Job 3:25-4:21

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00:03
OK, as I said, hey, good morning.
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As I said, let's go back to Job.
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I want to read a couple of verses that we didn't have time to look at in chapter 3.
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And then we'll read chapter 4 and continue.
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Or actually, as we begin this morning, we'll see that Eliphaz begins one of his speeches towards Job.
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But I want to just deal with a couple of verses.
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So I'm going to read from chapter 3, verse 25, through the four chapters, just so we have an understanding of where we're at.
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So Job says this in verse 25 of chapter 3.
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He says, for the thing that I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me.
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And I'm not at ease, nor am I quiet.
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I have no rest, for trouble comes.
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Then Eliphaz, the Temanite, answered and said, if one attempts a word with you, will you become weary? But who can withhold himself from speaking? Surely you have instructed many.
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You have strengthened weak hands.
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Your words have upheld him who was stumbling.
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And you have strengthened the feeble knees.
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But now it comes upon you, and you are weary.
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It touches you, and you are troubled.
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Is not your reverence, your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope? Remember now, whoever perished being innocent, where were the upright ever cut off? Even as I have seen that those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.
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By the blast of God, they perish.
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And by the breath of his anger, they are consumed.
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And the roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken.
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And the old lion perishes for lack of prey.
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And the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
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Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it in disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night.
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When deep sleep falls on men, fear came upon me and trembling, which made all my bones shake.
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Then a spirit passed before my face.
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The hair on my body stood up and stood still, but I could not discern its appearance.
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And a form was before my eyes, and there was silence.
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And I heard a voice saying, can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his maker? If he puts no trust in his servants, if he charges angels with error, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before a moth.
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They are broken in pieces from morning till evening.
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They perish forever with no one regarding.
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Does not their excellence go away? They die even without wisdom.
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So as we come to this point, remember what we looked at last week as Job broke his silence.
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And the friends had sat with him for three days, not saying a word, just mourning with him as he mourned.
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And then finally, Job opened his mouth.
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And I remember what we looked at, that Job was, I'm going to say, complaining.
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He wasn't complaining about whether God was just or unjust.
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What he was complaining about was that he should have never been born.
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And we discussed some of those issues.
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And again, I had mentioned to you, remember with his wife how she said, curse God and die.
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And he told us she was speaking like a foolish woman.
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And yet, as we come to chapter 3, as Job opens up his thoughts, in a sense, he does the very thing that she did.
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And that he complains about his birth and should have never saw light and all those different things.
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And I don't want to go back too far.
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We'll never get to the fourth chapter.
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But I wanted to look at verse 25 because this one is not that easy to understand.
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So he speaks about all his problems and all his misery and how he longs for death and how he would be better off if he went to the grave.
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And again, the reason why he wants to go to the grave is because of what? Why does he want to go to the grave? His misery.
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His misery, absolutely, right? He doesn't believe in annihilation.
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But what he believes in is that if he goes to the grave, the calamity that's come upon him in life will cease.
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And I think we can relate to that to some degree, especially when things are not going as we planned.
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And sometimes, all we want to do is escape the issue that's before us.
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Whether it be physical pain, mental pain, whatever it is, we have a tendency to what? To want to be comforted.
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We want to be in a state of comfort, state of peace, state of joy.
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Versus, and remember, we looked at how life kind of, and I'll just do it again, just so we, how life kind of goes like this, right? And these are the mountains and these are the valleys.
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And we're OK when we're here, right? We're not so good when we're here.
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And I said that I think the idea would be, as God would work in us by his spirit, that we get to the point that we can do this.
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That neither the mountain nor the valley moves us that much.
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But that we're steadfast and that we believe that, as Paul said, that he had learned to be content, right? Because he was able to abound, and he was able to have nothing.
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He could be in good times and bad times.
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And yet, this is the one that really takes more than just feelings, right? Because in many ways, these are the feelings that we have.
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But we see things and we react to things as they come to us.
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But ultimately, God is sanctifying us so that our walk is an even walk, right? It's not dictated by the issues of life.
