Job 22–26

Hey, welcome to Coffee and Devotions. It is a Wednesday morning. This is where every day you and I, we get together. We get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2021, we'll make it through all the wisdom literature. Well, this morning we are at Job. Let's see, where are we at? We are at Job chapter 22 through chapter 26. Man, it looks like I'm doing this at like one o'clock in the morning, but it's seven o'clock in the morning.
It's a good thing we have some coffee, why don't we go ahead and drink that. We'll pray, we'll get into God's word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for what a blessing it is to come to your word in the morning. We pray that you would bless us now as we spend time in your word, that you would work in our hearts, that your Holy Spirit would enlighten our eyes to see. In Jesus' name, amen.
All right, here we go, Job chapter 22. Then Eliaphaz the Temanite answered and said, oh sorry, I should probably put that up on the screen for you. Okay, here we go. Then Eliaphaz the Temanite answered and said, can a man be profitable to God, though he who is wise may be profitable to himself? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous or Is it gain to him that you make your ways blameless? All right, let's just start right here. Eliaphaz is saying, yo, dude, God doesn't care if you're righteous.
Whoa, hold on. What are you saying? You're trying to make your way blameless. We kind of have an idea of where Eliaphaz is going to go here. He's going to jump right in and talk about Job's sin. Is it because of your fear of him that he corrects you? and enters into judgment with you? Is not your wickedness great, and your iniquity without end?
For you have taken pledges from your brother for no reason, and stripped the naked of their clothing. You have not given the weary water to drink, and have withheld bread from the hungry. But the mighty man possessed the land, and the honorable man dwelt in it. You have sent widows away empty, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed. Therefore, snares are all around you, and sudden fears trouble your darkness so that you cannot see, and an abundance of water covers you." Where's the proof of this? When did he see Job doing these things? When did he see Job turning away the widow? When did he see Job committing this iniquity that he's claiming he did? This is one of these things where it's baseless accusations. And these are considered as friends.
Is not God in the height of heaven? And see the highest stars, how lofty they are. You say, what does God know? Can he judge through the deep darkness? thick clouds cover him so that he cannot see, and he walks above the circle of heaven. Will you keep the old way which wicked men have trod, who were cut down before their time, whose foundations were swept away by a flood? They say to God, depart from us. What can the Almighty do to them? Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me."
Again, he's laying and heaping these sayings on Job, but he's got no claim for them, right? He's essentially telling him, repent, repent, repent. But Job doesn't know what he's supposed to repent from. He's mocking what Job has said, but the reality is that Job is understanding in some way better than Eliaphaz here. The righteous see it and are glad.
Innocent laugh at them surely our adversaries are cut down and the fire consumes their remnant Now acquaint yourself with him and be at peace thereby good will come to you receive Please instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart all these things Sound good and pious don't they in the right place and in the right time these things would be true If you return to the Almighty You will be built up.
You will remove iniquity from your tents. Then you will lay your gold in the dust, the gold of Ophir, among the stones of the brooks." Man, he sounded a whole lot like the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel. Just repent and you'll have the gold from Ophir. That's not the way Christianity works.
Yes, the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver, for then you will have your delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God. You will make your prayer to Him and He will hear you and you will pay your vows. You will also declare a thing and it will be established for you. So light will shine on your ways. When they cast you down, you say, exaltation will come. Then He will save the humble person. He will even deliver one who is not innocent. Yes, He will deliver by the purity of your hands.
Now Job's response to him. Then Job answered and said, Even today, my complaint is bitter. My hand is listless because of my groaning. Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come to his seat. I would present my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words which he would answer me and understand what he would say to me. Would he contend with me in his great power? No, but he would take note of me.
Interestingly that God has already taken note. See, we know what happened in chapter 1 and chapter 2. Job doesn't have access into what's going on in the heavens. That's only going to come by revelation when God has him write this book, but God has taken note of him.
There the upright could reason with him and I would be delivered forever from my judge. Look, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive him. When he works on the left hand, I cannot behold him. When he turns to the right hand, I cannot see him, but he knows the way that I take. When he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
My foot has held fast to his steps. I have kept his ways and not turned aside. I have not departed from the commandments of his lips. I have treasured the words of his mouth. more than my necessary food. He says, I have kept the commandments, I have done these things.
But he is unique, and who can make him change? And whatever his soul desires, that he does. For he performs what is appointed for me, and many such things are with him. Therefore I am terrified at his presence when I consider this. I am afraid of him, for God made my heart weak. And the Almighty terrifies me, because I was not cut off from the presence of darkness, and he did not hide deep darkness from my face. Since times are not hidden from the Almighty, why do those who know him not seek his days?
Some remove landmarks. They seize flocks violently and feed on them. They drive away the donkeys and the donkey of the fatherless. They take the widow's ox as a pledge. They push the needy off the road. All the poor of the land are forced to hide. Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, they go out to their work searching for food. The wilderness yields no food for them and for their children. They gather their fodder in the field and glean in the vineyard of the wicked. They spend the night naked without clothing and have no covering in the cold. They are wet with the showers of the mountains and huddle around the rock for want of shelter.
