I'm looking to Jesus - Job series
| I’m Looking to Jesus |
| ______________________Job 16:9-21----
In our series of messages on the life and message of the biblical character of Job, we’re coming today to the subject, “I’m Looking to Jesus.” See if there is anything in this passage from Job 16 that reminds you of our Lord Jesus Christ: God assails me and tears me in his angerAnd gnashes His teeth at me;My opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.Men open their mouths to jeer me;They strike my cheek in scornAnd unite together against me.God has turned me over to evil menAnd thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.All was well with me, but He shattered me;He seized me by the neck and crushed me.He has made me His target;His archers surround me.Without pity, He pierces my kidneys And spills my gall on the ground.Again and again he bursts upon me;He rushes at me like a warrior.I have sewed sackcloth over my skinAnd buried my brow in the dust.My face is red with weeping,Deep shadows ring my eyes;Yet my hands have been free of violenceAnd my prayer is pure.O earth, do not cover my blood;May my cry never be laid to rest!Even now my witness is in heaven;My advocate is on high.My intercessor is my friend,As my eyes pour out tears to God;On behalf of a man he pleads with GodAs a man pleads with his friend.Job 16:9-21 *** One afternoon this week I was trying to get some exercise in my little homemade gym and I turned on the television to a news channel. They were interviewing some learned Christian clergyman about something that Jesus had said, and they put the quote from the Gospels up on the screen and asked this clergyman about it. He said, “Well, of course, we don’t know if that’s what Jesus really said or not. The Gospels were written a long after the life of Christ, and many things were made up and added to them.” Well, I just turned off the TV. I don’t know why someone would even want to be a clergyman if he didn’t believe the Bible’s message. Why would I want to stand up here week after week and preach about something that I didn’t believe in? There are many reasons why we can trust the Bible. I went through a period of skepticism and doubt, but when you honestly take a considered look at the evidence for the veracity of the Scriptures, it’s amazing and it’s wonderful. One of the most powerful evidences for the claims of Christ Jesus comes from studying the predictions made about Him in the Old Testament. It’s important to realize that Jesus Christ was described, predicted, and prefigured in the Old Testament in hundreds of ways and in hundreds of passages, hundreds of years before His birth. Jesus said, “Search the Scriptures (that is, the Old Testament), for they testify of Me.” The Old Testament, written long before His birth in Bethlehem, is just as full of Jesus as the New Testament—and we can find Jesus in every one of the 39 books of the Old Testament. My pastor when I was growing up used to say, “The New is in the Old contained, and the Old is in the New explained.” Today I’d like to show you how Jesus shows up in the book of Job. Now, Job is quite possibly the oldest book of the Bible. We don’t know that for sure, because no one knows who wrote it or when; but many experts believe that its story goes back to the days of Abraham and its composition goes back to the days of Moses. Furthermore, Job is not a book of predictive prophecy such as Isaiah or Micah is. So the references to Christ are more understated, but they are there and today I’d like to show you how Jesus shows up in Job in four ways. Jesus is Our AnswerFirst, Jesus is our Answer. The book of Job anticipates that God has an answer for the questions of life—and Job is full of questions. As I pointed out in a previous sermon, there are 290 questions in the book of Job, and the word why occurs 28 times. Everyone has questions and everyone is looking for answers. I read the other day about a Junior High science teacher who over the years had accumulated some of the answers given by his students on their exams. As I read them, I thought they were illustrative of the way some people think about things. Let me give you a few of them: · Dew is formed on leaves when the sun shines down on them and makes them perspire.· Mushrooms always grow in damp places and so they look like umbrellas.· The pistol of a flower is its only protections against insects.· The skeleton is what is left after the insides have been taken out and the outsides have been taken off.· The tides are a fight between the Earth and moon. All water tends towards the moon, because there is no water in the moon, and nature abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this fight.· Germinate: To become a naturalized German.· Vacuum: A large, empty space where the pope lives.· Fibula: A small lie.· Terminal illness: When you get sick at the airport.· Water is composed of two gins, Oxygin and Hydrogin. Oxygin is pure gin. Hydrogin is gin and water.· The body consists of three parts - the brainium, the borax and the abominable cavity. The brainium contains the brain. The borax contains the heart and lungs, and the abominable cavity contains the bowels, of which there are five - A, E, I, O, and U. Well, none of us get all the answers right; but when it comes to life itself, all our great and confusing questions can be answered in one word—Jesus. If you are suffering, He can ease your pain.If you are confused, He can clear your mind.If you are fearful, He can give you peace.If you have bad habits, He can overcome them for you.If you have unclean spirits, He can cast them out.If you struggle with guilt, He can forgive your sins.If you’re afraid of death, He can give you eternal life. He’s the answer to all 290 questions in the book of Job, and to all the questions in our own hearts. Jesus is Our AdvocateSecond, Jesus is our advocate. I’ve never been charged with a crime, but I have been involved in questions that needed legal answers and in negations that needed an attorney; and it is a tremendous relief to have someone representing me in my corner, someone in whom I have confidence. We all need a good lawyer from time to time. Well, Job was being accused of wrongdoing by the devil before the Judge of all the earth, and he didn’t know how to represent himself. He needed a lawyer, an attorney, an advocate. Let me show you: Look with me at Job 9: Then Job replied: “Indeed, I know that this is true, but how can a mortal be righteous before God?” Do you know that that’s the great question that is answered in the book of Romans? The whole subject of Romans—which is the chief theological explanation in the Bible of the person and work of Jesus Christ—is how we can be declared righteous in the sight of a holy God. Job is going to go on to say, “How can I argue my own case before God Himself? Though one wished to dispute with Him, he could not answer Him one time out of a thousand. His wisdom is profound, His power is vast… Verse 14: How then can I dispute with Him? How can I find words to argue with Him? Though I were innocent, I could not answer Him…. And look down at verses 32-33: He is not a man like me that I might answer Him, that we might confront each other in court. If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay His hand upon us both. 1 Timothy 2:5 (TLB): God is on one side and all the people on the other side, and Christ Jesus, Himself man, is between them to bring them together. 