Job, 1975 Part 2 — Norman Grubb

So no, reason can't find God, because Paul and reason can find nothing except the aspects of the four. Only faith which takes God on His terms, by His revelation, as we would say, by Jesus Christ, can you find God, because it's where you find Him.

So it has the knowledge of that which it takes, and it's taken the evidence of the things it takes. If it's taken the unseen, then the things unseen will be revealed as one says. So when you take Him by faith, you find Him.

Then you find Him. You find Him because He found you. If you hadn't already found Him, you just hadn't found out, that's all. He found you from the beginning. 13 .24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me, thy enemy?

Job's Search for God's Presence

This block of coming between law and judgment, and the mistaken concept of God. So God's face must be hidden, because God is not law. Law is grace. So if you see God as law, you see His face. And lots of people just go out there and say, there are more new faces.

They've never seen God, they've never seen law, they've been turned off, they think there's nothing there. But that's not God. And they go out there, and a false concept of God, which is like I'm sitting, fussing up in a platform, listening to some songs or something, and they think that's God.

That's not God. God's here and up there. You don't find God by hearing something about God. You find God by knowing Him in time, and therefore being in front of Him. And so, why do you hide your face?

Why hide your face? It cries out in 23, which is a famous sentence, verse 3. Many have cried this. I don't miss Him, or as I know where I might find Him. Or as I might come even to His seat. That's the real hard cry of everybody if they admit it.

The whole world, because the world, of course, is full of His being. And I had a lost brother, far away from here. Or as I know where I might find Him. Or as I might come even to His seat. And in the same run, the search which conditioned can't find.

The search finds, it takes place. The search can't find. It may condition you to take place. But it can't find. And so it goes on here. In verse, it goes along that same chapter. The whole world goes forward.

He's up there. And back there to come to see Him. On the left hand, there's a way that works. But can't behold Him. He hides Himself in the right hand. I can't see Him. Is that a statement? A path that's from God.

Probably you all have to go through this in order to transcend this in faith. But what a statement. The whole world goes forward. He's up there. Go back there. Can't perceive Him. Left hand, very well.

Can't find Him. Can't behold Him. Hides Himself in the right hand. I can't see Him. Older. But nowhere on earth can I find Him. Twenty-eight. Twelve. Where shall wisdom be found? And where are the people understanding?

He knows He's gone beyond. He's a very beautiful, perfect statement, this one. This is a statement where He says, in verse seven,. There's a path that's no power lower. There's a name for Him that says that one.

Which the right-footed eye hath not seen. The highest who hath the clearest sight. There's a path that's no power lower. Verse seven. Which the right-footed eye hath not seen. The large weapons that fragment.

Where the first man passed out. And where shall wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding? Man knows not the price thereof. There's a kind of land beneath. Beneath. The depths tell you that in me.

The sea tells you that in me. Can't be bothered with gold. There is a single weighted price thereof. Can't be bothered by gold alone, sir. Verse eight. No mention to me of a car in pearls. Whence, verse twenty, Whence then cometh wisdom?

Where is the place of understanding? What a statement this is. What a statement this is. Can't be found here, can't be found there. Where is it? It's there all the time. Not only by the freedom of the choice of faith.

Not by finding. But by accepting and recognizing. And this is perhaps the last we'll say now. One of the great leaps. Job. Job knew the truth. And he flashed it out like a beacon. Because he knew it. There is no sign that these other men knew it had this light.

So I don't think they did. They may have had some faith relationship with God. But Job had a knowledge relationship. God hates one. And sometimes you just don't start with it. There are three famous statements which emerge out of it.

Job's Three Statements of Faith

The first is in 2310. Suddenly he says this. This is where he says confinement. St. Catherine is in confinement. I reverse that to a sense. Lovely. Verse twenty. He knows the ways I take. When he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

That's lovely. He knows the way. When he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. That's faith. Then he took it one or two steps farther. One a very big one. In 1315 he made the most famous statement in his book.

Which is a wonderful statement. It's still a gritted teeth statement. It's not a liberator statement. It's a wonderful statement. But it has the element of negative in it. So if a gritted teeth has that negative, gritted teeth, I hold on.

