Job 27–31

Hey, hey, welcome to Coffee and Devotions. It's Thursday morning. It is January 7th. This is where every weekday morning and every weekend, 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, 2020, we'll make it through all the—sorry, it's 2021—we'll make it through all the wisdom literature.
Well, this morning we are at Job. Let's see where we are. We are at Job chapter 27 through verse or through chapter 21. Job 27 through 31. We are at the end of the second third of this book. Believe it or not, you've almost worked through the entire book of Job. We'll get done in just a couple of days.
Why don't we go ahead and have some coffee, and we'll pray. Ooh, got a little bit of coffee on me there. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much that you are the one who gives us wisdom. You are the one who has given us your word. And we pray now that as we read your word, that you would work these truths in our lives, that we would love you, that we would follow after you, and that we might know who you are more. In Jesus's name, amen. All right, why don't we go ahead and jump into the word here. So we are, like I said, at Job chapter 27. Here we go. Moreover, Job continued his discourse and said, As God lives, who has taken away my justice? And the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter?
As long as my breath is in me, and the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit. Far be it from me that I should say, You are right. Till I die, I will not put away my integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast, and I will not let it go. My heart shall not reproach me as long as I live." And what is Job saying here?
They have been accusing him, accusing him, accusing him of all these sins, and he's saying, God is my judge. And I know that I have situational righteousness. I know that I have not oppressed the widow. I have not stolen from the orphan like you guys have said. And so Job is saying, right, he's willing to admit his sin. We saw that before. But here he's saying, I know I have situational righteousness. I know that I didn't commit the sins you all are saying. And I have integrity. Well, he goes on. May my enemy be like the wicked, and he who rises up against me like the unrighteous.
For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he may gain much, if God takes away his life? Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him? Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he always call on God? I will teach you about the hand of God, what is with the Almighty I will not conceal. Surely all of you have seen it. Why then do you behave with complete nonsense? This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors received from the Almighty.
If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword, and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread. Those who survive him shall be buried in death, and their widows shall not weep. Though he heaps up silver like dust and piles up clothing like clay, he may pile it up, but the just will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver.
He builds up his house like a moth. and like a booth which a watchman makes. The rich man will lie down but will not be gathered up. He opens his eyes and he is no more. Terrors overtake him like a flood. A tempest seals him away in the night. The east wind carries him away and he is gone. It sweeps him out of his place. It hurls him and does not spare. He flees desperately from its power. Men shall clap their hands at him. shall hiss him out of his place."
Job is saying, I know that God will judge the wicked. I know these things. Surely there is a mine for silver, a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the earth and copper is smelted from ore. Man puts an end to darkness and searches every recess for ore in the darkness and the shadow of death. He breaks open a shaft away from the people in places forgotten by feet. They hang far away from men. They swing to and fro.
As for the earth, from it comes bread, but underneath it is turned up as by fire. Its stones are like the sources of sapphires, and it contains gold dust, that path no bird knows, nor has the falcon's eye seen it. Isn't this kind of a, you might think of it as a weird ravager. Why is he talking about mining gold and silver? Well, we'll find out in a second. The proud lions have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed over it. He puts his hand on the flint. He overturns the mountain at the roots. He cuts out channels in the rock, and his eyes see every precious thing. He dams up the streams from trickling. What is hidden he brings forth to light. But where can wisdom be found? Oh, so he's going to talk about we're able to mine for gold and precious metals, but where do you mine for wisdom? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living. The deep says it is not in me, and the sea says it is not with me.
It cannot be purchased for gold, nor can silver be weighed for its price. It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir in precious onyx or sapphire. Neither gold nor crystal can equal it, nor can it be exchanged for jewelry of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral or quartz, for the price of wisdom is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, nor can it be valued in pure gold, right?
Where can you find wisdom? You can't buy it. You can't get it. There are people who go and they spend tens of thousands of dollars and get in debt for decades to go to universities and they come out with debt and no wisdom. There are people who fly through scores of books, all sorts of novels and never get wisdom. Where do you get wisdom? Where do you find it? It's valuable. From where does wisdom come and where is the place of understanding?
It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air. Destruction and death say we have heard a report about it with our ears. God understands its way. and he knows its place for he looks to the ends of the earth and sees under the whole heavens to establish a weight for the wind and apportion the waters by measure when he made a law for the rain and a path for the thunderbolt then he saw wisdom and declared it he prepared it indeed he searched it out and to man he said behold Listen here, verse 28, and to him he said, behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. And to depart from evil is understanding. Wow, that deserves to be highlighted in our Bible right there.
