God Restores Job

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Job 42:1-17
June 29, 2025

Sermon Notes

Job 42:1-17: “Then Job replied to the LORD, “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth to me as your servant Job has.” So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the LORD told them; and the LORD accepted Job’s prayer.

After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the LORD had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful and Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers. After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so Job died, an old man and full of years.”

Outline:

1. God will publicly forgive the sins and highlight the faithfulness of His devoted, suffering servants

• How Job spoke rightly when trials first came

• How Job spoke rightly during months of suffering and debates with friends

• How Job spoke rightly after God appeared

• Result: God forgave Job

• An aside: What enabled Job to change so radically?

2. God did and will publicly oppose any who have wronged His devoted, suffering servants

• God chastises Eliphaz and company

• God requires of them a burnt-offering sacrifice

• God has Job be their mediator

3. God did and will publicly shower his devoted, suffering servants with everything good

• Restored his relationships

• Replenished his finances

• Replenished (in particular) his family

• Gave him a very long life

4. Who is the Book of Job about?

• God

• Job

• Jesus

• Christians

5. Final words and Benediction: “He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.” — 1 Corinthians 1: 8-9

Behemoth and Leviathan: God Answers Job a Second Time

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Job 40:6-42:6
June 22, 2025

Sermon Notes

Outline:

1. After God’s first reply to Job

• God’s not done because Job hasn’t repented yet

• God’s not done because Job is questioning God’s fairness

• God invites Job to assume kingship over the universe

2. Behemoth, the super-beast

• His identity

• His strength

• Yet God tames this fearsome beast

3. Leviathan, the twisting creature

• Importance of Leviathan

• Description

• His identity

• How ancients spoke of him

• How the Bible speaks of him

4. Putting it all together

• Creation

• Rebellion

• Sovereignty

5. How it ended

6. Applications

• God knows what He’s doing

• The Bible says more about evil than in the Book of Job

God Answers Job a First Time

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Job 38-40:5
June 15, 2025

Sermon Notes

Outline:

1. Intro

2. God points to the inanimate universe

• The earth itself

• The sea

• The dawn

• Beneath the earth

• Light and darkness

• Precipitation

3. God points to the animal kingdom

• Lions and ravens

• Mountain goats

• Auroch

• Ostrich

• War horse

• Eagle and hawk

4. Job’s response

Job Begs an Audience With God

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Job 13-31
May 25, 2025

Sermon Notes

Job 13:3,13-14:22:

Job to his friends

“I desire to speak to the Almighty and to argue my case with God. Keep silent and let me speak; then let come to me what may. Why do I put myself in jeopardy and take my life in my hands? Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face. Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance, for no godless man would dare come before him! Listen carefully to my words; let your ears take in what I say. Now that I have prepared my case, I know I will be vindicated. Can anyone bring charges against me? If so, I will be silent and die.”

Job to God

“Only grant me these two things, O God, and then I will not hide from you: withdraw your hand far from me, and stop frightening me with your terrors. Then summon me and I will answer, or let me speak, and you reply. How many wrongs and sins have I committed? Show me my offense and my sin. Why do you hide your face and consider me your enemy? Will you torment a windblown leaf? Will you chase after dry chaff? For you write down bitter things against me and make me inherit the sins of my youth. You fasten my feet in shackles; you keep close watch on all my paths by putting marks on the soles of my feet. So man wastes away like something rotten, like a garment eaten by moths.

Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. He springs up like a flower and withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure. Do you fix your eye on such a one? Will you bring him before you for judgment? Who can bring what is pure from the impure? No one! Man's days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed. So look away from him and let him alone, till he has put in his time like a hired man. At least there is hope for a tree: if it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail. Its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant. But man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last and is no more. As water disappears from the sea or a riverbed becomes parched and dry, so man lies down and does not rise; til the heavens are no more, men will not awake or be roused from their sleep. If only you would hide me in the grave and conceal me till your anger has passed! If only you would set me a time and then remember me! If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come. You will call and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made. Surely then you will count my steps but not keep track of my sin. My offenses will be sealed up in a bag; you will cover over my sin.

But as a mountain erodes and crumbles and as a rock is moved from its place, as water wears away stones and torrents wash away the soil, so you destroy man’s hope. You overpower him once for all, and he is gone; you charge his countenance and send him away. If his sons are honored, he does not know it, if they are brought low, he does not see it. He feels but the pain of his own body and mourns only for himself.”

Job 19:25-27: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end, he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes--I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”

Job 31:35-37: “Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my defense — let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser put his indictment in writing. Surely I would wear it on my shoulder, I would put it on like a crown. I would give him an account of my every step; like a prince I would approach him.”

Outline:

1. Review

2. Job has reached an unbearable level of frustration

   • Conversations with his friends has gotten him nowhere

   • His complaints about God have gotten him nowhere

   • His complaints to God have gotten him nowhere

   • Yet through it all, through the tears and pain...

3. Job is about to request an actual encounter with God

   • Job is now on a mission to hear God’s actual voice

   • Job knows his intent is dangerous

   • Despite the risk, Job believes he will be vindicated before God

   • As Job waits, he ponders death and sin

4. Job protests the seeming unfairness of it all

   • Job protests that God seems to think of nothing but sin, and sin leads to death

   • Job longs for a resurrection he thinks will never happen

   • Job needs a mediator to bring these matters to God

5. Lessons

Job’s Early Replies

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Job 6-7, 9-10, 12-14
May 18, 2025

Sermon Notes

First reading

Job 6:1-3, 11-12: “Then Job replied: If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales! It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas — no wonder my words have been impetuous.

