Job 8-10 "Diatribe of Empty Parables"

Ascending up to heaven, and sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and coming to judge the world at the last day.

Alright, so, I think that we can thank you that we are here. I think that it has been 100 years. The Word of Life. I pray that we, you know, we are worthy, and I'm a Christian boy, and that that Word, that hand in our hearts, occurred over the weeks, and the months, and the years, and I do think that they were willing to prove salvation.

I pray for dedication, and I pray that I have to take all these responsibilities as a person, and that as they mature, so that they've got the strength to think, and to be baptized, and to live their life.

Thank you. Help us as parents and adults, in the church, in praising them, and teaching them, and loving them. Thank you for that. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. It's like those chairs up there look really comfy.

Well, we're going to be in Job chapter 8 through 10. I do have to say that Shepard, that, at Adventure Club, when we're doing systematic theology, one of the things that they do is sing songs, right? And so, that was one of the songs that Shepard is absolutely in love with, one of the songs that he sings continually at home.

And so, this week's answer, or the question of where exists Christ's exaltation, that catechism song, he was really happy to sing that every day that we went through that with him. And so, anyway, that's the eagerness, and the joy that even I have when my son answers that is quite wonderful to see.

We're going to be in Job chapter 8 through 10. And as we said last week, that I want to remind us, we're taking a large bite in Scripture when we examine these things. And last week, we went through two whole chapters.

We went through a large portion. Today, we're doing even more. So, I want to say this, that I, as a preacher, I think one of the things that as preachers we ought to be doing as a pastor is be going through Scripture in a very exegetical means, going through it, seeing what is behind every single word, what every sentence implies to us, so on and so forth.

And we see that very much in the New Testament. And the best way that I can paint an analogy for us of why we're taking large bites of Scripture in this is these last couple of weeks, I've been able to help the Zach cast out with butchering and helping out mainly on the kill floor for myself.

And in that time, in that place, you're killing a cow and you're removing its hide, you're taking its guts out, and you're not going into each minute section of the cow. You're not cutting up individual sections for the cow to be consumed later on.

It goes into the freezer and sits for a little while before that portion takes place. And so, in Job, we're looking at the whole cow. We're looking at a large picture of what we have in here. And then in the New Testament, in more explicit doctrine text, that's the meat that we're seeing dissected and then consumed by us.

And the reason that we have this large portion of Scripture is in chapters 1 through 3, we would see that Job's affliction comes about on him, and then there's seven days of mourning, and these three friends sit with him, and on the seventh day, they begin to talk.

And it's on the seventh day that we have all of chapters 4 all the way to the end of the book, chapter 42. It's all this one conversation that's going between Job and his three friends, currently about to see four friends, and at the end of the book, he has a conversation with God all on one day.

And so, in this conversation, there's bad philosophy that's void of God's Word in it. His friends, three of his friends are giving him bad advice. And so, that's why we don't look at every verse of the bad advice from the friends.

If we were to do that, we could look and start dissecting bad things. It would not be what we should apply to ourselves. And so, we have to look at the larger scope of Scripture, I think, in order to better understand the book of Job.

And that would be my encouragement of why we're going through this. And so, it's somewhat of a daunting task, a pastor that could preach an hour longer on one verse, him doing three chapters. It's a little scary.

If we were just to look at the verses and take 45 minutes on each verse here, we would be here for all day. It would be a long time. But we're not doing that. We're taking a larger scope of Scripture.

So, chapter 8 through chapter 10. Last week, we examined some of the words from Job, and we examined a little bit more of what Eliaphus, that first friend that spoke to him. And in those chapters, I think what we see in there is Job is debating with Eliaphus.

Eliaphus gives bad advice, and he pleads to the idea of this entity, this vision that he has, that's to clear up Job's life and what's going on. And so, we see this little bit of a debate that takes place.

And in Job's response in chapter 7 and 6, I would say that Job dangerously walks along the border of blasphemy. He comes very close to saying things that I think would blaspheme God. However, I think in the relation to how Job is speaking, it gives credit that Job is speaking in a way that he has a relationship with God.

And so, we see that he does still fear Yahweh. He still has a relationship with this relational being, Yahweh. And I would also remind us that we looked at last week, all these curses, all these afflictions that have come to Job, all of that is a part of being in Adam and suffering the curse of sin.

