The Search for Comfort

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The Search for Comfort 

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • July 6, In the year of our Lord, 2014

Scripture Reader and Reading: Dennis Peugh – Job 1.6–12

 

  1. Job’s Suffering 
  2. Job’s Search For Comfort 
    1. Not in material wealth.
      1. Job 1.3 then 13–17
      2. “uncertain riches” (1Ti 1.17)
      3. Wealth can vanish like a bird,

        5Will you set your eyes on that which is not?
        For riches certainly make themselves wings;
        They fly away like an eagle toward heaven.
        (Pro 23.5)
    2. Not in family.
      1. Job 1.18–19
      2. Job 19.13–17
      3. Children gone, wife unsupportive
    3. Not in sleep.
      1. Job 7.13–15
      2. Anything in which we seek to escape reality becomes a problem itself
    4. Not in friends.
      1. Job 6.14, 27
      2. Job 19.14, 19
      3. Micah 7.5a

        5aDo not trust in a friend;
        Do not put your confidence in a companion…
        (Mic 7:5)
  3. Job Found Comfort in God 
    1. All along he expressed his confidence in God
    2. Micah again

      5Do not trust in a friend;
      Do not put your confidence in a companion;
      Guard the doors of your mouth
      From her who lies in your bosom.
      6For son dishonors father,
      Daughter rises against her mother,
      Daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
      A man’s enemies are the men of his own household.
      7Therefore I will look to the Lord;
      I will wait for the God of my salvation;
      My God will hear me.
      (Mic 7.5–7)

      1. Does not mean we cannot love people and they do not love us.
      2. Others, like us, have shortcomings.
    3. Let me show you why should you read all the Bible (you will discover)

      17Though the fig tree may not blossom,
      Nor fruit be on the vines;
      Though the labor of the olive may fail,
      And the fields yield no food;
      Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
      And there be no herd in the stalls—
      18Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
      I will joy in the God of my salvation.
      (Hab 3.17–18)
    4. Job always trusted God and so endured.
      1. Job 19.25–27
      2. Job 13.15
    5. God appeared and revealed:
      1. Man does not understand
      2. God is not subject to man’s inquiries
    6. Job found that there is more to life than
      1. wealth,
      2. friends,
      3. health, and
      4. family.

Exhortation: 

  1. Suffering is a block or a stone 
    1. Stumbling block – it will destroy us
    2. Stepping stone – it will strengthen us
  2. Strength comes through the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.