Join Barbara Carmack and Kimberly as they delve into the rich narrative of Job, exploring the human experience of loss and the divine promise of comfort. Through personal anecdotes and scriptural insights, they shed light on the importance of empathy, the role of divine grace, and the journey towards spiritual redemption. This episode provides hope and inspiration, inviting listeners to embrace faith as a source of strength and understanding in the face of adversity.
Welcome to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. This is Jimmy Lakey, and I’m delighted that you are joining us for this half hour. You can reach Call to Freedom at Box 370367, Denver, Colorado, 80237. or by going to the website at www.freedomstreet.org. If you want to leave a message or order a Word Power Daily Reading Bible Guide or a Freedom Street Express newsletter, you can call us toll-free at 1-877-917-7256 and leave your name and address, including your zip code. If you want to talk to Barbara right now, she is expecting your call. You may call that same toll-free number, 1-877-917-7256 to speak to her. And now, let’s join Barbara in the studio.
SPEAKER 03 :
And on this blustery morning, I know in Kimberly’s territory there, it’s raining and I wish it were raining here. It snowed overnight, but this is winter folks. So welcome to call to freedom. The Lord bless you with the riches of his grace, the treasures of his love, the comfort of his mercies, the strength of his presence and the touch of his care. I know that most of us have heard about the crash in the Potomac River and the deaths that occurred. And several, I know of one skating couple, teenagers with their mothers were killed. And also a Russian coach who were champions in 1996. They are also dead, along with precious friends and loved ones who were just about ready to land there. and hug their friends and their loved ones. And I think of all the times that we thought, God, why couldn’t you stop this? Why couldn’t you do it, Lord? And we’ve got to come to the conclusion that there is an enemy. And we don’t know what caused this, but we know that God is going to work all things together for good, even for those precious families that lost loved ones. And I think of 2 Corinthians 1. Oh, God is so good. I go to the Word. I go to the Word. I go to the rock of my salvation. And in 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, the Father, the God of all comfort, all comfort. When these families look to God for comfort, He’s going to wrap His big, wonderful arms around them and give them perfect peace. And it says, the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with a comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. So what an opportunity we have as believers in Jesus Christ to comfort those who are asking questions right now and just telling them we serve a God who is loving, merciful, kind, gracious to all of us and we are at the point where we’re just about to go to be with Jesus Christ and be taken up with him would you like to join would you like to join and accept Jesus Christ as your Savior there’s always that opportunity and much more now than ever before so I’m so grateful that you’re joining me today that we can be a comfort to one another because you are a comfort to me and Kimberly you are a comfort to me
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, you are to me as well, Mom. Yes, I think you brought up something that does. It does enter our minds when we hear of some kind of suffering or tragedy like this. We tend to wonder, why didn’t God stop that? And that question, it never gets us to good places.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, that’s so good, yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. We end up angry. We end up full of self-pity. We end up depressed. We just take it too far. And we forget how much grace our God has. Yes. The thing is, we imagine how hard it is for the people who have experienced this loss. Anytime we put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and imagine, that can be a good thing. Because… then we’re feeling compassion and we’re feeling empathy for others. And that’s a good thing. Compassion and empathy are good. We want to approach people with compassion. That is how God approaches us, with much compassion.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
At the same time, we can forget, when we put ourselves in their shoes, we can forget how much grace they have for what they’re going through. We don’t have the same grace because it might not be us that’s going through it. We might not be experiencing the loss the same way they are. I think that’s been playing out for my friend Holly, who had just such a great loss. It’s still so young. feeling angry at first and then realizing if I choose not to blame, if I choose not to go down the path of complaining, grumbling, and being bitter about this. If I choose instead to keep having a conversation with God, keep asking him about everything that I find in the house, everything that I’m doing, if I stay in love with him, She decided to go ahead and go down that route of let me try it. If I do this, then what will happen? Grace upon grace upon grace is poured out on her. And I am believing for that same grace that will bring so much comfort that we can’t comfort other people. unless we ourselves have experienced something broken. And the whole world is broken. Wouldn’t you like to be able to truly bring solid comfort to other people? We can only do it if we’ve experienced some kind of tragedy, some kind of suffering, some kind of pain in our lives that needed comfort in the first place. So we comfort others with the comfort that we have been given. And then it just continues to spread, hopefully like ocean water, you know, just flood in with comfort upon comfort upon comfort. And that’s what we pray for these people who have just experienced great loss.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, thank you, Kimberly. Yes. And when we look back, we’re going to go back to Job 33, folks, because there is so much in this little chapter. And I just identified so much with some of the things that were said that I said, Kimberly, we’ve got to go over this again. And I’m reading it in the message today. And this is Elihu. He’s the youngest of the friends that Job had. And he doesn’t talk until the very end. And he says, maybe he went through some real tragedy in his own young life. Maybe something happened to him. You know, like, for instance, even when you and Dana lost your father. Dana was 19 and you were 22. That’s a great loss. And you were young. So he says here to Job, please, Job, hear me out. Honor me by listening to me. What I’m about to say has been carefully thought out. I have no ulterior motives in this. I’m speaking honestly from my heart. And this is from the message. The Spirit of God made me what I am. The breath of God Almighty gave me life. And if you think you can prove me wrong, do it. Lay out your arguments. Stand up for yourself. Look, I’m human, no better than you. We’re made of the same kind of mud. So let’s work this through together. Don’t let my aggressiveness overwhelm you. So here was a man that came alongside Job. He didn’t accuse him of being a sinner or wicked. This was the consequences of him sinning a great sin. And that’s why he’s sick now. And he says in verse eight, here’s what you said. And then he brings up Job’s very words. Here’s what you said. I heard you say it with my own ears. You said, I’m pure. I’ve done nothing wrong. Believe me, I’m clean. My conscience is clear. But God keeps picking on me. He treats me like I’m his enemy. He’s thrown me in jail. He keeps me under constant surveillance. And that’s one thing I’ve done in my life, Kimberly. I’ve defended myself. Well, I’m a good woman. I’ve been reading the Bible all through for the last, you know, I’m going to say for the years that I had been reading the Bible when I was younger. And I don’t know why this is happening to me. And see, that’s what Elihu is trying to bring These words of Job as defensive words rather than saying, okay, God, your will be done in my life, not what I’ve achieved in my own life.
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, yeah, I’m so glad you wanted to talk about this again because you’re right. There’s a lot for us to learn in this. And if we go back one chapter to chapter 32 and look at verse 2, this is where Elihu first starts speaking. And he’s introduced on the scene. He’s not even mentioned before this. You know, he just… he he was just a silent partner in the whole book of job until chapter 32 and in verse 2 it says that he became indignant that his indignation was kindled against job because job justified himself rather than god yes yes i don’t know how it says it in the message but Anytime that we are trying to justify our own position, our own ideas, our own opinions, rather than asking God what his is. That’s right. His opinion is superior to ours. God will always be superior to man.
SPEAKER 03 :
And Kimberly, I am so grateful that there were people in my life that came to me and they were pretty hard on me. I think of two or three in particular, really hard on me. And they said, Barbara, you should not be so critical and judgmental of others. And boy, I was really upset by that. And I can see how Job is saying here with Elihu, I am innocent, but I’m grateful that people come alongside us, and friends especially, people that we know. You know, you should be looking at this, Barbara, in another way. You’re kind of focusing on the left side instead of right down the middle and what God is doing in your life. So we need those friends to come along. And yeah, sometimes be hard, be harsh, but have our best interests in their minds in mind.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. Yes. You know, for those who who are maybe not as social and don’t have a whole lot of friend groups. That’s why we want to make this a conversation with the Lord. He is our best friend. And to keep talking to him and asking him, what do you think? He will answer. He will find a way to give you an answer. It might be through a book or a song, or it might be through somebody else, but it might be through a movie. So being able to just stay open to other answers rather than your own idea. Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. And like he said, like I was saying yesterday, Job is thinking that God treats him like his enemy. He says, he’s thrown me in jail. He keeps me under constant surveillance. Well, that’s not the God in the very first part of Job. God had given him so many blessings and he didn’t recognize the enemy in his life that was trying to take from him, which he did accept his life. And God said, you can do anything you want to, but don’t take his life. Well, he did just about everything he could.
SPEAKER 02 :
And in verse 12, before you get to that, I just you said he didn’t recognize the enemy. And I think you might have mentioned that yesterday, too. That’s such a good point. We’ve got to recognize that we do have an enemy. And instead of pointing a finger to God and saying, you didn’t work this out. Wait, there’s an enemy. God is not the enemy. God is our comforter. So when we’re just blaming and angry, we’re actually pushing away the greatest comfort that we could ever have. And he is in this world with us, not as this, wow, how did we end up with this idea that all of us are just a bunch of puppets? And he’s just making good stories for some of the puppets and bad stories for other puppets. I don’t know how we got that idea. He’s walking through all of this brokenness with us. It’s broken for him, too. His heart aches, too. He’s grieving with those families today. As well, we’re feeling grief for them, and he’s feeling even more grief. These are his people. We are his people. And when he sees his people suffering, it’s just like being a parent. When you see your child suffering, it just tears you apart. It almost hurts you worse than it hurts them because it’s so hard to watch them go through it. When we go through our own suffering, that’s one thing. But when you have somebody really loving you, watching you go through it, that’s another thing. There is a certain grace on the life of the person that’s going through it and walking through it. And sometimes that grace looks like shock, just utter shock. You can be in shock when you have experienced an accident or a loss that’s really great. And that is a form of grace in our lives to help us make it through, to help us take the next steps. So we don’t want to be pushing our great comforter away from us. We want to be having more conversations with him and asking him, what do you think about this? How do I go on from here? What do I do with this that’s left over? These are pieces of my life now that’s left over. Now what do I do?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. And so, you know, Job has just tried to defend himself or justify himself, as you said, for his life that had been a life, a good life. And he had been everything he thought he could be, a great father and husband. And then Elihu says in verse 12, but let me tell you, Job, you’re wrong. Wow. God is far greater than any human. So how dare you haul him into court? You know, how dare you charge him, accusing him of being wrong when you’ve explained, Kimberly, that he’s God? He’s so much superior than anything that we have in this world. And then complain that he won’t answer your charges. God always answers one way or another, even when people don’t recognize his presence. In a dream, for instance, a vision at night when men and women are deep in sleep, fast asleep in their beds, God opens his ears and impresses them with warnings. Now, this is good because many times we think of God as a God of love, which he is. But many times he’s warning to turn them back from something bad they’ve been planning or from some reckless choice. And God is so merciful, he kind of takes us and redirects us into a path where we’re not going to be harmed when he does discipline us and correct us. Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, it’s true. That is what he does. And some people choose to ignore that. So we don’t know what went wrong with that airplane. We’re talking about that accident that happened last night. And what went wrong for the airplane and the helicopter to collide? We have no idea. But it’s pretty… obvious to me that somebody wasn’t listening to some kind of instruction.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Or they took it. There could have been instructions, yeah, or misunderstood the instructions.
SPEAKER 03 :
Misunderstood, yes, or took it for granted that somebody was watching from one angle when they weren’t watching. I believe it’s going to bring changes, especially with a busy airport like Reagan, Ronald Reagan, that they’re going to, At least I know President Trump was alluding to this, that this the helicopter should not been should not have been in that area at that time, because, I mean, planes were.
SPEAKER 02 :
So, I mean, there was some kind of instruction, right, that was missed. And whether it was somebody not listening or the just a misinterpretation, there was some instruction. That’s that’s what we do with God. We do it all the time. We misunderstand an instruction. And that’s why we have to keep asking questions. Keep approaching him with curiosity and wanting to know what’s next. And make him your best friend. Make him your father that you would go to, your loving father. Abba, what’s next, Abba, Father? What do we do with this? And he does give instruction so that he can turn us to a better path and give us a better purpose. He’s constantly cutting pride off of us. And pride in us would say, I have the better idea here. And I’m right and you’re wrong. That’s what pride does. And that’s what Job was falling into that category. And that’s why Elihu had to come in and say, how dare you? Your ideas are not better than God’s.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yep, we have to humble ourselves to that absolute fact. And, you know, he is saying, like you were saying, to turn them from something bad, from something, maybe a bad choice, a reckless choice, to keep them from an early grave, from the river of no return. Verse 20. Verse 20.
SPEAKER 02 :
But then he introduces the amplified version. I just wanted to say the amplified says disgusting him with his own disappointing self-sufficiency. And the Lord lets us be self-sufficient and get to the point where we are wasting away in our self-sufficiency that we end up disgusted with ourselves because it brought us here. We don’t want to stay self-sufficient. We want to be dependent on God at all times.
SPEAKER 03 :
Keep going. Oh, no, that’s good. And then Elihu introduces angels. An angel could come. There are thousands of them, he says to Job, to take up your cause. A messenger who would mercifully intervene. How many of us call on our angels? I don’t think a whole lot of us do. And canceling the death sentence with the words, I’ve come up with the ransom. Praise the Lord. You talked about that. That’s a wonderful thing. That’s amazing to me. That ransom in Jesus Christ. And this was thousands of years before Jesus came. And they’re introducing a ransom for their souls. And I love the part where they say, you know, he’s throwing some of us on a bed of suffering. But before you know it, verse 25, you’re healed. The very picture of health. When we look to Jesus, Kimberly, he changes everything. He turns everything around. Oh, or you may. Yeah, you may fall on your knees and pray to God’s delight. God delights that, you know, he lives in our praises and he delights our prayers. But how many of us really pray to him? I mean, we can pray, you know, about this happening and praying. But Father God, I’m asking you right now today. So we need to pray more.
SPEAKER 02 :
The Lord has so many wonderful things to share with us and ways to restore our lives and rebuild and help us heal. And this, the amplified version in verse 25, again, we’re talking about Job 33. It says this man’s flesh will be restored and become fresher and more tender than a child. And he returns to the day of his youth. The strength that we have in our youth is so wonderful. And I know that the Lord wants to share with us. Cause that kind of reaction to our flesh, that kind of strength to be renewed. And we know other scriptures that talk about our strength being renewed like the eagles, making us so strong that we overcome and we are soaring above. the grief, above the anger, above the suffering. And yes, our hearts have been touched with some things very, very sad. But when we turn to our Heavenly Father, He redeems in such a way, gives us beauty for ashes.
SPEAKER 03 :
And don’t you think that right there, Elihu was giving a prophetic word to Job. You’re not going to be here very much longer, Job. God is going to restore you. He’s going to bring you back to health so that your skin is like baby skin. Because he had been scraping the boils off of his skin. I can’t even imagine. But scraping the boils off of his skin. Yeah. And so Elihu comes along. Don’t you love friends that come along and say, it’s going to be better. It’s going to be good. We just got to hold on for a little bit longer. It’s going to be all right. Yes, it’s going to be all right. And you’ll see God smile and celebrate finding yourself set right with God. Verse 27 of Job 33, you’ll sing God’s praises to everyone you meet, testifying, I messed up my life, and let me tell you, it wasn’t worth it. But God stepped in and saved me from certain death. I’m alive again. Once more, I see the light. And I’m sure Job went around telling people how God had healed him. It’s just so good.
SPEAKER 02 :
This is so good. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yes. The way that God restores and redeems, the way that he rebuilds, it’s double. It’s double back, you know, and that’s what happened with Job. And I love how he is saying that we can recognize we don’t see it rightly. We can recognize, okay, I was on the wrong path. And you know what? I am made of flesh. This human part of me, this flesh part of me is constantly making mistakes. But God is not holding it against me. He is constantly working to rebuild and restore and redeem. And he’s not holding blame above my head. That is not why he sent his only son to die, to hold us in judgment. He sent his only son. To hold us in forgiveness and to redeem our lives.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. And probably in that time, Job was the most righteous man alive. And he had a great life, great kids, great home, beautiful herds. And yet this could happen to him. So we might say, I want to stay close to God. That’s exactly where God wants you, friend. He wants you to stay close to him, trusting in him and everything. That’s the way God works. Verse 29 says over and over again, he pulls our souls back from certain destruction. So we’ll see the light and live in the light. And Kimberly, who is the light? Right. It’s Jesus. Oh, praise God. Yes. So keep listening, Job. Don’t interrupt. I’m not finished yet. But if you think of anything I should know, tell me. There’s nothing I’d like better than to see your name cleared. And on part, it was partly Job who was in the condemnation mode. Well, why did this happen to me? Why am I here? And we all go through those times. We do. Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, we do. And we have a lot of friends that will agree with us. Yeah, you must have done something really bad. But coming back to knowing our God of grace, coming back to knowing him, that he is our comforter. that he is our wonderful counselor, that he is so full of love and restoration, redemption, that he wants good things for us. He wants to share secrets with us that will cause us to laugh out loud for pure joy, even in the midst of the greatest sorrows.
SPEAKER 03 :
This has been so good. I’ve just so enjoyed this study of chapter 33 of Job, Kimberly. And I think we need to do more studying, kind of like that. Just kind of piece together all these verses. And sometimes we just go, oh, I’ve got to do my devotions. I’ve got to read this scripture today. And we just kind of read through it instead of stopping and allowing Holy Spirit to explain things to us. So thank you. Thank you for being with me today. It’s been a blessing. It truly has been. And God bless all of you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you for having me. And we hope that you all have a wonderful weekend. God bless you and take joy.
SPEAKER 1 :
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SPEAKER 01 :
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