Listen to the audio above while following along in the transcript below whicih is also available for download from www.biblestudyministriesinc.com
Before we go to prayer, I’d like to share this verse from Deuteronomy 29:29, and in a special way it applies to the book of Job, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God. The things revealed belong to us and to our sons, our children forever, and we obey all the words of this Law.” Let’s commit our time to the Lord.
Our Father, we thank You that there are secret things in Your heart and in Your purpose, and that it’s not fitting for us to know until You reveal it. So, we pray that we might trust You with all those things that belong to You, and we not pry into what is secret. Thank You for all that You have revealed that You have given to us and to our children. We ask that You would make this verse very real as we go through this wonderful book of Job. We commit our time to You and thank You for the indwelling Holy Spirit who keeps us on track and with our focus on the Lord Jesus. We thank You and ask You to unveil the Lord afresh to our hearts. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
As our meditations in the gospel of John were in the gospel of John but on the Lord Jesus, so now as we look at the wonderful book of Job, we don’t change our focus; we’re studying Job in order to know Jesus more intimately. It’s all about knowing the Lord.
Let me review the theme of the book that we looked at last time, and then we’ll pick up our new material. The theme of the book, as you know, there was a conversation unknown to Job in the heavenly places between the Lord and Satan. It’s recorded in Job 1:7, “The Lord said to Satan, ‘From where do you come?’ Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.’ And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered My servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless, unpright man, fearing God, and turning away from evil.’” Of course, the Lord knew that Satan had already considered Job. That’s how he knew about the hedge, but his response to the Lord is in Job 10, “’Have you not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has on every side? You bless the works of his hand, and his possessions have increased in the land, but put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.’” Satan accused the man, Job, and he made an accusation against God. His insinuation against man was that Job was in it for the blessing; he’s in it because of the hedge; he’s in it for the money, and that’s the only reason he’s in it. Satan had the idea that Job was like the one described by Solomon in Proverbs 19:4, “Wealth adds many friends.” People like to stick close to a full pocketbook, and they try to be subtle about it, but everybody has their hand in your pocket, as you know. And he said that was Job. “He’s rich; You’ve made him rich, and that’s why he chooses you.”
His insinuation against God was more subtle, but it was very, very powerful. He suggested that no one apart from blessing, apart from God’s gifts, no one would every choose to serve the Lord. His insinuation was that God is not wonderful enough in Himself, that anyone would choose to love Him or worship Him or minister to Him in any way. Anway, that was the accusation, that, “God is not worthy in Yourself, and You’re not wonderful enough in Yourself for anyone to choose You.” And then he said in verse 11, “Put forth Your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face.” In other words, “I can prove it; take down the hedge, and You’ll see that Job will curse You.”
It’s important to remember that we know this background, but Job did not know it. We have Job chapters 1&2; Job did not have the advantage of having those chapters. He didn’t know that Satan and God had that conversation, and so what happened to him when the hedge came down, it came down swiftly and suddenly without warning, and it was like getting hit with a truck or a train, and he had no clue it was coming, and it was devastating when it did come. The book describes in detail the hedge that came down, the size of it, the beauty of it, the glory of it, the wonder of the hedge, and the devastation that took place in Job’s life when God gave Satan limited permission to dismantle it.
Almost all who read about Job’s suffering think that the theme of this book, since it’s about suffering, answers the question, “Why do the Godly suffer? Why does God allow righteous people to go through hard times?” They think that’s what this book is about, but this book doesn’t answer that question. In a sense it does at the end, “Why do the Godly suffer,” and the answer is to know Him better. So, it gives that answer, but though the book is not why do the Godly suffer, but the question the book raises and answers is this, “Is God enough when the hedge comes down? Is God enough if all blessings were removed? El Shaddai, that repeated title of the Lord, the God who is more than enough, who is everything, is that enough when there’s only Him, and no blessing whatsoever?” That’s the theme of this book, and God is going to prove that He has intrinsic value, that He is worthy apart from any gift, to be worshipped and adored and served, and people will, worship, adore and serve Him just for who He is, not for what they get out of Him.
There’s a verse in Psalm 73 by Asap, and I know it’s poetry, but just because its poetry doesn’t mean it’s hyperbole. I think this is literal even though it’s poetry. Psalm 73:25, “Whom have I in heaven but You, and beside You I desire nothing on earth.” That’s poetry but that’s also literal. On the earth there is nothing else to desire but the Lord.
When we left off last time I was focusing on the hedge Job had and what he lost when the hedge came down. I’m not going to teach it again, but I’ll mention it. He lost his family, his ten children when the hedge came down. He lost all of his possessions, and he went bankrupt, he lost his health, he lost the support of his life partner, he lost all of his friends and acquaintances, he lost his ministry, and most of all he suffered because he lost the sensible presence of the Lord. He said, “I don’t feel the Lord around anymore; God is absent and He’s gone.” But deep in his spirit we read another root. On the level of earth, he got discouraged. In fact, he got depressed. He didn’t attempt, but he was tempted to commit suicide. That’s on the level of earth, but underneath there is a spiritual strain that we see. Job 1:20&22, when he lost all his money, all his possessions, all his wealth and ten of his children, Job arose, tore his robes, shaved his head, fell to the ground and worshipped, and he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Through all this Job did not sin or blame God. When his wife told him to curse God and die, Job 10:9-10, “His wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.’ He said to her, ‘You speak as one of the foolish women. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?’ In all this he did not sin with his lips.” Job 13:15, “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.” Of course, his great confession, Job 19, “I know my Redeemer lives.” We have that wonderful confession. Job 23:10, “He knows the way I take, and when He’s tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” So, on the level of earth we can see a man suffering, feeling it, his flesh is not brass, it’s not stone, and he has real feelings and emotions and at the same time way down deep he knows that the Lord is in control. That’s Job. That’s where we left off.
This morning I’d like to scan a large section of Job, chapters 3-31, the three debates between Job and his so-called friends. For your reference I handed out several weeks ago a sheet and it gives the outline of the book. I told you when we come to this section that I was only going to give an overview for several reasons. One is that I’m not qualified to go into the details here; there is so much human reasoning and discerning what’s from God, and all. I have a hard time with that. But I do think the Lord has given me a heart, the essence of these chapters and that’s what I want to present today. What are these chapters about and what’s the main point? There are three debates. What’s the main point of the first debate, the second debate, and the third debate, and so on, and the different approaches?
The three friends, their names are Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. There are actually four friends but one needs a study by itself alone because he stands different than these three. His name is Elihu. Job’s friends, like Job, were completely in the dark about why Job was suffering. They had no clue whatsoever. God has listened to Satan, “Take down the hedge, and You’ll see he’ll curse You to Your face.” Those three friends didn’t know about that; they didn’t know that conversation in the heavenlies. Though they don’t know why Job is suffering, they think they are smart enough to explain it. So, they’re going to tell you why Job is suffering. All they knew is what they could see with their eyes, what they could observe and what they had heard about, and what their brains told them.
On the level of earth, terrible things happened to Job, and they knew that he was suffering greatly. So, they are introduced in verse 11, when Job’s three friends heard of all this adversity that had come down upon him, they came each one from his own place, Eliphaz the Teminite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and comfort him. So, at the beginning they get credit. They heard about Job and they got together and they said, “We can’t just show up because we don’t know if he wants visitors. So, they made an appointment; I give them credit for that. And they came for one purpose, to sympathize with him. Job 2:13, “Then they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights with no one speaking a word to him. They saw his pain was very great.” That’s amazing; these three friends come to sympathize with him and to encourage him and when they see the pain he’s in, they just sit there. They don’t leave; they stay there seven days and seven nights and nobody said anything. They were speechless. “What in the world happened to Job? We saw him only with the hedge. We’ve never seen him without the hedge,” and this puzzled them completely.
Their purpose for coming was worthy, to sympathize with him. They didn’t have the book of Proverbs but the book of Proverbs describes people like they were at the beginning. Proverbs 15:23, “A man has joy and an apt answer; how delightful is a kindly word.” If you’ve ever been down, discouraged and someone tries to encourage you, that’s helpful. How delightful is a timely word! Proverbs 12:25, “Anxiety and a man’s heart weighs it down, but a good word makes it glad.” You can lift somebody’s spirit by giving a timely word. Proverbs 16:24, “Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” That’s why these three friends came. They want to lift his spirits, and that’s the reason. That’s how it began but that’s not how it ended.
Things soon changed. They turned from comforters to being philosophers. They began asking the question, “Why in the world is Job suffering like this? Why did God allow this?” Job is the first one to speak. After seven days Job spoke. Perhaps he should have kept quiet because he put a stick in a bee’s nest when he spoke, and he stirred up the bees. In our English Bible we have 26 verses in Job 3:1-26. Probably, this chapter is the greatest chapter of self-pity anywhere in the entire Bible. It’s almost like reading the book of Lamentation when you read about what Job says. He not only laments his present circumstances, but he laments his entire life. It starts off with, “I wish I were never conceived. I wish I was never born.” Job 3:3, “Let the day perish on which I was to be born, the night which said, ‘A boy is conceived.’ I hate that; I wish I wasn’t born.”
I had a friend one time and I wonder if it was a friend like Job had, a miserable comforter. I got a birthday card one day and on the birthday card, “Happy Birthday, Ed,” and then Job chapter 3, “I hate my life.” That was his birthday message to me. Anyway, there are friends and there are friends. Job verse 11&12, listen to this, “Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and expire? Why did the knees receive me? Why the breasts that I should suffer?” Then he says in verse 16, “Or like a miscarriage which is discarded. I would not be, as infants that never saw life.” And then finally he said, “I just want to die.” Verse 21, “Who long for death, there’s none, who dig for it more than hidden treasures, who rejoice greatly and exalt when they find the grave.” Job opened his mouth first and that’s what he said, “I wish I was never conceived, but since I was, I wish I was a miscarriage, and since that never happened, I wish I died when I was born, and I wish I could die now.” That’s chapter 3. That’s not a good way after seven days to start a conversation because after hearing that outburst of self-pity, the three friends could not be silent, and now they need to explain to Job why he’s suffering and how he could get rid of that suffering if he would just listen to their advise. Until he knows the cause of the suffering, they are thinking that he can’t be helped.
Even though Job tried to explain his outburst in Job 6:26, “Do you intend to reprove my words when words of one in despair belong to the wind?” By the way, that’s a great principle. I hope you take it with you. If somebody is going through hard things, suffering, trials, testing, and they say things, and maybe they’ve been sick for a long time and they just blurt out something, their words belong to the wind. Don’t take that as what they believe. I know a woman who for fifty years ministered to the Lord. She served the Lord at Columbia Bible College, a great saint of God. She had a stroke, and she went back to her pre-salvation days. She lived a rough life as a young woman, and she began to curse and to swear. People put a lot of stock in that and people were saying, “She’s not saved; she doesn’t belong to the Lord.”
Don’t put a lot of stock in what people say when their words belong to the wind. I’m sure we’ve all said things we wish we could take back or we regret that we said it or in the way that we said it. Anyway, it was because of his words that started these three debates. If you happen to have the sheet, you can glance at it and you see the outline (copy is at end of this message, too) I gave on the debates. The three friends, each in their own turn, make accusations against Job, and then Job responds and denies their accusations. They are going to explain spiritual truth when there’s been no revelation from the Lord. You can’t explain spiritual truth if God hasn’t revealed it. That’s the only way you can know spiritual things. There are secret things that belong to the Lord, and they don’t know those secret things, but they are going to now offer the only thing they can offer, “My guess is… It’s my suspicion that…. Here is what I think…” They can only give uncertainty, when uncertainty makes you miserable. We need certainty as Christians, and that’s what we have as an anchor, hope as an anchor of our soul. Apart from revelation, it’s not possible for them to understand Job’s suffering. Of course, their explanations are wrong, but so is Job’s answer to their arguments. He’s, also trying to figure out what is going on. So, these good meaning friends who came to encourage and sympathize and who are very patient and just sat there, soon became caught in the debate.