Job is complaining. And I would look at it, and I would say he has some good reason to complain, right? He has some good reasons to, in his suffering of losing seven friends and three daughters, he's justified in some sense of what he's getting at.

However, in seeing this, we should actually exalt Christ, because Christ takes far more of a load than even Job does in becoming that suffering servant of Isaiah 53. And in that, Job complains, Jesus does not.

Jesus is the silent sheep, the silent lamb that walks to the slaughter for us. And so, even in seeing Job, in some of the ways that we would say, man, it seems like it's justifiable for him to say, I wish I was dead right now.

And all this terrible stuff that has happened to Job. Jesus Christ is all the better in comparison to Job. He walks to the cross knowing what's going to happen, knowing he's taking the curse of man upon himself, becoming sin so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

We should exalt Christ even in seeing Job suffer and complain in this text. So now, I would also say in the context, even before we even read chapters 8 through 10, what has taken place between Eliaphus and Job was kind of a debate.

Now, we would see what would be called a diatribe. What is that word? It's now gone from Eliaphus trying to offer through him appealing to this vision he's had to try to bring comfort to Job. Now, it's going into personal attacks from Bildad to Job.

A diatribe, a personal attack, a verbal assault on Job from Bildad. And this, I believe, contextually is because Satan is still attacking Job. We can't read the book of Job and think chapter 1 through 3 is all the attack that happens to Job.

No, the bad advice from the friends is that continual outpouring of God's sovereign hand allowing Satan to persecute Job. And so we're going to see how this knife in the back is still being twisted by the friends.

It's still causing Job tremendous pain, and we can see how it's chipping away at the countenance of Job. So let's look here at chapter 8, verses 1 through 7. Again, we're taking larger bites to talk about these things.

Verse 1, it says, And I want to pause here and say I forgot to pray before we look at this text. Let's go ahead and pray before we examine what God has to say before us this morning. Lord God, I would ask, Lord, as we look at this generally larger picture of Scripture and we realize that this is all going on in a continuous conversation in a historical context, Lord, that we would glorify you, that we would see how you have revealed to us your sovereign hand and that you have a purpose and plan for each one of your people, Lord, for each one of your creation, that your will is being done in each one of these things, that we would glorify you in our own suffering and our own persecution today.

Lord, let us examine this, let us see where bad advice is given, and let us look then to what we come to in today and we'll reject such bad advice and we should run to your word for comfort and care, Lord.

I ask this in your name, Jesus Christ. Amen. Back to verse 2. So Bildad is talking. How long will you say these things and the words of your mouth be a mighty wind? Does God pervert justice or does the Almighty pervert what is right?

If your sons sinned against him, then he sent them into the power of their transgression. If you would seek God earnestly and plead for the grace of the Almighty, if you are pure and upright, indeed, now he would rouse himself for you and make your righteous abode at peace.

Though your beginning was insignificant, yet your end will increase greatly. Again, what is this friend Bildad saying? He's talking to a father that has just lost his whole family, and look at what he says in verse 4.

If your sons sinned against him, then he sent them into the power of their transgression. What is Bildad saying in these things? Is that true? Can we even come to that conclusion of saying that his sons were sinning before the Lord?

The text never says so. I would think it actually insinuates a different view that we should have on the children. Job is making sacrifices for his children. He's the mediator for his family in this text, and there's nothing that says that his family is sinners, that his family has done something wrong against the Lord.

And even in their celebration, it never says that. Rather, why has this affliction come to Job? It's not because of what Bildad is painting. Bildad is essentially saying he's assuming the role of God, I think, in this text.

He's assuming in his philosophical output that I know what God's mind is, that God wouldn't bring injustice to you, Job, unless you were a sinner, unless your family was a sinner. He's saying I have the truth behind this.

Why does Job suffer in this text? God is showing his glory, his greatness, over Satan. Satan, have you set your heart on Job, a man that is upright, blameless, fears Yahweh? He's showing that he has a purposeful plan in the life of Job that is actually going to destroy the character of Satan in this, in the whole entire text of chapter 7 all the way to chapter 42.

It has nothing to do with Job, your family died because you guys were sinners. It has nothing to do with that. In fact, what we would see in this text is a theology of Bildad that is consistent with a karma type of outlook.

You do a good thing, you receive good. If you do a bad thing, you receive bad. And so obviously, Job, you're in a bad situation. Your family died. Obviously, they must have sinned against the Lord. Is that anything in the text?

