Job 29-30

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Last week we we kind of looked at chapter 28, and I I enjoy Enjoyed chapter 28 because it really was
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If you've never read it before was I think it's an eye -opener that that Job has
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So much understanding in the ways of God and and and of the things that God has done and we talked about that how
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God is hidden things in the earth and given man dominion to dig it out to to subdue the earth and that You know you think about it.
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It's still going on today, right? We're still in we're still digging things out of the out of the depths of the ocean and and out of mines and caves and all these other things and Just a thought is that God continues continues to provide just as much as he said that there would always be summer and and Fall and springtime and harvest and all those things that God continually
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Replenishes and I just made mention to you that Job Never when I don't believe
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Job went to a theological seminary and yet he is He is full of understanding and that if you remember we left off with If you have a right worldview things fall into place
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And again we can spend a lot more time on that and maybe we will as we go forward, but Haven't said that As we come this morning to chapter 29 in chapter 30.
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Hopefully it There's kind of a real big distinction between the two chapters and you'll see it and maybe we'll just read through it together
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Sometimes to me just reading the Word of God is is is well worth our time but chapter 29
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Job is going to talk about where his life was and then in Chapter 30 he's gonna talk about where his life is and I suppose we could all we could all say that I thought it was funny that you were talking before how
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All of a sudden you realize how old you are and you're not even old
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Yeah, so so it's kind of the same thing right where you were Because you had said that thing and I left to myself when you said, you know
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You can't do what the boys do now, and I remember when When I couldn't throw them around anymore in the pool and they started throwing me around in the pool
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That it was that was the crossover right and there's no return from that.
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So Yeah Yeah, and you never even you don't even think about it at that point and and I guess
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No, absolutely. And Again, I think I had mentioned it to you. I Had said to my son not too long ago,
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I said Jonathan, can you grab this my son stand with us? I said, can you pick this up and and he almost did it with one hand and I'm like, dude, come on, man
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Make it be look bad, but but it really is In one sense as job looks at this as we read it this morning job is remember.
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He's still really confused and I think there is a sense in which we can relate to that where if we look
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Nearly at what has gone on in the past and where we are now
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That sometimes that could be confusing and job in a sense speaks
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Not only of where he was and how God blessed him But how he maintains his integrity and you'll see it as we read through it that he has done what
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God had commanded him to do and then in chapter 30 he talks about The issues in his own life and he can't put those two together
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And I wonder if sometimes that you and I can relate to that in other words We do things in our lives that we think we ought to do or God would desire us to do or God would command us to do and Yet for all of that things don't always seem to work out.
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So I Think we can relate to this. So with that, let's just read the two chapters together and Again they're almost
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Self -explanatory and we could stop every once in a while after we get through reading. So read with me.
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So Job chapter 29 Job continued his discourse and said oh that I was as in months past as In the days when
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God watched over me When his lamp shone upon my head and when by his light
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I walked through darkness Just as I was in the days of my prime
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When the friendly counsel of God was over my tent when the Almighty was yet with me
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When my children were around me when my steps were bathed with cream and the rock poured out rivers of oil for me
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When I went out of the gate by the city when I took my seat in the open square the young men saw me and hid
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The age men arose and stood and the princes refrained from talking and they put their hand on their mouth and the voice of nobles was hushed and Their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouth when the ear heard then it blessed me when the eye saw then it approved me because I delivered the poor who cried out and The fatherless and he who had no helper
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The blessing of a perishing man came upon me and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy
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And I put on righteousness and it clothed me. My justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind
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I was feet to the lame. I was a father to the poor I searched out the case that I did not know
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I broke the fangs of the wicked and plucked the victim the victim from his teeth
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Then I said I shall die in my nest Multiply my days as the sand my root is spread out to the waters and the dew lies all night on my
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Branch and my glory is fresh within me and my bow is renewed in my hand
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Then listened and waited and kept silence on my counsel after my words They did not speak again and my speech settled on them as do and they waited for me as for the rain and they opened
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Their mouth wide as for the spring rain if I mocked at them They do not believe it and the light of my countenance.