So he didn't hold on. He didn't hold on to an enjoyment. It's the other side. He's got you. And this is the famous statement. Go slowly, yet will I trust him. In fact, I would have been put my own way before him.

He didn't know that one. Go slowly, yet will I trust him. That's what he says. Comes out there. He finds me. He comes and goes. Go slowly, yet will I trust him. There is a negative there. Where am I to be slain?

Not that there might be some purpose or joy in being slain. But it's used by thousands. It's blessedly used. Oh, tens, I'd say millions have stood their ground on this precious statement. That's the whole book.

That's the whole statement. Go slowly, yet will I trust him. That's the human side of faith. The divine side of faith is the substance. Now, that substance came marvellously through in a marvellous statement.

It was there, perhaps the first book written in the Bible. And that's in chapter 23, verse 10. Am I right? No, no, sorry, I gave you the wrong one. It's 1923. No? Yes. Yes or no? I'll let you, I'll let you love it.

It is 1923. It is 1923. Go on now with it. All of my words that I've written, he suddenly lifts right above all this stuff. All that I've printed in the book, all that I've engraved with an iron pen, and lead, a pen and lead in the rock forever, for I know it, and I do know it.

And then he goes on. He not only says he's here now, but he says, come back, come back. It's the first statement, the next statement, the second statement in the Bible. And he says, stand in the latter day of the year.

And where is your father? And he says, I'm going to have a resurrection body. Isn't this fantastic? This is the original translation. I think they're trying to twist it up in some of their translations.

In those places. Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God. Obviously the real flesh. Whom I shall see for myself, person to person, and my eyes shall behold, I've got another.

Isn't that wonderful? After all this, a paragraph. This may have life, of course. Do you read it again? For I know that my Redeemer lives. And I know that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.

And even though this body is corrupting, yet in my flesh shall I see Him. And I shall see Him some day. I shall see Him person to person. See Him for myself and my eyes shall behold Him. And then he said a lovely thing.

He caught it. Isn't that a good thing? If he turns, I think that's about this. But you should say, or what you should say is, why persecute him so that the root of the matter is found in me? Isn't that right?

Why don't you say, why don't you persecute that to the core? The root of the matter is in Him. This is true. There is the root of the matter. I have my God. I have my Redeemer. I am in this relationship.

Some might come, it's here and then it's in the past. And I thought this word of glory. This is word of glory. Not word of gritted teeth. But word of will I say. So right in the middle is good catch on us.

The End of Job's Debate and the Need for Elihu

Now that's the end of the interchange that took place between Job, the three friends, and talking with God. God's not yet talking back to him. Talking with God, making questions about timing his way. Now you see he had the way, but because it wasn't confirmed with him yet, he slipped up.

And in the liberal contrast, which he wouldn't have moved into if he had shown the way, because he really didn't see the law. He's going away, you know, white-coats, white-coats and gangsters, they take no notice.

They aren't bad to you. The fact that he responded to the law means he hasn't quite got it yet. There is a certain element in which he's sorting down to the lower level, which is the self-level. I shouldn't be this, you shouldn't be that, and God punishes and all that.

And so he had to be lifted into a permanent level where this law stuff had disappeared and had lifted by the lifting. So it was necessary to go through this controversy in terms of justification, then questioning about himself, and trying to find God, and so on, in these clashes of victors.

We haven't finished this morning, and I thought we might. Well, that's all I'll say. But this evening we'll finish David. Not that that will take a great deal of time, there are a few things. We've done, in some ways, the major parts of David, with the list and the printing.

That's all. So again, tomorrow, this evening, may be fairly short, I don't know. Where will we go at? I think we're already going. And have the intervention of Elihu, before the direct word came from God to Job.

And we know nothing about Elihu, except he's a young man, and had something very strongly on his heart, said to Job and his three friends, and they formed a little bit of a preparation for what the final word was to be, direct from God.

Elihu's talk, recorded, is from chapter 32 to 37. He was a modest young fellow, because he said that he'd sat with them, and had been quite stirred by the give and take between, on the part of both the friends and Job, that he'd waited to speak, until Elihu spoke, because they were older than he.

And he says, or it says, that when they had no more to say, they did have no more to say After Job had given his final opening up, and his past life, which is so enormously impressive, which we saw him in this morning, the kind of life he lived in his previous days, apparently they shut their mouths.

