Lessons From Job 8-14: The Mystery of Divine Justice

Job repeatedly struggled over God's justice and his own vindication. This is that back-and-forth that we've seen and we're going to continue to explore. Our own UCG commentary says, this will get worse as it goes along. How is it, then, that God will later proclaim Job right and his friends wrong? The expositor Bible commentary continues, the significant difference between their speeches come from a difference in a relationship with God. Job is determined to be absolutely honest with God. Job tells God everything, every tear, every doubt. They, speaking of his friends, tell God nothing. They only talk about God, never to him. This should be kept in mind as we become impatient with Job, and we're going to hit that emotion in this story. We're going to become impatient with Job.

It goes on and says, we should also keep in mind that despite all the hair-raising things, Job will say he never asks for restoration. His main concern is about his relationship with God, and that is why he puts so much stress on vindication. Without vindication, all that he is suffering is proof that God is his enemy. So when Job calls God his enemy, which we'll see today, the reader must remember these are words of poetic passion used figuratively as the total context proves.

Our commentary goes on to state, Job was not pinning a theological essay in what he is saying. Rather, he's pouring out his heart in a flood of emotion, and he's pouring it out in the right direction. It says he is pouring it out in the right direction. For if one is going to complain, God is the proper complaint department, as he is the one who has the power to resolve any and all complaints.

What is most remarkable about Job is that despite the fact that he sees his grief and suffering as coming from God, he is nevertheless determined to hang in there with God, hoping when there is no hope, believing beyond seeing. And so this is where I want to pick up the story again today in the book of Job, this time in chapter 8. The basis of Job and all of his friends, the theology that they were holding to at a high level, was correct. God is just, and God is always just. But their understanding of God's justice was skewed. And there's a big difference between believing and knowing that God is just, but then understanding his justice.

And that's what we're going to continue to pour into as we continue to work through this passage today. We looked at his first friend's argument in the last sermon. We're going to dive into friend number two and three today and their initial arguments with Job. And his second friend, Bildad's, argument was this. God cannot be unjust, and God will not punish a just man. So Job, you must be unjust. It's kind of like a math problem, right? 1 plus 1 equals 2.

It always works this way. It's simple. A child can understand it. And Bildad is going to drop down to this, explaining it like a child would to Job. And this is where we see the difference of understanding. Notice Job 8 in verse 1. It says, then Bildad, the shoe-height, answered and said, How long will you speak these things?

And the words of your mouth be like a strong wind. And then Bildad begins piling on to what his friend Eliphaz shared earlier. Does God subvert judgment? Or does the Almighty pervert justice? See, they're getting into judgment, justice. And then he says, If your sons have sinned against him, he has cast them away for their transgression.

We'll get back to that in a minute, but talking about a low punch. With this, right from the get-go of the second letter, we get back to the central theme that has been running through this book so far. How can a perfectly just God allow seemingly righteous people to suffer? This is the mystery of the Odyssey. I'm going to spell it for you. It's T-H-E-O-D-I-C-Y. The mystery of the Odyssey. From a simple Google search, the Odyssey is a philosophical and theological attempt to defend the goodness, justice, and all-powerful nature of God in the presence of evil and suffering in the world.

This word was coined in 1710 by German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Leibniz, and he wrote of this concept in one of his early works entitled, Essays of the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man, and the Origin of Evil. Seems like a big concept book. The word the Odyssey combines the Greek words theos, which is God, and dk, which is justice, literally meaning justifying God. I want to pause because have we ever justified God before?

I have. This is how God works. This is the box that God is in. This is from my earliest childhood memories, and walking with God, and experiencing, talking with God, seeing his miracles. This is how God works. This is the mystery of understanding a good and right judge, or good and right God, when things in the world seem to point to evil, and to problems, and challenges. So this word, the Odyssey, meaning justifying God, is something I think we've all explored at different times.

Leibniz argued that our world is the best of all possible worlds that God could have created, and claiming evil is a permitted byproduct of maximizing overall good and free will. Or in other words, this idea tries to provide a possible explanation or moral justification for why God permits specific types of evil and suffering. To put it simply, the Odyssey is the study of the problem of evil. And it's a great problem, isn't it?

