WebSDR – 2026-05-27 05:55

All right, and I would like to acknowledge Dan, N6TNI. Good morning, Dan. North Highlands of California, appreciate you being there.

See you on the Half Moon Bay SDR. Good to have you with us. All right, that's Dan, N6TNI.

All right, any other check-ins this morning? Please come now. Thank you.

KM5F. Will, Keelemike 5 Foxtrot, good to hear your voice. How are you doing today, Will?

Will Smith: Oh, doing a little better. Are we in First Thessalonians today, starting it? Okay, I'm sorry, that's...

Yes, we're starting the Book of Job today, that's correct, and we'll continue to pray for the healing of your sinus infection and cold. Still hear it in your voice a little bit there, Will. and just praying that that will resolve itself.

How do you feel about opening in prayer for us today? Do you think your voice is good enough to do that over? So I'm struggling a little bit with it.

I still get a lot of drainage, so I'm down today. I can't fight this. Copy that, copy that.

No worries, Will. Thanks for letting me know. All right, WB7MAX here looking for check-ins.

We've got Will, QM5 Foxtrot. Any other check-ins, please come down. ..

All right, we've got about a minute to go before we start the West Coast Apollo study. Are there any more check-ins? Please come now.

Thank you. . AK-6 OK AK6OK, WB7MX, go ahead.

OK, I've got that email here. Yeah, man, I might get my voice back here, but anyway, any time you think it's appropriate, could be at the end. I will call on you, no worries.

All right, WB7MX, Net Control for the West Coast Apollo Study. It's time for us to get started. Are there any final check-ins before we get started?

Please come now. All right, hearing nothing, we're going to get started with our West Coast Bible study. Now, as you're aware, we have spent a long time in the New Testament, and we have gone through the book of Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and we just finished Colossians yesterday.

So having spent some time in the New Testament, we are going to go to the Old Testament. So today we're going to start with the book of Job, and then we'll go to the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, And then after that we will go back to the New Testament. So we ricochet back and forth between the Old and the New Testament, and we try to distribute the books as evenly as possible.

Of course, there's a lot more books in the Old Testament, 39, as opposed to the New Testament, 27. So we naturally spend more time in the Old Testament, and some of those books are also longer. So anyway, it's going to be a good journey back through the Old Testament again.

These books are the so-called poetic books, and the poetic books are Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. And the nature of Hebrew poetry is it isn't like ours. Our poetry has meter and it has rhyme.

But Hebrew poetry doesn't have meter or rhyme. It's like the poetry. It's a different kind of poetry.

And it consists of parallel thoughts. antithetical thoughts, progressive thoughts, put together into couplets. So, you know, you see that in the way in which the thought units are structured.

And so it's not a narrative, but it contains narrative, but it's... structured in in a poetic form what we're going to be doing today is we're going to be looking at the book of Job then before we do that we want to open our time in prayer and then I'm going to give an introduction to the book and then we'll start talking about it so let's open our time together in prayer Roger WBVCL are you are you there this morning with us Roger. Okay, could you open a prayer for us please?

Not according to our particular cultural understanding. So give us your Holy Spirit to perceive what's happening. Especially the prologue and the tremendous background.

as to the rules of engagement, as to the great controversy that we see in these first couple of chapters. And as we look at suffering extensively, we need your help from heaven to understand this huge, huge problem. Bless Max as he facilitates our experience together with this new book in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen, Roger. Thank you so much for that.

Really appreciate that. All right. Well, let's talk a little bit about the book of Job.

Job is a unique book because it gives us a unique glimpse into both the ways and the workings of God and also the thoughts and the inner feelings of a man. in a way that no other portion of Scripture does. And so we're taken in the first chapter of the book of Job into the inner courts and councils of heaven.

And we're allowed a behind-the-scenes view of how events on earth are the result of events that take place in heaven. And we see how many events make no sense at all when viewed from purely an earthly perspective, make perfect sense if we only knew the heavenly issues that are involved. And so we're taken into the life and experiences and thoughts and reasonings of a godly man who is struggling with the problem of human suffering.

In a way and to a degree that is very intimate and revealing. And it tells us much about how people think and respond during times of calamity and suffering. And how even godly people sometimes shine and sometimes grievously fail.

in difficult times. And so we see in Job's hope and also in Job's despair, how our hopes and despair occurs as well. And we're going to learn a great deal from this man.

