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Calvary Baptist Sunday School

Weekly lesson outlines from the Sunday School class at Calvary Baptist Church, Middleburg, FL, taught by Brian McPherson. This class is designed for those with chronic illnesses, to encourage them, and to teach them to walk with the Lord in His strength.

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Lesson 20 Job:8-10

I. Introduction.
A. We are now looking into Bildad's address to Job.
B. We saw that Bildad accused Job of believing God to be unjust.
C. We saw that Bildad offered two proofs that his allegations were correct.
1. The death of his children.
2. That mercy is available.
D. Starting in verse eight, Bildad brings up Job's problems in light of the past.
E. Notice the reference to the former age.
F. Notice also the reference to the search of the fathers.
II. The intellectual poverty of life. {vs.9}
A. Two unquestionable truths emerge from this verse.
1. The transitoriness of life.
2. The intellectual poverty of our moral life.
B. We know nothing.
1. Our ignorance arises from the brevity of life.
2. We have very little time to acquire knowledge.
3. We know nothing compared with what is to be known.
4. Each advancement in science has shown us the comparative nothingness of all human knowledge.
5. We know nothing compared with what we shall know in the future.
C. The imperfection of our knowledge is plainly owing to:
1. The narrowness of our facilities.
2. The lateness of our existence.
3. The disadvantage of our situation for observing nature.
4. The disadvantage of our situation for acquiring knowledge.
D. If we are thus so necessarily ignorant, it does not become us to criticize the ways of God.
E. The profoundest modesty should characterize us in the maintenance of our theological views.
1. It is the duty of man to get convictions of divine truth for himself.
2. It is the duty of man to hold theological convictions with firmness.
3. It is the duty of man to promote his theological views with earnestness.
4. All this must be done with the conscientiousness of his own fallibility.
5. All this must be done with the conscientiousness of regard or respect to the judgment of others.
6. True wisdom is ever modest.
III. Our days upon earth are a shadow.
A. The text here reminds us of life.
B. Bildad compares our existence to a shadow.
C. The meaning of the use of the word shadow.
1. A shadow is dark.
a. The word is always associated with that which is gloomy.
b. Man, that is born of woman has but a short time to live, and is full of misery.
2. A shadow is not possible without light.
a. We may be assured that our troubles are accompanied by the Sun of Righteousness.
3. To console us in all trials we have the light of God's presence.
4. To console us in all trials we have the purpose of God.
a. The storms of trouble develop holiness.
b. The storms of trouble develop virtue.
5. A shadow agrees with its substance.
a. It agrees in shape.
b. It agrees in size.
c. Life is a shadow.
d. God is the sun.
e. eternity is the substance.
6. A shadow is soon gone.

Lesson 19 Job 8:1-7

I. Introduction
A. We are now finished with Job's response to Eliphaz's first address.
B. Starting in chapter eight Bildad offers his views concerning Job's plight.
C. In our study, we saw that Eliphaz was a religious dogmatist.
a. Eliphaz saw Job's suffering as a direct result of sin.
D. We will see, as we study Bildad's speech, that his dogmatism was based on human tradition.
E. Bildad's speech may be divided into five parts.
1. Bildad's reproach of Job. {vs.1-2}
2. Is God unjust? {vs.3-7}
3. The light of the past. {vs.8-10}
4. The way of the wicked. {vs.11-19}
5. Divine recompense for the righteous. {vs.20-22}
II. Bildad's reproach of Job. {vs.1-2}
A. With all of his ignorance of Divine principles, Bildad is jealous of the honor of God, and cannot allow Him to be accused.
B. Job's words that he spoke concerning Eliphaz's address are like a blast of bitter complaint and charge against God as far as Bildad was concerned.
C. In his disgust for the words of Job, Bildad wants to know how long he is going to keep up with such an attitude.
1. It must be noted here that Bildad's rebuke, though harsh, is a just correction of the extreme rashness of Job's words.
III. Is God unjust? {vs.3-7}
A. The justice of God.
1. The justice of God is that aspect of His holiness which is seen in His treatment of
His creatures.
a. God has instituted a moral government.
b. God has imposed just laws upon His creatures.
c. God executes His laws through a bestowal system of reward and punishment.
d. Reward {remunerative justice} is based on Divine love.
e. Punishment {punitive justice} is the penalty for violating the law.
f. Justice demands punishment.
g. The vicarious atonement of Christ satisfied the demand for punishment for the believer.
B. Bildad's question insinuates that Job has called God unjust.
1. Bildad felt that Job did not consider himself a sinner and therefore deemed God unjust.
C. Bildad offers two proofs of God's justice.
1. The death of Job's children. vs.4
a. Bildad assumed that Job's children reaped the due reward of their wickedness.
2. He tells Job that there is restoring mercy for him. vs.5
D. In Bildad's two statements we see that he feels sure that he has the answer to misery and happiness.
1. Bildad believes that untimely death, sickness, adversity in every form, are alike signs of God's
anger.
2. Bildad applies his beliefs on Job.
E. Bildad errs in that he equates all suffering is, in each and every case, the consequence of ill-doing.
F. Bildad urges Job to seek God betimes. vs.5
1. At face value, this is sound advice for all believers.
2. We must seek God for four reasons.
a. Because we have nothing of ourselves.
b. Because none is so present as He.
c. Because none is able to help as He.
d. Because there is none so willing to help us as He.
3. We seek God through prayer.
G. Though thy beginning was small. vs.7
1. Bildad here suggests that if Job were right with God he would continue to grow in prosperity.
2. Small beginnings in certain cases are productive of great ends.

