Let's go ahead and pray. Lord, we thank you. We are individuals that are frail and weak. And as we look at a passage like this, we could be individuals that in our weakness and frailty accuse you of things that are not right, are not accurate of who you are. And as we go through this section this evening of talking about who's responsible for difficulties and suffering. May we get a grasp of what the Scriptures say and then also hold on to this when we do go through those times that, from a human standpoint, could break us. And so help us to understand this section of Job 2. In this we pray in Christ's name. Amen. I want to just start off, and we're gonna be looking at the first 10 verses, but I wanna start off with the first three verses and just read them here, and then we'll start going through the material. But it will help us to read at least the first three. I understand what's going on to this point. Some of you haven't been here for our study, but Job. is being used by God to teach angels something. It's hard for us to imagine that Satan is an angel, but he is. He's a fallen angel, and the scripture makes clear in the New Testament that the angels are learning from things that go on in our life about God. And there is a kind of a, not a competition, but Job is used to prove something to the devil, and Job doesn't know anything about it. He's not privy to the fact that he's going through these times because of just merely God teaching the devil something, and what God's trying to prove is that a person will serve God for nothing. Satan looks at this as himself, and we'll talk about this, but Satan looks at Job like he would himself and go, no, he wouldn't serve God for nothing. But he would, Job does in this book, and he is going to teach Satan a lesson. We got through last week where God takes everything from Job as far as his physical possessions, all of his children, all of his goods. All he's left with, as far as we know, is perhaps the tent he lives in and four servants and his wife. And that's it. Which then brings us to verse one, chapter two. It says this, again, there was a day when the sons of God, which are referring to the angels, came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord. The Lord said to 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. Sounds pretty much like walking about his roaring line seeking whom he may devour, how Peter describes him. Verse three. The Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God and eschews evil, and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movest me against him to destroy him without cause. Question is, and we're gonna look at this tonight, is who is responsible for this? Who's responsible for what happens to Job? And you'd say, is God responsible for this or is Satan responsible for this? And the answer is yes. if we initially look at it. But as you read through this passage, Job 2 does have the answer. It was God. You go, why? Because he said so. You just read it. Verse three, he says, you moved me. Okay, he holds fast to integrity, although thou movest me or moved me against him to destroy him without cause. God out of his own mouth is saying, I'm the one responsible for this. Which is kind of hard for us to fathom and you go, I really don't understand how that God could be one who is describing himself as moving against Job in this way, but he does. From our perspective, if we were in Job's state at this time, we would be broken, loss of family. Possessions are one thing, loss of family is another. When that type of thing happens, and you, and I don't know your experience in life, but there are things that just, the affliction is great. The suffering comes one right after another. And when that happens, here's the thing. Affliction tempts us to question these two divine attributes about God. You go, what? His goodness and his omnipotence. Those are the two things that when we're in affliction and we're just kind of going, okay, and we start looking at God. We tend to go one side or the other in our flesh. Either God is good, but he's not omnipotent since he wasn't able to prevent the suffering. You know, God's good, you know, bad things happen, we go, well, God's good. But in our own mind, we're going, well, if he was good enough, he would have stopped this. You know, if he was, you know, he was powerful enough, he would have stopped this if he was really good. On the other side, you have this statement, or we think this, that God is omnipotent, but not so good after all, since he permitted something so painful. You kind of go, oh, okay, it's unfair. Since both choices are unbiblical, we are faced with a choice. Now, we'll get to the choice, but those are the two things that happen. I mean, if you're a person who is following God, and you've been doing this throughout your life, and you say, I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ, and you've had the initial faith, and you've been a follower of him, when we get into difficult circumstances, this is what our flesh will start questioning, because we go, well, I know certain things about my God, but how could he, as a good God, allow this to happen? Or, you know, if he claims to be so strong, why didn't he stop this? And that's always the battle and struggle that's going to go on in our own soul. So our choice is this, either we can ignore what the Bible says about God and reevaluate him on the basis of our limited experience, knowledge, and understanding. And we think about this 50, 60, 70 years of experience. We've