The Bible Provocateur
The Bible Provocateur
LIVE DISCUSSION: Exposition of JOB 1:1-5 (Part 3 of 4)
Pain can feel pointless until you learn to read it. We open the book of Job and find a surprising claim: affliction isn’t payback, it’s a forge. From the first lines, Job’s power and wealth never owned him; his strength came from a heart set on God. That shift frames a bigger theme running through the conversation—refinement and revealing. Trials refine us from our vantage point, but from God’s vantage point they reveal who he is and who we are, stripping away illusions and exposing a faith that can stand without props.
We dive into the language of sanctification with gritty, concrete images: metal purified under heat, soldiers trained for war, not for parties. Peter’s “fiery trials” become a map for joy, not because suffering is sweet, but because sharing Christ’s sufferings anchors us in his glory and future joy. We talk readiness and courage in uncertain times, how God apportions trials with wisdom, and why Christians are formed to pass through tribulation rather than dodge it. Along the way, we contrast worldly wealth with true riches—upright character, a God-fearing heart, and a life that actively shuns evil. You can know where you stand, and if you don’t, that’s an invitation to seek clarity with Scripture, conscience, and community.
We also explore Job’s household rhythm—seven sons hosting seven feasts, sisters included—as a picture of ordered joy and daily worship. Whether you meet in a sanctuary, a living room, or over a phone call, where two or three gather, Christ is present. Some listeners will hear echoes of the seven feasts and Pentecost, pointing to a Spirit-enabled life of constant access to God. Through it all, stewardship threads the narrative: Job lived about the Father’s business, receiving and releasing with open hands. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, but he never wastes our pain. If this conversation strengthens your resolve to suffer well and love God more, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a review to help others find these messages.
BE PROVOKED AND BE PERSUADED!
They were wrong about Job. It didn't go to his head. So the power that he had wasn't, like Brother Jeff said, it wasn't a power that corrupted Job. It was a kind of a power that Job didn't realize the benefits of his submission, what they would be later, which would, as we said yesterday, would bring him closer to God in the end. And it would be his trial and his afflictions that would be the means where God would reveal to Job a greater part of himself. And so the lesson that we're going to learn throughout this book is that we should not be so um quick to break in the sense of thinking that the afflictions that we have are to punish us, but rather they are to refine us. And this is probably something you're going to hear me say and get tired of me saying over and over again throughout this series, that the affliction that Job went through and that we go through is for the purpose of refinement. It is for the purpose of purging sinfulness from us. It is for the purpose of causing us the ability to be able to discern those things which which frustrate the relationship that we have with the Lord Himself and to learn more about Him. And we learn it through affliction. And it is very difficult for us to see these things as blessings. More often than not, as we said last night as well. Most Christians associate blessings with what they perceive to be good to them in terms of earthly rewards or what the world considers rewarding. Brother Chris, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01:Chris, you there? Yes, sorry about that, brother. That's all right. You said refining, and and automatically, as soon as you said refining, the word revealing as well came. It's both, right? I would, I mean, I I I I when when it came to me, I I had a a clarity about it, in which that was the same process that Job was actually going through a revealing. You know, because he, you know, for all intents and purposes, his all his intents and desires were the right kind of intents and desires. And he had no idea of why he was going through the process that he was going through.
SPEAKER_04:You know, let me ask you this question, Chris, why because you brought up revealing. Now, what I said um is is that the afflictions that we go through, we go through so that we get to see more about God, meaning that through those afflictions, God reveals to us more of himself. But can you take that a step further? What got what else does God reveal? He reveals to us who we are.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, that we are his, that we belong. That's right.
SPEAKER_04:And I also see it, I also see it as that one of the ways to see God and to see what he's revealing to us about himself comes through him revealing things about ourselves.
SPEAKER_01:It has to. I love that. I love that.
SPEAKER_04:Brother Jeff, man of guy, go ahead.
SPEAKER_02:Well, what I wanted to share was that refining is a method that you use for precious metals to purify them. Uh when you refine oil, you're taking oil in its basic state and you're breaking it down into more pure substances that are more useful. And uh the thing is, uh it's it's not always, you know, it's it's not a it's not an easy process to be refined, but the thing is, this reflects to me directly on the on the uh doctrine of sanctification that we are refined all through life and purified over and over again so that we walk through that door of heaven, we become glorified, which means that's when perfect means perfect. We'll be perfect like Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_04:Absolutely, brother. Absolutely. Lisa, speak on what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_05:Well, I just refined, like I'm just kicking off of what Jeff said. We're refined in the fires of tribulation. Bring it on, bring it on, Lord.
