Cheer UP! Podcast
Cheer UP! Podcast
Job
In this episode, we delve deep into the story of Job, exploring his resilience and unwavering faith amidst unimaginable trials. We discuss Job's interactions with his friends, his steadfastness against his wife's urging to curse God, and the powerful role of prayer in his restoration. By reflecting on modern-day parallels and the importance of supporting grieving friends, we draw valuable lessons on faith, endurance, and the power of prayer.
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Hi and welcome to the Cheer Up Podcast. I am your host, kara R Hunt, and with me is the awesome Sherri Swalwell. I think I'm just going to say Sherri, awesome Swalwell.
Speaker 2:I like that. You do not have to say that, but I want to. Before I get into my little feel that I'm so excited to share with people today, you are absolutely, utterly amazing. I have to tell the audience that your friendship is just golden, kara. I'm telling you people, if you reach out and just get to know Kara, you will see that she has a heart of gold for everybody. You will see that she has a heart of gold for everybody.
Speaker 2:She is one of the most faithful, dedicated, compassionate, but yet speaks. She is an everyday Paul. She speaks the truth in love and, oh my goodness, when you leave a conversation with Kara, you are encouraged, you are convicted in a good way and you are challenged in a good way as well. Like, like, you always just leave conversations with her going wow, I didn't know I was that fantastic. Wow, I didn't know that I could actually do that. Like, she is absolutely amazing. So I hope that you guys get the opportunity, like I have to, to just get to know Kara's true heart, because she is absolutely, positively amazing. Having said that, we usually talk about coffee in the morning and.
Speaker 2:I am going to be talking about coffee, but not necessarily the coffee itself. So this morning it's supposed to be a pretty hot day here today and I was. Our bedroom was hot for some reason last night. So I'm like, oh, I am starting out with iced coffee this morning, iced coffee all the way. No, I opened the door, it is freezing outside. It's gonna get hot, but it feels really cold right now. So I switched over to my blueberry hot coffee. But yesterday or this weekend we had um kind of a getaway for our family. It was nice. It was just just a nice little, um just a nice little weekend getaway. And we went and visited one of our favorite places and they have, um, this menagerie, they have like this whole animal sanctuary farm thing oh they have a lot and I, for whatever reason, sloths.
Speaker 2:I just think they're like the coolest animal.
Speaker 1:When we went there.
Speaker 2:They hadn't been there since last year. We went there and visited yesterday. They now have four sloths, including a baby. So this morning when I went to get my coffee mug not to mention that my other ones were in the dishwasher clean, ready to be put away I found my sloth mug and it says live slow and it has a sloth on it and I thought that was just the perfect um coffee mug to use today because I want to be reminded that I don't have to be in you know um Mach 10 speed level all the time. I can enjoy life and it's um. I got to see four real live sloths yesterday, including a baby, and it just filled me up. It was so adorable.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. You know I've never paid much attention to sloths right.
Speaker 1:Until I saw these ones in real life at this like animal sanctuary and they're the coolest animal, kara, they really are you know, and so one of my favorite animals that I just like to watch, because I don't think we have an animal sanctuary in our area that has sloths. Now, I could be wrong, I could be wrong, I maybe just have not went to the right one, but but you know, one of the animals that I actually love and wolves. I love wolves. Yes, I love wolves, and we do have a wolf sanctuary like near us, and I don't know. They're just so they're beautiful, just so they're beautiful. That could you know.
Speaker 1:And I went, went before our dog, you know, uh, passed away he's. He passed away a couple years ago, but I remember when he would get like um, start just acting crazy and he would start getting on my husband's nerves. By the way, he only did that with him, but anyway, my husband would say something with you know, you know to him like you crazy dog, you know, or something like that. And I'm like, hey, don't talk about my dog like that. He's a descendant of the wolf family. He's like this dog.
Speaker 1:And I'm like, yes, that dog, leave him alone. He's like this dog. And I'm like, yes, that dog, leave him alone. And he's like I don't know if this dog is descended from wolves. And I'm like, really, have you seen the way he protects me, you know, and things like that. And I'm like you know. So that could be why I have such an affinity for dogs. I am not a cat person, you know.
Speaker 1:but just me personally, I'm not a cat person, even though I know they, you know, come from the. They're all part of the big cat family, right, you know, and everything like that. So I'm like, yeah, it's, I don't know, I just love wolves.
Speaker 2:They are absolutely beautiful and I have to tell you, our dog looks and acts like she's around. Yes, that's a word. I was using it just yesterday. I'm like you're skulking again, but she skulks around like Scar from the Lion King, and she's a dog, not a cat. I'm skulking like a lion. What is your problem? Wait?
Speaker 1:a minute. Identity crisis right Something.
Speaker 2:I don't know what, yeah, something, but I'm like stop talking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I know what you're talking about, because I've seen dogs do that. I've seen certain dogs do that, right, yeah, you know. And I'm like, oh, okay, you know, and now I say I love, oh, okay, you know, and now I say I love wolves. But what I mean is that I like watching them in a safe environment. Exactly, carol will never have a wolf as a pet. They're a wild animal. Okay, we've got to respect them for that.
Speaker 2:Yes, you say that, but when I lived with my sister years and years and years ago, she had a two-year-old daughter at the time and we were looking for a dog and it was a half wolf, half dog. I'm like, oh lady, you seriously are like selling this thing, do you not realize this is a two-year-old? I'm like, thank you, goodbye. It was scary.