got a finite capacity for understanding certain things, but sometimes we go, I understand everything, and I understand it better than God does. And so we have to reevaluate sometimes what we think about God, and this is not the right choice, to ignore what the scripture actually says. Here's the right choice, accept God's self-description and reevaluate our circumstances in the light of the Bible's depiction of reality. I've gotta, once again, we talked about this last week, I've gotta come back and go, okay, what does it say here? Not how do I feel, not what is my emotions, what does it say here? Though I may still have emotions even if I get it settled from here. So that's the right choice. We can't just go, okay, I'm gonna change the markers of what I think about God and that's okay. And you're gonna know that that's not the way to face bad times. So, We come to this section, and we're just gonna read through it here, and let me just, for a second here, say here's this council, it reconvenes, the angels come together again, Job, it's the same kind of thing, God makes the same evaluation about Job, he's this type of person who fears me and shies away from evil, he's a good man, and Satan comes and comes to God, and God says a statement about it, God says so himself that he destroyed Job, The verse is key that opens the door into theology of this book and a bedrock text for the biblical doctrine of divine providence. What we have in Job is we have the curtain pulled back, we can see what God's doing. The rest of our existence, the last 2,000 years in human history, that curtain's been pulled in front of what God's doing. This is how God works all the time. He works this way. You don't see what he's doing, but he is working in, and the idea of the divine providence, if you just break the word down, it means video is in that word, vidence, okay, video to see, pro, to see before. The idea is that God sees things beforehand. He takes care of and sets things up as needed in lives and individuals and does all of this, but he does it without ever showing some sort of supernatural miracle. He does this in a way that you go, okay, God's obviously arranged this, but we haven't seen how he got all the pieces there and how he set them up and what he stopped from happening, what he did allow to work through. This verse gives us at least a picture of behind the scenes of what's going on with God in some of these situations. It's a divine providence. Now, when God says you moved me, you ought to underline this word and put it out in the side reference of your Bible. It's a word to mean entice or incite. It's used, as you see in the notes there, about bad people, Ahab, Jezebel. It's used about good people. It's even used about God, but this is the only time where God is getting somebody to do something, but here this is, in this case, God's more the object, we say the subject, but God's the one who's been enticed or incited. The only time in all of scripture where it says that God was enticed. Now, if we read what God says, you moved me, you enticed me to do this, it's a startling statement because God admits that Satan is the one who got him to do all this to Job. And you read that and you suddenly go, whoa, wait a second, my God can get moved by Satan to do things? He can be enticed, baited in our idea to do something that he's not supposed to do? You have to go, okay, so what is going on here? Well, hopefully you can think of a verse in this point that says that's not what's happening here when he says you've moved me to do this. It's found, and we have the listing here, how does this statement match with James 1.13 that God does not tempt men with evil? I'm gonna try and quote it. I tried to quote it this morning, didn't get it, but you ought to write this reference off to the side, or you've got it marked there in the notes, so this. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. Kind of go, okay, so God can't be tempted to do wrong. Nor is he tempting individuals to do wrong. We'll get to that in a second. But that verse right there, you're going, so Satan moved God against Job, but it wasn't that, it can't be the fact that Satan tempted him to do this. What God's purpose in this, what he permitted was righteous. It's good. See, our way of evaluating this is from human perspective, and sometimes we use that word evil or bad in such a way that we have to understand the context. We talked a little bit about this last week, but when we talk about something being evil, does it necessarily mean that we're talking about something being morally wrong? Or if we say something was bad, are we saying that it's morally bad, something sinful about it? I'll give you an example. Decide to walk out of church tonight, go to my car, step off the curb, break both my ankles. I say, yeah, something bad happened to me. Now, am I saying something morally, you know, morally wrong happened to me? You know, the curb was moved by bad motives and they did something to me. No. You just go, it's bad. You go, why? It's not beneficial to me. It's not that it was morally wrong. It wasn't beneficial in our mind. And sometimes when it comes to things in life, we look at it and we go, that's bad. But what we're saying about it is it's not evil. It's just, it's not beneficial. It's not good. It's not helpful, from at least our perspective. Now, when we think about what God's doing, we understand from Romans that all things work together for good. There's a purpose behind this that we don't know about. But the fact