Book of Job

All right, well, we need to hit the ground running. We're... I am correct. We're starting Chapter 8. Is that true? Okay. Well, Monday night I covered 2-7 in Murfreesboro, and last night in Madison I covered 8-14, I believe, and somewhere down the line it all blurs together. But it's good material, no doubt about that. As we get to Chapter 8, all right, we have just had Eli Faz's first address, and then a couple of chapters of Job's reply. So we're now ready to shift over to Friend No. 2, and we're going to go to Bildad, his first debate or first argument that he is going to present. Now, with Bildad, we will see that he bases his argument more so on the tradition of the fathers. He's going to appeal to the fathers, the people who have lived in the past. Still, he'll essentially say, well, the fathers agree with me, but he's going to have the same basic purpose statement that Job, you're suffering, and it's because you sinned, and you need to repent. That's all three of these men have the same approach. So, in Chapter 8, Bildad, verse 2, how long will you speak these things, and the words of your mouth be like a strong wind? So, he doesn't mix words. Eliaphaz was more tactful and diplomatic, and took a while to kind of ease into his point, but Bildad just says, you're a windbag, Job. You're just blubbering out a lot of words. So, verse 3, does God subvert judgment, or does the Almighty pervert justice?

And then, the most amazing thing that seems so poor in taste is, in verse 4, he says, if your sons have sinned against him. So, here is a man who, whether it was weeks or a few months ago, lost 10 children, and seven of them were sons, and he's, by bringing this up, he's at least indicating maybe their sins led to their demise. If your sons have sinned against him, he has cast them away for their transgression. If you would earnestly seek God and make your supplication to the Almighty. So, again, same old routine that we heard from Eliphaz, but he just kind of jumps right into it more quickly. Verse 6, if you were pure and upright. But, you see, we've got the rest of the story, and we remember at the beginning of the book, God said this man is blameless. He fears God. He hates evil. So, we know the rest of the story. But, if you were pure and upright, surely now he would await for you and prosper your rightful dwelling place. Now, I mentioned last time we have the modern health wealth gospel, that if you just obey God, all these blessings, all this money is going to flow your way. But reality is, that's not the way it works. And yet, these guys, it's kind of like the same spirits, the same adversary, the same devil as the one inspiring the modern health wealth gospel, who was inspiring the approach these men took.

Now, let's see. Verse 7, though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would increase abundantly. And you know the ironic thing is, that that is precisely what happened at the end of this book, but not for the reasons billed in throughout. Job is going to end up with the same number of children and twice as much livestock, which means wealth, twice as much wealth as he had at the very beginning. Well, verse 8, for inquire, please, of the former age, and discover the things, consider the things discovered by their fathers. So, here's where he's going to go back. And you know, the fathers have lived a long time. You and I, we were just born yesterday. We don't know anything. Let's go back and learn from those who have gone before us. Verse 10, will they not teach you and tell you and utter words from their heart? Now, as we get into this, we're going to more so start skimming a part of this, skimming a part of this. There's your one of your dozen eggs. Yes, sir. I got fussed at last week, or last time. Where's my eggs? So, there they are. But don't let me make an example out of you before a crowd. Okay, so we're in chapter 8, by the way, and so he appeals back to those who've gone before, and he's essentially saying, history itself shows, and the fathers know, that the wicked flourish for a kind, but then they get cut off. So, you, Job, are wicked, and you've been cut off.

Verse 11, he uses examples of like papyrus and reeds that can't flourish unless they're in water. If it dries, they're going to wither and be gone. Verse 13, so are the paths of all those who forget God, and the hope of the hypocrite shall perish. So, he's a fine friend to have show up when you're at your lowest point, because now he calls him, he essentially said, you're a windbag at the beginning, and now he says, you're a hypocrite. And in between, he said, you're wicked.

Whose confidence shall be cut off? Whose trust is a spider's web. So, you trust, he says, Job, you trust in yourself, and that will prove to be about as frail as a spider's web.

