Read Job 11-14
 
Job 11:6 (Zophar said,) “If only he would tell you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom is not a simple matter. Listen! God is doubtless punishing you far less than you deserve!”
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Job 12:1-2 Then Job spoke again: 2 “You people really know everything, don’t you? And when you die, wisdom will die with you!”
 
THE world accuses Christians of being judgmental. One who sins does not like to be told, “You are wrong. You have broken God’s law. You must ask God’s forgiveness to be saved.”
   But isn’t that what we are told to say? Even as people love John 3:16a “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son.” there is often little mention of its command: John 3:16b so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
   Isn’t it God’s command to tell the good news, that includes telling of sin? John 3:18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son.
   Why is that truth seldom told? How will people know they are living under sin if no one tells them? We are often left with a dilemma, “Should we tell people of their sins, or should we remain quiet?”
   Perhaps Zophar’s rebuke of Job here can teach us what to speak and not speak into people’s hearts. Zophar seems to be a good man who believes in God. Yet, he is judgmental to assume Job is guilty: “God is doubtless punishing you far less than you deserve!”  He was Job’s friend trying to help Job confess and be free of sin. This was a good thing – if Zophar’s assumption were correct.
   You know Job’s suffering is a test, not a punishment. In his desire to be helpful, Zophar unknowingly weakened his relationship with Job. Job does not accept Zophar’s words because Job knows there is another reason for his afflictions.
   What then should Zophar have said? Perhaps his language could have been something like this: “Job, I’m very sorry for your trouble. I don’t know why this is happening to you. I believe God is in control of all things Sometimes – even often – he brings hard things into our lives, so we can more fully understand who he is. Sometimes the hard things occur because we have made some mistakes. I know I have broken God’s commands often. I’ve learned to change some things in my life to correct some of these problems. Reading the Bible and learning of God’s love for me has really helped me to have a more contented life. If you’d like, I can help you learn of God’s love and mercy, too.”
   We are commanded to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. As we confront the sin issues around us, let’s first look to our own heart to discern where we need to be forgiven. Then be humble to love and help others come to know God. God doesn’t need another judge; your task is to be his messenger of truth.
   

Read Job 8-10
 
Job 9:14-17, 21 “So who am I, that I should try to answer God or even reason with him? 15 Even if I were right, I would have no defense. I could only plead for mercy.16 And even if I summoned him, and he responded, I’m not sure he would listen to me. 17 For he attacks me with a storm and repeatedly wounds me without cause… 21 I am innocent, but it makes no difference to me – I despise my life.”
 
“IT’s not fair!” is a common attack against authority. We reject rules or circumstances that, in our view, favor others and hurt us. Job seemed to have good reason to feel unfairly afflicted. You might agree.
   Job’s deep despair saw no hope in God’s care. “What’s the point?” Job wondered. Was he even seeing God as a bully, interested only in showing his strength to control Job’s life? Instead of confessing, “If God is for (me), who can be against (me)?” (from Romans 8:31) Job had the hopeless view, “If God is against me, who can be for me?” The weary Job despised himself! Are we at risk for the same fate?
   We can be if we, like Job, look too long into the darkness. Do you often see life through suffering and trouble? A common phrase spoken during Christian meetings and sermons since a virus has plagued the world is “these uncertain, dark times”. We treat this pandemic as if it’s the worst thing the world has ever seen. Do we forget all the terrible things recorded in Scripture? Do we dismiss the tragic issues of generations past? Yes, there is darkness in the world. But God continually instructs us to turn from the darkness to see God’s living hope.  
   Although Job’s friend Zophar didn’t fully understand Job’s suffering, he still gave some very good advice to his downcast friend: Job 11:13 “If only you would prepare your heart and lift up your hands to him in prayer! 14 Get rid of your sins, and leave all iniquity behind you. 15 Then your face will brighten with innocence. You will be strong and free of fear. 16 You will forget your misery; it will be like water flowing away. 17 Your life will be brighter than the noonday. Even darkness will be as bright as morning. 18 Having hope will give you courage. You will be protected and will rest in safety.”
   In truth, the days are always dark and troublesome as evil rears its ugly head. God allows Satan to do his evil, so the LORD will be glorified in our faith.
   In faith, then, know your Creator, Redeemer, Restorer, God has come in person to turn your eyes upward to heaven. Look up! Know and rejoice God is not fair! He’s so unfair, he saved us, his enemies, out of our sins. He unfairly forgives our constant evil. He is gracious and good to reach down and bring us eternally into his glorious light. Be of faith, and you will lie down unafraid, and many will look to you for help. (Job 11:19)
   Who ae you? In Jesus you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night. (1 Thessalonians 5:5)
 

