0:19

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes

0:21

in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast

0:23

Network podcast. You can go

0:26

to 1517.org slash podcast. Check out all the

0:28

other podcasts that are living over there. And while you're over there,

0:30

make sure you go to the events page. You can't sign up

0:33

for the Here We Still Stand National Conference next

0:35

year. It's already sold out. You can

0:37

sign up and get on the wait list though,

0:39

which is worth doing. Because when people register

0:41

for an event a year out, you know,

0:44

things come up. People move. You know, stuff happens.

0:47

And some people did in fact sign

0:49

the wait list last year and ended up getting

0:51

in. And so it's first come,

0:53

first serve, of course. So if you want to get on that wait list,

0:55

you can. Or, of course, you can come to Northwest

0:58

Arkansas the first weekend of May.

1:00

And you can go to the regional event. There's still,

1:02

ooh, I don't know, 25% left of the tickets.

1:06

So those won't be there that long.

1:09

So if you want to come to that, there's a link

1:11

in the show notes or go to the events page. Find

1:14

it and come hang out with me and Chad

1:16

and a whole bunch of other people. It's going to be a good time.

1:19

Chad, the weather has officially

1:21

changed here. So like my voice,

1:23

I'm not sick. Don't worry, guys. I'm

1:25

okay. I know that you guys were all starting to

1:27

pray.

1:28

Don't worry. I'm all right. But

1:31

every fall, you know, I got like

1:33

a week or two where my voice just gets, you know,

1:36

it tries to match Chad. It just drops a couple

1:38

octaves. A little scratchy, a little

1:40

low, but it's

1:41

okay. I can make it through.

1:44

I feel fine. All

1:46

right. We are in Job chapter 6.

1:50

We've heard from Job. Then

1:51

we've heard from his buddy

1:53

who basically, I mean, he says

1:55

a lot of words. If

1:56

I was to boil it all down, come on, Job.

2:00

Come on. What is it,

2:02

dude? That's really what like is going

2:04

on with his buddy. That's that's

2:06

what I was if I boil it all down to one

2:08

thing, he could have just said after

2:11

Joe's big thing. Come on, man. We

2:13

hold him back. What are you not telling us?

2:16

And now Job is going

2:18

to respond to sort

2:20

of to what Elphas says.

2:22

And I do like this. I

2:26

don't usually like chapter

2:28

headings. But this seems like a good

2:31

summation of what Joe was going to say. And

2:33

the ESV just says, my complaint

2:36

is just. I think that's

2:38

a pretty good summation of what Job is

2:40

about to say in response, because I do think

2:42

as he says, Come on, man. Come on,

2:44

buddy. Like, what is it? Like,

2:47

you are not telling everything here. This

2:50

is basically what Job is going to say. He's like, no, no, no, no, no.

2:52

Everything I said, I am justified

2:54

in saying. Yeah, I think the only thing

2:56

I would add to my complaint is just preface

2:59

it by you

3:00

guys are terrible friends. Yeah,

3:03

that would be the only

3:05

thing that I would add. Because

3:07

so he's going to

3:10

his next speech, Job's next speech is chapter

3:12

six and seven.

3:14

And he's going to start out by complaining

3:16

about

3:17

how he's become basically the target

3:20

for the archer from heaven.

3:22

Like God's got his bow out. He's is

3:24

using Job for target practice

3:27

with poison arrow tips. You know, just to

3:29

kind of add a little bit to that. So he's going

3:31

to complain at first and

3:33

rightly so, not take anything away from that.

3:36

But then he's going to go on to complain about his buddies

3:39

and what terrible friends they are actually

3:42

going to throw some pretty sharp,

3:44

sharp accusations at them. Anyway,

3:46

then he's going to switch

3:48

and he's going to transition

3:50

to talking directly to God and

3:52

the bulk of chapter seven

3:54

sounds a whole lot like what was that job

3:56

for job three

3:58

where he basically wishes he were dead. So

4:00

he's gonna kind of return to the same

4:02

theme of just how bad

4:04

his his sufferings are. Yeah I mean

4:07

if you are Joe man, I

4:09

was Joe and this was happening to me I think

4:12

there would be two things that I would be these

4:15

are the two words that would describe me angry

4:17

and confused like I

4:20

would be especially

4:22

once my friends came around I started being like What

4:25

gives man it's going and I would I

4:28

would be it would be so frustrating If

4:31

you it I'd be because maybe not for

4:33

you and me Chad because we're not You

4:36

know, no one would describe it Joe was a unique

4:38

character that can be described in a very unique way.

4:41

So maybe I'd be like What

4:43

did I do and then like there's

4:45

probably any number of things? You

4:47

know a Long

4:50

list and be like a weighing. Okay.

