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Job 4 - How NOT to Comfort a Friend · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio. You are listening to The Bible Explained with
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  Speaker 1: Jen Koukl, a P40 Ministries podcast. Hi, faithful listeners. Welcome
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  Speaker 1: to The Bible Explained on this lovely, lovely Monday morning.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm so thankful that all of you are here
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  Speaker 1: to share a delicious cup of coffee with me or
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  Speaker 1: a cup of tea if that's more your speed for
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  Speaker 1: you crazy tea drinkers. And while we drink these delicious
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  Speaker 1: beverages together, we're going to be reading through the book
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  Speaker 1: of Job, specifically Job chapter 4. We're going to start
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  Speaker 1: talking about Job's friends and their responses to Job, where
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  Speaker 1: they're just absolutely convinced that Job was sinning, like had
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  Speaker 1: some sort of blaring sin in his life that caused
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  Speaker 1: God to be super angry and essentially punish Job. But
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  Speaker 1: as we know, Job didn't have any glaring sins. Was
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  Speaker 1: Job a sinner? Yes, as we all are. But Job
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  Speaker 1: was like the best of all of us, as God
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  Speaker 1: said to Satan. He was like, have you considered Job?
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  Speaker 1: He's the most blameless man on the earth. Job was
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  Speaker 1: upright in every single thing that he did. And he
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  Speaker 1: had no glaring sins that, you know, caused the suffering
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  Speaker 1: that he experienced. But all of Job's friends believed very
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  Speaker 1: strongly that Job must have done something wrong. Or if
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  Speaker 1: it wasn't Job, then maybe it was his family. And
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  Speaker 1: there are so many other incorrect arguments that his friends have,
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  Speaker 1: things that they just believe about God's nature that are
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  Speaker 1: blatantly untrue. So we will get into those arguments starting today.
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  Speaker 1: But first, I'm going to move to an ad break.
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  Speaker 1: And after that, we will move to Job chapter 4
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  Speaker 1: and read this whole passage together. All right, faithful listeners,
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  Speaker 1: let's go ahead and read Job chapter 4, 1 through 21,
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  Speaker 1: the whole chapter. I'll be reading from the WEB or
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  Speaker 1: the World English Bible, as I usually do. Then Eliphaz
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  Speaker 1: the Temanite answered, If someone ventures to talk with you,
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  Speaker 1: will you be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking? Behold,
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  Speaker 1: you've instructed many. You've strengthened the weak hands. Your words
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  Speaker 1: have supported him who is falling. You've made the feeble
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  Speaker 1: knees firm. But now it has come to you, and
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  Speaker 1: you faint. It touches you, and you're troubled. Isn't your
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  Speaker 1: piety your confidence? Isn't the integrity of your ways your hope?
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  Speaker 1: Remember now, whoever perished being innocent— Or where were the
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  Speaker 1: upright cut off? According to what I have seen, those
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  Speaker 1: who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. By
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  Speaker 1: the breath of God they perish. By the blast of
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  Speaker 1: his anger they are consumed. The roaring of the lion
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  Speaker 1: and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of
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  Speaker 1: the young lions are broken. The old lion perishes for
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  Speaker 1: lack of prey. The cubs of the lioness are scattered abroad.
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  Speaker 1: Now a thing was secretly brought to me. My ear
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  Speaker 1: received a whisper of it. In thoughts from visions of
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  Speaker 1: the night, when deep sleep falls on men, fear came
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  Speaker 1: on me in trembling, which made all my bones shake.
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  Speaker 1: Then a spirit passed before my face, and the hair
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  Speaker 1: of my flesh stood up. I stood still, but I
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  Speaker 1: couldn't discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes. Silence.
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  Speaker 1: Then I heard a voice saying, Shall mortal men be
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  Speaker 1: more just than God? Shall a man be more pure
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  Speaker 1: than his maker? Behold, he puts no trust in his servants.
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  Speaker 1: He charges his angels with error. How much more those
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  Speaker 1: who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in
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  Speaker 1: the dust, who are crushed before the moth. Between morning
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  Speaker 1: and evening, they are destroyed. They perish forever without any
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  Speaker 1: regarding it. Isn't their tent cord plucked up within them?
