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Old Testament 18 Patriarchal Stage 8 Liberty Home Bible Institute HL Willmington
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In this lecture, the speaker discusses the prophecies of Jacob about his sons and their future. Joseph is highlighted as the favorite son and his descendants are predicted to face challenges but overcome them. Benjamin is described as a warrior. The speaker also mentions the war against the Benjamites and their survival. Joseph's death and burial are discussed, as well as his reassurances to his brothers. The speaker then compares the life of Joseph to that of Jesus, pointing out similarities between them. The lecture concludes with an introduction to the next topic, the life of Job. This is number 18 in a series of 80 Old Testament lectures. In this lecture, we're going to finish up the patriarchal stage, and we're on the prophecies now of the ten boys of Jacob that he blesses and predicts their future somewhat. They're on his deathbed in Egypt. We discussed the first ten, and now we come to Joseph. And God says, or Jacob, I should say, through inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he predicts that Joseph would be a fruitful tree beside a fountain whose branch shaded the wall. He predicted that he would be severely injured, that is to say, his descendants, by vicious archers, but that their weapons were shattered by the mighty one of Jacob, the shepherd, the rock of Israel. Admittedly, we're not quite sure. This is poetical language, and we're not exactly sure how this was fulfilled in history. And Jacob predicts and pronounces the richest divine blessing of all the twelve, with the exception of Judah, of course, upon Joseph. Joseph was by far his favorite. Then upon Benjamin, the youngest and last of his twelve sons, Benjamin, he said, would be as a wolf on the prowl. He said he would devour his enemies in the morning and divide the spoils in the evening. I think there's an example of this militant spirit in the life of the descendants of Benjamin. We see this in Judges chapter 20. Here there is a terrible war against the Benjamites and the remaining eleven tribes of Israel. Had not God himself stepped in, I suppose, and stopped that war, all the Benjamite soldiers would have been slaughtered and the tribe would have disappeared from the face of the earth. And as it were, there were only some 600 warriors left at the end of this war. Of course, both the Saul of the Old Testament and the Saul of the New Testament were from the tribe of Benjamin. During the civil war that will take place many years later, there will be two tribes that will remain in the South, and one is the tribe of Judah and the other will be the tribe of Benjamin. It will side in with Judah. And the other ten tribes will go north and form the Northern Kingdom. Well, upon these words, Joseph, or Jacob, dies. He dies at the age of 147, and his body is embalmed in Egypt during a 40-day preparation period, and then all Egypt itself mourns over his body for 70 days. Then he is carried by his sons, as they promised they would do, in Palestine, and he is buried alongside Abraham and Isaac in the cave of Machpelah. Joseph then reassures his troubled brothers that favorable conditions would remain as before the funeral, because they were really afraid now. They said, well, you know, he's treated us pretty nice, but now Dad's dead and he's not trying to impress anyone, he doesn't have to worry about what our father thinks, and maybe he'll really turn on us now with a vindictive spirit. But he tells them not to worry. In fact, he gently reminds them of the following. He said, He thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. And what a tremendous statement that was. The Bible says that God loves to work the wrath of men for his glory. And here Joseph says, He thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good. At the age of 110, Joseph died and is buried there in Egypt. And some 400 years later, when Moses and Aaron and the children of Israel leave the land of Egypt, they'll carry in their possessions, along with other things, the bones of Joseph. And his bones will also be buried in the Holy Land, along with the other ancestors that we've already talked about. So this brings us now to the end of the book of Genesis. Before we finish the life of Joseph and get into the life of Job, the fifth patriarch, let me just say something, that Joseph, without any exception, is the most complete type of Christ in all the Bible. And there are some 21 similarities between the life of Joseph and the life of Christ, and these cannot be accidental. In the New Testament, our Lord said on one occasion, search the scriptures, for they speak of me, and they certainly do. For example, consider now the similarity between the life of Joseph and the life of Jesus. Both were beloved by their fathers. In Genesis 37, we're told that Joseph was the favorite son of his father, Jacob. And in Matthew 3, at the baptismal scene of Christ, we're told that there was a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. And also on the Mount of Transfiguration, the three disciples, James and John and Peter, heard that same statement, except it was added to this time, This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him. So both were beloved by their fathers. And then both regard themselves as shepherds. In chapter 37 of the book of Genesis, Joseph is pictured as a shepherd. And then, of course, in John chapter 10, our Lord Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. So both were shepherds. Both were sent to their brethren by their fathers. When Joseph's troubles began, he was sent by his father, Jacob, to check on the welfare of his brothers. And then, of course, later on in the New Testament, we're told that our Lord Jesus Christ came unto his own. He was sent by the Father to check up, as it were, or to minister to his Israeli brothers. And both were hated by their brethren without a cause. They had no reason for hating Joseph, except they hated him. And in John chapter 1, verse 11, certainly one of the saddest verses in the entire New Testament, the Bible says that he came unto his own, to his brethren. Not to the Communist world or to the bartenders or to the harlots. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. The Jews hated him. So both were hated by their brethren without a cause. And then both were plotted against by their brethren. The brethren plotted against Joseph in Genesis 37 and against Jesus in John chapter 11. They decided that this man must die, and both were severely tempted. Joseph was tempted in Egypt concerning immorality. Our Lord was tempted in the wilderness concerning idolatry. Both were tempted. Both were taken to Egypt. Joseph was taken there as a boy of 17, our Lord as a baby, and both were taken to Egypt. And both were stripped of their robes, Joseph when he was thrown in a pit, and our Savior in John 19, when he was taken by Pilate. Both were sold for the price of a slave. Joseph brought 20 pieces of silver, Jesus brought 30 pieces. Inflation had hit in the New Testament. Both were bound. Joseph was bound, our Lord was bound, and both remained silent and offered no defense. Joseph was accused of immorality and of rape, and he offered no defense. And our Lord was accused of blasphemy against Caesar, of unpatriotism and everything, and he offered no defense. In fact, in Isaiah 53, verse 7, we are told that as a lamb before her shears is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. Both were falsely accused. Both experienced God's presence through everything. Both were respected by their jailers. Pilate respected Jesus as Joseph's jailer respected him. And both were placed with two prisoners, one of which was later lost and the other saved. You remember in the account in Genesis 40, the butler was saved, the baker was lost. And in the New Testament, Luke 23, we are told there were two thieves. One was saved, the dying thief that repented, and the other was lost, the one that did not repent. And both were around 30 when their ministry began. In Genesis 41 we are told that, concerning Joseph, and then in Luke 3 we are told that Jesus was about 30 years of age when he began his ministry. Both were highly exalted after their sufferings. When Joseph was brought from the prison, we are told that Pharaoh promoted him right next to himself. And then in Philippians 2 we are told, Wherefore, God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue should confess. So both were highly exalted after their suffering. Both took Gentile brides. Joseph did not marry a Jewish girl, but rather an Egyptian girl. And I'm not sure we should exactly say Gentile, except possibly this was probably a Hamanic girl that he married. Let's state this another way. Both took non-Jewish brides. That would be a little better. And in Ephesians 3 we are told that Paul says, God sent me to declare the mystery that the Gentiles would be part of the body of Christ, part of the bride of Christ. So both took either Gentile or non-Jewish brides. And then both forgave and restored their repentant brothers. At least one will do that, the other didn't. In Genesis 45 we are told that Joseph forgave his erring brothers, and in the book of Zechariah and also in Revelation 1, we are told that when Jesus comes, he will forgive and restore his erring brethren also. Then both were visited and honored by all earthly nations. The more severe the famine became, then the more the nations turned to Joseph. And we are told in Isaiah 2 and also Isaiah 49 that someday all the nations of the world shall give homage and worship Prince Emmanuel, who rules from the throne of David in Jerusalem. So this is a very, very beautiful summary in itself of the life of Joseph. Now we take a study for the next 30 minutes of the life of Job. Remember we said that the patriarchal stage consisted of five main Old Testament fathers. Abraham and his son Isaac and his son Jacob and his son Joseph. And the reason we included this next fellow, whose name is Job, is because many believe that Job lived about the same time of Abraham. He was a contemporary of these other patriarchs. This is one, certainly the book of Job, one of the most ancient books of the entire Bible. We know Moses wrote the Pentateuch, which means the first five books of the Bible. This would mean that he would have written the book of Genesis, the one we have just been studying. It could be that Job wrote his book even before Moses wrote the Pentateuch. Moses did not write the Pentateuch until around the 14th century B.C. Job may have lived 18 or 19 centuries B.C., and he may have written four or five centuries before Moses got around to writing about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. But at any rate, it's one of the most ancient books in the Bible. We know that because of the ancient historical allusions in the book about the pyramids and then the cities of the plain, which reminds us of the time of Abraham. Remember, Sodom was one of these cities of the plain. And then he speaks of the flood, which is indicative of the fact that he didn't live too far this side of the flood. And then Israel's history is completely missing. There's no reference made to the law or to the Exodus, the Red Sea, the crossing from the land of Jordan, the crossing of the Jordan River, or any of the kings of Israel. So this would indicate that the book itself is very ancient. Job was a historical character. He's mentioned later by Ezekiel in the Old Testament and James