Latest / The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal / Job 3 - Job Curses the Day He Was Born
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Life Audio. You are listening to The Bible Explained with
- 0:13Speaker 1: Jen Koukl, a P40 Ministries podcast. Howdy, friends and faithful listeners.
- 0:18Speaker 1: Welcome to The Bible Explained podcast on this absolutely lovely,
- 0:22Speaker 1: lovely Wednesday morning. And I am feeling much, much better today.
- 0:26Speaker 1: Thank God. So we're going to talk about Job chapter three,
- 0:29Speaker 1: the entire chapter. And you'll notice kind of an interesting
- 0:32Speaker 1: switch that happens in the book of Job starting today.
- 0:36Speaker 1: And this shift in language will extend for many, many
- 0:39Speaker 1: chapters as we go through Job. But this is where
- 0:42Speaker 1: things really start to come to a head about who
- 0:45Speaker 1: God is and some of the false theology and ideas
- 0:50Speaker 1: that people tend to have about God. We start with
- 0:53Speaker 1: all of that today. So faithful listeners, before we dive
- 0:57Speaker 1: into Job 3, please listen to this first sponsored message.
- 1:02Speaker 1: All right, grab your Bible out of the version that
- 1:04Speaker 1: you prefer. But as always, I'll be reading from the
- 1:06Speaker 1: WEB or the World English Bible. Let's read Job 3,
- 1:10Speaker 1: the entire thing, and see what Job has to say.
- 1:15Speaker 1: After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day
- 1:17Speaker 1: of his birth. Job answered, Let the day perish in
- 1:21Speaker 1: which I was born, the night which said, There is
- 1:23Speaker 1: a boy conceived. Let that day be darkness. Don't let
- 1:27Speaker 1: God from above seek for it, neither let the light
- 1:30Speaker 1: shine on it. Let darkness and the shadow of death
- 1:33Speaker 1: claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it.
- 1:36Speaker 1: Let all that makes the day black terrify it. As
- 1:39Speaker 1: for that night, let thick darkness seize on it. Let
- 1:42Speaker 1: it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let
- 1:44Speaker 1: it not come into the number of the months. Behold,
- 1:47Speaker 1: let that night be barren. Let no joyful voice come
- 1:50Speaker 1: from therein. Let them curse it who curse the day,
- 1:53Speaker 1: who are ready to rouse up Leviathan. Let the stars
- 1:56Speaker 1: of its twilight be dark. Let it look for light,
- 1:58Speaker 1: but have none. Neither let it see the eyelids of
- 2:01Speaker 1: the morning, because it didn't shut up the doors of
- 2:03Speaker 1: my mother's womb, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.
- 2:07Speaker 1: Why didn't I die from the womb? Why didn't I
- 2:10Speaker 1: give up the spirit when my mother bore me? Why
- 2:13Speaker 1: did the knees receive me? Or why the breast that
- 2:15Speaker 1: I should nurse? For now I should have lain down
- 2:18Speaker 1: and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would
- 2:21Speaker 1: have been at rest, with kings and counselors of the earth,
- 2:25Speaker 1: who built up waste places for themselves, or with princes
- 2:28Speaker 1: who had gold, who filled their houses with silver, or
- 2:31Speaker 1: as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as
- 2:34Speaker 1: infants who never saw light. There the wicked cease from troubling.
- 2:38Speaker 1: There the weary are at rest. There the prisoners are
- 2:41Speaker 1: at ease together. They don't hear the voice of the taskmaster.
- 2:45Speaker 1: The small and the great are there. The servant is
- 2:48Speaker 1: free from his master. Why is light given to him
- 2:51Speaker 1: who is in misery? Life to the bitter in soul.
- 2:55Speaker 1: who long for death but it doesn't come, and dig
- 2:58Speaker 1: for it more than for hidden treasures, who rejoice exceedingly,
- 3:01Speaker 1: and who are glad when they can find the grave.