Now, as I said, this book of Job deals with the problem of human suffering. And this is a problem that we all have, that people have had throughout the ages. and that is, is that what's the explanation for my suffering, or what's the explanation for the suffering of others?

And Job helps us to answer that question. So what we have here in the book of Job is it opens... with two satanic assaults.

We have a satanic assault against Job in chapter 1, and we also have a satanic assault against Job in chapter 2. And these satanic assaults don't come out of nowhere. We see that there is a controversy in heaven about, between God and Satan over this man.

There's a discussion about who he is and about what his motives are. And so a test is permitted to be arranged by God to prove the character of this man, also to reveal a great deal about God and his will and ways, and of course about Satan's and his purposes and plans. So having gone through this satanic assault in chapters 1 and chapter 2, then Job enters into a dialogue with three of his friends about the suffering that he has experienced.

And that takes up the vast bulk of the book. That's chapters 3 to 31. And so we have the lamentation of Job in chapter 3, where he cursed his existence and his circumstances, but he did not curse his God.

And that's an important distinction to make. Even in the midst of his failure to understand and the anguish of heart he was experiencing, he didn't falsely accuse God. He questioned God, but he didn't ever falsely accuse him.

And that's an important thing to maintain that distinction. Well, we see this dialogue between Job and his three friends in chapters 4 through 31. And his three friends are Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.

They show up to comfort him in his struggles. And there's three cycles of dialogue And in each cycle, his three friends each speak, and Job replies after each one speaks. And they all essentially say the same thing: suffering is always and only caused by sin.

"Job, you are suffering, so what sin have you committed?" Confess it and you'll be restored. Well, Job's response is also always exactly the same. And as this, I've not knowingly practiced sin.

There has to be another explanation. I wish God would explain himself to me, but as for you three... You're miserable comforters because you falsely accused me of some unrepentant sin in my life.

So just because somebody accuses us of something, if we know it's not true, we don't say we're sorry just to make peace, but rather we're interested in justice and truth. So a false accusation is not to be embraced for the sake of peace. It's to be repudiated for the sake of justice.

So we see these cycles, the first cycle, chapter 4 to 14, the second cycle, chapter 15 to 21, the third cycle, chapter 22 to 31. So there's a whole lot of circular discussion that goes on in the middle of the book. Well, then beginning at chapter 32, a fourth individual enters the dialogs.

and his name is Elihu and he talks in chapters 32 to 37 and he's upset at Job's friends he's saying you guys don't have the answer but he's also upset at Job and he's upset at Job for questioning God demanding out of God answers or thinking that somehow there's been some injustice that's going on here. And so what Answer Elihu provides that's different than what the three friends, Bildad, Zophar, and Eliphaz provided, is that God's purpose in affliction is to do men good. Thank you.

...afflictions often produce salvation. And then secondly, it's to enlighten them. That is, to help them have a deeper, more profound understanding into God, His will and ways, and also to see suffering as a positive thing that has redemptive results and sanctifying results and God-glorifying results when it has gone through.

Well, then the book closes with a declaration by God in chapters 38 to 41. And God here starts questioning Job about the creation of the universe. and basically says, "Where were you when I made it all?

Can you explain this and that?" And Job goes, "Nope, I can't." And if Job can't answer basic questions about the creation of the universe and God's administration of the universe, then who is he to be questioning God about His management of providence in the universe? And so the main point is that God's wisdom and God's power are beyond human comprehension. There's an awful lot about what God does that we don't know the why.

And if God tried to explain it, we wouldn't be able to wrap our brain around it anyway. So what God is saying to Job at the end of the book is this: If you have the knowledge and wisdom to be able to answer questions about the creation of the universe and the administration of the universe, then perhaps you would have the competence and qualification to question me about my providential dealings in your life. But if you can't even answer the relatively simple questions about how it was made and how it's ordered, then who are you to be questioning my wisdom and justice in these greater matters?

And what's interesting, is that God never answers Job's questions. He simply disqualifies the questioner from thinking he has the standing to question God about anything God does. And so God's purpose here is to bring Job to the point where he trusts God apart from any explanations.

And when he trusts God as being righteous and good, regardless of the unexplained adversities he brings into Job's life, then the principle is established that God is worthy of trust, and it is the supreme act of worship to yield such trust to him. As it says in Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding.

By the way, this is WB7MAX. Then we have the conclusion to the story in chapter 42. We see Job repenting.

