WWUTT 824 Job's Friends Withhold Kindness?

Job’s Lament and the Misery of False Comfort

Job had some miserable friends, and in today's reading, we're going to hear him tell his friends just how miserable they are. If you've got a good friend, you've got somebody who will help you walk in righteousness.

When we understand the text.

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Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. And from my wife and me to all of our listeners in the United States of America, we would like to wish you a happy Thanksgiving. To everyone else, no matter where you are, give thanks to the Lord always, every day, for he is good.

His love endures forever. In our study of the book of Job, we'll be looking at chapters 6, 7, and 8 today, I believe is how far we will get. So last week, after we've read about Job having lost all of his property, all of his servants, his children, even his health, and was left with a nagging wife telling him to curse God and die, Job lamented the very day of his birth.

That's what we had in chapter 3. I compared it with another famous soliloquy from William Shakespeare through the character of Hamlet, who said to be or not to be, that is the question. For Job, it wasn't even a question.

He just wished to not be. It would have been better for him to have not been born than to experience the grief that he was experiencing in that moment. None of the other highlights of his life or any of his accomplishments were worth the grief that had vexed him, that had brought him low, that had rent his garments and put ash upon his head and brought him down to the ground, weeping before God.

Let the day perish on which I was born, Job said, 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. And after Job grieved over his own birth, his friend Eliphaz spoke up, and we had Eliphaz's response in chapters 4 and 5.

Job’s Response to Eliphaz’s Accusation

Now, Job's friends did well for him when they just mourned with him. That was written for us at the end of chapter 2. They just laid there on the ground with him and cried for seven days and seven nights.

That's a good friend to weep with those who weep. But once they opened their mouths and tried to give Job advice, that's when they got stupid. And basically, Eliphaz said to Job that Job had done something wrong in his life.

He had some sort of unconfessed sin. And that's why this tragedy had befallen him, because he had not taken his cause up with the Lord. And Job's response is what we're going to read today in chapter 6.

And even some of what Eliphaz said was rather comical in the sense that we see a lot of false teachers today say things that are very similar to what Eliphaz said. Eliphaz talked about having some spirit come to him and reveal him something.

And he had some esoteric knowledge that he was privy to and tried to share with Job. Now Job is going to reply in chapter 6. And here is what we have, starting in verse 1. Then Job answered and said, O that my vexation were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances!

For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea. Therefore my words have been rash, for the arrows of the Almighty are in me. My spirit drinks their poison. The terrors of God are arrayed against me.

Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass? Or the ox low over his fodder? Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the juice of the mallow? My appetite refuses to touch them.

They are as food that is loathsome to me. So in addition to everything else that Job has experienced, he also has lost his appetite. He's not even eating anymore because of the grief that he feels in his body.

Verse 8. O that I might have my request, and that God would fulfill my hope. That it would please God to crush me. That he would let loose his hand and cut me off. This would be my comfort. I would even exult in pain unsparing.

For I have not denied the words of the Holy One. What is my strength that I should wait? And what is my end that I should be patient? Is my strength the strength of stones or is my flesh bronze? Have I any help in me when resource is driven from me?

Now in this particular paragraph, there's a certain statement that might have stuck out to you. And that was in verse 9. That it would please God to crush me. Where have we read that before? Where might have you heard that phrase?

Isaiah 53. Where Isaiah prophesied about Jesus Christ being crucified on the cross for our sins. And Isaiah worded it, it pleased God to crush him. It's very very similar wording to what we have in Job.

And that's not terribly unusual. Though this particular passage, Job 6, 9, may not be directly talking about Christ. It may not have some sort of a type or a shadow significance to the crucifixion of Christ.

But nonetheless, compare what's being said, Job is saying that if God were to just crush him, were to take his life, it would satisfy whatever it is that God has against Job. And consider that that's what Christ has done for us.

God did have something against us. We owed him a great debt that we could not pay because all had sinned against God. And Christ paid our debt for us. He is the righteous one. We are not. So by his blood shed on the cross for our sins, what we owed God because of our rebellion was paid for by Christ.

This is talked about in Colossians chapter 2 verse 13, you who were dead in your trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh. God made alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. So this is what Christ has done for us. Our sins were taken upon himself when he died on that tree.

Second Corinthians 521, for our sake, he became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Our sins were placed upon him. His righteousness was given to us. And in Christ, the wrath of God is satisfied.

The word propitiation is used in the New Testament. That means the blood of Christ has satisfied the wrath of God. And so it pleased God to crush Jesus. And so what was burning against us and our unrighteousness was taken by Christ upon himself and he gave us his righteousness.

So now we stand before God as holy. So by Christ's death, what God had against us was taken care of. It pleased God to crush him. And so Job is asking, if God were to crush me, it would take care of whatever it is that he has against me.

We go on to verse 14 here, Job says, he who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the almighty. Now in this next section, he's really letting his friends have it here. Look at verse 15.

My brothers are treacherous as a torrent bed, as torrential streams that pass away, which are dark with ice and where the snow hides itself. When they melt, they disappear. When it is hot, they vanish from their place.

The caravans turn aside from their course. They go up into the waste and perish. So in other words, Job is saying that the kindness of his friends is about as seasonal as ice in summer. That's the short of it.

He says again, verse 14, he who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the almighty. He's saying to Eliphaz, you forsake, you do not fear God. The way that you're talking, you don't fear God.

Now, as I said last week, I don't think Eliphaz was trying to be a jerk. He really thought that what he was saying to Job was good advice. He thought, hey, Job, you had to have done something bad. That's why this has come upon you.

So if you just take up your cause with God, then all of this will be restored to you. This is back in chapter five, verse eight, Eliphaz said, as for me, I would seek God and to God would I commit my cause.

It's like Eliphaz was saying, hey, Job, if I was in your position, here's what I would do. It's very patronizing for him to say that it's not helpful advice at all. And furthermore, when Eliphaz refers to God, whenever he uses that name and even gives praise to God later on in chapter five, says great things about the Lord, which are nonetheless true.

But he did all of this in vain to show himself as being some sort of high and mighty guy who knew better than Job did. And so because of his vanity, because of his blasphemy, calling upon the name of the Lord in such a way, Job is saying to him, you forsake the fear of God.

You do not fear God and have withheld kindness from your friend. Whatever kindness you showed me with the seven days and seven nights of mourning, it's gone now that you've opened your mouth. You have just added to my grief and your kindness is about as seasonal as ice in summer as the metaphor goes on.

So then in verse 19, the caravans of Timah look, the travelers of Sheba hope they are ashamed because they were confident. They come there and are disappointed for you have now become nothing. You see my calamity and are afraid.

Have I said, make me a gift or from your wealth, offer a bribe to me or deliver me from the adversary's hand or redeem me from the hand of the ruthless? Verse 24, teach me and I will be silent. Make me understand how I have gone astray.

How forceful are upright words, but what does reproof from you reprove? Do you think that you can reprove words when the speech of a despairing man is wind? You would even cast lots over the fatherless and bargain over your friend.

Basically, what Job is saying here is that you're rebuking me for something that you cannot even prove. You're saying that I've done something evil and so therefore I need to take my cause before God.

But show me what that evil is. You're just reproving me for the lament that I gave, but you can't show me exactly what my my my fault is pointed out to me. Otherwise, you're just rebuking the words of a grieving man.

How can that be kindness? That's what Job is saying to Eliphaz. Verse 28, but now be pleased to look at me, for I will not lie to your face. Please turn. Let no injustice be done. Turn now. My vindication is at stake.

Is there any injustice on my tongue? Cannot my palate discern the cause of my calamity? So in other words, hey, if you got something, you better tell me it like my vindication is at stake here. If this is the thing that will make me right before God and you are withholding it from me, you're not telling me what my fault is.

Well, how horrible a person does that make you? We read in Proverbs 27, six faithful are the wounds of a friend. Profuse are the kisses of an enemy. So if you have a good friend, you've got somebody who will rebuke you when you have sinned and point out to you, you have done wrong so that you may repent of that and return to the path of righteousness.

But an enemy, if you just surrounded yourself with people who are just going to tell you all the things that you want to hear and make you feel good about anything, and whenever you've done something wrong, they're just going to be the ones to rub your back and say, oh, you're not the person that's at fault.

It's because of, you know, your circumstance or this person or something else. Well, then you've just surrounded yourself with people who don't really love you and care about you and give you profuse kisses.

Psalm 141, five says, Let a righteous man strike me. It is a kindness. Let him rebuke me. It is oil for my head. Let my head not refuse it. Yet my prayer is continually against their evil deeds. And that's the way Job probably felt here as well.

His prayers being against the words of his friends for they truly did not love and care about him if they believed he was at fault for something and yet would not point out his folly. How grateful we should be that we worship a sovereign God and a loving father who will indeed point out to us our folly.

For as we read in Hebrews chapter 12, we are disciplined because he is a father who loves us. Hebrews chapter 12, verse five, My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not truly sons. There are several ways in which the Lord disciplines us. One way that he does this is by the fellowship of believers that we are a part of in the church.

Our brothers and sisters in the Lord are around us to observe and examine our behavior and call attention to those things that we do that are against what God has said for us to do that are contrary to having the mind of Christ.

Another way that God convicts us is through the spirit that dwells within us that is acting upon our conscience and points out to us this is sin so that we might be grieved over it and that we would repent of it.

And another way that the Lord convicts us is through his word. And this is coupled with the spirit. Of course, the spirit of God helps us to discern the word of God. And through reading the Bible, we have this for us as a mirror that shows us a reflection of what our heart is like before God so that we may be grieved over our sin and we would repent and continue to be washed, sanctified in the Holy Spirit of God and shaped all the more in the image of Christ.

Here, Job is able even to recognize the cause of his calamity. Cannot my palate discern the cause of his calamity? So if Job had done something wrong, Job is saying, would I not know of it, too? Wouldn't I know of my own sin, this thing that you're talking about that I've done that you can't point out?

Well, I don't know what it is either. Shouldn't I be able to discern that myself? So he goes on with his answer in chapter 7. Has not man a hard service on earth? And are not his days like the days of a hired hand, like a slave who longs for the shadow and like a hired hand who looks for his wages?

Job’s Night of Suffering and the Hope of the Spirit

So I am allotted months of emptiness and nights of misery are a portion to me. When I lie down, I say, when shall I arise? But the night is long and I am full of tossing till the dawn. My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt.

My skin hardens, then breaks out afresh. My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and come to their end without hope. So one of the other things that Job is experiencing here is sleepless nights. He's lost his appetite.

That's what we read earlier in the earlier portion of chapter six. Now he's saying he's even lost an ability to sleep through the night. There's a couple of reasons for that. One is the grief that he's experiencing is causing him insomnia.

And the other is the the actual physical anguish that he is enduring as well because of the painful sores that have broken out on his body. He says that his skin hardens, then it breaks out afresh. And so when the skin breaks out in those sores again, it just is all the more painful for him.

And it prevents him from being able to get any sleep. Hopefully none of you are eating turkey dinner while I'm explaining that what Job is experiencing in his body. Verse seven. Remember that my life is a breath.

My eye will never again see good. The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more. While your eyes are on me, I shall be gone as the cloud fades and vanishes. So he who goes down to Sheol does not come up.

He returns no more to his house, nor does his place know him anymore. Now, part of this grief that Job is experiencing here is he believes that he will never see happy days again. Now, if you know the end of this book, the Lord does indeed give him much back.

It's not like it would be the same, you know, after all that he lost. But the Lord does bless him with more children and more possessions once again. So what he's saying here is just that he's experiencing so much grief.

He thinks that this is his end. He just has nothing but death to look forward to now, and he's never going to come up out of this again. So we know from the end of the story, that's not necessarily true.

But the grief that he's experiencing is so deep. He thinks it is. This has to be the end. There can't be anything else after this. Verse 11. Therefore, I will not restrain my mouth. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit.

I will complain in the bitterness of my soul because he's got nothing to lose. Am I the sea or a sea monster that you set a guard over me when I say my bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint?

Then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions so that I would choose strangling and death rather than my bones. I loathe my life. I would not live forever. Leave me alone for my days are a breath.

What is man that you make so much of him and that you set your heart on him, visit him every morning and test him every moment? How long will you not look away from me nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?

If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you? Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth.

You will seek me, but I shall not be. There's a couple of phrases in here that are very similar to something that David prayed in the Psalms. Job 7 13. When I say my bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint.

David said in Psalm 6 6. I am weary with my moaning. Every night I flood my bed with tears. I drench my couch with weeping. Job 7 17. What is man that you make so much of him? And David said in Psalm 8 verse 4.

What is man that you are mindful of him? And then in Job 7 19. How long will you not look away from me? And that's how Psalm 13 begins. How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

So there are some similar things to what Job lamented that David knew he would have known this book and the words that Job prayed and affected the way that he prayed before God as well. All of it inspired by the Holy Spirit.

It all comes from the same place. Even in our lament, the Holy Spirit is with us. And we read about that in Romans chapter 8 verse 26. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

So if you are in such grief and anguish, you don't know what it is that you ought to pray. Ask God and his Spirit will give you words. Go to the scriptures and pray the scriptures aloud to God. For you fill your heart and your mind with the word of God.

And even in lament, even in grief and anguish, you are not sinning against God. For Jesus also grieved in the garden. And David, a man after God's own heart, grieved when he could not see how God was working in the midst of his circumstances.

That was what Paul was talking about in Romans chapter 8, is that we cannot see the end from the beginning. We don't know how it is that God is working in these moments exactly. But when we are weak in our flesh to understand those things, the Spirit intercedes for us and reminds us of the hope that we have in Christ Jesus, who died on the cross for the forgiveness of sins so that all who believe in him will not perish.

We are not separated from God, no matter how distant he may seem sometimes, but we have fellowship with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and that fellowship will last forever. Amen.