My wife is in the habit, like many of you, of reading through the Bible every year or on an annual Bible reading program. And she's been doing this for several years when she... First couple of years she was doing this, she would be going along and when she would get to the Book of Job, she would start reading through Job, and she'd read one day, two days, three days, four days in Job. And I remember the first time she did this, she just kind of looked up at me. I was having my coffee and doing my reading, and she says, "What is the point of this book? This is negative. This is bad," she said. And I said, "Hold on, stay with it." I said, "Wait till you get to Chapter 38." Get through the first 37 chapters, keep going. And she did. And the second year, I think she did the same thing. But anymore now, she just reads through it. She's primed for this now. She doesn't ask me any more questions about what's the purpose of this book. I think we all know that Job is one of a kind book in Scripture. It's not really a history. It isn't really a book of wisdom, even though there's wisdom there. It's not a Psalm. It's not like the Psalms. It's not a book about prophecy, but it's just unique in the story and what happens there. It is a great story.

Who is Job? Well, we don't know. I've heard a lot of interesting ideas through my years in the church as to who Job might have been. But the best guess is that he lived before Abraham probably somewhere east of the area of the Land of Promise. Some of the books say that somewhere between Damascus and Edom as to where that land of Uz was. Got that one out right? Didn't I? Where the land of Uz was, but that's about all we know. We don't really need to know anything else other than what we're told in the story, which is a great story about a man who got caught up in a conversation between God and Satan. That's what happened.

We know that story. There was a scene in heaven. The Sons of God came together and Satan comes among them. And don't ask me today what that means, that's a whole other topic to discuss. And I think there is an explanation for it, but not for today that Satan was there. Job becomes the topic. Satan accuses Job, and God says, "Do what you want." Gives him carte blanche. He takes away his livestock. And he had a lot, took away his source of wealth, took away then his 10 children. And all of it in an instant.

And then because Satan's not satisfied, God says, "All right, do what you want to do, but don't take his life." And so he strikes him down with boils, and a physical affliction that we now have to deal with. And so all of that occurred to one man. It seems to most of us when we read it, and my wife when she was going through it to be unfair, illogical, something like that visited upon a person, a good man, a righteous man. Gave sacrifices not only for himself were told, but for his children. What it says about him. And everything swept away. And then to top it off, his wife sits there and just berates him.

I won't say any more about that. Here's what I think about Job, you know, as an overall statement, I think is a one-off story. And it tells us God will not do that again. But He did it once. He did it to bring out in one life some very deep lessons about humanity's existence in this godly order, this creation of God. There were many lessons. I could just name a handful here.

One is life is not fair. Life isn't always fair, but the corollary to that is God is just. Another lesson is God's way may not seem fair to us, but God is merciful. Another lesson is that evil abounds, evil exists, but God's righteousness drives it away and endures forever. The righteous do suffer. The true believer does suffer. Those in God's church, if you want to put it that way, they're prone to suffer and are susceptible to any malady, illness, sickness, trial, difficulty of this life. And the evil can prosper while the righteous suffer. But God knows our state.

There are many more lessons in this, but Job's story tells us all of this and more that occurs in the created order. And the story tells us how to navigate what happens when we do encounter trial, difficulty, and suffering. Evil, when it smacks us in the face, whether in the society as we look and read and see what happens in the world and moan and groan for the suffering of the world, or when it might even be visited upon us. Sometimes I've had evil visited on my family, literal evil. And you have as well in cases where you have had someone do something literally evil to you. That is no fun to be in.

The most recent time that happened, I had to talk to three lawyers. And I'd never talked to a lawyer in my life until that happened. But sometimes evil happens to us. So, it's a story, Job’s is, of how God brought one man through this trial and God did it His way, which isn't always our way, nor is it what we might design for ourselves in a life or for anyone else, for that matter. God does not do it our way. That's a big, big lesson. God doesn't even do it the cowboy way. He does it the God way. And that's a completely different way.

But I don't think we should expect, God would let us get caught between another conversation between He and Satan. I don't see that. I see what he said to Peter on one occasion, what Christ said to Peter, that Peter, Satan wanted to sift you and I prayed for you. It didn't happen. Didn't happen. I think this is a one-time story, but we have it there and we have some lessons to learn as a result. You know, you can't cover the Book of Job all in one sermon, obviously. I'm going to fast forward here.

I've kind of given you a synopsis of what happens, and you know kind of in the middle part, there's a number of those chapters where his friends come on the scene and they begin to try to sort it all through with Job. And you read about those friends and you wonder, wow, with friends like those in those cases. I've read through those many times and the latest conclusion I have about all the friendship chapters is choose your friends well, sift their advice, and don't think a Facebook friend is a friend. Truly on that one.

But my point that I want to bring across to us here this afternoon and spending a few minutes with Job is one big lesson that we get to and I think we must all come to and remember as an overarching lesson is this, step back and look up. One big lesson, step back and look up. When we encounter a period of stress, we need to step back and look up. When we think no one's on our side as Job did, step back, get a perspective, take a deep breath, and look up. When we see evil, seem to win, step back and look up.

When we might be anxious over something in the state of the world, and there's a lot to be anxious about in our world today, step back and look up. When we might think that it all depends on us that we are indispensable, the only one that could do it, nobody can do this job but me, but you, step back and look up. When we think that because we are God's chosen, God's people, and God's church, true believers, that we think that we are immune from any of life's mishaps, step back and look up.

To step back in what I'm talking about and to look up is to pause back away from the moment, back away from the person, get focused on the power and the greatness of God. It's what God brought Job around to after 37 chapters of life and trial, I think, that can be summed up in that way. So, let's turn to Chapter 38, and let's spend a few minutes looking at this.

I'm going to be reading from the New Living Translation. I opted for that one. You can read it along in whatever translation you have in your Bible. And I guess if you've got your cell phones turned on, you could probably bring up the New Living Translation. That's just fine too. But that's where I'll be reading beginning in verse 1 of Chapter 38. After all the friends, after all the discussion, God then enters the scene.

Job 38:1 “And He answered Job from the whirlwind, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words?’”

I love that. That's not an insult that God's given to Job. I always like to say, "Ignorance can be cured, but there's no cure for stupid." Think about it. Ignorance can be cured, and God's not insulting Job.

None of us can claim to be God's counselors. God doesn't really need our counsel. He wants our obedience. He wants our love. He wants our worship. But He doesn't need our counsel. God wants to hear our heart. He wants to hear our needs. He does want us to hear us cry out to Him as a loving father, a child to a loving father asking for His help. But He doesn't want us to question His overall purpose, His wisdom, or to counsel Him in His way. This is what He's saying.

Job and his friends, a lot of just ignorance have been put out there. And sometimes with a lot of words, that's what happens. In verse 3, He says, "Brace yourself like a man because I have some questions for you and you must answer them." Stand up like a man. The vernacular for that is put your big boy pants on, put your big boy pants on, Job, because I have some questions for you. And that's what he then begins to do is ask these questions. And there are many of them that he just rolls right off before Job.

Thirty-seven chapters of life and opinions from his friends, from Job's own comments. It's all well known. It's all well documented. It's all orchestrated. God's been listening to that discussion up to that point. And finally, He just pulls the plug, enough has been said, everyone's opinion has been registered. Now, God has some questions. It's good to be God in a situation. It's good to be king. It might be good to be supervisor, boss, or whatever it might be in a situation where you are. You get all the counsel, you get all the input, you listen to everybody's story, and then it comes, "All right, what are we going to do? Here's what has to happen." And you're the boss. You're the king.

You're not God, but then as a parent, mom and dad, this is what's going to happen. This is what must happen. And hopefully, you know, you might even put that into some questions here. But God now had some questions, and it came from out of a whirlwind, pretty dramatic. There's no still voice here like it was with Elijah. There's no backside of God, the glory of God passing by with Moses in the clift of the rock. Not on this one. This is coming full force out of a whirlwind. And it must have been dramatic what swept over Job.

Job 38:4-7 "Where were you?" He asks. "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you know so much." You're so smart. "Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line? What supports its foundations, who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?”

So, God just lifts a little bit of the curtain of the prehistory, "Who laid all the foundations and did all of this?" We understand the importance of a foundation, don't we? If we watched a house go up, if you've ever been a part of a building project like that, you know it is essential to get that foundation right on a house. And the work...you know, the bulldozers come in, the backhoes, trenchers, lay that...is all laid out. It's surveyed out like God says here. The holes are dug, concrete footers are poured, or the basement walls, whatever it is going to be. If it's a huge office building, it goes really deep down into bedrock. The foundation has got to be right for everything to be built on top of it to be secure, to hold together. But God's talking about this in regard to the earth.

What do you mean foundations of the earth? We've all seen the pictures taken from space of earth hanging out there. Incredible pictures that began to come back when we sent our spaceships out into the world. It's beautiful. The blue and the white clouds of earth swirling around. Fascinating pictures my jaw drops every time I see is that Earthrise over the moon taken by the first men to set foot on the moon. And they have that picture of the Earthrise, but it all stands there. And here's this orb spinning around on its axis, rotating, revolving around the sun as we know that it does. The axis tilting back and forth with the seasons.

The Earth has been called the privileged planet. Jay Richards wrote a book a few years ago. I think we have a copy of it in our library here. And a video has been done on the privileged planet to show just the unique aspect about Earth and its position in the galaxy and in the universe. The positioning of the Earth is perfect for carbon-based life as we know it to exist. Any variations of its distance from the sun, its orbit were it to change or even the tilting on the axis as it rotates, any change from what exists would render life impossible on this planet. It would be too hot or too cold. We would not be here to talk about it. It is a privileged planet that we know is by the design of God.

The foundation, He asked Job, "Where were you when I laid a foundation? Well, in Colossians 1, we read that, "In Him, all things consist." And what keeps the Earth hanging there? Well, we call it gravity, don't we? All right. And they're gravitational pulls, and we know how the moon works with it and all the other planet structures in our solar system, but God says that He is the foundation. We call it gravity, and we look at it, and we have to marvel when we read a verse like this with what we do know about the universe, the cosmology, and what it has told us it is.

You know, when it was discovered that the Earth is not the center of the solar system, the sun is, and then it's not itself even the center of the entire galaxies in the universe, there's many, many more others out there. It get away with all the ancient ideas. You know, there was an ancient idea that the Earth was rather kind of flat and it rested on the back of a turtle. You ever heard that one? It rested on the back of a turtle.

