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898. Bible Study: Job 4 (Dreams, Discernment, Advice) · Faith by annm2705

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Chapter 4 from the book of Job. First let's pray.
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Dear Lord, please open our eyes to what you have to say through
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this chapter. We ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
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Chapter 4 begins. Then Eliphaz the timonite
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replied. Now, Eliphaz is one of Job's
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friends in the prior chapter. We know that they they came to
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to well in chapter 2, we know that his friends came to visit
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him and they sat with him for seven days and then Job spoke
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and then that was all of chapter 3.
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When Job spoke, then Eliphaz, the team and I, one of his
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friends start speaking. And this is interesting because
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it's very opening. It opens up your eyes to a lot
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of things here. So I'm going to read through the
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chapter. I'll go through the study
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guides, question and answers, and then I'm going to go into
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some notes that I made along here.
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So then Illefaz, the team and I replied, if someone ventures a
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word with you, will you be impatient?
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But who can keep from speaking? Think how you've instructed many
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how you have strengthened feeble hands, your words have supported
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those who stumbled, you have strengthened faltering knees.
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But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged.
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It strikes you, and you are dismayed.
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Should not your piety be your confidence, and your blameless
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ways your hope? Consider now who, being innocent
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has ever perished? Where were the upright ever
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destroyed? As I have observed, those who
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plough evil, and those who sow trouble, reap it at the breath
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of God. They perish.
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At the blast of His anger. They are no more.
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The lions may roar and growl, yet the teeth of the great lions
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are broken. The lion perishes for lack of
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prey, and the Cubs of the lioness are scattered.
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A word was secretly brought to me.
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My ears caught a whisper of it. Amid disquieting dreams, in the
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night when deep sleep falls on people.
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Fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake.
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A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on
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end. It stopped, but I could not tell
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what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and
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I heard a hushed voice. Can a mortal be more righteous
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than God? Can even a strong man be more
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pure than his Maker? If God places no trust in his
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servants, if He charges his angels with error, how much more
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those who live in the houses of clay, whose foundations are in
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the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth between dawn
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and dusk? They are broken to pieces,
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unnoticed. They perish forever.
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Are not the cords of their tent pulled up so that they die
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without wisdom? That's the end of chapter 4.
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There is so much in there. So I'm going to 1st go through
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the questions and answers for chapter 4 in the study guide.
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How had Job helped others? Job's godly lifestyle had been
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an example to many. He was a respected and
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influential leader who gave to those in need and saw that
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justice was done. What can we learn from Job's
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friends? Job's friends came to console
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him by sharing in his grief, but they soon began to accuse him
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rigidly, applying general principles to Joe's Job's
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specific situation. By distorting the truth in this
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way, Job's friends only added to his suffering.
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So what are we to make of the large sections of this book that
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record what came from the lips of Joe's Job's friends?
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15 chapters compared to 20 for Job.
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How much of what they said is true?
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How can we tell when they distorted or misapplied the
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truth and arrived at the wrong conclusion?
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The key to a correct understanding of these passages
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in Job Job is context taken apart from the rest of the book
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as well as the rest of the Bible.
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The words of Elliphaz and or Eliphaz and the others can be
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misleading. For example, when Eliphaz
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suggested that the innocent and the upright are never destroyed
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in verse 7. We should remember the Bible as
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a whole teaches that righteous may at times suffer undeserved
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calamities, persecution, or even death.
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The reference for that is Luke 13 verses one through 5.
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On the other hand, when Eliphaz said that God performs wonders
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that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted,
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we see this is in chapter 5, verse 9.
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We see that this thought is consistent with the rest of the
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Bible. Even Job echoed echoed the same
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words in Chapter 9, verse 10. Beyond comparing what Job's
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friend said with the rest of the Bible, we can learn from their
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faulty logic. If sin causes suffering, they
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reasoned, then all suffering must be caused by sin.
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Not so. Jesus contradicted such
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simplistic explanations when he showed his disciples that the
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suffering comes not because of sin.
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That when he showed his disciples that some suffering
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comes not because of sin, but to bring glory to God.
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You can find that in John Chapter 9 verses one through 3.