We have been born into a world that is corrupt, a world that has a power and a ruler that wants nothing more than to see us destroyed, to see mankind suffer, and to fall out of the right relationship that God wants to have with mankind. We have evil in that has existed all the way back to the garden, and it's been with mankind ever since. And so for one, to wrestle with this idea and concept that if God is good and God is just, then how does evil play in is a fair question to ask. And it's one that every Christian has had to be able to wrestle with in their own journey, in their own life with God. The problem with this is this. Why should evil exist if God is good and all powerful? Right? In Mike Phelps's wonderful utopia of a world, I just get rid of evil. Problem solved. The end. Game over. We can go on and live this beautiful life, right? I'm not God, though. And so this is the question that mankind has pondered, again, since the beginning of time. This concept of evil existing with a God being that is all-powerful suggests one of four things, really, if you really get down to the core of it. It either suggests that there is no God, and sadly, this is where some people go when they have suffered tremendously, or life doesn't make sense, or hardships have come in, or that through life's own experiences, they have struggled and have been hurt, that then they say there is no God, because if there is a God, He could not allow these things to happen, so therefore there is no God. Or, number two, maybe God is good, but He's not all-powerful.

He's a weak God. He wants everything to be great and go well, but He can't. He's too weak. Or, the third option is that God is all-powerful and He could intervene, but He's not good.

So, He does nothing. He likes to just watch mankind struggle and suffer. Or the fourth, and this is where we fall in our journey with God as we understand, God does exist. He is good and all-powerful, but we just don't understand Him sometimes. I think that's what's more fair to say about God. And even though the term theodicy didn't exist yet, it's exactly the mystery of theodicy that Job and his friends are wrestling with through this book. So, going back to verse three, Bildad is mixing some theological truths with some theological errors, saying that God is perfect and always just. Yes, that's correct. God punishes wickedness and rewards righteousness always. He is just, but does He always operate this way all the time? He says, Job and his children have experienced terrible suffering. They have. Therefore, Job and his children must have done something to deserve this. It goes back to, in this case, 1 plus 1 plus 1 equals 3, right? It's simple, Job. It's a mathematical problem that has existed before you and I ever were born onto this earth. This is how God works. It's a classic example of divine retribution theodicy, which explains suffering as deserved consequences of sin. But we have to then go back and ask the question, is this how God always works? Keep your bookmark here in Job. That's where I got mine. Let's flip back to the gospel of Luke. We're going to explore Jesus's own words to help answer this question as we continue to explore this book here, the story of Job. Luke 13, and we'll look in verse 1. This question of the mystery of God's justice and his righteousness, mixed in with evil, has been around, as we've talked about, and thrown out forever. It was very prevalent even during Jesus's times. The Jewish leaders at the time, they had their own ideas, on God's justice. This is why they often asked him the questions and was trying to pin them on different things. But the common Jew at the time, the common person there in Israel, was asking the same question. They were trying to figure out, why is my life hard? Why are bad things happening at times? Why am I struggling here? And so they came to Jesus with these questions and two different examples, asking him, well, where's the sin at? What happened here? What created this problem?

And here in Luke 13 verse 1, we see one of these examples in this conversation. It says, there were present at that season some who had told him, Jesus, about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. So there was an uprising, there was a disturbance.

Pilate had killed many Jews and mingled their blood with the sacrifices. And so there's this concern, this what's happened here. And Jesus answered and said to them, do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans? Because it sounds like it, right? If this is their future, if this is what happened to them, they must have done something that God, that they deserved this. But that's not what Jesus says. He says, is this what you thought? Because they suffered such things. He says, I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Unless he's getting to the big picture here, unless you repent of your sins, eternal life is not an option and is not available. Unless we recognize that we fall short of the standard that God has set for humanity and for our lives, and unless we come to him and repent of our sins, and unless we accept Jesus Christ for our salvation and to cover our sins, Jesus is saying eternal life is not an option. And that's, he's getting to the big picture here, Jesus is saying that all will likewise perish. But he goes into another story, another one that people were wondering about. He says, or those 18 in verse 4, on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. So, similar stories, but with the same explanation, that this is not God's punishment on these 18 because they were worse sinners than everybody else. So, they got what they deserved. It's a math problem, 1 plus 1 equals 2. No, it's not always that way, Jesus is saying. Let's flip it to John chapter 9.

The next Gospel account, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John 9, in verse 1. We'll see one more example to just kind of reaffirm how the things that we struggle with and suffer sometimes in life is not always God's punishment that we have brought up on ourselves or we are dealing with.