Well, verse 16, he grows green in the sun, his branches spread out in his garden, his roots wrap round the rock heap and look for a place in the stones. If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, I have not seen you. So, he likens Job to a vigorous plant that springs up, puts out roots, flourishes, grows quickly, but then at a certain point, weathers dies, it's gone, it blows away. Verse, let's see, that was what, 16 through 18. Let's see, on 19, behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the earth, others will grow. So, he's somewhat saying, build out his saying, God's going to remove hypocrites like you, Job, and get them out of the way, so others, there'll be room for others who might truly be righteous.

Verse 20, behold, God will not cast away the blameless, nor will he uphold the evil doers. Again, God, it appears, has turned away from you, and God is not upholding you. Therefore, you're a guilty sinner. And then he wraps it up, verses 21 and 2. Yet, he will yet fill your mouth with laughing, and your lips with rejoicing. Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the dwelling place of the wicked will come to nothing. So, he wraps it up by again saying the same old song and dance, If you repent and return to God, God in time will forgive, restore, and fill you with joy. Those who hate you are going to be shamed. So, that's the way he ends his first address. Nothing new from what Eliphaz said, just a little more direct language.

So, now we have, we often have these patterns where one chapter is devoted to a friend's argument, and then two or even three, in some cases, chapters are Job's reply. So, now we move on to Job's response in chapter 9. And chapter 9 is a very important chapter, because it really begins to give us critical insight to be able to understand Job's wrong attitude. In a nutshell, Job is going to start speaking, and it's obvious that he is filled with awe and respect at the power of God, but he also was somewhat in terror, lived in dread of that power being used on him. He does not see God as a God of love and mercy, who wants all to be saved in coming in his family. So, in verse 2, truly I know it's so, but how can a man be righteous before God? So, he at least agrees, Job agrees with his friends that God is holy, just right, pure. Verse 3, if one wished to contend with him, he could not answer him one time out of a thousand. So, if a man, he was saying, if a man has his day in court and stands before God, God would overwhelm him with his power and glory, and that man would have nothing to say. And again, the ironic thing is, that is exactly what Job experienced as we get to chapter 38. Throughout, he kept saying, if I could only have my day in court, if I could only state my case to vindicate myself before God, and then when God appears out of this great tempest, he had nothing to say. Well, verse 4, God is wise in heart, mighty in strength, who has hardened himself against him and prospered. So, any person who stiffens himself to resist God obviously will not stand. And then, in the next verses, Job lists various manifestations of the majestic power of God. He mentions, verse 5, he removes mountains they don't know. He overturns them in his anger. Well, again, God overturned mountains in his anger. We're getting a little insight into the mindset that Job had toward God.

He shakes the earth out of its place, its pillars tremble. He commands the sun and it does not rise. He seals off the stars. He alone spreads out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.

So, God created all of these things that man can only marvel at. Then, verse 9, he made the bear. Now, if you have the old King James that says, what is it? Arcturus?

Arcturus the bear. You have, I know in Albert Barnes' commentary, he had a note that in northern England and in Scotland, they call it the wane, W-A-I-N, which is their word for wagon. Because as they looked at that constellation, they kind of saw the outline of a wagon as they looked at it. Orion and the Pleiades and the chambers of the south, he, God, does great things past finding out. Yes, wonders without number. If he goes by me, I do not see him. If he moves past, I do not perceive him. So he defines God as this great power and yet God's hiding. That's one of the questions of the book of Job. Why does God hide? Why doesn't he come out? Well, again, ironically, look where the book's going to lead. God's going to be right there and he's going to have that day in court. If he takes away, who can hinder? Who can say to him, what are you doing? God will not withdraw his anger. The allies of the proud lie prostrate beneath him. How then can I answer him and choose my words to reason with him? Well, obviously he can't.