Listen to how Job later on describes his friends. He doesn’t say, “Hey, thank you, guys. You are my best friends. Thank you for coming to sympathize.” Job 13:4, “You smear with lies. You are all worthless physicians. Oh, that you would be completely silent, and that would become your wisdom.” That’s how he thought about his three friends, “Worthless physicians. Shut up. You are a bunch of quacks.” That’s what he said. Chapter 16, “Job answered, ‘I’ve heard many such things; sorry comforters are you all. Is there no limit to windy words? What plagues you that you answer?’” KJV calls them “miserable comforters”, “sorry comforters”. Job 6:15, “My brothers have acted deceitfully like a wadi.” A wadi is a dry river bed. “Like the torrents of wadis that vanish.” That’s how after a while Job saw his friends, “They’re just worthless quacks, worthless physicians, sorry comforters, miserable comforters, like dried up river beds.”
Let me show you the chief argument that all three agreed on. They all have the same answer, “We know why Job is suffering.” They all came at it differently, each one had it’s own way to approach it but they all had the same answer. “God is good. God is holy. God is righteous, and He blesses those who are good, but those who are bad, they hurt and they suffer.” That is their common reasoning; all suffering is caused by sin; the wicked suffer. Job suffered, and therefore he must be wicked. That’s their approach.
Let me take them one at a time to show you that they all believed that. Job 4:8, “According to what I’ve seen, those who plow iniquity, those who sow trouble harvest it.” “That’s what’s going on; you sowed it, and now you are reaping it.” Bildad believed the same thing, Job 8:20, “Low, God will not reject a man of integrity, nor will He support evil doers.” “You are an evil-doer; that’s why this is on you.” The whole of chapter 18 describes Job’s suffering as the consequence of his own sin. Every sorrow was God coming down against Job for his sin. Zophar continues that same idea, Job 11:11&12, “He knows all false men; He sees iniquity without investigating. An idiot will become intelligent when the foal of a wild donkey is born a man.” What Zophar is saying is, “Use your head, dummy. God is holy and He knows your sin, even if you don’t see it, at least admit it. Somewhere in there is this sin, and that’s why you are suffering.” Job 20:27-29 describes the wicked, “The heavens will reveal his iniquity, and the earth will rise against him, the increase of his house will depart, his possessions will flow away in the day of his anger. This is the wicked man’s portion from God, even a heritage decreed to him by God.” “You lost your kids, you lost your family, you lost your flocks and your herds, you lost your wealth. Clearly, you are wicked.” That’s what they all agreed on, all three.
Let me say one good word about Eliphaz. I’m not going to have a lot of good to say about him, so listen carefully. He said that suffering is caused by sin, but he’s the only one that gave an option. It’s either that God is punishing him or Job 5:17, “How happy is the man whom God reproves; do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. He inflicts pain. He gives relief. He wounds; His hands also heal.” Eliphaz said, “I know your suffering is because of sin. It might be unconfessed sin; you might be just being chastened rather than punished, but either way it’s because of sin.”
Even though all three friends accused Job, there are three different debates, and they are outlined in such a way that each debate has a different emphasis. Before I show you their approach, I want to show you what is emphasized in the first debate, and what is emphasized in the second debate, and in the third debate. The first debate centers around the truth that God is holy, and because He is sinless, how can Job say that he is not guilty of sin? See, Job was claiming his innocence. Job 4:18, “He puts no trust even in His servants. Against His angels He charges error; how much more those who dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust and who are crushed before the moth?”
In chapter 15 the same thing, verse 15, “He puts no trust in His holy one; the heavens are not pure in His sight. How much less, one who is detestable and corrupt, man who drinks iniquity like water.” The reasoning in the first debate, God is holy and He’s so holy that even the heavens are dirty and even angels that never sinned are dirty. How can Job say that he’s innocent? That’s not possible. That’s the essence of the first debate.
The second debate is around this truth; the wicked suffer. Job 15:20, Eliphaz, “The wicked writhes in pain all his days. Numberless are the years stored up for ruthless.” “The wicked suffer.” Job 15:34, “The company of the Godless is barren; fire consumes the tents of the corrupt.” The first debate is that God is holy. The second debate is that the wicked suffer.
