and beauty and usefulness are not conditions of God's wrath.

Further, we must understand the importance, the significance of God create an animals of seemingly no use. What do they show us?

What use do you or I or anyone else have to God as sinners, as those on a path to the fiery gates of Hell, as those who are enemies with God, what use do we have for Him?

None. None of us are useful to God in any way. If we should but get rid of the useless, who among us should survive?

Further, let's look at some issues in society where this doctrine of getting rid of the useless prevails over. In China, for many decades, when you could only have but one child, a father would look at the daughter, the newborn daughter, and would cast her into the dumpsters because she brought no value to the family.

You know, the same thing happened in ancient Rome when they were trying to become more manly as a nation, when they were trying to appear stronger. They would get rid of the females because they didn't fit the image that they wanted. They didn't provide the usefulness that they felt they needed.

Do you know there are societies that would send they would take their elderly and they would take them into a remote location, and they will leave them there to die because the elderly no longer provides a benefit to society.

How about this abortion?

We often hear, It my body, my choice. We often hear them say to us, it's not your body or you're a man. You don't know what it's like to carry something in you and have your body change. You don't get a voice in this, but occasionally you actually hear what the real motive is. It's not that they don't want a kid.

It's not that they want to have the choice as to what happens with their bodies. It's not that their woman and want a voice where men have been told them what to do. It's that they don't want to pay two to $300,000 to raise a child. They don't want to have to give up their freedoms so that they can be home taking care of it when it's sick, something that to them offers no benefit. Abortion is not because of my body, my choice.

It is because that baby is perceived as unvaluable. It is perceived as something that offers no return, and so they get rid of it.

Would you make a useless thing? We see, then, in the character of God how his love for us is deep for what God loves for and cares for, provides for, saves and redeems for useless people.

God does not judge our merits based on how useful we are or how beautiful we are, but on his love for us. The behemoth resting under the shade of the trees, cooling off in the river, eating the grass the mountain provides, is a prized creature of God and his creation. It's a precious example of how God pours his grace out on those who are undeserving, who can't earn it. And finally he says, Will you control the hostel? Will you control the wicked?

We're going to read the entire chapter of 41 and then we will quickly go through it. Look at what God describes here in chapter 41. This is awesome. Can you draw out the viathan with the fish hook? Can you tie down its mouth at the cord?

Can you put a rope in its nose? Can you pierce its jawbone at the hook? Will it make numerous pleas for mercy to you? Or will it speak gentle words to you? Will it make a covenant with you?

Will you take it as a slave forever? Will you play with it as with birds and put it on a leash for your girls? Will guildsmen bargain over it? Will they divide it between tradesmen? Can you feel its skin with harpoons?

Or its head with a fish spear? Lay your hands on it and think about the battle. You will not do it again. Look. The hope of capturing it is false.

Will one be hurtled down even at its sight? Is it not fierce when somebody stirs it? Who then is he who would stand before it? Who has come to confront me that I should repay him? Under all the heavens?

It belongs to me. I will not keep quiet concerning its limbs or concerning the extent of its might and the gracefulness of its frame. Who can strip off its outer covering? Who can penetrate the double harness? Who can open the doors of its face?

Its teeth all around are fearsome. Its back has skills of shields. It has shut up closely, as with the seal. They are close to one another. Even air cannot come between them.

They are joined one another. They cling together and cannot be separated. Its snorting flashes forth light and its eyes are red like dawn. Torches go from its mouth, sparks, a fire, shootout. Smoke comes from its nostrils as from a kettle.

Boiling and burning burrushes. Its breath kindles charcoal, and a flame comes from its mouth. Strength abides in its neck, and dismay dances before it. Its fleshes fold of skin clean together. It is cast on.

It will not be moved. Its heart is cast. A stone. Yes, it is cast as the lower millstone. When it raises itself, the mighty ones are terrified.

They retreat because of its thrashing. Reaching it with the sword is not a veil, nor a spear, the dart or the javelin. It regards iron as straw, bronze as rotten wood. An arrow will not make it flee. slingstones are turned to stubble, clubs are regarded as stubble, and at last, at the short sword's rattle.

Its underparts are shards of pot shard. It moves over mud like a threshing sludge. It makes the deep boil like a cooking pot. It makes the sea like a pot of ointment. Behind it it leaves a glistening wake.

One would think that the deep has gray hair. On the ground it has no equal. A creature without fear. It absurds. All the lofty it is keen over all that are proud.

Anyone who has thought that dragons are mythical fairy tale creatures, think again. God just describes something that eyes glow. It shoots forth lightning from its mouth that can ignite coals. But what he described here is the most evil creature he has ever created.

A creature without fear, a creature that will attack men for no other reason than men are around. A creature that cannot be subdued, that no weapon of man is able to take. A creature that only one person can control. And that is God. And God wants Job to tell him can you control this creature?

Can you go to it and make a covenant? Will you befriend it or make it a slave?

What we see here, however, is that God says he is in control of it.

God is in control of all situations. And as we look at our life, as we look at our chaos and we wonder god, are you even in control? Are you able to get me through this? Or is this more than what you can handle? God controlled the Leviathan.

