How to Handle Criticism with Class, Part 2

Chuck Swindoll: God knows the way that I take. He knows the truth. He's my justifier. He and I are on speaking terms. I trust Him. I believe in Him. He knows the way I take. After the trial is over, I will come forth as gold.
Bill Meyer: When the pain won't lift, when every day hurts a little more than the last, it's hard to keep trusting a God you can't see. Maybe you've been there. Maybe you're there right now. Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll returns to the story of Job, a man who lost nearly everything yet held fast to his faith through the darkness. Chuck shows us how Job could be brutally honest with God and still trust Him completely. It's a message about grace under pressure, and we begin with prayer.
Chuck Swindoll: We have sung of Your great names and the names of Your Son, our Father, and even some names of the Spirit who works within us and fills us with power and encouragement. Today we speak to You through Christ, not because of our deserving to do so, but because of Him who has opened the way to You through His blood. Thank You sincerely, our Father, for the cross where we first saw the light and the burden of our hearts rolled away. We still walk with You by faith. We still seek You by faith. We still long to please You and to honor Your name, to represent You correctly and fairly and appealingly to those who have never known that You are approachable or forgiving or full of compassion and love. Now this morning, Father, I pray that You will speak to us from this ancient book in ways that will make sense to us in the 21st century. Thank You for preserving the word of God. Thank You for giving us a book from which we can sing the songs of the faithful. Thank You now for the privilege of giving. We do so with gratitude for our occupation, for health in being able to work, and for the ability to serve You in places outside these walls. Be glorified in the gifts we give, in the sermon that is preached, and in our response to all of this. Through Christ I pray, and everyone said, Amen.
Bill Meyer: You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into Job's story on your own, be sure to purchase your copy of our Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbooks by going to insight.org/offer. Chuck titled today's message, "How to Handle Criticism with Class."
Chuck Swindoll: There is no finer example of grace under pressure than this man whose book bears his name. Job has been suffering. He's suffered the loss of bankruptcy, the death of his ten children—that's grieved him—the attacks of his friends who were once close to him, and the disease that ravaged him on top of all that, with the fever, the swelling, the sleepless nights, and the dreadful days. You rarely see Job losing it. If anything, at his worst, he simply says to the Lord, "I am at a loss to know what's happening or why. What is being said isn't true, and what You're doing I cannot explain, but all I can do is trust You." The first cycle is over. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar swung at him and often hit him. The second cycle is over. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar once again took him on. He answered each one, usually with great wisdom. Now we're back to the third cycle, and we're not surprised to read that old name again: Eliphaz the Temanite responded. He makes three accusations against Job in chapter 22. Verses one to 11: you're a sinner. Verses 12 to 20: you have hidden your sin, so you're a hypocrite. Verse 21 to the end of the chapter, verse 30: you're in need of repentance. The gall it took for him to stand there and say that to a man who is literally fevered with these boils that are all over him and racked with grief over the loss of his family, his home, and his business. But he says it straight. Verse five of chapter 22, Eliphaz accuses, "Is not your wickedness great and your iniquities without end?" Why would he say that? Look at the condition you're in. Nobody loses everything, including family, business, home, and health, without being guilty of sin. You must be a terrible sinner in light of all that you've lost. Correct observation—he's lost everything—wrong conclusion; it wasn't because he was sinful. But Job doesn't answer. Remember, this is grace under pressure. Job's character was so pure before all of the trouble started that the devil picked him out as the one he wanted to pick on. The Lord allowed it, knowing that Job's character would be able to withstand it. The antithesis is true—the opposite of what he's being accused of. The critic didn't know his facts. By the way, how could he have known them? He hasn't even been on the scene; he only showed up after the sickness occurred. He invites Job to look back. "Is not God in the height of heaven? Look also at the distant stars, how high they are." First he says, look up. Look up, Job. You say, "What does God know? Can He judge through the thick darkness? Clouds are a hiding place for Him so that He cannot see. He walks on the vault of heaven." Will you keep to the ancient path which wicked men have trod? Look back now, Job. Look back and see what other men have done. You're doing just what they have done. They were snatched away before their time, whose foundations were washed away by a river. They said to God, "Depart from us," and "What can the Almighty do to them?" That's what you're doing, Job. So Eliphaz is telling him off. Tough criticism. It's hard enough to be told you're a sinner, but to be told on top of that that you're a hypocrite adds a low blow. It's hard to show grace under pressure at a time like that. Our God despises hypocrisy, but the fact is, Job is not guilty of it. Well, Eliphaz decides he needs to preach an evangelistic sermon to Job and maybe he will get saved. And so in verses 21 to 30, he delivers an excellent evangelistic sermon. Only problem: Job's already saved. Look at verse 21. "Yield now and be at peace with Him; thereby good will come to you. Please receive instruction from God's mouth and establish His words in your heart." He has done that. "If you return to the Almighty"—he doesn't need to—"you will be restored. If you remove unrighteousness far from your tent"—he's already done that. "And place your gold in the dust." Verse 25: "Then the Almighty will be your gold and choice silver to you. Then you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God." He's going on and on with this message, and Job just patiently sits there. Let me ask you a hard question. Would you have sat there and let all that be said without interrupting? I mean, wouldn't you, at least a time or two, say, "Wait a minute, before you go any further, prove that! Where are my witnesses, or where are your witnesses that say I'm guilty of that?" Prove it. And he doesn't do that. Grace under pressure. Job, by the way, in chapters 23 and 24, never once answers Eliphaz. He talks to and about the Lord, but he doesn't once address Eliphaz. I think that's pretty significant. After all, Eliphaz is not going to justify him. The Lord will. So after you take the blast, whether it's at work or in some other place, and you finally get home and you get a quiet place, go to the Lord and talk to Him and say, "Lord, You know the truth. If any part of that is true, reveal that to me, but I don't believe it is. And in light of that, these are the things I request." Now we get to chapters 23 and 24. You get three very calm responses and very vulnerable responses from Job. Verses one to 12, Job answers, "I am unable to locate the presence of God, but I trust Him. I am unable to locate the presence of God, but I trust You, Lord." That's grace under pressure. Follow along with me. Then Job replied, verse three, "Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come to His seat." It's the courtroom he has in mind. "I wish I knew the bench that He sat on. I wish I knew where I could locate Him somewhere on this earth that I could get to Him." "I would bring my case before Him," verse four says. "And I would fill my mouth with arguments. I would learn the words which He would answer." I wouldn't argue with them; I would learn from them. "I would perceive what He would say to me. Would He contend with me by the greatness of His power? No. Surely He would pay attention to me." You know, one of the great things about our God, when you come to Him as you are, you never hear Him say, "Shame on you." People say that. God hears your confession, and He is quick to respond: "I forgive you. I love you. I understand you. I commend you for facing the truth." "Would He contend with me by the greatness of His power? No, He would pay attention to me." In fact, "There the upright would reason with Him, and I would be delivered forever from my judge." One of the things we can learn from our God is that when people come with their confession, there is one appropriate response—three words: "I forgive you." That's the response. They don't need reminders of other bad things that they have done. They don't need to be put on the spot or shamed because they failed. They need forgiveness. He says, "Would He contend with me? He would not contend with me, even though He is much more powerful. He would pay attention to me. I could reason with Him, and I would be delivered forever from my judge." "But I can't find Him! I go forward," verse eight, "He's not there. I turn around and I go back, and I cannot perceive Him. When He acts on the left, I cannot behold Him, and when He turns to the right, I cannot see Him." You ever been there? Just keep it to yourself for a minute, okay? If we all answered, it would be one rousing yes. Sometime in vain you search for some visible evidence of the living God. Wouldn't it be great to wake up in the middle of the night and peek out the window and see a little skywriting: "Dear Chuck, I hear you, I'm in charge. Love, God." But that's not the way