Book of Job

We're going to spend time in chapter 2, and then we'll introduce the three friends who came. Then we're still going to try to get through about five chapters, but after that we need to really hit high points here and there as we get into the other dialogues that we have. So, in chapter 2, again, the first chapter we had the story of Satan going to God, and God allowed God to restrict that protective hedge, and allowed Satan to actually take away everything that Job owned. Basically, children, his livestock. So many of his servants were killed. So he was in pretty sorry state at just 1, 2, 3, 4. Bam, bam, bam. He got reports from one of his servants. So in chapter 2, we go back to a scene at the heavenly throne of God once again. And in chapter 2, again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. So here is the second time the sons of God have to be referring to the angelic created sons of God. Not human beings, but angels. Verse 2, the Lord said a similar question that he asked in the first chapter, and Satan's similar answer was somewhat evasive and didn't really answer the question from going to and fro on the earth and walking back and forth on it. And that just reminds us, he is on the prowl, he is on the job, and his express reason to be here is to trip up the people of God, to disrupt the work that God's people are trying to do. And he's not going to give up.

And we love to have that written on our tombstones, but we're not in a hurry to have that tombstone etched. And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you, Satan, incited me against him to destroy him without cause. So again, God is the one who said, this is an upright man. He's blameless. But you see, God is in charge throughout all of this. God brings up Job's name again, and he says that he is complete.

He is blameless. He fears God, hates evil. And anyhow, this, what God said about Satan went right over the head of what God said about Job to Satan went right over Satan's head. He holds fast to his integrity, and we begin to see a little bit, a little glimpse of where God is going to go with this whole scenario. There are things that Job doesn't perceive yet about himself, and God is going to refine the product here.

Verse 4, so Satan answered the Lord and said, skin for skin, yes, all that a man has he will give for his life, but stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse you to your face. Well, last chapter he said, relieve the protective heads, and he will react this way. Now he says you touch his body. So, again, God allows Satan to do that. Now, we should note here, we have in the Christian world around us a popular false gospel.

Just simply put, it's the health and wealth gospel. There are those who teach that if you obey God, it will pay you well. You will get money. You will get blessings. But throughout the Bible, we are assured that all who live godly shall suffer persecution. And we are assured it is through much tribulation we're going to enter the kingdom. So, reality is, and that's part of what this book addresses for us. It lays it out on the table.

The righteous, those who strive to obey God, suffer. And we go through great periods of affliction and grief, but again, God's looking at the desired end result. And, okay, we read, yes, through verse 5. So, then we have verse 6, The Lord said to Satan, Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life.

So, you can do whatever you want to him, but don't kill him. And boy, did this man ever suffer. So, Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

And he took for himself a pot-shirt, I suppose, a little piece of broken pottery, a little piece of pottery, and scraped himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes. And a pile of ashes is just about as soft a substance as you're going to find anywhere. But, again, God throughout is in charge. Satan did not sucker God into doing something. God is sovereign here, and he is the one, in one sense, kind of setting the stage by saying to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job?

So, we find in verse 9, we have an example of how not to be one spouse to support the other. Then his wife said to him, Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die. You know, here he is at his lowest point. He had lost ten children, but, you know, she had two. And they had lost all their animals, which was the representation of their wealth at that time, and she'd lost it, too. And now Job is in a horrible physical state, and what he needs is a spouse to be there with him to face the battle with him, to be there right there at his side.

But she says, Just curse God and die. Get it over with. But he said to her, You speak as one of the foolish women. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity? In all this Job did not sin with his lips. Now notice it says, With his lips. We do not know everything that may be percolating in his mind. And we're going to see that he's going to be maintaining his own rightness, and he wants his day in court with God just to make his case.

So there are some things that weren't the way they ought to be as far as the way he was thinking. Now, verse 11. We have three friends. When Job's three friends heard of all his adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place. Now let's pause with each name. We've got some clues as far as who they may have been and where they may have come from, at least with the first two men. But then it says, For they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him and to comfort him. Well, they did anything but comfort him. They did a pretty good job for seven days just being there and mourning with him, but they weren't very good comforts.

So it says, Eliphaz the Temonite. Now let's keep your place there, but let's look back in Genesis 36. We'll first read verse 1 and then go to verse 4 and then some others. Genesis 36 focuses upon Esau, who is also known as Edom, and the descendants that came from him. Verse 1, now this is the genealogy of Esau, who is Edom. And so the land of Edom is referred to in the Bible, and sometimes it's called the land of Irumia.

