Job 4 "The First Friend Speaks"

Christ’s Priestly Work and the Office of Priest

All right, it seems to have nothing to do with attitude right now with us. All right, thank you. Remember, as we discussed in the last class, this is the office of three offices. That is true. Yeah, that's where I was going.

Profits, treatment, and expenses. Profits, treatment, and expenses. So, our question this week is, how does Price execute the office of a brief? So, last week we talked about how does he execute the office of a profit.

Now we're talking about how does he do the office of a show to them. How does he do the office of a show to them? So, let's read the questions, let's read the answers next together, and that's correct.

There's a little bit more to it, but you guys are absolutely correct. So, read with me.

Christ executes the office of a priest in his once offering up himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice and to reconcile us to God and in making continual intercession for us.

So, not only does Jesus, in his work as our priest, not only does he offer himself up as a sacrifice for us, as I have taught, in doing that, he satisfies divine justice, he reconciles us to God, we're no longer enemies of God, but we are his adopted sons and daughters, we are his friends, we are co-heirs with Christ, and then what happens after that?

Do we keep sinning? Even though we don't want to sin? You guys don't sin anymore? Do we still sometimes sin? Even though we don't want to sin? So, Jesus is still our priest, he's still interceding for us, he's continual intercession, he's making more of us.

He's continually asking us to fulfill the sacrifice, that once we were all sacrificed on the cross, now that we're all sinning, he's asking to set us free of sin so we can continue in the Jesus Christ.

We don't need a new Savior, he's still our priest, he's still our sacrifice, he's taking the sin away from us. Is that a good thing?

All right, let's pray.

Dear Lord, thank you for having us here today. Thank you for the sacrifice, coming to earth, taking on a body of flesh, and going to the cross, taking on the curse of us as a people, bearing that, and all the shame, and trying to get involved with that.

Thank you for reconciling us with yourself, and we thank you that you continue to be with us, even though we get our sins over and over again, we're still interceding, we're still giving that sacrifice, we're giving that peace for us, to continue the faith reconciling.

Thank you for that, thank you for the fulfillment, help us to understand that, trust that, believe that, and realize that. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Amen. Should we give a high five? Go give a high five. Amen. Appreciate you reminding everybody on that. That should be hopefully a blessed time for some good evangelism, hopefully some good conversations will come out of it.

So yeah, definitely if you can't, there's more than one way to help serve in that event. So today we're going to be in Job chapter 4, so start making your way there. Get your Bible handy, open up God's word this morning, and let's go to Job chapter 4.

Job chapter 4, as you're making your way there, I'm going to just pray, before we even look at any of this text, before we read anything of it, let us pray that we would gather from it.

What needs to be gathered this morning.

Reverence for God’s Word and the Context of Job

Lord. God, I would ask that as we open up your word, Lord, that we would approach it with reverence, that we would look at it and we would find peace, Lord. God, even in this book of Job, Lord, that we would find the peace that surpasses all understanding, and that is knowing Christ Jesus, Lord.

God, I would ask that as Moses struck the rock and the water would flow from it, Lord, that we would open up this text today and that we would just see your mercy here, Lord. God, let us recognize these things,.

Let us glorify you over this today,.

And may Job chapter 4 renew our souls this morning. We ask this in your name, Jesus Christ, amen. Job chapter 4. As I have made mention before, this book, we're approaching it a little bit differently than what we would be preaching through a letter from Paul,.

Where we go through that.

A little bit more systematically, a little bit slower, and seeing some of the explicit doctrine that Paul is teaching us. When we look at this book of Job, we have to remind ourselves of it. This is a historical book.

This is narrative for us, and so as I've made mention already to us in the chapters prior, at the end of the book of Job, Job chapter 41 and 42, God rebukes Job's friends and Job himself over some of the missayings, the mishandling of the situation that they are in.

And so what we're going to be reading today is actually one of the places where God is rebuking this friend, or he's going to rebuke this friend over what is said in this text. And so when we look at that, well, Brayden, why preach on that kind of a text today?

What can we gather from it? Well, I would hope that, one, we would gather that this is not the right way to help mourn with somebody that's mourning, that this is not the right way to employ proverbs or wisdom or helps to those that are suffering.

And if anything, I would hope that at the end of this, we would walk away knowing maybe those ways to help people that are in distress, to help people that are mourning, or to maybe even help ourselves in these difficult challenges that we come through in life.

