Page 161 - Job
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angry with his friends. He bows down and he prays for them. He says,
“They were wrong, but I was wrong too. If they could see the Lord as He
has shown Himself to me”. Not by hearsay, but by revelation. So he
begins to pray for his friends. And then he is in his house and he does not
close the door to his family. They come around again after it is all over.
They kicked him when he was down, but now he is up, and rather than
having a chip on his shoulder, he says, come on in, sit down and let’s have
some food together. Oh, I think it is marvelous. God not only blesses the
sufferer, but blessing goes through the sufferer. He becomes a mediator
and a priest to others. He has an opportunity to show love, compassion
and forgiveness to his own family.
I suppose that we could assume that his wife got right with the Lord
because she became the mother of his ten additional children. In chapter
2:9, she gave this tremendous advice. She said, “Curse God and die.”
That demonstrated her spiritual condition. But now God blesses her
through Job, and the blessing spreads again. Do not forget this. It is about
four thousand years since Job lived his two hundred years. He lived as far
on the other side of Bethlehem as we live on this side of Bethlehem. And
here we are, Newport, Rhode Island, sitting in this room four thousand
years later and we are still being blessed because of what Job went
through.
Do you see what I mean when I say God blesses through suffering?
Even the generations that are yet unborn can profit by your life. What you
go through will bless your kids, and your kids will tell their kids, and their
kids will tell their kids. When God throws a stone into your life it is like a
stone into a pond. The ripples keep going and going and going, for
generations. Sometime I get a thrill when I go up in my library and I crack
open some of those old books – 1600’s, 1700’s, 1800’s. Those men have
been in the grave a long time. Do you know why they didn’t get their
rewards yet? Because, they are still earning them. That is why God is
going to reward us all at once. We will earn rewards until the last ripple of
our life dies out. Until the last human being, is influenced by our
testimony. I read some blessing from some old book and I pass that on,
and someone else is blessed and passes that on. That fellow who died a
long time ago is still reaping the benefits. God blesses the sufferer and
blesses through the sufferer. Why does God let me suffer? So I might be
brought from here to there. So that I might see El Shaddai. Why does God
let me suffer? So that others may see El Shaddai through me.
Let me play a little game with you and ask you a question. Again, I speak
foolishly. This would never happen. But let’s say that God came up to
you and said: “Let Me give you a choice. No suffering. Or suffering so
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