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Welcome to another episode

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the Old Testament. 40

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over at the website, of course, go

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peruse the academies. I

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don't know when it's coming out,

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Chad, but I know

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it's done. I've seen the

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trailer and you

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can, very soon, just keep checking,

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very soon you're going to be

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able to take that Church Fathers

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Academy course. And I

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am looking forward to taking that course myself. I'm

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going to jump in there, but there's a lot

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of other academies. And so Chad's

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done one. I've even done one on

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the Gospel of Luke. There's all

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kinds of them, and they're all free. So

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go take an academy course and

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see if you enjoy that. You could spend

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a lot of time over there. Are

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you going to get into that patristics there,

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Chad? Are you going to go rush up

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on the Church Fathers? I would gladly sit

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in the classroom with Bruce. Yeah. The

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dude's as smart as they come, and this

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is his wheelhouse. So

1:53

yeah, that'd be great. It's going to

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be a good class. I'm looking forward

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to it coming out. We

2:00

do have I don't know how many those Academy

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courses we have but there's a bunch of

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them Yeah, I've had people use them with

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like adult Bible classes or family I

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mean, there's a lot of different ways you can use them.

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So it's a great resource Yeah, if you're like if you're

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a pastor and you're you know looking

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for something to do different to do on I

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don't know Wednesday nights or if you're or

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for Sunday school

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that kind of stuff and you're looking at different

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things to do these these work great for that

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kind of stuff because they're Short

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enough that they can fill in that

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time spot and then you can do Q&A

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stuff And yeah, there's a very helpful resource.

2:37

So check all that out. All

2:39

right, we are in Job chapter 20

2:42

Chad we were talking beforehand about the title, of

2:44

course, you know, this title is not the

2:47

inspired title But

2:49

it's just the heading that you

2:51

know, somebody gave this but it is

2:54

funny because it's a Zofar

2:57

speaks the wicked will

2:59

suffer just could you say Zofar is

3:02

a broken record or Zofar

3:04

says the same thing again. Yeah,

3:08

he just raises his voice Let

3:11

me let me say again what I said before

3:13

and hopefully this time we'll get through He's

3:15

working with a he's his basic

3:18

syllogism is this The

3:21

wicked suffer Job is suffering

3:23

air go Job is wicked. I mean, that's

3:26

that's it. That's basically sums up Zofar

3:29

build ad all the fast all these

3:31

guys. I mean even though they Nuance

3:34

it different ways. They're all basically saying

3:36

the same sorts of things Yeah,

3:38

they're just serving up the same argument with like different words,

3:40

right? Well, maybe if I say it this way You'll

3:44

understand. Yeah, it'll finally it'll finally

3:46

get through they did. Yeah, they're they're caught in their

3:48

little a Theological

3:51

box, you know where there's a direct

3:54

correlation always a causation between

3:57

A and B a causes B they

4:00

can't think outside of that, which

4:02

is sad on a number of different

4:05

levels. It's sad because, of course, it's

4:07

false, but it's also sad because it

4:09

makes them basically useless when

4:11

it comes to provide any kind of comfort to

4:13

people like Job. They can't think

4:15

outside of this very kind

4:18

of straight jacketed formula that they place

4:20

themselves in. Bill

4:22

has been pretty quiet for a while now. I

4:24

was checking to see what chap... I knew it

4:27

had been a while, but it's been a few

4:29

chapters back. Job 11 is the

4:31

last time that he popped up there. Back

4:37

then, he started out the chapter by

4:39

accusing Job of babbling and mocking and

4:41

spewing forth a multitude of words. I

4:44

don't think his argument is going to improve much. That's

4:46

also when he said he had this memorable line at

4:49

Job 11, 3 or 4, something like that, God

4:53

exacts of you less

4:55

than your guilt deserves.

4:58

Yeah. Job is getting off easy. Yeah,

5:00

man. You think your life is bad

5:02

now? It's nothing compared to

5:04

what you really deserve. I'm

5:07

not exactly sure how that works. My

5:10

entire family and everything I own got destroyed, and

5:12

then I'm covered in boils sitting on top of

5:14

an ash heap scraping my

5:19

bubbling body with broken pottery shards. They're

5:21

like, dude, it could be worse. I'm

5:23

like, hey, how exactly? Explain

5:25

that to me. If you're

5:28

talking death, actually, that would not be

5:30

worse. That would be much better. Praise

5:34

for death. His argument

5:36

here in this chapter is... Here's the way

5:38

I summarize it. The

5:40

appetite of the selfish wicked is

5:42

insatiable and it's short-lived, because

5:45

eventually it's going to digest judgment and

5:47

lose everything. So it's just another

5:51

wrinkle on this same old argument. He

5:55

starts out here. So far, The name

5:57

of the appetite answered and said...

