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Job 7 - What Does It Mean to Curse God? · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio. You are listening to The Bible Explained with
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  Speaker 1: Jen Koukl, a P40 Ministries podcast. Hello there, faithful listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to The Bible Explained on this lovely, lovely morning.
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  Speaker 1: you know what, I'm going to do something different today.
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  Speaker 1: Normally I talk for a minute and then play you
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  Speaker 1: an advertisement and then jump right into scripture very quickly
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  Speaker 1: after that. This time I'm going to play the advertisement
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  Speaker 1: first and then talk a little bit and then we'll
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  Speaker 1: get into Job chapter seven after that. Fun to switch
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  Speaker 1: things up every once in a while, isn't it? I
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  Speaker 1: appreciate you guys listening to the advertisement. All right, we're
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  Speaker 1: going to talk about Job chapter seven today. And I
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  Speaker 1: have to, again, apologize because I thought that Job was
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  Speaker 1: continuing his speech to Eliphaz. He is still speaking, but
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  Speaker 1: it's no longer to Eliphaz. It's to God. So we're
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  Speaker 1: going to talk about what Job has to say to God.
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  Speaker 1: And we'll also talk about what it means to curse God.
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  Speaker 1: So let's go ahead and read Job chapter seven, the
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  Speaker 1: entire thing. I'll be reading as always from the World
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  Speaker 1: English Bible or the WEB, but I'm also going to
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  Speaker 1: be referencing the NLT version and also the ESV version
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  Speaker 1: today as well. So hopefully you guys have the version
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  Speaker 1: of the Bible that you prefer and also your delicious
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  Speaker 1: cup of coffee or a cup of tea this morning
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  Speaker 1: and that you're ready to share these hot beverages as
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  Speaker 1: we give reverence to God's word, reading Job chapter seven together.
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  Speaker 1: Isn't a man forced to labor on earth? Aren't his
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  Speaker 1: days like the days of a hired hand? As a
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  Speaker 1: servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who
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  Speaker 1: looks for his wages. So I am made to possess
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  Speaker 1: months of misery. Weary some nights are appointed to me.
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  Speaker 1: When I lie down, I say, when will I arise
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  Speaker 1: and the night be gone? I toss and turn until
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  Speaker 1: the dawning of the day. My flesh is clothed with
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  Speaker 1: worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up and
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  Speaker 1: breaks out afresh. My days are swifter than a weaver's
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  Speaker 1: shuttle and are spent without hope. Oh, remember that my
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  Speaker 1: life is a breath. My eye will no more see good.
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  Speaker 1: The eye of him who sees me will see me
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  Speaker 1: no more. Your eyes will be on me, but I
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  Speaker 1: will not be. As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away,
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  Speaker 1: so he who goes down to Sheol will come up
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  Speaker 1: no more. He will return no more to his house,
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  Speaker 1: neither will his place know him any more. Therefore I
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  Speaker 1: will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish
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  Speaker 1: of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of
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  Speaker 1: my soul. Am I a sea or a sea monster
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  Speaker 1: that you put a guard over me? When I say
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  Speaker 1: my bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint.
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  Speaker 1: Then you scare me with dreams and terrify me through
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  Speaker 1: visions so that my soul chooses strangling death rather than
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  Speaker 1: my bones. I loathe my life and I don't want
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  Speaker 1: to live forever. Leave me alone for my days are
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  Speaker 1: but a breath. What is man that you should magnify him,
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  Speaker 1: that you should set your mind on him, that you
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  Speaker 1: should visit him every morning and test him every moment?
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  Speaker 1: How long will you not look away from me, nor
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  Speaker 1: leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle? If
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  Speaker 1: I have sinned, what do I do to you, you
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  Speaker 1: watcher of men? Why have you set me as a
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  Speaker 1: mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?
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  Speaker 1: Why do you not pardon my disobedience and take away
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  Speaker 1: my iniquity? For now I will lie down in the dust.