SPEAKER_04:Did you guys hear what she just said? We we say that again, Lisa.
SPEAKER_05:Bring it on, Lord. We are refined by who you need me to be.
SPEAKER_04:We are refined by the fire. Let me let me say this by everybody listening. And take this back home to whoever you gotta go home to, if you're not already there. Christians were bred, we're being bred by God to go through tribulation, not to escape it. There is no era, there is no area in the scriptures where the predominant theme is that we are to escape tribulation and affliction. We are intended to go through it. Listen to what Peter says, beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial, and I'm dogpiling on top of Brother Jeff and Lisa. Do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you, and though as some strange thing have been unto you. In other words, don't be surprised when you are going through trials, when you are going through this fiery trial or tribulation. He says in verse 13, but rejoice inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings, his sufferings, so that his glory shall be revealed. Um, that when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. The fiery trials. We are meant to go through them. All of them. Every trial that we have on this life, and there is no Christian that is going to escape tribulation or trial or affliction or persecution to some degree. Every one of us is going to be purged by the fiery trials, by fiery trials, every single one of us. And he says here that we are to rejoice. What did I say that this book of Job was about? It was not about the trials, it's not about the suffering, but it's about how we suffer. The focus is not to be on the the causes of suffering, it is about how we suffer. So, brother Jeff, man of God, and then um Tyson.
SPEAKER_02:I just want to add something short. Again, I bring up, you know, being former military as you are, the martiality of our state, our status. We are being trained. We put on the full armor of God. That's military. We are trained as soldiers. What are soldiers trained to do? They're trained to go into battle.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:And they they go into battle knowing that it's trouble. It's not a walk in the park. Well, it tends to be better for our army than other people, but in our armed services, but that's because we're better trained. But the thing is, that's what we're trained for. It's not that we welcome it. Nobody welcomes walking in a war with people shooting at you. But the thing is, we are trained. That's what we're trained for.
SPEAKER_04:Right. You don't, you, you don't, you don't get trained for battle to go to birthday parties. You know what I mean? It is we are trained to go and fight. And as some, and it's and and depending on when you're born, what era era you're born in, whatever's going on in the world when you're born, when you're in the service, some of us are gonna go through really brutal wars, some of us are gonna go through minor skirmishes. Some of us, some of us will go through an entire tour and not have anything significant happen outside of some of the normal daily trials. But the fact of the matter is, generally speaking, the afflictions that we go through will be commensurate with what God has given us to handle.
SPEAKER_02:Well, the other thing I want to say too, and I want to give kudos to my sister Lisa. Because let me tell you something. I and I'm her Facebook friend. I mean, she's been posting all this stuff, she's on fire. I mean, she's she's she's taking the spear and she's headed to the front of the army. She's taking point, my brother. She is taking point.
SPEAKER_04:You know, I I my wish and hope is that everybody does, everybody who's listening does, because um, as I've said many times, I think that we're we're in a time right now where who knows when the next upsurge of difficulty in this world is going to affect Christians in the way they have in the past. And so it is high time that we start getting ourselves equipped for whatever may come. Because Christians, generally speaking, aren't ready. But I do know this: God is good and he's merciful, and he always has that 7,000. He always has those people who are ready when the time comes, and because he is the one who will make them ready. Sister Are you? Go ahead.
SPEAKER_00:It's so interesting how, you know, we're pulling out how Job was um well off and righteous, and then how, you know, in scripture it says it's harder for a rich person. And it's so interesting um because how easy is it when we're poor and sick to run to God. But the strength that um the refinement that has to come for somebody to empty their wills for the sake of God, um, it that seems like another level. So it's just interesting how it says, blessed are the poor, and it's it makes sense why um why scripture leans on that, says that.