is, not everything that is called evil, when we have that happen, is referring to something morally reprehensible. It's just, from human perspective, it's not good. You have the passage in Amos, I preached this one in chapter three, I believe, when 9-11 happened. And you go, well, how could this happen? And it says in that, is there not evil that happens in the city and the Lord doesn't know about it? in the sense that he permitted it. And you're going, so the Lord allowed, you know, he was an evil man and God was evil and he did this? No, there's things that go on there that are not beneficial to people, are not good. And so really it comes down to, you go, was he incited to do wrong? No, but from a human perspective, what God did towards Job, Job's not going, this is great. I'm happy. No, no. This is bad from his perspective. And from a human perspective, you go, that's bad things that are happening to him. How did God do this? Well, God says, you, you know, in your doing of things, you moved me. And it's God's choice in doing this. It's not that, you know, Satan, I tricked you. No, he goes, listen, I'm going to bring some bad things into his life, not morally bad things. It also goes along with the fact of there's a passage that you have here that we're gonna talk about in a second that explains what temptation is, okay? And then we have to understand what a temptation is from God's perspective, because God can't be tempted with either. Well, neither tempteth he any man, but we're told that God does tempt us, but we'll see how that works out here. Okay, what's the physical affliction that he goes through? Okay, verse four, we stopped before Satan goes and starts his, tantrum here. Verse four, and Satan answered the Lord and said, skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath he will 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. The Lord said unto Satan, behold, he is in thine hand but save his life. So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his feet under his crown. He took unto him a potsherd to scrape himself withal, and he sat down among the ashes. What happens here is he's got these boils, and I can't imagine this, having them from the top of the head and bottom of the feet. You go, why has he got a potsherd with him? To relieve the pressure of the boils that are there. I can't say it's the most comforting thing from a medical standpoint that he's sitting in ashes while he's doing this but you know it is Obvious that he's in great distress. I mean imagine when you get a boil On your arm or that and it bothers you to no end. I He's got it from the top of his head, bottom of his feet, 24-7. He can't get away from it. It's always there. I mean, at least you can get away from some of these, you know, sadnesses that go on here, but when it's personally afflicting you all the time, you can't get away from it. It's not like you can go to a different room or... No, it's there. The sickness and pain's with you for that. Satan's comment on this is skin for skin. The idea on that is man will gladly trade off the skins of others, even his children, to save his own. Again projecting his own twisted traits on others, Satan, the supreme narcissist, cannot imagine Job doing otherwise. Last time, Satan confidently alleged the sincerity of Job's faith was as deep as his pockets. Now he's sure that the sincerity of Job's faith is only skin deep, meaning his personal health and well-being. What he doesn't understand, because Satan has always been out for himself, he doesn't care about anybody else. You go, oh, he cares about the other fallen angels. No, he doesn't. He doesn't care about the other demons. He's not that. It's all about him. So what he's projecting onto Job is what he's like. You know, I'd save my own skin to get whatever I wanted. I'd, you know, I'd sell my, you know, best friends over here, whatever. I could care less as long as I get what I want. He doesn't understand that people will sacrifice. You know, that's something that Satan doesn't understand, that we'll sacrifice for the benefit of others, the good of others. He doesn't understand that because he's never done that. So he's just simply saying this. Now, for us, this is a trial, okay? And understand in our Bible, the word trial is the same word for temptation, is the same word for testing. Oftentimes in context, what happens is you have to figure out, are we talking about temptation in the sense of something being, it's a temptation, it's really obviously bad what you're being tempted with, or is it just merely a difficult circumstance where you're forced to make a decision? Teachers give tests, why? We had this discussion this morning, someone asked afterwards. Teachers give tests, why? to see what you know. And what they want to know is if you're going to answer with a right answer or a wrong answer. And we got in a discussion this morning. Tests are given from a child's perspective. They're going, this is bad. I can't believe this is happening. Why would the teacher do this? I don't like tests. As a teacher, I oftentimes wouldn't know what a student knew until we took a test. You know, they sit there like a wonderful cherub, and they're smiling, and they're happy, and whatever, and they seem to be enjoying what's going on, and whatever, and you'd think, okay, they're pulling this in, they've got this down, and whatever, and then you give them a test, and it's like, oh boy. They have no idea that what I was teaching them was something they needed to know, and that. Well, when