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  Speaker 1: You will seek me diligently, but I will not be.
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  Speaker 1: You can really feel how distraught Job is in this
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  Speaker 1: chapter of the Bible. In the previous chapter, he really
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  Speaker 1: laid it onto his friends because his friends are speaking
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  Speaker 1: untruths to him about God and about himself. Eliphaz, one
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  Speaker 1: of his friends, was saying, Job, you must have sinned
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  Speaker 1: against God. And God is very angry and he judges
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  Speaker 1: people very strongly. And they gave him this advice saying, Job,
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  Speaker 1: just turn back to God. Just turn to him and
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  Speaker 1: he will establish you once again. And Job was like,
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  Speaker 1: but I haven't turned away from God. And I don't
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  Speaker 1: know of a single sin that I've committed that has
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  Speaker 1: caused God to do this to me. But now in
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  Speaker 1: Job chapter seven, Job switches his attention from his friends
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  Speaker 1: to God himself. And this really, I think, shows the
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  Speaker 1: level of Job's faith. He knew God was listening. He
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  Speaker 1: believed that God could hear him. And he was praying
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  Speaker 1: outwardly to God in front of his friends. And he
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  Speaker 1: didn't care what his friends thought of his prayers. He
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  Speaker 1: starts out by saying,' Isn' t a man forced to labor
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  Speaker 1: on earth' and aren't his days like the days of
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  Speaker 1: a hired hand?' As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow,'
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  Speaker 1: as a hireling who looks for his wages?' So I
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  Speaker 1: am made to possess months of misery. Weary some nights
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  Speaker 1: are appointed to me. He's saying, Lord, my life is miserable.
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  Speaker 1: It's as miserable as a hired hand who is doing
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  Speaker 1: purposeless work, slaving out in the hot sun every single
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  Speaker 1: day without any relief, just wishing for the nighttime, wishing
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  Speaker 1: for the clouds. And all he gains from his hard
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  Speaker 1: and purposeless work is his measly wages. That's all he gets.
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  Speaker 1: All he can look forward to is his wages, but
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  Speaker 1: he feels purposeless inside. And so I am, verse three,
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  Speaker 1: made to possess months of misery. Weary some nights are
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  Speaker 1: appointed to me. And when I lie down, I say,
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  Speaker 1: when will I arise and the night be gone? I
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  Speaker 1: toss and turn until the dawning of the day. Job
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  Speaker 1: feels no purpose in life. Even at night, he gets
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  Speaker 1: no relief. And notice here that he says months of
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  Speaker 1: misery have passed, which means that, you know, this is
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  Speaker 1: not a short story like a lot of people think
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  Speaker 1: it is. Some people get this idea that the book
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  Speaker 1: of Job happened very quickly. You know, Job got tormented
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  Speaker 1: by Satan in the first couple chapters, and then his
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  Speaker 1: friends come and visit him very quickly, and a week
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  Speaker 1: goes by, and then Job starts to speak his stuff,
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  Speaker 1: and then God comes and appears. So maybe the whole
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  Speaker 1: thing takes, what, like two weeks? No. Job was suffering
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  Speaker 1: for months and months and months. It could have been
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  Speaker 1: a very long time before Job's friends came and visited him.
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  Speaker 1: It could have been a very long time, actually, in
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  Speaker 1: between Job's children dying and him catching this seemingly incurable disease.
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  Speaker 1: News traveled very slowly back in these days, and it
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  Speaker 1: could be that his friends did not realize how much
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  Speaker 1: Job was suffering until several weeks had passed. And then,
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  Speaker 1: not to mention, they had to travel from different locations
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  Speaker 1: across Edom, which that could have taken several days to
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  Speaker 1: several weeks to meet up with Job. So you never know,
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  Speaker 1: not to mention the week that they all kind of
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  Speaker 1: just mourned together before Job starts making his speeches. So
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  Speaker 1: months have passed is what Job says. And during this time,
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  Speaker 1: verse five, my flesh is clothed with worms and clods
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  Speaker 1: of dust. My skin closes up and breaks out afresh.