Read Job 4-7
 
Job 5:8-11 “If I were you, I would go to God and present my case to him. 9 He does great things too marvelous to understand. He performs countless miracles. 10 He gives rain for the earth and water for the fields. 11 He gives prosperity to the poor and protects those who suffer.”
 
ONE of Job’s friends named Eliphaz came with two others – Bildad and Zophar – to comfort Job. It is a most remarkable thing to read the four men sat in silence for seven days before anyone spoke. There is a deep sense of grief, honor and respect for Job. When the seven days ended, Job spoke.
   Job 3 records the righteous man regretted his life. Job 3:11a “Why wasn’t I born dead?…13 Had I died at birth, I would now be at peace. I would be asleep and at rest. 14 I would rest with the world’s kings and prime ministers, whose great buildings now lie in ruins.” This is rejecting God’s decision to birth him. He was telling the LORD he worshiped, “You’ve made a mistake.” In his despair, the upright Job begins to falter. These are dangerous thoughts. When we view our lives as regrettable, with no purpose, our desire to live diminishes and even disappears. We must put aside such thoughts and consider the privilege of life. This is the only way to know God and understand his will for our lives.
   Then Eliphaz was the first of Job’s three friends to speak. After praising Job for the good things he has given to people, Eliphaz revealed a typical view of suffering: Job 4:8 My experience shows that those who plant trouble and cultivate evil will harvest the same. In other words Eliphaz is saying, “Job, you’ve been a good man. But you suffer because you’ve sinned.”
   Yes, Bildad’s counsel in the verses above seem very good. “Go to God and present your case to him. He does great things too marvelous to understand. He performs countless miracles.” Eliphaz reminded Job of God’s sovereign power. He encouraged Job to be confident God would forgive his sins.
   This sin issue is the great conflict in Job’s story. His three friends are sure he has sinned. Job is sure he has not. The three have an obvious solution to the suffering. Job doesn’t know what to do in his presumed innocence.
   All four have much to learn of suffering and of God. And so do we. That’s why we must be willing to approach God with a reverent heart. When we worship God in all circumstances, submitting to his authority on our life, then we are to understand how he protects those who suffer.

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Read Job 1-3
 
Job 1:20-22 Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship. 21 He said, “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The LORD gave me what I had, and the LORD has taken it away. Praise the name of the LORD!” 22 In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God.
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Job 2:9-10 His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.” 10 But Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.
 
THE Daily Bible makes an abrupt change from Ezekiel to contemplate Job’s (Jobe) story. Even though the events of Job’s life are said to have happened about the time of Abraham, the story was not recorded until the time of Judah’s exile. This story – written in poetic form – is difficult to read. Who wants to know about such loss and suffering? Job’s wife didn’t want to know. She urged her husband to “curse God and die” because she couldn’t watch her husband suffer. She was angry, too, at God, blaming him for afflicting her righteous husband.
   Is that your response to suffering? We can read of Israel’s problems with some detachment. “Those people brought trouble on themselves.” we say. But, with great discomfort, we must admit God allowed Satan to bring the mourning and sickness onto Job.
   Is that why we suffer? Is it true the LORD gives the devil permission to afflict us? Or is there something deeper to know? Is suffering a trial directly from God to draw us nearer to God? Or even more, is suffering a ministry? Are some called to suffer to reveal God’s grace to the rest of us? Or is suffering the result of our sins?
   Job’s story will confront and answer these questions. Our task is to be humble to hear what God says through this ancient man’s life. Our lives are at God’s mercy. We love God through the good things he gives us. Do we still love him in the hard things? We need to know how to respond to God’s touch on our lives, to even see God in the suffering. Our task here is not to curse God and die, but to praise God and live into his eternal goodness. 
  

