WWUTT 819 Job's Miserable Friends?

Job’s Lament and Desire for Death

Job's friends were good friends when they weren't saying anything, but as soon as they opened their mouths, they became miserable wretches. And the advice that they gave him was very similar to some false teaching we might hear today when we understand the text.

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Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you, Becky. Well, in our Old Testament study on Thursday, we've been in the book of Job, and today we start chapter three, which begins poetry from here on to the end of the book. We've finished the narrative portions, which were in chapters one and two.

And I think with the exception of like a paragraph somewhere in chapter 32, we don't get into narration again until the end of the story. It's poetry from here on out. And this is one of the things that makes the book of Job such an appreciated work, even by those outside of Christianity.

They recognize the epicness of this story because of its poetry, its symbolism. It's gorgeous and wonderfully written. And of course, this just gives glory to the Holy Spirit who inspired it, that even those who are not believers recognize the genius behind this work.

So just to recap where we've been so far, Job has lost everything. He's lost his kids, his servants, his property. He has even lost his health as Satan has afflicted him with painful sores. All he has left is a nagging wife.

That's unfortunate, but that's what we have in chapter two. Verse nine, his wife said to him, do you still hold fast your integrity, curse God and die? And Job replied, you speak as one of the foolish women would speak.

Shall we receive good from God and shall we not receive evil? In all of this, Job did not sin with his lips. And then in the final portion of chapter two, Job's three friends get together and they say, hey, we need to go see our friend.

And as they come to him, they see him from a distance and they weep because they don't recognize him. He is so mangled because of the sores that have afflicted his body and how low his posture is because of his mourning.

It has even brought him down physically. And they tear their clothes and sprinkle dust on their heads. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights. See, that's good friends to just sit and mourn with somebody who was going through that kind of mourning.

There's nothing that you could say that would cheer him up. You just have to mourn following the instruction that we have in Romans chapter 12 to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.

So Job's friends did that well in the beginning, but then they start talking and they turn into miserable friends, which is what we're going to get into today. We're going to kind of open that up a little bit.

Chapter three is Job's lament. He curses the day that he was born. He does not curse God, which we had in chapter two, verse 10, but he does curse the day that he was born. He is in such agony right now that even the days of his prosperity are not enough to cheer him up in what he is experiencing at the present.

It would have been better for him to have not been born than to feel what he's feeling at the point that we get to here in this story. So chapter three, verse one, very, very depressing chapter, but I'm going to break it up a little bit as we go.

After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job said, let the day perish on which I was born. And the night that said, a man is conceived. Let that day be darkness. May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it.

Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it. Let the blackness of the day terrify it. That night, let thick darkness seize it. Let it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months.

Behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful cry enter it. Let those curse it, who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan. Let the stars of its dawn be dark. Let it hope for light, but have none, nor see the eyelids of the morning, because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes.

So there were people on that day who rejoiced at the birth of Job. As he says in verse seven, let that night be barren. Let no joyful cry enter it. But it's as if Job is saying here, it would be better for them to mourn that day of my passing than to see what I'm suffering now and have to mourn with me, like Job's friends were mourning with him.

It would have been better for him to have not been born than to experience the grief that he was currently experiencing. In verse 80 says, let those curse it, who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.

Now, Leviathan is kind of an all-purpose word. It's the name of a Canaanite sea creature. But there are occasions in the scriptures in which Leviathan describes a number of different things. In fact, we're going to see that name come up again in chapter 40 when God describes Leviathan as one who is such an incredible creature who can tame him.

And it's pretty clear there in chapter 40 that God is not speaking of this creature as something of fiction, but something that actually exists. So for the Canaanites, he was a mythical creature. But but again, it's a name that also describes some great and terrible monster of the sea.

And so we'll talk about that as we get deeper into the study of this particular book. Let's continue on verse 11. Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire? Very depressing here. Why did the knees receive me or why the breasts that I should nurse?

For then I would have lain down and been quiet. I would have slept. Then I would have been at rest with kings and counselors of the earth who rebuilt ruins for themselves or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.

So here's the argument that Job is basically making here. Had I died, it would have been better for me on that day. I would have joined the place of princes and kings. It would have been a day of wealth.

I would have prospered to die on that day than to experience the poverty and the anxiety that I am going through at the present. It's for kings and princes and the rich to die just like the poor. They all receive the same thing.

