Sermon Tone Analysis

Hold Fast- Gettysburg hold the flank

July 1-3, between 46,000-51,000 soldiers died in a three day battle, the most costly battle in US history.

On the second day, July 2, Col. Strong Vincent's brigade from the Union V Corps is deployed to Little Round Top, and Vincent places the 20th Maine at the end of the line, warning Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain that he and his regiment are the flank, and that if they retreat, the Confederate army can swing around behind them and rout the Union forces.

They were commanded to Hold Fast.

In our story of Job, Job holds fast.

Job, in the light of extreme suffering, holds fast to his integrity.

We as believers must hold fast to integrity even in the light of extreme suffering.

Satan will do everything in his power to test your integrity to its breaking point.

Today we will look at three areas in which our integrity will be tested.

I. Spiritual Battles Will Test Your Integrity (vv.

1-6)

A. The Lord’s Conclusion

(1) He reiterates that Job is a righteous man

Exact same description as given earlier of Job.

(2) He notes how Job holds fast to his integrity

Hold Fast- to persevere in regards to something, conceived of as grasping on to the thing.

Integrity- same root word used for perfect, i.e. blameless.

Blamelessness refers to the absence of certain observable sinful acts.

Job, his friends, and the author of the book were thinking of honesty, marital fidelity, just treatment of servants, generosity to the poor, and the avoidance of idolatry.

Cf.

Job 1:22- “In all this Job did not sin”

Job did not curse God to His face, instead what did Job do?

He worshiped.

Job persevered.

He grasped onto his integrity- he remained blameless even when everything was taken away from him.

Even when he was absolutely devastated Job held on.

He held fast.

To underscore the fact that not a single flaw had been found in Job’s character, Yahweh repeated the full fourfold description of Job’s moral excellence and added that Job continued to hold tenaciously to his integrity (Heb.

tummāṯô).

Job had endured all the losses without compromising his blameless and upright character in any angry outburst against God.

(3) He concludes the testing was pointless---

although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause

The word for “move” means to allure or to stir someone to a course of action that he would not normally take.

2 things to note here:

1).

With these words Yahweh accepts full responsibility for Job’s plight.

Satan, you stirred me up to take this course of action against Job, but I was the one in control the whole time.

2).

Job suffered for no good reason.

It is difficult enough to endure hardship to achieve a specific goal, but to suffer misfortune for no apparent reason plunges a person into agonizing self-doubt.

Coping with the sense of meaninglessness is more difficult than coping with the material losses.

Also:

Remember back in chapter one where Satan told God, “Doth Job fear God for naught?”

In other words Satan conjectured that Job’s fear of God was not without cause- Job only feared God for selfish reasons.

Now God turns the table on Satan, “although you moved me against him, to destroy him without cause.”

This sets up a point of tension between God and Satan.

God is now rebuking Satan with the statement that Job’s trial had proved to be without cause, that is Satan’s accusations were groundless (he was WRONG).

So the test that Satan had insisted on in the life of Job, instead of proving Satan’s accusations to be accurate, proved them to be groundless or without cause or they had no inherent worth.

And additionally Job has proven that he fears God “without cause” as well.

Job trusted God with a pure heart filled with love for God, not for the benefits God had bestowed on him.

B. Satan’s Refusal

(1) He puts the worst possible interpretation on the events surrounding Job [that he did not curse God because he still had his health]

(2) He again challenges God: Afflict him physically and he will defiantly curse you to your face.

(3) He is horribly unfair about it.

(a) “Here he suggests that Job’s wealth was like a shield or garment of leather over his human skin.

He implies that Job was not hurt by these dreadful calamities because all he cared about was himself.”

Skin for skin- anyone will exchange anything he has for something else of similar or better value.

Satan means that Job has surrendered all his possessions without complaint in exchange for his own life.

All that a man had will he give for his life- a person will abandon anything he owns, including his prized possessions and loved ones, to protect his own life.

With these two proverbs Satan is alleging that Job’s losses were ultimately dispensable to Job

(b) But Satan’s charge is stubbornly irrational.

What is Satan accusing Job of still?

Selfishness.

He did the same thing in the first trial.

Job only loves God because you have given him so much stuff- selfishness

Now in the second trial Satan accusing Job of valuing his own life so much that he possessions and his family were insignificant compared to Job’s life.

If all Job cared about was himself, would he not selfishly hate God for the loss of what made him so comfortable?

Yet Satan demands that God take Job’s health, and surely then Job will curse God to his face.

Job would exchange his fear of God for a healthy life.

And although God disagreed with Satan’s reasoning, God told Satan, “Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.”

Illustration:

One of the things I like best about new-borns is their ability to seemingly sleep through anything.

When they are deeply asleep you can pick up their arm and let go and it falls limply to their side.

You can pick them up, have 4 older brothers running around screaming for some reason or another, mom vacuuming, the drying running, their could be a war going on in the background and that little baby would sleep right through it.

They are oblivious to the reality that is going on around them.

Sometimes we get that way in our thinking out spiritual battles.

There may be a war raging around us and we are completely oblivious.

Refutation:

Pastor Jon, this stuff happened a long time ago.

Satan doesn’t still do this kind of thing today.

Application:

a) Note the comment by Yancey: “Many people get up, eat, drive their cars, work, make phone calls, tend to their children, and go to bed without giving a single thought to the existence of an unseen world.

But according to the Bible, human history is far more than the rising and falling of people and nations; it is a staging ground for the battle of the universe.”

Philip Yancey, “A Fresh Reading of the Book of Job,” Chap.

In Sitting with Job, ed.

Roy B. Zuck (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992), 145.

We need to realize that there are spiritual battles taking place and are integrity is at stake.

Satan will do anything he can to get you to curse God.

And we most times are not even aware of this reality.

What does James say about our war with Satan?

Not like a recent popular Christian movie.

We do not call out Satan.

Rather we resist him but submitting to God, then he will flee.

Are you battling to keep your integrity?

Remember that a spiritual battle is taking place- HOLD FAST.

II.

Physical Battles Will Test Your Integrity (vv.

7-8)

A. Satan afflicted Job’s physical body

a) Sores on every part of his body (2:7b)

b) Painful sores that would scab, crack, and ooze (7:5)

c) Infection (7:5)

d) Perhaps incessant itching (2:8 – may have hoped for some momentary relief by using the potshard.

ILLUS: kids scratching mosquito bites, people getting itchy while talking about lice in chapel)