And so what is the context of Job chapter 4? Before we even begin reading, we must remind ourselves of what's just happened in the previous chapters. Job has lost his whole family,.

Save it be for his wife.

He's lost his seven sons, his three daughters. He's lost all the cattle of the field. He's lost his servants. This is a man that has come under affliction to that of a degree that many of us will never experience or know.

Job has now received boils from the head to toe. And what we saw in that chapter when he has been cursed in this way to have this physical ailment on him, he also is now wallowing in ashes, scratching himself with the clay pot, right?

He's itching his pus-filled boils, which is a disgusting thing to think about nonetheless. I immediately am taken back to some of the gross calls of being a firefighter on EMS scenes. And you walk in and you are taken back by the smell and the sight that you behold.

And that's what we have here with Job,.

This sight of disgust before us. In Job chapter 3, as we read that difficult chapter last week, we saw what Job's life after seven days of sitting in these ashes and scratching those boils, that the depression has actually sunk into the life of Job.

And Job is now talking in some very, very not great language.

Job has said,.

May I have died from my mother's womb. What he's essentially saying is, may I have choked on my mother's umbilical cord. May I have came out blue and not breathing. May I have never, ever crawled on my knees.

For death, to me, would have been better than any of the life enjoyment that I had with those seven sons or three daughters, because the pain I'm going through right now is so severe. I desire that my mother would have never rejoiced over my birth.

That's what Job has said in Job chapter 3. Again, when we read this book, we read it a little bit differently. We understand that the author of this book is not necessarily teaching to us when we read Job chapter 3, that when you and I suffer, that it's better if we just would have died.

That's not the doctrine that we should obtain from that kind of a text. But what we see in there is a man that is actually struggling with real life consequences, real life incidences, and he's struggling with these mentally, philosophically, and I would even say doctrinally as well.

So Job has, after seven days, like I said, this depression has sunk in. He is now a man that is so broken and bruised that it almost seems impossible to renew him or revive him and bring him back to a place of happiness or peace or satisfaction.

And that's exactly what Job says. He says, death is the only thing that could redeem me at this point. Death is the only thing that could redeem me at this point. So imagine now you have sat with this friend, Job,.

Of yours for seven days.

You smelled his pus fill boils for seven days. In a previous text, it said that he couldn't eat. He found food disgusting for him.

I don't know about you,.

But I would have a hard time eating around a friend.

That was covered with boils as well, right?

And so that just adds a little bit more.

Of this contextual piece of what kind of mindset.

These friends are in when they're looking at Job. So they've been sitting there for seven days with Job. They hear now his cursing of his own life, his words here in Job chapter three. And in Job chapter four, we now see the courage, maybe courage might not be the right word, but the first act, the first step from this friend to try to encourage Job, to try to bring him up out of this pain.

And I'll be just honest. I'll be completely upfront with you, and we'll make note of it when we get to this text. There is a difficulty that comes about in this chapter that is hard to reconcile. And so we'll go through this together, and I hope that we can bring some clarity.

Let's go ahead and read verses one through two, and we'll just work our way through this chapter,.

This whole chapter here, chapter four of Job four.

Then Eliaphas, that's the gentleman, that's the friend that's going to first speak here to Job. He says, then Eliaphas, the Temanite, answered and said, if one tries a word with you, will you become weary?

But who can hold back from speaking? This friend's saying, the accusations of your life.

That you just said that you should have died.

At your mother's womb,. I can't listen to this anymore. I've got to say something to you, Job. I'm going to respond now. The friend can't remain silent any longer. Now, I would ask, I would pause here and ask us this.

Do you think in your own mind, knowing the previous chapter, knowing the severe distress that Job is in, do you think that you could offer any proverb to Job right now that would help him in the situation he's at?

Do you have a word of encouragement or something that can lessen the pain of losing seven sons and three daughters? Do you have anything like that that you can do? Maybe a better question is, do you have any proverb that's outside of the word of God that can help this individual?

The answer is absolutely not. Now, again, when is this book written? When is this book taking place? This is one of the earliest books of the Bible,.

If not the earliest.

So Job doesn't have, let's turn to Philippians and see how to suffer in persecution and have happiness and peace in Christ. Job doesn't have that to him. Again, what does Job have? He has the stories of his forefathers who have sacrificed animals and this promise of God coming one day and the seed crushing the head of the serpent.