He again brings up another story. Notice the approach here. People are bringing this story to Him. John 9 verse 1, it says, "...now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth, and His disciples asked Him." So, they may have had these questions on their own. They may have seen past this man multiple times over weeks or days, and they were probably like, huh, I wonder what happened? What do you think? And they're having their little sidebar conversation. "...and His disciples asked Him, saying, Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents said he was born blind." So again, this idea of, well, somebody must have done something. Probably the parents, because a child doesn't know what he's doing. He doesn't know the concept of right or wrong. So, it's got to be one of the parents, right? Which one? Or could it be the child, right? Maybe the child had sinned in the womb. "...and Jesus answered, said, Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him." That God would be able to receive the glory of a healing and of a help. Jesus affirms twice that bad things do sometimes in life happen to good people, and it's not just a result of God's justice. God is just, and His justice will be brought forth. There is no question in that. But not all the negative things that happen in men's lives can be attributed to God's hand. It's just a reality of life, and it's what Jesus Himself affirmed. But back to the story again. Let's go back to Job, and we're not going to continue to go this slow through it. We're going to make some headway here. But you and I have the benefits that Job doesn't have in that we have chapters 1 and 2 in our labs. You and I have been able to understand the source of Job's suffering and why he's going through what he's going through. His friends don't know. Job himself doesn't know. His wife doesn't know. Other people in the community, they don't know. But we do. And we know that the result of what is happening to him right now is not the result of God punishing him for some sin in his life. Going on and continuing with the negative discourse from his friend, Bildad, he says, Bildad says in verse 5, if you, so he's kind of putting this challenge in front of Job, if you would earnestly seek God and make your supplication to the Almighty, if you were pure in heart and upright, surely now he would awake for you and prosper your rightful dwelling place. Job, if you would just admit your sins, if you would just acknowledge your errors, God will place you back on a better path. If you will just acknowledge him, if you'll just believe. We're crossing into another theology that is very prevalent in circles today that we see in a lot of churches, and that is the prosperity gospel, or prosperity theology, the health and wealth gospel that we sometimes see. And this is that idea that if you believe in Jesus Christ and you accept his life in place of your own, then financial blessings and physical well-being are always the will of God. And that faith, positive speech, donations to religious causes, all of these things will increase one's material wealth and their blessings.

It's another math problem. If I believe and I do these things, God has to do his part. It goes back to the old adage. We're making God a genie in the bottle, right? That if we just rub the lamp and the genie comes out, he has to grant us those three wishes. And if he doesn't, then he's not really a genie. And so if we have faith and belief in this type of a God, he either is God and he's all powerful and he has to grant us our wishes or he's not really that powerful. And so you see this concept that even that we see in different circles around us today that sometimes weaves itself in into our own congregation, but this theology goes against the truth of Scripture and the reality of life. If we were to define faith again, faith is a complete trust in a holy and sovereign God despite our circumstances, right? Not a God who I believe in you if you do these things for me.

I believe you are all powerful if I can see your many miracles performed in my life.

Is that really faith? Or is faith trusting that God, despite the circumstances we go through, remains holy and all sovereign? So we have some different theologies that work here in the story and this discussion between Job and his friends that we need to understand in order to build a picture of what's really going on here. Bill Dad continues with his appeal to Job, and he appeals to look at what we've always been taught, Joe. Look at our forefathers. Look at your dad, Joe. What did he believe? What did he know? And we see this in verse 8. He says, For inquire, please, of the former age, and consider the things discovered by their fathers. We were born but yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on the earth are a shadow. Will they not teach you and tell you in other words from their heart? He's saying, we must, Joe, go back and remember how we've always been taught. Don't start just because you're going through a trial now to come up with a new theology on how God works. This is what Bill Dad's pretty much telling him. Trust and rely on what we've always been taught. You don't need to create any. This is all that is going on in your life. This is it. Nothing else. And Bill Dad, after referencing some plants that grow up, wither and die, he shares this in verse 13. He says, So are the paths of all who forget God, and the hope of the hypocrite shall perish. Whose confidence shall be cut off, and whose trust is a spider's web. He leans on his house, but it does not stand. He holds it fast, but it does not endure. He's in a nutshell, saying, Job, you're hanging on by a thread here with your argument. You are, everything's falling apart around you. We can all see it. You're clinging to these little sources of, I'm right with God, I didn't do anything. And he goes, it's all falling apart.

He says in verse 20, he says, Behold, God will not cast away the blameless, nor will he uphold the evildoers. It's that same idea coming back again. This is how God works.

