When God Responds | Job series part 8

After seasons of suffering, questions, silence, and waiting, there comes a moment when God responds.

In Part 8 of the Rhema Reloaded Job Series, Shean Williams explores one of the most powerful turning points in the Book of Job—the moment God speaks. After enduring loss, pain, misunderstanding, and countless questions, Job finally receives an answer. Yet God's response is not what anyone expected.

This episode examines what happens when God enters the conversation, challenges our perspective, and reveals His sovereignty in the midst of life's greatest trials.

Transcript

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Hello everybody and welcome to Rima Reloaded with me, Sean Williams. It is an honour and a privilege. Guys, we're at the end of the Job series. I know. Some of you are just like, oh my gosh, thank you. And then others are like, no, we want some more. On some Oliver Twist vibes, please, sir. Only joking. So as we culminate towards the end of the series, firstly, I hope that you've all enjoyed it. Secondly, guys, please don't forget the notes. The notes, the notes. This is what's going to help your personal private study. This is not about you sitting here and going, oh my gosh, he knows everything. I definitely don't. I'm just a man or a human like everybody else, right? And I'm sharing with you what the Holy Spirit has shared with me in my own private study, which is why I wanted to give you my thread of study notes, which almost is like breadcrumbs. And as you travel and you make your way, you're like, oh, he left us some bread. Oh, he left us some more bread. I like to leave some bread. But my my main heart's goal and mission is that I provide a platform that you feel comfortable, but more than that, that you're intentional and excited to dive into the word of God and then it becomes alive to you. That's that's the key. Like when I read the word of God, when I study, I see it. I wish I wish I didn't. I actually wish I do, which I'm glad I do. But it's pictures in real time, and it then becomes easy for it to be interactive to me because then I apply it to my everyday life, which then gives it the efficiency in my spiritual relationship, and the growth just happens organically and naturally. This is what I want to happen with you. I want you to be able to use it almost like when we were younger, and we used to get kind of preschool toys or learning materials, and what it does is it sets you up so that when you're in the actual place of either nursery or reception or key stage one, key stage two, it kind of helps to lay some foundations so that when you stand, you feel secure, you feel um steady, especially in an environment that may be new to you. Alright, so um doing this job series has been amazing, and I think we're up to episode eight just in this particular series. We will also make sure that we put it in its own little playlist so you can just go and it's all there. Um, but we're going to culminate today with um the response. I was trying to think of a really cool quirky name to call today's Bible study, um, and I didn't really come up with one. Um but as a working title, we'll call it When God Responds. The reason why I think it's really important to use the term and the word responding is because many of us, when we find ourselves, and also we'll we'll use Job as our subject matter, when we find ourselves going through really tough situations, the hardest thing to do is to respond. Why? Because responding means that you have to take the time to reduce the emotional output in the situation that's going on, and to reduce the emotional output means that you don't ignore or dismiss your feelings, but what you don't do is overinvest to the point that you then act based on what you're feeling. Why? We know that feelings change depending on what's happening in and around our environment, so it's silly to be or it is not prudent, I love that word, prudent, um, to be reactive because what reactivity does is it betrays your worst fears. That's what reactivity does. Because what the body does is, or the mind, the will and the emotion, which is your soul, which is your mind, which is your emotional palate, what it does is it sends answers based off of your receptors that are connecting you to the world around you. Don't worry, I know that sounded really complicated, I'll make it make sense. So, your body, your physical self is governed by what? Your five senses, right? Taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing. Okay. So anytime that you are aroused emotionally, okay, then you become reactive because the brain in a split second is calculating what's happening around you. You're then telling your brain how you feel about that, and then your brain is giving you an option of action executions to present in that moment. What response does, response tells the action execution, no no no, give me the information, I'll push the button. Emotionality pushes the button for you. Responsibility, I love that, and responsiveness, what it does is it holds the the automatic override for your emotion to then lead you based on what you want to do. Job is in the crux of this, okay? Because not only is has he throughout the whole of our Bible study nice series, not only has he been having to deal with the emotional reactivity of his environment and his situation and his circumstance, he's also having to deal with the opinions. Oh my god, ain't nothing worse when you're going through some stuff and you deal with some people and their opinions are so far removed from what you think, believe, or is even the truth. We saw it in our Bible study. Job's friends, they were telling him that the reason he was going through what he was going through was because of what they had perceived through their perspective what his wrongdoings were. And we know from chapter one, Job hadn't done nothing wrong. He hadn't done