Job 29-31 "The Words of Job Are Ended"

The little ones are such a blessing, such a blessing. Just to be able to open up God's Word with them and give them a moment to be able to see the importance of being in front of people and answering questions is wonderful.

How many of us do you think could stand in front of people and answer questions like that? And these little ones are already doing it at such a young age, it's wonderful. So today we are going to be in Job chapter 29 to 31.

So please start making your way there for this morning. Just to be on the front side with you, this is a large text that we're going through today. We're going to be reading a lot from God's Word this morning.

And I think it's important to do this, the title that I've given the message today actually comes from the final verse that we're going to be reading today. And that is, the words of Job are ended. And so if you were to glance over to chapter 32 and beyond, you would notice that Job, the next very thing that he's going to say, he's going to say, I cover my mouth, I repent in dust and ashes.

This is the final discourse from Job that we have in this text. So before we give any more context, let's go ahead and pray for the message and what we might glean from the text today. So let's pray. Lord God, I thank you for this morning again, Lord.

I thank you for the people that have been able to make it here today to worship you, Lord God. And I would ask that the people that were not able to make it for whatever reason, whether it's circumstances in life or whether it was the road conditions with the snow that fell this morning, Lord, in March, Lord, that you just would encourage them, that you would bless us today through your worship, Lord, that we would seek the grace again, Lord, that you would revive our souls this morning.

Lord, I would ask that the text today would glorify you, that we would glean from it that which is lifting up to us, Lord, that it would help us recognize ourselves in the complete sin and nature that we possess, Lord, and it would magnify you upon your throne and what you have revealed to us through your Holy Spirit, Lord.

God, I would ask that you would keep my tongue from uttering a sentence, a word beyond what your text here offers for us, Lord. Lord, let our conscience be bound to what you have here, and may we, if we are not born again today, may we be born again and sing of the grace, the praises, the mercy, and the salvation that we have in you.

And in your name, the one that we have salvation in, amen. So it's been three weeks now since we've been in the book of Job. This is the text that we've been going through as a church. The last couple of weeks, we've had a couple of topical messages.

So anytime we open up God's word again, it's important for us to know where we're at, what's been going on around us. And so it's always important to start with a little bit of context. The last time we were here, we went through three chapters like what we're doing today with Job.

His friends have been continually attacking Job. Job is a man that you should be picturing with boils, a man that should be seen as destitute, a man that is mourning and in severe grief, a man that is suffering is what we should be seeing here with Job.

And in this, we again, at the beginning of the book, we are told what Job is. Job is a righteous man, a blameless man that's upright and fears Yahweh. So when we read the words of Job, what should we see him as?

The very thing that God has declared for us, the readers of God's word as who he is, a upright, blameless, Yahweh fearing man. And in this way, we should look at Job as a brother in Christ, a brother that has seen the grace of Yahweh.

And so in the areas where Job messes up, we should see him as a pilgrim that's suffering. We should see him as a man that is struggling through this severe grief and mourning that he's in because that is what he's in right now.

And so I think, again, that is the reason why reading these large portions of scripture in any other book of the Bible, we would be going through it verse by verse very slowly and particularly. But in Job, I think it helps us to see the grander picture in this.

So that's what it's going to be today. This long, long text that we have to read. And I'm going to be just again, we're going to be going, we're going to take moments to pause where we should be pausing.

And this text, when we read through it again, these are the last words of Job. And so I want you to be picturing yourself in the courtroom, right? The case that has been made against you at saying you are guilty has been made against Job.

His friends are saying, you're guilty of sin. You've done something wrong. And what is Job doing now in this final exhortation? He's standing before the jury. He's pleading his case, saying, I never sowed wickedness.

That's not why God has seen it fit for my whole family to die. That's not the reason why I'm in the situation I'm in. It's not the reason if I, it's not that I've sown sin in the past and that's why I have boils today.

That's not Job's reckoning of what he's in right now. Okay. And so he's pleading this before the jury's pleading this before you and I, he's pleading this before everyone else that has seen him as a sinner, as a fallen, a deserving of these things around him.

So let's look here at verse one and, and let me again be clear in saying this, there's going to be some occasions in this text where I think Joe messes up in his estimate to who God is. And I am reminded about this today.