He has that promise. If I was a friend, that's probably where I would turn to with some type of exhortation for Job of saying, look, you have faith in a future day that Satan, the serpent that has caused the death of your sons and daughters, he one day will be crushed.

That would probably be a decent thing to say to Job right now. But I want to read with us real fast. John 16, verse 32 -33, it says, Behold, an hour is coming and has already come for you to be scattered each to his own home and to leave me alone.

And yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken to you so that you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world. So as Christians, do we have an ability to offer somebody that is suffering, another believer in Yahweh, do we have a means and a method to offer them peace?

I would argue yes, we do. But that's only found in God's Word. A encouragement that Christ has overcome a fallen world where we suffer death. Let's look at verse 3. Behold, you have disciplined many. So this is again, Elias speaking to Job.

You have disciplined many. And you have strengthened limp hands. Your words have helped the stumbling to stand and you have encouraged feeble knees. What Elias is doing in this text is saying, Job, don't you remember when you had your seven sons and your three daughters and your many, many servants that there were some of those servants that needed your help and you were able to give them words of encouragement and maybe some training in the craft that they needed to be trained in and you were able to help these feeble knees stand on their own, but yet now you are suffering.

That's what this friend is starting to begin his discourse by saying that you used to be this man that could stand and now you have fallen. You're in this fallen state. But now it has come to you. But now it has come to you and you are impatient.

It touches you and you are dismayed. Is not your fear of God your confidence and the integrity of your ways your hope? What is Elias is saying in this text in verses four through six? Job, you've seen people in suffering and now you yourselves can't practice what you've been preaching to these individuals.

You yourself can't stand.

You yourself can't recover from these limp hands that this friend is saying that most likely Job has. And listen to almost... And this is a contextual piece for what we're going to see here in the coming verses, especially in verse 12 and on, I believe it is, verse 12 and on.

But in verse six, it almost would appear that Elias is, again, we have to remember in the context of the whole book of Job, this is a friend that gets rebuked. And so his advice to his friend Job in this text is not great advice.

Remember this. And so when we look here at verse six, is not your fear of God your confidence and the integrity of your ways your hope? Remember now who perished being innocent or where were the upright wiped out?

I don't know if you caught what just happened in there, but this friend of Elias is saying God doesn't punish the innocent. God doesn't make the upright fall. What is the poison that Elias is speaking into the ear of his friend?

What is he saying? Job, you were the one that caused this to yourself. Job, because of some actions that you have done in your lives, Job, you've seen it. The people that you've helped that were in suffering and chaos, those people, they weren't innocent.

Obviously, Job, you're not innocent in this situation. God has brought to you what you are deserving. It's almost like this friend is teaching on saying something of karma, right? Of saying, Job, you are getting what you deserve.

You had something hidden.

Obviously, you're not innocent, Job. According to what I have seen, those who plow wickedness and those who sow trouble harvest it. What was in Job 2, have we seen another discourse or conversation take place between God and Satan and the accusation of Job?

No, we haven't. This is the continual affliction of Job that we see here. Have any of us had some hardship in our lives and then it just seems like we get kicked while we're down in the mud? That's what we see right here is a friend of Job essentially continually bringing affliction against him.

Job, the reason your sons are dead is because you actually sowed wickedness.

Years ago, no doubt.

You did something wrong, Job, and you're just harvesting what you deserve right now. Does God punish innocent people? Now, this is an interesting thing in this text because we know from clarity and further revelation of God.

In Romans 3 .10,.

No one is righteous, no not one. And so it is to be said,.

No one is innocent.

Is Job a sinless man?

No.

Job is, of course, sin.

And is not innocent.

But what was the saying of God in the very first chapter of this book? How was Job seen in the eyes of God? A righteous man who feared Yahweh. He obviously, in my opinion, when I read this text,.

He obviously has faith in God.

And has been credited with the righteousness of Christ. How does that take place? How does Job, who is not innocent, a man that is not righteous, how is a man made righteous? 2 Corinthians 5 .21 He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf.

So that we might become.

The righteousness of God in him. Job is standing as somebody that is righteous, that has been justified because of faith he has placed in God.

For such.

Now, did you notice.

What was the friend's accusation to Job? God doesn't punish innocents. He doesn't punish an innocent being. That is not true from the text we just read. Who is the only one that's innocent in life? Jesus.

And who took the suffering for you and I? Jesus. So, no, Eliaphus, you're wrong. God has brought the punishment of myself.

Upon the only innocent one, Jesus Christ.