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They did not cast down I chose the way for them and sat as chief So I dwelt as a king in the army as one who comforts mourners but now
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They mock at me Men younger than I whose fathers I disdained to put with the dogs of my flock
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Indeed what profit is the strength of their hands to me their vigor has perished they are gaunt from want and famine
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Fleeing late to the wilderness desolate and waste who plucked mallow by the bushes and broom roots
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Broom tree roots for their food. They were driven out from among men. They shouted at them as that a thief
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They had to live in the clefts of the valley in the caves of the earth and the rocks among the bushes they braid under the
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Nettles, they nested they were sons of fools. Yes sons of vile men
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They were scorched from the land and now I am a taunting song.
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I Am their byword. They abhor me. They keep far from me.
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They do not hesitate to spit in my face Because he has loosed the bowstring and afflicted me
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They have cast out they have cast off restraint before me at my right hand
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The rabble arises and they push away my feet and they rise against me the ways of destruction
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They break up my path. They promote my calamity They have no helper.
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They come as broad breakers under the ruinous storm that wrote they roll along Terrors are turned upon me.
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They pursue my honor as the wind and my prosperity has passed like a cloud Now my soul is poured out because of my plight
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The days of affliction take hold of me. My bones are pierced in me at night
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My gnawing pains take no rest by great force. My garment is the figured disfigured
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It binds me about as a collar of my neck He has cast me into the mire and I have become like dust and ashes.
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I Cry out to you, but you do not answer me. I stand up and you regard me
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But you have become cruel to me with the strength of your hand You oppose me lift me up to the wind and caused me to ride on it.
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You spoil my success for I know That you will bring me to death and to the house appointed for the living
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Surely he would not stretch out his hand against the heap of ruins if they cry out when he destroys it
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Have I not wept for him who was in trouble? Have not my soul has not my soul grieved for the poor
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But when I look for good evil came to me when I waited for light then came darkness My heart is in turmoil cannot rest in days of affliction comfort me
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Confront me I go about mourning but not in the Sun I stand up in the congregation and cry out for help
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I am a brother of jackals and a companion of ostriches My skin grows black and falls from me my bones burn with fever
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My harp is turned to mourning and my flute to the voice of those
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Who weep now, I don't know about you, but to me, that's a great he went from the mountain to the valley and and if you think about it again,
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I Think that we can all relate to it. Maybe not to the degree that Job is speaking of but we can all relate to when things seem to be
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Peaceful restful there's a sense of contentment and then
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At another point in our life and another phase in our life everything seems to be upside down and It's easy to get thrown by the things that we
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See feel touch the five senses, right? They really are Powerful wouldn't you agree that that the things that we?
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sense with our In a sense with our bodies and in our lives have a great control over us and If you think about it, and I think we've done this many times
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That all of us kind of do this great There's the mountain there's the valley and we're where do we really need to be
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Do we need to be do we always need to be here? Do we always want to be here? No Here's where I think we need to get and this would be
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What memo Paul says that he would he had learned to what? He learned to be content in all things
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Can we say that Can we say that no matter whether we're up here or down there that we are able to walk evenly
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Through it all Does anybody not affected by the outward things of life?
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No, I mean sickness Relationship issues
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Enemies all these different things that enter into it and what's interesting is you read these two chapters the one thing that job continually speaks about is that he sought to be a
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Encouragement to other people and that that in part becomes an issue with him because he basically says listen when
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I met poor people I Tried to help him when I met needy people. I try to help him when people ask me counsel
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I try to give him good counsel and he continually walks through this in his mind and says that There wasn't anybody that he didn't treat
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In a right way and and again, just let's think about that All right, this is a question
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I think that I think the combination of age and closeness to God Helps with contentment
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Can't help with contentment. Yeah, I mean I The older I've gotten and know how things are and hopefully with the combination, you know with growing closer to the
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Lord I think contentment Is more consistent in my life
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Anybody else? I'm not saying I don't have ups and downs. Yeah, I know you do because you're no different than the rest of us
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But I do you agree with that I think that that's Pretty much spot -on that if you think about it as we grow in grace
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We become what we ought to become more of this And less of this
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And this is the movement of and again my thought is this is the movement in a way
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So many people's lives go and and the big desire of people is always be here, right?
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That's where everybody wants to be no matter what and Because you have such an illegitimate
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Desire to be here when you get here. This becomes a real tragedy, right?
