Book of Job

We are to chapter 30, and we have two chapters of Job, and then we'll look at the chapters where Eli comes speaks. Let me go back, first of all, to some of the material that I passed out as part of the handout at the very first Bible study. And this is a section from Bible study course number 4. There is a section titled, Why Does God Allow Suffering? Excuse me, that's the title of the study course. But there is a subsection called, Learning from the Suffering of Job. This does a good job of just summarizing. It says here, about halfway into it, later Job's three friends heard of all his adversity that had come upon him, and each one came to mourn with him and to comfort him.

After a week of lamenting with him, they began to discuss his calamities and suffering. Job listed his complaints, showing the inequities of life, and later God agreed with him. Not everything in this life is fair and equitable. Job's three friends, however, were certain that God was punishing Job for some secret sin, something Job could hide from everyone but God.

Job vehemently denied that such was the case, and he was right. God later verified this also.

However, during his ordeal of loss and suffering, Job gradually came to resent God. This often happens to people in the midst of inexplicable calamity.

Many chapters relate to faulty reasoning and the accusations of Job's three friends and Job's denials. And finally, one of Job's younger friends, Eli who spoke up. He recognized that Job's perspective was flawed and distorted. Job had convinced himself that his afflictions served no purpose. He decided that God was simply not treating him fairly. Then it says, Eli who realized that Job was so obsessed with his innocence, that he was finding fault with God, rather than looking for lessons to learn from his trials. Well, I think that is good to focus on. Gives us a good review as we're just about to finish Job's last address. As I remember, I think this is number nine, chapter 30 and 31. And then, see after that, we'll hear just a little bit in chapter 40 and then a little bit at the beginning of chapter 42. So, these are some of Job's last words and we see the same theme. I have been treated unfairly. I didn't deserve this. Why doesn't God hear me? Why isn't God listening? So, in chapter 30, we have Job pretty much making a sad, mournful complaint of the disgrace that he has experienced. He has fallen from the height of honor and reputation to a point near death. Chapter 30, verse 1, but now they mock at me, men younger than I, whose fathers I disdained to put with the dogs of my flock. So, the further it goes on, Job is taking some of the filters off of his words also, and he just is spitting out whatever is coming to mind. And he has been beat up. He's been attacked by these men, and they did not relent, even though he proved his case. Verse 2, Indeed, what profit is the strength of their hands to me? Their vigor has perished. They are gaunt from wanton famine, fleeing late to the wilderness, desolate and waste. So, he describes those who have so little strength and power remaining as rising up, so to speak, over him and condemning him. Verse 4, who plucked mallow by the bushes, and mallow is thought to refer to some type of a medicinal plant. And then he says, the broom tree and broom tree roots for their food.

So, the picture, the broom tree may be a juniper, some of the commentaries will suggest, and the picture is of those searching for anything just to curtail their hunger, those who are down so low, but these are the ones, as he sees it, who were rising up and condemning him.

Verse 5, They were driven out from among men. They shouted at them as at a thief, speaks of them living in clefts of valleys and caves of the earth and rocks, let's go down to verse 9. And now I am their taunting song. Yes, I am their byword. They abhor me. They keep far from me. They do not hesitate to spit in my face. So again, the picture he is painting here are of those people who are down so low, but now they rise up and sing this taunting song and ridicule Job, and he says they hate him, they avoid him, and when they get a chance, they spit in his face.

Verse 11, because he, notice again most of our translations capitalize that because they recognize he's speaking of God. He has loosed my bowstring and afflicted me. So again, he continues the theme that God is the one who is punishing me. They have cast off restraint before me. At my right hand, the rabble rises. Well, the right hand is the place of honor. We know today the description of God the Father in heaven with Jesus Christ is at his right hand.

So those who have been in the place of honor are now pushing him out of the way. It is as though he is no longer in a respected position as the leader of the people. They push away my feet. They raise against me their ways of destruction.

They break up my path. They promote my calamity. They have no helper. Well, let's drop on down a little here. He continues that theme, but in verse 19, he has cast me into the mire and I have become like dust and ashes. So he continues the theme that God has done all of these horrible things to me. I cry to you again notice the capital for you, capital Y, but you do not answer me. And that's one of his consistent complaints throughout the book. Why is God silent? Where is God? Isn't he listening?

