God’s Purpose in a Variety of Testings: Financial and Material Loss

God's Purpose in a Variety of Testings: Financial and Material Loss

Let's take our Bibles and turn to Job chapter 1 this evening. We're going to continue to look at God's purpose and a variety of testings that He sends to our lives. I'd like to turn to Job chapter 1 together this evening. I'm sure there have been a lot of messages preached from Job chapter 1 over the years, haven't there? From the book of Job in general, but on Job chapter 1, we find a man who was tried, probably at least the record of his testings was more well recorded than in many other people in the scriptures.

So in Job chapter 1, let's begin in verse 1. There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was 7,000 sheep and 3,000 camels and 500 yoke of oxen and 500 she-asses and a very great household so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the East. And his sons went and feasted in their houses every one his day and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. It was so when the days of their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts, thus did Job continually.

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them, and the Lord said unto Satan, whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord and said from going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth? Perfect and an upright man that feared God and eschewed evil? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, doth Job fear God for naught? Hast thou not made a hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thy hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, behold, all that he hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth thy hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.

And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house and there came a messenger unto Job and said the oxen were plowing and the asses feeding beside them and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them away. They have slain the servants with the edge of the sword and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking there came also another and said the fire of God has fallen from heaven and hath burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking there came also another and said the Chaldeans made out three bands and fell upon the camels and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking there came also another and said thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house and behold there came a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young men and they are dead and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

Then Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground and worshipped and said naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly.

I want to see tonight God's purpose in taking away financial and material possessions from us. Job, I would say I haven't really gone scorched earth through the scriptures on this but in my recollection I can't think of anybody where it's such a drastic loss—financial, material loss, not even to speak of the family loss that he had, but just from a purely possession standpoint, his possessions. His financial means of maybe selling some of these animals or using them for food and feeding the servants, feeding his household, being the Lord had blessed him. We count up the number of animals he had—11,500 animals. Let that sink in, 11,500 animals gone, either killed or taken or whatever it was that happened to each one of them, they were gone.

I think about, in the, we just raise very small animals compared to this because we have about an acre property and we have a livestock guardian dog. We have about 50 chickens right now and we have, I don't know how many rabbits, 15, 20, 25 right this minute but with the bunnies that are in there. They're small animals and if you lose a chicken, it's sad but it's a chicken. It's not a herd of cattle, you know. But here we have, if you lose a cow, I think about people. We've known people that unexpectedly lost a large livestock animal like that or multiple large animals within a very short window of time. That is not only a financial loss, it is a huge financial loss but it's very emotional when you go through that, you know, because sometimes these, especially, I don't get too emotionally attached to the chickens. But, I mean some people do, but when I tell you, you know that would be a huge loss just to lose three or four animals at one time, to say nothing of 11,500. And then on top of that to lose very many servants and to lose your children and to lose your wife in her, at least in her sanity of mind. He said, honey, you're speaking like one of the foolish women would speak about this. You're not thinking right about this, honey.

Well, we see that loss is part, you know, death is part of living, right? But this is a level beyond what we could probably even comprehend. But what was the response of Job? Well, first of all, before we see what the response of Job was, look at what Satan, the accuser of the brethren, had to say about him. He said, remember what we read in verse 9, that Satan answered the Lord and said, does Job fear God for naught? No, he serves you because you've given him lots of goodies. He serves you because he's doing well. He's got 11,500 animals. That's why he serves you. He serves you because you gave him a lot of kids. He serves you because he's got lots of servants. Everything's going well for Job. That's why he's serving you. And he says, you have made a hedge about him, about his house.

You know, sometimes people have the impression, even us Christians, we can have the impression because we serve God, God won't ever allow anything real bad to happen to us, right? Just because we serve God, he's not going to allow bad things to happen. Bad things happen to good people that serve God. We're not good in and of ourselves, of course, but as far as those who are trusting in the Lord, even trusting in the Lord, God will allow catastrophic things sometimes to happen to our lives. But as we saw the other week, it's not without purpose and not without it. It's not outside of his appointments for our lives.

Well, Job, Satan said, thou hast blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath. You take away money and material possessions from him. He'll, his tune will change is what Satan says. But what was Job's response? I came into this world without anything. I came to this world naked. I came to this world, I didn't have a thing. The Lord even gave me the life and the breath that I have. And I'm going to go back to the dust in the same way. And I won't be able to take anything with me. But the Lord is giving and the Lord is taking away. Praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Probably his eyes were filled with tears as he said that. Probably very difficult for him to come out of his lips in one sense because of the tears streaming down his face, I can't even imagine losing one child to say nothing of all your children at once. All of them. And yet he recognizes that God gave him everything.