Lesson 18 Job 7:20-21

I. Introduction.
A. We have inspected six points of Job's response to Eliphaz's first address.
B. We are now going to examine the last point of that address.
C. The last point Job declares pertains to an appeal in view of sin.
II. I have sinned; what shall I do unto Thee, O Thou Preserver of men. { vs.20 }
A. The sinner's surrender to his Preserver.
1. First we see a confession.
a. The confession was brief, but yet full.
b. It was more full in its generality than if he had sinned.
c. We may use this statement as a summary of our life.
2. The confession was personal.
a. "I" have sinned.
3. The confession was to the Lord.
4. It was a confession wrought by the Holy Spirit.
a. Verses 17-18 show the leading of the Holy Spirit in Job's confession.
5. The confession was sincere.
6. A soul truly sensible of sin is ready to submit to any terms that God shall put upon him.
B. An inquiry. { What shall I do unto thee?}
1. In this question we see:
a. Job's willingness to do anything whatsoever the Lord demanded of him.
b. Job's bewilderment:
1] Job could not tell what to offer.
2] Job could not tell where to turn.
3] Yet, Job felt that he must do something.
c. Job's surrender.
1] Job makes no conditions.
2] Job only desires to know God's terms.
C. A title." O Thou Preserver of men."
1. Observer of men.
a. Therefore very aware of Job's case.
b. Therefore very aware of Job's misery.
c. therefore very aware of Job's confession.
d. Therefore very aware of Job's desire for pardon.
e. Therefore very aware of Job's utter helplessness.
2. Preserver of men.
a. By His infinite long-suffering.
b. By His most precious plan of salvation.
c. By His daily grace.

Monday, July 03, 2006

Lesson 17 Job 7:12-19

Lesson 17
Job 7: 12-19
I. Introduction.
A. We are continuing our study of Job's response to Eliphaz's first address.
B. So far we have examined:
1. The reality of his sufferings.
2. Longing for death at God's hand.
3. Friends manifested as useless.
4. Let them truly test him.
5. The brevity of life.
C. Now, in the second to last division of Job's address, we will examine Job's view of God as his enemy.
II. Am I a sea, or a whale, that Thou settest a watch over me? { vs.12 }
A. These words are part of that first great cry { notice that Thou is capitalized} to heaven that broke from
the stricken soul of Job.
B. Job seems to cry out against God for treating him so harshly.
C. Job saw himself being treated as the sea; as savage and as dangerous as a monster of the deep.
D. The argument Job brings against the Lord's dealing with him is not good.
1. To argue from our insignificance is poor pleading.
2. A man's heart is as changeable and deceitful as the sea.
3. By our evil nature we have become like the sea.
a. The sea is restless and so is our nature.
b. The sea can be furious and terrible, and so can ungodly men.
c. The swallows up stretches of land but is never satisfied.
d. Human nature is like the sea for mischief.
III. I would not live alway. { vs.16 }
A. The preference of death to life is the utterance of a despairing spirit.
B. With such a load of misery pressing upon him. and with no earthly comfort to relieve his anguish, it is
not surprising that Job should give vent to his sorrows.
C. A restless longing for death must always have the nature of sin in it.
D. Some healthy reasons for not wanting to live always.
1. Because it is the will of God that man should not live always.
2. From love of Christ the saint is willing to depart.
3. The evils of this world would be prolonged.
IV. What is man that Thou shouldst magnify him? { vs.17 }
A. What is man as a creature?
1. A piece of modified dust enlivened by the breath of God. { Gen.2:7 }
2. An earthen vessel. { IICor. 4:7}
3. He is grass. { Isa. 40:6,8 }
B. What is man as a fallen creature?