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  Speaker 1: They die, and that without wisdom. This chapter starts the
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  Speaker 1: masterclass of how to not comfort your friends. Basically, don't
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  Speaker 1: do this. If your friend is going through some sort
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  Speaker 1: of trouble, do not take any advice from Eliphaz or
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  Speaker 1: Job's other two friends. So you guys remember what happened
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  Speaker 1: to Job. If you don't remember, I highly recommend going
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  Speaker 1: back to the first two chapters and reading about that
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  Speaker 1: because Job was an upright man. He was considered to
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  Speaker 1: be blameless. Even God himself was like, who else is
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  Speaker 1: on the earth like Job? But even so, God allowed
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  Speaker 1: the testing of Job, though God was not angry with Job,
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  Speaker 1: though Job had not done any particular sin The testing
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  Speaker 1: of Job was allowed to happen for some various reasons
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  Speaker 1: that we talked about in the previous chapters. But obviously,
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  Speaker 1: you know, after Job loses his family and everything that
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  Speaker 1: he owns and basically his entire livelihood and his health
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  Speaker 1: on top of all of this, he believes he's dying.
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  Speaker 1: And in the last chapter, he had some words for God. Essentially,
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  Speaker 1: he was so distressed over all of these terrible things
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  Speaker 1: happening to him that he cursed the day of his birth.
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  Speaker 1: He did not curse God, though. only the day of
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  Speaker 1: his birth. But to his friends, this sounded almost, I suppose, blasphemous,
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  Speaker 1: some of the stuff that Job was saying, because Job
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  Speaker 1: was calling himself innocent. He was saying, I don't understand
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  Speaker 1: why this happened to me. I am innocent of any wrongdoing.
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  Speaker 1: This is terrible. And God should have just erased the
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  Speaker 1: day of my birth so that I never existed rather
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  Speaker 1: than cause me to suffer this torture that I am
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  Speaker 1: going through right now. So Job's three friends end up
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  Speaker 1: speaking up because they're pretty upset over some of the
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  Speaker 1: stuff that Job was saying. However, it would have behooved
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  Speaker 1: them to keep their mouths shut, as we're going to
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  Speaker 1: find out later on. So Eliphaz the Temanite ends up
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  Speaker 1: answering Job first. Now, the reason that Eliphaz goes first
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  Speaker 1: is probably because of age. You know, back in these days,
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  Speaker 1: if somebody was elderly... they were considered to be more wise.
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  Speaker 1: Not to mention that Eliphaz was from Teman. He was
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  Speaker 1: a Temanite. The city of Teman was an Edomite city
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  Speaker 1: known for its knowledge. So most likely Eliphaz was considered
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  Speaker 1: to be the wisest of the bunch, which is why
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  Speaker 1: he ends up speaking to Job first before Job's other
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  Speaker 1: two friends spoke. So Eliphaz hears Job's complaints and he
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  Speaker 1: answers in verse two. If someone ventures to talk to you,
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  Speaker 1: will you be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?
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  Speaker 1: So he's like, Job, Job, are you going to be
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  Speaker 1: upset if I, you know, talk to you about some
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  Speaker 1: of this stuff you're going through? You know what? Nevermind.
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  Speaker 1: I can't withhold myself from speaking. I've got to say
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  Speaker 1: what's on my mind. So he doesn't even really consider
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  Speaker 1: how Job is feeling. Like he kind of does, but
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  Speaker 1: he's like, no, no. What I have to say is
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  Speaker 1: far more important than how you're feeling. Verse three, behold,
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  Speaker 1: you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.