6:00

Therefore, My. Thoughts answer

6:02

me because my haste within

6:04

me. I. Hear Sensor

6:06

that insults me and out

6:08

of my understanding a spirit

6:11

answers me. Do. Not

6:13

know this move old since man was placed

6:15

on earth. That the exulting of

6:17

the wicked. A short. And.

6:19

The joy of the godless. But

6:22

for. The. Moment. So.

6:24

He's. A he starts out his

6:27

first first couple of our says he's is

6:29

upset you know he feels like a a

6:31

job has since er det which would be

6:33

would be accurate the hebrew this used shooter

6:35

user mean something like. Discipline or

6:38

chastisement or even exhortation here.

6:40

it's a curious this idea

6:42

of job as a. Insulted

6:45

him publicly, right? He Censored him.

6:47

I hear censor from Huge. Oh,

6:49

but it's insulting to me And

6:51

so he's going to. He's

6:53

going to school job In out of my

6:56

understanding a Spear answers me. I got all

6:58

these thoughts inside my head that I'm gonna

7:00

make sure that you here as you'll only

7:02

listen this time. If you'll

7:04

only listen this time, job, you'll

7:07

You'll finally understand where you're wrong

7:09

and and where I'm right. And

7:12

then you start outbursts Four and five

7:14

that I just read was basically. Stating

7:17

his argument beforehand that oh this

7:19

is old visit just this is

7:22

traditional wisdom job. Ever since Man

7:24

was on the earth, everybody knows

7:27

this that the exulting of the

7:29

wicked. Ah, that's very short.

7:32

And the joy. The goddess, that's

7:34

but for a moment, such as

7:36

kind of his summary statement, and

7:38

then he's going to unpack that

7:40

in these next few verses. He's.

7:43

as though his height courses talking

7:45

here about the the godless in

7:48

the wicked of his height mild

7:50

up to the heavens and his

7:52

head reach to the clouds he

7:54

will perish forever lexus like his

7:56

own down those who have seen

7:58

have will say we're Where is

8:00

he? We

8:02

got quite the contrast here. His height is

8:04

mounting up to the heavens. His head is reaching

8:07

to the clouds. We

8:09

do have those images elsewhere in Scripture. What's

8:12

the one I see? Isaiah 14 has a

8:15

famous plant against

8:17

the king of Babylon who wants to set

8:20

up his throne in the heavens, but he's

8:22

going to be cast down to show. So what

8:24

do you mean there? It's a

8:26

biblical image, those who exalt themselves

8:28

will be humbled. That's what

8:30

he's riffing off of

8:32

here. You

8:35

got to understand that this wicked and

8:37

godless that he's talking about here is

8:39

not just speaking generically, but this is

8:41

an application to Job. He

8:47

who exalts himself to the heavens will

8:49

fall like dung into the earth,

8:52

as we would say in our

8:54

modern version, will be flushed down

8:56

the toilet. It's

8:58

weird too because we

9:00

don't have any reason to believe that Job

9:02

has ever really exalted himself. No,

9:06

no indication of that. Job

9:08

was described as somebody who would

9:10

seem like they would not be that kind of

9:12

person, that they didn't think too much of themselves.

9:17

He was an exalted person, but

9:20

that doesn't seem as though he was

9:23

going around. You

9:29

have to think that some of this

9:31

is about like, Job, you're still thinking

9:33

too much of yourself here. This

9:36

accusation must be more applied to

9:39

Job's arguments back and forth with

9:41

them, and he's saying, your words

9:44

are too lofty. He's

9:46

all poetic and stuff, and then just drops his dung

9:48

in there, which

9:51

is kind of jarring, right? Like, you're going to

9:53

rise up to the heavens and the clouds, but

9:55

you're going to perish like poop. Okay.

10:01

Yeah. Memorable, but not

10:03

extremely poetic. So

10:06

he's going to switch from the outhouse now

10:09

to dream in

10:11

vision language. Verse 8, he

10:14

will fly away like a dream and

10:16

not be found. He will be chased

10:18

away like a vision of the night.