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You think about it? Um, I'll have to think about all these I don't even know what you're calling
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Millennials and Gen Z's and Gen B's and all the all the gens that are out there and if you listen to their their issues
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They're never they're never really here Right. Hey, and that's their desire and they'll forgo most anything in life to get to that point and there's many many people who will crawl
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Mistreat Commit all kinds of things just to get to this point and I do think that as we grow in grace
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By the way, what is growing grace really mean? What does that mean to you?
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to grow in grace Any thoughts? May I ask you to think about this?
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What do you need to grow in grace? Can we look can we make a list of anything? I think knowledge is one of them.
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Okay, certainly knowledge is one of them, right? What else?
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What else helps us to grow in grace? Agree or not agree?
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Trials. I mean you walk through the fire long enough you become accustomed to the heat, right?
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What else? What else contributes to growing in grace and finding this, if you will,
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I must say this place of continual contentment? Prayer. Yeah, absolutely
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Certainly Certainly that enters into it
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How about this? Do you think that's a factor?
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Because to me this this one in particular This one's hard to attain
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To rightly consider yourself. I thought again what you were saying before That awakening that you have that you ain't what you used to be, right?
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It'll humble you. Yeah, it'll definitely humble you, right? But all these things
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Job has a certain degree of all these things and he speaks about them and for all of that What's really troubling to him is how did
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I get where I am now? based upon how I lived before And I again,
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I think do think that that is troubling many times to many of us And you could see it as he says it
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All that I was in as I was in months past as in the days when
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God watched over me And that's an interesting one, right? Because what is he really saying?
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Is he saying that this is where God wasn't watching over him? That God only watched over him when he and think about it for yourself
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How many of us would admit if we really had to be honest that when we're here
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We think God is smiling on us And when we're here, we think
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God forgot us. I know that that affects
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So many things so Job is talking about well, I wish I was in months past and then in chapter 30
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He says now I'm here and he can't put these two together. His friends could never make it
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They couldn't put it together right because they they assumed that this was the result of this
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Agree, right? basically You acted in an evil way and you can't expect to be here
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Evidence shows that this is why you're here. And again is our life
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You know what Jesus said he said a man's life consists not in the abundance of things he possesses
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And I think that's wider than just saying Merchandise That man's life is more than even this
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That you and I really have to consider ourselves In a way that God is
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God is as much with us here as he is here, isn't he? And yet which one is the easier one?
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How many of us would choose this over this I mean honestly, right?
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None of us and that's where humility comes in because you remember what he said in in the previous chapter
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He said that God performs That which was appointed for me.
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What was he really saying that he had in some way realized That the same
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God that was here is the same God that was there and that this was all under his
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All under his rule. This was God's rule How many of us would say
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That When we look at other people's lives it's easy to draw comparisons because we see some people here and we see some people there, right and If we really submit to God's Sovereignty and his rule which is again great deal of humility that we realize that this is not always the same
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For everybody. In other words, maybe I think of it like this. Some people's mountains are here and their valleys are here.
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Agree? Some people's mountains are way the heck up here and their valleys only go like that and do we find ourselves at times comparing our life by that and comparing our life by other people's lives because again, it's
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It ain't easy to Understand the outworking of life and as Job says these things and he longs to go back in a way when his lamp in verse 3 when his lamp shone upon my head and When I went by his light
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I walked through darkness Almost as if he's reminiscing almost as if he's he's thinking about When When he was flying high if you will and just as I was in the days of my prime
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Again, we talked about that and then and that relates to you ladies too, right? How many of you would say you can man?
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I'm in my wife. I can't even pick up anything She would she would pick up. I know see you pick up refrigerators and washing machines and I'm not kidding you.
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I mean she would build decks with me and She could run, you know from morning to let just like the rest of you
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But it's not the same anymore. Is it? None of us can say that we're well,
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I don't think anybody in this room wants to say they're in their prime anymore anybody Barry you in your prime
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But a couple of surgeries later you would say you're not in your prime, right bro And that's the way it is.
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And how many of us get caught? Wanting to only enjoy this and We'll go that You know, it's not hard.
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It's not hard to See somebody that's always It's struggling more than we are.
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Yeah, and it seems to sometimes it seems like There are always
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Somebody's always struggling more than you are. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah health -wise
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You know financially your relationship, whatever the situation of life. Yeah, and yet There's a tendency
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That I think we have to guard against of when we see people on this side of it
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What his friends did was? Say You deserve that Right, how many of us would say that that thought never crossed our mind that we see someone?
