Job 24 (Con't)

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All right, as I said, let's go to chapter 24 And I think we'll just read the whole chapter
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I believe we read it before but let's just read it again and As I was saying to Jackie we had a little conversation before everybody came in, you know,
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I continually consider job as It's you know
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That's what we're looking at right now in Sunday school and and we had this little conversation about why
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And I've heard it from many many people not only in the past, but even now during the study and just from different people about how
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Many people think you know what? this book of Job is just It's the same stuff over and over and over and over again.
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Let's just move on and Do something else look at something else
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And and I've been trying to work through that and I really been praying about it and I just want you to to know what has come to my mind is that I Think it's really essential that you and I look at this whole book because There's a reality of why it's so repetitive if you think about it again
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And we had a cup me and Jackie had a couple of different thoughts about why but let me ask you a question just Why do you think it's so repetitive?
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Why why why is it that it just continually talks about? Job situation and the friends perception and Is it is there?
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Well here again, let me take a step back. Here's what I began to think. Okay. God, are you wasting words? Why would
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God spend so much time giving us inspired word and To take us through Basically this continuous conversation back and forth and that was one of the things
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I had to try to work through in my mind is This is not a book of a man. This is not a book.
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That's just been written by men And there's gotta be a reason why it's so repetitive So you have any thoughts about why that can be?
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Brother you got any thoughts Yeah, I mean
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I you know from the reality is nothing new under the Sun if you think of it that way What what has been will always be?
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And you know what I began to think about this is one of the things that me and Jackie were talking about is I Think and this is what
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I've been trying to work through my mind I think we do what Eliphaz build that as Eliphaz did to Job I think we do that more than we realize that we do and what
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I mean by that is making perceptions making prejudgments making assumptions making
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Declarations of things that we really don't think out or of Things that we really don't fully understand and that's from their side
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And and I think it's important to think of it in that way that God Continually is giving to us in a repetitive way
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Teaching about avoiding that because it is it is characteristic of these three supposed friends to continually barrage
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Job and I Was trying to think about it and even this week and and maybe it's a little bit of a personal confession, but you know
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I Let's just say I was walking through Walmart, which I was walking through this week and You know you see people and maybe we do it consciously maybe
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I think sometimes unconsciously Hey hope we make Perceptions of people like you see someone dressed a particular way, or you see someone
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In a particular Setting and we make these prejudgments, and I don't know if you do it as consciously
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But I know I am guilty of it where I almost it almost my mind runs
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It says well this person must be this well that person must be that And I think that that is something that we do more often than we should
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Because really if you think about it. We ought to be those who? Take value at Not making that prejudgment right just like it says in the book of James right so somebody comes in this morning and invariably it's true, and I Like to say we don't do, but we do if somebody comes in this morning with a three -piece suit on we are going to make an assumption and if someone comes in with dirty clothes and Looks tattered.
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We're going to make an assumption right and It's really not right to do that Because again, we don't really know what's behind it behind the curtain, so there's just something to think about as we go through This continual back and forth with Job, and then there's
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Job's side, which I really In many ways
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Job is He's a clear thinker, and I saw it And I saw it particularly in chapter 23 which we just finished
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Wait where he confesses that God is is the ruler where he confesses that in a sense
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He can't he can't figure it out But at the same time he trusts the
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Lord and and yet He's still looking for That place to find peace
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And so and this is continual in the book and in this Jackie It said we know from reading this in the past that ultimately it has
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If you will if you think about it, it has a happy ending right and we're getting there
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Well, we got a couple more valleys to cross as we get this so With that in mind.
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Let's just read the chapter again and again Job's response to What Eliphaz has said and Again, Eliphaz won't speak anymore.
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So Job says this in chapter 24 since times are not hidden from the Almighty Why do those who know him see not his days?