in the New Testament. So if this is some allegorical myth, then we find men like Ezekiel and New Testament writer James are in error and the Bible is not the word of God, because they treated him as a historical character. The Greek Septuagint, which is the Old Testament translated into Greek, identifies Job with Jobad, who was the second king of Edom. We don't know whether that would be the case or not. But Job was from the land of Uz, and this may have been located northeast of the Sea of Galilee, running toward the Euphrates River. Well at any rate, let's read the first few verses of this book, and then we'll comment on it as we go. There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil. That is to say, he avoided evil whenever possible. There were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses, and a very great household, so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east. In verse 6 of chapter 1, we have a very rare passage in the word of God. There are those occasions when God removes momentarily the veil separating this scene on earth from the heavenly, invisible world. Here we read this account. Now there was a day when the sons of God, remember we discussed these in Genesis 6, the B'nai Elohim, the angels, came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. Now, you know, this surely can't be true. This must be a mistake in the Bible, students, because anybody that reads Walt Disney or reads the comic books, they know that this can't be true, because Satan, everybody knows, is not in the heavens at all. He's in the heart of the earth, and he's dressed in a long, flannel pair of red underwear, and he has two horns and a tail, and he's pitching coal in the furnaces of hell with a pitchfork. Well, you'll find that in the Bible about the same place where you find where it speaks of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Students, it ain't in the Bible. No, Satan is not in hell. Someday he'll be cast into the lake of fire, but he is the prince of the power of the air, and if you doubt that, carefully read Job 1 and 2, and then skip on over to the New Testament and read Revelation chapter 13. Satan is now appearing before the Lord, apparently as a son of God, that is to say, as an angel of the Lord. Satan has to check in, as it were, once a year, maybe, just so he can tell God what he's up to. Let me just make this statement, that Satan is still a servant of God. Now, let me quickly clarify that. He is a rebellious servant, and he is a hateful servant, and someday he'll be a destroyed servant. He's a disobedient servant, but he still has to get permission from God to do anything that he can do. And this is one of the greatest truths that the Bible presents in the Old Testament, and I'll comment on that later. But here the Bible says that Satan came also among the sons of God. And the Lord said unto Satan, You sorry rascal, where have you been? This is really Wilmington's translation, but that's what he meant. He said, From whence comest thou? Where have you been? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, Doth Job fear God for naught? Well, sure he loves you. Look at all the fringe benefits you've given him. Anybody would love you. Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face." Now, you see what Satan is doing here? Satan is bad-mouthing God. And here's what Satan is saying. Lord, you don't have a friend on earth. The only reason anybody worships you is not because you're a holy God, not because you're a righteous God, but because you're a God that gives. Not too long ago two billionaires died and made headlines when they did. One was Aristotle Onassis, whose wealth was estimated at over a billion to two billion dollars, and then Howard Hughes, the great hermit of the twentieth century, who died just recently. And both those men, I suppose both of which were married a number of times, always would wonder, do these women that supposedly love me and do all my associates who claim to be my close friends, do they really like me or do they like my money? And they'll never know. I suppose if the truth were known from examining their personalities, at least according to the newspapers, that the latter was true. But a rich man seldom can know whether he's being loved and catered to because of his own personality and his own inherent goodness and popularity, or is it because of my pocketbook and my money? And this is what Job, this is what Satan was accusing God of. The only reason they love you is what they can get from you. Now, you begin to take away some of these fringe benefits, and Job will curse you to your face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power. Only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. Let me just say this, that Satan has to get the explicit, almost written permission from God before he can ever tempt or afflict a believer. Do you believe, Dean Wilmington, that Satan can possess a believer? No, I do not believe he can possess a believer. He cannot possess one, but he can certainly inflict injury upon a believer. He cannot possess one, but someone has said he can oppress a child of God. We know this to be a fact, because later on there will be boils covering Job from the crown of his head to the bottom of his feet, caused by Satan. And then in the New Testament, our Lord Jesus will on one occasion heal a woman, and it's on the Sabbath, and he'll be criticized for it. And he says to those Pharisees, if you had a sheep, an oxen that had fallen in the ditch on the Sabbath, you'd help it out. How much more should I not help this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound these 18 years? So, yes, Satan can afflict believers, but let me just say, whether he tempts them or afflicts them physically, mentally or spiritually, he