4:52

I don't know was that one worse than this one? I don't

4:54

know They're pretty close. They're both pretty bad. Yeah.

4:57

Well, yeah, it's it'd be one

4:59

of those things where I don't know You know

5:01

if someone's like man, did you do anything? I'd be like,

5:03

well, I Mean, yeah,

5:06

I don't know where to start. Yeah, but

5:08

Joe Which particular one

5:10

God has decided he's going to use as

5:13

a pretext for what he's doing to me Yeah, but

5:15

Joe, you know, he's this situation like huh,

5:19

I don't know man Like I can't I

5:21

can't think of anything Got

5:23

a pretty clean bill of health. Yeah So

5:26

he starts out

5:28

By talking about it's kind of a two-fold

5:31

focus. He says oh that my

5:34

vexation were weighed

5:36

and all my Calamity laid

5:38

in the balances. So it's kind

5:40

of a two-fold focus. I mean he's uh, he's

5:43

vexed He's angry like you just said,

5:45

you know, so what in the world is going

5:47

on if you could you could weigh my

5:51

Vexation how angry and

5:53

upset and vexed I am at this situation Then

5:56

you're gonna need a you can be like an industrial size

5:59

scale That's how heavy

6:01

heavy it is. And then my

6:03

calamity. So that could also be translated

6:06

to like destruction or misfortune.

6:09

So late in the balances. So if

6:11

you had some kind of scales where you could put

6:14

both my vexation and my calamity,

6:16

my anger, and my

6:19

misfortune on there, well

6:21

then you'd get an idea as to exactly

6:23

what I'm going through. So

6:26

presumably this first part is just kind of addressed

6:29

either to Eliphaz in particular who just

6:31

responded to Job or just to the friends in general. I don't

6:34

think he's necessarily praying

6:36

yet or talking directly or indirectly

6:38

to God. I guess he's always talking indirectly to

6:40

God, but this is more friend-directed. So

6:43

if you could do that, then

6:46

verse 3 says it would

6:48

be heavier than the sand of the sea. So

6:51

yeah, a typical kind of proverbial biblical

6:53

expression. We're used to thinking about sand

6:56

of the sea in respect of numbers,

6:58

not weight. Like Abraham's descendants will

7:00

be like the stars in the

7:02

heavens or like the sand on the seashore, but Job

7:05

uses it differently here. So yeah, go to the beach and

7:08

just start shoveling up sand after sand and

7:10

get a whole truck full and weigh that.

7:13

Well, the weight of that wouldn't even compare

7:15

to the vexation and calamity that Job

7:17

is going through.

7:18

And because of that, he says his words

7:20

have been rushed. Yeah, well, vexation

7:22

is an interesting word. We don't use that word a lot.

7:25

Not many times

7:27

have I

7:28

have Chad and I been hanging out. I'm like, how are you doing?

7:30

You're like, well, I'm pretty

7:33

vexed, I got to tell you. My

7:35

traffic just had me vexed today. My vexation

7:37

is high this

7:40

week. That's not a word we use, but it is. I

7:42

like the word because it's

7:45

a word that, you

7:47

know, he could just say like my

7:49

frustration, which is kind of really what vexation

7:51

is. Like, vexation is a sort

7:53

of frustration,

7:56

but if it just said frustration, it would not do the same

7:58

thing because vexation is a sort of frustration. is like more

8:02

painful than just

8:04

being frustrated, right? Like with

8:06

your vex, of

8:09

course, being frustrated is an internal

8:11

thing, but there's a, it's

8:13

a frustration mixed

8:15

with sorrow almost. That's

8:17

how like, that's how like, when I hear, when I hear

8:19

the word vexation, it's like, there's people

8:21

aren't vexed when they're

8:24

just angry because they

8:26

feel, you know, like,

8:29

whatever they're upset about something. It's

8:32

usually, usually when you see the word vexation

8:34

show up, some calamity has happened. I mean, and

8:36

this is kind of why he says my calamity is

8:39

waiting to balance. So I mean, this is a total aside,

8:41

but I like the use of the word there. And

8:43

that, that vexation could be weighed, right?

8:46

Like, like if it said like my

8:48

frustration were weighed or my anger be weighed,

8:50

you're like, okay, so you're, you're angry and frustrated.

8:53

You're like, yeah, but it's like, it's more than that. Like

8:55

this is, this is like some

8:57

real internal

9:00

anguish, anguish and frustration. Yeah. Yeah.

