WWUTT 864 Job Knows the Outskirts of God's Ways?

Job’s Outskirts of God’s Ways and the Hope Revealed in Christ

In the book of Job, we find little hints at what God is ultimately going to fulfill in His Son, Jesus Christ. We are saved by grace, through faith, in Christ alone, even according to Job when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. We continue our study in the book of Job today, starting in Chapter 26. From here on out in our study of Job, his friends are not going to speak up anymore. There's one other guy who's kind of been present during this whole thing, but he has not spoken up in the midst of Job's soliloquies and then the discourses of his friends.

There's a man named Elihu, and he's going to speak. I think it comes up around Chapter 32, and then after him, the Lord speaks. But Job's friends are no longer part of this. In fact, the last discourse that we had from one of his friends was in Job 25, where Bildad got five verses.

And then as we're starting today in Job 26, it's as if Job has cut him off. Job's friends have continued to sing the same song, that the reason why disaster happens, like what has happened to you, Job, is because men are evil.

And if you weren't evil, and if you had not done wickedly in the sight of God, then all of this would not have happened to you. Your sons were wicked. That's why they're dead. Your daughters as well. This is why enemies have come and taken all your stuff.

It's because you have done evil in the sight of God. And Job has said to them, show me what it is that I have done that is evil. And he's furthermore pressed the point that what has happened to him has been by the hand of God.

It wasn't Job that did this, but God has done it to him. Now there's certainly some truth in that. Nothing happens outside the sovereign decree of God. But Job is much more pessimistic in this sense. And it's what God is going to speak into when God ultimately talks at the end of this book that we have been studying.

So Bildad's final statement, I'm going to read this again, chapter 25, which kind of summarizes the things that Job's friends have said. Dominion and fear are with God. He makes peace in his high heaven.

Is there any number to his armies? Upon whom does his light not arise? How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure? Behold, even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes.

How much less a man who is a maggot and the son of man who is a worm. And as Bildad is speaking this, he's saying it applies to Job. Yet what did we read at the start of this book? That Job was a righteous man who feared God and walked upright.

And the Lord loved him and even singled him out to Satan as a man who was righteous and upright. And so Job is going to cut Bildad off. He's just not going to listen to it from his friends anymore. This man who is wilting, is sad, is grieved over all that he has lost.

His body has been eaten away by the sores that cover his skin in addition to his fatigue because he has not slept and his emaciatedness because he has not eaten. And so Job is whatever strength he's got left, he's cutting his friends off and he's not going to let them speak to him, speak of him in his presence in this way anymore.

So the rest of what we've got here for the next several chapters is going to be from Job. Job answered and said, how you have helped him who has no power, how you have saved the arm that has no strength, how you have counseled him who has no wisdom and plentifully declared sound knowledge.

With whose help have you uttered words and whose breath has come out from you? In other words, Job is saying that all these things have come about him by the hand of God, even his miserable friends speaking the way that they do.

They would not even have the breath to speak if it was not that God had granted it to them. In chapter 25, verse 6, Bildad had said, how much less is man who is a maggot and the son of man who is a worm?

And then Job says, well, if that's the case, then where do they get their strength from? This comes from God. And it furthers Job's point that any and all things happen, whether good or bad, by the sovereign hand of God.

Creation, Sheol, and the Pierced Serpent

Verse five, the dead tremble under the waters and their inhabitants. Sheol is naked before God and Abaddon has no covering. He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing. It's a passage I used recently in a what video regarding the shape of the earth, rebutting those who claim that the earth is flat, which is absurd.

But the hints that we get throughout the scripture is that the earth is round. There's nothing that explicitly states the earth is round. But even a statement like this kind of hints to the earth's place in space, where Job says that he stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing, stretches out the north over.

So the north indicating that it is the top and the north stretches out over everything that was the void. How do we have the earth described for us in Genesis chapter one? It was formless and void. And Job is suggesting here that the north was stretched out.

It started at the top and went down to the bottom and it covered the void. And the Lord hangs the earth on nothing. That's a defense for round earth, but also shows that even in this time where a scientific discovery was not as it is today, we are not looking into the vastness of the heavens and being able to say see the distances that we can now.

Yet what we read in the Bible perfectly lines up with what we know of the earth's place in space. Job goes on to say he binds up the waters in his thick clouds and the cloud is not split open under them.

He covers the face of the full moon and spreads over it his cloud. He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness. The pillars of heaven tremble and are astounded at his rebuke.