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  Speaker 1: Your words have supported him who is falling. You have
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  Speaker 1: made the feeble knees firm, but now it has come
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  Speaker 1: to you and you faint. It touches you and you
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  Speaker 1: are troubled. Isn't your piety, your confidence, isn't the integrity
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  Speaker 1: of your ways, your hope? What Eliphaz is saying here
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  Speaker 1: is that Job is being kind of hypocritical, right? Because
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  Speaker 1: Job being a very wise and intelligent and kind man
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  Speaker 1: himself that Eliphaz knew him to be, would help other
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  Speaker 1: people who were going through struggles. He would say kind
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  Speaker 1: words to them. He would prop them up if they
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  Speaker 1: were falling. He'd probably give his time and energy to
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  Speaker 1: make sure that they were okay. He instructed a lot
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  Speaker 1: of people. He was a great teacher. But now in
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  Speaker 1: Eliphaz's mind, Job is being hypocritical because these same issues
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  Speaker 1: that he helped other people through have come to him.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the sickness and losing family members, they're on
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  Speaker 1: Job now. but Job can't handle them. He can help
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  Speaker 1: other people, but he's not helping himself. And then in
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  Speaker 1: verse six, Eliphaz says something kind of interesting here. Isn't
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  Speaker 1: your piety your confidence? Isn't the integrity of your ways
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  Speaker 1: your hope? He's like, Job, you should be confident with
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  Speaker 1: how great of a man you were, with how much
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  Speaker 1: help you offered other people. Because If you're such a
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  Speaker 1: great man, if you are blameless, like you say, then
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  Speaker 1: that should be your confidence because obviously God blesses people
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  Speaker 1: who are upright and blameless and generous with other people.
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  Speaker 1: So this should be your confidence if you say that
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  Speaker 1: you are that blameless. Now, this, of course, is called
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  Speaker 1: the prosperity gospel, which, by the way, this entire book, Job,
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  Speaker 1: is a complete and total war on the prosperity gospel,
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  Speaker 1: which has existed for essentially from the beginning of time,
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  Speaker 1: as we see here. I mean, if Job lived during
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  Speaker 1: the days of the early Edomites, then this book is
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  Speaker 1: thousands and thousands of thousands of years old. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: it could be the oldest book that we have in
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  Speaker 1: the Bible. That is how long the prosperity gospel has
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  Speaker 1: existed because, you know, it's a doctrine of Satan, as
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  Speaker 1: we discovered from the beginning. The whole reason Job was
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  Speaker 1: being tested in the first place was because Satan went
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  Speaker 1: up to God and he's like, look, your guy, Job,
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  Speaker 1: The only reason he worships you is because you bless
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  Speaker 1: him with good things. His faith isn't all that pure.
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  Speaker 1: And Yahweh, you're no different than any of the other gods.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the people worship those gods in order to
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  Speaker 1: gain blessings, and you're essentially doing the exact same thing.
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  Speaker 1: Satan was accusing both God and Job with those kinds
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  Speaker 1: of accusations. And so God allows Satan to test Job. Though,
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  Speaker 1: of course, God knew what the outcome of Job's faith
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  Speaker 1: was going to be. because God knew how genuine Job's
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  Speaker 1: faith actually was throughout all of this. He knew that
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  Speaker 1: Job was going to struggle very deeply and suffer throughout
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  Speaker 1: all of this, but he knew what the outcome would be.
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  Speaker 1: God was waging war on the prosperity gospel. And yet,
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  Speaker 1: here's what Eliphaz is telling Job, that... Job should be
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  Speaker 1: proud of his piety because that means that God is
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  Speaker 1: going to bless him. If he's a good boy, God
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  Speaker 1: will give him good things. And what's really interesting about this,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the prosperity gospel is so prevalent throughout the
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  Speaker 1: ages because Satan doesn't have many tricks up his sleeve.
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  Speaker 1: You know, he kind of just repeats the same things
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  Speaker 1: every single generation. And the prosperity gospel is one of them.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, this is kind of an aside, but I
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  Speaker 1: was reading an old classic recently. I'm still going through it.
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  Speaker 1: But it's Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. And
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  Speaker 1: I saw prosperity gospel in this book. And this was
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  Speaker 1: written in the, what, mid-1800s? And I want to read
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  Speaker 1: this to you. Quote, He must be sure also to
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  Speaker 1: write her by every mail and to say his prayers
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  Speaker 1: each night before he went to sleep. God was very good.
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  Speaker 1: and would watch over him. She would pray for him too.
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  Speaker 1: And in a few years, he would come back quite
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  Speaker 1: rich and happy. And I'm like, there's the prosperity gospel
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  Speaker 1: right there in the picture of Dorian Gray. So yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it's the same repeated, regurgitated story that Satan always pushes,
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  Speaker 1: is that God will bless you if you worship him.
