WWUTT 854 Job's Friends Say He's Always Wicked?

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Accusing somebody of wrong that they did not commit is slander. It's bearing false witness.

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And Job's friends do this with him. But Job holds out hope that ultimately the

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Lord will vindicate him when we understand the text. This is when we understand the text studying

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God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing and if this has ministered to you please let others know about our program.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you Becky. We're back to our study of the book of Job being

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Thursday and we do our Old Testament study on Thursdays. Chapter 21 is where we are today.

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So the last thing that we read last week was Zophar speaking to Job and as a matter of fact that's the last time

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Zophar is going to speak because we're about to enter the third act and there's not going to be a response from Zophar again.

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So Job is responding to Zophar in chapter 21 and this is the closing chapter of the second act of the exchange that we're seeing going on here in the book of Job between Job and his friends.

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Things start to take a little bit more of an intense turn when we get to chapter 22 and I'll explain that here in just a moment.

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So here's Job's response to Zophar and again Job's friends are continuing to insist that the wicked always get their comeuppance and so the reason why

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Job has had all this disaster befall him is because he's done something evil in the sight of God.

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And Job's response is basically going to be, you know, the wicked are doing fine. They don't immediately receive a judgment or repercussion because of the evil that they have done and you don't see the lasting effects of this punishment that must come upon them because they've done wicked on the earth.

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So Job's response here, chapter 21, starting in verse 1, then Job answered and said, keep listening to my words and let this be your comfort.

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Bear with me and I will speak. And after I have spoken, mock on. As for me, is my complaint against man?

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Why should I not be impatient? Look at me and be appalled and lay your hand over your mouth.

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When I remember, I am dismayed and shudder and shuddering seizes my flesh.

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Why do the wicked live, reach old age and grow mighty in power?

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Their offspring are established in their presence and their descendants before their eyes.

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Because remember, one of the comments that Zophar made is that the wicked will have no offspring.

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And this is showing they're trying to lay blame on Job regarding why he lost his children, why his sons and daughters are dead.

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Well, it's because the wicked get punished and there's no one to carry on their name. So you must be wicked because all of your children are dead.

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And Job is, through general revelation, trying to show to them, no, look, the wicked live.

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They reach old age and grow mighty in power. Their offspring are established in their presence and their descendants before their eyes.

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Their houses are safe from fear and no rod of God is upon them. What happened to Job's house?

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Well, it was where his children were partying, where they were having their celebration, that a wind struck the house and it fell on them and collapsed.

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And so Job is showing that even among the righteous people die, but upon among the wicked, there are people that continue to live in and all of their property is just fine.

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Their bull breeds without fail, their cow calves and does not miscarry.

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They send out their little boys like a flock and their children dance. They sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.

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They spend their days in prosperity and in peace. They go down to Sheol. They say to God, depart from us.

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We do not desire the knowledge of your ways. What is the almighty that we should serve him?

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And what profit do we get if we pray to him? Behold, is not there prosperity in their hand?

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The counsel of the wicked is far from me. And what's what's poignant about that, that last statement there, that last sentence, the counsel of the wicked is far from me as first of all,

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Job is saying doesn't matter whether they prosper. I'm not going to listen to the wicked. I'm not going to follow in their ways, though I am low and in the dust and they are sitting high on the hog.

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I'm still not going to follow after what it is that the wicked do. But Job is also pointing out that this was not the way that he lived.

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He did not live like them. They're not receiving any kind of judgment for their wicked ways.

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Job was a righteous man who feared God. And yet he is the one who's had all this disaster come upon him.

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So it doesn't matter that he's righteous and they're not. They're doing fine. And him as a righteous person is now suffering.

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So he's saying that his standing before God, righteous or wicked, doesn't have anything to do with this disaster that's come upon him.

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So verse 17, how often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out, that their calamity comes upon them, that God distributes pains in his anger, that they are like straw before the wind and like chaff that the storm carries away?

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You say God stores up their iniquity for their children will let him pay it out to them, that they may know it, let their own eyes see their destruction and let them drink of the wrath of the almighty.

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For what do they care for their houses after them? When the number of their months is cut off, will any teach

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God knowledge seeing that he judges those who are on high? One dies in his full vigor, being wholly at ease and secure, his pails full of milk and the marrow of his bones moist.

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Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of prosperity. They lie down alike in the dust and the worms cover them.

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So one of the things that Job's kind of pointing out here is that disaster comes upon people with no bias.

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It's not like only the wicked suffer, but the righteous do fine. Or even only the righteous suffer, but the wicked do fine.

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It's understanding that truth that Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, that God causes his rain to fall on the just and on the unjust and his son to rise on the righteous and the unrighteous alike.

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Job understands that through general revelation, but that's not the theology of his friends who were insisting that anytime anyone would have something disastrous come upon them, it must be because they've done something wicked and God is punishing them.

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But what the voice of God is going to say to Job toward the end of this book is basically that God has the right to test who he wants to test.

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And he is deciding to test Job. He is God. As we read in Romans nine,

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I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.

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And the Lord disciplines those he loves as we read about in Hebrews chapter 12. And so as this has come upon Job, it is because it is the

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Lord's will to test him. The apostle Paul even talks about this in his introduction to the second letter to the

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Corinthians in second Corinthians chapter one, he says, with all of the disaster that had come upon them, all of the persecution that they had suffered at the hands of those who hate

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Christ while they were in Asia, he says, we thought we had received the sentence of death, but this was to make us rely more upon God who raises the dead.

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So even there, Paul is acknowledging that God had brought this upon the apostles and his fellow missionary brethren so that it would teach them to rely more on God who raises the dead.

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And of course, this was perfecting Paul in the way that he was going out with the gospel and sharing it with many others.

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And so there there is something that God is doing in this work, even upon Job.

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He is testing him for a reason. It's not for no reason. But God is not going to speak into that reason until we get nearly to the end of the book.

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So let's continue on beginning in verse twenty seven. Behold, I know your thoughts and your schemes to wrong me, for you say, where is the house of the prince?

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Where is the tent in which the wicked lived? Have you not asked those who travel the roads and do you not accept their testimony that the evil man is spared in the day of calamity, that he is rescued in the day of wrath?

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Who declares his way to his face and who repays him for what he has done when he is carried to the grave?

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Watch is kept over his tomb. The clods of the valley are sweet to him. All mankind follows after him and those who go before him are innumerable.

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How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.

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And that brings to an end the second act of this exchange between Job and his friends.

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So we start a third act here in which both parties are just going to start digging in their heels more.

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Job's friends are going to stick with the arguments that they've been making, that the reason why you're suffering is because you've done wicked.

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But they're going to they're going to even stretch it out all the more. They're going to talk about how Job's life has been a constant stream of evil activity.

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And of course, that's not true. So so now we're even getting to the point where the arguments are getting so sharp toward one another that now they're they're going even beyond the realm of reason.

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Like I'm going into unreasonable lengths now just in order to make my point. That's what

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Job's friends are going to be like. And even Job is going to get more exaggerated in the way that he's been replying to those particular accusations from his friends, even to the point that Job is going to say that it is it is

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God's nature to cause such misery to come upon righteous people like this. And that's where he goes too far.

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But God is gracious to respond to Job to not let him go so far that he's blaspheming the name of God.

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But he knows this man's heart. He knows Job's heart and knows that he's not going to do what

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Satan said he was going to do at the very beginning of the book. The reason why Satan wanted to do all of this to Job, hey, he's going to end up cursing you to your face.

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And that's not ultimately what Job does. But as this exchange is continuing here between Job and his friends, their arguments are going to get more angry and bitter toward each other.

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So chapter 22, starting in verse one, then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, can a man be profitable to God?

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Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself. Is it any pleasure to the

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Almighty if you are in the right or is it gain to him if you make your way blameless?

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Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you and enters into judgment with you? Is not your evil abundant?

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There is no end to your iniquities, for you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing and stripped the naked of their clothing.

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You have given no water to the weary to drink and you have withheld bread from the hungry.

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The man with power possessed the land and the favored man lived in it. You have sent widows away empty and the arms of the fatherless were crushed.

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Therefore, snares are all around you and sudden terror overwhelms you or darkness so that you cannot see.

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And a flood of water covers you. So here you're hearing just this diatribe from Eliphaz, who is saying that Job is just nothing but a wicked man and all his life he's been wicked.

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He's never cared for anybody, which is just going way overboard. But but Job has said that their words are windy nonsense and that they need to be quiet and listen to him.

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And so it's just antagonizing his friends all the more to want to have to respond and be even insulting with their responses.

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Verse 12 is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they are.

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But you say, what does God know? Can he judge through the deep darkness? Thick clouds veil him so that he does not see.

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And he walks on the vault of heaven. Will you keep to the old way that wicked men have trod?

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They were snatched away before their time. Their foundations were or their foundation was washed, washed away.

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They said to God, depart from us. And what can the almighty do to us? Yet he filled their houses with good things.

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But the counsel of the wicked is far from me. I'm sorry, I put the accent on the wrong word there when

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I read it. Let me read that again. Job 22, 18. Yet he filled their houses with good things.

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But the counsel of the wicked is far from me because where we heard this before,

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Job just said it in the previous chapter, Job chapter 21. Let me read again, verses 14 and 15.

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This is Job talking about the wicked. They say to God, depart from us.

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We do not desire the knowledge of your ways. What is the almighty that we should serve him?

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And what profit do we get if we pray to him? Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand?

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The counsel of the wicked is far from me. Eliphaz is taking the same words that Job just said.

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And what he's what he's trying to emphasize here is, Job, when you say that about the wicked, you're saying that about yourself.

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You're the wicked. You're that guy. You prospered. Did you not? You had all of this prosperity.

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In verse eight, the man with power possessed the land and the favored man lived in it.

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That was Job. And yet, though he had all this prosperity, according to Eliphaz, he didn't help those who were fatherless.

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He he didn't help the widows. Of course, how would his friends know that? They didn't live right next to him anyway.

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It wasn't like they knew all of the daily tasks that Job did or did not do.

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But again, this is Eliphaz just digging in his heels all the more with his responses that he's becoming insulting to his friend.

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And indeed, he's no comfort to him, just as Job said of his friends, that they were no comfort to him at all.

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He's now taking Job's words that Job just said in his previous response and using them against him.

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You were the man who lived in wealth and prosperity and did not help others. And so now

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God has thrown all of this upon you. And when you say that the wicked dwell in safety in the land.

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Yeah, that was you. You dwelt in safety and you dwelt in prosperity. But finally,

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God has brought judgment upon you because you are actually a wicked man.

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You say the counsel of the wicked is far from me. No, no, no, no. You are the wicked and you are the one giving counsel.

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Eliphaz is saying the counsel of the wicked is far from me. In other words, I'm not taking your advice because you're a wicked man.

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It's horrible. This is this is a horrible way to treat your friend. What Eliphaz is saying here, but and it's actually it's downright evil, which is why when we get to the end of Job, God is going to say to Job that he needs to offer sacrifices for his friends because they have sinned before God in the way that they've blasphemed his name, misrepresented him and attacked their friend when they should have been comforting him, instead trying to say that a righteous man is wicked when he actually is not wicked.

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That's slander. And Job's friends are guilty of it. At first, they're just not a comfort to him.

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And now it finally gets to the point where they're just downright condemning of him and exalting themselves.

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On top of that, he got to recognize that as well, because Eliphaz is saying, I'm the righteous one. You're the wicked guy who needs to listen to me, and I'm not going to listen to your counsel because you are wicked.

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Verse 19, the righteous see it and are glad the innocent one mocks at them.

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This is Eliphaz justifying the words that he's saying to Job. Yeah, I can mock you because I'm the righteous man saying surely our adversaries are cut off and what they left the fire has consumed.

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Agree with God and be at peace, thereby good will come to you.

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Receive instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart. If you return to the

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Almighty, you will be built up. If you remove injustice far from your tents, if you lay gold in the dust and gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent bed, then the

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Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver. For then you will delight yourself in the

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Almighty and lift up your face to God. You will make your prayer to him and he will hear you and you will pay your vows.

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You will decide on a matter and it will be established for you and light will shine on your ways.

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For when they are humbled, you say it is because of pride, but he saves the lowly.

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He delivers even the one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.

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Now, consider that statement in verse twenty nine. When they are humbled, you say it is because of pride, but he saves the lowly.

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Indeed, that's true. We have that in the book of Proverbs. Even James says that humble yourself before the

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Lord and he will exalt you. Peter repeats it also be humble before God and he will exalt you.

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And and so what Eliphaz is saying is certainly true. But of course, when you understand the context in which he's saying it, he's saying it of a man who is righteous, who is

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Job. He was a righteous man who feared God. And yet Eliphaz is trying to say to Job that he needs to be humble before God.

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Well, that was Job's attitude. That's exactly the way that he was. He was humble before God, feared the

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Lord, was obedient to him, offered sacrifices even for his children, just in case they may have blasphemed

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God in their celebrations and their partying that they did. And so so you have to understand the context of the statements that Job's friends make, even though there's certainly truth in them.

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The context in which they're being said is not so true. And this is the reason why God is going to speak sternly against Job's friends and say that Job is going to have to offer sacrifices for their forgiveness, because this what they're doing right here is just flat evil, finding all the little tiny things that they can find to blame a person for keeping a record of wrongs.

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And even the record that they have of Job's wrongs is not the wrongs that he did. They're now making stuff up in order to justify themselves and their case and their argument for how

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Job has done evil. And he needs to repent before God of something if if he's ever going to be restored.

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So we're going to stop there for now. What we come into next is Job's reply asking, where is

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God? And we're only going to hear one other response from Job's friends, and that's Bildad.

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But it's so short because Job cuts him off and continues on for several chapters before finally one last party responds.

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One one more person who has been present in the midst of all of this exchange, and that is

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Elihu. And we've probably got a couple of weeks before we get to Elihu's response. Let's conclude with prayer.

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Our great God, I pray that we would know you as good and even the things that befall us are ultimately for our good and for your glory.

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As Joseph said in Genesis 50 20, what you meant for evil speaking to his brothers, what you meant for evil,

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God meant for good. And we also understand what Paul said in Second Corinthians, as I've already mentioned today, that we thought we had received the sentence of death, but this was to make us rely all the more on God who raises the dead.

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And as Paul also wrote in Romans 8 28, God is working all things together for good for those who love

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God and are called according to his purpose. So let us see that in all that is going on around us, that you are indeed working in all of these things to lift up our heads and deliver us from evil into your glorious eternal kingdom.

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In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. This has been, When We Understand the Text of Pastor Gabriel Hughes.

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For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt

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.com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com

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and let your friends know about our ministry. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word.