Sabbath: Job’s Redeemer
Read for This Week’s Study: Job 19:25–27; John 1:1–14; Job 10:4-5; Luke 2:11; Gal. 4:19; Luke 9:22; Isa. 53:1–6.
Memory Text: “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:4, NKJV).
Job’s Redeemer
With the sudden appearance of the Lord Himself, beginning in chapter 38, the book of Job reached its climax. God revealed Himself to Job in a powerful and miraculous way, and this resulted in Job’s confession and contrition. The Lord then rebuked Job’s three friends for their wrong words, and Job prayed for them. “And the LORD restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10, NKJV), and Job lived a long and full life afterward.
There is, however, something unsettling, something unsatisfactory about the story and how it ends. God and Satan, arguing in heaven, battle it out here on earth in the life and flesh of poor Job? It just doesn’t seem fair, doesn’t seem right, that Job would have to bear the terrible brunt of this conflict between God and Satan, while the Lord remained in heaven and simply watched it.
There must be more to the story. And there is. It is revealed many centuries later, in Jesus and His death on the cross. In Jesus alone we find amazing and comforting answers to the questions that the book of Job didn’t fully answer.
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, December 17.
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Yes job went through trials and tribulations yet he never turned away from God, even when people came and told him to insult God for his illness, he still held on to the faith he had in God. The devil tries us in different ways to see how strong we are with our God by testing our faith.
When we find ourselves in Job's situation let us hold on to the Lord for he sees us and will answer and come to our aid. Amen.
l also need prayer like Job because I'm going through things I can not handle on my own.
Brenda! Hold on! Jesus has already showed up in your situation. Plz look in your surroundings find something (or someone) that you can turn to and pray with! Never give up Jesus is coming Sooooon
Amen indeed.
Thank You for Your testimony, I needed to read that above.
I truly understand your feelings. I have so many trials and tribulations I don't think I can make it or even handle it on my own. Then I realize, I can't so I cry out to God. His Words says ...before we call He will answer and while we are yet speaking He will hear. I truly believe He will and He does, I pray for your strength in the Lord, as I pray that you may see God handle it and bring you through. I produced a T shirt that says..."He may not get you out, but He sure will get you through." Hold on, you will see. May God's peace that passes all understanding keep you today and forevermore, in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Amen, God bless you
Brenda, I pray in my car b4work, driving. Do not give up. Pray about the situation. Do not give up. He God has got this.
The statement"It just doesn’t seem fair, doesn’t seem right, that Job would have to bear the terrible brunt of this conflict between God and Satan, while the Lord remained in heaven and simply watched it' seems to contradict the beliefs of the controversy. E.G White says "Heavenly angels more fully opened to our first parents the plan that had been devised for their salvation. Adam and his companion were assured that notwithstanding their great sin, they were not to be abandoned to the control of Satan. Patriarchs and Prophets pg 65. The life of Abraham was filled with similar scenes of great trial. "Because Abraham had shown a lack of faith in God's promises, Satan had accused him before the angels and before God of having failed to comply with the conditions of the covenant, and as unworthy of its blessings. God desired to prove the loyalty of His servant before all heaven, to demonstrate that nothing less than perfect obedience can be accepted, and to open more fully before them the plan of salvation.
Heavenly beings were witnesses of the scene as the faith of Abraham and the submission of Isaac were tested. The trial was far more severe than that which had been brought upon Adam. Compliance with the prohibition laid upon our first parents involved no suffering, but the command to Abraham demanded the most agonizing sacrifice. All heaven beheld with wonder and admiration Abraham's unfaltering obedience. All heaven applauded his fidelity. Satan's accusations were shown to be false. God declared to His servant, "Now I know that thou fearest God [notwithstanding Satan's charges], seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from Me." God's covenant, confirmed to Abraham by an oath before the intelligences of other worlds, testified that obedience will be rewarded". P&P pg 65. My point is that Job would have been knowledgeable about Adam's fall and the promise of salvation. And like Abraham, he also stood true to God unquestioningly obeying.
God knows what He is doing. The story is for us, we can see God here and hear His response. Wow!!! With a God like God we are more than conquerers and growing in the knowledge of Who God is and Whose we are. We belong to Him, and I pray to trust Him every second of the day.
Hi Joseph, the statement you made "It just doesn’t seem fair, doesn’t seem right, that Job would have to bear the terrible brunt of this conflict between God and Satan, while the Lord remained in heaven and simply watched it" is a false assumption. There is no reason to believe that God was just merely a spectator here. I believe he was making sure that Satan kept his part of the bargain not to take Job's life. He was there all along in that whirlwind with Job as Job went through the said whirlwind. Isn't God wonderful and amazing? What reassurance for Job and even for us that "God will never leave us nor forsake us".
God bless.
Georgia, that statement wasn't Joseph's. It was from the text in today's lesson and he was merely referencing it to transition into the quote from Ellen White 🙂
God introduced Himself mightily as the Creator, when He finally replied to Job’s intense questioning. His words touched Job deeply with conviction of his own unworthiness, compared to the omnipotent God of the universe.The repentance of Job that followed moved him straight into the arms of the Redeemer, the not-yet-born Savior of the world. The Creator is also our Re-Creator.