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OK, so verse 25, when he says this, for the thing that I greatly fear has come upon me, and what I have dreaded has happened to me.
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I'm not at ease, nor am I quiet.
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No rest for trouble comes.
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Anybody want to kind of take a shot at this? There's a couple of different ways to interpret this.
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So remember, he's complaining about all the calamities that have come upon him.
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He lost his wealth.
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He lost his health.
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He lost his kids.
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He lost everything that he had, all his prestige, what he had worked for all his life.
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Remember, Job's no kid.
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He's got 10 kids already.
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So he's not a young man, and yet he says this.
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And I wanted to ask us to think about it, because, again, there's a couple ways to think about it.
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Anybody? Any thoughts? Our thinking.
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Sometimes we fear stuff that hasn't happened.
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Not that we make things happen, but it seems like even when you go back to what you said, that Job prayed for his kids and things of that nature.
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Well, was he praying out of fear or praying out of, you know what I'm saying, that you always think the worst, and then you have people saying, you think the worst, and it happens.
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Or you fear things that hadn't happened.
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So I can only make you think about, what was his life like before all the tragedy? Was he always in fear of something or worse? That's one of the interpretations.
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So what I did was I looked at a bunch of commentators, because, again, this verse could be taken a couple different ways.
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And some of them say that very thing, as you said, brother, that Job, as he experienced wealth and health and prosperity and blessing, that in the back of his mind, he was always concerned that what he had would be taken away from him.
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Right? But let me ask us to think about this and that.
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Morning, sir.
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In 1 John, it says that perfect love casts out fear.
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So if we understand it this way, and I'm not saying it's not impossible, but if we were to understand it this way, then does Job really have peace in his life? Is Job really not? Is he a man of faith to be concerned about what could happen? I mean, again, I'll remind us of what it says in 1 Timothy.
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God has not given us a spirit of what? Fear, power, love, and sound mind.
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He has already given us the answer to that.
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When he talked about why he was praying for his kids, OK? He understood, OK, I need to depend on God to keep my kids and whatever else.
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OK? Obviously, his kids were most important to him because that was the thing he was praying for.
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But at the same time, this is an expose of where his treasure was.
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OK.
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His treasure was in his status.
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OK.
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Let me ask us to think about this.
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And pretty much a follow-up, because this is what some people will have interpreted this.
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And again, I'm not just talking about anybody.
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I hope I look at serious commentators and brothers that have a lot of understanding.
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Some will say that he realized that the world wasn't really paradise.
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And that as he speaks throughout the book, remember he talks about the depravity of man over and over again, right? He says things like, man is born for trouble as the sparks fly upward.
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And he talks about how no one is sinless.
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He talks about the perplexity of life and that some believe that he, what he's saying here is that he realized that what he had, as it says that God had hedged him in and he was afraid that that hedge would be taken away and that he would be inflicted with the evils of the world.
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So in that kind of similar to what you had said, brother, right, that he had this thought in his mind that someday, one day, providence was going to turn against him.
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Now, I want to ask us to think about that.
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Do we really, do we do that? Do we find ourselves at times, and again, I would say it's when we're here, right, that we are overly concerned that we're going to wind up here.
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And that it becomes a, it pulls us down like gravity.
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Barry? Psalm 62, it says, if riches increase, set not your heart upon them.
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Right.
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And as a man of faith, and as we have seen of Job, and we'll see of Job, I'm not so sure that I'm persuaded that he lived in a state of fear.
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Now, again, I'm not saying that he didn't have thoughts running through his mind, and that's the thing that I think we could use in that application, that you and I, we ought to expect great things from God.
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And the issue is, our expectation of great things are not always God's expectation of great things, right? And good morning, sister.
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And that we have to be careful not to get caught up in just the things of life, right? Let me ask you to think about this, because a good number of the commentators kind of fell into this category, that they believe that what Job is saying here is that once he began to go downhill, he feared that it would just continue to go downhill, that it would go even worse.
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And in other words, once the first messenger came and told him of what had happened, and then the second messenger came, that Job began to fear at that point in a way that he hadn't before, because he felt like he was on a hill.