9:03

That's a good way to put it. Yeah. You get, you

9:05

get to anger, sorrow,

9:07

frustration. You put those three

9:09

together, you get a vexation. Yeah. And by the way, fun fact,

9:12

Job is the only one, Job's book is the only one

9:14

that has this, this Hebrew word in it, which

9:16

actually kind of makes sense. I mean, there is no more, there

9:19

is no greater vexation in the Old Testament that

9:21

suffered by Job. So all the

9:23

occurrences of this word are, are found in,

9:26

in Job. So he says because

9:28

of this, because of the vexation,

9:30

the calamity, the bulk

9:33

of it, the weight of it. Yeah. My

9:35

words have been rash and he's not, he's

9:37

not, he's not saying, usually when we say my words have

9:39

been rash, we're like apologizing. Sorry

9:41

about those rash words. He's

9:44

not apologizing. He's explaining that, yeah, of

9:46

course. I'm not expecting me to just to

9:48

be very kind of stayed and calm

9:51

and level-headed. Well, no,

9:53

but not when I have this tonnage of

9:55

vexation and calamity weighing

9:57

upon me. Of course, my words get going to be rash. I

10:00

mean, we've all been, we've been the

10:02

one who have spoken this way, and we've been in the presence

10:05

of people who have spoken this way because

10:07

they're so emotionally distraught. The

10:09

words that come out of their mouth are

10:12

probably not the kind of words you would ordinarily hear from them. You

10:15

know, they're very upset, and so when we're very upset,

10:17

of course we speak rash words.

10:20

And I mean, it's not like making an excuse

10:22

for it, but when you're in those situations,

10:26

you understand where the person's coming from. And

10:28

so your response should be patience

10:32

and understanding and empathy and

10:35

just kind of, you know, bearing with

10:37

them in the pain that they're going through. Of course, that's not what his friends

10:39

are doing. They're trying to

10:41

unearth his hidden sin, whatever

10:44

that might be. Yeah. If

10:46

you were to say that your words are rash, usually you mean

10:48

that

10:49

you did not choose them carefully, right?

10:51

Where you're like, oh, I didn't really, I said

10:53

that without thinking about it really, usually

10:57

like rash words are words that you, if

10:59

you could take them back and maybe rephrase them

11:02

or think about them a little more, you would do that.

11:05

However, Job did wait seven days

11:07

before he spoke these rash words, so he did

11:09

have a lot of time to sort of figure

11:12

out what it was he was going to say. But I think when

11:14

you're in this state of vexation

11:17

and anguish,

11:20

once you open your mouth to speak, like,

11:22

I mean, I mean, read what you have said. I mean, it's a flood.

11:25

The flood is only the dam has broke.

11:27

And I think you, I've been in, of course, we've been in

11:29

situations where we've spoken too quickly and you're

11:32

like, oh, I was upset

11:35

and I said that. Yeah. Right.

11:37

But there's also been times, I don't know about you, Chad, but I've had these times where

11:40

I have had time to really think about

11:42

my words. It really concoct

11:46

a real tongue lashing. Not that I'm like some,

11:48

I'm not, I'm not the word smith that Chad is. I'm

11:50

like fairly good with words when I have a lot

11:53

of time to think about them. Not like this on the podcast,

11:55

but like, well, I've written some

11:57

things. That's not always the best either.

12:00

I have a lot of time to think about my words

12:02

I really I just because job has

12:04

lots of times to choose his words also

12:07

one of those words start flowing Yeah, maybe

12:09

you get bumped off script a little bit too. And

12:11

so yeah, I don't I don't view this

12:13

as an apology at all but more like

12:17

Yeah, man, like have you look around look

12:19

around dude, and then you're you're saying

12:21

like I don't know about your words job You

12:23

know about my words take a look around

12:26

dude. Look at what look at what's happening right now Like

12:29

what did you think my words were gonna sound like?

12:32

Yeah

12:34

Yeah, there's there is no other possibility

12:36

for job when he's going through what he's

12:38

going to mean the only thing that's finally going to Take

12:42

away his words is when

12:44

God words him Yeah, right when

12:46

God speaks finally, then job is

12:48

ready to to be silent, but he's not

12:50

he's not there yet. So

12:53

He

12:54

then develops this figure speech and

12:57

in the next two or three verses and begins to

13:00

describe his suffering and why he

13:02

speaks the way he does why he can't remain silent and

13:05

The first thing he begins with is the divine Archer

13:08

the arrows of the Almighty are

13:10

in me and my spirit Drinks

13:13

their poison the terrors of God

13:16

are arrayed against me And

13:18

that's just one verse and that one

13:20

verse sums up sounds to me like hell on

13:22

earth

13:23

Is

13:25

just the image. I mean we've all seen these pictures

13:27

like of martyrs. I can't remember the

13:29

name of the martyr There's one pic of the martyr who was shot

13:31

full of arrows. Yeah but

13:34

I mean we've seen we've seen pictures from

13:36

the from the Wild West right

13:38

of Guys lying in the dirt

13:40

and their bodies are full of arrows. That's

13:42

that's the way it works. That's wait That's job is saying

13:44

hey, that's how I feel God has

13:47

set me up as his target. He's got his

13:50

bow got a quiver full of arrows

13:52

and the tips are poisoned and

13:54

it shoots one after the other inside me

13:56

and my Spirit is drinking

13:59

in the poison of these

16:00

devil's really out to get me today, like the devil's

16:02

having his way with me. For them, if there

16:05

is a... if you're a monotheist

16:09

and that God that you worship is sovereign,

16:12

then the buck stops with him all

16:14

the time, every time. I

16:15

think we tend to kind of slouch

16:18

into a dualism in order to...

