Book of Job

Yes, we are ready for Job chapter 15. We ended last time with some of the statements he made about the resurrection and knowing the time would come when God would call, he would answer, and God would continue his work in his life. Chapter 15, here you were kind of right in the middle of these, whatever you want to call them, debates that go back and forth, kind of point, counterpoint. We've had one round thus far of the friends, and now we're back to chapter 15, where we have a life-ass who was the one that led off way back about, what, chapter 4 or 5, and now he's going to continue on.

But, you know, in essence, their argument is kind of the same as that. We have followed all the way from that first chapter. Let's see, let me, not first chapter, but in chapter 4 verse 7, when he life-ass started, it really was kind of a summary of the approach that all three of the men were going to have, because in chapter 4 verse 7 he said, Remember now whoever perished being innocent, or where were the upright ever cut off?

So his argument is that the ones who were innocent don't suffer, and they sure don't perish. So in a nutshell, he's saying, Job, you did this to yourself, you're guilty, you need to get right with God, and get things turned around.

So we can go back to chapter 15, and this is going to be Eliaphas' second address. And again, remember, one man speaks, and then Job answers. And then the next man, and then Job answers. So back and forth, all the way through. So, 15 verse 1, Eliaphas the team and I answered and said, Should a wise man answer with empty knowledge and fill himself with the east wind?

Well, he doesn't spend much time, he doesn't waste much time. He just says, Job, you're full of hot air, you're a bag of wind. And so, he goes on and accuses Job of folly, of being just absurd. Verse 3, Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or by speeches with which he can do no good? Yes, you cast off fear and restrain prayer before God. Now, he makes that statement, I wonder, how does he know that?

I mean, Job's an upright, God-fearing man, a man who hates evil, and he's had his whole life turned upside down. And surely, he would go with what God said about him. He would have been a man who had cried out to God continually, and now he's accused of turning off prayer. Verse 5, For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty, your own mouth condemns you and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.

So, he's saying that I don't have to say much, because your own words are testifying against you, and they are condemning you before God. Are you the first man who was born, or were you made before the hills? Now, when you hear Eliphaz say this, having read through the whole book, all of us, who knows how many times, we can't help but think on down the line when God comes on the scene and when God begins speaking. This is kind of similar to what God says. Where were you when I was kind of hanging the universe out here?

Where were you when I was bringing everything together? So, verse 8, Have you heard the counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that's not in us? Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, much older than your father. So, here he plays that card that, you know, maybe one or more, maybe all three of them were older than Job.

They could easily have been. And that's one of the cards people will play. Well, hey, when you've been around as long as I do, you'll understand a few things. Well, there's young fools and they're old fools. So, all right. 11, Are the constellations of God too small for you? The words spoken gently with you? There's 13, That you turn your spirit against God and let your words go out of your mouth.

So, he's, he life as is concerned that God is listening to the words that come out of Job's mouth and his case is that Job is opposing God and God's will. Well, verse 14, What is man that he could be pure and he who is born of a woman that he could be righteous? If God puts no trust in his saints, now that probably is referring to angels. The heavens are not pure in his sight. How much less man who is abominable and filthy, who drinks iniquity like water? So, again, saints, and I think there are some translations. I failed to check which ones, but they render that as angels in reference to the angelic world.

So, he's saying if God doesn't include the angels in all aspects of his plan, how much less man? And, of course, the book of Hebrews said that man is a little lower than the angel for now. For now. Okay, verse 17, I will tell you, hear me, what I have seen I will declare what wise men have told, not hiding anything received from the fathers.

See, a lot of times they will appeal back to those who have lived before, that we have this whole weight of history testifying against you, Job, is what he's saying. To whom alone the land was given, and no alien passed among them, the wicked man rise in pain all his days.

Well, does the wicked man rise in pain all his days?

I mean, look at the world around us today. There are some you would say are very wicked, and they are prospering well. David in the Psalms cried out, oh, how does the wicked prosper?