10:21

The eye that saw him will see him

10:23

no more. Nor will this place any more

10:25

behold him. His children will

10:27

seek the favor of the poor and

10:30

his hands will give back as well. His

10:33

bones are full of his youthful

10:35

vigor, but it will lie

10:37

down with him in the dust. So

10:41

I mean that language, this is so

10:44

typical of so many of the

10:46

speeches of the friends. They

10:49

borrow biblical language. They

10:51

will co-opt biblical metaphors, which

10:56

is fine. I mean, we do that all

10:58

the time. Of course, preachers do that all

11:00

the time. There's nothing wrong with using biblical

11:02

image, using biblical metaphors, adapting biblical

11:04

language when we want to teach

11:06

or preach or write or whatever.

11:10

But it's the

11:12

application where he goes astray. And

11:16

of course, he's applying this to Job,

11:18

and it's not fitting. So

11:20

he's flying away like a dream and being chased away like

11:23

a vision of the night. Verse

11:25

9, I know there's some Psalms

11:27

like that too, where you

11:29

look for him and he can't be found. This

11:33

prideful, godless person

11:35

who's spread himself out, made much of

11:37

himself, and then lo, he is no

11:39

more, as the Psalms will say. So

11:43

it's fine to say things like that, but

11:45

you better be careful who you're applying it to. And you

11:47

can't apply it to people like Job. And

11:50

here he's speaking also not just of

11:52

Job, but everybody like Job, right? His

11:55

children are going to seek the favor of the poor.

11:57

In other words, he's not going to leave anything for

11:59

them. they're gonna be impoverished.

12:01

And so now they're gonna have to go out and

12:04

beg for their food. And

12:06

verse 11, when he says his bones are full

12:08

of his youthful vigor, but it will

12:10

lie down with him in the dust, means that he's

12:13

not gonna reach old age. So

12:15

he's gonna die. This is not only the

12:17

good die young, this is kind of only

12:19

the bad die young idea, that

12:22

you're gonna be cut down while your bones

12:24

are still full of youthful vigor. Because,

12:27

according to this theology, there's

12:30

no way that you can live to

12:32

a ripe old age and remain rich

12:35

and have all your children and have

12:37

your health and everything like that if

12:40

you're godless and wicked. It just doesn't

12:42

work that way in the theology

12:45

so far. No wicked old people.

12:48

That's... Yes, right. We all know that's

12:51

true. He

12:53

so far hasn't hung out

12:56

in Washington DC at all.

12:59

He doesn't know. He's a valid,

13:01

corrupt old people. No,

13:06

these guys seem just so

13:09

naively inexperienced about the way the world

13:11

works. It's like they're living in their

13:13

little theological bubbles and have never experienced

13:16

the way that real life works. I

13:19

mean, these are kind of ivory tower thinkers. Do

13:23

you know people? Have

13:25

you watched the news? Have you

13:27

read anything? Have you just experienced

13:30

life in general? Because

13:32

it's just an unrealistic

13:36

view of the way that life works.

13:38

It's a super simplistic theology. You're

13:41

almost like, had this little bit of

13:43

knowledge about God and then you constructed

13:45

this very simplistic theology which

13:48

is just like God's

13:50

good and he likes good things. He

13:52

blesses good people. He doesn't like bad

13:55

things. He punishes wicked people. It's very

13:57

transactional and then you just ignored

14:00

the world around you and just say that wrestle

14:05

with the fact that that's not your

14:34

problem, Job, is that you're just not

14:37

doing the right things, obviously. And

14:39

that's not completely gone

14:41

away. No, no, I don't

14:43

think so at all. In fact, I think it's the

14:47

modern version of Job's

14:49

three friends, kind of name it and claim it.

