Thursday
Evening Bible Study
May
7, 2015
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it address the person who is: Empty, lonely, guilty, or afraid
to die? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk
– Meat – Manna Preach for a decision Is the church loved? Target 3300 words Video
= 75 wpm
Job is going through the worst time anyone could imagine.
He’s lost all his possessions.
His children have died.
His health has failed.
What makes all this even more confusing is that Job is a good guy.
God has decided to allow Job to go through this difficulty because He is
proud of Job, not mad at him.
God wants to show the world what a godly man will do when he is going
through a difficult time.
Keep a couple of things in mind as we study Job:
Sometimes Job is wrong in his conclusions.
Sometimes Job’s friends are also wrong.
They can even say things that are true, but they are just not true about
Job.
Be careful about building doctrine upon some of the things said in the book
of Job.
Neither Job’s words nor those of his friends are meant to build doctrinal
truths on.
They simply show us how people respond to difficulty.
Job has now heard from all three of his friends, and they all think that the
reason Job has problems is because he must have some sort of secret sin that
has caused it all.
Job responds
12:1-5 Job: You’re not that smart
:1 Then Job answered and said:
:2 “No doubt you are the people, And wisdom will die with you!
:2 wisdom will die with you
Job’s words are dripping with sarcasm.
He’s saying that his friends are claiming to have all the answers and know
everything.
Some people like to bully others with this kind of attitude.
Illustration
A big shot business man had to spend a couple of days in the hospital. He
was a royal pain to the nurses because he bossed them around just like he did
his employees. None of the hospital staff wanted to have anything to do with
him. The head nurse was the only one who could stand up to him. She walked into
his room and announced, “I have to take your temperature.” After complaining
for several minutes, he finally settled down, crossed his arms and opened his
mouth. “No, I’m sorry, the nurse stated, “but for this reading, I can’t use an
oral thermometer.” This started another round of complaining, but eventually he
rolled over and bared his behind. After feeling the nurse insert the
thermometer, he heard her announce, “I have to get something. Now you stay JUST
LIKE THAT until I get back!” She leaves the door to his room open on her way
out. He curses under his breath as he hears people walking past his door,
laughing. After almost an hour, the man’s doctor comes into the room. “What’s
going on here?” asked the doctor. Angrily, the man answers, “What’s the matter,
Doc? Haven’t you ever seen someone having their temperature taken before?”
After a pause, the doctor replies, “Yes, but never with a daffodil!”
:3 But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to
you. Indeed, who does not know such things as these?
:4 “I am one mocked by his friends, Who called on God, and He answered him,
The just and blameless who is ridiculed.
:5 A lamp is despised in the thought of one who is at ease; It is
made ready for those whose feet slip.
:5 A lamp is despised
The word for “lamp” could also be translated “misfortune”, and a better
translation would be:
(Job 12:5 ESV) In the
thought of one who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune; it is ready for
those whose feet slip.
The idea is that Job’s friends just have easy lives, and they don’t
understand the troubles that others around them might be going through.
They just assume that people going through trouble are those whose feet
have “slipped”, who have screwed up their own lives.
12:6-11 Job: Bad people prosper
:6 The tents of robbers prosper, And those who provoke God are secure— In
what God provides by His hand.
:6 The tents of robbers prosper
Job is pointing out to his friends that in real life, there is much in life
that is unfair.
Those that commit robbery can be living quite well.
Lesson
Unfair
The Asaph the psalmist saw this as well:
(Psalm 73:1–5 NKJV)
—1 Truly God is good to Israel, To such as are pure in heart. 2 But as for
me, my feet had almost stumbled; My steps had nearly slipped. 3 For I was envious of the boastful, When I saw
the prosperity of the wicked. 4 For there are no pangs in their death, But their
strength is firm. 5 They are not in trouble as other men, Nor are they
plagued like other men.
This is one of life’s tough issues. We like to think that
nice guys always finish first, but it isn’t always so.
(Psalm 73:16–18
NKJV) —16 When I thought how to understand this, It was
too painful for me— 17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God; Then I
understood their end. 18 Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast
them down to destruction.
It’s when the Psalmist came into God’s presence that he
realized that the wicked were in a slippery place.
It’s in the end, when all men stand before God, that God
will straighten things out.