Speaker 1:Wow, that is scary. You can't do that. I wouldn't trust it with a child, no matter how much I would love it and think it was so cool. You have to be careful because they are wild. You have to respect that Right. That they have a very, that they're smart, you know, and that they are. That they have a very, that they're they're smart, you know, and that they are. They are wild. And if you have a mixed breed like that, where it's like have and have, you don't know which one is going to be more dominant trait, exactly right, so it's like that would be scary. So, um, that that would be scary. I, I probably would have gotten it for myself as an adult. Well, no, I probably wouldn't have, but because I would have to keep it in a cage, because I'd be terrified half the time. I know that's how I was feeling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm like, oh my gosh, I would love to bring you home, but you know, not for me. You know, because I don't believe in caging animals. You know, and I know a lot of people have exotic animals for pets. In some states it's allowed, but I'm like I think they're doing more damage to them than anything else, because I really they need so much space. Yeah, and when you closet them to just like maybe you know and you know you could say, oh, but I have an acre or something like that, I'm like, yeah, but they used to like big jungles and big. You know what I'm saying. So, and because if you live anywhere near people, the state law probably requires you to have them caged. Most of the time, I would think so.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know. So no, if I, if I couldn't let them roam free, then I probably wouldn't have them. But just God's magnificent right, any animals? And I was just reading something about squirrels and it was talking about the squirrels and, you know, it just looks like they're just hopping from tree to tree and scrambling here and scrambling there. And they were talking about no, there's a method to their madness and that, yeah, and they were talking about how, you know, you see them and of course they gather nuts and everything else.
Speaker 1:But they put certain nuts certain places, like they may put walnuts, for example, from a tree and they may bury it, because you know they bury nuts or whatever for the winter. And they from a tree, and they may bury it because you know they bury nuts or whatever for the winter, and they may do that and they may bury it there. But then they may go to another tree. There's pecans, and then they take the pecans and bury them somewhere else. You know, and they're like it looks like they're just scurrying around. There's just a whole bunch of madness and they're like but no, you know, studies have shown that they know exactly where they put those particular sections. You know, it's not like they just grab a whole bunch of different nuts and put them a certain place, like or in the same place. They don't do that and they know how to go back and get them.
Speaker 1:Right, it's like they have this inside navigation they were talking about.
Speaker 2:That kind of reminds me of ants. You know we should do a whole. We should when we did Noah we should have done a whole thing about the animals. I'm telling you animals are God's creation in general is just phenomenal to me, like I, we, I told you we went away for the weekend and had a family getaway and his creation is breathtaking.
Speaker 2:I don't care where you are. All you have to do is go in your backyard and look at a dandelion Just seriously. Look at a dandelion, just a dandelion, and see how magnificent God is, with how intricate he is. Just look at your hands. Look at your eyelashes Like you don't have to go far at all. Just look at just any part of you. Listen to your stomach rumble Like, seriously, he is so amazing and there's nothing humans can do that will ever top what God has done and what God continues to do every day. Just the fact that we can breathe in and breathe out in our heartbeats and our eyes blink and we don't even really think about any of that stuff is just utterly amazing.
Speaker 1:And you know, shara and I talk a lot about doing different types of studies word studies in the Bible, topical studies in the Bible. We're doing like biblical figures study in the Bible right now on the podcast, but you know what? There's another type of study I don't even know if this study type exists, but it's easy to do, exists, but it's easy to do just to take a part of the body, for instance the eyes, and just find all the everything you can on the eyes and the intricacies of eyes and or hair or skin, or just the heart. Just do a study on that and then compare it to, you know, just a scientific study on that, and then read the Bible about those parts.
Speaker 1:It is just amazing. It is amazing how we are so intricately woven together by the Creator and you're like, oh my gosh, it's just eyes. We just see there's so much more to it than that. Oh, it's just a heart. We all know without a heart you can't live. But yeah, but do you know everything that needs to go right in a body to make it function? I'm telling you, you will be amazed. Amazed with just how perfectly and wonderfully made we are as human beings, and it makes you not take any breath for granted With every little thing in our body, like Cher was saying, fingers, toes Can you imagine what we would look like without? I mean how we would get around without toes.
Speaker 2:And how much?
Speaker 1:you know, and we have five of them, it's like, and each one is important. Try breaking one and you'll find out really quickly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I had surgery last fall on my big toe on my left foot, and they had to screw it, or what did he do?
Speaker 2:He screwed it in with two screws so that it wouldn't move, because it wasn't moving anyway. So this was supposed to make it better, and now I'm actually looking at having surgery again next week, to be honest with you. So a week from Thursday I'll be having surgery again. He needs to remove the screws because he couldn't put them down as much as he wanted to, so they're actually coming up and poking through the skin Very painful, by the way.
Speaker 2:So yes when Paris says what is it like if you don't? Can you imagine not having them work right? Well, I have been for the last couple of months and it's painful, so I'm looking forward to actually getting it fixed again. But he's having to take out what he put in all the hardware because it didn't work. My body didn't like it, I guess, so it's kind of rejecting it. But yeah, I mean, you take, I took my feet and my toes for granted and I'm like man, I wish they worked the way they did when God gave them to me.
Speaker 1:Right, we take it for granted, we just hop out of bed or roll out of bed and we just stand up and go do our thing, not realizing that if one of those things were affected you know toes, foot, ankle, legs, hip you know it's like if one of those are injured or have had you know some damage done to it, or if it heaven forbid you know broken, that it's just not as easy, you know. Yeah, you can't just roll out of bed or just hop out of bed and you know, or anything like that, and it's just, we're just so wonderfully made that it's just so awesome. And I just encourage you, you know, for those who are just like here, what are you guys talking about? An arm is an arm, a leg is a leg. Just really do some scientific research in it and study the scriptures on our bodies and the different parts of our bodies, and I think you'd just be amazed, speaking of bodies we are talking about, and you're probably going to go how does this relate If you're not familiar with the story of Job in the Old Testament of the Bible Today?