14:51

And if anything goes wrong in your life,

14:54

well, we can tell you why. It's because you

14:56

don't have enough faith or you don't have enough this

14:58

or you don't have enough that. And

15:00

so it all basically goes back to

15:02

the individual sufferer as the

15:05

cause of whatever's gone wrong in his or

15:08

her life. I mean, I think

15:10

you could make a pretty good argument, and I don't

15:12

think I'm the first to say this, that

15:14

the real test of an theology is how they address

15:16

suffering. Yeah. So

15:18

if your church is

15:21

unable to really deal with suffering,

15:24

has no real message to

15:26

give to the

15:29

parents who just buried their two-year-old

15:31

child or to the

15:33

wife who loses her husband on

15:35

their honeymoon or whatever

15:38

the suffering might be, if you don't have

15:40

some way to speak to someone who is

15:42

caught in a debilitating illness, then

15:46

your whole theological

15:48

system has some major holes in it

15:50

because it's unable to address

15:53

most of what we deal with in life, which is in

15:56

one way or another forms of suffering, either

15:59

major or minor. Well, it's well

16:01

it betrays the fact that if you don't

16:03

have an answer for suffering I Know

16:06

immediately that what you do with the cross

16:08

isn't what you're supposed to be doing with

16:11

the cross, right? So they get immediate

16:13

once you if you don't have a message

16:16

for the sufferer Then I

16:19

know that your message about the

16:21

cross is inadequate Yeah,

16:23

and you probably have not come to

16:25

grips with the resurrection either Yeah, because

16:27

you don't have any way to offer

16:29

people hope. Yeah In

16:32

short if you don't have a message that really

16:34

addresses people who are suffering You

16:36

know you need a whole lot more Jesus in

16:38

your in your theology. Yes Yeah,

16:41

which is of course the you know I mean

16:43

in in in different sorts of

16:45

ways, but still the problem with the three friends

16:47

They don't have any kind of theology the cross

16:49

this understanding of who God is And

16:52

so they're always gonna go astray and what they

16:54

have to say to Job now There's definitely like

16:56

you got there's I mean no, I don't know

16:58

if this work has been done Maybe

17:00

Chad will do this work. Maybe this would be a book that

17:02

he writes but Job

17:06

Job's three friends as theologians

17:08

of glory is Certainly

17:13

applicable Yeah, yeah,

17:15

they are They're

17:17

the patron saints of the logic of glory

17:19

that you could say Yeah, I mean they're

17:22

they're only dealing with that which

17:24

their eyes see and according to

17:26

their rational Syllogisms

17:29

that I pointed out earlier then Job is wicked.

17:31

It's the only way that they can deal with

17:34

this So

17:36

where we had verse 11 is what

17:38

we just finished So verse 12 is

17:40

when he he begins his culinary

17:43

arguments I guess you could say he talks a

17:45

lot of here about eating and in

17:47

the mouth and digesting and and Vomiting

17:50

and swallowing and all this kind of stuff in

17:52

the next few verses Though

17:54

evil is sweet in his mouth.

17:57

And again, he's he's continuing this

17:59

description the godless man,

18:01

godless according to his estimation.

18:06

Though evil is sweet in his mouth, though

18:08

he hides it under his tongue. I always get

18:10

the picture here of like he's got some hard

18:12

candy or something. He's

18:14

sucking on it, he's got it under his mouth.

18:18

So he's got that there. Though he is

18:20

loathe to let it go and holds it in his

18:22

mouth, he's saving his weakness.

18:26

Yet his food is turned

18:28

in his stomach. It is

18:30

the venom of copras within him. He

18:33

swallows down riches and

18:35

vomits him up again. God

18:38

cast them out of his belly.

18:41

So he's going to continue in the next few verses,

18:43

but you're getting the idea here. First

18:46

of all, you know, the

18:49

enjoyment is short lived. So

18:52

he's got this hard candy in his mouth,

18:54

we'll say, this sweet evil in his mouth.

18:56

And he's rolling around with his tongue

18:58

and he's not wanting to let it go. He's

19:00

wanting to keep it in there as long as

19:02

possible. But when he swallows, when

19:04

he goes into his stomach, then all of a

19:07

sudden what was sweet is turned

19:09

into cobra, cobra venom. He's

19:11

going to swallow it down. And

19:13

then the next thing you know, he's going to be vomiting

19:16

it up again because God is going to

19:18

cast it out of his belly. Then

19:23

he continues verse 16. He

19:26

will suck the poison of cobras. The

19:28

tongue of a viper will kill him. He

19:31

will not look upon the rivers, the

19:33

streams flowing with honey and curds. He

19:36

will give back the fruit of his toil

19:38

and will not swallow it down. From

19:41

the profit of his trading, he will get

19:43

no enjoyment. For he has

19:45

crushed and abandoned the poor. He

19:48

has seized a house that he

19:50

did not build. Don't

19:52

you feel like Job at this point as

19:55

like this guy takes a breath,

19:58

is like looking around and then like. Who

20:01

are you talking to? What

20:06

are you even talking about? Like,

20:08

yeah, people are crushed and abandoned

20:10

the poor, seized the house. Is

20:14

there someone else here? Like, what are

20:16

you even talking about, man? Yeah,

20:20

I do get that impression

20:22

that Job's reaction would be, you know,

20:25

you're just spilling forth

20:27

this multitude of words that have no

20:29

application to anybody who's listening to you.