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We can also learn from Job's friends that we should not pass
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judgment on those who suffer. Rather than attempting to offer
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short sighted explanations, Job's friends would have helped
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Job more by simply sharing his grief and admitting they did not
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know all the whys of life. Was Eliphaz saying that the
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innocent never die? Eliphaz articulated the
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conventional wisdom of the day that bad things don't happen to
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good people. His rather simplistic view must
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have added to Job's already intense pain.
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Job and his friends did not know what we know from chapters one
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through 2. Bad things do happen to good
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people. In fact, it is Job's experience,
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recounted through the inspiration of the Spirit, that
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helps us to see the things from this different perspective.
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What did Eliphaz mean by his reference to lions and great
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lions? Eliphaz was speaking here about
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the fate of the wicked who are sometimes compared to lions in
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the Bible, like in Psalms chapter 71735 and 58.
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Like lions, the wicked are often proud and defiant, yet they are
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not able to stand against God if he chooses to eliminate them.
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Then it says, Did Eliphaz see a ghost?
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Eliphaz claimed that he had a dream in which he saw a spirit.
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The alleged vision was the basis for the advice he gave to Job.
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It's worth noting that while Elephant's advice contained
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elements of truth, God eventually rebuked him for the
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counsel he gave Job in chapter 47, verse 7.
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The Bible does not speak of spirits of the deceased as
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wandering aimlessly or being without restraint.
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So I want to add some oh, that's the end of the questions and
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answers from the study Bible. So yes, the ghost that we, you
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know, that people talk about that they think that they are
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the dead, the dead ones or something like that.
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That is not biblical. There is a separation of people
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and we cannot interact with people.
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However, deceiving spirits can take on the form of someone like
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it says about Satan. He can appear as an Angel of
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light and they their purpose is often deceiving and a lot of
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times they can. What is in the Bible is they can
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appear to someone as someone else for example.
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I don't really know it doesn't say in I don't remember what
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chapter it was. It was in either Chronicles or
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Kings. I can't remember, but when King
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Saul went to see a medium and or wait, yeah, it was King Saul and
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he asked the medium to call upon Samuel who had already died.
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And he did see an appearance, but there was also a the medium
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realized who Saul was because he came and he was like hidden.
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He was trying to disguise his identity because mediums were
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not supposed to be doing that sort of a cult practice.
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But Saul himself went, he was the king.
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And I don't at that time, I don't know if he was the king.
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He was a former king or maybe it was during hit the struggle
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between David and Saul. I don't know if he was actually
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a king, but whatever he was, he was not supposed to be seeking
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the mediums to get advice. And he even said that he was
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going there because he wasn't hearing from God, probably
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because he wasn't obeying God. And that's, there's biblical
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scripture that supports that. And you know, if people are
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disobedient to God and they treat him poorly, they probably
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are not going to be hearing from him.
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However, somebody who turns and repents to him will like God
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will hear that prayer. It's very clear that's what God
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wants ultimately. But he doesn't like keep this
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hedge of protection around somebody if people keep choosing
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against him. So there are things that we give
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up when we are in rebellion to God and things can happen,
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happen like this. Like Saul is another example of
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that because he had God's spirit when he was anointed, he had
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God's spirit. And it said that God took his
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spirit from Saul and then sent a tormenting spirit.
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Now what we can understand from God is from the Bible, from
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Scripture, is that God will do these kinds of things or allow
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these things to happen. Allowed deceiving spirits and
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that to affect people to when they when they're like hard
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headed and stubborn and they don't turn to God.
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He will allow this to happen so that people can turn to him
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because that's what ultimately he wants.
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Like discipline is meant to change a person for their good,
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not to punish a person when it says that God disciplines those
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he's he loves, he disciplines his children.
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And it there's a righteous kind of discipline.
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It's not a beating of somebody, but sometimes it can be, you
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know, disciplines painful, whether it's to bring about
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correction or you know what, I guess if it's punishment, it's
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painful. If it's discipline, it's
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painful. They're both painful, but God
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disciplines and it's not meant to torment somebody.
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It's meant to bring about change in that person's life.