- 3:04Speaker 1: Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
- 3:07Speaker 1: whom God has hedged in? For my sighing comes before
- 3:11Speaker 1: I eat, my groanings are poured out like water, for
- 3:14Speaker 1: the thing which I fear comes on me, that which
- 3:17Speaker 1: I am afraid of comes to me. I am not
- 3:19Speaker 1: at ease, neither am I quiet, neither do I have rest,
- 3:23Speaker 1: but trouble comes. So now in Job chapter 3, a
- 3:28Speaker 1: big shift happens. It started out in the first two
- 3:31Speaker 1: chapters talking about who Job was and all of these
- 3:34Speaker 1: miseries and trials that he has to deal with. So
- 3:37Speaker 1: let's read the last portion of Job 2, 11 through 13.
- 3:40Speaker 1: It says, and Zophar the Namathite, and they made an
- 3:54Speaker 1: appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to
- 3:57Speaker 1: comfort him. When they lifted up their eyes from a distance,
- 4:00Speaker 1: they didn't recognize him, and they raised their voices and wept,
- 4:03Speaker 1: and they each tore his robe and sprinkled dust on
- 4:06Speaker 1: their heads toward the sky. So they sat down with
- 4:09Speaker 1: him on the ground for seven days and seven nights,
- 4:11Speaker 1: and no one spoke a word to him, for they
- 4:13Speaker 1: saw that his grief was very great. So to the
- 4:17Speaker 1: credit of Job's friends, they come and they sit with
- 4:20Speaker 1: him and they mourn with him, In fact, it says
- 4:22Speaker 1: that from a distance when they came to see him,
- 4:24Speaker 1: he was unrecognizable to them, which probably means that Job's
- 4:29Speaker 1: skin disease, whatever it was, was so intense and severe
- 4:33Speaker 1: that it made him look like a completely different person.
- 4:37Speaker 1: Not to mention, he probably lost some weight over the
- 4:40Speaker 1: months of mourning that he had done and he was
- 4:42Speaker 1: sitting in ashes. So he was probably filthy with the
- 4:46Speaker 1: soot that was covering him. So he looked like a
- 4:49Speaker 1: completely different person. not the thriving, prominent individual that Job's
- 4:55Speaker 1: three friends knew. And to their credit, they sit down
- 4:59Speaker 1: with him for seven days and seven nights, and they
- 5:01Speaker 1: literally say nothing, and they just mourn and weep with him,
- 5:05Speaker 1: covering their heads also with soot and tearing their own
- 5:08Speaker 1: garments in solidarity with him. But now finally, after seven days,
- 5:13Speaker 1: an entire week of just mourning, Job is ready to
- 5:17Speaker 1: say something. Here's what he says, starting in Job 3,
- 5:20Speaker 1: 1 through 3. Now, through the entire book of Job,
- 5:24Speaker 1: you are not going to see Job curse God. But
- 5:26Speaker 1: you will see him curse a handful of other things, including...
- 5:44Speaker 1: right here, the day of his birth and also the
- 5:47Speaker 1: night that he was conceived. And he curses these things
- 5:52Speaker 1: because he's miserable. He wishes that he did not exist.
- 5:57Speaker 1: He wishes that God would have just erased him from
- 6:00Speaker 1: the beginning, that his life could be fully erased so
- 6:04Speaker 1: he doesn't have to feel the pain of loss and
- 6:07Speaker 1: misery and sickness any longer. Now, just because Job curses
- 6:11Speaker 1: the day of his birth, Does not mean that Satan
- 6:14Speaker 1: has won, by the way. Because Satan didn't say to God, hey,
- 6:17Speaker 1: if you take away all of the blessings from Job,
- 6:20Speaker 1: then he will curse the day of his birth. No,
- 6:23Speaker 1: he said, if you take away all of the blessings
- 6:25Speaker 1: from Job, he will curse you to your face. And
- 6:29Speaker 1: Job never ended up doing that. Satan was proven absolutely incorrect.