20:31

Is there someone standing behind me? Yeah.

20:36

What is happening? Yeah,

20:40

the whole thing is, I don't know if you'd call

20:42

it a backhanded insult to Job, but it's certainly an

20:44

insult to him. Because, of course, this is his whole

20:46

point, is that this is

20:48

Job. Job, you're the one. You had

20:50

that sweet in your mouth, and now you're having

20:52

to vomit it up because God turned it into

20:54

the poison of a

20:56

viper once you swallowed it

20:58

down. And you're not going to get

21:01

any enjoyment. And here's what you've done. You've crushed

21:03

and abandoned the poor. You seized

21:05

a house that you did not

21:07

build. And, of

21:09

course, there's no evidence of that whatsoever. I

21:12

think a lot of this comes

21:15

down to pure conjecture. I mean, we

21:17

know these guys came from a distance.

21:19

Not like they lived next door to

21:21

Job. So it

21:23

makes you wonder, just

21:26

how well did they know him? Are they

21:28

just, at this point, conjecturing, coming up with

21:30

these wild fantasies of the evils that Job

21:32

has committed that they are unaware of? But

21:34

that, you know, according to their perspective, obviously

21:37

Job must have done. Otherwise, why would he

21:39

be suffering the way that he has? So,

21:43

verse 20, he's

21:45

going to keep up with this

21:47

belly imagery. In

22:00

the fullness of his sufficiency, he will be

22:02

in distress. The hand of everyone

22:05

in misery will come against him. To

22:07

fill his belly to the full, God

22:09

will send his burning anger against him and

22:12

reign it upon him into his body.

22:17

That seems like direct, right? That

22:20

seems pretty direct. You

22:24

know, see all those boils? You feel like you've got

22:26

sulfur falling down on you from heaven, Job? You know

22:28

what that feels like? You got the wrath of God

22:30

poured right into your body there? Yeah.

22:33

Yeah. I think he's staring Job

22:36

down when he says these words. And

22:39

now he's going to... Switch

22:42

the metaphor a bit. He's going to talk

22:44

about weaponry and how

22:47

he's been pierced through. So

22:49

he will... This is verse 24. He

22:52

will flee from an iron weapon and

22:55

a bronze arrow will strike him through. That's

22:58

not enough. He's got to like... He's

23:00

got to draw out the image here. It is drawn

23:03

forth and comes out of his body. The

23:06

glittering point comes out of

23:08

his gallbladder. Terror

23:10

has come up on him. So

23:14

this idea of you're running away from

23:16

one thing and you

23:19

run into something else, like you flee one

23:21

danger and you run smack dab into another

23:23

danger, that is very common. One of my

23:26

favorites is Amos

23:28

5.19 where Amos

23:30

says, it's as

23:32

if a man fled from a lion and

23:35

a bear met him. Or he went

23:37

into the house and leaned his hand against the wall

23:40

and a serpent bit him. So

23:42

there is... And you find the same thing

23:44

in Isaiah 24 or Jeremiah 48. So

23:46

that's again another biblical image where you

23:49

run away from one danger only to

23:51

come face to face with another danger.

23:53

And that's what does so far

23:55

stand here. So he flees from an iron weapon. Maybe

23:58

there's an axe or sword or whatnot. whatever. And

24:01

then he turns around in a bronze

24:03

arrow, pierces him through. And, you

24:06

know, comes sticking out of his body,

24:08

pierces his gallbladder, tears come upon him.

24:10

So there's no

24:12

escape for people like Job as

24:14

his main point. Yeah,

24:17

with the book of Job

24:19

being poetry, there's not a lot of

24:21

poetry that features the gallbladder. Like

24:23

an arrow sticking out of your

24:25

gallbladder is a

24:29

different, like maybe your heart or something

24:31

like that, but the gallbladder, as

24:34

we said before, this is a little bit different in the

24:36

Old Testament. Yeah, this is

24:38

a new one, the new one for sure. He

24:43

finishes this out. I'll read the rest of

24:45

the chapter of 22-29. Utter

24:48

darkness is laid up for his treasures.

24:50

A fire not fan will devour him.