We see Job's three friends being rebuked by God. And we see Job's substance restored. And so we need to understand Job is a good and an obedient man.

And so the theme of the book is the testing... and the teaching of the righteous through suffering. We know why the wicked suffer.

They suffer for their sins. The righteous suffer for other reasons. And so the key verse, Job 23 and verse 10, but he knows the way that I take.

And when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. So the purpose of the suffering is to purify his people. And the conclusion of the whole matter at the end of the book is simply this.

Affliction is permitted by God to refine a man so that he may see God in all of his greatness and majesty and so that he may see himself in all of his smallness and sinfulness. So his pride may be broken and replaced with humility and trust. So the whole book, then, is a discussion about the issue of suffering, the role it plays in our lives as Christians who are trying to follow and serve the Lord, and the role it plays in the universe and God's purposes in bringing glory to him.

I've said this quote before. I'll say it again. It says, One of the old Puritans said, God has one son without sin, but he has no sons without suffering.

So if the sinless son of God suffered, we shouldn't think suffering for us is some strange thing that we shouldn't be experiencing. It's part of how God works in our lives to move us to that next level of trust. and worship and praise and humility and obedience on our part.

All right. This is WB7MAX, Net Control for the West Coast Bible Study. That was kind of a long introduction, but it's a big book and it's complicated.

All right. Before we get started with our scripture reading, does anybody want to comment on the introduction or anything in relationship to this book? Please come down to your call sign.

Zed Excent. Kevin, KB7 Zed Excent. Go ahead.

KB7 Zed Excent. Thank you, Max. Very good introduction.

And to that, as you see the theme throughout the whole Bible... is the just shall live by faith. And whether you're reading it through the dramatic events regarding Job or Habakkuk who cries out, or aren't you going to do something?

Everything's so terrible here. or Paul in Romans, we learn that God answers the questions usually by saying, "Trust me." And we don't understand, as you pointed out, so many of the things, why things are the way they are, work out the way they do, why the struggles and suffering that we face or we see others struggle through. But the answer God always gives us is, trust me, live by faith.

KB7 is that example. Kevin, well said. I think you really captured the essence of the message.

And that is, God can be trusted even when he can't be understood. And so we trust in him with all of our heart and don't lean on our own understanding. And we see that being echoed over and over again in various books, as you said.

Not only Job, but Habakkuk and Romans as well, especially Romans 9. Thank you, Kevin, for that comment. Any other comments, please come down.

Thank you. All right, well, I'd like to add just one more thing, and that is that the book of Job is kind of like the Old Testament book of Revelation in the sense that both of these books go into the courtroom of heaven, into the throne room of heaven, and allow us to see behind the scenes between God and Satan in terms of the conflict and battle that's going on there, and between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. So we need to understand we don't just wrestle against flesh and blood.

It's not just visible things, but against spiritual things. There's principalities and powers. is a heavenly plan and purpose.

And that heavenly plan and purpose is to work all things together for good. Now, if any one of us could be Job, we would be Job. We look at this man, we admire him, we understand his struggles, we see his outcomes.

This WB7MAX, let me make one more comment. You've all heard about Ted Turner, right? He's the guy who started CNN, Cable News Network, back in the 70s, I believe it was.

In any event, he was raised in a Christian home. And his sister got cancer. And he prayed that his sister would be healed, and she wasn't.

And so he got really angry at God. He turned against God and spent his whole life blaspheming God and Christianity, and he just died the other day. The guy became a multi-billionaire, okay, very successful financially.

But here's an example of someone who went through suffering and responded wrongly to it. Okay? You see someone like Joni Eareckson Tata, right?

She's a healthy, happy teenager, dives into a lake, hits her head on a rock, quadriplegic. She doesn't get mad at God. She humbles herself before God.

She tries to understand God's will and ways. or you can humble yourself before God, love Him, learn from Him, and have a blessed outcome like Job did. All right, WB7MAX, any other comments on this book or those concepts?

Please come now with your call sign. and turning away from evil. And seven sons and three daughters were born to him.

His possessions also were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, And it came about, when the days of feasting had completed their cycle, that Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus Job did continually.

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, "From where do you come?" Then Satan answered the Lord and said, "From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it." And the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil." Then Satan answered the Lord, for the Simeons attacked and took them.

They also slew the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another also came and said, The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another also came and said, Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house.