you give a test, what happens for some students, they go, okay, we're gonna prepare for this to get a right answer. You know, if I'm gonna get tested on it, I'm going to be prepared. Well, what we have in life is that God gives us tests. And what He's trying to do, and we would say sometimes He's trying to prove What we claim, you know, I claim to believe this about God, whatever, and God's going, okay, let's see if we get the right answer. And we get the wrong answer, what do you do? You go, well, how did I get the wrong answer? Did I not understand something? Did I fail to take account for something? I got a wrong answer. God does this. He brings tests into our life. You could say it's a temptation if you make the wrong choice. But there's something you have to understand when God brings difficulties or allows difficulties into your life when it comes to temptations, and it's found in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse number 13. 1 Corinthians 10, 13, you have a passage there that talks about the nation of Israel who was given all sorts of blessings, didn't pass the testings. God allowed certain things to come across the path of the Israelites after all the blessings, and they failed, repeatedly, over and over again. They got the wrong answer. And what the Apostle Paul's saying is, look at the Old Testament, and you got people who are blessed by God, they've even seen God's power and all these things, and they're still making wrong answers. He then makes a statement in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 12. Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. You think you got all the answers, You think you're going to get everything right. Well, guess what? You have a whole group of people who should have had the right answers, and they failed repeatedly over and over again. They made the wrong choices. Decided to grumble against God, complain about God, to test God, to go off and do sin. But verse 11 says this, or excuse me, verse 13. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. Do you realize nothing that you've ever gone through Anything that you've ever gone through is not new in this world. Ecclesiastes would tell us there's nothing new under the sun. You go, oh, you would never understand. You know that song, nobody knows the trouble I've seen, nobody knows, you know. You say, but Jesus. But the fact is, is sometimes we think no one's ever gone through anything like this before. That's what the scripture says here is that, well, wait a second, no, there have been people who have had this kind of test before. They've had this kind of affliction, they've had this kind of suffering where they've had to make decisions and choices. So understand, nothing new under the sun when it comes to difficulty. But understand this, with every testing, every test that God allows you to have, he gives you the assignment. He goes, okay, you're getting this test. God is faithful, and you go, why is God faithful? Well, it's because of this. Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape that ye may be able to bear it. Now you understand, okay, we're not just simply talking about bad things tempting you. There's something that goes on, and can I make a right choice? In every situation, the answer is mm-hmm. Yeah, you can make a right choice in every situation, no matter how bad it is. You go, I don't know. Okay, you have the example of one who suffered worse than any human being on the face of the earth, and he still didn't sin. You go, who's that, Jesus? I mean, with every temptation that you face, there's always a right answer. You know, you can't ever go, I was boxed into a situation and I had to make a wrong choice. No, there's always a right choice. So when you have this, understand, he provides a way of escape. If God promises never to test or tempt you beyond your ability, then whatever he sends or allows you can be handled by his grace. Thought about this again yesterday and this morning and brought it up this morning, I have always wondered, and a lot of people have wondered, what Paul's thorn in the flesh was. He says, the thorn in the flesh, and I prayed three times to the Lord to remove it. It's not just merely, you know, in passing he'd prayed about it and whatever. I mean, what he's talking about, he had a lengthy time of prayer over this to the Lord and just poured out his heart, and three times he did this, I've kind of wondered what it is. Some have said it was his eyes. I have no idea. He talks about writing in big letters, but some of us with good eyesight will write bad letters in big ways. But he talks about at times coming to people and the Galatians, he said, I came in weakness. When he talks about the Corinthians questioning him, they just kind of go, he's a weak, you know, a person who you just kind of disdain when you look at as far as just his health. I wondered what the thorn is, whether it was something that was embarrassing, something that was painful, could have been a combination of these things. But he goes to the Lord three times and says, Lord, please, if at all possible, remove this, get rid of this, take it away. And I will commend Paul for this. He at least goes to the Lord. Most of the time when we go through difficult circumstances, people's reaction is to complain to others or just kind of stew on their own. He goes to the Lord, and the Lord's response is this. My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness. You can say in your weakness, it's made this way. God goes, you can