The wording, once again, is that of... he's calling for a court proceeding. He wants to be able to clear his name as he views it. He wants to be able to vindicate self. For though I were righteous, I could not answer him. I would beg mercy of my judge. If he called and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice. Well, now verse 17, he crushes me with a tempest. Well, surely that referred back to the storm that took the lives of his children.

None of us can relate to what this man went through. His whole life is swept away, his children, all of his livestock, a lot of his servants. And if they'd been with him a long time, there had to have been a close relationship, you would think. And so many are killed, and one would escape to come to report what had happened. He multiplies my wounds, notice, without cause. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. We have a man who is judging God. We have a man who has an improper view of God, that God is waiting to crush people and blow them away. He's not looking at God as being a God of love, who works with us as the clay, as the potter works with the clay. He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness. So God's making me this way. In other words, he's saying, God's made me bitter, because one after another, before one story, one servant told this was taken, these people came and took the others away, one after another. He couldn't catch his breath. If it is a matter of strength, then indeed he is strong. And if it is of judgment, who will appoint my day in court? Well, be careful what you ask for. He's going to get it. Though I were righteous, my own mouth would condemn me. Though I were blameless, it would prove me perverse. Now, a curious statement here. He's saying, if I would say, I'm perfect, my own words would sentence me. Albert Barnes on this verse wrote, God can... in other words, Barnes was as if Job were saying this, that God can through great punishment force me to confess that I am guilty, but then against the clear consciousness of my own innocence. So he's saying, God can use that great power to beat me down so far that I will admit I'm guilty even though in my heart I know I'm innocent. And that's a scary mindset to think of this man had. Well, we're not to cast stones, though, are we? Because change the names and the dates and if we aren't careful, Satan can head us down the same path. I am blameless, he says in verse 21. Yet I do not know myself. I despise my life. He keeps coming back to that. Oh, that I've just not been born. Oh, that I've been stillborn. Oh, why doesn't God let me die? But notice 23, because Job's on pretty thin ice here. If the scourge slays suddenly, he, God, laughs at the plight of the innocent. He does not see God as acting out of mercy and love. He says there is not an equal distribution of rewards and punishments according to a person's character. I'm being, he says, Job says, I'm being severely punished and I don't deserve it. Because you see, he was blaming God for this completely unaware until the end of the book. I suppose, I suppose God made it clear to him, Satan's the one that did this to you and put you in this awful state.

So, let's see, 25. Now my days are swifter than the runner. They flee away. They see no good. So, so life's fleeting and he believes he will not be able to ever see any happiness again.

26. They pass by like swift ships, like an eagle swooping on its prey. If I say, I will forget my complaint. I will put off my sad face and wear a smile. I'm afraid of all my sufferings. I know that you will not hold me innocent. So, he's saying, I know God is going to find me guilty no matter what I do. Well, let's see. He talks about washing in snow water and washing with soap. And verse 31, yet you will plunge me into the pit. My own clothes will abhor me. 32. For he is not a man as I am, that I may answer him, and that we should go to court together.

And you know, in part, what he is saying here is that if he can only face God, the story will be different. But he seems to me to be implying that, well, God doesn't understand because he's never been a man. But you know, the God who's going to come on the scene in chapter 38 is the God of the Old Testament. And he's the one who will become the one we know is Jesus Christ.

The Word will be made flesh, and he will live here as a man. And he will be tempted at all points, points as we are, yet without sin. And Hebrews also says he will learn by the things that he suffers. So, 33, there's no mediator between us, who may lay his hand on us both. Let him take his rod away from me. Do not let dread of him terrify me. Then I would speak and not fear him, but it's not so. Well, again, Job submitted to God's great power more so out of fear rather than reverence for God's love. He continues his response in chapter 11. My soul loathes my life.

I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. Some of his friends will once in a while, they'll say, you know, why are you even saying anything, Job? We're tired of hearing you. And Job's just to the point where he says, I am in such agony, I don't care what anyone says or thinks. I'm going to say what I think. I'm going to say what comes to my mind.