cannot do it except he get the permission from God to do it. Paul was right when he said, God had built a hedge around Job. Now let me just say this, that God will not allow Satan to tempt us, according to the New Testament, above that which we are able to bear. One of the great passages in all the word of God is 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13. Paul said, There hath no temptation taken you, but such is common to man. And we sing that old spiritual song, Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen, oh, yes they do. Friend, I don't care what you're going, well, I care what you're going through, but it makes no difference, I'm going to say, what you're going through now, what trial or heartache or tribulation you may be experiencing. Thousands of other believers throughout Church history, and then even before that, Old Testament and New Testament history, have gone through the same thing you're going through right now, whatever it is. Well, you don't know what I'm going through, Dean Wilmington, probably I don't. But millions of others have, because the Bible says, There hath no temptation taken you, but such is common to man. You see, the Bible says we're all made in the same mold. Some of us are maybe moldier than others, but we all go through the basic same temptations. Again, to quote that verse, There hath no temptation taken you, but such is common to man. But God is faithful. Who will not subject you, who will not allow you to be tempted, and I'm careful now, above that which ye are able to bear, but will with the temptation make a way of escape that ye may bear it thereby. Now, sometimes God knows exactly how much you can bear. Often we don't. I've heard people say, and I've said this myself, You know, I can't stand any more of this. One more straw and my back will break. Well, God may know that you can take another 67 straws. Now the 68th will break you, but he may pile on 67 straws, but he won't pile that extra up on you, and he won't let Satan do it either. You see, Satan has to get permission before he can tempt the believer. Well, and so he goes down now and he begins to lure the boom, as it were, upon Job. And he gives him, he lists a number of punishments here, or he punishes him, I should say, through the following things. First of all, he arranges for Job's oxen and donkeys to be stolen, and then his farm hands are killed by a Sabaean raid, a wild desert tribe called the Sabaeans, and someone runs and tells that to Job, so his wealth is beginning to disappear now. And then the second trial, his sheep and herdsmen are burned up by fire, and then while that report is coming to his ears, there comes another messenger saying, Job, your camels have been stolen and your servants in another field have been killed by a Chaldean raid in the Mesopotamia area. They had come down and had done this to him. And then his fourth trial, perhaps in the same amount of time there, the same day, fourth trial, they told him that his sons and daughters had perished in a mighty wind. And in verse 20 of chapter 1, we read this, and Job arose and rent his mantle, that is to say, he tore his clothes, which is the Oriental way of showing intense agony, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshiped, and said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord." What a testimony Job had. In all this, Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. But this is not all the story. Then there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said unto 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. And the Lord said unto Satan, Has thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God in his duest evil? And still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movest me against him to destroy him without a cause. And Satan answered and said, Well, I'll admit the old boy is holding out a little longer than I thought he would. But he said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he 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. Well, it's one thing for a man to lose his wealth, it's another thing for a man to lose his family, but you let me get at him himself now, the man Job, and he'll curse thee to thy face. Notice verse 6 of chapter 2, And 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, this might have been a type of leprosy or cancer, with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a putscher to scrape himself withal, and he sat down among the ashes. Now if ever a man needed the counsel and comfort of a godly wife, it's Job. But I'll tell you, he didn't have it. Because Mrs. Job comes up, takes a look at him and says, and we quote, Thus thou still retain thine integrity, curse God and die. What ungodly advice here. But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. But shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? Here the Hebrew word simply means calamity. He's not blaming God. He may do this later, but he's not blaming God now for this evil, he's simply saying God has allowed this calamity. Because the next statement we read, In all this did not Job sin with his lips. This is verse 22 of chapter 1, after the first set of trials, In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. He didn't badmouth God like Satan was doing. Now verse 11, When Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come unto him, they came every one from his own place. And here we have now the three so-called friends of Job. One was Eliphaz, the other was Bildad, and another was Zopar, and then later on there was a young man whose name was Elihu. And from Job chapter 3 on through Job chapter 37 and 38, actually we have the account of the dialogues between these four men, particularly the first three, and Job. Eliphaz bases his advice on personal experience. They are all coming, and let me read these verses and I'll comment on them. They came together in verse 11 of chapter 2, they made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. When they lifted up their eyes afar off and knew him not, in other words, he looked so bad they didn't even recognize him, they lifted up their voices and wept. So they did have some concern for Job, although later on they would be very miserable comforters indeed. But they did sympathize with him at this point. And they rent every one his mantle, they tore their clothes as Job once tore his, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. Again, this is a sign of anguish and mourning and humility. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him, for they saw that his grief was very great. It doesn't mean that they sat there 24 hours a day for an entire week, but a great portion they sort of sat up with him, day and night, getting a little sleep and eating in between, of course. But they just sat there not knowing what to say. Then in chapter 3, after this, open Job his mouth and cursed his day. I know in the New Testament we read about the patience of Job, but often Job was very impatient. He never bad-mouths God here or charges God foolishly, but he really begins to sing the blues. And his favorite song would not have been Heavenly Sunlight in these next few chapters. It would have been probably It's Not An Easy Road or that grand old faithful We Are Going Down The Valley One By One, or A Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen, and some of these other songs. It's Not An Easy Road. Notice what he says, Let the day perish when I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived, let that day be darkness, the day that I was born. Let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it. Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it. Let a cloud dwell upon it. Let the blackness of the day terrify it. In verse 11 he says of chapter 3, Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came from the womb? And he goes on and on. So I used to think when I was a boy growing up, reading the Bible, or before I really studied it, that the men in the Old Testament especially were, I don't know, sort of plastic saints of some sort. They didn't have problems like I had. They were all born in sunny school classrooms and they drank communion juice and they never had bad breath and they never suffered with ulcers and their sinuses never acted up. Now, listen, these men were men of life passions. And I don't know about you, friend, but I'll tell you this right now. Here in Lynchburg we often get discouraged, and I say we, I mean myself and other people I talk with, other believers, those members of Thomas Road and other members and other Bible-believing churches. And sometimes we doubt God's goodness and sometimes we're tempted to give up. And we're not always on the mountain shouting and praising God. We do thank God for the mountain experiences, but sometimes we do a little plowing in the valley below. And there are times in our life when we wonder, we doubt, and I've actually doubted whether God has forgotten all about me. Lord, maybe you've got my area code or zip code mixed up, you know, and maybe you don't have my right telephone number now because my prayer mail is not getting back to me. Maybe you don't do that where you live, but we do it, and if the truth were known, you do it, too. No, these men had their moments of despair, just like you and I do today. Now, Job's three friends came to comfort him, but they were very miserable comforters, and we already said the first one to speak is a man named Elipaz, and Elipaz bases his advice on personal experience. By the way, Elipaz was a descendant of Esau. And Elipaz says, well, these things have happened to me, and therefore this is what has to happen to you also. So he bases all his advice not on the Bible, but on personal experience. And then Bildad, he bases his advice on tradition. Well, this is always the way it's been done, and therefore this is my advice to you. And Zopar, he bases his advice on pure dogmatism. This seems right to me, and this is the way it is regardless. Then later on, this young fellow, he's sort of a preacher boy, his name is Elihu, and he'll base his advice on youth alone. Now, for Job's wife, she bases her advice on sheer unbelief. Let us say when you come to the book of Job, you can't always take all the statements of Job's friends and base doctrine on them, for some of the statements are false. You cannot prove certain doctrinal statements, I mean, let's put it this way, you cannot base certain statements and make a doctrinal dissertation out of it. For example, we study this already, in the book of Genesis, Satan told Eve, you shall not surely die. Now, you can't base any doctrine on that statement because it was a lie. Some of the statements here in the book of Job are simply the record of uninspired men. I don't mean the book of Job is uninspired. It's given by inspiration of God, but it records some of the statements made by these three friends that were actually made to Job in the moment of personal experience or tradition or dogmatism. For example, in Job 42, God rebukes these three friends, he said, for not speaking the truth about my servant Job. So what they said was wrong. Someone said this, it's been pointed out, that his friends, Job's friends, came to sympathize, but they stayed on to sermonize. At any rate, Job's three friends delivered eight full-blown messages, all with three points and a poem, to the long-suffering patriarch. Elipaz, he preaches three of these in Job 4, 5, 15, and 22. And then Bildad, he preaches three, found in chapters 8, 18, and 25, and Zopar, being less winded, came up with