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Chapter 14 and we'll read the chapter in a minute and the reason why we'll read is we haven't read it yet. We'll read the whole chapter whether we get through the whole chapter or not. That would be a maybe but I want you to just to remember where we left off.
We left off last week looking at the basically the prayer of Job and how.
Job.
Having been frustrated by his friends and finding no real comfort and then looking to God in prayer and that I suggested to you that as we looked at that prayer that Job was was kind of sideways in that it seems a little bit out of line in him to me almost challenging God when he said uh you call and I will answer or let me speak and you respond to me.
But I don't want to go too far backwards but I just want us to think about it as we go through the book and we continually see what's what's taking place that Job can't seem to find a place to rest his soul in this world in this life in the situations that he's in.
And so we're certainly going to see that again. And now after this chapter his friends come back for a second if you will a second round and you'll see it in chapter 15 as Eliphaz comes back at Job. And this back and forth will continue through book until we get a little bit further on.
So let's just read the chapter and then see if we can make some some thoughts out of it. So chapter 14. But I want to start at verse 28. Remember I told you last week that I really think verse 28 belongs with what follows rather than what was previous.
So Job finishes his prayer and then he says man decays like a rotten thing like a garment that is moth-eaten man who is born a woman is of few days and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower and fades away.
He flees like a shadow and does not continue. And do you open your eyes on such a one and bring me to judgment with yourself. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean no one. Since his days are determined the number of his months is with you.
You have appointed his limits so that he cannot pass look away from him that he may rest like till like a hired man he finishes his day. But there is hope for a tree if it is cut down that it will sprout again and that its tender shoots will not cease.
And though its roots may grow old in the earth and its stump may die in the ground yet at the scent of water it will bud and bring forth branches like a plant. But man dies and is laid away. Indeed he breeds his last.
And where is he. As water disappears from the sea and a river becomes parched and dries up. So man lies down and does not rise till the heavens are no more. They will not awake nor be roused from their sleep.
Oh that you would hide me in the grave. That you would conceal me until your wrath has passed. That you would appoint me a set time and remember me. If a man dies shall he live again all the days of my hard service.
I will wait till my change comes and you shall call and i will answer you. You shall desire the work of your hands. For now you number my steps but do not watch over my sin. My transgression is sealed up in a bag.
You cover my iniquity. But as a mountain fails and crumbles away and as a rock is moved from its place and as water wearies away stones and as torrents wash away the soil of the earth so you destroy the hope of man.
You prevail forever against him. And he passes on. You change his countenance and send him away and his sons come to honor and he does not know it they are brought low and he does not perceive it but his flesh will be in pain over it and his soul will mourn over it.
So there we have as job continually speaks before god uh concerning his his current state and uh if i had to kind of give an understanding of what's taking place. Job is continuing his conversation to his friends but he's really addressing it to god.
And in this chapter he really seems to understand the smallest of man and the and the immensity of god. There's a great uh truth that's being revealed through this and his friends have already made that uh same thought.
But job really takes it to me. He takes it to a a great understanding of how um if you if you just consider the the gap between the almighty and us it is it is really um beyond comprehension. And then when you put it in in from the other standpoint how this immense immortal invincible uh boundless god yet is intimately involved in the affairs of life and that is that really is in and of itself that's rather mind-blowing when you think about it at least to me it is that that almost in a sense and i think he makes this indication along the way as he's been going through uh these couple of chapters like like god why are you so concerned with me.
I mean i'm just a i'm just a little a little fish in this giant ocean that you created and and it seems to job as if god is focused totally on him. And job basically wants god to just ease up and and can't get through this thought of why um god is so intent on him and yet he still remains his integrity.
And as we go through this you'll see it and as we consider his words um remember his life is his life is is pretty much spiraling downhill. And you know what it's like when you when it seems like everything you touch goes bad and it's very hard to sometimes um to turn the tide once we start descending down i like to think of it as a spiral a spiral staircase once you start going down it's kind of hard to to make that turn and go back up.
I remember as a little kid um when i lived in new york that one time my parents took us to the statue of liberty and at that time you were allowed to go up. And going up was cool. Coming down was weird.
It really was because it truly was a very narrow spiral staircase. And at that point if i remember right you were able to go up to the to the observation deck and they've since but i always remember that spiral staircase and i remember it was green and it was narrow and it just and it just felt like there's no way out of this.
I gotta just there's no way i'm going back up i gotta go down anyway but i want us to think about that. So he says this in verse 28 says man decays like a rotten thing and like a garment that is moth eaten.