And he saw these seeming injustices and inequities about life. Okay, verse, again, we need to just skim some of this. 21, dreadful sounds are in his ears.

In prosperity, the destroyer comes upon him. You know, there's a proverb says that the wicked flee when no man pursues, and he's kind of making a similar comment here. 24, trouble and anguish make him afraid. They overpower him like a king ready for battle. For he stretches out his hand against God and acts defiantly against the Almighty, running stubbornly against him with his strong, embossed shield. So he's saying, Job, you are defying God. You are not listening to God. You are not hearing God. You are not yielding to God. And he's all wet. He's wrong as he can be.

Verse 27, though he has covered his face with fatness and made his waist heavy with fat, he dwells in desolate cities and houses, in houses which no one inhabits, which are destined to become ruins. He will not be rich, nor will his wealth continue, nor will his possessions overspread the earth. Let him not depart from darkness. The flame will dry out his branches, and by the breath of his mouth he will go away. So, you know, same old diatribe here, fatness and the heavy waist speak of the prosperity of those who live in rebellion from God. And he's telling Job, you prospered, but now you've peaked out, and it's all downhill from here, because you're wicked and it's going to bring you down to nothing.

So, verse 30 we read the branches, the flame that burns them quickly and they disappear. 31. Let him not trust in futile things, deceiving himself, for futility will be his reward. So, he's saying, Job, you're trusting in self. You need to turn and trust in God.

33. He will shake off his unripe grape like a vine, and cast off his blossom like an olive tree. 34. The sinner's demise is going to be quick, speedy, and it will be something he did to himself.

35. For the company of hypocrites will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery.

And again, think of what happened to Job back in chapters 1 and 2. He's saying, the wrath of God, the fire of God, has destroyed every hand because you are wicked.

Okay, so that was Eliphaz's second speech. We've got one more time we'll hear from Eliphaz.

Now, Job gets his time. He has the next two chapters to reply. Basically, he goes back to his same approach, and he says, you know, my friends are miserable comforters. You're lousy physicians. You aren't healing me. You're making me a lot worse. And frankly, he had already said, I can't wait till I'm resting in my grave and be away from all this help, so-called.

So, verse 2, I have heard many things. Miserable comforters are you all. So, he's about had it too, and he's not tacked in diplomacy or going out the door with all of these men.

Shall words of wind have an end? So, Eliphaz told him, you're full of hot air, and so he's telling him the same thing. Or what provokes you that you answer? Well, verse 4, if I could speak as you do, if your soul were in my soul's place, I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you, but I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief. So, Job's saying, if, you know, one of those what-if situations, if the tables were turned, and you were suffering, and I was the one who came to you, I would try to give comfort. I would try to support. Well, verse 6, though I speak my grief is not relieved, if I remain silent, how am I eased? But now he has worn me out. He, notice the he, capitalized. Job quite often lashes out at the friends, but then he shifts back, and his accusations are really against God, that God is the one who is being unfair to me. God is the one who has destroyed everything that I had.