And so, Bildad believes the past provides an explanation for the present, and his mistake is assuming that the traditional understanding of suffering can explain every individual tragedy today. But it's a wrong understanding, and Job knows it because he's living it. Notice Job's response in chapter 9 and verse 1. Then Job answered and said, Truly, I know it so. He goes, yes, we've all believed this theology, and yes, it's still in play, but I'm wrestling with it. He says, But how can a man be righteous before God? If one wish to contend with him, he could not answer him one out of a thousand times. Job is so right here, because we've read the back at the end of the story, right? We know that God's going to ask him a whole bunch of questions, and Job's not going to give him a single response. Job's kind of, he's telling the future here, right? And we're going to see it play out. He goes in verse 4, God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against God and prospered? It's a great question.

Who has ever taken a stand against God? Who has ever dug their heel in and said, I know I'm better. I have this all figured out. Who's ever stood against God and prospered?

If Job would have stopped right here, there might have been a reckoning or a realization of where he's at. But as we see the story play out, he will not go to the degree of cursing God, but he's going to contend with God. He will charge God with a crime, and he's going to demand his day in court with God. Job goes on speaking of God's greatness. It reminds me of the sermonette that we heard. I appreciate that today. Verse 5, he says, and this is a passage as we read through between verses 5 and 12. Sometimes we like to keep a list in the back of our Bible of encouraging scriptures that we run into or encounter. Like when we encounter something difficult, we can go back to this is one of those passages that brings a lot of encouragement because it speaks of the greatness of God, and yet the gentleness in which he looks after our lives on this beautiful planet he's given us. Verse 5, he says, he removes the mountains, and they do not know when he overturns them in his anger. He shakes the earth out of its place, and 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. He made the bear, the Orion, the Pleiades, these constellations place the stars in the in the in the sky to where man has created these constellations that Job is referencing here, and the chambers of the south. He does great things past finding out. Like we don't have the answers to all of life's mysteries. Yes, wonders without number. If he goes by me, I do not see him. If he moves past, I do not perceive him. If he takes away, who can hinder him? Who can say to him, what are you doing? I love how simple the English gets sometimes in God's Word. Could you imagine waking up one day and saying, God, what are you doing? I've done it. It doesn't make sense, God. This is too much. The pieces aren't. I thought this is what you wanted me to do.

But we see Job is in a state of mind that is clear thinking right now. He's saying, I could demand a court date with God, and I could ask him a thousand questions, but if he asked me just one, I couldn't answer it. Job is so close to the truth of what God wants him to see here. He can't, if he would just reach out, he would bump into it.

It's a beautiful reminder of the God who does all of these amazing things with the universe, and with the stars, and the planets, and just the physics, the invisible attributes, and also sees your life, and cares, and knows exactly what you're going through exactly right now. He knew what it was yesterday, and he knows the hardship that might come tomorrow.

He knows all of this. And yet, if God woke up one day and said, Mike, I need you to, it's that time of the year where we need to adjust the seasons, and I need you to adjust the season. I need you to tilt the earth. I need you to fix it. We need winter. It's that time. So, Mike, go ahead and adjust the earth. In the grand scheme of everything we looked at in the sermonette that we heard, this is nothing to adjust the seasons on one planet that is out in the universe that we happen to inhabit, and to adjust it for the seasons. If you want to talk about weighty lifts, big things to do, hard hard jobs for God, this is like nothing.

And if God should be able to assign a task to you and me, that doesn't sound like too big of a deal, Mike. I just need the seasons. I'll shout out to another Mike. Mike, it's your time to change the seasons, so get on it. Something as simple and as minuscule, if you'll consider the size of the universe and the significance of it, we can't even do ourselves. But God, in His mercy and in His hand, just takes care of it. We don't wake up one day and say, God, don't you think the season should change? We know He's got it. We know He's aware of it. We know He's going to bring it. And we know as much as we may not be looking forward to some of the snow coming down, well, some of us will. Some of us do. I have hope that spring's coming again, right? My garden is going to start growing again. Those flowers will come back up. I'll be able to break out the shorts again and enjoy the summer, and we can get back to Missouri in 95-degree heat, which I don't complain about, by the way.

Because I would be a hypocrite, right? If I'm complaining about the cold, then you can...

