23rd September 2025

23rd September 2025


Pray (ACts) 


Read (Job 1v1-5) 


Message (Scott Woodburn)


One of the most moving tributes that I have ever read was delivered by Henry Boardman concerning his deceased friend Charles Hodge. Boardman said of Hodge "Christ was not only the ground of his hope, but the acknowledged sovereign of his intellect, the soul of his theology, the unfailing spring of his joy, the one all-pervading, all-glorifying theme and end of his life." Isn't that extraordinary? Scripture doesn't speak of Job with the same flourish as Henry Boardman but nevertheless Job is described in weighty terms.


Job was considered "blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil." (Job 1v1). If this weren't enough Job could rightly be considered a blessed man. He had ten children, eleven thousand animals and a multitude of servants (Job 1v2) making him one of the greatest people of his region (Job 1v3). Furthermore, he was a wise man who knew the sinful human heart all too well and so he would often rise early to make sacrifices on behalf of his children for he was concerned that they may have cursed God in their hearts (Job 1v5).


Before we go any further into the book of Job let us be absolutely clear. Job was not considered "blameless and upright" because of his works. It is believed that Job is one of the oldest books of the Bible and it is set in the days before the formation of national Israel and perhaps even before the life of Abraham. Even so, when we meet Job we realise that he is a man of faith, he was a man who "feared God" - Job was looking and longing for the Saviour.


Later in Job we will explore a very famous passage in which Job speaks eloquently about his hope in the Lord but in this chapter it is enough for us to see him engaged in sacrifice. He understands human sin and so he comes to the Lord in an act of worship. I often like to remind folk that the church started in the very beginning with the covering of Adam and Eve. Later the Bible gives us a glimpse of Cain and Abel at worship with Abel coming by faith with the. God's people before the Cross offered bloody sacrifice in the hope that a future sacrifice would put away sin once and for all.


Christ's sacrifice was what Job longed for but God had already done a supernatural work in the life of Job. It is the Holy Spirit who works saving faith in a sinful heart and so we can say for certain that Job had been transformed and made upright and blameless in the sight of God. Like Abraham, Job believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Job should not be considered as a sinless perfect man, instead he was a man transformed by God who walked before the Lord each day. As we will soon see, there would come a time that Job would need every inch of that extraordinary faith.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC


Q81 What is forbidden in the tenth commandment?
The tenth commandment forbiddeth all discontentment with our own estate, envying or grieving at the good of our neighbor, and all inordinate motions and affections to anything that is his.
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