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Some remove landmarks and they seize flocks violently and feed on them And they drive away the donkey in the fatherless and they take the widow's ox as a pledge and they push the needy off the
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Road so that the poor land are forced to hide indeed like wild donkeys in the desert
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They go out to their work seeking diligently for food and the wilderness yields food for them and for their children and they gather their father in the field and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked and they spend the night naked without Clothing and have no covering in the cold
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And they are wet with the showers of the mountains and huddle around the rock for want of shelter some snatch the fatherless from the breast and take the pledge from the poor and they
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They cause the poor to go naked without clothing and they take away the sheaves From the hungry and they press out oil with their walls and they tread wine presses yet suffer thirst
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And the dying groan in the city and the souls of the wounded cry out yet God does not charge them with wrong and these are those who rebel
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These are those These are those who rebel against the light and they do not know its way nor abide in its path and they murder the murderer
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Rises with the light He kills the poor and a needy And in the night he's like a thief and the eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight saying
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No, I will see me and he disguises his face in the dark They break into houses which they marked for themselves in the daytime and they do not know the light
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For the morning is the same to them as the shadow of death If someone recognizes them, they are in terrors of the shadow of death
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And they should be swift on the face of the waters and their portion should be cursed in the earth so that no one would turn into the way of the of their vineyards as Draught as drought and heat consume the snow waters
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So shall so should the grave those who have sinned and the womb should forget them
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The worm should feed sweetly on them and he should be remembered no more wickedness
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Should be broken like a tree for he prays on the barren who do not bear and Does no good for the widow
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But God draws away the mighty with his power and he rises up but no man is sure of life and he gives them security
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And they rely on it Yet his eyes are on their ways and they are exalted for a little while then they are gone
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They are brought low They are taken out of the way like all others and that and they dry out like the heads of grain now
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If it is not so who will prove me a liar and make my speech worth nothing.
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So As you think about it, remember the the very thing that Eliphaz pretty much accused
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Job of which was that he was the This the one who was committing the evil and that he was the one who was taking advantage of the the innocent and he was the one who was of No compassion now
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Job answers and unless to me unless Job is an absolute hypocrite
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How could he answer the very charges? That Eliphaz has laid against him and Job agrees with it
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And so when you think about that again It's interesting how Job agrees with the words of Eliphaz about the activity of evil men
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But he doesn't consider himself as one. That's why I say Job has got to have a very sure
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Understanding that that he belongs to God Because otherwise, I don't know how he could actually say these words out loud and not be smitten in his heart so He speaks about suffering and and I thought about that and as we said, there's nothing new under the
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Sun and if you think about it Men have been evil since the beginning, right?
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I mean we go all the way back to the garden Certainly it has been the case with With Adam, I mean did what was not
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Adams disobedience and evil work It wasn't even work right his rebellion was evil
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Why would he rebel against God and then then you can go and it's not too much further. We saw it before we start meeting acts of evil in the sense of Cain killing
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Abel and then and then Lamech and and and he goes on and on and on and so this this reality of Good and evil and it's really drawn out many times in the scriptures as light and darkness that you and I have to realize that There's always been this if you will contrast between light and darkness between what we would call good and what we would call evil and between Do you press our and the oppressee so And that's something that I think we have to think about and we'll look at it a little more in details we look at some of the specific verses, but When you agree with me that there's always been the oppressor and the oppressee and that you and I sometimes have been the oppressor and Sometimes have been the oppressee
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Sometimes we have in a way done things said things thought things in a sense of oppressing others and Then there's other times what we were on the other side and That being on the side of being the oppressed is really not comfortable, right?
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It's almost like we always want to be the winners But how many of us really like being the losers?
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I? mean Barry you know, you don't tell the team on the way out to the game, right?
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It's okay if we lose guys that that's not really the Encouraging speech that you give right because what is it?
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It's it's to win. It's it's to come out on top It's to be the the numero uno in and again, that's got value to it.
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But at the same time In order for that to be someone else has to lose
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And that's why I said is always the oppressor and is always the oppressee or if you want to put it in a different terms
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Is that not is it not true that there's always the haves and the have -nots and That has never changed and Job as he speaks here and as his friends have said they believe that Job is one of the ones who had and The reason why he had was because he oppressed the have -nots
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And that's certainly drawn out in what they have said to him in the past And I thought about what
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Jesus said because you think about it and this is an interesting thought remember
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Jesus said the poor you will always have and you think about that and When you think about poor people
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Well, let's just We'll play If I say poor what comes to your mind
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What was it? What's presented to you thought when I say poor? Okay No food, what else?
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What else here's something that I think about sometimes when
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I think about poor bottom, they're on the bottom, right?
