There Was a Man | Part 2
In this episode, we continue our study of Job—whose deep reverence for God shaped the way he lived and led his family. From faithfully providing for their needs to interceding for their souls, Job models what it means to be both a man of character and a father of spiritual influence. Join us as we uncover how his example still speaks powerfully into the call of men and families today.
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Transcript
Welcome to the Fortifying youg Family podcast.
Speaker A:It can be daunting to navigate through an anti marriage and family culture.
Speaker A:Our teacher will expound biblical principles to help fortify our families and keep these sacred institutions strong.
Speaker A:And now, here's this week's teaching from Sam Wood.
Speaker B:Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, said these words in his latter years.
Speaker B:Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse 13.
Speaker B:They're familiar words.
Speaker B:He said, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.
Speaker B:Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is what church the whole duty of man.
Speaker B:Fear God, keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
Speaker B:Dance.
Speaker B:I hope you can honestly say this morning in your heart, the highest ambition I have in my life is to live a life that's pleasing and honoring to God.
Speaker B:To live a life where I love God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength, with all my mind, so that my children, if they look at my life, they can see I'm more in love with God than anything else in this world.
Speaker B:That's to fear God.
Speaker B:Fourthly, he says, it says there in verse one, the testimony of his character.
Speaker B:He's a great man of character.
Speaker B:He also eschewed evil.
Speaker B:To eschew evil means not only did he not participate in evil and sinful things, but he also made it a point to stay away and shun evil, not participate in it, but also to stay away from.
Speaker B:Really reminds me of the admonition of Solomon in Proverbs chapter 4, where he's admonishing and exhorting his son.
Speaker B:In verse 23 he starts with these words, keep thy heart, son.
Speaker B:Keep thy heart with all diligence.
Speaker B:You know what that means?
Speaker B:He's telling his son, he's saying, above everything else in your life, son, keep your heart with God.
Speaker B:Keep your heart.
Speaker B:Watch over your heart, guard your heart.
Speaker B:He's saying, why?
Speaker B:Because he says, for out of it are the issues of life.
Speaker B:Because whatever's in your heart you'll act out in your life.
Speaker B:You'll live what's in your heart, so guard it diligently.
Speaker B:But he doesn't stop there.
Speaker B:He says, put away from thee a froward mouth and perverse lips put afar from thee.
Speaker B:Be careful what you say, son.
Speaker B:Don't say foolish and perverse things.
Speaker B:Don't say foolish, don't say sinful things.
Speaker B:Don't let those words come out of your mouth because it's an echo of only what's in your heart.
Speaker B:Then he goes on to say in verse 25.
Speaker B:Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
Speaker B:And he says, make sure you protect your eyes.
Speaker B:Do what Job it even says in the book of Job.
Speaker B:He made a covenant with his eyes.
Speaker B:Son, make a covenant with your eyes not to think upon a maid.
Speaker B:Make sure you're not looking at what you should not be looking at on television.
Speaker B:Make sure you're not looking at pornography.
Speaker B:Make sure your eyes are not straying to the left or right, but your eyes are looking straight ahead.
Speaker B:Your eyes are staying focused on.
Speaker B:On the Lord.
Speaker B:Your eyes are staying focused on Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:Then he says this in verse 26, ponder the path of thy feet and let all thy ways be established.
Speaker B:And then he goes on and he says, be very careful where you go in this great admonition.
Speaker B:Be careful where you go, son.
Speaker B:Very practical.
Speaker B:Very practical admonition.
Speaker B:Son.
Speaker B:Be careful where you go.
Speaker B:Listen, you don't need to be down here going out to supper.
Speaker B:It hooters why?
Speaker B:Because of the temptation that it leads you to there.
Speaker B:Listen, you don't need to be going over here to this place where that you might get in trouble with the wrong crowd, where if you go in there, you can be tempted to sin in some way.
Speaker B:Stay away from those places.
Speaker B:Be careful where you let these feet go.
Speaker B:I really believe all this is summarized in this statement that Job eschewed evil.
Speaker B:Job eschewed evil.
Speaker B:Proverbs and verse 27, it says, Turn not to the right hand or to the left.
Speaker B:Remove thy foot from evil to keep from sinning.
Speaker B:I believe Job did not frequent places that would tempt him to sin.
Speaker B:I believe he was also a man who kept his heart was so sensitive to sin.
Speaker B:Listen to me, men.
Speaker B:He was so sensitive to sin that he might have sinned against God.
Speaker B:He was so sensitive to it that he was quick to recognize that sin and confess that sin and repent of that sin before God.