God's got it all. These are things that are just nothing to Him. And Job recognizes this, yet it's hard. As much as you and I know these things, when our life is in the balance, when things are not going the way that we wish they would, thoughts come into our minds, like, did I do something? Did I... what have I done wrong? What has somebody else done wrong that I'm suffering? And it brings us back down to these passages. So, in a time of clarity and probably exhaustion, I believe Job here in verse 14, after just kind of going through all of this, this praising God, this reminding, this this exalting God, he probably let out a sigh and recognized that I'm just miserable right now. He says in verse 14, How can I answer him and choose my words to reason with him? For though I were righteous, I could not answer him. I would beg mercy of my judge. Another beautiful passage, the New Living Translation says, So who am I that I should try to answer God or even reason with him? Even if I were right, I would have no defense. I could only plead for mercy. Giving everything that Job is going through, it's completely understandable to see this emotional back and forth and recognize that Job was not always rational in his thinking. We like rational. We like comfort. We like people to be stable. We like people to be predictable. We like there to be comfort in our relationships with others. And so when we find somebody kind of moving the direction Job is going, all of a sudden we don't like it that much. I want you back over on this side of the equation, Job. I want you on the the praising God, Job, and the recognizing where he's at and how powerful he is and how it's okay. You're in his hands, Job. That's on this side where we are much more comfortable with support teams being. That's where we wake up and we ask our loved one, how are you feeling today? What's the answer we want? I feel good. All right? That's what we want. That's what we're hoping for. And in this case, Job's over here saying, praise God, he understands he's got me in his hands. But that's not the reality of how every day always goes. All right. How are you doing today? I slept horrible last night, and I'm struggling right now, and I'm struggling with God. And all of a sudden, the conversation's over here, and we're like, oh, I don't like this. I don't like them talking this way. What if they never come back? What if they get stuck over here? What if they continue to question God, and then I don't have the answers?

Sometimes we're on one side of the equation, and sometimes we're on the other, and we're going to see that with Job as we continue to go on. He's going to bounce, as we've already seen, this back and forth between maybe being a little bit more rational, but then the pain and the struggle of the situation he's in comes out in this rawness. And all of this is okay. Let me just make that abundantly clear. All of this is okay, because this is life. This is us in God's hands as children who are trying to figure out this journey that you and I are on. The UCG commentary referenced the Auschwitz concentration camp, and it referenced a survivor. His name is Primo Levi, and he wrote this about this state that he was in and the experience he went through. He says, Imagine how a man who is deprived of everything he loves, and at the same time of his house, his habits, his clothes, in short, everything he possesses, he will be a hollow man, reduced to suffering and needs, forgetful of dignity and restraint, for he who loses all often easily loses himself.

I want to repeat that last line, because the word picture, we know what he's saying here. He's a Holocaust survivor, right? For he who loses all often easily loses himself.

Sometimes those unexpressible trials that we go through in life, we lose ourselves in the emotions and the pain, the discomfort, the questions. And sometimes we have thoughts and emotions that aren't always rational. That's okay. This is that journey that you and I are on, and this is that journey called life. And for the supporter, again, this isn't very comfortable. We like predictable. We like happy things. We want to see somebody getting better and feeling better. And so when they're saying the thoughts and praising God and saying, it's going to be okay, we'll get through this, we're like, yep, we will keep going. Can I get you breakfast?

We got that doctor's appointment this afternoon. But then it can be maybe 30 minutes later, they're over here because the pain came back. The despair is still there. Lack of sleep.

Bad news from the doctor's report. And this is that story of Job. And as we continue to walk with Job on this, and as we continue to look at the example of how his friends have been helpful or should be helpful, put ourselves into that position too. And see if there's something we can glean from this too on our journeys with one another of being patient and being willing to work with those struggling. This is why those who are struggling rarely need our guidance.

They rarely need our fix, right? I was reminded this just a couple weeks back with one of our family members here in Michigan. I was visiting one of the church members in a hospital.

And I'm kind of embarrassed to share this, but I do it all the time, so I'll do it again.

And the nurse came in and was explaining something that she needed to do, which was really hard. And it doesn't go well, and it creates a lot of pain, and it's a challenge.

And so her and the nurse are trying to brainstorm, like, well, what other options are there?

What other things do you have that could maybe make this a little bit better, more palatable? And then they go back and forth, and the nurse goes out and says, I'll go get some things. So I start sitting with her, and I say, well, what about this? Could we try this? Could we try that?