Why doesn't he do something? And so he says God doesn't hear me. But you have become cruel to me with the strength of your hand. You oppose me. You lift me up to the wind and cause me to write on it. You spoil my success. So here he clearly says God is the one who's being cruel to me, that he's built me up high so he can bring me down to the lowest low. 23. For I know that you will bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living. So he's in the depths of despair and he thinks that he's at the point where life is just about snuffed out for him.

Well, verse 25. Have I not wept for him who was in trouble? He goes back and he's basically making the point. I don't deserve all this punishment. And he begins listing all these things that he has done. Has not my soul grieved for the poor? Verse 26. But when they looked for good, evil came to me. My heart is in turmoil and cannot rest. Days of affliction confront me. Verse 28. I go about morning, but not in the sun. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

Verse 30. My skin grows black and falls from me. My bones burn with fever. More than once he's referred to as though there's an affliction, a sense of it in his bones, and what a horrible disease a bone disease is. Okay, I think that wraps up 30. So let's consider some of the highlights of 31. And this is Job's concluding chapter. And in a nutshell, he again says, I'm right. I've done good. I don't deserve this. And the problem is, he says, God's the one who did it to me. I have made a covenant with my eyes. Why then should I look upon a young woman?

For what is the allotment of God from above and the inheritance of the Almighty from on high? So he says, I am not guilty of lust in looking at another woman and certainly not a young woman. He had a deep sense of morality with high standards. I think Job, we get a glimpse that he understood the connection between the eyes and how it can conceive lust, which Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, it is sin. If a man looks at another woman and there's lust in his heart, he has sinned. He has broken that commandment already. And Job seems to have understood that.

Is it not destruction for the wicked and disaster for the workers of iniquity?

Verse 4, does he not see my ways and count all my steps? Oh, God watches over me. Hasn't he seen all these good things I've done? Well, he in verse 5, a few verses here, 5 through 8, he deals with falsehood and he claims to be honest and above board and just in his dealings.

Verse 6, let me be weighed on honest scales that God may know my integrity. I skip verse 5, if I have walked with falsehood or if my foot has hastened to deceit, then let me be weighed in improperly balanced scales. If my step has turned from the way or my heart walked after my eyes or if any spot adheres to my hands, then let another sow and another eat. Yes, let my harvest be rooted out. So if this is true, let everything I have be taken away. And it pretty much had been. Then he comes back to the thought of adultery, verses 9 through 12, if my heart has been enticed by a woman. So if, he's saying, it has not been. Or if I have lurked at my neighbor's door, then let my wife grind for another and let others bow down over her. For that would be wickedness. So he knows. And again, this is in the probably the late patriarchal days. It certainly is long before the events of the days of Moses that led to the giving of the Ten Commandments written on tablets of stone, front and back. He understood what sin was. Yes, it would be iniquity deserving of judgment. So again, he's saying, yeah, but I didn't do any of this. Verse 13, he spends a few verses through 15 making his case that I have not mistreated my servants. I've been sensitized toward their needs. I've treated them with respect. Verse 13, if I have despised the cause of my male or female servant when they complained against me, what then shall I do when God rises up? When he punishes, how shall I answer him? But he's saying, I haven't mistreated them. Therefore, there is no reason for God to have punished me the way Job sees that God has done. Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one fashion us in the womb? Well, then he begins a section that goes quite a few verses 16 through 23 about how he makes his case that he has treated the poor and the needy with compassion and respect. He's done all that he can to relieve them of their suffering. 16. If I have kept the poor from their desire or caused the eyes of the widow to fail or eaten my morsel by myself so that the fatherless could not eat of it, but then parenthetically, but from my youth I reared him as a father, and from my mother's womb I guided the widow. If I've seen anyone perish for lack of clothing or any poor man without covering, if his heart has not blessed me, and he goes on in verse 22, then let my arm fall from my shoulder and let my arm be torn from the socket. For destruction from God is a terror to me. He understands what God would have him do in treating those who are needy, and so he has done that. Well, verse 24, he has a few verses. He speaks about riches, that in all of this he has not trusted in riches. 24. If I have made gold my hope or said to find gold, you are my confidence.