So this is a lesson for us. You're going to have, you're sure you already have had, but you're going to have financial material loss in your life. Don't forget to praise the Lord even when he takes away the blessings that he's given. Recognize he's the one that gave it to us in the first place. We wouldn't have anything to begin with if it wasn't for God's blessings.

But look in Ruth, we're looking and turn with me to the book of Ruth. Just want to read a few words here at the beginning of this. In Ruth, chapter one, verse one, now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land. We know what happens when famines come, don't we? The crops get messed up. Things are not growing well or there could be famine, there could be a drought, there could even be pestilence. The locusts came in, we were talking about that just earlier at the meal. I said, all the wonderful things God has given us—butter and honey and all these things to eat, milk and so on and so forth. And I was mentioning that Dad used to talk to us about John the Baptist, the locusts and wild honey and said he probably dipped those locusts in that wild honey and ate them like that. Well, we don't read that he did that but he ate locusts and wild honey and it was interesting to think, well if we had a pestilence, if we had an invasion of locusts, I guess we might have to go out eating the locusts that way if they eat up all the crops.

Well, this was a very bad situation, what are we going to do? Then like I said, there's a famine in the land, I've got to feed my family and we don't read anything about him stopping to pray and say Lord what would you have us to do? Where would you have us to go? They just pick up and they go to Moab. Moab? Well, it's obvious that God made a way for some to stay back in Bethlehem because we have Boaz who stayed in Bethlehem, the Lord provided for him somehow. Could it have been if Elimelech had prayed about the matter, maybe the Lord would have said well there's a kinsman over here, Boaz, maybe you can help him out and see if the Lord would provide through that means instead of going to Moab. Sometimes we tend to panic when bad things happen and we could bolt and run in the wrong direction, maybe not where the Lord wants us to be. We try to come up with a solution in our own understanding before we stop and pray Lord, what would you have us to do? What steps would you have us to take? Where do you want us to be? I know this is a difficult situation but Lord, it didn't take you by surprise that this difficult thing arose so where would you have us to go? It's easy for us to look back at Elimelech and say that at this point in time, right? But it's true. It's true that sometimes we run ahead of the Lord.

God will take care of us. It may be that God, as we saw with Jacob and his children, would end up, he would end up having to go down to Egypt eventually and God had already made a plan to provide for them through that way. It's not always necessarily wrong to go but don't make that the knee-jerk reaction, well we're just going to run through the world. You know, kind of like Ahaz, we saw recently, he just ran to Assyria for help instead of the Lord to provide the answer right there through Isaiah. I'm going to take care of you. I want to give you the victory over Ephraim and Syria if you'll trust me. No, he wanted instead to pawn off the precious things of the temple and get Assyria on his side to help him against Syria and Ephraim. Well, don't run ahead of the Lord when you go through and don't, we might say pray, pray and be patient as we go through those things.

I think about the widow that we read of in Luke 21, if you turn it over there with me, Luke 21, verse number one. What we see with this woman is that she didn't have much. In Luke 21, verse one, you remember the words there and Jesus looked up and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. Tax write-off. Just putting a little bit in here and there, but doing it in an ostentatious sort of way, doing it in a, look at me, look what I'm putting in, everybody, everybody's paying attention now, kind of like sounding the trumpet before them. Where the Lord said, when you do your alms, don't let your right hand know what your left hand's doing, don't do it to be seen of men, don't draw attention to yourself. Well, these, we see this, these rich men were casting their gifts in, but he saw also a certain poor widow. She was on hard financial times, right. She didn't have much and she was casting in thither two mites and he said of a truth, I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all for all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God, but she, of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.