1. An ignorant creature. { Isa.1:3 }
2. A guilty creature. Rom. 3:23 }
3. A condemned creature. { Jn 3:18-19 }
4. A polluted creature. { Isa. 1:16}
5. A diseased creature. { Isa. 1:6 }
6. A rebellious creature. { Isa. 1:2 }
C. In what respects it may be said that the Lord magnified man?
1. By the care He shows man in the course of His providence.
2. By assuming human nature.
3. By giving us great and precious promises.
D. The dignity of man.
1. We are dignified because God magnified us.
2. We are dignified because God loves us.
E. Why it may be said that to magnify man.
1. Man is magnified by the gift of an intellectual nature.
2. Man is magnified by the possession of moral nature.
3. Man is magnified by being the object of Divine redemption.

Lesson 16 Job 7:1-11

Lesson 16
Job 7:1-11

I. Introduction.
A. We are continuing our discussion of Job's dissertation of the brevity of life.
B. We examined the nature of an appointed time to man.
C. We examined the Divine appointment ruling all human life.
1. As to its term.
2. As to its warfare.
3. As to its service.
D. Now, in part two of our discussion, we will continue the examination of Job's dissertation.
II. As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow. {vs.2-3}
A. The natural instinct of man is to desire to live.
B. Yet, there is a settled mood or habit of the soul in which there is a longing for death.
C. Reasons for longing for sunset.
1. Painful and exhausting sickness.
2. When the infirmities of old age creep on.
3. Those under a mighty sorrow from God.
4. The christian experience yearns for a full communion with heaven.
D. When inspired by a clear realization of the celestial glories, longing for sunset is healthy and desirable.
E. Every form of longing for sunset that arises from disgust with this present life is unhealthy and
undesirable.
III. I am made to possess months of vanity. {vs.3-5}
A. Months of vanity suggest a protracted time of uselessness.
B. The experience of months of vanity.
1. Job's experience was the result of disastrous circumstances.
2. Sickness was a major contributing factor.
3 Job also suffered from the injustice he received from his friends.
C. The Divine meaning of these months of vanity.
1. They revealed the character of Job's endurance.
2. They manifested the victory of Job's faith.
3. They enlarged Job's thoughts of God.
D. Months of vanity are to be considered as appointed by God.
1. God intends to restrain and bring His people into submission.
2. God intends to strengthen the graces of His people.
a. Especially humility.
b. Especially patience.
c. Especially meekness.
d. Especially contentment.
3. To promote the good and advantage of others.
4. To confirm our hopes and excite our desires for heaven.
IV. My days are swifter than a weavers shuttle. {vs.6}
A. These words fitly describe the quickness with which the days of our lives glide away.
B. The weaver throws the shuttle from side to side, and every throw leaves a thread behind it, which is
woven into the piece of cloth being made.
C. Job compares life to the shuttles motions.
1. The speed of the shuttle reminds Job of the speed of our lives.
2. Each day of our life adds another thread to the web of life.
a. Our life consists of a collection of days.
b. Every day adds something to the color and complexion of the whole life.{ for good, or evil}
c. Each day is a representation {or manifestation} life as a whole.
d. Thus each day is of great importance to the fabric of life.
D. What we weave now we will wear in eternity.
E. Let us ask these questions of ourselves.
1. On what are we resting our hope of salvation?
2. Is it our sincere desire to be conformed to the image of Christ?
3. Do we live in the spirit of prayer?
4. What have we done for God's glory today?

Lesson 15 Job 7:1

Lesson 15
Job 7:1

I. Introduction.
A. We are continuing our discussion of Job's response to Eliphaz's first address.
B. So far in our discussion, we have examined:
1. The reality of Job's sufferings.
2. Job's longing for death at the hand of God.
3. Job's frustration at the uselessness of his friends.
4. Job's challenge to his friends.
C. Now, starting in chapter 7, we will examine part one of Job's dissertation of the brevity of life.