I-D-U-M-E-A-M. That's all the same place, same region where the descendants of Esau lived. It mentions wives he took, but notice verse 4. Now Eda bore Eliphaz to Esau. Now let's go down and look at verses 10 and 11. Verse 10, these were the names of Esau's sons. Eliphaz the son of Eda, the wife of Esau, and Ruel the son of Bezimath, the wife of Esau. And the sons of Eliphaz were Timon. And this is as far as we need to read, because Eliphaz the Timonite.

Then verse 15, these were the chiefs of the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz, the first-born of Esau, were chief Timon, chief Omar. That name Omar doesn't go away, does it? It's still around. Chief Zepho, chief, well, it goes on with the names of the other sons, who became family tribal leaders, chiefs. So here's a little bit that we see that may be this very man. It's generally thought that it is that Eliphaz was a son of Esau. And I think I mentioned last time that these men, certainly the first two, we don't know that much about the third one, but they are Abrahamites, but not through Israel.

So this man, it appears, may well be of the line of Esau, Jacob's brother. The next man is going to be from a family line that came through Abraham's second wife, Khatira. So descendants of Abraham, but not specifically descendants through Jacob or Israel. Okay, so that's Eliphaz. Now, Eliphaz, the word means, to whom God is strength. To whom God is strength. Now, we will see, as we get into the three series of debates from these men, each one will speak and Job will answer.

Well, Job starts and then Eliphaz speaks, then Job answers. Then the next man, then Job. Then the third man, then Job. And then you go through almost three full cycles of that. But Eliphaz seems to be the one who takes the lead.

He is mentioned first, but he also speaks first. And maybe he's older. Maybe he had a position where the others just naturally deferred to him. But he is the most tactful and diplomatic friend. He will make his case in a certain way, but then the next man, old Bill Dad, just jumps on.

And then Zophar, when he comes in, he jumps on and lays the spurs to him. But this Eliphaz is pretty careful and tactful about what he says and how he says it. The next name back in Job, and we'll be right back to Genesis, but the next name in Job is Bill Dad the Shoe Height.

Bill Dad the Shoe Height. Now, somebody from the Peanut Gallery in Madison the other night had to point out that this is the shortest man in the Bible. He's only as tall as a shoe, but I had to bring it up here, I guess. And then the second shortest man I learned is Nehemiah. He's only... Yeah. Okay.

Enough of that digression. Genesis 25. We have a little bit here we can look at with regard to the shoe heights who would come from the line of one called Shua. Shua. Genesis 25, verse 1, Abraham again took a wife and her name was Katera. She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbach, and Shua. And again, the basic thinking and the commentaries I've checked, they say the shoe heights as a people are descendants from this man Shua. Now down to verse 5, and he was from the land of Uz. This would tie in where these other descendants of Abraham, he sent them off to the east to get them away from Isaac.

Now, Bildad as a name means son of contention. Son of contention. And he's going to approach a lot of his counsel based on tradition. He's going to refer back to the fathers said this and the fathers know that. Okay, then we are back to Job, and we're through in Genesis at this point. The third friend's name was Zophar the Nehemathite. And we really don't know that much about him. But Zophar as a word means chatters. And he has a very strict legalistic view of God in the way that he speaks of God when he addresses Job and just piles on from what the other fellows had already said.

Well, in verses 12 and 13 here of Job 2, And when they raised their eyes from afar and did not recognize him, Well, again, here's this man they probably their whole life had known him. He was wealthy, had all these servants, thousands of head of various types of livestock, And now he's out there, and he is...we just can't relate to it. Has anyone ever had a serious boil? I am told that they're horrible. But to think of it from the soul of your foot to the crown of your head, I just cannot relate to it. I don't think we can understand the agony this man felt to go out and find a pile of ashes, wood ashes, And lie down to have a little bit of relief.

Okay. They at least...well, they didn't recognize him. They lifted up their voices and wept. Obviously they cared for the man, and it would just be overwhelming. And each one tore his robe. You see that biblically a number of times. The Jews would just rip their clothing. I mean, the Jews to this day, on some occasions, And sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven.