Speaker 1:Because for the past couple of weeks we have been talking about biblical figures in the Bible and their stories and the significance of their stories and how their stories, even though it was thousands of years ago. How do they relate to us today? And how does that and how should we react to those stories or the thoughts and stuff on those stories, and how does it affect our modern lives? And as we get to talking more about Job, you'll see why I talk about bodies, right, and when certain things affect our bodies. But if you're new and this is, you're listening to the first episode we want to welcome you to the Cheer Up Podcast. Thank you for choosing us today, thank you for clicking on us today, and we just hope that we're going to be a blessing to you and that you'll come back many, many more times. And if you like what you're hearing well and what you hear later, you want to know more about biblical figures in the Bible, please click, subscribe, download whichever's full of joy, you know. Then it helps them be able to find it and we can just help them along on their journey to joy here at the Gerald Podcast. So thank you, guys so much. And for those who continue to pop in every week, we thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you so much for doing that and we're just glad that you guys are joining us again as we continue our journey with different biblical figures in the Bible, and today again, we're going to be talking about Job.
Speaker 1:J-o-b is how it's pronounced, excuse me, is how it's spelled in the Bible In English language. We probably think when you first see it, you think job. But it's Job in a Bible and in the Old Testament and there's a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot to talk about with Job. And for those who may be familiar with the story, you probably know all the intricacies and stuff about it. But right now I'm going to give just like a basic, very short summary of the book of Job and Sherry, stop me where I go wrong, okay, because I'm kind of going by memory here.
Speaker 1:But basically Job was this oh, how did the? I think the? In the opening chapters it says he was upright and righteous man in the world. Okay, and he was upright and righteous and he just also happened to be very wealthy and he had 10 children, he had a wife, and wealth back then included cattle, camels and just a lot of different types of animals, right, so it included money. It included like money. Consider what they consider money back then. And then also, like you just had a lot of animals right, because they were, they were a commodity, and so he was very wealthy and he was just upright and righteous. And then somehow the angels go to heaven and they ended up some angels up in heaven. Satan goes with them and they end up and Satan ends up having a conversation with God.
Speaker 1:This is in the opening chapters of the book of Job and God tells well, he's talking to Satan. He's saying yeah, you know, have you considered Job? He's righteous and upright, and I think it also says that there's no one like him else on the earth, which to me, that's saying a lot about Job, right, and it talked about how he just, you know, stayed away from evil and he feared the Lord, you know, and different things like that. And I'm like, wow, that's a pretty big statement right to say that about people. And, you know, in the end, I just hope God could be able to say something like that about me, just me being one of the ones, right, that he could say that about.
Speaker 1:And it's like he's like there's no one else like him and Satan's like, oh well, of course not. Of course it's easy for him to fear you and respect you and, you know, stay away from evil. Because you put a hedge of protection around him, you protected him, you blessed him, like he's got all these children, he's got this wife, he's got all this cattle, he's got all this land and everything else because you favored him. All this cattle, he's got all this land and everything else because you've favored him. Of course you know he's going to love you and be able to walk steady before you. But I bet you, if you took some of that stuff away, how would he do then? And so God's like, oh, okay, so he's like you can do if you, if you want to take me up on that challenge this is the Karev translation If you want to take me up on that challenge.
Speaker 1:This is the carrot translation. If you want to take me up on that challenge, go ahead. Do your worst to Job, but you're not allowed to take his life. And Satan's like, okay, fine, and boy does he get started. He takes that and run with it. And in one day it says in one day, job received bad news four times. Four times. And so you talk about having a bad day. You know, it just makes me really rethink. You know my wording when someone asked me how I'm doing. And I'm like I had a bad day because it's nothing compared to what happened to Job when Satan just focused really on him.
Speaker 1:And I can't remember in what order things happened, but I think first he's, you know, he gets one of his employees, like it's a word I'm using now but one of his employees came to him and was like oh my goodness, you know an army, some thieves came in and they your camels and your sheep and your cattle and they did this. And he's like what? Well, why the one person's telling him this. Then another one comes and they're like oh my goodness, you know, you're something else. It was four things I think one had to do with the cattle. One had to do, maybe with his home, I can't remember exactly. But then all while these different messengers are coming to him because there's four different ones the last one is like oh my goodness, a big wind came and all your children, they were feasting and everything else, but then the house caved in and none of them are alive and he's like what? And that's what really really hurt him. So he's having all of this happen within like minutes.
Speaker 1:So Satan got busy, satan got to work and he started hitting him where he know it would hurt Job. Right, he attacked his animals, his commodity, his property, his family. But the last straw, I think, was well, I can't say last straw, but the one that hit him the most was when he realized all of his children were gone, right, and everything else. This happened in one day. That's a bad day, and actually it seems like in a matter of minutes, because the scriptures talk about, as one messenger was speaking, then another one came, and then another one came with bad news, and then another one came saying all his family, you know, had been killed. And so he went from being one of the blessed men on the earth, material wise and family wise, to like nothing, and because Satan had just targeted him.