16:21

as it were, we think that we're being... we're

16:24

saving God in

16:26

many cases. At least that's the way it strikes me.

16:28

So we're going to attribute all of this. We're

16:30

trying to defend his reputation. We

16:33

have this thing of really wanting to keep God clean.

16:36

We're the press secretary for God. I

16:38

think Jonathan Haidt uses that image. So

16:42

yeah, we're gonna be the press secretary. We're gonna make

16:44

sure that, you know, whatever

16:46

has happened, you know the way the press secretaries are,

16:48

for whoever is in office, they're

16:51

always going to frame the narrative in such

16:53

a way that reflects positively upon their

16:55

boss. Yeah, well we can be that way with God

16:58

too, you know. So

17:01

you're right, in the Old Testament, it doesn't matter. It always

17:03

goes back to him, and

17:05

the buck always stops at the top.

17:08

So

17:09

that's the way the Job approaches. Yeah. Then

17:12

he switches to... I mean a very common

17:15

in the Old Testament to use animal imagery

17:18

to kind of metaphorically describe

17:21

us. So Haidt's what he does in verses 5. Does

17:23

the wild donkey bray

17:25

when he has grass, or the

17:28

ox low low in

17:30

the sense of making like a bellowing noise or

17:32

whatever, whatever sound that ox makes?

17:34

Do oxes moo? I don't know.

17:37

Cows do. So

17:40

anyway, I don't have a lot of experience

17:42

with the ox though. Yeah, I

17:45

mean, yeah, me

17:46

either. Cattle, yes, but

17:48

not oxen. But anyway, were the ox

17:50

low over his his fodder. What

17:53

seems to be happening here in verse 5 is...

17:56

So these animals,

17:58

if they have grass...

17:59

If they have food in other words, if the wild donkey has

18:02

grass, if the ox has its hay,

18:04

they're not going to be bellowing.

18:06

They're not going to be braying because they got what they need, right?

18:10

They don't make these sounds for no reason.

18:13

The sounds they make are justified

18:17

by the absence of what they need. So

18:19

what Job is saying here is, hey, like the

18:22

wild donkey, like the ox, so

18:24

am I. You're not hearing

18:26

all of these rash words for

18:28

no reason because I don't have what

18:30

I need. And interestingly, in

18:32

Job's case, what he really wants

18:36

is God to speak. I

18:38

mean he wants a lot of things. I'll kill a complaint. I want

18:40

God to kill me. I just want to die, all this. But

18:42

really, what he really wants, and you see

18:44

this more and more as the book progresses, he wants

18:47

God to see him. He wants

18:49

God to speak to him. He's

18:51

wanting some sort of answer from

18:53

God. And he gets that in

18:55

the end, of course. Where

18:57

were you? So he doesn't get necessarily

19:00

what he bargained for, but he does get that. That's

19:02

what he's desiring here.

19:03

But his grass, his fodder

19:06

is this divine encounter, which he's not getting

19:08

itself for that reason. He's crying out. Plus,

19:11

of course, what he's suffering. You know what's weird

19:13

is that,

19:14

and I know we're jumping way ahead, but since

19:16

you did it, Chad, since you brought it up. I

19:19

opened the floodgates. Since you did that.

19:21

What's weird is that Job doesn't

19:23

get the response, probably, that he's looking

19:25

for in the midst of all

19:28

this. But it's informative

19:30

because it is enough.

19:32

When he does get

19:34

a response, it is enough. So what

19:37

it turns out that Job is really

19:39

looking for, I think, is what most

19:41

people of faith would be looking for in the

19:43

midst of tremendous suffering.

19:48

The real question is, has

19:50

God completely left?

19:53

Is he actually just... Yeah, walked away

19:56

and left you behind. Or even worse, is he completely

19:59

against me? And even if the

20:01

word that you end up getting from him is like, hey,

20:03

just

20:05

remember, I'm

20:06

God and you're not.

20:09

There's like, that's enough in

20:11

the sense that he has addressed

20:13

you now. Yeah, yeah.