The third debate is like the second only, it’s stronger. Here is the second debate; you are suffering because you are wicked. The wicked suffer. The third debate; the very wicked suffer more. So, in the third debate you are not only wicked, you are very wicked. So those are the three debates; you’ve got to be a sinner because God is holy, the wicked suffer and you really suffer, so you must be very wicked. Job 22:5, Eliphaz says, “Is not your wickedness great and your iniquities without end?” “You are suffering a lot because you are sinning a lot. So, admit it or you’ll never get relief.”
Now, each one approaches it differently. They have the same argument—sin. But they’re coming at it differently. What does Eliphaz base his arguments on? What does Bildad base his arguments on? What does Zophar base his arguments on? It’s amazing to me how the approaches of each of those three men describe exactly the approach that’s used by many Christians when they try pry into secret things, try to understand spiritually what is going on in their life when God hasn’t revealed it. Some of them try to answer that question, “I’ll tell you what is going on and why,” and they use the approach of Eliphaz. Some come the way Bildad came and others the way Zophar came, but they’re asking the same question, “Why did this happen?”
I’ve heard so many times it makes my head spin. People are saying, “Oh, I’m going through this or that, God is trying to teach me a lesson. I need to find out the lesson.” God is not out to teach you a lesson. God is not doing things in your life to teach you a lesson. He’s doing things to crowd you to Christ. He’s doing things so that you’ll trust Him. He’s not out to teach you anything, except how to know Him more intimately. If it’s a secret thing, God hasn’t showed you, trust Him; stay away from that. Don’t try to understand it.
Anyway, let me show you these approaches. Eliphaz, I’m going to refer to Eliphaz as the subjective one; he’s the one who depended on emotions, on feelings, on experiences. Listen to Job 4:12, he’s basing it on a dream that he had, “Now, a word was brought to me stealthily and my ear received a whisper of it amidst thoughts of visions of the night when deep sleep falls on men, dread comes upon me in trembling and made all my bones shake. Then, a spirit passed by my face and the hair of my flesh bristled up and it stood still but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes. There was silence. Then I heard a voice.” That’s Eliphaz. He’s the psychologist. He’s coming at you based on what he observes. I know in time past God spoke through dreams and visions, Hebrews 1:1&2 says that, but in these last days He has spoken unto us through Christ, His Son, in the Bible. I’m not saying that God won’t speak in a dream. I’m not ever going to say that God can’t do anything. He can do whatever He wants to do. I’m not saying that He doesn’t sometimes, but I’m saying to make sure that you know this difference. Did you dream that God came to you or did God come to you in a dream. There is a difference between dreaming God came and God coming in a dream. If you say that God came to you, then the burden of proof is on you, and that’s very, very subjective.
Listen to Job 4:8. This is Eliphaz; this is his argument. “According to what I have seen…” Job 5:3, “I have seen….” Job 15:17, “I’ll tell you; you listen to me. What I have seen I will declare…” That’s Eliphaz depending on emotions, observations; he is the psychologist. If God hasn’t revealed a spiritual truth, don’t try to understand it, and don’t try to come observing, “Well, others went through this and that’s what it meant to them,” all of that kind of thing. Eliphaz is, “You’ve got to feel His presence. If you don’t feel His presence, then you aren’t there.” We don’t go by feelings; we go by facts; we go by what the Bible says. So, be strong in the Lord.
Bildad was a little different. His arguments were based for the most part on history and on theological history. Job 8:8, “Inquire of past generations, and consider the things searched out by their fathers. We are only of yesterday and know nothing because our days of ours are but a shadow. Will they not teach you and tell you and bring forth words from their minds?” The talk of the ancestors. If Eliphaz is the psychologist, then Bildad is the theologian. “This is what I heard, and this is what I read. I’ll quote all these famous names. He said this and he said this and he said that, and who are you, Job, to stand up against the united voice of history? This is how it’s always been. From the beginning they said that sin causes suffering. So, you should believe all of the father and forefathers and ancestors that have gone before.” So, that’s what he studied. He’s the one that had a big library. He’s the one that went to the books. He’s the one that depended upon human opinion. That’s Bildad, the theologian.