24:53

What is left in his tent will be

24:55

consumed. The heavens will

24:58

reveal his iniquity, and the earth

25:00

will rise up against him so all creation is

25:02

turned against him. The possessions

25:04

of his house will be carried away, dragged

25:07

off in the day of God's

25:09

wrath. This is

25:11

the wicked man, so he's going to wrap it up with this

25:13

verse. This is the

25:16

wicked man's portion from God, the

25:18

heritage decreed for him by

25:20

God. So

25:24

man, if you're godless, like Job

25:26

obviously is, then there's no

25:28

hope for you. He holds out no

25:32

possibility of repentance in this chapter. I

25:35

find it very interesting too that according

25:38

to Zophar, all these terrible things that

25:40

are happening, the loss

25:42

of your possessions, the loss of your health,

25:44

loss of your children begging for bread, all

25:46

of that, those are considered to be the

25:48

worst things. There's really nothing said here about

25:51

the worst thing being that you're

25:53

cut off from God himself. He's

25:55

kind of thinking very materialistically here.

25:58

These are all the terrible things that are going to be happening. fall you.

26:00

And he's not even to mention

26:02

the fact that, oh yeah, also being

26:04

cut off from God is part

26:07

of this. He's focusing very much

26:09

upon kind of the material, the

26:11

visible, the tangible, rather than what

26:15

state you have in relationship to God. Yeah,

26:18

there's no... and some

26:20

of that was like earlier that

26:22

there was this sort of argument

26:25

for them like, hey, reach out to God,

26:27

Joe! You know? You gotta

26:29

confess your sin like Shirley. I mean,

26:31

Shirley will, you know,

26:34

if you just tell him, if you just admit it,

26:36

you know, what's going on, like, Shirley, he will help

26:39

you. It seems like

26:41

a lot of that's been abandoned and now it's just

26:43

like more... they're just... well,

26:45

the problem, Joe, is that you're

26:47

wicked. I mean, that's where it is.

26:51

Yeah, because their frustration levels have increased and

26:53

so they're now at the point of just

26:55

like keeping up accusations or

26:57

if they've given up on him or

26:59

what the deal is. Yeah,

27:01

I know this. I mean, we're about to

27:03

see it but... the circle

27:06

will continue because you hear

27:10

all this. I mean, and Job's response

27:13

is gonna be like, yeah,

27:16

except for the wicked do

27:18

prosper though. So, like, what's

27:20

the problem here, dude? Is

27:22

that theoretically,

27:25

that's all nice, sure,

27:29

but the problem is that take

27:32

a look around. Like,

27:35

that's not how any of

27:37

this is working. Yeah, he's gonna

27:39

point out over and over this coming chapter that,

27:42

as you say, that all sounds nice in

27:44

theory but do you

27:47

actually observe what's happening in

27:49

the world? You know, how many

27:51

people actually live exactly contrary

27:53

to the way that you have described?

27:56

So, yeah, again, the ESV

27:58

chapter heading... The Do

28:00

prosper. You

28:02

also title is after. You're. All

28:04

wrong. It's of chips

28:07

response. It's because he's gonna. This.

28:10

Is this is the chapter where. I

28:12

think more than any of the other

28:14

chapters. Job does directly. Won't.

28:17

And. Then refute his friends. So.

28:21

This is a little bit different kind

28:23

of Chapter One of the commentators I

28:25

read, Francis Anderson points out that this

28:27

speech a quote from him. The speech

28:29

is unusual for June up on several

28:31

counts, at the only one in which

28:33

he can science his remarks to his

28:35

friends and does not fall either into

28:37

a soliloquy order a prayer. So.

28:40

Other words: this is or he's going to. Basically,

28:43

take. A. Lot of the things

28:45

that the friends of said not to so

28:47

far but bill that lf as to and.

28:50

A It's orbit difficult times because he

28:52

doesn't always say something like you say

28:54

and then give them a quote. Sometimes

28:57

he's just alluding to something that they

28:59

said or even providing a some restatement

29:01

of in general what they've said and

29:03

they goes on to refute it. But

29:06

haven't keep that in mind when you're

29:08

going to the sole chopper. This is

29:10

Job's most explicit reputation of the claims

29:12

it is friends have made. So.

29:16

He starts out. Keep. Listening to

29:18

my words, And let this be

29:20

your comfort. Bear. With me. And

29:22

I will speak. As. Love

29:25

this after I have spoken. Mark.

29:29

On. And

29:31

shift. The judge. You

29:33

get it. Mario made the do. Been through.

29:36

Hell on Earth. And yet, he's

29:38

still got some rhetorical stamina here.

29:40

He's not afraid to give it

29:42

right back to to the guys.

29:45

And you get you can't see

29:47

or hear this in translation but.

29:50

There's a switch between the the

29:52

verbs that are used here because.

29:55

Bear. With me. Is in

29:57

the plural. Flows. Address and all difference.