II. The nature of the fact of an appointed time to man.
A. That the existence of man will be terminated by death.
1. It is interesting to note that this furthers the teaching on death found in chapter 5, and verse 26.
a. This indicates that the christian death is always timely. { in full age}
b. Man is of full age when the whole circle of christian excellence is present in his life.
3}Christian maturity is the fullness of spiritual experience.
B The existence of man is confined to a small period of time.
a. Psalm 90: 10a, The days of our years are threescore years and ten;
C. The existence of man is, as to its precise duration, uncertain and unknown.
D. This life is but the threshold of eternity; we are placed here as probationers for eternity.
E. The feelings that arise from the contemplation of the brevity of life.
1. We ought to be motivated to moderate our attachment to this world.
2. We should be motivated to seek an interest in that redeeming system by which we may depart in
peace with the prospect of eternal happiness.
3. We should be motivated to pursue those great employments which the Gospel has proposed.
III. There is a Divine appointment ruling all human life.
A. God rules mortal life.
1. As to its term. {an appointed time}
1} God's determination governs the time of human life.
2} The continuance of life is equally determined by God.
3} The termination of life is also fixed by God.
2. As to its warfare.
a. God has appointed life to be a warfare
b. Every person will find himself a soldier under some captain or another.
c. No christian is free to follow his own devices.{we are all under the law of Christ}
d. A soldier surrenders his own will to that of his commander.
e. Thus, the christian life is one of surrender to, and subjection to, to will of God.
3. As to its service. {are not his days as the days of an hireling?}
a. All men are servants to one master or another .
b. This life is a set time of labor and apprenticeship.
c. We are bound by solemn indentures to God until our term of life is over.
d. A servant who has let himself out for a term of years has not a moment that he can call his own.
4. God does not employ hirelings without proper compensation.
B. The inferences to be drawn from having an appointed time.
1. Job's inference was that as there was only an appointed time, and he was like a servant employed by
the year, he might be allowed to wish for life's speedy close.
2. The devil's is that if our time, warfare, and service are appointed, there is no need of care, for we
shall surely work out our destiny.
3. The sick man's inference is that his suffering is measured out with Divine love.
a. The sick man should therefore patiently await the end of his indenture.
4. The sinners inference is that he has waged a warfare against God, and have served the devil ,and will
reap the reward of the lost impenitent sinner.

Lesson 6 Job 2:9-12 (Should be the last missing one.)

Lesson 6
Job 2:9-12

I. Introduction
A. In our last lesson we looked at temptation.
1. We looked at the three parts of temptation.
a. External conditions.
b. The state of the heart.
c. The special thought of the heart to do the deed.
B. We saw Satan's proverb; all that a man hath will he give for his life.
C. We saw how the will to live is instinctively in us.
D. In our present lesson we will explore Job's statement; "What? shall we receive good at the hand of
God, and shall we not receive evil?"

II. The word evil.
A. The first problem in this verse is to define, properly, the word evil.
B. James 1:13 states that God does not tempt man with evil.
C. Job states in his question that God brings evil upon man.
D. What does this mean?
1. The Hebrew word used to translate the word evil is ra'.
2. This word means evil, misery, distress, injury.
E. Therefore, knowing the truth that God does not tempt man with evil, Job is referring to the calamities
in his situation.

III. Job believed in the sovereignty of God.
A. Job believed that everything is ordained by God.
1. Job realized that there was but one ruler in the universe.
2. Job means to say that the happiness and the sufferings of man proceed from the same source.
3. Job knew that natural and moral laws operate under the direction of God.
4. God should be acknowledged in all His dispensations.
B. Job considered it an unavoidable consequence that the life of man should be checkered with good and
evil.
1. God is a moral governor; He judges the actions of man and deals with them accordingly.
2. The fragility of man's nature makes him unfit for uninterrupted prosperity or adversity.
3. Some acquaintance with sorrow is absolutely necessary to modify the corrupting effect of too
uniform happiness.
C. Job received each state of existence with an equal mind.
D. Job sees, in all tragedy, something permitted by God for His own supreme and blessed ends.

IV. What the evils of life teach us.
A. The evils of life open our eyes and make us sensible of real wants.
B. That this life is intended for a state of probation and trial.
C. Teaches the instability of all human affairs and uncertainty of all earthly possessions.
D. Trials form a test of character.