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  Speaker 1: He is no different than any other idol that you worship.
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  Speaker 1: But this is just blatantly untrue. But this is what Eliphaz,
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  Speaker 1: of course, is pushing on Job. These doctrines of demons.
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  Speaker 1: And here's what he goes on to say in verses
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  Speaker 1: 7 through 11. Remember now, whoever perished being innocent, or
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  Speaker 1: where were the upright cut off? According to what I
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  Speaker 1: have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap
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  Speaker 1: the same. By the breath of God, they perish. By
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  Speaker 1: the blast of his anger, they are consumed. The roaring
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  Speaker 1: of the lion and the voice of the fierce lion
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  Speaker 1: The teeth of the young lions are broken. The old
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  Speaker 1: lion perishes for lack of prey. The cubs of the
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  Speaker 1: lioness are scattered abroad. Eliphaz is speaking in circles and
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  Speaker 1: layering a lie in a little coating of truth, which
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  Speaker 1: those are the best kind of lies, by the way,
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  Speaker 1: the ones that have partial truth to them. He starts
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  Speaker 1: in verse 7 by saying, Remember now whoever perished being innocent,
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  Speaker 1: or where were the upright cut off? Look, Job, people
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  Speaker 1: who are innocent or upright don't just get cut off
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  Speaker 1: from God. According to what I have seen, those who
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  Speaker 1: plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. And there's
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  Speaker 1: some truth to that. You know, we can see people
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  Speaker 1: who get themselves into trouble. Obviously, you reap what you sow.
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  Speaker 1: That is kind of what Eliphaz is saying here. But unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: none of these things really apply to Job because Job
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  Speaker 1: isn't reaping what he sowed. From what we see, Job
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  Speaker 1: only sowed good things, and yet he is reaping terrible miseries.
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  Speaker 1: Eliphaz can't really explain what is happening to Job. All
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  Speaker 1: he can think is that Job must have some sort
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  Speaker 1: of secret sin, hidden sin that he is not revealing.
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  Speaker 1: And that is the reason why he is being punished,
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  Speaker 1: why he's being cut off from God, why he's reaping
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  Speaker 1: what he sowed, essentially. And then in verse nine, he
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  Speaker 1: really kind of jumps the shark because he says,' By
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  Speaker 1: the breath of God, they perish, and by the blast
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  Speaker 1: of his anger, they are consumed.' Then he goes on
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  Speaker 1: to talk about these lions. You know, lions are fearsome creatures,
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  Speaker 1: but God's anger will even make the lion bow down
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  Speaker 1: in submission. So how much more for like a weak man?
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  Speaker 1: But that is not true. I mean, Eliphaz isn't even
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  Speaker 1: speaking correctly about God. Because if you turn to Psalm 103,
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  Speaker 1: we just talked about this Psalm actually on the Bible
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  Speaker 1: Explained on Fridays. Here's how God really deals with us.
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  Speaker 1: Starting in verse 8, Yahweh is merciful and gracious, slow
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  Speaker 1: to anger and abundant in loving kindness. He will not
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  Speaker 1: always accuse, neither will he stay angry forever. He has
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  Speaker 1: not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid
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  Speaker 1: us for our iniquities. God does not just strike people
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  Speaker 1: dead all the time, kind of like what Eliphaz is
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  Speaker 1: saying to Job. God is not angry like that. Scripture
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  Speaker 1: says that he is a loving God. He is slow
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  Speaker 1: to get angry. He's not an angry father. Unfortunately, this
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  Speaker 1: kind of lie is peddled about God all the time.
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  Speaker 1: That God is angry. If you do one thing wrong,
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  Speaker 1: God's going to strike you dead. That was the belief
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  Speaker 1: I had growing up in the IFB church. He's going
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  Speaker 1: to be angry and you better watch out if he
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  Speaker 1: gets angry. But that is not what scripture tells us
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  Speaker 1: about God. Eliphaz is incorrectly speaking about the nature of God,
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  Speaker 1: saying that he's angry and that he punishes people all
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  Speaker 1: the time and that Job must be hiding some sort
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  Speaker 1: of sin for him to be dealing with the issues
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  Speaker 1: that he's dealing with. And now in verses 12 through 21,
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  Speaker 1: this is where Eliphaz completely discredits himself because he starts
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  Speaker 1: talking about this vision that he had. I am sure
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  Speaker 1: some of you faithful listeners listening to this podcast have
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  Speaker 1: experienced something like this before, where somebody is giving you
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  Speaker 1: advice and talking to you about, you know, something. And
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  Speaker 1: maybe the advice doesn't seem all that good, but they're like, no,
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  Speaker 1: I'm telling you, I had a vision about this. Like
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  Speaker 1: God came to me and he told me about this thing.
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  Speaker 1: And I know that this is what I have to do.
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  Speaker 1: People use this all the time. Anybody can claim to
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  Speaker 1: have a vision from God or from an angel or
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  Speaker 1: from whatever else. because it gives their wacky ideas some
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  Speaker 1: sort of credence. And a lot of times it works, unfortunately.
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  Speaker 1: This is why the New Testament constantly tells us to
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  Speaker 1: test every single spirit and to test the prophecies, because
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  Speaker 1: anybody on God's green earth can claim to have a prophecy.
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  Speaker 1: That's what Eliphaz does right here. He's like, no, I'm
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  Speaker 1: telling you, Job, I know this because a spirit came
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  Speaker 1: to me in the middle of the night and told
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  Speaker 1: me all of this stuff. Here's what he says in
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  Speaker 1: verse 12. Now a thing was secretly brought to me.
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  Speaker 1: My ear received a whisper of it. In thoughts from
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  Speaker 1: the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
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  Speaker 1: fear came on me and trembling, which made all my
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  Speaker 1: bones shake. And then a spirit passed before my face
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  Speaker 1: and the hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still,
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  Speaker 1: but I couldn't discern its appearance. A form was before
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  Speaker 1: my eyes, silent. And then I heard a voice saying,
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  Speaker 1: and let me stop right there. He couldn't discern what
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  Speaker 1: this thing was in front of his face. You know,
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  Speaker 1: it came to him in the middle of the night
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  Speaker 1: when men are usually deep asleep, but suddenly he was
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  Speaker 1: struck with this fear that made his hair stand on end.
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  Speaker 1: And he couldn't discern what this thing was, but he
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  Speaker 1: heard it speaking. And what it says isn't all that great,
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  Speaker 1: but we'll get into that in a second. But I'm
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  Speaker 1: just going to warn everybody. If you ever have an
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  Speaker 1: experience like this, don't just assume it's from God. I've
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  Speaker 1: talked before about how you can know if something is
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  Speaker 1: from God or not. Because a lot of times, if
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  Speaker 1: we think we see or hear something that might be
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  Speaker 1: a message from God, it could be just our own
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  Speaker 1: brains doing gobbledy, gooky things. It could also be a
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  Speaker 1: spirit that we don't want to associate with, like a
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  Speaker 1: demonic kind of presence. And we certainly don't want to
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  Speaker 1: say that whatever that satanic spirit is telling us is
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  Speaker 1: from God. Because in a sense, that's blaspheming God's name.
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  Speaker 1: We don't want to do that. So if you ever
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  Speaker 1: have any kind of experience like this, the way to
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  Speaker 1: know that it's from God is firstly, it has to
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  Speaker 1: be the truth. It has to be straight from scripture.
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  Speaker 1: God gave us his scriptures. Actually, if you turn to
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  Speaker 1: Psalm 103 again, the one that I just referenced, it
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  Speaker 1: says in verse seven, that God made known his ways
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  Speaker 1: to Moses and his deeds to the children of Israel.
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  Speaker 1: God is not some sort of secret. There's a lot
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  Speaker 1: of Gnosticism going on in the world right now where
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  Speaker 1: we want to like find the secret things of God.
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  Speaker 1: But here's the thing. If God doesn't want those secret
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  Speaker 1: things made known, you're never going to find out more
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  Speaker 1: about him because he's all powerful. But he already gave
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  Speaker 1: us the stuff that he wants us to know about him.
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  Speaker 1: He didn't hide himself. We can read all about God
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  Speaker 1: in the scriptures. It is the truth. about the nature
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  Speaker 1: of God, about who God is. Even Job is giving
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  Speaker 1: us more of a glimpse into the heart of God.
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  Speaker 1: God is not a secret. And whatever is secret about God,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: we're not going to find out anyway. So it's kind
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: of ridiculous to try to find these secrets about God
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  Speaker 1: instead of just reading the ones that he already gave us.
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  Speaker 1: And notice two things here, what Eliphaz says about the spirit.
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  Speaker 1: He says he couldn't discern it, right? We are supposed
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: to discern the spirits. He couldn't discern it. And also
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: it came to him secretly. I mean, that's the whole
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: idea of Gnosticism, secret messages about God. And it would
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: have been wise for Eliphaz to really discern what that
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  Speaker 1: spirit was. So whatever vision you receive, it has to
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: be the truth, meaning it lines up perfectly with scripture.
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  Speaker 1: If it's something that's not truthful, something you don't find
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: in scripture, then it's not from God. That's the first thing.
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  Speaker 1: And secondly, If you think something is from God, then
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: ask him to reveal it to you in a different way.
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  Speaker 1: Ask him to talk to you about it again, knowing
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: for sure that it is from him and not from
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: your own mind or some other spirit. And that is
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  Speaker 1: how I believe we test the spirits. We don't just
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  Speaker 1: take word for word whatever we think we see and
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  Speaker 1: just say that that vision or whatever it is, is
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  Speaker 1: from God. But unfortunately, that's kind of what Eliphaz was
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  Speaker 1: doing here. He's like, I am super wise and knowledgeable
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  Speaker 1: about all of this stuff because a spirit in the
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: middle of the night came and told me about it.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: And so here's what the spirit says to Eliphaz the Temanite.
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  Speaker 1: Shall a mortal man be more just than God? Shall
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  Speaker 1: a man be more pure than his maker? Behold, he
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  Speaker 1: puts no trust in his servants. He charges his angels
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  Speaker 1: with error. How much more those who dwell in houses
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  Speaker 1: of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are
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  Speaker 1: crushed before the moth. Between morning and evening, they are destroyed.
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  Speaker 1: They perish forever without any regarding it. Isn't there a
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: tent cord plucked up within them? They die and that
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  Speaker 1: without wisdom. So already we can see at least three
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  Speaker 1: things that the spirit says that is 100% inaccurate according
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  Speaker 1: to scripture. And here's the thing, the best lies are
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: coded in truth. There is some truth to what this
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: thing is saying to Eliphaz. For example, verse 17, is
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: a mortal man more just than God? Obviously not. You know,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: that is the truthful. No mortal man can be more
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  Speaker 1: just than God. But verse 18, behold, God puts no
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: trust in his servants. And see, I think that's the
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: first lie. that the spirit says to Eliphaz, because it
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: seems like God is trusting that Job is going to
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  Speaker 1: remain faithful to him. And Job was obviously a servant
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: of God. God has consistently worked hand in hand with
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: human beings to proclaim the gospel message. I mean, if
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: you go back to Psalm 103, same verse, verse seven,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: it says, he made known his ways to Moses and
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: his deeds to the children of Israel. And Moses was
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: the guy who, we credit as writing the first five
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  Speaker 1: books of the Bible. He's the guy who led the
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Israelites through the wilderness, who God gave the Ten Commandments to,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: who God trusted with the instructions of the tabernacle to
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: build it properly. I mean, God does use his servants
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: to accomplish good. So it's kind of bizarre for this
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: spirit to say that God puts no trust in his servants. Now,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: servants in this case could also be the angels of God,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: But we see that the angels are continually bringing messages
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: to human beings on the behalf of God. God is
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: sending his servants out to do his will. Could God
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: do it himself? Absolutely. But he uses his people all
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: the time to do it because he loves having that
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: kind of relationship with all of us. The spirit goes
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: on to say in verse 18, he charges his angels
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  Speaker 1: with error. How much more those who dwell in houses
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: of clay? whose foundation is in the dust, who are
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: crushed before the moth. Between morning and evening, they are
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: destroyed and they perish forever without any regarding it. So
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: whatever is speaking to Eliphaz here is making God out
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: to be as if he is some sort of terrible,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: cruel God that just strikes people dead all the time,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: that just constantly finds error with everybody, including the angels.