And behold, a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house. And it fell on the young people, and they died. And I alone have escaped to tell you.

Then Job arose. and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshipped. And he said, Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return there.

And the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Through all this Job did not sin, nor did he blame God.

That is chapter 1, WB7MAX, WB7VZL. Roger, thank you so much for that reading. It's WB7MX.

Appreciate that. Well done. Okay, so here is the opening satanic assault on Job.

We see his character set forth in verses 4 to 5. We see Satan's slander in verses 6 to 12. And we see Job's calamity.

by way of a Bible for him to be able to reference and gain understanding from, to be able to process what was going on. He knew God. He knew that he had to make sacrifices to God.

He understood God's moral law. He walked according to it. It's astounding that he responded as well as he did.

And his response really justifies the description that is given of him. That here's a man who is mature and upright, one who fears God, one who turns away from evil. and I just clarified that one for me a little bit because then he turns right around and worships the Lord yeah that was not anger at all that was how people visibly expressed their grief so when people are grief-stricken you know they'll break down they'll cry maybe they'll fall on the floor when they're faced with overwhelming grief and so it was the custom and habit of the people of Job's day and in fact we see it of how his heart is torn in half and everything of his own glory has been removed.

You know, the Bible says that the hair is a person's glory. It's a woman's glory, right? And the hair on the head is our crown, if you will.

Okay, it's the top of our head, right? So our hair is our crown. Well, he just, as it were, expressing, my heart is torn open.

Any glory of mine is cast into the dust. I am nothing. I'm crushed underneath this grief.

Back to you there, Jeff. Try the Yankee. Try the Yankee.

Go ahead. Go ahead, Jeff. Yeah, just real quick, to see this happen all in the first chapter is stunning to me.

What are there, 20 chapters in Job? I guess there's 20-something. Is this not enough?

I get the rustic explanation of the first chapter, over. Yeah, copy that. Yeah, there's actually 42 chapters in this book.

And God spends a lot of time talking about the issue of suffering, the perspectives people have on it, the right perspective and the wrong perspective. So if God saw fit to put this much information in this book about suffering, And so this land of Uz was in northern Arabia. It was east of the Dead Sea.

And that was a huge region, very fertile. And as a result, this man was very prosperous. Now, the reason why his wealth is mentioned is because the accusation that Satan makes against him And so what Satan then goes on to say is basically Job serves you because you blessed him.

He has mercenary economic motives. The only reason why he cares about you, God, and worships you is because you've made him rich. So God proceeds to strip all the riches away from Job in order to show that Job is not worshiping him because of the material blessings God has poured out upon him.

And the result of that has been their conversion. But this is the only example I can think of in the Bible off the top of my head. Maybe somebody else has another passage.

You know, Paul was quite prosperous in his service as a persecutor of the church. And he says, "What gain things were to me," he says, "I counted lost." All right, real good, Beck. Thank you for that.

All right, anybody else with a comment here, please come now. ZXN. ZXN, Kevin, please go ahead.

KB7, ZXN. Yeah, it is really impossible to read this text without being moved and stunned. All right.

And, you know, it's difficult enough when you lose someone that, you know, you love as much as you love life, maybe more. And you see suffering on so many levels out there. And I try to always look at it in that light, the suffering that we go through, the suffering that Job went through, which is certainly extreme beyond any of, many of our experiences ever.

But the ultimate one, the one that suffered ultimately and most greatest was our Savior. Yeah, Kevin, great perspective. And Beck, Alpha Alpha 5 Yankees, this really speaks to your question.

Did it ever happen to anybody else? It happened to Jesus. You know, it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, and I think it's verse 9, and to gain insight out of, which we would have never had had he not gone through his sufferings.

Just like as Kevin Well said, we would have never had redemption if Jesus had not laid aside the riches of heaven, came down to the earth, suffered unrighteously and unreasonably, if you will. Keith, that is a great question. The answer to that question is contained in Revelation chapter 12.

The answer is yes. He's been cast down from heaven to the earth, and he is roaming around here doing all the havoc he can. What he can't do is gain access to heaven anymore like he did with Job.

And I could talk about that more tomorrow. We are way out of time. And so we're going to stop there.

But, Keith, I promise you I'll pick up that question and talk about it more fully tomorrow. Right now we need to have Jeff AK6OK read to us a letter. that is an answer to prayer that we've been praying about here on the net.

Jeff, AK6OK, the mic is yours. Very good, Max. Thank you very much.