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What else anything else you think of? Sometimes you know a lot of times I mean when I was overseas and stuff like that, right?
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We go to all these countries man, and they were they were they didn't seem depressed, right?
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Joyful never they were living for the day and that was that they weren't really, you know, like sometimes in America We have all these things that we worry about that.
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We have to have that we have to Yeah, they're not
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They're not worried about whether there's going to be 42 different kinds of cereal on the show, right?
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And and here's another thing. I think sometimes when you think about poor I think you think about this that these are the oppressed people
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These are the people who are the have -nots and therefore they are subject to the ones who have
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Yeah, and it's interesting that you say that because that's true You really wouldn't know you're poor unless what
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Unless you see somebody that's rich Yeah, unless you have something to compare that poverty to like you say, they're not depressed
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They just go on with their life right and people will call that people will call
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Poor people sometimes they'll call them this And it's amazing because like only 7 % or 5 % of the population of the world lives like we do, you know in America Everybody else is poor
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Yeah, I mean if you if you think about it, I know we're offline a little bit but I Doesn't matter to me if you think about it
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We our poorest if you will almost oppressed people Our poorest people are some of the richest people compared to what?
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The world right and if you think about it in in the setting of our day
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If you think about it from a standpoint of time in history We live in a time of such great opulence and such great
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Variety and such great gifts if you will and You know, you can think about it.
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It's funny me and Kenny were talking about it. I forgot how we started talking about it Oh, it was something like I said to her baby.
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What do you want me to make for dinner? And And she said something and then she said something like boy could you imagine if we wanted to do that a hundred years ago in the sense,
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I'd have to go out and Kill an ox. I don't have to skin it dry
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Cure it right and then and I told her if we wanted to use butter We'd have to go churn some butter and we'd have to start a fire and first we got to go get it now, you know you run to Publix and when
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Dixie and it's like It's all there. You just looking for what's on sale and what you feel like for that day
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But again, if you think about it, there's always been that have have not Oppressor pressy and and they have accused
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Job of being the oppressor and Job is Stating that That is true from the standpoint.
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It's always been that way no, we'll continue that way like I said, Jesus said you will always have the poor with you and And I guess
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I just sum it up this way there has always been And I would hope you would agree.
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There's always been a cruelty in this world Agree and and that cruelty again has been evidence since the beginning and that cruelty is not going to end
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There's always going to be those who are going to take advantage of others there's always going to be those who are oppressed by others and The only way for that to end
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If you think about it, is that this world has to end because it's almost baked in Right in the curse in the in the outworking of the judgment of God not only in the creature
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But the creation itself there's a cruelty to this all Well, at least people will view it as a cruelty again, sometimes the weather is cruel we would think it that way
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Sometimes well many times again, if you don't think the world is cruel just read the news for an hour right
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You know, there are some people that watch so much news that they become so depressed because all it is is is cruelty because there's nothing new under the
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Sun and then you can't escape it and and again, his friends have made these accusations about it and They're going to continue to do so and as we consider it in our own lives, we got to be careful
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That we don't get stuck in that or seek to move away from that trap of making prejudgments and considering Things on a comparative basis rather than looking to God because really if you think about it
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Jesus spoke more highly of the poor of the rich he spoke more of Seeking to aid the oppressed
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Rather than the oppressor, right and you and I Well, I wanted to show you this and so let's just look at it real quick So in joke go to Psalm 2 just and again, maybe you know by heart, maybe you don't but I just want us to see
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That this is a continual Anxiety that we all have to face
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You just think about it in the standpoint of nations and governments and those in authority so Psalm 2, right why does the nation's rage and the people plot a vain thing and the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the
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Lord and against his anointed saying let us break their bonds in pieces and Cast away their cords from us and again, that's really the characteristic of this world
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And then there's the the truth that sits next to it he who sits in the heavens shall laugh and the
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Lord shall hold him in derision and He shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure
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And yet I have set my king on my holy hill in Zion So when you think about that again, this bears witness to me that these things have gone on and that It is not
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It's not something we're going to escape and that people actually listen They have people that actually plot evil
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There are people who actually spend the night thinking about how they can harm others
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There are people who actually spend nights Trying to see how they can impress others for their own gain now
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It's easy for us to say well those are really evil people But I wonder at times if we're not guilty of that very thing where we spend more time seeking to put others down and Thereby raise ourselves up or at least justify our
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Actions and again, I think every one of us would have to admit there are times we've been the oppressed and there's times we've been the oppressor and If you think about it from the standpoint of Christ Jesus was the most oppressed of all wasn't he and yet he never took that position of oppressor
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He was gentle. He was kind he was He always sought to lift
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Except in certain areas with the Pharisees, of course because he was Dealing with any an oppressing group
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So just something to think about as we go through the the verses and we could do that rather quickly
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So in verse 1 in chapter 24 Job look what he says. He says since times are not hidden from the
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Almighty Why do those who know him see not his days and and I went and looked at a different Anybody got different translation new
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King James Okay, what do you got Jackie What it has it say it
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Okay, yeah, and and I think there's a little confusion if you don't
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Some of the other translations here's how the NIV said it and I don't really value the NIV too much
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But sometimes it helps me understand it says why does the Almighty not set times for judgment my why must those?