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  Speaker 1: Now that's a pretty yucky description of the skin disease
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  Speaker 1: that Job is going through, which has made some people
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  Speaker 1: think that Job may have had a very severe form
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  Speaker 1: of scabies. because he mentions these worms right here that
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  Speaker 1: are festering in his skin, but that is certainly not confirmed.
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  Speaker 1: And I would guess this is probably a lot worse
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  Speaker 1: than scabies. This could be something that we've never even
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  Speaker 1: heard of before that Job was suffering through. Whatever it is,
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  Speaker 1: it's nasty. It sounds like there is some sort of
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  Speaker 1: worm that is eating away at Job's skin. And apparently
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  Speaker 1: also clods of dust are getting stuck in his wounds.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if this is from whatever ointment He
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  Speaker 1: is putting on his skin and it's just not working.
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  Speaker 1: Or if him sitting in the ashes is causing his
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  Speaker 1: wounds to get worse and worse. Or if there's something
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  Speaker 1: that looks like clods of dust coming out of his wounds.
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  Speaker 1: Who knows? He says his skin closes up and then
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  Speaker 1: breaks out afresh. So even when some of the wounds
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  Speaker 1: seem like they're healing, other wounds start to show up.
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  Speaker 1: So there is zero hope in Job's mind about him
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  Speaker 1: being healed from this disease, because even the hope of
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  Speaker 1: some of these wounds disappearing is crushed when new wounds
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  Speaker 1: and open sores begin to form on his body. So
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  Speaker 1: he says his days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle
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  Speaker 1: and are spent without hope. Now, I don't know if
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  Speaker 1: you guys ever do YouTube rabbit holes like I do,
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  Speaker 1: but But I've seen weavers do their work before. You know,
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  Speaker 1: they have this like big loom type thing and they
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  Speaker 1: weave the string in and out of each strand and
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  Speaker 1: then like pull the thingy down and it creates like,
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  Speaker 1: you know, a garment over time. And, you know, some
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  Speaker 1: weavers that are experts can go really fast at doing that.
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  Speaker 1: He says his days are flying by faster than the
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  Speaker 1: weavers shuttle and they are spent without hope. And now
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  Speaker 1: he asks God to remember that his life is like
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  Speaker 1: a breath. and that his eye will no more see good.
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  Speaker 1: He's like, God, just remember how fast my life is
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  Speaker 1: and how my eyes are not going to see good
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  Speaker 1: at any point in time ever again. And you might
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  Speaker 1: feel that Job is being kind of dramatic here, especially
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  Speaker 1: because we know the end of the story. But Job
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  Speaker 1: obviously doesn't know the end of the story. To him,
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  Speaker 1: he thinks he's dying. And we're going to find out
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  Speaker 1: that Job's friends think of him as somewhat dramatic as
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  Speaker 1: well because of their harsh reprimands that they do every
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  Speaker 1: time Job speaks, essentially. But Job doesn't know the whole story,
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  Speaker 1: and he's speaking as if he does. And he continues
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  Speaker 1: to do this over and over. He mentions that the
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  Speaker 1: eye of him who sees me will see me no more.
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  Speaker 1: Your eyes will be on me, but I will not be.
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  Speaker 1: He's saying some really incorrect statements here, as if he
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  Speaker 1: knows his future, as if he knows that he is
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  Speaker 1: going to die. So he tells God, Now, we could
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  Speaker 1: definitely say that Job is overstepping here because he's kind
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  Speaker 1: of making his will more important than the will of God.
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  Speaker 1: But we have to be compassionate about Job's speech because
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  Speaker 1: he's a broken man. He is literally sitting in ashes
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  Speaker 1: with broken pot shards around him. In fact, he's using
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  Speaker 1: one of the pot shards, it said, to scrape at
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  Speaker 1: his skin. Because of this disease that he had, the
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  Speaker 1: pot shard was giving him some comfort to like scrape
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  Speaker 1: at his skin with it. That is certainly symbolism of
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  Speaker 1: what Job is going through. He was a broken man,
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  Speaker 1: just like those broken pots that he was sitting in.