But for now, life can seem quite unfair.
:6 In what God provides
Job says the robbers prosper and are secure because of what God does for
them.
There is indeed “common grace” that God gives to all mankind, whether they
are good or evil.
Jesus said,
(Matthew 5:43–45
NKJV) —43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor
and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do
good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and
persecute you, 45
that
you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil
and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Jesus’ point was that if we want to truly be like God, we need to love and
do good to those who don’t deserve it.
God gives sun and rain (both are good) to both the just and the unjust.
But I’m not sure that Job means it in exactly this way.
He’s not focused on God being “good” to all people, but he’s fixated on his
idea that God is being unfair by letting bad guys have anything good.
Paul give us one clue why God is good to those who don’t deserve it:
(Romans 2:4 NKJV) Or do you
despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing
that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
When man receives God’s unmerited favor, God wants it to provoke him to
repent and turn from his sins.
:7 “But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; And the birds of the
air, and they will tell you;
:7 ask the beasts
Zophar has made a rude comment
hinting that Job was a foolish man born from a donkey.
(Job 11:12 NKJV) For an empty-headed
man will be wise, When a wild donkey’s
colt is born a man.
Job responds that even the animals
are smart enough to know that bad things happen to good people.
:8 Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; And the fish of the sea
will explain to you.
:9 Who among all these does not know That the hand of the Lord has done this,
:9 the hand of the Lord
has done this
It sounds as if Job is accusing God of causing all his trouble.
God may have allowed it, but it was Satan that caused it.
:10 In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath
of all mankind?
:11 Does not the ear test words And the mouth taste its food?
:11 Does not the ear test words
Or, don’t you even listen to the things you’re actually saying?
12:12-25 Job: God does what He wants
:12 Wisdom is with aged men, And with length of days, understanding.
:13 “With Him are wisdom and strength, He has counsel and
understanding.
:13 With Him are wisdom and strength
If wisdom tends to be with old men, surely God has wisdom.
:14 If He breaks a thing down, it cannot be rebuilt; If He
imprisons a man, there can be no release.
:14 If He breaks a thing down, it cannot be rebuilt
Job’s point over the next few verses is to show that God does whatever He
wants, and nobody can do anything about it.
There is a lot of truth to what Job is saying.
:15 If He withholds the waters, they dry up; If He sends them out,
they overwhelm the earth.
:16 With Him are strength and prudence. The deceived and the
deceiver are His.
:17 He leads counselors away plundered, And makes fools of the judges.
:17 makes fools of the judges
(Job 12:17 NLT) He leads
counselors away, stripped of good judgment; wise judges become fools.
It’s possible that Job is taking a jab back at his friends who are trying
to be his “counselors”.
:18 He loosens the bonds of kings, And binds their waist with a belt.
:19 He leads princes away plundered, And overthrows the mighty.
:20 He deprives the trusted ones of speech, And takes away the discernment
of the elders.
:21 He pours contempt on princes, And disarms the mighty.
:22 He uncovers deep things out of darkness, And brings the shadow of death
to light.
:22 He uncovers deep things out of darkness
(Job 12:22 NLT) “He uncovers
mysteries hidden in darkness; he brings light to the deepest gloom.
God sees everything.
(1 Corinthians 4:5
NKJV) Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who
will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels
of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.
:23 He makes nations great, and destroys them; He enlarges nations, and
guides them.
:24 He takes away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the
earth, And makes them wander in a pathless wilderness.
:25 They grope in the dark without light, And He makes them stagger like a
drunken man.
:25 He makes them stagger like a drunken man
God can make a leader go crazy and do silly things.
Lesson
God is also good
Job is correct in saying that God is all powerful and can do anything He
pleases.
The biblical word is “almighty”.
God spoke to Abraham,
(Genesis 17:1 NKJV)
When
Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord
appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me
and be blameless.
Naomi used this word to describe God.
(Ruth 1:20–21 NKJV)
—20 But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty
has dealt very bitterly with me. 21 I went out full, and the Lord
has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty
has afflicted me?”
Naomi at the time had the same problem as Job did.
She saw all the difficulty in her life and felt that God
was mean and just bullying her, and she could do nothing about it.
We talked last week about the “anchors” we need to survive the storms.