If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great and because my hand had gained much, if I have observed the sun when it shines or the moon moving in brightness. Now, the verse there is a bit obscure. Some of the, I read in two different commentaries where they suggested that perhaps here he is saying that I have not been one who looked to the sun or the moon as an object of worship like so many peoples around at his time were doing. So, that may be an aspect of that. Let's go on to verse 29. It says, he has not rejoiced at the downfall of others.

If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me or lifted myself up when evil found him, indeed, if I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking for a curse on my soul. Verse 33, if I have covered my transgression as Adam. You remember that story how Adam and Eve took of the fruit that was not theirs and then suddenly they were different. Sin entered the human family and God went looking for them and they were hiding when God called for them. Verse 35, oh that I had one to hear me. So, he continues to say God just simply isn't listening.

Verse 37, I would declare to him the number of my steps like a prince I would approach him. So, he's painting the picture that I could walk up like a prince and hold my head upright to God to state my case before him. Well, it won't be long and he won't have anything to say. At the end of verse 40, it says the words of Job are ended. So, that's the end of what Job has to say and it has been a lot in the nine different addresses that he has made. Before we go to Elihu and we have chapters 32 through 37. We'd like to look at some of the high points there. But before we go there, as we get to the end of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, and now we're to the end of Job, what were Job's sins? Elihu is going to tell him, you've sinned. And the first three, well, one of them was blaming God, but he didn't realize it was Satan. But it's Satan. Right at the first, you can see, but Job didn't. He just didn't get it, right? Taking all that from Luke. That's right. He blamed God. The further he went, the more frustrated, the more he suffered. He turned it back on God. And his friends didn't help him, really. But look at them. They were in a worse shape than Job was. Trying to make himself look good at something blank. I don't know what it looked like. Any other thoughts? Right. Well, it was honorable when they first came. They were good friends, and they just were stunned at what they saw as far as Job's state. And they sat there for seven days. But then when he spoke, something just boiled off in them, and they had to speak back. And it's like one fed off each other.

I think we look at Job from this point of view. A lot of his maintaining his own rightness is that he's focusing on the letter of the law. He's talking about all that he's done. He's treated his servants correctly. He's taking care of the poor. He has been in a position where he spoke in a place of judgment, and nobody spoke after him. The letter of the law, but he wasn't seeing the intent behind. And so he was blinded to this vast aspect of himself. And of course, Satan the devil was certainly the father of self-righteousness. He's the proud one who will never admit being wrong, and Satan didn't see it. Anyhow, judging, condemning, criticizing God. And I think also he had an attitude of saying, I'm getting a raw deal. This is not fair. God has done all this to me without reasons. He life as, Bill Dad, so far said, Job, you're a hypocrite. You must have some kind of sin. You're hiding. And they were wrong. And you know, at the end, God says, you three, you offer your offerings and get Job to pray for you, and I will accept his prayer for you. Now we're going to have Elihu, the younger man, speak, and God has no correction at all for him. So let's go on, because we're still left with the overriding question of the book. Why do righteous people suffer? And Elihu is going to begin opening eyes.

God oftentimes allows us to suffer because through hurting, we change. We see things we could not see before. So chapter 32, so these three men ceased answering Job because he was righteous in his own eyes. Then the wrath of Elihu, the son of Barakal the Buzzite of the family of Ram. Now, you may have a marginal note, as my Bible has, back to Genesis 22, verse 21. Right at the end of Genesis 22, it has a little bit said there about some of the descendants of Abraham's brother Nahor.

And he was the one who had a son named Uz, or some translations spell it with an H, Uz. And then his next son was Buzz, and then there were others. And so again, as we covered in the introductory material, these are all submitic people in this story. They're of this line of Shem, and specifically they're pretty much related to Abraham's line. His wrath was aroused against Job. His wrath was aroused because he justified himself rather than God. Because Job kept saying, I've done this, and I've done that, and I am right. And not one time did he say, I don't know what's going on, but I do know that God doesn't make mistakes. Also against his three friends, his wrath was aroused because they found no answer and yet had condemned Job.