So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, And no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great. And you know, there's a lot of wisdom to that. There are times we have friends, we have loved ones, We have family members who are in horrible agony. And we all struggle with...what do we say? You go see somebody like that. What do you say to kind of encourage them and build them up? And sometimes there's not anything we can say, but if we go there, They know we cared enough to take time out of our life to go and be there with them.

And that can have a lot of value. Okay, any thoughts there on chapter 2 before we start, When we go on to where Job just kind of exploded all of a sudden? Yeah, I was reading one of those translations of the Bible, So you still hold to your integrity. Good thought. Well, if we can kind of imagine the scene in a short period of time, And we don't know how long it went. There's a place here where Job will use the word months. Now, having the boils apparently had just been this brief period of time, But we don't know across how many months it may have been whenever he had livestock, Children, and all that swept away.

But here's a man in the most horrible situation, And yet God said he was upright, just, and he didn't sin with his lips. And then all of a sudden we get to chapter 3, And it's like the pressure cooker goes off, and the lid blows off. So Job says, After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth, And Job spoke and said, May the day perish on which I was born, And the night in which it was said a male child is conceived. So as they wait, all of this frustration just suddenly boils over in verse... Let's see... Oh, I wanted... I had a note here. I wanted to make note as we get to verse 3.

In most of our Bibles, it's going to be placed in kind of a poetic form. In the first two chapters, it's more of a dialogue, And now it shifts to, and the rest of it, through. Several verses in the chapter 42. I mean, if your Bible is formatted like mine, you can go all the way through, And it's laid out just, you know, these two verses, or two stanzas in each verse, And it's in a poetic form that, again, sadly, that's one of the things that we lose in translation from one language to the next.

So much, if a person was able to read it in the Hebrew and comprehend it, And the Psalms, there'd be so much poetic beauty that we just... we miss it. But at least I wanted to point that out, because this is a list of...

This is among the writings, but specifically called the Wisdom Books, But also some are called the Poetry Books. Alright, verse 3 we read. Verse 4, may the day be darkness, may God above not seek it, nor the light shine upon it. May darkness and the shadow of death claim it.

So he's going to go over and over back to the fact that, why was I even born alive? Why wasn't I just stillborn? He'll say that here in a little bit. Verse 7, oh, may that night be barren, may no joyful shout come into it again, talking about the night in which he was born. May those cursed it who curse the day, those who are ready to arouse Leviathan, We'll come back to Leviathan later in the book.

May the stars of its morning be dark, may it look for light, but have none, and not see the dawning of the day. Let's skip down to verse 11. Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came out of the womb?

Why did the knees receive me? Why the breasts that I should nurse? For now I would have lain still been quiet. I would have been asleep. I would have been at rest. So if I had been stillborn, I would have been sleeping in the grave all this time, and I wouldn't be going through this agony. So you see his mind is focused on himself, and yet I can't imagine how it could be any other way with what he's going through.

Verse 14, with the kings and counselors of the earth who built ruins for themselves, or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. So all these others who have lived, they would be in the grave resting too, and he'd be there among them. 16. Why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like infants who never saw light?

Verse 17. They're the wicked cease from troubling, and they're the weary are at rest. So it's as though he envies death and the rest that it would bring. The respite from all of his woes. Down to verse 18. They're the prisoners rest together. They do not hear the voice of the oppressor. The small and great are there. Again, he's talking about the grave, and it's interesting that late in Revelation 20, that same phrase is used.

The graves will be opened, and the dead will stand. The small and great will stand there before God. 20. Why is light given to him who is in misery and life to the bitter of soul, who long for death and it does not come? Okay. 23. Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden and whom God has hedged in?

Because God had placed that protective hedge around him. For my sighing comes before I eat, and my groanings pour out like water for the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet. I have no rest, for trouble comes. Well, here he's beginning to imply that God is guilty of cruelty, if not injustice in the way he's being dealt with.

God has done all of this to me, and God is not fair, and God is not handling my life with fairness. He feels he doesn't deserve what he's suffering. He's tired of it. He said he's weird with all of this. Okay, that's Job's opening salvo.

And then you've got three friends who came to mourn and to comfort, and they had done a pretty good job for seven days and seven nights, but now they're going to start talking, and it's going to go the wrong way fast. So here we begin. We've got a couple of chapters of Eliphaz's first message. And basically, in a nutshell, he's saying, Job, you have sinned. You have done this to yourself. In a nutshell, that's pretty much the argument throughout.