One of those anchors was that God is all powerful, that God can do
anything.
But the other anchors help us balance our idea of God being Almighty with
reality.
God loves us.
God is good.
When God displays His mighty power, He doesn’t do it because
He is some evil tyrant who rules the universe.
God is good.
(1
John 1:5 NKJV) This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you,
that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
You and I might not understand at the moment what God is
doing, but peace in the storm comes when you remember that God is not only all
powerful, but He is good.
And He loves us.
13:1-12 Job: You are misrepresenting God
:1 “Behold, my eye has seen all this, My ear has heard and understood it.
:2 What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.
:2 What you know, I also know
Job’s friends haven’t told him anything new.
In fact, we’ve seen that Job agrees with their premise that difficulty
should come as a result of sin.
He just doesn’t know what he’s done wrong.
And that’s why he thinks God is unfair.
:3 But I would speak to the Almighty, And I desire to reason with God.
:4 But you forgers of lies, You are all worthless physicians.
:4 You are all worthless physicians
Doctors have one of the toughest jobs, especially Emergency Room doctors.
Patients come in and tell them their symptoms, and they have to figure out
what is wrong from a million possibilities.
For the ER doctor, they’ve never even met this person before and still have
to make a diagnosis.
Lesson
Do you really understand?
I wonder how many things we form opinions about when we don’t really know
what has gone on or what the truth is.
Illustration
A Tale of Faulty Inferences
There is a place for judgment and making
decisions, but I wonder sometimes if we realize just how little we understand,
especially when some of us are pretty poor at communicating.
A Chinese proverb says, “Though conversing face to face, their hearts have
a thousand miles between them.”
Solomon wrote,
(Proverbs 18:13
NKJV) He who answers a matter before he hears it, It is
folly and shame to him.
Make sure you take time to “hear”, to “understand”.
:5 Oh, that you would be silent, And it would be your wisdom!
The smartest thing they could do would be to shut up.
:6 Now hear my reasoning, And heed the pleadings of my lips.
:7 Will you speak wickedly for God, And talk deceitfully for Him?
:8 Will you show partiality for Him? Will you contend for God?
:8 Will you contend for God?
Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar have felt that Job was speaking out of line
when he talked about God. They felt they needed to speak up and defend God.
Lesson
Be careful about defending
God.
There are times when it is necessary and totally appropriate to speak up
and defend our faith.
(1 Peter 3:15 NLT) Instead, you
must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope
as a believer, always be ready to explain it.
Yet there is a sense in which God doesn’t “need” us to defend Him. He’s
God.
Video: The Bible – Jesus Arrested
When Jesus was being arrested, Peter felt he needed to defend Jesus.
He saw a “bad thing” happening, and he wanted to respond.
So he took his sword and cut off the ear of the high
priest’s slave.
Peter didn’t realize that the “bad thing” was God’s plan
and very, very necessary.
The last miracle Jesus performed before dying on the cross
was correcting something Peter had done incorrectly, healing that slave’s ear.
Be careful that you use the “sword” (God’s Word) in a way
that brings healing, not just chopping people up.
Job’s friends felt they needed to defend God in light of the “bad things”
happening to Job.
:9 Will it be well when He searches you out? Or can you mock Him as one
mocks a man?
:10 He will surely rebuke you If you secretly show partiality.
:11 Will not His excellence make you afraid, And the dread of Him fall upon
you?
:12 Your platitudes are proverbs of ashes, Your defenses are
defenses of clay.
:11 Will not His excellence make
you afraid
Job is saying that if Zophar is
trying to make Job fear God, then Zophar also ought to be a little afraid
himself.
13:13-19 Job: Unconditional Trust
:13 “Hold your peace with me, and let me speak, Then let come on me what may!
Job just wants his friends to let
him say what he wants to say, and then let God do what He wants.
:14 Why do I take my flesh in my teeth, And put my life in my hands?
:15 Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own
ways before Him.
:15 Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him
Lesson
True faith
Sometimes we hear folks tell us that we need to be challenged to have
enough faith to be healed.
Perhaps a tougher question is: “Do you have enough faith NOT to be healed?”
I think Job’s is the stronger faith.
Even if God slays Job, Job won’t stop trusting in the Lord.