We read these words and I don't think it's the Lord's intention for us to say, well, got my paycheck, let me go put all of it into offering point. It's not necessarily what the Lord is getting at here. The point he's making is that the contrast and the way she gave versus the way the Pharisees were giving. The Pharisees were hoping someone would notice their gifts. Look at how benevolent I am. But this woman wasn't making any show about it and she was giving sacrificially, she was trusting God in her giving. She was trusting in the Lord even though she didn't have much. One thing we can draw away from or take away from this is that even in times of financial burden, even in times of financial difficulty, we shouldn't stop trusting the Lord with giving. We shouldn't stop trusting the Lord with our giving. I don't think this passage is prescribing the amount we're to give but it's describing the spirit with which we should give. It's describing how we should trust the Lord. When we give, we should do it as unto the Lord, not unto men, not to be seen of men, not to draw the applause of men but giving in faith, right? That's what this woman was doing. She was giving in faith. She was trusting the Lord knows my situation. I'm not going to say, well, I can't give anymore because I'm going through hard times. I'm going to just kind of hold off until everything gets better, not give.

Well, look at 2 Corinthians 9. You know it well but let's look at it anyway. 2 Corinthians 9 verse 7. Paul says, every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly. I guess I better give. You know, I guess I better put my money in towards the Lord's work. No, not grudgingly or of necessity for God loveth a cheerful giver. It would be better not to give at all than to give grudgingly and just because well, people are watching, I guess I better do it. You know, all of these kinds of things. Even in the previous verse, what does it say? He who soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Then Paul also told the Philippians, he says, but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. He will supply all your need. You will not. And that was after they had given to him, right? They had given to the Lord's work. Paul was not going around just soliciting funds to enrich himself. That was not at all his heart.

In fact, what we see is that both the Philippians, as well as the Corinthians, were giving to the needs of the brethren of the church in Jerusalem that were under persecution there and going through great difficulty in their situation. I think about the early church in the book of Acts, it was not socialism. It was willing participation among those that saw need and God just laid upon their hearts and they gave. There was need and the apostles distributed to the needs of the brethren there in the early church. Some didn't have anything. Others had more. So those as the Lord prospered and as they purposed in their heart to give, they gave. And that's why Ananias and Sapphira, the Lord was very displeased with them because they were wanting to appear that they were giving something that they weren't actually giving, right? They wanted to give the impression that they were giving more than they actually were and that is very much similar to what we see the problem was with the Pharisees here. Those religious individuals who were casting in their monies, their gifts into the treasury but doing it in the wrong spirit.

The Lord, like Paul says, if we, without charity, I am nothing, without charity. I can give even my body to be burned but if I have not charity, if it's not for the love of God and loving my brother in what I'm doing, then I'm just like a clanging cymbal. I'm really not glorifying God and not accomplishing anything in God's sight and eternity's view. But looking at 2 Corinthians chapter 8, if you will, we're right here at it. 2 Corinthians chapter 8, we see this encouraging thing that we read about the Macedonians and that includes that region where Philippi was up in the north, you know, Achaia, the south, and Macedonia in the north of what is now modern day Greece. We notice there it says in verse 1, 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 1, moreover brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, the grace of God that was bestowed there. What about it? How that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty, abounded unto the riches of their liberality.

They were going through a lot of trials and in the middle of their trials they were still giving. They were glad to give and make a donation toward the needs of the impoverished needy brethren back in Jerusalem. They were glad to do this for to their power, I bear record, yea and beyond their power. They were willing of themselves praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of ministering to the saints. They were thinking about others. They were thinking about the Lord's work. They were not thinking about themselves with poor us. Even when times get better, when everything is going smooth and we don't have any troubles in our life, then we'll get back to helping other people and doing the Lord's work. That's the mindset those that have returned from captivity and stopped building the temple, right? That's the mindset they had and they needed to snap out of it. They needed to have Haggai and Zechariah to come in and say, the Lord is not helpless. He will help you to do the right thing even though these are fearful times. You've got to move forward and you've got to get back to the building of the temple.

The same thing with us. We can make a million and one excuses for not giving or not serving the Lord just because well, we're going through financial woes. We're going through any number of things. But tonight we're talking about financial and material setbacks in our lives. I think about the widow going back to the Old Testament, the widow of Zarephath and how she just had a little oil in the cruse and a little meal in the barrel that was left and she was thinking this is the end of the road for us. Then Elijah comes along and says, can I have something to eat? Well, sorry, we're going through hard times. We can't help you. No? The Lord used that woman with their last meal to provide for the needs of that brother and the prophet of the Lord and yet the Lord through that provided for that widow and her son, didn't he? He will supply all our needs. Does it say we'll always have more than we need, but he'll supply our needs. We may not always have 11,500 animals, but he will supply our need according to his riches in glory. Just when we need it most, how many times have we seen it? His grace has brought us safe thus far and his grace will lead us home. That does include the financial provisions that we need in our lives. He will make the provision. We might have to go without some things at times. Sure, we all have. Go without some things at times, but the Lord will never leave us, nor forsake us, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. The Lord is my helper.