You know, I just realized I never put you guys in the picture. I'm so sorry. demand he said behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and apart from evil is understanding. It's a fool who says in his heart there is no God, but the fear of the Lord to honor, to reverence, God, that is where wisdom is found. You cannot buy that with gold. You cannot mine that in the earth because it's given by God.
Job further continued his discourse and said, oh that I was, oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God watched over me. Now isn't it interesting here? He feels like God is so far away from him that somehow God is not still watching over him. Maybe you've felt like that before. He wishes for those good old days in the past when his family was healthy and his wife was there and his children celebrated.
When his lamp shone upon my head and when by his light I walked through darkness, just as I was in the days of my prime, when the friendly counsel of God was over my tent, when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were around me. And when my steps were bathed with cream and the rock poured out rivers of oil for me to hear, like, I miss my kids. He's just said, God is the one who is wise. God is the one who knows all these things.
But I miss my children. I miss the days in which I wasn't walking in doom and shadow and darkness. I miss when there was fat. I miss when there was cream. I miss my children. I miss my wife. I miss God's countenance shining upon me when I went out to the gate. by the city.
When I took my seat in the open square, the young men saw me and hid, and the aged men arose and stood. The princes refrained from talking and put their hand on their mouth. The voice of nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth. When the ear heard, then it blessed me, and when the eye saw, then it reproved me, because I delivered the poor who cried out, the fatherless, and the one who had no helper.
Do you hear what he's saying here? He's saying, I was an elder in the city. That means he used to be one who would sit, and when the princes came, when those great warriors came around him, they listened to him. When the children came around him, they, shh, shh, shh, Job's talking, Job's talking, we need to listen, he's got wisdom. And here, what is he saying? He says in verse 12, because I delivered the poor when they cried out, you said I oppressed the poor that I ran off their donkeys, but that's not true. The fatherless and the one who had no helper, what is Job saying here?
I used to have respect, I miss those days, I don't know what's happened. The blessing of a perishing man came upon me and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness and it clothed me. My justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind and I was feet to the lame. I was a father to the poor and I searched out the case that I did not know. I broke the fangs of the wicked and plucked the victim from his teeth. Then I said, I shall die in my net. and multiply my days at the sand. My root is spread out to the waters, and the dew lies all night on my branch. My glory is fresh with me, and my bow is renewed in my hand." Isn't this so much the case?
That Job looks so much like Jesus here. It's Jesus who robes us with righteousness. It's Jesus who cares for the lame. It's Jesus who gives eyes to the blind. It's Jesus who lifts up the poor. It's Jesus who destroys the pain of death and sin and stops the way of wickedness. Job is here a type of Christ, and like Christ, he was also humiliated.
He was brought low. Men, men listened to me and waited, and kept silence from my counsel. After my words, they did not speak again, and my speech settled on them as due. They waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouth wide as for the spring rain. If I mocked at them, they did not believe it, and the light of my countenance they did not cast down.
Chose the way for them and sat as chief So I dwelt as a king in the army as one who comforts and mourns as one who comforts mourners All right. This is this is the the messianic pattern of how Job is a type of Christ Right this this place of exaltation brought to humiliation and Jesus being one who was highly exalted in his earthly ministry, was one who was followed after by the people.
And now when he's despised and dejected, everyone's gone from him. Nobody's listening to him. But now they mock at me, men younger than I, whose fathers I disdain to put with the dogs of my flock. Indeed, what profit is the strength of their hands to me? Their vigor has perished.
They are gaunt from want and famine, fleeing late to the wilderness, desolate and waste, who pluck mallow by the bushes. and broom tree roots for their food. They were driven out from among men. They shouted at them as at a thief. They had to live in the clefts of the valleys and caves of the earth and of the rocks. Among the bushes they brayed, under the nettles they nested. They were sons of fools, yes, sons of vile men. They were scourged from the land. And now I am their taunting song. Yes, I am their byword. They abhor me. They keep far from me. They do not hesitate to spit in my face. Again, do you hear the images of Jesus? Jesus is the one when those who were wicked and despised and not wanted, those Roman centurions came, what did they do to Jesus? They mocked him and they beat him and they spat in his face.
Because he has loosed my bowstring and afflicted me, they have cast off restraint before me in my eyes, sorry, in my right eye, in my right hand. the rabble arises. They push away my feet and they rise against me, their ways of destruction. They break up my path. They promote my calamity. They have no helper. They come as brood breakers. Under their ruinous storm, they roll along.