Could we come to that conclusion? No, absolutely not. What is this doing to Job, a father that's now void of children? This is only hurting him. That's the, as I made mention of, this is the diatribe that we see in here.

This is the verbal attack from Bildad to Job. This is going to chip away at any father that just lost their sons. If you had a friend that was saying, your sons died because you were evil or they were evil, what would that do to a father?

That destroys him in his manhood. That destroys him in his fatherhood. If you would seek God earnestly and plead for the grace of the Almighty, though, here in verse 7, though your beginning was insignificant, your end will increase greatly.

What is Bildad teaching? A prosperity type of gospel. Job, only you do good, good will come back to you. Is that the case of Job right now in this situation? Job has done good prior and what has come to him?

Bad. That's not the type of outlook we should have on life, that if I have faith in Yahweh, if I do good for Yahweh, good will come to me. No, you might suffer very greatly. You might have curse be brought against you.

That is not the type of look that you should have on life. Karma in that way does not exist, and Bildad in this text has made himself the arbitrator of what is good and what is wrong. Now let's look at here in verses 8 through 22, and what I'm going to give us context for is the friend Eliaphus appealed to a vision of darkness that he saw, this demonic influence and vision in his chapter where he gave advice to Job.

In this chapter, in this exclamation of Bildad to Job, he actually appeals to tradition. He appeals to creation to bring a charge against Job. So let's look at the three parables that Bildad bring against Job to only hurt him and throw him further down a path of dark and despair.

Please ask of past generations, is what Bildad says appealing to this tradition, and establish the things searched out by their fathers, for we are only of yesterday and know nothing, because our days on earth are but a shadow.

Will they not instruct you and tell you and bring forth words from their heart? Again, what is Bildad now appealing to? Tradition, history, what did the forefathers do? What can we look at in creation and history to learn lessons from?

Verse 11, can the papyrus grow up without a marsh? This is a plant that he's referring to. Can the rushes grow without water, while it is still green and not cut down, yet it dries up before any other plant?

So are the paths of all who forgot God, and the hope of the godless will perish. Job, the reason that you are in this situation is obviously because your hope perished, it dried up. It wasn't sustained long enough, Job.

That's why this hardship has been brought against you. That's the first parable that Bildad looks at. I would argue that we should never, ever, try to take creation and elevate it to be able to explain God in His fullness.

By nature, God as the creator cannot be fully realized in His creation. He's the creator. He's uncreated. We are His creation. We are created. We cannot use analogies or examples to try to demonstrate in the fullness of God's character and try to elevate those things that are created unto the creator.

That just does not work out. We see that work out in this text. It doesn't fit one for one in here. Job, Bildad's saying you are hopeless. You obviously are godless. You will perish. You are godless. Your hope has dried up.

Just like this papyrus that would fall down if the water stopped coming to it, Job, so are you. Let's look at the next parable that Bildad looks at. So that's the first one. A plant, the plant, the piperize, now the second parable is going to be the parable of a spider web whose confidence is fragile and whose trust is a spider's web.

He relies on his house, but it does not stand. He holds fast to it, but it is not established. How many of us, when we walk down into a dark basement, you get overcome with spider webs on your face, and then you're doing one of these things, right?

It's all over your face. It's stuck to you. You can't get it off, right? What this is saying is, Job, your house, the very house that collapsed upon your children, it's because it was weak. Just like a spider's web, it holds them up for a time, but when any sort of pressure comes to it, it collapses.

Job, your life, your faith, it was a weak building up. It was a weak foundation. It really wasn't had any sustenance. It held you there for a while, but as soon as any trial and tribulation came, it fell.

That's the second parable of Bildad to Job. Now, I would argue this, that we would see this in the example that Jesus gives of the mustard seed. Is it true that if you have just a little bit of faith that you will fall in Christ?

No. It matters the object of our little faith. If the object of our little faith is Christ, will we ever fall? It doesn't matter how great your faith is. It doesn't matter how studious you are. Those things are important, and I hope our faith grows.

But if you come today to the throne of grace, and you have just a little mustard seed size of faith in Christ, just a little small speck, it doesn't matter the size of your faith. It matters the character in whom it is placed.

If Job has placed even just an ounce, even just a fraction of faith in the coming seed, in Yahweh, he can't ever fall. It's strong. It's upon a foundation that cannot collapse. Bildad, you're wrong. It wasn't a spider web.