Now because they were years older than he, Eli-Hew had waited to speak to Job. When Eli-Hew saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, his wrath was aroused. So chapter 31 ends, and nobody has a word to say, and so Eli-Hew has probably been sitting there getting madder and madder, and now he's going to take his turn. So Eli-Hew, the son of Barakal, the Buzzite, answered and said, I am young in years and you are very old. Again, we talked about that a long time ago. It's Jewish tradition, and that's all it is, that says he was 70 when this happened. The end of the book says he lived another 140 years. God gave him double the livestock, and maybe God gave him double the years that he had, but we can't really nail that one down. But if Job was 70, how young would he be? You know, when we were all 25, we'd look at somebody 70 and we would think, whoa!

And now we all have enough years under a belt that we think, you know, 70, 80, 90, we're spring chickens. We don't know how young he was, but he could have been 28 and he could have been 43. We just, we don't know, but he was certainly younger than the rest. That's Job. Oh, yeah, after.

Oh, yes. Ten at the beginning and ten at the end. Yes. He says he's younger and he says he said you are very old, so maybe he's 30ish and somebody 70 is very old.

That's right. Verse 7, age should speak and multitude of years should teach wisdom, and that is true. You know, Eli who has started off like a racehorse out of the chute.

He may not be the best comforter in the world, but he does see the situation with a clarity that nobody else has had yet, including Job. Age should speak, but, you know, it's not always that way. There's the old saying that we're familiar with, that there's no fool like an old fool, and multitude of years should teach wisdom. But there is a spirit in man. Now, that's one of the few verses, but there is enough that gives us a glimpse. Let me give you some other scriptures. We will, you could tie in. He'll come back to that in verse 18 of this same chapter. But then we have statements about the spirit of man in Ecclesiastes 12 verse 7.

Talks about when we die, the spirit goes back to God who gave it. Then there is Zechariah 12 verse 1, is another place that talks about the spirit in man. And in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 2 verse 11 speaks about there's this human spirit, but then there's this wisdom that the Holy Spirit of God gives. There is a spirit in man. In the framework, many of you remember when Herbert Armstrong was addressing this in the early 70s, and he kept going back over and over and over to that topic, and liking it to radio broadcasting. And of course, the church was in the television at the time. But there was something uniquely distinct about the human brain, the human mind, I should say, that made it different than a brain like an animal has, because some animals have a larger brain, and yet they cannot make plans, design things, and plot out the future as a human can. The breath of the Almighty gives him understanding. Great men are not always wise, nor do the aged always understand justice. Therefore, I say, listen to me, I'll share my opinion. Indeed, I've waited for your words. So, you know, he spends a little bit of time, you know, I patiently listen to you, and now it's my turn, and I've got some things I want to share with you. Verse 15, they were dismayed and answered no more. Words escaped them. You know, he speaks to the fact that Job won the argument, and the three reached a point where they just sat there and had nothing to say. Verse 17, I will answer in part. I too will declare my opinion. I'm full of words. The Spirit within me compels me. Indeed, my belly is like wine that has no vent. It is ready to burst like new wine skins. And Jesus used that word picture in the Gospels, that you don't put new wine or freshly squeezed grape juice, you don't put it into an old wine skin that through the process of fermentation has expanded. It will burst in time because of the fermentation process and the giving off of the gases.

Okay, well, let's go on to chapter 33. He here addresses Job more directly.

This previous chapter addressing Job and the three, now he focuses on Job. He says, but please Job, hear my speech and listen to all my words.

Now I open my mouth, my tongue speaks in my mouth, my words come from my upright heart, my lips utter pure knowledge. The Spirit of God has made me and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. And he doesn't just come right out and say it, but it sure reads to me that he's claiming God sent me here and God gave me words and God is injecting me into this setting. And you four need to listen and especially you, Job. Verse 6, truly I am as your spokesman before God. I also have been formed out of the clay, which a lot of times he's going to refer back to something that was said before. And Job had just said, you know, my servants and these others, myself, were all formed out of the clay. Verse 7, surely no fear of me will terrify you nor will my hand be heavy on you. And that goes back to one of Job's statements that Job said he was in terror of God. And yet, like you said, well, you won't have any fear of me. My hand won't be heavy on you as Job, you have accused God of having this heavy hand in dealing with you. Surely you have spoken in my hearing and I have heard the sound of your words saying, I am pure without transgression. I am innocent. There is no iniquity of me or in me. So there he's quoting Job's words back to him.

Verse 10, yet he, again, he's still quoting some of Job's statements. God, he, God, finds occasion against me. He counts me as an enemy. He puts my feet in the stocks. He watches all my paths. And Job said these very things earlier. So verse 12, look, in this you're not righteous. I will answer you for God is greater than man. You know, God, he begins making the point that God is going to deal with each person according to their own works. And God is not, you know, God is, God does not have to answer to you, Job. He does not have to give you a day to make your case. Okay, verse 13, why do you contend with him? So he's the first one who's pointing out, Job, you are fighting with God. And it needed to be, to have been said a long time ago. For he does not give an accounting of any of his words. For God may speak in one way or in another, yet man does not perceive it. Verse 15, in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men while slumbering on their beds, then he opens the ears of men and seals their instruction. Now, I think scripturally, there are a number of places we could turn to. Daniel, the dream of Nebuchadnezzar.

And Nebuchadnezzar was demanding an answer from the magicians and sorcerers right there and then, and he wouldn't give them any time. And then someone suggested, hey, there's this man who interprets dreams among the Hebrews. Daniel is brought, and Daniel requested time. And Nebuchadnezzar gave him time that he had refused the others, and then he came back the next day and gave the interpretation. Now, is that not an example of that? I think it can happen with us. There are times when we may struggle with something and we focus so intently and sometimes we're so close we can't see the... all we can see is the tree and we can't see the forest, the big picture. But we lie down at night and who's to say? God doesn't give the answer. We wake up, we have a whole new approach, we're rested, and we can see clearly. He opens the ears of men and seals their instruction in order to turn men from his deed and conceal pride from man. Verse 18, he keeps his soul from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword. Okay, verse 19, a man is also chastened with pain on his bed. So, we see, Elihu is beginning to tell Job there are a variety of ways in which God may have been speaking to you and you haven't been paying attention. It might be through a dream in the night and it might be by pain and with strong pain in many of his bones. So that his life abhors bread and his soul succulent food. His flesh wastes away from sight, his bones stick out which once were not seen. Yes, his soul draws near the pit, his life to the executioner. So, he's describing what Job has gone through. He has shriveled up. He is skin stretched over bones. Death is not far away, but in the process, God has been trying to speak to you, Job.

22. If there is a messenger for him, a mediator, one among a thousand, to show man his uprightness, then he is gracious to him and says, deliver him from going down to the pit. I have found a ransom.

We have at times a person that is delivered from death and he is the better for it.

After the adversity, the pain, the suffering that he goes through, he is different.

Nebuchadnezzar was different after seven years of insanity. Look at some of the early apostles, how much they suffered and they were better for it. How many times did Paul suffer and he was better for it? That's what he is talking about here. 26. He shall pray to God and he will delight in him. He shall see his face with joy, for he restores a man to righteousness. He is saying, God has been speaking to you all along with the hope that Job will bring you to a point of reaching out to God and just simply listening to what God is saying through suffering. And that in the process you will be restored.

Verse 27, when he looks at men and says, I have sinned and perverted what is right, and did not profit me, he will redeem his soul from going down to the pit, and his life shall see the light. Let's skim on down. Let's just go on to chapter 34, because we've just got to get a few highlights.

34. Eli-Hugh further answered and said, now in the King's name it says, furthermore, and Eli-Hugh speaks. And it's, you know, as though maybe he paused, it's suggested maybe he paused a little to see if Job or any of the other three have anything to say. Again, he's younger, he's deferring to those with age. And then he continues, here are my words, you wise men. So here he's not just addressing Job, but really focusing to all four. Give ear to me you who have knowledge. The ear tests words, the palate tastes food. Let us choose justice for ourselves. Let us know among ourselves what is good. For Job has said, I am righteous, but God has taken away my justice. Job has said, I am right in all that I've done, but God has punished me unjustly. Should I lie concerning my right, my wound is incurable, though I am without transgression. Still quoting from the gist of what Job has been arguing. What man is like Job who drinks scorn like water? Verse 9, for he has said, it profits a man nothing that he should delight in God. You know, Job had said very clearly, there's no advantage in obeying God if this is the way God's going to treat you. But I lie saying you're wrong. You're wrong. God's looking to purify the middle and the desired end result, regardless of how much heat is used and how much pressure is applied, the end result is what God is looking at. So, listen to me, men of understanding, be it far from God to do wickedness and from the Almighty to commit iniquity. So he's making it very clear, Job, you have said God is wicked. He is not. And God has not committed iniquity. Job had accused God himself of sinning. For he repays man according to his work and makes man to find a reward according to his way. And that's a thread throughout the Bible that God repays. He deals with each person according to his or her own works. In other words, God is fair in his dealings with men.

Surely God will never do wickedly, nor will the Almighty pervert justice.

Who gave him charge over the earth? Or who appointed him over the whole world?

So here, Elihu touches on a theme that God's going to build on in chapter 38. Elihu says, in so many words, he's saying, God's sovereign. God's creator. God's the great master designer. Nobody placed him in that position. It's just what is. Well, verse 15, all flesh should perish together and man would return to the earth. Verse 18, is it fitting to say to a king, you are worthless and to nobles, you are wicked?

No, would you go to a ruler and say, you're wicked and useless, but Job, you've done that to God.

We've got, you know, again, his his his tact and diplomacy may not be his greatest strength, but he sees it clearly and he's laying it on the line so it cannot be misunderstood. He is not partial to princes, nor does he regard the rich more than the poor. They are all the work of his hands. In the moment they die, in the middle of the night, people are shaken and pass away. The mighty are taken away without a hand.

Okay, 21, his eyes are on the ways of men. He sees all their steps. There's no darkness nor shadow of death. So Job had mentioned that he was in this darkness that God couldn't see him. Oh no, he's like he says, God has known everything you have done and thought, everything you are.

23, he need not consider a man that he should go before God in judgment.

Job, you're wrong for thinking you need to have this day in court to justify yourself before God. 24, he breaks in pieces, mighty men without inquiry, and sets others in their place.

And they look all through history and look through modern times. There are those in power he allows for his purpose. But when it's not for his purpose, they're suddenly gone and they disappear. And he doesn't have to answer for what he does. 25, therefore, he knows their works. He overthrows them in the night they're crushed. He strikes them as wicked men in the open sight of others, because they turned back from him and would not consider any of his ways.

Verse 28, so that they cause the cry of the poor to come to him, for he hears the cry of the afflicted. He's saying, Job, you've been afflicted. God would have listened to you, but you've been so concerned arguing with your friends and showing how right you are, you haven't cried out to God the way you should. He would have listened to you.

When he gives quietness, who then can make trouble? When he hides his face, who then can see him? 31, for has anyone said to God, I have borne chastening, I will offend no more.

I argue it's fitting, it's right, it's good that we humbly submit to the providential wisdom of God, that we just trust God, that he knows what is best. Teach me what I do not see. This should be our attitude, he says. If I have done iniquity, I would do no more. Should he repay it according to your terms, just because you disavow it? You must choose and not I, therefore speak what you know. Verse 35, Job speaks without knowledge, his words are without wisdom. Oh, that Job were tried to the utmost because his answers are like those of wicked men. He adds rebellion to his sin, and he had. He had added rebellion. Now, pardon me while I shift Bibles. That is as far as some of the notes that I have been making that I've gotten. And I'm going to shift to my old, this will be the King James Version, and the print is so small. Let's see, what chapter was that?