Sometime in the 1800s, there was a scientist philosopher named William James that was giving a lecture someplace, and he was talking about what science then did know that Earth was not the center of the galaxy and of our universe. And what it did know that it was rotating with the other planets around the sun and just hanging there even without the pictures. And William James was approached after his lecture by a little lady, sincere lady, that said to him, "Mr. James, your theory that the sun is the center of the solar system and the Earth's the ball which rotates around it has a convincing ring to it, but I've got a better theory," She said.

And William James said, "Well, what is it, madam?" She says, "We live on a thin crust of Earth, and it's on the back of a giant turtle." So, William James being the scientist that he was sought to gently educate her otherwise that there's no turtle. And to kind of change her mind, he said, "If your theory's correct, madam, what's the turtle stand on?" And she said, "Oh, you're a very clever man, Mr. James." "And that's a good question," She said, "but I have an answer to it. It's this." She says, "The first turtle stands on a second turtle directly under him."

But then Mr. James said, "But what does the second turtle stand on?" She looked at him with her hands on her hips and triumphantly said, "It's no use, Mr. James. It's turtles all the way down." You can hold onto your idea, but some turtles were the foundation of the Earth, but we know it's God that does hold it all together. God asked the question of Job, but Job had no answer. Here's what we should apply. "Where are you? Where were you?" He asks. Put your name in there. Where were you, Darris? Where were you, Tom? If we have any Toms here, I'm not trying to single any Toms out.

Put your name in there as God is asking you the question. Put your name in there and say, "I wasn't there. God did this without me." Whenever we might start thinking that we are indispensable, think again. We're not. No one's indispensable. I've talked a lot over the recent years about generational change in the church, and things are inevitable. And I've lived through one. We're going to live probably through another. And I've come to a point where I don't worry about it anymore.

One day I kind of had a revelation. It wasn't a voice, certainly not in a whirlwind, but the thought just...you know what? The Scripture says, Christ is the head of the church. Christ has been at this juncture many, many more times than I have. He knows exactly what's going to happen. He knows where it's all going. I don't have to worry about it. I can work and do what I might be asked to do and have a part, but I don't have to worry about it. And I don't. Christ has been here before. Nobody's indispensable. No individual is indispensable. No generation is in indispensable. God's work has been here before us. God's work will be here after us. It will go on and it will be done. Back to verse 12 of the chapter here, God ask another question,

Job 38:12-15 "Have you ever commanded the morning to appear? Have you caused the dawn to rise in the east? Have you made daylight spread to the ends of the earth to bring an end to the night's wickedness? As the light approaches, the earth takes shape like clay pressed beneath a seal. It is robed in brilliant colors. The light disturbs the wicked and stops the arm that is raised in violence."

Questions, but then a bit of poetry, if you will. And really, Job is a lot of poetry. Just as an aside here, Job's one of those books, Psalms is another one, but try reading it out loud. Try reading many of these sections out loud, slowly with whatever emphasis you want to put on it. But it does help to give you the force of what is being said. To hear that spoken in your own words, do it yourself and pause and think it through, but read it out loud. It is I think a tool or an aid to help appreciate what is being said here in the poetry of this.

God talks about the darkness and the evil of darkness and the light chasing it away. We understand metaphorically that darkness represents evil in the Bible, light is God. Light is truth. We are to be lights Christ tells us. Not to be hid. But as darkness here is personified or represented as evil, what is being said in these few verses is that evil has a limited place in God's order. In the created order, evil has a limited place. It's there and it works, but it's limited. Darkness, death, and evil do break out. They do lash sometimes over the flood wall or out of the channel, out of its course. And it can wreak havoc and it can seem to be rising to engulf everything, but it has its limitations is what God is saying here. There are limits.

And He basically tells us that because every day the sun rises, darkness is driven away. The power of darkness is broken every single day when the sun rises. My favorite part of the day, I'm sure for many of you as well. I like sunsets as well, a beautiful sunset, but really to see that sun come up... You know, when I go to Jekyll Island for the feast or wherever, you know, other location, I love to just watch the sun come up every day. I've got tons of pictures of sunrises on the beaches of the places we've kept the feast through the years. And they're all different.

And the light against the clouds and the sky and whatever, it's all different, but it is just a beauty to watch. God is light. We're children of the day. And God is working to hold back the forces of darkness. The day will come at Christ return when darkness and evil will be banished when His kingdom is set up. We're told even later at the end of the Book of Revelation in the New Jerusalem, there will be no need of the sun or the moon because the light comes from the lamb and the glory of God. And so it's a beautiful passage here to understand the limitations of darkness.

Job 38:19-21 He says, "Where does light come from and where does darkness go? Can you take each to its home? Do you know how to get it there?" The obvious answer is no. And then God does something in verse 21 with Job, "But, of course, you know all of this for you were born before it was all created, and you are so very experienced, Job."

You were born before it was created. I forgot is what God is saying. It's a touch of cynicism. Job wasn't born before the creation, but, you know, Job, in his righteousness, which there was nothing wrong with his righteousness, God didn't condemn him, but Job, like all of us at times, thought the world began the day that he was born. Don't tell me you haven't thought that. You know, an appreciation of history and everything that went before is one of the mellowing, humbling aspects of an educated mind, we've all at times had that thought that the world began the day we were born, but there was a lot that happened before that.

And to contemplate that sometimes, well, it is humbling. It truly is. Anyone who studies history, even on, you know, just a cursory examination of it recognizes this has all been done before. And what I am doing and what I am creating or what I am a part of has been done before. Maybe it's a little better now, and certainly it's our experience and it's our life, but that's the message of the Book of Ecclesiastes. It's all been done before and it will all vanish. Make the most of it. Learn to fear God. The next passage here is really a very encouraging one and it's comforting.

Job 38:22-30 It says, "Have you visited the storehouses of the snow, or seen the storehouses of hail? I have reserved them as weapons for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war. Where's the path to the source of light? Where's the home of the east wind? Who created a channel for the torrents of rain? Who laid out the path for the lightning? What makes the rain fall on barren land in a desert where no one lives?" Verse 28, "Does the rain have a father who gives birth to the dew? Who's the mother of the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from heavens? For the water turns to ice as hard as rock, and the surface of the water freezes."

Storehouses of snow, storehouses of hail, what God is doing here in these verses up to verse 30 is showing Job and us that He controls all the elements. Now, Job's already had that experience because he was a victim of storms in the opening scenes of the book that took his wealth and his family. So, he knows what a storm can do and the power that is there. But now God is telling him that He, God, controls it all. And we need to understand that as well. Storehouses of hail and snow, whole warehouses. God is sovereign and in control, total control of all of the elements of the earth, of water, of wind, of snow. God is sovereign over the climate of the earth and everything about it.

Here's what we should understand. When we read these verses, we are told there is no climate crisis. God has storehouses of all of the elements, and He controls how they are released and where they are put. There is no crisis. Man does not have the ability to destroy earth through climate manipulation. And it's the height of folly to think so, to think that it can be done through the use of fossil fuels. A lot of talk about that today in big conference wrapping up in Glasgow, Scotland about all of that as everybody flew in on their private jets to discuss climate, global warming and everything. But it's very real crisis of anxiety that has been discussed and talked about. And frankly, it creates a lot of anxiety, especially among young people, thinking that it could actually happen.

That in 10 years, life as we know it would be gone. The earth as we know it would be destroyed. And at times, I see that creeps into our young people as well because it is considered accepted science, at least as it is taught, presented when it really isn't accepted science. There's no science in the whole history of the world that has ever been accepted. Science is an ever-growing, evolving discipline. But that's getting deeper into it than I want to. We should be good stewards and we should understand what Scriptures tell us. And when we read something like this, anxiety and fear can be dealt with, can be taken away.

Anxiety and fear can be manufactured by a false crisis in the world based on evil agendas and bad science. And it's those agendas that can harm mankind. But the earth and its bounty, God assures Job and He assures us that He not only is in control of the elements, but we can rest assured that mankind will not engineer a climate crisis that ends the world. We should not be caught up in that. That is one big lesson that we can understand from the Book of Job because there's enough anxiety as there is in the world today, but God controls the storehouses of all of the elements of the earth, and He knows what's going to happen.

Revelation does talk about plagues and problems, but those are the judgment of God. And it's the spiritual sin of mankind that brings that, not something else. That is something we should understand. Let's go into verse 40 here.

Job 40:1 “The Lord said to Job, ‘Do you still want to argue with the Almighty?’"

You're God's critic, but do you have the answers? Another challenge. And at this point in 40:4, Job answers.

Job 40:4-8 "I'm nothing. How could I ever find the answers?" It's a moment of clarity. And he says, "I will cover my mouth with my hand." The southern vernacular is shut my mouth for that. I've said too much already. I have nothing more to say. “Then the Lord answered, Job from the whirlwind,” "Brace yourself like a man." The same thing again. "Brace yourself like a man because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them. Will you discredit my justice and condemn me just to prove you are right?"

That's how far sometimes our questioning if we get into a mode of questioning God, we will question His justice and condemn Him. I've seen that happen. I have seen bad things happen to children that the parents cannot accept and understand, and then they condemn God and they become almost atheistic as a result. I have seen that. It's one of my experiences in the ministry that I wish I could have said better words, done better things to have a better explanation, argument, whatever you want to call it to help someone in a crisis of faith over an illness with a child not go to the point where they condemn God. Any minister that's had to deal with that probably lives with that for the rest of their life as what else could have done better? What could I have said? And each of us have to make our decisions, but it's something that lingers with you.

Job 40:8-14 God says, "Will you discredit my justice and condemn Me? Are you as strong as God? Can you thunder with a voice like this?" All right. He says, "Put on your glory and splendor. If you think that that is the case, your honor and majesty. Give vent to your anger. Let it overflow against the proud." In other words, you become, you take on My mantle. "Humiliate the proud with a glance. Walk on the wicked where they stand. Bury them in the dust. Imprison them in the world of the dead. Then even I would praise you," God says to Job. "Even I would then praise you for your own strength would save you."

But Job, by that point, I think was getting the point that he couldn't do that. He couldn't clothe himself with anything near the glory of God. This is what God had challenged him to do. And Job, of course, knows that it couldn't happen. I think by this point, Job is pretty well deflated. He's out of gas. Another way to understand it is his pride has about come to an end. It's deflated. Really God with this has pushed Job against the wall and there's no other defense, no other justification, no other thing that Job can say. And he must acknowledge that supreme power and majesty of God to not only do what He wants to do and what He wills, but to know that in the doing of it, He is just, He is righteous.