one thing wrong. Job was a byproduct of a conversation that God was having in the heavenlies, and he was using Job in his little gambit where he raised the devil and was just like, listen, bro, like you're gonna get cooked. Job knows exactly what it is, but yet those closest to Job did not have the same perception of him that God did. There's something deep in there. Sometimes those closest to you are the ones with the worst or the most inaccurate perception of you, and it's often those that are non-visual to you that have a true understanding and revelation of who you are. Yay or nay, yay, how can I back this up and tell you that this is true? In the Old Testament, Caleb and Joshua are sent to spy up the land of Canaan. Are they not? Yes, they are. And when they came back with their report, what happened? The other spies said, Yo, yo, there are giants, giants over there. We shouldn't go do this. He said, and when we looked compared to them, we're grasshoppers, and then they said, when we looked in our own eyes, we were grasshoppers, right? This was the report that they brought back to Moses on the eve of going into Cana, the promised land, the thing that generations of their their their elders had died for, they come in, and at the most critical moment, the report that they want to give is nah. I reckon we might want to turn back, lads. Thank God for Joshua and Caleb got like no no no no no. What they're saying in there is in there, but we can go get that. Also, what happened in that moment? Remember when Joshua and Caleb when they snuck in to the location, they snuck into the city. Who was it that um looked after them? It was a prostitute that gave them shelter and cover. Rahab. It wasn't anybody that had Rahab said to Joshua and Caleb, she was like, We've heard about what your God has been doing. We heard about what he did at the Red Sea, we heard about what he did to the Egyptians, we heard about the battles that you fought all your way from Egypt to here. She was just like, We're gonna be honest, we're a little bit scared. So imagine those that did not know them had a sense and a perception. What does that tell you that sometimes the help that you're looking for is not gonna come from familiar places? Oh, sometimes I just want to jump around and break stuff. The help that you are looking for is not gonna come from familiar places. And there will be moments when the strength to endure is not gonna come from sources of friendship, it's got to come from your belief, your faith, your unwavering anchored belief that though he slay me, yet I will trust him. That's what Job said. Job got to the place where he said, you know what, kill me. But if you think I'm gonna talk against God, no. And this is why we get to the point in Job chapter 38, where the Lord is now ready to respond to Job. At this point, Job has reached out and cried out to God 36 times. 36 times. Interesting to note. Interesting to note. 36 times? What would you do 36 times? I reckon after the second or third time, most of us will be like, cooked. I guess I'm just gonna have to deal with this on my own. Job didn't 36 times he cried out to God and was just like, why? So much of the middle portion of the book of Job is that poetry, it is that prayer, it is that supplication, it is that yearning for an understanding of answers that aren't to be given. Why? Because sometimes suffering and pain can feel unbearable. And the only way that Job was able to bear it, though he wasn't even aware that this is what was happening, was when he went and dug into his spirit and realized that the strength of his spiritual relationship wasn't in what he could see around him, but what he knew was living on inside of him. So, Job chapter 38, and I'm gonna pick it up from verse 1, and it says, Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? He said, Gird up now thy loins like a man, for I will demand of thee and answer thou me. Imagine God turning around and going, So you're on the big man thing, yeah? You. You're on the big man thing. You okay, cool, stand up then. You know when a man tells you to stand up, you're like, Oh, this could be a little bit. This is what God says to Job. He says, Go then, stand up. And he says, I will ask of thee, I will demand of thee, and you will answer me. And the first question God says is, Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if you have understanding. He said, Who hath laid the measures thereof if you know? He goes, or who stretched the line upon it? He said, Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the cornerstone thereof? God went on to say, He said, When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy, he says, Or who shut up the sea with doors? When it break forth as if it had issued out of the womb, when I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it, and break up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors. God takes Job out of the subjectivity of the moment and he takes him into the objectivity of his responsibility of creator of all things. God took Job out of time. Right? Because all of Job's conversation is based on what? What's happened to him in the period of time between God having a conversation with the sons of God and then Job being coming the victim or the centerpiece of a conversation that God had with his heavenly administration team. And what God does, he sits there and says, I understand the subjectivity of what you're feeling, but let me now make you understand the objectivity of who I am. So what God is saying to Job is all of this responsibility I had to basically manage, shape, and create the world that you're now enjoying, living in, and in this present time hating. He goes, So when that when those schematics were being made, Job, where were you? Vis-a-vis, God is saying, Job, your pain is only relevant based on the moment that you're in. He's he's he's alluding to Job, you do not have the capacity