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Speaker 1: I'm John Stangey, and today we're in Job chapter two
Speaker 1: and we'll be reading from the New Living Translation. One day,
Speaker 1: the members of the Heavenly Court came again to present
Speaker 1: themselves before the Lord, and the accuser, Satan, came with them.
Speaker 1: Where have you come from, the Lord asked Satan. Satan
Speaker 1: answered the Lord, I have been patrolling the earth, watching
Speaker 1: everything that's going on. Then the Lord asked, Satan, have
Speaker 1: you noticed my servant Job. He is the finest man
Speaker 1: in all the earth. He is blameless, a man of
Speaker 1: complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil,
Speaker 1: and he has maintained his integrity even though you urged
Speaker 1: me to harm him without cause. Satan replied to the Lord.
Speaker 1: Skin for skin, a man will give up everything he
Speaker 1: has to save his life, but reach out and take
Speaker 1: away his health, and he will surely curse you to
Speaker 1: your face. All right, do with him as you please,
Speaker 1: the Lord said to Satan, but spare his life. So
Speaker 1: Satan left the Lord's presence and he struck Job with
Speaker 1: terrible boils from head to foot. Job scraped his skin
Speaker 1: with a piece of broken pottery. As he sat among
Speaker 1: the ashes, his wife said to him, are you still
Speaker 1: trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die? But
Speaker 1: Job replied, you talk like a foolish woman. Should we
Speaker 1: accept only good things from the hand of God and
Speaker 1: never anything bad? So in all this Job said nothing wrong.
Speaker 1: When three of Job's friends heard of the tragedy he
Speaker 1: had suffered, they got together and traveled from their homes
Speaker 1: to comfort and console him. Their names were Elephaz the Temanite,
Speaker 1: Bill Dad the shoe Height, and so Far the Namathite.
Speaker 1: When they saw Job from a distance, they scarcely recognized him.
Speaker 1: Wailing loudly, they tore their robes and threw dust into
Speaker 1: the air over their heads to show their grief. Then
Speaker 1: they sat on the ground with him for seven days
Speaker 1: and nights. No one said a word to Job, for
Speaker 1: they saw that his suffering was too great for words.
Speaker 1: Let's pray, Lord, we thank you for your word, and
Speaker 1: we thank you for the privilege of being able to
Speaker 1: look at it today. And Lord, as we read through
Speaker 1: this book, you allow us to walk through this trial
Speaker 1: that you allowed job to go through. And we can
Speaker 1: see here in this portion of scripture that his sorrow
Speaker 1: is so deep, it's so great. He's now being physically
Speaker 1: afflicted on top of everything else. But he accepts it.
Speaker 1: He believes in you, he believes in your sovereignty, and
Speaker 1: he doesn't seem to look at his life and despair
Speaker 1: the fact that you have allowed these things to come
Speaker 1: his way. He certainly grieves, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: he accepts what you allow. And Lord, by your grace,
Speaker 1: we pray that that would be a mindset that we
Speaker 1: would cultivate as well. But we know that that could
Speaker 1: only be something that we accept if we have the
Speaker 1: mind of Christ, if we think like your son Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: But even as he gave us an example of prayer,
Speaker 1: prayed not his will, but your will be done. Lord.
Speaker 1: That's extremely difficult for us to wrestle with. We idolize
Speaker 1: our own will. But Lord, your sovereign, and you know
Speaker 1: what's best, and we're grateful that we can trust that
Speaker 1: whatever you decide is for your glory and for our good.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Lord, for the fact that you have revealed
Speaker 1: to us our need for salvation. Through faith in Jesus,
Speaker 1: and so that in the midst of anything we go
Speaker 1: through this side of heaven, we recognize Lord, that you
Speaker 1: are present with us and in us, and that it's
Speaker 1: all going to work out on the other end. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Lord for making that known to us. And we pray
Speaker 1: that in the midst of our trials that you would
Speaker 1: comfort us and remind us of these things, but you
Speaker 1: would fill us with joy as well, so that our
Speaker 1: sense of peace and satisfaction in this world is something
Speaker 1: that's never dependent on our changing circumstances. We love you, Lord,
Speaker 1: and we thank you for all of these things, and
Speaker 1: we pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen.