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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. I believe we read it before, but let's just read it again. And as I was saying to Jack, we had a little conversation before everybody came in.
You know, I continually consider Job as it's, you know, that's what we're looking at right now. And we had this little conversation about why, 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 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.
Let's just move on and do something else, look at something else. And I've been trying to work through that, and I've really been praying about it. And I just want you 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.
And again, 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? Why is it that it just continually talks about Job's situation and the friend's perception?
And is there, well, again, let me take a step back. Here's what I began to think, okay, God, are you wasting words? Why would 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 I had to try to work through in my mind is, this is not a book of a man, this is not a book that's just been written by men, there's got to be a reason why it's so repetitive.
So do you have any thoughts about why that can be? Brother, you got any thoughts?
Not just that repetition, but the way in the scripture, you know, Holy Holy, getting it in our minds that this is the way it was back then and this is the way it is and this can happen to us now.
Yeah, I mean, you know, from the reality, there's nothing new under the sun. If you think of it that way, what has been will always be. 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 I've been trying to work through in my mind, I think we do what Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophaz did to Job.
I think we do that more than we realize that we do. And what I mean by that is, making perceptions, making prejudgments, making assumptions, making 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. And I think it's important to think of it in that way, that God continually is giving to us in a repetitive way, teaching about avoiding that.
Because it is characteristic of these three supposed friends to continually barrage Job. And I was trying to think about it, and even this week, and maybe this is a little bit of a personal confession, but you know, let's just say I was walking through Walmart, which I was walking through Walmart this week.
And you know how you see people, and maybe we do it consciously, maybe I think sometimes unconsciously. Hey Hope, we make perceptions of people. Like you see someone dressed a particular way. Or you see someone in a particular setting, and we make these prejudgments.
Now I don't know if you do it as consciously, but I know I am guilty of it, where my mind runs and says, well this person must be this, or that person must be that. And I think that that is something that we do more often than we should.
Because really, if you think about it, we ought to be those who take value at not making that prejudgment. Just like it says in the book of James. So if 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, we're going to make an assumption. And it's really not right to do that.
Because again, we don't really know what's behind the curtain. So that's just something to think about as we go through this continual back and forth with Job. And then there's Job's side, which I really, in many ways Job is, he's a clear thinker.
And I saw it, particularly in chapter 23, which we just finished, where he confesses that God is the ruler, where he confesses that, in a sense, he can't figure it out, but at the same time he trusts the Lord.
And yet, he's still looking for that place to find peace. And this is continual in the book, and as Jackie had said, we know from reading this in the past, that ultimately it has, if you will, if you think about it, it has a happy ending.
And we're getting there. Well, we've got a couple more valleys to cross as we get there. So, with that in mind, let's just read the chapter again. And again, Job's response to what Eliphaz has said, and again, Eliphaz won't speak anymore.
So, Job says this in chapter 24,. Now, since times are not hidden from the Almighty, why do those who know him see not his days? Some remove landmarks, and they seize flocks violently and feed on them.
And they drive away the donkey and the fatherless, 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 hide. Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, 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 fodder 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.
And they are wet with the showers of the mountains, and huddle around the rock for want of shelter. And some snatch the fatherless from the breast, and take the pledge from the poor, and 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 winepresses, yet suffer thirst.
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 against the light, and they do not know its way, nor abide in its path.
And the murderer rises with the light, and he kills the poor and the needy. And in the night he is like a thief, and the eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, No eye will see me. And he disguises his face, and in the dark they break into houses, which they marked for themselves in the daytime.
And they do not know the light, 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. And they should be swift on the face of the waters, and their portions should be cursed in the earth, so that no one would turn into the way of their vineyards.
As drought and heat consume the snow waters, so should the grave those who have sinned, and the womb should forget them, and the worm should feed sweetly on them. And he should be remembered no more, and wickedness should be broken like a tree, for he preys on the barren who do not bear, and does no good for the widow.
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, and they rely on it. Yet his eyes are on their ways, and they are exalted for a little while, then they are gone, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way like all others, and they dry out like the heads of grain.
Now, if it is not so, who will prove me a liar and make my speech worth nothing? So, as you think about it, remember the very thing that Eliphaz pretty much accused Job of, which was that he was the one who was committing the evil, and that he was the one who was taking advantage of the innocent, and he was the one who was of no compassion.
Now Job answers, and unless, to me, unless Job is an absolute hypocrite, how could he answer the very charges that Eliphaz has laid against him, and Job agrees with it. 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, but he doesn't consider himself as one.
And that's why I say Job has got to have a very sure understanding 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 I thought about that, and as we said, there's nothing new under the sun. And if you think about it, men have been evil since the beginning, right? I mean, we can go all the way back to the Garden, certainly it has been the case with Adam.
I mean, was not Adam's disobedience an evil work? It was an evil work, right? His rebellion was evil. Why would he rebel against God? And then you can go, and it's not too much further before we start meeting acts of evil in the sense of Cain killing Abel, and then Lamech, and it goes on and on and on.
So, 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 the oppressor 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 detail as we look at some of the specific verses, but wouldn't 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.
Sometimes we have, in a way, done things, said things, thought things, in a sense of oppressing others, and then there's other times where we were on the other side, and being on the side of being the oppressed is really not comfortable, right?
It's almost like we always want to be the winners, but how many of us really like being the losers? I mean, Barry, you don't tell the team on their way out to the game, right? It's okay if we lose, guys.
That's not really the encouraging speech that you give, right? Because what is it? It's to win. It's to come out on top. It's to be the numero uno. And again, that's got value to it, but at the same time, in order for that to be, someone else has to lose.
And that's why I said there's always the oppressor and there's always the oppressee, or, if you want to put it in different terms, 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.
And that's certainly drawn out in what they have said to him in the past. And I thought about what Jesus said, because you think about it, and this is an interesting thought. Remember Jesus said, the poor you will always have?
And you think about that. And when you think about poor people, well, let's just, we'll play. If I say poor, what comes to your mind? What's presented to your thought when I say poor?
No food.
Okay. No food. What else? Here's something that I think about sometimes when I think about poor people. They're on the bottom. What else? Anything else you think of?
Sometimes, you know, a lot of times, I mean, when I was overseas and stuff, all these countries, man, and they didn't seem depressed, right? They seemed joyful, and they were living for the day, and that was it.
They weren't really, you know, like sometimes in America, we have all these things that we worry about, that we have to have, that we have to do. They don't worry about that. They worry about their food.
Yeah, they're not worried about whether there's going to be 42 different kinds of cereal on the shelf.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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. These are the people who are the have-nots, and therefore they are subject to the ones who have.
Yeah, and it's interesting that you say that, because that's true. You really wouldn't know you're poor unless what?
Unless you see somebody that's rich.
Yeah, unless you have something to compare that poverty to, like you say. They're not depressed. They just go on with their life, right? And people will call that, people will call poor people, sometimes they'll call them this.
And it's amazing, because like only 7 or 5 of the population of the world are in America. Everybody else is poor.
Yeah, I mean, if you think about it, and I know we're offline a little bit, but I don't really, it doesn't matter to me. If you think about it, we, our poorest, if you will, our most oppressed people, our poorest people are some of the richest people compared to what?
The world.
The world, right? And if you think about it, in the setting of our day, if you think about it from a standpoint of time and history, we live in a time of such great opulence and such great variety and such great gifts, if you will.
And, you know, you can think about it, it's funny, me and Katie were talking about it, and I forgot how we started talking about it. Oh, it was something like I said to her, baby, what do you want me to make for dinner?
And she said something, and then she said something like, boy, could you imagine if we wanted to do that 100 years ago? In the sense I'd have to go out and kill an ox. I'd have to skin it, dry it, cure it, right?
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 or Winn-Dixie, and it's like, it's all there.
You're just looking for what's on sale and what you feel like for that day. But, again, if you think about it, there's always been that have, have not, oppressor, oppressing, and they have accused Job of being the oppressor, and Job is stating that that is true from the standpoint, it's always been that way, and it will continue that way.