Well, that widow trusted God even in the times of her great poverty and her son's great need in their lives. So we need to remember tonight, I just want to recap what we've seen thus far this evening. We need to remember, and I'm going to look at my notes so I don't forget what we said, but we need to remember that everything we have comes from the Lord. Job taught us that, right? Everything we have comes from the Lord. If he chooses to take some of it or all of it, we should still praise him and trust his wise plan, right? He did praise the Lord. That should be our instinct, our immediate response, Lord. I don't know what you're doing, but I praise your name. When financial troubles come, we don't need to turn to man and to man solutions first. We need to get on our knees and say, Lord, show me the way. What about it? What to do next? Don't immediately run to Moab for help, you know. Ask the Lord's direction, turn to him in prayer, and only proceed with the peace in your heart, knowing that this is the next step, I believe, the Lord wants us to take here in this thing.

And then just because you're experiencing financial troubles, don't stop giving. Don't stop giving to the Lord, and don't forget about others. You know, I guess I can talk about these people because they're not here. I'm not trying to flatter somebody tonight, but Sister Donna was sharing that Donna Crickmore, even with all she's going through with her husband at this time and still said things like, you know, during the storm, if your power goes out or something, you're more than welcome to come over here to stay with us. You know, even though they're going through things, and we all go through things, we should still be thinking on the things of others, right? And thinking about the needs of others is so natural for us to just turn in, we're to think about ourselves, right? Well, poor me in this and that and the other, but when the love of Christ is filling our hearts, then we think on the things of others, not just on our own things, even when we're going through difficulties.

The scripture makes it clear that our purpose in life is not to just amass treasure for ourselves. Lay not up treasures on this earth. That doesn't mean we don't have anything, but don't make that your goal in life. Set not your heart upon riches. Don't set your eyes upon them. What does the scripture say? They make wings and fly away. They make wings and fly away. Don't make that the goal of your living. They were not to be rich. May that not be your aim and goal in life that I want to be rich. Now, give us this day our daily bread. I think of the words of Agur over in Proverbs where he said, Lord, give me neither riches nor poverty, right? But if I have riches, I'll be tempted to forget you, Lord, and if I have poverty, I'll be tempted to steal. Lord, just meet my needs. And that was the attitude that Agur had that we saw there.

God is not pleased with us when we seek before His kingdom first in our lives, if we put financial abundance above spiritual abundance. When we put finances ahead of Him, it does not please Him. God will, He's so often done in our lives, give us, especially as we look at us here in the United States, we have more than we need. We really do. And sometimes we might scrape by in situations. Yes, we all have and do at times, but we really have above and beyond unnecessary food, don't we? We have above and beyond just a simple shelter over our heads. We have so much. We must remember that even when God prospers us like He did Job, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away. He can take it away from us as quickly as He gave it to us. May the Lord help us not to set our heart upon riches, not to set our eyes upon them, but to set our eyes upon Him, to get our eyes on the Lord.

And if He takes it away, let's not lose, let's not lose or leave off a hospitable spirit or maybe God's grace, we prove that that will wrong as we see with Job. May we not be what the devil, the accuser of the brethren, wants to think we are and say, well, if you take away the goodies in their life, they'll forget about you. No, may we say, as Job said, though He smite me yet, will I trust in Him. Though He takes away, I don't think any of us have 11,500 of anything for the Lord to take away from us, but He might take, I think about people in this recent snow in this harbor, EMS and fire to get to the houses and some places burned down to the ground. There was a couple of places locally, one in Wilson, I think, one in Spring in the snow barrier, people lost everything they had, just like that. You think they were thinking that we're going to lose it all an hour before that? Probably not, but they did. Maybe we know that no matter what we may lose financially, we can't lose the Lord, He's always there with us and He will survive.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this wonderful reminder we have tonight in Job's life that even when you take things away from us, Lord, we know that the devil cannot take away our constant companion from us, neither death nor height nor angels or principalities nor things present or things to come. None of these things can separate us from the love of God in Christ. We thank you for that reminder that we have in Romans chapter 8. We thank you, Lord, for these principles we've seen tonight about how we need to respond when these material trials and tests come to our lives. Help us to have a right mind and a right response to these things and we'll give you the glory for it in Jesus' name. Amen.