Job 24-25 "Struggling Pilgrim"

Job’s Suffering, Sovereignty, and the Need for Right Interpretation

That's right for you. Here's a little repeat, thank you, and a little repeat, thank you, for the gift of salvation. We thank you that as believers, that you don't just, you don't just go out and do things that you can't do, you have a hand in the corner of your back, you have a soul who goes with you, if you live, you die, and the body will rest for a time, and so you, that's the rest of it.

You reunite the soul with the body, and you have glorified bodies, and you live, you die forever, and we thank you for that time, thank you, that we go on to hear that, say that we live, that we do that, that we know that, that we go on to do this, this, this, this, we do that, we go on to do this, thank you, thanks, praise,.

Amen.

Appreciate you, thank you.

Okay, I can't say it enough,.

I think I say it every Sunday, that I absolutely love the catechism moment.

To be able to hear the kids.

Answering those questions, thinking through those questions,.

All that kind of stuff,.

It is truly a blessing.

So before we begin,.

Before we look at today's text, which we're gonna be in Job chapter 24 through chapter 25, we're taking those large bites of scripture, as we understand this is one conversation with Job and these friends, all taking place right there and then.

So let's go ahead and pray first of all, and then we will look and see what the text has before us today. So let's go ahead and pray. Lord God, I do thank you Lord, again, for the little ones, the little feet that are running around.

In this church, Lord,.

We thank you for those that are in the process of learning to crawl and those that are in the process of learning how to run.

And be more coordinated, Lord,.

We thank you for even the aging saints in this room, Lord, God, we thank you for everyone that believes in you, everyone that's being discipled, everyone that is being evangelized to.

Here in this room today.

God, I would ask that today, through the means of grace,.

One of the means that is the reading of your word, Lord,.

That we would be strengthened, that we'd be sanctified, Lord, that we would long for the day to be able to see you face to face, Lord. So God, as we come here before the book of Job, Lord, I ask that you would just help humble our hearts, keep our eyes attentive to your word, help us not be distracted from the things that we ought to be hearing today,.

And we say this in your name,.

Jesus Christ, amen. Job chapter 24 to chapter 25 is where we are at this morning. Again, it's always important to look at the context before we read any text in the Bible. We should know who is speaking, what is being said, why it's being said, the years, the dates, all those kinds of things are important for us.

And so again, Job is in the middle of his conversation with his friends. He's in the middle of several lengthy debates,.

I would call them,.

These diatribes where his friends are being insultful to him, reminding him of the loss of his family. We would even see that as Job is terribly grieved right now in the midst of this conversation because of why he's lost his seven sons,.

His three daughters,.

He's lost all his possessions, which is meaningless in comparison to losing his family, but still all these things are stacked up against him in his life. And now Job is now continually being persecuted by these supposed friends that sat there with him for seven days in the midst of these grieving and hardship.

Chapter 24 through chapter 25, what we're gonna see in this text is the finishing remarks from Job to his friend, Eliaphus, the last time that Eliaphus is seen talking in this book. And in chapter 25, we're gonna read, it's gonna be a short chapter for us.

It's the last time that Bildad responds to Job. And so if you would look at it, you would notice that this is chapter 25 where we're at and the book ends in chapter 42. And so you might be thinking that's a long time to not hear from these friends again.

And it is going to be a little bit of a lengthy response that we see from Job going from chapter 26 all the way to I believe chapter 32, when then all of a sudden we're introduced to this fourth, more mysterious friend.

In this conversation that then we'll go ahead and speak.

Last week, again, before we look at this, we should remember and hear the words from Eliaphus, his supposed friend, who just happens to have a very similar theological position to so many of today about how it's ultimately up to Job for him to turn his own fate around.

This kind of thinking that everything is boiled down to Job's suffering as evidence of him having unrepentant sin in his life is the argument from Eliaphus.

And so in that kind of thinking,.

In that kind of folly of a way to rationalize the world around us, Eliaphus tells Job that he is to elevate God to that position of honor, that he is to take the gold of his household to silver, he's to bury it and that by doing such.

That then therefore Job can take God.

And place him in that position. And again, I think it's remarkable when we consider the way that Job responds to Eliaphus, especially in considering that situation he's in. He says, no, I am the one that's being tested right now.

I'm the one that will come forth as gold. Job is very assured about that. And this is a remarkable saying, I think for any saint of the faith, when we consider this, that here is this man in the midst of grief, but he's adamant.

This is a discipline from the father. This is a testing of my faith. This is something that as the metal would go into the fire and it would be refined and shaped into the image that the one that's lighting it on fire would desire that he's sure of that, that he will come forth refined as gold.

And so that would come from chapter 23, verse 10.

Let me read it again for us.

It says, but he knows the way I take when he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. Now, when we look here at chapter 24, chapter 25, I wanna remind us again, as it's been a little while since we've talked a little bit about the hermeneutics about this book, but when we read any book of the Bible, we have to read it knowing that it's inspired of God, knowing the proper interpretation of the word.

I wanna, I don't typically do this, but I think that this is pertinent for our study of the book of Job. This week, I wanna share an example to us about how, when we wrongly interpret a scripture, it can be not great for us, right?

The Danger of Misreading Scripture

So this week, I got off of work on a Wednesday morning. I came home and I found on our refrigerator door a Bible verse that my wife had written and posted there on the refrigerator. And you might think in the back of your head,.

Well, what's wrong with that, Brayden? There's nothing wrong with that.

It just so happened to be, though, that the text that you'd written up on the refrigerator was 1 Timothy chapter three, verse two through three, which is an overseer must be above reproach. And so great Bible verse, right?

Absolutely great. But Brayden coming home on his first day off, and I'm typically a little bit more in a grumpy mood on my first day off after getting no sleep.

I'm thinking that my wife is kind of giving me an underhand nudge that I should be nice to her today.

And not be as grumpy as what I typically am. And so I say, Emily, what's up with this on the refrigerator? And she says, oh, I just thought that would be a really good reminder.

I was like, oh, so I'm correct in my thinking.

Of why she put this on the refrigerator. And so I said, oh, so you think it would be a good reminder? And she said, yeah, I think it would really help.

And I'm looking at it and I just, okay, I see how it is. And I mean, this is all happening in a matter of seconds,.

But it's all in my mind how this is happening. And it comes to find out that that's Shepard's memory verse.

For Adventure Club today.

And so she was in reference to Shepard,.

But you can see how we can look at the word of God.

That is true and inspired and infallible, God breathed. And if we have a wrong understanding of its application, we can wrongly apply that in our lives in every shape, form, and fashion. When I thought my wife was trying to give me a wonderful reminder of how I should treat her, which is true, I shouldn't be as grumpy as I do.

On my first day off.

I was convicting in that way. We need any text that we come to, we just have to look and seek for the true interpretation.

It's not enough just to say,.

I'm gonna read every single verse of the Bible. If we read every single verse of the Bible and we misapply it, we misinterpret it, it's still folly to us, it still is not true for us. So when we look here at chapter 24 to 25, the issue when it comes to the book of Job.

Is that many of us might have study Bibles.

Or commentaries that we use when studying God's word. And I'm telling you right now, if you open up any of those commentaries and you compare them with each other, especially in the book of Job, there's gonna be disagreements on what the book teaches.

Many of the commentaries would argue that Job is a false convert in the early chapters. Many of them would say that both what Job and the friends are saying is true and that it's just that one side or the other, whether it's Job or whether it's the friends would say that they have the wrong intentions.

And I think so far as we've looked through this book,.

We've seen the true interpretation. And the reason I'm telling us this is that when we look at the words of Job, especially even from last week to today, we need to look and see that Job is correct in many of his statements he's made.

He's been wrong and he's erred in some of them, especially in the chapter, I think it was chapter eight or seven, where he says, Lord, it would have been better if I had died in my mother's womb.

Job is wrong on that.

Why? Because he's elevated himself to the sovereign. He's the one that's saying, I know the better plan. God, you've brought me to this point in my life. You're testing me, but I know the better plan.

That was wrong of Job to say that kind of thing. He gets rebuked for it. But in the ways that he admits God's sovereignty, he's never rebuked over those things from God. In fact, again, Job is not a false convert.

How can we say that? Because we have a greater picture of the story. Back in chapter one, verse 22 through 23, we would see that he says, blessed be the name of Yahweh, the one who gives and the one who takes.

Blessed be his name. And then right after that, we have commentary from the inspired author of the book of Job who says, in such things, in such words, he never sinned against God. And earlier on in the chapter, we would see that he's confessed and professed as being a believer in Yahweh, someone who's upright and righteous, and that's coming from the words of God.

So when we read this book, what do we see in this?

A believer in Yahweh who confesses God is sovereign, that he has taken, that he has given, and he does not sin when he says this. And so when Job admits to the sovereignty of God, admits to the provision that he is being tested and that he's gonna come forth as gold, is that fitting with another section of the scripture where it says he did not sin?

Yes, it is. So that's a truthful statement. That needs to be the guidelines for us.

And even in this,.

In fact, we haven't even read any chapter 24 and 25, but just follow me real fast to chapter 42, verse seven with me real fast. Job chapter 42, verse seven. Again, we understand that Job is rebuked by God.

We understand this, but what exactly did Job err in? Verse seven, it says this. Now it happened after Yahweh had spoken these words to Job that Yahweh said to Eliaphus, the Temanite, my anger burns against you and against your two friends because you have spoken, you have not spoken of me that is right.

So let's pause here and just think, is what Eliaphus, Bildad, and Zophar said, is it true and accurate to who God is? It's not. They are rebuked by God about it. But listen then what the verse then says, as my servant Job has.

So in the ways when Job describes the sovereignty and providence of God, is it correct in the ways that he's confessed it? Yes, it is.

It is true because he's not rebuked.

Over some of those words that he says. So now let's go back to chapter 24 through 25. So again, that's the guideline. That's how we need to understand this book when we read this. Why do I bring this up today?

Because I think the value in this chapter, the value of understanding this with Job amplifies the application of the life of Job in our own lives, this historical man who suffered these things. Job then therefore, if we understand that he was a believer in chapter one, that he's a believer in chapter 42, that he's a believer that's being tested.

There's a wonderful book,.

I actually brought it with me today,.

Called Pilgrim's Progress. And it's a book written by a man named John Bunyan. And in this book, he talks about how there's this man that's having this dream of a Christian, a pilgrim passing through this world.

And he describes an analogy and symbols, all these ways that Christians suffer in this world and how they struggle with sin and how they're persecuted and how there's trials and tribulations. John has recently been reading that book and it's a wonderful, it makes you really think, does it not?

He's shaking his head yes, he's in the back so many of us can't see, but it's this wonderful picture of a Christian's life that is to remain faithful in God.

And so when we think about Job,.

Job is this picture of a pilgrim passing through the world.

In one of the chapters of that book, it talks about how this man named Christian is the main character in there, that he walks through the valley of the shadow of death and that he's armed with a sword called all prayer.

He uses that to fight off these demons, this demonic activity in this book that's painted for us as persecuting him. And he says that even though he's yielding the sword, the demons seem to get stronger and stronger as he passes through it, but that he's assured that Yahweh is my shepherd and I will not fear.

What do we have here in the book of Job?

Persecution upon persecutions, the demonic activity keeps on pressing up against Job, even though he's in the midst of confessing truth, where is Job's ultimate light at? It's Yahweh is my shepherd, shall not want, shall not fear.

And so that should be very pertinent to us, right? Before we enter into persecution and suffering,.

Are we pilgrims?

Are we having faith in Yahweh as the way that he's described himself to be? And then when the persecution hits, the suffering happens in our lives, maybe we're in the midst of it right now,.

What can our profession be?

God is testing me and I will come through this as gold because God is the one that's shaping me, I'm his vessel, he's the sovereign in my life. That's what the book of Job should paint for us when we read this.

And so again, Job is responding to this friend, Elias who is very adamant,.

Job, you are a sinner,.

Job, God wouldn't bring us against you unless you had sinned against him. So now we see this and how Job is responding.

The Wicked Prosperity and the Light of God

Let's look here at verse one.

It says, why are times not stored up by the Almighty? And why do those who know him not behold his days? Job is saying in here, and it's gonna explain this later on here. In this text, Job is saying how Elias, there's people that are living today that are wicked beyond belief.

And yet they're living in prosperity and it would appear that in their life, Yahweh, the Almighty is not pouring out judgment.

Upon them actively.

It appears like this. And this is so true for us today when we think about that, even in the prosperity gospel movements, all these false gospel movements, people that are wicked beyond belief, they're given a platform.

They have this supposed blessedness in their life of possessions and value and monetary gains. But in reality, these prosperity gospel individuals that say that you can name it and claim it and that you can send me a hundred dollars and therefore you'll get a thousand return.

What they're really just doing is peddling the doctrines of hell that lead the adherents there. So let's look here now and see the realities of what was in Job's day that he was able to recognize that is very pertinent and true for us in our day.

Some move the boundaries. They seize and devour flocks. This is, again, he's speaking of the wicked ones that seem to not have the judgment of God cast upon them in this life. They drive away the donkeys of the orphans.

They take the widow's ox for a pledge. They push the needy aside from the road. The afflicted of the land are made to hide themselves altogether. They go forth seeking food earnestly in their work. The desert becomes, the desert, excuse me, the desert becomes for him a place of bread for his young ones.

They have harvest, their fodder in the field and glean the vineyard of the wicked. They spend the night naked without clothing and have no covering against the cold. They are wet with the mountain's rain and hug the rock for want of a shelter.

Others snatch the orphan from the breast and against the afflicted they take a pledge. Those poor ones walk about naked without clothing and hungry ones carry the sheaves. Within the walls they produce oil.

They tread wine presses but thirst from the city men groan and the souls of the wounded cry out yet God does not pay attention to such events. We'll make mention here in the last verse.

Again here in a moment.

But is it not true that we see that in our lives today that there seems to be these people that have true mighty faith in God and yet they're the ones that suffer. Our mind should take us as we may mention people in Israel today, not in Israel, excuse me, in China today that are suffering underneath tyranny in these grotesque and miserable conditions.

True believers in Yahweh that suffer.

We cannot have the type of idea.

That the way that we tell the believers by their based off their possessions and their blessedness in this life. That's not the way that we can tell true believers. In fact, often it's quite the opposite.

How much do we suffer for the kingdom of God? How much do these ones that seem to not be vindicated in this life, how much do they hold even firmer to the faith in Christ?

But at the same time, we also see.

That those that are blessedness,.

Those that have prosperity in this life, is that an indicator of true faith in Yahweh?

No, it says in here that the murderer gets away,.

The one he snatches the orphan off the mother's breast and there's nothing that happens to it for it. It's this seemingly injustice to us that takes place. And then you can almost hear again, this is a pilgrim passing through that we're talking about here.

This is a pilgrim Job that's suffering.

In the midst of his suffering, you can almost then imagine why he would say, yet God does not pay attention to such offense.

It doesn't burden Yahweh beyond.

What he's already sovereignly decreed. This is a man that's trying to rationalize, why did God take my children? Why did God have them die?

This would be a question that we would say.

That this seems like a reasonable thing for a man who's suffering to ask. Yet God does not pay attention to such offense. The injustice is that he's just made wrenching up. Let us continue as we think that's again, this is the mind of Job suffering.

The mind of Job that is in the midst of severe hardship. He's trying to wrestle with these things, but still be faithful in his declarations of who God is.

Let's look at verse 13.

Others have been with those who rebel against the light. They do not want to recognize its ways nor abide in its paths.

Let's read that again.

Others have been with those who rebel against the light. They do not want to recognize its way nor abide in its path. Again, we look at this Job character and he's one of the oldest historical figures.

That we have in the Bible for us.

He has limited revelation that's been given to him. We have all 66 books in the Bible, he had none. He couldn't open up to Genesis and read about it. He didn't have those things. So he has limited revelation about the character of God.

Notice in here, he says, these are the individuals,.

Those that are the murderers, those that are the ones that are afflicting the wicked.

Or the widows, the wicked that are afflicting the widows.

All these individuals,.

They are the ones that rebel against the light. They do not recognize its ways nor abide in its paths, meaning that they're not walking in true light. This is very, very similar to some New Testament language.

That we would have.

Look at 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14. 1 Corinthians 2, 14, if you'd like to turn there, you can. It says, the natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God, for they are folly to him and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned or spiritually blinded.

They don't even understand the things of God,.

These wicked individuals.

Those that don't walk in the light, they don't understand it. They cannot. Immediately, our minds should take us to Ephesians 2. We've been looking at that text over and over and over again in our Bible studies, that children of wrath, those that are dead in their sins, they cannot appease God in anything that they do.

Why? Because they are continually walking in trespasses. John 3, verse 19 through 20 says this, and this is the judgment that light has come into the world and men love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil.

For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed. Again, what has Job just said for us years before the gospel of John was ever written? Others have been with those who rebel against the light.

They do not want to recognize it, meaning there's no desire inside of them. It's not there, it's not present. There's this cessation of ability.

To be able to come to the light.

They do not want to recognize its ways nor abide in its paths. Let's look back here at chapter 24 and keep on looking through this. This is, again, I think we're gonna see this even more in this chapter.

Job is able to profess in prophetic utterance some truths about God that have yet to be revealed.

To anybody prior to him and it's remarkable.

He then says, the murder arises at dawn. He kills the afflicted and the needy and at night he is a thief. The eye of the adulterer keeps watch for the twilight saying no eye will see me and he keeps his face hidden.

In the dark they dig into houses, they shut themselves up by day. They do not know the light. We can pause here for a moment and say, does sin happen in the daylight?

Yes, it does.

But the picture of what's being done here is that these protests, things are being hidden by the night. These are individuals that don't wanna be exposed in life. They wanna reject the things of God. They don't want to come to truth.

For the morning is the same to him as the shadow of death. For he recognizes the terrors of the shadow of death. So the things for you and I, when we talk about the shadow of death, again, this is years before the book of Psalms in that chapter 23, the valley of the shadow of death.

These things that are for believers terrifying for us. It says that in reality for the murderer,.

For those that are the adulterer, for those that are in the dark,.

Coming to the light for them is like the shadow of death for us. They wanna avoid it. They do not seek after it. This person who loves the dark, who lives in the dark, why would they wanna come to the light?

They are insignificant on the surface of the water. Their portion is cursed on the earth. They do not turn toward the vineyards.

Again, we think about the wonderfulness.

That is these prophetic utterances of Job. We think about. We've been in conversation with wine here recently. Israel in the Old Testament all the times has talked about the vineyard, the vineyard workers in Isaiah.

That's what it would refer to them as.

It's remarkable that here's Job, a person that's not an Israelite because it's before that time and place.

And those things took place.

And he says, they do not turn towards the vineyard.

In John chapter 15, you would have Jesus himself who says, I am the vine. I am the true vine. My father is the vine dresser. He is the one who cleans the vine.

Those that are cast out, those that are cut off,.

We're never really a part of the vine,.

But you to the apostles, he says, you are already true.

You are already clean.

You're ready for ministry.

Why?

Because you're a part of the vineyard.

So acknowledging here, Job has said,.

These people are not a part of the light. These people will do not go to the vineyard.

Jesus says, you hate the light.

You're not a part of the vine. It's remarkable when we consider.

This is being said by Job.

Drought and heat seize the snow waters. So does Sheol, those who have sinned. We did a call to worship today from Romans chapter six, verse 23, for the wages of sin is death. What is the great equalizer between both the wicked and the righteous in this text?

Both, go to Sheol, both die, both suffer,.

Expect what we talked about even with the children today. Both suffer death, a separation of soul and flesh.

They both suffer it.

So Job is saying in here,.

Eliaphus, look, the righteous, they die too. They suffer too, but so do the wicked.

The ones that seem to have prosperity in the life, they ultimately will go to the same place as well. They're gonna die and go to the grave. A mother will forget him. The worm feasts sweetly till he is no longer remembered.

And unrighteousness will be broken like a tree. He feeds on the barren woman who does not give birth.

And does no good for the widow.

So what happens in this great equalizer? People will forget about who you are. The wicked that seem to prosper, it's okay, give it a hundred years, no one's gonna remember that person. There is no honor in that person.

Listen here to verse 22 and 24 to 24. But he, so now listen to those pronouns in the Amen and your translations. You should notice that the pronoun he is capitalized as speaking about Yahweh, but he drags off the mighty by his power.

He rises, but no one believes in his life. He provides them with security and they are supported and his eyes are on their ways. They are exalted a little while, then they are gone.

Moreover, they are brought low.

And like everything gathered up, even like the heads of grain, they are cut off. Remember back in chapter, I believe it was chapter 19, Job says, my redeemer lives. Again, this prophetic utterance. Job has never heard the name Jesus.