This week we will see how knowledge of the Messiah, especially for those born after His birth, has always been the only answer to the dilemma of our suffering here on earth and our best way to survive it.Job proceeded to confess and repent. He even prayed for his friends, who God mentioned as having inferior responses to Job’s horrifying experience. They were all in need of more understanding that only faith in God’s true character, a balance of justice and mercy, could produce.
Memory Text: “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.” Isaiah 53:4 NKJV
No one has felt the brunt of cruel pain inflicted as heavily as that of the Lamb of God. Our trials pale in comparison, when we pause to reflect on the One who bore the sins of the whole world on His innocent shoulders.God the Father and the Son suffered enormously at Calvary. No pain can match that of our Substitute as He experienced the death of what should have been ours. His shed blood alone can cause all the suffering of this world to endsomeday.
How Job must have rejoiced at the thought of God’s infinite love for each of us. We all have the opportunity to serve Him, when we place our trust in Him. And Job was more than willing to draw close to his Redeemer and Friend, the promised Messiah.
The comment that Job felt confession and contrition. If that means in
need of forgiveness, the text in Job 42:5 may be indicative. What would lead someone such as Job 1:1 and Job 2:3 and Job 6:28,29, in need of repentance? God saw the need of repentance for the three friends and a burnt offering by the hand of Job to accomplish this as a sign of God's acceptance. Job with all the qualities as mentioned realized he was not God but was totally dependent on God job 42:2
Job was in need of forgiveness because first of all he was a sinner like we all are and secondly, during his discourse he had also misrepresented God and was speaking for Him without fully understanding Him. Hence God had to ask Him "who is it that is speaking of me without knowledge" (Job 38:2). Job himself recognized this and confessed that he was wrong and would now put his hand over his mouth and shut up. Job was telling his friends earlier to go ask nature and they will testify that "the hand of the Lord hath done this" (Job 12:9) He was speaking about what he knew of nature after the fall and God himself had to remind him that his knowledge of nature was limited since he, Job, was not there when nature was perfect (Job 38:4), before it was marred by sin. So in that context also Job was in need of forgiveness for misrepresenting God.I am happy that he did not rebel at that time but accepted that he was wrong and was repentant. Great lesson for us all especially those of us who believe that we know it all and there is no other truth except ours.
God bless.
yes God sees and knows us by name so we need not to hide jst comfess repent and he will restore us.Amen.
The lesson states: " It just doesn’t seem fair, doesn’t seem right, that Job would have to bear the terrible brunt of this conflict between God and Satan"....
Aren't we all bearing the brunt of this controversy? We are all living in the world of sin. We are all participants in this battle. Sin is not fair! Don't ever think that sin is fair, for it is not.
Sin has been allowed to manifest itself in this world precisely to show that sin is NOT FAIR, sin is not freedom, sin does not bring happiness and peace, sin is evil, terrible, destructive and brings pain, and death.
Sin often causes the so called innocent to suffer while, for a time at least, the sinners seem to go free. Examples -- children suffer as parents divorce, neglect their children, or worse abuse or allow their abuse.
The sins of others in generations previous result in suffering for the yet unborn! The bulk of suffering is all the result of sin, even though the ones suffering themselves may have had nothing to do with accumulated sins that are causing that suffering.
The huge upswing in cancer we see today is due to sins of greed, and mismanagement of nature, food, water, convenience products, etc. etc that have made our world a highly toxic place to live. Cancer is caused by sin, even if the sufferer was a godly person.
Sin isn't fair. The so called innocent are often the ones who suffer the most simply because they exist in a world of sin. They live in a world where satan still wages his war.
Why is it allowed --
Because the claim is made that sin brings happiness and freedom.
God's law is restrictive and unfair. That is Satan's claim and he has managed to infuse that thought in much of humanity.
Will we learn that sin is NOT FAIR, sin is deadly, and satan is the father of lies?
As time progresses Satan will be allowed to demonstrate fully what sin does. Will we cling to God as our only hope and Redeemer, or will we cry -- it's not fair, and turn away from God?
But remember -- there is a day coming when God will blot out ALL SIN. Then there will be no more pain, no more death, no more crying.
The big question isn't "is God fair" but "will we turn away from sin and cling to our Redeemer?"
The key issue as I see it is trust in our Creator. The first sin was not so much listening to Satan as it was disbelieving the word of God and discounting the massive amount of evidence in nature, speaking of His love and power in creating us, and sustaining us. Satan's issue with God was asserting that, "It is not possible for clay (human nature) to trust you and obey unconditionally without question." God says there is no defect with His creation of humanity from clay. Humanity as created is fully able to understand God's love and have an obedient and submissive attitude always.
The problem is not humanity (even after thousands of years of degeneration), but the absence of the divine. We receive this divine component by faith in God. If trust in God is lacking then humanity will fail and sin is the result. Humanity combined with divinity does not sin. Trust in God's love was the answer for Adam, trust in God was the answer for Enoch, and Noah; trust in God was the sustaining power for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; trust in God and the law of love sustained Christ in His life of persecution and kept him on the cross. Divinity is available to us by faith in the love of Christ. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world.