Now, that is a harder realization to come to. And it took Job 37-plus chapters to come to this, to where yeah, he knew God, he knew God was right, and God was powerful, but that God was just, and that even in these awful things that had happened and his own personal suffering, God was sovereign and God was right. And he accepted that. And I think that that can only come when we step back and look up. At this point, Job with his back against the wall has been stepping back in a giant way and looking up.

For us to apply this, I think we should understand as hard as we work, as talented as we might be, as gifted in whatever God has added to us through His Spirit, through the generosity of working with us and developing us as His children and through character and through the development of the sunlit days of our life, we cannot lose sight of the fact that it is God who builds the house. It is the Lord who builds the house. We contribute. We can have a valuable part and we can develop talents as we do so, but whatever we do, we must always check ourselves that we are in alignment with God. We are in alignment with His purpose and what He's working out.

You know, we go to a lot of work to make plans in our lives. We plan a career. We plan someone to marry. We plan to have children. We plan how we're going to raise those children. And we make a lot of plans. Businesses make plans. The church makes plans. We are in the midst...that time of year and every three years, we take a good look at our strategic plan in the United Church of God. And a lot of hours have gone into that with the strategic planning committee of the council to do that in recent days.

And we do what we feel led by God to do. And we've had our plans and we then set about with the operations of the church to carry out an overarching strategic idea and plan. But in all my exercises with it and all of my thinking about it, and all of us that work there, we realize that our plans are nothing unless they're aligned with God's as wise, capable, and talented as any plan might be. And that's the same goes for you and what you might design and plan as to where you're going to go, what you're going to do, where you will live, and how you will live your life, it is the art of aligning it with God and His overall purpose, His word, His law, and really feeling and knowing that it is as we read the Word of God. Not because we feel it is, we think it should be, and it's what our will tells us and drives us to do, but because we are literally lining it up with the Word of God.

In my years of experience working with the council of elders, the council has done its best work when it seeks to put a Scripture in the middle of its policy and get it centered-focused on scripture. Then we have to carry it out, then we have to live it like all of us do. But that's been an ongoing process. Every one of us are subject to pride in our wealth, our abilities, the degree on our wall, the credentials that we might have, what we've done, where we've been, who we are. All of us have our pride and God's plans for His church and for His people, they're relentlessly moving forward.

We move faster sometimes and more efficiently when we are aligned with God's plan and seek to do so. One of the best conversations that I've ever had in the ministry was leaving the meetings over here to Holiday Inn probably about 17, 18 years ago. And it was on a Monday. We were wrapping up the general conference of elders meetings and there was one good friend that I hadn't talked to all weekend, the late Roger Foster, one of our longtime elders in the church. And Debbie and I ran into him as we were just literally about to go out the door into the parking lot there to Holiday Inn and drive at that time back to Indianapolis.

And we ran into Roger Foster and we said, "Hey, we need to talk." So we sat down. And we thought it'd be five minutes, it turned out to be about an hour. And Roger Foster was one of our early mentors in the ministry at a critical moment in the church in our development. We crossed paths with him and he was a very, very vital, important mentor. But we got to talking about the church as it was 17 years ago and whatever we were doing, the plans that we in the ministry come together and talk about, you know, in our annual meetings and all of this.

And he had some sage advice because Roger was a sage. And he said, "It's very easy for us to look at what we've accomplished in our strategic plan and where we are budget-wise and what we hope to do and the work that we're doing in the church." And it is an important work with a detail taken to it. And he was talking about us in the ministry collectively thinking that we've done it all...we're doing it all ourselves. And he said, when we do that, we forget about Christ and we ignore the central truth that Christ is the one who deserves the credit. We're merely instruments in His hands. He said, We're setting ourselves up for a fall if we have that. And whatever we do is not going to be accomplished.

Roger Foster on that day was stepping back and looking up in the words that he gave me. And I have a lot of conversations, and you do as well, and you remember some that are critical to you in your development. And that was one that was formative and is still with me to this day because it helps to cause us to step back, take off another layer of pride thinking we're indispensable. We're the only ones that can do whatever it might be. And this is tailor-made for us. My friend stepped back that day and he looked up. When we began to think of ourselves too highly, we're full of pride.

Job was coming to the end of his rope here and the pride was just about gone, when in Chapter 42, he replied and he said this.

Job 42:1-2 "I know you can do anything. No one can stop you. You ask, 'Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?' It's I."

It's me. It's Job. "I was talking about things I knew nothing about." Sometimes it's pretty good for lesson to take that verse or that thought and say, "You know, I don't know what I'm talking about." Take it to God and ask God to help us get aligned more with His ways.

Job 42:3-4 "I was talking about things I knew nothing about," Job said, "things far too wonderful for me." You said, "Listen, and I will speak. I have some questions for you and you must answer them." And He had then a lot of questions and I don't have the time even to read all the questions. Then he says the famous words that we know verses 5 and 6.

Job 42:5-6 "I had only heard about you before, but now I've seen you with my own eyes. I take back everything I said and I said in dust and ashes to show my repentance."

Job took his biggest step back at this point and his longest look up to God and finally saw God as He is. This book is not about Job. This book is about God. Job's name just happens to be on it. It's really a book about God. It's how the Godhead, the Father and the Son, govern their creation. How all the elemental forces of water and wind and storms are managed. How the spiritual forces of evil are harnessed even to work within the purposes of God. The book is about humility. It's about the removal of all pride in the presence of God.

When we read it with that approach, when we put ourselves in the question, where were you, Darris, Susie, Tom, Ellen? Put your name there. Where were you? The answer comes back to us. We have to admit there's much in the world we do not know. Wisdom begins and ends with God. We presume we know too much when we think that we're in control or know more than God or have a better way for something to be done that doesn't always match with what God is doing.

If we think God is going to suspend the laws of creation for us, that's not proper thinking. We're all subject to them. Humility is being an honest and true man. No pretensions. Someone who's genuine. Many ways when you look at Job in the first chapter, who gave sacrifices twice a day, was a righteous man, considered righteous in that way, he's genuine. He's a worshiper of God. He's in the Church of God as we want to use our terminology. He's blameless as God says, without sin. And he was showing...he was seeking even the grace of God. Job knew he was a sinner. In God's eyes, he was blameless by grace, but Job knew that he needed the experience of grace for him and his family, which is why he was sacrificing as he was doing.

Job came to a point where he was bowing before God in true respect, and he was turning away from evil. He feared God and he turned away from evil. When we come to that, that is the essence of the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to repent, to fear God, to have faith. Job comes full circle in this whole story. He starts with faith and in the end, that faith is deepened because of everything that he has experienced. And that's the story that we have to put ourselves into and appreciate out of the Book of Job in that part.

If we can read Job with our eyes on God and the perspective of a step back from ourselves, of a step back from a time of stress or anxiety, of a step back from a time of difficulty and trial and looking up to God, we're in a position to learn from this magnificent story. And so I hope all of us will take that to heart and think about it from that perspective. And as we face what is happening with our lives, whatever at this point in time, big or small, good or bad, when we need to do it, let's be sure that we step back and look up.

[Steve Myers] Now, you may have heard the story about the passengers that were on this small, little commuter plane. They were on the tarmac. They were waiting, ready to go, getting a little impatient. The pilots hadn't shown up. As they're getting more and more impatient, here come these two men down the aisle. One of them has dark glasses on and is being led by a seeing-eye dog. The other one, also dressed in a pilot's uniform, has a cane, and he's tapping back and forth on the aisle as they head down toward the cockpit.

The passengers started talking to each other, kind of nervous about this little thing and wondering if it's some kind of a practical joke or something. Well, they walk into the cockpit, they shut the door, the engines fire up, and all the passengers are getting a little bit nervous. They're wondering, "What in the world is going on?" Before they know it, the plane is moving down the runway, and they just cannot believe this. They're looking out the window as the plane is picking up speed and it's getting faster, and it's faster and faster.

They're looking out and they see there's a gigantic pond as they're approaching the very end of the runway. Just as they're getting to hit that water, they just scream in this blasting, just blasting scream. The plane lifts off right at the last moment, and everything is calm and peaceful. They just, "Ah." They're so at ease then, they kind of look around a little sheepishly that they got that nervous. They feel very secure in this flight now that everything is fine and they're in good hands. Up front, the co-pilot turns to the pilot and he says, "Bob, you know, one of these days they're going to scream too late and we're all going to die." [audience laughs]
 
Now, fortunately, that's not the way that God sees. God has different kinds of eyes than those two pilots, and we're sure glad of that. He has a different perspective. He has insight, He has oversight, and He has amazing vision. But I wonder if we've really thought about the way that God sees things. I thought it might be helpful to take a little bit of time this afternoon to think about the way that God sees. I thought we could do that by two stories, two stories that involve H's. Their main characters begin with the letter H.

The first one, it's not the story of Abraham or Sarai. It's the story of Hagar. Of course, she's involved with the others as well. But in Genesis chapter 16, the first H story we're going to look at is the story of Hagar, and it is intricately involved in the way that God sees. So if you turn over to Genesis chapter 16 and verse 1, the backstory to this, of course, is that God had promised Abraham an innumerable multitude of offspring. But how is he going to have them? He's old, his wife is old, so Abram isn't quite sure how this is going to play out.

Instead of trusting God, he and… I guess Sarah, she comes up with a plan. "Well, if I can't have them, maybe my handmaiden can have them." So as you begin chapter 16 in Genesis, that's where the story begins, "Well, take Hagar and perhaps that's the way we'll have offspring." So sure enough, she conceives, and what happens? Sarai's perspective changes completely. Suddenly she feels bad that she came up with this idea.

Verse 4, after she's conceived, Sarai sees that she's pregnant. Then, what happens to her perspective? It says, "Her mistress became despised in her eyes." So now she hates Hagar. Verse 5, “Sarai said to Abraham, ‘My wrong be upon you. I gave my maid to your embrace. When she saw she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between you and me.’" So Abraham says, "Okay, well," verse 6, "indeed your maid is in your hand. Do to her as you please."

So what do you think Sarai did? It says in verse 6, "She dealt harshly with her." Now, what would your reaction be in being dealt harshly with? Well, maybe it would be like Hagar. Hagar runs. End of verse 6 it says, "She fled from her presence." She fled. Now, verse 7, "The Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to shore and he said..." So now she gets into a discussion at a well with the Angel of the Lord. This is the one who would become Jesus Christ.

He says to Hagar, "Where have you come from, and where are you going?" Well, He probably already knew the answer to that, but wanted to see what she was going to say. So what does Hagar say? She says, "I'm fleeing from the presence of my mistress, Sarai." He probably knew that was going to happen. In fact, there's an interesting connection between the name "Hagar" and what she did. Do you know what "Hagar" means? It means, to take flight. It means to run, to flee, and that's exactly what she did.