Speaker B:Well, God help us to be those kind of men that whenever we do sin and we do sin, but whenever we do sin that we are quick to recognize that sin.
Speaker B:We're sensitive to that sin that God points out to us by the Holy Spirit, and we're quick to confess that sin and repent of that sin.
Speaker B:Ezekiel, chapter 14 and verse 14 we see the testimony of Job given alongside that of Noah and Daniel.
Speaker B:I want to tell you that's two great men to have your testimony given beside where it says that even if Noah, Daniel and Job lived in a land of wickedness that God was about to judge, that Their righteousness would save no one but themselves.
Speaker B:That's quite a testimony.
Speaker B:God is talking there in Ezekiel about this is a wicked lamb.
Speaker B:But even if Noah, Daniel and Job were here, they were such righteous men that only their righteousness would save themselves.
Speaker B:It wouldn't save the people in the land because of the wickedness in this land.
Speaker B:Which sort of righteousness did they have?
Speaker B:He gives us testimony that in Hebrews 11:7, where it says that Noah's righteousness was a righteousness that came by faith.
Speaker B:Certainly so was Daniel's and so was Job's.
Speaker B:No sinner.
Speaker B:Listen.
Speaker B:No sinners ever become righteous before God without faith.
Speaker B:Without faith there's no other way.
Speaker B:Job's life was marked by being a life of confession, repentance, faith in God, which are and should be the marks of every true believer today.
Speaker B:Dad, to be a man like Job described in this verse, these four aspects, these four attributes of this great man of character, our lives need to be marked by continual confession, repentance of sin, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:Listen, Dads, it takes a lot of commitment to be a great man of character and I believe to be a man of character as described in verse one.
Speaker B:It cost us something because to be a father physically.
Speaker B:Listen, fathers, here today, to be a father physically is the act of a moment of passion.
Speaker B:But to be a father spiritually is to take up the cross of self denial every day of your life.
Speaker B:It's not an easy Job.
Speaker B:It's a great responsibility that God has given to us.
Speaker B:So we see in verse one that Job was a man of great character, but also Job was a man of great concern.
Speaker B:Of great concern.
Speaker B:He had a great concern for his family.
Speaker B:And I believe in these verses here we see he had a great concern for his family in two very important areas.
Speaker B:He had a great concern for his family in providing physically for them and in providing spiritually for them.
Speaker B:So let's look at each one of those briefly here this morning.
Speaker B:First, he was concerned to provide for them physically.
Speaker B:Notice verse 2.
Speaker B:It says, and there was born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
Speaker B: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.
Speaker B:So that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
Speaker B:In verse three we see that Job was a father of 10 precious children.
Speaker B:Now today, if you have 10 children, you kind of stand out.
Speaker B:Back in that day, you didn't so much Job hadn't bought into.
Speaker B:Today's philosophy that to have a lot of children was a cursed thing.
Speaker B:He believed what it said in Psalm 127, where it said, children are a heritage or a gift of God, and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
Speaker B:He embraced the truth in verse 5 of Psalm 127.
Speaker B:Happy is a man that has his what church, his quiver full of them.
Speaker B:And Job, like every caring father, was concerned for the physical provision his family.
Speaker B:In fact, Paul even addresses this in the New Testament in First Timothy, chapter 5 and verse 8.
Speaker B:He says, but if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith and is worse than a what?
Speaker B:An infidel or an unbeliever.
Speaker B:And we see that because of the abundant blessings of God, that Job provided very well for his family.
Speaker B:Look at it.
Speaker B:Job and his family had houses.
Speaker B:They stayed in houses rather than tents.
Speaker B:He had 7,000 sheep, Kendall, that's a bunch of sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 pairs of oxen for plowing the land, 500 female donkeys that he could use to carry produce from the fields or whatever he might want to use them for.
Speaker B:He also had a very large staff and payroll, we might say.
Speaker B:And because of that, he's described as the greatest of all the men of the east because of his wealth, and he was a very powerful ruler.
Speaker B:Now, this is not to say that every father can provide for their family the way that Job did.
Speaker B:God blesses very few of us with that kind of wealth.
Speaker B:But certainly every father should do his very best to provide physically for their family the essential needs that they have and do the best they possibly can.
Speaker B:And every child here today, you ought to thank your daddy and honor your daddy for physically providing for you the way he does in your family.
Speaker B:Take time to thank him for that this morning.
Speaker B:But Job not only provided physically for his family, provided spiritually.
Speaker B:And let me just take another minute or two on this.