It was the rock of ages that I have my faith in. Let's look at now verse 16. What is the third parable now that Bildad gives us? He gives us a parable of a root. He thrives before the sun, and his shoots go forth over his garden.

His roots wrap around a rock pile. He looks upon a house of stones. If he swallows him up from his place, then it will deny him, saying, I never saw you. Behold, this is the joy of his ways. Behold, this is the joy of his ways.

And out of the dust, others will spring up. What is Bildad saying in this text? He's referring to a type of plant that has roots that don't actually go in the ground. They stay on the surface. They wrap around rocks.

They go over the garden bed. They don't actually go into the dirt. And what he says is when that plant is gone, when it is ripped out of the ground, when it is no longer there in the garden, is there any evidence that that plant was there?

No, it's not. The roots were on top of the soil. It never actually went into the soil. What insult is this to Job from Bildad? In the prior text, as I alluded to last week, it was wrong and blasphemous of Job to say, God, if I die, you will miss me.

Saying, you won't see me any longer, God. Of course, I'm your creation. You've raised me up, but why? You're going to miss me if I'm gone and destroyed. This is what Job says in the prior chapter. We alluded to that as being like a child, like we all have to our parents saying, I'm going to run away, Mom, thinking we can hurt our mothers when we say that.

But we say that because we have a relationship with our mother. Does a child come up to a stranger and say, I'm going to run away, stranger. No, they don't say that. There's a relationship there for the son to say to the mom, I'm going to run away because I'm going to hurt you because I have a relationship with you and I know how to strike hard at you.

So Job does that to God in the last chapter. Now imagine in that same analogy, the sibling hears his brother say, Mom, I'm going to run away. And the child goes to his room and starts packing up. And the brother thinks, oh, I'm going to make this even worse.

And he goes into the room and he says to the brother, go ahead and run away. Mom will never remember you. Run away. She won't think about you again. Run away. We'll have another child and it'll take your place and there won't be any remembrance of even who you were.

Your roots aren't solid. Your roots aren't down deep in our household. Go ahead and leave, brother. That's the type of pain that Bildad is bringing against Job. And the outcry and the pouring out of the mourning and the sin of Job when he says, God, you'll miss me.

Now Bildad is saying, no, he won't. He won't even remember you. Your roots are going to be gone and there's going to be new in your place. Diatribe, a verbal assault, this twisting of the knife. Job, you're going to be a forgotten myth here in a year.

There will be no memory of you. Immediately our mind should take us to what God promises us, that every hair on our heads is numbered, that he holds us secure in his hand, that there is nothing that can ever separate us from the love of God.

Even in Job's sin in saying, God, you'll miss me if I leave and die, even in that, it would not separate him from the love of God. Even that would not separate him from being held in the sovereign, secure hand of the Father.

How wrong is it, Bildad, to say this? Let's look here now at verse 20 through 22. Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor will his strength strengthen the hand of evildoers. He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouting.

Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no longer. How false is this? We see all throughout the Old Testament that God raises up evil, vile nations to come after Israel.

We see this all the time. God raises up wicked men. We see that even in the life of Pharaoh. God hardened Pharaoh's heart to demonstrate his wrath, his patience. Bildad, you're just wrong. You are just wrong in this.

We even think about the character of Christ. Was Christ exalted? Obviously, he rose from the grave. We just have that. But what came first? Him being made very, beyond comprehension, low. God has done that.

Let's look here now at Job's response back. And I think what happens in here is the words of Job and his sovereign understanding of God, which is found in chapter 1, the Lord Yahweh He gives, He takes.

Blessed be the name of Yahweh. It's the new sign. I put new letters on the sign outside saying blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of Yahweh. He gives, He takes. It's up to Him. It's His sovereign creation.

It's His plan. We're a part of it. Job still has this understanding, but I think where he errs, we'll see in chapter 10. So let's just read. We're going to read a large portion of this. Let's go through verses 1 through 10, make small pause, and just continue to work through.

Then Job answered and said, In truth I know that this is so, but how can a man be in the right before God? If one desires to contend with him, he could not answer. He could not answer him once in a thousand times.

Wise in heart and mighty in power, who has stiffened his neck against him and been at peace. God is the one who removes the mountains. They know not how. When He overturns them in His anger, the one who shakes the earth out of its place and its pillars tremble, the one who says for the sun not to shine and sets a seal upon the stars, who alone stretches out heavens and tramples down the waves of the seas, who makes the Bear, the Oran, and the Palladius and the Chambers of the South, who does great things and unsearchable and wondrous works innumerable.