I will say to God, do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me. Does it seem good to you that you should oppress? You see a lot of these dialogues, the friends are speaking to Job, but a lot of times Job is, it is as though he is talking to God. 12. The smile on the counsel of the wicked. Do you have eyes of flesh?

Do you see as man sees? Verse 5, are your days like the days of a mortal man? Because you know, man's got a certain amount of time and you turn around a few times and those decades are gone. Let's see, verse 6, you should seek for my iniquity, search out my sin. Although you know that I am not wicked, and there is no one who can deliver from your hand. Well, God help us all to realize we are the undeserving recipients of the forgiveness of God. And thank God, He's got a patience and He's a God who does not give us what we deserve.

But Job says, you know God, I'm not wicked. Wow! Your hands have made me and fashioned me in intricate unity, yet you would destroy me. I mean, saying all of these things about God, and God is the one who allowed Satan, and Satan did all of this to him. Remember, I pray that you made me like clay. Will you turn me into dust again? Will it be a reverse of what happened in what we read in Genesis 2, that God formed Adam from the dust of the ground? You're not going to revert back to that.

Did you not pour me out like milk? Curdle me like cheese? Close me with skin and flesh? Knit me together with bones and sinews? You granted me life in favor? Your care has preserved my spirit.

Well, again, verse 14, if I sin, then you mark me, and will not equip me of my iniquity. Notice verse 16, if my head is exalted, you hunt me like a fierce lion. And again, you show yourself awesome against me. You renew your witnesses against me. So Job sees God as on the prowl, hunting him, watching for any mistake he might make in his words or his thoughts, and ready to pounce on him. Well, verse 18, he returns to his earlier appeal. Why didn't I just die when I was born? And then I'd be out of this misery. Why have you brought me out of the womb? Let's just end through this. Yeah, okay. Well, let's just go on down to chapter 11.

This is the first time we hear from Zophar, and he's the one we don't know that much about, but as I recall, his name means chatters, and he's going to just chatter on. And yet, he is the least tactful of the three. I thought Bildad was kind of blunt, but when you get to this fella, he just jumps on, verbally jumps on, with both feet and stomps. So he doesn't really add anything to the argument. It's the same old approach you send, so you're afflicted. Repent, and things will be well with him. Same old argument, but his words just have more of a bite to them. So he too, verse 2, should not the multitude of words be answered, and should a man full of talk be vindicated? So he too just starts off, Jobe, you're an old windbag, and you're just blubbering on, and I can't restrain. I've got to speak. Should your empty talk make men hold their peace? And when you mock, should no one rebuke you? For you have said, my doctrine is pure, and I am clean in your eyes. Oh, that God would speak and open his lips against you. Well, Zophar is going to get his wish too. He's going to be present, and then at the end of the book, God's going to tell Zophar, and the other two, if you go to Jobe and he prays for you, you know, and all, then you will be restored. Okay, let's go down to verse 7. Can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty? Well, beginning in chapter 38, God Himself is going to ask some of those questions and a lot more. They're higher than heaven. What can you do? Deeper than Sheol? What can you know? Now, Sheol is the Hebrew word for the grave. The Greek equivalent pretty much is Hades, but the grave, the tomb. Their measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.

If He passes by in prisons and gathers to judgment, then who can hinder Him? For He knows deceitful men. So Zophar is saying, yep, God knows you. You're a deceitful man. He sees right through that. He sees wickedness also. So Zophar is saying, Job, God sees through you and He knows you're wicked. Will He not then consider it? For an empty-headed man will be wise when a wild donkey's colt is born a man. Well, again, nice friends that have show up. If you prepare your heart, verse 13, and stretch out your hands toward Him, if iniquity were in your hand and you would put it far away, and would not let wickedness dwell in your tent. So again, He's saying, prepare your heart. It's not right. Turn to God. You're not doing that. You're a man of iniquity. You're a man of wickedness. Then surely you could lift up your face without spot. Yes, you could be steadfast and not few. Because you would forget your misery and remember it as waters that have passed away. Your life would be brighter than noonday, though you were dark. You would be like the morning. So if you just do all of this again, then the sun in every way is going to shine on your life once again.