Like I said, Jesus said, you will always have the poor with you, and I guess I'll just sum it up this way. There has always been, and I hope you would agree, there's always been a cruelty in this world.
Agree?
And that cruelty, again, has been evidenced since the beginning, and that cruelty's not going to end. 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, if you think about it, is that this world has to end.
Because it's almost baked in, right? In the curse, in the outworking of the judgment of God, not only in the creature, but the creation itself. There's a cruelty to this all. Or at least people will view it as a cruelty.
Again, sometimes the weather is cruel, we would think it that way. Sometimes, well, many times, again, if you don't think the world is cruel, just read the news for an hour, right? You know, there are some people that watch so much news that they become so depressed because all it is is cruelty.
Because there's nothing new under the sun, and you can't escape it. 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've got to be careful 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, Jesus spoke more highly of the poor than of the rich. He spoke more of seeking to aid the oppressed 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 Job, go to Psalm 2, and again, maybe you know it by heart, maybe you don't, but I just want us to see that this is a continual anxiety that we all have to face. Just think about it in the standpoint of nations and governments and those in authority.
So Psalm 2, right? Why does the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing, and the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the 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. And then there's the truth that sits next to it. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh, and the Lord shall hold him in derision, and He shall speak to them in His wrath and distress them in His deep displeasure.
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 something that we're going to escape and that people actually, listen, there are people that actually plot evil.
There are people who actually spend the night thinking about how they can harm others. There are people who actually spend nights trying to see how they can impress others for their own gain. Now, 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 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. He was gentle. He was kind. He always sought to lift, except in certain areas with the Pharisees, of course, because he was dealing with an oppressing group.
So just something to think about as we go through the verses, and we can do that rather quickly. So in verse 1 of chapter 24, Job, look what he says. He says, Since times are not hidden from the Almighty, why do those who know him see not his days?
And I went and looked at a different... Anybody got a different translation of New King James? Okay, what do you got, Jackie? How does it say it? Okay, yeah, and I think there's a little confusion if you don't...
Some of the other translations, here's how the NIV said it, and I don't really value the NIV too much, but sometimes it helps me understand. It says, Why does the Almighty not set times for judgment? Why must those who know him look in vain for such days?
I think what Job is saying here is 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, again, to me, and teaching to me, because I do believe that we do it more often than we think, where we desire to see judgment. And is that wrong, to desire to see judgment? Is it wrong to want to see God judge evil?
No. I would hope not, right? We 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, particularly when we feel like we've been on the wrong side of someone who has committed evil against us, that we want God to exact judgment.
We want God to come down and almost like the disciples, where they said, Do you want us to call fire down from heaven? And you think of it that way. I think what Job is saying, you know something, you can't really figure it out.
And if you think that way, if all we ever do is want to see God judge the earth, here's the thought I had when I was thinking about this, 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? None of us. Because we're all guilty. And again, we've all played the part of the evil, the plotter, the unjust, the cruel, the one who has no compassion.
And so when you think about that, and he says this, 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.
Why does one person suffer so much and another person suffers so little? 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. We'll say about someone, man, I just can't believe how much they go through.
And then there's other people who we say, you know what, they just seem to skate. And it's a great mystery and it's going to be very hard, and I don't know if we necessarily should be the ones making that judgment, other than the fact that we want God to be justified and do what's right.
So just real quickly...
What it does for me, man, is when I see individuals that have suffered and my pity party...
Yeah, and it's... I think it's one of the 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, if you remember what Dan said, he said, well, maybe I'm the only one that thinks this way.
And I don't even remember exactly what he was saying, but that's another, if you will, to me, tool that the devil uses. It's like, man, it's just you. You're all messed up. And I agree, we're all messed up.
But 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, 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 Psalm 73 said, and we've looked at that, where the psalmist said he had almost lost it until he went into the sanctuary. He was in the presence of God. And again, many times God gives us that teaching where we see others, you know, the guy who doesn't, has a limp in his walk and he walks through the store and he sees somebody in a wheelchair with no legs.
I mean, that quickens your mind, right? You think about it. So I think that's how he said it, but let's just, again, just take a few minutes. How he lays this out, he lays it out the same way basically Eliphaz, he says, so some remove landmarks and they seize flocks violently and feed on them.
Again, people take advantage of other people. And in that sense, how many times have we said, I'm just asking, you don't have to answer, how many times have we said that about government? That they take advantage of us, that they're doing unfair things.
Now, they might very well be doing unfair things, but I think we've got to be careful that we don't ask 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.
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 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 hide.
And again, the haves have always pushed on the have-nots, the oppressed have always pushed 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.
So the poor of the land are forced to hide. And then verse 5 says, Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, they go out to their work seeking diligently for food, and the wilderness yields food for them and for their children.
In other words, they're scraping and scrimping. You know, I often think about, maybe you've had the same experience, when you're young and I was thinking, you know, when we first got married, I mean, we had, God had greatly blessed, we had Zippo.
I mean, there wasn't a week when we first got married and I didn't think I hocked something.
Right?
I mean, hamburger helper was like the holiday meal. A two-liter bottle of soda was a treat. I remember my girls, particularly the girls because they're older, I remember going out on a 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 I thank God for where I was, because where I was helps me understand how far God has brought me.
And truly, not only was I forced to buy a two-liter bottle of soda once a week, but I always bought the unnamed brand, right? Just like the boys, I always remember buying sneakers for the boys. They weren't Nikes, they were Mikeys.
I told my son that one time, I honestly did. He was in the mall and he was athletic and he's always changing cleats and sneakers and he wanted, and I think at that time he wanted, oh, he was playing basketball, and he wanted the $130 Air Jordans.
And I told him, I said, buddy, I don't have it. Now my other son, he didn't care. We were at Walmart and he was just as happy. But the other one, the older one, man, it had to be the Air Jordans or nothing, and I told him.
And I remember him in the store and saying, no, you can't have those. And he said, well, I don't want nothing. And you know what I said?
Okay.
And you know what, two weeks later, he was wearing Mikeys. But again, if you think about it, and these are what, this is what happens to certain people. And verse six, they gather fodder in the row, they gather their fodder in the field and they glean on the vineyard of the wicked.
Basically, they're scrimping there and they scrape and there's not much there and they have no covering in the cold and they're wet with showers of the mountains and they huddle around the rock for lack of shelter.
And again, just a picture, if you will, of what takes place. And if you continue to read through it, 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, there's that imagery, if you will, of they are those who rebel against the light.
Speaking of the oppressed, the evil, the plotter, the planter, they rebel against the light. They don't know its way nor abide in its path and the murderer rises with the light and he kills the poor and the needy and in the night he's like a thief.
And then it goes on and talks about the adulterer and all these different things. And again, inscriptions often talk about how people will plot in the night because they think in the night time there's cover.
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 night time nothing, at two o 'clock in the morning there isn't much good.
To me.
Two o 'clock on a Saturday morning is not the optimum time for righteousness. If you think about it, many people will plot and plan for that very time to commit evil things. It's because they love the darkness and they think the darkness hides them and they think that God can't see in the darkness.
I don't know, but I would venture to think there's probably more people arrested at night time than there is in the day time. And I might just be shooting my mouth off not knowing anything. But again, my whole point there's lots of things that go on in the middle of the night that would never go on in the day time.
And you could just continue to read this and you'll see that Job will end up saying in verse 26 Now if it's not so, who will prove me a liar? In other words, he's telling his three friends, hey listen, I know what you know.
And you have made this charge against me and it's not as if I don't understand because I do understand. Now next week is a real short chapter, we'll probably do 25 and 26 because Bill Dad has a couple more words to say to Job and then the three of them are gone.
Not gone, but they're gone 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 where Elihu who is a fourth person comes in and he has a lot better understanding and then ultimately as we've said, God will come in at the end of the book and he will set things straight.
So let's just close with a word of prayer.