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  Speaker 1: Then he says in verse 20, between morning and evening,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: they are destroyed. and they perish forever without any regarding it.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Now that is the most blatant lie, I think, out
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: of this entire thing. They perish forever without any regarding it.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: God absolutely regards the lives of his people. That is
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: what Psalm 116, 15 through 17 says. Precious in Yahweh's
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: sight is the death of his saints. Yahweh, truly, I
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: am your servant. I am your servant, the son of
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: your servant girl. You have freed me from my chains.
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  Speaker 1: I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and I
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: will call on Yahweh's name. And not to mention, God
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: absolutely regards our death. He regarded it so much that
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: he sent Jesus so that we could be freed from
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: spiritual death. Of course, God regards our death. I think
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: that's the most blatant lie out of all of this. Yes,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: God absolutely regards the day of our death. And then
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: there's a double lie actually in this. they perish forever
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: without any regarding it. No, we don't perish forever. That
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: is what Jesus came down to earth to do, is
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: to make sure that we don't have to perish forever
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: in our sins. So Eliphaz was not right. And whatever
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: came and gave him this message, if Eliphaz really did
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: see this spirit, this was not something that was speaking
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: to him correctly about the nature of God. This spirit
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: is doing nothing except making accusations against God and angels
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: and human beings, accusing God of being angry and finding
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: no good in anybody and disregarding the day of people's death.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Could it be that this spirit specifically came to Eliphaz
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: knowing that Eliphaz was a good friend of Job, was
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: going to eventually go and talk to Job and hopefully
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: convey the cruelty of God to Job? And maybe that
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: would make Job a little bit angry and cause Job
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: to curse God. And that is why we need to
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: test every single spirit that comes our way. I think
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: that's kind of the moral of Job chapter 4. But
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: we're going to find out how Job responds to Eliphaz.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Because this is not a very encouraging message that Eliphaz
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: has for Job. He's essentially saying, Job, you're a hypocrite. Job,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: you definitely sinned. God is angry all the time. And
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: if he can't find anything good with anybody, what makes
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: you think he's going to find anything good with you?
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: And you can kind of see how this is sort
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: of circular thinking on Eliphaz's part, because he's also saying, Job,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: if you're good, then God will do good things for you.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: But yet God is also mean and can't find good
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: with anybody. So Eliphaz doesn't have a very good start here.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: But faithful listeners, the most important thing about the book
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: of Job is that it is destroying the false arguments
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: against God. That is the entire point of this book
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: and why Job had to suffer so that you and
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: I can really read this and understand more about who
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: God is. All right, faithful listener, after this quick ad break,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: I will close out this episode with one last point.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Faithful listener, I want to offer you an encouragement based
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: upon what we talked about today. God is not hidden.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: He is right there. A lot of people think he
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: is so far away that he's not listening, that he's
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: not involved on the planet. He is involved. He is
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: hearing and seeing every single thing that is being done
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: to Job right now. He's hearing the conversations that Job
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: is having with his friends and vice versa. And God
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: offered this book to all of us so that we
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: too can decipher between the lies and the truths about
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: who God is. So we don't need to be searching
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: for secret things about God. He's already revealed himself to us,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: the parts that he wants us to know about. That
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: is what we're going to find right here in the
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: book of Job. So I encourage you guys with all
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: of that today. God is very close to you and
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: he is listening and he cares deeply for you. And
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: as Psalm 103 says, God does not deal harshly with
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: us because of our sins. He is merciful and gracious
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: and slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness. That's
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Psalm 103, verse 8. And I love that verse. So
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: take that with you today and through the rest of
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: the week. Faithful listeners, have a fantastic rest of your day.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: I'll see all of you tomorrow as we finish up
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: 1 Peter. Happy listening and God bless. I just want
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: to take a second to thank the team at Life
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Audio for their partnership with me on the Bible Explained podcast.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: In fact, if you go to lifeaudio.com, you'll find dozens
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: of other faith-centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.