So here she is. She's in what seems like a wilderness, without hope, running away, and then she encounters the Angel of the Lord. What do you think He did? Well, because she's fleeing away, He intervenes. So in verse 9, it says, “The Angel of the Lord said to her, ‘Return to your mistress. Submit yourself under her hand.’ Then, the Angel of the Lord said to her, ‘I will multiply your descendants.’" So we have another promise made, not the one made to Abraham, but a different one that He makes to Hagar.

So He gives her advice. It seems that He definitely has her best interest at heart and He says, "Behold, you're with a child." In verse 11, "You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction." So He pronounces a blessing on Hagar. It's kind of an interesting one, because her reaction to this blessing seems to add to the big story, to the big picture of who God is. What's her reaction when He gives her directions, gives her guidance, tells her what's going to happen?

Her reaction is this, verse 13, "Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, 'El Roi'." In other words, "You are the God who sees." There is a little bit of wordplay going on here, because this Lord who sees just got done telling her to name her child, "the Lord has heard." So you've got hearing and seeing coming together in the life of Hagar. Hagar, who ran, who fled away, now is given direction. She's given guidance by God, by the God who hears, and to her the Lord who sees.

I mean, it's kind of an interesting thing. You might check Scripture a little bit, because I think this is the only person in Scripture who actually names God, comes up with a name for God. "You are El Roi, the God who sees." So she gives God that name. In fact, down in verse 14, they name the well. The well is then named "Beer Lahai Roi". In translation, that means “the well of the Living One who sees me.” Now, it may not seem that that's much at all, but there are some amazing traits of God that are shown in this particular story.

I wonder if we really understand how God sees. Do we really grasp the intricacies and the way that God looks at life, that He looks at us? Because it's a challenge to have this God and recognizing that He does see. When is it challenging? Well, when we claim to have God on our side, we do what's right and others criticize us, do we wonder if we have a God that sees? When they talk about us behind our back, when they gossip about us, do we recognize we have a God who sees?

When we're going through difficulties and we're struggling with our circumstances, and the trials just seem never-ending, do we have a God who sees? Or when we struggle trying not to be a workaholic, spending all of our time on the job and the pressures are getting to us, do we recognize that we do have a God who sees? Or as a parent, we're trying to train our children, maybe we're trying to potty-train our child, that's a difficult job. It's so frustrating and you're going through the actions over and over, and over again. Does God even see that circumstance? I mean, we're running out of potty treats. Now what do we do?

Well, God does see and He sees when we're angry without a cause. God sees. When we deal harshly with others like Sarai did, we do have a God that sees that as well. When we feel like we need to run, when we need to hide, when we need to get away like a Hagar, and we're tempted to flee the circumstances around us, do we recognize that God sees? Or even when those closest to us hurt us, when our mate angers us or hurts us, do we recognize that we're still to love and to forgive because we have an all-seeing God?

Well, in Hagar's story I think we begin to see an aspect of God that is so vital. Scripture, over and over and over again, reveals this aspect of a seeing God, that we do have an El Roi, an all-powerful, all-seeing God. Now, you could probably sit down and come up with all kinds of examples of the way that God sees. One of the things that's interesting that jumps out in this story is that we see there's God even in the wilderness. Even when Hagar ran away, God was there, and it's certainly a reminder that God sees every place maybe first and foremost.

If we'd start to break down this all-seeing God, God sees every place. There's no place you can be that God isn't. The book of Job deals a little bit with this. If you look over to Job chapter 28, it reveals a little bit more about our all-seeing God in this particular aspect. Here, Job himself is doing the talking by the time we get to chapter 28 and, I think, in a way he's wondering about this all-seeing God. How could an all-seeing God allow Job to go through all of those difficulties and struggles that he was going through? How could he give him friends that didn't seem to care about him and just criticized him?

So Job, in a way, wonders out loud, Job 28:20, "From where then does wisdom come? Where is the place of understanding?” Verse 21, Job 28, "It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air." But does that mean that God doesn't see it if people don't see it? If we as individuals don't understand it, does it mean that God doesn't see? Verse 22, "Destruction and death say, 'We have heard a report about it with our ears.'" Wow. Even when we're facing destruction and death, even when the gossip is going out, “They're not going to make it. They won't survive.” Even though it looks terrible, God sees. God sees every place.

Look at verse 23. "God understands its way. He knows its place. For He looks to the end of the earth and sees under the whole heavens." So God sees every circumstance. He sees every family. He sees every workplace, every school. He sees every home. There isn't anything that God doesn't see. There is no place that you can run to hide from God. So God was there for Hagar. God does see, even in our lives, every place.

Yet, it doesn't stop there. A little farther on in Job, we see another facet of this El Roi, the seeing God that we have. Chapter 34, look at verse 21. In chapter 34, verse 21, we see Elihu expounds a little bit about God, as we see God not only sees every place, God sees every action. Every action, God is aware of. He knows it. Verse 21 of Job 34, "For His eyes are on the ways of man, and He sees all his steps." Well, does that mean just those of us who are trying to be Christians? Or does God see every action, every person, every individual?

Well, he says in verse 22, "There's no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves." So whether we're striving to be Christians or whether we're lawless—we're sinners, we're not any part of God—he says, "Nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run. God sees every single action." Verse 23, "For He need not further consider a man that he should go before God in judgement. He breaks in pieces mighty men without inquiry and sets others in their place. Therefore, He knows their works."

One of the things that's interesting about this section is it's not just that He knows it, but He understands it at every level of human consciousness. He understands everything. In verse 21, where it says, "His eyes are on the ways of man," some of the translations say, "He watches everything. He knows everything we do." So there's no getting around it. No getting around it. So you can't hide, because He sees every place. There's nowhere to go, because He knows every action.

In fact, more than that, He understands it. He understands it at maybe even a level we don't quite understand, even though we might be the ones doing it. He knowingly sees, or He sees and He understands. That maybe takes it to another level, shows us another facet of God's all-seeing capabilities. In Psalm 33, it illustrates this fact that God knowingly sees and He understands, a third aspect of God's all-seeing nature. That He does see every place, that He does see every action, and he knows it and He understands it thoroughly.

Look at Psalm 33. We'll pick it up in verse 13. In Psalm 33, verse 13, if we can just imagine this. It says, "The Lord looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of man. From the place of His dwelling, He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth." So that's kind of easy to envision. But imagine this, verse 15, it says, "He fashions their hearts individually and considers all their works." So it's not just that He's out there somewhere kind of watching and going, "Huh. Look at that. I didn't think they were going to do that. I wonder why they did that."

I mean, you might get that impression when you read it in the New King James, but in other translations it shows exactly how God understands and knowingly sees. It's implying that God understands why we do what we do. He understands why we live the way that we do, why we make the decisions we do, why we act the way we do. He knows it and He understands it. Some of the translations, when we see this aspect of verse 15, "He fashions the heart individually," in other words, He's the Creator. He's the one that formed every individual, every heart, and in relationship to that, He understands everything we do.

You might look it up in other translations, and quite a few of them bring that aspect out. It's not just that He thinks about it and considers it. But He gets it, He knows it, He understands every aspect about our thinking, and so He knows why we do what we do. So when we think about God seeing, that's part of what should come to mind as well, that He understands every aspect about us and why we do the things that we do.

Now that also means He's seeing things that aren't even seeable. He's seeing... Where are our thoughts? I can't see them. I know they're there somewhere. Maybe they're not very positive thoughts. Maybe they're not very reasonable thoughts. But God knows. God understands. So God also sees the unseen, or the unseeable. He sees what's hidden, doesn't He? I mean, we might try to hide it from others, and we can hide it from our friends. Maybe we can hide it from our mates. But we can't hide it from God. God's all-seeing nature unveils it all.

There's an interesting positive aspect of this. Over in the book of Matthew, if you turn to Matthew chapter 6, verse 4, Christ is expounding a little bit about prayer, a little bit about our actions and our relationship with God. In Matthew chapter 6, He comes upon an aspect of our all-seeing God. Notice what it says here in Matthew chapter 6. Just as He's getting ready to give this model prayer, He's talking about the things that we do and the reasons why we do them.

So in verse 3, He says, "When you do a charitable deed, when you do something good, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." So we should do good things, and we don't have to brag about it. We're not doing it because we want the pat on the back. We're not doing it because we need the "atta boy." We do it because it's the right thing to do, and others might not even know about it. So He says we're doing those things in secret.

Verse 4, he says, "Your charitable deeds may be done in secret." So they're hidden. They're hidden from most people. But what about God? So then He says, "Your Father, who sees in secret, will Himself reward you openly." So God knows what we do, why we do it. Even the things we keep secret, even the good things that we do, God notices those and He says He rewards us. He rewards us for those good things. So that's a very powerful, positive aspect of our all-seeing God. He blesses us even in those things that some don't see, which is very, very good.

Now, on the other hand, when we turn over to Hebrews chapter 4, we see another aspect of our all-knowing God, who sees the unseen. Hebrews chapter 4 expounds on this just a little bit. We'll pick it up in verse 13. Hebrews 4:13, it says, "There's no creature hidden from His sight." "Nothing in creation" is also the implication not just animals, it's not talking about creatures in that sense. "There's nothing in creation hidden from His sight. But all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him, to whom we must give account."

We're accountable to God. We're accountable to God. Our all-seeing God holds us accountable, which leads us, I think, to a different aspect as we realize we do have an El Roi, an all-seeing God. Nothing in any way is hidden from Him, and yet we as His people stand accountable before Him. Well, in fact, all people stand accountable before Him. Now, we can see a little bit more of this aspect of God in our second H. Remember, we're talking about two stories that had people with H's in them.

The second is Hananiah the Prophet. Now, you can find his story in 2 Chronicles 16. You want to start turning over to 2 Chronicles chapter 16, we can think about a little of the backstory to Hananiah. King Asa is in Judah. They're in trouble. Israel wants to attack them. So there's these two kings that are rather questionable. They're going to go to battle against each other. Baasha in Israel, Asa in Judah. What's Asa going to do? He's going to be overrun by Israel. They're bigger. They're stronger. They're going to take us over.

Well, what should he do? He has an all-seeing God. Well, he turns to Ben-Hadad of Syria. He makes an alliance with him. You think that's a good move or a bad move? He doesn't rely on God. He doesn't look to God for help. He looks to Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, for help. He gives him... Well, he just doesn't say, "Please come and help me. Oh, by the way, here's some gold. Here's some silver. Here's a whole bunch of gold and silver. It's out of the treasuries of the temple and my treasury." But what do you think Ben-Hadad would say? "It sounds like a deal to me."

So they form an alliance. Guess what happens? They prevail. They defeat Israel. Judah is safe. End of story, right? Wrong. Not the end of the story. In fact, if we look down just a little bit, this is where Hananiah comes on the scene. He comes to see the king. Now, when a prophet of God shows up unannounced, not always the best sign in the world. Maybe you don't answer the door if that's the case, right?

Well, Hananiah is an interesting character, because we know so much about him. Everybody is familiar with Hananiah. There's so much written about him. There's so many of his experiences that are written about. It just seems the pages of the Bible are flooded with examples of the pro-... Who is this guy anyway? I mean, this is about it. This is about the only place in the Bible you'll find this Hananiah the prophet. There's other Hananiahs, but this is the only place.

So we only know this little bit about him. Even though there's just a teeny little bit that's written about him and his experience, he's nonetheless a remarkable man, the remarkable man of God. Because he says one of the most amazing things that are recorded in all of the Bible. We'll get to that in just a moment. So imagine, he shows up at the door of King Asa. Asa didn't do the best thing, had an alliance with the Syrians. Now, Hananiah shows up. What does he say?

Well, look down to verse 8. 2 Chronicles 16:8, Hananiah says to the king, speaking on God's behalf of course, he says, "Were the Ethiopians and the Lubims not a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand." He says, "Remember this battle in the past? You relied on God. You sought His instruction. You asked God, who sees all things, for help and guidance and direction."

But what about this time? Well, this time he didn't. He didn't ask for God's guidance and deliverance. Verse 9, "For the eyes of the Lord run to and for throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this, you've done foolishly. Therefore, from now on, you shall have wars." So Hananiah shows up, brings bad news for Asa. In fact, just the chapter before, there was supposed to be peace. It wasn't supposed to be war anymore.

Yet now, because of Asa's actions, because of his inability to understand an all-seeing God, he relied on something he could see. He could see the Syrian army, he could see their power, and so he trusted in their power instead of trusting in the unseen God who sees everything. So the result was this curse. Wars are going to trouble Asa for the rest of his life, because he wouldn't rely on God. So imagine if you were Hananiah. I mean, we don't want to focus on Asa here. There's lots of lessons to learn.

Asa, well, he could've repented. He could've said, "Wow. I'm wrong. I shouldn't have done that." He didn't do that. We'll see what he does in just a moment. But if we focus on Hananiah the prophet and the prophecy, I think we see something that's critical, because Hananiah does what God told him to do. He was sent to give a message. He was to go to a powerful king, and imagine this, going to a powerful king with bad news. How many of us would be ready to step out and go to it with the king? Generally, not the recipe for a long-lasting life when you have to go to the king with bad news.

Yeah, there was a good chance he was going to get it. He was going to get, not just fired from his job—he was going to get the axe, you might say. But after all, Hananiah had God on his side. So what does he have to fear? I mean, after all, the Lord is pictured here with eyes looking to and fro. He's going to bless Hananiah, right? I mean, how could He not? He's going to bless us, because we strive after His way.

So we're not going to have to worry about paying bills. Are we? We're not going to have to worry about our children being disobedient. Certainly, we don't have to worry about really enjoying our jobs and having everything just perfect at the workplace, and our cars never break down. Of course, we never are ill. We never get sick, because we have a God that looks to and fro and is going to... Wait a second. That's not the way it is.

In fact, if we look back to verse 10, what happened to Hananiah? "Asa was angry with the seer, and put him in prison. For he was enraged at him because of this, and Asa oppressed some of the people at that time." So the result of Hananiah obeying God, being true and loyal to God: prison. Now, guess how many times we get to hear about Hananiah after this? This is the last we hear from him. Maybe he was in prison for the rest of his life. We just don't know. He's gone from the scene. Maybe he's in jail for the rest of his life.

Well, did God somehow renig on his promise? I mean, He's supposed to be all-seeing. Shouldn't He have protected him? Shouldn't He have kept this trial from him? Well, maybe we should read what Hananiah was told to say to Asa. Once again, look at verse 9. 2 Chronicles 16:9 says, "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him."

If you looked up that Hebrew word for showing himself strong, it really means to encourage or strengthen, to strengthen on his behalf. So God looks back and forth to strengthen those. In fact, you read this in other translations, verse 9, in the common English version, the Lord is constantly watching everyone, and he gives strength to those who faithfully obey him. "Good news says the Lord keeps close watch over the whole world to give strength to those whose hearts are loyal to him."

So even though Hananiah got thrown into prison, it seems like the end of the story, nothing more said about it, was he strengthened? Did God take care of him? Well, he brought a good message from God. He was following God, it would certainly seem wholeheartedly, and he gets thrown into prison. You think he was strengthened by the Lord in prison? Any other examples throughout the Bible of people who were thrown in prison that God strengthened and encouraged in spite of their circumstances? I think we can think of quite a few of them, can't we?

Oftentimes, we don't think of them in relationship to our own difficulties and our own struggles and trials. But certainly Joseph was like that, the apostle Paul. Were they strengthened and encouraged? Absolutely. Absolutely. In fact, one of the amazing things about Hananiah is it seems that his son followed in his footsteps and became a prophet of God as well. Imagine that, having your son watch you get thrown in prison, maybe never heard from again, and then he follows in his footsteps.

You think he would've recognized God was going to watch over him, that God would strengthen and encourage him? You see? I think it makes a wonderful point. The fact is God does not lead us out of trouble every single time. He's never promised to lead us out of trouble. But He does promise to lead us through trouble. Those who are completely His, those who are loyal, we're not guaranteed a safe ride in this life. It's just not like that. But instead, He does promise to give encouragement. He does promise to give guidance. He does promise support and encouragement through the difficulties.

Because there's those of you who have done what Hananiah did. Well, not stand before a king and give him the news like that. But you've followed God, and you've stayed maybe in a difficult job, because there was nothing better out there and you worked your way through it. Or maybe you kept your integrity when the other people would've lied. You took the time to be with your family when there wasn't time.

You sacrificed of your life. Maybe you stepped out in faith. You went to college. You didn't have any money. "I took out loans." You stepped out in faith, knowing God would pay your bills? Or God would strengthen you and encourage you? Because in all those circumstances, sometimes we find ourselves in prison. "I stuck it out on my job, and now my job is worse than ever." "I stuck it out in college, I took out all these loans, and I can't even get the job that I was trained for."

But where's God in all those things? "I stuck it out in a difficult relationship, and now it's worse than ever." Has God promised to help us in those things? I think He has. I think our all-seeing God knows. He understands. He sees what's happening and like He helped Hagar, He's going to give us direction and guidance and encouragement. He's looking to and fro to strengthen and encourage those who are devoted to God.

Yeah, He's not devoted to work it out in our lives the way we want it to work out. But He does promise to strengthen and encourage us through the pain and through the suffering. It kind of ties in with what Paul wrote about in 1 Corinthians 10:13. Look over at 1 Corinthians 10:13. "As His eyes move to and fro about the earth," why is He doing that? Why did Hananiah make that remarkable statement to the king?

I think it ties in with what Paul instructed in 1 Corinthians Chapter 10, verse 13. There are difficulties. There are trials. There are temptations. There are challenges that we are going to face in this life. The apostle Paul wrote about that in 1 Corinthians 10. In verse 13, he says, "No temptation has overtaken you, except such as is common to man." Well, there were difficulties and trials that Hananiah had to face. There are temptations and difficulties and trials that we have to go through.

But we have a God that sees everything. Our El Roi is said to be faithful. It says, "God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. But with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it." Well, Hananiah certainly had no way of escape. He was thrown in prison. They locked the door, threw away the key maybe. What kind of way of escape was that?

Well, sometimes God does miraculously open the prison doors. It happened to Paul, didn't it? Yeah, sometimes those trials and those difficulties, they vanish. God can do miraculous things like that. Can't He? But this passage also points to Hananiah in prison, doesn't it? It says, "Well, He can make a way of escape. But He says also that you may be able to bear it." That's the strengthening Lord, the one who strengthens us and encourages us. In spite of the challenges and the difficulties that we face, we have a God that sees and strengthens and encourages us.

Why do His eyes go to and fro? Well, it says to guide us, to direct us, like He directed Hagar. "Here's what you need to do." It was to lead her and support her, and help her through a really terrible trial, as her mistress was so mean and harsh with her. God wants to do that with us as well, to guide and lead and direct us as well. Now, it's also interesting, there's something else back in 2 Chronicles that ties into this as well.

If you want to flip your way back to 2 Chronicles 16:9, let's notice that eyeing things, that seeing things over the whole earth, looking to and fro. Let's notice something else, I think, that is critical about the way that God sees, the way that God recognizes and understands and has insight. 2 Chronicles 16:9, God makes it very clear as Hananiah the prophet speaks to Asa. Verse 9, he says, "For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth, that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His."

Now, that might read a little bit different than your King James. That's the New American Standard Version. "His eyes move to and fro that He may strongly support or strengthen those whose heart is completely His." The New Living Translation says it a little bit differently. Verse 9, "The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him." "To strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him."

So is God looking over this whole earth, He's looking to and fro, to find people that are loyal? Is He looking for people that are wholehearted? Is He trying to figure out, "Well, whose heart is really on My side?" Is He seeking, trying to figure that out? He's not doing that, is He? He's not. He already knows, doesn't He? Isn't that what this is implying? God's eyes are not searching for the loyal and wholehearted, because He already knows who they are. Our all-seeing God knows everything, and so it's not looking to see the loyal, not looking to see the wholehearted.

Take a look at verse 9 again. He's looking to stand strong for those who are wholehearted. He's looking to encourage and strengthen, and guide those who are loyal, fully committed to Him. So His eyes are moving around looking for ways to strengthen us, looking for avenues to guide us, looking for how He can encourage us. So this is an amazing promise. It's because we're loyal to God, because we're wholehearted disciples of Christ, He will move, He will act on our behalf. He knows our loyalty. He's searching how to give us strength, because we're loyal to Him.

When we surrender every single aspect of our life to Him, when we sacrifice our family, our jobs, whatever it takes to do His will within our families as well, of course, when we do those things, He's looking for ways to strengthen and encourage us. Of course, it's a reminder of how He looks at things.