I, uh, I went to take out the trash this morning and the trash in the kitchen was very, very full. It had been stuffed and stuffed and stuffed. And it was one of those heavy duty garbage bags. Thank goodness.

Or else it would have been all over the gym today as I took the trash out. But even in this heavy duty garbage bag, we started to see the tears. I started to see the tears that were taking place in the garbage bag.

It was weakening. It was weakening. You could see the holes piercing through it. And I think that's the state that we see Joe bit out right now. He's been stuffed full of all this garbage that his friends are telling him.

And guess what? We're starting to see, we're starting to see those little holes. We're starting to see those little specks and start seeing the garbage bag thinning out. And that's, that's what we have here with Joe, a thinning out garbage bag.

And again, is that, is that to excuse what Joe says and messes up in, no, we should have a proper theology and all these things, but it's, it helps us rationalize what Joe was going through and maybe why he's, he's saying the things he's saying.

So let's look here at verse one. It says, and Joe continued to lift up his discourse and said, so Joe was again, this, this is the final time when Joe was going to exhort before his friends and this jury about who he is.

And verse two, he says, Oh, that I were as in months gone by, as in days when God kept me again, just short pause here. The ways when Joe has not erred is when he's quick to be reminded that it is God who is sovereign and not him.

The very beginning words that we have from Job is saying, Yahweh gives, Yahweh takes, the Lord gives, the Lord takes, blessed be the name of the Lord. And it says that he never sinned in his lips. He never sinned when he said that.

I think this is where we're starting to see Job error, those, that thinning of the garbage bag is seen here. He's saying, man, if I could go back to these days, he's longing for the days previous, but the reality of it is, is, is Job is in the situation that God has desired for him to be in.

God has predestined for Job to be in this situation. And do you think it's to his betterment or to his destruction? The betterment. I know that's a strange and hard thing for us to grasp, especially in our own trials and situations, but how many of us can look back in life and in the midst of the terrible situation that we are in, be in so much severe distress that we hate the situation we're in, but give it five years and we now are so thankful for that situation we went through.

We're thankful for God who brought us through it. We're thankful for God that we're sanctified by it. Let that be an encouragement to you today. Maybe you're in a terrible situation and you're mourning over it.

The Lord gives, the Lord takes. You are the clay. He is the potter. And he's bringing you through something to strengthen you. It's to your betterment. Something to glorify God through, not seek a means out of.

So Job in this, we're starting to see those tears in here. He's saying, man, I wish I could go back to the days before. Now listen, listen to this because we're going to see some great things that take place that Job recognizes in his life, and he's pleading this again before the jury.

This is going to be the rest of the chapter. Let's go ahead and read all the way to chapter 30. When his lamp shone over my head, and by his light I walked through darkness, as I was in the prime of my days when the intimate counsel with God was over my tent.

Oh, you're good. I'm happy to get resin. That's going to bust out of the soup here with that muscle that's being exercised there. As I was in the prime of my days, when the intimate counsel with God was over my tent, when the Almighty was yet with me and my children were around me, when my steps were bathed in butter and the rock poured out for me streams of oil, when I went out to the gate of the city, when I took my seat in the square, the young men saw me and hid.

And the old men arose and stood. The princes stopped talking and put their hands on their mouths. The voices of the nobles was hidden away, and their tongue clung to their palate. For the ear heard, and it called me blessed.

And the eye saw, and it gave witness of me, because I provided escape for the afflicted who cried for help and the orphan who had no helper. The blessing of the one ready to perish came upon me, and I made the widow's heart sing for joy.

I clothed myself with righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was like a robe and a turban, and I was eyes to the blind and my feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I searched out the case which I did not know.

I broke the fangs of the unjust and snatched the prey out of the teeth. Then I said, I will breathe my last in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand. My root is spread out in the water and do lies all night in my branch.

My glory is ever new with me, and my bow is renewed in my hand. To me, they lifted and waited and kept silent for my counsel. Verse 22. After my words, they did not speak again, and my speech dropped on them.

They waited for me as the rain and opened their mouth as for the late rain. I laughed with them as they could not believe it. In the light of my face, they did not cast down. I chose a way for them and sat as chief and dwelt as their head among the troops as one who comforted the mourners.