Speaker B:This is so important to see here what it says in verse four and five.
Speaker B:Let me just read it once again.
Speaker B:And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day, and sent and called for the three sisters to eat and drink with them.
Speaker B:And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and burnt offerings according to the number of them all.
Speaker B:For Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.
Speaker B:Thus Job did continually now notice the expression in verse four.
Speaker B:Everyone his Day.
Speaker B:And most commentators when I studied this and read this, believe this refers to coming together to celebrate a birthday.
Speaker B:That is, the day that they were coming together to celebrate was the birthday of each one of his children.
Speaker B:And it was an annual feast he would have for each one of his children, each one of their birthdays.
Speaker B:10 children, 10 birthdays, 10 annual feasts.
Speaker B:And so they would have a big party, as we would have on the birthday of our child.
Speaker B:And notice in this verse, there's no indication that these birthday parties were wild parties or sinful parties where there's a lot of sin committed.
Speaker B:They just came together as a family unit, in harmony together, and they celebrated their birthdays as a family.
Speaker B:I believe these were very festive occasions, just like the festive occasion last night that many of us attended that celebrated Justin Delane's wedding over near Knoxville.
Speaker B:It was an occasion to enjoy, to have a wonderful meal and to celebrate what had happened there.
Speaker B:But there was no sinful things going on.
Speaker B:There was a time to glorify the Lord and what God had done.
Speaker B:And we're told from verse five that when each birthday party ended, that he summoned each of his children to consecrate them before the Lord.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:And to do so, he would get up early the next day and offer a separate sacrifice for each one of his children.
Speaker B:You say, why did he do that again?
Speaker B:He doesn't do it because it says there was some flagrant sin that he saw them commit.
Speaker B:But rather it says they may have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.
Speaker B:Job says, I might not have seen it.
Speaker B:I might not have heard anything.
Speaker B:I might not have saw them do anything sinful.
Speaker B:But perhaps, maybe they sinned and cursed God in their heart.
Speaker B:Job, the spiritual listen, head and family patriarch, is so concerned about the spiritual well being of his children that he offers a burnt offering for each one of them.
Speaker B:And this burnt offering was a very expensive offering in that day and time.
Speaker B:He would lay that burnt offering on the altar and the fire would completely consume this bull or this goat or this sheep, whatever he was burning there as an offering to God for each one of his children.
Speaker B:The sacrifice pictured the wrath of God being poured onto that sacrifice instead of being poured on to his child.
Speaker B:That perhaps, maybe they had sinned.
Speaker B:Can you imagine this scene?
Speaker B:Here it is early the next morning, all of his children are there.
Speaker B:They're lined up, 10 of them.
Speaker B:And there's an altar.
Speaker B:And Job takes an animal and says, son, this one's for you.
Speaker B:Perhaps you have sinned in your heart.
Speaker B:And he burns that sacrifice.
Speaker B:The next son steps up.
Speaker B:Son, this one is for you.
Speaker B:This is literally what this scripture is saying that he did.
Speaker B:He cared so much about their spiritual walk and them being right with God, that they would be God fearing men and women, that he took time to burn this sacrifice before God as a sacrifice to consecrate them before God, each one of his children.
Speaker B:Job knew that what really mattered was not the appearance of godliness on the outside, but whether they were really godly in their heart.
Speaker B:Therefore, believing and the atoning power of a sacrifice, he offers these burnt offerings for each one of his children.
Speaker B:And notice that verse five, he ends with the words, he did this continually.
Speaker B:Job realized that as a father.
Speaker B:Listen, dads.
Speaker B:He had a tremendous responsibility to be the spiritual priest of his home.
Speaker B:Job knew that there was something so dark, there was something so deceptive, so sinful in the human heart that there needed to be a suitable sacrifice that could cover the sins for each one of his children.
Speaker B:And of course, we know these offerings, these sacrifices, pointed to the ultimate sacrifice for sin and the person of Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:Praise God.
Speaker B:We have a heavenly Father.
Speaker B:We have a heavenly Father that loves you and I so much that he sent his son, God in flesh, God incarnate, to this earth to live a life that we could not live, to live a sinless life, to keep the law we could not keep.
Speaker B:That he might die as a sacrifice in our place, that we might be forgiven before God.
Speaker B:Praise his name.
Speaker B:That's why it says in 2nd Corinthians 5:21, for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God.
Speaker B:Fathers, it's vitally important that you remember.
Speaker B:Listen to me dance.
Speaker B:The most important thing your child needs is the gospel.
Speaker B:And see that all of what Job was doing was just pointing to the Gospel.