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He was sliding back on a mountain, and there was no recovery.
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And so when he says that the thing that I have greatly feared has come upon me and what I dreaded has happened to me, that it's at the point where he is, in his body, plagued with boils or whatever that was, and that that is where he finds himself.
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Tim.
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So you know how the scripture tells us these things are written a fourth time before I learned it.
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Us looking back on it now, we can see, I think it's a lesson for us, but I don't think it's an indictment against Job, because you asked the question about Job's faith.
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Well, we know that he had faith, and we know, because the Bible says that God said it.
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Upright man.
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Upright man.
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So this just shows our need.
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We can see it from our perspective, we can see it from God's perspective.
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God's perspective is our faith will never, ever come to an end until, we're gonna need faith in this life.
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And it's always going to be tested, and it's always going to be tried.
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So it's not an indictment of our faith in that things happen, because it just shows that God is sovereign, and in God's providence, like you said, we need to learn how to trust God whatever the case may, whatever state I find myself in.
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And I think Job does trust God.
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That doesn't mean, as human beings, we're not going to have questions.
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But even when his wife said, curse God and die, Job never cursed God.
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So it's a testament to his faith, and it's also a testament to, like you said in the beginning, the sovereignty and providence of God.
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Yeah, and again, I'll continually mention the thing that we see in the New Testament about Job is not just his faith, but what? His perseverance, and his continuation to walk with God.
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And as you say, and rightfully so, this doesn't mean that we're going to be able to wipe these feelings out.
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We never are, right? Again, if, and I know it's a silly example, but I keep saying it over and over.
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If I get a toothache and a flat tire in the same day, I'm thinking, okay, what's next? Right? I mean, when it rains, it pours, right? And those kinds of thoughts.
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Those are not necessarily thoughts of faith.
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Those are thoughts of actually not having faith.
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Because we gotta believe that God, number one, God always does what's right, right? God is working in us both to will and do of his good pleasure, and that really, as I said, and as we continue to go through, is think about it.
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If Job had always been here, would he have said half the things that he said, right? No, we all, when we're here, we just want to surf on the top of the waves.
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It's not till we get here that we find ourselves, and many of the questions that we have are those that result from being in the valley.
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So whether you want to interpret this, that Job all his life had thought about this, and I agree with you that his sons had, and daughters, he knew that they were sinners, right? And because he offered sacrifice, because he prayed for his kids, didn't necessarily mean he thought that something terrible was gonna happen, right? But he knew the reality of man.
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Again, that man, it says man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward, right? One more thing about that.
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Yeah.
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In his praying for his kids, that's an expression of his dependence upon the Lord.
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Right.
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Regarding his kids.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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So certainly we have to consider that.
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Were you gonna say something, sister? Or are you just exercising? I'm saying hi.
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Hi, hi.
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Okay, so I wanted to deal with that, and again, I'm not gonna be adamant about what it, I know this, the Bible only has one true meaning, right? And so we can't say, well, it can be this, and it can be that at the same time.
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Interpretation of the Bible, there's only one interpretation of the Bible, and that's the right interpretation.
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Now, whether we got the right interpretation or not, that's totally something else.
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But I wanted to at least deal with that because it'll play into, as Job continues along in the book, of how he sees things and how he, again, is basically just asking God, just take me out of the way.
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And that was one of the things that I remember when we looked at that, when his wife said, curse God and die, there's a number of ways to take that, too.
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It could have been she wasn't just saying, well, God is no good, just curse him.
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It could have been she's saying, basically, just let God take you.
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So again, there's a lot of different thoughts that could be had.
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Okay, so now I wanna start to look at chapter four.
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And so this is when Eliphaz comes in, and he begins to, Job has spoke, and now Eliphaz comes in, and he's about to rip into Job.
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And here's the thing, it starts out really good.
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Just read the first couple of verses.
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Eliphaz, the demonite, answered and said, if one attempts a word with you, would you become weary? But who can withhold himself from speaking? Surely you have instructed many and have strengthened weak hands, and your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have strengthened the feeble knees.