Lesson 5 Job 2:1-8 (Another missing one)

Lesson 5
Job 2:1-8

I. Introduction
A. In our last lesson we saw the trial and victory of Job.
B. We saw that Job had four principles that allowed him to gain victory.
1. Job observed the brevity of life.
2. Job realized he came into the world naked and would leave the world the same way.
3. Job realized everything he had was a gift from the Lord.
4. Job gave God the glory for all that happened.
C. In our text we are privileged, once again, to view a heavenly scene.
D. The Lord has graciously allowed us to see this scene in order to strengthen our faith and loving trust in
Him.
E. What we see in this glimpse of heaven is a scene that continually goes on day after day.
F. Satan is from time to time allowed to move the Lord to afflict even His most faithful people in various
ways.
G. The Lord gives Satan only a limited power over His own people.
H. Satan is often the Lord's agent in the affliction of disease and other trials.

II. The character of temptation.
A. God is not the author of it. { James chapter one}
B. There are three parts to temptation. {Satan is the author}
1. The external conditions which tend to bring it about.
2. The state of the heart which makes temptation tempting to us.
3. The special thoughts in the mind to do the deed.
C. God allows us to be tempted for our own good.
D. Temptation is never necessarily successful.
E. The trial of Job suggests three truths.
1. Satan is a personal being.
2. God permits Satan to tempt believers.
3. God sets a limit to the powers of Satan.

III. Satan's proverb {all that a man hath will he give for his life}
A. Again, we see the insinuation that Job only serves God for selfish reasons.
B. Satan believes that all possessions will be abandoned to keep oneself alive.
C. The sore test of disease is more trying than the loss of wealth.
D. Life has always been considered the most valuable treasure.
E. Human life has an intimate, unavoidable, inseparable connection with another world.
F. The importance of human life is seen in the deploration of the destruction of it.
G. The importance of human life is seen in how we pamper it and work to keep it from injury.
H. To love life is a christian duty.
1. Our attachment to life is the marred and mutilated relic of immortality.
2. The love of life survives all that can make life desirable.
3. The love of life is the simplest and strongest principle of nature.
I. Reasons for attachment to life.
1. The preservation of life.
2. The promotion of industry and labor.
3. The protection of life from violence.
J. Why has God made life so sacred?
1. To accomplish His purpose, the lives of all men must be in His hands.
2. Without the instinct of life man would not have the impulse to work.

IV. Satan's low estimate of human nature.
A. His language implies that even a good man's love of goodness in not supreme and invincible.
1. Goodness is not so dear to man as life.
2. That great personal suffering will turn even a good man against God.
B. Satan's great master plan is to turn Job against God.
C. There are three things worthy of comment in Job's ability to frustrate the purpose of Satan.
1. Job reproves his wife. { Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh}
2. Job vindicates God. { What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive
evil?}
3. Job is commended by inspiration. {in all this did not Job sin with his lips.
V. Job's wife
A. She only comes on the scene to heighten, for one moment, the intensity of her husband's desolation and
misery.
B. There can be no doubt that she appears as the temptress of her husband.
C. Job's wife is typical of a class of people that always existed in the world.
1. These people lose sight of all that is bright in life. {generates dispair}
D. Reasons for dispair.
1. A false view of God.
2. False ideas concerning the human race.
3. Denial of the existence of God.
F. The folly of dispair.
1. It shuts out of view the possibility of change for the better.
2. It is rebellion against God.
3. It injures the soul.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Lesson 14 Job 6:24-25

I. Introduction.
A. We are continuing in our examination of Job's response to Eliphaz's first address.
B. So far we have looked at:
1. Job's response to the charge of hypocrisy.
2. Jobs defense concerning his desire for death.
3. Job's charge of concerning the worth of his friends.
C. Starting in chapter 6 verse 24, and running through verse 30, Job challenges his friends to test him.
1. Job had spoken of his observation and experience.
2. Job now asks his friends that true tests be applied to his case.
3. Let the friends prove him according to their rigid rules of punishment for sin.