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So anyway, that's what the study Bible talks about.
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And then I had, I thought it was helpful to read again.
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I'm going to read the new living translation because it it in
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some ways it's a little bit clearer in our current day
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language. So I'm going to read that and
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then I'll reference some of the notes that I took in the NIV
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version. So this was then Illefaz, the
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team I replied to. Joe, will you be patient and let
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me say a word for who can keep from speaking out?
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In the past, you have encouraged many people.
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You have strengthened those who were weak.
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Your words have supported those who were falling.
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You encouraged those with shaky knees.
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So Illefaz is reminding Job you were a great support to a lot of
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people in your past. And then in verse 5, he says,
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but now when trouble strikes, you lose heart.
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You are terrified when it touches you.
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Doesn't your reverence for God give you confidence?
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Doesn't your life of integrity give you hope?
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That's kind of like the way he's saying that.
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That's almost like accusatory that he's saying this like you
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know, he's, he's accusing or almost like condemning Job, like
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you have a, a reverence to God. Where's your confidence in that?
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Doesn't your life of integrity give you hope?
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Well, that's like righteousness that's relying on self, which
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that is bad advice. They're like, yeah, that's never
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promised your life of integrity give you hope.
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Well, it's not what we do. It's what Jesus did on the cross
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that gives us hope. So again, that's faulty words
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out of his friend. But you know, maybe they had,
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obviously I say maybe, but obviously they probably never
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saw a righteous person have bad things happen to them.
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And so they didn't understand what was going on.
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We read like the Bible study Bible says, we read chapters one
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and two, that we know that Satan was the one behind all of this
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and he was in the presence of God and that's where all this
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came from. So it also helps us give, get or
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have more discernment. But he said so then in verse 7,
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his friend says stop and think, do the innocent die?
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When have the upright been destroyed?
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That's almost, that's very accusational.
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Like, you know, if you're so upright, you know, why are you
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like it's just it's not very helpful.
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It's it, you know what he's saying to his friends.
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He's he's not being supportive or uplifting.
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He's just, you know, just saying, hey, you know, all this,
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you supported other people, so why do you feel bad now?
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And, and so then he says my experience shows that those who
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plant trouble and cultivate evil will harvest the same.
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Well, there's that an accusation.
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I mean, there is some truth in that.
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Throughout Scripture, we can see what you sow, you will reap
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eventually. So there is truth in that.
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And he's saying my experience shows that those who do this
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will harvest the same. And so that he's he's judging
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from his own experience, which is true.
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It's like part truth but you know not in Job situation
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because he's not aware that Satan and God had a conversation
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and Job was being tested. Job didn't do anything wrong.
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He was being tested by God. So in verse 9A, breath from God
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destroys them. They vanish in a blast of his
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anger. The lion roars and the Wildcat
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snarls. But the teeth of strong lions
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will be broken, A fierce lion will starve for lack of prey,
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and the Cubs of the lioness will be scattered.
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Now here's where it gets pretty interesting.
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And I think we can have more discernment because we know
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chapters one and two, but obviously this one didn't and
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his friend didn't, and his friend is not able to
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distinguish between good and evil spirits.
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So verse 12, it starts. And this is the NLT vision.
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The truth was given to me in secret, as though whispered in
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my ear. It came to me in a disturbing
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vision at night when people are in deep sleep.
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Fear gripped me and my bones trembled.
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A spirit swept past my face and my hair stood on end.
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The spirit stopped, but I couldn't see its shape.
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There was a form before my eyes. In the silence, I heard a voice
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say, Now I'm going to stop there for a minute.
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So all of this, you know, if, if, if you're the person having
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this dream or vision at night and this is what you see, there
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are things that you know, people do express in the Bible.
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They express fear when they see something holy or heavenly or
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supernatural because they don't want to make of it.
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And, and, or they like automatically like bow down and
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worship it because they see that it's supernatural.
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Like when angels have come to different people in the Bible,
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their reaction often was to bow down to worship it because they
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knew it was something good. But it seems like they knew it
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was something good and not bad, otherwise they wouldn't be
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bowing down to worship it. But then the Angel will say to
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them, like, don't worship me, I'm a servant just like you.