You might just write down 1 Samuel 16:7. You know the passage, when God sent Samuel to find the next king. Remember, it used to be King Saul, this giant of a man, the best-looking one in all Israel? What does God tell Samuel? Well, in 1 Samuel 16:7, He tells him, “God doesn't see as a man sees. God looks at the heart. He doesn't look at the appearance of things.” So God is looking at our heart. He's looking at our heart. How does our heart stand before God? Now, if we look back to our first H for just a moment, let's go back to Hagar and see if we can tie this together with this whole aspect of our El Roi.

Genesis chapter 16, verse 13, we skipped over a little part here when we were here the first time. In Genesis chapter 16, verse 13, here's where she names God. She called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, "El Roi. You are the God who sees." Of course, the response from God was like what God wants to do for us. He encourages her. He directs her. He gives her advice. He tells her what to do. He shows her the way to go. He wants to do that in our life as well.

Now, the interesting aspect of this is Hagar's response. She calls the name of the Lord who spoke to her, El Roi, and then she says something amazing. "For she said, 'Have I also here seen Him who sees me?'" Now, why would she say that? "Have I also here seen Him who sees me?" Now, some scholars will say she's saying something like, "Wow. I saw God and I'm alive to tell about it." Yeah, that's pretty amazing, probably part of the implication here. Yet, many of the translations show a little bit different aspect to this question that Hagar poses.

Many of the translations have the idea of, "Have I really seen the God who sees me?" "Have I truly seen the One who sees me?" See, recognizing the fact that God sees it all, He knows everything, she questions herself. "Have I seen the One who's seen me?" She takes an inward look at herself, in a way wondering about her standing with God. Maybe, in a way tying into what Hananiah said to Asa.

He was going to strengthen and support those who were wholehearted, who were loyal to Him, and Hagar thinks this out loud. "Am I wholehearted? Am I really fully dedicated to God?" I think in a way, that's what God wants us to do. "Have I also here seen Him who sees me?" Because this is the time we need to ask ourselves this question. Can we say our heart is completely, fully, totally committed to God?

Of course, we can say, "Yes." If that's our goal in life to honor Him, to put Him first in our lives, to glorify Him, to do His will in every situation, we can say, "Yes. We have a loyal, committed heart and we are wholehearted." Of course, we struggle with that at times, don't we? Yet, God doesn't turn His back on us. But we've got to make sure that it just can't be the outward appearance of things. We can't be like a King Saul. We've got to look at our own heart. We can have the truth. But if we don't live the truth, what good is having it? That's not wholehearted. It's a matter of what our priorities are.

 

I was reading a little bit about this in a book that was written by Chuck Swindoll. He wrote a book called, "David: A Man of Passion and Destiny". On page 6 of that book, he wrote something I think that applies both to Hagar, Hananiah, and to us. Here's what he wrote. "God is looking for men and women whose hearts are completely His, completely. Nothing hidden, nothing swept under the rug. That means, no locked closets. That means, when you're wrong you admit it, and you immediately come to terms with it. You're grieved over it."

You're hurting over wrong. You recognize the fact that these things displease God and you're concerned about those things that displease Him, and you long to please Him in all of your actions. More than that, you care about the motivations behind your actions. That's being wholehearted. That's asking yourself, "Have I also seen Him who sees me?" When I ask myself, "What motivates me?" am I really zealous and wholehearted for God and His way in my life? Do I really desire Him above all things? Do I really understand what He sees when He looks at my heart?"

Well, if sometimes we ask that question and we don't see a wholehearted attitude, there's something we can do. We're not lost. We can ask for it. We can ask God to watch over us. We can ask God for that kind of heart. Psalm 51 is one of those songs that we sing so many times. It's a beautiful psalm of repentance. In Psalm 51:10, there is solution for hearts that aren't whole. There's a solution for you and I as we walk this path of life, and in Psalm 51 we see the solution. We see what we need to seek and what we need to ask for.

In verse 10 of Psalm 51... In fact, you could read the whole psalm for encouragement and guidance and direction. But in verse 10, we can pray, "Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. Don't cast me away from Your presence. Don't take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore me the joy of Your salvation. Uphold me by Your generous Spirit." With that kind of request, when we petition God like that, what do you think God's response is? He forgives us. He cleans us up. He washes us whiter than snow. He washes us clean. He sees us as wholehearted.

In fact, a couple of pages before this, look at Psalm 32, verse 8. Psalm 32, verse 8, shows us that just like Hagar, just like Hananiah, God is not going to walk away from us. God promises to strengthen us, to encourage us, to watch over us. Psalm 32:8, God promises, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will guide you with My eye." So we can say God has got His eye on us.

God has got His eye on us. Why does He have His eye... Not to zap us with a bolt of lightning. He's got His eye on us for our good. He's got His eye on us to strengthen and encourage and help us. God is looking for miraculous ways to help us, and He can do that very thing. So we've got to give it up—give up that wayward heart, give up our own ways, and give our all to God so He can fulfill His purpose in our lives. Just imagine God's eyes going to and fro over the whole earth. He's looking over the entire globe in ways to bless you. He's looking for ways, and the earth has no limitation for God to find ways to encourage and strengthen us. He will open doors, and maybe those doors will open halfway around the world, and somehow benefit us and serve us, because He promises to meet every need. He says as we are committed fully to Him, He's going to open doors. He's going to find ways. He will guide us. He will direct us. Even though we may find ourselves in prison, we have a constant hope that He’ll never leave us and never fail us in any way. He will show Himself strong for us.

So let's be fully dedicated. Let's be fully committed to have a heart—not just any old heart, but have a heart that is completely His.

[Steve Myers] We tend to look at those who can take a hit and keep going. And we look up to them. Doesn't everybody love an underdog that just never gives up? We love to hear the rags to riches story that come from behind. Everybody loves a comeback. Everybody loves a Cinderella story.

In the movie Rocky Balboa, he's encouraging his son. And he says to him, "It ain't about how hard you can hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward." How much you can take and keep moving ahead. That's what winning's about.

And so we love to hear those kinds of stories because that kind of toughness it's pretty cool. But it takes more than physical tenacity to become the person that God made you to be, especially when it comes to taking personal hits in your own life. When someone's done you wrong, when you've had a career setback, when you've lost things financially in your life, when we're in a blame place, "It's everybody else's fault. It's not my fault, it's not my fault that I am what I am. It's not that it was anything to do with what I wanted and caused me to be this way."

And things like broken relationships. Those personal hits when we're not doing well, not doing well in school. Because not all of us come back from those personal hits. In fact, sometimes we don't come back at all. We go on injured reserved instead. Not sure if we even want to get back into the game because after all, it's too hard, it's not worth it, is it? “I don't feel like it. I don't want to. I can't help it. In fact, it's their fault."

And we find ourselves in that critical moment in our life. And we have a choice. What do we do at those particular times? Well, either we decide to move forward or we get stuck in the past. Either we stay down for the count or we get back up and we keep fighting. We can make excuses or accept where we're at and start rebuilding our life.

So for a few moments this afternoon, let's take a look at a few principles in God's Word that can enable us to step out from those dark shadows to get out of the past and to begin to stop letting that control us. Because it doesn't have to be that way. We can look at what the Bible has to say about ways to lay aside what happened yesterday as an excuse for what's happening today.

Now, there is no doubt, things have happened in the past. In fact, some of those things may be happening to you right now. And it's not trivial little things, these are devastating things.

What do you do when you're rejected by your father or your mother when you were a child? Those are tough situations. And whether it's a divorce that was so painful and bitter, just never been able to quite get past its effects. Or maybe it's an addiction. Or maybe you have a sister or a brother, a friend, that you've just never quite been able to get past that event. They don't talk to you anymore. Or perhaps it's abuse. Maybe there's been abuse that you've suffered through. That's been almost overwhelming.

Those are painful pasts, painful situations. Those past and even our presents come in all shapes, all sizes, all degrees of intensity. And in some cases, the person that inflicted those pains, they're not even around anymore. So what can you do? It's too late for them to say, "I'm sorry." It's too late for you if you're the one at fault. So, what can you do? What can you do about those things?

Well, God's Word does have a lot to say about them. And, you know, when you think about those situations, none of them are a surprise to God. He knows what's gone on. He knows what your past is. He knows what you're going through right now. He knows when things go wrong in our relationships. And He knows the devastating effects that they have. But He gives us a way to begin to overcome and to change our perspective, to change our outlook.

So in order to do that, let's take a few moments to take a journey through the life of Joseph because the story of Joseph is filled with devastating events, difficult circumstances. In fact, in the book of Genesis, more than one-quarter of the book is devoted to this remarkable man.

Now, Joseph is an important individual to study because Joseph had a past. He had a difficult past. In fact, his story begins long before he was even born. He came from a flawed family, a defective family, his dad, after all, was Jacob. Jacob, that man would not have won father of the year from the Rotary Club. Not at all. As a young man, Joseph's father, Jacob, was a deceiver. He was a trickster. He was a deceiver. His name meant that as well.

And that father had an unbelievable effect on Joseph. And yet, when we look at his family history, we see the troubled past that he came from. It was a scarred, flawed family background. If you look over to Genesis 25 we see a big problem with mom and dad. Genesis 25:28, simple little passage here but what a story, a short little sentence tells. Notice this information that it gives us about Joseph's mom and dad. Genesis 25:28 it says, "Isaac," his dad, "loved Esau" his brother, "because he ate of his venison, but Rebecca” his mom, “loved Jacob."

So mom and dad preferred one over the other and weren't afraid to show it. This was defective. This is flawed. In fact, if we skip over to Genesis 27, it comes to passing on the birthright to one of the boys. Well, Esau was the first born. He should be the one to get the birthright. But guess what mom helps the second in line do. She helps the boy named deceiver to trick his dad and his brother out of that family birthright. Chapter 27 tells that story and mother Rebecca helped him do that very thing, to trick Isaac into giving the birthright to the wrong son, it seems.

And once the deal is exposed, what has to happen? Jacob has to run for his life because his brother Esau wants him dead. So we get down to Genesis 27:36. And Esau says this, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob? For he's supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold now, he's taken away my blessing!”

And of course, we see Rebecca, in verse 43, tells Jacob he'd better run. "My son, obey my voice: arise, and flee. Go to Laban, my brother, to Haran." So what does Jacob do? He runs to Uncle Laban and now is fully functional, an amazing human being who makes all the right choices and does all that… No, he doesn't. He doesn't. He goes to Laban. Falls in love with Laban's daughter, Rachel. And of course, there is this biblical principle that's found in Numbers 32 that says, "You may be sure your sins will find you out." And of course, it does follow Jacob. Yeah, he was a deceiver. He was a trickster. But he met Laban who was even more so. A better con artist.