- 6:33Speaker 1: Based upon the dialogue that we're going to discuss in
- 6:37Speaker 1: these next many chapters, Job is really struggling. He's not
- 6:42Speaker 1: cursing God, but he has a lot of questions for God.
- 6:47Speaker 1: And I think that Job's suffering and his response to
- 6:51Speaker 1: his suffering can show us one particular thing. Job, according
- 6:56Speaker 1: to God's own words, was like one of the most
- 6:59Speaker 1: righteous men on the earth. God said there is nobody
- 7:02Speaker 1: else like Job at that moment in time of history.
- 7:05Speaker 1: Job's faith was something on a different level than the
- 7:09Speaker 1: average person out there, right? So Job, being one of
- 7:13Speaker 1: the most faithful men, according to God himself, struggled in
- 7:18Speaker 1: this way and was so deeply emotional because of his struggling.
- 7:23Speaker 1: You know, I think Christians sometimes get it wrong, where
- 7:27Speaker 1: they almost look down on somebody that is not joyfully
- 7:31Speaker 1: laughing through all of their struggles. And even Job's three
- 7:36Speaker 1: friends actually did this to Job. They were kind of
- 7:38Speaker 1: sickened over Job's emotionality, I suppose, through this intense suffering
- 7:44Speaker 1: that he was doing. Because every time Job opens his mouth,
- 7:47Speaker 1: his three friends have to admonish him for his emotions.
- 7:52Speaker 1: They're almost like sickened by the fact that Job is emotional.
- 7:56Speaker 1: In fact, that's what happens in the very next chapter.
- 8:00Speaker 1: Job's friend Eliphaz in Job 4 verses 3 through 5 says, Behold,
- 8:07Speaker 1: you have instructed many and you have strengthened the weak hands.
- 8:10Speaker 1: Your words have supported him who is falling and you
- 8:12Speaker 1: have made the feeble knees firm. But now it has
- 8:16Speaker 1: come to you and you faint. It touches you and
- 8:19Speaker 1: you are troubled. And it's like, wow, you know, Eliphaz
- 8:23Speaker 1: is being very unmerciful there towards Job's suffering where he's
- 8:28Speaker 1: just like, wow, Job, you know, you've helped people through
- 8:31Speaker 1: so many different issues. And yet when you experience an issue,
- 8:34Speaker 1: it causes you to faint. He's essentially telling Job that
- 8:37Speaker 1: he's a hypocrite. And I think that's pretty awful. So
- 8:41Speaker 1: we need to be, I think as Christians, a little
- 8:43Speaker 1: bit more compassionate toward people who are really struggling through
- 8:47Speaker 1: something real. You know what I mean? And this can
- 8:50Speaker 1: be hard, I think, in today's culture, because we see
- 8:55Speaker 1: the victim mindset a lot. And sometimes people almost enjoy
- 9:01Speaker 1: the suffering for the attention that it gets them. And
- 9:04Speaker 1: they overplay it and almost look for ways to be
- 9:07Speaker 1: offended and look for ways to be the victim. And
- 9:09Speaker 1: I'm not talking about that, obviously. That's a different discussion.
- 9:14Speaker 1: I'm talking about people who have experienced genuine suffering, loss
- 9:19Speaker 1: of family, loss of children, sickness and other forms of
- 9:23Speaker 1: loss in life. As Christians, we have to learn to
- 9:27Speaker 1: be more loving and more compassionate towards the emotions that
- 9:31Speaker 1: they are feeling in those moments. Now, that doesn't mean
- 9:35Speaker 1: we can't encourage them to continue to have faith in God.
- 9:40Speaker 1: That doesn't mean that we can't share verses of comfort
- 9:43Speaker 1: with them and, you know, try to talk with them
- 9:46Speaker 1: and try to relate with them in whatever ways we can.
- 9:51Speaker 1: But we also need to not immediately get angry when
- 9:55Speaker 1: they express deep emotions from the pain that they are feeling.