They felt, what more could they say in their own little life like that? Anyhow, they didn't say any more. And Job didn't seem to wish to add to it. So now Elihu stepped in. I like that. He wasn't pushful.

He wasn't making out he was better than other people. But he did say he had a strong sense of urge to speak. He spoke of it in the eighth verse, as a spirited man, and the inspiration of the Almighty to give understanding.

He felt he had some shared understanding to give. And it was burning in him to pass it on. And he made a little pertinent remark, for his elders, great men are not always wise, neither do the ages understand their judgment.

Which is a little wagging for them. And so he, now quite modestly, asked him to listen to what he had to say. And I think it was acceptable to him, because he had this modest approach. He spoke of himself being full of matter.

The spirit was constraining him. That's good. The person should want to say something. That's in the 18th verse of the 32nd chapter. What he did say was a book, both to the friends and to Job. He spoke quite plainly to the friends, and adequately.

He said he was concerned about the three friends in the third verse of the 32nd chapter, because they found no answer, and yet they condemned him. That's very good. That about sizes it up. That's what set ourselves when pulling other people down.

They found no answer, and yet they condemned him. They wouldn't replace what they said by an adequate, satisfactory alternative. And that's just what he was. Of course, thank God, we do move away with the alternative.

That's why we feel we've got something to say. And the emphasis in all our talk, of course, should be if we do touch the negative, or we're presenting the alternative and replace it with another negative, rather positive.

Concerning Job, he said straight out that he wanted to speak because he was righteous in his own eyes. And I say, I don't think that's wholly fair to what Job said. He kept saying that the real righteousness of Job was not to be attributed to Job in his self-righteous way.

It was a product of his relationship to God through grace, and the Spirit, and he spoke truth about it. He just had to say that. I think all the things he said all the way through, in the end, he had proof of that, because that was something he couldn't touch.

That is, he had an inner consciousness that God was working his way down. He was God's man, and all he came to see was God's will. And he had got disturbed from that by these discussions. However, it's apparent, like that to Elihu, that his righteousness was unaligned, and that was something to be prudent.

And he repeated the not the same thing, in the thirty-third chapter, that Job was spoken in his hearing, he said, and that his words had been what Job was supposed to say, I'm clean without transgression.

I'm innocent. Neither is there iniquity in me. I assume that that's fairly true. It's fairly outlandish, because on the other hand, Elihu did say he had sinned before God. And no man can say he was justified before God.

Elihu seemed to pass that away. At such point, he said, the other is the major defense Job was raising, if he wasn't okay, righteous. And then he was completely against God, so Elihu, of course, would be saying, Job said, He quoted that as being a general attitude of Job, questioning or even murdering against God, as well as defending himself against the accusations of being a sinner by his friends.

Elihu's Central Claim: God Is Greater Than Man

Now, the one answer that Elihu did give, which I think in one sentence is what he was right to say, it was the right thing. He just says this, Behold, in this, verse 12, In this thou art not just, I answer thee, that God is greater than man.

That's what I think. So I think Elihu did have a clearer word there. God is greater than man. So if you're, what are you doing? Raising questions, if you need better than God. He further, took that further, and he said, God speaks to us in a way, he didn't specify it more clearly, he said God speaks once or twice, by dreams, and opens the ears of men to give instructions, so that he can withdraw men from their wrong ways, keep their souls in the pit, and chastens them.

So in a little way, the truth, he was not saying what they said, that God condemns them, that Job and Christ, Job out, because he's a sinner, and Job would be punished if he didn't say that. He did say that God has ways in which he chastens us, and says things to us, by inner vision, or by outer circumstances, to keep us from going the wrong way.

He chastens us also, a man who is chastened also, with pain upon his bed, in verse 19. And the Master Jesus' pain was a strong pain, and so on. So he didn't antagonize Job in the way that the brothers had done so.

He made a truly gladdened statement about God, which had preceded it, as a preparation, in verse 34, in chapter 34, verse 16. He said, If thou thou hast understanding, hear this. Harken to the voice of my words, show even he that hateth right government.

That's a perfect remark. If you're a governor, you can't be going on the basis of hating right, and loving wrong. The idea of God, if God is God, he can't have great authority, in which he hates the right, and furthers the wrong.