So Laban said, "Okay, you can have Rachel. Just work for me for seven years, I'll give you my beautiful vivacious daughter." So he tricks him into doing that. And who does he get stuck with instead? The other daughter, Leah. He has to serve another seven years to get Rachel.

So, all right, what's the connection then? We're talking about Joseph here. Well, she would be the one who would become Joseph's mother. That was Rachel. So he had to work 14 years to marry her. And now you add to the damaged baggage, Rachel couldn't have children. Not at first, anyway. No children, no children. So what do these two women decide? The one, Leah, runs out after four sons. And so Leah… Rachel couldn't have children. Well, let's give dad the handmaidens. That sounds like a wonderful plan, doesn't it? What could go wrong with that? And so that's what they do. They each gave their maidens to Jacob so he can have more wives. And we know if you've got a problem with one, we'll just add more and it'll automatically get better, right?

I mean, look at this family. A real patchwork piecemeal, one husband, four wives, three he didn't really plan to marry in the first place. I mean, is that giving us the picture of the kind of family that Joseph was born into? What do you call that kind of family? Yeah, altogether, dysfunctional. Yeah. Talk about a dysfunctional family.

All right. Now, the question then is, is that a justification to just say, "Well, that's the way it is, too bad. I deserve to be dysfunctional myself because look at the family I come from." You see, that's no excuse. That is no excuse. God expects more from us. He's called us. He's called every one of us to overcome the dysfunction in our own life.

Because with father Jacob, that life of deception kept going on. He gets to Laban back by deceiving him with his sheep, without telling him, he takes off, takes the wives with him. Oh, by the way, Rachel's daughter steals from dad before they leave and hides things along the way. So is it any wonder that by the time Jacob has 11 sons gets down to Joseph, finally, Benjamin was born later, the older boys turned out just about like dad? Pretty much that way, they were treacherous themselves. In some ways, they were even worse. They had a whole city murdered because of something that happened to their sister, was that justification?

Ruben, the firstborn, sleeps with one of his father's wives. His brother Judas seduces his daughter-in-law. I mean, this family is a mess. An absolute mess. Not well-adjusted by any sense. And so you can imagine, this isn't the kind of family I want to grow up in. But that was the reality of it.

So here comes Joseph, a young man who has every excuse in the book not to turn out right. Yet, how does the Bible present, Joseph? I mean, he's a man of dignity. He's a man of honor. He's a man of godliness. And it begins to tell a beautiful point. That just because your dad was bad and your mom was messed up, it doesn't mean that you have to be that way. Just because your brothers and your sisters turned out rotten and mistreated you, you don't have to wind up the same way. Doesn't have to be that way. A bad environment doesn't have to control your present.

Now, of course, they influence you. Yeah. How we grew up, our environment, our relationships, of course, it does. It influences us. It affects us. But it doesn't have to control us. It doesn't have to control us. Joseph refused to allow the sins of others to dictate who he was. And he refused to hide behind the past and decided, "I'm going to overcome this dysfunction. With God's help, it is possible." And of course, the story goes on, by the time Joseph comes along, what? Did everything just change because he was a nice guy because he tried to be godly because he tried to do what was right? Not at all. His brothers hated him.

And this pivotal event in Genesis 37, if you'd like to head in that direction, this event marks Joseph for the rest of his life. And could have gone just about any direction. But it's interesting what this incident has as far as the impact on Joseph's life. And this history that tells the story is presented in chapter 37. Here, by the time we get to verse 2 it tells us Joseph's 17 years old, he's grown up in that dysfunctional family all of these years. He's out feeding the flocks, what happens? Well, his brothers hated him. Joseph brings back a bad report to dad and the whole situation continued to this next generation. Verse 3 it says, "Israel loved Joseph more than all his children,” well, wait a second, is that what Isaac was doing? Well, isn't that what Rebecca was doing? Here we see that cycle repeats. It didn't stop there. It didn't stop. Jacob could have stopped it, but he didn't. The cycle continued.

Well, would it continue then with Joseph? That becomes the question. Would it have to continue? Or is there any way that we can stop the cycle of dysfunction? God says, "Yes, you can." Even though Joseph tells the truth, it seems, to his father, Israel, Jacob loves him more and because of this, he gives him a tunic of many colors, a special coat. But verse 4, "When his brothers recognize this fact that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him. Couldn't even speak peaceably to him."

That's how bad. Couldn't even talk to the kid. Can't even deal with this. "I can't stand this kid." You talk about sibling rivalry. Wow, this is it. This is it. They couldn't even bear to look at him. Yes, some of it had to do with Jacob's bad judgment, dad's bad judgment, Israel's bad judgment. He was openly partial to the one brother. The firstborn of, guess who? Rachel. The one he really wanted to marry in the first place. His favorite wife, his one true love. And you know what that meant? That meant, in his eyes, as far as he was concerned, Joseph was firstborn. Joseph was really the firstborn from his true love.

So, what's the big deal about some trench coat? It's not the coat. It's not even the favoritism. It's this indication that seems to point to the fact that, "Wait a second. Israel is thinking this is the guy that should get the birthright. Is dad really thinking…?" What was Ruben thinking? What were the others thinking? The other 10 that were born before him, they weren't about to accept the fact that little brother is going to get the benefits of the birthright. And that's what this quote seemed to indicate here that, "Wait a second, is he the one that's the royalty or what?" You see, they began to see through that. And there was no way they were going to allow that.

So what did they do? Well, his mother wasn't their mother. So we're not allowing that to happen. So they concoct this scheme to kill him. They want him dead. But Ruben's cooler mind prevailed. And what did they do instead? Down in verse 24, they throw him in a pit. They throw him into a cistern. Throw him down into the mud and then as if nothing happened, "Let's have a meal." They sat down to eat after they threw their brother into the pit. Well, they had second thoughts. They end up getting him out and sell him into slavery to passing traders that were going by.

Talk about a dysfunctional family. Talk about siblings that hated each other. Then they go back to dad, they go back to Jacob, to Israel, and they trick him into thinking Joseph's dead. Any of us experienced rejection like that in our family? Yeah, Joseph was rejected. Now perhaps we have been rejected by somebody important in our family. Maybe you found out that people that claim to love you, really don't. Maybe someone you cared about deeply, turned on you. And they despise you now. Or perhaps something that you dedicated your life to turned its back on you. People fail us, leaders fail us. And it led Joseph and it leads us to the real question, "What are you going to do now?" What are you going to do now? You going to stay where you're at? You're going to stay put there, decide never to trust anyone again, never going to step out?

You see all of those things, and even more, happened to Joseph, because the story's not over. We follow him down to Egypt. Now he's got the wonderful life as a slave. If it wasn't bad enough before. By the time we get to Genesis 39 Joseph is taken down to Egypt and now he's a slave. He's in the house of Potiphar who was one of Pharaoh's officials, Genesis 39 tells us that story. He's the captain of the guard. Well, what happens then? Well, interesting, in verse 2, notice what it says in Genesis 39:2. It says, "The Lord was with Joseph, and he prospered; and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master."

As we go through the story of Joseph, if we don't stop and pause for just a moment, we might miss verse 2. Because, yeah, it doesn't seem like it's that big a part of the story. But it's a critical part of the story. We can't miss this phrase. Because you can say, "Yeah, Joseph had a lousy family background." But the Lord was with Joseph. Yeah, you can say his brothers couldn't stand him. The Lord was with Joseph. Yeah, but the kid couldn't get a break. The Lord was with Joseph. And I believe that's the first step if we're going to overcome any dysfunction that we face. If we're going to overcome the past, we've got to recognize that no matter what anyone else does, no matter what others do to us, at us, God is with us. And when God is with us, we can get somewhere. We don't have to stay in that hole of a cistern. We don't have to stay in the pit. We don't have to be a slave. We're going somewhere. And God has a job to do for us. Stay with God. That first step, digging out of that pit is to remember, God was with Joseph. He will be with us.

Our assignment? Stay with God. Stay with God. Yes, Joseph was rejected by his family. But who accepted him? God accepted him. Even though he was mistreated he didn't turn against God. He didn't blame God. His faith held firm. And so Joseph proved it didn't matter what happened yesterday. If we stick with God today, yesterday doesn't have to control tomorrow. Our past doesn't have to control our future. Our past doesn't have to define who we are today. Because if we get in those situations and all we can think about are, "Those people who caused me all these problems," we're in a bad place. We're focusing on the wrong thing.

Joseph shows we need to focus on the one who is there to help us. And that one is God. So “The Lord was with Joseph,” and that rejected childhood, that dysfunctional family, that was under God's watchful eye. God could take care of a dysfunctional family. God could take care of slavery. In fact, God had a job for Joseph to do. And right now at this point, it's to work for Potiphar, it's to be a slave in his household. And in fact, what happens? Well, good old Pot turns it all over to Joseph. Pretty amazing. We see the Lord was with him and in verse 3, Genesis 39, "His master saw that the Lord was with him" it even became obvious to others that God was with Joseph.

Verse 4, "Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him." Served Potiphar in other words, "He made him overseer over his house,” "Wow, problems are over. We're finally arrived. Woo! Yeah, I knew God would see me through this." Yeah, even though God met Joseph where he was at, makes him successful in this horribly strange land. Yes, he stayed with God and relied on Him. But there was more. If he was truly going to overcome, he had to allow God to direct every step of his life.

We have to do the same. God has to direct every step. And we see Joseph beginning to do that. He allowed God to use him, even though he was stuck in this official's house, Joseph recognized he served God. And Potiphar and his wife were just an in-between. And so he didn't allow that problem in the past to become the dictator to his life today. And in fact, if we find ourselves in that position if we find ourselves to recognize this fact that the only way to overcome if something in the past is dictating our present, we've got to change dictators. We've got to change and allow God to direct our everyday life.

And if we walk with Him, He will do that. He promises to do that. Because, you know, there's things in the past, guess what, we're not going to fix it. We're not going to fix it. It's not going to get better. May never be able to get your parents, who rejected you, to love you. It may never happen. You may never get your brothers or sisters, who won't talk to you, to even recognize you're still alive. You'll never get your boss to apologize for treating you that way. May never happen.

But when God is directing our life, when we allow God to direct every part of our life, is there any doubt that He can make things happen? In fact, He promises to do just that. Because as we look back we can see the bad actions and the bad results and the bad decisions that messed up our lives. Our own bad decisions, not maybe our own families but the things that we did. But, see, God is encouraging us to recognize the fact that whoever, a husband or a wife or a father or a mother, a child, whatever it may be. "Okay, I'm not going to be able to go back and raise my kids over again. It's done, it's done. But starting now. Does my past have to impact my identity today? The answer is, “no."