20:15

I would have taken that. Yeah, I mean, a lot

20:17

of situations in life. I

20:20

would have just, you know, it,

20:23

even that what I think would have been enough. Yeah, without

20:25

an answer, you know, not explaining all

20:27

the details of why this terrible

20:29

thing happened, but just God

20:32

saying, listen, I'm not going to

20:34

explain myself. I'm God and

20:36

you're not. Well, yeah,

20:38

at least then you know he's there. He's speaking

20:40

to you. He's addressing you. He's reminding

20:43

you of who you are and who he is. And

20:46

I think I would have repented. Shut

20:49

my lips. Yeah.

20:52

Yeah.

20:54

So the next verse, I struggled

20:57

with this one. I

20:59

think what he's talking about here are

21:02

the words of his friends. It's

21:05

not quite clear to me. Maybe he has some insight on this, but verse

21:08

six says, can that which is tasteless

21:10

be eaten without salt or

21:13

is there any taste in the, well,

21:16

this is his fee. I don't even know what this is in

21:18

the juice of the mallow

21:21

fruit of some sort.

21:23

I mean, I'm displaying my ignorance here. I

21:26

don't have any idea what that is, but the older

21:28

translations have a

21:31

white of an egg is any taste in the white of

21:33

an egg. I think that's what King James and

21:35

New American Standard has. We really don't know.

21:37

I mean, if you have a ESV or any note,

21:40

any Bible with notes, it's going to say the meaning of the

21:42

Hebrew word is uncertain because it

21:44

is. Nobody really really knows a lot of speculation

21:46

here, but you get the gist of it. Is there any taste

21:49

in the juice of something or

21:51

the white of an egg, whatever it is? The

21:53

point is that there's

21:56

nothing there. These

21:58

things are tasteless. They have to be

22:01

something has to be added to them in order

22:03

for there to be

22:04

taste and

22:05

what seems to be implied by

22:07

Job is that he's talking about the words of his friends.

22:10

They're as tasteless as saltless as

22:13

useless as these foods.

22:15

At least that's

22:16

the best

22:18

that I can do with it. Well, I've always

22:20

kind of taken these to be kind of what

22:22

I was talking about before which is, you know,

22:25

so can that which is tasteless be eat without

22:27

salt? Imagine this and this might

22:29

be incorrect, but

22:32

can something like this be endured

22:34

without an explanation? Right.

22:37

So like maybe there's maybe you're able

22:39

to bear up if

22:41

you have a reason or if

22:44

you know why but it seems

22:46

to be like listen, there's nothing for

22:48

me here, right? There's no there's like

22:50

there's this is all absent

22:53

the thing I need to be able

22:55

to do to undertake this the suffering.

22:57

I don't know might might

23:00

be wrong, but that's that's how I've

23:02

always kind of read it is that he's saying

23:04

like I'm just like eating plates

23:07

full of suffering, but he's

23:09

talking about food here. So I'm just eating like the

23:12

most tasteless terrible

23:15

things and God's

23:17

not giving me so much as like he's like hey, you're

23:19

gonna have to eat this you're gonna you're gonna have

23:22

to endure this and you're like, okay,

23:24

he's not even giving me the seasoning

23:26

of an explanation of why.

23:28

Yeah, no salt. No pepper. No pecan

23:32

sauce. Nothing. Just take it.

23:34

Just ingest it. Just swallow

23:36

this and you're like these are not good

23:38

things. Do you have anything that could make this go down easier? And

23:41

the answer is no. It kind of fits

23:43

with verse 7. My appetite refuses

23:46

to touch them. They are as food that is loathsome to

23:48

me. Yeah. Yeah, so what you're serving

23:50

up

23:51

I have no appetite for. In fact, quite the opposite.

23:54

It makes me sick to my stomach to think

23:56

about. Yeah.

23:57

So that is that's verse 7.

24:01

8, oh that I might have my request,

24:04

and that God would fulfill my

24:06

hope, that it would please God

24:08

to crush me, that He would let

24:10

loose His hand and cut me off.

24:14

This would be my comfort. I would even exalt

24:17

in pain unsparing, for

24:19

I have not denied the words of

24:22

the Holy One." So

24:25

what he seems to be doing is basically continuing what

24:27

he talked about earlier, where his

24:30

request, his hope is

24:32

that God would basically end it. And

24:34

I've noted before that there's never a desire

24:37

expressed or a plan expressed

24:40

that Job

24:45

would take his own life, but there's plenty in here

24:48

that he wishes God would take it for him.

24:52

Then he would… So that would be his comfort.

24:54

I would even exalt in pain unsparing, because

24:56

I haven't denied the words of the Holy One. So

24:59

it goes on in verse 11, "'What is my strength

25:02

that I should wait? And what is my end

25:04

that I should be patient? Is my

25:06

strength the strength of stones? Or

25:09

is my flesh the flesh of bronze?

25:12

Have I any help in me when resource

25:14

is driven from me?'" So

25:19

it's not like I'm not an iron man here.