Excuse me. So, he has worn me out. You have made desolate all my company. You've shriveled me up. So, God wore me out, and you just made it worse, he's saying. Verse 9, he tears me in his wrath and hates me. Well, again, we get an insight that it's becoming more and more concerning. This man is openly judging God, and judging and condemning God's motives. God has not done this to him. God does not hate him. God is trying to bring about certain things that, frankly, Job's only going to see by hurting, by having trials. So, verse 10, they gave at me with their mouth. They strike me reproachfully on the cheek. They gather together against me. So, Job here is comparing God to beasts that would tear at him and gnash at his bones, and others gather and listen to the debate, perhaps, maybe as implied there. But, you know, in a limited sense, some places we have Job, like a lot of the Old Testament characters, serving in a limited sense as a type for Christ. Because here he talks about those that surround him. And, you know, there was a messianic prophecy in the Psalms, as far as the bulls of the Baytians surround me. And it was Christ, and very likely you had the demon world that he was aware of, who were there watching and, of course, egging everything on. Verse 11, God has delivered me to the ungodly and turned me over to the hands of the wicked. I was at ease, but he has shattered me. He also has taken me by my neck and shaken me to pieces. So, kind of like, if you've ever seen a little rat terrier, get a hold of a rat and just shake it, snap its neck, and all that. He set me up for his target, his archers surround me. So, again, look at all the lists that he's reading, motives he's reading into God's thinking. He's, you know, woe is me. He pierces my heart. Well, didn't Christ have his life's blood pierced and it poured forth? He pours out my gall on the ground. Now, there is a scripture as far as Christ's suffering that speak of that. He breaks me with wound upon wound. You know, with Christ, it was prophesied by Isaiah. He'd be marred more than any man. He runs at me like a warrior. So, again, just you guys are like God's archers who are coming and just shooting arrows into me. I have sewn sackcloth over my skin and laid my head in the dust. We talked about that before with being covered in boils and probably an ash heap was about the softest thing he could find. And he put on the clothing of mourning and probably looked like death. My face is flushed from weeping on my eyelids as the shadow of death. Although no violence is in my hands and my prayer is pure. Well, I wonder, with some of the attitudes coming out toward God, how pure was his prayer by this point? O earth, do not cover my blood and let my cry have no resting place. Surely even now my witness is in heaven. My evidence is on high. My friends scorn me. Well, again, think of messianic prophecies. All the disciples forsook him and fled when Christ was betrayed.

Okay. 21. O that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleads for his neighbor. And when a few years are finished, I shall go the way of no return. So, his life is short. Mine's going to end and I'm going to go where there's no return until God calls me back out once again. So, all right. Job is not through. We've got chapter 17.

He says, My spirit is broken. My days are extinguished. The grave is ready for me. So, it appears that he felt that his life was just about over, or at least so he thought. We know from the end of the book that God gave him another 140 years. So, verse 2, Are not mockers with me.

3. Now put down a pledge for yourself, for me with yourself. Who is he who will shake hands with me? And he's referring to the old practice of when you go and have a court case to be heard. Both parties would put down some surety. And then when the decision was rendered, then the monies would be given to whoever, or the promise of restoration of livestock, or whatever. But, you know, he's talking about God. And that he still wants that, as it were, that day in court with God.

Verse 6, But he has made me a byword of the people, and I become one in whose face men spit.

Well, again, Christ was spit upon during his suffering. My eye has also grown dim because of sorrow, and all my members are like shadows. Upright men are astonished at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the hypocrite. Yet the righteous will hold to his way, and he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger. So, I want to read just a couple of sentences from Matthew Henry on this passage here, verse 6 through 9. Matthew Henry's commentary said, The strength of religious principle is heightened by misfortune.

The pious take fresh courage to persevere from the example of suffering Job. The image here is from a warrior acquiring new courage and action. Someone who sees the valor and the bravery of someone else and is strengthened to stay in the struggle and to endure.

Verse 10, But please come back again, all of you. For I shall not find one wise man among you. My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart. Job is saying, if you really have anything to advance that's truly wise, then try again.

I'll listen and see if there's any wisdom in what you have to say.

Verse 13, If I wait for the grave as my house, if I make my bed in the darkness, if I say to corruption, You are my father, to the worm, he's talking about dying, to the worm, You are my mother, my sister. Where then is my hope? As for my hope, who can see it? Will they go down to the gates of Sheol? And that's a Hebrew word, the grave, technically the abode of the dead, but the grave, the tomb. Shall we have rest together in the dust? So again, he's waiting for that time when his life will end, and he'll just be freed from all of his suffering and rest in the grave.