If we allow God to direct every aspect, if we submit our lives to His rule, if we allow Him to lead us, if we allow Him to guide us, He is going to make up for those losses. He's going to make up for the lost years and days and missed opportunities because He has something better. In fact, can't He fix those things that otherwise are unfixable? Can't God do that? You see, I think that really brings us to a big step in overcoming, because not only do we have to recognize that God is with us and stay with Him, allow Him to direct every aspect of our life. That means I must be fully committed to godliness, to right actions. Because I can say I'm committed to God but if that doesn't turn into what I do, if my dedication isn't to act, then I'm going to miss out.

And, in fact, as we see the story of Joseph, he was committed to live a godly life. No matter what the circumstances, because here we leave him looking like, "Hey, everything's great, everything's solved." He's on the up and up. It's going to be great from here on out. Yeah, but life isn't always that smooth. And so it becomes apparent. In fact, it becomes very apparent of a couple things. Yeah, other stumbling blocks are going to come. But when we stay fully committed, where will that ultimately lead? Maybe not the short term, maybe not next week or next month, maybe not even next year. But ultimately, it will turn for good.

And so here we find the next stumbling block in verse 7, Genesis 39, "It came to pass after these things that his master's wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she said, 'Lie with me.'" So Potiphar's wife gets the hots for Joseph, wants to sleep with him, makes the big move on him. But what was Joseph's mindset? He had fully committed himself to godliness. She makes a grab for him. He runs. In fact, his clothes get caught up and left behind. So she presents the evidence to her father. She gives phony testimony. We get down to verse 20 Genesis 39, "Joseph's master took him, put him into the prison, a place where the king’s prisoners were confined." And there he was in the prison. So after trying to do what's right, fully committing with God, staying with Him, deciding he's going to do what's right, what did it get him? Got more pain. He's in prison now. He's in prison.

But I think that that commitment has to shine through. And so, following this example that Joseph set. Because in this story, I think what we can begin to glean, if we're committed to God, if we're committed to His way, no matter what's gone on, if we are committed to act in a godly manner, it just might be being in jail is where we ought to go. If that's what God has allowed. If that's what God has allowed, that might just be the best place to be. But that sounds pretty strange, doesn't it?

But sometimes that's the way life is. Sometimes you got to hit the bottom before you can start uphill. Sometimes that just seems the way that it is especially when we look at it from God's perspective. Because there was no way Joseph was coming out of this by his own power, by his own. Could he will himself out of prison? No. He's totally at the mercy of the jailer, of the king, of the Pharaoh. There's no way he's getting out on his own.

So, guess who has to get him out? Gods got to do it. God is the only way. And when you look at this, remembering the Lord was with Joseph, and that means something's got to give, something's got to give. And that's why verse 21 is so amazing. If you look at Genesis 39:21, I love this passage, this is fantastic. It says, "The Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison."

Now, he didn't show him favor and he opened the doors of the jail and Joseph walked out. It wasn't a Peter kind of situation, was it? No, it wasn't that at all, it didn't happen that way. Here, he's still in jail. He's still there. But now the warden, you could say the warden, puts Joseph in charge of the prison. I mean, phenomenal. He's got a job to do. He's busy again. He didn't have time to look back on the past, to worry about what his brothers did to him, didn't have to worry about any of those things. God was with him and He had something for him to do. Something important for him to do.

And I think it tells that story, when we commit to God totally in our life, we recognize the fact that, "No matter what happens, no matter what happened in the past, no matter what's going on, no matter how bad or good the circumstances are, they're not controlling me and my life. They don't dictate my steps. They don't define me." And so we can break the chains of dysfunction when we recognize God's got us in His hand and He is not letting go.

So when we really come to grips with what God's got in mind, it changes the whole perspective. Because sometimes we have a tendency, "Oh, we messed up, we flunked out, we failed. Why should I try again?" But when we have total commitment to God and we surrender our lives to Him, His power is available to us and we can move forward. We can have a different perspective. We can look ahead instead of looking back. And that's exactly what Joseph did.

You see, when we go ahead to chapter 40, yeah, Joseph is still a jailbird. He's still in jail. But he begins to do other things God had in mind for him. He starts interpreting dreams, dreams that the baker had, dreams that the cupbearer had. Yeah, they were also in the doghouse, they were in the Pharaoh's doghouse as well. And if you're not familiar with the story, read through chapter 40.

But Joseph with God's help interprets these dreams. And they promise, when they get out, "Oh, we'll recommend you get out to Pharaoh, by the way." They get out and the cupbearer forgets, the butler forgets, yeah, the whole thing. Yeah, they forget Joseph. Even though they get out. And guess how long Joseph stays there? Not two weeks, not two months, two years. He's there two more years as first under the warden. Two more years he's there.

Talk about hanging on. I mean, by this time you'd probably feel sorry for yourself, wouldn't you? That seems pretty normal. I mean, it would seem pretty normal, "Well, if it wasn't for that lousy cupbearer I'd be out of here." That's pretty normal. But he didn't do that with his parents. He didn't do that with his brothers. He didn't do that here either. I mean, he could have said, "Every time I try to do something right or try to act godly or try to do the right thing something bad happens again." But he didn't have that perspective. Because it's interesting then when Pharaoh's the one that starts dreaming and need somebody to interpret it. Now, guess what comes to mind? Now they remember, "Oh, yeah, Joseph's the guy that could do that."

But interesting, where would Joseph have been if he had gone to that bad place? When he didn't get the recommendation and he was still wallowing in that prison for two years, what would have happened if he said, "Yeah, it's their fault. I should be out of here. No wonder I'm here, every time I try to do something good bad things happen.” You see, he wasn't in that place. And because he wasn't in that place he was ready to serve God. He was ready to allow God to use him in a dramatic way. He had decided to place his hand, his life in God's hand.

And so when that opportunity arose, he is ready to go. He wasn't bitter. He wasn't angry. He was ready to serve God. And boy, that's when everything starts popping. That's when things change. Because the Pharaoh wakes up from a cold sweat in this terrible dream, we get the Genesis 41:1, reminds us it's after two years, this happens, Pharaoh dreams a dream. Butler gets his memory back. Summons Joseph out of prison. Pharaoh knows. And he says in fact, "Nobody can interpret this but you. Nobody can do that." But does Joseph get the big head? Does he say, "Yes, I've waited my life for this. I'll handle it all." You see he doesn't do that. You get the verse 16. What does he say? "Joseph answers the Pharaoh, saying, 'Not me. I can't do it. God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.'"

You see, he had fully committed his life to God in every aspect and he was striving to act in a godly way, even in horrible circumstances. And so he was an instrument in God's hands. And so God used him as that instrument, God gave him the interpretation. And Joseph was ready to give it. So, what ends up happening? God gives him the information about this dream. There's going to be seven great years of crops, seven terrible years of famine.

Joseph tells Pharaoh. The Pharaoh says, "All right, you're going to be my Famine Commissioner. You're going to handle this. I'm going to put you in charge of all of the land of Egypt. I appoint you," is what Pharaoh says. So we get down to verse 38, and he says to his servants, Pharaoh says, “'Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?’ Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word; only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you.’ And Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.’"

So if you read through this whole story and had to make a deep theological observation, what would it be? You know what mine is? Wow! Amazing! You start with a rejected brother, parents that were misguided, a slave that was going nowhere, somebody rotting in jail. And now? Now he's going somewhere. He goes from a filthy muddy pit to being the number two ruler on earth. Egypt was the greatest kingdom, most powerful at this time. Number two on earth. That's where God took him. And guess what? Nobody does that, but God. God is the only one that can do that.

And guess what? God knows where He's taking us. He knew where He was taking Joseph. He knows the lessons that we need to learn in order to be equipped when we get there. Joseph was certainly equipped for the moment. And God sees what we're going through. He knows what we're going through when we're five. He knows what we're going through when we're 10. He knows what's happening in our life when we're 15 or 20 or whatever it may be. He knows how people treated us. He knows our situation. He knows how they will treat us. And whether we're 15 or 25, and there's still messes to clean up. Guess what? He can allow those things to achieve His purposes because He knows where He'd like to take us when we're 40 or when we're 60 or, yeah, when we're 80 or 90. Because sometimes even then we're not quite there.

And so when we get there, when we get there, there's absolutely no doubt who gets the credit. Was there any doubt who got the credit in Joseph's story? Yeah, and we look at our situation, our circumstances, let's really try to see them as Joseph saw them. We've got to stop our eyes from seeing through this lens of all the nasty things that have happened to us or all the difficult circumstances or all those terrible people and what they did to us or what they're still trying to do.

Joseph did that. Joseph was able to do that. And when promotion finally came to Joseph, 17 years later, 17 years from the pit, being sold into slavery, he had a total messed up… not that his life wasn't messed up before, because we saw that it was. Just the family he grew up with was messed up.

So from that time, especially from the time of being sold into slavery, now we've got 13 more years of confusion, 13 more years of discouragement, 13 more years of pain and suffering of not knowing whether he's up or down or in or out, dead or alive. All of those things. Yet, through it all, Joseph maintained his faithfulness and his commitment to God. And he was able to overcome all that dysfunction. And he realized such an amazing spiritual lesson. Look over at Genesis 50:20. We fast forward through the story.

An amazing lesson was burned into Joseph's mind, a lesson for all of us today. Even though all these bad things had happened to him, "Many by the hand of his own brothers, they wanted him dead." But Joseph came to see it from a whole different perspective. Genesis 50:20, he says to those brothers, "But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive." And that's what it's all about. God was able to take those negatives in his life and fulfill a good plan. He was able to take Joseph where He wanted him to be.

It was a definite somewhere that He wants to take us as well. He wants us to have His blessings poured out on us. And it's about how hard you can get hit but keep moving forward. It's about taking that hit, getting up and going on, and putting our trust in God because with God we can take it. We can take it. And so let's be a Joseph. Let's maintain our faithfulness and our commitment. And always remember, God is with us. We can step out from under the shadow of our challenges and our difficulties and stop letting it control our present and our future.

And we can set aside the things that happened yesterday as an excuse for what's happening today. So let's resolve to break the past control over our lives, and determine to reject any bitterness, to reject any resentment, to put away anger, to put away that indignation and hostility, to set that aside and allow God to direct every aspect of our life and be fully committed to His way, to godliness. Because that will change what dictates our feelings and our attitudes and allow God to direct our every thought in our life today. And so through His Holy Spirit, God is no doubt equipping every one of us for a great future. Because God knows where He's taking us.