Speaker B:The need of a sacrifice for sin.
Speaker B:Each one of your children's greatest need is to become a new creation in Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:Oh, fathers, don't forget that their greatest need isn't a new football uniform.
Speaker B:It isn't a new toy.
Speaker B:It isn't a video game.
Speaker B:Their greatest need is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:In the book God's Pattern for Parenting, the author states, your child's heart is a battlefield where sin and righteousness are in conflict.
Speaker B:The problem with your child is not a lack of maturity.
Speaker B:The problem with your child is not a lack of experience or a lack of understanding.
Speaker B:Those will exacerbate the problem.
Speaker B:But the problem with your Child is a wicked heart.
Speaker B:And listen to this.
Speaker B:No one outgrows depravity.
Speaker B:Nobody.
Speaker B:Some parents might say, but preach.
Speaker B:You don't understand.
Speaker B:My child's a little angel.
Speaker B:But listen, little angels grow up and their wings get shorter, their legs get longer, and some of them sprout horns.
Speaker B:Dad's like Job.
Speaker B:You need to teach your children that they need to be rescued from their sin by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:In his book Gospel Powered Parenting, William Farley says most Christian parents assume that church attendance or youth group involvement equate to new birth.
Speaker B:Parents are naive about new birth and its symptoms.
Speaker B:Listen, parents, it is foolish for parents to presume upon new birth.
Speaker B:New birth is a radical change of heart that ushers in new desires, new loves, new in a new life direction.
Speaker B:Many times in parenting conferences, we'll have a parent come up to us and say, my son is 12 or 13 or 14 years old and he's not obeying God.
Speaker B:He's walking out in sin.
Speaker B:He's rebelling against our authority.
Speaker B:And of course, one of the questions you would ask is, does he know the Lord Jesus Christ?
Speaker B:Has he ever come to Christ as his Savior and trusted and put faith in Christ?
Speaker B:And they say, oh yeah, when he was five or six years old, he did.
Speaker B:And I said, you ever really see a change in his life?
Speaker B:I said, from what you're telling me right now, looks like there's not much of a change in his life.
Speaker B:Have you ever seen him hunger for God?
Speaker B:You ever seen him interested in the word of God?
Speaker B:And many times the answer is no.
Speaker B:And I said, really?
Speaker B:Probably what your child needs is a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:William Farley goes on to say this and listen, parents and I want to close.
Speaker B:Parents who joyfully pursue God are contagious.
Speaker B:I love that.
Speaker B:Joyful sacrifice for the gospel is contagious.
Speaker B:A gospel that makes parents stable, sincere, joyful, loving, affectionate and humble is contagious.
Speaker B:Children will want a God that produces these qualities.
Speaker B:On the other hand, parents going through the motions of church, just going to church to say, I put my Sunday in, enslaved to rules, serving God to gain his acceptance, tolerating their spouses or worse, engaging in open warfare in the home, chase their children away from God and his church.
Speaker B:When mom and dad preach one thing but do the opposite and don't repent to their children, it makes the world attractive and the gospel irrelevant.
Speaker B:What a statement that is.
Speaker B:Listen, dads Job's concern for the spiritual care of his children was a natural outworking of his relationship with God.
Speaker B:He was a God fearing man.
Speaker B:He was a man who was daily experiencing the presence of God in his own life through having a time, I believe, alone with God, making sure that his family was walking in the fear of God.
Speaker B:He was not a man who was living pretense.
Speaker B:He was not a hypocrite.
Speaker B:He had a relationship with God.
Speaker B:And his love for God was so evident to everyone around him and especially to his children, they couldn't help but see it.
Speaker B:They saw a dad who was, I believe, a reflection.
Speaker B:As we look in the Word of God, if we could look at a man who closely reflected the Heavenly Father, certainly God his son Jesus Christ would be that man.
Speaker B:But outside of Jesus Christ, one who walked this earth, Job perhaps is one of the greatest reflections we could see of a dad.
Speaker B:The dad was not perfect.
Speaker B:There's no perfect fathers.
Speaker B:There's only one we mentioned, the Heavenly Father, but he was a loving and caring father who walked with God.
Speaker B:And he was a father who provided for his family physically and he provided very, very importantly spiritually.
Speaker A:Thank you for joining the Fortifying youg Family podcast.
Speaker A:And if you feel encouraged by today's teaching, give us a follow so we can invite you back and share us on your socials so more marriages and families can be strengthened and fortified through the truths of God's word.
Speaker A:Remember, fortifying your family starts with strong belief in God's Word.