Job 8:4, this is Zophar, “Your sons sinned against him; he delivered them to the power of their own transgressions.” He was so convinced that sin causes suffering, he said to Job, “You lost ten kids. Do you know why? They must have sinned.” That’s pretty bold. This guy is suffering, and he doesn’t want to hear that. Of course, it wasn’t even the fact. Zophar is going to build his arguments, well, listen to verse 3, “I listened to the group that insults me; the spirit of my understanding makes me answer.” He’s the philosopher. So, you’ve got the psychologist, the theologian and you’ve got the philosopher, the one who loves wisdom, and he’s going to come at it that way.
Zophar is the most arrogant of all. I can’t believe his pride. When you read the arguments of Zophar, “It’s all logical, and it makes common sense; use your head. God gave you a brain; use your brain, and then you’ll figure it out.” It’s not even come into his mind that God may not have revealed it. It’s just “use your mind”. Job 20:4, “Do you not know this from old, from the establishment of man on the earth. This is how it has always been.” Job 20:5-28 gives his logic. I’m not going to read all of that but after he describes the wicked man, he says in verse 29, “This is the wicked man’s portion from God, the heritage decreed to him by God,” and he describes Job’s case. “That’s the wicked! Figure it out! Use your head!” He was insulted when people didn’t agree with him. 1 Corinthians 1 describes the wisdom of this world, and in chapter 2 it says, “If it’s not revealed, the natural man will not and cannot discern spiritual things.” You can’t; it’s not possible, whether you are coming by psychology or coming by theology or coming by philosophy, if God hasn’t revealed a spiritual truth, you don’t know. If God hasn’t revealed it, I don’t know it.
I’ve been hard on these three friends because they are trying to explain what can’t be explained, but Job is in the same darkness; he doesn’t know either, and he is constantly refuting their arguments, and then trying to explain it himself. The secret things don’t belong to Job, either. Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Do you realize this, that any wisdom that does not begin with the fear of the Lord gets further and further from the Lord, the more logical it becomes. Logic doesn’t take you to the Lord; the fear of the Lord is the beginning. If you don’t start with the fear of the Lord, the more you reason, the further away you get and the deeper into darkness you get. Isaiah 55:9, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Because none of these men, Eliphaz, Bildad or Zophar and including Job, knew what the real answer was, one tried to figure it out through psychology and another the talk of the ancestors and another using your head, Job rejects their explanations. He rejects the subjective approach, he rejects the traditional approach, and he rejects the flaws of human logic.
Job rejects those but now he’s going to try to explain why he is suffering. He has the same problem that they had. The first is his testimony. His testimony is given in chapter 31. I’m not going to read it but I’m going to state it because here’s what he does in chapter 31. Job said, “They may be right. Maybe I have sinned and I don’t know it, so I’m going to search my heart.” Read that chapter because he searches his heart, and here is his conclusion. Verse 5, “I search my heart, and I haven’t seen that I’ve walked in falsehood.” Verse 7, “I didn’t turn from His way.” Verse 9, “I haven’t been enticed by any women.” Verse 13, “I didn’t mistreat any of my servants.” Verse 16, “I haven’t neglected the poor, the widow or the orphan.” Verse 25, “I haven’t been proud.” Verse 26, “I didn’t worship any false God.” Verse 29, “I didn’t even rejoice if my enemy fell.” Verse 33, “I asked the Lord if He covered my sin to reveal it.” He said, “I’m innocent; I searched my heart.” That’s his first argument against them.