Yes, it's chaos. In the sacred of God, if he's the governor of the universe, he governs to make the best universe he can. That's a common-sense remark. Is it true to say, that the king lied wicked, and the princess lay ungodly?

Well, sometimes we do in this human world, but the idea is, that the king is godly, and the best way is to kill him. It doesn't always work out that way, as we know. So, he made that remark, and again, verse 22 of that same chapter, for God will not lay upon man more than right, that he should enter into relationship with God.

But what God lays upon man, is right for that man. That's a good remark too. So, gradually he's saying some things to Joe, which should counter his almost violent question, or he'd be taken through, that God will not lay upon a man more than his right from to have, so he shouldn't be in a position which he can counter God about it, and enter into judgment with God about it.

We should take it that a true governor is godly in the way which are right for whom he governs. At least we should say that of God. So, he then said, therefore, it is meant to be said to God, I have burned chastisement, I will not offend any more.

So, he takes the chastisement line as a punishment line, which is good for truth. And truth in chastisement is a perfection. God's very leading Jove, I don't know if the wrong attitude is, the negative attitude, which they carry about, but it's a positive attitude.

Calling chastisement as a right, I think, is a part of the process of perfection. Perfection is union. Stabilized union. That which I see not, teach thou me, if I have no equity, I will do them all. The major part of what Elihu says, I mean, adds that much to what the others have put little correction on.

The best thing of all is God is greater than man. That shuts you up. Shouldn't we think of God? God is the author of the universe. If he offers his own right side, not wrong. He doesn't offer it for chaos, but for harmony.

Shouldn't we therefore take it that if he lays certain things upon man, he does it because that's exactly what suits the person in question. He also had picked this up, which he mentioned before, which I think is true.

He claimed to be what Job said he missed. He wanted something between them. He would kind of put their hands on both their shoulders and explain things between them, him and God. A day's hand. A mediator.

And Elihu Elihu speaks as the one who understood that this is what he was there to do. Behold, I am according to thy wish in God's name. Lesson thirty-three, six. Behold, I am according to thy wish in God's name.

I also am called out of the prayer. And another little phrase which has gone down in history. One of the phrases used at least in the English language. If there be a messenger, one among a thousand to show him the man's righteousness.

It's a phrase we use in a special person, a special benefactor. That's thirty-three, thirty-three. So there's probably, I think I covered English phraseology in certain phrases that have come out of the book of Job.

If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man his righteousness. Then he is gracious unto him and says deliver him from going down to the pit. I find a ransom.

Some touch of a mediator. Some touch of an intercessor. He's one among a thousand and he will step in and he will call on God to deliver him from destruction and that he's in a sense providing a ransom.

There are all these things work of God oftentimes with man to bring back his soul from the pit. That's the known lies and lies he took with Job. He did speak strongly in the end and again touches right in the thirty-fourth chapter he again strikes at Job he said what man is like Job who drinks his cup scorningly like water?

That's in verse seven and then he says this Job has spoken without knowledge his words were without wisdom my desire is that Job should be tired out of his own because of his answers to which he didn't end for he had his rebellion unto his feet.

So he wants Job to have all the power he should have which can fit him for deliverance. Well that's true in a way we wish that for each other that God take us all the way down in comparison to going all the way up.

So again we know the sense a bold statement a low statement which fits the facts and his final word to Job but Job was good in the last chapter of his talk thirty-second chapter and the fourteenth verse half the length of this old Job says some of the wondrous works of God and he does actually through that chapter begin to touch a bit on God's manifestation Himself in the wonders of nature God gives it up in full force Himself and I should just give a little touch in that production so again we're preparing Job for God's manifestation so that's about the gist of what he says God's greater than man.

If God is the ruler of the universe we should think of God as we mean rightly not wrongly and what he gives to each of us suits our condition rules spoken word out of turn Job which isn't as I say all the truth about Job certainly not the basic truth about Job and it's good that you should have what you need have the sunscreen put on you until you're ready to get a right adjustment and his final word.

God's Challenge Through Creation

Now he says Job if you have a little idea of some of the greatness of God half length of this stands for the considerable wondrous works of God that ends the records man's had to say in these fiery trials of Job.

What Job said about him. What these three men have said about him had some summing up and challenge and call to Job to look up to God. Now listen to what God has to say for this one man who set him and carried him all through the time.

Now there remains what God says. The basis of what God says is quite plain. Faith has always been deep beyond reason although it may have set the man to habit which is accepting what it takes on its own values on its own terms all it is.

Faith is always a leap beyond the and the certain. A thing may be available. A thing may be you cannot prove it allowable. A thing is only proved allowable when we attach ourselves to it. And when we when we attach we prove it allowable.

So faith is always a leap beyond reason. Reason to take to it. A thing being available and and suitable but cannot take to the certainly a thing is allowable. When God now speaks to Job he makes the attempt to reason with Job.

He speaks to him as a woman apparently. So now you listen to this Job. You listen to who I am. That's all you listen to who I am. Then answer. Because you darken the counsel by working out knowledge. Because you had the counsel.

If you saw peace at the beginning you had it right. You darken it by being caught up in the question of what his sinner was God punishing what was God leading right. Or and so forth. You move off from simple faith to inadequate questioning inadequate reasoning where you might be replaced by adequate reasoning which you don't have to.

Now all you said to Job was that. Now what I'm saying to you as a revelation of the self. Allow yourself. Now all I'm going to tell you who I am. Allow yourself up with that. These were the early days.

Revelation had to come in the the love of God expressed to us as it is in Christ. So there's no revelation of that type in this presentation of himself to Job. Open your eyes and realize the kind of person God is only this by what he does.

Allow yourself up with that. Can you do that? Can you do this? If you can't what's your question really? This and this and this being done around you being done perfectly. Why are you questioning the harmonies of creation?

Why are you questioning? Why don't you think of God and therefore all ideas in the right harmony. That's the basis of his challenge. It comes out in a a marvelous and often poetic declaration of God in his creation.

It has great beauty in the statement but has constant challenge. He's constantly bringing up situations in creation which are obviously beyond the presence of man when they were created or the power of man in fulfilling them.

And he keeps asking Job can you do this? Can you do that? He starts from the creation when he says where I was now when I laid the foundations of the earth to clarify his understanding. Sat there knowingly and laid the foundations of the earth which is added that little statement which is also his great favourite and gives a little touch of the the joy that is in the creation and the goodness in the creation which is going to come out.

And he's always glorying again. One day when the earth is filled with knowledge the Lord and the water come into the scene and the corruption of creation is removed. And that lovely phrase when the morning stars stand together and all the sons of God shouted for joy is there?

That is symbolic indication of the glory of the true universe of God to which it will be restored as it says this burning earth is waiting for the manifestation of sons of God to participate in the freedom redeemed family.

Please turn the tape over at this point in which puts in the possible situation. Look at the sea. Could you bind the sea so that it has certain shores and limitations. Those verses 8 on which so it doesn't overflow and flood everything so it keeps its place.

Could you do that? And then he moves on to those phrases. Could you produce the wonderful dawn for the day spring. Beautiful phrase the day spring. It goes in front of my eyes. It goes in front of Jesus.

Look at the dawn there the freshness of the dawn. Could you do that to me? And when the light burns he uses the light that shines and removes the hidden corners where people do things in secret that they shouldn't do.

Could you do it the other way? Can you open the gates of death? Can you handle the evidence really? Do you have evidence? One great question mark and one solution. What's there? Can you find the answer in Jesus Christ?

That's in verse 17. Do you know where the light comes from? That's the great question of scientists today. What's light? Everything is light. The scientists clearly the house is operating. Scientists say I believe everything really is some form of light.

Which way is the way of light really? So he continues to take man totally out of his depth. After whatever it is now five thousand years they're still out of their depths. They're still people investigating around through a telescope and through the electronic microscope and so on trying to find the from the tiniest particle up to the those things they have what they call where the stars get together.

What they all mean. He goes on to notice. Have you entered the treasures of the snow? And he gets. He gives the poetic terms. Have you seen the treasures of the hay? Have you produced this beautiful hill snow as sparkling as the sun?

That's in verse twenty-two. It's the very rain that brings questions about drought and famine. Have you heard? Have you caused it to rain he says in verse twenty-six? Have you caused the rain and the wilderness where no man is.

And bring the fruit into the desert ground? Twenty-seven I love that phrase. Twenty-eight hath the Lord a father? You get these perfect phrases. It's so beautiful just shooting in twenty-eight hath the Lord a father?

What a simple, beautiful way of putting it. Are you the father of rain? Ice? Out of whose womb do the ice come? Did you produce that one? Out of whose womb is that phrase? Out of the ice and the hoary frost of twenty-two.

Generally we all know the beauty of the frost when you get these down in Washington these days when the ice freezes on the trees every little branch sparkles. Did you do that? In terms of away from things of earth and things of heaven he says.

Can you can you keep together that little group of stars for the parties? That can be seen as a group of the heavens. Could you hold those together? Verse thirty-one is one that says famine. For instance the amateurs.

There's a great number of amateurs in this the situation of the stars the astronomy. A little group for the parties. The sweet influence. I don't know why that phrase is a good use but again a beautiful phrase.

Canst thou bind the sweet influence to the parties? Or could you loosen that which holds Orion together? Orion is that great constellation like a man in a belt. Even one of its stars alone better than the earth.

A great a great set of stars is about a thousand times as big as the sun. Just one star. This great band which goes under the Orion. Any of you. Of course during the tropics it's a thrill to see the the night the night sky in the tropics with a thousand stars.

Heaven course shining. Curious like to get at least. And you can see the Orion there. It's awesome. You can see these just a few. There's a few of the constellations we know because we left the north star behind again.

And a beautiful glowing star with a cross. You get night after night the night sky down the Nile about five times down the Nile on a little petal stream among the crocodiles. And what not. And it's a thousand mosquitos traveling at night.

There you can see this beautiful sky. A star. A tropical sky in which every star seems to have an extra shine about it. Can you do that? Can you handle the zodiac? The word in the kingdom is mesorot. Catch something for the measure.

Mesorot is a zodiac. There are two thoughts of course about it. It's probably something about the zodiac. It's supposed to be in the aquatic age a day or something. Aren't we? There also has been something about the zodiac.

It seems to have been some silent outline of the gospel message. I'm not going to that ever. There may be much about astrology which we don't think much about. There may not be much in it. There are certainly wise men in the east.

Those men saw something in the star which died in the desert. And I'm not having time to go into those things at length. But some may. But I'm not saying there isn't something in the zodiac and the message of the I think they're able having done it to trace out the process of the gospel through the different sides of the zodiac.

He mentions it. Can you bring forth a zodiac? Can you buy that great London constellation called the bear. The great bear first I got Arcturus with his son. That's the great bear. So there he puts it on the spot.

Can you handle this barb such as from um Eleanor Rachel. He starts by the line. He says could you. Could you find the play of the line. First day of the line. Could you think what about the young line.

Could you provide them with their their their necessary meat or um could you. Could you show the world where to get the food for the young ones. The things for the birds. Getting the food for the young ones.

Now I'm not getting the food for themselves handing out play. We all know in the bird life how they spend their ages getting the different food for the young ones. Can you provide the food for the young ones for the God wild attacks of um Eleanor let's learn from us now the wild goats can you understand how they how they been invited into to birth the wild goats.

Can you remember the most special food in other words the the um the pregnancy. Can you can you order that the regular pregnancy of uh or could you handle the wild wild donkey. This is a very independent gentleman that donkeys usually are human is very enemy um could you handle him this this independent fellow.

The house is not the barren land is barren, he scorneth the mountains and the city, regardless of the pride of the driver taking notes of anybody. None of these touches, I think. He roams in the mountains in his pasture, he searches for every green thing.

The wild ox is the same, we call the unicorn here. The animals, of course, are more of the desert animals. That's verse 9. The wild donkey, the wild ass, is verse 5. That's chapter 39. They have their little touches.

Peacocks, Ostriches, and Horses in God's Design

He says, could you produce the goodly limbs of the peacock? I like that one, don't you? Thirteen. Could you produce those wonderful cowlings? Notice three, the goodly limbs of the peacock. And he's got the very opposite end.

Could you produce that tiny, tireless animal called the ostrich, who goes and lays its eggs in the sand, leaves the sand to warm up and forget the eggs? And he says, and it was God who deprived her of wisdom.