- 10:01Speaker 1: Job here, being the most faithful man, is cursing the
- 10:05Speaker 1: day he was born. And to us, that might kind
- 10:08Speaker 1: of sound a little bit dramatic, I suppose, until we
- 10:11Speaker 1: ourselves experience the type of loss that Job has experienced
- 10:16Speaker 1: here and the type of pain and suffering that that
- 10:19Speaker 1: he is currently dealing with this illness in his body.
- 10:22Speaker 1: Going back to Job 3 verse 3, he says, let
- 10:25Speaker 1: the day perish in which I was born, and the
- 10:27Speaker 1: night which said there is a boy conceived. So technically,
- 10:31Speaker 1: Job is cursing two days here. He's cursing the day
- 10:35Speaker 1: that he was born, and he's also cursing the day
- 10:38Speaker 1: that he was conceived. Which by the way, this is
- 10:41Speaker 1: another proof in scripture that Personhood begins at conception. Because otherwise,
- 10:47Speaker 1: why would Job curse the night that he was conceived?
- 10:51Speaker 1: Why would he curse that if he was just a
- 10:53Speaker 1: clump of cells, if he was just nobody? He wouldn't. Obviously,
- 10:57Speaker 1: his personhood began at conception. And he wishes that that
- 11:02Speaker 1: night was completely erased, that he had never been conceived.
- 11:06Speaker 1: And also that the day he was born was completely erased.
- 11:10Speaker 1: He says, let that day in verse four, the day
- 11:12Speaker 1: he was born be darkness. Don't let God from above
- 11:16Speaker 1: seek for it. Neither let the light shine on it.
- 11:19Speaker 1: So he's basically asking God to erase that day he
- 11:23Speaker 1: was born so that Job would just snap into nothingness
- 11:26Speaker 1: so that Job could be absolutely nobody. He says, don't
- 11:31Speaker 1: let light shine on it. Let the darkness and the
- 11:34Speaker 1: shadow of death claim it for their own and let
- 11:37Speaker 1: a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes the
- 11:39Speaker 1: day black terrify it. Now, all of this language is
- 11:44Speaker 1: very poetic, as you can see. In fact, Job is
- 11:47Speaker 1: considered to be one of the books of poetry in scripture.
- 11:51Speaker 1: Job and the Psalms and the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are
- 11:54Speaker 1: all the poetic type of language that we see. So
- 11:58Speaker 1: that's another way Job 3 makes a big shift. It's
- 12:01Speaker 1: not just the dialogue now between Job and his friends.
- 12:04Speaker 1: It's also this beautiful poem, I suppose, about Job's misery
- 12:10Speaker 1: and also the nature of God more so than anything else. Now,
- 12:13Speaker 1: this chapter focuses most on Job's misery, for sure. This
- 12:18Speaker 1: is how he starts the conversation with his friends because
- 12:22Speaker 1: of the level of suffering that he is experiencing. So
- 12:26Speaker 1: we just read how he cursed the day of his birth,
- 12:28Speaker 1: and now he's going to curse the night of his conception.
- 12:32Speaker 1: In verse six, as for that night, let thick darkness
- 12:36Speaker 1: seize on it. Let it not rejoice among the days
- 12:39Speaker 1: of the year. Let it not come into the number
- 12:41Speaker 1: of the months. So in other words, erase it from
- 12:43Speaker 1: the calendar completely. Don't even let it be found on
- 12:47Speaker 1: the calendar. That night just does not exist in the
- 12:51Speaker 1: grand scheme of history. That is what Job is hoping for. Behold,
- 12:55Speaker 1: let that night be barren. Let no joyful voice come therein.
- 12:59Speaker 1: So he's wishing for his mother's barrenness on that night.