And that's where Job is going to go to next year. Verse 16, or why was I not as a hidden, stillborn child, as infants who never see the light? There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest.

There the prisoners are at ease together. They hear not the voice of the taskmaster, the small and the greater there, and the slave is free from his master. Again, the weary are at rest when they die.

The prisoners no longer imprisoned. Death frees them. The slave doesn't have to respond to the master that drives him. We all receive the same thing at death. Now, this is very much in a physical earthly sense.

Job is definitely not talking about afterlife here. He's not talking about a judgment, a final judgment, but that all are set free from the plights of this earth at death. The slave is no longer enslaved.

The wicked are not a misery to anyone else. The wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary, those who may have been oppressed by the wicked, they finally find their rest also in death. So Job goes on, verse 20, why is light given to him who is in misery and life to the bitter in soul, who long for death but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures, who rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they find the grave?

Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? For my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water, for the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.

I am not at ease, nor am I quiet. I have no rest, but trouble comes. What is the thing that Job fears that comes upon him? More life, is basically what he's saying. I don't get the thing that I want, which is death, but rather I have to live longer in this misery that I am experiencing right now.

At the start of the book, we read that Job was a man who feared God, and as someone who fears God, he doesn't take his own life. That would be murder. Suicide is murder. And so Job knows it's not for me to decide who lives or dies.

Even myself. He still entrusts himself to the Lord, though he believes even to the very core of his troubled soul that he would be better off dead. This is the soliloquy that Job begins with. Long before William Shakespeare ever coined the question in the voice of Hamlet, to be or not to be, Job said, it would be better to not be.

He's not even asking the question. He is straight up saying, let the day perish on which I was born. So in response to this soliloquy, chapter four, the first of Job's friends speaks up. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, if one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?

Yet who can keep from speaking? So he approaches this very carefully and actually does a great job at his introduction of of praising Job for the esteem that he is known by. Verse three, behold, you have instructed many and you have strengthened the weak hands.

Your words have upheld him who was stumbling and you have made firm the feeble knees. But now it has come to you and you are impatient. It touches you and you are dismayed. Is not your fear of God your confidence and the integrity of your ways your hope?

So here's what Eliphaz is saying here. You've instructed men who have grieved, but now grief has come upon you and you are dismayed. You have fallen into despair. Has the answers that you've given others, are they not any comfort to you now?

And then from here on out, Eliphaz just gets stupid. OK, so verse seven, remember who that was innocent ever perished or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and so trouble reap the same by the breath of God, they perish and by the blast of his anger, they are consumed.

The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions are broken. The strong lion perishes for lack of prey and the cubs of the lioness are scattered. Basically, what Eliphaz is arguing here is that the people who are afflicted with such sufferings as you are going through here, they are the ones who plow iniquity.

So you've done something wrong. And that's why all of this has befallen you. This is the quote unquote wisdom that Eliphaz has to share. Verse 12. Now, a word was brought to me stealthily. My ear received the whisper of it.

Amid thoughts from visions of the night when deep sleep falls on men, dread came upon me and trembling, which made all my bones shake. A spirit glided past my face. The hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance.

A form was before my eyes. There was silence. Then I heard a voice. Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his maker? Even in his servants, he puts no trust and his angels he charges with error.

How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like the moth. Between morning and evening, they are beaten to pieces. They perish forever without anyone regarding it.

Is not their tent cord plucked up within them? Do they not die and that without wisdom? So you can probably pick up what's happening here. Eliphaz claims to have received a vision or a revelation from a spirit.

Some kind of esoteric knowledge you would not be able to find anywhere else. So you must listen to me because this is what this spirit has said to me. He says in verse 12. Now, a word was brought to me stealthily amid thoughts from visions of the night.

A spirit glided past my face. I couldn't make it out. There was silence. And then I heard a voice. And verses 17 through 21, Eliphaz asks a series of questions. And at first, it's very it's really kind of difficult to discern what it is he's saying.

Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his maker? And so it almost seems like Eliphaz is saying that no one is right before God. Everyone has sinned. And so everyone deserves the suffering that befalls him.

However, we just read in chapter one that Job was blameless before God that he was a righteous man, so much so that God even singled him out to Satan and said, have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him.

So Job has not done anything that deserves the tragedy and the suffering that has come upon him. This is the argument that Eliphaz is continuing to push that Job must have done something to deserve this.