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Who know him look in vain for such days? I think what Job is saying here is
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He knows he realizes that God is the judge of all the earth. He realizes that God is going to exact Judgment upon the oppressed and upon the evil and upon the ungodly and yet for all of that He doesn't see it and it's it's again to me and teaching to me
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Because I do believe that we do it more often than we think where we make
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We desire to see judgment and is that wrong to desire to see judgment
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Is it wrong to to want to see God judge evil? No How it open now, right we
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Rejoice that God is the righteous judge and that the judge of all the earth should do right? But is there not times in our own minds and hearts?
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particularly when we feel like we've been on the wrong side of Someone who has committed evil against us
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That we want God to to exact judgment We want
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God to to come down and almost like the disciples Where they they said do you want us to call?
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fire down from heaven and and you think of it that way and I Think what job is saying, you know something
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You can't really figure it out. And and if you think that way if all we ever do is want to see
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God Judge the earth. I guess the thought I had when I was thinking about this
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If that were the case None of us would be here Let's think about that If God exacted judgment at the time of the offense, which one of us would be here this morning
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None of us we would because because we're all guilty and again, we've all played the part of the the evil the the plotter the the unjust the cruel the
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The one who has no compassion and so when you think about that and he says this
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I think what he's saying is God is the judge, but you and I cannot be the ones who try to Figure out how that works out because it's really a mystery if you think about it
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Why does One person suffer so much and another person suffers so little
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Why does one person seem to be full of Trials and tribulations and another one doesn't again we see that in people's lives
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We'll say about someone man. I I just can't believe how much they go through and then there's other people who we say
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You know what? They just seem to skate in It's it's a great mystery and it's gonna be very hard and and I don't know if we necessarily should be the ones
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Making that judgment other than the fact that we want God to be justified and do what's right.
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So just real quickly I Think it's one of the
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More useful tools if you will in Satan's toolbox is to get us to focus so much on ourselves and So little on others or as Dan and Dan brought it up last week with if you remember what
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Dan said, he said well Maybe it's just maybe I'm the only one that thinks this way
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And I don't even remember exactly what he was saying But there's and that's another if you will to me tool that the devil uses is like man
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It's just you you're all messed up and I agree. We're all messed up but when when that happens and like you say we become so focused on ourselves and For anybody to say that they're not and I'm not saying we shouldn't
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I'm just saying when it becomes excess and when it becomes excess it becomes a if you will a spiral staircase that goes downward and Even if you think about it what?
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What Psalm 73 said and we've looked at that where the psalmist said he had almost lost it
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Until he went into the sanctuary And that was in the presence of God and again many times
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God gives us that teaching where we see others you know the guy who doesn't
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Has a limp in his walk and he walks through the story to see somebody in a wheelchair with no legs I mean that quickens your mind right you think about it and So I think that's how he said it, but let's just again just take a few minutes
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How he lays this out he lays it out the same way basically Eliphaz He says so some remove landmarks and they seize flocks
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Violently and feed on them again people take advantage of other people and in that sense.
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How many times have we said? Just ask and you don't have to answer. How many times have we said that about government?