Read Ezekiel 29:17-21, Daniel 4, Jeremiah 52:31-34
 
Daniel 4:1-3 King Nebuchadnezzar sent this message to the people of every race and nation and language throughout the world: “Peace and prosperity to you! 2 I want you all to know about the miraculous signs and wonders the Most High God has performed for me. 3 How great are his signs, how powerful his wonders! His kingdom will last forever, his rule through all generations.”
 
YOU could say Daniel 4 is the epistle of Nebuchadnezzar. An epistle is a teaching letter, and Nebuchadnezzar had much to teach Babylon about God’s miraculous, transforming power. His praise to God is such that it may remind us of the apostle Paul’s letters, often beginning with, “Grace and peace to you…Praise be to God.”
   As Jesus transformed Paul from a murderous persecutor of Christians, it seems
God has transformed the king.
   Daniel 4 tells the king’s story and it tells the king’s joy. Think of how God humbled this prideful monarch to live as an animal for seven years! Would you want to talk about God humbling you? Usually we’re too prideful to say, “God humbled me. He took everything away to teach me about him, to help me know him.” But the king said,  “I want you all to know about the miraculous signs and wonders the Most High God has performed for me.” He wants to glorify God and magnify his name to Babylon! What blessed assurance this is to know what God has done for even such a great sinner as King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
   In the three readings from Daniel to this point, we have seen God three times display his sovereign authority through a dream’s interpretation, a deliverance from fire and this humility lesson. God has used Nebuchadnezzar to punish Israel and other pagan nations. God’s purpose is to make his name known in these personal displays of his power, so the exiled Jews will believe who he is and what he says.
   As God made himself known in Egypt before the exodus, he is doing the same here to prepare Israel to return to Jerusalem and Judah. God is good at preparing us to be in his home. He’s doing the same now through powerful transformations of many lives from sin into salvation. Are you one he has saved? Then be joyful to tell God’s story to change your life. 1 Peter 3:15 Instead, you must worship Christ as LORD of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. 

Read Ezekiel 40-43
 
Ezekiel 40:1-4 On April 28, during the twenty-fifth year of our captivity – fourteen years after the fall of Jerusalem – the LORD took hold of me. 2 In a vision from God he took me to the land of Israel and set me down on a very high mountain. From there I could see toward the south what appeared to be a city. 3 As he brought me nearer, I saw a man whose face shone like bronze standing beside a gateway entrance. He was holding in his hand a linen measuring cord and a measuring rod. 4 He said to me, “Son of man, watch and listen. Pay close attention to everything I show you. You have been brought here so I can show you many things. Then you will return to the people of Israel and tell them everything you have seen.”
 