to see beginning, middle, and end. You only have the capacity to see now. And through historical writings, we're able to see what happened in the past, and sometimes through um what we call forecasting, we're able to get an idea of what we may think may happen in the future. But here is God without any uncertainty, indecision or doubt, asking him where were you when I set the foundations of the earth in place? Where were you when I took insurmountable, innumerable parts of water, even today? As we know, there are parts of the ocean that we cannot explore or get to, because the pressure there is too much. We saw the tragedy of that American-owned company that sent that submarine down to go and explore the Titanic, and we know that when it got to a certain depth, that the pressure caused that thing to crumple like a can. This, with all our technology, with all our money, with all of our intelligence, we have still not managed to understand what God is talking about here millennia ago, to Job saying, I will show you, I'll read it to you again. Where is it? Verse 8, where God says, or who shut up the sea with doors? This is what God is saying to Job. He said, Or who shut up the sea with doors, that when it came forth as it as if it had been issued out of the womb. God is saying, Job, there are underwater pockets that I made because the certain the mass of water, if I let everything just flow the way it wanted to, it would flood everything. Which is why when the Bible says that the cisterns of the deep, these are the underwater doors that um that were opened when the flood happened. When we speak of Noah's flood, these are the things that came forth because the Bible said not only did the rain come from the heaven, it came from under the earth. What is God trying to explain to Job in this? Firstly, Job, there are some things you aren't gonna understand. Rule number one when you are going through and you're having a moment of sustained trial, there are things that you are not going to understand. There are things you're not supposed to understand. Why? Because trust has nothing to do with understanding. Understanding is not a prerequisite of trust, obediences. I'm gonna say that to you one more time because what I said was deep. Understanding is not a prerequisite of trust, obediences. Why? For those of you that are young, or for those of us that were young, or for those of you that have kids, there are certain actions, there are certain rules, there are certain bits of information you'll give to your child. So you'll say to your child, do not put your fingers in the plug socket. Now, at three or four or two, that child doesn't have the capacity to understand the technical reasons as to how the electrical current is made, and if they put their fingers in there, how they can become electrocuted. So, what you do is you give them that information in a serious way so that they understand that there is real danger attached to that thing. But what you're doing is you're not trying to make them understand per se what is going on with the electrical workings of the plug the plug socket. Really has a bit of a tongue twister. But what you're hoping happens is that their understanding of how you're delivering that information means that even though they don't understand it, they are going to obey because they trust that you know for them what they can't discern for themselves. Don't you think it's quite gangster that God don't answer Job's question? I do. I love that. That's the kind of stuff I do. You come to me all crying, where were you? Why didn't you be there for me? You swore you would, and then I'd be like, Where were you when I was making The Last Thing? When I'm in my house and I'm working when I know that you're sitting there dribbling on yourself, where were you when I was doing X, Y, and Z? Or in fact, I'll tell you what, tell me how element of P works. Q R F T P N S. Oh, you don't know. Ah, so then maybe you need to take over and wonder what it is that I was maybe putting in place, which is why sometimes when we pray, not that God, God hears us, right? Because the Bible tells us that when you pray and it's earnest, that God is not um, that we don't have a high priest that can't be touched by infirmities, he can be, but I also believe that there are moments where when we're praying, if it was a physical thing, God's just like there, there, and he ain't answering. Because he's sitting there and he's wondering, why are you trying to figure out what I've already worked out? Why are you trying to take on more responsibility than what I've actually laid on you? And instead of sometimes coming to God and saying, God, I can't see it in this moment. Instead of saying God, my faith is wavering because even though your word tells me that faith is a substance of things hoped for, my well of hope has nothing in it. I'm drawing, and as I'm drawing, nothing is coming out. But I trust you beyond what I don't understand. I trust you beyond what I can't see. I trust you beyond what I can't explain. Because your word tells me that you'll never leave me nor forsake me. Your word tells me that your Holy Spirit will always abide with me. Your word tells me that lo you are with me even until the end of the earth. So then your relationship comes down to a very, very simplistic equation. Will you or will you not trust him? The only reason that God talks to Job. And remember, he doesn't answer what Job is asking him. Because Job wants to know why my kids die, why is my wife crazy? Why do my friends think that I'm I'm this person? Why has all this stuff happened to me? God doesn't answer any of that. But because Job never lost his integrity, because Job never sinned against God, because Job, even though he didn't understand, Job wasn't happy. It's not like Job was sitting in a situation going, God's gonna work it out. Oh, everything's gonna be alright. Oh, I know he will. Job didn't