Speaker 1:And it is just crazy to think that all of that could happen in one day out of the blue, right, because he woke up that morning, everything was good, his kids were feasting, and then, probably before the sun went down, all of that was gone. And so you just see how the devastation kind of hit him all at once, to hit him all at once, and then later on he even Satan even attacks him with and this is where I talk about the body even attacks him with skin boils, right, I can't remember what the King James calls them, but I think I just say boils, sores on his skin, I think. Let me put it that way, because I think one of the translations say he's really bad, like blisters or something you know on his skin, and so he has all of this and Satan's doing everything he can to see if he would just walk away from God and everything else. Because, remember, satan told God, like that's only because you're blessing him when you take all of that away, he's not, you know, he's not gonna be so upright and righteous before you, right? But Job didn't do that.
Speaker 1:He didn't do that, he grieved, I think it said, for seven days and he had three friends who joined him in silence for seven days and they just allowed him to grieve, I think is the best way to put it. They didn't say much. I think it said that they were just in silence with him for seven days while he grieved and then finally he, kind of you know, starts talking, like on the seventh day, and then all three of them give their opinion on why they think this happened to him. And it's like, wow, they didn't give a lot of good advice, right? Because they're like what did you do to make God so angry?
Speaker 1:And then one of them was like you know, you ever considered the fact that your children had this coming? What did you expect, you know? And so they just weren't really sympathetic, I guess, to the case. And then one of them was even like you know, you used to comfort people a lot when you grieved, I mean when they were grieving when they lost someone. You know, when things happened to them, you were a comforter, joel, but you never could really understand how they felt. But now you know how they feel. So it was like I don't see his friends really helping him much. Correct me if I'm wrong in that manner, but in and Job never blamed God, he blamed himself. He talked about how he wanted to die, how he wished he never was born, you know, and all these other things, but he never blamed God. Oh, my goodness, did I summarize that correctly, sherry?
Speaker 2:I want to say and this has nothing to do with your summary is that when we choose to enter into our friend's grief, we are better to shut up. Yes, friends did much better sitting in silence with him for seven days than when they opened their mouth. They agree.
Speaker 1:And I think on the other side of that, we're puzzled as well, right, because and I've witnessed this, you know, in family with family members who have been lost and, how you know, died suddenly or passed away, and passed away unexpectedly, and how other family members responded, you know they are like, wow, why them? They were just good godly, she was a good, godly woman. Like why was she? Why her, why not me? I'm the sinful one in a family. Everyone knows, right, I'm the one who should get God's wrath. But why that one? They were a pillar of the community, they were a mentor, they helped bring a lot of people to the Lord, you know. And so we do have human reactions and questions, right. And then when we're trying to help the family members and grieving and stuff, we want to say something, we want to maybe encourage them to, like you know, lift your head up and everything else, but I don't think the words that come out of our mouth are always appropriate at the time.
Speaker 2:So we want to say something Right.
Speaker 1:So we want to say something, right, we want to say something because our heart is aching, because we see them aching so bad and just you know they've lost a lot or someone dear to them and we want to help. We want to say something, you know, and everything else. But I can't emphasize what Sherry said enough Sometimes it's best to just stay silent because you have no idea what that person's heart is. People grieve differently. People grieve differently. Some people will lash out at you saying how would you know? You've never lost your mother. You've never lost your mom, you've never lost your son, you've never lost a sibling, you know.
Speaker 1:And some people will lash out because they're just angry in their grief. You know, sometimes some people are super sensitive and if you say something they're going to, they can take it completely the wrong way. But you know what they won't take the wrong way A hug, exactly A hug, a smile, smile. You, you being there for them, you, you know, helping them, just saying what can I do, right? Um, if you see they haven't eaten in a day or two, because grief will do that for you, you know, just lightly, encourage them to eat, don't force them right.
Speaker 2:But yeah, go ahead, sherry, I want to say what can you do? I've had so many people who have been in the throes of grief say to me don't ask, because they they can't make one more decision. So instead it's like kara said you see, they haven't eaten, just bring them over a plate and put it by them. You don't have to. That means more than anything.
Speaker 2:I remember when we were at the funeral of my mother-in-law and she had died suddenly last May, and I remember I had gone around and we were at the dinner afterwards and I was walking around and just making sure that everybody knew that we were so grateful they were there. And then I went to sit down. Everyone else had ordered and gotten their food. And I sat down and and my husband looked at me and he was like you know, I didn't know what you wanted, so I didn't order for you. And I just remember thinking I don't have a clue, I don't have a clue. And so my daughter saw that I was just kind of struggling and she's like Mom, pick a salad, you, you like salad, get a salad. And so I'm like salad salad.
Speaker 2:Okay, I can do salad, and so it was just so helpful, because the decisions during those times are just so hard to make, and I didn't until I was in it. So yeah, so, um, everything that Kara said is so true. But don't ask them what they need. Just find something that they need, go buy them groceries and bring them to them. Even if you don't know what their favorite groceries are, trust me the fact that you brought them something that might become their new favorite simply because it shows that you cared.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely. And then if you happen to know what they like to eat, like, like, like Sherry's daughter did, she was like Mom, you like, you like salad, just get a salad, because they can't make decisions at that time, if anyone has ever been in the throes of grief, you know how there's just like a grief, a fog in your mind, you know. I don't even know if you could call it a fog. It's just like your mind goes blank, right, right, you know, your mind is like blank. You can't think, you can't make a decision. You, you, you, you can't talk straight, you know. And, like I say, everyone else is different. You know, everyone is different, Um, you know, but it's like you, you, if you see a need, right, um, and things like that, if you see that they haven't drinking anything, because the one thing you don't want them to do in the middle of grief is get dehydrated, right, you know, because and that happens when we do tons of crying- right.