GOD comes to Ezekiel 25 years after the first Jews went into exile into Babylon. This is 14 years after Babylon had utterly destroyed Jerusalem and the LORD’s temple and exiled more Jews from their homes. There are 45 years remaining in the exile.
   God had more messages for Ezekiel to deliver to the Jews. This time it is the message of restoration and rebuilding. Remember, the gospel is first the bad news of our sins, then the good news of God’s mercy to save. God speaks his mercy with a precise Temple rebuilding plan. Just as he had taken Ezekiel in the Spirit to Jerusalem to show him several visions of judgment, God then took Ezekiel in the Spirit to show Judah’s a new temple is planned.
   Be encouraged to see God’s grace in these chapters. Reading through the vision describing the four temple gates and the various courts, one may feel the details are beyond our need to know. But know this. We must understand how this Scripture is another revelation of God’s holiness. We have learned from the Exodus Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple, the LORD God has a purpose for each detail. Remember, these physical constructions represent heaven and God’s holy character. They must be precise.
   Think for example of all creation. The precision with which the earth sits on its axis and orbits the sun must be exactly as it is. Off one degree, the earth could not sustain life. In the same manner, God’s salvation plan is established on the foundation of God’s exact words. We see this in God’s law requiring repentance through. God the Father is precise, he had to send God the Son to the sacrificial cross, so you would be precisely saved forever. Be glad the LORD God precisely provides the pathway for your salvation. If he did not, you would not know if you were saved.
   I urge you then to read this new temple blueprint with great gratitude and awe of God for two reasons. One, God didn’t have to restore the temple or call his people back to Judah. They had sinned. But in his mercy, God moved to restore the temple to continually remind the Jews of his Messiah promise.  
   Second, be in awe and wonder that God has done this in his plan to build the church into a living temple. Saved in Jesus, you are a living temple. 1 Corinthians 3:16 Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?
   Celebrate each day that God is so precise. Worship him for the way his salvation blueprint builds your life anew and forever as God’s own.
 

Read Daniel 3
 
Daniel 3:1-7 King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold statue ninety feet tall and nine feet wide and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon…4 Then a herald shouted out, “People of all races and nations and languages, listen to the king’s command! 5 When you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and other musical instruments, bow to the ground to worship King Nebuchadnezzar’s gold statue. 6 Anyone who refuses to obey will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.”
 
A man has formed a statue. A man decrees all to worship it and so worship him. That man declares a hellish death for those who disobey. How vain it is to form a 90-foot gold plated statue to be an object of worship and to establish such hateful laws.  
   That’s sin’s foundation, isn’t it? Idolatry not only turns our worship to an empty image, it causes us to make our own laws in our attempt to be as God (Genesis 3:5b). Exodus 32 tells how even Aaron, God’s anointed High Priest and co-Deliverer of Israel, was like Nebuchadnezzar. He, too, formed a golden image – a calf statue below Mt. Sinai even as Moses was on the mountain receiving God’s commands. Self-worship is the “Vanity of vanities.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2a) that limits our view of God to our unholy desires.
   We remember now that Ezekiel, Daniel and many faithful Jews were in exile because Israel’s rulers and majority of the Jews made their own gods: Jeremiah 10:3 Their ways are futile and foolish. They cut down a tree, and a craftsman carves an idol. 4 They decorate it with gold and silver and then fasten it securely with hammer and nails, so it won’t fall over.
   But God is the Victor. He used Nebuchadnezzar’s evil for the Almighty God’s majestic glory. The time had come in Babylon for God’s redemptive plan to move forward. It was time for God’s people to fear God, to know God and to stand for God. The three faithful men, Mishael, Hananiah and Azariah (See Daniel 1), became God’s witnesses to self-consumed pagans and to the Jews, who wondered, “Is the LORD still LORD?”
   Now the time has come in our culture to stand. Who will do so? Philippians 3:3 For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort.
 

Read Ezekiel 32-33:20
 
Ezekiel 33:7-9 “Now, son of man, I am making you a watchman for the people of Israel. Therefore, listen to what I say and warn them for me. 8 If I announce that some wicked people are sure to die, and you fail to tell them to change their ways, then they will die in their sins, and I will hold you responsible for their deaths. 9 But if you warn them to repent, and they don’t repent, they will die in their sins, but you will have saved yourself.”
 