The upright was wiped out on my account. On my behalf. Again, listen, it almost seems like some of it sounds really good and some of it sounds like great advice to give to a friend, right? But at the same time,.

It's muddied enough,.

It's influenced enough with just a little bit of venom that it's going to hurt Job, and it does. According to what I have seen, those who plow wickedness and those who sow trouble harvest it, by the breath of God they perish, and by the wind of His anger they come to an end.

The roaring of the lion and the voice of the fierce lion and the teeth of the young lions are broken. The lion perishes for they lack of prey and the whelps of the lioness are scattered. Verses 9 -11, that's true.

God's justice, God's vengeance, God's bringing about just reward is that of a roaring lion. He's fierce in that way, right? That's not true. However, listen to this. Just because sometimes truth can be said in wrong ways and in wrong times.

How many of us have done something in life and somebody that's close to us that told us not to do that.

Said, I told you so, and it failed?

We've experienced that. Maybe we've done that to our friends and family.

I told you so.

While it might be true that you told them so, is that truth spoken at a wrong, inappropriate time? As someone that has experienced that, I would say, yeah, that is. I don't need to be told I was told so.

I don't need to be told that right now. That's not the word of encouragement that I need. Verses 9 -11, just because Elias is saying things that sound true to us, the way he's employing it, and the ways that he's speaking about it, is that building Job up or kicking him down?

It's kicking him down. It's being used in a wrong way.

Again, we can't take this and stretch this canvas to meet somewhere where it ought not to be. Is there ever a bad time to tell someone to believe in the Gospel?

No, that's always a good time.

That's always the right time to do those things. Is there a bad time to tell somebody,.

I told you so?

Yeah, there is. We can't apply those equally together. But this is the text now in verse 12 and on. This is the text that I will be honest with you. I approach it with caution. There was a text when we went through the book of John three years ago that I still look back today and I'm disappointed with my exegetical approach to it, and I'm still repentful over it because I think I preached it incorrectly.

And so this text scares me when I read this. Let's read what it says, and you'll understand, I think, why there's some caution to this text. Now a word was brought to me stealthily, and my ear received a whisper of it.

Amid disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, dread came upon me in trembling and made the multitude of my bones shake in dread. Then a spirit swept by my face.

The hair on my flesh bristled up.

It stood still,.

But I could not recognize its appearance. A form was before my eyes. There was silence. Then I heard a voice. Hmm. Interesting text, is it not? The issue is who is speaking to Eliaphus the friend in this text?

I read three commentaries on this text, and guess which ones agreed with one another. They all disagreed with one another.

On that question.

The three views of this text is either it's God that's speaking to Eliaphus, it's Eliaphus that's making it up, that's trying to build himself up, so he's making up this story. This never took place. Or the third view is that this is Satan or a demonic force of some kind that's speaking to Eliaphus.

Now, on each one of those branches of commentary, theological doctrine, thoughts, there's going to be some challenges in the coming text for us to rationalize these things together. I would go with the latter of those proposals.

I think that what happened to Eliaphus is that he was influenced in some way by a demonic entity of some kind.

Why do I say that?

Let me put it this way. How many of you would trust me if I said last night God spoke to me? Last night for your life I received a vision. I see eyebrows being raised, some smirks in the back. You would laugh at me for such a saying.

So that right there doesn't sound right,.

Right out of the gate by Eliaphus saying such.

Second of all, in the 1800s there was a man.

That proclaimed a very similar story.

To what Eliaphus says in this.

His name's Joseph Smith. Listen to what Eliaphus says again. Now a word was brought to me stealthily. No one else heard it.

No one else saw it.

No one else could validate this claim of mine. And my ear received a whisper of it amid disquieting thoughts from the vision of the night when deep sleep falls on men. Dread came upon me. That's what exactly Joseph Smith says.

He says that I was in the middle of these woods.

No one else was around.

And I felt this overwhelming darkness surround me and I didn't know what to do.

And so I called out to God.

And all of a sudden this light came and there was quiet.

And there was no more of this chaos.

That's exactly what Eliaphus is describing for us is that there was this night, deep sleep and dread and trembling and then all of a sudden a spirit swept by my face. The hair of my flesh bristled up so I got goosebumps and it stood still.

And I could not recognize its appearance.

A form was before my eyes. There was silence. Then I heard a voice. Now that brings up a lot of different thoughts.

That I would love to explore.

But I don't think we have time today for this.