He still wants to have his day to speak to God, but He will still trust
Him.
:16 He also shall be my salvation, For a hypocrite could not come
before Him.
:17 Listen carefully to my speech, And to my declaration with your ears.
:18 See now, I have prepared my case, I know that I shall be
vindicated.
:19 Who is he who will contend with me? If now I hold my
tongue, I perish.
13:20-28 Job’ Prayer: What have I done?
:20 “Only two things do not do to me, Then I will not hide myself
from You:
:21 Withdraw Your hand far from me, And let not the dread of You make me
afraid.
:22 Then call, and I will answer; Or let me speak, then You respond to me.
:20 Only two things do not do to me
The negatives Job uses makes it hard to understand, but Job is asking God
to do two things.
1) Take away the difficulty (vs.21)
“Withdraw Your hand”
2) Talk to me (vs.22)
“Call, and I will answer”
Lesson
Pray in trials
I’ve mentioned this before and I have this idea I’ll mention it again –
pray during your trial!
One of the differences between Job and his friends is that Job’s friends
talk a lot about God, but Job talks to God.
God will actually answer these two requests of Job.
God will take away Job’s difficulty and God will also talk to Job.
Lesson
Answered Prayer
I wonder how often we pray things
like this and then don’t pay attention when God actually answers them.
Expect God to answer your prayer. Look
for His answer.
:23 How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my
transgression and my sin.
:23 Make me know my transgression
Job wants to know why these difficulties have happened.
As I’ve said, I think Job mostly agrees with his friends that his condition
must be some sort of punishment for his sins.
But this isn’t is a bad question to be asking God.
Lesson
Stay Teachable
I think I must be a little too sensitive.
I don’t like it when somebody points out something I did wrong.
I get defensive and start making up excuses for what I did.
I found a video from a renowned expert that will fix all us overly sensitive
people. Pay close attention.
I hope Mr. Parks’ buzzer has fixed you. Would you like for
me to play it again? J
I think Mr. Parks belongs
to the Bob Newhart school of counselling…
Video: Bob Newhart – Stop It.
I wish it were this easy to “fix” us.
Seriously, we actually do hurt ourselves when we aren’t willing to listen
to criticism.
Solomon wrote,
(Proverbs
13:18 NKJV) Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction, But he who
regards a rebuke will be honored.
If we have sins, we certainly want to turn from them.
David wrote,
(Psalm 139:23–24
NKJV) —23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; 24 And see if there
is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.
Are you open to God pointing things out that need to
change? How about if it’s someone who you don’t like that points out a thing or
two?
Or do you need that buzzer again??
:24 Why do You hide Your face, And regard me as Your enemy?
:25 Will You frighten a leaf driven to and fro? And will You pursue dry
stubble?
:26 For You write bitter things against me, And make me inherit the
iniquities of my youth.
:27 You put my feet in the stocks, And watch closely all my paths. You set
a limit for the soles of my feet.
:28 “Man decays like a rotten thing, Like a garment that is
moth-eaten.
:26 And make me inherit the iniquities of my youth
(Job 13:26 NLT) “You write
bitter accusations against me and bring up all the sins of my youth.
Job is afraid that God is still holding on to something Job did as a kid.
Aren’t you glad that God doesn’t
do this?
Lesson
Unresolved guilt
We too often get ourselves caught in this trap, thinking that something
from our past has come back to haunt us.
David wrote,
(Psalm 25:7 NKJV) Do not
remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; According to
Your mercy remember me, For Your goodness’ sake, O Lord.
David also wrote,
(Psalm 103:10–12 NKJV) —10 He has not
dealt with us according to our sins, Nor
punished us according to our iniquities. 11 For as the
heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; 12
As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions
from us.
God desires that we move beyond those days where we were driven by guilt
and move into His forgiveness and grace.
John wrote,
(1 John 1:9 NKJV) If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Sometimes we also need to confess our guilt to another
person, when we’ve wronged them.
When our sin has affected another
person, we need to go to them and ask for forgiveness, whether they give it to
us or not.
(James 5:16 NKJV) Confess your
trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.
The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
When we’ve done our part, in confessing and turning from our sin, then we
need to receive the complete forgiveness that God has for us.