I want to just, again, short pause here before we read again. Do you see the privileges, the honor, the place that Job was in? I look at this, and I would ask every man in this room and say, do you not desire this kind of a life that Job was living righteously?

I think of me being 28 years old, and could you imagine a 28-year-old when he walked into a room, all of a sudden the 50-year-olds are standing up, and none of the younger ones are trying to challenge his position because he's a righteous man.

He's a man that loves God. He's a man that seeks his glory and his honor, and it's recognizable to all. This is the type of life that we should be trying to live, is a life that is worthy of such things.

Again, Job is saying to his friends, don't you remember two weeks ago when I walked into a room? You would stand up for me. There was no sin I was sowing in the ground like you're saying, Eliaphus. Bildad, my web was not weak like what you have professed it as.

Zophar, you are a liar because you knew me two weeks ago. Everyone knew it. Everyone saw it. Job had riches, honor, respect, health, might, cattle, vigor, power, and much more. But notice in all these things, Job has lost it.

Does anyone stand in the room when Job walks in anymore? They shudder at his sight because he is covered with boils. Do you think the young run away from him now out of the fear of the respect of Job, or do you think they laugh at him because his sons died and his daughters died?

His cattle was taken. His servants were kidnapped. Do you think Job has suffered a loss more than anyone in this room has suffered? And I don't want to compare apples to oranges and whatnot, but this is severe loss that he's in.

But notice this, brothers and sisters. What is the one thing that no one could take from Job? Not even Satan himself who pleaded to God for him to go and persecute him. Job has not lost his salvation.

Job has not lost his hope. Job has not lost what he recognizes as truth, that God is sovereign even in the midst of all these things. No one can take that hope from you. What? Again, I don't know the situations of everyone in this room today.

You don't know the situations that I might be in intimately. Whether you are suffering, whether you are in a place like Job where young men run away from you, and the older ones, the elders, stand up at you when you walk in.

Whatever situation you might be in, recognize that God is sovereign and that you are in the place right now that you are in life because you are being sanctified for one reason or another. God is sovereign.

You will not lose your salvation today. God is trustworthy. If you place your faith in Him today, He is trustworthy in these things. Do not let a moment go by in life and not recognize that this was done for your good.

And I know that can be very challenging to say in the midst of the worst bad that you've been in. But Job has recognized it nonetheless. Job, I would say, he's saying all these things according to the book of Philippians, which says, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Job recognizes, again, that there's nothing that can take away the mightiest prize of them all, and that's salvation in Christ. Now let's read all of chapter 30. And as we're reading this, I want to ask us three questions at the end of this text.

But we're going to read all of chapter 30 and consider what Job is saying now. Remember, he's just talking, look how up, up, up I was, look at how mighty I was in the world, and now think about how I look right now.

That's what we're looking at right in this text, chapter 30. But now those younger than I laugh at me, whose fathers I rejected even to put with dogs in my flock. Indeed, what good was the strength of their hands to me?

Vigor had perished from them. From want and famine, they are gaunt, who gnaw the dry ground by night in destruction and desolation, who pluck morrow by the bushes, and whose food is the root of the bottom or the broom tree.

They are driven from the community. They shout against them as against a thief, so that they dwell in the slopes of the valleys and holes of the dust and of the rocks. Among the bushes they cry out. Under the nestles they are gathered together, wicked fools, even those without a name, they who scourged from the land.

And now I have become their mocking song. I've even become a taunting word to them. They abhor me and keep a distance from me. And they do not hold back from the spitting in my face, because he has loosed his bowstring and afflicted me.

They have thrusted aside their bridle before me. On the right hand their brood arises. They thrust aside my feet and build up against me their ways to disaster. They break up my path. They profit from my destruction.

They have no helper, as through a wide breach they come. Amid the storm they roll on. Terrors are turned against me, and they pursue my nobility as the wind. And my hope for salvation has passed away like a cloud.

And now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have seized me. At night it pierces my bones within me, and my gnawing pains take no rest. By a great force my garment is distorted. It seizes me about as the collar of my tunic.

