LIVE DISCUSSION: "God Made Me His Target" (Job 16:6-14) Part 3/4

Pain has a way of drawing critics. Job learned that the hard way as friends-turned-accusers insisted his losses proved his guilt. We walk through that tension with clear eyes, tracing how Scripture refuses the shallow math that equates suffering with sin. Along the way, we draw a bright line to Christ—innocent, delivered to the ungodly by the determinate counsel of God, and crucified by wicked hands—so that mercy, reconciliation, and righteousness might reach us.

Together we unpack what surrender really means. Not passivity. Not spiritual spin. Surrender is intelligent trust in a sovereign God who works all things according to His will, even when we cannot connect the dots. We talk about how public scorn often replaces compassion, how false religion borrows the Christian name to justify cruelty, and why the world’s approval should set off alarms. Most of all, we sit with the honest language of Job: archers on all sides, breaches upon breaches, the sense of being marked. His testimony resonates with anyone who has watched blow after blow land without a pause.

Yet hope refuses to fade. Vindication may be delayed, but it is not in doubt. We lean into the promises that frame the narrow road—eternal life secured by Christ, the Spirit’s seal unbroken, the Father’s election sure. Imagine lions roaring along the path, fearsome but chained. They can rattle you, not ruin you. That assurance frees us to endure with integrity, to become a steady witness when words feel thin, and to trust that God’s personal providence is not random but purposeful love. If you’ve been misread in your pain or tempted to grasp the controls, this conversation offers ballast for the soul and courage for the next step.

If this spoke to you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs strength today, and leave a review telling us where you’ve seen grace hold in the storm.

Transcript

Blame, Misjudgment, And Job’s Innocence

SPEAKER_04 0:00

They didn't have a charge. Their thing is, well, it must have been something, Job. Because the evidence is clear. You're suffering, you lost everything. So that must mean that what you're going through, you deserve, and God has turned his back on you. This is what they want him to believe. But this is how the world views people, other you know, people when they struggle. It must be something you did wrong. It has to be. It has to be. And he's surrounded by those who unite against him. He has all of his miserable comforters. Christ had two nations, one of those nations being his own people, that turned him over to Rome. They turned over their Messiah. They turned over Christos to Rome. They encouraged Rome to use their law against their own person, their own flesh and blood, their own expectation, who was Christ, who was to come and to provide for all of their eternal um glory and future. Job's affliction has made others more bold in treating him with the worst types of contempt. Job was innocent of any wrongdoing. Christ was innocent of any wrongdoing. But in both cases, vindication, even though it is delayed, it is inevitable. And the same goes for you and me, those of us who are believers. Vindication is inevitable. I told you earlier, you know, sister was telling me today about some awful things that people were saying and making posts about me. People, I don't even know. Don't even know. Don't care. The Lord will vindicate his people. And usually the people that do you the most harm believe that they're doing so. They believe that what they're doing, they are doing in the interest of serving God. That's what they do. And so then so when things go awry, the same people scream and holler about how the Christian church is the cause for all the wars. No, it is it is the people who pretend to be Christian so that they can get away with rationalizing and justifying their sin. It is not the true believers that are doing this, causing these wars. No, it is it is those other folks who have donned the moniker of Christian to achieve their own ends, and then we take the heat for it. That's what happens. That's what happens. So this verse shows how suffering also often invites sympathy. It should, but it doesn't. Instead, it invites cruelty, harshness, to the point where men will create and invent ways to disturb your peace. Job experiences social humiliation alongside divine affliction that he recognizes to be coming from God. And all these things they compound his misery. His suffering is unimaginable, it's completely unimaginable. Listen to verse 11. Job says, God has delivered me to the ungodly. Lisa, I think you got a point here, sister. I think you gotta, I think you have an argument here. God has delivered me to the ungodly and turned me over into the hands of the wicked. Job goes back to his understanding, what we all know that he understands, which is that God is sovereign over all things. And this is why I know for a fact that in verse 9, in verse 9, there was no way he could be seeing God as a true enemy and as exercising wrath against him. So that can't be. How long? We don't know, but we can assume it was a long time. At least the greater part of his life. So in verse 11, here he says, God has delivered me to the ungodly. God has delivered me to the ungodly and turned me over, listen, and turned me over to the hands of the wicked. Job knew this is what God did millennia ago. I don't know how you say multiple millennia, but many millennia ago, Job understood that this is how God operates. This is how he operates. God has delivered me to the ungodly and turned me over to the hands of the wicked. Who else can say this? Anybody. The Lord Jesus Christ. God delivered him to the ungodly and turned him over into the hands of the wicked. Why did he do that? Anybody?