- 13:03Speaker 1: He says, it would have been better if my mom
- 13:05Speaker 1: would have been barren on the night she conceived me
- 13:08Speaker 1: so that I just could not be born at that
- 13:11Speaker 1: moment in time. But now in verse 8, he says
- 13:13Speaker 1: something kind of interesting. He says, let them curse it
- 13:16Speaker 1: who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan. Now,
- 13:20Speaker 1: the reason this phraseology is so interesting is because Leviathan
- 13:24Speaker 1: was the chaos god, according to the Canaanite mythology. It
- 13:29Speaker 1: was the god of the sea. And, you know, I'm
- 13:31Speaker 1: going through the Psalms with my members, and we talk
- 13:34Speaker 1: a lot actually about the powers of the sea. The
- 13:37Speaker 1: sea was something greatly to be feared in the days
- 13:41Speaker 1: of Job. and in the days of David and the
- 13:43Speaker 1: other psalmists. So the Canaanites actually believed that the sea
- 13:47Speaker 1: was a god. It was a chaos god, often called Leviathan.
- 13:52Speaker 1: So there's a couple ideas here as to why Job
- 13:55Speaker 1: mentions Leviathan. Because we know Job did not worship Leviathan
- 13:59Speaker 1: like some of the other Canaanites might have done. In fact,
- 14:02Speaker 1: in Job 31, 26-28, he says this, If I have
- 14:05Speaker 1: seen the sun when it shined, or the moon moving
- 14:08Speaker 1: in splendor, and my heart has been secretly enticed, and
- 14:12Speaker 1: my hand threw a kiss from my mouth, this also
- 14:15Speaker 1: would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges,
- 14:18Speaker 1: for I would have denied the God who is above.
- 14:22Speaker 1: So Job makes it very clear to his friends that
- 14:24Speaker 1: he is monotheistic, that he is not going to worship
- 14:27Speaker 1: any other God because every other God obviously is created.
- 14:31Speaker 1: So I don't think when Job mentions Leviathan here that
- 14:34Speaker 1: he is invoking the name of some lesser deity. Rather,
- 14:39Speaker 1: he is so overwhelmed by his emotions that he's kind
- 14:43Speaker 1: of calling upon the average Edomite person who worships Leviathan
- 14:49Speaker 1: to help him curse the day of his birth, if
- 14:51Speaker 1: that is possible. I found a little excerpt from this
- 14:56Speaker 1: Bible study by Tony and Jan Cartledge called Job Into
- 15:00Speaker 1: the Fire and Out of the Ashes. And here's the
- 15:04Speaker 1: excerpt that they said. The implication seems to be that
- 15:07Speaker 1: Job calls on those who are skilled enough to rouse
- 15:10Speaker 1: up Leviathan in hopes that the great sea dragon will
- 15:14Speaker 1: rise from the depths and swallow up any lights that
- 15:16Speaker 1: could bring an end to the night. Now, I don't
- 15:20Speaker 1: think that Job knows what he's doing right here, because
- 15:23Speaker 1: as we're going to find out later on in scripture,
- 15:27Speaker 1: Leviathan or the great dragon is also another name for Satan.
- 15:32Speaker 1: And so even though Job himself is not calling on
- 15:36Speaker 1: Satan to help him, you know, strike out the day
- 15:39Speaker 1: he was born or whatever, he's still asking other people
- 15:43Speaker 1: who call upon Leviathan, who rouse him up to use
- 15:48Speaker 1: his power if they can to help him curse the
- 15:50Speaker 1: day that he was born. This could be the first
- 15:53Speaker 1: sin that we see Job commit. Now, again, don't forget,
- 15:57Speaker 1: this is very poetic. And Job could be talking about
- 16:01Speaker 1: just the force of the sea and people who curse
- 16:04Speaker 1: the sea, maybe they could also curse the day he
- 16:06Speaker 1: was born or something like that. And maybe he had
- 16:08Speaker 1: literally no intention of, you know, sinning against God in
- 16:12Speaker 1: any way. But if this is the first sin that
- 16:14Speaker 1: we see Job commit, James 5 verse 11 makes a
- 16:19Speaker 1: lot more sense. And I've talked about this verse a
- 16:21Speaker 1: little bit now in some detail, but it says, behold,
- 16:25Speaker 1: we call them blessed who endured. You have heard of
- 16:28Speaker 1: the perseverance of Job and have seen the Lord in
- 16:31Speaker 1: the outcome. and how the Lord is full of compassion
- 16:34Speaker 1: and mercy. But moving forward in Job chapter three, Job
- 16:38Speaker 1: continues because obviously he cannot blot out the day that
- 16:42Speaker 1: he was conceived or the day that he was born.