SPEAKER_04:Absolutely. And and I and I think, you know, and I wrote down here in my notes that I I think that Job's greatness, it his greatness did not consist in his in his wealth, or his wealth did not consist in in the things he had. I mean, that was truly wealth, but really what we need to mind from this is that his true wealth was in his inner being, the person he was, the man that God made him to be. And the fact that God saw him as an upright person. I mean, imagine being you know, having it immortalized in scripture. That you are upright, right? One who eschews evil, one who fears God. I mean, the idea that God that God has immortalized these things in his word. And and so there's there's a perspective that he has about all of us, and we have to understand what this is in terms of our relationship with the Lord. Does he see you? Does he see me as one who is perfect and upright and eschews evil and fears God? Does he see you the same way? Now I know a lot of Christians try to play the humility card and say, no way, I know it can't be mean up. But these are things you really need to know. These are things you really need to know. You can know if you are perfect, you can know if you are upright. You can know if you fear God and if you eschew evil. And you should know this. And if you don't, I I suggest that you really appeal to God sooner than later on these issues. Because this thing is not this is something that we have the ability to know. And sure, we falter in our lives, but these are things that you can absolutely know, Sister Candy. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, uh verse 19 and what you were reading in chapter 4 of 1 Peter. I like what it says. I think it applied, I think um I think it goes good with what we're talking about, too. All right. Well, let them suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing and to a faithful creator, which is God. And we know that as a Christian, and we suffer, it's all to glorify him. Right. It helps us understand and be patient with others. I mean, it's it's that's who we are. It builds our character, it builds us in him of who he is in us.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_06:And I like 1 Peter chapter 5, 9, and 10. Of course, we you we said earlier that out of what did Job do? He resisted the evil one. So we resist him and stand fast in the faith, knowing the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world, which means all of us are going to suffer it. But may the God of all grace who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, established, strengthened, and settled. Right. That's the best part about it, man. It's just beautiful. And so why again it goes back, why wouldn't we rejoice in it? It's that growth, it's that truth growing in him and understanding and letting him do what he does in us to get us there.
SPEAKER_03:Amen.
SPEAKER_04:Brother Jeff, man of God, go ahead.
SPEAKER_02:You know, this goes against, flies against all this legal and law and stuff and everything, because this was before Abraham, before the circumcision, before the law, right, before all that stuff, before Israel. I mean, even Abraham, he wasn't an Israelite either. He was from Ur in the Chaldees. Or should I say your? I'm just sorry, Meg. I couldn't help it. Uh but uh anyway, yeah. Go ahead and throw a rock at me. I deserve that one. But uh but yeah, you know, I mean, he's the beginning of it all. And listen to what we hear. In this book, we we've already we're gonna hear about Satan, we're gonna hear about faith, we're gonna hear about tribulation, we're gonna hear, you know, it's just amazing to me. It just blows me away.
SPEAKER_04:Right. It's a great book. I mean, I mean, to me, like even in these first few verses, I mean, it is just rich. It's so rich. Um uh what we can learn from these kind of things. But this and what we're gonna find out is this that this book is really in a lot of ways, too, about character, Christian character. Christian character. And and it especially when you have all the things in your possessions that otherwise distract most of us. Most of us would be completely distracted. I mean, Solomon, with all the wealth and wisdom that he had, got became distracted by the creation. He got distracted. He started looking to the women, looking to the horses, looking to the chariots. God wanted him to keep his faith in him. But God had given him all that any man that any man could have. And says that he was the richest, and there would never be one richer than him. So, so this is about character. And Job was per was a person who was able, in spite of his wealth, to keep his spiritual side of him subdued and subjected to his God, and didn't elevate these things or cause him to elevate himself in any kind of way that is inappropriate in his standing before God. And so we see that even with this c this enumeration of the sheep and the asses and the oxen and the camels and the servants in his household, it says that even in with all of that, it shows that not only was he a man that maintained his character, but as Mariah, I don't know if she's still listening, but Mariah said something earlier that I that I meant to um speak about, but it talks about this is talks about his stewardship. He was a faithful steward. He was the he is another person who, like Christ spoke about in Luke 249, or when Christ spoke about himself, when he tells his mother, don't you know that I must be about my father's business? And that's my favorite verse in the entire Bible. Job was about his father's business, he was a faithful steward in all of God's house. And he understood that all he had was given to him by God, and we we will know from him, his own words, that he that the Lord gives, and the Lord takes it away. He takes it away.
SPEAKER_06:Man, and anybody shows us how to walk by faith and not by sight, it is really in this story right here, even though we know who I was righteous because of faith. Man, but this man right here, he is proven fact that what we were gonna go through and how we're gonna do it.
SPEAKER_04:That's right. Amen. Brother Chris, go ahead before I move on to verse four.
SPEAKER_01:Brother Chris, you there? Yes, I am, brother. All right, um, you know, really the biggest tie in refinement and revealing, right? Um, but and the reason why that's so major for me, because refinement is like you are learning as you go through it, right? But from the from when when you look at it uh as our our father looks at it, it's a revealing because for us, he's revealing the true nature of who we are. Like, you know, it's not as if the Lord doesn't know the nature of who we are. Why would he give access to Satan and not know the person of Job? But Job didn't really know, he didn't know how much he could rest until he had to go through the process of it so that he could understand what his relationship was with the heavenly father.
