Job 19 - Many Called Few Chosen

Many Called – Few Chosen

 As the events continue to unfold, our man of God, Job, has lost his patience with his pitiless friends. This has been building for quite some time. As the conversations ensue, Job now remarks after listening to Bildad in our study yesterday. Today Job is asking them how long they will continue to torment him with their words. If his friends think they have a case against him (which they really don’t) they can know that as far as Job sees it God is the one who has wronged him and surrounded him with a net.

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for Your word that always brings light to every situation, every trial, every event we face in this life. I ask You now to give me wisdom and revelation, understanding and utterance to release what You want to say to us today. Father, we value greatly Your things and Your words and thank You in advance for how You will change us as we study today with the help of Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus name. Amen.

Job continues to feel that God is against him and has set up a troop against him. Little did he really know about satan and all the demons that work under him that come to torment people. His family, his friends, and even his servants despise him now. Imagine how that must have felt to him. All the people who had looked up to him and respected him now looked upon him with disgust. I can certainly relate to that as we discussed yesterday. How about you? If you have been through it then you know how awful that feels. Even Job’s wife despised his breath and his body was a mess. He probably looked like a skeleton by now. We can imagine that he wasn’t eating much. Depression will do that to people. The devil loves to get people in that state of mind, but we as mature Christians know that the devil cannot force anything into us. It only gets in if we allow it.

Job resorts to begging his friends to pity him. He has been wallowing in this despair for so long. He had been a man of God and did not understand why all this had come upon him. It seems that those who are chosen by God to a higher calling will go through some deeper trials because the enemy is not going to sit back and do nothing while the Lord blesses and prospers these chosen ones. He will lash out every way he can think of to bring them down.

Jeremiah had the calling of a prophet’s office. That meant he would be used by God to lead a nation out of bondage. It is a very high calling – second to that of an apostle who is usually used to establish churches, like Paul. If you remember the scripture showed us that when the Lord had called Jeremiah, telling him that He had put His words in his mouth, Jeremiah said he could not speak because he was only a child. That’s how early the Lord made Jeremiah’s calling known to him.

And He does the same with many others. The question is, will we listen? Will we answer the call? Or will the Lord have to pick someone else? Later Jeremiah was told he would not have a wife or children. His life of speaking to the leaders of God’s people would be one of great suffering and persecution. God knew what He wanted to use Jeremiah for and He knew it was going to be tough. Let’s look at Jeremiah’s despair as we look at these verses…

Jeremiah 20:7-18

O Lord, You induced me, and I was persuaded; You are stronger than I, and have prevailed.
I am in derision daily; everyone mocks me. For when I spoke, I cried out; I shouted, “Violence and plunder!”
Because the word of the Lord was made to me a reproach and a derision daily.

Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name.”

But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back,
And I could not.

For I heard many mocking: “Fear on every side!” “Report,” they say, “and we will report it!”

All my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying, “Perhaps he can be induced; then we will prevail against him, and we will take our revenge on him.”

But the Lord is with me as a mighty, awesome One. Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and will not prevail. They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not prosper. Their everlasting confusion will never be forgotten.

But, O Lord of hosts, You who test the righteous, and see the mind and heart, let me see Your vengeance on them; for I have pleaded my cause before You.

Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! For He has delivered the life of the poor from the hand of evildoers.

Cursed be the day in which I was born! Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me! Let the man be cursed who brought news to my father, saying, “A male child has been born to you!” Making him very glad.

And let that man be like the cities which the Lord overthrew, and did not relent; let him hear the cry in the morning and the shouting at noon, because he did not kill me from the womb, that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb always enlarged with me. Why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

Can you see the similarity between Jeremiah and Job? Jeremiah was angry at God and said he would not even make mention of Him again. He had been through some very difficult persecution and he had had enough! Yet as he spoke those words he also said God’s words were burning in him like a fire and Jeremiah knew that God was with him, a mighty Awesome One. How about that for a comparison? Today Job said that even though he thought God was against him, he knew that his Redeemer lives and that one day he would see Him face to face.

