JOB: GOD IS IN CONTROL

Pastor Jonathan Falwell 

Last week, we started looking at the section of this book where a dialogue began between Job and his three friends; Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. We’re not going to look at every single “back and forth” between these four but we are going to pull out some important thoughts from the conversation which can help us in our times of pain.

1. Human voices are at times the loudest

Job 8:1-4 (NLT) Then Bildad the Shuhite replied to Job: How long will you go on like this? You sound like a blustering wind. 3 Does God twist justice? Does the Almighty twist what is right? 4 Your children must have sinned against him, so their punishment was well deserved.

• Truths to remember:
  • Sometimes our most trusted friends may say the wrong thing
  • Don’t let the loudest voice drown out the wisest voice
  • God sees what no one else can
• It is true that God must punish sin but He punishes not to hurt but because He loves
• Spurgeon said, “When God chastises his children, he does not punish as a judge does; but he chastens as a father.”[i]

2. God’s Word can be trusted

Job 9:1–12 (CSB) Then Job answered: 2Yes, I know what you’ve said is true, but how can a person be justified before God? 3If one wanted to take him to court, he could not answer God once in a thousand times. 4God is wise and all-powerful. Who has opposed him and come out unharmed? 5He removes mountains without their knowledge, overturning them in his anger. 6He shakes the earth from its place so that its pillars tremble. 7He commands the sun not to shine and seals off the stars. 8He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. 9He makes the stars: the Bear, Orion, the Pleiades, and the constellations of the southern sky. 10He does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number. 11If he passed by me, I wouldn’t see him; if he went by, I wouldn’t recognize him. 12If he snatches something, who can stop him? Who can ask him, “What are you doing?”

• Here, Job suggests he’d like to take God to court to plead his case but he knows this is an impossible request as well as a pointless one
• Truths to remember:
  • You may not understand God’s plan, but you can be sure He is in control
  • The world may argue against His goodness, but you can never question His power

Job 9:32-33 For he is not a man like me, that I can answer him, that we can take each other to court. 33 There is no mediator between us, to lay his hand on both of us.

• Job suggests the need for a mediator between God and man

3. God’s hand shaped you and keeps you

Job 10:8–12 (CSB) Your hands shaped me and formed me. Will you now turn and destroy me? 9Please remember that you formed me like clay. Will you now return me to dust? 10Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? 11You clothed me with skin and flesh, and wove me together with bones and tendons. 12You gave me life and faithful love, and your care has guarded my life.

• Martyn Loyd Jones said, “In the most extraordinary way, man’s being made in the image of God made sin possible for him, because of his free personality, because of his free will.”[ii]
• Truths to remember:
  • You are not an accident, God made you exactly the way you are
  • While life might be difficult at times, the hands that shaped you are the hands that hold you
• Tony Evans said, “Some of us need our view of God transformed because the God we claim to believe in is too small. The God of the Bible removes mountains … shakes the earth … stretches out the heavens … and makes the stars. He is the holy Creator of the universe and holds you in the palm of his hand.”[iii]

4. Ignore the lies of the world, including the ones you tell yourself

Job 11:1–6 (CSB) Then Zophar the Naamathite replied: 2Should this abundance of words go unanswered and such a talker be acquitted? 3Should your babbling put others to silence, so that you can keep on ridiculing with no one to humiliate you? 4You have said, “My teaching is sound, and I am pure in your sight.” 5But if only God would speak and open his lips against you! 6He would show you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom has two sides. Know then that God has chosen to overlook some of your iniquity.

Verse 6 (NLT) God is doubtless punishing you

• Truths to remember:
  • The world may try to condemn you, but God’s love is always with you
  • The world may try to destroy you, but God’s mercy always surrounds you
    • Spurgeon said, “God’s mercy is so great that you may sooner drain the sea of its water, or deprive the sun of his light, or make space too narrow, than diminish the great mercy of God”[iv]
  • The world may try to dismiss you, but God’s eyes are always on you
• Andrew Murray – “Faith opens the eyes to see the blessedness of God’s service, the sufficiency of the strength provided, and the rich reward.”[v]

5. Remember, God is in control

Job 12:6–14 (CSB) The tents of robbers are safe, and those who trouble God are secure; God holds them in his hands. 7But ask the animals, and they will instruct you; ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you. 8Or speak to the earth, and it will instruct you; let the fish of the sea inform you. 9Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? 10The life of every living thing is in his hand, as well as the breath of all humanity. 11Doesn’t the ear test words as the palate tastes food? 12Wisdom is found with the elderly, and understanding comes with long life. 13Wisdom and strength belong to God; counsel and understanding are his. 14Whatever he tears down cannot be rebuilt; whoever he imprisons cannot be released.

• Truths to remember:
  • Everything is in His hands and His control
  • There is nothing that escapes His power
  • No matter your circumstances, God is with you
  • He will bring you through every storm 
• Ben Gutierrez – “The example of Job teaches that faith isn’t the absence of hard questions; it’s bringing those questions to God instead of away from Him.”[vi]

[i] Mark Walter, The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations (Hampshire, England: John Hunt Publishers, 2000).

[ii] Tony Sargent, Gems from Martyn Lloyd-Jones: An Anthology of Quotations from “the Doctor” (Milton Keynes, England;  Colorado Springs, CO;  Hyderabad, AP: Paternoster., 2007), 190.

[iii] Tony Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2019), 492.

[iv] Elliot Ritzema and Elizabeth Vince, eds., 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Modern Church, Pastorum Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013).

[v] Andrew Murray, The Complete Guide to Christian Quotations (Uhrichsville, Ohio: Barbour Books, 2011).

[vi] Ben Gutierrez, Strength for the Journey, (Lynchburg: TRBC Publication, 2026), pg. 42.