An Answer?

1. An Answer? • JOB 16: • 1.”Then Job answered and said,” • 2.”I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.” • 3.”Shall vain words have an end? Or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest? • 4.”I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul’s stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.” • 5.”But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should assuage your grief.” • 6.”Though I speak my grief is not assuaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?”

2. MY HELP? • Why doe’s God allow this? Where is my help? • Before we try to answer this, consider: • Jesus could have directed the spit from his tormenters mouths back into their own faces. • But he didn't. • He could have paralyzed the arm of the soldier who plunged the crown of thorns into his head. • But he didn’t. • Jesus could have turned the hammer used to nail him to the cross, into a weapon of mass destruction, as Sampson used the donkey’s jawbone. • But he didn’t.

3. The things we dislike most in life, many times are the very things which pull us back from the edge of destruction.

4. Learning Obedience • Hebrews chapter 5: • 7.”Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;” • 8.”Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;” • 9.”And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;” • 10.”Called of God a high priest after the Order of Melchizedek.”

5. Second Thoughts? • Did Jesus have second thoughts? • Luke chapter 22: • 41.”And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed.” • 42.”Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” • 43.”And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.” • 44.”And being in agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”

6. Looking Ahead? • Job chapter 16: • 7.”But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company.” • 8.”And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up within me beareth witness to my face.” • 9.”he teareth me in his wrath, and who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.” • 10.”They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully, they have gathered themselves together against me.” • 11.”God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.” • 17.”Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.” • 18.”O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.” • Isaiah chapter 53, verses 3 to 11:

7. Pleading for Release • Job chapter 17: • 1.”My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.” • 11.”My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.” • 12.”They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.” • 13.”if I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.” • 14.”I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.” • 15.”And where is my hope? As for my hope, who shall see it?”

8. What are friends for? • Job Chapter 18: • 1.”Then answered Bildad the shuhite, and said,” • 2.”How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? Mark, and afterward we will speak.” • 4.”He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? And shall the rock be removed out of his place? • 5.”Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of the fire shall not shine.”

9. Job’s Ups and Downs LIVE DIE What if: All the bad plus all the good, equals up to God’s perfect plan in our life?

10. Tests and Suffering • Is my suffering leading to anything?: • Genesis Chapter 50: • 18.”And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said , Behold, we be thy servants.” • 19.”And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?” • 20.”But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”

11. My World GOD “In that line of knowledge and understanding that divides us and God, human reasoning cannot cross over to ascertain God’s side. Only divine revelation can cross over to our side of the line to give us a clue. The journey given to Job was not to understand God and his ways. His journey was to continue to respond faithfully to God even though he didn’t have all the pieces to the “Why” puzzle.”