Yes, I got a letter yesterday from the chaplain, the chief chaplain from the USS Tripoli aircraft carrier. who is currently deployed in the Iran area. As you remember, we were going to send a bunch of relief supplies to them, and I've held off until lately.

I think we're going to get them going now. Jeff, I understand about not sending everything now. They think they have fixed the issue.

We now have two ships going back and forth from Yokota, Japan, to Diego Garcia. I'm going to skip forward to the last one. I want you guys to listen to this really closely.

If you remember, we were able to put a chapel on the USS Tripoli ship. We also put one on the USS America and the USS Miguel Keith. The America and the Tripoli are both massive aircraft carriers.

are really incomprehensible without divine revelation. Lord, we have scripture that is a light to our feet and a lamp to our path. Lord, we thank you so much for what you put Job through and then had it written down.

So when we go through similar inexplicable events, Father, we have a bunch of requests today. First of all, we want to pray for Roger's family, WP7VCL. They're flying home from the motor oil service for Melvin.

Lord, give them all a safe journey. And Father, may they all return to their homes safely. Lord, watch over each one and cause them to reflect on Melvin's death and life and destiny.

of the source of his pain. Lord, I pray that he would be able to manage his pain without excessive reliance upon drugs. And Lord, I just pray that whatever the source of that pain is, Father, you would heal it.

And Lord, wrap your arms of mercy and grace around John. Lift him up, hold him near, strengthen him, Father, and may he know much grace from you in relationship to the pain he's going through. Father, we just praise you for this good report from Jeff AK6OK regarding...

Father, we just want to pray today for Al, KJ7QQH, his wife, Jerry, and his recovery from cataract surgery. Lord, give her clear vision, we pray. Lord, I pray for Eric, a KD7ES, and the government agency he works for.

May they hire a good supervisor that Eric will be able to work well with. Father, we pray also for our brother Will and his elevated TSA test. Father, I pray that that would amount to nothing, and that when his biopsy results come back, that they would be negative for any cancer.

Be with our brother Mike, he has an RSV as he travels. And, Father, also provide her with a liver transplant. We pray for Glenn, KJ7UMW.

Haven't heard from Glenn in a while, Father. Just pray that you would heal he and his wife, Vicki, from their chronic pain. And, Lord, may we be able to hear from Glenn before long.

Lord, we continue to pray for Ed in 6XOH, his niece, Ruth. in whom we trust for our redemption, our reconciliation, our forgiveness, and the gift of eternal life. Thank you, Lord, for a Savior who came to save us from our sin.

We do trust in him alone for that, Father. And may Christ be at the center of our lives today. as we go about our responsibilities.

In Jesus' name, amen. Christ, this is WB7MX, Net Control for the West Coast Bible Study. I want to thank all the stations you checked in this morning and those who stood by to give us a clear operating frequency.

We meet here seven days a week at 6 a.m. in order to read the scriptures, understand their meaning message and application, and then pray for grace and mercy to live out what we learn and for God to meet the needs of those that are in our circle of fellowship. I'll be returning this frequency now to regular amateur use.

This is WT7MX. I'll be clear and standing by. Great job, M6T and I.

Okay, I had a double there. I got Mike, W7TWO, and also Dan. Mike, W7TWO, you go first.

All right, Mike, good copy on all, and really appreciate you checking in, and glad you were able to hear the introduction. And we will pray for your safety tomorrow as you travel to Spokane to pick up that excavator, all the miles you're driving with a heavy load. Back down south with 5 Yankee.

Are you here with the joke of the day, over? Yes, sir, I am. All right, go ahead.

VZL, roger, are you still there? Yes, I can hardly wait, over. Okay, here we go.

This one's for you. If an orchestra plays in a thunderstorm, Roger, my pleasure, Alpha Alpha 5 Yankee. And I praise the Lord that I had it on hand and didn't have to go to the store and you get it today.

Now, I'll tell you, that's one of the best things that happened to this old pastor over there. Copy that. That's great.

Tell us your grandson's name. on the 200 math question summary, and he got, he only did three out of the 200. Well, that tells, those are things that I didn't even begin to approach.

At any rate, I'm so glad and I praise the Lord that his father is up with him. I just pray that God will do great things with little Emmerich. Roger, thank you for that report.

That's very encouraging that he asked for a Bible, and God willing, he'll read it and be saved through it. Over.