34. Okay. Now, 35, Eli who spoke moreover. Again, it's kind of like maybe, again, he pauses. All right. I've got in some good jabs. Anybody have anything to say yet? Think you this to be right, that you said, my righteousness is more than God's. You know, maybe he didn't exactly put it in those words, but that's what he was saying. He said, I'm right, and God's treated me unfairly. God shot it, shot me full of arrows. He said it a couple of times. For you said, what advantage will it be unto you, and what profit shall I have if I be cleansed from my sin? I will answer you and your companions with you. Look to the heavens and see, behold the clouds which are higher than you. If you sin, what do you against him? Or if your transgressions be multiplied, what do you unto him? You know, he's beginning to show Job that your attitude, you've seen yourself like you're the center of the universe. And he said, look way up high at those heavens and those clouds, and you're this little tiny man down here on the earth, and if you do this, if you commit a sin, what does that do to harm God? Nothing. God doesn't like it. But Job's focus was on self. If you be righteous, what do you give him? What receives he of your hand? You know, if you keep the law, are you heaping great riches upon God? No. Your wickedness may hurt a man as you are. Your righteousness may profit the Son of Man.

By reason of the multitude of oppressions, they make the oppressed to cry. They cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty. Again, God is not directly affected by man's righteousness or by man's sins. But none said, Where is God my Maker who gives songs in the night, who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the fowls of heaven?

Because again, our Creator has made us to be the overseers, to subdue the earth, to reign over all of the beasts of the earth. There they cry, and none gives answer because of the pride of evil men. So it's human vanity, and that's your problem, Job.

Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it. Although you say, Job, you shall not see him, yet judgment is before him, therefore trust you in him.

But now, because it is not so, he has visited in his anger, yet he knows it not in great extremity. I think, like he was saying, God's been a lot lighter on you, Job, than you have any idea.

Therefore, does Job open his mouth in vain?

Well, he says, Job, you don't have a case if you were to go to stand before God. Okay, 36, he proceeded. He said, suffer me a little. I will show you what I have yet to speak on God's behalf. Again, he felt very clearly he was sent by and had God's authority and sanction behind him.

I will fetch my knowledge from afar, will ascribe righteousness to my Maker, as Job had not been doing. Job was all concerned about how righteous he was. Truly, my word shall not be false. He that is perfect in knowledge is with you.

Behold, God is mighty and despises not any. He is mighty in strength and wisdom. He preserves not the life of the wicked, but gives right to the poor. He withdraws not his eyes from the righteous, but with kings are they on the throne.

Yea, he does not establish them forever, and they are exalted.

If they are bound with fetters and held in cords of affliction, then he shows them their work and their transgressions that they have exceeded.

So he is saying, Job, there are reasons for suffering, affliction, sickness, and pain. There are some things we learn no other way.

He opens their ear to discipline, commands that they return from iniquity, that they repent, that they go back and cry to God. But if they obey, verse 11, if they obey and serve him, they will spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasure.

If they are changed in the process of affliction and suffering, if not, they'll perish by the sword and they'll die without knowledge. Let's skim some of this.

There are 13 hypocrites in heart.

Verse 18, Because there is wrath, beware lest he take you away with his stroke.

Then a great ransom cannot deliver you. Yeah, he's saying, Job, get off your high horse.

You're just focusing on self. And so, he says, Will he esteem your riches? No, not gold, nor all the forces of strength.

Verse 20, Desire not the night when people are cut out of their place. Well, the night, the time of darkness. Job repeatedly, from the beginning, said, Oh, that I would just die. Why didn't I just die when my mother gave me birth? And so, Eli, he was saying, Will you stop clinging to that foolish statement that just... You've got this death wish.

Take heed, regard not iniquity, for this have you chosen rather than affliction.

Job, you have preferred sin, and you haven't even known it. Behold, God exalts by his power, who teaches like him.

Who, verse 23, who has enjoined him his way? Or, who can say, You have wrought iniquity? You keep saying, The wrong God has done to you. Who are you to say that to the Almighty Sovereign God?

26, God is great, and we know him. Neither can the number of his years be searched out.

He makes small drops of waters. They drop down rain according to the vapor thereof. Talks here about the precipitation and the evaporation and the condensation that happens. And all those are based on laws that God has designed and put into motion.