But you'll notice that his questions are entirely rhetorical. He doesn't directly accuse Job of anything. If a spirit was to come to him and give him some sort of revelation in the night, wouldn't the spirit reveal to Eliphaz exactly what it is that Job had done wrong?

That would be a little bit more prophetic. But this is meant to be ambiguous. Job has to fill in the blanks. He's the one that has to figure out how this little piece of knowledge that Eliphaz is sharing has to apply to him.

And this is what prophets do. This is what false prophets do. They make these ambiguous claims, which they will say is a prophecy. And then you have to figure out how that prophecy applies. So, for example, Cindy Jacobs says something like a prophecy has come to us for the next year, and this is your prophecy for the next year.

It is breakthrough. Hallelujah. It's going to be your breakthrough year. What does that mean? Whatever you want it to mean. It could mean that you're going to get that breakthrough in your job, or you're going to get that breakthrough in your marriage, or you're going to get a car breaking through your living room and destroying all your stuff.

That's kind of how these prophets will work. They are ambiguous, and you just have to believe what they say because, hey, they're prophets. They said they're prophets. So why should you challenge the things that they claim spirits have revealed to them?

So that's what Eliphaz is doing here with Job. He's doing exactly the thing that false prophets do here today. They say, hey, if life isn't going well for you, it's because you did something wrong. Here's a prophecy for you.

You figure out how it's supposed to apply, and your life is going to get better. If your life doesn't get better, it's because you didn't have enough faith. That's what false prophets today do. This is exactly the way that they are.

Lo and behold, 3 ,000 years ago, this was going on even in Job's day with Job's friends claiming to receive these extra special revelations from God, and you must listen to me, and here is what your problem is, and here's how to have peace and happiness and prosperity.

It's been the same for thousands of years. False prophets using the same tactics they've always been using. This is chapter 5, still Eliphaz here. Call now. Is there anyone who will answer you to which of the holy ones will you turn?

Now, part of the rhetorical nature of this question goes back to the statement that Eliphaz had just made about how even the angels are charged with error. So which of these holy ones, these heavenly spirits, are you going to turn to in order to find resolve?

Surely vexation kills the fool, verse 2, and jealousy slays the simple. I have seen the fool taking root, but suddenly I cursed his dwelling. His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate, and there is no one to deliver them.

The hungry eat his harvest, and he takes it even out of thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth, for affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground, but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.

This is Eliphaz saying there has to be a reason why this trouble has come upon you. Trouble doesn't just happen for no reason. So see, this has happened to you because you did something. In verse 3, he says, I've seen the fool taking root, but suddenly I cursed his dwelling.

His children are far from safety. So see, you're the fool. That's what Eliphaz is saying to Job. And he's probably being very, very soothing in the way that he, you know, he's not trying to sound like a jerk.

He thinks he's actually saying something helpful. I'll give you an example of that with this next part here. So verses 8 and 9, he says, As for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause, who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number.

So this would probably be Eliphaz's tone here. He would be going, if it were me, if I were in your if I were in your shoes, Job, I would seek God. I'd commit my cause to God. God who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things.

OK, that's probably the way that Eliphaz is replying here. He thinks he's being a good friend, but he's really being a miserable wretch. And we'll pick up from there next week. We'll finish the rest of Eliphaz's answer and then what Job's response to him is in chapter six.

Let's finish with prayer. Our great God, I pray that we would seek you early in the morning and from the time that our head hits the pillow at night. We have tried to discern your thoughts that are given to us in the pages of Scripture, the revealed will of God that we have for us right here in the Bible.

Help us to turn from sin. Let there not be any evil way that we walk in. Even those hidden sins, those things that we think that we can hold on to, nobody else has to know about. And I can continue to do this in secret for you.

Search the mind and heart of every man. And, you know, the deep, otherwise unsearchable things. May we be like David, who says, search me and know me. Oh, God. If there's any hidden way in me, expose it so that I might confess this sin and be holy.

Help us to pursue holiness, not those things that we can do privately that we don't think are harming anyone else, for they bring harm upon us as we're not seeking and desiring the holiness of God, but trying to hold on to our own sinful fleshly nature instead of committing every way of ourselves unto the Lord.

May that be the conviction in our spirit so that you make us holy and right before you, shaping us more into the image of Christ. If the day of trouble should come upon us, let us not fall into despair, but cling to you all the more.

For we know that you are the God of all comforts and the Father of mercies, as described in 2 Corinthians chapter 1. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.