And he feels he's close to the time when his bodily remains will be eaten up by worms. Okay, now we go to Bildad, his second address. And he tends to quote Proverbs, or quote from the ancients, the fathers, and so in chapter 18, how long will you put an end to words? Or how long till you put an end to words? Give an or gain understanding. Afterward, we'll speak. So he just jumps right on him, too, and says, Job, hush up and let us teach you.

Well, why are we counted as beasts and regarded as stupid in your sight? Well, Job could see that they were wrong. There were things Job didn't see yet about himself, but he could see his friends whole premise was wrong. Verse 5, The light of the wicked indeed goes out, The flame of his fire does not shine. The light is dark in his tent, and his lamp beside him is put out. Practice was in that ancient world to keep a candle burning all night. A little bit of security. If you had to get up, you could see something. But he's saying he'd rather do without food than the security of that little nightlight like we may have in our houses.

The steps of his strength are shortened, and his counsel casts him down.

Seems to be referring to imagined terrors and those who will pursue him. They change the night and the day. The light is near. They say in the face of darkness, for I wait for the grave. Wait a minute, I shifted to the wrong chapter here.

Well, it was good reading, anyhow.

I suppose to flip a page, and I didn't.

Okay, verse 8, For he's cast into a net by his own feet, he walks into a snare. The net takes him by the heel, and the snare lays hold of him. A noose is hidden for him on the ground. So again, he's just talking about these terrors that are there. In fact, he uses that word in verse 11. Terrors frighten him on every side and drive him to his feet. His strength is scarred. Okay, verse 14, He is uprooted from the shelter of his tent, and they parade him before the king of terrors. So, you know, Bill, that is saying, Job, you've lost all that you trusted in. Your children, your wealth, your health, your home, your property, it's all gone. It's all swept away. They dwell in his tent, who are none of his. Brimstone is scattering on his dwelling. So, brimstone, yeah. Ancient Sodom, when it was time for their sins to come down, God rained fire and brimstone on them, and he's likening Job's suffering. Maybe he's thinking, too. It depends on the timing of when the book of Job took place, whether it was before the time of Abraham and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities or not. I think we'll just skim a lot of this. He really doesn't add that much new. Let's see, we read 15. It just wraps it up in verse 21. Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him who does not know God. He says, at the end of his address, Job, you're wicked and you don't know God. Well, nice for him to have come to see you, isn't he?

Well, chapter 19, we have now Job has his one chapter reply back to Bildad, and this is a chapter where toward the end he states that I know that my Redeemer lives. So, he is one who had hope. He recognized there is a purpose, a plan beyond this physical existence.

So, Job answered, how long will you torment my soul and break me in pieces with words? These ten times you have reproached me, you are not ashamed that you have wronged me.

If indeed I have erred, my error remains in me. So, Job is implying that if I have erred, it's unconscious. It's not something that I intend or premeditated or plan to do.

In verses 6 and on, we have Job accusing God more so. He says that he has caught an aneth that he has not caught an aneth that he brought on himself, but God has done this evil to him. And again, we have to be concerned about his attitude of judging God. Verse 6, know then that God has wronged me. Ouch! Wow! Frightening to think about going down that road. And has surrounded me with his net. God has done this to me. Well, God is sovereign. God reigns over all, but he eased certain limitations and allowed Satan the devil to be the one to take the property and the livestock and the health of Job.

Verse 7, if I cry out concerning wrong, I'm not heard. If I cry aloud, there's no justice.

He has fenced up my way. So he's saying, God has fenced me in and set darkness around me.

So again, he's blaming it all on God. Verse 9, he, God, has stripped me of my glory and taken the crown from my head. So he's taken everything that I valued. Verse 10, he breaks me down on every side. I am gone. My hope, he has uprooted like a tree. It's like a tree in a storm that's just blown over and uprooted, torn out of the ground by its roots. Verse 11, he has also kindled his wrath against me, and he counts me as one of his enemies. No, God doesn't. God wants eternity for this man. God is not viewing Job as an enemy. Verse 12, his troops come together and build up their road against me. They encamp about my tent. So referring back to the ancient practice of an army, laying siege, and sometimes having to build this earthen dam to get up over the walls.