handle this. That's what he's saying to Paul. You can handle this. By my grace, you put your trust in me that I'm going to get you through this. You'll be able to make this through and make right decisions and make right choices and respond the way you should if you just simply trust me, because my grace, my power will take you through this. I mean, we have to understand, when Job is going through this, this is hard theology when the person's actually got the boils on the top of the head to the bottom of the feet. This is not the thing that you normally talk to people about during that occasion. So it's good for us to prepare for this type of thing now, but understand, in the midst of your difficulty, God always says, listen, I will not press you above that you are able. I will always give you the grace that you need to go through this. You can make the right responses in the midst of your most difficult circumstances. You can do this, not because of who you are, but because I'm your God. So, Job, you go through this and you look at this statement that God allows this to happen. And it still kind of bothers us. If God allows people to go through this, does he really love them? As a parent, you don't like your kids going through difficult circumstances. You go, why? Because you love them. And in cases and times in life, you just kind of go, I wish I could go through this rather than them. You go, that's love, willing to sacrifice for the sake of others. But at times you kind of go, well, you know, you let your child go through something and you go, well, you really don't love them. You know, you let them face up to something or let them go through something and that, and the love, you know, a child might go, well, you don't love me. Well, yeah, we do, more than you know. This question in just asking this, God sends suffering because he loves, he loves us. I don't have time to go through this, but I'm gonna put this example here for you just to think through. If you read the story of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, it is very clear that he loves this family. John is very clear on this and the gospel is very clear. He loves this family. So when you get to the circumstances where he gets the report, Lazarus is sick, and he's kinda holding off from coming right away, he deals with some of the things he's dealing with, and he delays even more, and then when he finally gets going, he just tells his disciples, Lazarus is dead. He's sleeping, and he goes, no, no, Lazarus is dead, understand, he's gone. And then he comes to Mary and Martha, and they're going, if you'd just been here, you could've healed him. Almost in the sense of, you know, just hurried and been here a little quicker. And you go, well, why in the world did God allow Mary and Martha and Lazarus to go through this? Do you, can you think of anybody else during Christ's ministry before the resurrection that strongly believed that God could raise somebody from the dead? Because that's what happens to Lazarus. He's raised from the dead. And in fact, they're trying to, the leaders are trying to eventually eliminate Lazarus and the testimony of this family because they're so strong in their proof that one could be raised from the dead, but God who loved them took them through the loss. of Lazarus and you go, well, you know, God really didn't love him. No, he did. He was just taking them through something that was going to make them stronger or make the testimony of God stronger. And you go, okay, so God does love, even though you might be going through the worst of circumstances. In this case, Lazarus dying, God loves people. But what does suffering say about God? Here's three things, God's suffering, or excuse me, Job's suffering does not indicate that God has lost control. Oh, I just let that go. Missed that one. No, God hasn't lost control. God's suffering does not mean that God is ignorant. Okay, God's not up there and you're in great agony down here and he's just kind of whistling a tune up, you know, in heaven and going, okay. And you're crying out, no. No, God's not ignorant of what's going on. Nor is he, in this sense, God's unkind. We said this last week, I'm gonna say it again. When we get to glory, there are going to be things that we went through in life that we just said, that was horrid. I don't wanna go through that again. And in this life, we never really see why those things happen, but we're gonna get to heaven and we're just gonna go, and when we don't have the glasses on that help us or cause us to see things darkly right now, we're seeing the Lord face to face. Some of these things in our life, we're suddenly gonna go, oh, God wasn't unkind. In fact, God was very good. It's just the perspective we have right now is limited. But we can't suggest, no, God's unkind. If I had my way, I would do this and this rather than what he did to me. And once again, as you said, this is not easy for people who are going through the difficulty to say these kind of things. So we ought to get this settled in our mind beforehand. that our God is not losing control, he's not ignorant, he's not unkind if we go through bad times. He's a good God all the time. He's in control all the time. He knows everything all the time. There's nothing that slips his mind and passes him by. So what does suffering say about God? Well, it's not that he's losing control, it's not ignorant, it's not that he's unkind. Now, one thing that we need to add to this is that there is human provocation that's a part of this story. Verse