(Through The Bible) – Book Of Job (Part 2): Zac Poonen (Transcript)

Full text of Zac Poonen’s teaching on ‘Book of Job (Part 2)’ which is part of the popular series called Through The Bible.

Listen to the MP3 Audio here:

TRANSCRIPT:

Zac Poonen – Bible Teacher

Somebody asked me once: which translation of the Bible I use.

Now, there are many good translations. The one I use — when I started studying the Scriptures 40 years ago, I used the King James Version, which is almost the only one available those days. Today I use the New American Standard Bible and The Living Bible, or which is more modern now called the New Living Translation. That’s just for your information.

Let’s turn to the book of Job and we’ll go now to CHAPTER 3.

See, the reason why I’m spending a little more time on Job than on some of the other books is because of the very reason which I mentioned in the last session, that I personally believe that this is the first inspired writing in Scripture. I do not believe that all these details could ever have been written hundreds of years after Job died.

And therefore, if this is the first inspired book of Scripture, and there’s a lot of teaching here which is very, very relevant for us, and it deals with the individual. It doesn’t deal with a nation like most of the Old Testament dealt with. It deals with God and one man, God and you. So in that way the book of Job is a great encouragement and many of the things that we face and suffer from Satan and from other believers Job faced, because these three so-called friends of his were actually a picture of other believers. They are not enemies. They are not unbelievers. It’s a picture of believers who can trouble us, misunderstand us, criticize us, and it is always more painful when a believer attacks us and accuses us than an unbeliever.

And if I were to give you my testimony in the last 40 years, I’ve faced a thousand times more accusation and criticism from believers than from unbelievers. And I think that is the history of almost every servant of God in the history of the church. It’s no different. Jesus faced more opposition from the Pharisees than from the Greeks and the Romans. Pilate wanted to release Him; Annas and Caiaphas wanted to kill him. So it’s always been like that.

And so don’t be surprised when you find your maximum opposition from believers who don’t understand you, who criticize you, who tell all types of false stories about you, because Job faced that too from his so-called friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. And in the end there was a man called Elihu also.

So I just want to say something about — you see there were three rounds of discussion here from between these Job and his three friends. That goes on from CHAPTER 3 to CHAPTER 31, three rounds of discussion. Two of them spoke three times and the last one spoke only twice.

And then at the end of these three rounds of discussion, another young man speaks: Elihu from CHAPTER 32 TO 37.

And then when he’s also finished, God speaks CHAPTER 38 TO 42. So that’s the broad outline of the Book of Job.

First of all is this discussion between God and Satan in Chapter 1 And 2. And then there’s this long discussion between Job and these four preachers, Chapter 3 To 37. And then there is a discussion between the Lord and Job in Chapter 38 To 42. That’s how the Book of Job is divided.