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0:20 When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible person and crushes him. 0:25 Leave room in your life for the crushings, because that's part of the curriculum that very few people will tell you about. 0:31 So that is a quote that absolutely floored me the first time I heard it, and it has just been ringing in my brain ever since. 0:37 Chuck Swindah said this quote at a conference back in the day, and he was actually quoting another pastor named Alan Redpath. 0:43 The applications of a quote like this are almost endless. 0:46 Because when you dig into the historical accounts of different people from the Bible, you see that God over and over, time after time, crushed great men in order for him to be able to do great things through them. 0:57 And so far this week we've looked at the stories of Nehemiah, Moses, and Gideon, and today we're getting into Job. 1:03 Now, when I introduced the theme for the Daily Blade this week on Monday, I bet many of you were shocked that it took me until day four to mention Job, but here we are. 1:12 So the book of Job is the oldest of all the writings that we have in the biblical canon, and the story of Job is really one of the most ubiquitous stories of suffering in the written history of humanity. 1:22 And most of you know the story. 1:23 Job was a man of tremendous character. 1:25 The Bible describes him as blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. 1:30 But then we see this in Job chapter one, starting in verse six. 1:33 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. 1:39 The Lord said to Satan, From where have you come? 1:41 Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it. 1:47 And the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil? 1:57 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, Does Job fear God for no reason? 2:02 Have you not put a hedge around him in his house and all that he has on every side? 2:06 You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land, but stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face. 2:16 And the Lord said to Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your hand. 2:21 Only against him do not stretch out your hand. 2:24 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. 2:27 So guys, Job was just moving right along, right? 2:30 He was having lots of success, and then Satan got after him. 2:33 Job lost all of his possessions, Job lost all of his children, they all died, and then God granted Satan permission to afflict Job's body, you know, all up to the point right before death. 2:44 So he's he was essentially like, hey, yes, you can, you know, take everything from him, just don't kill him. 2:49 And the unique thing about Job's crushing, especially when you compare it to Moses and Gideon, who we talked about earlier this week, is that Job had everything, right? 2:58 He had the money, he had the family, he had the renown, he had the respect, he had the character. 3:04 His fall from grace, if you will, was a much farther fall than perhaps anyone had experienced in all of humanity up to that point. 3:12 And look, Job's crushing just continued and continued and continued. 3:17 I mean, he seems to have a pretty terrible wife, he had really dumb friends, and there doesn't seem to be any end in sight to any of this. 3:23 And to be honest with you, a lot of people miss the end of Job's story. 3:27 It's like they, you know, swim around in the pools of his crushing without reckoning with the fact that his suffering actually had a point. 3:33 So after all the torment and all the suffering and all the crushing, Job gets to a place where he can say this at the beginning of Job forty two. 3:41 Then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 3:47 Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? 3:50 Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 3:56 Hear and I will speak, I will question you, and you make it known to me. 4:00 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. 4:05 Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. 4:10 So guys, listen to me. 4:11 Do not miss this. 4:12 Job lost everything that you can imagine, except for his life. 4:16 He was crushed beyond almost anything that you can imagine. 4:20 Anything that you have individually experienced, even if you have experienced similar crushing that Job has, can you evaluate whether you ended up in the same place that he did? 4:28 Where you could say something like, Therefore I despised myself, as opposed to, Therefore, God, I now despise you. 4:36 And then when we get to the end of the book of Job, we see that God blessed Job in a huge way. 4:41 He actually ended up with more than he had at the beginning. 4:44 But the point isn't that you should just trust the Lord and He's just going to give you a bunch of earthly possessions. 4:49 That might not end up being your story. 4:51 It was Job's story, but that's not actually the point. 4:54 The point is that God is good and you can trust him. 4:58 The point is that even if your circumstances seem dire and your crushing seems completely pointless, God is working throughout the crushing for his glory and for your good. 5:08 And that is no more apparent than what we will discuss tomorrow. 5:12 Do not miss it.