Encounters with God
When the Encounter Hasn’t Come
Genesis 16:1-16
August 17, 2014 Prayer Requests
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Eileen Phillips – recovery from
accident
Helen Carpenter’s children – Mike &
Karen
Peggy & Danny -- Health
Ruth Gawith -- Health
Richie Merryman – Improved Health
Donnie & Esther Meeks – Health
Keith McNew – Salvation
James Alexander -- Salvation
South Africa church welcomes thousands to VBS
About 200 people came to salvation at each VBS. Counselors prayed with many more
attendees about issues ranging from drug and alcohol abuse to damaging relationships
and suicidal tendencies. Parents and teachers alike report major changes taking place in
students' lives. In some cases, the parents also gave their lives to Christ after seeing the
positive changes in their children's lives.
Who was Job?
• Did Job really live or was his story a parable?
Did Job really live or was his story a parable?
Ezekiel 14:14 (NKJV)
14 Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would
deliver only themselves by their righteousness,” says the Lord GOD.
James 5:11 (NKJV)
11 Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the
perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the
Lord is very compassionate and merciful.
Who was Job?
• Did Job really live or was his story a parable?
• If he really lived, when did he live?
Did Job really live or was his story a parable?
Job 22:16 (NKJV)
16 Who were cut down before their time,
Whose foundations were swept away by a flood?
Job 42:15 (NKJV)
15 In all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job;
and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.
Job 1:3 (NKJV)
3 Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels,
five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large
household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.
Job 42:11 (HCSB)
11 All his brothers, sisters, and former acquaintances came to his house and
dined with him in his house. They sympathized with him and comforted him
concerning all the adversity the LORD had brought on him. Each one gave
him a qesitah and a gold earring.
Did Job really live or was his story a parable?
Job 1:5 (NKJV)
5 So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would
send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer
burnt offerings according to the number of them all.
Job 42:16-17(NKJV)
16 After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and
grandchildren for four generations. 17 So Job died, old and full of days.
Lamentations 4:21 (NKJV)
21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, You who dwell in the land of Uz!
1 Chronicles 1:38-42 (NKJV)
38 The sons of Seir were Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and
Dishan. 39 And the sons of Lotan were Hori and Homam; Lotan’s sister was
Timna. 40 The sons of Shobal were Alian, Manahath, Ebal, Shephi, and Onam.
The sons of Zibeon were Ajah and Anah. 41 The son of Anah was Dishon. The
sons of Dishon were Hamran, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran. 42 The sons of Ezer
were Bilhan, Zaavan, and Jaakan. The sons of Dishan were Uz and Aran.
Who was Job?
• Did Job really live or was his story a parable?
• If he really lived, when did he live?
• Who were his friends?
Job’s Friends
• Eliphaz the Temanite
• Bildad the Shuhite
• Zophar the Naamathite
Job 2:11-13 (NKJV)
Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this
adversity that had come upon him, each one came
from his own place—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the
Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite.
11
Eliphaz the Temanite
Genesis 36:15 (NKJV)
15 These
were the chiefs of the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz, the
firstborn son of Esau, were Chief Teman, Chief Omar, Chief Zepho, ---.
Amos 1:12 (NKJV)
12 But
I will send a fire upon Teman, -----
Ezekiel 25:13 (NKJV)
13 therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “I will also stretch out My hand against
Edom, cut off man and beast from it, and make it desolate from Teman;
Dedan shall fall by the sword. ; word.
Bildad the Shuhite
Genesis 25:1-2 (NKJV)
1 Abraham again took a wife, and her name was Keturah. 2 And she bore him
Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.
Genesis 25:5-6New King James Version (NKJV)
5 And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. 6 But Abraham gave gifts to
the sons of the concubines which Abraham had; and while he was still
living he sent them eastward, away from Isaac his son, to the country of the
east.
Zophar the Naamathite
Joshua 15:41 (NKJV)
41 Gederoth, Beth Dagon, Naamah, and Makkedah: sixteen cities with
their villages;
2 Chronicles 12:13 (NKJV)
13 Now Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king; and he
reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD had
chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. His mother’s
name was Naamah, an Ammonitess.
1 Chronicles 18:11 (NKJV)
11 King David also dedicated these to the LORD, along with the silver and
gold that he had brought from all these nations—from Edom, from
Moab, from the people of Ammon, ---Genesis 19:37-38 (NKJV)
37 The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab; he is the father of
the Moabites to this day. 38 And the younger, she also bore a son and
called his name Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the people of Ammon to
this day.
Eliphaz’s Theology
Job 4:3-8 (NKJV)
3 Surely you have instructed many, And you have strengthened weak hands.
4 Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, And you have strengthened
the feeble knees; 5 But now it comes upon you, and you are weary; It touches
you, and you are troubled. 6 Is not your reverence your confidence? And the
integrity of your ways your hope? 7 “Remember now, who ever perished being
innocent? Or where were the upright ever cut off? 8 Even as I have seen,
Those who plow iniquity And sow trouble reap the same.
Job 6:24-25 (NKJV)
24 “Teach me, and I will hold my tongue;
Cause me to understand wherein I have erred.
25 How forceful are right words!
But what does your arguing prove?
Understanding Eliphaz
• What was Eliphaz’s basic theology?
• Is there Biblical support of Eliphaz’s
perspective?
• What was missing in Eliphaz’s
understanding of God?
• If Eliphaz lived in the 21st century, what
could we teach him from God’s word that
with help him to have a balanced
understanding of how God works.
Bildad’s Defense to Job’s Reply
Job 8:2-3 (NKJV)
2 “How long will you speak these things,
And the words of your mouth be like a strong
wind?
3 Does God subvert judgment?
Or does the Almighty pervert justice?
Job 9:1-3 (NKJV)
9 Then Job answered and said:
2 “Truly I know it is so,
But how can a man be righteous before God?
3 If one wished to contend with Him,
He could not answer Him one time out of a
thousand.
Bildad’s Defense to Job’s Reply
• How do you characterize Bildad’s line of reasoning
compared to that of Eliphaz?
• In what way is Bildad’s reasoning sound?
• Where does Bildad go wrong?
• How is it possible that the innocent suffer and the
wicked prosper?
• At this point, would Job welcome an encounter with
God? Why or why not?
Basis for Final Defense
Job 19:25-26 (NKJV)
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth;
26 And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God,
What did Job possess that his
friends seemed to lack?
The unexpected Encounter
Job 42:7-9 (NKJV)
7 And so it was, after the LORD had spoken these words to Job,
that the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is aroused
against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me
what is right, as My servant Job has. 8 Now therefore, take for
yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and
offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and My servant Job shall
pray for you. For I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to
your folly; because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as
My servant Job has.”
9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the
Naamathite went and did as the LORD commanded them; for the
LORD had accepted Job.