two, chapters 11 and 20. No sooner, however, had this tiresome trio finished their discussion than the filibuster began again by a young preacher boy named Elihu, who drones on for six chapters in chapters 32-37. And Job doesn't even take the time to answer him. Someone has also said that perhaps at no other Bible conference in history did so many preachers preach to so few in attendance where the congregation enjoyed it less. But at any rate, all three men, especially the first three, Elipaz, Bildad, and Zopar, come to this conclusion. Job, it's very obvious that you're suffering, and we're sorry for that, but inasmuch as God does not punish righteous people, you must be suffering for your sin, for God does not punish righteous people. Now, Job, what's her name? Come on, an old man like you running around. Well, that's what they indicated. That's what they suggested here. Or Job, now, you're behind in your tithes, your offerings, and now you just cheated on your income tax. You think the President of the United States can get away with it, and you're going to do it, too. But they base this on God never allows his chosen people to go through suffering. Do you know there are faith healers today that have that same philosophy? And if a child of God is suffering, it must be due to his sin, for it is never God's will. One of the leading faith healers in America has often made that statement. Some years ago I attended a prayer breakfast and sat across the table from him and had a rather pleasant conversation with him, and I won't mention his name, but he made that statement. It is never God's will for a child of God to remain very long or to ever be in a period of suffering like this. It's because of unbelief. Well, I don't know, God treated the Lord Jesus pretty bad. No, often it is God's will for his chosen Saints to suffer. And there are many reasons for suffering. One of the reasons, of course, is to make us like Jesus. The Moody Bible Institute, I used to have a plaque in my room taken from Philippians chapter 3, verse 10, and it says that I might know him and the power of his resurrection. Every morning when I got up I'd look at that, and every night when I went to bed I'd look at it. And that's what I wanted to do. I was going to change the world, that I might know him and the power of his resurrection. One day an upperclassman came in and said, you know, that's not all that verse, you better read the whole thing before you make it through your life first. Well, I just thought it was a whole verse. So I went through Philippians chapter 3, verse 10, and sure enough, that wasn't all the verse. The entire verse read this way, that I might know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto his death. You know, I was very much interested in the power of the resurrection. I'm not too sure I was too interested in the fellowship of the suffering, but I don't think you can have one without the other. No, often God allows his children to suffer. One of the reasons, not only to make them like Jesus, but in this case, to silence the devil. And I believe that today there may be those listening to these tapes that are suffering, not because of your sin, maybe suffering for a reason you don't know why. But you know that Job down here never was told why he went through all this. Now, it's true that God restored a tenfold blessing to him, as we'll see in just a minute, after this terrible suffering. But God never explained to him why he suffered down here. But the reason he suffered was to silence the devil. And I may be speaking to someone, and the reason you're suffering now is not because of your sin, or not because of your failures, or because God delights in torturing you, but to silence the devil. It may be the devil saying, yes, there's Mary Brown and there's John Smith, and they are a Sunday school teacher or a deacon or a pastor, and they're a soul winner, and they claim to love you, and they give witness to the fact that the only reason they do is because of what you give them, but you let me now go down and touch their lives and remove their health or their wealth and cause them to lose that job or to do this or do that, and they'll curse you to your face. God may be saying, dear friend, all right, I'll let you do it, but I'm going to let you do it to prove to you, old slewfoot, that Mary Jones and Bob Brown and whoever it might be loves me, not because of just what I give them, but because they love me for myself. Well, at the end of all this, there's not so much we can say about Job here, but the end of the book of Job, in chapter 42, after he learns all this, then God restores to him a tenfold blessing. You see, Job has been subjected to five fiery trials, and then he's participated in five painful debates, but now he receives at the hand of God a tenfold blessing. Number one, he's allowed to see the glory of God. Secondly, he sees himself as God sees him, and that's always a blessing. You wouldn't see yourself the way God does. Thirdly, he is vindicated by God before the eyes of these three critical friends. And fourthly, he discovers the joy of praying for these three friends. Fifth, his former health is fully restored. He is comforted by his brothers and sisters. Seventh, he is given money, shower and double his former wealth. Eighth, he is given seven more sons and three more daughters. Nine, he lives to enjoy his great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. And ten, he is given an additional 140 years, which is twice the number normally accorded a man. And with this brings an end to the patriarchal stage. This completes Lecture 4b of the Patriarchal Stage, Unit 2. You may now take your midterm exam. You will find it in the exam packet marked Midterm E1.
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