And I realize what I'm doing. And I told her, I said, I am sorry. I just flipped into man mode. This is what I do. I start fixing things. I start coming up with solutions. I start laying out this and that. And so I told her, I said, I'm sorry. And I was just kind of laughing. I'm sorry. And she looked at me and says, that's exactly what you just did. She goes, I she says, I just needed you to listen to how hard this is. And I said, you're 100% right.

You're 100% right. That's what you need in this moment, because she'd already talked to the nurse. The nurse has already thrown out ideas. She's wrestling with how uncomfortable this is going to be and how it doesn't go well normally. And she just needed me to say, I'm sorry that you're going through this. I'm sorry this is on your plate again.

It's so easy for you and me to flip into solution solving. And we're not perfect, right? We're not perfect on either side of this equation. You probably are like, oh yeah, you did that to me, Mike.

If I did, I'm sorry. If I've never apologized to you for doing that, I'm sorry.

When you and I are helping others navigate the weightiness of life, we make mistakes.

We struggle with grace. We struggle with love. We struggle with understanding at times. We didn't wake up that day and say, I hope I can wreck somebody else's life.

We didn't do that, but we're also not doing everything that we could to help the other person.

In times of extended sickness or in a difficult loss, it's natural for people to doubt.

It's natural to have despair or even become impatient. How much longer will this go on? Have you ever been asked that by someone? No surprise. I've been asked that.

But yet, you and me, we sit on the other side of the equation, looking them in their eyes, knowing that we have no idea how much longer this is going to go on for them.

We just don't. So instead of giving an answer that will always fall flat, it's much better if we can be patient with their impatience. I want you to note that. That is something that stood out to me in preparing this message.

To be patient with others' impatience?

That's not always something that, again, we wake up one day and we say, I hope I can be patient with someone who's impatient today. This will be fun. But isn't that where often when we're struggling and we are saying maybe even irrational things? One moment we're praising God. The next minute we're in tears, saying, I can't do this anymore.

The most important thing that person needs in that moment is our patience. Not our fix.

Not me telling them, oh, can we do this and try this? I'm in man mode.

Just to be, sit with someone, to talk with someone, to put ourselves in their shoes and say, they don't need solutions. They just need a friend who knows they're not alone.

It's much better to be patient with their impatience. And we'll see this continue to work out as this story goes on. Notice chapter 10. Job continues his emotional plea.

He says, my soul loaves my life, verse 1, and I will give free course to my complaint.

This is that uncomfortable place that Job is going. He says, I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. And we're like, I don't like this. I'm uncomfortable with this. What if you get, what if Job gets stuck in this mindset? I will say to God, do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me. What if the lightning bolt comes from heaven now, right? We want them over here where they're praising God and where they're glorifying God and lifting him on high. That's where we're comfortable. This, this side of this trial is really uncomfortable. Does it seem good to you that you should oppress? Shh, shh, shh, stop talking. That you should despise the works of your hand and smile on the counsel of the wicked? But did Job sin by saying any of this?

He didn't. He's laying out the rawness of this journey that he's on with God.

And the rest of this chapter continues to go on, kind of laying out there that he needs us meeting with God. He's growing close to truly contending with God. He's definitely, he's definitely a hundred percent in a state of wrestling with God here, and that's okay. God invites us to wrestle with him when these weighty matters come up and when we're trying to work through how to go about how to go forward. But Job is growing closer to demanding an answer from God and holding him accountable for his unjust misery, which we're going to see in some future sermons. But let's work through the little bit of time we have left. The third letter from the third friend, this is Zophar. And when we get to Zophar, Zophar has now heard his other two friends reply, and he's heard Job's response, and he's kind of had it up to here. He's kind of fed up with Job, and he's not, he has no room for his arguments anymore. Notice verse 1, then Zophar the namathite answered and said, should not the multitude of words, Job, that you're throwing around be answered? And should a man full of talk be vindicated? The New Living says, shouldn't someone answer this torrent of words, this flood of words that he's just throwing out?

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. But oh, that God would speak, Job, and open his lips against you, that he would show you the secrets of wisdom. For they would double your prudence, know therefore that God exacts from you less than your iniquity deserves.

I mean, do we need to go back and rehash everything that Job has lost? And yet, here's his friend, saying, that's not even, that doesn't even scratch the surface of what you really deserve, Job.

It's this continuation of this misunderstanding of God's judgment, as we've already looked at today.