nine, remember, he's sitting in an ash pile, boils on the top of his head, bottom of his feet. Verse nine, then said his wife unto him, dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. But he said unto them, 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, Job did not sin with his lips. What you have here is a whisper of Satan in the mouth of Job's wife. She's simply whispering this, you're as good as dead. God has obviously turned against you. You'd be better off to curse God and let him kill you. Now, let's just, okay, we're gonna talk about Job's friends when we get there. Job's friends are not bad friends. They're well-intentioned friends who blunder through their helping of Job. But they're willing to sit with Job for seven days in silence. I mean, that to me says something. They sit down with him, and they don't say anything for seven days. Can't go, what friend would you do that with? But seven days, they sit there. Just think about this, Job's wife is one who has gone through the loss of everything, including 10 children that she gave birth to. Okay, so we are, and I think that she's the one, the mother of these children, I don't know if there's some part of the other story, but what are the cases? She's the wife and probably the mother of these children, the one responsible for these children regardless. And now her husband who had decent health is going through the worst of health he could possibly go through. That's hard for any human being to undergo. She says this statement, you ought to curse God and let him kill you. There is some suggestion that she is, How do I put this? Might have some good intentions for Job because she loves him and it would be better for him not to be alive. You know, I don't know about that. Okay, have you ever been in a situation with a person in such bad health that you've just said to the Lord, why don't you take them? They are miserable here. They have no functioning here in pleasantness and Lord, why don't you take them? She wasn't always like this, okay? I'm gonna give you this statement here. Was she expressing a genuine, if misguided, compassion for her husband by advising the quickest way out of suffering? Possibly, okay? This could be an element of this. But her question suggests a less sympathetic spirit And for us, understand... I will put this one up here too. Job's rebuke of her implies that such language is out of character for her, but in this instance she's thinking like a fool. And when he says you're a foolish woman, understand that's that word Nabal. You've heard a character by the name of Nabal who was one who tried to battle David because David was around and he didn't want to do anything with him and he was a braggadocious individual and he's just named Nabal because he was truly a fool. This type of a fool is one in Proverbs who questions who God is and really goes against what God wants. That's a fool of fools, where a person is intentionally going, because you have the kind of fool who just kind of wanders into mistakes and whatever. That's a simple fool, but he's a fool. But there are people who are intentionally going against God. And when Job makes the statement, why are you speaking like one of the foolish woman? That indicates that she has some, had some spiritual character beforehand. Okay, he goes, I've not heard this. Why are you speaking like one of the foolish woman? I haven't heard you do that. So Job, his rebuke is just simply saying it's out of character for her. But what she says, is it right? The answer is, I don't, yeah, it's not, okay? You go, why? I will give two indicators that she's not the type of woman you wanna emulate in what she says. A, we have no name for her. She's nameless. And think about this later. You have three daughters that are born, we're giving names for who they are later on. And she is not seen in the rest of the story. She's not there at the end of the story when things turn around and everything like that. I mean, it's not that she's not there, it's just, and it's kind of the author's way of just kind of going, what she said, not a good thing. I wanna read this element here. One commentator made this statement and I thought, okay, this is kind of a wry way of saying something about Job's wife. Why is Job's wife around? Why didn't he lose her too? Job had lost his children, but this wife he has retained, for he needed not to be tried by losing her. He was sufficiently tested by having her. Why did the devil leave him this wife? Because he thought her a good scourge by which to plague him more acutely than by other means. Moreover, the thought is not far distant that God left her to him, that when in the glorious outcome of his sufferings, he receives everything doubled, that he might not have this thorn in the flesh doubled also. You get to the end of the story, he's got children, he's got children again, but you don't need another wife to be like this. I tend to think that what you have here is a woman that's under a great deal of stress, doesn't normally act like this, but her statement If anything was going to kick Job over the edge, it would be this. His wife looking at him and going, you ought to just curse God and die. Get it over with. Now, some have suggested this. Think about this. He's lost everything. She thinks that she's what, possibly next in line for being knocked off? that Job has done something to God and she's thinking that he's next. This is why Job's friends are gonna come. They're gonna try and find out what Job did. What are you