So, Eliphaz the Temonite answered and said, If one attempts a word with you, will you become weary? Well, Job had just said that he was tired of all this, and Eliphaz is going to jump right on with both feet. But who can withhold himself from speaking? You know, he's again, I came here, I've been here supporting my friend, but after hearing this, I can't be quiet any longer.

And boy, when he gets started, and he's softer than the others, surely you have instructed many, and you have strengthened weak hands. So he does applaud what he knows Job has done. Your works have upheld him who was stumbling. You have strengthened the feeble knees. Verse 5, But now it comes upon you, and you are weary. It touches you, and you are troubled. Is not your reverence your confidence? And the integrity of your way is your hope.

Alright, now verses 7, 8, 9. These verses can pretty much be said to be the SPS, the specific purpose statement of the arguments of all three, because they are basically going to be saying, The innocent do not suffer like you are, Job. Therefore, you are not innocent. You are a sinner, and you need to repent. You brought all this on yourself. That is in a nutshell what they are going to say. For all these chapters until Elihu, finally somebody in the man Elihu begins making a little bit of sense.

Verse 7, Remember now, Whoever perished being innocent, well that is a true saying, but it is the way he is applying this. There is not a man who has lived who has not sinned. We know that from all the Scripture references and from knowing ourselves. Or where were the upright ever cut off? Well, lots of times. Look at Psalms of David, times when he says, They are out to get me, that those in my own family are after me.

From one end of the Bible to the other, Abel, Christ looked back and said, From the blood of righteous Abel. So he probably was the first one who really walked the way that God wanted a person to walk. And he paid for it with his life. So, verse 8, Even as I have seen those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. So in so many words, he's saying, You're getting a lot of trouble, so you sowed that, and now it's being heaped back on you.

By the blast of God they perish. So his friend is saying, You're in this miserable state because God's after you. God's punishing you. But we haven't benefited knowing the rest of the story, and the rest of the story tells us the God of this world. Satan the devil was the one who was doing what was done to Job. And by the breath of his anger they are consumed.

The roaring of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions are broken. The old lion perishes for lack of prey. The cubs of the lionesses are scattered. The lion here is used to represent the wicked. The wicked here on verse 11, Albert Barnes in his commentary says, That when the old lion is destroyed, the young ones flee and are unable to resist.

So it is with men. When the divine judgments come upon them, they have no power to make successful resistance. God has them under control, and he comes forth at his pleasure to restrain and subdue them, as he does wild beasts of the desert.

Now, in verse 12, Eliphaz turns down another path, and he has seen a nightmare, a night vision. And he's taking that nightmare, that dream that he had, and he's applying it to Job, of all things. So verse 12, Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it.

In disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. Then a spirit passed before my face, the hair on my body stood up. Well, if a demon was there, in his, likely a demon was there, to disrupt his sleep, and to cause him, or to bring about these strange things that he experienced, that there's no reason he should have asked God to rebuke the demon, the demonic presence, but he takes all of this that happens, and he applies it to Job.

It stood still, I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes, there was silence, and then I heard a voice saying, Can a mortal be more righteous than God? So he's quoting his dream, and this spirit speaking from the dream, and he's saying to Job, essentially, You're mortal, and you're making yourself more righteous than God. And you know, in part, that's truthful. As we go through these debates, we can't dismiss everything that he life as, and the other two say, because they will be right on with some statements, but then often it's the way they apply it.

Can a man be more pure than his maker? So he's saying, Job, you see yourself as being purer than God. If he puts no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before a moth, they are broken in pieces from morning till evening, they perish forever with no one regarding.

Their own excellence go away. They die even without wisdom. So, life as and the others do not understand why humans suffer, and they do not understand specifically why the righteous suffers. God is refining, he is more finely honing the tools that he wants to use throughout eternity.

We are tried, we are tested, and we will suffer affliction to perfect that character. But he is implying that Job is suffering because he is a wicked sinner. But he's not through. Chapter 5. Call out now. Is there anyone who will answer you? To which of the Holy Ones will you turn? So, it reads as though as if they are in a court proceeding.

