Latest / Journey Elgin / Journey Through Scripture - Job 6-11
Transcript
- Phillip Thomas: All right. It's good to see you today. Hope that you have had a good week so far. Welcome to our journey through scripture. ⁓ we are in the book of Job. My name is Philip Thomas, Pastor of Journey here in Elgin. And as we continue this chronological walk ⁓ through the Bible, we've reached the the book of Job. ⁓ not necessarily we because we don't know when the book was written, and we don't have a historical timeline. ⁓ so we are using it in this time of of wisdom, ⁓ especially as the people of Israel are now returning back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, eventually rebuild the walls, all of that. ⁓ they've been going through some rough times. And so the wisdom of Job that we find in Job is very important. Remember we kind of set the stage ⁓ on Tuesday that the the conventional wisdom, the worldly wisdom, was that if you ⁓ did what was right, ⁓ then you would be rewarded. If you did what was wrong, you would be punished. and the book of Job ⁓ demonstrates that that is that is not fully accurate. ⁓ right, that that that we we live in a a fallen world. So we have all these bad things that have happened to Job. ⁓ he is considered to be blameless and upright before the Lord and and now ⁓ Satan has done all of these things to try to turn Job against God. ⁓ Job has not cursed God. ⁓ he has remained faithful. He has kept his integrity ⁓ but he is struggling. ⁓ he is certainly struggling with ⁓ the loss of his family, the loss of his ⁓ financial security, ⁓ the loss of his health. ⁓ all of those things are clearly weighing on Job. So now he is ⁓ trying to to find his way through this. And remember he has three friends that show up that start off kind of being good friends to him, ⁓ but then they start talking. And what they say is not helpful. ⁓ we left in chapter five. ⁓ with ⁓ with his his friend Eliphaz ⁓ basically ⁓ telling him, ⁓ hey, you know, ⁓ if you if you live right, things go well for you, so clearly something's wrong. ⁓ you have you must have something that you have done ⁓ that is causing this. And Job of ⁓ is is very frustrated with this. So in chapter six, we'll go six through ⁓ eleven today. And ⁓ Job responds to his friend ⁓ and talks about his his grief and basically says, Man, you're a really bad friend So chapter six, verse fourteen says, To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty, my brothers have dealt deceitfully like a brook, like the streams of the brook that pass away. he goes on what he's talking about is ⁓ you know there were streams that would have water flowing through them at some point and it it would be like if if you were a caravan coming up to that stream expecting it to have water to be refreshing ⁓ and to restore that that stream was dry, how disappointed you would be. Well he's kind of saying that about his friends. He said, you know, y you should be here to restore me, to encourage, to to bring hope. And yet you are like a dry stream. And that there is you're not bringing any any hope ⁓ to me. He said ⁓ verse twenty-four, he says, Teach me and I will hold my tongue, cause me to understand wherein I have erred, how forceful are right words, but what does your arguing prove? Do you intend to rebuke my words and the speeches of the desperate one, which are as wind? Yes, you overwhelm the fatherless and undermined your friend. Now therefore be pleased to look at me. For I would never lie to your face. Yield now. There let there be no no injustice. Yes, concede my righteousness still stands. Is there injustice on my tongue? Cannot my taste discern the unsavory? So what is he saying to his friend? He's like, I'm not lying to you. Why would I lie to you? You're just assuming that I'm lying because I'm I I I'm not acknowledging that I have anything to repent of. ⁓ and but the the again, the traditional wisdom, and it's honestly it's a wisdom that we whole today, kind of karma goes with this, right? That ⁓ that ⁓ if we're gonna if we do good things, good things will happen. If we do bad things, bad things may happen. ⁓ and Job is like that that is not what is happening here. I have not sinned against God. I have not been unrighteous. ⁓ and his friends refuse to acknowledge that. And ⁓ he's he's pleading with them to take his word. ver chapter seven just Kind of goes into to Job talking to to God about how he is comfortless, that his suffering is is really wearing on him. ⁓ verse six My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and are spent without hope. ⁓ remember that my life is a breath, my eye will never see good again. ⁓ verse eleven Therefore I will not restrain my mouth, I will speak in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I a sea or sea serpent that you set a guard over me? When Well, when I say my bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint. Then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions, right? I mean he is just being tormented again 'cause he lives in this misunderstanding of wisdom and now it's being challenged. ⁓ his understanding of how things work is now being challenged and he is Job is is struggling, but he is not turning his back on God, and that's always important to know, even as he's Crying out, frustrated at God, basically saying, God, what are you doing? This is unfair. He is not turning his back on God, says ⁓ verse seventeen, What is man that you should exalt him, that you should set your heart on him, that you should visit him every morning and test him every moment. Now this is interesting. Back in Psalms, ⁓ there's the passage that says, What is man that you are mindful of him? And it's said in in a positive light, you know, that That God is so great and He is the creator of all. Why is He mindful of us? ⁓ well, because He loves us. He's created us. Well, Job is going the opposite way. It's like, why are you doing this to me? Why do you care? why are you causing all of this bad stuff to happen to me? ⁓ so so Job, he's at a bad spot right now where he's he's questioning everything. It ⁓ continues on it says, How long will you not not look away from me and let me alone till I swallow my saliva? Have I sinned? What have I done to you, O watcher of men? Why have you set me as your target so that I am a burden to myself? Why then do you ⁓ not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I will lie down in dust and will be and will seek me diligent and you will seek me diligently, but I will no longer be. He said I I'm just I'm I'm done. I don't know what I've done wrong. Again, the reason that he's going through such deep grief and pain is because he actually is misunderstanding the way that God works. and and he is going to learn that. ⁓ but he is struggling ⁓ to to find that because again his his premise is ⁓ is wrong. So then you have the next fri ⁓ friend, Bildad, ⁓ that jumps off into into Job and he just kind of goes right into it and says, Job, ⁓ you need to repent. It says ⁓ I'm the verse three, does God subvert judgment or does the Almighty pervert jud justice? If your sons have sinned against him, he has cast them away for their transgression. If you would earnestly seek God and make your supplication to the Almighty, if you were pure and upright, surely now he would awake for you and prosper your rightful dwelling place. Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would increase abundantly. So he's saying if you would just up ⁓ repent, g God will restore all that you had, right? You will be abundant again because the reason you were abundant before is because you were being faithful to God. Now you must be ⁓ y now because obviously you're not being faithful to God, that's the reason all this bad stuff has happened. Again, that's the false wisdom, the worldly wisdom. that Job's friends are coming, and that Job has too, which is why again he struggles so much. And then Job chapter nine, ⁓ to to answer that, says, ⁓ truly I know it is so, but how can a man be righteous before God? If one wished to contend with him, he could not answer him, ⁓ one time out of a thousand. God is wise in heart, mighty in strength, who has hardened himself against him and prospered. ⁓ He says, How then can I answer him and choose my words to reason with him? For though I were righteous I could not answer him. I would big beg mercy of my judge if I called and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice, for he crushes me with a tempest. Verse twenty one, I am blameless yet I do not know myself, I despise my life. It is all one thing. Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked. If the scourge slays suddenly, he laughs at the plight of the innocent. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked, he covers the faces of his judges. If he is not he, who else could it be? Verse thirty two, for he is not a man as I am, that I may answer him, and that we should go to the court together, nor is there any mediator between us. Who may lay his hand on us both? Let him take the rod away from me. It's kind of interesting talking about the need for a mediator, the need for a savior, a need for an advocate. Well God does send that, doesn't he? ⁓ but Job is again coming from this misunderstanding. He is now at a place where he's starting to question, saying, I guess God just wipes out the blameless and the ⁓ unrighteous alike. ⁓ he's starting to question some of the goodness of God. now he's again, he's not turning his back on God. He is not sinning against God, but he is definitely struggling. So in Job chap ⁓ chapter ten talks about. How he would plead, he's pleading with God, pleading with God to to answer him. Verse 13, and these things you have hidden in your heart. I know that this was with you. If I sin, ⁓ then you mark me. ⁓ you will not acquit me of this iniquity. If I'm wicked, woe to me. Even if I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head. I am full of disgrace. See my misery. If my head is exalted, ⁓ you hunt me like a fierce lion, and again you show yourself awesome against me. You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation towards me, changes and war are ever within me. And then he really ends on a low note verse twenty one. Before I go to the place from which I shall not return, ⁓ there's a land of darkness and the shadow of death, a land as dark as darkness itself, as a shadow of death without any order, where even the light is like darkness. So there's passages in Psalms that talk about where ⁓ w where God brings l ⁓ light into the darkness. Now Job, because he has a misunderstanding and he is of of and uses worldly wisdom, not godly wisdom, he gets to the point where he is questioning everything about God. He's questioning whether God brings light, or maybe God is bringing darkness. Maybe God is just against ⁓ all of us, 'cause he he acknowledges that we are not righteous. Right. So he knows that none are fully righteous, but he knows that he is striving to be righteous. And and so he is he is beginning to question everything that he knows and understands about God. Job chapter eleven ⁓ is ⁓ we're gonna end on this. So the the third friend decides he's going to come and help after ⁓ Job has been saying all of this stuff. And ⁓ and he starts right off. Says, For you have said, ⁓ verse four, My doctrine is pure and I am clean in your eyes, but ⁓ that God would speak and open his lips against you, that he would show you the secrets of wisdom, for they would double your prudence. Know therefore that God exacts from you less than your iniquity deserves. So again, he's saying, You've done something wrong. You need to repent. ⁓ God is holding you accountable for something. ⁓ and then he throws this in, it says verse seven. Can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than heaven. What can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. So he's he he starts talking about how we don't understand God fully. He is beyond our understanding, yet he is coming at it and not willing to examine the basic premise of worldly wisdom. That the good are rewarded, that the bad are punished, right? And that there's no nuance there. ⁓ they just couldn't believe how someone that is good would have to go through the things that Job is going through. and and so ironically, he's telling Job, Well, you just don't understand God and that you just have to accept it and you have to repent and all this. ⁓ when he's actually the one not understanding God, right? ⁓ maybe a little humility there. ⁓ verse thirteen it says, If you would prepare your heart, stretch out your hands toward him, if iniquity were in your hand and you put it far away, and would not let wickedness dwell in your tents, then surely you could lift your f up your face without spot. Yes, you could be steadfast and not fear, because you would forget your misery, and remember it as waters that have passed away, and your life would be brighter than noonday, though you were dark you would be like the morning and you would be secure because there is hope. Yes, you would dig around you and take your rest and safety. You would also lie down and no one would make you afraid. Yes, you would court your favor, but the eyes of the wicked will fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope is the loss of life. So basically he is saying, Job, you are a wicked person. You've done something, and you have to repent of that if you're if God is ever going to change and and ⁓ and bless you again. ⁓ man. That's a what a tough place for Job to be because he knows he's like, No, I haven't done anything, ⁓ other than just being human, and he acknowledges that, ⁓ but he is not directly sinned or out of God's will. ⁓ and so this is causing all kinds of problems for Job ⁓ and it will cause problems for the friends as well. So let's read ⁓ Job ⁓ chapters twelve through seventeen, at least seventeen, we may get to eighteen. ⁓ but read those next few and we will see you on