Sunday Morning Service (Job 8-10)

Job 8-Job 10

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“Shoe Height Theology” •  2.14.21  •  Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service

Intro.

- Job's response to Eliphaz has concluded and one would think that further discussion would have been unnecessary. Job has made himself clear. His actions have not brought on this calamity.

- Unfortunately, his friends have not chosen to yield their position. They are not only intent upon proving Job wrong, but also coercing him to adopt their worldview and theology.

- Job is barely finished when Bildad the Shuhite tags in to bring his friend to his senses. V. 1.

Text

• 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? 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." : Bildad has no time or gift for tact. He's a blunt hammer, a person who is as black and white as one can get! Job's words are reduced to the musings of a windbag!

- Bildad's questions are rhetorical. His sharply delivered point is that God doesn't change His standards of justice for anyone! He doesn't undermine or twist His judgments!

- Bildad wants to correct his friend and at the same time, cause Job to face the truth. Eliphaz suggested that it was Job's sin that had caused his children's death. That wasn't true.

- Bildad understands that it was his son's sins that had done them in! Their sins have found them out! They have been cast away on account of their own transgression.

- Could Job, as a parent, have been in denial about the state of his own kids? That is not outside of the realm of possibility with some parents, who are shocked that their kids ever sin!

- Job doesn't seem to be this kind of parent. The picture we get is closer to the other side of the spectrum. He seems to have been exceedingly cautious regarding the spiritual state of his kids.

- Once again, Bildad leans heavy upon assumption and dogmatically upon his tainted theology! The only recommendation that he can give is for Job to repent before the Lord!

- Beg His forgiveness and if he was found to be "pure and upright," God would "awake" for him! He would once again concern himself with restoring Job to his rightful place.

- What wakes God up is when people rush into His presence with penitence. For them, He is roused and begins to enrich. Things might start out small, but they gradually increase.

- Bildad doesn't know it, but he is actually prophecying what will happen in Job's life, albeit, without Job repenting for an initial, causal transgression!

- Job's latter end, well after this story, will be one of great abundance. Where does Bildad get this theological confidence from? Verse 8.

• Job 8:8-19 : "For inquire, please, of the former age, and consider the things discovered by their fathers; For we were born yesterday, and know nothing, Because our days on earth are a shadow. Will they not teach you and tell you, and utter words from their heart? Can the papyrus grow up without a marsh? Can the reeds flourish without water? While it is yet green and not cut down, it withers before any other plant. So are the paths of all who forget God; And the hope of the hypocrite shall perish, whose confidence shall be cut off, and whose trust is a spider’s web. He leans on his house, but it does not stand. He holds it fast, but it does not endure. He grows green in the sun, and his branches spread out in his garden. His roots wrap around the rock heap, and look for a place in the stones.  If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’ Behold, this is the joy of His way, and out of the earth others will grow." : Eliphaz had rooted his theology in personal experience, practical and spiritual. Bildad roots his counsel in tradition. "Listen to the previous generation. Listen to what they have learned!"

- Bildad's generation knew only a fraction of knowledge pertaining to God and most of them, based on what he has said thus far, knew only a fraction of that fraction!

- Every one of us is saddled with our own youth. We are all novices when it comes to truth. Thankfully, we have the wisdom of God's Word to interpret history. Bildad did not!

- He is stuck with tradition and fills in the holes with natural science. The existence of these plants, papyrus and reed, pointed to a root system and environment where they could grow.

- They are there looking quite healthy until the day that they are cut off. They wilt and perish. So are those who forget God! They are here, looking strong and mighty, and are gone tomorrow!

- If you divorce these words from their context, much of what Bildad is saying is true! Those that remove God from their minds, will eventually wilt before the heat of His judgment.

- The hope of the hypocrite, his belief that somehow, God will be fooled by the part that he has played, will perish before his eyes! His self-confidence will evaporate and his trust will be flimsy!

- The godless in their darkness, have believed their hope to be a sturdy rope, but the light of God reveals it only to be a silky spider's web! What a picture!

- For a time, the ungodly spring up to life and seem as though they will last forever, that God is powerless to stop them, but ultimately they are uprooted, never to be seen or heard from again!