What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient? Do I have the strength of stone? Is my flesh bronze?”

Job 7:1-7: “Does not man have hard service on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired man? Like a slave longing for the evening shadows, or a hired man waiting eagerly for his wages, so I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me. When I lie down I think, “How long before I get up?” The night drags on, and I toss till dawn. My body is clothed with worms and scabs, my skin is broken and festering. My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope. Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again.”

Second reading

Job 7:7-10: “Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again. The eye that now sees me will see me no longer; you will look for me, but I will be no more. As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to the grave does not return. He will never come to his house again; his place will know him no more.”

Job 10:18-22: “Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me. If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave! Are not my few days almost over? Turn away from me so I can have a moment’s joy before I go to the place of no return, to the land of gloom and deep shadow, to the land of deepest night, of deep shadow and disorder, where even light is like darkness.”

Third reading

Job 7:11-21: “I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that you put me under guard? When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint, even then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions, so that I prefer strangling and death, rather than this body of mine. I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning. What is man that you make so much of him, that you give him so much attention, that you examine him every morning and test him at every moment? Will you never look away from me, or let me alone even for an instant? If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O watcher of men? Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you? Why do you not pardon my offenses and forgive my sins? For I will soon lie down in the dust; you will search for me, but I will be no more.”

Outline:

1. Review

• The story

• Our approach working through the Book of Job

2. The Book of Job illustrates that God may allow believers to suffer intensely

3. The Book of Job shows factors that intensify believers' sufferings

• Sufferings intensify when we don't grasp the role of Satan in them

• Sufferings intensify when we don't grasp how God’s glory can shine through them

• Sufferings intensify when we don't grasp that heavenly rewards await believers who remain faithful

• Sufferings intensify through the voices of unhelpful friends

4. The Book of Job shows that true believers who suffer keep engaging God

• Job frankly speaks about and to God

• Yet he does not bolt!

5. Lessons

• Much misery comes from what Christians know yet disbelieve

• God mercifully receives believers who are far from perfect

Eliphaz “Comforts” Job

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Job 4-5
May 4, 2025

Sermon Notes

Outline:

1. How to think about hard Bible passages

• Every Christian should work to understand the Bible as best they can

• There’s a reason God gave the church pastors and teachers

• What to do when you feel lost

2. Review of past three chapters

• The blameless man

• The adversarial wager

• The terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad days

• The three friends

3. Eliphaz’s speech

• The Temanite

• The tone

• The doctrine

• The vision

• The advice

4. What Eliphaz got right

5. What Eliphaz got wrong

• His manner

• His content

6. Benediction: “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood...to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.” — Revelation 1:5b-6

Job’s Lament

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Job 2:11-13, 3:1-26
March 30, 2025

Sermon Notes

Job 2:11-13: “When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.”

Outline:

1. Introduction

• Review

• Job’s friends arrive

2. Job begins his lament

3. Job utters a series of curses

• A curse

• “May God not care about that day”

• “May that day be shrouded in darkness”

4. “Why?”

• The universally spoken three-letter word

• How Job imagines the grave

• The final “why”

• Summary

5. Applications

• God sometimes lets the righteous suffer terribly

• It is important for believers to acknowledge another’s suffering before explaining it

• It is appropriate for a Christian to groan, sometimes long and loudly

Job 3:1-26: “After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. He said: “May the day of my birth perish, and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’ That day — may it turn to darkness; may God above not care about it; may no light shine on it. May gloom and utter darkness claim it once more; may a cloud settle over it; may blackness overwhelm it. That night — may thick darkness seize it; may it not be included among the days of the year nor be entered in any of the months. May that night be barren; may no shout of joy be heard in it. May those who curse days curse that day, those who are ready to rouse Leviathan. May its morning stars become dark; may it wait for daylight in vain and not see the first rays of dawn, for it did not shut the doors of the womb on me to hide trouble from my eyes.

“Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb? Why were there knees to receive me and breasts that I might be nursed? For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest with kings and rulers of the earth, who built for themselves places now lying in ruins, with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. Or why was I not hidden away in the ground like a stillborn child, like an infant who never saw the light of day? There the wicked cease from turmoil, and there the weary are at rest. Captives also enjoy their ease; they no longer hear the slave driver’s shout. The small and the great are there, and the slaves are freed from their owners.

“Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul, to those who long for death that does not come, who search for it more than for hidden treasure, who are filled with gladness and rejoice when they reach the grave? Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? For sighing has become my daily food; my groans pour out like water. What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me. I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.”

Outline:

1. Job utters a series of curses

• A curse

• “God may not care about the day of his birth”

• “May that day be shrouded in darkness”

2. “Why” questions

• The universally spoken 3-letter word

• How He imagines the grave

• Final “Why”

• summary

3. Principle: God sometimes lets the righteous suffer terribly

• Yet God himself affirmed Job as righteous

4. Principle: It is important for believers to acknowledge another’s suffering before explaining it. It is appropriate for a Christian to groan, sometimes long and loudly

5. Conclusion

A Blameless Man Devastated

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Job 1:1-2:10
March 23, 2025

Sermon Notes

Outline:

1. A well-run world on earth

• Where Job lived

• When Job lived

• What sort of man was Job religiously?

• Job’s greatness

• Job’s anxiety

2. Transition from earth to heaven

3. First scene in heaven

• The gathering of angels

• The dialogue between the adversary and the King

4. First scene on earth

• Sabeans

• Act of nature

• Chaldeans

• The real horror

5. Second scene in heaven

• “Skin for skin”

• Is God an egomaniac for agreeing to this?

• Job’s agonizing illness

6. Applications