- 16:45Speaker 1: These things exist and he is on the earth. So
- 16:49Speaker 1: there's nothing he can do to erase the past, essentially.
- 16:52Speaker 1: So now he just starts asking all of these questions
- 16:55Speaker 1: to his friends. In verse 11, he says, why didn't
- 16:59Speaker 1: I die from the womb? Why didn't I give up
- 17:02Speaker 1: the spirit when my mother bore me? Why did her
- 17:05Speaker 1: knees receive me? Or why the breast that I should nurse?
- 17:09Speaker 1: For now I should have lain down and been quiet.
- 17:11Speaker 1: I should have slept and then I would have been
- 17:13Speaker 1: at rest. So basically he's like, why couldn't I have
- 17:15Speaker 1: been stillborn? Why could I not have just died the
- 17:20Speaker 1: day I was born instead of living a pointless life?
- 17:26Speaker 1: He says, if I would have died way back then,
- 17:28Speaker 1: then I would have finally been at rest. I would
- 17:30Speaker 1: have been quiet. I would have been in the place
- 17:34Speaker 1: of peace, essentially. He says, with the kings and the
- 17:37Speaker 1: counselors of the earth, in verse 14, who built up
- 17:40Speaker 1: waste places for themselves, or with princes who had gold,
- 17:44Speaker 1: who filled their houses with silver, or as a hidden
- 17:47Speaker 1: untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never
- 17:51Speaker 1: saw the light. So basically what he's saying here is,
- 17:53Speaker 1: Everybody goes to the same place, whether they're the richest
- 17:57Speaker 1: king or the stillborn baby, and they can't take anything
- 18:01Speaker 1: with them. Even these kings that have built up these
- 18:03Speaker 1: fabulous places for themselves or the princes who have filled
- 18:07Speaker 1: their houses with gold and silver, they can't take those
- 18:10Speaker 1: things with them. They're just going to go to the
- 18:12Speaker 1: same place as the stillborn baby. Everybody must die is
- 18:15Speaker 1: essentially what Job is saying. And he's asking, why did
- 18:19Speaker 1: I have to be one of the people that saw
- 18:21Speaker 1: the light of day? since we all have to die
- 18:24Speaker 1: anyway and go to the grave, why couldn't I have
- 18:26Speaker 1: done it sooner rather than later? And then he mentions
- 18:30Speaker 1: right here in verse 17 through 19, there the wicked
- 18:33Speaker 1: cease from troubling, there the weary are at rest, there
- 18:37Speaker 1: the prisoners are at ease together. They don't hear the
- 18:40Speaker 1: voice of the taskmaster. The small and the great are
- 18:43Speaker 1: there and the servant is free from his master. Now
- 18:47Speaker 1: this is interesting because don't forget one of the trials
- 18:51Speaker 1: that happened to Job. His entire family, except for his wife, died.
- 18:56Speaker 1: And all of his servants, well, many of his servants
- 18:59Speaker 1: died as well. And he's basically saying their fate is
- 19:03Speaker 1: better than his fate. He wished that he could have
- 19:06Speaker 1: joined them. He wished he could be in the grave
- 19:09Speaker 1: with all of them because they are at rest there.