25:22

I'm not a bronze man. I'm not a

25:24

stone man. I'm just a man

25:27

of flesh and blood. So there's

25:30

only so much that my body and my

25:32

heart and mind are able to take. My

25:35

help is gone. My resources are gone. And

25:37

the only thing left for me now is to wish for

25:39

my own death.

25:41

Yeah. I mean, this seems like he's telling God,

25:43

help me or take me. But

25:48

I'm coming to the end

25:51

of what I can endure in and of myself.

25:54

Yeah, he's out of resources. He's

25:57

out of a nice kind of hope. So

26:00

he doesn't see any light

26:02

at the end of the tunnel, so better just to end it now rather

26:05

than to go on enduring these

26:07

arrows of the archer. Now

26:10

verse 14, he seems to

26:13

switch, and I think it's going

26:15

to continue this through pretty much

26:18

almost the end of the chapter here where he's

26:20

going to talk directly to his friends. So

26:23

he's going to go through an extended comparison

26:27

of where he's at with regard to

26:29

his sufferings and needing help and not

26:31

receiving it in comparison with

26:34

travelers, guys on a caravan

26:36

looking for water in the desert. But

26:38

it begins this way. He says, he

26:40

who withholds kindness, that's

26:43

our word hesed, so

26:45

love and loyalty and all those

26:47

things, he who withholds hesed from

26:50

a friend forsakes the fear of

26:53

the Almighty. So what he's—in

26:56

talking to his friends here, he's saying, you

26:58

guys are not

27:01

showing me love. You're not showing me hesed.

27:04

And in so doing, you're actually forsaking

27:07

the fear of the Almighty. And what

27:09

seems to be implied there is that if you fear

27:11

God, if you're a worshipper

27:13

of God, if you're a believer in God, all those things

27:15

are kind of packed into fear. So

27:18

if that's who you are, you fear God, you

27:20

believe in Him, you worship Him, you trust Him. Then

27:24

the result of that is you're actually going to show love

27:26

to a friend, especially one who is going through

27:28

what I'm going through, and you're

27:31

going to actually express words of

27:33

compassion instead of doing

27:35

what you're doing. Verse 15

27:38

says, and this is where

27:40

he begins kind of this extended metaphor. He

27:43

calls him brothers. I

27:45

don't think this is probably talking about his own family. I think

27:47

this is talking about Eliphaz Bildad

27:50

so far, so the guys who were there. My

27:52

brothers

27:53

are—this

27:56

is quite the image—they're treacherous

27:58

as a woman. Wadi, a

28:00

torrent bed. Wadi's over Israel

28:03

are just kind of dry creek beds that only

28:05

fill when there's rain. So

28:08

my brothers are treacherous as a

28:11

wadi or torrent bed,

28:13

as torrential streams that

28:16

pass away, which

28:18

are dark with ice and where the snow

28:20

hides itself. When they melt,

28:22

they disappear. When it's hot, they

28:24

vanish from their place. The

28:27

caravans turn aside from their course. They

28:29

go up into the wastes and

28:31

perish. The caravans of

28:33

Timeluk, the travelers of Shiba-luk,

28:37

they are ashamed because they were confident.

28:40

They come there and

28:41

are disappointed. For

28:43

you, and this is kind of where he transitions

28:45

to comparing this to his friends, for you

28:48

have now become nothing.

28:51

You see my calamity and are afraid.

28:55

So the whole image behind this is,

28:57

first of all, you guys have withheld

28:59

hesit from me, and it's so doing,

29:01

have forsaken the fear of the Almighty. And

29:03

here's what you're like. So just kind

29:06

of picture Job. He's looking

29:08

at his friends. He says, you know what you guys are

29:10

like and what I'm like? Well,

29:13

I'm like a traveler, and

29:15

I'm thirsty, and I

29:17

think there's this place where I'm

29:20

going to get water. I've been there before.

29:22

I know there's supposed to be water there, and

29:24

I get there, and there's nothing but sand. There's nothing

29:26

but rocks. It's all gone. Everything is evaporated.

29:29

It's dried up. There's nothing there. And

29:32

of course, when this happens, I'm

29:34

in a desperate situation because I'm lacking

29:37

the very thing that I needed.

29:39

Well, you guys are kind of like that wadi.

29:41

You're like that torrent bed. You're like that place

29:43

where I expected to find water, and

29:46

I didn't. And because of that,

29:49

all of your words are nothing to

29:51

me. You have now become

29:53

nothing, as the ES puts it there. Or

29:57

maybe the New River

29:59

Valley. bystander version has even better.

30:01

Such

30:02

you have now become to

30:05

me. So this is this

30:07

is the kind of the crescendo of this comparison.