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That they take advantage of us that they did doing unfair things now
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They might very well be doing unfair things, but I think we've got to be careful that We don't ask
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God to rain fire and brimstone on them right away Really the thought would be that they would turn and come to a knowledge of the truth
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But but that's the way it is right they seize flocks And they take them with violence and they drive away the donkey from the fatherless
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And and they take the widow's ox as a pledge and they push the needy off the road So that the poor of the land are forced to hiding again the haves have always pushed on the have -nots the oppressed have always pushed on you on others to oppress and it will continue and we should not be shaken by it and we should be those who have a right understanding of it and so they
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The poor of the land are forced to hide and and then verse 5 says even Indeed like wild donkeys in the desert they go out to their work seeking diligently for food
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And the wilderness yields food for them and for their children. In other words, they're scraping and scrimping and You know,
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I often think about maybe you have had the same experience when you're young and I was thinking, you know when we first got married
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I Mean we had God had greatly blessed.
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We had Zippo. I mean it wasn't a week When we first got married,
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I didn't think I'd hock something I mean
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Hamburger Helper was like the holiday meal A two -liter bottle of soda was a treat.
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I remember my girls particularly the girls because they're older I remember going out on a
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Sunday and getting a two -liter bottle of soda and my kids thought that I had hit the lottery But you think about that and you think about what he's saying here and That's where we find ourselves many times and and I thank
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God for where I was because where I was helps me understand how far God has brought me and truly
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And not only did I was like forced to buy a two -liter bottle of soda once a week But I always bought the the unnamed brand right just like the boys.
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I always remember buying Sneakers for the boys. They weren't Nikes. They were Mikey's That's what
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I told my son that one time I honestly did he was in the mall and he and you know He was athletic and he's always changing cleats and sneakers and and he wanted and I think at that time
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He wanted oh, he's playing basketball and he wanted the hundred and thirty dollar Air Jordans And I told him
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I said buddy. I I don't have it now my other son. He didn't care He'd wear Walmart and he was just as happy But the other one the old one man had to be the
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Air Jordans or nothing And I told him and I remember him in the store and saying no you can't have those he said well
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I don't want nothing and you know what I said Okay And you know what two weeks later he was wearing
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Mikey's If you think about it and and these are what
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This is what happens to certain people and and verse 6 they gather fodder in the row
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They gather their fodder in the field and they clean on the vineyard of the wicked basically They're scrimping there and they scrape and and there's not much there and and they have no covering in the cold
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And they're wet with showers of the mountains and they huddle around the rock for lack of shelter
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And again, just a picture if you will of what takes place and if you continue to read through it
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And we won't have time to do that You will see how And if I could just mention it like down in verse 13
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There's that imagery if you will of they are those who rebel against like speaking of the oppressed the the evil the plot of the planner
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They rebel against the light They don't know what's way nor Biden its path and the murder arises with the lightning kills the poor and the needy and in the 90s like a thief and and then it goes on it talks about the adulterer and and all these different things and again
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Descriptions often talk about how people will plot In the night because they think in the nighttime there's cover
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You know if you've brought up kids, which I know you all have how many of us would say that we have always warned our kids at least at Nighttime nothing at two o 'clock in the morning.
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There isn't much good to me Two o 'clock on a two o 'clock on a
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Saturday morning is not the optimum time for righteousness If you think about it many people will plot and plan
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For that very time to commit evil things and It's because they love the darkness and they think the darkness hides them and they think that that God can't see in the darkness and I know
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I don't know But I would venture to think there's probably more people arrested
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At nighttime than there is in the daytime and I might just be Shooting my mouth off not knowing anything
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But again, my whole point there's lots of things go on in the middle of the night That shouldn't that would never go on in the daytime, right?
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And you could just continue to read this and you'll see that Joe will end up saying in verse 26 now, if it's not so who will prove me a liar in other words
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He's telling his three friends. Hey, listen, I know what you know and you have made this charge against me and and It's not as if I don't understand because I do understand so now next week is a real short chapter
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We'll probably do 25 and 26 Because build that has a couple more words to say to job and then the three of them are gone not gone
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But they're gone from from speaking out loud And then we'll have job speak a little bit more about certain things and then we'll quickly be into chapter 32 with Ella who is a fourth person comes in and he has a lot better understanding and then ultimately as we've said