Well, he wraps it up here. You would be secure. There would be hope.

You would rest in safety. You could lie down. No one would make you afraid. Verse 20, but the eyes of the wicked will fail. They shall not escape their hope. Loss of life. So he basically says, yep, Job, what you've got ahead is you're going to fail, you won't get away, and you're going to just die. Well, I'm sure that wasn't very comforting. But that's one of the points we covered at the beginning in the introduction. We've got this example to at least provide, put faces, names and faces to what it's like to not be a true friend.

When people are afflicted, they need our support, they need our love, they need us to call, maybe they can eat well, everybody's different. They may need some food. There are things they need, but they don't need friends to come and just pile on and be unrelenting in their condemnation. So chapter 12, that was Zophar's chapter, and now we've actually got three chapters where Job responds, and he's going to make the point the wicked are not immediately punished. And there may be wicked out there who don't seem to be punished right now, and there are righteous who are afflicted. Now, in verse 2, no doubt you are the people and wisdom will die with you. So you guys see yourselves as being the summation of wisdom itself, wisdom personified. But he says, I have understanding as well. I'm not inferior. He says, I've been around. I know a few things too, and I'm not of a lower status in life than you guys. Verse 4, I am mocked. I am one mocked by his friends who called on God, and he answered him, the just and blameless who was ridiculed. So verse 5, a lamp is despised in the thought of one who is at ease. You know, in part, that those words, one who is at ease.

In part, he's saying to his friends, you guys don't understand what I've been through. You haven't lost children and everything you own, and you're not sitting here on a pile of ashes covered in boils scraping the puss with a piece of pottery. You guys have got it easy, is what Job was saying. The tenths of robbers prosper. Yes, and you know that's true to this day. And that's right. There are those who live a life of crime, and it can pay quite well, and it might pay well all of their life. But then again, it might not. They might get caught. Those who provoke God are secure in what God provides by his hand. Well, verse 7, he begins saying, you know, go to the dumb beasts around. You know, go to the animal world around, or go to some noxious weed out there, and they can teach you guys a few things. So he mentions the beasts and the birds of the air. Verse 8, he mentions the fish of the sea, how they'll explain it to you. Verse 9, who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? So Job was so sure that God is the one who had punished him and afflicted him and heaped troubles on him, in whose hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. Does not the ear test words and the mouth taste its food?

Well, verse 13, he begins, Job just wants the three to be quiet and leave him alone, and just let happen what will happen. Verse 13, with him God, with God, our wisdom and strength, he has counsel and understanding. If he, excuse me, I made a comment there. I'm looking at my Bible and then my notes and I got ahead in chapter 13 where he makes a statement. He just wants them to hush up and leave him alone and let him suffer in peace. But in verse, okay, we read verse 13.

14, if he imprisons a man, there will be no release.

I think, again, a lot of this we can kind of skim down through. He's talking about the power that God has. It seems he is just fascinated with the power. Verse 18, he loosens the bonds of kings and binds their waist with a belt. He leads princes away, plundered and overthrows the mighty. Look at history. Look at what, well, chronologically it would have been after this story was being written down, but the great world power of that day and age was Egypt. When Israel ended up there and it was time for them to come down, one after another after another, and they were overthrown. Centuries later, it happened to Nineveh. After that, Babylon. So when it's time, God brings them down. The word picture here is of taking and binding kings and leading princes away off to the capital of whoever their captors are, their conquerors are.