Speaker 1:We, you know, just say hey, just, you know, just a little bit of water. You know because you want to care for them at the same time. But again, don't force, and sometimes silence is golden. They just need your presence there to feel like they're not alone in their grief. But sometimes, because we're human, we don't know the right things to say. We just don't. Not everybody knows the right things to say. If you're gifted with that and you have just like a special anointing for communicating with those in grief, then by all means do that. But if you're not, it's probably best that we keep silent, because we don't want to add to the pain. That's the last thing we want to do. We don't want to add to the pain. If you see that their laundry is piling up, you know. You happen to walk past their laundry room and you're like, let me just go and start this laundry. If you see that their dishes in the sink or something, just go ahead and wash them.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, if you know, if you see their bed needs to be made, or you know, or anything like that all of that helps, because they can't even think straight, you know, and they may look outside like they're doing great, like I was walking around talking to people at the funeral or at the dinner, but that didn't mean I was doing well, oh right.
Speaker 1:That was just muscle memory. Absolutely. And, like I said, with family members, I've seen I'm one of those people. I grieve hard and I grieve fast. So it's like as soon as I hear some devastating news or whatever, I'm bawling, I'm crying my eyes out, I may even throw up because I'm just so emotionally distraught, right, and I grieve hard, I grieve fast and I grieve. I want to say I can't use the word thoroughly, but it's deeply. That's the word I'm looking for, right, and I could be that way for like a week, but then after that I'm like oh.
Speaker 1:OK, now at least I can put two and two together on certain things, right, it's like. It's like after that I'm like, ok, I can get up, I can wash my face and I'm good, I can think just a little bit more each day after that. But then I've seen others, you know, where there is no outward display of grief, it's all inward, like you say, sherry, right, it's like with you. You know, on the outside they look fine, but on the inside they're grieving. And in some you see that grief come out weeks later. In some you never really see it, depending on how they choose to display it.
Speaker 1:And I remember one family member in particular. She, she just had a stare, a stare. She would just sit and stare like off into nothing for hours, hours, right. And it's like I think that's just our bodies, our mind's way of trying to comprehend something so unexpected, right, you, just, you just stare and you just sit for hours.
Speaker 1:And I remember one time when we had leper and she was, and I was talking to her later she was like, yeah, I did that. And she said I didn't even know how fast the time went. I just sat at the kitchen table, I had a cup of tea and she's like it was, you know, for example, like it was like 7 in the morning, and then she's like, next thing, you know, it was 3 o'clock and she was still there staring. That's all she did. She didn't even know what she was thinking, she didn't know anything, just there, you know, and sometimes I just think that's our mind trying to cope, you know, and I'm not a psychiatrist. So if there's a psychiatrist, a psychologist listening, you know, please don't chastise me, I'm just, this is just an amateur guest, just our mind's way of trying to cope with the suddenness of what happened.
Speaker 1:Right, and even when, when we were with her, she just it was just like this blankness, just off into space, you, and I can't say space, it's just like just that. Look, you know, just looking, you know not crying, not, you know, sobbing, none of that, just kind of like they were there but they weren't there, you know, and things like that, like that and so, but it's awesome because Job's friends were really doing well, until they opened their mouth, right, and that's. That's just just shows you how sometimes I think we just need to be careful with the grieving and just, and you know what, if you, if you want to say something and if you feel like it needs to be said, pray beforehand. Just pray and say, laura, give me the words. I really feel like maybe you're you're, you're, you're telling me this, to say this, but just give me the words. I'm hoping it'd be encouraging, but I'm not sure that I'm going to get the delivery right. So just help me, because I don't want to hurt them any further than I have to, and most of the time when we do that it's unintentional, right, right, it's unintentional. We're not intentionally doing it, but we don't know the harm that can be done later. You know, when a person you know later is able to talk and to communicate.
Speaker 1:And, like I said, long story short. Job went through all of that. There's a lot in the middle of that. He grieved, he cried out to God and he said a lot of things to God and to his friends and everything else. He even had to face his wife who was just basically telling him I don't know why you're still talking to God. I don't know why you're still praying or whatever. You just need to curse God and die, right. But now remember she was grieving too. She just lost 10 of her children, her 10 children, you know. And basically it sounds like that's what she did. She was just like this is it? This is the end for me? And she just maybe cursed God. She was just encouraging her husband to do the same thing, but he wouldn't do that. He couldn't do that and in the end he never did. And, like I said, it's a much longer story, but in the end he never did.
Speaker 1:And in Job 122, you know, it talks about how and depending on what translation of the Bible you're reading because in the yes, I believe this is the NIV version of the Bible it said in all this Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. And in the King James Version it says something different. It says In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly. Again, that's in Job 1, verse 22. Now that particular scripture just really stood out to me. So I started doing just like a little bit more research into it.
Speaker 1:And one of my favorite Bible commentaries is Matthew Henry's commentary. Matthew Henry was like in the 1600s, he was a minister and everything else. So his commentary if you go into it, if you do a search for like Matthew Henry's commentary, you're going to get it and you're going to be like, oh my goodness, because it's very old English, it's very much like King James written, you know, because it was written in, I think, like the 16th or 1700s. But one thing he expounded on was he's talking about Job, chapter 1, verse 22. He said, and he continues, and he says, and you know, with folly and you know folly is just another word for foolishness and he said, and we could be, you know, carefully, watch what Job did, because we have to remember, like discontent and impatience is pretty much saying that, god, you were wrong, I was right, None of this should have happened and you were wrong.