Verse 13, he has removed my brothers far from me, and my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. My relatives have failed. So he's been deserted by friends and families, and again, may in a limited sense here be foreshadowing what Christ would go through when all of his close associates would flee from him. Okay, the next verse is, he describes how his relatives, his friends, his servants, his wife have forsaken him. Young children despise him. He's shriveled down to skin and bones, and he's just barely clinging on to life.

Verse 20, my bone clings to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

I wonder if that's where our saying, the skin of the teeth, probably comes from right here.

Verse 21, have pity on me. Have pity on me, O you my friend. So he's pleading with them. I just want some comfort and support and some understanding. I don't want your condemnation. For the hand of God has struck me. Well, yes and no. God is working out a plan in this man's life, but Satan was the one who struck him. Okay. Okay. Why do you persecute me as God does?

Again, we see just the judging of God over and over. Are you not satisfied with my flesh?

O that my words were written that they were inscribed in a book. Well, boy, did he get his wish.

And if they were engraved on a rock, well, I don't know if they've been engraved on stone, but I don't know. But notice verse 25 fascinating verse. For I know that my Redeemer lives and he shall stand at last on the earth. You know, and that just ties in with the many scriptures that talk about Christ, the Redeemer, the Messiah, the Savior is going to come back here and his feet stand on the earth. So my Redeemer lives. Verse 26. After my skin is destroyed, this I know that in my flesh I shall see God. Well, boy, was he ever going to see God in the flesh much sooner than he probably was imagining. Whom I shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold and not another, how my heart yearns within me. If you should say, how shall we persecute him, since the root of the matter is found in me, be afraid of the sword for yourselves, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment. So his friends then will be able to see that Job's sufferings were not as a result of his sins. And finally, he sees that I would be vindicated in their sight. And he's saying, you guys will face the judgment of God. And why would they ever, as this book plays out? Okay, so that was Job's reply.

Let's keep going here. We have Zophar, and this is Zophar's second. And in his case, this will be his final address, because we'll go through Eliphaz and Bildad again.

And then when Job was responding over several chapters, it's kind of like he paused. And Zophar, at least to me, it seems like he probably was just so fed up, he had nothing else to say. And so he just passed. And Job kept on talking. So, chapter 20, Zophar, again, his last address, he reminds Job that he's reaping what the wicked reap. Zophar, the name of Thine answered and said, Therefore my anxious thoughts make me answer, because of the turmoil within me. So it's like these guys are just getting all worked up as they hear one of the friends make his appeal, and then Job, and they don't understand. They get matter and matter. I have heard the rebuke that reproaches me, and the spirit of my understanding causes me to answer. So he says, I can't sit here any longer. I'm not going to listen to your mocking. I'm going to speak my peace. Verse 4, Do you not know this of old, since man was placed on earth, but the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment.

Well, again, this is the approach of all three. The wicked are going to pay for it soon. The righteous will have health and wealth and all kinds of good things, and they don't understand.

He says, you guys don't get it. My complaint is not against man.

Excuse me, I'm skipping down here in my notes in another place.

He goes back to the same old mantra that wicked sinners and hypocrites try it for a little while.

Verse 6, Though his haughtiness mounts up to the heavens and his head reaches the clouds, yet he will perish forever like his own refuse. Those who have seen him will say, where is he? So he's making the case that in time the wicked will be brought down. And you know, it is a true saying, but it may not be in this life that they're brought down. They will face a judgment of God. Yeah. How many people have we known that have been wicked?

Evils? Just terrorized people, and they lived a long, prosperous life. But they still have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ one of these days.