21, he pours contempt on princes and disarms the mighty. He uncovers deep things out of darkness. Verse 23, he makes nations great and destroys them. He enlarges nations and guides them. We don't have to look any further than our own country. Look at what happened from the late 1700s, especially not only with the Constitution, that marvelous Constitution, but you had the Industrial Revolution and in America and Britain, one after another, cotton gin, and just one after another. Great invention. It's as though it was revealed to somebody in this country, and we began to prosper and grow, and God was lifting them up at a point that was 2520 years down the line from whenever God had made a promise. But because of their sins, it was postponed. Well, at any rate here, let's see. I think that's all we'll comment on in verse 12. Now verse 13, he continues, But my eye has seen all this, my ears heard and understood it. What you know I also know I am not inferior to you, but I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God. So he again goes back to the fact that he wants to speak directly to God to vindicate himself, to prove himself righteous. But you forgers of lies. You are all worthless physicians. You know, a physician is supposed to be one who helps a person, binds up a broken limb or provides something that's going to ease. But these guys have come along, he's saying, and then you've just made it worse. Oh, that you would be silent, and it would be your wisdom. This is where he's saying, just be quiet and let what will happen happen. Now hear my reasoning and heed the pleadings of my lips. Will you speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for Him? I mean, Job knew that their argument was completely wrong. But we're also saying his attitude toward God is not right. His view of God is not right. And he's just wanting over and over this time to vindicate himself. Will you show partiality for Him? Will you contend for God?

Well, verse 10, he will surely rebuke you if you secretly show partiality. Verse 12, your platitudes are proverbs of ashes. Your defenses are defenses of clay. They're going to fall. They're going to give so easily. So Job gets a little testy back with his friends. And we really can't imagine the suffering the man's going through, but you can see where, yeah, you'd reach a point where you just want to lash back at him and just say something to get him to hush up and go away.

Verse 13, hold your peace with me and let me speak. Then let come on me what may.

All right. Verse 15, though He, that's God, though He slay me, yet I will trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him.

He shall also be my salvation, for a hypocrite could not come before Him. Yeah, it's interesting to try to look behind the scenes and to read what's going on in Job's mind here. He does realize somewhere down the way, somewhere down the line, there's going to be salvation. There's, if he's saying to his friends, if I was this rotten hypocrite you're saying I am, I'd never be able to stand before God. Now, the next chapter is where He's going to ask that question, if a man dies, shall he live again? And then we'll see even more next time, a few chapters later, where He knows that His Redeemer lives. Well, listen carefully to my speech. Verse 17, to my declaration with your ears, see now I've prepared my case. I know that I shall be vindicated. Who is He who will contend with me? If now I hold my tongue, I perish. Verse 20, only two things do not do to me, then I will not hide myself from you. Now, He has turned His attention, His focus, back toward God. So He's saying to God, I've got two things I need you to do. 21. The first thing is, withdraw your hand far from me. You have, again in Job's mind, he sees God as having heaped enough affliction on Him. And he says, just don't add any more. Maybe he was thinking, by the way, how about healing me of these boils? And then secondly, the latter part of verse 21, let not the dread of you make me afraid.

So He's saying, don't scare the wits out of me by your awesome power.

Well, here again, we know the rest of the story. We know He's going to be healed. We know the affliction is going to end, and the blessings are going to start flowing. But we also know that God's going to appear in great majesty, and Job will have nothing to say. 22. Then call, I'll answer.

Or let me speak. Then you respond to me. So kind of like he and the friends we're doing, they're having this give and take, point and counterpoint, like in a court, and he wants to do that with God. 23. How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin. Well, we know what God thinks. At the beginning of the book, He said, this man's blameless. He's just. He hates evil. He fears God. And all of this Job has thought up in his own mind. I think it also tells us how easy it is when we're suffering. Satan can plant thoughts, and the mind just starts running in a certain direction. It'll turn itself inside out. There's a danger there.