Terrors are turned upon me. They pursue my honor as the wind and my prosperity has passed like a cloud. And now my soul is poured out because of my plight. The days of my affliction take hold of me. My bones are pierced in me at night, and my gnawing pains take no rest. By great force, my garment is disfigured. It blinds me about as the collar of my coat. He has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.
I cry out to you, but you do not answer me. I stand up and you do not regard me but you have become cruel to me with the strength of your hand you oppress me you lift me up to the wind and cause me to ride on it you spoil my success for I know that you will bring me to death to the house of the appointed for all the living Sorry, Job is saying here, this seems cruel to me. I don't understand it. You're going to bring me to the brink of death. I'm going to die. And I don't know why you won't just let it happen. That's what he said before. Why was I ever even born? And I was in this exalted place and now I'm in this anguish.
Now where Job isn't exactly like Christ, he doesn't know what's all going on. Jesus knew he had to go to the cross, he had to die, but he also knew that he would raise again on that third day and he would ascend up into heaven and sit at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. Job doesn't know that after his humiliation there's going to be exaltation. But let's keep going. Surely he would not stretch out his hand against a heap of ruins if they cry out when he destroys it. Have I not wept from him who was in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor?
But when I looked for good, evil came to me. And when I waited for light, then came darkness. My heart is in turmoil and cannot rest. Days of affliction comfort me, confront me. I go about mourning, but not in the sun. I stand up in the assembly and cry out for help. I am a brother of jackals and a companion of ostriches. My skin grows black and falls from me.
My bones burn with fever. My harp is turned to mourning and my flute to the voice of those who weep." This is so interesting here. Notice the descriptive language that Job says of himself. My skin grows black and falls from me. These open sores, these boils that are raw with flesh are also getting disgusting and infected and falling off of him.
Can you understand why he says these things? He's having a hard time. He's wrestling with God. Lord, I don't understand this. He says, my harp has been turned to mourning. This is Job's lament. This is Job crying out. He knows wisdom, but he doesn't understand what's going on here.
I have made a covenant with my eyes. Why then should I look upon a young woman? For what is the allotment of God from above and the inheritance of the Almighty from on high? Is it not destruction for the wicked and disasters for the workers of iniquity? Does he not see my ways and count all my steps? Job is saying here in chapter 31, verse 1, right? I'm not lusting after a young woman. I'm not going after the way of sinners. So why is God treating me like a sinner?
And again, this is something that we have to wrestle with, right? This is something that we need to understand that not every calamity in our life is tied to a specific sin in our lives. This is the, we cannot flatten or smash down God's providence and act like it's a simple equation. Now there are times that there is sin and that God chastens us and disciplines us as a heavenly father. But yet we need to also recognize that God's ways are greater than our ways. Not all suffering. that we face in this life is a direct result of our sin, but God might have a greater purpose for it.
If I have walked with falsehood, or if my foot has hastened to deceit, let me be weighed on honest scales, that God may know my integrity. If my step has turned from the way, or my heart walked after my eyes, or if any spot adheres to my hands, then let me sow and another eat and let my harvest be rooted out if my heart has been enticed by a woman or if i have lurked at my neighbor's door then let my wife grind for another and let others bow down over her for that would be wickedness yes it would be iniquity and iniquity deserving of judgment For that would be a fire that consumes to destruction and would root out all my Increase right?
He's saying I'm not an adulterer. I didn't go out and sleep with another man's wife right if I did that if I lurked at my neighbor's door if I was Standing and wait to try to steal another man's wife Let him sleep with my wife and but but that that would be iniquity, but I didn't do that alright, he's saying I I don't have these great transgressions and If I have despised the cause of my male or female servant when they complained against me, what then shall I do when God rises up, when he punishes? How shall I answer him? Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one fashion us in the womb?" He's saying, I treated my servants well. I know that they were made by God. I know that they're image bearers of God. And so I've treated them well. So again, Lord, what have I done? What have I done that has caused all this calamity? What is my sin, Lord? Again, earlier he said if he had sinned, he would confess it, but he doesn't understand what did he do to deserve all of this calamity.
Again, this might be his friends who have pushed him to this place. If I have kept the poor from their desire or caused the eyes of the widow to fail or eaten my morsel by myself so that the fatherless could not eat it, but from my mouth I reared from him as a father and from my mother's womb I guided the widow. If I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing or any poor man without covering, if his heart has not blessed me and if he was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep, If I have raised my hand against the fatherless, when I saw I had help in the gate, then let my arm fall from my shoulder. Let my arm be torn from the socket, for destruction from God is terror to me, and because of his magnificence I cannot endure."
