Sermon: Job and Self-Evaluation (Part Two): Perspective

Assumptions and Misconceptions
#1641
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 05-Mar-22; 82 minutes

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I have a little story for you today as I am want to do once every blue moon.

A young man named Dan walked down the street and into a park. He wore blue jeans and a T-shirt, and a ball cap pulled down low over his eyes. An old military surplus backpack hung from one shoulder. Scanning the park as he entered, he spied a tree-shaded bench near a fountain where several paths led off to distant recreation areas. So, tossing the backpack on the bench, he sat stretching his back and rolling his shoulders. Another man, Special Agent Carson Boyle, leaned against a tree not 50 feet from where Dan sat. Instead of his usual dark blue suit, a white shirt, and tie, he looked as if he had stepped off a golf course. He had been assigned to watch the area around the fountain with his partner, Special Agent Yvonne Hart, who sat on a blanket on the other side of the fountain, supposedly reading a book.

The FBI had been tipped off about an exchange of drug money for the latest in illegal private information-capturing technology. Nearby, Carrie Woodson stood behind her hotdog cart wiping her forehead with her sleeve. It was a bright, hot late spring day and business had been slow. Dan's tall, muscular build caught her eye as he headed for the nearby bench. She recognized the logo on his T-shirt advertising the new gym on Main Street and wondered if he worked there and had come to the park during his lunch break. She decided to walk over and see if she could entice him to buy a hotdog and a Coke. Before she could move, chaos broke out all around the fountain.

Dan had seen the pretty hotdog vendor look his way and he immediately thought a hotdog sounded good. When he reached for his wallet in his back pocket, the special agents sprang into action, drawing their guns, and running toward their suspect. At the same time from under the trees, rushed the entire local police force led by their aging captain, guns pointing at the FBI agents. Everybody was yelling, "Drop your weapons! Put your hands up!" Cool heads prevailed as the special agents raised their hands. They were quickly disarmed and a few minutes later, after they had produced their badges, their weapons were returned. It turned out that both agencies had been given the same tip and had set their traps separately. Nobody was happy since all the commotion had surely warned the criminals away. Worse, perhaps, was that the criminals had themselves provided the tip to send the law enforcement to the park while they conducted their illegal exchange elsewhere. Dan, hotdog in hand, laughed with Carrie about Keystone Kops and the dangers of living in a small town.

Now, the story, which I hope was at least slightly entertaining, is not as important as the characters' perspectives and assumptions. Dan was minding his own business, just taking a break from work in the park. He thought the special agents were just local citizens enjoying the sunny day. The two special agents assumed from Dan's dress and demeanor that he was preparing to do an illegal act. In turn, the police officers assumed the special agents, once they made their move, were actually the criminals. And finally, Carrie saw Dan as a potential customer and perhaps something more, but certainly not a crook.

Turn with me, if you will, to John the seventh chapter. We are going to hop, skip, and jump through this chapter. We will start in verse 10. Of course, this is about the time Jesus went up to the Feast.

John 7:10-12 But when His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. Then the Jews sought Him at the feast, and said, "Where is He?" And there was much murmuring among the people concerning Him. Some said, "He is good"; others said, "No, on the contrary, He deceives the people."

John 7:25-31 Then some of them from Jerusalem said, "Is this not He whom they seek to kill? But look, He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ? However, we know where this Man is from, but when the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from." Then Jesus cried out as He taught in the temple, saying, "You both know Me and you know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me." Then they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come. And many of the people believed in Him, and said, "When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?"

John 7:40-43 Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, "Truly this is the Prophet." Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "Will the Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?" So there was a division among the people because of Him.

Now, people make assumptions and snap judgments like this all the time. They did it even about Jesus Christ. We do it all the time. We assume an awful lot about people based on what we see or what we think we see. We assume things, even important things, based on a person's size, the way he dresses, his health and hygiene, his posture, his demeanor, his voice, his vocabulary, or any number of traits that we might be able to see in another person. Or we put several of them in combination. When we add in a certain situation that we happen to be at the time or what the other person seems to be going through, it often skews our perspective towards one perspective or another.

We make such assumptions and judgments on the fly based on our experiences, our education, our intuition, even our ethnicity, and various other things. We take all the evidence that we believe is available and we make a judgment—snap!—just like that, just like those people in the park did.

But what do we know? That is the question. What do we really know? Truth be told, it is not just some guy walking into the park that we make assumptions about. We make assumptions about our co-workers, our friends, our family members, based on an awful small amount of evidence, even though we know them well. We often get those things wrong. What makes us think that we can be just judges, if you will, about anything when all we have to go on is our five senses? We do not really know what is going on in a person's head and the things he might be going through. We are not in their heads. We cannot say with any certainty what that person has just come out of, what he has been thinking, where he is planning to go, what his goals and aspirations are.