SPEAKER_04:Right in his right, absolutely, sister Hannah. Anything you want to add before I go to verse four? I know you've been listening, so you anything you want to add to what we've been talking about?
SPEAKER_05:No, just getting set up here.
SPEAKER_04:All right, perfect. All right, so verse four, and his sons, Job's sons, um, his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one of his day, and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. Now, this is something, this is a verse that I find very interesting. And and when I read it, hopefully, those of you who had been on some of the previous lives will see why. I hope. It says his his his sons, it says that they had they had feast every day. Now, each one had a day allocated for their own feast. How many sons did he have? anybody seven sons, which means he had how many feasts?
SPEAKER_05:Seven feasts, which represent the the feasts in the Bible.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, absolutely.
SPEAKER_05:Oh wow, that's cool.
SPEAKER_04:Absolutely. It points to those seven feasts. Meg, are you ready? You have them lifted?
SPEAKER_05:I gotta go get my feast book.
SPEAKER_04:All right, well, that's okay, don't worry about it. But we know there were seven feasts, and that's exactly what I was trying to get out of this whole thing. Now, you you have these these seven feasts. Now, when I did the the the the message uh a week or so ago, a couple weeks ago, on the seven feasts, I pointed to the last one being the feast of weeks. The feast no the feast of um unleaven unleavened bread. No, the tabernacle.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, the tabernacle.
SPEAKER_04:And and we talked about how that relates to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit into us as tents, and uh, and and us being in Christ, who is the temple. So you see here that you have the seven sons, each one of them having a day of their own to have their own feast where they invited their sisters and they had this sort of celebration daily. Let me ask Brother Jeffrey encouraging servant, you there? Yeah, I'm here. What do you think about that? What what what what do you what can you take from this?
SPEAKER_03:Well, I can take from it that there was much feasting going on, and hopefully that it was honoring God, and it hadn't gotten to the point, Jonathan were had become overly extravagant, or they had gotten their eyes off of God and onto what it was God had blessed them with. You see what I'm saying? Yep, yep. Where where was their heart when they were feasting? Right. Where was their minds where they were feasting? Were they celebrating themselves or were they celebrating the goodness of God?
SPEAKER_04:That's right. You know, and here's here's something else that's interesting is that they they had they had this they had this feast every day. And and I find it very interesting that when we look at, like today, we hear a whole lot about, you know, there's all you know, you could you can turn on any live, any given day of the week, or any any part of the day, and there'll be somebody arguing about the Sabbath this and the Sabbath that. Very often you will hear people, somebody say, inevitably, somebody will say we worship God and we celebrate the Sabbath every day. And I personally believe there's a lot of truth to that. There's a lot of truth to that. The fact that we get here pretty much every day, you know, at least when my back is not thrown out or something like that. But generally speaking, we we're we're here most days of the week. And these discussions that we have are meaningful. They're meaningful. And they are a blessing to me, as I'm sure they are a blessing to you, otherwise you wouldn't you wouldn't participate. And we should seek this. And so my my thing is this it doesn't matter, you know, if you if you go to church, let's say, on Sunday or Saturday, whatever day you go, and then you ignore the the same type of an observance that you do on the day that you worship if you ignore it on the other days. And so I believe that, you know, and I'm like I said, periodically and probably before I get done with this Job series, I'm gonna get through my entire series on the institution of the institutional church, to which I've had two segments already. Um but the next ones will start to get into familiar territory on the subject matter. But what I do believe is this is that every day ought to be a day that we worship and honor God. Every day should be a day that we worship and honor God. One sister brought up, Linda, she brought up, thank you, Linda, she brought up the seven feasts: the Passover, the unleavened bread, the Feast of First Fruits, Pentecost, the Feast of Weeks or the Trumpet Days, and um or the Day of Atonement, and the Tabernacle. So thank you for that, sister. So if anybody wants to get that, get yourself a screen grab before um it scrolls up. But anyway, as I was stating, the worship of God is something that we are able to do every day if we find time to do that. And I'd be hard-pressed to believe that God would not allocate some part of your day or throughout your day to be able to render to him what belongs to him. Brother Jeff, man of God, go ahead.