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And so these kinds of things have happened through to other
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people in the Bible. But then like this one, it's
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like he doesn't even see the shape or the form.
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Usually other angels. They either look like people,
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like other humans or they're, you know, they're, they're just
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more like a person, like you see, like a human being.
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And, and apparently angels can take on different forms, you
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know, like it says, Satan can appear as an Angel of light.
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So when things like this happen, you have to pray about it and
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find out whether this is a something from God or something
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from the enemy, because the enemy can give us dreams.
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The enemy can get influence us. So his reaction here in verse
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14, he says, fear gripped me. Now people could be fearful from
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an Angel from a good Angel, but that's only momentary because
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usually the good Angel says, Hey, I'm a messenger from God.
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You know, I've come to you and it's you know, I have a message
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for you. It's always something is
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announced so that fear doesn't last.
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But in this situation, we see this fear is lasting.
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His bones are trembling. And God does not give us a
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spirit of fear, but of courage. So something godly, I mean an
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Angel who explains who they are will be encouraging, but one who
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never explains who they are. And it says like he couldn't see
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a shape. So this almost seems like it
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could be like a demon or something that it didn't have a
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body or something. He couldn't see his shape.
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He just there was something that he saw and it scared him.
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It made the hair stand on end. I think there's a sensitivity to
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this thing that he saw. And then there was this form
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before his his eyes. And then there was in the in the
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silence, I heard a voice say, So spirits do have.
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They have. They can.
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They can speak. They they are persons.
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They are like, I don't know, there's like demons are
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disembodied spirits. So demons are things that do not
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have bodies. So this could be a demon spirit.
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I don't know. But anyway, verse 17 says can a
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mortal be innocent before God? Can anyone be pure before the
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Creator? Now those are truths.
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Can immortal be innocent before God?
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I mean, we're not innocent. Can anyone be pure before the
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Creator? The answer to those are no.
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But you have to also think that these are like enemy words.
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It's a threat. It's not anything good.
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You know, sometimes God does put people in their place, but this
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is obviously not God. So there's the way it's being
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described. And so this is something else.
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And we have the benefit of chapters one and two.
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We know that Satan is is doing is behind this.
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So and here we know that this isn't God because the next
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things, the next verse in 18, it says if God does not trust his
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own angels and has charged his messengers with foolishness, how
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much less will he trust people made of clay?
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That's very condemning and it's talking down to people.
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It's like it's so negative about people like, hey, if you know,
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if God doesn't trust his own angels, like we're great and
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he's charged us with foolishness when they do wrong, You know,
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some are angels are chained in a place until the very end of
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days. We know that from the Bible.
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But if God does not trust his own angels and have charged his
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messengers with foolishness, how much less will he trust people
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made of clay? So we were made from the dust of
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the earth. I mean, that's, you know,
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scriptural. And so this being is telling his
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friend that God doesn't trust his angels and he's charged his
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messengers or his angels with foolishness.
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And then how much less do you think he's going to trust you
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people? Well, we know from Scripture
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that God loves his people. God's people are his creation.
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He created people to be in relationship with them.
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God doesn't have to trust people.
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He knows that people. He's, you know, at one point he,
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he was like, he regretted, like what he had done.
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I don't know if that's the right word for it in the book of
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Genesis, because he saw that every thought and inclination of
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the human was wicked as a result of sin.
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So I then it says they are made of dust, crushed as easily as a
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moth. So this is, to me, very
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threatening message that this being is giving his friend,
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putting down people, saying that these people are going to be
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crushed. It's not uplifting, it's not
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talking about repentance, it's not talking about turning to
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God. It's not talking about trusting
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in the Lord. None of those things.
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All it's doing is saying it's condemnation, it's accusing,
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it's a threat, and these are all enemy things.
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So if Eliphaz had discernment of spirits, he would see these
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things. Then it continues to go on this.
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The spirit continues saying they are alive in the morning but
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dead by evening, gone forever without a trace.
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What kind of hope is that? You know, like talking about
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death? Well, who comes to kill, steal,
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kill and destroy? That's what Satan does.