II. Teach me, and I will hold my tongue. {vs.24}
A. This is the passionate outcry of a soul in trouble.
1. Misfortune and loss have fallen heavily upon Job.
2. The presence of Eliphaz and his many words of advice bring neither comfort or hope.
3. In almost angry defiance of the advice of Eliphaz, Job bursts out with the words, "Teach me and I
will hold my tongue.
4. Angrily and hopelessly Job describes himself as one that is desperate.
5. Job's eager demand is to know whether the trials and calamities that have come upon him are in
reality due to exceeding wickedness and special sinfulness on his part.
B. Let us examine this statement under scrutiny as one of an earnest desire for the believer.
1. The word teach.
a. The impartation of knowledge with the highest possible development of the pupil as its goal.
b. The word may also mean to demonstrate.
c. God's will is the special objective of scripture.
d. The Old Testament relates teaching to the totality of the person.
2. Therefore, Job is challenging his friends to demonstrate from scripture their allegations of
his sinfulness
3. The tongue.
a. Notice that the tongue is a little member of the body. {vs.4}
1} See what this member is capable of doing.
b. Words are the expression of thoughts.
c. Words, as incarnate thoughts, are revelations of character.
d. The morality of a man is stamped in his words.
1} Conversation touching impurity photographs an impure heart.
2} Ecstatic language denotes shallowness of thought.
3} Repeated quotations of others opinions is proof of having no substantial opinions of self.
4} Willingness to speak freely about others business is proof that we are not attending to our own
affairs.
e. The power of speech involves a very great responsibility.
f. Man must govern his tongue.

III. Cause me to understand wherein I have erred.
A. Man is subject to error.
1. To err in speech.
2. To err in practice.
3. To err in judgment.
B. Man is in a fair way to truth, when he acknowledges he may err.
C. An erring brother must be made to understand his error.

IV. How forcible are right words. {vs.25}
A. Job suffered, struggled, and sorrowed, and therefore he learned something of the human heart.
B. Irritating to Job were the words of his friends.
1. Those words were as nothing.
2. Those words reproved nothing.
3. Those words appealed to nothing.
C. Righteous words would have been precious to Job.
D. We must realize that words possess a righteous or an unrighteous character.
E. The power of speech is a Divine gift.
F. The Divine gift of words is intended to be a righteous power.
1. By perversion of words sin was introduced into the world.
2. By the righteousness of words error and evil shall be destroyed.
G. The power of words for good or evil is in proportion to their righteousness or unrighteousness.
1. Righteous words reprove.
a. The words of God are instruments of righteousness.
b. The words of man are only righteous as they harmonize with the words of God.
2. In the war of words , righteous words will prevail.
3. Divine power operates through the words of good.

Lesson 13 Job 6:14-23

I. Introduction.
A. We have been discussing, in our last two lessons, the response of Job to Eliphaz's first address.
B. In the first lesson, we saw Job's response to the allegations of hypocrisy.
C. In the second lesson Job defends his position of preferring death rather than suffer from the onslaught
of his illness.
1. In verses 9-10 Job thought death would be a comfort to him.
2. In his argument he stated that he did not hide the word of the Holy One.
3. In verse 11 Job puts forward his dispair,and utters his weariness of life.
4. In verse 12 Job makes a pitiful plea pertaining to his weakness and helplessness.
D. Now, in our next section, Job declares his friends useless.

II. To him that is afflicted pity should be showed from his friend. {vs. 14}
A. Most forcefully does Job strike out against his friends.
1. The hard principles that Eliphaz was applying to Job contained no mercy.
2. The hard principles that Eliphaz was applying to Job contained no sympathy.
B. It is a fundamental principle that pity should be shown to a sufferer by his friends.
C. There are times in life when the need of friendship is deeply felt.
1. Man was made for friendship.
a. Deep and constant is man's craving for the love of others.
b. Without friendship man's nature could no more develop than an acorn can develop without
sunlight.
2. Man requires friendship.
a. Without friendship, man would die in infancy
b. Friendship is required for nourishment.
c. Friendship is requires for succoring.
d. Friendship is required for training.
3. Affliction intensifies the need for friendship.
III. Disappointment.
A. Verses 15-18.
1.The analogy of these verses may be viewed as the friends being like a summer stream, swollen by
melting snow and ice in winter, which gives promise of perennial supply for the thirsty, but when the
troops of travelers come, they find only dry stones to mock them.
B. Verses 19-20, combined with verses 15-18, paint a picture of disappointment.
1. The forms in which disappointments occur.
a. It must be noted, here, that disappointments are as numerous as our hopes.
b. We may have disappointments which relate to the acquisition of property.
c. We may have disappointments concerning our aims at honor and office.
d. We may have disappointments concerning our children.
2. The reasons why disappointments occur.
a. Because our expectations are beyond any reason.
b. Because our expectations are improperly placed on things we should not cherish.
c. Because disappointments may be beneficial to us.
3. Lessons that disappointments teach us.
a. All our plans in life should be formed with the possibility of failure in mind.
b. We should form such plans and cherish such hopes as will not be subject to disappointment.