By his power, he stilled the sea. By his understanding, he shattered Rahab. And again, Rahab was a name of a false god. So these references to Rahab that have come up in the book of Job are not a reference to Rahab, the prostitute who had helped the Israelites to to hide them when they were spying on Jericho.

Not the same Rahab. She actually was named after the false god. So Job goes on verses 13 and 14 here. By his wind, the heavens were made fair. His hand pierced the fleeing serpent. Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways.

And how small a whisper do we hear of him but the thunder of his power who can understand? Now we had a Christological prophecy going on there a little bit. Did you did you happen to catch it? Verse 13 talking about God by his wind, the heavens were made fair by his wind.

And he spoke all things into existence. And then he says in the next portion of that verse, his hand pierced the fleeing serpent. It's an interesting way that's put. Because what is going to happen in the future, you know, 2000 years down the road when Jesus is going to be crucified, his hands are pierced.

And it appears to be a victory for Satan that he's put the son of God to death. This one who was supposed to be the savior, the messiah of mankind, and yet Satan put him to death. Satan entered into Judas, betrayed Jesus.

Satan was influential in the the people of Israel shouting crucify him and the Romans who actually put him to death. The Lord used Satan in this regard, just as the Lord is using Satan here in the book of Job, putting all these things together to accomplish his sovereign plan and will.

And yet, though it is Satan who succeeds, you know, momentarily, for that time that Jesus is hanging on the cross. Yet we have Job saying his hand pierced the fleeing serpent. Because though it was Jesus hand that was pierced when he was nailed to the cross, yet the actuality is Christ pierced the serpent with his death on the cross for his death was victory over death and the grave victory over sin salvation for those who had rebelled against God.

This was the work of Jesus Christ. And so he ends up destroying the work of Satan in in this fact that he had been crucified for our sins. So his hand pierced the fleeing serpent as as as Satan is attempting to flee the wrath of God.

Verse 14 again. Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways. And how small a whisper do we hear of him? But the thunder of his power, who can understand? So in verse 13, by his when the heavens were made fair by the voice of God, all things came into existence and by his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.

And Job says, these are but the outskirts of his ways. Like we know of the events we know of creation, we know of crucifixion. But you dig deeper into the truths of these things and how vast the theology and won't we won't even come to the end of how incredible God's ways are in just what he has revealed to us on this side of heaven.

Just what we can know, according to his word, men have studied the Bible their entire lives and go to their graves still wanting to know more. But what happens on the other side when they pass from this life into the next is they see him as he is because they are made to be like him.

First John three to amen. Praise the Lord. But Job saying here, these things are but the outskirts of his ways. How many people in this world, probably the majority of the world has heard that God created all things and that Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross.

So they know of those major events, but these are but the outskirts of his ways. So many people have heard of those things, but do not believe them. As many people don't believe them and therefore have eternal life.

As we've been talking about in John all this week and in John chapter six, where Jesus says that my words that I speak to you are spirit and life, believing the words of Jesus Christ, not just hearing them, but trusting in them and doing what he says.

These are the things that lead to eternal life. And again, it's not that doing these works is what saves us. It seems like every time I have to say this, I almost have to qualify it as the works don't save us, but they are the evidence that we are saved.

Yet we are called to pursue holiness. Matthew chapter five, Jesus says, be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. First John two, one, my little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this, we know that we have come to know him.

If we keep his commandments, whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected. By this, we may know that we are in him.

Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. So as much as we want to say, you just have to believe. And that's true. We still must also qualify what it means to believe.

If a person does not reflect in their life, a change that has happened because of their belief, then they don't actually believe they heard some words one time and with their own mouth, they might've said, I agree with them, but with their actions and with their life, they don't show that they agree with those words.

We must do what it is that Jesus has said, or we don't actually believe in what he has said, nor do we believe in who he is, the judge of all who is going to come back and judge the living and the dead.

And he says, only those who did the will of my father will be saved. We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the grave. Yes, that is true. But that belief should have a transforming effect in our life by grace through faith in Christ.

Are you saved and no other way, but you will demonstrate that salvation with your life over time. You will show that the love for God that you say that you have is genuine or is not genuine and you failed to pass the test and therefore are not actually walking in the righteousness that has been given to you in Christ with that double imputation, him giving our right, giving us his righteousness.

The righteousness we have comes from God. And that's the other thing that Job is talking about here as well. As Bildad has said that who can be in the right before God, how can he who is born of woman be pure?

Well, the answer to that question is we receive a righteousness that is not our own. It is a righteousness that is given to us by God. And that is the righteousness Job has. He's had it from the very beginning, a righteousness that comes from God, which is why God is is able to say of Job, behold, my servant Job, there is none like him because the righteousness that Job has comes from God.

