No. 8 - BROKENNESS — THE PRICE

Job 23:1-17

In this extended study on brokenness we have looked at Jesus, Jacob, Moses, Jonah, Peter...today, Job. Our study today in the oldest book of the Bible—the book of Job.

Brokenness is the process whereby God brings us to the end of ourselves and into total love, trust, and submission toward Him.

In this study I want us to settle in on “The Price of Brokenness.” Someone said about our age, “We live in a day where everyone knows the cost of everything, but the value of nothing.” When it comes to brokenness I am not sure most Christians know much either the cost or the value of brokenness.

Job’s Purity, Job 1:1. Job was in a class by himself. Job was the greatest, godliest man that history had produced to that time. He had a genuine relationship with God and understood himself to be “God’s servant,” 1:8. He had a sterling testimony among people. People admired him because of who he was and what he had and how he handled it all.

Job’s Prosperity, Job 1:2-3. Materially, Job was “the greatest of all the men of the east.” To those of his day, Job’s material prosperity was a sign of God’s blessings.

Job’s Piety, Job 1:4-5. Job was covering all the bases in sacrifices who his children, just in case they sinned and offended God.

Job’s Pain, Job 1:6-22. Several things need to be seen in vs. 6-12.

Job was visited by Satan, but he didn’t know it.

God gave Satan permission to touch Job.

Satan could go only as far as God allowed.

The Lord and Satan were involved in a war and the battlefield was Job’s life.

Count with me Job’s loses, his pain.

Lost 1,000 oxen and 500 asses, vs. 14-15.

Lost 7,000 sheep, v. 16.

Lost 3,000 camels, v. 17.

Lost 10 children 7 sons, 3 daughters, v. 18.

Lost his health, 2:7.

Someone has said the only bad thing was Job didn’t lose his wife, 2:9. They fail to remember that Mrs. Job also lost this along with Job and was herself plunged into indescribable sorrow and grief.

The Book of Job wrestles with the age-old question: Why do good people suffer, if God is a God of love and justice? Within that question are a couple of serious false assumptions. It is a false assumption is whether or not God is loving and just. If God is God, He is perfect and in His perfection God cannot be anything but loving and just. And there is the false assumption that there are good people. When compared to God, “there are none righteous, no, not one,” Romans 3:10. “There is not a just man upon the earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not,” Ecclesiastes 7:20. Jesus said, “There is none good but one, that is, God,” Matthew 19:17.

Job’s Perplexity. In the breaking process Satan causes confusion. We contend with Satan’s lies.

God doesn’t love you. If He did, you wouldn’t be going through this.

You’re not saved. Isn’t it amazing that Satan is concerned about whether or not we are saved.

You’ve been through this before and it didn’t change matters.

You are a big hypocrite, a big phony. You ought to quit.

1. The Protest of an Unbroken Man.

Notice how Job took his afflictions.

Loss of Family and finances, 1:20-22. Praise God. Clinging to God was the only way he could bring one stick of sense into the mystery of life and death.

Loss of Health, 2:9-10. Praise God. In the city dump, with the stench of animal dung and trash about him, he did not sin.

If any man was broken before God it was Job, we think. Wait a minute before you draw that conclusion. Take a closer look at this book. When his “friends” arrive and start their woeful attempts at comforting Job, things heat up. Job is convinced he is innocent of all charges, but

Loss of Reputation was more than Job could take.

Job 12:3, 13:2 “I am not inferior to you.”

Job 13:15, 18 “Though He (God) slay me yet will I trust Him: but I will maintain mine own ways before Him….Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.”

Job 16:12-14 “I was at ease, but He hath broken me asunder: He hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark. His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth no spare; he poureth ou my gall upon the ground. He breaketh me with brech upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.”

Job 16:16 “My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death.”

Job 23:3-4

We know why Job suffered. He didn’t. We know that the devil was behind this, they didn’t have a clue. Job had the double whammy of a mind-boggling conflict and some merciless critics—Job’s “friends” who offered their barbed-wire bandages.

All of us excuse ourselves for what we are and what we do. When we are unbroken and someone exposes us and criticizes us, we immediately go to bat for ourselves. We love our reputation. We love our righteousness. Job’s self-importance was only spotlighted, and eventually removed, by being broken.

2. The Probe of an Unbroken Man.

“Job’s three friends gave essentially the same answer: all suffering is due to sin. Elihu, however, declared that suffering is often the means of purifying the righteous. God’s purpose, therefore, was to strip away all of Job’s self-righteousness and to bring him to the place of complete trust in Him,” Charles Ryrie, Ryrie Study Bible, p. 756.

In Job 38 God comes on the scene. He had heard enough. “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind.” God accused Job of speaking “words without knowledge,” 38:2. Job didn’t know what he was talking about. Someone counted 77 questions God asked Job in Job 38-41.

Remember, Job didn’t have a Bible. Not a single book was there for him to get an answer. So God uses Job’s only revelation—creation. Without taking any time to examine this vast section, God asked Job three questions.

Who created the universe? Job 38:4-7

Who controls the universe? Job 38:39-39:2.

Who comprehends the universe? Job 40:8-11

Job 40:2 God told Job that what he was really doing by his self-defense was “contending against the Almighty.” Job was fighting God.

3. The Profession of a Broken Man.

Job was in the process of telling everyone how great and good he was, until God came on the scene. All along the way Job had been asking “Why?” “Why me...why now...why this...why that?” But God was teaching Job the question is not “why” but “whom.” When a person knows “the supreme Who” then most of the “whats” and “whys” won’t be that important.

Job professed his sinfulness, Job 40:4. “I am vile,” meaning “to despise.” Job finally saw himself as God saw him. Watchman Nee said, “God’s great purpose is dealing with us is to reduce us.”

Job professed his silence, Job 40:4b-5. Job is silent with his self-justification, self-glorification, criticism, bitterness, doubt or unbelief. What did you mama tell you when you were a child? “If you don’t have something good to say about somebody, don’t say anything at all.”

Job professed his submission, Job 42:2. Job was saying, “God, you don’t need me, but I really need you.”

Job professed his stupidity, Job 42:3-5.

Job professed his sorrow, Job 42:6. “I repent.”

“One is not broken until all resentment and rebellion against God and man is removed. One who resents, takes offense, or retaliates against criticism and opposition or lack of appreciation is unbroken. All self-justification and self-defense betrays an unbroken spirit. All discontent and irritation with providential circumstances and situation reveal unbrokenness,” Don’t Waste Your Sorrows, p. 75.

4. The Prosperity of a Broken Man.

Job’s fellowship with God was restored, Job 42:8-9.

Job’s forgiving spirit toward his friends was restored, Job 42:10.

Job’s finances were restored, Job 42:11-12.

Job’s family was restored, Job 42:13.

So what is the price of brokenness? It is the utter repudiation of our own self-righteousness and depraved goodness. It is the recognition that we are so utterly destitute of any true righteousness that Jesus had to died for us and by His grace infuse us with His righteousness. If you think you are okay because you are a decent person, or pay your taxes, or go to church you better forget it.

Our salvation is not by our merit, but by God’s mercy.

Our standing is not by our goodness, but by God’s grace, Romans 3:24.

Our success is not by our reputation, but by God’s righteousness.

To the undiscerning eye Job’s actual life looked exactly the same after his brokenness as before. That is what Oswald Chambers calls “the disguise of the actual.” There is always this difference in the man who has been through brokenness.