- When one wicked person is done away with, another springs right up to take his place!

- All of this is true except that it doesn't apply to Job's case! Job had not forgotten his God, nor had he played the hypocrite, but that is the ever present implication of Bildad's theology.

- He cannot stand to think of God as being bigger than his tradition or observation! Verse 20.

• Job 8:20-22 : "Behold, God will not cast away the blameless, nor will He uphold the evildoers. He will yet fill your mouth with laughing, and your lips with rejoicing. Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the dwelling place of the wicked will come to nothing.'" : God will never reject or despise the blameless nor will He ever lend strength to those who are committed to evil.

- Bildad assures Job that there are better days ahead, days filled with laughter and rejoicing. God will shame those that hate him and will bring their dwelling place to the ground.

- These words are true, even though Bildad misapplies them. The righteous are hated by the wicked and one day they will be clothed with their own shame for their foolish rejection of God. Ch.9.

• Job 9:1-13 : "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? He removes the mountains, and they do not know when He overturns them in His anger; He shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble; He commands the sun, and it does not rise; He seals off the stars; He alone spreads out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea; He made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the chambers of the south; He does great things past finding out, yes, wonders without number. If He goes by me, I do not see Him; If He moves past, I do not perceive Him; If He takes away, who can hinder Him? Who can say to Him, ‘What are You doing?’  God will not withdraw His anger, the allies of the proud lie prostrate beneath Him." : It seems as though Job interrupts Bildad. He understands where he is coming from and agrees that what he is saying is generally true.

- Job wants to lead him to ask the next question though. What would happen if a righteous person had received an unrighteous person's penalty? What if "justice" was not served?

- In this section, Job is both answering his friend's statements, while also painting the picture of setting a legal precedent in the case of "righteous man v. God."

- If Job could lodge a complaint against God, how could it ever be possible to succeed?

- As he considers what he has seen in his life, the truth is apparent: Nobody has ever fought against or hardened their hearts against God and found themselves on the winning side!

- God is mightier than men and he exerts control over the entire universe! Mountains move at the sound of his voice. This might refer to the story of the flood from Genesis 6.

- Without God's permission, the sun will neither rise or set! The distant stars are subject to Him, the mighty sea surrenders to His will. God is the one who ALONE spread out the heavens!

- Job believes in creationism and speaks of a time when the Creator will literally tread upon the waves of the sea, the sea of Galilee to be specific!

- This God is transcendant, a God of wonders beyond our discovery and yet, for all of His might and grandeur, He could walk right by Job without him noticing a thing!

- Job wouldn't be able to see Him, much less stop Him or accuse Him! Will you grab God by the arm and question what He does? How long do you think that would last before you vaporized!?

- When God gets angry with someone, there isn't an a well placed friend in the universe that can stand in to help! All would bow in terror before Him! Verse 14.

• Job 9:14-18 : "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." : Job recognizes that a legal encounter with God would be an utter nightmare. For one, even if there wasn't anything to point to in his character, how could he defend himself?

- He rightfully concludes that he could only beg for mercy! When he considers all that he knows of the greatness of God, this is the most logical course of action.

- If God is all knowing, all powerful, holy and righteous, a human's only hope is to fall upon His other characteristic of being gracious and merciful! Truly, every human being needs to hear this.

- A sinner's only hope is to discover the God of Mercy, whose grace is available through the agency of Jesus Christ! Fall upon His mercy while you have the chance!

- But even here, Job doesn't believe that summoning God would make much of a difference. God wouldn't give Job a hearing. Job lays out some of what has happened thus far.

- God has battered him with a storm and wounded him beyond measure and without relief.

- Job can't even catch his breath while being filled with bitterness. Certainly, what has happened to Job has happened without there being a chance to recover.

- That being said, what it has produced has come as a result of Job's decision. It has issued in bitterness and Job has chosen to foster that. Why?

- Job's problem isn't that any of this has happened. His problem is that he cannot identify the cause. God has done this without a cause. That isn't true, though it may feel that way.

- When God allows us to go through suffering, it is NEVER without a cause. That doesn't mean that our behavior has caused our suffering, demanding God's punishment, though that can be true.