1 John 2:2: If anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. In a sense, Job perfectly describes and predicts the role and the ministry of the coming Messiah and he does it with great wisdom and great specificity. Let me show you another passage—and I think this one is very Messianic. Job 16:19-21: Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads with his friend. This is referring to our Lord Jesus Christ. Job is saying: Even now my witness Jesus is in heaven; my advocate Jesus is on high. My intercessor Jesus is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man Jesus pleads with God as a man pleads with His friend. Jesus is Our RedeemerThird, Jesus is our Redeemer. Now, a redeemer is different from an advocate. An advocate represents us before a higher power or in the event of a threat. A redeemer actually pays the purchase price for our freedom. One of the most famous passages in the book of Job is in chapter 19, beginning with verse 23: Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever! I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! In the 1700s, there lived am an named Samuel Medley who went off to sea as a midshipman with the British Navy and was wounded in battle. During his recovery, he read a sermon by the great Isaac Watts and was converted. He later became a British pastor and a hymnist. Listen to what he wrote about this passage: I know that my Redeemer lives;What comfort this sweet sentence gives!He lives, He lives, who once was dead;He lives, my ever-living Head. He lives to bless me with His love,He lives to plead for me above.He lives my hungry soul to feed,He lives to help in time of need. He lives triumphant from the grave,He lives eternally to save,He lives all glorious in the sky,He lives exalted there on high. He lives to grant me rich supply,He lives to guide me with His eye,He lives to comfort me when faint,He lives to hear my soul’s complaint. He lives to silence all my fears,He lives to wipe away my tearsHe lives to calm my troubled heart,He lives all blessings to impart. He lives, my kind, wise, heavenly Friend,He lives and loves me to the end;He lives, and while He lives, I’ll sing;He lives, my Prophet, Priest, and King. He lives and grants me daily breath;He lives, and I shall conquer death:He lives my mansion to prepare;He lives to bring me safely there. He lives, all glory to His Name!He lives, my Jesus, still the same.Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives,I know that my Redeemer lives! Jesus is Our SaviorSo in the book of Job, we see Jesus as our Answer, our Advocate, our Redeemer, and finally as our Savior. Now, I want to back up just a little and describe Job to you. Let’s look at chapter one. In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. Do you remember what his name means? There’s been a lot of discussion about that over the centuries, but modern commentators and scholars who have studied more recently discovered tablets and documents, think that his name means: Who is my father? Or where is my father? It was a name frequently give to orphans. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil…. He was the greatest man among all the people of the east. And look at how God commended him in verse 8: Have you considered my servant Job? Notice that—my servant. There is no one on earth like him. Notice that. He is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And then what happened? Satan attacked him, he lost all that he had, and he became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. I believe that Job himself is a prophetic picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, in the Old Testament we have types of Christ—prototypes of Christ—previews of the coming Messiah. I’m not saying that Job is officially a “type” of Christ because he isn’t listed as such in the New Testament, but the parallels are so amazing that I think we can say that Job is a prophetic pre-construction of Christ, an advance replica. Some time ago on vacation I visited a particular place where a building was planned, and they had a showroom with a model under glass showing what the building would look like when it was all done. These Old Testament types were like that. They serve as miniature advance replicas for the coming Messiah, and we see through all the way through the Old Testament. I believe Job fits into that model. Tell me who this is talking about: · This man’s central purpose in the Bible is to grapple with the problem of evil and the mystery of suffering.· His story is at the heart of Scripture.· He served in a priestly capacity for those he loved.· He was a just man – blameless in all his ways· He was commended by God & was called God’s servant· He was attacked without mercy by Satan, yet with the Father’s permission· He became the central player in a cosmic battle between God and Satan· This man was rich yet became poor.· This man was great yet was despised by his friends.· This man was strong, yet his strength was broken.· He went through a period of unspeakable sorrow and his sufferings made him almost unrecognizable· He was forsaken by God and denounced by his friends.· Yet in the end he prevailed with God, thwarted Satan, overcame suffering, was restored to his former glory, and become an intercessor for his friends. Who does that describe? It describes Job, and it describes Jesus. Even the very name Job—“Where is my Father?”—reminds us of our Lord’s cry on the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” And many commentators believe that the prophet Isaiah borrowed from Job’s imagery in his passages about the Suffering Servant, the Messiah, in 40s and 50s of Isaiah. Do you need an Answer to life? An Advocate? A Redeemer? A Savior? The ancient book of Job points us to Jesus Christ who, though He was rich yet for our sakes became poor that we through His poverty might become rich. |