I hear Job is saying, look, I know what the wicked are like. I know they take the widow's ox for a pledge, and I know they chase away the orphan's donkey. I know that they don't leave anything on the corners of their fields, but they even are so greedy that they keep everything, even all the chaff and the flax. Some snatch the fatherless from the beasts and take a pledge from the poor. They cause the poor to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaves from the hungry. They press out oil within their walls and tread wine presses, yet suffer thirst. the dying groan in the city, and the souls of the wounded cry out.
Yet God does not charge them with wrong. There are those who rebel against the light. They do not know its ways, nor abide in its paths. The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy, and in the night he is like a thief. The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, No eye will see me, and he disguises his face. The dark In the dark they break into houses which they march for themselves in the daytime. They do not know the light, for the morning is the same to them as the shadow of death.
If someone recognizes them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death." Joe is saying, I don't get it. I know God's law. I know the way of the wicked, and yet they seem to get away with it, and here I am. My family's dead. My wife has told me to curse God and die. boils breaking out of my skin and my friends are horrible miserable comforters. Why does it seem like the righteous perish and the wicked flourish? Why is it this way? You can have some sympathy for Job here, can't you? I mean the psalmist says the similar thing.
They should be swift on the face of the waters. Their portion should be cursed in the earth, so that no one would turn into the way of the vineyards, as drought and heat consume the snow waters, so the grave consumes those who have sinned. The womb should forget him, the worm should feed sweetly on him. He should be remembered no more, and wickedness should be broken like a tree, for he preys on the barren whom do not know, and does no good for the widow.
But God draws the mighty away with his power. He rises up, but no man is sure of life. He gives them security, and they rely on it. Yet his eyes are on their ways. They are exalted for a little while, then they are gone. They are brought low. They are taken out of the way like all others. They dry out like the heads of grain.
Now if it is not so, who will prove me a liar and make my speech worth nothing? Job is saying that he knows that there is a final judgment that comes. He knows that there is a time in which God will judge. Let's go ahead and have some more coffee and we'll read our last bit here. Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said, Dominion and fear belong to him. He makes peace in his high places. Is there any number to his armies?
Upon whom does his light not rise? How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman? If even the moon does not shine and the stars are not pure in his sight, how much less man who is a maggot and a son of man who is a worm? But Job answered and said, how have you helped him who is without power? How have you saved the arm that has no strength? How have you counseled one who has no wisdom? And how have you declared sound advice to any? To whom have you uttered words, and whose spirit came from you?
The dead tremble, those under the waters of those inhabiting them. Sheol is naked before him, and destruction has no covering. He stretches out the north, over empty space he hangs the earth on nothing he binds up the water in his thick clouds yet the clouds are not broken under it he covers the face of his throne and spreads his cloud over it He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters at the boundary of the light and darkness. The pillars of heaven trembled and were astonished at his rebuke. He stirs up the sea with his power and by his understanding breaks up the storm. By his spirit he adorned the heavens. His hand pierced the fleeting serpent.
Indeed, these are the mere edges of his ways and how small a whisper we hear of him. But the thunder of his power Who can understand? Well, Job knows who God is. Job understands who God is, that God is the one who puts the sun and it's rising in the east and it's setting in the west. That when he speaks, the pillars of heaven shake. When his friends try to rebuke him, try to act like they're wise, try to condemn him for sins which he did not commit? Who are you who teaches wisdom? Hold on. Hold on. I know who God is. This is a reality, okay? You're going to suffer things in this life because we live in a fallen world.
We are not going to understand everything that God is doing and exactly why he is doing it. Sometimes, yes, there is explicit sin in our lives that we need to get rid of. We need to be confessing specific sins specifically. We need to be going to God and not acting like we don't have any sin. We can't be liars and making God a liar by saying we don't have sin. But not every calamity that happens to us is a result of our personal sin. Now every time we go to someone who needs comfort or counseling, do we need to slam them with conviction?
Job has an orthodox theology. His theology proper, his theology of who God is, is sound. And yet he's still struggling with why didn't God just let me die? It's just so hard to live right now. I don't get it. He's not sinning here with his lips, but he's confessing with his soul the depths of, God, I don't understand this.
I hope this gives you license, not license to blaspheme God, not license to just throw the Lord underneath the bus, but that you can come to the Lord and you can see that you can ask why. You can mourn and the Lord hears. So often our Christianity is just, you know, put on a fake smile, everything's okay. The book of Job flies in the face of that. Sometimes the Lord does or allows things to happen in our lives that we don't understand why, but are going to have tremendous kingdom impact later. Maybe how you suffer and how you grieve is going to show that your children and grandchildren the resilience of your faith.
What is it that God is doing in your life? I don't know. If there's sin, yeah, if you have it, if there's a known sin to you, search it out and confess it to God, be cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. But I pray, I pray that you would see here the heart of one who mourns, have an orthodox theology of God, but yet also, have honest communication with the Lord as well. Let's go ahead and pray.
Father we thank you so much that we do know that you are sovereign and we know that your plans are greater than ours. Your ways are far superior than ours. We confess in humility that we don't know what's going on in this universe that there are things happening which are beyond our comprehension outside of our scope of understanding. and yet you are the God who is righteous. So Father, we pray that you would comfort us in our grief, draw near to us, and sustain us, strengthen us with your mighty right hand. In Jesus' name, amen. I pray that the Lord blesses you today and that you go in the grace and peace of Jesus Christ. Bye.