SPEAKER_00 7:07

So that he may uh crush his head and he can bruise his heel.

SPEAKER_04 7:12

That's right. He turned him over, but what and what was his ultimate goal in doing that?

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Bring reconciliation to the people back unto God himself.

False Religion Versus True Faith

SPEAKER_04 7:25

That's right. By the sacrifice of himself. Listen to what this says in Acts chapter 2, verse 23, talking about Christ. Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. And like John Landloy says, Christ did this. God did this so that we might be saved. And so that we might be the righteousness of, we might be have the righteousness of God in him. Job in verse 11, he's acknowledging that God has permitted him to fall under the power and judgment of unjust men. There's no mistake in the fact that he's talking about his friends here. No mistaking. No mistake in that. Job's surrender here is not an admission of any kind of guilt. That's not what he's doing. He's not admitting to guilt. He's not saying I did anything wrong. But he is a little bewildered. He's wondering what happened. And remember, we all know that he doesn't know. He wasn't told, he wasn't brought to the party. But like Sister Barbara says, behind it all was for love. It was all about his about God's love for Job. This righteous man finds himself treated as though he were wicked. And this troubles him probably as deeply as it deep can be. But Job does not deny God's sovereignty, and that's what I love. He doesn't deny. He doesn't, it's not only that he doesn't deny God's sovereignty, he is at absolute and adamant about proving it and showing it in what he says through all the trial that he's going through, the grievous affliction that he's undergoing, he looks to the sovereignty of God for his comfort. That is the only thing that is carrying him through all of this. His understanding of the nature of God. Sister Grace, go ahead. You might want to turn down the music because it's coming through really loud.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Okay. Hold on, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_04 10:08

Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

But yeah, uh, is that better?

SPEAKER_04 10:13

Yep.

When Sympathy Turns To Cruelty

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Okay. So yeah, it's just a beautiful reminder that um, you know, God's love for us is unchanging. Like no matter what we're going through. Or um, like whether you know, it's just it's just that that part was really beautiful to me. And also another thing that it it was a beautiful reminder is that like um when Jesus was on the cross, the improvement of his circumstances was not uh like the solution to his his circumstances was not the improvement of his pain, it was his surrender, and I just love you know, like you were saying how Job um was fully s surrendering to God there, and also I just also think that it like what came to mind for me is that like not only is it um a good thing for us to thank God during um suffering, uh it's also a good thing for like as a good example for other brothers and sisters as well. Because you know, everyone's on different spiritual levels and everything. So um, you know, somebody might be like if I'm suffering, somebody might be looking up to me and you know, looking at me and seeing how I handle the suffering.

SPEAKER_04 11:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

So that's all I wanted to say.

SPEAKER_04 11:39

You're exactly right, sister. Exactly right, Grace. That is so that's such an important point because that's what this is all about. Um because art, our our most of us sometimes we have our we believe that our witness to others is generally confined to what we say we believe. But more often than not, your witness is how you conduct yourself, especially when you're going through hardships. That's where you really shine. And it doesn't look like that to the human eye, but in God, from God's, in God's eye, oh my gosh, this is where you this is where you begin to radiate and glow. This is where it happens when you when you when you pull through and and through suffering, trusting in God and relying upon his sovereignty and all these things, knowing that he's keeping you. Sister Mariah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

Um, I'm just wondering, is this where Job is um finding out? Because for from the beginning, it seems as though we think that these are um godly men or believers or you know, some I just don't believe that um someone who serves God is also called ungodly. And so I I'm wondering if he's realizing, as the New Testament tells us, that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, you know. And so he's realizing that through how they are, um, and without the love of God, that these acts that they're actually committing against him are ungodly. Um, a lot of people would say that no, they were believers or they are saved um when they came to Job initially, right?