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So just stop there for a second.
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Here comes Eliphaz, and he starts out really good, don't he? He talks about Job's integrity.
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He talks about how Job was a doer, and not just a hearer.
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He talks about how Job had comforted others.
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And it sounds as if Eliphaz is gonna truly try to seek to comfort Job.
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And I wanted to just mention that, that it's not always easy to comfort people.
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And we need to be very careful how we do it.
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We need to really, I think we need to really think before we talk.
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In other words, when we see someone who is beside themselves, we've gotta make sure that the words that we speak are not only true, but they're, you know that proverb that says, a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold and pitches of silver.
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And remember what Paul says? He says, let your speech be with grace, and seasoned with salt that you might know how you answer every man, right? So Eliphaz comes in, and he begins in a real good way, and then all of a sudden, it turns.
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All of a sudden, in verse five, now it comes upon you and you're weary.
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It touches you and you are troubled.
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I'll ask a personal question.
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You certainly don't need to answer this out loud.
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But I've had to ask myself this question.
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When we see other people, universities, do we find ourselves at times drifting in our minds to the point where we say, in our minds, I wonder what they did.
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Now, you could all be so spiritual that you never thought about that.
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But I am not that spiritual.
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And I've had to entertain those thoughts.
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When you see someone, especially when you're here, or somewhere around there, and someone else is down here, that you begin to question, oh, I wonder what happened.
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I wonder what's really behind the curtain.
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And we need to be careful with that.
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Because one of the things that, the more I read the book of Job, the more I misunderstand these three friends.
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Because these three friends are not really friends.
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They have a relationship with Job, and they come to visit Job.
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But they have some, they have some weird, not weird, they have some, to me, some really wrong presuppositions.
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And we're gonna deal with one of them this morning, which I think is the main one that runs throughout the whole book.
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You gonna say something, Bill? Well, okay, at this time in human history, what did they know? Could a human being have the kind of relationship with God that we know? And as a result of that, that relationship enables us to have understanding that they didn't have.
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Okay.
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All right, so how we gonna handle Brother David here? We gonna agree with him, or we gonna throw rocks at him? Well, I mean, I think what you said is true, and I think what he said is true as well, because even though we have a clearer picture, even in our time, we still act like that.
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So we still have the capacity to act the same way, so.
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Yeah, I agree with that, brother.
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And yet, I would suggest, if you look at some of the patriarchs, I mean, Abraham, did not Abraham have great faith? Did not Abraham walk with God? I am not so certain, and this is just me now, my understanding.
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I am not so certain that, I know we're in an advantage place, right? Because Jesus said that.
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He said, if I go, I will what? Send you the spirit.
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And it's to your advantage that the spirit comes.
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So I understand that, but I would not want to undermine the ability of God revealing himself to those, particularly way back, because in that sense, God actually spoke to them, right? So I'm not so certain that they had less ability than we have, because all the ability comes from who? God.
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Why did Noah find grace in God's eyes? God gave him the grace, right? So I'm not so certain that we can pass in that sense, a judgment upon them and saying, well, I know we have this advantage of the spirit of God in us, right? And that there is a difference.
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And we've talked about this in many different settings.
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The spirit of God's application was different before the cross from after the cross, agreed? But at the same time, I'm not so certain that they didn't have the ability to walk with God.
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Enoch was a preacher of righteousness, right? Sir, sir.
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Yeah, you're the sir.
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She's my wife, brother.
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Oh, okay.
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He's another sir.
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No, so I definitely wholeheartedly agree as far as like the spirit working, but I think, I can't speak for my brother, but to give him more clarity, what I'm saying is not that God couldn't reveal himself because all the things you said, but we're talking about the special revelation that we have, not the spirit.
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We're talking about how God has made himself known by way of special revelation.
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So, so.
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His nature in character.
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Right, so Tim, are you talking about this? Yes.
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Right.