He has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. I cry out to you for help, but you do not answer me. I want to say this is Job crying to God right now. I stand up, and you carefully consider how to be against me.

You have become cruel to me. With the might of your hand, you hunted me down. You lifted me up to the wind and caused me to ride. And you melt me away in a storm. For I know that you will bring me to death and to the house of meeting for all living.

Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand? Or in his upheaval, is there a cry for help because of them? Have I not wept for the ones whose life is hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?

When I hoped for good, then evil came. When I waited for light, then thick darkness came. I was boiling within them, I cannot be silent. Days of affliction confront me. I go about darkened, but not by the sun.

I stand up in the assembly and cry out for help. I have become a brother to jackals and a companion of ostriches. My skin turns black on me, and my bones burn with fever. Therefore, my harp is tuned to mourning, and my flute to the sound of those who weep.

I think we can see the stickiness of where Job begins to err, even in this text again. Again, I would say that this is a reasonable response, though, from a sinner, nonetheless. Is it still wrong to be uttering those words?

Yes, it is. But it is to be expected in some manner. Job is suffering, again, beyond imagined for you and I. If you were Job today, these are the three questions I want to ask us after reading this chapter.

If you were Job today, put yourself in his shoes, how would you handle this? Would you rest on the sovereignty of God? Or would you fall into vain, worldly philosophies? Would you be the heavy-duty garbage bag?

Or would you be those cheap Walmart brand ones that always break at the string and fall all over the kitchen floor? If you're unsure about how you would handle that today, brothers and sisters, it just takes a day, it just takes a moment, it just takes one action to lose it all.

And you could be in the shoes of Job today. Be ready for this. Strengthen and preach and teach the sovereignty of God in your heart now and be ready for it. Because recognizing the sovereignty of God today, you will take everything that happens in your life and you will glorify God through it and you will recognize that God is the one that's shaping me.

So whether illness or disease comes, you will not go to like what the friends of Job have been saying to him about this karma-type style of God that, Job, you should have done this and then this would have came to you.

Or if you've done this, this is why you're in the situation you're in. No, Job is quick, again, to notice that it is God who gives, God who takes, and he should be blessed regardless of what situation we are in.

Now, the second question I want to ask us. If you were to see Job today, so we just asked if you were in the shoes of Job, how would you handle this? I want to ask you now, what if you saw Job today? Imagine, go down to the school in the gymnasium and he's sitting there right in the middle of the gym and you can choose one side of the bleachers or the other.

Which side of the bleachers would you be on? Would you be quick to jump on the bandwagon of accusers against Job, jesting with the best in the most slanderous of ways, just to seek his demise? Would you be in that side of the bleachers, chanting and cheering against the saints of the faith?

Would you be in those sides? Or would you go to the side of the bleachers that seek for help and aid for a brother in Christ? How would you encourage Job in this situation? Would you be there to remind him of the sovereignty of God?

To remind him to be faithful? To remind him that everything he goes through is not in vain? And that it's for a glorious purpose? Or would you seek to hurt him and attack his character? To make yourself look better?

Would you turn your hand against Job? Would you be the one that stood up for him when he walked into the room, but now is laughing at him in this situation? I think this is an important question for each one of us to ask, how we act today towards anyone that we come in contact with.

And number three, are you prepared today? Now I hope we all have answered the previous two questions in the correct Christian-like manner. But in light of the positive answer that I hope we have given, I would ask you, is your theology strong enough today to suffer like this?

Is your recognition, your hope in Christ strong enough to go through this today? Are you strong enough to support your fellow saints, brothers and sisters? I'll be honest with you, I would say that probably not.

And I would put myself in that same camp. Pray today that you may be. That you may be. Be ready in and out of season, not only to give an answer for your hope, but be ready in and out of season to hold on to your hope in these situations.

Have peace in the sovereignty of God. Let's look here at chapter 31 now as we continue to look through these chapters. Verses 1 through 4. Before we read this, I do want to remind us again, put yourself in that courtroom of Job.

He's giving his final case to the jury. And what he's going to do in this text, and I still notice this from one of the commentaries I was studying for this message today, is they notice that there's going to be a lot of if and then language in here.

If I had done this, then let this happen to me. If this had taken place, then let this happen. And you're going to see that in here. We'll make momentary pauses for this. But let's read verses 1 through 4.