Is this a true statement from Job? Yes, God is great. Yes, God does do these things. We looked at in the prior text, we do know that man on his own cannot be made right before God, but through Christ he can.

So that verse 2 is a yes and no answer in that. But what's amazing in this is that Job is correct in the assertion that God is the one that does all these cosmic wonders. Let's look at verses 11 and on.

Were He to sweep by me, I would not see Him. Were He to move past me, I would not perceive Him. Were He to snatch away, who could turn Him back? Who could say to Him, What are you doing? God will not turn back His anger.

Beneath Him crouch the helpers of Rahab. How then can I answer Him and choose my words before Him? For though I were right, I could not answer. I would have to plead for grace to my judge. If I called and He answered, I could not believe that He was giving ear to my voice.

For He bruises me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause. He will not allow me to get my breath, but saturates me with bitterness. Again, Job is seeing all that is going on around him as what?

Part of God's sovereignty, a part of God's plan for him. He still sees that. He still recognizes that, and I think that's the correct way. There's some things in here that are mingled with probably not the correct view.

God does not just do anything without cause. God has a great cause in all things. And so we can't look at each one of these verses. Again, we're not taking the cow and we're separating the different types of meat for us to consume in its fullness.

We're looking at the whole text. We're looking at the whole majority of this cow to understand what's going on in here. Let's look here at verse 19. If it is a matter of power, behold, He is the mighty one.

And if it is a matter of justice, who can make Him testify? I say amen to this verse. I say that this verse is so true in the utterance of what Job has just said. He has just ascribed to God a satiety and uniqueness and mutability in saying that He is the mighty one.

Who can tell Him He has done wrong? Oftentimes we have so many individuals that elevate free will into a position of idolizing it that they have to lower God's sovereignty and lower God's character to be able to be underneath their view of free will.

That is wrong. We should not lower God from how high He is, how much greater than He is, so that we can then elevate a false doctrine, a false view of things. God, who has given a law, cannot be held under our view of what justice and what righteous is.

God is righteous. He is just in all things that come about. Not because we're the ones that get to hold God culpable, but it's God that holds us culpable. Who can make Him testify? Who is going to go into heaven and look at God and say, God, come off your judge seat.

I've got to sit there so I can judge you and see if what you did was right. That is what happens in modern evangelical churches all the time in their view of what they think God's sovereignty and God's purpose and His glory, and again, in what they think their free will ought to deserve in themselves.

They're saying, God, you get off the judge seat. I'll come, I'll sit there, and I'll determine what's right and what's wrong, and I'll put you under the microscope, God. That is wrong, that is sinful.

Job knows that that is wrong and that is sinful in this text. Let's look at verse 20 -24. Though I am righteous, my mouth will condemn me. Though I am blameless, He will declare me perverse. I am blameless, I do not know my soul, I reject my life.

It is all one, therefore I say, He consumes the blameless and the wicked. If He scourges, puts to death suddenly. He mocks the despair of the innocent. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the face of its judges.

If it is not He, then who is it? Again, this is amazing truth. We've seen this in our Bible studies, especially in God's sovereignty and God's decree and His providence, that God is the first cause. We are the secondary causes.

We're the ones that are proximate to the doing of the action. We're the ones held culpable of sin and wrongdoing because we have done these things in our own free will, in our own nature, in our own wanting and desiring of doing sin.

But it is still God who has decreed all things, who sustains all things, who has created all things, who has providence and purpose and glory in all things. It is He who does this. Verse 25 -35. These things are to us still a mystery, and we have to handle these things with prudence.

But let's look at verse 25 -35. It says, Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away, they do not see good. They sweep by like a reed boat, like an eagle that swoops on its food. Though I say I will forget my musing, I will forsake my sad countenance and be cheerful.

I am afraid of all my pains. I know that you will not acquit me. I am accounted wicked. Why then should I toil in vain? If I should wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye, yet you would plunge me into the pit, and my own clothes would abhor me.

For he is not a man as I am, that I may answer him, that we may go to a court for judgment together. There is no adjudicator between us who may lay his hand upon us both. Let him remove his wrath from me, and let not dread of him terrify me.