The challenge of why there's caution to even that approach that I'm saying.

That I think that this is.

Is in the next chapter there's a text that says does God not punish his children? Does he not punish them to help build them up? And that's a true statement that Eliaphus says in this and that's quoted in Hebrews chapter 6.

We looked at it together.

When we were in our Bible studies.

Of Hebrews chapter 6.

Now if we were just to outright say.

That all the words of Eliaphus in this text.

Are outright wrong.

That they're outright demonically influenced. What does the implication of that pose to us in the book of Hebrews? There's a quotation from a demonic force that's used to encourage the church.

That wouldn't make much sense.

And so the thought of this goes if you look at this and you look at what the words of this spirit this thing talks to Eliaphus about there's no real clear indication.

On when it stops speaking to Eliaphus.

So my thinking on this again would be that the spirit this demonic entity is talking to Eliaphus from verse 17. I know that he's speaking to him probably all the way to verse 21 and I think he continues the speech to Eliaphus from verse 1 to verse 7 of chapter 5.

And we'll see that next week.

That would be what I think is going on in this text. Again, I approach it with caution.

I want to let you know.

And be up front with you on these things. But it does not appear it does not seem like. And why would that be the conclusion I would have? Again, is Eliaphus rewarded at the end of this book for speaking the truth about God?

No, he's rebuked. It would seem that if this was an angel of light or an angel of God that was communicating the things of God to him or if it was God himself speaking to him.

You would think that he would be rewarded.

Over speaking the truth of what God revealed to him. Now, again if anybody ever comes up to you and says I received a vision last night on your behalf you should tell them to write it down because they have started to be done the work of the 67th book of the Bible and that is not how it works.

And if God is speaking to one individual.

Why is he not speaking to his whole bride in his last days?

We know from clarity of scripture that in these last days he's spoken to us through his son, Jesus Christ and not through a single prophet or seer in these things and so there's a multitude of rebuttals that would be given to somebody that would say that today but just know that that should cause a lot of alarms come up in our minds when somebody says that.

That happens all over in evangelical Christianity. Have any of us in this room ever heard somebody say that to us? I heard God speak to me last night or last week I received a vision or I wrote this on a napkin about you and I know that it's true.

This is hogwash to say the least. This is absolute ridiculousness. So what do we have that the spirit says? This entity says to Eliaphus. Again, this is a reason why I would say it's demonic rather than holy in nature.

It would say can mankind be right before God? Can a man be here before his maker? I want to pause here and say no and I also want to say yes, right?

No, on your own accord, you cannot. No, on your own standing, no, you cannot.

No, on you trying to be innocent yourself, you cannot but what have we already seen God tell Job as? A righteous man who fears Yahweh. So again, yes, yes you can. Job stands before God as a man that has been made righteous.

We as the Church of Christ, the Bride of Christ stand before God as a multitude of men and women standing made righteous. So I would hope that you yourselves would say no.

But yes in this text.

Yes, a man can be made right before God. Yes, I can be made pure before his maker but it's not on my own accord. It's on the accord of Christ. It's on the righteousness of Christ. It's on the life of Him who lived for me on my behalf.

And then listen to what, again, I think this is demonic in nature. He puts no trust even in His slaves and against His angels He charges error. Who does it sound like is speaking in that text? That sounds like a fallen angel of some kind.

One saying, God, He finds error in His angels. That sounds like it's Satan that's speaking in this. How much more those who dwell in a house of clay whose foundation is the dust who were crushed before the moth before between morning and evening they are broken in pieces, unobserved they perish forever.

Is not their tent cord pulled up within them? They die yet without wisdom. What is this friend saying now to Job? Is this words of encouragement? No, this is something that would try to cause disruption in a Christian's life, in a believer's life to make them not trust in the plan of Yahweh for them.

He finds error with the angels, Job. His slaves He gives punishments to.

And who are you, oh man, that lives in a house of clay.

And your foundation is dust? Do you think God really has anything for you? No, He's just pushing you through the dirt. That's all it is. The cord of the tent, imagine, again, you have to put yourself in the shoes of an ancient person in this way.

This is not like a tent with sticks, the metal sticks that we use for our tents today. This would have been something to pull a cord to make the tent tight and taunt, right? It's stretching that leather.

It's stretching the canvas. It's putting tension there on the canvas. And so this friend is saying, Job, you're just getting tensioned. That's the only meaning behind this. You're just getting pulled.