And God knows that Job is not going to renounce his faith in God. Do what it is that his wife said for Job to do, curse God and die. God knows Job is not going to do that because he is held fast in his love by his righteousness, by God's righteousness, not by Job's.

Man has no righteousness to speak of. If we are able to claim any righteousness at all, it is the gift of God. So we go on in chapter 27 and Job again took up his discourse and said, as God lives, who has taken away my right and the almighty who has made my soul bitter as long as my breath is in me and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, my lips will not speak falsehood and my tongue will not utter deceit.

Do you hear that? As long as breath is in me and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, this is a counter to what Bildad said, because previously Job said whose breath has come out from you. And so here in chapter 27, it's kind of like he's answering that question he's asked of Bildad.

The breath that he has comes from God and the spirit of God is in my nostrils. As long as the spirit of God is with me, I will not speak falsehood and I will not utter deceit. Verse five, far be it from me to say that you are right till I die.

I will not put away my integrity from me. I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go. My heart does not reproach me for any of my days. He's not going to let his friends say of him that he has done wicked and evil, and that's why this disaster has come upon him.

He's not going to to look down upon the righteousness that he has, which he knows is in obedience to God just because his friends have pointed out all of this calamity that has come upon him being the result of Job being a wicked man.

That's slander. It's bearing false witness. And so Job is not at all going to renounce what he knows that he has had, which has come from God. Verse seven, let my enemy be as the wicked and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.

For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off, when God takes away his life? Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him? Now, note, Job is talking about the godless for what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off?

By contrast, Job is not godless, so he still has a hope that he's clinging to, even though he mourns over the state that his life is in at the present. Will God hear the cry of the godless when distress comes upon him?

Will he take delight in the almighty? When will he call upon God at all times? The godless don't. I will teach you concerning the hand of God. What is with the almighty? I will not conceal. Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves.

Why then have you become altogether vain? And the answer to these questions is in John 14, 6, Jesus saying, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the father but by me. So when Job says, does the godless take delight in the almighty, will he call upon God at all times?

What hope do they have when God cuts him off? Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him? The answer is no, he won't, because the cry that the godless cries out must be in the name of Christ or it is not received by God.

No one comes to the father but by me. And that's not just in the eternal sense on the day of judgment. That's also when we lift up our prayers to God, our prayers are not received and heard by God unless we come in the name of Christ.

Job goes on 27, 13. This is the portion of a wicked man with God and the heritage that oppressors receive from the almighty. If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword and his descendants have not enough bread.

Those who survive him, the pestilence berries and his widows do not weep, though he heap up silver like dust and pile up clothing like clay. He may pile it up, but the righteous will wear it and the innocent will divide the silver.

He builds his house like a mods, like a booth that a watchman makes. He goes to bed rich, but will do so no more. He opens his eyes and his wealth is gone. Terrors overtake him like a flood. In the night, a whirlwind carries him off.

The east wind lifts him up and he is gone. It sweeps him out of his place. It hurls at him without pity. He flees from its power in headlong flight. It claps its hands at him and hisses at him from its place.

Now, this sounds familiar to some things that Job's friends have said, but here's the difference. Job's friends have said that that a wicked man will receive his comeuppance and that the what he deserves for his evil will happen swiftly and soon.

Job is saying that it happens ultimately, not quickly. So in the ultimate end, where is God when the wicked man tries to call for him? Will he even seek the Almighty? Will he take delight in the Almighty?

Will he call upon God at all times? And the answer is no. So at the day when that wicked man dies, then all of the stuff that he's accumulated on earth do not belong to him. They belong. Those things belong to the righteous ultimately.

And that is what Jesus said also in the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter five. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. It may not be in the immediate time frame, but it sure will be in the ultimate scope of things.

In the final judgment, we will be vindicated because we are justified in Jesus Christ for all those who believe in him. Let's finish with prayer. Our great God, we thank you again for your son and the words of your son that lead us to righteousness.

I pray that we would walk in these things. We would understand that as followers of Jesus, what it means to obey him. If we trust in him, if we believe him, then we also believe what he has said. If we love him, we love his words.

And so teach us these things that we may walk in according to them and in a way that is pleasing to our God, our Father in heaven, who has provided for our salvation and our every need. Give us today our daily bread, those basic necessities we need for life, and also the words that lead to eternal life.

And it's in Jesus name we pray.

Amen. You can find a complete list of videos, books, devotionals, and other resources online at www .tt .com. Thanks for listening.