Speaker 1:And so then we accusing God with foolishness and I never thought about it that way. And you know, matthew Henry just goes and continues on verse 22, how he said we really need to keep our tempers, you know, in control, like when we're going through grief, you know, and stuff like that. But I never thought about it as you, it this way, or I don't know why you're not, you know, hurrying up with this thing, like you know, and I just never thought about like that, about charging God with folly when we do that, saying that we're right and he's wrong, and that there's foolishness in a way that he's handling it. That just really struck me, really really struck me, because sometimes we just think we're just discontent, right. But then what are we really saying with that? Like God is wrong, like God's not handling it the correct way, I don't know. What are your thoughts on that, Sherry?
Speaker 2:Wow because I never thought about it that way either. I always thought that when we're struggling with something that he wants us to come to him and he wants us to share our thoughts with him, and he does Like he knows what our thoughts are.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Like people are saying, it's so important to make sure that we're doing it with the right attitude With the God. I might not understand this, but I trust you, god. I don't know why you allowed this to this, but I trust you, god. I don't know why you allowed this to happen, but I trust you.
Speaker 1:Which is pretty much what Job did.
Speaker 2:Right, right, right, so you're allowed to have the feelings, the feelings are still there. It's how we approach the feelings and how we, how we handle the feelings. But I do really okay. So I remember when we were doing the Naomi you really okay. So I remember when we were doing the Naomi Ruth study, yes, and you, something you said gave me a profound thought about Naomi allowing or encouraging Mara to no, what was her name?
Speaker 2:Ruth and her other daughter-in-law yeah, I can't, I can't think of her name. Yeah, yeah, her anyway. And she encouraged her to go back to her hometown, even though she knew she was encouraging her to go back to idol worship.
Speaker 1:Well you.
Speaker 2:Just. You gave me another enlightening moment today when we were talking about Job or when you were talking about Job, I have always pictured Job's wife as the bad guy, because she's you know, curse, god, do this, do that. I was always like, oh, she's just not a believer. She was grieving too. I never. How am I so dumb that I didn't connect the fact that the mother lost 10 children? How did I miss that? How did I miss that? I focused on Job and the fact that he lost his 10 children, but I never caught or thought about she's grieving her 10 children. She lost everything too, wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she lost not one, not two, but I mean, even one is devastating, right, like your world's never the same, right, with the loss of one, but all 10. Yeah, all 10. Now, I don't know if they had children or grandchildren at that point. I don't know their ages. I'm assuming they were either adults or close to adulthood, because they were drinking wine, you know, and everything else. So her whole future, like a whole generation, right, that she gave birth to, yeah, you know, just up and gone, yeah, right, so she was grieving as well. You know, just up and gone, just kapush, right, so she was grieving as well.
Speaker 1:But the difference is she cursed God and she was so upset, she was so deep in her grief. And not only did she curse God, she encouraged her husband to do it. Yeah, see, grief and misery would do that to you, right, you're just like okay, I'm done, I have nothing worth living for. I lost every child I've ever had in my womb that I've given birth to. I could care less about the cattle, I could care less about the camels, I could care less about all of that. But those children I carried in my womb, you know, I carefully nurtured them and nourished them and named them and raised them and they're all gone, all ten. And to her there was no other option but to curse God and be like I'm done, I'm going to go lay down and die, okay, and, by the way, husband, you need to do the same thing. You need to join me in this. Let's show God how angry we are. Basically, I think you know and everything else, but unlike Adam and Eve, to where Adam let Eve talk him into doing something that God told him not to do, job did not let his wife convince him to do something that was not in his heart. He stood, yeah, he was like he stood. Yeah, he was like he stood his ground and he's like, no, I'm not, no, I can't, you know. But he was deep in grief, you know, but he never blamed god, he never charged god with wrongdoing. And you're probably going well, that's good for joe kara.
Speaker 1:But how does that relate to us in our life today? How many times have tragedy, you know, tragedy type situations or just unexpected situations? Sometimes it could be death of a loved one, death of a family member, sometimes it could be the loss of everything Heaven knows. Here in America, we have had enough tornadoes, enough earthquakes, enough mudslides, enough fires that burns up whole communities, enough hurricanes to where there have been a lot of people who have lost everything within a matter of hours, right, right, and it's all about how do we respond to those things, right, do we yell at and rail at God and accuse him of, you know, doing something bad or something like that? Or do we call out to God and be like, oh my God, you have got to help me. I don't know what to do at this moment. We've lost everything that you have blessed us with, but if you did it once, you can do it again. Just give us the first step of what we need to do now. You know, and just thank you, that no life was lost, but sometimes in those hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, you know, and fires, life is lost, right, and it's about how we respond to it.
Speaker 1:We never, as believers, should accuse God of anything, but we should run to Him with everything, no matter how tragic it is, no matter how devastating it is. Let it bring us to our knees in today's modern world and we kind of talked about that this summer when we were talking about the screw tape letters that the enemy will bring a whole bunch of stuff our way, some of it intentional, some of it unintentional, and I'm not talking about natural things that happen, because that's a whole different story. You know that. You know Christians debate.