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  Speaker 1: So already in Job's speeches, you see that he can
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  Speaker 1: be a lot more erratic. He's not thinking as straight
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  Speaker 1: as his friends are. His friends are incorrect. Job was
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  Speaker 1: far more correct than his friends are, as we're going
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  Speaker 1: to find out. But Job was still speaking very erratically
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  Speaker 1: about stuff that he really didn't know about. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: spoiler alert, in Job 38 verses 1 and 2, God
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  Speaker 1: finally answers Job from the whirlwind and he says, who
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  Speaker 1: is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words?
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  Speaker 1: Because again, Job was putting his will and his knowledge
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  Speaker 1: above God's saying, no, this is absolutely going to happen
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  Speaker 1: to me. Saying such and such fate is mine. God
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  Speaker 1: is going to look at me and then see me
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  Speaker 1: no more because I am going to die and I
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  Speaker 1: will never see a good day for the rest of
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  Speaker 1: my life. And continuing with that thought, he says in
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  Speaker 1: verses 9 and 10, as the cloud is consumed and
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  Speaker 1: vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol will
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  Speaker 1: come up no more. He will return no more to
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  Speaker 1: his house. Neither will his place know him anymore. He says,
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  Speaker 1: I am one of those people who are going to
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  Speaker 1: go down to Sheol. And when I go down to Sheol,
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  Speaker 1: I will never come up ever again. I will never
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  Speaker 1: return to my house and my place, my dwelling place,
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  Speaker 1: my friends, my family members, my servants, they will know
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  Speaker 1: me no more. Now, even this is incorrect because God
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  Speaker 1: can absolutely raise people from the dead. He's done it
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  Speaker 1: many times before. The one passage I always think about
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  Speaker 1: with that is the dry bones with Ezekiel. There's these
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  Speaker 1: dry dead bones, like this army of men that perished.
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  Speaker 1: And God tells Ezekiel to go and prophesy to those bones.
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  Speaker 1: And he prophesies to the bones. And suddenly all of
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  Speaker 1: these bones start to move and muscles and tissues and
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  Speaker 1: skin begin to form on these bones. And God breathes
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  Speaker 1: into them the breath of life. And these bones are
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  Speaker 1: now suddenly resurrected, not resurrected, brought back to life. There
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  Speaker 1: is a difference between resurrection and bringing somebody back from
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  Speaker 1: the dead. But God can do both, obviously, because the
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  Speaker 1: New Testament tells us that the dead in Christ will
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  Speaker 1: rise first and that God is going to give us
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  Speaker 1: brand new bodies that will live with him for eternity. So,
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  Speaker 1: of course, God can raise people from the dead. And
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  Speaker 1: Job here is speaking from both ignorance, I suppose, and
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  Speaker 1: extreme grief. But Job thinks he's got it all figured out.
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  Speaker 1: He says in verse 11, therefore, I will not keep
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  Speaker 1: silent and I will speak in the anguish of my
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  Speaker 1: spirit and I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
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  Speaker 1: Am I a sea or a sea monster that you
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  Speaker 1: put a guard over me? He tells God, I'm not
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  Speaker 1: going to hide my feelings from you. I am going
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  Speaker 1: to complain from the bitter anguish in my soul. And
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  Speaker 1: then he asks God a question. Am I a sea
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  Speaker 1: or a sea monster that you put a guard over me? Now,
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  Speaker 1: don't forget what the sea and the sea monster meant
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  Speaker 1: in the days of Job. Those things were considered forces
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  Speaker 1: of chaos. The sea was a very scary place for
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  Speaker 1: the sailors in the days of Job. To this day,
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  Speaker 1: the oceans and the seas are very scary places. They
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  Speaker 1: pull people out in it. You got to be very careful.