Delivered To The Ungodly, Yet Held By God

SPEAKER_04 13:38

Right. Right. Absolutely. You know, Job, see, here's the one, here's the one thing about when you deal with uh God's sovereignty, you it heightens your own, it should heighten your own particular sense of individuality in terms of your standing before God. Um, because when you understand these things, like Job here, Job sees himself as being as being singled out. And he is, he really is. He singles us all out. And and what I mean by that is is that, well, outside of the obvious, but what I mean is is that when he can send one storm, but he has specific purposes and how it will affect every single individual, wicked or righteous, there's a personal outcome that God has ordained for every single person individually and specifically. And this is what happens when you see when you understand God's sovereignty. You because you you single, when you when you when you you single out his works and his operations in our lives, but the flip side of it is you need to understand that he has his eyes specifically on you, and he has a specific design for you in terms of how things are gonna roll out for you. And this is the hardest part for even those who call themselves Christians to accept. Oh, it's just a storm. Everything is just whatever happens, it happens. It's fate, it's kismen, it's it's it's chance, it's happenstance. No, whatever happens to you was by God's specific ordering to happen. All of it. Job here, and I'll get to you in a second, brother Pat. Verse 12, Job says this. He admits, I was at ease, but he has broken me in pieces. He has also taken me by my neck and shaking me to pieces and set me up for his mark, his target. Job is recalling the suddenness in which the calamities that he that befell him happened. And he had, he talks about he was at ease. He had a former peace that he had, but it wasn't a sinful peace, it wasn't the kind of peace that that wicked men who are wealthy and prosperous believe they have. It's a different, he had genuine peace. He did. It wasn't because of sin, it wasn't because of carelessness, it it was it was just his his ordinary blessings that he had. And then suddenly and abruptly, this transition happens that takes him from ease to utter devastation, to complete and utter devastation. And then he describes the violence of the change to emphasize how unexpected and overwhelming it all was. And this is what I mean. He sees himself here as being singled out. He knows that this is not random. Job is acknowledging this was not random. I was at ease. He has shaken me to pieces, he has sent me to be his mark. Job knows that his relationship is very personal. And you know, a lot of people like to say, Oh, Jesus Christ, he's my personal Lord and Savior. Yeah. Even when this happens, because this is really personal to Job. And Job understands that God is a very personal God, and to everyone who trusts in him, he is very, very personal and targeted. He says, He set me up for his mark, he made me his bullseye. Job knows that God sees him at all times. He knows that. What job, Job doesn't know anything about the conversation that took place in heaven where God says, do whatever you want. Just can't take his life. Just can't take his life. And this sense of being directly targeted, it just deepens his struggle. Because if God targets you, where are you gonna go? I mean, really, where are you gonna go? This should this is what should quell the temptation to complain and murmur, because there's no place you can go. If he's coming for you, he's coming for you. And he does, he does at times, but again, it's to build up. And even though Job couldn't discern the cause, he doesn't know how to relate the severity of what he's going through with how he was living up to the point where this abrupt transition has taken place in his life, this sudden upturn in fortune, or I should say downturn. Sister Grace, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Yeah, so I was just thinking, I was just wondering, um hold on just a second.

SPEAKER_04 19:34

That's right. You want me to come back? Brother Pat, go ahead until she comes back. Is she back?

SPEAKER_02 19:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 19:47

Keep it floating.

Surrender, Example, And Witness In Suffering

SPEAKER_02 19:48

You know something, Jonathan? Um, whenever we talk about anything to do that's even related in the least bit with the sovereignty of God, you say something like, God works all things in conformity with the purpose of his will. Immediately you're mocked by Christians. And what? Am I a robot? What are you trying to say? That's ridiculous. Well, look at what's going on here. Job is a real human being. Right. He has a real life, he's got a brain, he's got all the things that we do. And yet, in his life, God's picture of the gospel. He's invoking Psalm 22 and showing us all these things that Job is Job aware of any of this? No. How do you explain that? And and the only reason I bring this up is because the sovereignty of God, how that all works, is beyond any I've I've meditated on it, Jonathan. How can it be that our lives are part of something uh bigger and that God is doing things that are beyond our imagination? I don't know. Right? But that's the God of the Bible, and I want people to consider that when you mock this stuff, you're not mocking other opinions, you're mocking God. Right. That's really what it is.