Speaker 1:Is Satan the cause of that, or is that just natural? Is that just or is God causing it? That's a whole nother podcast. You know is that? And what we learn from Job is how to properly, properly, respond when it seems like we are attacked from the left, the right, above us, below us, just like every which way. Again, all of these messages came to Job in a short matter of time and his world went from bright to dark so quickly, and yet he still did not rail against God and accuse him of anything. And I think to me, that's one of the key things we could take away from Job. What do you think, sherry?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. In fact, in Job he says the Lord give us and the Lord take us away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Speaker 1:Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Speaker 2:yes, yep regardless of what I have, regardless of what God has blessed me with, regardless of what God takes back, because everything that we have. This was a tough concept for me to believe and to live out, but, in all seriousness, everything we have, every blessing that we have, is only a loan to us from God. It's not our husbands, our children, our jobs, our houses, our 401k, or we don't have a 401k or whatever money we do have. Everything that we have is a blessing and it's on loan from God. And the other part that I not that I'm completely wrapping it up, if you still have anything you want to say but the other part that I wanted to touch base on is because last spring I was doing, I was reading Job in my Bible study and I had never.
Speaker 2:It was another aha moment for me. I had never picked this up before, but it was talking about what, what inciting factor or what choice, what, what action step happened before God restored double what Job had to begin with. So Job had 10 children to begin with. Job ended up with 20 more children. Job had 5,000 sheep. I don't know, I'm just throwing a number out there.
Speaker 2:He ended up with 10,000 sheep. But what was the action? What was the, what was the inciting factor? That that crossed it over, that that flipped the switch. And it says in Job 42.10, and this is after God had a conversation with Job and let him see this is what I've done, I've created all of this. What have you?
Speaker 1:done. Who are?
Speaker 2:you to question what I do and Job fell down on his face and he was like God I'm so, so sorry You're right, you're right.
Speaker 2:You're right. But then so in Job 42.10, it says and the Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed, the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. So that leads me to believe, because the Bible is true, that Job might not have had the restoration happen to him had he not obeyed and prayed for his friends. And God asked him earlier, up there in still in chapter 42, he said to the friends themselves because he was rebuking them. And he said you know, you guys are making me really angry.
Speaker 2:And he said now, therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, go to my servant Job. So he's talking to Eliphaz. I can never say these words. I'm so sorry, eliphaz the Temanite, he's talking to him right there and he says go to my servant Job and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering, and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept him, lest they deal with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken of me what is right and my servant Job has.
Speaker 2:So, basically, at the very beginning, it talks to us in Job 1,. It says in Job 1.5, so it was after their sons and daughters feasted in their homes for the appointed day and the amount of time. So it was when the days of feasting had run their course. Then Job would send and sanctify them, would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. So Job made it a habit from day one that he was going to offer sacrifices and pray diligently for his children. And now God, at the very end so it's going full circle is saying Job, your prayers are righteous, your prayers are just, you have a good heart and you're praying for them from a good heart. I'm asking you to pray for your friends too, because it's only through your prayers that they'll be sanctified, because they have done things that they shouldn't have done and they displeased me, but you, you didn't sin, even in your suffering.
Speaker 2:So I just had done listening to a sermon from Times Square Church, pastor Tim Delina, yesterday, and he was talking about the exact same thing, about the importance of praying for our. He's talking about unsaved friends, but we should pray for everybody, like our prayer. Life should be so strong and God hears the prayers of the righteous. So don't think that just because oh well, I'm not, you know, equipped with prayer, I'm not, I'm not studied in prayer, I don't know how to pray yeah, you do. All you have to do is have a righteous heart towards God, a respect and a love towards your, your heavenly father. Trust him, believe in him, have faith in him and no, it doesn't have to be supersonic faith, it just has to be faith the size of a mustard seed and pray for your diligently, diligently pray for your, your family members, your friends.
Speaker 2:He gave a challenge to just pray. God, take so-and-so out of Sodom and and that's a whole nother lesson that we don't have time to break down or get into today, but basically we're just saying Lord, holy Spirit, you are the one that brings people to Christ, you are the one that brings people to repentance and conviction, and we're asking you to help this person feel that conviction. We're asking you to bring them to the foot of the cross and have them you know join the family. So our job is to pray, our job is to be consistent, with a pure heart to pray, and the Holy Spirit then does the heavy work. But it starts with prayer. It starts with putting those people that God has put as a burden on our heart, and I mean that in a good way, like a good burden, that they're heavy on our hearts and we pray consistently for them, believing that God hears our prayers and that he's going to do something about it. Is there anything else that you want to say before we wrap it up?
Speaker 1:Is there anything else that you want to say before we wrap it up? Only that, and I think you mentioned that it's in chapter 42 of Job, where it pretty much says that you know, I want you to pray for your friends or whatever, because they have spoken wrongly for me or something. It's like what God is saying. So, basically, when they were trying to comfort Job, they were saying things and attributing things to God that God was like wait, what you know, like I didn't, you're no, you're not, you're not speaking, you know rightly of me, right? So I think we that, as a cautionary tale, we have to be careful, even when we're trying to help people, of saying what God said. Right, because, yeah, because we have to be careful.
Speaker 1:And again, I think they were just trying to encourage their friends. You know, maybe, if you call that encouragement because they were saying some harsh things, right, you know, and but it's like, and I think a couple of times they were like well, god did it because of this. This is why God happened to you, because God is saying that you should have done this, or you didn't do this, or your kids were this or something like that, and we've got to be very careful with that. We've got to be very careful with that because we don't want God, in all his majesty and glory, to be shaking his head at us and going no, daughter, that's not why this happened, and you should have consulted me before you said that to that person, you know, because you're misrepresenting what's happening here, you know. So I just think we just need to be, as a cautionary tale, just be very, very careful of what we attribute to God, especially careful what we attribute to the Holy Spirit. If we haven't prayed about it, then we probably should keep our mouth shut about it.
