Introduction: Ever known a gossip? Ever known someone who has to share his/her opinion about seemingly everything and everyone? Ever known someone who seemed incapable of just being quiet? Ever known someone who assumes his/her view is so important that we’d all do well to just pull up a seat and imbibe his/her take on things?

I would wager we all know that guy and that gal. Some folks just don’t seem to have a mute button. They’re babblers. They just talk and talk and talk. They seem incapable of just doing something quietly. Sometimes when such people are around I’ll afterwards tell my wife, “She needs to get a hobby–something besides gossip.”

Scripture: “Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler” (Pr 20:19). The Bible has a great deal to say about the tongue. God warns his people what not to be like.

• “Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered” (Pr 11:13).
• “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits” (Pr 18:21).
• James 3:5-8 is crystal-clear: So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. (Jas 3:5-8)

Scripture instructs God’s people to not be babblers and idle talkers. We’re not to be gossips or busybodies. When Paul wrote to Timothy, for example, he told him that women in the church were not to be “gossips and busybodies” (1 Tim 5:13).

Why was that so important that God inspired it in the canon? Because restless talk, gossip, nosiness, and busybodies destroy unity. They undermine the team. They sabotage the mission.

Encouragement: Does this mean we’re to always be reticent and uncommunicative? No, of course not. But we’re to use our speech wisely. The Bible instructs us in what not to be like but also what to inculcate as a habit of godliness. In the imperative section of the Book of Ephesians, Paul wrote, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Yes and amen.

When the second chapter of Job opens, we are met with a couple of profound realities. First, there is the phrase “sons of God.” “Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD” (Job 2:1). This is a divine council. There are spiritual realities taking place in the heavenlies that precede events in the lives of men. That’s crucial for us to understand.

Spiritual warfare is a reality. There are forces at war in the divine and angelic realm. If and when we minimize that, it’s to our detriment. God included these phrases in Scripture for our instruction (Romans 15:4).

Second, God pays Job a huge compliment: And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me agains him to destroy him without reason” (Job 2:3).

Encouragement: God holds forth Job as a model of a trusting disciple and believer. Is Job going to put in the crucible of suffering? Absolutely. Will Job ask the most existential and agonizing questions of God and his (Job’s) three friends? Absolutely. But will Job emerge victorious and blessed by God? Absolutely.

But that’s getting ahead. For now, just remember this: God uses suffering to draw us to himself and to reveal the genuine. He purifies. He puts his people in the crucible of suffering in order to refine us, to purge us of impurities, to sanctify us–but with one overarching goal: to show us that he is God, that we are not, and that he is good and a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

Text: ²⁰ Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. ²¹ And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:20-21)

Questions: Have you ever experienced immense suffering? Have you ever been mad at God? Have you ever blamed God? Have you ever shaken your fist at the heavens, even if only internally, and cursed God? Have you ever implied that it was God’s fault that you suffered? If we are honest, I think we’ve all been there. We may have articulated our anger in different ways. But if we’re honest, I would wager that most folks have “been there and done that.”

Context, Context, Context:  The verses preceding the ones I quoted above recount how God allowed Satan to take Job’s property and children. Just let that sink in. Job’s sons and daughters were killed by the Sabeans (Job 1:15). Job’s servants and sheep were destroyed (Job 1:16). Also, the Chaldeans murdered Job’s servants (Job 1:17). You think we have it bad some days? Just read Job’s life.

Encouragement: But here’s what you must remember as you study the 42 chapters of Job: Job trusted God and in the ultimate goodness of God. Goodness cannot be separated from God himself. It is one of his immutable attributes. And God doesn’t change. Does God allow suffering? Yes, that should be obvious. But God is still good and God is still present through the valley of the shadow of death, in order that he might bring his people through that valley. Satan’s only good at destruction and division, not at construction or unity in truth. Please don’t miss that.

Introduction: I’m currently reading through the Book of Job. It is one of the masterpieces of world literature and of course sacred Scripture. The reason for Job’s prominence in the canon is straightforward: the Book of Job deals with “undeserved suffering.” Another way of phrasing it is, “If God exists, and God is good, then why suffering? Wouldn’t a ‘good’ God intervene?”

Those are great questions. And not to get too far ahead but, yes, God exists. And suffering exists. Yet God has intervened, continues to intervene, and is sovereign in and through suffering. Christianity alone deals with suffering in a way that no other worldview does—namely, by explaining why suffering exists and what God has done as the suffering servant to redeem and restore a people to himself through the gospel.

But in the first installment I wish only to focus on one particular topic, and that is God’s initiation of Job’s education. When the Book of Job opens, verses 8-12 of chapter 1 are crucial to understand:

⁸ And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” ⁹ Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? ¹⁰ Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. ¹¹ But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” ¹² And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. (Job 1:8-12)

Teaching: If you don’t pay attention, you might think that Satan is running the show in the Book of Job. But it was God who summoned Satan, a created angel, to the court of heaven. It wasn’t Satan who initiated all of that was going to unfold. That’s so important. Why? Because God is the one who’s in control. God is the sovereign. Satan is a contingent, created, fallen being. God is not contingent, is uncreated, and holy. Again, pay attention to the text: “Have you considered my servant Job . . .?” was a question from God to Satan about Job. God was the initiator in all this. And God, if you’ll stick with me through Job, you will see is there at the end.

Encouragement: For now, however, just remember this: Satan’s not sovereign; God is. God is the hero of the Book of Job. Those who follow hellish counsel will be humiliated by the end of this history, and Job, the righteous sufferer, will be rewarded. But we’ll get there.

There is no paucity of zeal surrounding the understanding of “the temple” from myriad spheres–Christian, Muslim, political, etc. But what is the Bibe’s own testimony regarding the temple? Is it a building that is to be the focus? Is it a place of real estate that is to be the focus? How should Christians understand “the temple”? How do our understandings of the temple affect the person and work of Christ?

Text:

¹⁸ “But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built! ¹⁹ Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O Lord my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you, ²⁰ that your eyes may be open day and night toward this house, the place where you have promised to set your name, that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place. ²¹ And listen to the pleas of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen from heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive. (2 Chronicles 6:18-21)

Context, Context, Context: In the passage above, King Solomon was dedicating the temple in Jerusalem. Notice the question asked up front: “But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth?” (2 Chr 6:18a). Will God be amongst his people? Will God manifest himself? Will God take on flesh?

The second half of verse 18 answers the question. The answers? No, heaven cannot “contain” God, much less any house or temple. Folks, that’s crucial to understand. Yes, God will be amongst his people. Yes, God will manifest himself. Yes, God took on flesh. That’s the very definition of incarnation.

Christianity is not about a building, a piece of real estate, a political identity, or any such thing. It’s about God. It’s about Christ. Jesus is the temple.

All of the Bible coheres; it all tells one coherent, interconnected, unified story of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. If we misunderstand the temple, we misunderstand the Christian worldview.

Revelation 21:22 reads, “And I [John] saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.” How clear is that? Crystal.

Encouragement: The temple was God tabernacling among his people. It was a picture of what God would do in the Son’s incarnation–dwell among us. What happened in the incarnation of the Christ? John 1:14 reads, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt [tabernacled] among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”