It's the same wrong theology that has existed for thousands of years. And I can't even imagine how hard this would have to land on Job. He's lost it all. And they're saying, nah, it's not nearly as much as you deserve. And then, Zophar does make a call to repentance, which is not of itself a bad thing, right? If we find a friend sinning, then encouraging them and guiding them to a repentant state of mind with God is not a bad thing to do. Notice, he says, if this was the case, he says, if iniquity were in your hand and you put it far away and would not let wickedness dwell in your tents, then surely you could lift up your face without spot. Yes, you could be steadfast and not fear, because you would forget your misery and remember it as water that has passed away, and your life would be brighter than noonday, though you were dark and you would be like the morning. And verse 20, but the eyes of the wicked will fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope, loss of life. In a sense, Zophar is saying, if you will just turn to God, Job, acknowledge your sins, he will bring this off of you. He will free you from this. He will provide for you a way out. And in a sense, you can almost see Zophar saying these words to Job, kind of shrugging his shoulders, like, are you gonna listen? Looking at the other friends and being like, we're doing everything we can and just kind of walking away. It's that mic drop moment, right? There's nothing else, Job. There's three of us. We've all said the same thing. I got nothing else to tell you.

Notice Job's response, because in it we get one of the greatest sarcasms, I think, in Scripture, and one of the funniest comments. Job 12 verse 1, he says, and Job answered and said, no doubt you are the people and wisdom will die with you. My three friends came to support me and they're torrent of words. You can just feel the tension that has built to this point in the sarcasm. The New Living says, you people really know everything, don't you? And when you die, wisdom will die with you. But he goes on and says, but I have understanding as well as you. I am not inferior to you. Indeed, who does not know such things as these? And so he continues to tell his friends, I'm being misunderstood. Yes, this is how we believe God works, but I am stuck in a mystery of understanding really who God is and how he works. And you guys don't see it. You don't understand it. He's not saying that he's perfect or that he has never sinned, but he says, I don't understand the reason for my suffering. But what he does know is that his friend's reasoning is narrow-minded and wrong, and he will continue to appeal to God for the answers. Notice verse 13, with him are wisdom, speaking of God, and strength. He has counsel and understanding. Another encouraging passage here if you want to jot it down. If he breaks a thing down, it cannot be rebuilt. If he imprisons a man, there can be no release. If he withholds the waters, they dry up. If he sends them out, they overwhelm the earth. With him are strength and prudence. The deceived and the deceiver are his. Verse 22, he uncovers deep things out of darkness and brings the shadows of death to light. He makes great nations and destroys them. He enlarges nations and guides them. He takes away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth and makes them wander in pathless wilderness. They grope in the dark without light, and he makes them stagger like a drunken man. Again, Job is finding himself on the reasonable side again, praising God and saying, who can withstand the Lord? He does these great things.

And Job affirms that none of us have the answers. None of us have the true wisdom like that wisdom originated from us. There is no wisdom, Job says, apart from God. No man can approach and be on the same level as God. And he, of course, says that God has all this understanding and knowledge.

He's just silent right now. And through all of this, while Job showed impatience with God, he never cursed or rejected God. But we'll continue to see this shift in Job's boldness in chapter 13 as he begins to really focus in on this case that he wants to argue with God. Verse 3, But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with him. All of a sudden, he's going from reasonable back over to this side, and I'm not comfortable with this side of Job again.

But you forgers of lies, you are all worthless physicians. Oh, that you would be silent, and it would be your wisdom. Verse 13, Hold your peace with me, and let me speak. Then let come on me what may. Verse 15, Though he slay me, yet I will trust him. It's another beautiful passage of Job's emotional response. Even so, though, he says, I will defend my own ways before him.

He also shall be my salvation, for a hypocrite could not come before him. Listen carefully to my speech, and to my declaration with your ears. See now, I have prepared my case. I know that I shall be vindicated. It's like he noted his whole life in the book, and he's laying it down before God. I am not comfortable with someone in that state, right? I mean, you and I are trying to walk alongside someone and be a support. Help them. Can I make you breakfast? And in the rawness of what they're going through, this is where they are. And we're trying to drag them back. We're trying to say, oh no, you really don't mean that, Job. Let's put your book down, Job. And we're trying to like come back over here. Hey, I made you breakfast, Job. Let's not do this. He's wrestling with God because he knows he has not sinned, and you and I know he has not sinned.

Yet he was suffering. And so he is questioning this old age question, this mystery of theodicy.

Why is there evil in a world if God is all-powerful and all-evil?