SPEAKER_02:Well, you don't receive heaven sec by second uh second hand. God has no grandchildren. So I'm gonna I'm gonna pose this a thought to say that remember that Job had sacrificed just in case somebody had sinned. So I think these were these were probably celebrations. I would assume with everything that he had, his children had to work for him. They had to work all day, and this is probably a feast at the end of the day.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_02:And uh, you know, that they were worshiping God and that Job sacrificed for them, such as the priest would sacrifice for the children of Israel. That they were fully aware of that, and they they they honored God as much as he did for us to think that they might be in heaven, because there's no other way. Right. And so I just thought I'd bring that up.
SPEAKER_04:No, I think that's a good, I think that's a good point. And I think I think that, you know, because you know, the problem, the thing is sometimes we can we can become very extravagant in how we assess some of these things that we see when we read the scriptures and we we in we we turn our inferences or what we think is an inference into something that is substantial. And sometimes we need to be kind of careful about that. Because um although we can assume that that that you know they were younger people, definitely younger than their father, obviously, and so they probably did not had not reached the level of maturity that he did. But it seems as though one of the one of the things that Job has to his credit, as I already stated, was that he was the one that he was one, a man that knew how to lead his household. And it seems to show that by these feasts that his children have, there was order there. And the fact that he had a that that the brothers brought their sisters there and they all congregated together, it kind of shows and is emblematic of the way we today ought to be. That we should be feasting together as often as we can. And what did Christ say? Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of it. This is going to be the heart of my assessment of the church and its institution that it centers around this whole idea that whatever two or three are gathered in his name, there he is in the midst of them. And there is no possible way of we being together, Christ not being in the midst of us, and it not being a Sabbath to some degree. No possible way. And so it is an opportunity to glorify God whenever we are with each other. Because this is what it does. What we're doing right now, we are glorifying Him because we are here together. Does it mean we have to be here in physical person? No, and there are some who will make that case and they would be wrong. They would be wrong. You know, Brother Jeff, man of our encouragement servant. This brother calls me almost on a daily basis. I'm gonna blow his horn a little bit. He calls me almost on a daily basis. And there are some times when there are many times where he will call to pray with me, and if I don't answer, he will leave the prayer on message or he will type it. Where two or three are gathered in his name, there he is in the midst. And believe me when I tell you that when this brother does call and does pray for me, it is very encouraging. Very encouraging. So I had to put him on the spot there, real quick. Um, any comments before I move on to verse five? Well, we're doing we're making good time tonight.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I got one.
SPEAKER_04:Go here, brother.
SPEAKER_03:You are an encouragement to the encourager. And well, all of you are, not just you, John. Oh, okay. All right. No, no, go ahead, brother. Go ahead. I want to say that what we've already gleaned out of Job after just four verses has been a lot. I can't imagine what's going to happen after we get through 25, 30 chapters. But uh thank God for what he's doing and what we're gonna learn because there's a lot here for us to grab hold of and to apply. So that's my prayer for all of us that we apply what it is God's gonna reveal to us.
SPEAKER_04:Yep. Yep. So in verse 10. Go ahead, brother Chris. Go ahead. Sorry.
SPEAKER_01:Go ahead. So uh, you know, the seven sons, the seven feasts, you know, uh now I I really lean towards a prophetic meaning behind it. Behind what? Behind the seven sons and the seven feasts for seven days. I I believe and I agree with you really, uh wholeheartedly that you know, every single day, all seven days are our days unto the Lord because of what Christ Jesus did in our lives, you know. He he made us, he didn't, he he opened the door uh to holiness um uh uh constantly. There's no, you know, so there's no limitation. Uh the limitations that we had to have a priest to go before us before, that is dead. Okay, so and that's in reference to uh a dead process in which, you know, later on down the story we'll see what happens to Job. The first set of Job's seven sons. Right. Uh uh, but the renewing of it in terms of a new set of seven sons is indicative of that prophetic meaning of the day of Pentecost. All of the seven days are representative of that. The seven feasts are representative of that. And it and if you go and you look at it in terms of scripture as far as Christ Jesus is concerned, he represented those seven days, and including the Holy Spirit being available to us.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, yeah, for sure. Absolutely. And that's what the Holy Spirit, as we talked about this when I did the series on the seven feasts, the Holy Spirit was was came under the Feast of Pentecost. And so um, and and so you're right. You and I do believe that there is a something analogous to the seven feasts, and that's why you know I brought that point up because it's because it you know the whole idea for me too is to when you know before I come and present to all of you, um, I like to put together my you know notes with things that I what that I think may lead you to or either lead you to or to remind you um of the consistency that we have in the word of God. Because we hear these things over and over and over again. We see these.