Okay, verse 8 He'll fly away like a dream, not be found. It'll be chased away like a vision of the night. So he kind of tied in with what Bill Dad said about these night terrors that are going to terrorize him. The eye of him that saw him will see him no more, nor will his place behold him anymore. His children will seek the favor of the poor, and his hands will restore his wealth.

His bones are full of his youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in the dust.

Here he's saying that his children are going to beg for a living, like the poor in time.

Verse the children of the wicked, that is, that are going to be brought down.

Let's come on down here.

He kind of goes on the same thing as far as the evil that's going to come upon the wicked.

Verse 16. He will suck the poison of cobras, and the viper's tongue shall slay him.

He will not see the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream. He will restore that for which he labored, and will not swallow it down.

From the proceeds of business, he will get no enjoyment.

Well, so far as saying that the the enjoyment of ill-gotten gain is going to come to an end.

Well, verse 19. For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. You know, he's talking about Job here.

You know, he's just launching an attack, and he's saying that Job, you have oppressed people, and you have forsaken the poor. You haven't fed those that needed help.

He has violently seized a house which he did not build.

But Job did not do that.

Well, verse 20. Because he knows no quietness in his heart, he will not save anything he desires. Nothing is left for him to eat. Therefore, his well-being will not last. In his self-sufficiency, he will be in distress. There's 23. When he is about to fill his stomach, God will cast on him the fury of his wrath, and will reign on him while he is eating.

He will flee from the iron weapon, and the bronze bow will pierce him through. It is drawn and comes out of the body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his gall. Terrors come upon him. Total darkness is reserved for his treasures. He paints a picture of God drawing the sword and running him through with a mortal blow.

And all of this, these terrors that come upon him because he is wicked. And brought it on himself. And then he goes on with the picture here of verse 20. See, 26 in the middle, it says, an unfanned flame will consume him. 27, the heavens will reveal his iniquity. The earth will rise against him. So this unfanned flame will not be kindled by man, but rather by God himself. And so he's saying the whole creation is proclaiming your guilt, Job. And again, this is the last we hear from so far. 21, we have one chapter where Job answers, and then this ends round two of the debates. 21, Job answered and said, listen carefully to my speech. Let this be your consolation.

So he said, let me take a break. Let me have a say, and then you can continue in your mocking. Bear with me that I may speak and after I've spoken, keep mocking. So, you know, they pulled off the gloves long ago, and they're going for each other's throat.

As for me, is my complaint against man? If it were, why should I not be impatient? He said, you guys don't understand. If my complaint was just against a human being, I'd realize I've got to be patient with man.

But he says, my complaint is against God, and God is unjustly punishing me.

Look at me and be astonished. Put your hand over your mouth. Even when I remember I'm terrified, trembling takes hold of my flesh.

Why do the wicked live and become old? Yes, become mighty in power. And you know, Job was right on. Yes, that's what he said there.

Well, David, Psalm 73, about the first 10-12 verses there, David talks about how does the wicked prosper.

You know, look at the biblical examples.

How wealthy was Pharaoh? How wealthy was Nebuchadnezzar?

How wealthy was Shalmaneser? You know, all these great kings, and ruled over a lot of people.

Now, verse 8, their descendants are established with them in their sight. Their offspring before their eyes, their houses are safe from fear. Neither is the rod of God upon them. God's hands off. God allows them to live out their life. And God's not dealing with them at that particular time. And so what Job is saying here is right and true.

Verse 10, their bulls breed without failure. Their cow calves without miscarriages. So their cattle breed, conceived, give birth. They prosper. No problem. But then the righteous person might have cattle where they can't properly conceive or have difficulty in bearing the calves.

They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. They sing to the tambourine, and harp, and rejoice to the sound of the flute. So he's talking about the children of these wicked, and that they rejoice and feast, and have no fear of calamity coming upon them like Job's children had come upon them.

They spend their days in wealth. And in a moment, go down to the grave, because it's appointed all that wants to die.