Then I would speak and not fear him, but I am not like that in myself.". The word picture of what Job is putting out is exactly what Christ Jesus has done for us. No adjudicator, there's no mediator, there's no one between me and God.

What was those three things that we see all throughout the Bible? God's greatness, the chasm that separates us from God's greatness and how sinful and awful of a human being in our nature are, that we're dead in our sins and trespasses.

Who has crossed that chasm? Who has put hands on both of us? Who's been the justifier? Who's been the adjudicator for us? God himself, the second person of the Trinity, particularly the Word that became flesh.

But in all these things, what Job is saying is that I have no right to go before God and to accuse him of wrong. There's no way I can. His character is too great. Let us now look at all of chapter 10.

We're going to read the entire chapter here, and I believe this is where Job starts to fall into serious error, and I'll explain why when we read all these verses. My soul is loathed by my life. I will abandon all restraint in myself to complain.

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will say to God, do not account me as a wicked. Let me know why you contend with me. Is it good to you that you oppress, that you reject the labors of your hands, and cause the counsel of the wicked to sign forth?

Have you eyes of flesh, or do you see as a moral man sees? Are your days as the days of a moral man, or your years as a man's years, that you should seek for my guilt and search after my sin? According to your knowledge, I am indeed not wicked, yet there is no deliverer from your hand.

Your hands fashioned and made me altogether, and would you swallow me up? Remember now that you have made me as clay, and would you turn me into dust again? Did you not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews?

You have made alongside me life and lovingkindness, and your care has kept my spirit. Yet these things you have concealed in your heart. I know that this is within you. If I sin, then you would take note of me, and would not acquit me of my guilt.

If I am wicked, woe to me, and if I am righteous, I dare not lift up my head. I am seated with disgrace, so see my misery. Should my head be set on high, you would hunt me like a lion, and again you would show your wonders against me.

You renew your witness against me, and increase your vexation towards me. Hardship after hardship is within me. Why then have you brought me out of the womb? Would that I had breathed my last, and no eye ever see me.

I should have been as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the tomb. Would he not cease for a few of my days? Withdraw from me, that I may have a little cheer, before I go and I shall not return to the land of darkness and shadow of death, the land of utter gloom as a thick darkness itself, of the shadow of death without order, and which shines as thick darkness.

Where would I ascribe that Job has gone wrong in this text? In these two chapters that we've seen Job speaking, has Job said that God is sovereign, that he's the one that does all these cosmic wonders?

Yes, he ascribes God rightly so to those things. But where does Job overstep, I think? Where does Job go beyond what he should as a human? I think we saw that in verse 18 through 22. God, you should have let me just die.

You should have let me go from the womb to the tomb. God, tomorrow should be just darkness for me. God, I should just die tomorrow. God, I should not live any longer. I think what we see in this is what James 4 refers to us when we talk about prayer.

That a man should not say, tomorrow I will go into the city and do this or that, but that you ought to say, if the Lord should will, we'll do this or that. Job is saying, I think that in God's sovereign plan it would have been better if I had died.

In God's sovereign plan, I'm going to not live tomorrow, that only darkness and gloom will follow after me. What has Job done in this? He's saying that I know a better way than God. That I think I could create a better plan than what God has prepared before the foundation of the world for me.

I think I could do a better job than God. I think this is where Job sins and fails and falls short in these two chapters. Instead, how Job should have talked, instead of saying I should have died, he should say, Lord, if it's your will that I die tomorrow, let us do that.

But if your will is that I should live another day and another day and another day upon that day, let us do that instead. He should have appealed to God's will and his purpose and all these things and not try to elevate himself to that throne, not try to elevate himself and say, I have a better way.

Again, this is coming from a man who's professed, Yahweh gives, Yahweh takes, blessed be the name of the Yahweh, and in his mourning and worship, he never sinned against God in that text. Where do we see now that he has failed?

Because in the last chapters, as we made mention of, he gets rebuked for what he said. I think this is the example that he goes beyond that which is declaring God's sovereignty and saying, I could do better.

Romans 9 .20, it says this, On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, Why did you make me like this? Will it? The pot does not have any authority, any right.

The creation does not have the ability nor deserve any time to talk when it comes to saying, God, why have you done this? No thing that is molded has that right to speak back to its potter. And all these things is summed up, I think, for us in Romans 11 .33 -36, where Paul says this, Oh, the depths of the riches, both the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways.