“Then the LORD said to Satan, ‘Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?’”

So that was God’s testimony about Job. Everybody agreed that Job was a very righteous man. Job thought so, God said so, and even Satan said so. But when Job had a personal revelation of the Lord, we’ll turn on to Job chapter 42:5–6. Now the Lord had appeared to Job in a whirlwind and told him a lot of things which we won’t go into. But Job’s reaction, he said to the Lord:

“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself And repent in dust and ashes.”

This uniquely righteous man, directly exposed to the glory of the Lord, felt just like Isaiah. “I’m unclean. I’m unworthy. I’m unfit.” That’s what holiness is. It’s very remarkable, I don’t know whether you consider God’s dealings with people, because God doesn’t deal with us the way we expect. I have to say one thing about God. He’s not fair — by our standards. Is that right? I believe this revelation was the end purpose of all that Job went through in the previous parts of the book. Think what it cost. He lost all his seven children, all his servants were killed except about two or three, his house was smitten with a whirlwind or rather his children’s house, and he was left destitute sitting on the ashes scraping himself. Why? Why did God permit him to go through that? I believe it was essential to bring him to the place where God could reveal His holiness. So God’s valuations are totally different from ours.

That may have a meaning in the lives of some of you. Things may happen that make no sense and you say, “Why did I have to go through that?” The answer is God wants to reveal His holiness to you. You have to be prepared. I don’t think unprepared people ever receive a revelation of the holiness of God.

I just want to say about Job’s seven sons and three daughters. At the end of this book, Job gets everything back doubled—sheep, oxen, servants, everything. But his sons and daughters are not doubled. He just gets the same number back. You know why? It’s very important to know why. Because you could say, “Well, look. Job got up every morning and sacrificed for his sons and his daughters and they get swept away.” But God didn’t give him double because the ones he had were still there waiting for him. So don’t be discouraged when God snatches away someone you love. He’ll be there, or she’ll be there when you arrive.

Our brother from Kenya came up to me and brought me greetings from my daughter in Kenya. I said, “I’ve a lot of daughters in Kenya but I don’t know which one you mean.” Then it suddenly dawned on me, my first wife and I... The mother of one of our women students in the college died. We went to the funeral and I’m not a great one for funerals. It was the most pathetic scene. Such a scene of poverty. The woman was buried in a sort of wooden box. She was dressed in a white nightgown which was very stained, and the hole was dug right in front of the hut, just a few yards away. And as I looked at it I saw such a sense of poverty. But the woman left behind not only her daughter who was a student, but two little girls. I think they were aged five and two, or four and two, or something like that.

So I said to Lydia, “Who’s going to care for them?” So we took them in. And as long as we

Bend the Church and Bow the World

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