I have cut a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze at a virgin? This is talking about lust. This is talking about lust. Job is married. He's saying, I have cut a covenant. I love my wife. How could I gaze at a virgin?

And what is the portion of God from above, or the inheritance of the Almighty from on high? Is it not disaster to put, or to the unjust, and misfortune to those who work iniquity? Does he not see my days, or my ways, and number all my steps?

So this text would be, if I have lusted, then let me have destruction. Verse 5. If I have walked with worthlessness, and my foot has hastened against after deceit, let him weigh me with just scales, and let God know my integrity.

If my step has turned from my way, or my heart followed my eyes, or if any spot has struck to my hands, let me sow, and another eat, and let my crops be uprooted. What does Job just say the if and then is in this text?

If I have lied, if I have been deceitful, let me lose my harvest. If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or if I have lied and wait in my neighbor's doorway, may my wife grind for another, and let others kneel down over her, for that would be lewdness.

Moreover, it would be an iniquity punishable by judges, for it would be fire that consumes to abandon, and would uproot all my produce. What's the if and then in this text? If I've been seduced, let me lose my wife to a neighbor.

Thirteen. If I have rejected the just of my male or my female slaves, when they filed a complaint against me, what then could I do when God arises, and when he calls me to account, with what I respond to him?

Did not he who made me in the womb make him in the same one fashion us in the womb? Job says, if I have oppressed in this world, let me answer to God. That's a terrifying thing. Let me go before God and explain my case.

Let's read 16 through 23. If I have held back the poor from their desire, or have caused the eye of the widow to fail, or have eaten my morsel alone, and the orphan has not eaten from it, but from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, and from the womb of my mother I girded her.

If I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing, or that the needy had no covering, if the loins have not blessed me, and if he has not been warmed with the fleece of my sheep, if I have waved my hand against the orphan because I saw my help in the gate, let my shoulder fall from the socket, and my harm be broken off at the elbow.

For disaster from God is dread to me, and because of my exaltness I can do nothing. Job says, if I have neglected someone, let my arm be torn out of socket. Let it be broken at the elbow. 24 to 28. If I have put my confidence in gold, and called fine gold my trust, if I have been glad because my wealth was great, and because my hand had found so much, if I have looked at the sun when it was shone, or the moon going in splendor, and my heart became secretly enticed, and my hand threw a kiss from a mouth, that too would be an iniquity calling for judgment.

For I would have denied God above. Job says, if I have committed idolatry, God will judge me. Again, this is a terrifying thing to say. Let's go ahead and read 29 all the way to 34 on this one. If I have been glad at the upheaval of the one who hated me, or exalted when evil found him, but I have given over my mouth to sin by asking for it, for his life, and a curse.

If the men of my tent have not said, who can find one who has not been satisfied with his meat? The sojourner has not lodged outside. For I have opened my doors to the traveler. If I have covered my transgression like Adam, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom, because I fear the great multitude, and the contempt of the families, terrify me, and I kept silent, and did not go out of doors.

Job has described in this text malice, slighted, and hypocritical nature that men often are, is what Job is saying my if is in this text. We'll see it then here in a moment. But just notice there in verse 33, one thing I really enjoy in this is that Job recognizes the transgression of Adam.

That's remarkable again, right? Job, through these most likely oral and verbal traditions that they would have had, he knows that his first father, Adam, sinned against God. And that Adam, what did he try to do when he sinned?

He tried to hide from God. Job knows that he cannot hide from God. He knows he cannot cover his sin. Let's look at verse 35. Oh, that I had one to hear me. Behold, here is my signature. Let the Almighty answer me.

And the indictment which my accuser has written. Job ought not to be proud in his reasonings. And this is an example to Job starting to overstep, I think, in this text. He's saying if God was to see these things, again, I think this is where we're starting to see those holes in the trash bag of Job.

We're starting to see that stretching out of the trash bag liner. Let's read 36 and on. It says, surely I would carry it on my shoulder. I would bind it to myself like a crown. I would declare to him the number of my steps.

