“We live in a fallen world”. 

 “God wouldn’t do that!” 

 “There’s a reason for everything.” 

 “We are not to question God but just trust Him.” 

 That, is what we keep telling ourselves….all the while God says we are ‘destroyed for a lack of knowledge’. (Hosea 4:6) 

 So about yesterday’s message…I’d be curious to know when the last time was that you spent combing through that text there and really reading…what it had to say. As I pointed out there in the end, I was not asking you to ‘like’ the message…but simply acknowledge that those things we read were what God said. Or as I often comment here, ‘not my words, but His’. 

 When Paul wrote there in Romans 3 reminding us what God declared when He looked down upon man, it was observed that “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (3:18) 

 I would submit to you the reason for the absence of the fear of God today is because we don’t understand God’s judgements…because we’ve not been taught the law; or as it was often pointed out back in OT times, the ‘law had been lost’. 

 Failure to understand the law of God would explain why we have such a diluted understanding as to what sin is. If we don’t understand what sin is, then we could not possibly make any connection or have understanding to what God’s judgements are.  And that, my friends is why we don’t fear God…which is…the Beginning of knowledge and wisdom. (Prov. 1:7) 

 And for those who think that having a ‘fear of God’ was an Old Testament “thing”, I would beg to differ. We read there in Acts in the early days of the church where ‘fear came upon every soul’ and ‘great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things’. (Acts 2:43; 5:11) 

 Paul wrote “Having these promises beloved, let us cleans ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God’. (2 Cor. 7:1) 

 We were told to ‘work out your salvation with fear and trembling’. (Phil. 2:12) 

 Peter talks about the need as to how we are to ‘conduct ourselves during our stay here in fear’. (1 Pet. 1:17) 

 And were we not told we should ‘fear, lest we fall short of entering this place of peace and rest’? (Heb. 4:1) 

 Now you don’t just wake up one day and say “Oh, I better fear God because that is wise to do”. And this is not about having some fleeting emotion as we are tossed about with every wind of doctrine either. The ‘fear of God’ is something we need to be ‘taught’. (Ps. 34:11) And if we are not taught the Law of God, then we could not possibly have any reason for experiencing or learning what it means to fear the Lord. This is simply not the version of God that is mainstream theology today. Let’s be honest…while we love to hear about the ‘goodness of God’…we just prefer to ignore the fact there is another side known as the ‘severity of God’, according to Rom. 11:22. 

This kind of message does not ‘fit’ with our doctrines nor our understanding as to who God is and what He is all about. And even though we have all done it at one time or another…and many continue to do so today…we were not given the luxury of forming our own personal version of who God is and what He is like. There were some folks who tried doing that back in the wilderness where they took gold and fashioned for themselves and image of a beast and declared that to be their God who saved them. And we still continue to do that today with our man made doctrines as we swarm to glowing TV preachers who tell us what our flesh wants to hear. 

 Yesterday, we combed through quite a list of ‘consequences’ that were laid out for God’s people there in Deut. 28. God called them curses and it was a lengthy list. And there was no mistaking how clear God’s message was to them…as He laid it out repeatedly…”IF you don’t obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.” (28:15) 

 I would assume what had to have been the most unnerving to read there with all the references I gave you was the fact that God said “HE….was the one would do and send these curses’ upon the people. 

 I get why people tend to stay away from all that Old Testament stuff…it can be quite troublesome. I mean…look there in Numbers 21:6: where the LORD sent serpents among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.” But just because that happened back in the OT times, why do you conclude that is irrelevant to us today? I mean, Paul brings all this up there in 1 Cor. 10 detailing how God dealt with these rebellious people…sending plagues and serpents and destroyers upon them…underscoring the fact that all this was written down for us as examples and warnings today upon whom the end of the ages has come.” (4-11) 

 So let’s take a closer look as to how…God executes or administers all those ‘curses’ we read about yesterday. Let’s revisit one of the many listed there and take a look at vs. 35: “The Lord will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.” 