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  Speaker 1: Even in lakes and ponds, you have to be very
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  Speaker 1: careful swimming in them. That's why they say don't ever
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  Speaker 1: swim alone, right? Because just in case you go underneath
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  Speaker 1: and you can't get back up, you want somebody there
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  Speaker 1: with you. Water is scary. We cannot survive in water.
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  Speaker 1: And for all of the ancient world, the big bodies
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  Speaker 1: of water were considered to be chaos. And the Leviathan
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  Speaker 1: or the sea monster was worshipped sometimes in the days
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  Speaker 1: of Job as something that was a chaos god. Now,
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  Speaker 1: it's clear that Job did not worship the Leviathan. But
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  Speaker 1: it is interesting that he mentions him twice now already.
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  Speaker 1: So you can definitely see how the Leviathan was very
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  Speaker 1: prominent in Job's culture at this point in time. Just as,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe I'm dating myself a little bit,
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  Speaker 1: but zombies were really, really big about 10 years ago
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  Speaker 1: and everything was zombie related. All the movies coming out
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  Speaker 1: were zombies. Zombies everywhere. Yeah. It drove me nuts. But
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  Speaker 1: it was a very big cultural movement that like everybody
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  Speaker 1: was talking about them. I remember friends of mine prepared.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not joking. I had a couple of friends that
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  Speaker 1: prepared for the zombie apocalypse. They had like bug out
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  Speaker 1: bags like they were ready to go. And I was like,
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  Speaker 1: it's fantasy. I really don't think that there are real
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  Speaker 1: zombies out there. But that's beside the point. It was
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  Speaker 1: a cultural phenomenon that kind of scared people, but probably
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  Speaker 1: even more so in the days of Job, where people
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  Speaker 1: were very superstitious and truly did believe in the presence
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  Speaker 1: of a Leviathan or a chaos God that lived in
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  Speaker 1: the sea. So Job, who was part of this culture,
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  Speaker 1: though he didn't worship the Leviathan, he asks God a question.
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  Speaker 1: Am I like the sea or like the Leviathan that
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  Speaker 1: you need to put a cage on me or a
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  Speaker 1: guard over me? because I'm destructive like they are, because
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  Speaker 1: I'm chaotic? No, I am not like that at all.
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  Speaker 1: Why are you doing this to me? And then he
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  Speaker 1: says in verse 13, then I say, my bed will
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  Speaker 1: comfort me. My couch will ease my complaint, but then
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  Speaker 1: you scare me with dreams and you terrify me through
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  Speaker 1: visions so that my soul chooses strangling death rather than
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  Speaker 1: my bones. I loathe my life and I don't want
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  Speaker 1: to live forever. Leave me alone for my days are
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  Speaker 1: but a breath. Now Job already alluded to this, but
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  Speaker 1: He can't even find comfort going to sleep at night,
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  Speaker 1: even though he thinks it's going to ease his pain
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  Speaker 1: for a little while. Maybe he's depressed and just wants
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  Speaker 1: to sleep. But when he sleeps, he is terrified with
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  Speaker 1: visions and nightmares that cause even his sleep to not
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  Speaker 1: be restful and peaceful. Now, were these visions from God?
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to guess no, because don't forget that Satan
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  Speaker 1: was doing his utmost to destroy caused Job to curse God.