Jeremiah and Job had a lot in common didn’t they? They were both called to high positions and they both suffered greatly in life. There were various reasons for their suffering, but the point is, they both came to the point in the Lord’s service where they despised the day they were born. As servants of the Most High God, there will be suffering. When we suffer because we opened a door to the enemy; that is one thing. And that does not bring any glory to God. But when we suffer for doing good; well, that is an entirely different matter. Let’s look at who suffered the greatest in the Father’s service…

Isaiah 53

Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.

He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken.

And they made His grave with the wicked—but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.

By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Look at what Jesus did in His service to His heavenly Father. It can take our breath away if we think about it for very long. Jesus didn’t look so great either, did He? He was despised and rejected, acquainted with grief (for a moment). He bore so much for us. Was it easy? Absolutely not. Would He be rewarded for His obedience and all that suffering for doing good? You bet He would. Let’s look at another verse…

1 Peter 3:13-22

And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.” But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,  who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him. 

Job and Jeremiah’s suffering was no match to Jesus and what He suffered for our sakes. But one thing they all had in common was a high calling to be a blessing to many people. God used Jesus for the greatest purpose, and He used Jeremiah and Job for great purposes too. Today we have millions of Christians who are not answering the call God has placed on their lives. They wanted to be saved and many don’t mind going to church, but when asked to do some suffering for the sake of the Gospel, they turn and go their way to their homes, their lands, their families, and their preferred work, whatever they think wise in their own eyes to do. Many will retire and just look for entertainment and fun times with family and friends rather than to make the sacrifice to be used of the Lord to touch other lives and really make a difference in our world.

The sad thing for those is that they will miss out on all the blessings and rewards that the Lord had for them along the way and in the life to come. Jesus received His heavenly reward and when He finished His work He got to sit down and rest with the Father at His right hand. That’s what our salvation does for us – but it doesn’t mean we are to sit down and not do work for the kingdom. Many are called…

Matthew 22:14

“For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Perhaps my testimony can help you to apply this to yourselves in some way. You see when I surrendered my life to the Lord Jesus, I wanted to give Him my all. He had given me His all and I wanted to do the same for Him. From the very beginning of my surrender to Him back in 2005, I had to face persecutions and trials hurled at me by my own mistakes and the assaults of the enemy. The biggest sacrifice I had to make was to pack up and come to Florida, leaving my two precious daughters behind. I knew they wouldn’t understand it for a long time. They have yet to see that it was Jesus I was going after – I was not trying to leave them behind. But leave them I must so I can answer the call of which God has given me.

Was it hard to leave them in Michigan? Absolutely. And the Lord has had to deal with me about that on more than one occasion. He had to show me again and again the following verse…

Mark 12:30

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.

Matthew 19:29

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.

I have had to really learn what it means to love Him more than my kids, my grandkids, my husband, my puppy, food, or any other friendship or physical thing. I had to learn to lay it all down.

I am certainly still a work in progress like all of you, but I know I have made progress in this – glory to God. I have had to believe God for a great deal of comfort. I have had to believe that if I left my things in Michigan and came here to answer the call and be about my Father’s business, that He would take care of my business. He is a faithful God. Here is what He said about His prophets…

Psalm 105:15

Saying, “Do not touch My anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm.”

In the midst of all their suffering for the Gospel, Jeremiah and other apostles and prophets would have the protection of the Lord all over them. They would be safer standing in a field full of land mines doing what God had called them to do than they would be in what they perceived as the safest place on the planet at home in their own beds. “Wherever God calls me to be I can know that He watches over me.” Jeremiah had a call on his life to go before the powerful rulers of his day. And in the heat of some of his worst moments when he was angry at God and ready to throw in the towel, the fire that burned in his belly – deep in his spirit where deep calls unto deep, he could not deny the work he had been called to do.

A person can feel this fire and know in their ‘gut’ or conscience that they are supposed to do something. But if they keep suppressing that urging, that fire, eventually it will go out. Look at this…

1 Thessalonians 5:19

 Do not quench the Spirit.

Many have been called by God to do big things for Him but they were not willing. They chose the comforts of home and family rather than to heed the call. As a result they lived a less than anointed life and things did not go well for them. I have heard real life testimonies of people who have spent 40 years or more in sickness, poverty and troubles that they never would have had to endure had they listened to the Lord and gone where they were supposed to be. The deep things of God will call to the deep things in a man’s spirit – but when the call comes we have a choice to respond or decline.

Job had a big call on his life. Look at all the wonderful things God had said about His son Job in the beginning of the book. The Lord was well pleased with him. He had proven himself to be a man after God’s own heart and as a result the Lord has prospered him greatly. This is something God wants to do for everyone. He didn’t just say in the beginning of creation that He was going to choose only ‘a few good men’ to do His work. God is no respecter of persons.

Even in Job’s darkest moments, he knew that he had a Redeemer – hallelujah! Down in his spirit he knew that God was there. Sure, he was clueless about why all this happened, but he felt very strongly that somehow he would be vindicated. That’s why he wanted what he said to be written down.

He wanted his case to be stated and he wanted to be exonerated. He longed for pity from his friends, not an endless slew of accusations. We already discussed it. At this point in the trial he just needed some love. Can anyone relate?

I can relate to Job’s unawareness of what had hit him. When I went into my ‘storm of the century’ I had no idea of the spiritual things that were playing out. I was as clueless as Job. I had prayed some wrong prayers, and out loud too. The devil heard them and he was happy to oblige. And the further along I went the more I had played into his hand. He had set the stage for my fall and I had walked right into it. Oh but the grace and tender mercy of our God is so much greater than any scheme of the enemy – praise His name forever! In all the horrible things I experienced when I went through that storm the Lord did not allow the devil to take me out – thank You Jesus! Coming within seconds of taking my last breath in this life, I was completely at the mercy of our God.

That is exactly where Job is at right now. The Lord knew what Job didn’t know. He understood what Job didn’t wasn’t aware of and the Lord in His great love for this man of God sustained him throughout all this so He could show him the best way to walk with his Lord – fully trusting in Him in the future…

Isaiah 26:4, 12

Trust in the Lord forever, for in YAH, the Lord, is everlasting strength.

Lord, You will establish peace for us, for You have also done all our works in us.

A few more chapters and we will see great things – the sum of which all of us have yet to understand. But God is faithful to His people. When we error, He is there to correct us and show us the way out. He knows what we know and don’t know and He will step in and help us in our weakness. Look at everything Jesus did as you read the Isaiah 53 chapter again. He opened not His mouth so we can open ours. He bore our infirmities, (weaknesses) so we can be strong. He took it all so we wouldn’t have to. How is that for Grace? Amazing indeed, isn’t it? Job would have to ride this storm out in faith believing that he really did have a Redeemer – a Defender who would help him in the spiritual court of law. But we will see that in the days to come. Stay tuned!

Questions:

What did Job think of his friends now?

What did he think God, his family, friends and others’ thought of him?

What was the one thing Job said that shows he still believed in God as his Helper?

What similarities can you see between Job and Jeremiah?

Have you heard and responded to God for His call on your life? If not, what is stopping you?

1 Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people,

that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

There are three main points to consider from today’s study… 

Real friends will stick around to encourage – not accuse

Even when things look the darkest – God is there

God calls everyone to a specific role – we must choose to follow it

Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for having me on Your mind at all times – even when I can’t sense Your presence. Lord, I am grateful for the work You have called me to do. Father, with Your help and strength I will walk it out – no matter what I have to endure. I know that in the end I will receive a crown of life that will never fade away. The sufferings of this present time are nothing compared to the glory that will be revealed. Lord if I have missed anything pertaining to Your call for my life I am asking You to reveal that to me. I will make a U-Turn if I have to so I can get back on the path that You have for me. Thank You in advance for all You have for me to do. I desire to do Your will and bear fruit for the kingdom of heaven for whatever time I have left in this life. In Jesus name. Amen!

Will you be one of the few who are chosen? 

And God Said… You fill in the blanks.

        

Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.