He's saying, life as is saying to Job, just call your witnesses and let's see if anybody will have anything to say on your behalf. Who would possibly even stand in your defense? Let's see. Read all of this. Verse 4. His sons are far from safety, they are crushed in the gate, there is no deliverer. Ouch! Because here you're talking to a man who in recent maybe weeks, maybe months, here's a man who has lost 10 children, and he brings in, to me it's pretty low, he brings in his sons are far from safety, they are crushed in the gate, there is no deliverer.

He's suggesting that Job, your children died because of you. And that's pretty low. That's pretty, well, he just doesn't understand. Because the hungry eat up his harvest, taking it even from the thorns, the snare snatches their substance. Verse 6. Affliction does not come from the dust. In other words, you're afflicted, it had to come from somewhere, you brought it on yourself. Notice trouble sprang from the ground, yet a man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward. But as for me, I would seek God. So now he's saying, well, if I were you, I would repent.

But you know, God himself said he's a blameless man, an upright man. And so here we have Eliphaz up on his high horse. And to God I would commit my cause, who does great things and unsearchable marvelous things without number. He gives rain on the earth and send waters on the fields.

So he's saying, if you'll just repent and turn to God, then God will start doing all these wonderful things for you again. Verse 12, he frustrates the devices of the crafty. Notice verse 13, he catches the wise in their own craftiness. Now that's that phrase the Apostle Paul quoted in 1 Corinthians 3 verse 19. 1 Corinthians 3 verse 19. But Paul didn't say it came from Job. He says, well, as it is written. And then he quoted it. Alright.

Verse 17, behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore we do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. This thought we find in Proverbs 3. We also find it in Hebrews 12. We're probably more familiar with the statement in Hebrews 12. As far as whom the Lord loves, he chastens, scourges every son whom he receives. Well, the thought comes from this verse 17. Verse 18, for he bruises, but he binds up. He wounds, but his hands make whole.

19, he shall deliver you in six troubles, in seven no evil shall touch you. So again, all these wonderful things God will do if you just repent and turn back to God. In famine, he shall redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, and you shall not be afraid of destruction when it comes. You shall laugh at destruction in famine. You shall not be afraid of the beasts of the field.

Well, verse 23, for you shall have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you. So he's saying, Job, when you get yourself turned around and get right with God, even the fields and the animals, the wild beasts, are going to be at peace with you. Everything will be alright. So it's the health wealth gospel that you hear around here today, which tells us the same old author is still around, inspiring that.

You shall know that your tent is in peace. You shall visit your dwelling and find nothing amiss. You shall know that your descendants shall be many. Again, ouch! The man just lost ten children. But you get right with God, you're going to have lots of kids. The really ironic thing is that what he's saying did happen. He got ten kids back, and he got twice as many of the various types of livestock. But not for the reason that life has thought. Your offspring shall be like the grass of the earth. You'll come to the grave at a full age, and at the end of the book he saw his children to his great-grandchildren, or was it great-great? Anyhow, we'll see it. He does. He lives 104 years, and he sees at least his great-grandchildren. And it may be his great-great. Behold, verse 27, we have searched out, it is true, hear it, and know it for yourself. Ouch! We've gotten our heads together. Job, you're wrong. You need to repent. You need to go back to God. You better listen to it. You better know this is true. Well, no wonder at the end of the book God says to the friends, you know, if my servant Job will sacrifice and pray for you, I will forgive.

Well, then we have Job's response. Again, each one in turn speaks, and then Job replies. Then Job answered and said, O that my grief were fully weighed, and my calamity laid with it on the scales. So, he's saying if all the anger and grief were weighed against the calamities that I am enduring, the suffering would far outweigh the anger, the grief.

It would be heavier than the sand of the sea. Therefore my words have been rash, for the arrows of the Almighty are within me. Uh-oh. We're beginning to see Job is believing God did this to me. My spirit drinks in their poison, the terrors of God are arrayed against me. Well, God is punishing him without reason, so Job thinks. And, uh, says God is shodding with arrows, poisoned him, and sent night terrors upon him. Well, verse 5, does the wild donkey bray when it has grass? Does the ox low over its fodder? Well, yeah. Sometimes these wild animals just make noise, and there's no known reason. And if you've ever had a neighbor who's had donkeys around somewhere, they just go off once in a while and just make racket. So, can flavorless food be eaten without salt, or is there any taste in the white of an egg? My soul refuses to touch them. They're as loathsome food to me. It probably hurt Job to try to even eat anything. But, you know, he was...maybe he wasn't even eating anything at all. But some things go together like salt with a bland, say, vegetable. Just a little bit of salt enhances the flavor, makes it more palatable.