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  Speaker 1: Job's destruction was in Satan's favor. He wanted Job to
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  Speaker 1: fall completely. Satan hates anybody that worships God. And Satan
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  Speaker 1: had a lot on the line. So he was going
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  Speaker 1: to do every single thing possible to make sure that
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  Speaker 1: Job cursed God to his face. Now, what does it
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  Speaker 1: mean to curse God? That's something that we only briefly
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  Speaker 1: touched on so far. And when I look this up
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  Speaker 1: online to see what people had to say about it,
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  Speaker 1: there were so many terrible answers online as to what
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  Speaker 1: people think it means to curse God. There was a
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  Speaker 1: lot of people that were saying, well, to curse God
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  Speaker 1: means to question his judgment or to wish for your
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  Speaker 1: own death. Those are the things that Job did. And
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  Speaker 1: we know that he never cursed God. He never cursed
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  Speaker 1: God because Satan did not win in the end. So
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  Speaker 1: what does it mean to curse God? Jesus says in
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  Speaker 1: Luke 6, 28 from the ESV version, bless those who
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  Speaker 1: curse you and pray for those who abuse you. He
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  Speaker 1: also says in Matthew 15, 18 through 20, what comes
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  Speaker 1: out of the mouth proceeds from the heart and this
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  Speaker 1: defiles a person for out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery,
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  Speaker 1: sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander. These are what
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  Speaker 1: defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does
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  Speaker 1: not defile anyone. Psalm 109 says, he loved to curse,
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  Speaker 1: so let the curses come upon him. He did not
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  Speaker 1: delight in blessing, so may it be far from him.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: And James 3 verse 10 says, from the same mouth
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  Speaker 1: come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: to be so. Cursing comes from the heart. It comes
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: from somewhere deep inside of you. And when someone curses you,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: like when Jesus said, bless those who curse you, he's
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: talking about somebody who slanders you, who just hates you
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: from deep inside of themselves. They hate you from the heart,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: but they use their mouth to do the cursing. So
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: it is a sin of both the heart and the mouth.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: So the best definition I can give for somebody who
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: curses God is someone who rejects God in their heart
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: and then says it with their lips, or somebody who
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: has seen evidence of God in their lives or possibly
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: worshiped him, and then they state it. that they do
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: not believe that God exists. They have rejected and turned
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: away from him. In other words, they have publicly lied
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: about who God is. Just as somebody curses you, they
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: are lying about you specifically to get you in trouble,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: to get other people to believe that you are not
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: the person everybody knows you as. So no, Job never
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: cursed God because he never rejected God. There was never
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: a point when Job said, God, I reject you. you
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: and I don't believe in you anymore and I will
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: no longer worship you. He never did that. In fact,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: even in this entire prayer that he's saying right here,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: though it's harsh, though it's prideful in a lot of ways,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: He never said, God, I reject you. In fact, he
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: called God the God who sees him. He knew God
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  Speaker 1: was listening and God saw him. So he never questioned
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: if God existed throughout this entire thing. He never questioned that.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: But he does ask God to leave him alone, not
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: in the way that he wants to stop worshiping God,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: but he's asking God, just stop with all of this
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: misery you're putting on me. Just leave me alone for
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: the short amount of time that I have left. And
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: he says, I don't want to live forever. Just kill
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: me now, God. Kill me now. Let me get out
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: of my misery and go into a land of peace.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: He says, what is man that you should magnify him,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: that you should set your mind on him, that you
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: should visit him every morning and test him every moment. Now,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: this is crazy how similar it is to Psalm chapter eight.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: It's very likely that when David wrote Psalm chapter eight,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: he said, David reframed Job's prayer right here into a praise.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: David says, starting in verse 3, David reframed Job's prayer
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: into something praiseworthy. But going back to Job 7, he says,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: why should you visit man every morning and test him
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: every moment? You know, us weak little men, all of
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: us humans that are so much lesser than you. Why
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: do you magnify us? Why do you test us? We
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: should be nothing to you. And yet you test us
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: every moment. Verse 19, how long will you not look
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: away from me nor leave me alone until I swallow
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: down my spittle? He's like, can you just leave me
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: alone for a second, God? A second to let me
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: catch my breath so that I can swallow the spit
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: in my mouth. Can you just leave me alone for
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: a moment? And then to conclude in verses 20 and 21.
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  Speaker 1: If I have sinned, what do I do to you,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: you watcher of men? Why have you set me as
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: a mark for you so that I am a burden
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: to myself? He's like, God, you put a bullseye on
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: me and you're shooting your arrows at me. Why have
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: you done this to me? What sin have I committed?