know he will. Job was actually praying for death. He was like, look, just kill me. Do you remember when we read early on? Job was like, cursed today. He said to the boobies that gave me milk. He said he did. You can read it. He said, I think the words he used, um, uh, may the the the the paps that nursed me, may they be job was cursing it all. But in everything that he didn't understand, he never discounted his relationship with God. Even though he couldn't see the plan and the vision and the work, he sat there and he said, There is hope for a tree. Though it be cut down, and the stock, which means the stump of it, though it wax, though it wax old, yet the smell of water, that means Job was saying that you see sometimes when you're going through it, you don't even need the medicine, you just need the atmosphere to be induced with the medicine. That's what he's saying. Because for a tree to sniff water, water is in the atmosphere around us, and he was just saying, if that tree can get in the atmosphere of life, what is it that you're going through that is causing you to break yourself away and to isolate yourself and the Holy Spirit saying, No, no, no, get in the atmosphere of change, get in the atmosphere of faith, get in the atmosphere of peace. You can find it in this scripture that there is hope for a tree, that though it be cut down yet, the smell of water, it will sprout and bud again. So, Job here, and I want to go through uh a little bit more of what God had to say. Um, verse 12, and I'm just gonna read right through, and we're we're gonna get into the end of this particular episode because I feel like everything that you need to read, this is just me kind of setting the plan, and this is about you really diving in. He said, um, verse 9, or actually verse 8, or who shut up the sea with doors when it break forth as if it had issued out of the womb, when I made the cloud, the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it. And he says, And break up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed. You know what God's talking about right here, right? Have you never seen when the tide comes in and out? And we look at the tide? God has given you the secrets of creation and nature right here, right here. Verse 13, um, verse 12 Hast thou commanded the morning since the days, and caused the day spring to know its place? That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it. It is turned as clay to the seal, and they stand as a garment, and from the wicked their light is withholden, and the high arm shall be broken. Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea, or hast thou walked in the search of the death? Have the gates of death been opened unto thee, or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death? Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? Declare if thou knowest it all. Where is the way where light dwelleth? And as for darkness, where is the place thereof? That thou shouldst take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldst know the paths to the house thereof. Knowest thou it because thou wast then born, or because the number of thy days is great? Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow, or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war? By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth? Who have divided a water course for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder, to cause it to rain on the earth where no man is, on the wilderness wherein there is no man, to satisfy the desolate and waste ground. God is saying that even where there seems to be no life, I still manage it, Job. I look after so much more than you can even imagine. And yet, with all that responsibility, I still manage to look after you. That's what that's the real crux of what God is saying to Job. The reason he doesn't go in and answer all of Job's emotional reactive questions, is because he's just like all you pray to me about is what you're going through. Let me explain what I'm handling before you come to me. And after I've explained to you what I'm handling before you come to me, know that even when you come to me, whilst I'm handling what you could never imagine or fathom, I still have time to look after you. And amongst everything you're going through, God has still made it his business to look after you. Are you looking after the sweet gift of salvation that he gave you? Are you developing your relationship? Are you strengthening your faith? Or are you merely relying on the reactivity of the moment? God is bigger than your moment. God is bigger than your pain. He understands it. He feels because he loves you. But he needs you to trust him beyond what you can understand. That's the key of Job's story. That Job trusted him beyond what his senses were informing him. So today's question will you trust God beyond what you know and allow him to be who he is? Because he can do anything but fail. Let's pray. God, thank you. For life, love, joy, and peace. More so for the moments that we don't understand, because that's where you do your best work and you teach us relationships. Understanding is not a prerequisite of trust. Obedience is. God, we give you preeminence. God, we give you full access to sit on the seat of our soul's consciousness. God, you reign. We're your assistant. We thank you for everything that you do because there is no evil or wicked thing that you have ever laid for us, set for us, planned for us. But we know in these moments where these things happen, God, you are the ultimate way of escape. For those who whose hearts and minds are traumatized or they're grieving, God, give them comfort. Let them feel your love, your joy, and your peace. As we say thank you in all things. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Guys, please don't forget to like, subscribe, share, comment. Pass this on to somebody that could use it, needs it. We'll see you next time.