30:00

It you guys, We matter

30:02

incident You guys. Bear with

30:04

me and I will speak. And after

30:07

I've spoken now this next serbs

30:09

in the singular, so presumably addressed

30:11

directly to so far. After.

30:13

I've spoken Zafar. Mark

30:16

on so it makes sense that

30:18

he is going to a specific

30:21

lead allude to to him when

30:23

he's given his when is given

30:25

this response. Effects of. That

30:28

verb in Hebrew for mock. Is.

30:31

The one that so far as use

30:33

before back chapter one verse three or

30:35

he said to job should your babbel

30:38

silence men and when you mock shown

30:40

that would change you. So. This

30:42

is. Job. Can get back at him.

30:45

Sort. Of a chance to talk job and after

30:48

that you guys can just pick up at of

30:50

mocking and you can continue on after. After

30:52

arsonist? Yeah, which is which is there.

30:55

Enough. To refer to

30:58

what they're saying as mockery. Is.

31:01

An insult because they think that they're.

31:05

In a. Giving. You

31:07

a disgrace theological. Soliloquy:

31:10

And there's a say, well I'm sick of

31:12

I let me give you all these a

31:14

poetic words and explain how the world works

31:16

to you and he job has dismissed it

31:18

as mockery. The. Get.

31:21

His pop their bubble assets to.

31:23

they're all pretty proud they finished

31:25

or speeds their sit in their

31:28

kind of their their self satisfaction

31:30

sentences boy died That sounded good

31:32

about jobs godlessness time as our

31:34

some real wisdom hour's drive and

31:37

either wisdom I dropped on him

31:39

there is a job comes back.

31:42

Mockery at all. This his. First

31:45

for. As. For me. Is

31:48

my complaint against man? Why

31:51

should I not been? Be impatient.

31:54

I'm I'm sorry. What he's saying here is that was

31:56

on. You. Cause. i'm

31:59

not talking here about man-to-man complaint. I'm

32:01

talking here about issues between me and

32:03

God. So my impatience,

32:08

the way that I'm speaking, should

32:10

come as no surprise to anybody. Who

32:13

would not be impatient in my situation?

32:16

Look at me, he says, and be appalled

32:19

and lay your hand over your mouth. When

32:22

I remember I am dismayed and

32:25

shuddering seizes my flesh. Why

32:28

do the wicked live, reach

32:32

old age, and

32:34

grow mighty in power? Their

32:37

offspring are established in their presence

32:40

and their descendants before their

32:42

eyes. Their houses are

32:44

safe from fear and no

32:46

rod of God is upon them. Their

32:49

bull breeds without fail and

32:51

their cow calves and does

32:53

not miscarry. They send out

32:56

their little boys like a flock and their children

32:58

dance. They sing to the tambourine

33:00

and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of

33:02

the pipe. They spend their

33:04

days in prosperity and in

33:06

peace. They go down to

33:09

chill and stop there for

33:11

a second. So keep in mind that he's talking

33:13

here about the wicked. This one,

33:15

like if you took these words and

33:18

you put them into the mouth of one

33:21

of Joe's three friends, then

33:24

they would be describing the life of the righteous. But

33:27

Joe is here describing the life

33:29

of the unrighteous. So

33:32

he starts out by basically saying, you guys

33:34

did a lot better when you were silent. So

33:37

look at me, be appalled, lay your hand

33:39

over your mouth. In other words, rewind things

33:42

back at the beginning when you sat there in silence with

33:44

me for a few days before you begin opening your mouth.

33:47

And then he begins in verse 7. I

33:50

read 7 through, I think, 13.