30:10

I look for water

30:12

from you, I look for loving kindness from you, I look

30:14

for help from you, and all I got is a

30:16

mouthful of sand.

30:18

Yeah there's this idea here that

30:22

oh you guys got some like water and stuff

30:24

but when the heat gets turned

30:26

up. So like when conditions when

30:28

conditions are extreme

30:29

what that

30:33

illustrates is that when conditions

30:35

aren't perfect you have nothing

30:37

to offer me. Like if

30:41

everything is if conditions are great yeah

30:44

maybe you got maybe you got water and stuff flowing

30:46

but I don't know in the cold of winter

30:49

nope and the heat of summer nope

30:52

and not only that but what really

30:54

is a bummer is that you come here

30:56

and I think there's

30:58

I think there's an accusation here Chad I'm

31:00

interested to know what you think where he says

31:03

that you see my calamity and are afraid.

31:05

I think there's an accusation

31:08

that they're not they've not come to help him

31:10

but they've come to like investigate to make

31:12

sure something similar doesn't happen to them. Like

31:14

what is it that you did Job? Like

31:17

we must have like we got to avoid

31:19

whatever the heck is going on with Job? Let's

31:21

make sure we find out what it is so it

31:24

doesn't happen to us and so there you're not

31:26

here to help me you're here because you're afraid

31:29

of the thing that has happened to me. Yeah

31:31

yeah or even

31:34

just to piggyback on that on that

31:37

they're afraid to

31:40

they're afraid to become too

31:42

empathetic with

31:44

Job. Too much kind of part of what he's going

31:46

through for fear the same thing is going to happen

31:48

to them. If God's

31:50

judging you like I don't

31:54

want to be I don't want to help you too much I mean

31:56

I don't want to get I don't want to try to alleviate

31:59

the judgment of God if that is

32:01

indeed what's happening. I

32:13

mean

32:22

maybe it's because I just don't have the emotional

32:25

bandwidth to become involved in this situation, you

32:27

know? Or maybe we're

32:29

just afraid because we don't have all the answers. We're

32:31

afraid to get involved with that. We don't know what to say.

32:33

Or yeah, we might look at that and be like,

32:35

oh my gosh, that guy's, he

32:37

has most of angered God. Look what's happening to him.

32:40

I don't want to get too close to him. You know, lightning might

32:42

strike me too. I

32:45

think all of those are, I'm not saying they're legitimate

32:47

fears, but they're very common fears that people have

32:49

when they see somebody who is really

32:52

going through suffering.

32:53

Yeah, and I think that's why he

32:55

says, yeah, you didn't come here with love

32:58

and kindness.

32:59

You came here out of fear because

33:03

you want to know what's going on. Yeah, so then

33:05

he says, verse 22 and 23, he's basically saying to these verses, look,

33:11

I didn't

33:12

ask you

33:14

for a gift or for,

33:16

you know, deliverance or

33:18

anything like that. He said, he says, have

33:20

I said, make me a gift or from your

33:22

wealth, offer a bribe for me or deliver

33:25

me from the adversary's hand or redeem

33:27

me from the hand of the ruthless. I didn't ask you for any of

33:29

that. I didn't ask you to come and like, you know,

33:31

bail me out or

33:33

to rescue me from someone who has

33:36

abducted me. I didn't, I didn't ask you for any of that.

33:39

You came here

33:41

of your own accord to

33:42

be my comforters and

33:44

I haven't asked anything from you, but what you are

33:47

doing is demanding for me an explanation

33:49

as to why I'm suffering the way I am and I don't know.

33:51

I don't know why God has set

33:53

me up as his target. Then

33:55

he continues and this is some

33:58

of this is pretty pretty heavily sarcastic.

33:59

Teach me!" he says. That's

34:03

the root of Torah, by the way, yara is the word to

34:05

teach here. So teach me. I mean, give

34:07

me some instruction here. I'll be your student, right?

34:10

I'll be silent. You can teach me. You

34:12

can just shed all

34:14

of your wisdom on me. Make me understand how

34:16

I'm going to stray.

34:18

How forceful are upright words?

34:21

But what does reproof from

34:23

you reprove? In

34:26

other words, what are you accomplishing? What

34:28

are you really accomplishing by your insinuations

34:31

as regard to my hidden sin? Do you

34:34

think you can reprove words when

34:36

the speech of a despairing man is

34:39

wind? And

34:41

this, verse 27, and

34:43

we're almost to the end of this chapter, verse 27 is

34:45

where he really kind of throws it in her face. And

34:48

I don't know that this is a very

34:50

fair accusation. I'm going to attribute it simply

34:52

to Job being in a very, very bad place.