Then in Job 13:23, “How many are my iniquities in sins? Make known to me my rebellion and sins.” He calls on the Lord, “If I sinned, tell me. Reveal it to me and make it clear.” Job 10:2, “I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend with me.” “I’m willing to confess it but I don’t know what it is.” And then in verse 21 he says, “Why then don’t You pardon my transgressions and take away my iniquity? I don’t think I sinned but if I did, tell me. And besides, if I sinned why don’t You forgive me? You are a forgiving God.” Job argued, also, against their idea that the wicked suffer. He said, “Are you blind?” Job 21:7, “Why do the wicked still live and continue on and also become very powerful?? Job 21:9, “Their houses are safe from fear. The wrath of God is not on them.” “Don’t you see the wicked suffer? Look at some of the wicked. They’re the ones that are doing best. They are living off the fat on the land. How can you say that I’m suffering because I’m wicked when some of the wicked don’t suffer?” Job 21:13, “They spend their days in prosperity, and then suddenly go down to Sheoul.” “Your argument is flawed. Many wicked don’t suffer.”
Then, Job has a third observation. He says, “I’ve searched my heart, I’ve looked at the wicked and you’re wrong there,” and then he thought that, “Maybe, possibly I’m getting blasted because of something I did when I was a young boy,” Job 13:26, “You write bitter things against me and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.” “Maybe that’s it, and maybe it’s something that I can’t remember that I did when I was a kid. Maybe I stole a candy bar or told a lie or punched somebody in the nose. I don’t know.” He describes his situation, Job 13:25, “I’m driven like a drive shaft.” Job 13:27, “My feet are in stocks.” Job 13:28, “I’m like a moth-eaten rag.” Job 10:10, “I’m like curdled cheese. I haven’t sinned; show me.” His final conclusion, “Why do you suffer, then?” He says, “Here is the only thing I can come up with.” Listen to this reason. Job 9:17, “He bruises me with a tempest, multiplies wounds without cause.” There is no reason. “One day God woke up and decided to blast me, and He did, and there’s nothing I can do about it because He’s too strong. I can’t resist Him. But there’s no reason. I looked for a reason and Eliphaz, you are dead wrong, and so are you Bildad, and so are you, Zophar. You’re wrong, and I don’t know why. I think perhaps there is no reason; He just wanted to do it.”
Job 9:32, “He’s not a man as I am, that we may answer Him and we may go to court together.” “I’ve asked for a hearing; I want to meet with God. I’ve got my mouth full of arguments. I want to discuss, so He can tell me what is going on.” Job 10:3, “Is it right for You, indeed, to oppress, to reject the labor of Your hands, to look favorably on the skins of the wicked? Is it right?” And then Job comes right out and says it, Job 19:6, “Know then, God has wronged me; He’s closed His net around me.” “I’ll tell you what’s going on in my life. There’s no reason for it. God did it and is wrong. He shouldn’t have done it. How blind are they all because it’s a secret thing; it’s not been revealed. He can’t know. Zophar can’t know. Bildad can’t know. Eliphaz can’t know. Job can’t know because it’s hidden, and the secret belongs to God.”
Then Job says, “I think God has taken pleasure in target practice,” Job 7:20, “Why have You set me as Your target, so that I become a burden to myself?” So dark was Job’s soul at this time because he couldn’t come up with a solution for his suffering, it’s the opposite of Psalm 16:11, “In Your presence there’s fullness of joy.” You know that verse and that experience, “In His presence is fullness of joy.” But for Job, here is what he says, Job 7:16, “Leave me alone; my days are but a breath.” Job 7:20, “Will you not let my few days alone; withdraw from me, so I can have a little cheer.” He’s not looking for the presence of the Lord. He’s saying, “Please go away. I don’t want Your presence; it’s killing me. I don’t want it.” Job 6:9, “Would that God were willing to crush me, that He would loose His hand and cut me off.” “Kill me and get it over with. Stop having target practice. Stop playing with me; there’s no reason for this.” That’s what’s going on in Job’s heart.