 Now before we move on…let’s revisit what is a common term heard in most bible studies when linking OT stories and characters with the NT. God always had a way of dropping ‘hints’ and clues as to what His future plans were and we commonly know them as ‘types’ or foreshadows. You’ve probably heard how Moses and Joshua were ‘types’ of Jesus who was to come. How the ‘ark’ of the covenant and Noah’s ark as well were ‘types’ giving us insight to what master plan God was unfolding for His people. It's important to note that types are just that…limited clues and examples, but not perfect or exact replicas as Moses was obviously not Jesus. 

 There’s another person we read about in the OT who you may or may not have ever heard this taught, but I do believe he was a ‘type’ of Christ as well. We know him as Job. We are told that Job was ‘blameless, upright, one who feared God and shunned evil’ and that there was ‘none like him on the earth’. (Job 1:1,8). Sounds like a pretty good foreshadow or ‘type’ of Jesus to me. And most of us should know what happens to Job in this book. While there is much truth to be gleaned from the whole book, I would submit to you that you would be hard pressed to find two other chapters in the bible that offer as much insight to benefit us believers like we find in the first two chapters of the book of Job. 

 I merely present this for your own personal study and prayerful contemplation as you ask the Holy Spirit to confirm this to you. 

 It becomes quite apparent early on that ‘all hell breaks loose’ against Job. And God is quite clear that Job did NOTHING to bring this on upon himself. (2:3). But what we read in these first two chapters can prove to be for our own good if we will pay attention. Another reason I see him as a type of Christ is that Jesus Himself would incur the fierce wrath of God when He did nothing to deserve it. That is gospel clear. He suffered and died for our benefit and salvation. 

 So in a nutshell, what do we learn from the first two chapters of Job? Well, for starters, Satan roams to and fro throughout the earth. What did Peter tell us about the devil and his activity? (1 Pet. 5:8) 

 When God points to Job (for whatever reason the discussion goes in this direction), what was Satan’s reply to God there in 1:9-12? Basically, it was this: “I can’t touch him…you have a hedge around him and everything he owns and loves and that is dear to him.” 

 God set a hedge around Job; and it was a hedge of protection. Why do you think that hedge was there? Could it have anything to do with the fact that Job walked with God and was upright, blameless and feared God? Would you look up Psalm 34 right now and read vs.7. Then, make a note of 1 John 5:18. If you have time, you might also examine Isa. 5:1-8 and Matt. 21:33 where we learn that God has this thing about setting a hedge around His beloved vineyards, which is a type of His church/people. These hedges are for protection from predators…or the ‘enemy’. 

 We also learn early on here that Satan is ‘on a leash’ in the sense that he can do NOTHING…without God’s permission. Which would be the reason God does not want us ‘fearing the devil’ but Him alone. 

 So the ‘first round’ of attacks unfold there in chapter 1 of Job before we are ushered in to round two beginning in the second chapter. You can read it on your own time but I want to draw your attention to what happens to Job when Satan is given permission by God to attack Job’s body/health. Look at vs. 6-7. What does Satan afflict Job with? Now, would you please go read Deut. 28:35 one more time. 

 It would not be of any use or benefit to let your mind start racing ahead and jumping to conclusions here; but allow me to ask you this: Can you see where God just might be using or ‘allowing’ Satan and his minions…to carry out His wrath and judgments and curses? You certainly have to believe that God could in the blink of an eye remove every demon and devil from existence. But He has not done that. Why? Now, go read Psalm 78:49-50 and tell me what you see there that suggest clearly what the ‘wrath of God’ is? 

 And who does Paul tell us to ‘give no place to’ there in Eph. 4:27? Do you know how we ‘give place to the devil’? When we sin. And sin…is breaking the commandments of God. (1 John 3:4). And what did God warn the people would happen if they broke His laws there in Deut. 28? And what did Jesus warn that man after He healed him? (John 5:14). 

Hope you join me tomorrow.