And then he says this in chapter 14 verse 1 man is born of woman. Man who is born of woman is a few days and full of trouble. He's just he's just full of trouble. And and i got to admit good morning. I got to admit something caught my mind.
And i want to just take a minute what he's saying in verse 14. And it might not be directly in line with the book of joe but it struck me. So let me strike you with it. He says man who is born of woman is a few days and full of trouble.
And here's what happened to me. I began to think job does not have a problem with gender identity. That's the thought it just popped in my mind that to job who you know how people say people of old were they get into this whole caveman mentality.
And men of old weren't intelligent. Men of old were backwards. And men of old with this and men of old with that. And we're the tip of the spear. And whatever day someone says that the reality is that's not true is it.
And that even the simplest of truths um have been so obscured. And again i thought about this. And so the word of god has no problem with gender identity. Does it. The word of god doesn't struggle with.
I'm going to give you a little quiz here. I wanted to see how many genders the world thinks there are today outside of men and women. So plus i went to the sauce. I went to google. I want you to guess how many for 2023.
How many genders are identified by the gender identification office. For lack of a better term take guess. Give me a guess 28. Okay anybody else 100. We're in trouble. Anybody else any other thoughts.
Well i'll tell you what if this was wheel of fortune. And whoever came closest without going over do you know that there's 107 different gender identities in 2023. Just think about that for a minute 107.
I started to read through and i and i just i can't do this. No more. And it started. Of course it started with the truth men and women and from their friends it was downhill. And as i thought about that and i thought about what joe was saying and again to me the word of god is explosive.
So i can i like to look at the word of god and let it work on me rather than me trying to work on it sometimes. And what i mean by that is i i wanted to to open my mind not only in this setting but to open my mind into the thoughts that pertain to life.
Right. And so that's what came to me. But it blew my mind. 107 genders. And yet job just simply says it. Man who was born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. And i would hope that we would all say that's right.
Because if you think about it and we say it often we live in troublesome times. Don't we matter of fact if you think about it remember what we said about when the book job was written it's a long time ago.
Um whether he was related to the patriarchs and whether he was the next generation after the patriarchs. Or some will say that the book was written closer to the time of moses. And some people will even go a little bit further with that but nevertheless just think about the setting of when this is written oh and what it speaks of.
And it goes all the way back uh far back in into those days when um they didn't have google and they didn't have cell phones and we didn't have this that and the other thing. And yet job has no problem identifying the fact that man and and in that verse when he's saying man it also to understand women.
Right. Because women come from women too. Right. I got that one down. Um but man who was born for a woman is full of full days and full of trouble. And again you know every generation says of the generation before it or maybe goes back to how we can look at our lives and say man it wasn't that bad.
Right. And then the next generation comes and what do they say man it wasn't that bad when i was growing up. And and if you continually go it's it's really this this continuation of man being full of trouble and for all technology and all science and all uh if you will moving forward has have we really uh hey there man have we really moved forward or is it the world just as much we pose this.
But would you agree that in many ways the world has not changed one bit any takers that the same issues that went on in those days are the same issues today. And remember what the writer Ecclesiastes said what does he say.
He said there's nothing new under the sun what took place yesterday basically takes place. And he says that even in the future those same things will happen. So when Job says this and and then he he begins to if you will dig a little deeper and he says so he says in 14 one man is born a woman is a few days and full of trouble and he comes forth like a flower and he fades away and he flees like a shadow and does not continue.
And I think again that we could honestly say that we experienced that in other words um youth has its blessings doesn't it. Youth has vitality attached to it. I like to use my grandfather always used the word vinegar that a young guy was full of vinegar and so I would say Steve and Caleb are full of vinegar and and I would like them to use their vinegar because my vinegar is running out you know it's if I've got to lift something and my one of my sons are around guess what yo come here because you see that the reality is you just we are in that sense we're like the flower and we look great in the morning and using that analogy of the morning of life and we grow into a certain point and then you know some people say what what's the age um 40 when when you start to realize you're not young no more 50 I suppose when you're 80 you say 70s is when you felt you get my point wouldn't you agree that we we all I read a book one time and it was a by a man named Arthur Custance and it was about it was titled The Seed of the Woman and it was about the seed of of man by Eve anyway one of the points he makes in the book and I'm not asking you to agree or disagree because not a science class but he said that as we come into this world there is a there's a process in our bodies and that that process kind of runs this way that there is such reproduction of cells and and there's such a fullness of life and everything is brand new if you will and so we start to climb and that's like the flower and the flower starts to come out but then he made the point that there is a point in life and if I'm right I think he said it was like early 20s so Caleb Steve you guys you guys are going to start running out of vinegar here shortly but anyway he said there was a point where this if you will overwhelming process of growth begins to stop and that after that point wherever that point is that this starts to happen no matter what you do.
And so when you think about that and you think about how if you look at Job's life and what's making this worse is the complications that Job is going through. Right. Because he's going through a great physical trial on top of what would be really the normal flow of life and he's got the spiritual issue of dealing with it.
And certainly his friends I read an article this week I just mentioned it to you this is this guy I read of I think he was from Britain maybe you saw the article and he was determined to live over 100 so he takes was a hundred.
He takes 111 vitamins a day now. That seems excessive doesn't it. But his purpose he said he determined maybe it was 111 a week it might have been that but he was determined to live at least to 100 and he hoped to go much further than that.
And so along with the vitamins of course he doesn't eat bad food and he doesn't breathe bad air and all the things. And I wanted if I could have talked to him I wanted I would have asked him to understand what Job is saying here where he says he comes forth like a flower and he fades away and he flees like a shadow when he does not continue.
And that really in the process of life nobody gets away free right. Um we think I also looked up the life expectancy in the United States the average the median life expectancy 2023. Yes and by the way they break it down between men and women.
And actually they say that women live. This is according to the google which has got to be right now women live almost five years longer than men on average but the average median age was 74 .6. Remember what the scripture says if God gives us what.
Three score and ten. And that you and I have to really consider ourselves regardless of our situation and as we consider Job's situation that if we don't get this right in our minds things will be very hard for us as we move along because this is going to have its effect.
This is unstoppable. Remember what it says the wages of what sin is death. And that opens up into the curse right. The judgment not only was the the curse a spiritual curse and a spiritual judgment but it was a physical judgment right.
And that's why again if you think about it why they lived so long in the early time. Who's the oldest guy. Who's the oldest dude in the bible Methuselah in 969 years. Interesting that when from a physical standpoint the age up into the flood was like this right.
Well somewhat like that come out of the come out of the flood. And what happens. It starts to drop drastically. Yeah Noah lived um hundreds of years but it began to come down. And so again um evidence of the reality of what he's saying.
And then in verse four he says in light of that truth he says who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean. And he says no one. And so not only does job have a realization of the flow of life if you will he also has a realization of the spiritual reality of well what what does that mean to you who could bring a clean thing out of an unclean.
No one. What does that mean to you to me. He's talking about my sister ann's not here so she can't correct my spelling. But doesn't that isn't talking about this the depravity of man. And that if you and i consider it that is in as is as inescapable as this.
And that's the problem with people. Right. People will agree to this that physically we climb and then we descend. How many people if you begin to talk to them about this the depravity of man that man is a sinner born a sinner.
Right. Remember what it says in the psalms children go estranged from the womb. Speaking lies again. Why do we have to teach children to be good. Don't have to teach them to be bad. Right. You have to.
You have to move them away from the natural propensity. Would you have you not seen where. Sometimes if you had two really young kids in the same i don't know put them in the same crib not crib whatever playpen.
That's what they call them. That's what they used to call them. Give them the same toys same exact toy. See how long it takes for one of them to try to take the other ones. Right. And then what do we have to do.
No that's not yours this is yours. That's hers. Well that's his. And so again these these things are in job's mind. They are. They're settled. And you think about how many people today are not. So i'll read a comment that matthew henry made on on this thought of what he says in verse four.
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean. No one says this. He said job enlarges upon the condition of man addressing himself to god. Every man of adam's fallen race is short-lived. All his show of beauty happiness and splendor falls before the stroke of sickness and death as the flower before the sickle or passes away like a shadow.
How is it possible for a man's conduct to be sinless when his heart is by nature unclean. Agree. Well let me ask this because i don't want to assume anything. Is there anyone here that does not think that that honestly or might not fully understand it.
There's anyone here that really thinks that man is inherently good. Anyone. You can't. Right. You just can't. And what's the biggest teacher of that. Is it what we see or is it ourselves. I i would say that the the biggest teacher of it is is my own heart that that i could even contemplate the things that i contemplate or i can i can experience the if you will the inability to do what i know is right.
Right. Those kinds of things speaking. So when he says this and he and he's speaking to god and and and basically saying to god god you're so big i'm so small i'm so fragile i'm so so if you will um movable you're so great you don't move.
I mean we wouldn't say this about god. Right. God is period. Right. So god has no even god says it in malachi. What does he say. I change not. And yet for all of this you and i have to deal with with what he says.