What is Job saying here? There's theological categories that we like to use sometimes. There are sins of co-mission and there are sins of omission. Sins of co-mission are saying, you know, I am going to go and have an affair, right? That would be a sin of co-mission to say, I am going to go and I'm going to break this law by doing something. But a sin of omission is a sin in which we do not do the good things that God has commanded us. And Job here is saying, I didn't commit these sins of omission either. I cared for the widow. I cared for the poor. If someone was poor and they didn't have a jacket, if they didn't have clothing, if they didn't have a place to sleep, I cared for them.
So it's not just a sense of co-mission that I didn't commit, but it's also the sense of omission that they're saying that I might have sinned against you and I didn't do this. I don't understand it. If I have made gold my hope or said to find gold, you are my confidence. If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great and because my hand had gained much, if I had observed the sun when it shines or the moon moving in brightness so that my heart has been secretly enticed and my mouth has kissed my hand, this also would be iniquity deserving of judgment, for I would have denied God who is above." What is he saying? He's saying, I didn't have an idol of gold. My heart wasn't set on being comfortable with money and the things of this world. That would be deserving of punishment.
I didn't do that, Lord, so why is this on me? If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, or lifted myself up when evil found him, if indeed I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking for a curse on his soul, if the men of my tent have not said, who is there that has not been satisfied with his meat, But no sojourner had to lodge in the street, for I have opened the doors of my house to the traveler, if I have covered my transgression as Adam by hiding my iniquity in my bosom. Because I feared the great multitude and dreaded the contempt of families, so that I kept silence and did not go out of the dorm.
Oh, that I had one to hear me. Here is my mark. Oh, that the Almighty would answer me. That my prosecutor had written a book. Surely I would carry it on my shoulder and bind it on me like a crown. I would declare to him the number of my steps like a prince. I would approach him. Again, what is a summary of what Job is saying here?
I don't get it. What is the charge that's written against me that I'm suffering in this way? If my land cries out against me and its furrows weep together, if I have eaten its fruit without money or caused its owners to lose their lives, then let thistles grow instead of wheat and weeds instead of barley. The words of Job are ended. Do you hear Job's plea here? Job is saying, I have situational innocence. I didn't do these sins that these guys are claiming. I don't understand this. And I just need to tell you, there is a false gospel out there of health, right?
If you believe in Jesus Christ, you'll be perfectly healthy. Your cancer will go away. Your pain will go away. That's not true. That you're going to have wealth if you sow a seed of money and faith that God will multiply that seed and make you rich. It's not true. That if you just believe in Jesus Christ and you give to the work of the church that God is going to prosper you.
That's not how it's working out for Job, is it? No. No, God is not some type of puppeteer up in heaven. who has controlled or controls us in a strict, deterministic sense here. But there's a reality that God is going to prove a point. That Job is not sinning here with his lips, but he's saying, I don't get it.
What is my sin that I deserve these things? But what he doesn't realize is that he is also living in this fallen world. where the adversary seeks to devour him. But what we're going to get into soon is we're going to see that those whom God loves, they will love him forever. And he will not leave us in a dejected state. See, God is firm. Remember the challenge between God and his Satan? Satan is the one who is hell-bent on trying to get Job to curse God.
He's done it by stripping him from his family. He's done it by stripping him of his wealth. He's done it by stripping him of his reputation. He's done it by giving him horrible friends who are accusing him. He's challenged Job by even striking his body that he would break out in boils and wounds and be so sickly and gross that even his breath is obnoxious to his wife.
But Job won't turn his back on God. God has put it in Job's heart that he would follow after the Lord. And so even when he's asking why I don't get it, if I knew my iniquity, I would carry that on my shoulders. I would do something about it. But again, this is the point. Not every calamity that you face or I face is a direct result of sin that we have committed. But sometimes it is either A, a result of living in a fallen world, or B, because God is about to demonstrate something. It might, again, might not be obvious to you. You might die in your pain. You might die of your cancer. You might die of the sickness that is eating away at you right now.
But what testimony will you leave behind? What will your legacy be to your children, to your grandchildren, that even though you might be falling apart in your body, that your soul was firmly fixed upon the Lord forever. Is that the type of legacy that we'll leave to the generations to come?
Let's pray. Oh Lord, we thank you so much that you give us the gift of faith that we could walk after you. Lord, we thank you for your love and your care for us. We pray now that you would let us walk with our hearts resolved and following after your ways because we love you. And we love you because you first loved us. We thank you for displaying that love in Jesus Christ. And it's in his name we pray. Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you today. May he give you a confident peace in Jesus Christ. Bye.