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struggling suffering Languishing if you will and somewhere in our
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Mind and in our hearts will say, uh -huh. I Wonder what they did wrong Right, and that should not be the character of our life again
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Especially if you think about God's rule and that everybody Although we follow the same patterns
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Everybody's on a different course To the unbeliever.
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This makes no sense at all because to the unbeliever There's all that again all they want us to be on that So as job talks about these things in and he's and he says that he verse 6 is interesting, right?
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When my steps were bathed with cream And That's the way many many people want to live my life and the rock poured out rivers of oil for me and and I and then he talks about how he was
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Treated by others, right? when I went out at the gate and I took my seat and the young men saw me and hid in the agement arose and Stood and basically what he's saying was
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I had everybody's respect Everybody revered me everybody Kind of held their breath for me to speak.
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Let me ask you to think about this, too And I think we need to be careful, but I want to say it in The book of Job there are times
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When I believe we can see Job is a type of Christ right
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And again when we talk about types We're not talking about a one -on -one thing
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In other words, it doesn't always fit just like David is a type of Christ, right? And yet which one of us would say it's exact.
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I mean, it's certainly not exact and even in the Psalms Let me show you something and maybe you'll understand what
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I'm trying to say go to Psalm 56 a minute This is let's just do this real quick So I'm 56 and I was reading this the other day, so I guess that's probably why it's on my mind but in Psalm 56
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And if you read the the title it says to the chief musicians set to the silent dove in distant lands a
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Mitchum of David when the Philistines captured him in Gath and this is when
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David was running away from his enemy Saul and Lo and behold as he runs away from his enemy
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Saul guess what he runs right into the the hands of the Philistine Kingdom and he's confronted by another enemy
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My my point is this and I want you to think about it Read this psalm with me.
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It's really short and see if you cannot see To some degree a
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Picture of Christ be merciful to me. Oh God For men would swallow me up fighting all day.
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He oppresses me My enemies would hound me all day for there are many who fight against me almost
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I Whenever I'm afraid I will trust in you in God. I will praise his word in God.
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I put my trust I will not fear what flesh can do to me All day they trust my words
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All their thoughts are against me for evil. They gather together. They hide they mark my steps when they lie in wait for my life
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Is that not in some ways a type of Christ? Was he not always pursued by his enemies?
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Was he not always? every day someone was coming whether it was the lawyers or the the
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Gentiles or the scribes the Pharisees David was David was constantly If you will chased after and so was
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Christ, but it's not exact is it? It's not an exact if we can't say in an exact way
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But just continue to read it all day long. That's what it twists my words in verse 5 and their thoughts are against me
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They gather together. They hide they mark my steps when they lie in wait for my life Shall they escape by iniquity in anger cast down the people of God You number my wanderings and you put my tears in your bottle
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Are they not in your book when I cry out to you then my enemies will turn back this
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I know because God is with me in God. I will praise his word in the Lord. I will praise his word in God I have put my trust.
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I will not be afraid what man can do to me Thou's made to you a binding upon me.
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Oh God, I will render praises to you for you have delivered my soul from death Have you not delivered my feet from falling that I may walk before God in the light of the living now
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I asked you to read that because again was fresh on my mind, but As you look at Job in that sense
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Job is saying similar things to what David said and again in the reality of if we think about What Jesus said he said you search the scriptures you you think in those you could find eternal life and they testify of me
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That you and I should be able to read through the book of Job and see
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Snapshots of the Lord Jesus Just as much as the enemies which in this setting is
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Job's so -called friends And they got nothing good to say about Job do they they're always
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Trying to to tear them down and whether their intentions are good or not
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We could talk about that. But as Job goes through this, I hope you can at least see
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Job's Understanding and Job's misunderstanding and again, you and I should be able to relate to that in our life that there are times when
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There are times when we think God is close to us and then there's times when we think
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God is Far from us and what's the truth? God is always with us, right?
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I will never leave you nor forsake you and the only one who really understood that in its completeness was who?
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Christ Job understood it in part because he said that in many ways.