24. Why do you hide your face and regard me as your enemy? God didn't view him as an enemy. But again, that's one of the great questions, the first part. One of the great questions of the book of Job is God hiding Himself. Well, God's going to come out in the open here before He knows it. 25. Will you frighten me? I frighten a leaf, driven to and fro, pursued, dry, stubble. 26. You write bitter things against me. No, God wasn't. But His mind had taken in that direction. 27. Make me inherit the iniquities of my youth. Everyone looks back and you think of the things that I did, the foolishness of youth, the sins of youth, and He's accusing God as keeping a record of all of this. And in verse 27, you watch me closely, watch closely all my paths. You set a limit for the soles of my feet. Well, let's go to chapter 14. I want to survey that and then that'll be a natural break because in chapter 15 we start round two and we've got Eli fast speaking again. But chapter 14, man is born a woman, is a few days and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower and fades away. He flees like a shadow and does not continue. So life is fleeting. Man is a transitory being. This mortal life is temporary. And in verse 3, do not open your eyes on such a one and bring me to judgment with yourself. How can a clean thing come out of an unclean? Not so. Since his days are determined, the number of his months is with you. You have appointed his limits so that he cannot pass. Well, he says, God, you are the one who has placed limits, time limitations, on me and on man in general. We only have a certain amount of time that you know in order to live. Look away from him that he may rest, till like a hired man he finishes his day.

Well, verse 7. Here he uses the example for a few verses. He uses the example of a tree. A tree that is cut down still has that promise or that hope of life springing back again from that stump. For there is hope for a tree. If it is cut down, that it will sprout again, that its tender shoots will not cease, though its root may grow old in the earth. And there are times you may have seen trees that were cut down or blown down or destroyed. However, and a long time later, here's life that begins to sprout forth. There was life down on those roots all that time. It stumped by die on the ground, yet at the center water it will bud, bring forth branches like a plant. The years we were out in the desert, the high desert of California, just was amazing about this time of the year. There would be some rains, and that antelope valley, those hills around, would be covered in those orange California poppy, the lupins, in Texas they call it the blue bonnets. And let's see, there was another one, but it just overnight, get a little rain, and the whole world was a burst with color every year during Unleavened Bread. And then it dies, and it is brown and dead the rest of the year. And then the next winter you'd get some rains, and then we got warm enough just overnight. And it almost seemed to always coincide with Unleavened Bread. Make that drive on a holy day over to Bakersfield, and you're going through this world ablaze with color. Three weeks later it's gone.

So, well, the scent of water. Verse 10, but man dies is laid away. You know, that stumps cut down, and with water it might come back to life. But when a man dies, he breathes his last, and where is he? He's gone. The water disappears, the sea becomes parched, so a man lies down and does not rise till the heavens are no more. Well, verse 13, here we come to this 13 through 15, some of the most important verses of this entire book. Oh, that you would hide me in the grave. Well, again, we've seen abundantly he just wants to die is in such agony, but he did understand that when he dies, his remains would be placed in a grave. He was not going to live on as something else. He was going to be in that grave until a time when God called him out. That you would conceal me until your wrath is passed. Now, probably he's looking, as Job looked at God as the one punishing him, but perhaps maybe in general toward all of humanity, he was thinking there would be a time when there would be God's wrath, and when that's over, there's a resurrection. That you would appoint me a set time and remember me. So, again, there's some type of a realization that there is a resurrection ahead. Verse 14, if a man dies, shall he live again? And then he answers it, all the days of my hard service I will wait till my change comes. You shall call and I will answer you. You shall desire the work of your hands. So, again, powerful verses there. Just as powerful as when Christ walked the earth and he said the time is coming and now is when all who are in the grave will hear the voice of the Son of God and come forth. So, verse 16, though, he says, for now you're carefully scrutinizing everything I do. Verse 16, for now you number my steps but do not watch over my sin. My transgression is sealed up in a bag and you cover my iniquity. So, he even views God as making a list and writing down his sins and sealing them so that he can bring them out later and hold them against Job. Well, again, think of the mindset. Here is a man fascinated if not terrified of God's power, but, wow, what if he could see, like he came to see later on, that God is a God of great providence. He has mercy when and how he chooses to have mercy, but he is a God of love and he's in the business of forgiveness. And we can learn from that because human beings, sometimes we tend to want to see people punished and God's in the business of forgiving. God's not in the business of giving us what we deserve. So, verse 18, he talks about a mountain crumbling, a rock being moved, water wears away stones, torrents wash away soil. End of verse 19, so you destroy the hope of man.