But reality is that his suffering...he's saying his suffering doesn't fit his life. And he says that he has every right to pray, or to lo, like a donkey or an ox. Okay, verse 8, he goes back to just this wishing God would just let him die. Verse 8 and 9. 10 and 11. Then I would still have comfort, though in anguish I would exalt. He will not spare, for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One. What strength do I have that I should hope? And what is my end that I should prolong my life? So he continued, he professes openly the existence of God. And we've been told he has not cursed God. He has not sinned against God with his lips. But he's getting on thin ice with some of the things that he has said, just said. Verse...let's see here...let's go down to verse 14. To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. Yeah, and that's a pretty good point. That if you, as a friend, go to someone who is in a horrible state of affliction, what he needs is kindness. He needs love. Maybe there's things physically we can do for him, and he certainly needs our prayers and our support. But even if he has forsaken the fear of God, which Job has not, but even in that case, he still needs the comfort of a friend, the kindness of a friend. My brothers have dealt deceitfully like a brook, like the streams of the brooks that pass away, which are dark because of the ice and into which the snow vanishes. When it is warm, they cease to flow. What is talking about the streams, the brooks that come down from the mountains, and sometimes you'll have rains, and you'll have the flash floods, and the water's all churning, and sometimes in the winter it's the melting ice. It's cold.

Let's see, verse 19, the caravans of Timah look, the travelers of Sheba hope for them, but they are disappointed because they were confident. They come there and are confused. For now you are nothing. You see terror and are afraid. Verse 22, did I ever say, bring something to me or offer a bribe for me from your wealth? It says to his friends, I have not yet asked one thing from you. You came on your own, and in short order you began to pile on and lay into me, or deliver me from the enemy's hand, or redeem me from the hand of the oppressors. Verse 24, teach me, and I will hold my tongue. So he says, the Eliphaz, you haven't said anything yet, but if you have anything of value, say it, and I'll sit quiet and listen. And you know, it's interesting that late in the book when God started speaking, he put his hand over his mouth and he just hushed up, and he did this, and because you finally had the Creator himself come on the scene. Cause me to understand wherein I have heard how forceful are right words, but what does your arguing prove? Do you intend to rebuke my words and the speeches of a desperate one, which are as wind? Yes, you overwhelm the fatherless, and you undermine your friend. Now therefore be pleased to look at me, for I would never lie to your face. And that makes me wonder if he looked so bad in his affliction that they really just couldn't make eye contact. But it's like he's saying, look me in the eye. Because you know, you look in somebody's eyes, you can read. A lot of times you can read what is in the mind.

The speeches of a desperate one, which are as wind.

Verse 30, is there injustice on my tongue? Can my taste discern the unsavory?

Be men, look me in the eye.

Go back to your argument, help me to see how I'm sinning, if I really am. Try harder to make your case. Alright, Chapter 7, we'll come in a little here. Chapter 7, is there not a time of hard service for man on earth? Are not his days also like the days of a hired man? So man, for so many years, has worked as a servant or an employee. So many hours of the day, we have the parable of the vineyard. He went out and hired men early in the morning. Three hours, end of the day, six, nine, eleven. So there are certain expectations that you go out and you work, and then there comes a time to rest from your labor. You get to a rest. Of course, he's going to lead this to his sufferings. Verse 3, so I have been allotted months of futility. This is one place that might seem to indicate that this is going on for some time. Not the state here on the ashes with the boils, but the sum total of all that he had lost. Been going on for a while. Months of futility and wearisome nights have been appointed to me. When I lie down, I say, when shall I arise? And the nights be filled, for I have had my fill of tossing till dawn. My flesh is caked with worms and dust. My skin is cracked and breaks out afresh. So, in one sense, no wonder his friends probably weren't looking him in the eyes. It was painful for them to even look and see what he looked like. My days are swifter than the weavers' shuttle. If you've ever watched someone with a weaving machine, and they've got that shuttle, if they zip back and forth and pull it forward and throw it back, and that shuttle goes back and forth and back and forth so fast. So he says, my days are like that and are spent without hope. Oh, remember that my life is a breath. My eye will never again see good. Well, he's pretty down, pretty discouraged here now. And it is, though, he addresses God in what he says and asks that his life to simply be brought to an end now. My eye will never see good. The eye of him who sees me will see me no more. While your eyes are upon me, I shall see no longer, as the cloud disappears and vanishes away so he who goes down to the grave does not come up. He shall never return to his house, nor shall his place know him any more.