SPEAKER_04 21:15

It is, it really is. It really is. And and and that's that's why when people like like now, like I told somebody the other day, I said the thing that is um chief in my life right now for me to deal with is learning how to exercise restraint when dealing with these folks. And so now I just told people, you know, if you want to believe that, you run with that. I'm not gonna get in your way. I tried, I told you, you know, you know, um, I'm not perfect, but I can tell you the truth. And um, and so we, you know, there's a lot of people, a lot of people. Are gonna be very sorry that they didn't listen to what God's people were saying. A lot of people are gonna be sorry about this. A lot of people. They're gonna wish they had one more day to hear their mother tell them something about the Lord Jesus Christ, one more day to hear from their grandmother or their grandfather, one more day to hear from their girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, wife, whatever. They will long for eternity for one more opportunity to hear that gospel. And they won't get it. They won't get it. And all we can do is look at them and go, was it worth it? If that were possible for us to see that and think the Lord, it probably is not. I'm sure it's not. But man, I read a sermon years ago by a um, I can't remember who wrote it, but it was called Sighs, S-I-G-H-S, Sighs from Hell. And it was one of the most disturbing sermons I ever heard. Because it was awful. It's awful to think about what's gonna happen. People, we talk about hell, people laugh. And you got some Christians don't don't like being laughed at, don't like being mocked, so they start changing the narrative. Well, you know, hell's not eternal now. I gave it some thought and I just I concluded that hell is not eternal, it's not even torment. In fact, it's not even existence. We'll see about that. And that's my answer to people often. We will see. We'll see. Um, somebody else was gonna say something. Uh Sister Grace, go ahead. And then Jeffrey.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

Um, I was just wondering if like at this time if Joe realizes that like um what a blessing it is to be chosen like by God to go through this to go through like such a great suffering. Because I think um, like even myself I'm guilty of this. Like sometimes we forget that um, like basically by God choosing us to go through uh great suffering, like God is basically like bragging about us, like, hey, you know, look look at my good and faithful servant, um, and what they're going through, and yet still they don't uh curse me, you know. Right. Just wondering if Job realizes that.

Personal Providence And Being “Marked”

SPEAKER_04 24:51

I think joke, I think Job does realize that. I think he doesn't understand, he he doesn't understand the gravity or or or the reasons for the onslaught, the sudden onslaught of his affliction. He doesn't understand this why the severity of it. Um he doesn't understand um the cause. He doesn't understand why God's providence is being moved toward him this way. He doesn't understand those things, but you know, um, but I think he knows, as we already read, he knows that God is behind it. This is what he's saying. He knows that God's behind it. And that's the beauty of this book. Because it really is a book about God, not a book about Job. Believe it or not, this is about God, not about Job. Brother Jeffrey, go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 25:43

Well, Jonathan, uh, in all of this, I think for Job and for us, uh, there's something that we need to remember that no matter how much we know about God, what we know his faithfulness, his goodness, his righteousness, his love for us, we still have to give him room to be God. Meaning he's gonna do things in our lives we just don't understand. And this is Job. Right. He's gonna uh allow things to occur that make absolutely zero sense where we are and what we're dealing with at any particular moment. In fact, we may think that the thing he's that's allowed to happen is totally contrary to what's going on in our life and has absolutely no help or assistance to us at all. That's right. But again, but God. So we just have to sit back, and here's the hard part step back, Jonathan, and just let him be God. And I think there's where a lot of Christians, my friend, get into trouble. They want to grab the controls of their life and start manipulating things, trying to change that, change the order that God has, and that's when things can go in the ditch, so to speak. Yep. So we just have to let go, God. All right, you brought this, you take me through it.