- 19:12Speaker 1: They don't have to deal with wickedness anymore. That's what
- 19:15Speaker 1: he says. The wicked cease from troubling and there the
- 19:18Speaker 1: weary are at rest. So his children, if they were
- 19:21Speaker 1: Yahweh followers, don't have to deal with trouble anymore. If
- 19:25Speaker 1: his servants were Yahweh followers, they don't have to deal
- 19:28Speaker 1: with their taskmaster anymore. It's actually what he says right here.
- 19:32Speaker 1: They don't hear the voice of the taskmaster. The small
- 19:36Speaker 1: and the greater there. And the servant is free from
- 19:38Speaker 1: his master. So to tie all of that up, he's
- 19:41Speaker 1: saying that everybody that has died under his roof, whether
- 19:46Speaker 1: servant or child, is better off being dead than alive. alive.
- 19:51Speaker 1: And he wishes that he could join them. Why is
- 19:54Speaker 1: light given to him who is in misery, life to
- 19:58Speaker 1: the bitter in soul, who long for death, but it
- 20:00Speaker 1: doesn't come and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
- 20:03Speaker 1: who rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they can find
- 20:06Speaker 1: the grave. So he's like the people who finally find
- 20:09Speaker 1: the grave that finally die, they are rejoicing. Why is
- 20:14Speaker 1: it that I have to sit here in misery, waking
- 20:18Speaker 1: up every single morning, day after day in this miserable life?
- 20:22Speaker 1: And in the very next verse, he actually accuses God
- 20:24Speaker 1: of trapping him. Why is light given to a man
- 20:28Speaker 1: whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? He's like, man,
- 20:34Speaker 1: you know, God has trapped me in this sick body.
- 20:38Speaker 1: I am stuck in God's will. It's kind of what
- 20:41Speaker 1: Job is saying here. He's, man, he's having a hard time.
- 20:45Speaker 1: And honestly, I bet some of you faithful listeners listening
- 20:48Speaker 1: to this can definitely relate to some of the things
- 20:50Speaker 1: that Job is going through. And that's not wrong to say,
- 20:53Speaker 1: by the way, that you can relate to Job. These
- 20:56Speaker 1: people in scripture, they are here for you to relate
- 20:59Speaker 1: to them. They are here for you to learn from.
- 21:03Speaker 1: And I'm sure many of you struggling have related in
- 21:06Speaker 1: some ways with what Job is saying, at least. Maybe
- 21:10Speaker 1: you've also felt trapped by something that God has given
- 21:13Speaker 1: you that you just do not want. And maybe you've
- 21:16Speaker 1: even said things similar to what Job is saying here.
- 21:20Speaker 1: He says, He is saying that he keeps getting beat
- 21:22Speaker 1: down over and over and over again. He can't even
- 21:24Speaker 1: find a minute of peace to sit and eat. because
- 21:47Speaker 1: he is crying into his food and water. He is
- 21:50Speaker 1: bitter in souls, what he says, and he just wishes
- 21:53Speaker 1: for death to come. If he can't erase the day
- 21:57Speaker 1: he was born or the night that he was conceived,
- 22:01Speaker 1: if he couldn't have been born stillborn or died early
- 22:04Speaker 1: on in life, then why can't he just die now?
- 22:09Speaker 1: He's wishing for it. But guess what, Job, though he
- 22:13Speaker 1: had suicidal ideations here, He was not going to take
- 22:16Speaker 1: his own life. He said that very clearly in Job 14,
- 22:21Speaker 1: 13 and 14. Oh, that you would hide me in shoal,
- 22:25Speaker 1: that you would keep me secret until your wrath is passed,
- 22:29Speaker 1: that you would appoint me a set time and remember me.
- 22:32Speaker 1: If a man dies, will he live again? I would
- 22:35Speaker 1: wait all the days of my warfare until my release
- 22:38Speaker 1: should come. So he's like, I am going to wait
- 22:42Speaker 1: until my you have the day of my death planned
- 22:45Speaker 1: out for me, God. I'm not going to take my
- 22:47Speaker 1: life early. Because he did understand this, that his life
- 22:51Speaker 1: was not his to take, that it belonged to God ultimately.