Like a prince, I would approach him. If my land cries out against me and its furrows weep together, if I have eaten its fruit without money or have caused its owners to lose their lives, let briars come out instead of wheat and let stinkweed instead of barley, the words of Job are ended.

The words of Job are ended. That's how this text finishes in here. This is a mighty discourse from Job, especially if we consider the last six chapters. We've gone through three. We know that Job started this discourse six chapters ago.

Brothers and sisters, though we can see in several cases in this text that we've read today, where Job has erred, where he's most likely sinning against God and what he's saying, Job is putting something forth unto his friends that is quite tremendous, I think.

Examine your own life. Think about this for a moment. Examine your own life. And though the question in the report that I've given to you, that most likely we have not seen such severe loss like Job has seen, how many of us could say that I'm half the man that Job was in righteousness?

Ask yourself those questions, if this, then this, right? That we just saw. Could any of us say that we have not committed a sin that Job has just listed there? I'm reminded of the words of Christ. If an eye causes you to sin, gouge it out.

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. Job says in this text, if I have done this, let my arm be broken. I would rather have that take place than to sin against the Almighty in these ways. It's easy for us to look at the life of Job and to say, I can only see myself being exalted above a place of pleasure right now while he's in his destitution, but also be reminded of Job and his righteousness before he was in that place of affliction.

And recognize that if Job was the standard, if Job was the standard, do you think you could live up to that standard today? No. And what's even more frightening than this is that Job is not the standard.

Job fails for the ultimate standard. What is the ultimate standard? We have the kids answer it today. This moral law that God has given, His transcendent law,.

Have we been quick to keep it?

Have we loved it? Have we held on to it? Have we not sinned against the Almighty? We fail not only to see the standard of Job that He has put out here, but we fail even more so when we recognize that it is God's standard that we are held to.

Let our arms be broken. Let our knees be broken. Let us suffer the boils. We deserve it if this is how we are to look at life, fully and totally. Is it not written in Romans 3 .10, there is no one righteous, not even one?

Job is exalting God in several cases. Like I've said, I think he fails in some ways in this text. We see him suffering, but he exalts God in several cases, even in the midst of this severe distress. Think about your life today, and I want to ask you, I hope this is a piercing question.

In your work, in your private life, how many times did you exalt Christ this week? In which ways have you described the glories of God to your neighbors this week? In which ways did you proclaim the gospel unto the nations this week?

In which ways have you discipled your little ones, your children this week? Or in which ways have you ruled around in your sin this week? I guarantee you that each one of us would see the unbalanced weight that is there in those scales.

None of us can even proclaim what Job is proclaiming in this text. And none of us can surely proclaim that before a holy and just God. This is why we ought to be seeking the sanctification that conforms to the image of Christ in all that we do.

If you can say, I told one person of the glory of Christ this week, that's better than probably most. But your sin has definitely outweighed those scales, I can tell you that. The words of Job have ended.

What is your ending statement in life today? Are you going to stand before God and say, God, I'm so good, I should be rewarded? Or are you going to say, God, I have failed at every day of life. I'm deserving of whatever you bring against me.

And I only plea that Christ himself lived for me. That he died in my place and then he rose again on the third day. This is the gospel that has saved us, brothers and sisters. This is the gospel that saves even Job.

This is the gospel, the message of God, that is good news, that we should have fear in him. He has saved us when we should not, when we ought not, and when we could not save ourselves. So let us pray over this and consider these things for this morning.

Lord God, I thank you again for what we read here in Job, Lord. God, we see Job as even in the severe distress that he's in right now, Lord. I look at him and I say, Lord, I couldn't have lasted even a moment that this diatribe, this discourse, these accusing friends have given to Job.

I couldn't last there, Lord. And Job has sought it over and over and over again. Even when he fails and he sins against you, he has made it known that you are sovereign. That you are still just in all these things, Lord.

God, may we today, whether whatever we are going on in our lives, whether it be our neighbors that accuse us, whether it be our friends that blame us, whether it be our close relatives that seek to counsel us in ways of the world, Lord, may we be quick to be reminded of your word.

May we be quick to proclaim your glories, Lord. May we hate sin, Lord. May we gouge out our eyes if it sins against you, Lord. God, I would ask that you would help us in these things, Lord. That your spirit would fill us in these things, Lord.