Letting God Be God In Our Trials

Exhaustion, Repeated Blows, And Hope

Chained Lions And Certain Salvation

SPEAKER_04 27:07

That's exactly what that's the right, that's that is the ultimate attitude to have. And that that that is what the essence of suffering well really is. Trusting God. Trusting God. And see, you know, like you mentioned, you know, let God, and I know what you mean when you say that. Let God. And what you mean by that in a right, in a right meaning, is that you rest in the fact that he can take the wheel. You're saying, I'm gonna get out of the way, I'm gonna get out of his way and stop making it worse for me. You know, but the thing is, here's the way modern Christianity deals with let God. They let they they let they they consider letting God be exemplified in them, giving him permission to do what he should do to make things better for them. And so the whole idea, you know, the whole modern theme in Christianity today is that God will do and save me. He will do things for me if I let him do it. And I know that's and I know we look at this completely different. We look at it as like, no, when we let God, we're saying we're gonna get out of the way of ourselves, in other words, reduce the friction that we are exhibiting toward God because what he's going to do, he's going to do anyway. So we can go, we can take the, we can take the easy way or we can take it the hard way, but it has a lot to do, but hard or easy has a lot to do with how we take it, how we internalize these things and move beyond. So it's a really great way to really start to assess these things, and Job is really good at it. And Job is a is a great model for dealing with this kind of thing. It's a great model. So in verse 13, two more verses, and then we'll we'll go to the last words. Um, verse 13. He continues what he was saying in verse 12. In verse 12, he's talking about, you know, the um being broken and he was at ease and he was shaken to pieces, and God put his mark upon him. It made him a target. So in verse 13, he says, His archers compass me round about. He cleaves my reins asunder and does not spare. He pours out my gall upon the ground. So Job is depicting his affliction as relentless and all-encompassing. There's nowhere he can turn, nowhere he can go where he is not being affected, impacted by his affliction. His trouble is coming from all directions, and there is no relief, no respite, no peace, no joy, no comfort, nothing. The reference to inward organs expresses the depth of pain that Job is going through. And his outward losses can't be just can't be measured. And so one of the things that I like want to try to convey to the brethren is this be careful when you find yourself in league with the world. Because the world, if if any part of the world or the world system you find acceptable, and they find you acceptable, you got problems. You're gonna have some problems. Beware when the world loves you. And even in and up and and when we talk about the world, we're not just talking about the wicked of the world, we're talking about those who pretend to be Christian and are not. These are the worst kind of beasts to deal with, these are the worst to deal with. And so we have to be careful because nothing can be when we we can get to a point where just nothing, no aspect of our life, our life can be spared. And Job is experiencing that. He he lost everything, and there's nothing in his life that that remained untouched. Everything. Everything was touched by it. And so this verse right here in verse 13, it really points out how complete, it points out how comprehensive Job's affliction and suffering really is bodily, emotionally, spiritually, and it and it and there's nothing left. Every aspect of him has been affected grievously with the torment of this affliction that he's going through right now. Verse 14, our last verse for tonight. He breaks me with breach upon breach, he runs upon me like a giant. So in this section, Job is emphasizing the repeated and the cumulative nature of all of his trials. They just pile up, they just continue to just pile up and pile up and pile up. One calamity after another. No pauses, no reverses, and it seems that it is impossible for recovery. It can feel like that. It can feel like recovery is so far off. You can be having some really extreme trials in your life, and when you're going through them, it seems like forever, that it'll be forever before you will see any relief. And so Job is is dealing with affliction blow after blow after blow, and faith is being tested not only by these heavy blows, but by the repetition of them. You can only take so much. You can only take so much. So the way Job is speaking here, it sort of shows how exhaustion under pressure that has no relief in it, it shows that it can be so unbearable that you might want to die. You might feel like you want to die. But what it does for the believer is that it sets the stage for an appeal to come at a later time, for an appeal that comes beyond the current present suffering, and eventually that appeal, that appeal is going to result in ultimate heavenly vindication for all who believe. The Lord Jesus Christ assured us that by putting our faith in him, that we would have eternal life from that very moment forward. And when you have that guarantee of eternal life, when you have Christ as your surety, when you have the Holy Spirit as the seal, when you have the Father as the one who elected you to salvation, and who elected you not only for the salvation, but he elected all the means that have been appointed to you to go through, like what Job is going through, to get through to the end. No matter how many lions you see on the side of that narrow road that we are walking down, understand something. Both of those lions, all of those lions, all those vicious dogs, all those animals, all those mockers, all those scorners, they will lash out at you, they will scowl and they will bark and they will roar and they will howl. But they will never touch you. They'll never touch you because God has chains on them all. Your salvation is as sure as the knowing that you're going to take your one final breath. Death is certain. And just like death is certain, your eternal life is certain. You belong to Christ, you're in his hands, you're in his father's hands. Christ said that. And they give you some ridiculous, stupid logic, well, you can jump out of their hands if you want to. The whole point of being in the hands of the Lord, period, is to ensure that that cannot happen. That cannot happen. The people that the Lord has set his affections on, the Lord, the people that he loves, the people that he has elected to be found in Christ from before the foundation of the world, to obtain eternal life, they shall be saved with an everlasting salvation that can never be lost or taken. And even you, if you are a true believer, you have no ability, no desire in you to give it up. Because the seed of the Lord is in you.