Verse 32, I think is interesting. With clouds, he covers the light, or the lightning, and commands it not to shine by the cloud that comes betwixt. We had a strong storm that came through last night, a lot of lightning. And I hope it had eased up by the time it got down this way. But, boy, it was impressive.

I point that out. The clouds and the lightning.

Because, as we especially get to Elihu's last chapter, 37, he's going to make several references that are clear. There is a storm that is coming.

And then chapter 38, from the whirlwind, as the old King James puts it, God begins to speak and nobody has a thing to say. 37. 37. You know, the word flows a little, gets a little choppy in the Hebrew. And Elihu refers to this storm that is coming, and probably hearkens back, back as far as into Exodus, that back, although the events at Mount Sinai probably were later than this book, God speaking the booming of God's thunderous voice from the mountain.

So, verse 37, At this also my heart trembles and is moved out of his place, hear attentively the noise of his voice and the sound that goes out of his mouth.

So he says, Joe, that storm over there that we're beginning to see and to hear, it scares us, doesn't it?

He, God directs it under the whole heaven and his lightning to the ends of the earth.

After it, a voice roars, he thunders with the voice of his excellency, and he will not stay them when his voice is heard. God thunders marvelously with his voice great things does he which we cannot comprehend.

You know, and if we can't understand the physical creation, there's a lot about the spiritual realm that we're missing.

He says, To the snow be on the earth, and small rain, the great rain. Verse 8, beasts go into their dens and remain there. Out of the south comes a whirlwind, cold from the north. Verse 10, By the breath of God, frost is given.

Verse 11, Also by watering he wearies the thick cloud and scatters his bright cloud.

Clouds come and storm, and they rain themselves out.

Verse 13, He causes it. It's referring to this storm that's coming. To come, whether for correction or for his land or for mercy.

So that storm's coming, Job, and it might be to correct us, and it might be just to water the land, and it might be to pour out his mercy upon some.

Listen unto this, O Job. Stand still. Consider the wondrous works of God. Stop running off your mouth, Job. Look and listen and tremble to the word of God. Do you know when God disposes them and causes the light of his cloud to shine?

Do you not know the balancing of the clouds, the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge? You know, we can't even answer. Why does a cloud float? I mean, look at some of these storms. We had nine tenths of an inch, but what we had that came through last night is nothing compared to what Houston weeks ago had. Twenty inches. How much water will the sky hold, and every gallon of water is eight pounds? And how does it float up there? I don't know. So, Elihu is preparing the seedbed for God to come along and begin to speak. Verse 17, how your garments are warm when he quiets the earth by the south wind. Have you with him spread out the sky, which is strong and is molten-looking glass. Did you help God design what we see around us? Well, of course not. Teach us what we shall say unto him. So, we're saying, God is just about here, and we're about on. What are we going to tell him when he gets here, Job? We cannot order our speech by reason of darkness. You know, we are so in awe at this power, we just stand here silently. Shall it be told him that I speak? If a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up. And now men see not the bright light, which is in the clouds, but the wind passes and cleanses them. And the visible presence of God is in the storm that's coming on the scene. Fair weather comes out of the north with God, his terrible majesty. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out. He is excellent in power and in judgment and in plenty of justice. He will not afflict. He says, Job, God has not been the one punishing you and shooting you and burning you and causing you such pain. Men do therefore fear him.

He respects not any that are wise of heart because God will not be judged by any man.

All right. That brings us to the end of Elihu, and that brings us to our close for tonight. So next time we'll look at these last chapters, and depending on how much time we take whenever God starts speaking, we'll see whether we get through it in one study or more. I mean, that's our best estimate is the late patriarchal age. It's Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, late in that time, but prior to the events of Israel and Egypt and bringing them out in the covenant, because it started out with Job offering sacrifices, and the chapter 42 will end with Job offering sacrifices, or the friends doing that and Job praying for them. So that speaks of the patriarchal age when the head of household, the family patriarch, was the one who offered where later on it was changed as far as how it was to be done through the Levitical tribe.