- However, the causes may be entirely beneficial, cutting us off from a course that we would otherwise have taken or turning us from a relationship that might have ruined us!

- God doesn't need to tell us why He does what He does. We need to trust that He has our best interests in mind with ALL that He does! Job is missing that here. Verse 19.

• Job 9:19-24 : "If it is a matter of strength, indeed He is strong; And if of justice, who will appoint my day in court? Though I were righteous, my own mouth would condemn me; Though I were blameless, 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.'  If the scourge slays suddenly, He laughs at the plight of the innocent. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If it is not He, who else could it be?" : When Job offers Bildad the "tale of the tape," all of the odds are in the Lord's corner! If one looks at strength, God is strong. If one considers justice, who will judge against Him?

- Who is actually more righteous than God? Job realizes that in the light of God, he is the twisted one! He doesn't know himself in the way that God could know him!

- Just try to imagine how much sin that you have forgotten that God could easily bring up on your most righteous day! Thankfully, God chooses to forget in Christ!

- Ultimately, this is Job's conclusion: God destroys both the blameless and the wicked!

- Whether it be by a sudden plague or a long term transfer of power, God cannot be called to account for what occurs on this planet. Job says that He mocks the plight of the innocent.

- That isn't the truth, though it feels like it to Job. The entire earth is delivered over to the hands of the wicked. Who stands to reverse the issue? God keeps the judges from seeing!

- What other conclusion could there be to Job? At this moment, he cannot see anything different, though the Lord will teach us differently through the rest of the Canon.

- God's ways are past our finding out and His plans take years to accomplish. Verse 25.

• Job 9:25-31 : "Now my days are swifter than a runner; They flee away, they see no good. They pass by like swift ships, like an eagle swooping on its prey. If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face and wear a smile,’ I am afraid of all my sufferings; I know that You will not hold me innocent. If I am condemned, why then do I labor in vain?  If I wash myself with snow water, and cleanse my hands with soap, yet You will plunge me into the pit, and my own clothes will abhor me." : Again, Job is not telling us that his days are moving at break neck speed. As with the "Weaver's Shuttle," so with the "running man." The sprinter is near the end!

- Job sees his life as coming to an end, his days like ships that are there and then are not, like an eagle that swoops down to grab it's prey at 120 miles per hour and is then, gone from sight.

- How do you want to live out your last days? Job wonders if he should just put aside his complaint and just fake his way through to the end.

- But that doesn't seem to be a feasible answer to Job. He fears that what has come upon him will come upon him again. He's sure that God won't consider him innocent.

- Job knows that he had not done anything to this point, but has apparently been found guilty. How could he be declared innocent now and if he's condemned, what's the point of fighting!?

- There isn't a way that Job could avoid being sent away from God's presence. There isn't a water that was pure enough or a soap that was strong enough to cleanse him!

- Job has been a righteous man and that hasn't gotten him anywhere! He can't be more righteous than he had been! There is no way for him to "outdo" his previous performance! Verse 32.

• 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's enemy is not equal to him. God is not a man and cannot be coerced into a court appearance!

- The distance between God and man is as infinite as the space that God has stretched out with his hand! Job's God is so big, he cannot hope to wrangle with Him!

- For a moment in time, Job begins to wish for someone that could stand between them. What if there was an arbitrator, a go-between, a counselor that could connect the two?

- That is what Job needs! He needs someone who understands his plight and who alternately has the power to convey that to God! He would just ask for God to remove His rod from him!

- He cannot live under the tyranny that he feels. He wants to relate to God without fear.

- All Job sees between he and God is endless punishment and constant terror. Chapter 10.

• 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 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?" : Job is absolutely sick of his life and he won't hold back any longer! He'll give a free flow to his own bitterness and speak out his concerns to God.

- He wants to know why God has condemned him and why He continues to contend with him. Of course, we know God hasn't. The vacuum of God's silence is filled with Job's imagining!

- Our times of trial often give us the wrong impression of what is happening. All of this has been permitted, but none of it has been punitive!

- He only wants to know what God gets out of treating him like this? Why should he be oppressed and despised? Why should it seem like He is in favor of the wicked?