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And this concerned the outworking of God's purposes, right, in history, which again was started in the garden and it, right, and God at sundry times and in diverse matters, vacant times passed to the fathers by the prophets, right? And that you and I have, if you will, we have the canon, which is a great advantage, right? But that, and I'm glad you made that distinction because I think that's the distinction, right? This has nothing to do with a walk with God.
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This has to do with an understanding of the outworking and dealing of God, right? That you and I, I mean, even in, I've been saying, Daniel, as damn times come, that men will increase in knowledge.
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I mean, and that things will progress and we'll be able, I mean, just look at it from a physical standpoint.
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We are in such a blessed position, aren't we? Absolutely.
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Right, I mean, 100 years ago, 50 years ago, what we have was just a dream.
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I always get a kick out of the watches because I remember Dick Tracy, right? Do you remember Joe Jitsu? Come on, I know some of you guys do.
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And Joe Jitsu would talk into the phone, and his watch, and just Joe Jitsu calling Dick Tracy.
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And guess what we do today? This is Tim calling Andy.
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So in that sense, we are in such a glorious position to make a distinction.
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Distinction, the one thing that I'm missing, the reason that I quote, unquote, friends with Joe, that their desire may have been genuine, in that they did want to comfort him, but once they got to a certain point, okay, the comfort part's over.
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We need to help you get to the bottom of your situation.
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We need to help you see whatever it is that you did, and the only way for us to do that is to pound on you.
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Absolutely, see, I'm gonna suggest that they have this presupposition, and we're gonna talk about it, we got a little bit of time, and that the presupposition of all their words to Joe is that they see this, and that's where the danger lies is when you and I only see this.
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And I'm gonna try to open that up a little bit, but they do come, and they come to comfort him, and they see that the immensity of his problem, I wish this wasn't on recording, but it is, we see the intensity of Brother Mike and Sister Sybil, and I don't know about you and me, I can't even talk about it all the time, I can't even, and I talked to Mike about it, we cannot, can you really understand what they're going through? I can't.
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And to that end, we need to be extra careful with them and with ourselves as we seek to comfort them, as we seek to come around them, as we seek to pray for them, and that we need to be very careful, and I say this to all of us, and I'm not saying any of us do it, we better be careful we don't do this, because there ain't one of us that can say we're above it, and that's one of the issues that I find with Eliphaz, Bildad, and Sothaz, is they begin to think that they are above Job, that their life is right, and you said it, they're gonna try to pound out and find what's going on behind the curtain, and that they think that their standing is because of what they sow, and they're reaping it, and yet Job, for all his issues, they're basically gonna call Job a hypocrite, right? And he begins to say it, because look at it, he says in verse four, your words have upheld everybody who was stumbling, and you strengthened the feeble knees, and now it comes on you, and you're weary, it touches you, and you are troubled, then verse six is interesting, because isn't that your reverence, your confidence? In other words, I think what he's saying to Job, hey, Job, wait a minute, you've talked all your life about trusting in God, and doing the right thing, and acting out in the right way to others, and all of a sudden you can't handle the heat, Job? And again, I think that's an issue that we're really gonna have to deal with as we go through this book, and this is one of the reasons, and I know I keep going to the end of the book, but that's okay, you remember at the end of the book, well, you will see at the end of the book, that God requires the three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophaz to do what? Ask Job to pray for them, right? And God says that he will forgive them, because when Job prays for them, that they, excuse me, they have spoke for God, but I don't believe they've spoke rightly for God.
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Now, you remember the fourth friend, and we'll see him, his name is Elihu, or Elihu, however you wanna say it.
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What's interesting to me is, as we get to those chapters towards the end of the book, Elihu takes a different route than Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophaz, and that God never requires Job to pray for Elihu, by the way, and I think it's because Elihu has a better way of expressing truth, and he does not put everything in this, again, I could be totally off, but I think they put everything in this bucket, sow and reap, sow and reap, sow and reap, you get what you deserve, Job, and that's why I think they begin, it begins gracious, but really what's behind this is nothing more than accusation after accusation after accusation, and again, I think there's a tendency in man, even redeemed men, and not just men, but women, to try to, we make evaluations, and sometimes our evaluations are not based on the word of God.