Let’s get back, as we get ready to close, to the real question that needs to be answered. Is God enough when the hedge comes down? At this point, Job almost has the answer, but not quite. Here is Job’s answer at this point. It’s going to change. Here’s what it is at this point, “El Shaddai is enough. I’ve declared my faith. He’s enough if with Him I have an answer to my suffering.” He’s not enough alone; He’s enough plus, “I need Him and an explanation.” Just Him alone, he’s not there, yet, “I need Him plus an explanation why.” Is God enough when the hedge comes down? As we said last week, and I’ll say it again several times, if you know the Lord, you don’t need to know why. If I know the Lord, I don’t need to know why. Knowing Him is enough to know that the heart, the purposes and the mind of God is all for good; He has redemptive reasons for every detail in your life and in my life, and knowing God is enough, not God plus; not God plus obedience, not God plus faith, not God plus surrender, not God plus fasting, not God plus prayer, not God plus sacrifice, not God plus my answer. God alone, by Himself, only Him; He’s enough and He’s unqualifiedly enough.”
I just did an overview of this section. I wanted you to get the big idea, but I would suggest it would be profitable if you would go through it and ask the Lord, “What warnings can I get from looking at these debates?” I’m just going to machine gun; these are what I gleaned from these chapters. There’s the warning against partial truth, half truth. Eliphaz was really guilty of this. There’s a warning about debate becoming heated, into argument and losing your temper. Don’t forget, they came to comfort him, and they ended up slapping his face. This thing became very, very personal, and it led to scoffing. There’s a warning against scoffing. There’s a warning against thinking you have strong points and weak points. You don’t have strong and weak points; you’re all weak and there are no strong points. There’s a warning against flattery. Eliphaz especially is the flatterer, the psychologist. In chapter 4 he says, “You gave to the widow, you gave to the orphan, you gave to the poor person,” and he’s flattering him, and then when he comes to chapter 22, the same guy, he says, “You are suffering because you neglected the widow, you neglected the orphan, you neglected all of this social help for your neighbors.” Flattery is a warning against pride, warning against self-pity, warning against the futility of arguing, a warning against having your heart hardened, of accusing the Lord, of having hard thoughts against the Lord. But the chief warning in these approaches, that we will approach something that is not revealed, and we’ll come emotionally, psychology, and we’ll come dogmatically, “This is what the theologians say,” or we’re going to come in the love of wisdom, “Use your head. Think in through; God gave you a brain.” None of that is going to work. We need the revelation of the Lord.
So, let me close with where we’ve begun, Deuteronomy 29:29, “Secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and our sons, our children, forever that we may observe all of His Law.” If you don’t have it from Him, leave it alone. Trust Him. He’s only doing good in your life, and if it’s revealed, it belongs to us.
Heavenly Father, thank You for these chapters, even though there is so much that we can hardly even begin to look at it. Yet, Lord, it’s filled with warning and the foolishness of trying to pry into mysteries that You have not unveiled to us. Lord, forgive us and help us to trust You when things get confusing and mysterious, and thank You that You are always faithful and You will always be faithful. Make these things real in our hearts and lives. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
OVERVIEW OF THE CONTENTS OF THE BOOK OF JOB
I. THE PROSE INTRODUCTION (JOB 1 & 2)
II. THE POETRY SECTION (JOB 3-42:6)
THE THREE DEBATES BETWEEN JOB AND HIS FRIENDS (JOB 3-31)
ELIPHAZ
1. ELIPHAZ ROUND 1 (JOB 4 & 5); JOB’S REPLY (JOB 6-7)
2. ELIPHAZ ROUND 2 (JOB 15); JOB’S REPLY (JOB 16-17)
3. ELIPHAZ ROUND 3 (JOB 22); JOB’S REPLY (JOB 23-24)
BILDAD
1. BILDAD ROUND 1 (JOB 8); JOB’S REPLY (JOB 9-10)
2. BILDAD ROUND 2 (JOB 18); JOB’S REPLY (JOB 19)
3. BILDAD ROUND 3 (JOB 25); JOB’S REPLY (JOB 26-27)
ZOPHAR
1. ZOPHAR ROUND 1 (JOB 11); JOB’S REPLY (JOB 12-14)
2. ZOPHAR ROUND 2 (JOB 20); JOB’S REPLY (JOB 26-27)
ELIHU
ELIHU’S 3 SPEECHES (JOB 32-37) GOD’S RESPONSE (JOB 26-27)
III. THE PROSE CONCLUSION (JOB 42:7-17)