- Job essentially wants to ask God if He doesn't have anything better to do! "How many days do you have to do this? How many years will waste in putting me on trial?"

- He asks if God has eyes of flesh or if He has days like a mortal. Little did he know that God would put these exact features upon Himself, not to seek for his sin, but to save his soul!

- "None can save from the hand of God!" Oh, there is One that will save from the hand of God and it will be God Himself! Job can't understand this now, but he calls for it here! Verse 8.

• Job 10:8-17 : "Your hands have made me and fashioned me, an intricate unity; Yet You would destroy me. Remember, I pray, that You have made me like clay. And will You turn me into dust again? Did You not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews? You have granted me life and favor, and Your care has preserved my spirit. And these things You have hidden in Your heart; I know that this was with You:  If I sin, then You mark me, and will not acquit me of my iniquity. If I am wicked, woe to me; Even if I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head. I am full of disgrace; See my misery!  If my head is exalted, You hunt me like a fierce lion, and again You show Yourself awesome against me. You renew Your witnesses against me, and increase Your indignation toward me; Changes and war are ever with me." : Before God's hands had been against Job, they had been the creative force that brought him into being! God's hands had made and fashioned Job.

- Remember that this is one of the most ancient stories in the Bible and Job affirms the value of life within the womb. God shaped and fashioned Job there. Look at the details.

- Job knows his chemical composition is the same as the dust of the ground and his gestation as going from one form to another.

- Job, the person was formed with skin, sinews, bones and given life, favor and a spirit! Job is a person entrapped by the very beautiful process that he was created in!

- He's amazed that the God who would spend such care in his creation would be as committed to his destruction! "Lord, you are dealing with clay! Will you turn me into dust again!"

- His only conclusion is that God had a hidden purpose. God created Job and then waited for him to sin so He could pounce on him. Job concept of God understandably, makes him miserable!

- Job's head being lifted up had only made him a target of the Almighty. God repeatedly brings Job down with as many armies as God has charge of! Verse 18.

• Job 10:18-22 : "Why then have You brought me out of the womb? Oh, that I had perished and no eye had seen me! I would have been as though I had not been. I would have been carried from the womb to the grave. Are not my days few? Cease! Leave me alone, that I may take a little comfort, before I go to the place from which I shall not return, to the land of darkness and the shadow of death, a land as dark as darkness itself, as the shadow of death, without any order, where even the light is like darkness.’" : Job repeats the thoughts that he has already shared from chapter 3. He can't explain the purpose of his lfe!

- He wishes he would have died and then quietly been carried to the grave! Since that didn't happen, he just wishes that God would leave him alone! None of us can comprehend Job's lament!

- He uses 4 different words for darkness here at the end of chapter 10. They relate to "gloom," "shadow," "deepest night" and "disorder." If that isn't a happy refrain, I don't know one!

- If we were in Job's shoes, in perpetual pain, left without answers and with no completed canon of scripture, we would be as hopeless as our brother has become.

- Gratefully, you and I are armed to the teeth with truth that can lift us from all despair.

Conclusion
- As we close this chapter, we are keenly aware that Job was operating with half of a mind and less than half of a functioning body! He is wracked with physical pain and sore with mental suffering.

- We must always be aware that suffering twists our perceptions and clouds our judgment.

- Job wished that there was a mediator, a go-between, an arbitor that could bridge the gap between he and God.

- He wished that God could understand his skin and bones and see life through human eyes. What Job wished for, we celebrate every year when we proclaim the Incarnation!

- Jesus, the second person of the Godhead, took on human flesh and saw with His own eyes the plight of humanity. In His body, Jesus was exposed to every sorrow that a man can face.

- He too was betrayed by friends, subjected to pain though innocent and was actually forsaken by God when He took onto Himself the sin of the World! Why? So that He could be our Mediator!

• I Timothy 2:5,6 : " For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." : Jesus stands between God and Man because He is the GodMan! I leave us with the words of the writer of Hebrews.

• Hebrews 4:14-16 : "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." : Job's mediator is with us now, ready to communicate your heart to God and God's heart to you!