doing? So we don't do the same thing and get what you're getting. There could be an element here that his wife is just kind of going, this is not going good and you've done something and I'm next. So the statement is the whisper of Satan in the ear of Job. But you have there in verse number 10 that he does not, it says in there, in this Job did not sin with his lips. He doesn't say something with his mouth. But here's something to consider. It says that he doesn't sin with his mouth. He is not openly proclaiming things that he's thinking about God. He doesn't sin with his mouth. And one puts it this way, is Job beginning to crumble? The answer is yeah. Denial is often identified as the first stage of grieving, the initial instinct to disbelieve, devastating news. The believer faces a different kind of denial because we believe his word, we feel obligated to suppress sentiments that contradict what we believe from the Bible to be true. You know, something bad happens to us and we go, you know, I'm not gonna say that about God because that can't possibly be true, but it's roaring through our soul. Our flesh is crying out and going, why did God do that? And why did God do this? And how could he allow this to happen? And why can't he let you to do this? And this rages in the soul. But the initial impact of denial is just, I'm not gonna say this about God. But Job's on edge. You go, why? Okay. More was going on in the recesses of Job's soul than he admitted with his mouth. Job guarded his lips, but that he began to waver in his heart is clear from his initial lament and from words later provoked by his friends. You're gonna see Job open up. When his friends start talking to him, you got the seven days of silence, and he's just gonna simply start going, okay, God, I'm clean here. I haven't done anything here. I didn't do this. I don't know why you did this because I, could I have a courtroom setting to talk to you? Can I get a lawyer to come and argue my case with me? Can I, and you're gonna go, what is he questioning there? You know, he gets to the point where he's starting to question the goodness of God because he's not seeing it. And so you kind of go, is Job on edge here? Yeah, he is, but he passes the test because what does Satan say? Satan says, he'll curse you to his face. Well, the wife suggests, why don't you curse God? He doesn't do it. And from this point on, the devil's no longer a part of the book. Okay, when you get done with this chapter, in fact, at this point, he's already gone. Satan doesn't appear anymore. The contest has already been settled by God. Satan says he'll curse you to your face. Nope, not when you take all his possessions. He'll curse you to his face if you just take his health. Nope, doesn't do that. But you wait seven days and now after the seven days and he starts questioning God, but he's not cursing God because he's going to God and going, answers, I'd like answers. Because his faith is kind of going, wait a second, I know this about you, I know this about you, but he's not cursing God. turning his back on God, going away from God, and that's the contest that's here. But I will say, he's on the edge here. But even in this initial time, he's not doing the things that Satan expects him to do. He's showing a loyal faithfulness to God. You're gonna have to go through the next chapters, and then we'll go through those, where you go, he is questioning certain things about the character of God, but he's arguing this in the presence of God, you know, saying, okay, I turn my back on you. He's wanting answers. He's not getting them. So anyhow, so God's always good, but you know, you can even be pressed to a point where it gets very difficult for the strongest of Christians not to waver in their faith under the emotional stress, but God's gracious. He gives help. You don't have to sin in those times. He said, I won't test you above what you're able. If you fail, it's because you didn't take the way of escape. You didn't look to him. You didn't take it. But anyhow, questions. I mean, this is a tough one. Lots of things to chew on. As I said, this is a meat passage. This is not a milk passage to work through in the scripture. Things to consider, but. Yes? I have a comment. One of the books that I read about trials and grieving and all that God has done And if we complain, if we gripe, Satan got the victory if we give in. So that was my point of my goal, just to never give in and let Satan have the victory. Yeah. And I have to tell people at times when in counseling them as a pastor, It's okay to be broken. It's okay to sorrow. Okay? As we said, God weeps, God sorrows. It's just what you do with it. What you're looking to at the end. In all of this, I want to see God better, I want people to see God better, but I'm still gonna be hurt over this, and it's just part of the life. It's gonna be part of the experience. And Job does make the statement, Are we gonna, to his wife, are we gonna accept God's good and go, yay, thank you, God, and then when he gives us evil, we're gonna go, oh, you, no. Really? He gave me this. He says, you know, it's kind of the idea that we're stewards. In the previous chapter, naked came I from my mother's womb, naked shall I return, the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord. So if God's gonna give us good and bad, our response oughta be the same. God, You know what You're doing. Thank You, God. I don't know everything You're doing, but You're still a good God. You're worthy of my blessing, my praise. So, anybody else?