- 22:57Speaker 1: He could wish for death. He could ask God for
- 23:00Speaker 1: his own death, but his life was ultimately in God's hands.
- 23:05Speaker 1: Just as Job said right here, he was kind of
- 23:07Speaker 1: hedged in by God's will. And though he's fighting death,
- 23:12Speaker 1: strongly against God's will. He will not rebel by taking
- 23:17Speaker 1: his own life because somebody who takes their own life
- 23:20Speaker 1: is in a sense rejecting God's will. And Job, like
- 23:24Speaker 1: he said in the previous chapter, he wasn't going to
- 23:28Speaker 1: reject God's will. What did he say to his wife?
- 23:31Speaker 1: Job chapter 2 verse 10 says, After she says, curse
- 23:36Speaker 1: God and die, he says to her, you speak as
- 23:39Speaker 1: one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we
- 23:42Speaker 1: receive good at the hand of God and shall we
- 23:44Speaker 1: not receive evil? So even though he hates God's will
- 23:48Speaker 1: and he's fighting against God's will, he is not going
- 23:51Speaker 1: to reject it completely. So this was an interesting start,
- 23:55Speaker 1: I think, to the book of Job. And on Monday,
- 23:58Speaker 1: we'll talk about the response of Job's friend Eliphaz the
- 24:01Speaker 1: Temanite and see what he has to say. And as
- 24:04Speaker 1: we go through the book of Job, I'm really excited
- 24:06Speaker 1: to get into kind of the incorrect theology that Job's
- 24:12Speaker 1: friends really have about God and some of the nasty
- 24:15Speaker 1: things that they say to Job. There's a really funny
- 24:19Speaker 1: verse where, well, it wasn't funny at the time, I'm
- 24:21Speaker 1: sure when Job said it, but he says to them, man,
- 24:24Speaker 1: you guys are lousy comforters. Like it would be better
- 24:26Speaker 1: if you just shut your mouths and went away. It's
- 24:30Speaker 1: such a funny verse. But faithful listeners, before I let
- 24:33Speaker 1: you all go today, You know the drill. Here's one
- 24:36Speaker 1: last message from a sponsor. Alrighty, hopefully you guys join
- 24:40Speaker 1: me tomorrow as we talk about 1 Peter again. And
- 24:44Speaker 1: we're almost done with the book of 1 Peter and
- 24:46Speaker 1: we'll move into 2 Peter very, very soon. We're going
- 24:49Speaker 1: to be in the last chapter of 1 Peter starting tomorrow.
- 24:52Speaker 1: So I hope all of you guys tune in for
- 24:54Speaker 1: another really good episode. In fact, I'm not going to lie.
- 24:56Speaker 1: First Peter has been a really fun book for me.
- 25:00Speaker 1: I've been very, very much enjoying it. In fact, I'm
- 25:03Speaker 1: not going to lie. It's been one of my favorite
- 25:06Speaker 1: New Testament books that I've talked about so far. And
- 25:09Speaker 1: I did not expect that to happen. But no, I've
- 25:11Speaker 1: been loving and enjoying every minute through the book of
- 25:15Speaker 1: First Peter. So we're going to be finishing up First
- 25:17Speaker 1: Peter very, very soon, probably in the next week. and
- 25:21Speaker 1: moving into 2 Peter after that. So faithful listeners, I
- 25:24Speaker 1: hope that all of you tune in tomorrow, 6 a.m.,
- 25:26Speaker 1: or whenever you choose to wake up and listen. Until then,
- 25:29Speaker 1: happy listening, and God bless. I just want to take
- 25:38Speaker 1: a second to thank the team at Life Audio for
- 25:40Speaker 1: their partnership with me on the Bible Explained podcast. In fact,
- 25:43Speaker 1: if you go to lifeaudio.com, you'll find dozens of other
- 25:46Speaker 1: faith-centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer,
- 25:50Speaker 1: Bible study, parenting, and more.