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So it's a threat here. It's like, yeah, they're alive
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in the morning, but dead by evening, gone forever without a
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trace. Like this is evil talk here.
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Their tent cords are pulled and the tent collapses and they die
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in ignorance. So that's that's the conclusion
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of the new living translation of chapter 4.
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And it that's all enemy stuff. And so this is this is clearly
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the enemy and maybe at this point in time, or maybe just as
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a person, he had never experienced something like this,
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but he knew there was a spirit happened in his dream.
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But The thing is, he so he takes the advice from the spirit and
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starts accusing Job. And that makes it very clear why
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God rebuked him for this. And you know, it said God
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eventually rebuked him for the counsel he gave Job in chapter
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42, verse 7. He didn't discern the Spirit
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that was giving him this message.
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So he took the enemy's message and spoke it to Job when that
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was not even right, like he didn't even know what was going
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on. And so it's very important to
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consider those things and to pray about those things.
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If, and I speak of this as somebody who does get dreams and
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I can tell when my dreams are from God and when they are not
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from God. And we all, if you get dreams,
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you really have to pay attention to these things because we don't
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want to be like Iliphaz and, and say things, you know, out of
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context or relay a message that really wasn't from God.
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And I think that's a lot of that stuff is going on right now.
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And so it's very important to be aware of it and to be cautious
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when sharing. I have shared, well, I've had
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like 106 dreams I think and I've probably shared about four of
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them. And the ones that I have shared
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were generally they were uplifting, they were redeeming,
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they were good things from God and, and there was encouraging
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those kinds of things. The other ones you know,
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depends, but I don't share every single dream obviously.
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But anyway, this is a good chapter for me to read too,
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because it you know, just to really there's a sense when you
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have a dream, you either feel like really good, like I
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remember my very first rapture dream that I had.
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It was all like a blended reality with with what's in the
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Bible. And it was early on in my faith
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journey with God when I was getting closer to him is about,
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you know, a little bit after I was baptized when I decided I
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didn't want to be a hypocrite anymore and made a commitment to
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God. That's, you know, it was several
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months after that. It was, I remember it was April
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20, I think it was April 22nd of 2022.
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I don't know if the 22nd is right, but it was April of 2022.
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And and that it just my reaction to that was like, that was the
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the most awesome, incredible dream I've ever had in my life.
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And it was very encouraging and it really told the Bible truth
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and it gave revealed things to me that I didn't quite know yet
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from the Bible. But then after researching it, I
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found this is in the Bible. This is scriptural.
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It was things that I didn't know.
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And so the only thing I'll say about that is that the what
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people call the rapture is definitely real and there's no
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doubt it's in scripture. We don't know when it's going to
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be, but it's definitely true. I would say, hey, I've had
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confirmation. I'm going to say from God, it
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was in a dream, but I've had three dreams and there was 1
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commonality in all three dreams and everything went black right
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before it happened in every single one of the dreams.
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And then I began to rise. And so I the only reason, you
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know, people would say, well, why did you, why would God give
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you this dream? I would say that the only reason
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if it was from God was to encourage other people that when
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things get really, really dark, just keep your hope because
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there is a restoration, there is a promise that God gave that He
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keeps his promises, and someday it will happen and someday we
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will be in the presence of God. So the most important thing that
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all of us can do right now is, is generally to repair our
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relationship with God, to repent, turn away from sinful
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ways, turn towards God, make God our priority, and then just
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encourage others to do the same and be there for other people
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because we can do nothing on our own, but everything is through
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God and Christ strengthens us. And we are going to be
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celebrating this weekend, Resurrection Sunday.
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So I hope you all appreciate or realize how grateful we all
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should be that Jesus selflessly did this for us out of love so
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that we could be with him in the Kingdom of God when that day
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comes when Jesus returns. So I hope you have a wonderful
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Holy Week. The rest of the Holy Week, this
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is actually Wednesday, April four, first before Holy Week or
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in the middle of Holy Week. So I'm going to conclude now.
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And if you are not subscribed, please do so.
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If you felt this beneficial, please share this with someone
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and come back next time for Chapter 5.
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Thank you.