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They're based on a bunch of things that they ought not to be based on, and that Eliphaz, as he comes in and he begins to talk to Job, and basically, I think he's saying, you were calm when you saw these things happen on others, but now you're unhinged.
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What's up, Job? Was this all a lie? Were you just playing the hypocrite? Do you really believe what you say and what appears that you have done, that he had comforted others, but he can't stand it? He's really attacking, well, I'll form it in a question.
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Do you think he's really attacking Job's integrity? I think, we don't know, because I can take one through six and see that as a way of saying, hey, brother, let me, these are the same words for understanding of, I mean, obviously, as we go through the rest of it, we can say that.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Just when you read that.
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If you just read that, right, right, but what I'm saying is, he starts here, Eliphaz does in his speech, it's very gracious, but guess what? It runs so, yeah.
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Yeah, because look at verse seven, look at verse seven.
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Remember now, whoever perish being innocent, where were the upright ever cut off? Even as I've seen those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.
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By the blast of God, they perish.
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That doesn't sound to me very gracious.
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Like I said, all of a sudden, man, it's downhill.
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And again, this is going to be something that Eliphaz, Eliphaz will speak three times in the book, and so we'll build that, and Zobaz has two speeches, and then Elihu comes in, and then God comes in, but this is a pattern that Eliphaz is gonna continue to promote, and ultimately, he really doesn't bring Job comfort.
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As a matter of fact, he drives Job deeper into his depression, because Job is gonna maintain what throughout the book? His integrity, and his friends are attacking his integrity.
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Right? Very.
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Let me ask you a question, just to see if we can get through this.
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Is this a true principle? Yes.
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So, Enrique, absolutely? Anybody disagree that that's not an absolute truth? It's not absolute.
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Sir? I don't think it's an absolute.
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Tell why, brother.
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So, we gotta be careful with this, don't we? And here's, this verse is always, go to Ecclesiastes for one minute.
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Go to Ecclesiastes chapter seven, because here's something that we really have to consider, and this is something that's gonna come up in the book.
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And I think Corrie, no, it was your daughter, had mentioned in one of the previous classes about the prosperity of the wicked.
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She talked about how it's not always easy to discern things because you see other people, if you will, prosper.
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But looking in Ecclesiastes chapter seven, I just looked at this verse this morning.
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Hmm.
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Where am I? I was looking for the verse that says, because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set to do evil.
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I know it's in chapter seven.
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I just, I don't know if it's just my eyes or what the deal is.
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But I wanted to ask us to think about that.
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How does that fit into the deal, the reality of sow and reap? In other words, and you said, Tim, that not always because of grace.
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And could that be, could that be a result of common grace as well as special grace? Difference being what? Common grace.
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Everybody gets it.
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Everybody gets it.
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God sends the right on the just and the unjust.
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Special grace.
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Yeah, elect, right.
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That this is ineffectual grace, right? And a common grace many times is that which is common to all men.
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And just because a sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, just because men prosper, just because it doesn't appear as if sow and reap is true, ultimately sow and reap is true, but not always on this side of the veil.
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Agree or disagree? Okay, because many, many things take place in this life that we cannot process.
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We see other people and even if you wanted to read, it's probably the best, one of the best scriptures, read Psalm 73 that talks about the prosperity of the wicked.
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They have more than they could desire.
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That they never seem to frown, that their kids grow up and they seem to have every, nothing ever seems to touch them.
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They're like the mafia, right? They're like Teflon, right? They're like Teflon Don.
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Nothing ever seems to go wrong for them.
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And you and I, you and I sometimes stumble at that because we know this is true because God said it.
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Be not deceived, God is not mocked whenever a man sows that he also reaps, right? Galatians.
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But you and I, as we look at it in my understanding, that's what Eliphaz is basically telling them, Job, we might not have known it, but you have sown evil.
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He gets to the point and maybe it's not, no, it's not in this chapter.
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Ultimately, he's gonna make an accusation against Job's kids.
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He's gonna say, hey, God took your kids because they sinned.