33:53

And this is him

33:55

basically saying, everything

33:57

you just said about the

33:59

life of the Godless and the unrighteous is

34:02

untrue because everybody

34:04

knows I've experienced this and everyone

34:06

who's not naive is experienced this

34:10

that the Wiggly don't die they live they

34:12

reach old age the grammadian power their offspring

34:15

are established so on and so on and

34:17

so forth so this is his way of

34:20

presenting a more realistic version

34:22

of how all life often

34:25

works undermining then the naive theology of

34:27

his friends when he says to look

34:29

at me you know

34:32

be appalled put your hand over

34:34

your mouth it

34:36

seems that he's saying that based

34:38

on your theology and based on

34:42

what you think you know my

34:45

situation should be shocking

34:49

like you should be speechless right

34:51

like you should you should gasp

34:54

right and put you should have nothing to say

34:56

because my situation is

34:59

obliterating like your

35:01

entire theology and

35:06

and now you're instead you

35:08

look at me and you spout this theology and

35:12

it's wrong like because look

35:15

at how the wicked live

35:17

like you should

35:19

be trying to figure this out

35:22

with me yeah there

35:24

is no mystery left in life

35:26

to them I mean that

35:28

everything is so clearly black and white

35:30

to them and they will

35:33

force that they will the

35:35

before their theology into any

35:37

situation even though

35:39

in an

35:41

explanation is the

35:43

force of theology in any situation even though the

35:45

situation itself speaks against it yeah it's

35:48

refused to deal with the

35:50

the way that life often works yeah

35:52

there's no sense in which they like

35:55

approach job and they're like okay we

35:57

have to rethink everything like what do we do with this

36:01

at all. Even though you totally should

36:03

be in that situation, you should be

36:05

like, what is happening here? And

36:10

then Joe was gonna wrap

36:12

this section up with more

36:14

of this. So after saying, they

36:16

spend their days of prosperity and a peace,

36:19

they go down this yole. He

36:21

takes it up a notch. He says in verse 14,

36:24

they say to God, depart from

36:26

us. We do not desire

36:28

the knowledge of your ways. What

36:31

is the Almighty that we should

36:33

serve Him? And what profit do we get

36:35

if we pray to Him? Behold,

36:37

is not their prosperity in

36:39

their hand? The

36:42

counsel of the wicked is far from

36:44

me. So

36:46

these wicked have been described as godless

36:49

and as wicked, and yet they're prospering. Now

36:51

Job is giving illustration of

36:53

the way that they view God. So

36:56

it's not like these are atheists

36:59

in the sense of modern philosophical atheists. These

37:01

are like practical atheists who basically don't deny

37:03

the existence of God, but basically want nothing

37:05

to do with Him. So here's

37:08

what they say to God, leave us alone, more

37:10

or less. We don't want to know your ways. We're

37:12

not gonna pray to you. What

37:15

good would we get from

37:17

praying for you? Because after all, this is verse

37:19

16, their prosperity is in their

37:21

hand. In other words, they've already got it in their

37:23

collection. They've got what they need. They don't need anything

37:26

else. And then Job wraps it up

37:28

by saying, this is the way

37:30

they speak, but the counsel of the wicked is far

37:32

from me. In other words, I'm not gonna go down

37:34

that road, but this is the way that they go

37:37

down. This is the way that they think and

37:39

reason. And you can

37:42

kind of understand if things are going so well

37:44

for them, why would they want to change it

37:46

by all of a sudden turning to God and

37:48

praying to Him? Yeah, I mean, he's saying

37:50

that the wicked sound like

37:52

this when they're talking about God, that

37:56

is not what I sound like, right? This is

37:58

not what you've heard from me. This is not

38:00

how I'm written now. I might

38:02

be saying God depart from me, but for like

38:05

an entirely different reason Yeah,

38:09

give me the break is what Joe was Yes,

38:12

yes, but I'm not sitting here not know I'm

38:14

not I am praying I do

38:17

want to know his ways. I'm not this is

38:19

not me. So you're you are Take

38:23

a listen to what the godless people sound

38:25

like and you will find that that's not

38:27

what I'm saying at all yeah,

38:30

so this is just more the disconnect disconnect

38:32

between lived experience in this world

38:35

and Then

38:37

the way that things actually actually work according

38:39

to the way that God isn't working the

38:41

world And this reason you can't look around

38:43

and do your theology based upon what

38:46

you see happening you can't you know look at the life

38:48

of the wicked and say they're prospering and Build

38:51

your theology off of that because

38:53

yes in the end that's gonna lead you astray Any

38:56

more than being like the three friends and seeing

38:58

someone suffering and saying oh obviously you're wicked it

39:02

Our theology has to be based upon the reveal

39:04

reveal word of God Specifically how it's revealed in

39:06

the in the work of Christ and if that's

39:08

not how our understanding of how God works Is

39:11

determined then we're always going to go astray

39:13

because we're trying to build our theology based

39:16

upon experience Rather than upon what God has

39:18

has revealed to us in Christ. That's

39:20

right. All right, man. Well, we are

39:23

out of time So we will leave

39:25

it right there. We'll be back next

39:28

week To hear the rest of

39:30

what Job has to say about

39:32

hey you guys are wrong the wicked do

39:34

in fact prosper He's got more to say

39:36

on that topic, but what's wait till next

39:38

week Chad? I will see you then.

39:40

All right, The. you