THE LORD designates Ezekiel as a watchman for Israel while the Jews are in Babylon. In truth, all prophets are watchmen. God gave them a message, and they needed to tell it. A watchman on a city’s wall announced both good news and bad news. This is certainly the prophet’s role. The LORD’s call to be a watchman is his emphasis to Ezekiel to remain vigilant to the LORD’s work. Sometimes, as in Ezekiel’s life, God would not speak to his prophet for many years. The Bible tells us that when God is silent, we must be alert to when he will speak.
   Ezekiel’s first task as a prophet/watchman had been to warn and promise God’s judgment on Jerusalem’s final destruction. Now his watchman role changes to announce good news. He will be proclaiming, as noted in our previous lesson, God’s restoration. Israel’s separated, “dry bones” will become unified and return to life in the true worship of God in Jerusalem.
   Yet, in this good news the watchman must continue to warn of sin’s threats. The devil always attacks, laying siege to God’s land. When a “sword” of sins’ assaults rose against Israel, the true watchman needed to warn. If a person heard and rejected the warning, his blood was on his own hands. If God’s watchman kept silent, God held the watchman accountable for sin’s destruction. The LORD placed a special emphasis on Ezekiel’s ministry, so both Ezekiel and the Jews would be alert to the threats and to know the good news. That’s still true, isn’t it? The church is God’s land at war with evil, and we all must be watchmen of the Word.
   Are you saved in Jesus? Then God has assigned you to be a watchman as the apostle Paul taught here: Acts 17:30 “God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. 31 For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.” The message has been given. Are you prepared to tell?
   Be thankful for God’s watchmen throughout the church’s history. And most of all, rejoice God has appointed Jesus to be your watchman. We have the sign of the Son’s resurrection as proof of his true message. Jesus is Savior now, because he obeyed the Father’s will to seek and to save us. The Son and the Spirit continue to watch over the church to prepare us for the day Jesus will be Judge. The Watchman has promised the good news of salvation is for all who believe. He shouts the truth from the cross, the empty tomb and the right hand of God.
   

Read Ezekiel 37-39
 
Ezekiel 37:11-14 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel. They are saying, ‘We have become old, dry bones – all hope is gone. Our nation is finished.’ 12 Therefore, prophesy to them and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again. Then I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 When this happens, O my people, you will know that I am the LORD. 14 I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home to your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken, and I have done what I said. Yes, the LORD has spoken!’”
 
THE resurrection and restoration images in Ezekiel 37 are as powerful as God breathing life into the man (Genesis 1) and as Jesus calling Lazarus from the grave (John 11). There is no place as unrelenting as the grave. Once you are in the grave, hope for life is gone. The grave is final unless some magnificent miracle occurs.
   As a Christian, then, are you not overwhelmed with joy that the magnificent miracle has come? Hear again Jesus’ promise, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die.” (John 11:25-26). We thank God the grave is the doorway to heaven in Jesus’ power. Paul confessed this in 1 Corinthians 15:51-55 But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! 52 It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. 53 For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies. 54 Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
   The Valley of Dry Bones represents complete destruction. The Jews’ hope in Babylon would have been as dried up and lifeless as those bones. But with mercy and purpose, God offered a magnificent miracle out of Babylon’s “grave”. He promised to resurrect their hope with this wonderful “born again” message to his people.
   Would not his promise then ignite a spark of hope? Would that spark grow and glow with the fire of God’s glory, anticipating that one day they would again live in the Promised Land?
   With hope reborn in their hearts, the Jews could endure and even enjoy their exile. They could seek and absorb God’s teachings under God’s blessed assurance to prepare for the day of their return to Judah and Jerusalem.
   Is this not our life, too? Exiled from heaven, we can enjoy our time here on earth to prepare for the glorious Day of the LORD.
   Do you need a living hope today? Place your hope in Jesus’ resurrection. Know the Father has come through the Son and the Spirit to reconnect your dry bones to the Resurrection and the Life. Cast aside all doubts. Turn from all distractions. Release things of temporary value. Set your eyes to the eternal. Know in your soul that God has promised and has prepared an eternal Promised Land for you.
   Rejoice! Through Jesus, the grave is not final.