Um here about this whole thing if you read in isaiah 40 it'll have a section where it talks about how uh even the i'm going to use this the youths remember my cousin of any i shouldn't even talk about these things.
But mr gambini what did you just say. The two youths. But but it says that in isaiah 40 says even the youths shall grow weary and and and then will fade away. But and he contrasts that with the fact that god neither is weary nor fades away.
And so some people will say this whole conversation is pretty morbid pretty sad. And i would have to say yes or no. It is pretty sad if you think about it from the condition of man. But it's it it. It's pretty wonderful if you think about it from the standpoint of god right.
And so again if men don't look to god what do they really have to look forward to. And i wasn't going to do this till the end but i'm gonna do it right. Now i want you to turn to ecclesiastes job. Psalms proverbs ecclesiastes last chapter.
I'm just going to read it because this is really if you will a very good summary of what we are talking about. So remember what the writer in ecclesiastes is solomon and he has tried everything. Right.
If you read through the book he's tried laughter. He's tried uh possessions he's had uh he says i've had man servants and maid servants and and and he had collected horses and and he had basically done it all.
Then he comes to this and he says this in chapter 12 he says remember now your creator in the days of your youth before the difficult days come and the years draw near when you say i have no pleasure in them when the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are not darkened and the clouds do not return after the rain in the day when the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men bow down when the grinders cease because they are few and those who look through the window grow dim.
When the doors are shut in the streets. And by the way some have brought an analogy to this saying that he's really talking about basically some of the things of our own bodies like in other words um when the grinders begin to cease talks about some people say that he's he's talking about teeth.
When he's when he says that the the keepers of the house tremble that's man's strength. And and then when they look through the windows um those that look through that that's speaking about having a loss of eyesight or dimming of it.
How many of us would say that it wasn't to. Somewhere along somewhere along this line we decided we needed glasses. Right. I remember with me and kenny and we both realized one time we were in a restaurant and we were gonna order and i looked at her she looked at me and we both had the menu like this and we both said it's not gonna work.
And then i know i started and i started with the walmart reading glasses you know because i only needed this that and then and my whole point is as he talks about these things just think about it in that way.
And he says the doors are shut in verse four and the sound of grinding is low and you start to lose your hearing if if that's what the analogy is. And one rises up at the sound of a bird and all the orders of music are brought low when when they are afraid of height and of terrors in the way when they also when the almond tree blossoms the grasshopper is a burden desires fell for man goes to his eternal home and to the mourners and the mourners go about in the streets.
Remember your creator before the silver cord is loosed or the golden bowl is broken or the pitcher shattered at the fountain or the wheel broken at the well. And then the dust will return to the earth as it was and the spirit will return to god who gave it.
Vanity of vanity says the preacher all is vanity. And moreover because the preacher is wise he still taught the people knowledge. He pondered and sought out and set in order many proverbs. And the preacher sought to find acceptable words and what was written was upright words of truth.
And the words of the lies are like goads and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails given by one shepherd and further my son be admonished by these of making many books there is no end and much study is wearisome to the flesh.
And let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear god keep his commandments. For this is the whole duty of man. For god will bring every work into judgment including every secret thing whether it is good or it is evil.
And so again if you think about that and um as we go through this chapter in particular that that many of those things are carried out throughout the bible and it ought not to again be grievous. It ought to be um it ought to help us to understand that no matter what pill what vitamin what this what that what the world can come up with artificial intelligence.
I don't know anything that man thinks he can because you know we really think we are the tip of the spear right. No matter what guess what it's appointed for man wants to die and after death the judgment.
So you're not going to escape it. Maybe you could slow it. Maybe not. So as we look at this and so he he thinks about that. And then he says in verse five since and speaking now of man in general not to exclude himself.
But he says since his days are determined and the number of his months is with you speaking to god you have appointed his limits so that he cannot pass now. Job is no new testament theologian. We would all agree with that right.
Because he lived long before the the gospels and and the new testament was uh given to us. But i would say that joe having we looked and understood how he understands gender correctly man and woman how he understands the fact that man is born basically man is born to die.
Right. And now in verse five he understands that god is sovereign that god is absolute particularly in light of his own frailty. And that you and i um he might not be a new testament theologian but um and and he might not know if we went up to him and said job you sound like a calvinist.
Probably wouldn't understand what we were talking about. But but sometimes i think people think that the doctrines of grace started with calvin and that the reality of the sovereignty of god was started by the reformers.
Well guess what. They greatly helped in putting it in an understandable format. Right. And brother keith's going to address that when we talk about the the battle cries of the reformation. But guess what.