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: And even if I have sinned, what do I do
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: to you? Verse 21. Why do you not pardon my
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: disobedience and take away my iniquity? For now I will
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: but I will not be. He says, God, I understand
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: that I'm a sinner. I understand that I have done
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: disobedient things in the past. But if you are judging
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: me for those things that I have done way back when,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: why do you not pardon my disobedience and take away
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: my iniquity? Why are you judging me for it now?
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: And what have I done to you recently? What do
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: I continue to do? What sin is glaring in my
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: life that affects you? And he ends this prayer by saying,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: I am giving up. I am now going to lie
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: down in the dust. You will look for me and
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: I will not be. You can see the depth of
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: suffering that Job is going through. And I think anybody
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: with a heart would come over and comfort Job after
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: they heard this prayer that he had said. But that's
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: not what Job's friends do. Unfortunately, as we're going to
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: find out in the next chapter, they kind of do
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: the opposite of that. They make things just actively worse
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: for Job. And maybe, just maybe, this was also part
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: of Satan's plan to get Job to curse God. I mean,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Satan is throwing every single thing he can at Job
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: so that Job will curse God. Job's faith never quite
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: went away, did it? He never once questioned if God
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: was real. He never... really lost faith in God. His
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: mind may have changed about God because he now believes
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: that God is cruel and unmerciful, but his belief and
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: faith in God never quite went away. And I think
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: this is a lesson for all of us. Job was
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: consistently crying out to God. His words were not beautiful.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: His words were raw and painful words. And throughout the ages,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: certain people have tried to change Job's words, actually. The
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Jewish people specifically, verse 20, Job said, if I have sinned,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: what do I do to you, you watcher of men?
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: The Jews in their rendering tried to change it to,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: how have I become a burden to you, a watcher
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: of men? And you can see how that changes it completely.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: But even though Job's words are not pretty, and we
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: can see the error in them in hindsight, this is
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: still a lesson to us to cry out to God first,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: to not lose faith in God, to not question his existence.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: You know, the one thing that God got really angry
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: about with the people in the wilderness at the waters
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: of Meribah, do you remember what it was? It was
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: because they questioned God's existence. They questioned Is God actually
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: here with us or is he not here with us?
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Even though God had kept showing how much he was
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: there with them. He got so angry at those people
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: and he said, don't test me like that again. In fact,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: the waters of Meribah are constantly brought up time and
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: again in scripture of the way we test God. God,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: are you actually there or not? Job never did that.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: And that is a commendable thing. that all of us
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: should emulate about Job when we are going through times
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: of struggle and suffering. All right, all you wonderful faithful listeners,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: please listen to a sponsored ad and I will close
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: out the episode right after that. Well, faithful listeners, there's
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: a lot of good stuff that we can learn from
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the book of Job and Job's responses even to God.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: And there's a lot of untruths that we can learn
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: about also as we read through the friend's responses to Job.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: So the book of Job has been really eye-opening to
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: me so far as we're going through it. I have
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: been absolutely loving this book. As you can see from
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: the fact that even in the New Testament episodes, I'm
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: constantly referencing it because there is just so much good
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: content in the book of Job. So next time on Monday,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: we are going to read about Bildad's response to Job.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Job chapter 8 and just how he has some incorrect
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: things to say about God as well. And we'll go
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: through those untruths on Monday. Now tomorrow, hopefully I'll see
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: all of you guys for the book of 2 Peter
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: chapter 2, which I'm definitely excited about this chapter because
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: we're going to talk about the false prophets and teachers
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: that Peter warns us about. So it's going to be
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: a great episode. Make sure to tune in at 6 a.m.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: or whenever you choose to wake up and listen. Faithful Listeners,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: Happy listening and God bless. I just want to take
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: a second to thank the team at Life Audio for
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: their partnership with me on the Bible Explained podcast. In fact,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: if you go to lifeaudio.com, you'll find dozens of other
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: faith-centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Bible study, parenting, and more.