Those who are saved have eternal life. When a true saint sins, God expects them to confess the sin to Him and seek forgiveness. When a true saint tries to ignore their sin, God will chasten them to bring them to repentance.
The lost are not so. God’s hand works in their lives as well. However, He does not chasten the lost as He does the saved. They are not His children and they are treated different than a true child of God. They are convinced of their sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Lost people need to come to see they are lost and in need of a Saviour.
It is a blessing to be a true child of God. It is also good to know that a true child of God cannot flee from God. A true child of God might want to flee from God, as Jonah tried. We learn there that God does not allow His child to get away from Him. There is no place of refuge outside of the hand of the true God. It is a blessed fact to know that God cares enough for His own that He will not allow them to perish. They are His. He has bought them with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In verse 8 Job acknowledged that God’s hands fashioned him. Genesis 2 tells us of God’s work of forming Adam. We are all descendants of Adam. God took great care in making man. He did not do that to destroy man. He did that to have man glorify Him. Man is God’s special creation.
Job assumed that God was out to destroy him, after he made him. Job was wrong. God was not out to destroy him. God was giving Job an opportunity to draw closer to him and to prove to Satan that a true child of God will remain a true child of God. Job did not “lose his salvation” but he was guilty of questioning God’s ways.
In verse 9 Job was trying to remind God of how he was made. God does not need to be taught anything. God does not forget how He made man. God knows that we came from the dust and we are going back to the dust. Our time on earth is short and very fragile. Job was questioning why God would go to the trouble of making him if He was just going to turn him back to dust. We need to know the true God and trust in Him for all things.
Death came upon man due to the sin of Adam. It was true that Job was going to die one day. However, that did not mean God was a failure in creating man. God provided physical life for man, but He also provided spiritual life for man. Man was created to live forever in the Garden. When man sinned, God drove him out of the Garden and set a watch at the entrance to the Garden. Man died spiritually when he sinned, and he would die physically due to his sin. However, God provided the means for man to be born again. Jesus Christ provides salvation for all who will turn to God in repentance and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
In verse 10 Job accused God of pouring him out like milk. Spilt milk soaks into the ground. It will turn sour if not washed away. It cannot be used by man. Job also accused God of curdling him like cheese. Milk goes through a process to be turned into cheese. Job did not like the process he was going through.
Job noted that God had formed him and clothed him with skin and flesh. God had made a skeleton of bones and formed the sinew to hold the bones together. Man would not function well at all without that structure.
In verse 12 Job understood that he was accountable to God. God gave him life and favour. Job had had some good years. He had come to know the true God and he had been blessed with family and material blessings. He was not like his three friends or like the enemies that came and stole his possessions and killed his servants and family. He had the blessing of being visited by God. Job had welcomed God into his life.
In verse 13 Job admitted that God knew all about what he had just said. Job was not teaching God anything. He was complaining out loud. He wondered about some things about God. He questioned some of God’s ways. However, he did not abandon God. A true child of God does not walk away from God.
There are too many accounts of people who once professed to believe in God, but then seemingly walked away from Him. The Bible tells us that those who turn away from God and demonstrate a rejection of Him, after claiming to know Him, prove that they never knew Him. The Bible is very clear that a person cannot lose their salvation. True salvation is a gift from God. True salvation is not a license to sin. Those who live for the world, but claim to be saved, are deceived. They demonstrate they are not saved. Words without appropriate actions are worthless.
James reminds us that faith without works is dead. James does not teach works salvation. He teaches that those who are saved will demonstrate that salvation by following God’s way. No one will argue with God after death. Job understood this. He also knew that no one can argue with God while alive on this earth. Some of Job’s words were a waste of breath. He was trying to find shortcomings in God when there are none to be found. The shortcoming was in Job. He lacked the understanding he needed to trust God in the midst of this testing he was facing. He demonstrated with his words that he knew better than what he was saying. He just needed some help to stick with what he knew to be true.
This is again why the true local church is so important. A person who wants to be an isolated “Christian” will soon fall apart. His or her theology will be way off base. A true Christian needs to be challenged in their thinking to be sure it is right. That is where a true church that preaches the true Word of God is necessary. There is no substitute for that. In order to avoid the frustration that Job was expressing, be sure you are saved and get into a good church where you can grow and serve the Lord. You will never regret that.
Pastor Bartel