But he was also clear that he would trust God, and he would remain silent if God would choose to disclose his sins, and know this verse 22, then call and I will answer God, or let me speak, and then you respond to me. Tell me how this works. We'll do it. How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my transgression and my sins. Why do you hide your face and regard me as your enemy?

I told you we'd get to this part. Job is stating like, I need to make sense of all of this, and I don't have that. So you need to give it to me.

I've been there more times than I can count, whether it was my own issues like trials or challenges, or whether I was supporting a loved one who I just wanted it to stop for them. We've all been here. And it goes back, as Job finishes up this passage here, and then we'll close for a day, it goes back to something he said earlier in verse 13 and previous. He says, oh, that you would just hide me in the grave, that you would conceal me until your wrath is passed, that you would appoint me as set time. He's like, I don't have much more time and energy and ability to deal with this. He says, if a man dies, shall he live again? Which is a direct nod to the resurrection. This isn't all that life is meant to be, just this, this eking out this existence. 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. Job's saying this can't be all that life is about, can it? There must be a bigger purpose for suffering in our future, right?

You made us, God, for good works. I am ready to be released from this suffering so I can do your will and to serve you. This is his current condition, and this is where we'll stop for today with the story. I'd like to wrap up here at the end of this first full discourse between Job and his friends. I find it interesting that in chapter 13, Job compared his friends to physicians. He actually called them worthless physicians, right? These are people trained in medicine that are supposed to be able to be helpers and walk alongside our illnesses. And he says, in a sense, like, you're kind of like an eye doctor trying to do open heart surgery, guys. You're only going to make this worse. And of all people who should know what's going on, it should be you, and you're not helping. The Life Application Study Bible puts it this way, they were right to say that God is just. They were right to say God punishes sin, but they were wrong to assume that Job's suffering was a just punishment for his sin.

They took a true principle and applied it wrongly, ignoring the vast differences in human circumstances. And so there's a lesson that maybe we, well, we, I hope we can draw from today, that we must be careful in how we choose to use God's words. We need to make sure that the truth of Scripture that we are sharing is helping to edify to build someone else up. And we need to make sure that we're not just cherry picking Scriptures that sound right, like, think on positive things. Philippians 4.8, everybody! Things that are good. Just think on these things, guys. It'll all be good. But that we're actually using the Scriptures that can actually help strengthen someone who's struggling. Someone who, in one moment, we're comfortable walking alongside of, and who in the next moment may be a little bit irrational. What can we say? What can we do to walk alongside them in that journey? To bring help and healing and health, encouragement, to just be a friend, to just be compassionate towards their suffering as if it was our own.

Again, from the Life Application Study Bible says, Job's profound speech in chapter 14 illustrates a great truth. To have a right set of doctrines is not enough. To know what to believe is not all that is required to please God. Truth untested by life's experiences may become static and stagnant.

Suffering can bring a dynamic quality to life. Just as drought drives the roots of a tree deeper to find water, so suffering can help drive us beyond superficial acceptance of truth to dependence on God for hope and life. So much truth in that statement.

We want this to be comfortable when we walk along somebody and their struggle.

We want to have all the right words and the right solutions. We want to point them to God, right? And that's the good thing to do. But we want it to work and we want it to be successful.

And when we find somebody in Job's state, or like many of you have been through at different times, it doesn't just fit in an easy box.

I'm planning the next time that we come together, next time we work through the story. I might have to pivot. We got Thanksgiving coming up. You probably want a positive story, right, before Thanksgiving, right? So we'll probably pivot for the next sermon. But I'm going to continue through the story. We get into a discourse between Job and his friends that go back and forth three times. And if you think this is the pinnacle of Job's friend's advice, hang on, it's going to get a little bit more rocky. They are wrestling with something that they don't understand, obviously, right? How many times have you and I wrestled with things that we don't understand of God? And what do we need when we're on this journey and wrestling with God? And what can we give when we're supporting others on their journey? I hope this is what will continue to come back around. I'm hoping we can make a little bit of headway getting through those other two accounts back and forth, and so we can start to move towards the end of this study.

But this is a powerful lesson for us all to consider and to learn. We read through Job, and it's just, oh, that's a book of suffering, right? And keep going, don't quit, perseverance.

It's a lot more than that. And I hope that we continue to let it sit and resonate with our heart as we continue to go forward, asking God to use us as tools in His hand, but also to never lose the faith and always keep hope in the one true God who understands.