Speaker 1:If we're going to say God said this, or God did this because or you know, maybe the Holy Spirit, you know something like this, we've got to be very careful and tread reverently Reverently, I think, is the word I'm looking for, word I'm looking for. But God, in all His mercy and grace, he didn't, you know, smote the friends. He just told Job to pray for them, right, yeah, so it's not like you know, he's just going to strike you with lightning or something. If you're like oops, I may have done that, you know, and I felt chastened, you know, the Holy Spirit was trying to correct me on that. But I never went back and, you know, just talked to God about it. It's fine, we serve a God of grace and mercy and be like, oh God. I think I messed up when I said that you know, and just just talk with him about it. So it's not like he's going to strike anyone down with lightning or anything because of that.
Speaker 1:He just wants you to come to him to where he can gently correct you, you know, and be like, just just be careful when you attribute you know, stuff like that to me. So that's all I wanted to add regarding that.
Speaker 2:I am so glad that you did I. We could literally spend another hour talking about Job, but once as always, we want you to spend that time with the Holy Spirit and we want you to get excited about Job and about his story and what God wants to reveal to you. I have read the story of Job multiple to multiple times throughout my life and just this morning God gave me a new revelation. And last spring, when I studied him, he gave me a new revelation. So our excitement and our prayer and our challenge to you is to read through. It's hard to read, I will be the first one to admit it. Some of these arguments that the friends gave I'm like what? I don't completely understand, what in the heck you're talking about. So a resource that helps me is the Bible Project. I will type in Bible Project, job and then I'll get to watch the video, and their video will help unpack some of the harder parts for me. But don't use the Bible Project as your real source. Use that as a stepping stone. A supplement, yeah, a supplement. Use that as a stepping stone to your Bible reading. Don't, don't take it as a substitute, because you will just be missing out on so much if you, if you take the shortcut, if you do the quick notes instead of reading the actual Bible, and this isn't you're not going to be tested on it Like this is just a conversation between you and God. This is just another way for God to show you his love and to show you the way he loves his children and the different lessons that he teaches us. So, having said all that John 16, 33, we always come back to that. Jesus said things. I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace In the world. You will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. It always comes back to that. Job sure had a lot of tribulation and there were times when he wasn't peaceful, but he came back to that peace. Regardless of all the grief that he experienced and the joy at the end when things were restored to him, he still came back to that peace and still had that peace in Jesus Christ. And we too can have that peace. All we have to do is ask. All we have to do is stay um in to do is stay in that relationship, choose to stay in that relationship with God.
Speaker 2:So next week we're going to talk about Esther. She actually comes first in the Bible, before Job, esther and Job, but she's another one that I absolutely love to study. So I'm super, super excited about discussing her next week. So, if you want, you can not only read Job or start Job, because he's pretty long he's 42 chapters but you can read Esther before next week if you want, and then you'll be ready to discuss it with us. You'll be like, oh yeah, I remember reading that or I got to go back and read that some more. So there's something else that you can do as you're shorter and it's just. It's a wonderful story of, once again, how God just says, how God is so personal and he's right there with us.
Speaker 2:If you have any questions, if you have any prayer requests or need encouragement, email us at cheeruppodcasts at gmailcom, or you can start a discussion on the Facebook page Cheer Up Podcast. We would love to hear from you. Either way. We love it when people reach out and let us know how the podcast is blessing them, let us know any questions that they have and just start conversations with us. We love to talk.
Speaker 2:Also, head over to Kara's website, karahrhuntcom. She has all of her books listed there. She has lots of other goodies for you to look at as well, so head on over there. She also has a service if you're someone who's interested in writing fiction and you don't, or Christian fiction and you don't completely know how to start, or don't completely know how to flesh out the book, or you have an idea but you don't know where to begin. Carol would love to help with that as well, and the details are on her website.
Speaker 2:I also want to encourage you to head over to my website, sherryswallwellcom. Over there, I tell about the membership Jesus in the Everyday and I have to tell you, growing a relationship with God is the most important thing in our lives. It's the most important thing that we can ever do, and the reason is because it affects every single area of our lives. And if I didn't have our friends, community, walking with me, keeping me accountable, keeping me encouraged to throw and bounce ideas off of and be like, hey, I read this, but I don't really understand what that means, or I listened to this song and it was exactly what I needed today, or this is how I'm praying and this is where I'm stuck, things like that.
Speaker 2:It's very discouraging and it's easy to quit. It's easy to just throw our hands up and we miss one day, so then we miss the next, and it's easier then to miss a whole week and a month, and pretty soon before we know it. We are distant from God, and it's not that he moves, it's that we move. That was one of the main reasons behind my heart of starting the membership. It's to give you. When I say the word accountability, I don't mean it in a negative way, I don't mean it like you must do this, but it's more of a community coming together and it's more of saying hey, I want to grow our relationship with God, and you don't have to grow at my pace and I don't have to grow at your pace.
Speaker 2:We get to grow at God's pace. But it's a way to keep it exciting, it's a way to keep it fresh, it's a way to not have to do all the thinking behind it but to just say, okay, what should I read, what should I do. It's a way to just help you to get that conversation started and to get that growth going. So if that's something that you think you need or that's something that you'd like to check out, head over to my website and look at the tab that says I want to remember, or I want to join.
Speaker 2:And it will tell you all about it. There's also books over there that you can look at, as well as some other things. So we are just so grateful that you're here, we're so grateful for this community, and I hope that you enjoyed our talk about Job today. We could seriously talk about Job for three weeks and still not cover all of it, but hopefully we gave you enough excitement that you can't wait to dive into Job yourself. Have a great rest of your day today, a great rest of your week, and we will talk to you next week. Thank you.