it works. I would love for that to happen. I'd love to get into my vehicle after a hard day at work and turn the radio on and have God say, "Before you listen to this station, I want to talk to you for a few minutes." What's that dial? Where is He on that dial? I would turn and we'd love to have something tangible, something present. But we don't. It's a matter of faith. It's like the tragedy that struck this family of one child. The mother died early in the child's life, and the father and the daughter were left with the memory of this wonderful mother and the grief and the sorrow. And the night after the funeral of that day, he put his daughter to bed and his heart just went out to her. He decided that he would take a cot in there and put the cot by the daughter's bed. In the middle of the night, he heard her crying. And he called her name, and she said, "Daddy, it's so hard." She said, "I just... I just miss her so much." And he reached over and took her hand, and she said, "Oh, that's so much better," and she put her hand over on his shoulder and on his chest. And he said, "You know, sweetheart, we have the Lord." She said, "I know it, but I just need someone with skin on. I just need someone to touch." If you live alone, you sometimes feel that. If you have been left alone because of a broken relationship and you now find yourself where you once had companionship but now it's just you, you must awaken sometime in the night and think, "I wish I could find Him there. I wish I could just reach out and touch Him or hear His words. How reassuring that would be." This is a great man. This isn't some immature, fly-by-night brand-new Christian. This is a mature saint of God. "Oh, that I could know where He is." But I cannot see Him, behold Him, or perceive Him. Some of the greatest verses in all the Bible are verses 10, 11, and 12 of Job 23. I committed them to memory back when I was a young... in my young 20s, and I have called them to mind perhaps more than any other passage of scripture. I commend to you the memorizing of Job 23:10 through 12. I'm serious. I've got them marked out in my Bible. I got a ruler and I marked around 23:10 through 12. "He knows the way that I take." Look at the verse. "When He," that's God, "has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot has held His steps; His way have I kept and not declined. Neither have I turned back from the command of His lips. I have"—I love this word—"esteemed, I have treasured, I have prized the words of His mouth more than my necessary food." I'm unable to locate the presence of God, but I trust Him. Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and later Elihu, you can say whatever you wish against me. God knows the way that I take. He knows the truth. He's my justifier. He and I are on speaking terms. I trust Him. I believe in Him. He knows the way I take. After the trial is over, I will come forth as gold. You can count on that, saints. When the trial has passed, you will be deeper and richer for it. I want you to allow those words to burn their way into your brain so deeply that they become like a divine filter for everything that happens in your life from now on, everything. God knows the way that we take. One of the heretical ideas of these current days is the openness of God. "Open theism" is what it is called, as though God is still learning as He watches us respond to situations. In other words, omniscience is not really omniscience; it's kind of a learning knowledge. But the God of the Bible, I am convinced, and verses like these say that, the God of the Bible knows the way we take. Your need, verse 11, and mine is to have our feet hold fast to His path, to keep His way and not turn aside, not depart from the command of His lips. You say, "Well, I thought we couldn't see Him. What do You mean His lips?" His word. It's as if God is speaking when you open His book. His word teaches you, instructs you, counsels you, comforts you, reproves you, directs your steps. "I have not departed from the command of His lips," and look at the last line: "I have treasured"—the word means to esteem, to value—"the words of His mouth more than steak and potatoes, more than salad and dessert, more than the most delicious and delectable meal the finest chef in the country can provide. I have treasured the words of His mouth more than what I have for lunch or what I'm served or what I serve myself for supper. I treasure His words more than anything that even keeps me alive." That's the value I place on what He has said. Grace under pressure. That's why he could keep from answering Eliphaz or slugging him. That's how Job could restrain himself when he's being falsely accused: he knows that God knows the way he takes. God knows his heart, and he trusts God. Now the second statement Job makes, which is the balance of this chapter, 13 through 17: "I am unable to understand the plan of God." Now get that along with the first one and you'll have a nice balance. "I am unable to locate the presence of God, but I trust Him." Now the second is, "I am unable to understand the plan of God, but I trust Him." Same ending, but it's another subject. His plan is unfolding, and I'm not able to understand it. In fact, he says He's unique, in verse 13. "God is unique; who can turn Him? What His soul desires, that He does." That's a very important statement. What His soul desires, that He does. God does not say to you some night, "Hey, Frank, what do you say I try this on you? How would that be?" Don't wait for that to happen. He doesn't give you a call and say, "Shirley, hi, this is God. I'm thinking about trying such and such tomorrow, see if you'll step up. So, what do you think about that?" It ain't going to happen. If you get calls like that, contact one of our counselors. "He is unique; who can turn Him? What His soul desires, that He does." He doesn't ask permission. He doesn't tell you ahead of time. He doesn't explain why it's so hard. He doesn't let you know how it's going to come out. He doesn't tell you why it goes on and on and on and on and on, and most of it is unfair. He doesn't tell you how long it's going to last. He doesn't tell you when it's going to end. You trust Him. You trust Him. You wait. You serve Him. You keep your feet on His paths. You treasure His words. And whatever God desires, that is what He does, and you trust Him. You can't understand it. And don't call me, because I can't explain it either. I got my own stuff. You call me, I'll probably say, "While you're on the line, I've got several things I want to ask you." And to make matters even more complicated, verse 14: "He performs what is appointed for me." There's a uniqueness there. Nobody else was Job, and Job had what was appointed for Job, and that became his life and lifestyle. Just as He is performing what is appointed for you, and don't get your hopes up, "many such decrees are with Him." He's got a whole bunch of them waiting to implement once you get through this one. Isn't that fine? "Therefore, I would be dismayed at His presence; when I consider, I am terrified of Him." That's great, great vulnerability. Just say it. It's okay. I think the Lord would love to hear us say that on occasion. "You frighten me!" I heard about one of the Puritans who was so exasperated the Lord was taking so much time, he went into his study, closed the door, and he said, "God, hurry up! You're so slow! You frighten, you terrify me! How long is this going to go on?" You can do that. God will understand. He's not going to go "zap" and you're gone. It's not like that. And Job is just as honest with Him as he can possibly be. It was dark inside there, and it wasn't getting any lighter, and every day that passed, it just hurt more.
Bill Meyer: Even in the darkness, even when God seems silent and slow, you can be honest with Him. You can tell Him you're frightened, that the waiting is almost more than you can bear, and still trust Him. That's the faith Job discovered, and it's the faith that God wants to grow in you. You're listening to Insight for Living with Bible teacher Chuck Swindoll. Be sure to join us again tomorrow because Chuck will provide insightful application so you can put this biblical wisdom to work in your life. If you're ready to learn more about Job's story, or if you're looking for a creative way to guide your small group Bible study in lively discussion, we invite you to request the Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook for this series. It's called "Job: A Man of Heroic Endurance." In fact, this Bible study is part of a bundle of resources. The collection includes 22 sermons on CD. It contains the full message you heard today called "How to Handle Criticism with Class." Plus, the bundle includes Chuck Swindoll's full-length biography of Job. In his book, more than 300 pages in length, you'll read Chuck's meticulous exposition of Job's story. Along the way, Chuck infuses practical application that equips you to deal with adversity of any kind. Three powerful resources: the spiral-bound Bible study workbook, the full collection of sermons from Chuck, and his comprehensive biography of Job: A Man of Heroic Endurance. You can find all of the details at insight.org/offer or call us at 800-772-8888. Here's something else you'll enjoy. Chuck Swindoll recently sat down with financial expert and radio host Dave Ramsey for a candid conversation about money, legacy, and holding it all loosely. To check out the entire interview between Chuck and Dave, stop by this webpage: insight.org/conversations. That's insight.org/conversations. I'm Bill Meyer. Join us again when Chuck Swindoll describes how to handle criticism with class, tomorrow on Insight for Living. The preceding message, "How to Handle Criticism with Class," was copyrighted in 2002, 2004, and 2026, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R. Swindoll Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.