So, we can say that we do not know really anything about another person with certainty. They are all guesses and we make an awful lot of assumptions based on those guesses. And even worse than the assumptions, is that we are often very free with criticism and advice—solicited and unsolicited—whenever the chance permits about something we do not know really anything about. But Jesus says, going back to John 7:24, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." How much have we, as God's elect, learned not to judge according to appearance. I dare say, being a pessimist like this, not very much. We are still acting like a whole bunch of other human beings, all eight billion of us, as Gary told us yesterday in the CGG Weekly, who make such snap judgments about people and situations uh based on nothing more than what they assume or think they see.

This sermon is Part Two of my series on Job and self-evaluation and we will consider Job and his three friends today, or I should say Job and his so-called friends. They make a good study of preconception, assumption, perspective, and judgment as they wrestle with Job's situation. And of course Job's situation is that he is ruined and bereft and covered with boils, sitting on an ash heap in the town dump. You cannot get much worse of a situation than that. But the three friends, and even Job himself to some extent, prove to be exemplars of humanity as we tend to get it all wrong about each other and about situations and we make things worse when we stick our noses into these kind of affairs.

Now, let us do a quick summary of Part One. I mentioned last time that Job is a special book in the Old Testament with, to me at least, similarities between it and the book of Hebrews as kind of outliers of higher theological content. The book of Job, though, is silent on Israel as most people would not expect it to be because the Old Testament is all about Israel and its relationship with God. But there is no Israel in the book of Job. Its history is not mentioned, its land is not mentioned, its people are not mentioned. The only part of Israel, if you will, that gets mentioned, and frequently, is Israel's God, because Israel's God is Job's God.

We understood that the book in general relates the story of a righteous but suffering patriarch who was a Gentile. He was not an Israelite. And the story gives Job's response to his situation, and this next phrase I am going to give you is very important, in light of his relationship with God. Now I said last time that the most vital takeaway from Part One is that the book of Job and God Himself as He makes comments within it, consistently describe Job as "blameless and upright." Or as I told you last time, that literally means "complete," that is, spiritually mature and straight. He was a guy that was about as righteous as you can get. We went to a couple of places where it shows that he was among the three most righteous men in the whole Old Testament, up there with Noah and Daniel.

So, we have to understand as we go through the book of Job that we are dealing with a person who is exemplary. He is righteous. He does not make many mistakes. He walks with God. He is someone that God Himself says very confidently is His servant. He calls him, "My servant Job" several times. He says about Job, "He fears God and shuns [or rejects] evil." So Job is a good guy. He is righteous. He does not have very many flaws. He obviously has some, I told you last time that he does admit his sin every once in a while. He has sins so he asked God's forgiveness. He, as the time was, would make sacrifices even if there was a thought that there might have been a sin committed, he would make a sacrifice.

We have to understand as we go through the book of Job, that this indeed is someone upon whom God has put His stamp of approval. Job has done everything God has ever asked him to do. He is not a sinner. We have got to understand that from the get-go, we are not dealing with a sinner here, we are dealing with a very complete Christian, if you will.

We also learned that the book of Job is composed of three parts. There is a very short prologue which were the first two chapters, which we went through last last time. There is a very long dialogue in the middle of the book, and finally, a short epilogue, which is only one chapter, chapter 42.

The long dialogue is where we are going to be today. It presents nearly 30 speeches from Job and his three friends, and then it goes on to Elihu, the young man that comes after Job finally stops talking, and God Himself. The dialogue is what we might call a colloquium. Those of you Latin experts, you probably know exactly what I am talking about. But a colloquium is literally in Latin a conversation. In our day, it is used as of like academic conferences of specialists on a topic. Where various ones get up and speak on their area of expertise. That is kind of what the dialogue of Job is: A colloquium where various people get up and say their piece. But it is a colloquium about the subjects of sin, righteousness, suffering, judgment, man's purpose, and most importantly, God Himself—His character, His excellence, His sovereignty.

That is what the book of Job is about. It is mostly about God and all these other ideas that come into our study of God. It is a very deeply theological book because that is what theology means. It is the study of God, and that is what happens in the book of Job.

Now, I want to warn you that the dialogue speeches, this colloquium, is really not a back and forth discussion or a debate. We should not look at it that way, we should not expect one speech to lead into another or that one speech will answer the one before. It just does not work that way. They are more like speeches in a rhetoric competition that aim to discover which speaker develops the best case. At least that is how the three friends tend to approach it. They have been thinking over this that week while Job has been sitting there silent in the ash heap; about how they are going to approach Job. And so they have come up with these various speeches, these ways that they could use all their rhetorical tricks to make the audience, the other friends, accept their view on the subject. So, you can see there is a bit of pride involved here. And it comes out in their speeches quite readily.

But really when you look at it as objectively as possible these speeches do not really contain any formal logic. Most of them are emotional and they are trying to convince a very emotional Job that he is wrong. That is how they come across. So we need to understand that in most cases we have to take these speeches separately and try to discover what one point the person is trying to get across to Job, or in Job's case, how he refutes these points and gives them his side of the argument. We just need to understand that we should not expect very much connection between these speeches as we go through them.

I am sorry, but I know this confuses things because we are not going to get something resolved and then we can move on to the next thing and work through this whole problem. It just does not work that way in the book of Job. The book of Job is just like, we will try this, this, that, and Job is saying, "No, this stinks, that's wrong. I'm mad at you. Why won't God come and just give me the answer? That's what I want." So we have to keep this in mind as we go through.

Speaking of Job in his speeches, they are very much different than his friends' speeches and it demonstrates when we recognize this, that it shows that he and his three friends are not on the same page. They are not even in the same county. They are way, way, way distance from each other. They talk to Job about God as they understand God. They are not perfect in their understanding, and they try to convince him that he must have sinned because he is clearly suffering. And so they equate the suffering with the punishment for sin. So their main thrust in all their arguments is that "Job, you need to confess your sin. You need to seek forgiveness from God, and repent."

That is it in a nutshell. You have got all those speeches, but basically you can put these as the point under every one of their speeches. That is the only way they see of resolving Job's problem because that is all they know. All they think about is the old way of looking at sin and punishment or goodness and blessing. That is the only way they can think. They have not moved beyond this idea that there could be suffering for any other reason than sin. So they are stuck on that.

Job, on the other hand, is not competing to make the best rhetorical case or even actually arguing any of any points. Well, you have got to understand that Job actually, I mean, he defends himself at times, but he is not really directly defending himself against them. This is what makes the book of Job so confounding to us because we expect things to link up and they are not linking up because they are like all talking at once and nobody is listening! Job is on a totally different subject than they are. Because instead of trying to give them answers, Job is trying to understand what is happening to him. And most importantly, why is it happening to him? That is what he is trying to figure out.

So his speeches tend to sound like he is talking to himself, like he is working through a problem, and he gives himself all these points and he comes up and says, "This isn't fair. I'm suffering! Why am I suffering? I still haven't figured out the the answer to it." So rather than answering them, he is just trying to work it through. And sometimes after talking to himself and getting no good answers, which is often the case, he speaks directly to God as if in a very emotionally charged prayer, almost standing defiantly and saying, "God I need an answer. Why aren't You talking to me? This is something I don't understand. And You're silent!"

He tells God very bluntly, almost dangerously bluntly when you are talking about who he is talking to, what he thinks and what he is feeling, even if it verges on the improper and the disrespectful. He is very honest with God. I did not say right, because some of his conclusions are quite wrong. And God takes him to task for that at the end of the book when he says, "Who is this person who doesn't know what he's talking about?"

So, he frequently asked things like, "God, why are You so much against me? What have I ever done to You to displease You? Why aren't you answering me, God? I've called you 50 times today and You've never picked up. Are You angry at me?" He sees the whole situation as unjust and mystifying. Now, he does not really accuse God of being unjust. Maybe not in so many words, but he says, "This isn't fair. I've done everything You asked. Why am I not receiving good but evil?"

But God does not answer. God does not even appear until chapter 38 and He finally says, "Okay, I've had enough, Job. Listen." And He gives what He does there in His speeches. But through this whole section of dialogue from chapter 3 all the way up to the end of where God speaks there in chapter 41, he becomes increasingly frustrated all the way through Elihu's speech. Elihu gives him some good stuff, but he wants to hear from God. And then God does respond and he then feels about this big because he demanded that of God. And of course he got quite an earful.

But as we go through the dialogue, you will see that he does become increasingly frustrated and his inner torment stems from the fact that for some reason his relationship with God has collapsed. That is how he perceives it. It is a misconception. He thinks that God has gone away from him. That is why I started the way I did. Assumptions, perceptions, judging, misconceptions, all of these things just dump out of the book of Job because we have to sort these things out, just like they did. Well, not exactly like they did. We live in nice houses and all that. They are sitting on an ash heap.

But we have to understand that this book is not giving us things straight. I do not know if you are aware of the literary idea of a narrator that you cannot trust. You are reading a book and this narrator who is taking you through this whole story, you suddenly find out in the next to the last chapter that this narrator has been telling you lies all along because he is the killer and he has been leading you through this garden party of clues and things trying to shield himself from the law. Just an example. That is kind of what we get in the book of Job; that we are not told exactly what is going on all the time because there is so many assumptions and misconceptions and such, that people are spewing in their speeches.

However, we do know the thing I told you last time. Job is upright. Job is complete. Job has not sinned in all of this. Job is God's servant. Job shuns evil, all those things. The things that God says, we can trust in this book. That is why I said that was the big takeaway. You need to understand how God looked at Job even with all the misconceptions and the wrong assumptions that come out elsewhere in the book.

Let us go to Job the third chapter and start in on these speeches. Now, I am not going to go through every speech. Do not do not worry, I will not drag you through them all. I just want to give you sampling from each speaker and Job's response so that we can try to understand their arguments and what is going on here. So this is Job's opening salvo to his friends who have been sitting there with him all week and he kind of gets the ball rolling.

Job 3:1-3 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job spoke and said: "May the day perish on which I was born, and the night in which it was said, 'A male child is conceived.'

Job 3:11 "Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?"

Job 3:20-22 "Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter of soul, who long for death, but it does not come, and search for it more than hidden treasures; who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they can find the grave?"

This guy is really low. He really would love to die because death would be a relief to him and at this point, he thinks it would solve all his problems.

Job 3:23 "Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in? For my sighing. . .

Actually the sighing is more like roaring. I mean we think of a sigh as "aahhh," but he is going, "AAAAHHHH!" if you understand the difference. The sighing kind of gives you an idea of almost contentment. But the idea behind this word is far different. He was frustrated to the point he was going, "AAAHHH, I don't understand!!"

Job 3:24-26 "For my sighing comes before I eat [Think about it. Normally you would, if you think of it as sighing, you would sigh after you ate rather than before.], and my groanings [that is a better word] pour out like water. For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, for trouble comes."

Verse 26 is very poorly translated. It should be these four staccato sentences, very short sentences that goes something like this. "I am distressed! I am not going to keep silent! Nothing allows me to have any rest! Trouble comes by the second [or trouble is always with me]!" or something along that line. Our English translation just does not give the feeling of what Job is going through here.

So in this speech, we see his frustrations come out immediately. He is very emotional because it appears to him as if his world has just turned upside down. I mean, think about it. Remember, he just lost all his kids, he lost all his wealth, he lost everything. The only one that is with him is was his wife and she said, "Curse God and die." I mean, that is not a whole lot of support. So what we see in chapter 3 is a very loud Middle Eastern lament. He is grieving, not just the loss of his children and his wealth, but he is grieving the loss of his own life. He feels like God should just have taken the next step and killed him.

But he is grieving his own life. The life of a righteous man with his God because he feels like God has gone away. So what is a righteous man without the source of his righteousness, His God? If God has gone away, his life is over. That is what he greatly feared—a life cut off from God. That shows you how righteous a man he was, how complete he was. He was mourning the fact that he no longer had God's favor. He thought, because of his trial, that he had somehow, as we would say, fallen from grace. And he did not know why. He could not understand. And now God, the only one who could give him understanding, was not answering. He would not give him any help.

Clearly Job was miserable. He saw no end to the suffering. He saw no end of the trial. He could imagine that God would never talk to him again. Never give him any answers. He was fit to be tied.

That is Job's opening salvo, if you will, to all these speeches.

We are going to read the whole of chapter 4. Just try to catch the essence of what Eliphaz is trying to say here.

Job 4:1-21 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: "If one attempts a word with you, will you become weary? But who can withhold himself from speaking? Surely you have instructed many, and you have strengthened weak hands. Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have strengthened the feeble knees. But now it comes on you, and you are weary; it touches you and you are troubled. Is not your reverence your confidence? And the integrity of your ways your hope? Remember now, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright ever cut off? Even as I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of His anger they are consumed. The roaring of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken. The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

[Then he switches a little bit here to another thought. Listen to what he says here.] Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it. In disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep sleep falls on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair on my body 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 saying, 'Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker? If He puts no trust in His servants, if He charges His angels with error, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before a moth? They are broken in pieces from morning till evening; they perish forever, with no one regarding. Does not their own excellence go away? They die, even without wisdom.'"

Eliphaz has said a mouthful here. Eliphaz was probably the oldest of his friends and so that is why he goes first. He receives kind of pride of place and he then gets first go at answering Job. Now it is interesting just for what it is worth, his name, Eliphaz, means "God is gold," gold like the metal. And they think it means that God is pure, is what his name means, or God is shining like gold, and God has glory. This man, Eliphaz, was almost certainly an Edomite. He may even be the Eliphaz mentioned in Genesis 36:4, who was the son of Esau and his son was named Teman. And here he is called directly Eliphaz the Temanite. Teman went out and built a city and perhaps he brought his dad to dwell in the city, so he became a Temanite. He lived in Teman.

Generally, just to tell you something about Eliphaz, from what we can get from Job, except for chapter 22, Eliphaz approaches Job as a pious man who has strayed. That is generally the way he looks on Job. That he is definitely a righteous man. But he has strayed and although he treats Job with a fair amount of respect, he shows him little compassion. Little compassion for Job, little compassion for the suffering he is going through. He is very direct, that is. So he respects him, speaks to him respectfully, but he is still convinced that Job is a sinner, a pious man who has strayed.

His argument (which we just went through, placed first, and it is placed first because it gives us a pretty good idea of the other two friends and their arguments as well, so it is kind of a summary), is essentially founded on cause and effect: what you sow is what you reap. It is a proper argument. I am not disrespecting the fact that they brought it up because it is a proper argument and Scripture endorses it in a lot of places. Let us go to a few. Here is one that probably everyone will know.

Jeremiah 17:9-10 [where God says] "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings."

But there is more. Let us go to Romans 2. It is found in the New Testament. Paul writes:

Romans 2:5-11 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will "render to each one according to his deeds": eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good, seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.

There is more. Go to chapter 6, verse 23 which we all know, memory scripture.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

And finally, let us go to Galatians 6:7. We read this quite frequently as well.

Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

So, it is a principle that is found throughout the Bible. I have just gone to four places here that has it. It is all throughout the Bible that if you sin, you are going to get death. There is a one-on-one correspondence between sin and death and that is just the way it is. Scholars call this principle retributive justice, that is, giving people their just desserts. Good people will receive blessings and evil people will receive curses and misfortune.

However, even though this principle is true, it is simplistic in this context of Job. I am pretty sure that God revealed it at a certain point in Old Testament history. But from a humanistic point of view, this concept is an attempt to answer the age old question of, why is there so much suffering in the world? Or put it this way, why do good people suffer? People were trying to answer this question way back, long before Abraham, and so this had come down in the culture as being the answer. If you do good, you are going to be blessed. If you do evil, you are going to be cursed. It is very easy to understand. And so if you saw somebody suffering, you can assume then that this person had sinned and since there is so much suffering in the world, there must be a whole lot of sins. And it is very difficult to do good and so there are very few that are actually blessed. That is just the way people worked it out in their minds without the revelation of God.

So the frequent answer to these questions is that all suffering must be caused by sin, perhaps hidden sins, perhaps sins that people do not even admit to themselves. Perhaps it is somebody else's sin, but you happen to get in the way of the curse that came from it. Eliphaz and his two companions, Bildad and Zophar, they insist that is what is happening to Job. That is their take. Job is suffering, he must have sinned. So they assume this and they make it their bedrock argument.

Let us go on to Job 42, verses 7 and 8. We are going into the epilogue here just to pick up something so that we understand that the three friends are wrong. That it is not retributive justice at all that is at play here. We are going to hear from God Himself on this subject.

Job 42:7-8 And so it was, after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite [the one we just read in chapter 4], "My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends [He does not even name them], for you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has. Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and My servant Job will pray for you. For I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly; because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has."

At the end of the book, we get God's evaluation of their speeches, as it were, and God says, "Thank you, Mr. Toastmaster. I've got to tell you though, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, you all fail because in your speeches you sinned time and time again because you didn't say what was right about Me." It is interesting to look at it that way. What we understand here by putting it together with all these speeches and such and this idea of retributive justice, is that it was not correct. Their arguments were wrong. God calls what they said or what they did folly. And that is actually a very bad translation of the term. It really means what they said, what they did was a disgraceful thing. It was vileness in His eyes—sin, in other words.

It was an abomination and it required a massive sacrifice to atone for it. Seven bulls, it says here, and seven rams. That is a mighty expensive offering for sin. Note what He says here: that they had not spoken of Me what is right. Some of their arguments may have been good ones to make Job think, but when they talked about God, they were wrong. Particularly they were wrong about God's character.

Now, this word verse 7 where it says that "you have not spoken of Me what is right," the word "right" actually means reliable or established or firm or true. They have not even gotten the basics right, if you want to look at it that way. They were telling lies about God. They had imputed God's character by assuming He was punishing Job for his sins. They thought they were trying to give Job an answer to the question when, at the same time, they were saying God is unjust because God was not punishing Job, not giving him suffering for sin. That is what they assumed. They thought God was justified for punishing him for sin. But the whole basis for it was that they were wrong.

And so they were basically saying that God is punishing him unjustly. Just put it that way. They were accusing Him of being unjust, robotically and unfailingly cursing Job for sin. But in fact, the truth was that He was doing good for Job. The sufferings that He was making Job go through were designed to help him grow spiritually so that he could reach his potential.

Let us go back to Job 13. In a way, we could say that Job here speaks for God.

Job 13:1-13 "Behold, my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it. [meaning their arguments] What you know, I also know [So he is saying we have a similar understanding here, at least a similar knowledge of what is going on.]; I am not inferior to you. [These were supposed to be wise men of the East and Job saying, "Hey, I'm at least equal to you. I'm on your par. I can understand these concepts."] But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God. [now he turns things back to them] But you [his three so-called friends], are forgers of lies, you are all worthless physicians.

Oh, that you would be silent [Shut up!], and it would be your wisdom! [He is saying that would be a wise thing. Take my advice.] Now hear my reasoning, and heed the pleadings of my lips. Will you speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for Him? Will you show partiality for Him? Will you contend for God? Will it be well when He searches you out? [They found out there in chapter 42 when He searched them out what was going on here.] Or can you mock Him as one mocks a man? He will surely rebuke you if you secretly show partiality. Will not His excellence make you afraid? And the dread of Him fall upon you? Your platitudes are proverbs of ashes, your defenses are defenses of clay. Hold your peace with me, and let me speak, then let come on me what may."

That is as far as we need to go. I actually went further than I wanted to.

In contrast to the three friends, Job knows that God is just. He understands God's character better than they do. He knows God is good and loving and even the sufferings He makes His people go through are not without a divine purpose. He just does not know what that purpose is for him specifically. And what he does know is that what he is experiencing does not square with his understanding of how God acts, because he did not know everything. He thought he knew how God acted and how He would react to certain things, but this was beyond his understanding.

Remember, I talked last time about God was trying to push him through the wall of his understanding and here he was bumping up against the wall and it was not making sense. And so he had to grapple with this question, "What is God doing here? Why is He doing it to me? What am I going to get out of this?" etcetera, etcetera. All the questions that we might ask about a situation that just totally perplexes us.

It is all about "why" to Job. He was content to suffer. He did not complain, really, about his suffering. It was there, he complained about the situation and why he was going through it, but he was willing to take what God dished out to him. He just wanted to know why! How do I deserve this? What am I supposed to learn from this? So he is just like a kid. You know, you grab a kid and you put him in something that he does not want and all he does is, its arms and legs flailing, and he does not know what to think.

That is kind of how Job is. He is in a situation where he is so uncomfortable because he does not know what is going on and why, what the purpose is. And though he questions God, sometimes alarmingly, frankly, and says some ignorant and emotion wrought inanities, if I can put it that way, which he actually goes on and says in this chapter, he never accuses God of sin through all of it. He never maligns God's character, even though he seems to be punching out in every direction, kicking and screaming because he is a very emotional man who just does not understand why.

Look at what he says in verse 20 here.

Job 13:20-27 "Only two things do not do to me, then I will not hide myself from You: withdraw Your hand far from me and let not the dread of You make me afraid. Then call and I will answer; let me speak, then You respond to me. How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my transgressions and my sin. Why do you hide Your face from me? Why do you hide Your face and regard me as Your enemy? Will you frighten a leaf driven to and fro? And will You pursue dry stubble? For You write bitter things against me, and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth. You put my feet in the stocks and watch closely all my paths. You set a limit from the soles of my feet."

There is not any untruth there, but he is very willing to go toe-to-toe with God, which is foolish, rather than the more humble attitude that God made him put on after His speeches in the later chapters of the book.

Let us go on to Bildad. It looks like we have time here. Back to chapter 8. Bildad, his name, if it were translated or written a little bit differently, would mean Baal Adad. It is names of two pagan gods and it basically means "lord of the storm." And it is kind of interesting that Bildad seems to be storming along here. But Bildad and his speech is no better than Eliphaz in his speech. Let us read the first seven verses here.

Job 8:1-7 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: "How long will you speak these things, and the words of your mouth be like a strong wind? [He is just saying, "You're a bag full of hot air."] Does God subvert judgment? Or does the Almighty pervert justice? If your sons have sinned against Him, He has cast them away for their transgression. If you would earnestly seek God and make your supplication to the Almighty, if you were pure and upright, surely now He would awake for you, and prosper your rightful dwelling place. Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would increase abundantly."

That is probably as much as we need to see here, because he plays basically the same song that Eliphaz does: Job needs to repent. That is what he says. And he is almost cruel, bringing up his sons and saying that they had died for their sins. Talk about touching on a touchy subject and trying to inflame Job's emotion here. But, in the end, his speech boils down to something like, "Just admit you're a sinner, Job. Get right with God. Then blessings will come in abundance." Talk about simplistic. That did not help Job at all. It just made him mad. Let us go down to chapter 9 where Job responds.

Job 9:1-4 Then Job answered and said: "Truly I know it is so, but how can a man be righteous before God? If one wished to contend with Him, he could not answer Him one time out of a thousand. God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against Him and prospered?"

So he knows that it is not good to take on God one-on-one and ask Him, you know, get into a debate with Him about his sins. He knows this, but it just does not register at certain points.

Job 9:14-22 "How then can I answer Him, and choose my words to reason with Him? For though I were righteous, I could not answer Him; I would beg mercy of my Judge. If I called and He answered me, I would not believe that He was listening to my voice. For He crushes me with a tempest, and multiplies my wounds without cause. He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness. If it is a matter of strength, indeed He is strong; and if of justice, who will appoint my day at court? Though I were righteous, my own mouth would condemn me; though I were blameless, yet it would prove me perverse. I am blameless, yet I do not know myself; I despise my life. It is all one thing; therefore I say, 'He destroys the blameless and the wicked.'"

Job 9:32-35 "For He is not a man as I am, that I may answer Him, and that we should go to court together. Nor is there any mediator between us, who may lay his hand on us both. Let Him take His rod away from me, and do not let dread of Him terrify me. Then I would speak and not fear Him, but it is not so with me."

Job 10:1-7 "My soul loathes my life; I will give free course to my complaint, I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will say to God, 'Do not condemn me; show me why You contend with me. Does it seem good to You that You should oppress, that You should despise the work of Your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked? Do You have eyes of flesh? Or do you see me as man sees? Are your days like the days of a mortal man? Are your years like the days of a mighty man, that You should seek for my iniquity and search out my sin, although You know that I am not wicked, and there is no one who can deliver from Your hand?'"

You see the confusion in Job. He just does not know what is going on. He admits that the principle of retributive justice is a correct one, but he emphasizes that it does not apply in his case because he has not sinned. There is something else going on here. God is good and righteous and wise, and knows Job's heart. He knows that he is as he said, His servant, and he is blameless and upright. So things do not add up. It is just generating more questions.

It is interesting to see how many of those things that he says here in what I read were questions he did not know the answer to. So he asks, why am I suffering? And he ends there in chapter 9 with the complaint that he cannot take God to court to find out. It is kind of like it is a shame we cannot just go down to the local courthouse together and sit down with a mediator between us and hash this out. But He is God and I am a man, and that will never happen, he says. The distance between God and mere humans like Job is too vast to bridge is the understanding at the time. And so he is more perplexed than ever because it feels like he will never get an answer.

Now, the last section there in chapter 9 is very interesting because the answer there would be Jesus Christ. He is the Mediator between God and man, but he did not understand that at the time. It had not been revealed to him and, what is more, the one who became Jesus was the one he had a contention with—the God of the Old Testament, who was putting him through this suffering. So it is kind of ironic there to see that the mediator he asked for would have been God Himself, but Christ had not come as a man and become the Christ at the time.

So, Bildad has the same old argument and it just frustrates Job to no end and he goes off on this long speech of, "I can't believe this is happening to me? And I don't know why. I didn't do anything wrong!"

Job 11. We are going to go on to Zophar so we do not get bogged down here. Zophar has a funny meaning to his name, if they are right. It is very uncertain about what it means, but it could mean chirper, like a bird chirps, a twittering bird, a chatterer. And perhaps by extension it means insolent or even a doubter. It could just mean a talker. But he goes even farther than the other two, than Eliphaz and Bildad. He actually retorts to Job's speech in anger because he thinks Job is complaining about God's treatment of him.

Job 11:1-20 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said: "Should not the multitude of words be answered? And should a man full of talk be vindicated? Should your empty talk make men hold their peace? And when you mock, should no one rebuke you? For you have said, 'My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in your eyes.' But oh, that God would speak, and open His lips against you, that He would show you the secret of wisdom! For they would double your prudence. Know therefore that God exacts from you less than your iniquity deserves. [nice friend] Can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than heaven—what can you do? Deeper than Sheol—what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. If He passes by, imprisons, and gathers to judgment, then who can hinder Him?

For He knows deceitful men; He sees wickedness also. Will He not then consider it? For an empty-headed man will be wise, when a donkey's colt is born a man. [That is badly translated. It should be when a donkey's colt is born tame. It was a wild donkey, he changed its nature.] if you would prepare your heart, and stretch out your hands toward Him; if iniquity were in your hand, and you put it far away, and would not let wickedness dwell in your tents; then surely you could lift up your face without spot; yes, you could be steadfast, and not fear; because you would forget your misery, and remember it as waters that have passed away, and your life would be brighter than noonday. Though you were dark, you could be like the morning. And you could be secure, because there is hope; yes, you could dig about you, and take your rest in safety. You would also lie down, and no one make you afraid; yes, many would court your favor. But the eyes of the wicked will fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope—loss of life!"

Like I said, why they call these guys his friends, I do not know. He just comes right out and says Job has committed some sin and he deserves his fate. Though Job may be blind to it, he says, God is certainly not. And Job's suffering is proof that God has determined that Job has sinned. So he says, just admit it. Like Bildad had said, just admit it and repent, and peace and blessing will return to you.

But then he turns the knife in Job's gut there saying that if he continued to deny it, his only hope would be death. I would not like to live within 200 miles of Zophar! Here they were, trying to comfort him, and they say things like that. So how does Job respond to that? Well, of course, he rises up like a man and responds with anger and sarcasm.

Job 12:1-14 Then Job answered and said: "No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you! But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Indeed, who does not know such things as these? [He says, Zophar, you have not told me anything I do not know.] I am one mocked by his friends, who called on God, and He answered him, the just and blameless who is ridiculed. A lamp is despised in the thought of one who is at ease; it is made ready for those whose feet slip. The tents of robbers prosper; and those who provoke God are secure—in what God provides by His hand.

But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; and the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; and the fish of the sea will explain to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this, in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind? Does not the ear test words and the mouth taste its food? Wisdom is with aged men, and with length of days, understanding. With Him are wisdom and strength, He has counsel and understanding. If He breaks a thing down, it cannot be rebuilt; if he imprisons a man, there could be no release."

Let me try to give you an understanding of what Job is saying here. First of all, like I said, he responds with a bit of sarcasm and anger because they are giving him nothing that helps. He accuses them of mocking him, of telling him things he already knew, of calling him a sinner without proof, and mischaracterizing God Himself. So, disgusted by his friends, beginning in chapter 13, verse 20, he begins at that point to take his case directly to God asking for an explanation because his friends have none.

Now, this pattern of what is going on here goes through the rest of the dialogue between Job and his three friends. And what we have, by the time we get to chapter 32, is a futile conversation. Nothing ever comes out of it. His friends provide no comfort. They become increasingly accusative and Job all the while just becomes more frustrated. They talk past each other and they resolve nothing. There is no breakthrough, no solution. By the time we get to the end of chapter 31, Job essentially tells his three friends, "You guys are useless. You've given me nothing that helps so I have nothing more to say to you. Go pound sand."

Let us go to Matthew the third chapter. We will finish up here and in another place. Same subject, you just have to go to two different places to find it.

Matthew 3:1-6 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.'" Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.

Let us move forward to Matthew 11. Right at the end of John the Baptist's life, John the Baptist's disciples had come to Jesus asking if He was the one to come and He tells them affirmative to see what is being done here.

Matthew 11:7-19 As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? And what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in king's houses. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet, for this is he of whom it was written: 'Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.' Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear! But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, and saying: 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we mourned to you, and you did not lament.' For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' But wisdom will be justified by her children."

Jesus uses John the Baptist to teach a very important principle. We often make significant errors in judgment about people because of our preconceptions, our assumptions, and our false expectations. John appeared to them as a bum, a hermit out of the wilderness, a wild man. He may have looked like that, but to the contrary, the Son of God says he was the greatest prophet of all. He was the looked-for Elijah to come.

And the same misconceptions were happening in regard to Christ. In fact, He accuses that entire generation of trying to make Himself and John conform to their expectations and not accepting them for what they actually were: the greatest prophet who heralded the Christ and the Christ Himself. Because they were looking at them with eyes that saw only the physical. In John's case, a hobo out in the wilderness who wore a leather garment, camel's hair clothing, and ate wild honey and locusts—and preached a strong message. And with Christ they saw a mere man who would associate with sinners. That is all they could see.

So He ends with some advice. It says here, "But wisdom is justified by her children." In another place, He said, "You will know them by their fruits."

Remember, this sermon series is called, "Job and Self-Evaluation." So in terms of self-evaluation, we must teach ourselves, force ourselves to drop our assumptions and expectations, misconceptions, the lies that we believe about ourselves, and focus on our fruit. That the fruit are the children of wisdom. When you do something right, it will produce fruit. When you are doing what is good and what God wants you to do, there is no way to stop the production of good fruit.

In other words, we have to begin to look at ourselves from the standpoint of reality, truth, what is. We have to look at what good we have produced, what growth we have shown, and make an honest evaluation whether that is enough. And at that point, the answer is always no. At that point, we have to figure out what can we do to produce more and better fruit that pleases God.

Get rid of the false comparisons and faulty misconceptions that cloud our judgment about ourselves. Get radical. See yourself as you are and go from there.

I wish you all a great Sabbath.

RTR/aws/drm