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Speaker 1: Life Audio Hello and thank you for listening to your

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Speaker 1: daily Bible verse, the podcast that examines one verse each

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Speaker 1: day to learn more about God and His will for us.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jessica VanRoekel, and after this short word

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Speaker 1: from our sponsor, we'll dive into today's Bible verse, Job

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Speaker 1: chapter 40 verses 1 and 2. Today's Bible verses Job

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Speaker 1: chapter 40 verses 1 and 2. The Lord said to Job,

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Speaker 1: Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?

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Speaker 1: Let him who accuses God answer him. I think we

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Speaker 1: can all agree that we've been in seasons where only

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Speaker 1: questions will fill our prayers. For example, I've asked, why

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Speaker 1: is this happening? Or where are you, God? Friends may

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Speaker 1: have tried to explain their reasons for God's silence, but honestly,

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Speaker 1: it left me feeling more alone. Sermons didn't land in

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Speaker 1: my heart because they couldn't break through the wall of

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Speaker 1: questions I had built. And eventually, my questions started sounding

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Speaker 1: like demands. If you don't show up, I'm going to

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Speaker 1: walk away, or this one, prove you're good so I

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Speaker 1: can believe in you. We can wrestle with these types

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Speaker 1: of questions when we face difficult seasons. Unfortunately, we sometimes

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Speaker 1: equate good times with God's blessings, and we treat bad

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Speaker 1: times as though God removed himself from our lives. But

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Speaker 1: sometimes we don't need more information. We need God himself.

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Speaker 1: And that's what happened to Job. He wanted an explanation

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Speaker 1: and God responded by revealing his majesty, wisdom, and authority.

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Speaker 1: In Job chapter 40 verse 2, God is asking Job

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Speaker 1: to consider the posture of his questions and if he's

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Speaker 1: really wanting to correct the Almighty God. You see, sometimes

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Speaker 1: God's answer isn't an explanation of what he's doing. It's

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Speaker 1: the revelation of his presence. The book of Job is

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Speaker 1: a record of one faithful man, his suffering, the discussions

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Speaker 1: between his friends, and finally God's response. The amount of

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Speaker 1: loss Job endured is enough to crush a person. He

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Speaker 1: lost his wealth, family, and health. His friends came to

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Speaker 1: comfort him, not with their presence, but with reasonings about

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Speaker 1: why Job suffered. After about 38 chapters of debate, God spoke.

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Speaker 1: He revealed Job's lack of knowledge about the Lord's role

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Speaker 1: in what was happening. God proved just how little us

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Speaker 1: humans really know and understand about his almighty nature. Up

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Speaker 1: to this moment, though Job had continually prayed and deeply

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Speaker 1: desired to find God in these tragedies, God's response revealed

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Speaker 1: himself in gave Job a firsthand revelation of his presence

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Speaker 1: and mercy and love. You see, God's silence about all

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Speaker 1: of what Job went through shows that the whys were

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Speaker 1: really not the most important issue. The most important part

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Speaker 1: is the reality of God's presence and the assurance that

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Speaker 1: things are right between the two of them. God assured

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Speaker 1: Job that what he had said about God in his

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Speaker 1: disputes with his friends was right. And God understood and

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Speaker 1: sympathized with Job's sufferings and considered his words and feelings

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Speaker 1: with compassion. And any errors Job may have made in

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Speaker 1: judgment came from a lack of understanding rather than a

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Speaker 1: lack of faith or love for his Lord. God's appearance

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Speaker 1: to Job confirmed and assured Job of God's integrity to

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Speaker 1: accept his sincere questions when he went through unexplainable hard times.

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Speaker 1: God spent two chapters. detailing his eternal and boundless wisdom.

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Speaker 1: And then, at the start of chapter 40, he challenges

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Speaker 1: Job to once again defend any implication that God governs

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Speaker 1: the world in an unjust and unreasonable manner. We learn

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Speaker 1: that Job sees how God created the world and that

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Speaker 1: he was governing it with wisdom and justice. Job's tragedies

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Speaker 1: didn't mean that God had abandoned him or stopped loving him,

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Speaker 1: It was at this moment that Job faced a decision

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Speaker 1: to continue to hold on to the feeling that God

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Speaker 1: was against him or to choose to continue to trust

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Speaker 1: God even though Job never received an explanation for why

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Speaker 1: he suffered. Job had to realize that his mysterious suffering

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Speaker 1: had not been a mystery to God and that through

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Speaker 1: it all, he could trust God. As readers, we know

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Speaker 1: why Job suffered. But Job never found out that his

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Speaker 1: suffering involved God's honor. Job's experience proved to Satan that

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Speaker 1: the relationship between God and people can be strong and

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Speaker 1: sincere enough to handle the difficulties in life. The most

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Speaker 1: important part of our relationship with God is not always

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Speaker 1: an understanding of exactly how God works in exactly every situation.

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Speaker 1: The most important part of our relationship is the reality

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Speaker 1: of His presence in our lives and the assurance that

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Speaker 1: God is with us through it all. The fact that

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Speaker 1: righteous people suffer does not prove that God is not good.

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Speaker 1: He often allows people to endure difficulties for wise and

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Speaker 1: often unknown purposes. Difficult circumstances shouldn't really destroy our faith

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Speaker 1: in God's love for us. And I love that God

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Speaker 1: is patient with us and he sympathizes with our weaknesses

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Speaker 1: and really when we misunderstand him and honestly even our anger.

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Speaker 1: If we, like Job, stay faithful, God will eventually reveal

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Speaker 1: his presence and care in a greater way. Only the

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Speaker 1: personal presence of a loving God brings the comfort we need.

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Speaker 1: We may wish we had the exact reason why we

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Speaker 1: have to navigate a difficult season. But comfort doesn't come

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Speaker 1: through intellectual reasoning. It comes through a personal encounter between

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Speaker 1: God and the faithful sufferer. Today, exchange your why questions.

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Speaker 1: for a request for God to meet you in your suffering.

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Speaker 1: Let's pray. Lord God, I love you. I love that

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Speaker 1: you know more than me. Lord, I love that you

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Speaker 1: see a much bigger picture than I could ever see.

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Speaker 1: And Lord, I love that when something seems like a

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Speaker 1: strange mystery to me, Lord, you know all about it

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Speaker 1: and it's not a mystery to you. So God, I

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Speaker 1: ask that you would meet us in our moments of suffering,

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Speaker 1: our moments of situations where we cannot figure out why

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Speaker 1: life has gotten so stinking hard. But God, we know

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Speaker 1: that you are in it with us, that you never

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Speaker 1: leave us and you never abandon us. So God, I'm

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Speaker 1: going to pray right now that at this moment, that

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Speaker 1: whoever needs to know that you are with them, Lord,

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Speaker 1: that you would make it known to them. In Jesus'

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Speaker 1: name we pray. Amen.