Okay, verse 11, he's not going to stop complaining. He's not going to restrain his mouth. Verse 12, Am I a sea or a sea serpent that you set a guard over me? When I say my bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint. Then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with vision so that my soul chooses strangling and death rather than my body. I loathe my life. I would not live forever, let me alone for my days are but a breath. Well, Albert Barnes on this passage, he says, well, this goes back up about verse 12, that the rising waters would be carefully watched lest they burst over a dam, a levee, a barrier, and sweep away houses and lives and fences. Such a constant vigilance Job represents the Almighty as keeping over him, watching him as if he were a swelling, roaring, ungovernable torrent of water, or if he were a frightful monster of the deep, whom he was anxious to destroy. Well, again, we just read verses 14 through 16. Job again implies that God is the source of his troubles. He says he would rather suffer, he would prefer the sense of suffocating to death than to continue as he is currently suffering. He hates his life, he wants it to end, he wants it over now. Verse 17, what is man that you should exalt him, that you should set your heart on him, that you should visit him every morning and test him every moment. How long will you not look away from me and let me alone till I swallow my saliva? Crying out to God, why don't you leave me alone? Stop bothering me. Stop thinking up calamities to place on people like me. Verse 20, have I sinned? What have I done to you, a watcher of men? Why have you set me as your target so that I am a burden to myself? Well, he's basically in a side-handed way there, he's admitting to sin. But the connection, in a sense, implies that although he has sinned, his offenses didn't merit the level of the punishment that he was suffering. So in verse 21, why then do you not pardon my transgression? In other words, God, if you're going to forgive me, forgive me. Get it over, get it done with. Let me die. Take away my iniquity, for I will lie down on the dust, and you will seek me diligently, but I will no longer be. Well, I think, let's see, we're at eight o'clock, aren't we? Rather than get started in Bill Dead's first debate, I think that's a good place to wrap it up for tonight. Yes, sir? Now, quick. I'm puzzled about Eliphaz's motivation in all of these things. He got together with these other two fellows and planned to make this trip to the Gormen comfort zone, and they don't know they're stuck with him day and night or Sunday. They must really care for something about him, and they didn't just come over there to put him down. Was Eliphaz sincere in saying all these things? Did he really believe what he said about Joe, do you think? I think that he did, because all three of them, man, are going to have the same thing. You sinned, when you repent, you'll be restored. And that's all they can see. They do not understand. Look at our brethren in the church. So many that we all know suffer. And we can't say they brought it on themselves.

I mean, we might. We know sin is cause and effect, and there are laws. If we break it, we'll bring a penalty. But there are people of God who are suffering horribly, and yet they are devout, humble, sincere. I think that these men felt that. And it's, as I said a while ago, kind of the ancient health wealth gospel. If you'll just turn around and obey God, all these blessings are going to come back again. And we see with Eliphaz having this night vision and seeing this spirit, and then what the spirit said, and he takes that and applies it. I think we also realize, like in chapters 1 and 2, you've got the hand of Satan throughout, although it's behind the scenes after the second chapter. But Satan hasn't gone anywhere. So he may be egging these guys on, and Eliphaz, if he was the dominant leader, and he was this direct, then the others would follow in kind. And then each time Job gave an answer, it was like it just infuriated them, and they became even a bit more shrill with the rhetoric of what they had to say to the poor man. Until chapter 32, we've got Eli Hugh, who seems to be a younger man, but we've got somebody who begins to make some sense. Yes?

Well, they did. It seems like they lived in a similar direction, but it did say that they had made the arrangement to at least go to Job together. Not just one appearing, and another one a day later, and another one two days after that. So maybe there was some plotting to get their case together that they were going to make when the time arose. I wondered if... Thanks for your time, John. Thanks, Matthew. Well, we just know the end of the book turned out to be a lot, and that's why in the introduction, I said a part of what we can see is an insight into how to really be a true friend.