34:55

Because to his friends he says, you

34:57

know what kind of guys you are? I'll tell

34:59

you. You're the kind of guys who

35:02

would cast lots over an

35:04

orphan, and you would bargain

35:07

over a friend. Or as the

35:10

NIT translation puts it, yes,

35:12

you would gamble for the fatherless and auction

35:15

off your friend. I

35:19

mean that's a pretty in-your-face

35:21

accusation to make to Eliphaz,

35:24

Bildad, and Zophar. Deserved

35:26

or not, you can kind of understand Job

35:29

is already put out with him. And if he's already

35:31

put out with him – and oh, I mean

35:33

keep in mind only Eliphaz has spoken

35:35

so far. The other guys have not spoken

35:37

yet, but he's upset with all three of them

35:40

at this point. It seems that Job

35:43

knows that he is a better

35:45

man than them, and

35:48

also seems like Job knows that

35:50

they know that he is a better man than

35:52

them. And so he

35:55

is very much being like, oh, all right, so

35:58

you're here out of fear, and maybe this is pretty bad. part of it they're like

36:00

dude this could happen to Job, good grief,

36:03

like I guess I mean he's the most righteous dude around

36:06

and they say alright man like I

36:08

mean I don't know what's going on so yeah teach me

36:10

oh oh righteous ones we all know how good

36:12

you guys are like teach me I'll be silent

36:15

yeah just just give me those forceful

36:17

upright words like let's let's do

36:19

that yeah and then it says it kind

36:22

of just like you would you would do this like

36:24

you would cast thoughts over the fatherless and this kind of thing

36:26

is said there does seem to be like

36:28

listen we stop pretending like

36:32

I'm some kind of like bigger sinner than you

36:34

guys when like everyone here knows that's not

36:36

true I'm not a worse person

36:38

than you so like knock it off yeah

36:42

I think that's where he's going with it what are you gonna teach me

36:44

dude what are you gonna teach me really fill

36:46

me with your wisdom

36:48

alright so we got three verses left and I'll be the end

36:51

of chapter six and that'll be end of our time

36:53

so he says but now be

36:55

pleased to look at me for I

36:57

will not lie to your face please turn

37:00

let no injustice be done turn now my

37:02

vindication is at stake is

37:04

there any injustice on my tongue cannot

37:07

my palate discern the cause of

37:09

calamity

37:11

so look at me I'm

37:12

not gonna lie to you just

37:13

turn to me

37:15

and you know

37:17

let me know is there injustice on

37:19

my tongue cannot my palate discern the cause

37:21

of calamity I think what he's saying here is that you know

37:24

I I can figure these things out I

37:26

can taste the truth in other words

37:29

and what I'm tasting here

37:32

is that everything is bitter to me and

37:34

I can't find the cause I don't know what it is

37:37

and you're of no help because

37:39

all of all you've done so far

37:41

is insinuate that the problem

37:44

lies with me and I'm

37:46

telling you it does not so

37:48

that's where he wraps up chapter and then that's

37:51

not the end of his speech chapter 7 we only got

37:53

the one chapter today but chapter 7 he's going

37:55

to continue with

37:58

his

37:59

description of

38:00

the struggle that we face in this life,

38:03

he's going to compare our life here. It

38:05

sounds like coheleth of Ecclesiastes,

38:08

honestly.

38:09

Like in vanity and vanities is the way that chapter 7

38:11

begins to kind of feel, but he's going

38:13

to shift to more of a direct address

38:15

to God in the verses of Paul.

38:18

These last verses almost

38:20

make it sound like as they're with

38:23

him and as these statements are being

38:25

made, it's almost like

38:27

they can't make eye contact with him, they can't look bare

38:29

to look at him, and he probably is horrific

38:33

to view, and he does this thing like, hey

38:36

look at me, take a good

38:38

hard look at me, and

38:40

then tell me that what

38:42

I'm saying is unjust.

38:46

You tell me like if any of my words,

38:48

is there any injustice on my tongue,

38:50

right? Like you guys aren't looking at me, look

38:52

at what's going on here, and then be

38:55

honest, you guys tell me, am

38:58

I wrong? Has

39:01

anything I've said been inappropriate?

39:04

I need you to take a good hard look at me first.

39:06

Audit this situation, and then you tell

39:09

me if I'm like out of

39:11

order for being upset here, and

39:13

that's what it seems like. I'm

39:16

going to need you to look.

39:17

Right, right. Quit turning your

39:19

gaze away to more desirable objects,

39:22

and look at

39:23

my ugly situation, and

39:25

let's talk truth to each other. Yeah. Alright

39:28

man,

39:29

well that is the end of that chapter. We will

39:31

be back next week to discuss

39:34

how Job continues. It's all

39:36

very depressing so far, but we're getting

39:38

to some classic lines of

39:41

hope eventually, but we're gonna

39:43

have to take the long journey there. I

39:45

will see you next week

39:46

Chad. See you then.