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He said though he slay me yet. I will praise him But the only one who really honestly truly in absolute
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Integrity that ever could say that is Christ because he said that his father was always with him
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And you and I need to that to me. That's where that's what this is That God is always with me and I can
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I can deal with this I could deal with this And and by the way, neither this nor this
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Changes the relationship that you have given me. And so as you read through this contrast between chapter 29 and chapter 30
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And how Job defends his life In verse 10 of chapter 29 he says that he says the voice of nobles was hushed and their tongues stuck to the roof of When the ear heard it it blessed me and when the eyes saw it it approved me because I Delivered the poor who cried out and the fatherless and he who had no helper
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The blessing of a perishing man came upon me and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
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I Put on righteousness and it clothed me my justice was like a robe and a turban and friends.
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We cannot think that the way the way to this is
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Only by obedience Let me let me qualify
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If we are obedient just because we want to get there Is that the way we should live?
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No, what we should do is seek to be obedient whether we're here or here
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And that's that that's the real problem, right and that's what he's relating to He's saying that he did those things that he did out of his desire to to be obedient He was eyes to the blind feet to the lame and fathers that are poor and and I searched out even the case
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I didn't know when I broke the fangs of the wicked and plucked the victim from his teeth and he goes on and on and On so he maintains his integrity and then again just to Finish that thought of how it's a contrast and then in chapter 30 verse 1, but now they mock at me
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Men younger than I am in whose fathers. I think what he's saying in those opening verses in chapter 30s
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He said even those that were worthless Now think that I'm worthless
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And he said yeah, he says it in such a way. He says whose fathers I disdain to put with the dogs of my flock
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Now he's saying that the riffraff of the world or the the unbeliever or the evil men.
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They are taunting him Because they assume the same thing. Well job, you know different than us
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You're here because you're just like us and nothing's gonna change that and and if you just continue to read through it he talks about how
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Those things that are coming upon him are Well, let me just show you look at verse 9 now
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I am their taunting song I Am there by word they abhor me and keep far from me.
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Is that not what they did to Christ? Was he not? Did they not seek to taunt him even on the cross come down and save yourself if you've been a son of God Do this
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Rescue yourself and so they continually taunted him. They continually maligned him
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And they they had no desire to see his good but they only had desire to see him
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Continually go downhill and so in chapter 30 again, that's what he's really saying and then you get down to verse 20
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I just want to finish this up. You got only a couple minutes left Look at verse 20. This is where Job's confusion really lies, right?
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I cry out to you, but you do not answer me Again easier when we hear to think
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God's not listening right Again, when we hear we think we're sitting
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Sitting good, but he says now I cry and you don't hear me You become cruel to me
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Wow Can God be cruel to those that he has called to himself
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It depends how you define cruelty if our if our Scale is just this then.
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Yeah, it could and even Job does that he thinks because he's here God's being cruel
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Well, what if God is bringing Job here as we will see as we get to the end of the book
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Job's being brought here Because God's gonna raise him there at the end
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Right, that's the way our life goes Can we can we see how these things the knowledge that God gives us and and the trials we go through?
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In our communion with God and our humility. They're all meant Even as Joseph said to his brothers.
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He said you meant it for evil God meant it for good Listen friends.
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We maybe we could just sum it up that way God never means us evil Only means us good
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We just don't like the ways in which God implements that Because in our minds if God really was only concerned with our good we would never hit these spots
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Because these are these are uncomfortable So as we do this and now next week
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It's the last chapter that where Job speaks for a while and he talks about some different things
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And then I could said he'd lie who comes in who is the fourth friend? and he lie who's gonna try to clear the deck and he does a better job than Ella faz build that and so fast, but It's not right.
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It's not so we get to the end of the book Which starts really in chapter 38 when
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God says to Job. Hey you stand up I'm gonna question you and you're gonna answer me
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Do you remember to by the way that Job earlier in the book had said to God? Let's just hash this out.
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Basically lets you and me Let's stand together and I'll ask you questions or you ask me questions and and we'll get this thing cleared out and At the end of the book
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God takes him up on that. So we'll see that. Okay I think that would be enough for this morning.
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Okay, let's close with a word of prayer Father again, thank you for our time together.
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Thank you Lord for In so many ways to see in the book of Job and in Job's life how you have always been there for Job and you will always be there for Job and and that you have always been there for us in Christ and You will always be there and help us
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Lord to to learn to be content to be able to to walk evenly with the
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Savior so Bless us this morning May our worship please you and may even this time be used by you to help us to grow in grace and The knowledge of the one who so loved us that he gave himself for us.