Now, in verse 14, yet they say to God, depart from us.

For we do not desire the knowledge of your ways.

All this, and they have no desire for God.

They don't want God in their life. They don't want God's law reigning over them. Well, through verse 21, basically Job is refuting their claim that the sinner's prosperity is short-lived.

Verse 15, who is the Almighty, that we should trust Him? Again, the wicked, and what they may say or think.

Indeed, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked is far from Me. How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does their destruction come upon them? The sorrows of God distribute in His anger. They are like shof before the wind, and like shof before the wind, and shof that the storm carries away.

They say God lays up one's iniquity for His children, let Him recompense Him, that we may know Him. Well, again, you know, Bildad had likened them to being like stubble that burned up quickly, but sinners often prosper for a long, long time.

Unless God decides otherwise, they may let them live out their life in prosperity. Okay.

Verse 22, Can anyone teach God knowledge, since He judges those on high?

One dies in his full strength, being holy at ease and secure. His pails are full of milk, and the marrow of his bones is moist.

Another man dies in the bitterness of his soul, never having eaten with pleasure. They lie down alike in the dust, and worms cover them. So, drawing the contrast here, that some live out their life, and they prosper, and then others, they live out life, and they have a lot of bitterness, but at the same end, they're all going to die, and they're going to be covered up.

Jameson, Fawcett, and Brown commentary on this verse 22 says, In all these assertions, as though what Job was saying, in all these assertions, you try to teach God how He ought to deal with men, rather than prove that He does, in fact, so deal with them.

Experiences against you. God gives you prosperity and or adversity as it pleases Him, not as man's wisdom would have it on principles inscrutable to us.

And there's a lot to that. God has mercy upon whom He has mercy.

God calls whomever He decides to call. God may allow people to live their entire lifetime with no knowledge of Him. And then again, God may, because of some wickedness, may bring a calamity upon that person. And then we don't, we really don't know. Okay. 20... we read 26.

We all die. And Job's saying it had nothing to do with individual character.

27. Look, I know your thoughts and the schemes with which you would wrong me. For you say, where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent? The dwelling place of the wicked? Have you not asked those who travel the road? Do you not know their signs? For the wicked are reserved for the day of doom. This will be brought out on the day of wrath.

There's 31. Who condemns his way to his face? Who repays him for what he has done? So he's saying if sinners have a future punishment coming, they are going to be held accountable. It may not come in this life. They may live out life and die and go to their grave, and everyone else is going to join them in due time.

33. The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. Everyone shall follow him, as countless have gone before him. But he must be a thousandemaker and will be given 6 prominent yeus throughout his hand and one to rest his friends. 35. Thezyme is also weak by human weight, and corn is loverly. Three more studies. We'll have round three of the debate, then we'll have Elihu. And well we actually might spend more than one on whenever God comes on the scene and starts speaking because it's just phenomenal what is written there whenever God comes. To me, it's just chilling to me. You get there to Elihu who starts in 32, and then God comes on the scene in 38. But in 37, Elihu is making all these references to this storm, and it's like this lightning, like this storm is about to blow over them. And then, chapter 38, God begins speaking from the storm. And everybody is very quiet. So, okay, any other Bible questions? We've got a little time here.

You know, it seems like they first went there with the right intentions. They met together, they went together, they just were so overwhelmed, they sat there for seven days and said nothing. And then Job, I mean by this time, Job, and we don't know how many weeks his whole agony had gone on with the loss of his family, but he just goes off like a pressure cooker all of a sudden, and then it's like it triggered them that they had to just... They called him what? So, that's a good point. They went, when they meekly went there to just support and give comfort, fine. But then it was like they turned to the dark side. They turned on him. They turned on him, right. They had good intentions, but you know... It is. That's a good point. Ray said it is in human nature to judge one another and judge God. We're seeing that coming out of Job the further we get into this.