But there's something about the Leviathan that you need to know. God created it to represent something and that is to represent Satan. Look at verse 34. He says, it observes all the lofty. It is king over all that are proud.

The Leviathan represents the evil of the world. It represents Satan in his evil reign. For Satan truly is king of the proud. He is king of the wicked. Jesus had said to the Pharisees in the Gospels, if he says, you are of your father the devil, but we see that even with the great, thethiathan the untameable creature, the one that no one could master, god could.

And we see in that God is in control of the storm. He is in control of the cast and God is in control of the evil. Remember all the way back in chapter one in the Council in Heaven, that Job was that Satan was limited by the power of God as to what he could do to Job, how he could hurt him, how he could inflict pain upon him. God was in control of that evil.

As we look, as we evaluate what has happened in our lives, what is happening in the world around us, why does God allow this stuff to happen? Why does God allow for bad things to happen to me and for evil and wickedness to reign in the world?

Because God wants to save you and wants to save me. Because to wipe out the wicked would mean to wipe us out as well, removing the effectiveness of his grace. Because to remove the useless would be to remove us as well. Because to set out to rid evil at this time will only make more evil. And it is worse for God to enact swift and strict judgment upon his creation and send us all to the pits of hell than it is for God to patiently wait this storm out, to allow events to unfold.

And allow a select few who will accept his gift, his free gift that he is offered to all and allow them to be saved from that judgment.

Oftentimes when we begin to question God through the events of the world, it is because of worldliness blinding, our vision of God and his purpose. It's because we don't have the perspective that God has to see what it is that he is doing. But what we need to know is will we trust God even when satan is free to roam the world.

Will we see through to God? Or will we rely on tradition and man made frameworks? Will we rely upon heresy or hearsay about God?

Will we depend upon our own reason? Will we define God and his nature? Will we put him in a box?

Or will we trust in the one of whom we cannot understand, who we cannot comprehend? I know some people say that's impossible. I can't trust in something in which I can't understand or comprehend. So let me pose a question as we close.

How many of you can tell me today how a computer works?

How many of you can look at that circuit board and tell me how all those little capacitors and transistors resistors all those controls? How electricity flows through those and makes the image on the screen that you see? How many of you can tell me how all those little tiny pieces of metal can take my photo and image and my voice and transmit it wirelessly from where I'm at to a router and then through to you where you're seeing it? The number of people who understand how our technology works is very, very limited. Less than a percent of our population can explain how these things work.

So for anyone who cannot trust in God or follow Him, because you can't understand Him or you can't comprehend Him, think again. For you are using a piece of technology that you can either understand or comprehend, but you know that it works. And let me tell you something. We know that God works too. We know he is there.

We know he's there because Romans one tells us the invisible attributes of God are made manifest in the visible creation. And we know that we are here. We know that this earth supports us perfectly. We see how well everything that God has put together works in, though we do not understand it. And something interesting.

Are we understanding more of the universe today than we were 6000 years ago? No. In fact, the more we learn about the universe, the more unanswerable questions we have. So though we cannot understand or comprehend God, though we struggle to understand why evil reigns, why bad things happen, my question is, you know that God works. Will you trust in Him today?

And if you will, he tells us if we would confess him as Lord before our fellow man, he will confess us before the Father. He says if you'll take off your crown, if you'll trust me, if you'll follow me and that me be in control, I will save you. And we find that we find another saint in Romans ten nine. If you had confessed at the amount of Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. So if you, like, Job, can realize that you are wicked, you are a sinner, you've done evil stuff and with that, trust that God knows what he's doing when he doesn't punish us right away.

And if you can confess those sins to God and believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the One who came here and died for us, and if you would confess Him as your Lord, if you will make Him King, you will be saved. You, like Job, will no longer have to fear God. You like job. We'll see next week that Job finds peace and restoration. We'll see that he again becomes friends with God.

He understands God. You too, in the storm and the chaos that you are in, can find peace. Not because you like the bad things happening, not because you're in control, but because God is. And because you're friends with God and you know that he makes up for all your lack and understand. If you're ready to do this, let's pray.

Let's ask God into our hearts. Let's confess that we are sinners and let's become friends of God today. Repeat the first portion after me. Father, I admit that I'm a sinner. And Lord, I know that there's chaos around me.

I know there's things happening to me that I don't want or I don't like and I don't understand. But God, I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I'm deserving of death and punishment and judgment, and knowing that, knowing what I deserve, knowing that you offer the salvation. I just trust in you now. I trust in you that you know what you're doing.

I trust in you that when I can't understand, comprehend, when I can't get answers, that you will just get me through it. And I don't need to know why or how, but that what I really need is a relationship with you. And so I believe now, Lord Jesus, that you are God, that you came here and lived and died for me. I believe that you rose again. And I confess you as my god, my king, my Lord forever.

And I remove my crown to you now. And I ask you for this gift. And Father, I thank you. That everyone who knows you now, that we don't have to fear the storm, we don't have to have anxiety and fears and nightmares about the world around us, what is happening to us, but we can have peace and rest and assurance because our God, because you are the Almighty One. And I pray, Lord, that everyone who has heard this, everyone going through issues, lord, would you allow them to have that same peace?

In Jesus holy name we pray. Amen.

I'm going to go get.