Job understood the same thing from way back that god has set the limits since his days determined. And again this is both individual and corporate. And then you and i would realize that that truth has never changed.
Remember what it says that god raises up nations. And then what does god do to those nations. That he raises up it takes him down. Do we know of any nation that has endured from the very beginning unless you want to say the nation of god's people.
And then i would agree. But if you think about it god has determined um the day he has pointed the day in which everyone has their limits. Right. Everyone can i think about this because my grandson one of my grandson's he's in 11th grade.
Right. He's what is he like. He's almost six three and almost 300 pounds. And um he's a real small kid and he wants a football scholarship and he might get it. He's lineman. And i mean he's not big and fat.
He's big. I mean it's like it's like a tree trunk. I mean they can't even find pants for him because his thighs are so big. But my point is my son just keeps wanting him to grow. I just wanted to go another two inches.
Oh he just got to make it to six three six four. Oh he just got to make it to 320 330. And here's the reality. He's only going to go as far as what as as far as well he might be able to gain some more weight.
But he's only going to grow as tall as god has determined him to grow. It don't matter how much peanut butter he feeds that kid it doesn't matter what people do everything is determined before time. Not only our limit but the realities that come in between the the realities that come between birth and death.
Right. So that you and i have to think about these things. And as job has looked out and again what's really what's really complicating things is job's. Um if you will job situation again when you feel good when life is going good is it not easier to think of um more inspiring things happier things more pleasant things.
It's almost like the weather as the weather starts to change. I and i know because i say man it feels really good out and you want to go outside and you want to and you want to enjoy. And you want to open the door and you want to let the breeze come in.
But how about when it's 110 and the humility's humidity's 100. Right. What do you want to do. Just close the door turn the air conditioner on leave me the heck alone. So so when you think about these things and you think about job's situation um and his understanding of the sovereignty of god.
And so in verse six and i don't know how much further we'll get this morning. And that's okay. But look what he says in light of that verse six he says look away from him. And i think at this point he's speaking about himself he says look away from him that he may rest till like a hired man he finishes his day.
And what i think job is saying is lord this this this is really um not only is your truth overwhelming not only is is his understanding of the almighty overwhelming but his situation is overwhelming. And basically just wants to close it out.
And i do not think he means just to go into uh annihilation. Because as we've seen and as we will see job has a hope but that hope lies beyond the things that are seen just like you think about it you and i if our hope is only in this life what does paul say.
We are of all men the most pitiable. Why. Well because of this because of this because of that because of because of truth. That's why if if only we have this life as a a comfort then there are moments of comfort in this life.
But this life really doesn't yield if you will uh paradise. Right. And again why. Because it occurs. Why. Because it's said. Why. Because god has sent christ to read. And i don't want to answer but i'll leave you with this thought.
So everything that we're talking about in a sense is part of this the old creation. And when i mean when i say old creation i mean everything that's associated with then there's the i'm going to term it this way the new creation.
Everything that's associated with that is never paul's teaching in romans 5 what does he do. He contrasts who the first to the second adam. And who's the second adam christ. Right. And and paul continually in his epistles and even the other writers they continually draw this contrast.
And what joe really wants is he wants to get out of this and he's looking for what yet lies on this side. However i would say to us in our day we're already part of this and we can get into a whole big discussion about that.
But nevertheless as jobe says this and he says let me rest to like a hired man finishes his day. He basically wants to just be left alone and finish his days out go to the grave because the grave to him in his situation is what rest a cessation of his anguish.
But do not take that that joe believes that if he dies it's all over because he doesn't. And you'll see that as we get through the chapter um and you can just look at verse 14 and we'll close it there.
He says if a man dies shall you live again all the days of my hard service i will wait to what till my change comes. So he has it. He has a a sense of hopelessness but he never loses his sense of hope.
And that should be us folks we might find ourselves hopeless in certain areas. But we should always be full of hope for what yet is to come. So okay we'll continue we'll finish the chapter next week we'll just walk through it.
So let's just pray father in god again. Um well sometimes we look at such basic truths and yet those basic truths seem to be so hard for so many to understand. And yet by your spirit holy spirit you have enabled us to see things that so many do not see.
And it's so simple lord that you said that even a babe can understand with the spirit of god as he enlightened. So bless us lord this day may we be um maybe we be a distinct people may people seeing us something more than that this world can offer.
Because this world although it has so much blessing from you lord yet is a snare and a trap and an evil that we can't escape. So bless us to that and be with us this morning be with our worship our song our prayer our thoughts the preaching of your word the fellowship all of it lord do what only you can do in christ's name amen.