You prevail forever against him and he passes on. You change his countenance and send him away. So, he's talking about death. Time comes, that man dies. Verse 21, his sons come to honor and he does not know it. So, to me, it's like the next generation or generations come to the grave site to, you know, to visit the grave. Like I was in Oklahoma, my sister and I met, my sister and I went out to the community cemetery and we had what we call our family reunion. You know, we've got a brother there. We've got a father and a mother there. We've got uncles, aunts. We've got grandparents there. We've got great grandparents on the way over on the old, old part of the cemetery. And so, it's what we call having our family reunion. Just go there and remember and grieve still. We all do that. But that's the way this strikes me. That, you know, the children come to where the man is buried and the man has no awareness that they've come.

But his flesh will be in pain over it and his soul will mourn over it. So, Job views death as destroying all hope that that person ever had or would have.

Time passes. Lives end. And he's unaware. So, this chapter broached one of those great questions. If man dies, will he live ever again? Well, in part, an answer is given, but we'll see more before we get through this book. But the wonderful thing is that this God, whom he was judging, is going to come on the scene. And it's that same God who would come as God in the flesh and would provide a sacrifice so that every man or woman who lives or has ever lived will be able to come out of their graves and hear his voice and live forever in the family of God. So, good material. But it is eight o'clock and I think it's time to wrap it up. So, thank you much. Yes, sir.

Twelve twelve. I'm probably guilty. What did I skip over here?

Wisdom is with aged men. That's a pretty important fact. I try to tell my wife this and she just replies, you're the whole.

Well, I did have a couple of questions. Yes, sir. No.

First of all, do you think Joe had any other thoughts besides his self-righteousness? I mean, he seems to think he's perfectly innocent and we know he didn't understand he was self-righteous. Did he have a little thing to do?

Well, all we can do is go back to what God said about him at the beginning. And those four things that he mentioned, that's hard to beat. That God says the man's blameless, fears God, hates evil, and what was it? Was upright just or upright?

That's hard to beat as a resume that God gives you. Now, obviously, he wasn't perfect. All have sinned, we read, but and at the beginning, when the children would get together and they would feast together, he would offer sacrifices in case one of his children had sinned and didn't know it. So, everything we know about him, this was just a marvelous, remarkable man. They were aware of his tactics. He not had any idea that Satan does that sort of thing. He never gave a second thought that it could be Satan doing the stuff to him instead of God. Right. Well, now, you know, if here we are a story two or three hundred years before Moses, when Genesis through Deuteronomy is actually written down, what they may have had access to as far as a creation account and the garden and Satan's involvement there, I mean, we really don't know what concept they even had of Satan or of his existence even.

The Jews are the kings of all times of the ones who write things down and then meticulously copy and check and recheck and triple check. So, yeah, you would think there would be some awareness, but they seem to be totally ignorant. And, of course, they couldn't read chapters one and two like we started with. And Job himself. Yeah. And, you know, last night at Madison, Nancy Morgan brought up a great point that, of course, all this is taking place prior to what Moses wrote and in Leviticus 26 and then Deuteronomy 28 and 29, you got the blessings and cursings chapters, which were focused to Israel as a nation that if you obey me, I will bless you. If you disobey, I will curse you. So, this is earlier than that. So how much of a concept you can see where kind of a health and wealth gospel type of thinking could come from if that's all you would look at. But this is before that. So we're a bit just left out in the cold as far as did they even recognize there was an adversary? Of course, well, it's when Job is speaking, when he says, when God is speaking, when he says the morning stars sang for joy, you know, when the physical creation of the universe was taking place. So we're just left with a lot of things. We don't have all the story.