The writer of Hebrews says,
(Hebrews
9:13–14 NKJV) —13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer,
sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself
without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God?
14:1-6 Job: Man is fragile
:1 “Man who is born of woman Is of few days and full of trouble.
:2 He comes forth like a flower and fades away; He flees like a shadow and
does not continue.
:3 And do You open Your eyes on such a one, And bring me to judgment with
Yourself?
:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one!
:5 Since his days are determined, The number of his months is
with You; You have appointed his limits, so that he cannot pass.
:6 Look away from him that he may rest, Till like a hired man he finishes
his day.
:5 his days are determined
(Job 14:5 NLT) You have
decided the length of our lives. You know how many months we will live, and we
are not given a minute longer.
God seems to know when our “time” is up.
The Bible also says,
(Hebrews 9:27 NKJV)
And
as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
14:7-15 Job: Death and resurrection
:7 “For there is hope for a tree, If it is cut down, that it will sprout
again, And that its tender shoots will not cease.
:8 Though its root may grow old in the earth, And its stump may die in the
ground,
:9 Yet at the scent of water it will bud And bring forth branches
like a plant.
:10 But man dies and is laid away; Indeed he breathes his last And where is
he?
:11 As water disappears from the sea, And a river becomes parched
and dries up,
:12 So man lies down and does not rise. Till the heavens are no
more, They will not awake Nor be roused from their sleep.
:12 man lies down and does not rise
Job sees that trees seem to revive or be “resurrected” when they seem dead,
but man doesn’t have that kind of hope.
Keep in mind this is not something to build doctrine from.
This is a man in great pain and speaking out of his own sense of
hopelessness.
:13 “Oh, that You would hide me in the grave, That You would conceal me
until Your wrath is past, That You would appoint me a set time, and remember
me!
:13 hide me in the grave
If there is a resurrection, Job hopes that God will allow him to stay dead
until the tough times are finished.
There is a prophetic truth in what Job is saying.
grave – sh@’owl – sheol,
underworld
God would keep those before Christ in “Sheol” until Jesus
paid for our sins, atoning for the wrath of God.
:14 If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard
service I will wait, Till my change comes.
:14 If a man dies, shall he live again?
We know the answer to Job’s question.
(John 11:25–26
NKJV) —25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who
believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever
lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
The answer to Job’s question is “yes”
Read NLT for vs. 15-17
:15 You shall call, and I will
answer You; You shall desire the work of Your hands.
:16 For now You number my steps,
But do not watch over my sin.
:17 My transgression is
sealed up in a bag, And You cover my iniquity.
(Job 14:15–17 NLT)
—15 You would call and I would answer, and you would yearn for me, your
handiwork. 16 For then you
would guard my steps, instead of watching for my sins. 17 My sins
would be sealed in a pouch, and you would cover my guilt.
Job is saying that if there was a resurrection, then God would have to
cover his sins.
This is what Jesus did in dying for our sins.
14:18-22 Job: God destroys hope
:18 “But as a mountain falls and crumbles away, And as
a rock is moved from its place;
:19 As water wears away stones, And as torrents wash away the
soil of the earth; So You destroy the hope of man.
:20 You prevail forever against him, and he passes on; You change his
countenance and send him away.
:21 His sons come to honor, and he does not know it; They are
brought low, and he does not perceive it.
:22 But his flesh will be in pain over it, And his soul will mourn over
it.”
:19 So You destroy the hope of man
With these lovely thoughts, we end the first round of debates between Job
and his friends. There are TWO more rounds.
It seems to go on and on and on, just like the trial.
Job has slipped back into his depression over his condition.
Lesson
Resurrection endurance
Job has brief moments of hope and faith when he focuses on eternity and
talks about living again.
Jesus wants us to focus on heaven. Heaven is real, and that’s all that
matters.
Jesus said to His disciples just before He was crucified,
(John
14:1–3 NKJV) —1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also
in Me. 2 In My
Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there
you may be also.
The solution to “troubled hearts” is connected to
believing in Jesus and what He has ahead for us.
Paul wrote,
(2
Corinthians 4:16–18 NKJV) —16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our
outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by
day. 17 For our
light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are
seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are
eternal.
We need to keep our focus on the big picture, where we’re going to spend
eternity.