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I was gonna ask you, do you think verse 79 is about Job's kids? Let me get back there.
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Yeah, I mean.
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Yeah, I mean, I think that that's part, because again, they have seen what? They've seen what has taken place, right? And they're making judgments based on what has taken place.
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So yeah, and there is a point where, and we'll see it as we go through it, where he actually says that.
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He says, if your kids have sinned, that's why they died.
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And you and I, again, that's, they sit as judges is what they do.
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They're sitting as judges over Job's life.
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Ma'am? They're presumed to not have done it.
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Absolutely, and that's one of the faults that not only did they have, but many times we are.
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We, again, remember what Jesus said? He said, don't judge according to appearance, judge righteous judgment.
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Remember what it says in Samuel? It says, God, man looks on what? Outward things, God looks on the heart.
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So ultimately, you and I have to work through that in our lives, and as Eliphaz does this, and I know we gotta go, wow, but just to close this out.
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So in verse seven, remember now, whoever perished being innocent, where were the upright customers? Even as I have seen.
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So basically, he's telling Job, hey, man, I've seen this happen before, dude.
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You're getting what you deserve, and ultimately, Job is gonna say throughout the book, you know what? Yeah, I do deserve, apart from God's grace, I do deserve God's righteous judgment, but so does everybody else, right? And you said it, but for the grace of God, what? There go I.
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So again, these lessons that we see in this book, they are to help us to frame our thinking, frame our manner, because a man thinks in his heart, so is he, right? So we gotta be careful that we make our minds clearer and clearer according to the word of God so that we can ultimately have a speech of grace that is seasoned with salt and that is able to minister in an effectual way and not just in any old way.
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And so just to finish the chapter, he says, by the blast of God, they perish.
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The breath of his anger, they're consumed.
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Then he talks about the roaring lion.
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I think this, what he's really saying here is in all stages, these things happen, whether it's a young lion or an old lion, and the young lion's teeth get broken, the old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered, that no matter what, that everybody comes to that point where God's gonna cut him off.
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So I'll just leave you with this.
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So I went to Set Free Thursday night, because Thursday night I get to go to Set Free, and I was, my scripture to them was Proverbs 29.1, which says, he that being often reproved and hardens his neck will suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy.
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I'll tell you, it was a real quiet class, by the way, but it was a good class.
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But nevertheless, you think about that.
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He that being often, that's what I think Alaphaz is saying.
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Hey, Job, God has been working with you, and he's been reproving you, and you've hardened your neck against him, and now you're being destroyed.
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And ultimately, we'll get to the point where Job doesn't think there's any remedy.
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And that's one of the reasons why Job says, hey, God, just take me out, close me down.
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So I'll hold off on the vision, because that seems to be another thing, and we'll look at it next week, that Alaphaz is gonna back his, Alaphaz is gonna throw more onto the fire, right? Because you're gonna say, hey, guess what? God spoke to me.
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And then we're gonna deal with that whole issue.
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Does God really speak to us in that way, in visions and dreams and all of this stuff? Again, friends, I really hope that we can glean, you know, it's so hard for us.
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We sit here, it's air conditioning, right? We're all gonna eat at some time today, I would assume.
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I know I am, believe me.
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It's hard for us to enter into, here's Job, and he's sitting in a heap of ashes, and he's lost everything that man holds dear.
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And then his friends come, and all they wanna do is pound him.
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Whether they mean well or don't mean well, their presuppositions are guiding their speech.
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And their main presupposition is, Job, you've asked for it.
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Thank God that many times God doesn't give us what we ask for or what we deserve, right? So, let's close.
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Our Father in God, again, thank you for who you are.
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Thank you for the Savior.
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For without him, we would be utterly exposed to you, to your anger, to your wrath, to your rightful judgment.
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But we have a Savior, and his name is Jesus.
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And so we thank you, Lord.
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May we worship him in spirit and truth this morning.
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Be with us, Lord, and may we sing from hearts that are thankful.
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May we think from hearts that have been renewed.
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And may we grow in the grace and knowledge of the Son of God who so loved us that he gave himself for us, amen.